User blog comment:TheCarrotSaysYumYum/FT0 5 - A Moonlit Lake, Review./@comment-4829046-20141117141022/@comment-25111584-20141118182228

For the Precht part: I reread the chapter (the fight with Makarov and then the chat with Makarov after the final defeat) and, though it's a bit ambiguous, not to mention that some people argue that the staff-breaking scene occurs right after he leaves FT and you can see Magnolia in the distance, I'd say that Precht just wanted to research Magic at that point, he hadn't gone bad yet. He seems quite mature and radiates an almost saintly aura (good actor? :P). It was while he was researching that, when he reached closer to the roots of Magic, he learned about the Ultimate Magic World and its connection to Zeref, then went dark. But, as I said, it's pretty ambiguous, so I guess Carrot's hopes could be fulfilled without any major contradiction.

For the Zeira part:-
 * @Carrot: Actually, I'd rather go with FTGM's explanation. If she is an imaginary friend, then I suppose there should be a trend to how the friend acts. Either as a more cautious side of yourself, who warns you about consequences to your acts. On the other hand, the imaginary friend could be how you really want to act and you do act like after 'seeing' them act like that; Zeira is the former, the sudden transition to the latter doesn't really fit well. If she's an imaginary friend, Zeira can be considered as Mavis' more cautious and serious side. Here, the roles are suddenly reversed, with Mavis being cautious and Zeira being capracious. If Zeira is an imaginary friend, she must have been created by the more cautious side of Mavis' mind (right? You're the psych student here, I'm just stumbling through >.>). Which is why I'd call foul even in this case.
 * @FTGM: I can see where you're coming from, and I'd agree with you to a certain extent. She is quite young, so 180s on a certain characteristic is possible. But, here, Zeira has performed one on her whole personality. She has always been shown to be shy, cautious, serious, etc. It is true that one can say that she just has a playful side to her, but this contrast is a bit too extreme.

@FTGM: Still, I myself am looking into it a bit too much. It's just that I'm a bit irked with all Zero chapters till now except for the first one, mainly because of some all-too-convenient-plot-devices and the extremely slow pace for a monthly. ^_^" But the last page was awesome, so my interest is back again. \(^_^)/ Yup, expecting to have fun, don't forget that there's a war to be had too! :D (I have my own problems with the war part, but I'll see how it turns out)