User blog:Almanach 345/Pure Evil Proposal - Faust (Fairy Tail, Manga version)



Hello. Following some Fairy Tail guys. Well, this is Faust, the king of Edolas and the main villain of the Edolas arc. He's notorious to be the only villain besides Acnologia to actually attempt or commit genocide. He's also a "Type depends on version", because the anime version shows regret, so the entry covers the manga version. Like the guy with Zash, I copy TV-Tropes' write-up. (NOTE: I edited some details to fit this wiki.)

What is the work?
A Shonen manga named Fairy Tail written by Hiro Mashima that primarily takes place in the large country of Fiore. Only a fraction of the world’s population can use Magic, and most of them take up jobs in guilds. Our focus is the titular guild, Fairy Tail.

In a particular story arc, a mysterious portal appears above the whole town of Magnolia where the Fairy Tail Guild is. S-Class Wizard Mystogan appears too late but manages to save Wendy from transport, making it clear it’s too late and everyone will die. Wendy meets up with Natsu after the event, and Carla explains they are in an alternate dimension called Edolas.

Here is where we meet our Arc Villain.

Who is the candidate? What has he/she done?
The king of Edolas, Faust. The father of Fairy Tail’s Mystogan, who is Edolas Jellal, Faust wants infinite magical supply for his kingdom, which is slowly losing it, by any means necessary. So, he devised the Anima plan. Anima is gate a meant to connect to Earth Land. Because the magic in Earth Land is limitless unlike in Edolas, Faust utilized Anima to steal Earth Land's Magic Power, but his Mystogan came to Earth Land to suppress Anima from appearing in various locations, but he missed the one in Magnolia.

It should be mentioned I'm E Ping the manga version of Faust. I'll clarify later on.

Making Natsu, Wendy, Carla, and Happy meet Edolas Fairy Tail, they soon learn Earth Land mages (including Earth Land Fairy Tail) have been assimilated into a giant Lacima crystal. Meanwhile, Faust has his guard hunt down guilds in Edolas, including Edolas Fairy Tail – this how Erza Knightwalker gained her epithet “The Fairy Hunter.” When one of his advisors, Coco, makes it clear they have enough magical energy from the current Lacima to last ten years, Faust declares it insufficient and demands more, saying he wants an eternity. Not ten years.

Natsu, Wendy, and Lucy make their way to the center where they see Faust declaring to the masses the Lacrima from the Magnolia City people has given them more magic, using that to stoke good will. Naturally, this enrages our heroes. They eventually form a plan to infiltrate the castle, but Erza Knightwalker catches them, and we learn the truth about Exceeds (the species of Carla and Happy). Ones like them were meant to bring the magical energy of Dragon Slayers to aid in the “magicalization” of Earth Land humans. Carla and Happy defy their brethren and help break their friends out of jail. Exceeds from the kingdom of Extalia pursue them, but Faust orders an attack that turns the Exceeds into Lacrima. People of Edolas used to worship the Exceeds as Gods because of their magic power. Now, Faust justifies his order in front of the army by declaring humans of Edolas with limited magic should rise up against those with limitless power and create their own everlasting kingdom. With that said, he officially kicks off Code ETD, the plan to destroy all of Extalia. Faust also reveals this is the reason for the Dragon Slayers: their magic will help them overthrow the Queen (Carla’s mother) and her race. With Dragon Slayer Magic, it speeds up the process of throwing the giant Lacrima into Extalia by creating a chain of sorts. Basically, as Wendy puts it, “use their friends as a bomb.” The collision will rain “eternal magic” upon Edolas.

Later, as the final battle commences, Coco prevents the king from using a key to activate the final phase of Code ETD on the account of Pantherlily, one of the royal guard, fighting to protect the Lacrima. Faust doesn’t care and blasts her legs to make sure she can’t run off with the key, but she soldiers through the pain, much to his chagrin. A series of struggles follow whereupon Gray (freed from the Lacrima) destroy the real key and creates a fake one. Erza (also freed), under the guise of Knightwalker, brings her friends closer to Faust as a ruse. Once she has him Faust at neckpoint, she orders the soldiers to aim the cannon for the chain at Lacrima and turn their friends back to normal. Faust yells at his soldiers to forget about him and proceed with Code ETD. Once that scuffle is settled, Faust aims to use the Dorm Anima to finish off everyone once and for all.

With the dragon chain active, everyone (Mages and Exceed) arrive to push it off-course or destroy. But thankfully Mystogan, the Prince of Edolas arrives, to make the Lacrima disappear using an Anima large enough to send the Lacrima back to Earth Land and return everyone to normal. It should be over, but Faust and his Royal Army come to personally continue the extinction. Faust calls his son Mystogan a traitor and declares his intention of exterminating anyone in the king’s way. When Mystogan fights back, Faust blasts his own son and leaves him to die, but thankfully, Fairy Tail’s Dragon Slayers step in to fight the mad king before he can turn anymore people or Exceeds into Lacrima. Faust in the Dorm Anima fights even harder, realizing he can turn the Dragon Slayers into living weapons to reinstall the Anima plan.

Thankfully, Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel rally together and destroy the Dorm Anima, pulling Faust out of his powerful machine. Now defenseless and in front of pissed off, he surrenders and faints out of fear, finally putting an end to the battle. Faust is last seen broken and humiliated as Natsu pulls off a Zero-Approval Gambit to put Mystogan back into the Edolas’s favor as its magic finally disappears forever.

Freudian Excuse? Redeeming or mitigating factors?
Throughout the arc, Faust espouses the motive he’s trying to give Edolas a world of infinite magic. Considering all the useful things Magic can do in Earth Land and Extalia, this is seen as admirable, and it’s certainly big thing for his minions like Erza Knightwalker. The question becomes where does altruism stop and greed begin? He certainly does take it very far, going so far as to commit genocide on an innocent race and try to put a whole alternate land in an And I Must Scream fate as Lacrima. He also grows increasingly maniacal and murderous whereas people like Erza Knightwalker, Pantherlily, and Coco make peace without having infinite magic. Gaining ultimate power seems to be the only thing on his mind. He also callously disowns his son and shows no regard to his closest people (like Coco and Lily), so nothing there. Like I said, it’s a matter of if you think he takes an understandable reason TOO far and deprives himself of sympathy in the process.

The anime includes a moment of wistful regret after he's defeated, but this isn't present in the manga. Mashima did state he approved of the moment in the anime, which revealed Faust to be Edolas Makarov, and wished he included it, but we judge the manga based on its own merit.

Heinousness?
Oh, yes. He’s got on his hands the attempted genocide on a revered species in Edolas. Also, the Anima plan would see the entirety of Earth Land unceremoniously sucked up and turned Lacrima for his own benefit. It just looks small scale because Mystogan got rid of most of the portals. Even then, he saw almost all of the Fairy Tail Guild and possibly Magnolia imprisoned to be used as batteries. He wins out thanks to the scale of his actions, using the presence of two dimensions handily for his rap sheet. His case is strengthened you take into account his competition (Acnologia, Jackal) are a powerful dragon/Etherious with Magic/Curses to their name. He’s just a frail old man without Magic.

Final verdict?
Your call.