Thanks for responding Holt. I guess i just disagree with the reasonable speculation. To me if you go down that road it's a slippery slope and tends to negate rule number 6 of the tournament, which reads: "Because the plot is moving forward and certain characters are being developed, they can only be considered as they have been "shown" (pic or text) capable of in the manga, except for the few characters that we have imposed a limit on." I understand that the silent chapter showed Gildarts destroying a mountain, but i think it's a bit iffy to ever judge an attack on size alone, though i do agree it was somewhat impressive i suppose. From what we saw Gildarts was just fighting him CQC, but i mean what you and others are essentially saying is that until the Tenrou Tree came back up, Gildarts was just really not trying at all, I don't buy that. Considering the circumstances Gildarts was going in imo, he looked furious and was using his Crash magic on the ground at the beginning of the fight. I guess what i am saying is that if you are saying reasonable speculation is that Gildarts be scaled to this level, when his last feat was Bluenote, then why can i not just say it's reasonably speculation that Gildarts and Bluenote were both using their magic against one another? I mean they had both taken damage the next time we saw them before the Tenrou tree fell, who's to say he was not using Crash magic, considering he used it at the beginning of the fight? This is why i would prefer to leave as much speculation out as possible in this tournament. Whether or not you think my example is as reasonable as saying Gildarts is on par with the Spriggans is to me irrelevant, because it's still speculation. I do also see where you are coming from in terms of saying that there are opinions in play, but to me saying Gildarts can fight someone(Natsu) who oneshotted his best feat(Bluenote) regardless of whether it was CQC or not is to me not reasonable speculation. The problem with having Gildarts in this tournament is that we just don't have a good idea of his power level, due to him not being around for almost the entire series. Therefore he should have either been left out from the tournament, or we should judge him on pure feats alone imo. This time skip has clearly showed that Natsu has grown leaps and bounds, and with FDKM i have a hard time seeing where anyone who thinks Gildarts can win this fight is coming from, from what we know at the moment.
Well I didn't say Gildarts wasn't being serious. Gildarts certainly was serious against Bluenote, but it doesn't change that their fight was mostly CQC. I doubt Gildarts was using crash with each attack as well. We only saw him using disassembly on rocks that were tossed at him by bluenote still, even if he was doing so, there's still a pretty significant difference between coating arms/legs compared to using actual spells. That difference was clear when Gildarts used Empeyrean (assuming he was using crash the whole time).
Technically, 90% of these fights are based on speculation since the fights themselves never actually happened. The feats that are used as examples are actually feats that were done against other characters, and we know that no two characters are the same. A character's strength/durability/attack potency etc could be misjudged, so this is all hypothetical. So when we saw GC or Laxus' nuke will do X damaged to Y person, we're speculating based on prior material.
It's the same thing with Gildarts here. I haven't actually attributed any feat to Gildarts that he hasn't already done, or that can't be inferred from other scenarios just like the other battles. I mentioned CQC which can be backed up by canon material (like with Natsu vs Jacob), I mentioned crash/disassembly being a possibility to cope with FD spells which again is backed up by canon material. Maybe I didn't come across clearly, but the point is that no character should be given extra feats/strengths beyond what can be inferred from other battles. Thing is, whenever said character faces an opponent, we have to speculate how the abilities and attacks match up. I guess this 'speculation' could be reasonable to some and not to others based on what is being considered but it's a matter of opinion really. Mashima didn't literally state Power levels or rankings, so everyone has to make his/her own judgements of these themselves.
Technically, Gildarts last feat was sending Bluenote flying, or actually, fodderising Tartaros Natsu in the silent chapter. None of which particularly made him look weak or so weak that he couldn't put up a fight here. In fact, Mard Geer bested Jacob (a spriggan) in this tournament. Despite Natsu using DF and Gray's help to fight Mard Geer, he never once cowered in the entire encounter and yet Gildarts got Natsu to do so with a single display (which wasn't even directed at him). Gildarts was still leagues above Natsu, and if we go by the Silent chapter, he's at least as strong as Mard, or more, if we factor in Natsu being afraid of challenging him. So, technically, Gildarts last feat implies he's potentially capable of facing/defeating a spriggan.
Like I said, it's based on opinion. As I mentioned, Natsu didn't engage in CQC with bluenote. Before Bluenote could close in to do so, Natsu roared at him. Thing is, Gildarts is in a better position to deal with a roar with Crash/Disassembly. And he should be > Natsu in CQC.
True, Gildarts could've been left out indeed, but was there really a reason to do so? Makarov, Mard Geer etc were included. Makarov is in nearly the same situation as Gildarts. He's often around but he rarely fights. Mard Geer/Kyoka and others were from previous arcs, with some even having much less significant feats than Gildarts. Thing is, we do have material to go on in regards to Gildarts. It probably isn't as easy to gauge him compared to others, but his strength can be inferred. I was hoping he'd show up before the end of the tournament so it could be easier, but we apparently won't be getting that.
Anyway, I actually voted for Natsu in this fight. Despite all the points I've made for Gildarts, I can't see him being able to best Natsu who has FDKM and DF going by his silent chapter feats. He just doesn't match up tbh. If this was just against base Natsu, then I would've have a different opinion.
