Levy McGarden

"We need to unite. The exam split us apart and we prioritized ourselves over our allies. But we can't stay like that now. The enemy is a great one! Therefore, we, Fairy Tail, must combine our strength and win!"

— Levy McGarden to Fairy Tail in "The Open Seam"

Levy McGarden (レビィ・マクガーデン Rebī Makugāden) is aMage of the Fairy Tail Guild. She is the leader of Shadow Gear.[1] She was a member of Magic Council's Custody Enforcement Unit, but after the defeat of Avatar, left to rejoin Fairy Tail.

Appearance
Levy is a rather young, petite teenage girl of a slender build who stands at a rather below-average height for her age. Her shoulder-length blue hair, which has eyebrow-length bangs, is normally tied up with a colorful bandana around her head. While initially portrayed as having rather straight hair, her hair has slowly gained a more wavy, wild look, with more locks hanging down the sides of her face. Levy has a variety of outfits, but her most preferred type of attire appears to be dresses and tank tops, both of which reveal the guild mark on her left scapula.[5] When performing tasks such as researching, she wears a pair of Gale-Force Reading Glasses and tends to tie up her hair to keep it out of her face.

Personality
Levy has a cheerful and upbeat personality, and as such she is, rather easily, able to get along quite well with her guildmates. Her kind spirit is shown through her reluctance to get involved in the many brawls the guild has together, as she is too nice to fight "just for fun." She is also a very forgiving person, as she reconciled with Gajeel Redfox for torturing her and her teammates before the start of the Fairy Tail-Phantom Lord war, and later allowed him to become her partner for the S-Class Promotion Trial(albeit Gajeel more or less declared himself her partner).[6]

Levy is characterized by her love for reading, which is how she and Lucy Heartfilia quickly became friends: through their mutual love of books.[7] Levy has also been the only person to read Lucy's novel with her consent, showing their level of trust in each other. At times, however, Levy can be rather competitive: before the start of the S-Class Promotion Trial, she rewrote Freed Justine's runes seemingly for the whole boat, though she quickly revealed that she merely rewrote them for Gajeel and herself.[8] Levy is also one of the more mature members of the guild, as she was the first to abandon the S-Class Promotion Trial in favor of unifying the guild members,[9] whereas some did not want to stop the trial at all.

History
Aside from having been at the guild since at least the age of 11, not much is known about Levy's past, but it is known that her fellow Shadow Gear members, Jet and Droy, have both asked her out at some point. Both, however, were rejected by her in a matter of seconds.[10][11] She was also present to welcome Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna into the guild, happily speaking with the latter two siblings.[11][12]

Magic and Abilities
Solid Script (固体文字, ソリッドスクリプト Soriddo Sukuriputo): True to her boundless interest in books, Levy's Magic is also focused around writing and words: Solid Script, a form of Letter Magic, allows her to generate words in the air and make them solid, subsequently throwing them at the enemies with different effects.[1] To create such words, Levy is shown performing gestures with one or both of her hands, depending on the spell.[174]

Solid Script: Silent (靜寂 Sairento): By moving her right arm with her index and middle fingers outstretched in a certain pattern and then extending her left hand, Levy can generate the word "Silent" some meters away from her. This can be used to stop an outer source of high-pitched noise, canceling sound-based attacks, as shown with Yomazu's Gō Spell.[175]
 * Solid Script: Fire (炎 Faia): Levy extends her right arm, with her index and middle fingers outstretched, to the right, describing an arc before her. This prompts the word "Fire" to appear in the air, this being composed of flames. This word can be employed both defensively, as shown when Levy used a variation of this spell as a burning shield to protect herself from Kawazu's Egg Buster,[176] and as a basic form of offense, with Levy sending the word at her target in an arc.[177]
 * Heat Spell: By first crossing her outstretched arms before her and then spinning around, Levy can generate the word "Fire" composed of blue flames, which is subsequently sent flying at the target.[178]


 * Solid Script: Iron: Levy can generate the word "Iron" in the air, some meters away from her. This, predictably, is composed of iron. When she created it for Gajeel in order for him to eat and replenish his strength, the hollow part in the letter "O" was stylized in the shape of heart.[179]


 * Solid Script: Guard: Levy writes a word "Guard" in the air, which creates a barrier and protects her from her opponent's attacks.[58]


 * Solid Script: Hole: Levy writes a word "Hole" on the ground, which changes it into a trap.[58]


 * Solid Script: Storm: Levy writes the word "Storm" which creates a strong gust of wind. When used in conjunction with Cana's Explosion, it is powerful enough to send Kain Hikaru flying midair.


 * Solid Script: Oil: Levy uses her right hand to write the word "Oil" in the air causing extensive amounts of black oil to gush out of the word. This can be used to immobilize the enemy.[71]


 * Solid Script: Stone: Levy generates the word "Stone" in midair and throws it towards the opponent.[180]


 * Solid Script: Air: Levy writes "Air" in midair and the materialized word ignites, engulfing a person's head with an air bubble to provide breathing in underwater situations.[181]


 * Solid Script: Markings: Levy generates a luminous path which can be followed if she is in an unknown location. The markings resemble an encircled "V" followed by a series of periods.[182]


 * Solid Script: Water: Levy writes the word "Water" immediately sending an orb of light, which transforms into water, towards the enemy.[183]


 * Solid Script: Thunder: Levy points her fingers into the air and shoots the word "Thunder" at her targeted enemies. She is able to hits multiple targets with the bolts of lightning that are formed.[184]


 * Solid Script: Drill: Levy holds out her hand and generates the word "Drill". It then starts to rotate, digging holes into rocks.[185]

Polyglot: Levy is noted for her knowledge in the field of languages, and can even translate several ancient scripts.[1] Through accurate, grammatical examination, plus the use of her Gale-Force Reading Glasses, she was capable of nullifying one of the barriers created by Freed Justine by rewriting the runes composing it.[187] Given this first experience, later on she was shown able to bypass another one of Freed's enchantments, this time in a minute, and even managing to make it so that only she and Gajeel could bypass its restrictions.[8]
 * Solid Script: Bullet: Levy waves her arm and creates the word "Bullet" from which a series of energy pellets is fired towards her target.[186]

Expert Infiltrator: By taking advantage of her short stature, Levy has been shown to be able to infiltrate and gather information from the organization, Avatar, by herself without magic. Despite easily sneaking into the ranks, she has admitted that she had difficulty getting out.[3] Furthermore, the organization were notified of a spy amidst their members, which alerted them of potential interference from the Magic Council.[188]

Equipment
Gale-Force Reading Glasses (風詠みの眼鏡 Kazeyomi no Megane): Levy, being an avid reader, possesses a pair of enchanted reading glasses that allows her to read at an extremely accelerated rate. Her specific model of Gale-Force Reading Glasses are Model 18x, something which lets her read books eighteen times faster.[189]

Light Pen (光筆 Hikari Pen): Levy possesses this specific type of pen, which she uses to rewrite runes.[190]

Artificial Keys:
 * Celestial Spirit Banishment Key (former): Banishes the Goat, Capricorn.[184]

Trivia

 * From the Volume 16 Limited Edition: Sorcerer Interview, the best quality of Fairy Tail according to Levy is that the guild has collected multiple varieties of books. She wishes to be the editor of an infamous magazine group in the future and has a good relationship with Lucy and the members of Shadow Gear. The most difficult mission she has ever taken, in her own words, was "infiltrating the home of an evil Mage as a child... I...I'm NOT a child anymore!"
 * According to Hiro Mashima, Levy was initially planned to be a mere background character.[209]

Quotes

 * (To Fairy Tail Guild members) "We need to unite. The exam split us apart and we prioritized ourselves over our allies. But we can't stay like that now. The enemy is a great one! Therefore, we, Fairy Tail, must combine our strength and win!"[210]