User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 463: Black Carpet, Review./@comment-1776824-20151123213644/@comment-1776824-20151124064339

I'm saying you using an unbiased, tactical standpoint to make sense of this is illogical, because the characters in the series are not using tactical sense when making these decisions, and this is from a girl who sacrificed god knows how many of her comrades in a giant war. As illogical as it is to claim using tactical sense is illogical, if the characters in the series are not doing so when making their decisions, then we can't do what they're not doing to make some sort of semblance of sense, because the thought patterns are not overlapping one bit.

Basically what I'm saying is that if they aren't using common sense when making their decisions, even more so than usual, then using common sense to feasibly explain why they are doing what they are doing is misleading.

If you want to look at this tactically, nobody knows that END and Natsu are the same person. Hypothetically, if Gray went to help Natsu in the event that Zeref unleashes END, Gray has Devil Slaying Magic. They also had no clue that Zeref would come out right away; they believed that Natsu would have to fight through all the soldiers by himself. There is also the issue of Invel, who is an Ice Wizard, and Gray can devour ice. Sending just Gray alone helps by leaps and bounds, but Gray doesn't want to go and fight. He wants to go and drag his ass back so he can help the offense on the home front. Like we learned before, Zeref's army is moving incredibly slow, and it would be much better to have all guilds (or whoever is done) join forces to attack the Western Army after North, South and East have been dealt with, or at least contained. Gray alone, with his abilities, skills and magic, fills up the holes Natsu should have faced if not for Hiro's terrible pacing as of late.

Also before you say anything, I'm not saying Gray could defeat Invel. I am saying he could contain Invel, based on the sheer fact that all we know for now is that he is an Ice Wizard, which would allow, in the event of a retreat being impossible, for Natsu to still deal with Zeref as planned, but with the only known Spriggan present occupied for at least some amount of time. They are all thinking and talking out of their asses, so if you think about it logically, just sending Gray, and Gray alone, does increase their chances of a more successful attack, as they would never in a million years think that Gray would ever die or lose, and therefore would have no qualms about sending him. This would be an example of using your head and your ass, but all I am seeing now is them using their asses and people trying to use their heads to reason with the sheer unbelievable amount of ass.