User blog comment:Imhungry4444/IM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/@comment-112.202.253.192-20110721115902/@comment-3061966-20110911210855

There's alot of "seen it before" characters in Fairy Tail, but that could apply to alot of series. Gildarts, from what I can see, is a fusion of Shanks and Jiraiya-- but he's still his own character, with his own qualities.