Of course his plan failed. It failed from the second he made it. He didn't even know what he really wanted anyway. He wanted a stronger guild, but he didn't actually know what that meant. All he though about was power, not actual strength. He didn't even want THAT anyway, he wanted people to recognize him for who he is. Laxus had a huge inferiority complex steaming from his childhood, and even though he became really strong, he never stopped feeling week. But he never realized he wasn't actually feeling week, he was feeling alone. So yeah, his plan failed from the start. He didn't actually hate the other members of Fairy Tail or the guild. Fairy Law is proof of that, since you can't lie to your own heart.
As for the others, I really don't think they were out to kill. If what she said was true, Evergreen could have killed all the girls the second everyone started fighting, since there was no way of them knowing the girls were dead. Freid could have insta-killed EVERYONE he met, yet didn't. Anyone of his traps could have killed. "Anyone entering this space will die". It was as easy as that.
which proves my claim at the start of the arc true, I felt bad for Laxus, but he realized his mistake far too late, he thought everyone was looking at him as the grandson of the gramps, but actually, no one in the guild ever thought about it, he was Fairy tail member for everyone, an S class wizard, they knew he was gramps grandson, and were proud of that, but they respected him for his power not heritage, he was a little fool, be he strong or weak, they loved him all the same in Fairy Tail, too bad he didn't see that, well, no he does

I so wish I was at Fantasia ^^ it looked awesome

everyone doing their best to entertain instead of fighting, purely awesome, Juvia and Grey combo was great indeed

everyone did an awesome job

Mira didn't disappointed XD
and gramps looked like he had a lot of fun

Erza was great as well, and Natsu was having fun too

i wish I was there
