User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 356: Tartarus Arc, Review./@comment-4449950-20131019015329/@comment-4449950-20131020014705

Noooo... I think Makarov will die. In fact, I think he needs to die to be honest.

I was kinda annoyed when he didn't pass away on Tenrou, but looking at how that happened I think I can see why Mashima decided not to make it occur. I mean, Makarov would have died, and then everyone would have "died"... I think it would have been messy.

And no Jak, I think the others are onto something. Mashima always leaves the most subtle of hints that we overlook or start to look into and disregard as "stupid" or "uneeded". I mean, Mashima drew FRouge walking out of the Domus Flau. Jellal saw him... We saw him, yet no-one stopped to say "Oh hey, maybe there are two future peeps" when we saw FLucy. We all went "fucking Mashima screwed up" and moved on.

The same happened in the OS arc. When the Allied Forces are talking, every member says a little sentence about the person they end up fighting - i.e Lyon and Gray both comment on Racer... Erza on Midnight etc.

Hence, I wouldn't actually be surprised if we come back to this "new, younger Master" comment later ;D