#been thinking for a while that it's a good thing that Guda wasn't present for that one convo between Musashi and Mash in LB1

[picaroroboto]

Nothing illustrates the idea that during part 2 Mash has been undergoing positive character development while Guda has been sliding backwards like LB6 does. Mash goes on this whole fantasy novel adventure, apart from Guda for much of the time, and regains the resolve and will to fight that she'd been losing since the start of part 2. She even got Galahad's powers back, albeit temporarily! While Guda...well...I guess you could say they regained something thanks to breaking out of the Garden on their own but it's never been more abundantly clear that their mental health is hanging on by a thread. And those threads' names are Romani Archaman and Mash Kyrielight.

#fgo #fate/grand order #guda #ritsuka fujimaru #mash kyrielight #lostbelt 6 #lostbelt 6 spoilers #cosmos in the lostbelt #been thinking for a while that it's a good thing that Guda wasn't present for that one convo between Musashi and Mash in LB1 #like Guda's struggling so much that knowing Mash is having doubts and second thoughts and not enjoying their adventures as much any more #could possibly be the final straw for them if they knew.

[morsking]

So how did you enjoy reading FGO Summer Camp for NA, especially with the EMIYA scenes?

Personally I enjoyed them a lot, his inner Shirou showing, and his interactions with other characters were a great source of entertainment.

if i'm being honest, it wasn't as good as i expected it would be. while i do enjoy the occasional horror story and was entertained by the horror gimmick of the event story, i found the characterization here incredibly flanderized, and the twists in the story weren't as impactful as they were cracked up to be.

i do not think it was all that clever to give us a child kiara if the only thing that did was create a non-mystery about her identity. the player knows she's kiara. there's no need to beat around that bush, because they also put her summer version in the gacha knowing she was already pretty popular. and then there's the flipside of that problem. that guda once again meets kiara bears absolutely no meaning, at least from my perspective, because guda still cannot recall the events of SERAPH, and therefore there is no meaningful development of the relationship between the player character and kiara. if guda had been amnesiac about SERAPH, and then remembered its events when confronting kiara at the end of the servant summer camp story, maybe that would've been more compelling. perhaps servant summer camp was more informative to people who did not play ccc and did not know about kiara's inclination towards hans christian andersen's fairy tales and her more endearingly childish and innocent side. but to those of us who were already aware, it doesn't really give us anything new that re-contextualizes that trait in an interesting way. and maybe this is just me, but if child kiara and adult kiara had had a dynamic like that of minidusa and gorgon in babylonia, i would've enjoyed it a lot more.

however i do think there's something relevant and well-executed in xu fu's introduction and her relationship with yu meiren. it does carry parallels to the main story, where we found out specimen E was experimented upon by being exposed to all kinds of human-designed violence in an attempt to understand and harness it. xu fu attempting to inflict mortality upon yu is a way of grounding the divine, a theme present in the entirety of cosmos in the lostbelt. there is also the theme of unintended consequences born from a disturbingly innocent cruelty, as if to remind us that these epic apocalyptic events in fgo are the result of human flaw, often human flaw mixing with good intentions, rather than something alien or unfathomably evil. that's also an idea originating from the visual novel, and it's still quite good here.

and yeah, though they weren't particularly deep, it was really nice to see moments where archer just lays back a bit and acts like the young man he didn't get to be. it really shows that deep down all emiya shirou, no matter the name or form, really wants is to be someone his loved ones can depend on. seeing archer be unironically and unapologetically helpful is heartwarming. it really shows just how far he's come in his journey from being a person who hides his desire to be good behind his bitterness to becoming someone who will vocally refuse to turn his back on anyone who needs help. seeing him get giddy and excited over old hardware also healed 5000 points of hp, cleared all debuffs, increased my np gauge by 100%, and gave me 5 stages of overcharge on my np. remember to thank your hakunos for the malewife therapy.

[thessaliah]

What do you think about the ones who claim Olga is Fujimaru's Sakura?

I assume they are trolling, using unfortunate very loose/broad strokes comparisons, but if they seriously mean a 1:1 parallel (unlike Goetia vs Guda in the Temple which was even driven as a stronger 1:1 parallel to Kotomine and Shirou by giving him that suicide mystic code), I don't know what to say. More politely, one thing in my mind is that they never actually read or watched Heaven's Feel. 

IMO if used as 1:1, it's completely insulting to Shirou, Shirou/Sakura, and Sakura to compare her with this situation. Specifically, I read someone who brings them being guilty about failing Olga as the same thing? Like what? Shirou didn't choose to save Sakura because he felt guilt for her sad past: Shirou saved Sakura because he loved her. She was a fixture in his life for years and the person that was his crutch when he was dealing with his depression after Kiritsugu's death. To Shirou, Sakura is "home" according to Rin, in the UBW route. He agonisingly debated what to do about this for many days, considering killing her directly or indirectly via Rin (if Zouken could use her, before even knowing about the Shadow!), so that wasn't even an easy decision to make. It hurt to read how he considered all the lives he's putting in danger for her sake too. Ultimately, he loves Sakura. That's why he chose to be her ally. Choosing to be Sakura's ally or justice's ally is also Shirou's arc in HF.

It wasn't guilting for what he heard that her life was at all what turned the situation around, and this is important because Shirou has been struggling with Survivor's Guilt since he was a child because only he was saved by Kiritsugu from that fire. Facing his guilt, Shirou refused to use the alleged Holy Grail's wish to save the children in the church's basement. Accepting that failure (the unsaved scorn), his own impotence, and moving on was liberating to Shirou. He tries to save Saber because he loves her again. That's the factor.

Guda has saved a number of damsels in distress (Goredolf included) without any deeply emotional bond forged or love toward them: Corday, Gogh, Yang, Koyan, to name a few. The priestess even witnessed the player's choice of how to handle the Corday situation. There's no need to bond between Olga and Fujimaru to compare it with Sakura and Shirou-- that's bogus, and she's just one of the many chicks that Fujimaru shallowly white knights without any inner debate about the moral of (and not so moral) consequences of their actions. It's not an ongoing character arc, Fujimaru has done this, again and again, there's no exploration or growth from their character in that choice (and that's why is presented as a quick feel-good ticky box instead of a serious inner struggle), but a “samey” action they have repeat time and time again as part of their characterization. While saving Sakura was pivotal for Shirou's arc in HF, Fujimaru's arc is around this 'answer' they are proud of which seems divorced from Olga, she's just a plot feature to them (not saying Olga is a plot device, because I bet she’ll have an arc of her own, but what means to Guda). She would be, IMO, a more important figure in Mash's arc which is about deciding what to protect, fill her void, and how she lacks resolve in her actions, and that's why Galahad put her on read.

Avalon le Fae and Traum are driving to the point to separate Mash and Guda characters more and more. They might support each other, but their scenes are now independent of each other instead of being an echo chamber of two.

It's very easy to forget too Sakura wasn't the only "I want to save them" individual. Shirou wanted to save Illya too (he failed). Bazett wanted to save Angra Mainyu. Kotomine directly drew parallels between U Olga and Angra Mainyu in his "blessing life to be born" with Specimen E's background being more similar to Angra Mainyu than Sakura's issues with the Matou family. With the dual Olga possibility, it seems more of a call-out to CCC Sakura AIs than HF one. Hakuno wanted to save them too. Loops and simulations, dreams and fantasy played a role in CCC and FHA too, not HF. It doesn't mean the resolution is the same, but there are already strong roots in this. I believe Olga will be a more active party as BB/the Mooncell Sakura was than FSN Sakura was in the finale resolution too.

#fgo ask #meta #speculation