[Manga] Wed is stronger than he gets credit for

Before I start this, I feel like I have to point out that this is not me blindly defending Mashima, staning the character (I actually have some issues with the character), or being overly optimistic because I've had that said a couple times when I've made posts like this. This is just me looking at the story and analyzing the facts at hand. I'd also like to note before I start that the way Fire & Flame lost feels underwhelming and left them feeling underbaked, so this isn't a "look how awesome the Chapter was" post; the Chapter bummed me out on the series for weeks.

The two moments I see noted the most in regards to scaling Dragonized Wed are Natsu melting his sword (his base form used a sword to block one of Erza's strongest attacks) and then LFDM Natsu (possibly with a buff from Wendy; people say her spell was stopped, but there's actually not really concrete evidence either way) being enough to defeat him. If this was all there was, the take of Wed being super weak might be somewhat understandable. But I feel like things change when taking the context of these moments into account.

The thing is, Wed doesn't just come right out of the gate getting his sword melted by Natsu. Before the Team Natsu vs. Fire & Flame fight even started, Wed had already been fighting Erza for a likely substantial period of time; much of which was offscreen, such as during much of the initial Seis vs. Sech fights and the Gray vs. Viernes/Wendy and Selene stuff. And yet, Wed is still not defeated by the time Natsu and the others arrive. We don't know what feats either he or Erza had, nor what spells they may have used during this time. But, we know that neither was able to defeat the other during this time and thus, he's strong enough to last through a fight with current Erza for some time without loss. But that's not all.

After this, there's two Chapters of a 5v5 fight followed by an offscreen team fight that again, lasts for some period of time; throughout the entire time during which three Sechs beat three Seis, two Seis beat two Sechs, Macbeth nearly defeats Zero (events we know aren't simultaneously, but rather are subsequently occurring), "Team B" shows up, and Juvia defeats Gate. When we return, Team Natsu aren't defeated, but neither is Fire & Flame, including Wed. While Natsu wanted to fight Wed, we know that the opponents clashing during this 5v5 were alternating (I think we even see Wed attack Gray at one point).

This means that Wed is capable of a decently lengthy fight with Erza followed by a decently lengthy fight with different members of Team Natsu without being defeated. And again, we're unaware what Wed did during this fight. But we're aware he can withstand attacks of who knows what caliber from multiple strong opponents for some time. This is all before Natsu melts his sword which would've gotten a ton of use during the fighting and that wears swords down over time, hence they break (which we've seen happen in Fairy Tail before, usually with far more ease than happens here since it usually occurs far quicker). And while again, we don't know how strong the attacks he was taking are, we know they were coming from Team Natsu; the "strongest team" from the strongest Guild on Ishgar which has members capable of fighting the strongest team of the strongest Legal Wizard Guild on Guiltina; after fighting Erza individually who has so much Magic Power that she can overwrite a dimension or destroy a meteor after wasting so much of it fighting powerful opponents for a time (aka, these aren't gonna be weak attacks). And oh yeah, unlike Wed, Natsu had more time between his recent fight (against an opponent who I can't see giving Erza as much trouble as Wed did) to recover strength and Magic (unless he was wasting either of those things being flown around by Happy) with only a brief check in with Macbeth and Zero in between.

And even still, that's all Natsu does, melt his blade; he doesn't defeat or even seem to significantly injure him, just melt a sword that's clashed with multiple enemies including Erza by that point. And yet he still fights afterwards. For a weak opponent, he's making it through back to back fights with powerful opponents. The offscreen nature of the fights means we don't see a lot of feats from him, his defeat is anticlimactic, and it comes too quick, leaving him and his Magic feeling underbaked. But I personally can't see an enemy with that previous record before his loss (not to mention before his Dragonization) as weak or fodder; if he was, he wouldn't have made it that far. It's important to consider that while we don't see the fighting, a lot goes down before his loss; a fodder/weak enemy would've gone down by then or far earlier into that fighting, especially against those opponents. I respect people's feelings on the fight, I have my own as well. But context is important when taking into account how a fight reaches a certain outcome, and the context before Wed's loss and even his sword melting paints a different picture than I feel is portrayed.