User blog comment:Omega natsu2/Fairy Tail Episode 212: Juvia vs. Aries: Clash in the Desert!, Review./@comment-96.24.244.24-20141219081628/@comment-7418318-20141219101050

Those keys are hogwash anyway if they can only shut the gate of a Spirit who already lost the will to fight.

By all means the gate of a Spirit who lost the will to fight should already be closed by itself and no longer need a special key to force it shut. Besides, once they lost the will to resist, even if the gate remained open, they wouldn't try to interfere with whatever the Mages did.

They are just a way to give a very clear "Yes, this fight is over and we've won"-moment that's completely unnecessary in most places and could even turn out detrimental to the story in other moment.

And don't even get me started on Arcadios giving the Princess a set of fake-keys without her consent or even knowledge... That's like Arcadios telling the Princess "I don't trust you to do anything right, so I'll take matter into my own hands. And since you'll fuck it up anyways, I'll do it in secret rather than openly suggesting such a decoy to you." Really great way of undermining her self-confidence and reputation there idiot... on top of effectively committing treason by stealing from the Princess and deceiving her. Just be glad that the King is a pumpkin-headed softie, or you'd be executed for sure upon returning to the castle.