User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 451: Fairy Heart, Review./@comment-4829046-20150907165957/@comment-4829046-20150908155409

Nose-kun understands! ^_^

@Nod Really? After the Pain Arc? Sure, it seemed that he was the big bad and all, but there were no hints of it being the final battle since it would have been a poor writing move to not show the use of the Gedo statue after it got so hyped. True, it did become a shitstorm of lies and deception and puppeteering, but at least all that bullshit explained the lore of the series. In this case, Mashima has been revealing mystery like there is no tomorrow. As a writer, I can tell you that you don't reveal all that info at once unless it is essential info before the grand finale. A climax as it were.

But here's the thing with your bit on Bleach and Naruto(screw One Piece); those ones had MASSIVE arcs as part of the finale. Naruto entered the War arc after the Kage Summit(a.k.a. direct continuation to the Pain arc) and it remained on it till the very end. Bleach had the Arrancar section for a huge amount of time and the Fullbringer arc was just filler to give some buildup to the final and longest arc. What people are suggesting is not that, but for FT to have ANOTHER long arc before the final one. That's crazy-talk. The only reason for that is to give a training period, but recent events, especially Lucy's monologue, suggest that there will be no further training before this grand clash with Zeref's forces.