Fairy Tail is full of a variety of different characters, from the old like Makarov, to the youthful like Wendy and Romeo, to cheerful like Cana to the...incredibly surly, like Gajeel. Though he can often pretend like he doesn’t care about anything or anyone, Gajeel has been one of the staunchest defenders of Fairy Tail almost from the moment he joined up the group.
This list takes a look at the Iron Dragon Slayer and goes in detail on the character, containing information that even some of the longest time fans of the anime series might have already forgotten over the course of Fairy Tail’s 300+ episode run.
10 WANTS TO BE A SINGER
Despite Gajeel’s tough aura, potentially the most surprising thing about him is that he wishes he could be a singer. Several times during the team’s chances to actually take a break from work for once, we find Gajeel singing karaoke on stage for the guild. Unfortunately, he’s absolutely terrible at both singing and using musical instruments. However, at least according to his teammate Gray, he has some talent as a songwriter.
9 DIDN'T ORIGINALLY HAVE MOTION SICKNESS
A running gag with Natsu was that he had motion sickness, but no one ever knew why. It would eventually be attributed to being a Dragon Slayer and the adaptation humans experienced given their increased hearing and vision. However, when Gajeel initially showed up, neither he or Wendy experienced motion sickness at all. This would be added later, with the excuse being that both of them had their Dragon Slayer abilities increase enough for the motion sickness to affect them. But more likely, Hiro Mashima had no reason for Natsu’s vertigo and added it in much later.
8 WAS ORIGINALLY IN A DIFFERENT GUILD
Gajeel has been a member of Fairy Tail for nearly all of the series’ run, so it’s easy to forget that he actually wasn’t to begin with. On the contrary, Gajeel was a member of a competing guild Phantom Lord. The Iron Dragon Slayer didn’t pull any punches, either.
He kicked off the attack on Fairy Tail himself, helping to destroy their guildhall, then beat up the three-person mage group Shadow Gear. He wound up losing to Natsu in a fairly intense battle though and was later invited to join Fairy Tail by Makarov. Though it seemed like he was simply jumping to the most powerful team, Gajeel has been a loyal member ever since signing up.
7 HIS POWER-UP INVOLVES DARKNESS
Pretty much all of the Dragon Slayers have a special ability that allows them to call on the powers of a completely different element to give their attacks some extra power. In Natsu’s case it’s the power of lightning, while in Gajeel’s case it’s actually the power of...darkness? Unlike flames and lightning or even light and dark, metal and darkness don’t really have much in common at all, but fortunately, thanks to Gajeel’s grumpy disposition and constant habit for wearing dark clothing, using the powers of darkness seem to fit him visually.
6 WAS FRIENDS WITH THE OTHER DRAGON SLAYERS
All of the original Dragon Slayers are from four hundred years ago and were each raised by their dragons while being taught Dragon Slayer magic. Though none of them remember, originally all of them would even meet occasionally when their foster dragon parents would gather. This occurred fairly often, and Gajeel developed a relationship with all of the other Dragon Slayers. Particularly though, he had an antagonistic relationship with Natsu and constantly got into fights with him. Nevertheless, this was all forgotten when all of the Dragon Slayers went through the Eclipse Gate, crossing four centuries of time to exist in the modern era.
5 ALWAYS WANTED A CAT
It’s never really explained, but for whatever reason, all of the Dragon Slayers have a talking pet cat. Natsu has Happy. Wendy has Carla. But for a time, Gajeel didn’t have a cat and was quite distraught about it. It got to the point where he was weeping in the Fairy Tail guildhall over it before the group was transported to the parallel world of Edolas, where the talking cats known as Exceed came from. There, Gajeel was able to find Pantherlily, a member of the Edolas army. After the remainder of the events there, Panther Lily accompanied all of Fairy Tail back to their home and joined the team.
4 CAN CHANGE IRON INTO STEEL
Though it’s easy to be confused considering the Dragon who trained him was named Metallicana, but Gajeel is actually an Iron Dragon Slayer. He can consume iron to feed his magical energy and transform his body to iron with ease. But during the battle against one of the members of Tartaros, he was submerged in black water from an enemy’s technique.
Outmatched thanks to the enemy’s tough shell, Gajeel transformed his body partially from iron into steel by absorbing some of the carbon around him. Though this works as something of an upgrade, it’s still as toxic to him as it is to normal humans, and thus isn’t something he can use in every battle.
3 BECOMES A DOUBLE AGENT
Gajeel’s membership in Phantom Lord and immediate change over to Fairy Tail benefited the guild in an unforeseen way. People believed he hadn’t really had a change of heart and was instead using the guild. As such, Fairy Tail’s guild master, Makarov Dreyar, asked Gajeel to undertake a mission only he could do. Thus, Gajeel became responsible for infiltrating the Dark Guild Raven Tail, an organization run by Makarov’s son, Ivan Dreyar. This didn’t quite play out as Ivan intended, however, as it paid off in his entire guild getting decimated by his son Laxus thanks to Gajeel’s additional information.
2 IS SECRETLY IN LOVE WITH LEVY
This one’s a little sketchy, and what happens when authors listen to shippers for too long. During Gajeel’s initial attack on Fairy Tail, he goes to town on the comparatively weak members of Shadow Gear, including the team’s resident book worm, Levy McGarden. Despite this, in an evolved form of the Defeat Means Friendship trope, the two get a little close during the Tenrou Island story arc, and a relationship blossoms from there. Though Gajeel is too proud to admit it for most of the series, until he gets into a battle with a member of the Spriggan 12 and when he’s about to die fighting Bloodman.
1 HAS A CONNECTION TO THE MAGIC COUNCIL
When Gajeel first left the guild Phantom Lord, he was offered a spot with Fairy Tail. But before that could happen, he had to settle up with the Magic Council for causing so much trouble in the city of Fiore. Fortunately, he had one of the Magic Council members, Belno, stand up for him. She goes on to tell him to live a life worth living, mentioning that she helped because he reminded her of her son. Though she wouldn’t make many appearances afterwards, the character was assassinated during the beginnings of the Tartaros arc. Afterwards, when Fairy Tail was disbanded, Gajeel would briefly join the Magic Council himself as the head member of the Custody Enforcement Unit.