User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 416: Tartarus Arc: Final Part, Review and Commentary/@comment-7418318-20150119150904

I liked the chapter except for the last page. With the plot development I can live just fine, though I have some things I wonder about, but the abbrevation thing is just horrible. Making END mean E-something Natsu Dragneel is just so very VERY stupid in my opinion.

Why bother with putting his race in his name? Why give him two seperate names? WHY?!?

Moving on.... The things I wonder is the matter of the book. When Mard was re-sealed, his body turned into the book, so why do both a Book of E.N.D. and Natsu's body exist at the same time? And why did he age at a normal rate ever since he joined Fairy Tail? Did Igneel know Natsu's identity? This isn't meant as a critique. It's just things I wonder and dearly hope will get explained later instead of us having to patch in the gaps with what makes the most sense, but without ever getting confirmation.

I actually expected Cancer to regrow Wendy's hair and even predicted it right after she cut her second pony-tail. Cancer regrowing Flare's hair in the Village of the Sun arc was a pretty obvious giveaway to me. He probably held scissors because he trimmed Wendy's hair into proper shape after regrowing it. I wouldn't mind Lucy's hair being a bit longer and her wearing it open more often, though the haircut she has in the first scene of the new anime opening is also quite nice.

I'm quite glad about how the scene between Gray and Juvia worked out. Hopefully this will finally make Juvia show her affection normally instead of the creepy over-the-top way she had so far. I bet she would have had much better chances for Gray to return her feelings if she hadn't been so hyper about it. Maybe now it'll finally work out between them, though I don't care too much if they get together or not. I'm also glad that Gray seems to finally get back to his old self instead of mister tsun-tsun (no dere to be found in the last few chapters).

I'm unsure what I feel about Lucy and Natsu splitting up. On one hand I want her to intercept him and go with him on the journey or at the very least have the two say some proper farewells to each other face to face, but on the other hand I also want to see their reunion after not seeing each other for such a long time with Lucy at least initially being very cold to him for leaving her without even saying good bye in person and only slowly regaining her trust in him. If she tried to keep him at an emotional distance, which slowly collapses, it'd make the reveal of Natsu's true identity all the more dramatic, with Lucy being threatened to lose him yet again, just when she finally allowed herself to grow close to him again.

Okay, while writing this I made up my mind. Now I actually want Natsu to bugg off without meeting Lucy before and have her pissed at him for it. :P

Speaking of Natsu's good bye, or rather his letter letter... Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that Natsu has his own seal? Especially combined with the Lucy comment about his horrible handwriting?

About the disbanding of the guild I already posted further below, so no need to repeat that I think.

With Doranbolt I'm confused. What goes is infiltrating someone into the council when he doesn't even know he's infiltrating? How can he gather information or manipulate the council's decisions if he's unaware of having to do it? I do like the idea that he was a sleeper agent of sorts, but to what purpose? That's another piece of the puzzle I hope Mashima will reveal later.

Overall I'm quite pleased with my first impression of the chapter, but I'm still working through all the stuff that we learned. It is quite a lot to swallow after all.