User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 471: Until the Battle is Done, Review and Commentary/@comment-67.234.77.253-20160203190806/@comment-67.234.77.253-20160204183951

Glad somebody agrees with me. "Redemption equals death" and even "redemption equals affliction" scenarios are terribly unfair no matter which former antagonists they happen to, and Laxus being my favorite former antagonist...just makes seeing Mashima inflict the latter scenario on him a hundred times worse. When that happened at the beginning of the Tartaros arc, I refused to stop smarting over it until I saw absolute proof of Tempester's FAILURE to scar Laxus for life. Instead, we're seeing proof of the demon's success in that endeavor, and that's why I'm inexorably bent out of shape.

And it isn't just Laxus either. I don't see any positive character development happening as a result of the events in the Tartaros arc, for anyone at all in Fairy Tail. That's why I think the entire arc was just an exercise in Mashima inflicting one senseless tragedy after another on Fairy Tail's mages, for no purpose other than to be a dick to the audience that loves them.