User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 407: All for My Demise, Review and Commentary/@comment-4449950-20141103024620/@comment-7418318-20141103104534

Regarding Natsu=END, I'm not too worried, thanks to what Zeref said during this arc. While I think it's quite possible, maybe even likely, that Natsu ends up a creation of Zeref's, I seriously doubt that he is END itself. I can't imagine that line of Zeref "Will it be you or END who will reach me" to be some metaphorical babble about a split personality or somesuch.

What I wonder is, what Zeref wants more. Is dying his bigger priority, or wiping out mankind? Now that he has a goal again, he might fight back against his would-be killers. He can always create a new Demons to have himself killed after he fulfilled his other goal, if wiping out mankind is really important to him.

I'm glad I'm not the only one afraid of what'll become of the team if Gray is allowed to keep that power.

I've been worrying about him becoming "just another Erza/Natsu" from the moment his tattoo first appeared. He used to need intelligence and skill to win his fights (against the "boss enemies" anyway) rather than just raw power. But the thing is he first tried raw power and only used intelligence when the raw power failed. Now with his new abilities he has sufficient power to no longer need intelligence, so to say and thus likely won't bother using it.

That leaves only Lucy to need intelligence and skill to win, but unless something changes she's sidelines more often than not in fights.

And that line about not letting go was just awefull... Natsu was stripped naked while he was unconscious, had his magic sealed and was put into prison. How the hell was he supposed to hold onto anything?

Sure Gray couldn't know the specifics, but he should at least have noticed that Natsu was wearing cloth that looked nothing like what he would pick if he had a choice. And a supposedly smart person like him should have realized what this odd choice of clothes likely signified and would have bit that remark back.

I used to like Gray for being one of the smarter members of the team who also used his smarts for the fights... but he's been going down-hill for a long time now. The sad thing is that right now it looks like the old anime team didn't get Gray's character totally wrong for the Daphne arc, but rather made a correct prediction of where his character was going.