Likely in the minority, but I don’t think Gajeel has access to DF at all.
1) It was never stated to be Dragon Force. Bloodman referred to the new mode as Jet Black Iron. Throughout the series, every time a character has accessed Dragon Force, there has been a statement confirming it.
For Natsu: Against Jellal, Erza confirmed it was DF, against Zero, Zero himself confirmed it was DF(I think, I don’t recall this one that well), against Mard Geer, Mard himself confirmed it was DF, and most recently against Zeref, Mavis confirmed it was DF. Hiro likes to make it obvious to the readers when it’s Dragon Force even when it isn’t necessary, we know when Natsu has entered DF because of the visible scales on his body yet Hiro still adds the statement confirming the obvious.
The same applies to Wendy, against Ezel, Carla confirmed it. Against Avatar, Lucy confirmed it. It wasn’t confirmed against DiMaria, Irene, or Acnologia, but it’s obvious because of the hair change (the shading style changes)and the addition of wings on her ankles. Plus it would become too repetitive to acknowledge considering the amount of times Wendy has used DF compared to everyone else(referring to this arc).
2)I remember comments stating that the flashback of Sting telling Gajeel he had finally activated Dragon Force pretty much confirm he had entered the mode.
This is a mistranslation, Sting’s comments were about Gajeel experiencing motion sickness and finally becoming “one of them”. The flashback portion with Sting in it was from the Chariots event during the GMG. The Crunchyroll translation confirms this. I could be wrong but I'm sure I'm remembering it correctly, unfortunately I don’t have access to the official translation of Chapter 487, but maybe someone can provide it.
Gajeel’s entire flashback was centered on how he was always left out or left behind in everything involving a Dragon Slayer(the natural ones) despite being one himself. Natsu and Wendy had an exceed while he didn’t, everyone experienced motion sickness but him, and with Wendy finally attaining DF, he was the only one to still not access it. But with Levy suffering from the MBP’s, he decided that he no longer cared about any of that, he only cared about protecting her. My interpretation of that whole scene is that it’s something unique to his character in that his priority is no longer strength or being “one of the guys(DS)”, he only cares about Levy so I’m honestly expecting him to never get DF as that is the direction his character took.
3)As for ripping Bloodman apart with sheer punches, it isn’t because he became grossly overpowered. It’s because of the nature of Bloodman’s body composition(see
@MLG Bradman post). He’s made of MBP and was immune to physical attacks, but with Gajeel chaging his magical properties to adapt to Bloodman, Gajeel was able to rip apart the particles that made up his body, which is why when Gajeel punches him, you see visible holes in Bloodman.
Plus every time a DS has accessed DF from external means, it’s been via ethernano if I recall correctly(Etherion and FACE-the 2 devices that kept Alvarez in check), why would consuming
minuscule amounts of iron lead to the large increase of power that comes with Dragon Force?
Anyway, my point isn’t to say Gajeel isn’t strong. He certainly is and he’s definitely in contention to move on from this group. It’s just to say he doesn’t have DF. It isn’t a deal breaker (at least not for me), I’m pretty dang sure Gajeel can drop a team of Elfman and Lisanna, who in turn beat a Spriggan who is in this group, I’m pretty dang sure Gajeel won’t get dropped by Gray the way Invel did, pretty sure Gajeel can give Natsu a fight far better than the one Jacob can, plus like
@MLG Bradman said Gajeel can probably eat Wall lol.
Zeref and
Larcade are automatic votes for me. The last 2 votes will be between Gajeel/Invel/Wall/Ajeel/Jacob, but leaning to a three-way between Gajeel/Invel/Wall.
Sorry Elfman
