User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 337: The Golden Plains, Review and Commentary/@comment-77.195.192.48-20130628104342

If you remember, the main goal of this arc was to sent someone into the past to kill Zeref and change history, this is why Eclipse was created, Mashima shown us the results of this foolish idea, the arc wasn't on the dragon king festival, but on the Eclipse gate, nothing else, it's us, readers, who didn't understand Mashima.

In the begining of the arc : the gate was a secret, and has a purpose, in the middle of the arc : the gate isn't hidden anymore and has a new purpose which bring a disaster ( as everything related to Zeref ), at the end of the arc : the Eclipse gate is destroyed.

The arc was the grand magic games / Eclipse gate arc