User blog comment:B214/Chapter 433 & 434 in a nutshell/@comment-1776824-20150511141630

Natsu putting out a line for the "I need to be stronger to protect people" cliche and then destroying, or killing, a god seems like nakama crap to me, but in all actuality I didn't feel anything from these chapters because I knew that no matter what kind of beastly thing was summoned, Natsu would destroy it, even if it was a god. Mashima plowed through this arc, or at least this part of it (facing a possible rename depending on the next couple weeks), and it evidently shows. We understand how much powerful Team Natsu has become, and at this point it's rubbing it in our faces. Homage to Igneel aside, which was arguably cute at best because this is just Natsu continuing his speech from Chapter 415, it doesn't excuse the total destruction of an ancient, highly feared, highly powerful deity that, I might add, created its own kind of magic. Minerva uses it, and speaks their language. But I guess Mashima made the actual deities about as worthless as she turned out to be.

And I am now curious if Natsu has just become as strong as Gildarts and is now the most powerful FT mage, or if everyone has received a relative power increase as well. Either way, the manga is now more Team Natsu-centric, which while okay as they are the main characters, leaves less room for the more fun side characters outside of gags (like the broom up Max's ass), but in the end it is probably the latter and power levels remain, in the words of Team Four Star, bullshit. Oh well.