Mavis Vermillion

Mavis Vermilion is a supporting protagonist in the anime/manga series Fairy Tail and the main protagonist of the prequel series Fairy Tail Zero. She was one of the founders of Fairy Tail and became it's first Guild Master when she was thirteen. She died prior to the beginning of the story, but it's revealed later that her spirit still remains on Tenrou Island, though she can only be seen by those who bear the Fairy Tail emblem.

She is voiced by Mamiko Noto in the Japanese version of the anime and Leah Clark in the English version.

Appearance
Mavis has very long, wavy, yellow-blonde hair that reaches down to her feet with a single lock pointing upwards; large green eyes that appear to have no irises, peachy skin and a slight child-like build. As a consequence of using an incomplete version of a grand Magic when she was thirteen to save Yuri Dreyar, her body was no longer able to grow or mature from that point onwards. She wears a frilly, pink layered robe with a red ribbon tied in a bow around her neck. Around the chest are three blue diamond patterns with two blue triangles above. Each series of these is outlined in a hot pink. She wears wing-like adornments around her ears and small hoop earrings. She always goes around barefoot.

Personality
Mavis is very kind and protective of Fairy Tail. She cares, guides and protects the guild whenever it's possible. She seems to be quite cheerful as she's smiling and happy most of the time. Mavis can also be quite carefree and reckless, and this side of her is shown when she allowed Jellal Fernandes to participate in the Grand Magic Games as a part of Team Fairy Tail B, as long as it improved their chances of winning, despite the fact that if anyone found out about the ex-member of the Ten Wizard Saints and escaped convict, it could be disastrous to the guild. Another sign of her reckless nature is shown when she lent Fairy Glitter to Cana Alberona just to win the MPF event.

Mavis is quite playful and to a certain degree, childish. She even left Tenrou Island just to cheer on Fairy Tail in the Grand Magic Games, solely because she was bored on the island. She seems to be indifferent to certain things. For example, when Mavis felt a malicious force coming from the Raven Tail guild members, she was not especially worried. Though playful, she can be quite serious at times. When it came to winning the Grand Magic Games, Mavis cast aside her smile, adopting a serious persona in which she stated she would lead Fairy Tail to victory, taking charge and giving out orders.

Mavis was once given the epithet Fairy Tactician, as she led her team to many victories thanks to her exceptional skill in making strategies during battles. However, Mavis can miscalculate a strategy every now and then, and upon learning one was a failure, she usually doesn't take it well.

Among one of her most noticeable quirks is that Mavis adores being barefoot. Out of comfort, she shuns shoes and chooses to always wander around barefooted everywhere she goes, and to emphasize this conspicuous habit, she is often shown at the perspective of her feet. It is a combination of traumatic events she endured at a young age and her own preferences that caused her to develop the habit. During her childhood, she was abused by Red Lizard Guild Master Zeeself, who made her give back the one pair of shoes he bought for her after he decided she doesn't deserve them, then threw them away when his daughter refused them, forcing Mavis to go without footwear. During her time on Tenrou Island, she grows so accustomed to her lack of shoes that even when she has freedom to use shoes again, she absent mindedly forgets to wear them. When Zera notices this and scolds her, Mavis cheerfully replied she feels better barefoot. She has apparently embraced the habit wholeheartedly, as she has not been seen wearing shoes since this incident.

Another noteworthy element of her innocent and gentle nature is that she entertains a belief that fairies may exist, after her parents mentioned their existence in a fairy tale back when they were still around. As a result, this eventually inspires her with the name for her guild, and is at the core of many of the principles and values it and the vast majority of its guild members now have.

For a time, Mavis lost her kind-hearted, outgoing, and innocent demeanour. Upon discovering she had the Ankhseram Black Magic curse and would take life in return for how much she cares about it, she becomes a very frightened shell of her former self, driven to despair and madness. In this state, she starts exhibiting the concentric red eyes that Zeref has under the curse, and spends over a year in seclusion, far removed from anywhere she could possibly destroy innocent lives. Consequentially, Mavis's appearance goes from pure yet elegant to badly broken and dishevelled. She becomes so hopeless that she tries and fails to end her life through starvation, but, upon seeing how Zeref is suffering from the curse just like her, she finds new hope through feelings of empathy and love, resolving to find a way to break the curse.

However, after she is released from the curse, along with her consciousness somehow being released from her body, she regains her original good nature and cheerfulness in response to no longer being affected by the curse in her incorporeal form. However, there is a noticeable change in her behaviour towards seriousness, because of a combination of lingering darkness, guilt, sadness, and regrets hanging over her as she worries about the consequences of her past, the future of her guild, and humanity.