Nullpuding
Kanji	ナルプディング
Rōmaji	Narupudingu
Characteristics
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Hair Color	Blonde
Eye Color	Black
Professional Status
Affiliation	Raven Tail
Occupation	Mage
Team	Team Raven Tail
Base of Operations	Raven Tail Guild
Personal Status
Status	Active
Magic
Magic	Needle Magic
Debuts
Manga Debut	Chapter 263
Anime Debut	Episode 154
Portrayal
Japanese Voice	Eiji Miyashita
Image Gallery

Nullpuding (ナルプディング Narupudingu) is a Mage of the newly legalized Raven Tail guild, as well as one of its elite members.^[1]

Contents 1 Appearance 2 Personality 3 Synopsis 3.1 Grand Magic Games arc 4 Magic and Abilities 5 Battles & Events 6 References 7 Navigation

AppearanceEdit

Nullpuding is a short, stocky, visibly hunched and yet quite well-built man with blond hair, which is kept slicked back, with a widow's peak and prominent sideburns. Oddly enough, his skin color is pale violet. He possesses a massive head, round black eyes, a flat nose and a distinctive black goatee on his massively bulbous chin, which splits into two points. He seems to always carry a wide smirk on his face, showing his clenched teeth. Nullpuding's torso and head are quite large in comparison to his thinner arms and legs.^[2][3]

Draped over Nullpuding's hunched back is a white cloth acting as a cape, with two large, red motifs reminiscent of stylized suns adorning its sides. Nullpuding's chest is wrapped in bandages,^[4] under which he seems to wear a dark shirt with sleeves reaching down below his elbows, where they end in large, bolted armbands. His outfit is completed by a pair of dark olive pants, held up by a light, bolted belt, and simple shoes.^[5]

PersonalityEdit

Nullpuding seems to act in a sly way, being shown sneaking behind his foes, mocking opponents' faults^[6] and trying to take advantage of the rules to help with his guild's advancement. He also appears to be unfailingly polite, apologizing profusely before pointing out things to important people,^[7] and even referring to others, even to his peers, with the honorific suffix "-san";^[8] something which somehow increases his aura of meanness. Much like the rest of Raven Tail, Nullpuding appears to have enmity for the Fairy Tail guild: during the Grand Magic Games's Hidden event, as noted by spectators, he was shown targeting almost exclusively the Mages from Fairy Tail, Gray Fullbuster and Juvia Lockser, with a particular penchant for assaulting the former, and sniggered in satisfaction every time he managed to hamper or strike "fairies".^[9][10]

SynopsisEdit

Grand Magic Games arcEdit

Nullpuding is first shown alongside Ivan Dreyar and some fellow Raven Tail members in the guild's headquarters.^[2] Later on, he appears again with four guildmates to compete in the Grand Magic Games, with their team having ranked 3rd during the preliminary contest "Sky Labyrinth".^[4] Soon after all the guilds who made it to the main event are announced, Raven Tail decides that Nullpuding will be participating in the first event, "Hidden".^[11]

Nullpuding, like the other selected participants, nears the pumpkin announcer, and, as Eve Tearm and Beth joke around with the mysterious individual, politely goes on to state that the teams haven't been explained the contest's rules yet, subsequently claiming that, having two participants from two different teams, respectively Gray Fullbuster from Team A and Juvia Lockser from Team B, Fairy Tail is advantaged. Mato goes on to state that it's legitimate for two teams of the same guild to compete, and then proceeds to start the contest, with the Games' arena magically turning into a town and separating the participants, Nullpuding included, from one another. Each competitor's goal will be to find opponents and land blows on them in order to gain points, at the same time avoiding to hit the numerous copies of themselves which were magically generated for the contest; an action which would result in a loss of points.^[12]

Later on, Nullpuding appears behind Gray Fullbuster, stating that Gray should have better listened to the contest's rules and introducing himself. Gray proceeds to attack him with a hammer produced with his Ice-Make Magic, only to lose one point, with Nullpuding being revealed to have switched places with one of his clones, having maneuvered near him in order to fool Gray.^[6] As the contest progresses and Gray wanders around, posing as a simple clone of himself, Nullpuding once again appears behind him, this time attacking him, something which grants him one point and prompts Gray to lose another one. As he falls, Gray angrily notices Nullpuding went for him again, with the Raven Tail Mage teasingly asking if he has something wrong with that.^[13]

Having taken the lead,^[14] Nullpuding proceeds to gather more points by assaulting Fairy Tail's competitors once again. He is momentarily struck, alongside the others, by Eve Tearm's attacks, and then keeps chasing after Gray, this until Rufus targets all competitors through the use of his Memory-Make Magic. Nullpuding is the only one capable of avoiding the offending spell, and subsequently tries to counter-attack, only to find out his target was just a past memory of Rufus, and to be attacked himself.^[15] Moments later he's shown, unharmed, kicking Gray, sniggering in satisfaction as he does so. In the end, Nullpuding ranks 2nd in the Hidden event, having gained 8 points, with only Rufus having done better than him, with 10 points for Sabertooth.^[16]

In the second day, after the battle of his Guildmate Kurohebi, he, alongside Flare Corona, were the only ones to laugh at Toby after Kurohebi ripped up his sock.^[17]

After Obra gets a low score at the Magic Power Finder part of the game, Nullpudding replies to Flare, who asked him what he's doing, that Obra is a man who needs to be forced to show his true strength. After everyone else did the test, Nullpudding hands the match-ups for the next battle portion to "Alexei", to which "Alexei" asks all members of his team whether they should get started with their real objective.^[18]

During "Alexei's" matchup against Laxus Dreyar in the third day's battle portion, "Alexei" reveals himself to be Ivan Dreyar while using an illusion to fool the audience. Ivan then orders Laxus to tell him Lumen Histoire's location, and the rest of Team Raven Tail comes to threaten Laxus. However, Laxus shows determination to defeat them all.^[19]He uses his magic to attack Laxus but is quickly defeated by him. ^[20]Nullpuding and his teammates are later taken out of the arena by the Custody Enforcement Unit after their team was disquailifed from the Grand Magic Games.^[21]

Magic and AbilitiesEdit

Needle Magic: Nullpuding has shown himself capable of altering his body structure in a way reminiscent of a pufferfish, prompting spikes of different sizes to protrude outwards from various parts of his body, among which are his face, arms and even hair, and similarly possessing the power to more or less drastically enlarge selected parts of his body, such as his arms or torso, making it look like he can bloat himself up. Nullpuding employs such Magic in melee combat to great effect: while altering most of his body, he's usually shown enlarging either one^[22] or both of his arms to various degrees and covering them in spikes of different sizes and forms, turning his fists and forearms into deadly "weapons" reminiscent of morning stars, with which he strikes foes. Through the use of his magic, Nullpuding was able to assault and harm Juvia Lockser, who's usually impervious to physical attacks due to her water body.^[23]

• Needle Blast (ニードルブラスト Niidoru Burasuto): Nullpuding moves forward, with both arms protruding spikes, to hit the target with it. Nullpuding used this as an attempt to hold off Laxus in their battle with Ivan.^[24]

Enhanced Agility: Nullpuding has shown to possess remarkably great speed, having been the only Mage participating in the Grand Magic Games' Hidden event capable of avoiding Rufus' blast, having done so by spinning his round body on itself, and of immediately counter-attacking; the latter action also proved Nullpuding able to jump to extreme heights, reaching Rufus, who was standing on top of a tower, tens of meters above him, with a single leap from the ground.^[25]

Enhanced Perception: Nullpuding is deceptively perceptive, having been capable of finding out who the real Gray Fullbuster was among the multitude of the copies generated by the Grand Magic Games' Hidden event, something which left even Erza Scarlet, an S-Class Mage from Fairy Tail, blank.^[13]

Expert Hand to Hand Combatant: Nullpuding seems to favor the use of unarmed combat, employing it in conjunction with his Needle Magic and sneak-attacks to take opponents off-guard, and has proven himself a capable hand-to-hand combatant even without the use of his melee-oriented Magic, being shown using a series of remarkable acrobatic motions, often performed in midair, to assault his foes: he sneak-attacked Gray Fullbuster with a spinning flying kick performed vertically,^[10] and was shown packing a direct punch against Rufus after performing an impressive leap, despite his target having been later revealed to be just a a past memory of him.^[25]

Battles & EventsEdit

• Sky Labyrinth
• X791 Grand Magic Games Inauguration
• Hidden (Event)
• Laxus Dreyar vs. Team Raven Tail
• Team Raven Tail's Arrest

ReferencesEdit

NavigationEdit

v • d • eRaven Tail Members
Guild Master	Ivan Dreyar
Mages	Nullpuding • Flare Corona • Obra • Kurohebi • Unnamed Mage
Teams
Team Raven Tail	Ivan Dreyar • Nullpuding • Flare Corona • Obra • Kurohebi
Former Members
Left	Gajeel Redfox (ruse)