User blog:Woest/Element consumption by Slayers

I was thinking about how Slayers (Dragon/God/Devil) can't consume their own magic. I wonder how this works: can't they consume magic generated by their own body or can't they consume the exact same magic they possess?

Allow me to give an example to make it more clear.

Let's say Natsu learns Macao's Purple Flare, which is of course a Fire-based magic.

Now, Natsu can't eat his own flames, but how does this work? Can't he eat any fire magic (Fire Dragon Slayer, Purple Flare or any other Fire magic) that he himself uses? If this is the case, then he can't eat magic generated by his own body.

Or can't he eat the exact same magic as the one he possesses? Let's say Igneel raised 2 students who of course both know Fire Dragon Slayer magic, would they be able to eat eachother's magic? Perhaps they won't be able to do so since they use exactly the same type of magic.

Furthermore, I also wonder how the benefit gained from eating an element works.

Let's say Natsu fights another Fire Mage and eats said Mage's magic, what would Natsu gain?

Does his Fire Magic get stronger or would he simply restore his own magic (for example: the Fire Mage used an attack which consumed 20 "MP", so Natsu replenishes his own "MP" with 20).

If it's the former, then consuming an element raises the power of the Slayer and if it's the latter, the Slayer will avoid running out of Magic, of course could be both effects at the same time.

Let's take a look at the Gray's Ice Devil Slayer.

If he can't eat magic generated by his own body, he won't be able to eat his own Ice-Make. However, he would still be able to eat Lyon's Ice-Make.

On the other hand, if he can't consume the exact same type of magic as the one he knows, he can eat his own Ice-Make as well. Unless the IDS now recognizes Ice-Make as Gray's own magic and ends up preventing him from consuming any kind of Ice-Make, since IDS would automatically assume the Ice-Make to be created by Gray.

So I wonder if:

- Gray would be able to eat his own Ice-Make?

- Gray vs Lyon would become a one-sided pummeling?

- Lyon would also be able to learn the workings behing IDS?

- Gray & Lyon tag-teaming would result in Lyon being the "feeder"?