User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Sorcerer Magazine, Issue 2: February 2012/@comment-3172403-20120301030400/@comment-3290324-20120301030947

Bull crap! The only reason Laxus was in that position is so that Mashima could have Natsu defeat Hades and if you can't see that Natsu always beats the main villain then you are blind. Furthermore, once or twice is "touching", every arc is just plain annoying. Mashima needs to try something new so we can't always predict how arcs will play out.