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Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
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It's my solemn vow... the suffering I've caused will not repeat in the current era. I will be neutral and isolated, a friend or foe to no one. That said... if the current era should give way to a new one... there's a chance I will take on a far more active role. I had hoped you would destroy me before then... Natsu.
~ Zeref Dragneel to himself about his allegiance.

Zeref Dragneel, also known as the Black Wizard, is the main antagonist of the manga and anime series Fairy Tail. He was an powerful immortal wizard who was considered the evilest wizard for unleashing demons in the world. He is the older brother to Natsu Dragneel, who revived him in the past after he was killed by a dragon.

Due to Zeref's fame and ideologies, it inspired many people to follow and worship him. Zeref was interested in killing Acnologia and resetting the timeline. He is also the love interest of Mavis Vermillion, who is the first guild master of Fairy Tail, and the illegitimate father of their son, August.

He is voiced by Akira Ishida in Japanese and by Joel McDonald in English.

His Evil Ranking[]

What Makes Him Heinous?[]

  • He created the Books of Zeref which had demons, where many of them attacked towns, villages, and cities killing many people. One of the demons he unleashed was Deliora, which attacked many cities and was responsible for killing Gray Fullbuster's family.
    • Of the Books of Zeref, he created all the demons that would form the guild called Tartaros. He observed the demons as through the stages of their plan from Jackal's mass murder of the Magic Council to the guild's attack on civilians. While he was not directly culpable in the crimes they committed, he created them and observed them as they planned to activate Face to wipe out magic on the continent and summon Zeref's most powerful demon, E.N.D.
  • When talking to Mavis after the Grand Magic Tournament, he lied to her that he'll be a threat to humanity after seeing all the atrocities they committed under his name, trying to end their bond (as Zeref knew even she couldn't easily understand his true plan).
  • In the first part of the Alvarez Empire Arc, Zeref used his curse on purpose and tried to kill Makarov (one of Fairy Tail's guild masters) when the latter went to his empire, as a chance to further make Natsu want to end him (along with the fact that if he tried sparing Makarov's life, it will still kill him either way).
  • Zeref initiated a war between his empire and Fairy Tail to find Mavis' body and obtain Fairy Heart. The scale of war left plenty of people horrified and it threatened so many mages as a result, giving Fairy Tail and their allies some of the toughest battles which nearly led to their deaths.
    • Zeref also assigned the Springgan 12 to fight against the many guilds in order to succeed in their plan.
  • He fought against his little brother Natsu and left a lot of damage to his body using dark magic, even temporarily killing him through punching a hole through his body while in his God form.
    • There was also one point where the curse takes control of Zeref's mind and makes him unstable, causing him to temporarily behave in a scary and violent manner.
  • During his fight against Natsu, he coldly dismissed and murdered his own subordinate Larcade Dragneel, when the latter was trying to help him against Natsu. Zeref told him angrily that Larcade was not his son and was only a demon and his pawn.
  • He took the Fairy Heart power from Mavis during his battle against Natsu. He intended to use this power along with the power from the Space Between Time to activate Neo Eclipse, which would have pulled a restart on the present and recreated the world so that Zeref can escape his Curse of Ankhseram.

What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]

  • Zeref was mistaken by many as the most evil mage in history, when the truth is, he's actually one of the kindest characters in the series and in reality, was nothing like what the rumors depicted him to be. He has a tragic backstory of losing his family in a dragon attack 400 years ago. He then studied necromancy in order to bring back Natsu who had died from the dragon attack because he loved him. He was able to revive Natsu but at the cost of being cursed by a god known as Ankhseram. He also suffered a long life of loneliness and the curse that he had that made him suffer from stating contradicting statements and having mental cognitive issues, and due to the curse, Zeref preferred to stay away from people in general, as he did not want to kill them by accident. Lastly, he realized that in order to overcome the curse temporarily, he had to suppress his love for those around them if he did not want to unintentionally kill them. Throughout his life, Zeref wanted to be himself around others without triggering his curse into killing them automatically.
    • Zeref loved his family deeply and cared about his friends, wishing he could have lived a normal life with them.
    • Zeref was also understandably disillusioned when so many people committed horrible actions under his name, making Zeref look even more like someone he is not.
    • When he first appears in the series, he was seen apologizing for all the bad things he has done and wished that he never had done them. He was shown crying as he was remorseful for what he has done.
    • He teared up from seeing Natsu after hundreds of years, showing that he cares for him. He also felt remorse for unintentionally killing Zancrow with his curse, meaning he cares for Zancrow as well.
  • Every bad thing Zeref did such as the deaths of many lives were all unintentional. Zeref never wanted to harm anyone and in the case of his demons, they were all created to kill him due to experiencing so much trauma after unintentionally killing so many innocent lives. However, all of the demons were failures and they started killing innocent lives themselves. The even more painful part is that Zeref really couldn't save anyone from the demons because that will mean valuing their lives and it will trigger the curse into killing them automatically.
    • In the Alvarez Empire Arc, Zeref tried suppressing his good nature to control his curse and go on with his plan without struggling as much on what to do in situations. Zeref was also sadly forced to go against his will; he never wanted to be a threat to people and didn't want to use his dark magic on anyone.
      • He also didn't want to kill Larcade, but due to the fact that he's trying to control his curse, Zeref couldn't really show Larcade how much he cared about him.
    • Zeref also knew that no matter what he does, everyone will still view him as a threat, so that's why he fought the many guilds with the Springgan 12.
  • In the past, he supported Mavis Vermillion and loved her. He did his best to provide support her and to teach her. When his curse ended up taking Mavis's life, he was depressed and regretted feeling too much love for her because of his curse.
    • Even after he temporarily ended their bond after the Grand Magic Games Arc, Zeref still loved Mavis with all his heart and only lied to her because of how much he cares about her.
    • While Zeref was aware that his plan to reset the timeline would mean he wouldn't be able to meet Mavis again (as Mavis was born more than a hundred years after him), his self-loathing made him believe that Mavis' life would have been better without him, thinking that although they may have gotten along really well, he felt like he left a negative impact on her life because of all the bad things he indirectly caused, meaning that Zeref's plan is also out of care for Mavis.
    • He had a touching closure with her: Mavis apologized to Zeref for not loving him enough sooner and even opened up that she had conflicting feelings throughout the Alvarez Empire Arc, because she heard Zeref say he'll be a threat to humanity when she has seen his kind nature as well. Eventually, she developed full faith in him after fully realizing everything (including the fact that Zeref was never in the wrong) and while she was initially scared of losing Zeref, she eventually expresses her true feelings for him to end his suffering. Zeref was touched by Mavis' love for him and they both died together in peace. He also told her that he wished he could make up with Natsu.
  • While Zeref did have his plan to obtain Fairy Heart and reset the timeline, he also had an alternate solution to end his suffering in case his plan might fail, which is his death by Natsu (which eventually failed after their first fight). While this may mean that Zeref would die being viewed by everyone as the evil mage he was depicted in the rumors (including Mavis), Zeref wouldn't feel bad about it because of how much he blamed himself for all the bad things he indirectly caused throughout the years.
  • He is shown to be affably evil by respectfully referring to his allies and enemies and being truthful towards them. For instance, he acted respectful to Natsu during the Alvarez Empire war and told him the truth of his origins out of respect for him.
  • While most thought Zeref wanted to obtain Fairy Heart in order to destroy all of humanity, the truth was that he wanted to use it in to reset the timeline in order to kill Acnologia, because he knew how dangerous he was and that he wants to end all of mankind purely for pleasure and sadism (with Zeref also wanting to protect Mavis from him knowing that since they were both immortals, Acnologia would have tortured them for his own entertainment). Additionally, Zeref wants to undo all the horrible sins humanity committed throughout the years under his name and prevent them from committing more in the future. Finally, Zeref can also use this power to relive his life before getting cursed and finally live a normal life where he can be with his family, even avoiding the same mistake of cursing himself once more, even though it was an honest mistake he did out of love for Natsu. To summarize, Zeref only wanted to set everything right and make a better future for humanity, where he'll no longer be a problem for anyone and he can finally do something for humanity when he couldn't do it for hundreds of years.
  • In Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest, Zeref and Mavis are now in heaven and they are raising their children August and Larcade. Furthermore, Zeref can finally be his true self without hurting anyone.

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