arvi_rek

Less than 10% of the population of Fiore are mages. This is a figure that gets overlooked easily, perhaps because I don't think I could name more than ten significant non-mages in manga canon**. There's Lucy's dad, there's the princess and the king and um. That is kinda it, no? Because the fact is kind of glossed over after being mentioned very early on, I don't think many people pause to consider what that actually means. The point being: the vast majority of people in Fiore are the definition of Just Some Guy™. It is in the nature of the genre that there must be dramatic visuals of people getting thrown into walls and all that, things that our protagonists walk off, and it is also in the nature of the genre that the story's bodycount is hilariously low, but the second you apply a trace amount of logic to all this, concerns should pop up. We have a minority of superpowered people who do all manner of crazy things, occasionally to the detriment of regular people such as farmers. These super-powered people have their own governing body so once some guy with fire abilities sets your farmland on fire, you contact that governing body so they sort it out and you get some recompense . . . only for the guy who is in charge of the group of super-powered teenagers/young adults to be like "the audacity of the Council to expect us to behave!!"***

I said it before and I stand by it: the in-universe popularity of mage guilds like Fairy Tail baffles me.

The reason why I point this out is that although he disrespects the Council so much, Makarov does accept the honour they bestow upon him, the honour of being A Wizard Saint. Now, personally, I think this makes him a hypocrite at the very least. Either you dislike the Council and think they are a bunch of hacks you only work with as much as needed to not have your guild be classified as a dark guild or you accept actual honours from then. Pick a lane!

So I suppose that gets into how I think that Makarov's actions in regards to the Council make him a villain to at the very least the average citizen of Fiore. Now let's discuss Lumen Histoire/Fairy Heart.

I have to shout out @reivun here because honestly? Ivan is right. In particular, he is right when he calls LH/FH the darkness of the guild. I also don't blame Gildarts for seeing it---the giant lacrima crystal with a naked child inside---and immediately dipping. I wonder if Gildarts did immediately understand what is revealed many chapters later, after his departure has been kind of played for laughs, another incident in a long chain of "Gildarts doesn't wanna commit" incidents.

Because as we learn: Zeref's empire declared war on the entire continent Fiore is on because of LH/FH. And not just that---they did it twice, with the Council rebuffing the first attempt by a major show of force on their part. And this first incident is something that Makarov has knowledge of. It is why he disbands the guild and dispatches himself as an ambassador/negotiator to the empire!**** Now, the politics of the world get kinda wishywashy handwavey pretty early on, mostly because I sincererely doubt that Mashima knows how to write a complex political storyline. Makarov's behaviour is so weird in this particular context that I don't even know where to start!

LH/FH is not exactly his fault. He inherited it when he became the third master so I can't blame that on him. I won't even blame him for being indoctrinated enough to not see the glaring issues with that.

However---he keeps it a secret, even after the first invasion attempt. Now, that is something I take issue with. He has a weapon of mass destruction in his basement. A foreign power wants it. He knows that's what they want, even when the government he is technically associated with (see the previous point) does not.

Literal years pass and he makes no attempts to do anything about the fact that he has a ticking time bomb in his basement. A key issue here is that Bisca and Alzack join his guild, coming from the Empire™ and presumably bringing news about how things are shaping up there . . . and yet, Makarov does not do anything to warn the government he is associated with about what might happen. I have joked many times how, given his briefly mentioned favouritism towards the strongest and most promising mages, it looks a bit like Makarov was gathering loyal soldiers who'd protect LH/FH. But? Was that actually the plan? Because if so, that is crazy.

We should also talk about Doranbolt/Mest in this context. Because I think that Makarov asked one of his own mages to infiltrate the Council to spy on them at the cost of said mage's memory is pretty strange behaviour for a guy who likes saying how all the members of the guild are like his kids. Genuinely speaking? I think that Mest/Doranbolt is the character most loyal to Makarov and it isn't even close.

And then, of course, we get to the ill-fated trip to negotiate and how that failed and how the entire continent (as per manga canon) gets overrun by a war the continent is very much not prepared for.

In short? Princess/Queen Hisui? Lock this menace up.

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* there is also a lot that could be said about the Council, but nevermind.

** by manga canon, I mean "the main storyline, without any of the spin offs"

*** as a Guild Master Macao Did Nothing Wrong truther, I have to repeat a point I have made many times before: I genuinely believe that whereas Makarov could shrug off the fines imposed by the Council as well as demands for repayment of damaged property because at the end of the day, he is a Wizard Saint Bigshot™ with a friend on the Council (hello Yajima, I will never not consider you a Problem), Macao would simply not have the same amount of sway. I believe that realistically speaking, a significant part of the financial troubles Fairy Tail finds itself in is caused by Macao actually having to pay fines etc. And as for people leaving the guild---have we considered how widespread the destructive behaviour was inside the guild? I don't even think that fees and potentially arrests would have been levied against the guild for malicious reasons or to get payback. I think it would've been the logical result of actions actually having consequences for the first time in god knows how many years.