Can Dragonslayers eat their own magic?


Early in the anime, Lucy asked Natsu if he could eat his own fire. Natsu
explained that it would be like Lucy eating one of her Celestial Spirits.
While this tells us that Natsu won't do it, it leaves the possibility open.

Given how Angel treated her spirits, I could imagine a more evil wizard being
willing to eat their spirit if desperate enough. So, could a more evil dragon
slayer eat their own magic? Would it make them more powerful or just back to
the state they were in prior to casting the spell?




**They can't eat their own magic.** It was only recent (in chapter 391) that
Silver reminded us of this during his fight with Gray.

We saw a flashback of Natsu saying he can't eat his own flames.

[![enter image description
here!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DKUG9m.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DKUG9.png)

Then two panels later, Silver confirmed this by blocking Gray's attack, using
Silver's magic, instead of eating the ice as he did before. As Natsu has,
Silver then mentioned he can not eat his own magic.

[![enter image description
here!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1wkyAm.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1wkyA.png)

To be honest it doesn't make sense that they are physically incapable of
eating their magic, but if they could Silver would have been able to eat
Gray's attack instead of having to block. I guess Natsu being Natsu made an
incorrect analogy, back in chapter 5.

[![enter image description
here!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2uAbUm.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2uAbU.png)  
[![enter image description
here!](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WNsRsm.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WNsRs.png)




I think they can, but they just wouldn't gain any energy like they would from
other sources, so it's just completely pointless. There have been points with
dragonslayers in pretty tight pinches, and I'm pretty sure one of them would
have at some point eaten their own magic if there were any point in doing so/
if it's even possible.

I think Natsu was just making a bit of a stupid analogy when he said it was
like Lucy eating celestial spirits, at no point has there been any suggestion
that a dragonslayer's element is in some way alive, and he's more than happy
to fire off bursts of fire that presumably must burn out eventually, I don't
think ethics come into it at all, just practicality.

