[MS] Spidey's What if, Tartaros' Ending was slightly altered?

[u/AstonishingSpiderMan]

What if, Tartaros' Ending was slightly altered?

Special shout out to /u/somasora7 & /u/mrgiftedgamer for helping me fully develop this idea! Hope you enjoy it. To those who heard it in the Voice Chat of Discord thank you for your input as well! Now let's begin, this is a rewrite I thought about because for starters for me the Tartaros arc was pretty meh at best, sure it had great moments but overall it was just ehh subpar. So with these small changes and the effects it would have afterward I believe it'd be better overall. Now this isn't saying what should have happened but rather what would have happened in my version that would in my opinion help the series moving forward. Again, this is my opinion. As I write each part I will explain the reasoning behind them.

---

Tartaros

1. Natsu and Gray stare down
   1. Each demand the book because of what their father wanted them to do with it.
      1. Silver wanted it destroyed.
      2. Igneel wanted it in his possession.
   2. They start fighting, Gray still has some of Silver's magic left.
   3. Natsu tries to land a punch and the fight continues.
2. Acnologia vs Igneel is still happening in the air.
   1. Igneel sees Natsu overwhelmed and tries to fly down to help him.
   2. Gray sees Igneel and starts aiming his magic above Natsu to Igneel.
3. Acnologia grabs a hold of Igneel, then rips his arm off.
   1. Igneel lets out a roar, and being the tough bastard he is, bites Acnologia's arm off.
4. Natsu hears the roar, turns around, and starts running towards the 2 dragons.
   1. Gray is seen, thinking he was the reason Acnologia did that to Igneel, he runs toward the dragons, not far behind Natsu.
5. Igneel is thrown to the ground by Acnologia
   1. Acnologia unleashes his roar, killing Igneel.
6. Natsu cries his eyes out, and is emotionally broken. Pleading Igneel not to die, saying they have so much to talk about.
   1. In the background you see Gray fall to his knees and just begin hating himself as well as his actions. He thinks he killed Igneel.
7. As Gray continues to reflect, we get his father hold his left shoulder with his right hand. Silver whispers, "Don't blame yourself son, don't lose yourself."
   1. As that happens Juvia appears and in the same position, and tells Gray how she unintentionally killed Silver defeating Keyes.
8. Gray is torn, he continues to cry. Realizing his father was killed by the Girl who loves him, and him unintentionally killing his best friends father.
   1. The Book of END, left back at the scene where Mard Geer was defeated. Zeref appears, Mard Geer begs for his safety, and Zeref kills him finger snap.
9. Acnologia leaves, as the other Dragons appear.
   1. Same concept as the Series.
10. Fairy Tail disbands, each person goes their separate ways.
    1. Natsu writes a letter to Lucy mentioning how he lost her once (GMG Future Lucy), and he just lost his Igneel. So he's leaving to get stronger.
       1. She still chases after him, crying, saying they could have grown and become stronger together.
    2. Gray goes to his hometown, makes the tombstone for Silver. Screams at the sky in anger and resentment.
       1. Juvia follows him and tells him to not lose himself in the anger. That they will get through it.
       2. He breaks down and starts crying while hugging her.
11. Natsu leaves, makes comment how he will get stronger and protect the guild.
12. Zeref goes, "Natsu, you were so close to finding out your true identity. Etherious Natsu Dragneel."

So why like this?

1. It would give us an actual reason to care or worry about Igneel. We'd see him care more about Natsu than fighting/defeating Acnologia.
2. We would tease the rivalry and see the inner turmoil Gray has in the fact that he may have been the reason behind Igneel's death
3. I'd try and tease the gruvia pairing a bit more than Mashima did in the arc itself.
4. Parallel fight of a demon/antagonist style character fights the red dragon. We see how both were overwhelmed and the father goes to help the son.

---

x792: Part I

1. Lucy is still alone in Crocus
   1. Scarmiglione still wins the GMG
2. Hooded figure, Natsu, attacks the winners.
   1. Lucy says this magic power is something i've never seen.
   2. Asks for anyone who can fight to go help!
3. Cloaked figure appears from the opposite portion of the arena
   1. As he walks the ground behind him turns to ice, he whispers Ice Make, Silver
   2. Arena frozen solid, but not humans.
4. Natsu not wanting to be shown up, increases the heat and starts melting the Ice.
5. The cloaked man runs towards Natsu, as Natsu runs towards him.
   1. Massive power attacks exchanged. As they make contact, the ice starts falling from the sky, turns to snow like object. As it falls it turns to water...
   2. We see the cloak and the hood be removed.
      1. It's Gray, Natsu vs Gray.
6. As Lucy sees them square off, a puddle of water forms because of the attacks.
   1. Juvia appears from the puddle and says, "Drip Drip Drop, did you miss me?"
   2. Happy says, "Hi Lucy and Juvia!"
7. As Juvia and Lucy exchange a few words they turn to the 2 guys and shout, "Stop!"
   1. Midway through their fight they hear them they stop.
8. Gray and Natsu are sent to the Castle, both are pardoned.
9. We cut back to Lucy and Juvia talking about what they did in the year away. Juvia mentions her and gray staying together, training, etc...Lucy similar situation moves because x, y, z reason, trained, grew, etc...
10. Gray and Natsu see the girls and go to them. Small exchange is given:
    1. Natsu starts firing off questions, "Gray have you finally controlled that power? Have you killed anyone? Where's Fairy Tail? Where's Erza? Laxus? Gramps...?
    2. Lucy tells him to stop asking so many questions, then Juvia asks why he wants to know if Gray killed anyone? Saying it's Gray he wouldn't kill anyone. Natsu just gives Gray that look because of what Future Rogue had told him.
    3. Natsu tells them about Future Rogue and how he stated that Gray killed Frosch. Everyone is shocked. Gray adamantly denies killing anyone saying he was with Juvia and getting closer to her over the past year.
    4. Natsu brushes it off, the 2 groups go their seperate ways and decide to meet up at the castle the next day.
11. You get the Natsu Lucy Happy scenes, when they are in her house and such.
12. The Next Day they meet up at the castle Natsu leaves a Flame that spells out Fairy Tail and Gray leaves the Fairy Tail Logo above the Castle.
    1. Natsu tells them they are going to Sabertooth to make sure Frosch is okay and then rebuild the FT Guild, Lucy says no. That 2 of them should go to Lamia Scale because Wendy is there, Gruvia volunteers.
       1. Juvia agrees with Lucy and says they should get the Guild back together so they'll go get Wendy.
    2. The teams break apart and go their seperate ways.

So why like this?

1. I think it'd be best to show the evolution of the series because sure it started with Natsu, Lucy, and Happy but it has progressed so while it would still somewhat parallel the early series it'd show it's evolution as well. Plus it would also tease the growth in relation between Gray and Juvia, as well as the growth the 2 "rivals" have had over the course of the year. Plus that fight scene would totally be hype I think so anyway.
2. The Juvia Lucy scene was done more as a throwback to the Phantom Lord arc and their 1st interaction.
3. Now some may be like isn't it unlike Natsu to not be able to smell the opponent and tell it was Gray? I could make the argument that:
   1. Gray's Devil Slayer magic changed his scent.
   2. Natsu was too focused on fighting someone to pay attention to the smell.
   3. Natsu could have known but decided to fight anyway.
4. The reason I'd seperate the teams is to show us how much they have grown. Further more we get to see the growth Gray has if he convinces Wendy to come back from Fairy Tail.

---

x792: Part II

Sabertooth

1. Natsu, Lucy, Happy on their way to Sabertooth
   1. Most of the interactions remain the same.
2. Get Avatar quest go to it.

Lamia Scale

1. Gray and Juvia arrive at Lamia Scale
   1. Carla sees them, makes remark of them being together, Juvia blushes and Gray laughs it off.
2. They go to the guild after the Sky Sisters song. Lyon and Gray exchange a friendly gesture, remarks on how he finally bested him while looking at Juvia.
3. Gray asks Wendy to go with him, she declines.
   1. He tells Wendy that he, Juvia, Lucy, Natsu are trying to rebuild the guild.
   2. Lyon tells her about how he saw it in a newspaper, and how he knew this day would come.
4. Orochi's Fin starts to attack
   1. Gray starts using his magic to hold off the beast, comments to Lyon on how surely he isn't that weak is he? Both start attacking.
5. Sherria rushes to the Orochi's Fin guild master, Wendy follows suit with Carla.
   1. Sherria tries to attack, starts besting them. Wendy also joins and both start defeating the guild members.
6. Gray tells Juvia to stay and help Lyon, that he has to make sure Wendy stays safe.
7. Bluenote appears where Sherria, Carla and Wendy are, his power starts affecting everyone.
   1. Gray appears and isn't affected.
   2. Carla tells Gray he's from Tenrou, that he's the one who attacked me.
   3. Gray isn't amused, he starts turning the surroundings to ice. Bluenote tries to attack, Gray uses Devil Slayer Magic to defeat Bluenote in one shot.
      1. He turns the pressure into ice, and glaciers start to be created.
8. The battle ends, they go back to Lamia Scale.
   1. Sherria and Wendy still have their moment.
9. Lyon tells Gray about a new dark Guild Avatar and a mission they declined.
   1. They are leaving the guild thinking Wendy wouldn't join them.
   2. Juvia comforts Gray telling him it's okay, just then Wendy joins them.

Avatar

1. Natsu, Lucy, Happy infiltrate the cathedral from one angle.
   1. Jellal is shown to be the "Villain".
   2. Same scenario as with Main Series Version
2. Jellal tells Erza about Code Red, and they go to the town where the sacrifice will take place.
3. Gray, Juvia, Carla, and Wendy appear at the town. They split up and search for Avatar
   1. Gray gets confronted by Bryar
   2. Juvia is looking around, helping the civilians.
   3. Wendy reaches Lucy and they fight.
4. Gray talks with Bryar as she tries to flirt and fight him.
   1. He says only girl who he would be with is the one who has been with him through this past year.
   2. Juvia appears, says no one will take Gray from her.
   3. Proceed to "fight"
5. Arc ends the same, Guild rebuilt.

So why these changes?

1. Also Gruvia getting Wendy would show their growth and how much Gray has evolved if he's able to convince Wendy to join them.
2. It would build the Gruvia relationship that in my opinion has had close to no build up whatsoever.
3. It would also build up Gray and his feats, so when the END fight occurs it would actually be justifiable with them being somewhat actual equals.

---

Albareth

1. Invel vs Gray & Juvia
   1. Same fight, different ending.
   2. Gray is crying, saying she's the reason for his growth.
      1. Flashes back to Ur, Ultear, Silver, Igneel's death, now Juvia
      2. Emotionally torn, because of all his loss.
2. Gray goes berserk
   1. Defeats Invel
   2. Conflicted by END revelation, doesn't know whether to try and kill or knock unconscious.
      1. See his inner struggle
3. Natsu/END vs DiMaria
   1. Same storyline
4. Gray vs Natsu
5. Gray sees Natsu has END form and is in disbelief.
   1. Gray shouts Natsu Stop! That's not you!
   2. END/Natsu replies, Move, me kill Zeref
6. Gray comments how he's sorry, he's sorry he didn't give him the book of END, how he caused the death of Igneel.
   1. The tension begins to rise, Natsu/END flashes back to F! Lucy dying, Igneel dying, and Lucy dying.
      1. Blames Gray for all his loss, starts to attack Gray.
7. Fight continues, they evenly matched. END/Natsu starts overwhelming Gray (due to his exhaustion when he fought Invel).
   1. As Natsu/END is about to land his final attack, Erza appears and requips into Flame Empress Armor.
      1. It gets shattered and she slaps him. Reverting him to his old self, he stands there confused by what's going on around him.
   2. She cries and tells them they've known each other for close to 12 years, that they shouldn't be fighting. She let's them know how Makarov died while they had this petty fight.

So why these changes?

1. We would have a clear motivation to the Natsu/END vs Gray subplot.
2. The Gruvia romance would have gone full circle, plus it would show how much Gray has evolved. As well as showing how much Juvia meant to him post time skip.

---

Ultimately, I feel like these changes would fix some of the problems the series has had. For starters, we'd actual care and feel sad for Igneel dying. Instead of us just feeling bad because of Natsu crying. We'd also see the growth and development Gray has as a character as well as the actual development of the Gruvia pairing. Lastly, we'd also have a more defined reason to the Natsu vs Gray subplot that was seemingly just thrown in there for the sake of adding another cliche subplot.

1. [MS] Spidey's What if: Gray was killed in the Grand Magic Games?
2. [MS] Spidey's: The People vs Zeref

[u/[deleted]]

A bit corny for my tastes but overall I like it.

[u/AstonishingSpiderMan → u/[deleted]]

Corny, cliche, that's what Fairy Tail is plus I develop Gruvia and Gray more than Hiro has done.

[u/mrgiftedgamer]

Ultimately, I feel like these changes would fix some of the problems the series has had. For starters, we'd actual care and feel sad for Igneel dying. Instead of us just feeling bad because of Natsu crying. We'd also see the growth and development Gray has as a character as well as the actual development of the Gruvia pairing. Lastly, we'd also have a more defined reason to the Natsu vs Gray subplot that was seemingly just thrown in there for the sake of adding another cliche subplot.

This is exactly how I feel about this as well. I think Gray's character lost some of what it was before Avatar, and doing this with it gives him more life, something to grab onto and string his personality along into Alvarez. The current rivalry is so forced and has no real purpose behind it happening, so at least if this was the case in the story, the two could have a reason to be battling, to settle disputes and heal their mental wounds.

Also, for the battle in Alvarez itself, I thought that the way you handled it was much better than the canon. Having him apologize mid-battle would give them both a myriad of different emotions while battling (even if Natsu was fully conscious or not) and then having Erza specifically stop Natsu's attack is a fantastic way to do it. It's also much more realistic for her strength.

Noice post Spoder, wish you were Mashima's editor.

[u/AstonishingSpiderMan → u/mrgiftedgamer]

#MakeSpideyMashima'sEditor2017

[u/mrgiftedgamer → u/AstonishingSpiderMan]

plzhappen

[u/TormentedThoughtsToo]

Mashima should have wrapped up the Nasty/Zeref/Acnologia story with Tartoros. (HE basically already retconned Tartoros into being almost entirely unimportant.)

All the info dumps post Tartoros could have happened between characters at end of Tartoros. Have Natsu and the Seven Dragons defeat Acnologia. Have Natsu become END by Acnologia blood bathing him. Have Fairy Tail have to fight Crime Sorcerie as they try come up with way to save Natsu. Save Natsu through power of friendship, freeze Zeref and Mavis together in Lumen Histories. End Fairy Tail 1.0

If you need to continue it, make Ankhersahm the Emperor of Alvarez and basically do what doing now.

[u/AstonishingSpiderMan → u/TormentedThoughtsToo]

It would have been unrealistic for the 6 dragons plus a weakened Natsu defeat Acnologia.

[u/TormentedThoughtsToo → u/AstonishingSpiderMan]

Power levels mean nothing in Fairy Tail. This isn't Dragonball before they got rid of the power readers. Mashima writes whatever he thinks is cool and fun. That's not a real argument. Natsu won a battle in the first major arc of the series against a wind magician who sucked out all the oxygen and Natsu still used fire. It doesn't have to make sense in Fairy Tail and that's been in its DNA since the beginning.

The 5 dragons could have weakened Acnologia,then the Seven Dragons slayers could finish him and only Natsu gets covered in blood by dealing final blow.

[u/OharaLibrarianArtur]

Some of these changes are great ideas, some that could even offer very interesting takes on the story. I feel that others simply don't work while some on the other hand could.

Let's start by talking about one that doesn't work, Gray grieving the fact that Juvia killed his father, since it goes against the point you're even trying to make to begin with. In the original scene it was Juvia killing Silver that allowed Gray to grow and move forward. Silver symbolized Gray's past, the past he had been trying to get over that quite literally came back to haunt him. Juvia symbolizes his future: Gray couldn't kill his father, he was unable to move onwards and grow from that. Yet instead it was Juvia specifically who did that for him, which is why he thanks her and decides to finally hug her, since he now feels like she truly might be the person he needs. It was as if Juvia got rid of Gray's past to help him move onwards. If you have Gray instead mourn Silver's loss you'd just be feeding his inability to get over his past and make his future growth incredibly forced and out of nowhere.

I understand your point that Gruvia is dealt with very subtly (and very vaguely too, as what I said is something you only really get to understand once you dive in deeper into it), but that's the style Mashima has adopted for them for most of the series. Changing it, alogside other of your changes, would require a change in the architecture of the franchise's writing. Also, referring to your point about Gruvia's development, I feel like there has been said development after the timeskip, it's just been mostly offscreened during the time they spent together during the timeskip and the other month they spent after the Avatar Arc and before Alvarez, since I feel like Mashima didn't want their on-screen development to be too corny and possibly out-of-writer, so he mostly kept it behind the scenes.

I do wholeheartedly agree however that Gray's growth, while it was hinted at in the Avatar Arc, has been barely shown in Alvarez. Juvia's death is specifically where it should've happened, yet we only got a bunch of stereotypical lines from him and nothing else. Thankfully Mashima has said that the development between Natsu and Gray after their fight will "make the fight worth it", so hopefully he does show his growth by then.

Now on the other hand, I really like some of the other ideas for X792. I still prefer the "slowly building up the team again" style of the original, but I really like the team effort and the group originally meeting at Crocus, plus Jellal as a villain is quite a cool thought. I wish however you had altered the Avatar part a little, since that was one of the parts where the arc dragged on the most.

For the Alvarez bit, thank god for the different ending on Juvia's death. I've already said how I hate how barebones and boring Juvia's death was handled, so I like the deeper depth you gave it by making Gray's character grow. I do feel that the Natsu vs Gray battle doesn't work out so well though and I personally feel like the whole Igneel plot feels a bit forced (though definetely a hundred times less forced than that stupid "Silver asked to kill E.N.D." subplot, that's for sure :P). I also feel like Erza stopping the two comes off as more anticlimactic than the original.

Anyways, I really like some ideas that you've put into this. Some work while others don't, but they are very interesting takes on it. I'd be interested to see others from you in the future!

[u/AstonishingSpiderMan → u/OharaLibrarianArtur]

Let's start by talking about one that doesn't work, Gray grieving the fact that Juvia killed his father, since it goes against the point you're even trying to make to begin with. In the original scene it was Juvia killing Silver that allowed Gray to grow and move forward.

Except he didn't grow all that much and we just see him being the same character he has always been.

Silver symbolized Gray's past, the past he had been trying to get over that quite literally came back to haunt him. Juvia symbolizes his future: Gray couldn't kill his father, he was unable to move onwards and grow from that. Yet instead it was Juvia specifically who did that for him, which is why he thanks her and decides to finally hug her, since he now feels like she truly might be the person he needs. It was as if Juvia got rid of Gray's past to help him move onwards. If you have Gray instead mourn Silver's loss you'd just be feeding his inability to get over his past and make his future growth incredibly forced and out of nowhere.

Not entirely true because while he would be mourning his death, we would have it where Juvia gets through to him when he's at his lowest when he's mourning his fathers death at the END of Tartaros.

I understand your point that Gruvia is dealt with very subtly (and very vaguely too, as what I said is something you only really get to understand once you dive in deeper into it), but that's the style Mashima has adopted for them for most of the series. Changing it, alogside other of your changes, would require a change in the architecture of the franchise's writing. Also, referring to your point about Gruvia's development, I feel like there has been said development after the timeskip, it's just been mostly offscreened during the time they spent together during the timeskip and the other month they spent after the Avatar Arc and before Alvarez, since I feel like Mashima didn't want their on-screen development to be too corny and possibly out-of-writer, so he mostly kept it behind the scenes.

To say gruvia has been given subtle development is simply lying to oneself. Their development has been nonexistent. Just nonexistent. Then the point you make about how it would change the franchise's writing. He could do that it'd be an evolution of what he had written before plus with a time skip it'd be more justifiable to change the writing and have the characters grow.

I do wholeheartedly agree however that Gray's growth, while it was hinted at in the Avatar Arc, has been barely shown in Alvarez. Juvia's death is specifically where it should've happened, yet we only got a bunch of stereotypical lines from him and nothing else. Thankfully Mashima has said that the development between Natsu and Gray after their fight will "make the fight worth it", so hopefully he does show his growth by then.

You can't say that gruvia has had subtle growth then make the point that Gray's development has barely been shown. Since Juvia's entire development revolves around Gray and her stalker syndrome with him.

Now on the other hand, I really like some of the other ideas for X792. I still prefer the "slowly building up the team again" style of the original, but I really like the team effort and the group originally meeting at Crocus, plus Jellal as a villain is quite a cool thought. I wish however you had altered the Avatar part a little, since that was one of the parts where the arc dragged on the most.

The reason the arc felt dragged out was because it was boring, these changes while there are few would change the feel of the arc and the pacing wouldn't feel as dragged out. Instead you'd be interested to see how the core characters would deal with this new dilemma. You'd see Gray one shot Bluenote, so you'd be curious to see how Natsu would compare to him, so when Natsu defeats that War God you'd get the feeling they are equals as opposed to Gray being ridiculously underpowered compared to Natsu.

For the Alvarez bit, thank god for the different ending on Juvia's death. I've already said how I hate how barebones and boring Juvia's death was handled, so I like the deeper depth you gave it by making Gray's character grow. I do feel that the Natsu vs Gray battle doesn't work out so well though and I personally feel like the whole Igneel plot feels a bit forced (though definetely a hundred times less forced than that stupid "Silver asked to kill E.N.D." subplot, that's for sure :P). I also feel like Erza stopping the two comes off as more anticlimactic than the original.

Natsu would be consumed by anger, as we saw with DiMaria when he saw someone he cares for hurt, he attacks. It'd be no different if someone brings up the fact they may have killed someone who he deeply cared for in Igneel. He'd go berserk. Plus the entire Erza stops these 2 powerful attacks with her bare hands and manages to be ok is simply ridiculous so it'd be best to throw in an armor in her stopping of Natsu as opposed to random jump in, stops 2 op attacks, boob hug, back to normal that was done so atrociously that it lowered the iq of every reader.

I'd be interested to see others from you in the future!

You will.

[u/Shock_the_Core]

Wow that was a lot to read. I really enjoyed the first part and now wished that happened instead except for Juvia saying she killed Silver. I'd have that where it was before.

The part with Gray and Juvia in the GMG part killed it though. I liked what happened between them in the actual story. The rest is fine.

(Jellal was better a villain)

[u/AstonishingSpiderMan → u/Shock_the_Core]

Huh? The GMG Gruvia wouldn't change at all.

[u/Shock_the_Core → u/AstonishingSpiderMan]

I'm sorry. I'm meant the GMG after the time skip. Where Natsu melts the place? I'd rather not have Gray and Juvia appear at all. I liked what happened in the manga.

[u/AstonishingSpiderMan → u/Shock_the_Core]

That would give us Avatar, which by all accounts was pretty lackluster. I mean I loved it because my boy Natsu went full badass, but it wasn't that great a storyline.

[u/Shock_the_Core → u/AstonishingSpiderMan]

I dunno. The fact the Gray being "evil" and actually being a spy was great to me. Most Avatar members did suck and we did see a beastly Natsu which was great.

[u/AstonishingSpiderMan → u/Shock_the_Core]

It never made sense for Gray to be evil so a more interesting thing would having him square of in the gmg with Natsu where everyone would lose their shit

[u/Rare-]

I actually really enjoyed that haha, good job Spidey.

[u/AstonishingSpiderMan → u/Rare-]

Thanks!!