History Characters / FairyTailAlvarezEmpire

[[AC:Main:]] ''[[Characters/FairyTailZero Zero]]'' | ''[[Characters/FairyTail100YearsQuest 100 Years Quest]]''\\

* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Irene was once a monarch who ruled Dragnof with justice and compassion. However, she ended up being turned into a dragon and rejected by her own people after her Dragon Slayer magic wiped out most of dragonkind, which eventually led to her FaceHeelTurn. In spite of what happened, Erza and Wendy spare her no pity for treating her daughter like garbage because of it, with the former disavowing her as a parent, and the latter declaring she cannot forgive a mother who doesn't love her child. Their stance softens after Irene is DrivenToSuicide, revealing she did feel remorse and love for Erza, and that abandoning her was an act of protection from herself.

* FreudianExcuse: He grew up without a mother, while his father had no love or attention to spare for him or anyone except his own brother, whom Larcade holds a murderous grudge against. This grudge takes on a whole different light when it's revealed Larcade is an Etherious expressly made as a prototype for Natsu, so killing Natsu would not only make Larcade the superior demon but would also remove the main obstacle to his "father's" plans.

* FreudianExcuse: She became a country-destroying PersonOfMassDestruction out of a misguided desire to avenge Grammi's death. Furthermore, her problems with authority, fascination with having "pets", and the way she treats her subordinates like pawns is because, apparently, Aquarius treated her like a dog when she was a little girl, to the point where Brandish still address her as "Master" and thanks her for the privilege of doing so.

* YouKilledMyMother: Or rather, your ''mother'' killed my mother. Brandish enacts a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on Lucy upon realizing that the latter is the daughter of Layla Heartfilia, who seemingly killed Grammi.

!!All spoilers regarding ''Fairy Tail'' and ''Fairy Tail Zero'' are unmarked. Examples pertaining to ''100 Years Quest'' can be spoiler tagged if deemed necessary.

* PetTheDog: His protective and grandfatherly treatment of his comrades helps make him out to be more than just an unfeeling, blindly loyal servant of Zeref, and despite claiming that Brandish's words are tantamount to treason for going against the Emperor's commands, he still takes the time to hear her out and admit perhaps there's merit to a peaceful solution (at least [[NiceJobBreakingItHero before Mest intervenes]]). He also cancels his suicide spell in order to spare his mother Mavis, despite her immortality, so she wouldn't have to suffer the intense agony that came with it.

* KickTheDog: This is best evidenced when she turns Hisui into a mouse and cruelly asks Toma if he can love a "disgusting rodent", even after he offered up his life for his daughter's safety. Irene does it for no good reason other than [[ForTheEvulz petty cruelty]].

* KickTheDog: Even if it was to try to get Gray [[UnstoppableRage angry enough]] to kill E.N.D., forcing him and Juvia into a fight to the death with each other was unforgivably cruel.

* PetTheDog: Although she is one of TheEmperor's deadliest guards, she demonstrates several moments of kindness. When she shrinks an entire island and leaves its denizens floundering in the ocean, she does it knowing an entire fleet of fishing boats is nearby. Later, when two of Fairy Tail's members are fatally wounded, she uses her powers to save them.

* PetTheDog: She does genuinely care about Brandish, and after her defeat knocks her down a peg and she is saved by Larcade, she asks Brandish if she's okay, embraces her, and apologizes for every mean thing she ever said to her. Unfortunately, this is overturned when she catches Brandish fraternizing with Fairy Tail.

%% For the sake of consistent character name spelling, the Kodansha USA manga translations are used on this page. If Kodansha USA has not provided such translations, the Crunchyroll anime translations are to be used until then.

%% Zero Context Example entries are NOT allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them. See Administrivia/ZeroContextExample for further details.

%% There is no correct reason to put the name of a trope in spoiler tags. If the name of the trope constitutes a spoiler, either don't add it to begin with or pothole it from a related trope entry. The point of this page is to convey information; an entry that is completely spoilered out does not achieve this. See Administrivia/HandlingSpoilers for further details.

%%

* AGodAmI: No less that ''four'' of them (Ajeel, God Serena, [=DiMaria=], and Bloodman) declare themselves or their powers to be godlike in scope, with only [=DiMaria=] being truly {{justified}} since her power ''actually does'' come from a god. Ironically, the three legitimately strongest (August, Irene, and Larcade) make no such declaration of themselves.

* InstantExpert: {{Justified}} when she [[GrandTheftMe takes over Wendy's body]], as their magic is effectively identical since Wendy uses Enchantments and Dragon Slayer Magic, both of which Irene is an even greater master of even if the latter is technically a different school (Sky versus Sage) than her own expertise. What surprises Irene more is Wendy's buried potential as a mage allowing her to cast such powerful high-end spells right out the gate rather than any difficulty using her powers in the first place.

* IWorkAlone: Downplayed. He has no qualms fighting alongside his fellow 12 as needed, but he usually acts on his own and doesn't command any subordinates like the others. It's also justified since moving about freely and undetected is key to his profession as an assassin.

* {{Expy}}: Of Shakuma Raregrove from the author's previous manga ''Manga/RaveMaster''. Both are [[WizardClassic traditional wizards]] and the [[WorldsStrongestMan world's greatest mage]] of their respective settings, with obscene levels of raw magic power, and a secret blood connection to the BigBad. [[ContrastingSequelAntagonist There are differences however]], as while Shakuma caused his grandson Lucia's StartOfDarkness for his own selfish ends and is depicted as utterly irredeemable, August has [[TragicVillain a sympathetic backstory]] and is only an antagonist out of [[UndyingLoyalty genuine loyalty]] to his father Zeref.

* {{Expy}}: Of Shakuma Raregrove from the author's previous manga ''Manga/RaveMaster''. Both are [[WizardClassic traditional wizards]] and the [[WorldsStrongestMan world's greatest mages]] of their respective settings, with obscene levels of raw magic power, and a secret blood connection to the BigBad. [[ContrastingSequelAntagonist There are differences however]], as while Shakuma caused his grandson Lucia's StartOfDarkness for his own selfish ends and is depicted as utterly irredeemable, August has [[TragicVillain a sympathetic backstory]] and is only an antagonist out of [[UndyingLoyalty genuine loyalty]] to his father Zeref.

* TheAce: Everyone from Makarov to Brandish to Jacob claims that August is the most powerful member of the Spriggan 12, which is demonstrated in full force when he solos most of Crime Sorcière without a scratch, followed by being the only character to fight a fully-powered Gildarts on equal footing. Considering he is the son of the BigBad and BigGood, it's not surprising.

* ThickerThanWater: August loves his father and would do anything for him, regardless of whether Zeref--or anyone else--knows the truth or not. Similarly, the love he has for his mother in spite of never interacting with her outweighs his loyalty to his father in the end, sacrificing himself simply to keep her safe regardless of the fact she never knew the truth either.

* StoicSpectacles: His glasses help emphasize his [[JustForPun icy cold disposition]]. Gray breaks them to pieces when punching Invel in the face.

* AbusiveMom: She loses any shred of motherly love she has for Erza over the course of her StartOfDarkness, and dumps the newborn in the nearest village she could find. When they face each other years later, she ridicules Erza and does everything she can to make her death as excruciating as possible. Tragically, that love is what compelled her to keep Erza safe in her womb for four centuries, which ultimately drives her to kill herself in the end. [[spoiler:Except she has a contingency plan.]]

* AlasPoorVillain: Erza gives her a genuine farewell after she commits suicide (though she still denies any familial ties to her), expressing pity toward her life's many hardships, and is horrified when Acnologia later arrives to desecrate her corpse. [[spoiler:Her brief stint as a SpiritAdvisor to Wendy when it turns out Irene isn't completely gone from the world of the living shows what she can be like without the living hell she got stuck eating away ar her psyche, and Selene, a Dragon God aware of her existence, sees Irene's mission to start life over through saving hers as proper atonement even if no one else will witness it.]]

* AlasPoorVillain: Erza gives her a genuine farewell after she commits suicide (though she still denies any familial ties to her), expressing pity toward her life's many hardships, and is horrified when Acnologia later arrives to desecrate her corpse.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: A very foolish move orchestrated Mest is to tamper with Brandish's mind so that she is suddenly overcome with a desire to murder August with a knife when the plan was to negotiate peaceful resolution to a war. This not only fails, it causes Brandish to cry in resistance - and August, the strongest of all the Spriggan 12, to switch from a reasonable and passive mindset, to utterly ruthless and unwavering antagonism to all of Ishgal.

* AlasPoorVillain: He ultimately ends his suicidal attack on Fiore at the cost of his life alone, with nobody realizing he did it to spare his mother. What's more, his death also ends any hope of his parents ever knowing who he was and what they truly meant to him, with Zeref seeing him as little more than a faithful pawn, and Mavis seeing him as just a formidable enemy with only the vague feeling he was something more when he appears behind her in spirit and child form.

* SandBlaster: He is a sand wizard, and the most powerful seen in the series. He can turn the ground into a sand pit, sense any sort of movement on the continent, create living sand golems to fight for him, and whip up sandstorms large enough to swallow the entire city of Magnolia.

* SuperToughness: He blocks a shot from the [[WaveMotionGun Jupiter Cannon]]--the very same weapon that destroyed Erza's Adamantine Armor back during the guild war with Phantom Lord--with his bare hand. It takes him being nearly disemboweled by Erza, being hit by another fully-powered Jupiter and then being hit TwinkleInTheSky-style by Erza for him to finally go down. Despite this, he ''still'' manages to survive his defeat.

** [[spoiler:Played straight in ''100 Years Quest'' where God Serena reappears alive one year after Acnologia cleaved him through, with longer hair and a different outfit to prove he aged, and now aligns with the Alchemist Guild Gold Owl. According to Serena, because someone from that guild found him and transmuted new body parts into him, he repaid the favor by joining Gold Owl and quietly slinking away to the northern continent Guiltina. None of his surviving Alvarez Empire buddies know he's still alive, including Brandish, and since he's become an enemy of Ishgal, he understandably flew under the radar. Irene, however, explicitly tells Wendy that Serena had to have truly died for Neinhart's Historia to even be possible, leading to the question of if they did more than just medically revive him. Duke Barbaroa, the alchemist behind this, clarifies that he used human transmutation on the wizard's corpse and augmented him into a doll, technically mimicking a living being with artifical qualities.]]

* CatchPhrase: "God-bye-bye." Or "God-hello." It occasionally turns into a VerbalTic, too. (Example: "no-God-way".)
* CharacterShilling: In the anime, after God Serena lays waste to the other Emperors during their first clash, Wolfheim weakly notes in disbelief that he's grown more powerful since abandoning Ishgal for Alvarez. This statement doesn't occur in the manga, where Wolfheim is simply taken aback by God Serena's power instead, and only serves to play up God Serena's threat before [[TheWorfEffect Acnologia kills him]]. [[spoiler:This changes when God Serena reappears a year later, saved from death and stronger, though Gajeel makes an offhand remark that he once worked for the Magic Council, too, trying to put them in the same league. This time, God Serena lives up to the hype by utterly ravaging Gajeel with very little effort.]]

* MagicEnhancement: She has the ability to greatly increase the magic power of other wizards, using it on Neinhart to make him invulnerable to other forms of magic, and later to turn Alvarez's soldiers into [[TheBerserker berserkers]]. Her Dragon form increases her enhancement capacity to astronomical levels, stated by herself to be the unique trait of a Sage Dragon.

* KilledMidSentence: He challenges Acnologia to fight him, only to be [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] to death mid-sentence. [[spoiler:Later averted when Duke Barbaroa, a Gold Owl alchemist specializing in human transmutation, saved him from the touch of death.]]

* NormalFishInATinyPond: God Serena is the top Wizard Saint of Ishgal, meaning he was publicly considered the strongest mage on the whole continent and a god amongst men, and he's appropriately proud of that. However, among the ranks of the mages of Alakitasia he's only considered one of the top 12 and weaker than at least three of them (August, Irene, and Larcade), and he's still nothing before [[WorldsStrongestMan Acnologia]]. [[spoiler:By ''100 Years Quest'', despite having another year to get stronger, he still admits he's weaker than three members of his new guild Gold Owl of Guiltina, those being its Guild Master, Duke Barbaroa, and the Signario Sisters, and comments that he's now very aware of just how big the world actually is and how low-level Ishgal is by comparison. He also acts like a sycophant around Enny and Rousseau Signario to stay on their good sides, but Enny casually asks Duke Barbaroa's permission to kill him after he screws up a mission.]]

* MsFanservice: She has a very shapely figure under an outfit that is practically swimwear, and it's exposed further when her jacket is taken. Macao and Wakaba take the opportunity to ogle her while she's imprisoned. She also had some BathtubBonding with Lucy in the middle of a war.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: He's introduced at the war council with Zeref, and his next appearance has him easily defeating the four Wizard Saints below him... only to get unceremoniously killed off by Acnologia shortly after while only hinting at his motivations to betray Ishgar for Alvarez being for the glory of getting a chance to fight the Dragon King. His Historia doesn't fare much better, only getting a brief scuffle with Natsu and the gang before Gildarts shows up to clean his clock and being the first of the Historia Spriggan 12 to fall, whereas Bloodman and Wall at least last up to near Neinhart's own defeat. [[spoiler:''100 Years Quest'' proves differently when the would-be dead man returns totally okay and even more intimidating than before.]]

* UndignifiedDeath: For a man of God Serena's powers, being ripped apart by a dragon is not a nice way to go. [[spoiler:Having an alchemist to revive you helps, though.]]

* OnlyMostlyDead: [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}}. Acnologia really did fatally injure God Serena, and Serena claims he would have died from his injuries untreated. Only a passing member of Gold Owl who came across his body, realized he was still salvageable, and then brought him back to the guild to have his lost body parts transmuted, which saved his life. Irene's revelation of Neinhart's Historia ''needing'' their subject to be dead, however, indicates that Serena truly died and his "transmutation" actually involved some manner of resurrection. It's later uncovered that his flesh and bones were changed into an artificia body that raised his durability, but can still be destroyed if powerful magic rips through it.]]

** All of his major fights while alive are against current or former Magic Council members he became enemies with. [[spoiler:While he demolishes the the four Wizard Saints below him and batters and bruises Gajeel, the one who actually defeats him for good is a former Wizard Saint like God Serena that betrayed the ranks to further his wicked agenda at the time, Jellal.]]

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: He's not well-regarded by his fellow Spriggan 12. Brandish thinks he's a jackass, whereas Ajeel thinks invading Ishgal will be a walk in the park if ''he's'' the best they had to offer. Even before his defection, he was described by Makarov as a profound disappointment and impossible to like as a person. [[spoiler:Even as a member of Gold Owl, no one thinks very highly of him, with Enny Signario finding him annoying to the point of wanting to kill him for failing a job and Kotetsu telling him to stop thinking of himself as a big shot. Only Rousseau Signario treats him with any kind of flattery, taking his antics in stride.]]

* NormalFishInATinyPond: God Serena is the top Wizard Saint of Ishgal, meaning he was publicly considered the strongest mage on the whole continent and a god amongst men, and he's appropriately proud of that. However, among the ranks of the mages of Alakitasia he's only considered one of the top 12 and weaker than at least three of them (August, Irene, and Larcade), and he's still nothing before [[WorldsStrongestMan Acnologia]]. [[spoiler:By ''100 Years Quest'', despite having another year to get stronger, he still admits he's weaker than three members of his new guild Gold Owl of Guiltina, those being its Guild Master and the Signario Sisters, and comments that he's now very aware of just how big the world actually is and how low-level Ishgal is by comparison. He also acts like a sycophant around Enny and Rousseau Signario to stay on their good sides, but Enny casually asks Duke Barbaroa's permission to kill him after he screws up a mission.]]

** [[spoiler:As a member of Gold Owl, he's the only wizard among a guild of alchemists.]]

* BerserkButton: Don't mistake her fashion sense as an inroad to ask her if she's willing to be a shameless exhibitionist.

* TheGadfly: During her nicer moments she's not above using her magic to non-maliciously screw with people for her amusement, such as shrinking and expanding Lucy's breasts, [[spoiler:or in ''100 Years Quest'' turning nearly all the female Fairy Tail wizards small enough to enjoy a pool replica of Aldoron, only to walk off and forget to turn them back to normal.]]

** [[spoiler:God Serena's postmortem revival into a doll gave him further durability, enough to block and counter Jellal's signature spell. However, Jellal busts out the even stronger Orion and God Serena's body can't withstand it. despite getting reinforced into a doll, and subsequently died once again by being torn apart.]]