User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 447: Escape Battle, Review./@comment-26451407-20150805081453/@comment-3290324-20150805220329

Frankly, Lidor, you're being kinda ridiculous. If you honestly think that Mashima just had Natsu, Gray, and Laxus training and getting stronger during this timeskip, then you know nothing about this series. ( .___.) You keep trying to find a logical reason for Gildarts to train hard, but why does he need one? Stop trying to apply real world logic to a manga series. If Gildarts was training hard he'd need no other reason than the author of the series wanting him to. And the same goes for for every other main cast member of Fairy Tail. Until we actually see how strong everyone is after the time skip, your points are kinda moot. Could Gildarts have sat on his ass and not gotten stronger this entire time? Sure, he very well could have, but that doesn't seem a very Mashima-ish thing to do. If Gildarts does indeed show up this arc, given what we know of Mashima, I'm fairly confident he'll be kicking ass and taking names. Which he's not likely to do if he's still the same level he was pre-timeskip. :P