Levy McGarden

For Levy's Edolas counterpart, see Levy (Edolas).

Levy McGarden is a 17 year old Mage from Fairy Tail. She is the leader of Shadow Gear.

Appearance
Levy is a young, teenage girl with a slender build and stands at a height below average for her age. She sports blue hair, with the top cut short and the bottom longer, normally tied up with a colored bandana around her head. While her hair is initially rather straight in the beginning of the series, over time her hair has grown more wavy and wild, with more locks hanging down the sides of her face. Her outfit varies throughout the series, but she has been seen wearing both dresses or a tank top with shorts. In the beginning of the series, her chest size was rather small compared to most characters, but as she grows older her bust gradually grows larger. Her member stamp is located on her left shoulder blade. When performing tasks like researching, she wears a pair of Gale-Force Reading Glasses and tends to tie up her hair out of her face.

Personality
Levy has a cheerful and upbeat personality, being able to get along with many other guild members. Her kind spirit is shown by her reluctance to get involved in the many brawls the guild has together, as she is too nice to fight "just for fun." She is also a very forgiving person, as she reconciled with Gajeel for torturing herself and her teammates during The Phantom Lord arc. Their friendship has also grown to the point where he has become her partner for the S-Class Promotion Trial (albeit Gajeel more or less declared himself her partner), and it is hinted that she may carry romantic feelings for him. Levy is characterized by her love for reading, which is how she and Lucy Heartfilia quickly became friends through their mutual love. Levy has also been the only person to read Lucy's novel by Lucy's consent, showing their level of trust in each other. At times, Levy can be manipulative- she rewrote Freed Justine's runes seemingly for the whole boat in the Tenrou Island arc, but she actually only did it for Gajeel and herself. This surprises Lucy, but Levy shyly and sarcastically says she's sorry to her as she advances. Levy is also one of the more mature members of the guild, as she was the first to abandon the S-Class Promotion Trial in favor of unifying the guild members, whereas some did not want to stop the trial at all.

History
Not much is known about Levy's past, but it is known that her fellow Shadow Gear members Jet and Droy have asked her out. However, both were rejected by her in a matter of moments.

In the omake 'Fairy Hills', it also shows a younger Levy residing there, so from at least the age of 11 she stayed there.

Daybreak arc
Levy was first introduced as wanting to accept the mission to retrieve the book Daybreak from the Duke of Everlue's mansion, though Makarov advised her not to take it because the quest was likely to become complicated.

Phantom Lord arc
Levy, along with Jet and Droy, were attacked by the Phantom Lord Guild's Gajeel Redfox, and after being badly beaten, were chained to a tree in the style of a crucifix. Out of the three, Levy was the only one branded with the Phantom Lord symbol on her stomach. This event is the trigger that starts the war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord. During the rest of the arc, Levy, Jet, and Droy were in the hospital recovering. After recovering, she celebrated with the guild over the end of Phantom Lord.

Fighting Festival arc
Levy is seen together with Jet and Droy swimming in the guild's new indoor swimming pool. After Makarov introduces Gajeel as a new Fairy Tail member, Levy is seen saying to Lucy that Gajeel's presence is not bothering her, although her shaking says otherwise. Levy, together with Jet and Droy, is then seen admiring Lucy's bravery to insult Gajeel as he acted arrogant towards her. As Jet and Droy went to beat up Gajeel for what he did during the Fairy Tail-Phantom Lord war, Levy tried to stop them. However, Laxus Dreyar arrives and beats him up also. Levy realizes that Gajeel was not fighting them on purpose since he want them to recognize him as their nakama. As Levy tries to stop Laxus, he shoots her with a lightning bolt, but is surprised when Gajeel takes the blow for her. The two then leave. Later on, it appears that she is the one who told Mirajane that Laxus had returned to Magnolia. She is next seen participating in the Miss Fairy Tail contest where she uses her Magic to make fancy text appear in midair, impressing Jet and Droy. After her turn, she (along with the other contestants) was turned into stone by Evergreen and used as a hostage. When Erza Scarlet defeats Evergreen she and the rest of the girls return back to normal. While Makarov is briefing them about Laxus and the Raijinshuu's actions, Laxus activates the Hall of Thunder and takes the whole town as his hostage. She then notices that Freed's restrictions are a form of script-based Magic, and says she'll get rid of the barrier since she believes that Natsu and Gajeel can defeat Laxus. Gajeel is watching Levy undoing Freed's enchantments, and is amazed by her skill. Levy temporarily looks at him and tells him to defeat Laxus.



After Lucy defeats Bickslow, Levy states that's to be expected by Lucy and she'll do her best as well. She manages to figure out the code and overwrite Freed's enchantments and getting rid of the barrier allowing Natsu and Gajeel to leave. She tells them to stay away from each other, since Freed's enchantments are still set up around the area and if they were both caught in one, it would be over.

With ten minutes left until the Hall of Thunder is activated, Porlyusica arrives to help Makarov, who had a heart attack over Laxus's actions. Levy escorts her to Makarov. After examining Makarov, Porlyusica tells Levy to look for Laxus and bring him there, as she thinks that Makarov would die soon. Levy finds Laxus preparing to cast Fairy Law in Caldia Cathedral, she informs him that the master is dying and begs her to stop and visit him. But Laxus sees this as an opportunity to be master and casts Fairy Law. However, it fails much to Laxus' confusion. Suddenly, Freed arrives and informs them that everyone is safe. He also explains that the reason Fairy Law failed is because Laxus' heart still considers the members of Fairy Tail as his guildmates. Laxus was eventually defeated and Levy participated in the Fantasia parade together with the other Miss Fairy Tail contestants. She is later seen raising her hand, along the rest of the guilds, and signals to Laxus that they will be always watching over him.

Edolas arc
Levy happily welcomes back Lucy together with Jet and Droy. She is later seen at Wendy and Carla's Welcome Party, and is seen suprised that Gildarts failed the 100-year mission.

She was sucked through the Anima and turned into lacrima along with the rest of the guild and the town of Magnolia. However, they were freed thanks to Mystogan, who returned everyone back to Earthland (excluding Gray, Natsu, Lucy, Wendy, Erza, Gajeel, Carla, and Happy), through the Reverse Anima Process, and so she, like all the rest of the guild and Magnolia is unaware of the events of Edolas.

Tenrou Island arc
Levy was named as a candidate for the S-Class Wizard Promotion Trial. She is surprised at first and wonders if Makarov actually called her name. Jet and Droy are delighted to hear her nomination. Jet and Droy start arguing about who's going to be her partner, while Levy begins to lose heart at the idea due to her lack of strength, when Gajeel comes up to her and proclaims if she wants to be an S-class, he'll be her trial partner. Though she still remained pessimistic about her chances of even lasting long, Gajeel gave her words of encouragement, saying he'd make her strong, causing her to blush.

As the participants head towards the island on a boat, Levy gets dizzy due to the heat. Shortly after, the master arrives to explain the rules of the first trial. When the first trial started, Freed used a rune on the boat, which prevents everyone from leaving the boat for 5 minutes. However, Levy managed to rewrite the rune in an instant, though she only lets herself and Gajeel leave the ship. Lucy was irritated that Levy didn't help her, but Levy apologizes in a joking tone and says that they were heading on ahead. It is unknown which path she and Gajeel had chosen, but they managed to pick the quiet path so they didn't have to fight against anyone to clear the first trial.

In the second exam, Levy and Gajeel start search for the first guild master's grave. Gajeel starts complaining about the Trial, saying how he wished to go up against Natsu and Erza. Levy gets mad that he doesn't "Look at (her)" and runs away from Gajeel, only to be surrounded by two Grimore Heart members. Giving her no hint, they make quick work of her and were about to kill her. Gajeel saves her, causing her to blush. After Levy and Gajeel find out that their plan was to "poach all the fairies on Tenrou Island", Yomazu uses Gou; which creates a painful sound. Kawazu goes in for the next strike and Levy pulls Gajeel out the way so they wouldn't get hurt, only for Kawazu to follow and then bombarded them with his Egg Busters, raining a barrage of punches at the Fairy Tail Mages; Gajeel managed to dodge most of them, but Levy ends taking the ones that didn't hit Gajeel. Levy uses her Solid Script: Silent to cancel out Yomazu's Gou and Solid Script: Fire to boil the eggs that Kawazu sent. However, Kawazu sends more eggs causing her fire to break apart. When Gajeel is hit by Dark Sword: Narukami which slices right through his body; Levy burst into tears. Gajeel tells her to let everyone know what is happening on the island. She uses Solid Script: Iron to create iron for Gajeel; telling him to "Please, don't die!" as she escapes and runs off.

As she looks for the other members of Fairy Tail, she frantically ponders to herself about what could be the reason for Grimoire Heart's impending invasion on Tenrou Island, and that she must warn every Fairy Tail Mage present on the island before something catastrophic happens. Not watching where she was going, Levy accidentally trips and then passes out. When she came to, she finds herself in front of Erza and Juvia. They asks her what happened and how she got all those injuries. Levy then presumably tells them about Grimoire Heart, as they are next seen running to Gajeel as he falls after just defeating Yomazu and Komazu. Levy runs to to him, telling him to "hang in there." She is then seen shivering in anxiety while leaning over Gajeel's battered body.

As Erza begins to interrogate Yamazu, Levy announces that she'll take Gajeel to the camp. She is later seen being surrounded with the Mages deployed by Grimoire Heart with Gajeel still unconscious hanging from her shoulder. She presumably defeated or ran away from the Mages as she is seen crying over Gajeel and Mirajane at the camp. Suddenly Elfman arrives at the camp carrying the unconscious Evergreen, he unwillingly admits that the enemy is strong and that they just can't win. Although Levy was also troubled by the truth, she stood up and stated that it is true about the enemy being strong. However that just means, that Fairy Tail should unite and become a group just as strong. She states that the exam made everyone go their separate ways, but the situation now calls for everyone to unite and she yells out loud to everyone and telling them to unite their feelings and fight back.

Levy is then seen watching over Gajeel, Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna when Pantherlily arrives and tells her that Natsu and the others are on their way. Soon after, Rustyrose shows up and challenges her along with Pantherlily and Lisanna to battle. She is later seen when she notices Bluenote's Magic. When Freed and Bickslow arrive she is both shocked and happy to see them and marvels at the true power of the Thunder God Tribe.

Levy along with Pantherlily and Lisanna warn Freed and Bickslow to be careful when Rustyrose attacks them with his spell, Ghost of the Britear. She is later seen when she collapses when Azuma uproots the tree on Tenrou Island that protects and gives power to Fairy Tail members. After Rustyrose was defeated, Natsu and the others arrive at the camp. When Pantherlily mentions about splitting into two teams, Levy agrees, wanting to divide into attack and defense teams. When Natsu gets up to go battle Hades, Levy says she will stay with Bickslow and Freed and help with the defense. Before the attack group goes, Levy wishes Lucy good luck.

After the war with Grimoire Heart ends Levy goes to rest at Tenrou Island's base.

Everything is interrupted when Acnologia, the infamous Black Dragon, lands on Tenrou Island and starts attacking everyone. All of the Fairy Tail members start moving towards the ship as the dragon goes on its rampage. Makarov then enters full Titan mode and grabs Acnologia, holding it off from attacking the guild members. Everyone wishes to help Makarov, but he shouts not to disobey his final order. When Makarov is overwhelmed by Acnologia, all of them return back and go all out against the dragon. As Acnologia, having shrugged off all the combined attacks from its assailants, flies high up into the sky and readies to fire a breath attack against Tenrou Island, the guild members join their hands in a circle. While promising they will return home to Fairy Tail, they are struck by Acnologia's blast, which completely annihilates Tenrou Island, leaving nothing behind.

X791 arc
Levy along with the rest of the others return to the Fairy Tail Guild after being found by Bisca, Alzack, Jet, Droy, Max, Warren and the Trimens from Blue Pegasus. She watches as Mavis Vermilion reveals that she was the one who saved them and then disappears. She, along with the other returning members, is welcomed back by Romeo.

Levy rejoins Shadow Gear with Jet and Droy. After Fairy Tail decides to enter the Grand Magic Games, she goes to the beach alongside others of the guild shortly afterwards, in order to train and build up her strength in time for the Grand Magic Games in 3 months time. She, alongside everyone (excluding Jet and Droy), is taken to the Celestial World by Virgo for Lucy's welcome back party. Three months pass in the real world during their one day excursion there, and they completely lose their training time. However, she, along with the others that went on the trip, are summoned by Jellal, Ultear, and Meredy and after a brief meeting, Ultear agrees to raise their Magic Power using her Arc of Time.

Levy watches in horror as Natsu writhes around on the floor in pain, as Ultear begins the process. Later that evening, she too, writhes around on the floor in pain as the process happens to her.

Magic and Abilities
Solid Script (固体文字 (リッドスクリプト) Kotai Moji (Soriddo Sukuriputo)): True to her boundless interest in books, Levy's Magic is also focused around writing and words: Solid Script allows her to generate words in the air and make them solid, subsequently throwing them at the enemies with different effects. To create such words, Levy is shown performing gestures with one or both of her hands, depending on the spell.
 * Solid Script: Silent (固体文字 靜寂 Soriddo Sukuriputo Sairento): By moving her right arm with her index and middle fingers outstretched in a certain pattern and then extending her left hand, Levy can generate the word "Silent" some meters away from her. This can be used to stop an outer source of high-pitched noise, canceling sound-based attacks, as shown with Yomazu's Gō spell.
 * Solid Script: Fire (固体文字 炎 Soriddo Sukuriputo Faia): Levy extends her right arm, with her index and middle fingers outstretched, to the right, describing an arc before her. This prompts the word "Fire" to appear in the air, this being composed of flames. This word can be employed both defensively, as shown when Levy used it as a burning shield to protect herself from Kawazu's Egg Buster, and as a basic form of offense, with Levy sending the word at her target in an arc.
 * Heat Spell: By first crossing her outstretched arms before her and then spinning around, Levy can generate the word "Fire" composed of blue flames, which is subsequently sent flying at the target.


 * Solid Script: Iron: Levy can generate the word "Iron" in the air, some meters away from her. This, predictably, is composed of iron. When she created it for Gajeel Redfox, in order for him to eat it and replenish his strength, the hollow part in the letter "o" was given a stylized heart's shape. (Unnamed)

Multi-Lingual: Levy is noted for her knowledge in the field of languages, and can even translate several ancient scripts. Through accurate, grammatical examination, plus the use of her Gale-Force Reading Glasses, she was capable of nullifying one of the barriers created by Freed Justine's Jutsu Shiki by overwriting the runes composing it. Given this first experience, later on she was shown able to bypass another one of Freed's enchantments, this time in a minute, and even managing to make so that only her and Gajeel might have exited it.

Equipment
Gale-Force Reading Glasses (風詠みの眼鏡 Kazeyomi no Megane): Levy, being an avid reader, possesses a pair of enchanted reading glasses that allows her to read at an extremely accelerated rate: specifically, her Gale-Force Reading Glasses are model 18x, something which lets her read books eighteen times faster.

Droy & Jet
Levy, Jet, and Droy are childhood friends and often played together as children. In one point, they joined Fairy Tail Guild and formed the team Shadow Gear. Both Jet and Droy have crushes on Levy, but Levy already rejected in a matter of seconds. Later on, when Levy was chosen to take part in the S-Class Mage trial, both of them competed to become Levy's partner, but ended up distraught when Gajeel unexpectedly volunteered himself for the task.

Lucy Heartfilia
She and Lucy Heartfilia quickly became friends through their mutual love for literature. Levy has also been the only person to read Lucy's novel by Lucy's consent, showing their level of trust in each other. However, when she rewrote Freed Justine's runes in the Tenrou Island arc, she only did it for her and her partner Gajeel. This surprises Lucy, but Levy added she's sorry to her as she advanced. However in Edolas, Lucy and Levy are constantly fighting, and Edolas Lucy often loses patience for Levy.

Gajeel Redfox
The first time Gajeel and Levy met, Gajeel attacked Levy and her teammates, defeated them in battle, nailed them to a tree, and branded the Phantom Guild's symbol on Levy's stomach. After the war between the two guilds and Gajeel's subsequent conversion over to Fairy Tail, Levy was still among those who had their doubts about Gajeel's entrance to the Guild as one of their newest members. However, after Laxus attacked Levy, Gajeel blocked the blow for her, which lowered Levy's doubts about Gajeel. During the S-Class Trials, Levy was among the eight candidates who were selected to take part in the test; Levy showed her lack of confidence, but in the end, was encouraged by Gajeel, who even volunteered to become her partner, which made her blush. During the "Intelligence" part of the S-Class Trial, he constantly annoyed Levy and told her that if she wants attention from him, she should get stronger and seriously fight him every once in a while, not regarding Levy's disappointed feelings at his demeaning words. However, when Levy runs away, Gajeel runs after her and saves her life from two members of Grimore Heart. He tells her that "it was really hard looking for someone so small," but follows his remark by saying, "so don't leave my side." According to Jet and Droy, Levy seems to have a crush on Gajeel.

Appearances in Other Media
Levy appears as a playable character in the first Fairy Tail Video Game, Fairy Tail Portable Guild, and its sequel, Fairy Tail Portable Guild 2. In both games, she is unlocked through quests.

Trivia

 * During the Tenrou Island arc when she used Solid Script to make iron for Gajeel the center of the "O" is shaped like a heart.
 * From the Volume 16 Limited Edition: Sorcerer Interview, the best quality of Fairy Tail according to Levy is that the guild has collected multiple varieties of books. She wishes to be the editor of an infamous magazine group in the future. Has a good relationship with the members of Team Shadow Gear and Lu-Chan. The most difficult mission she has ever taken, in her own words, is "infiltrating the home of an evil mage as a child... I...I'm NOT a child anymore!"

Major Battles

 * Shadow Gear vs. Gajeel Redfox
 * Fairy Tail vs. Daphne's Lizardmen & Dragonoid
 * Gajeel Redfox & Levy McGarden vs. Kawazu & Yomazu
 * Fairy Tail vs. Acnologia