Rouge is Zeref. Future Rouge's time is a paradox. He goes goes back in time to kill the dragons and prevent them from attacking. This corrupts his magic and causes him to kill stuff. Because he destroyed his timeline by stoppping the dragons he is stuck in whatever era he wound up in. This explains why Zeref knew Natsu, why the world rejects him(he doesn't belong), and why he appreciates life and such.

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So in other words, the zeref from the s class mage arc is actually from the future It's pretty bold but I guess it could make sense. I kinda doubt the whole rogue is zeref thing though...The way you're seeing this is the whole "Looper" movie. Not really a paradox, just an infinite loop.

Then how would that explain why he existed far enough back in history to be a legend and then shows up seven years before rogue or the dragons or even Eclipse was created. The Zeref from the S class exam arc is also too young compared to the Rogue that just showed up in the latest chapter. It seems like too much of a stretch.

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[B]

The reason why he showed up 400 years ago was to kill the dragons in the first place. That explains why he was there. And Zeref being too young? When you've been alive for 400+ years, you pick up a few tricks. Also something could have happened around the time he was sealed. There's 400 years of missing history here!

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You are stretching it by making such assumption. You are adding history that is simply not there. There has been no hint of magic that can change appearance or of Zeref possess it, myth or not.And if he is sealed for 400 years then technically he has not been alive for 400+ years in terms of experience.

It might be a decent theory if this was the last arc, but I think there will be more Fairy Tail and Zeref's origins will eventually be discussed later without a connection to Rogue and Sting or even anyone else already in the series.

Why would he go 400 years into the past to kill the dragons. If he could do that why would he show up two days before the event and not go back 14 years to before the dragons disappeared. I know eclipse is an important part to killing the dragons, but he is still cutting it a little close. 400 years seems like too great a stretch in time.

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Banana Gecko!!

[B]

well, it goes like this:
we know that the dragons came back and pretty much killed everyone. it's safe to assume that everyone at the tournament got caught up in the fight. this includes rouge. our rouge. the one who is just learning about friendship and love and how to accept/create/recognize them and all that. especially with his exceed frosch. the one who has been with him through everything. chances are she got killed and it sent him over the deep end. especially remembering what happened with sting and lector. with this, it's easy to pin the blame on the dragons. of course the only way to stop them would be to wipe out the dragons before they had a chance to come to the tournament. but since the dragons disappeared 14 years ago, he needed to go before then. he then used eclipse to travel back in time. but since he wasn't a celestial mage, he probably over shot it due to his rage and grief. winding up back in the past, he probably thought he could help fight against the dragons. this corrupted his magic and the legend of zeref was born.

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