You don't think Igneel's power made a huge difference? Igneel's power made Natsu's regular attacks stronger than his FDK attacks.
Again, Zeref was fine afterwards. He blasted Natsu with his black magic and was prepared to face DF Natsu. He was confident that he could beat DF Natsu too. I'm not convinced that END could kill Zeref even if he could do everything base Natsu did to Zeref, because base Natsu simply wasn't winning that fight. If you don't believe that END would have gotten stronger, then I'm not even sure I believe he would get past Gray and I would put money that Erza straight up defeats him. If you rank Zeref below Gray and Erza, that's a separate discussion.
Like I said, his emotions over Lucy's death outweighed his declining health....At that time. Same way cancer patients can still play sports if you pump them full of adrenaline. I mean, you could make the argument that Natsu wasn't getting weaker throughout his fight with Gray....But I can make the argument that END wasn't as strong as Natsu at his best to begin with.
The plan was for Igneel to train Natsu to become strong enough to kill him. Then during the Tartaros arc, he told Natsu that he would have the option of destroying END and hope that he did the next time they met, which would be when they would fight. Where does END fit into all of this? Ironically, that is actually one of the rare instances where we can't take Zeref's words at face value because the curse was actively making him crazy. He was saying contradictory statements back to back. Anyways, we know that Zeref planned on winning the 2nd fight. Even if were to reawaken END, that still doesn't prove END could kill him.
Not really, certainly less of a difference than Dragon Force as you yourself have previously agreed as I recall. As for his regular attacks being stronger than FDK attacks, meh, Base Natsu can do more than Base IgNatsu did, though it took more time and effort.
No, he wasn't beaten, he was still trashed, he was also clearly relying on his immortality, something END doesn't have to worry about.
Base Natsu doesn't need to win that fight for me to consider END capable of killing Zeref, he just has to push it to high diff, which he did.
I'm not sure END would've got past Gray either, I still think he kills Zeref, but like you said, a separate discussion.
If that were true then END's health would've been declining since he beat Dimaria, it wasn't. END's transformation didn't just limit the fusions symptoms, it cleared them outright.
Sure... and I could make the argument that IgNatsu was weaker than Natsu too. Tbh the place i rank END isn't all that different from where I rank IgNatsu, so if you want to play that game we can play that game.
This is Zeref explaining his plan summed up, and in the order that he explained it:
END=Natsu=the person who will kill me.
It doesn't take a huge stretch in logic for me to get END=The person who will kill me, is it? I don't think so, It's basic math. Then when you take into consideration that END killing Zeref has been hyped for ages and that Zeref's entire plan makes
absolutely no sense if Natsu isn't END, and I feel pretty damn confident in saying that my theory is as close to canon as it can get.
As for Zeref intending to win the second fight, that was after Gray had left and his chance to trigger END had vanished. Before then he specifically stated that he wanted to draw out Natsu's greatest strength with Gray's death, with Natsu's anger and sadness, he wanted to feed Natsu's negative emotions, which in your words, is END.
