User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 479: Who you should show the greatest respect to is, review./@comment-114.108.214.205-20160329010200/@comment-7418318-20160329074433

I think that ship (the murder one, not the shipping ship) has already sailed.

Sure Makarov did survive in the end, but Zeref fully intended and tried to kill him and the death was only prevented by outside interference. For me that's pretty much the same as Zeref actually succeeding in killing Makarov.

And he didn't do it for any higher cause or anything. He did it to intentionally hurt Natsu.

Then there's the whole war he's breaking lose, though here at least it has a higher cause sort of, since he does it at least in part to defeat Acnologia... But still people are dying in this war. We know for a fact that Sabertooth lost many of their unnamed mages and who knows how many died when Jacob, Serena and August stomped Bosco's army and guilds.