Which argumentative side? Each one of those topics resulted in a disagreement and were disputed by different users.
I guess you have your opinion and I have mine. But I don't see how someone like Natsu/Laxus are on the same level of intelligence as Gray/Erza. They are clearly inferior in that respect just like how Gray/Erza lose to them in other stats. Like I said, Hiro Mashima purposely makes Natsu and Laxus the type of characters that usually don't use their minds in battles. If you were to compare it to other mangas, you can see that there is a trend. But aside from that,
the amount of intelligent feats from Natsu/Laxus are
significantly lower than Erza/Gray.
I think there is a misunderstanding here. When I said subjects, I was distinguishing the difference between academics as a whole and tactic/strategy. For example, if characters like Gray weren't proficient at reading/writing, I wouldn't count that against his intelligence. This thread is where we discuss power ranking so that automatically implies that we're referring to the type of intelligence that determines one's overall power level. So my point was that if you're weak in academics, that doesn't necessarily mean you have low intelligence. On the other hand, if you're weak with determining your opponent's weaknesses or getting caught in battle often, then that will impact your intelligence.
Yeah, I agree that Natsu was smart for noticing that the former council chairman was working with Tartaros but like I mentioned, Natsu only has a few of those feats similar to that of Laxus. If you look at the number of intelligent feats from Gray/Erza, it
definitely outnumbers Natsu's and Laxus' feats and by quite a bit. This is exactly my point. We both agree that intelligence is relative. So if Erza and Gray are considered to have average-high intelligence based on the number of intelligent feats they have, then it is only logical for Natsu/Laxus to be
below that level of intelligence by a decent margin. The comedy scenes that come from Natsu does indeed lower his intelligence but even if we were to negate that, Natsu still doesn't come close to Erza or Gray.
Fair enough. I can see why you would classify some of those feats from other characters as "intelligent". Although I still happen to disagree, we'll just leave it at that. In order for me to give credit to characters for their intelligence, it has to be clearly depicted preferably by feats, as I cannot base it off of assumptions and hype.
To explain even further, here is the problem I have with Natsu and Laxus. Neither of them tend to think straight or think ahead. This can be a major problem when you are in a battle or confrontation. They have tunnel vision where once they are fixated on an idea, they will go forward with it regardless if they are wrong or the facts are right in front of them.
Natsu
Laxus
Aside from the comedy, you can tell that they are being portrayed as the type of characters who don't understand the importance/severity of a situation or the consequences following it.
Again, there is nothing wrong with this. Just like how Acnologia is portrayed to be stronger than virtually every other character in the series. Each character has their pros and cons. That is what determines one's power level. Natsu and Laxus have their own advantages. For example, they are shown to have one of the highest attack powers among most members in the guild. So the fact that Hiro Mashima depicts Natsu and Laxus to be quite low in intelligence is completely fine.