Where the heck is Gildarts?

I don't understand what Mashima is trying to do honestly, I think he's forgotten about Gildarts. The dude's been gone since before the Grand magic games! I thought Mashima planned to bring him in at a crucial point in this Alvarez war but there is no sign of him even as the war is now slowly starting to lose steam.

Where the hell is he? Any thoughts?

The guy is pretty much literally never there for any of the major crisis is the guild faces. You can't help but wonder why. Does the writer have something special in mind for him? Is he going to come in and do something so amazing that it will completely wipe away his prior absences? If not, he's just a waste that character.

Agreed, when he was introduced properly he lived up to the hype. And then after we got a taste of a badass OP character.....he's never used again. Like for real?

Kneel Before Zod

Not so original theory: he comes back pissed as hell, fights August, but ultimately gets killed and is the catalyst to Natsu awakening/becoming E.N.D.

@thevivas: what with the way the series has been going so far, I wouldn't really doubt that.

He's going to come back then die. I think Hiro stopped using him so people lose a bit of the emotional connection they had with him, since he still wants it to be a happy go lucky manga for the most part.