User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 453: A Father's Job, Review and Commentary/@comment-26287497-20150920142614/@comment-25111584-20150921083558

Well, Zeref actually got three chances before getting cursed. His teachers all praised his intelligence and were really kind, but still warned him not to continue his research. Despite this, he refused to accept his brother's death and tried to resurrect and ended up killing all those who cared for him. But, fine, a child does not realize its mistake until it is punished.

But then it gets worse. The guy wants to die so he doesn't kill anymore people ... so he creates Demons. Yeah, not a great idea from someone who is not only incredibly intelligent, but has just been taught to think about the consequences of one's actions.

Now, with Ankhseram's Curse, he can only be a prick to others or stay away from them. He has created Demons who still ruin people's lives. I mean, look at Gray. He is, directly or indirectly, the cause of quite a bit of the suffering in the world. CrimeS' goal makes that clear.

After all this, I don't see how he is the one who has given humanity too many chances. (Btw, it is obvious that he means Ishgar when he speaks of mankind. He seems to think of his Empire's peopla as game pieces rather than humans.) Why should people accept him? But, if they don't, he vows to wipe them out. He just comes off as a pompous ass, imo, considering he has let his Demons run free for so long.

The Contradictory Curse affecting his thoughts makes it worse. We get no hint about it until, well, we are told about it. And then Zeref pretty much has a sever attack ... and then we never see him having such attacks ever again. Actually, the contradiction in his thoughts never even shows up again, we are just supposed to sympathize with him because we know he bears such a burden. If such an effect seriously existed, Zeref would be a wreck. Forget making battle strategies or ruling an empire, he wouldn't even be able to make simple decisions due to the contradictions. This is plain bad writing.

After the Memoirs Chapter, I can neither sympathize with Zeref nor take him seriously as a villain. He seems more like some brat who is angry that things aren't going his way, tbh. ... Okay, maybe that is too harsh, but he has become quite a badly-written antagonist in recent Chapters, with quite nonsensical motives.