User blog comment:SoulRise99/5 Things Alvarez Empire Arc Shouldn't Have Done/@comment-202.125.102.33-20170531043053

1. 'fake deaths' are bearable, so long as they aren't too selective and favoring only a particular group within one side of the conflict 2. 'friendship power' is bearable, so long as the protagonists and their allies struggle some more and force their enemies to make more serious and deadly attacks 3. Acnologia having no attribute and being pushed into a suddenly introduced time lapse is bearable, so long as every surviving mage banded together and combined their powers to cleverly distract Acnologia long enough for the final push 4. Irene's background and her demise are bearable, so long as the fight was done in a better way involving more people 5. Mavis and Zeref reconciling and being together in death is fine, so long as both mages were given more time to use their powers and settle their issues with one another

What ultimately bothers me though is August being unjustly treated: (1) a master of caster-copying magic, who never got to show just a bit more of what he can do; (2) a high-ranking general, who is upstaged by his counterpart and not even given a distinctive useful role in the war; (3) a supposedly calm and wise character, who turned out to have parental issues; (4) the alleged strongest mage bar Zeref and Acnologia, who didn't even get a chance to have an on-panel epic fight against a better team with more members; (5) the unacknowledged wonder child of two important characters, whose back story and hidden powers were hardly explored, and who is treated worse than an ordinary side character with the way he isn't even duly acknowledged in the volume of his demise

In a nutshell though, Mashima shouldn't have rushed things