#so that's a thing...

But, just to be clear, we should take a bit of a step back. Why have a time skip at all? 

I think that one of the cool things about time skips is that time fundamentally changes everything. Rather, things have to change as time goes further.  It's easy to see how the characters of a series have changed over time. However, I think that time skips matter because of the things that happen in the world around them. Having time pass and showing changes is much easier than building up those changes over time. That's not a bad thing, especially if those changes aren't the focus of the story. 

In Fairy Tail, there's a bit of a twist to this structure. Before the time skip, Fairy Tail is the top guild in Fiore. After the time skip, they're barely relevant. In the Fantasia arc, there were close to 90 members fighting each other. Seven years later (closer to six years and five months), there are more people trapped in the Fairy Sphere than were in the guild proper. The message is clear: the guild got worse over time. That's not even taking into account how other groups were doing better around the same time. 

I'm not just getting this from my interpretation of the series. In the afterword for volume 30, Mashima basically says this is the point. His idea was that the world around the main cast ought to change while they stay the same. This is something that would add variety to an already over the top plot twist. 

If you can't tell by now, I think this is actually something good. One of the big problems with Fairy Tail (the series) is how it makes Fairy Tail (the guild) seem better than it ought to. Of course, this makes sense considering the series focuses on the guild. However, this leads to them seeming justified even and especially when they are in the wrong. Up to this point, none of Fairy Tail's enemies have posed too great of a threat to the guild, especially the boogeyman that has been the Magic Council. They needed to be humbled in some kind of way. 

This would also have been the right time to do it. For all the weight Gildarts's speech to Natsu should have been given, Natsu has trouble with this enemies, but he doesn't show much growth in regards to fighting enemies he's weaker than. However, the defeat by Acnologia is a sign to everyone on the island that they still have room to grow. And the realization of how bad their guild has gotten since they left is part of the motivation towards getting better (in addition to the money). 

There's one major problem with this though. The time skip barely matters in catching up. 

The members of the guild catch up with the world in months. Not years. People are able to catch up with other members of the world after a couple months of training. Thanks to Second Seal, most of the main cast got there after a few weeks. The idea that the guild needed to improve got sidestepped, ironically enough, just in time for the guild to be shown as amazing. And that's the base issue with this across versions of Fairy Tail. 

If you were reading Fairy Tail as it originally came out, this issue happened within a matter of a few months when it was coming out. Now, you see the disparity between the two in a single volume. And wouldn't you know it, it would be volume 31. The volume after Mashima explains what's so good about the idea of the time skip. In chapter 258, the first chapter in the volume, it's revealed that Fairy Tail has become the worst guild in Fiore. By the time the volume ends, Team Natsu got Second Seal and Elfman made serious gains. 

Of course, the anime has the Key to the Starry Sky arc before the Grand Magic Games. While I don't have a problem with the structure or content of it, a big issue with it is that the issues involving the time skip don't come up until after the arc ends. Like, I’m really supposed to look at the fights the guild members have with the Zentopia crew and Neo Oracion Seis and not remember this is almost right after coming from Tenrou Island?

What do I think can be done to fix this? 

As it stands, I can't just remove the jump from x784 to x791. That messes up with the Fairy Tail timeline as a whole and I can't justify doing that much. However, I also think that the time skip as it happens isn't good. 

Here's what I've come up with. 

Acnologia still attacks Tenrou Island and the members are still trapped in the Fairy Sphere. However, instead of seven years, they're gone for seven months. As it stands, there's no real reason that Fairy Sphere has to last seven years.  They escape Fairy Sphere on April x791 because that's when it stops. I see no reason to change the time Fairy Sphere lasts. I debated whether to have it last shorter, but I think that seven months is just the right amount of time. 

That deals with satisfying the event taking place within the series, but what about the guild getting worse? For this, it's time to make good on a threat made within the series. Before the exams start, the new council head says that if Fairy Tail has another incident, they'll disband them. After getting in a fight with another guild, the council has the right to destroy them. However, he doesn't. 

Obviously, he can't because not having a Fairy Tail guild means not having a series. However, within the series, he may want to keep a closer eye on Fairy Tail. In the manga, when word gets out that the members who were on Tenrou are back, he mentions how they may be connected to Acnologia. He may want to keep them around to make sure this isn't just a coincidence. 

That being said, they'd still be placed under sanction by the council. They wouldn't be as free as they normally would be. Job offers would likely be lower during the sanctions, both purposely and by the threat of association. After all, you don't want to trust a sketchy guild, right? At any rate, the time in between December x784 and April x791 would still result in Fairy Tail becoming a worse guild overall. 

However, because important characters are still around, they'll have opportunities to get stronger and develop new skills. With fewer jobs, they will have more time to focus on getting stronger and developing new skills. After facing Acnologia, they'll be more motivated to do so than before. It will make more sense when they beat enemies. 

Not to mention, this helps with Natsu's search. I plan to talk about this more when I inevitably talk about Natsu. However, with the skip, Natsu will have time not only to train and develop Dragon Force but to make a more focused effort to looking for Igneel. 

As drastic as changing the nature of the time skip is, it improves multiple aspects of the series. The Magic Council gets an opportunity to show their authority over Fairy Tail. Guild members have believable motivation and means to get stronger. Natsu gets to search for Igneel. And, most importantly, the guild still gets knocked off its pedestal as the world mocks them. These are the kinds of changes I want to make with the series: keeping what's good about the series and making it better.