Gajeel Redfox


 * The title of this article is sometimes called Gazille Reitfox.

Gajeel Redfox was formerly the most formidable member of the Phantom Lord Guild bar Jose Porla. After the defeat and subsequent disbanding of Phantom Lord, he became a new member of the Fairy Tail Guild. He uses the same 'Ancient Magic' as Natsu Dragneel, the Dragon Slayer. His brand of Dragon Slayer corresponds with the element of Iron.

History
Similar to how Natsu learned his "Fire Dragon Slayer" from the dragon Igneel, Gajeel learned his "Iron Dragon Slayer" from the dragon Metalicana. Both Igneel and Metalicana disappeared seven years prior to the beginning of the series on July 7th in the year of 777.

Appearance
Gajeel is an intimidating young man around the age of Natsu Dragneel. His hair style is a heavy metal, long, black hair and his eyes are small and red, with crimson irises and slitted dark pupils; he is normally seen glaring. He also has three scars on his right arm.

He usually wears a wing-like sleeve on his right arm (right above his Phantom Lord tattoo) and various body piercings, usually in sets of three or five. His usual outfit consists of a shabby black tunic with studded edges, studded wristbands, and studded boots (somewhat resembling Punk style), white pants and a pair of brown gloves.

Fairy Tail tattoo is located on his left arm, just below his shoulder and it's black.

Personality
He doesn't seem to care at all about Fairy Tail, and seems to think that Phantom Lord is a stronger and more worthwhile guild. Gajeel bears his Phantom Lord symbol marked at the top off his right shoulder (note the same place were Natsu has his Fairy Tail emblem).

Despite saying that he doesn't want to make friends, he tries in his own way to do so. So far he has sung an off-key solo (after chaining Mirajane to a wall) and not fought back when attacked by Shadow Gear or Laxus. He even protected Levy McGarden after Laxus Dreyar shot a blast of Lightning at her, showing that Jet and Droy were wrong about him, and he does want to make friends with the other members of Fairy Tail. He also seems to have an altruistic side, and will not hesitate to put himself in harm's way for the sake of his comrades; he has done this at least thrice. The 1st was when he intercepted Laxus' attack directed at Levy; 2nd was when he used his powers to turn himself into a lightning rod to draw Laxus' lightning-based attack from Natsu; and the 3rd when he used himself to hold down Faust in his collossal dragonic mecha to buy his fellow Dragon Slayers (Natsu and Wendy) enough time to land the finishing blow (which, of course, they did). However, he seems to have a short temper, seen when Natsu constantly makes him angry over mundane matters

Despite his cold personality, he has shown a humorous side of himself when he was shocked to see Mirajane transform her face to look like him, and when he failed to break Fried Justine's magic enchantment. At the end of the Oracion Seis arc, he is shown to be upset when he realized that he's the only Dragon Slayer that doesn't have a cat as a partner. He then desperately tries to find a cat in the alleys but ended up starving and becoming heavily exhausted. Later on in Edolas, Gajeel finds the partner he is looking for in Pantherlily, and on arriving back in Earth Land, is extremely happy to the point of crying when he discovers Pantherlily made it to Earth Land, despite his reduced size.

He also has a unique way of laughter. It goes as "Gi Hi Hi Hi"

Fairy Tail Guild
Due to his role at the destruction of the original Fairy Tail Guild during the Phantom Lord Arc, Gajeel has been met with suspicion and skepticism by the mages of Fairy Tail upon his integration to their guild; and while he obviously could care less of what they think, it seems that, like Juvia Loxar, Gajeel really wants to be accepted as one of them.

Natsu Dragneel
Gajeel and Natsu seem to be opposites as Gajeel has more of dark personality and appearance unlike Natsu who is a larger affinity to light. Similar to Natsu's relationship with Gray, Gajeel would often get into unnecessary fights or arguments with the former over needless issues. But deep down, Gajeel seems to respect Natsu as a rival, having been defeated by him in the past, and will aid him in any way he can in the battlefield, where they work well together

Wendy Marvell
She and Gajeel seldom interact with each other. Gajeel first met her upon her introduction to Fairy Tail, and was rather distraught when he realized that both Natsu and Wendy, both "Old-Style" Dragon Slayers as he is, have intelligent, small, bipedal, feline companions. Which prompted him to search for a cat on his own

Pantherlily
Gajeel first encountered Pantherlily when he was on the verge of returning the Mages of Earthland Fairy Tail back to normal by smashing the giant Lacrima in Edolas, only to be halted by the Exceed, after a lengthy battle, Gajeel came to respect Lily to the point where he openly declared to make Lily "his cat". Upon his return to Earthland, Lily followed him and agreed to be his companion, much to the Dragon Slayer's delight. Gajeel seems very fond of Lily and often brags about his abilities.

Levy Mcgarden
Gajeel's first encounter with Levy occured under less than cordial circustances, since he was still affiliated with Phantom Lord at the time, and was given an order to destroy the Fairy Tail Guild in order to provoke the members to go out on a war against Phantom Lord. As a result, Levy became one of his victims during the initial attack (along with Jet and Droy). After the war between the 2 guilds and Gajeel's subsequent convertion over to Fairy Tail, Levy was still among those who have their doubts about Gajeel's entrance to the Guild as 1 of their newer members. Unlike the rest of her colleagues, however, rather than showing apathy, Levy instead was rather afraid of Gajeel, possibly as an aftermath of the attack that he earlier made her suffer from. And though Gajeel may be to proud too verbally express an apology, he seems to feel guilty for his past actions against Team Shadow Gear. He also appears to care for Levy, albeit in his usual aloof manner, having defended her from Laxus' lightning. And when Levy went after him and Natsu over to where the 2 Dragon Slayers were fighting Laxus, Gajeel was the first to reprimand her upon realizing that she followed them to where they were. During the S-Trials Arc,Levy was among the 8 candidates who were elected to take part in the test; Levy (as usual) shows her lack of confidence, but in the end, was encouraged by Gajeel, who even volunteered to become her partner which made her blush.

Phantom Lord arc
Gajeel led the attack on Fairy Tail and the large iron rods protruding through the walls of the building seem to be his handiwork. He then attacks Fairy Tail's Shadow Gear team and pins them to a tree, crucifixion style, and burns the Phantom Lord symbol into their waists.

Later, when Fairy Tail attacks them, Gajeel first fights Elfman and easily starts to over power him. He then is interrupted when Natsu gets in the way and Gajeel becomes interested in having a battle with another Dragon Slayer. Though they exchange a few blows, Natsu is forced to retreat when Makarov was lead into a trap by Jose Porla and injured by Aria.

After the Element 4 are defeated, Gajeel reappears with a captured Lucy Heartfilia, stating that a Dragon Slayer's nose should never be doubted. He then is ordered by Jose to watch Lucy, but he pins her to the wall and starts to throw daggers at her to pass the time. In the anime, he hits her multiple times with his iron fists instead of throwing daggers. As Lucy insults him, telling him that if she dies, no one in Fairy Tail would forgive him. He then decides to test the theory and moves to kill her but Natsu comes (apparently Gajeel smelled him coming so he wanted to test if Natsu could save her).

Both Natsu and Gajeel begin their next fight right away. At first they are equal in strength, but Gajeel uses his Iron Dragon Scales (or Dragon Slayer mode) and gains an upper hand; he then eats some metal to heal himself and thrashes Natsu a bit. However after seeing the Fairy Tail building crumble, and with a little help from Lucy's Celestial Spirit, Sagittarius, Natsu turns the tables and knocks Gajeel right through the Phantom Lord's building, demolishing it and defeating him.

After the battle was over, Natsu found Gajeel and question him about where he learned his Metal Dragon Slayer magic. He told Natsu about the Dragon Metalicana, and how he disappeared on the same day that Igneel did. He then yelled at Natsu to get out of what was left of his guild.

Fighting Festival arc
Gajeel is seen next at the Fairy Tail guild as a new member along with Juvia. He seems to have no remorse for destroying Fairy Tail's old building, only joining for work, saying "One Guild is as good as the next", telling Natsu he has no intention of being friends with him. When asked why Gajeel joined, Juvia stated "Gajeel always seems so lonely, Juvia couldn't bear to just leave him", but also added quickly that she doesn't like him (only because Gray was right next to her). Master Makarov wants to use this opportunity to guide Gajeel onto a more proper path in both life and magic, but he agrees when Erza suggests he be watched.

Later, Gajeel locks Mirajane up with his metal cuffs seemingly betraying Fairy Tail, but in actuality, Gajeel just wanted her out of the way so that he could, surprisingly, sing his own song. He then takes a mission to teach little children how to use magic. As he leaves, Shadow Gear attacks him, minus Levy who's protesting for them to stop. As they attack him, they are joined by Laxus who shoots a lightning bolt at Levy but Gajeel takes the blow and limps away to his job. As he leaves, it dawns on them that he intentionally didn't fight back.

As Laxus tries to take over the Guild, Gajeel eats some metal and prepares to go after him but, as with Natsu, he is stopped by Fried's enchantment implying that he might be over 80 years of age or made of rock, but more likely could not pass due to dragon slayer magic being considered ancient magic, thus the barrier reacted to the magic. He then helps Natsu try to release Erza but as she awakes, she promptly beats them for touching her. Shortly after, Levy managed to dispel the enchantment, enabling Natsu and Gajeel to enter Laxus' tournament. Later, Gajeel is seen speaking to Ivan Dreyar through a form of magic resembling a shikigami and apparently intends to get revenge on Fairy Tail.

Gajeel later appears in the church where Natsu was fighting Laxus and saved Natsu from his Raging Bolt spell. He then suggests that he and Natsu work together to take down Laxus and protect the guild, which surprises Natsu.

"I thought there wasn't room for two dragons in this sky? Maybe not, but with this damn thunder around, that sky ain't fit for flying."

- Gajeel's response to Natsu in regards to cooperating.

They put forth a valiant effort, but Laxus surprises them by revealing that he, too, is a Dragon Slayer. Using this power, Laxus nearly defeats them both. His powerful attacks weaken Gajeel too greatly for him to continue the fight. For a short while, Natsu is forced to fight Laxus alone. However, in the final moments, Gajeel uses his Iron Dragon Slayer powers to make himself a living lightning rod. This causes Laxus's attack to change course and miss Natsu, hitting Gajeel instead. Taking advantage of this, Natsu then finishes Laxus off.

In the Guild Hall, after Laxus's defeat, Gajeel and Natsu sit alongside one another covered from head to toe in bandages. When Natsu springs up from his seat to talk to Laxus, his every word is completely muffled by his bandages. Surprisingly, Gajeel is somehow able to understand him and relays what Natsu says to Laxus. He soon confronts Ivan about Laxus being a Dragon Slayer. Ivan assures Gajeel that Laxus was a "fake" Dragon Slayer, using lacrima implanted in his body to gain Dragon Slayer powers. Shortly after, Gajeel passes this information on to Makarov, revealing himself as a double agent and a loyal member of Fairy Tail.

Edolas arc
He later appears again after Wendy Marvell has become a new member of Fairy Tail guild. He's shown to be upset and perplexed at the observation that both Natsu and Wendy have cats with them. Being a Dragon Slayer like them, he ponders and questions the fact that he doesn't have a cat himself and is seemingly troubled by this fact. He later begins looking for a cat to own in an alleyway but after numerous tries, he grows exhausted. He then trips and lands face-first in front of a silhouetted cat. However, the cat apparently clawed his face, as he runs into Happy afterward, who asks why Gajeel's face has multiple scratches.

As Anima sucks all Magnolia into Edolas, Gajeel is not shown to be at the guild. However, Charle says that Dragon Slayers should be safe. It was later revealed by Gray that Mystogan transported Gajeel to Edolas, along with the medicine, X-balls, that can allow Earth Land mages to use their magic in Edolas. Gajeel later freed Gray Fullbuster and Erza Scarlet from the Lacrima stationed at the grounds of the Royal Capital, and gives them the medicine to use magic. While rampaging at the Royal Capital, Happy carries him to the Lacrima where the rest of the Fairy Tail members were trapped. He reveals that he can revert Anima's effects on the Lacrima by destroying it with Dragon Slayer magic. As he is about to do so, he is interrupted by a flying Pantherlily who attacks him with a gigantic blade.

Their fight starts to get intense, when Gajeel's Iron scales allow him to withstand an attack from Pantherlily's sword, but in the middle of the fight when Pantherlily mentions about being an outcast, Gajeel immediately takes a liking to him and tries to make him his cat companion. However before deciding to make him his companion, Gajeel decides to show him who's stronger and manages to smash his sword. Their fight now is between hand to hand combat. As the Lacrima is about to smash into Extalia, Gajeel decides to postpone their fight and help prevent the collision of the Lacrima with the help of Team Natsu and the Exceed.

Gajeel along with the Fairy Tail members and the Exceed manage to stop the Lacrima destroying Extalia. Mystogan then arrives and is successful in sending the Lacrima back to Earthland and states that once the Lacrima returns through the Anima the fairy tail members will change back to normal. Erza Knightwalker shows up and shouts Pantherlily through the chest calling him a traitor. Gajeel is outraged by this saying "how dare you shoot my cat!". The King then makes an appearance in a giant metal dragon called the Dorma Anim as saying the metal dragon repels all magic attacks. Gajeel, Natsu and Wendy engage the Dorma Anim in battle as only their Dragon Slayer magic can stand up against the Dorma Anim.

Wendy casts a spell on Natsu and Gajeel while they fight with the Dorma Anim, making them faster and another one to make them stronger, the king then fires some tracking missiles after Wendy but Natsu intercepts and destroys them. When the king is about to shoot again, Gajeel hits the missiles before launch, but gets hit by the tail of the Dorma. A group of missiles is fired again, but these ones explode before Natsu can hit them.The king gets surprised when Natsu eats the fire of the explosions while Gajeel starts eating the tail of the Dorma. Suddenly the Dorma changes color as the king states that he is going to "Drain all the fighting spirits".

The new form of the Dorma Anim grants it a huge increase in power and a change of color as well, turning the tide in the king's favor. Gajeel decides to try some different tactics, revealing they hadn't been using full power because they didn't know what could happen. All three of them attacked at once with their respective roars but it had almost no effect. The king proclaims victory, saying that although they have infinite magic, once it runs out it takes awhile to recharge. Natsu gets up saying that he'll use tomorrow's magic. Gajeel gets up and pins the Dorma Anim leg down to the ground, telling Natsu to attack and that he was the only one who could do it. Natsu tells Wendy to aim a roar at him to boost his speed by the rotation of her roar and succeeds in tearing through the Dorma Anim.

When Nadi told them about Mystogan and Pantherlily's conversation, the three Dragon Slayers decided to put up a show, with them as the antagonist side of Mystogan's initial plan. Showing up along with the Great Demon-Lord Dragneel, he wrecked the streets of Royal Capital and helped Wendy to scare off some civilians; and at the same time, grudgingly putting up with Natsu's degenerative rants as he referred to Gajeel and Wendy as his "minions". Gajeel and Wendy then looked on Natsu's destructive demonstration in front of the crowd, with Wendy asking whether Natsu was going overboard. Gajeel, however, said that the salamander was merely setting up the perfect scene for the people to trust Mystogan. With Natsu's 'defeat', their bodies began to glow, and Gajeel tells Wendy to prepare a flashy defeat appearance. As Anima removes them from Edolas, the three Dragon Slayers faked a suffering gesture before smiling on Mystogan, signaling that everything will be alright.

Returning from Edolas, Gajeel, along with the rest of the gangs, were surprised by the appearance of the Exceeds. After listening to the Exceed Elders' explanation and the Exceeds departure, Gajeel searched frantically for Pantherlily. Showing up in a much smaller size, everyone were surprised by Pantherlily's new form. Pantherlily then requested to join the guild that the Prince once stayed in order to keep a promise to Gajeel, which Gajeel couldn't help but agreeing with laughter and tears. As he pulled the person out, everyone was left speechless by the fact that person is Lisanna. She asks Pantherlily if he is an Exceed, to which he replies by stating his name, and Gajeel angrily asks her if she is picking a fight with his cat. When Lisanna revealed that she is actually from Earth Land and was sent to Edolas 2 years ago, Gajeel alongside Natsu and the others help Lisanna to return to her siblings.

S-Class Trial arc
Back at Fairy Tail, everybody is celebrating Lisanna's return and Gajeel is shown to have become more cheerful by proposing a fight between "his Lily" and Natsu's and Wendy's Exceeds, but ends up as a fight between himself and Natsu and everyone in the Guild. At one scene, everyone finishes fighting and is sleeping from exhaustion. Gajeel is seen sleeping, while hugging Pantherlily with one arm.

A few days later he watches Pantherlily and Erza doing a spar with swords, after the battle he brags about Lily and his abilities. Gajeel like the rest of the guild, witnesses the master announcing the S-Class Wizard Promotion Trial, but is greatly shocked that he wasn't chosen as a candidate and surprised that Juvia was chosen over him. He also is greatly upset since he would have stood out as much as the other candidates, if his secret mission to infiltrate Raven Tail was revealed, and shows that his trust with the guild is not as strained as they believe it to be. It is shown that it was actually Erza who prevented him to be promoted, feeling it was too early for him.

When Jet and Droy are arguing over who will be Levy's partner, Gajeel steps up saying that he will help her. Levy feels she has no chance since she doesn't consider herself strong, which prompts Gajeel to yell at her to be more positive, and he'd help make her stronger causing her to blush.

As the participants head towards the island, Gajeel gets drowsy from the heat. When the first trial started Fried used a rune on the boat, which prevents everyone from leaving the boat for 5 min. However Levy managed to rewrite the rune in an instant, though she only lets herself and Gajeel leave. They then swim to the island and arrive before everyone else, except Fried's team. It is currently unknown which path he and Levi have chosen.

Magic and Abilities
As the former strongest member of Phantom Guild under Master Jose, Gajeel's strength is immense. With his strength alone, Gajeel single-handedly defeats "Shadow Gear", the "back-bone" team of Fairy Tail, cripples the Fairy Tail guild building, leading to its eventual destruction, and nearly defeats "Salamander" Natsu in melee combat. Like Natsu, Gajeel was taught by the dragon Metalicana in how to incorporate the metal he produces into his fighting style. His skill in hand-to-hand combat rivals Natsu, and with the support of his iron scales, he easily shifted the tide of battle into his favor for the majority of the fight. Even without his Dragon Slayer abilities Gajeel has also consistently proven himself to be one of the more resilient characters in the series, as seen when he was confronted by team Shadow Gear after integrating himself to Fairy Tail, shrugging off the combined attacks from Jet and Droy (and later, Laxus) without retaliation, and only resorted to summoning his metal when Laxus tried to attack Levy, and later in his battle against Faust's mechanical Dragon, where he showcased his incredible fortitude;

Gajeel also seems to know how to use his magic to revert those who have been turned into lacrima back to normal, most likely after being taught to him by Mystogan.

Iron Dragon Slayer (鉄滅竜魔法 Tetsu Metsuryū Mahō): Like Natsu, Gajeel knows "Dragon Slayer" magic, which he also learned from the dragon, Metalicana. However, his Dragon Slayer magic deals with metal instead of fire. Like Natsu eats fire, he can eat metal to regain his strength. His teeth and jaw muscles are apparently powerful enough to gnaw through solid metal with ease, and can apparently consume even the magic-canceling metal of the Dorma Anim. Gajeel's magic seems to deal with producing multi-sized iron rods as well as changing parts of his body into steel. Most of his attacks involve transforming his arm's into hard-as-steel weapons, which he can do at will.

Spells:


 * Iron Dragon Scales (鉄龍の鱗 Tetsuryū no Uroko): Gajeel covers part of his body with steel scales to dramatically increase his offense and defense. These scales are strong enough to shatter bone, and resilient against regular flames.


 * Iron Dragon Roar (鉄竜の咆哮 Tetsuryū no Hōkō): A metal-based variation of Natsu's Salamander's Roar attack. It releases shards of metal to shred his opponents body.


 * Iron Dragon Club (鉄竜棍 Tetsuryūkon): He transforms his arm or leg into a large steel club, increasing punching and kicking power. He can also create multiple smaller clubs from the end of the original, hitting many enemies at once.


 * Iron Dragon Sword (鉄竜剣 Tetsuryūken): Similar to Iron Dragon's Club, he transforms his arm or leg into a large steel blade. In the anime, the sword can also function like a chainsaw, effectively increasing its damage.


 * Iron Dragon Lance: Demon Logs (鉄竜槍 鬼薪 Tetsuryūsō: Kishin): He transforms his arm into a long steel spear, and rapidly stabs at the enemy multiple times.


 * Iron Dragon Hard Fist (鉄竜の鋼拳 Tetsuryū no Gō Ken): It's a simple punch, but used when he is covered by Iron Dragon Scales (Anime only).

Enhanced Smell: Gajeel has an incredible sense of smell that he shares with other Dragon Slayers. He uses this for tracking purposes as apparently, nothing can escape his nose. This is best described when he could track Lucy to Fairy Tail's secret hideout.

Major Battles

 * VS Shadow Gear = WON
 * VS Elfman = INTERFERED
 * VS Natsu Dragneel (1) = UNDETERMINED
 * VS Reedus Jonah = WON
 * VS Loke = WON (anime only)
 * VS Natsu Dragneel (2) = LOST
 * with Natsu Dragneel VS Laxus Dreyar= WON
 * VS Pantherlily = INTERFERED
 * with Natsu Dragneel and Wendy Marvell VS Faust = WON
 * with Natsu Dragneel and Wendy Marvell VS Edoras and Mystogan = "LOST"'

Trivia

 * Gajeel is one of two Phantom Lord guild members who have appeared after the Phantom Lord Arc. Interestingly, both are now members of Fairy Tail.
 * According to Gray, Gajeel is a very good song writer, however, his singing skills and ability to play musical instruments are poor.
 * Gajeel can somehow understand mumble. Or only Natsu's mumble.
 * From the Volume 16 Limited Edition: Sorcerer Interview, Gajeel said that Fairy Tail has no good quality, he has no desire that he wishes to accomplish in the future, and then angrily commented that he does not have a good relationship with anyone. The most difficult job, as quoted by Gajeel, is the "exhausting request made by the Master personally, damn it!"
 * Interestingly enough, his eye color was originally green (cover vol. 8). It is unknown why it was changed to red later (cover vol. 13).
 * When he appeared first time as a member of Fairy Tail (in chapter 103), his guild symbol wasn’t on his left arm, but later we can see it there. It's probably because the author originally wanted to replace Phantom Lord mark with Fairy Tail’s mark.
 * In the manga, Natsu shows up to fight Gajeel when he is trying to pin shards on Lucy. In the anime he is about to kick her with his leg metalized.
 * He got the same style of eyebrow of Hamrio Musica, one of the characters of Rave Master, which is one of the productions of Hiro Mashima, as like Fairy Tail. Gajeel's hairstyle might also have been inspired by the character Leto from the aforementioned series
 * He is one of the two people who has never met his Edolas counterpart during his time in Edolas.
 * Another way to pronounce/spell his name is Gazille Reitfox. While Gazille is simply a creative name, the "reit" part of "Reitfox" literally means "field" in Icelandic, showing Mashima's interest in Scandinavian culture.
 * He was irritated or envious at the fact that his fellow dragon slayers had cats as there companion. This was the reason he went out and searched for a car for himself only ending up with cat scratches in his face. In the end, he had Pantherlily as his cat during the Edolas Arc.