[MechR]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

We still had Zancrow walking around, and Bluenote was fighting Gildartz. And they were still looking for Zeref.

So Zancrow finds Zeref and signals HQ.

Alternatively, Urtear backstabs him and escapes with Zeref, so GH pulls out to chase her.

The biggest problem is Bluenote since he's after Fairy Glitter. I guess you could have it blow up in his face when he tries extracting it by force.

Remember also, that Acnologia would eventually show up. A weakened FT (that couldn't even move!) would have been wiped out. And if Acnologia had shown up on the island and started killing FT people off, Mashima would have had to whip out an even bigger asspull to save them, causing even more people to complain about it.

Technically Acnologia was only introduced later, when Zeref spoke its name while waking up. You could actually just write it out of the arc.

Alternatively, in my head-timeline, Acnologia attacks GH's airship instead. If they're chasing Urtear, this would help her escape too.

Remember, the tree being up meant FT couldn't actually die on the island (except for Erza, whom Azuma had still allowed the tree to link to her. That was all that was keeping Makarov and some of the other injured people alive, too, and they were put in danger when it went down. The link had to be restored, Azuma defeated, in order for several people to survive.

Or they could survive anyway, because hey, it's Fairy Tail. At worst, let Makarov die. The badass grandpa always dies in shounen so the next generation can take the reins. (See: Genkai, 3rd Hokage, Yamamoto, Whitebeard, etc.)

Eh, Erza was already shown to be quite strong *before* the time skip and power up. And she defeated a horde of monsters, including one that a wizard Saint should have had trouble against. So, in a sense, Kagura was going up against a wizard saint+. Outcome was predictable, the only unknown factor was whether Erza would let her feelings of guilt get in the way, or whether she'd "play dead" to get Minvera to show back up. Kagura's only showing was vs. a Celestial Spirit Mage, and those have never been shown as being very strong.

I actually think Mashima did a great job here, building up Kagura as a strong threat, or at least hinting that way to throw the readers off the trail. That built us up enough to think she'd be on par with Erza, but when you look at it realistically, we were hoodwinked. Her "strength" was simply mostly talk. I even bet Natsu or Gray could have taken her out easily enough.

It's like you didn't read chapter 314 at all, or read a different version from the rest of us Did you not see Kagura straight-up outmuscle Erza in a sword clash, destroy her defensive armor, outduel her speed armor, and generally crush her at her own game on national TV without drawing steel?

I can't speak to Ace, as I only watched a little of One Piece. But it's not unheard of for secondaries to die. I think even DBZ had some secondaries die(for real and not get wished back, though I could be wrong. So many people died there, heh). As far as Sasuke goes, there wasn't enough on the line. I actually felt the buildup to that being a bit of a crap, since it wasn't like Sasuke was dying; he was just leaving. Things being on the line, meaning if the "bad guy" wins, main characters die, or something horrible happens. By putting much less on the line (Sasuke leaving), you can open the door for main characters to be defeated. Bringing back "Dead" people is also something shonen does. I wouldn't be too surprised if Ace came back (Lisanna did).

Lisanna should've stayed dead and buried. There was no reason to bring her back (other than shipping potential, which Mashima totally isn't milking), and some major reasons not to. And now I'm going to do something I thought I'd never do, and suggest you read One Piece.