‘Fairy Tail’ Sees Natsu Learn About His Shocking Past

Fairy Tail‘s final season began off on a strong foot as Natsu’s connection with Zeref was a lot more tragic than fans had expected, but the irony of it all was this was information only privy to Zeref and the audience.

As the battle between Zeref and Natsu comes a close in the latest episode of the series, Zeref makes sure to tell Natsu about his shocking death 400 years ago.

Natsu unleashed the last bit of Igneel’s power within him and does the most damage to Zeref yet. Sensing that his death at the hands of Natsu was near, Zeref felt it important to fill Natsu in on who he is. First, Zeref reveals his name is Zeref Dragneel and that he’s Natsu’s older brother. He then tells Natsu that his parents were killed by dragons 400 years ago, and his little brother Natsu died as well.

It then starts to click in Natsu’s mind as Zeref tells him he was researching ways to bring the dead to life, and eventually stumbles on the Etherious program. He tells Natsu that he is officially “Etherious Natsu Dragneel” or E.N.D. This sends Natsu into a spiral as he refuses to believe these things, and tries to counter with the fact that Igneel was unable to defeat E.N.D.

Zeref confirms that this is indeed true, but it was because Igneel could not make himself kill a child. Natsu still can’t believe that he’s E.N.D. and not a human, but when Zeref sends a beam through the END book, Natsu feels the pain as well. Zeref drives the knife in further when he reveals that he asked Igneel to watch over Natsu, and that Natsu was really a ploy in a plan to train Dragon Slayers in order to defeat Acnologia in the future.

Natsu really doesn’t know what to do with this information, and was going to strike down Zeref anyway. But if Zeref dies, then Natsu will as well. Because of this, Happy keeps Natsu from dealing the decisive blow and the end of the fight is left for another day.

Fairy Tail was originally created by Hiro Mashima for Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine, running from 2006 to 2017 and selling over 60 million copies. The series is set in a fantasy world full of magic following Natsu Dragneel, a fire breathing wizard with the powers of a dragon who is in search of his missing foster father, the dragon Igneel. As he and his wizarding guild Fairy Tail get into adventures, Natsu always tries to find a way to succeed.

The series was later adapted into an anime by A-1 Pictures, Dentsu Inc., and Satelight in 2009 and ended its first run in 2013. A second season ran from 2014 to 2016, and the third season serves as the final one. If you’re itching for more Fairy Tail right now, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest is an official manga sequel to the original series featuring original storyboards provided by Hiro Mashima and illustrated by Atsuo Ueda. The series picks up right where the original manga ends as Natsu, Lucy, and the others embark on the “100 Years Quest” that no mage has ever completed before.

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