User blog comment:LastationLover5000/Fairy Tail 296 - In Which Who Stands A Chance Anymore? (Natsu vs the Two Dragons)/@comment-1272757-20120824200342

To be honest I actually enjoyed this battle, because it finally gave Sting, Rogue, and Sabertooth as a whole what was finally coming to them. In addition, I think people are forgetting just how strong some of Natsu's past opponents were compared to Sting and Rogue. I don't think these guys fit into the escalating power level thing of typical shounen manga, becoming more powerful than the previous opponents. In fact to be quite frank I think Sting and Rogue each would fall below the level of the likes of Hades, Zancrow, hell even Jellal and Laxus. In all four of those battles Natsu needed just a bit of help in order to come out on top, but in the end managed to pull through; compared to monstrous powerhouses like those, I think Sting and Rogue would be soundly beaten. And all of those battles were won before Natsu and some of the others went through Second Origin, which effectively doubled the power and quantity of their magic.

There are also other additional factors that I think need to be remembered before people judge. The first would be Sting and Rogue's blatant arrogance, which was firmly established when they thought they could beat Acnologia, who (somewhat literally) tore GILDARTS a new one. The second, although not explicitly referred to (this chapter got pretty close though) since the Lullaby Arc, is Natsu's "Flame of Emotion", which refers to the fact that Natsu's flames become more powerful the stronger his emotions are, and it's been shown quite clearly throughout this saga that Natsu is extremely determined to put Fairy Tail back on top, and give Sting and Rogue their thorough thrashing. Finally, there's also the "Dragon Force" Sting and Rogue are capable of using; c'mon, we all know that if you can achieve a power-up that easily there's no way it's gonna be as strong as the real thing. Natsu had to freaking poison himself or eat the fire magic of someone who was once among the ranks of the Ten Wizard Saints. And these two can pull it off at will? Yeah, call me crazy but I don't think it's that powerful.

I don't think Natsu's been turned into a "boring invincible hero"; I think we've just finally been shown that compared to the experience, power, and determination of the likes of Natsu and other Fairy Tail members, Sabertooth is all talk, no bite. If you recall, aside from Lucy (which involved cheating and being deprived of her Gate Keys) and Wendy's (which involved the pacifistic healer Sky Dragon Slayer facing someone with Sky God Magic a class well above hers) involvements, Fairy Tail has actually done quite well throughout this entire thing. I'm sure in the next few chapters other members will get plenty of time to shine, but I truly believe this chapter simply established that Sting and Rogue aren't as powerful as they'd like to believe, and got the asskicking they deserved. Besides, look at it this way; I'm pretty sure Gajeel could have done the same thing just as well, or people like Laxus or Erza.

I could probably say more, but I don't know where to put it all amongst this very long comment, so I'll leave it at that.