castkorb

Let's put the end of the magic games –GMG– as our starting point, so the hypothetical situations begin when FT wins and end with, well, death.

One setting that has never crossed my mind until just now which surprised me is Sting and Rogue joining FT: It would've made sense, without the bonding battle against the dragons that Sabertooth had I see little reason for them to continue working on the guild that consistently made their lives a nightmare –nevermind that most likely if Sting hadn't chosen to be the master it would've ceased to exist.– As for Yukino and Minerva, who knows? I see Yukino joining too, Minerva I'm not so sure though, given her next appearance in the anime was in Tartaros, which we're assuming was if not the apocalypse then at most the begining of it of the bad timeline.

But sure, let's say Sting and Rogue both joined FT, we all know they would've loved it there, given how almost every member of the guild seems to have a fondness for the Sabertooth members kinda older sibling vibe I totally see them healing their Jienma-related and co. traumas there. But this isn't a happy ending of course.

On one of the previous posts cited earlier me and @oryu404 theorized by the time Avatar happened Frosh was already dead, and Rogue, having possibly lost half of his pillars, was on the brink of collapse and most likely killed Gray. So my take in this particular scenario is that, while Sting and Rogue healed a lot in FT, maybe Rogue's shadow wasn't quite tamed, maybe they couldn't find a way to rid of it in the guild before Acnologia came and destroyed the world. And maybe after Tartaros Gray also completely submitted to his demon powers and was also lost in rage, maybe by this point they were the only remaining members of FT and as they were, both of them only had a mind to kill –there's two different variables you can pick from by this point: whether Sting was alive or not during this.

If he was, then I'd say this is where he died and Rogue was fully consumed by his shadow and thus, stole his powers.

If he wasn't, then Frosch dying was the last bit of sanity he lost, both outcomes would end the same way obviously.

My second scenario revolves around Tartaros, whether Sting and Rogue were part of FT or not doesn't really matter, let's simply assume it happened just as our timeline and they came to lend a hand.

Assuming that's when Acnologia came, just like in canon, and the dormant dragons inside of the dragon slayers –point for thought, maybe Skyadrum was the reason Rogue's shadow hadn't been able to fully consume him– woke up and tried to save the world.

(There's a spot here that confuses me a little, if I remember correctly, f!Rogue mentioned Acnologia came with a large number of dragons that destroyed the world, but that shouldn't be possible? I'm not considering the sequel as I haven't read it, and for various reasons I don't like to count it as "canon" so the only dragon alive should be Acnologia. What confuses me is if this was something Mashima pulled out of his ass to make it more dramatic as he does usually or if this was deliberately a lie f!Rogue told the princess to gain her favor.)

Nevertheless let's assume it all happened just like in canon, the fun starts with trying to find a single reason why it all went downhill:

Maybe the FACE project actually ran through and half of the population lost their magic? That would explain the deaths of many people who weren't strong enough to fight without magic.

Could Jienma have been the actual catalyst of their doom? Having yet to conquer their fear since the Sabertooth rebranding is out of the question, maybe this fight was the one were Sting died and either willingly gave his powers to Rogue or his shadow stole them from his dead body?

Or just a whole other scenario in which they were not in Tartaros and just watched it all from down below, helpless to do anything about it.

As an ending point, just for the fun of it since tecnically it's impossible Alvarez would've happened, f!Rogue said after Acnologia's appearance the world pretty much ended I doubt Zeref would've had much to do after that lol, but for funsies.

I'm thinking, if there were any members of Sabertooth alive –which I doubt– then they would've met their end with Bloodman (I had to search the name of that guy, all member of the empire are so forgetable except maybe two lmao) along with Gajeel.

I'm cracking my brain trying to think how the Sting vs. Larcade fight would've gone in this scenario, how do you find the time to fight the demon of pleasure when your boyfriend is speedrunning his way to madness genuinely. I think Rogue would've killed him mid-fight against Sting the way Zeref did in canon, because it's funny and he deserves a pathetic death in all timelines.

Let's put the end of the magic games –GMG– as our starting point, so the hypothetical situations begin when FT wins and end with, well, death.

One setting that has never crossed my mind until just now which surprised me is Sting and Rogue joining FT: It would've made sense, without the bonding battle against the dragons that Sabertooth had I see little reason for them to continue working on the guild that consistently made their lives a nightmare –nevermind that most likely if Sting hadn't chosen to be the master it would've ceased to exist.– As for Yukino and Minerva, who knows? I see Yukino joining too, Minerva I'm not so sure though, given her next appearance in the anime was in Tartaros, which we're assuming was if not the apocalypse then at most the begining of it of the bad timeline.

But sure, let's say Sting and Rogue both joined FT, we all know they would've loved it there, given how almost every member of the guild seems to have a fondness for the Sabertooth members kinda older sibling vibe I totally see them healing their Jienma-related and co. traumas there. But this isn't a happy ending of course.

On one of the previous posts cited earlier me and @oryu404 theorized by the time Avatar happened Frosh was already dead, and Rogue, having possibly lost half of his pillars, was on the brink of collapse and most likely killed Gray. So my take in this particular scenario is that, while Sting and Rogue healed a lot in FT, maybe Rogue's shadow wasn't quite tamed, maybe they couldn't find a way to rid of it in the guild before Acnologia came and destroyed the world. And maybe after Tartaros Gray also completely submitted to his demon powers and was also lost in rage, maybe by this point they were the only remaining members of FT and as they were, both of them only had a mind to kill –there's two different variables you can pick from by this point: whether Sting was alive or not during this.

If he was, then I'd say this is where he died and Rogue was fully consumed by his shadow and thus, stole his powers.

If he wasn't, then Frosch dying was the last bit of sanity he lost, both outcomes would end the same way obviously.

My second scenario revolves around Tartaros, whether Sting and Rogue were part of FT or not doesn't really matter, let's simply assume it happened just as our timeline and they came to lend a hand.

Assuming that's when Acnologia came, just like in canon, and the dormant dragons inside of the dragon slayers –point for thought, maybe Skyadrum was the reason Rogue's shadow hadn't been able to fully consume him– woke up and tried to save the world.

(There's a spot here that confuses me a little, if I remember correctly, f!Rogue mentioned Acnologia came with a large number of dragons that destroyed the world, but that shouldn't be possible? I'm not considering the sequel as I haven't read it, and for various reasons I don't like to count it as "canon" so the only dragon alive should be Acnologia. What confuses me is if this was something Mashima pulled out of his ass to make it more dramatic as he does usually or if this was deliberately a lie f!Rogue told the princess to gain her favor.)

Nevertheless let's assume it all happened just like in canon, the fun starts with trying to find a single reason why it all went downhill:

Maybe the FACE project actually ran through and half of the population lost their magic? That would explain the deaths of many people who weren't strong enough to fight without magic.

Could Jienma have been the actual catalyst of their doom? Having yet to conquer their fear since the Sabertooth rebranding is out of the question, maybe this fight was the one were Sting died and either willingly gave his powers to Rogue or his shadow stole them from his dead body?

Or just a whole other scenario in which they were not in Tartaros and just watched it all from down below, helpless to do anything about it.

As an ending point, just for the fun of it since tecnically it's impossible Alvarez would've happened, f!Rogue said after Acnologia's appearance the world pretty much ended I doubt Zeref would've had much to do after that lol, but for funsies.

I'm thinking, if there were any members of Sabertooth alive –which I doubt– then they would've met their end with Bloodman (I had to search the name of that guy, all member of the empire are so forgetable except maybe two lmao) along with Gajeel.

I'm cracking my brain trying to think how the Sting vs. Larcade fight would've gone in this scenario, how do you find the time to fight the demon of pleasure when your boyfriend is speedrunning his way to madness genuinely. I think Rogue would've killed him mid-fight against Sting the way Zeref did in canon, because it's funny and he deserves a pathetic death in all timelines.