User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Chapter 490: Fairy Tail Zerø, Review/@comment-130.105.225.146-20160620133938/@comment-201.137.170.18-20160620211216

I also agree, I see Zeref as a victim rather than a villain. Let's not forget that this "destroy all humanity" was born probably as a defense mechanism, given the effects of his curse. If he continued to care for life, he would've suffered endlessly at seeing it destroyed by his existence alone, so his way of coping was throwing away his love for living things. It's very apparent in Mavis's history, when it's shown how he's started to lose his mind -building up Alvarez's army but not knowing why he even wants to do it-. Zeref was a gentle person at heart, who became evil against his will. Even after hundreds of years of wandering, he still tried to protect life when he was in Tenroujima, it was only after Natsu failed to kill him that he threw all of that away.

Honestly I believe the way this is headed is saving Zeref from himself and breaking his curse before he gives his life fighting against Acnologia, finally allowing him to rejoin Mavis in death