User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 416: Tartarus Arc: Final Part, Review and Commentary/@comment-162.207.38.121-20150120001811/@comment-9595671-20150120025742

Unless he had already planned this and he wanted to try guiding the fan's thoughts into a certain direction. If there's any important writing technique its to give subtle hints about something, foreshadow them in a vague form, and even make the hint try to hint towards something its not actually hinting at.

Mashima worked hard when he made Rave Master, I have a good feeling he knows what he's doing here, its hard to accept a plot twist when you don't fully understand it. He managed to work Gildarts meeting Acnologia, the disappearance for the dragons, why they disappeared and make a way for Fairy Tail to not have them as overpowered allies after all.