User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 230: The Tears of Love and Life, Review./@comment-3533265-20110413072306/@comment-3407832-20110414033128

Again, the hand is nearly confirmed to be Lucy hand: http://www.mangareader.net/135-57514-18/fairy-tail/chapter-201.html http://www.mangareader.net/fairy-tail/225/19

And Simon's the only good mage that actually dies, but then \he's not a Fairy Tail member and doesn't have any more roles. It's quite hard for audiences to feel sympathy for a character that has just appeared for several chapters. Racer and Zoldeo are dark mages so they are not really counted. So basically, staying in FT or just having some relationships with people in their makes you heavily protected from death.