Yes, it does change things a fair bit. I think it's more likely it was Igneel's power that crushed the war god but they're immensely powerful creature. Considering the amount of damage it wrought when it swung the sword, it's more plausible to believe they're very powerful and at least enough to resist powerful attacks from someone of Natsu's caliber.
I would say no. These are the reasons.
Does that really follow though? I find it highly unlikely. Igneel was about the most powerful dragon after all. He's right up there with Acnologia, maybe even above him if he has full power but regardless of opinion, Igneel is clearly not your average dragon. Even though dragon force gives power comparable to dragons, it doesn't mean it's gives power on par with one of Igneel's caliber much less superior. It wouldn't make sense for Natsu's DF to actually be stronger than FDKM which is literally Igneel's power. The only way I see DF being able to match or exceed FDKM could be in physical aspect since DF actually gives him dragon like features while FDKM seemed to simply be MP. Asides that, I don't see how DF can possible match FDKM output. Certainly not in terms of spells tbh. So even though FDKM Natsu is possibly more powerful than any single Mage, it doesn't mean DF Natsu would be the same. I don't think using a connection like that for arguments sake works.
Well, but in that case then why did natsu name his attacks the way he did? Before the zeref fight natsu used two attacks to which he referred to as "flame dragon king" attacks, his fist and his roar which he used to great effect. Then when he fought zeref he used "flame dragon king mode". It's the exact name down to the letter (specifically "enryo" in Japanese). Now, I am not saying natsu used "flame dragon king mode" before. However the name explicitly suggests a connection. In this case the implication would be that natsu accessed a bit of the power igneel had left him. If he did only use a small part of the power he actually had it would make sense that he didn't quite get the reaction from others as he did when he finally fully unleashed it through flame dragon king mode. Basically, his flame dragon king attacks from before activating flame dragon king mode would have been a pretty big jump from his base form attacks but still immensely weaker than the whole unleashed thing.
Dragon Slayers name their attacks after their parent dragons. When Natsu only knew Igneel as a normal fire dragon, his spells were known as "fire dragon's". Now Natsu knows Igneel's status as the Fire Dragon King, he renamed his more powerful spells accordingly. If Gajeel had received Metallicana's power, his spells would still be named "Iron Dragon" even when using Metallicana's power. Besides, Natsu has always been using the same fire as Igneel. That's why Atlas Flame recognized Natsu's power as Igneel's. The only difference is that Igneel is a lot stronger than Natsu in raw-power.
Well, FDKM is the most power we have seen from a single individual yet and not only in terms of raw power but in its apparent ability to do the impossibility of killing zeref. Even if dragon force is stronger it wouldn't be weird if it is unable to kill zeref. Also worth noting is that if dragon force is stronger then FDKM as we saw it would be literally pointless. For the whole thing to make sense in the context of the story FDKM shouldn't merely be stronger than DF. It should be overwhelmingly more powerful, it should completely dwarf it. Which would make sense with natsu getting a bit of igneel's power considering that dragons should have a volume of power immensely greater than even the strongest humans.
This doesn't make sense though. I'm pretty sure Natsu always knew Igneel as the fire dragon King. At least we know Atlas flame mentioned that in GMG. Also, a crucial point you're overlooking is that Igneel was dead at the end of Tartarus. It's not like he was present with/in Natsu during the one year timeskip so there's no reason for Natsu to have realized Igneel was the FDK after his death, he would've know that before.
Does that invalidate that the earlier spells he used against zeref weren't FDK spells? If anything, it even proves that FDK spells can be used without explicitly entering the mode. We've seen this before. Natsu has used LFD spells without entering the mode. So if Natsu used FDK spells without entering the mode against Zeref, he could have done that against the war god. The point is that FDK spells are done with Igneel's power so attributing that to Natsu doesn't follow.
I think you're missing the point here and simply backing up what we've said so far. FDK spells are done with Igneel's power. Said spells can be done even without entering FDK mode in which all the attacks would be done with Igneel's power. It doesn't mean that all Natsu has done thus far is with Igneel's power but if he names an attack FDK, then we're to assume that it was done using Igneel's power and now we know that he has exhausted the reserves that Igneel left in him.
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What's the proof that it was a bit of energy? Considering Igneel didn't have much time to interact with Natsu after emerging, it means Igneel would've left the power while he was within Natsu. The amount of power he left would be unknown just that Natsu noted it is finite since Igneel was dead and thus the power was irreplaceable. Also, a little from a dragon is still a whole lot. Considering a half dead Igneel managed to give Acnologia such injuries and even take his arm, his power regardless of the amount would be immense by human standards.
Why would he have known all along? At the very earliest, it was mentioned when Atlas Flame said Igneel was the king of the fire dragons. Even then, I doubt Natsu paid much attention to it. By the time Tartarus Arc rolled around, Igneel was mentioned as the Fire Dragon King various times by people like Mard Geer and Acnologia. Atlas Flame did recognize Natsu's power as Igneel's. First of all, dragons were never shown to be eating elements anyways. Secondly, I really see no reason why any dragon slayer wouldn't be able to eat Atlas Flame's fire. Lastly, it's not just Natsu who has his power recognized to be the power of his parent dragon, Wendy's Milky Way was recognized as Grandeeney's magic. It makes sense because Dragon Slayers essentially change their biology to that of their dragons.
Yes, the power Igneel left would obviously pale in comparison to Igneel's full power but doesn't necessarily mean it was a small amount left. Anyway, my point was that the fact that Igneel left some power doesn't negate that it was a ton of power compared to what Natsu's regular power.
You're simply selecting bits that are convenient for your point. I mean, whose words are more credible? A demon and a human turned dragon or an actual flame dragon? Why would Natsu ignore Atlas flame in the first place?
So you're saying Natsu used Igneel's power without using Igneel's power? How does that even follow? You're basically claiming Natsu suddenly realized over the timeskip that Igneel was the fire dragon King and thus decided to appropriately change the name of his attacks to reflect this but we see he still names his attacks as 'Fire dragon's' ... And only used 'Fire Dragon king's ..' a handful of times.
Actually, some of Natsu's larger punches (such as the one he used against Alvarez troops) were almost on the scale of FDK spells (such as the roar). Yes, they were smaller, but not by much. Given the ease in which Natsu can cast those basic spells, I don't find it surprising at all Natsu can use FDK spells on his own.
I'm really not. This has nothing to do with credibility. Natsu probably wasn't paying attention back then because...well, it wasn't a super important fact. After Igneel died, Natsu had time to process things and train. I don't find it difficult to see why Natsu would renamed a few of his attacks in Igneel's honor whilst he was training at all.
Dragon Slayers use magic with the same QUALITY as their parents, not the same quantity. If I had a bucket of coca-cola, and you had a swimming pool full of coca-cola...It's still coca-cola.
No, I'm saying Natsu heard Igneel was the fire dragon king during the GMG. He probably didn't pay much attention back then. In the Tartarus Arc, that fact was cemented in his head. Then, over the 1 year timeskip when he was training, he decided to rename his most powerful spells to reflect that.
The scale of natsu's attacks at this stage can potentially be misleading. Even in his base form he seems to surpass pre time skip gildarts after all.
I expect the difference between Natsu's normal and Fire Dragon King spells to be like the difference between his normal and lightning-fire spells from before the timeskip. I see FDK essentially as being the replacement of LFD. Look at the difference betwen his large-scale base punches and FDK roar. Whilst there is an undeniable difference in their power, the difference isn't so great that I can't believe that if Natsu doubled or trippled the amount of power he puts into his base punches that he wouldn't be able to match the roar. Given the ease in which Natsu can throw those punches, I don't believe that to be out of his abilities at all.
FDK spells being named the same way as FDK mode and Natsu saying that it was Igneel's flames suggests this.
Yes. This is what I'm trying to show.
They were actually a lot smaller, it's just a bit hard to compare them without landscape markers. FDK roar was so big that none of the individual soldiers were visible, and it carved a massive hole in the ground. None of Natsu's regular attacks did much ground damage and the Alvarez soldiers were still visible, as well as some rock formations. It's pretty much the same size difference as between FDK fist vs regular fire attack on the god. A few orders of magnitude (e.g. 10-100x larger, if not more).
This is purely your speculation. And Natsu wouldn't pay attention to information about the dragon that he was searching for...why?
Or perhaps the FDK spells are named that way because they used Igneel's power. LFD with Natsu's power is different, and actually supports FDK spells being Igneel's power. Remember that LFD attacks with Laxus's MP were much much stronger than Natsu's base attacks. Whereas Natsu's LFD attacks with his own power are only a bit stronger than his regular fire attacks.
