User blog comment:LastationLover5000/Fairy Tail 388 Quick Review - Erza vs Minerva/@comment-1759748-20140618203809/@comment-4728047-20140618214438

apparently, Makarov originally wasn't going to survive past the Tenroujima arc

but that got changed for some reason (possibly editors, possibly the fans in Japan, possibly a change of mind on Hiro's part, more likely some combination of all the above)