Inconsistently Heinous Wiki

To vote for the Inconsistently Heinous Proposals of the day, see:

  1. Lady McDeath from Monica's Gang - Ends January 24th
  2. Mr. Burton from Bully (2006 Video Game) - Ends January 24th

To vote for the Inconsistently Heinous Discussions of the day, see:

  1. Needs More Votes: USAball from Live and Let Die - Ends January 24th
  2. Roy from Saturday Night Live - Ends January 24th

To vote for the Inconsistently Heinous Removals of the day, see:

  1. TBA

READ MORE

Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
1,921
pages
in: Anime Inconsistently Heinous, Manga Inconsistently Heinous, TV Show Inconsistently Heinous,
and 88 more

Zeref Dragneel

Sign in to edit

“ 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 Fairy Tail franchise. 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 infamy and ideologies, it inspired many people to follow and worship him, much to his horror after seeing the actions of many sinners tarnish his name using his creations for their own evil purposes. Zeref's goal after failing his original plan to die (which he kept a secret from everyone up until his last few minutes) was restarting the timeline before he turned immortal while killing Acnologia in the past, ensuring humanity has a future . 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?[]

  • Him cursing himself (after attempting to bring his brother back and curious to know if it's possible without angering Ankhseram) led to the deaths of several lives, and many sinners in the series (both major villains and background characters) committed atrocities under his name, making false rumors while abusing magic to corrupt the balance of the world, even threatening innocent people.
    • 11 years after the Zero Arc and shortly before Mavis' first death, Zeref subjugated 730 guilds of Alakitasia and created the Alvarez Empire (with the purpose to start war and conflict), though his true self was unsure why he did all that with this goal in the first place, as by the time he made the empire, his thoughts were contradicting themselves due to the curse taking control over his mind and even making him unwillingly behave in an unstable manner (something Zeref seemingly gained this after 300+ years of trauma, since he never had this experience before and discovered it when he unwillingly created the empire and opened up to Mavis about it while his thoughts were contradicting, even feeling a new sense of pain).
  • Aside from the Eclipse Gate and the R-System, he created the Books of Zeref, which are meant to be a form of taboo magic, and they included programming for demons known as Etherious, where many of them ended up attacking 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.
    • In the Eisenwald Arc, Erigor and his allies used Lullaby to threaten innocent lives as well.
    • While Zeref never actually created a real-life copy of the R-System (as he only had a blueprint), it eventually gave rise to the Tower of Heaven, which led to the enslavement of people (including children and elderly).
    • In the Tenrou Island Arc, Hades used Nemesis, a spell that summons an army of stone demons, and he used this to attack Natsu and all the members of Fairy Tail inhabiting the island.
    • Of the Books of Zeref, he created all the demons that would form the guild called Tartaros, who 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 on Ishgar after seeing all the atrocities they committed under his name (saying he will reject them after they have rejected him), trying to end their bond, likely due to the fact that he had to keep his true plan a secret from the Springgan 12 to avoid them betraying him in case Mavis and her allies could potentially tell them Zeref's 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 and ended up alone with Zeref, as a chance to trigger Natsu's E.N.D. form to commit suicide (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.
      • During the fight, he increasingly starts losing control of his normal state and barely managed to calm himself down, and while in that state, 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 absorbed 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.
    • While Zeref did try to bring Natsu back to life even after his professors told him not to (which ultimately resulted in Ankhseram cursing Zeref for toying with life and death), Zeref's body language implied that it was an honest mistake he did out of love for his brother and his body language and behavior signify that he was just curious and passionate to know the complex meaning of life and death, wanting to know if there was a bigger picture that no one knows, and since his childhood, he never wanted to be a problem to anyone and cared deeply for others, always trying to find the safest way possible. This is further shown from the fact that he immediately developed self-loathing after cursing himself and killing everyone in his academy.
    • 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 purely to commit suicide, but all of the demons were failed experiments and they even started killing innocent lives themselves when Zeref didn't want that.
      • 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 more than is he did nothing. As for the Eclipse Gate, it was supposed to be destroyed before the events of the Grand Magic Games Arc, where Tora E. Fiore would break it before any dangers involving it would happen (and it did happen in the Future Rogue timeline, which eventually got erased), but for unexplained reasons, Tora couldn't break the gate; Zeref is the one who created the Eclipse Gate, so he should know how to destroy it. Only he could have given Anna and Layla Heartfilia the method to destroy it. Knowing Anna and Layla Heartfilia, they would have tested safety measures before initiating the plan to take the Dragon Slayers to the future. It is possible Zeref did give Anna Heartfilia the method to destroy the Eclipse Gate, but maybe there were complications and maybe it got sabotaged in some way during the process, especially since there are many sinners who used Zeref's creations to tarnish Zeref's name and all. This subplot was also unanswered, including how Zeref was completely absent in the Future Rogue timeline for unknown reasons, even though there's Fairy Heart and he can use that to undo the Future Rogue timeline.
        • While some say Zeref carelessly let his demons loose (despite revealing he only created the demons to end his own life and never wanted them to hurt anyone), there's no real proof of this, especially since Zeref's mentioned life experiences have never been presented in detail, and we only saw the flashbacks from the perspective of sinners and the victims they lied to about Zeref. This was left a mystery arc for viewers to wonder what traumatic experiences Zeref went through, since he mentioned how much horror he saw for so many years (the end of many eras, including horrors similar to Grimoire Heart's actions). In fact, he did actually mention in Tenrou Island Arc that he was disgusted by the rumors and false stories sinners and cult groups use to abuse magic, and the fact that they tried presenting this as authentic in his books (such as the keys to unlock Zeref's "seal" and the R-System being used to "revive" Zeref while killing and enslaving innocent people); essentially, this is implying he was also disgusted by the fact that they took his creations and abused them for their own twisted purposes while framing him when he only tried to end his own life (including the demons he made purely just to end his own life). It's also heavily implied the sinners were the reasons he was unable to help, and it could be way more complex than just simple ways, as people have their ways while using magic, even managing to keep it going for so many years.
          • To further prove the point, we saw Precht (who became the Dark Mage known as Hades) use one of Zeref's demons (Nemesis), and he isn't the only one who did this. During the scene where Zeref confronted Grimoire Heart, he heavily implied through his words that Grimoire Heart wasn't the only one who used his demons for purely twisted actions (and we even saw Erigor and his allies use Lullaby, another one of Zeref's creations); since 400 years ago, the sinners who victimized Zeref stole his dozens of demon books, thus starting the demon attacks and framing Zeref as the mastermind, with the sinners also presenting the rumors and fake stories as authentic in the books, when they're all fake. The worse part is that they tried passing this on to future generations, and Zeref cannot do a single thing to help anyone in need after the books have been scattered around Earthland, because it will only cause bigger problems due to his curse, as that would lead to more deaths than if he did nothing.
        • The creation of the Alvarez Empire Arc was merely accidental, but he eventually found a purpose for the empire after Mavis' died, in which her body became the thing that is Fairy Heart. Despite never wanting the empire to be as big as it is, Zeref still took responsibility for the thing he unintentionally created, and based on the events that happened in the series, it's safe to say Zeref ultimately didn't the mentioned war in the series.
  • Zeref has a very loving personality and is depicted as very gentle, thoughtful, insightful, passionate, selfless, and not to mention sacrificial. He loved his family deeply and cared deeply about his friends (even any innocent people he indirectly harmed), wishing he could be himself without having to deal with his curse.
    • While Natsu may be a reckless hothead who is always difficult to reason with, Zeref nevertheless loved him dearly, and immediately forgives him for whatever foolish actions he commits, since it's usually out of his childlike nature as opposed to anything malicious.
    • He developed a strong bond with Mavis Vermillion and loved her deeply, doing 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.
  • While Zeref was disillusioned by the actions of many people, he never subverted his kind, loving nature and this was further implied when his true plan in the Alvarez Empire Arc was finally revealed during his rematch with Natsu. It means he still wants to be there for the innocent lives who need him in case he can't die, and he would never leave them to suffer by the hands of him (even if Acnolgia managed to be killed in the current timeline).
    • While Zeref does have moments of being deadly, these times are only when it's justified, such as attempting to kill Ultear, as by this time, she was a sadistic sociopath aided help Grimoire Heart in their evil (including that fact she threatened innocent lives and aided in trying to use Zeref as a weapon to harm more people). It's also possible that he's doing this because she also impersonated him while enslaving and threatening innocent lives in the Tower of Heaven, even framing Jellal for all of her actions. Furthermore, after Natsu and his friends defeated Grimoire Heart, Zeref secretly went in their aircraft, and expressed how disgusted he was by their actions. He also knew that the members of Grimoire Heart even killed many innocent lives based on a false story just to find and use Zeref as a weapon (similar to what many sinners did in the past). As a result, Zeref used his curse on purpose and killed Hades for all the horrible things he has done, including the fact that he awakened Acnologia, avenging the innocent lives they killed too.
  • 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.
    • While nearly everyone thought Zeref wanted to use Fairy Heart's power as an extremist way to kill Acnologia while not caring about committing genocide on Ishgar (due to the unstable nature of Fairy Heart's infinite power, which would cause genocide on Ishgar), the truth was actually that he wanted to use its power to reset the timeline in order to kill Acnologia in the past (before his power level reach to be near-unstoppable). During the process, it will undo all of the horrible sins humanity committed throughout the years under his name and prevent them from committing more in the future (which will happen in case Acnologia dies in the current timeline but with Zeref still alive). Finally, Zeref can also use this power to relive his life once more before getting cursed and will retain his memories of the current timeline so that he will know how to ensure humanity's future, avoiding the same mistake of cursing himself once more, even though it was an honest mistake he did out of love for Natsu and his curiosity towards life and death's complexity. He also did this because he's afraid of what could happen if he isolates himself forever, because of his cursed body, due to his power being linked to his feelings and mental state, and he's afraid what can happen, since anything involving his cursed body (whether the actions of sinners or his sanity breaking down and completely awakening his split personality, which could lead to a fate similar to Future Rogue's timeline).
      • While he never told any of the Springgan 12 about his true plan (instead saying their only plan is an extremist goal of killing Acnologia), it was understandable, because from other people's perspectives, there's little to no chance anyone would accept the idea of resetting a timeline and erasing their current lives, and revealing the truth would definitely lead to more complications and conflicts, and Zeref naturally doesn't want more to happen.
      • Even during his plan, in case there were chances Natsu could potentially kill him, Zeref is willing to do it to maintain the current timeline and take responsibility for his actions in the present, such as trying to kill Makarov when they were alone to trigger Natsu's E.N.D. form, or when Natsu had a small amount of Igneel's last power (which is the power of someone dead) and Zeref let Natsu do so, though this failed when Happy's interruption caused Igneel's power to be completely used up.
      • 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.
  • While his death was played for satisfaction by almost all the heroes (even temporarily Natsu, who sadly treated his death as nothing that mattered to him, given that by this time, Natsu recklessly and blindly misunderstood Zeref while unreasonably questioning his circumstances and asserting with no basis that he's not going through any suffering at all, despite learning about the curse and that Zeref did try deepening their bond before their second fight), his death scene was played for sympathy by the narrative and by Mavis, since Zeref sadly died being viewed as the kind of mage nearly everyone believed, but the truth is that throughout all this time, it is revealed he has only been trying to protect everyone from his cursed body, up until the end.
    • 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 because of the truth regarding his plan, making her realize how sacrificial Zeref truly is and that he never gave up caring for innocent lives who need him to be there for them) 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 have made up with Natsu.
      • 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. He even apologized to Natsu out of humbleness (even though Zeref was complicated and he tried his best) and encouraged Natsu to keep living on.
    • It's all the more sad that Natsu only understood him after he died, as he only thought about the curse after Zeref died, when he used it to brutally damage Aldoron, and Natsu began to feel saddened that he only now started to think about what Zeref meant when he said that he can't help anyone in the current timeline, and he's only trying to protect all the innocent people he's concerned about after failing every attempt to die. While Natsu may not be deep-thinking, it didn't really need to take a lot for him to imagine what it's like having a curse like this and being unable to help anyone in the current timeline, and if you fail every attempt to die, you fear what could happen since your power is connected to your feelings and mental state; Natsu just needed to think about the curse, which could easily make him interpret what Zeref was trying to tell him.
      • Natsu once viewed Zeref as a threat to the people he cared about, but after realizing how complicated Zeref was (in which Natsu felt remorseful that he only started thinking about his brother's feelings after his death in the Aldoron Arc), he eventually began to realize that it wasn't Fairy Tail or any of the other guilds he's allies with who made the most sacrifices for him; it was Zeref who sacrificed the most for him and everyone.
  • The introduction of Ignia (Igneel's blood-related son and Natsu's foster brother) and Faris (the Earthland version of her) has more of a meaning than just two more purely evil villains in 100 Year Quest.
    • Ignia is supposed to be the exact opposite of who Zeref was and his overall character (which has more of a personal connection to Natsu unlike others) is the embodiment of how Natsu blindly misunderstood Zeref and treated him as nothing but a blatant threat to humanity, even after knowing about his curse (even seeing how much Zeref loved him and wanted to die if he had a chance) and learning his true plan that was extremely complicated (even though Zeref really cannot value anyone because of his curse and his plan is to prevent a potential future where his cursed body can lead to humanity's extinction), and Natsu only started to think about Zeref's curse and feelings after he died, which made him feel saddened that he was too late to understand his brother. Because of all this, Natsu considered Zeref as his only true brother, since Ignia was nothing like his older brother.
    • Faris' personality basically embodied how the world viewed Zeref, being a purely twisted and malevolent soul who had no regard for human life, embracing her black magic for her own twisted purposes. She also plans to destroy all of humanity to have demons take over, compared to how Zeref was only merely framed for the attacks his creations did, when he only tried to end his own life. Faris also actually has an involvement in Acnologia's legacy, planning to continue his reign of destruction, and this contrasts to how Zeref was merely slandered by a rumor and fake information presented as authentic in the books, in which it influenced Arcadios into thinking this was true.

External Links[]

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.