#Jalter ish but not really

[mordred-custody-battle-royale]

Pinned Post WIP

(Addendum number ?/???: Fuck it, spoilers ahead. I don't know much more than vague details about JP FGO or anything in NA after the Tunguska mess got me off the game, but anything else even beyond the basic Stay Night VN parts are fair game for open spoilers. Should be obvious and not an issue if you're here, but you know...it's tumblr)

(Preface: I will have zero patience for trans discourse regarding Mordred, Caenis, Artoria, or any of the usual suspects. I'm not super attentive to tumblr, less so to sideblogs, but I will turn on notifications for this if I have to and smack that down ASAP. If you have something negative to say about Mordred holding a sword to someone's throat over misgendering incidents, please hold that thought and vote without commenting specifically about that. I will only ask nicely about this once.)

(Also should go without saying, but this is a relatively sfw-ish sideblog, not the usual horny trans job search death sentence. I have one of those and I am careful about only sharing the url with VERY trusted partners. You can get weird and horny in the usual ways, just keep it to text and FGO official art gacha level ecchi visuals, there's a lot of times and places for fem presenting nips, this isn't that)

I'll make a more solid edit to this pinned post as stuff gets figured out.

Basically, I want to do a tumblr poll tournament about who would make the best parent to Mordred of the bizarre Fate/Nasuverse canon.

There will the obvious choices (Vanilla Saber, Shirou, Salter, Proto Arthur, Sisigou), the obvious comedically bad fuckups (Merlin, Morgan, Lancer Alter, Oberon), some Saber-thirsting lesbian choices (Jalter, Medea, Rin), whatever other random ones I'm feeling (Mash, Guda, Dr. Roman, Da Vinci, Goredolf)

As much as the Pendragon family history is teeming with incest, I'd try to avoid the weirder choices with that (Gawain, Gareth, Aggravain) or the Mordred personal romance options (Caenis, Fran, the rest of the Saber-thirsting-runs-in-the-family crowd, you get it)

Same goes for the child characters people get weird about. We're not putting in Jack the Ripper, Paul Bunyan, Nursery Rhyme, Abigail Williams, The Littlest Santa Jalter, etc, no amount of "She's actually a 2000 year old edtritch dragon god" will make me comfortable about doing that.

Other than that, I'll be open to taking complete left field dumb ass gag choices like Sasuke Uchiha or Goku or other comedically inept anime parents.

At the end of the day, it's still a dumb fun little Tumblr poll tournament about The Cooler betttermyths dot com, and I want people to chill, enjoy it, and vote with their hearts, favoritism, or whatever they just find really funny to pick.

So, more on this as developments happen, but I'll leave the Maury banner, synopsis post pinned, and the Memories at Trifas CE avatar for now and change it later if by some miracle, Kairi motherfucking Sisigou doesn't sweep the whole thing.

EDIT: I don't think I'm including Astolfo btw, I can barely handle that pink loaded Discourse gun on my own time, I don't want to even try to deal with them here.

EDIT 2: Visit bettermyths sometime for real though, it's basically Fate with even less seriousness, good gay little summaries of myths and legends, and like Nasu's works, it can be a fun gateway drug to looking up the source material. Highly recommend it.

[300iqprower]

Hot Take: BERSAKA is in the Jalter camp of canon being conflated with fanon and his FGO portrayal as an utterly mindless being, an ACTUAL “Chaotic-Insane” personality (or rather lackthereof one), is more accurate to his original concept than a lot of his portrayal in the later Heaven’s Feel movies.

Much like how in fanworks and general discussions Avenger Jalter is often just portrayed/thought of as an angrier version of her Chuuni Berserker swimsuit alt (a version that was intended for a comedic non-canon spinoff event thatvwas explicitly poking fun at the idea she’s actually just an edgelord tsun) in fan works Heracles pretty much has his Strange Fake mindset/values (one of coherent thought and strong silence rather than roaring rampage) imposed on his berserker self. It’s even to the point where, like with Jalter, Nasu/DW started to canonically merge the two and cater to fanboys rather than stand their ground for fucking once, having a direct indication that they always WERE one and the same in the third Heaven’s Feel movie, in a shoutout that was very much not even remotely in the original.

I started thinking about this when i saw a complaint that in FGO Bersaka is less a character and more a living hazard, which is absolutely accurate with his own interlude describing him in similar terms as a “Walking Natural Disaster” or something like that. The conflation is essentially that everyone expects Heracles to be this “Protector” because of Carnival Phantasm Ilya memes and his Strange Fake self. Rather than being thought of as this utter demigod, NEAR IMMORTAL monster who is only kept from exerting hinself to death from the moment he’s summoned because this absolute freak of nature with hundreds to thousands of command seals is his master, he’s pretty much by default just seen as this protective dad who can only communicate through screaming.

So in summary what we’re left with is, like with Jalter, a part of the tragedy of the character being left behind. I was never big on Bersaka but I loved his concept of how it portrayed the overflowing power trope. I loved the idea that in a cruelly ironic fate, the incarnation of this universally iconic mythical hero who attained godlihood, must now take a form that is utterly lacking in humanity because of the power granted by that godhood. Like Jalter its not been entirely lost, but you can see it’s gonna keep fading if it keeps going down that path.

[switch]

(i have no idea if my ask went thru last time so i'm sorry if i'm saying this twice lol) i'm rolling for assassin li shuwen on the new years 2021 banner! he's the only new servant i really want up for the next year-ish so i'm hoping to np2+ him too. good luck with skadi btw, can't wait to see all the salt from that banner

ohh right i forgot he’s on that. if you’re going for np2+ you might mlb that arts CE while you’re at it... that’d be good as fuck. wish mori was on that banner at some point like he was with the last new year’s banner just so i had an excuse to try for that ce lol. and ty! yeah i’m expecting that banner to be.. a lot for NA. i feel like we haven’t had a banner that people are gonna lose their minds over that much since like jalter. god i just hope i can get her with some reasonable amount of sq or tickets leftover...

[coe-lilium]

god reading your tags about amakusa's life makes so sad and yet so grateful that at least he's somewhat experiencing happiness and acting like a "normal" + dorky 17 year old kid in chaldea... idk what happens in vol. 4-5 in apo, but I know at least in his interlude that he still hasn't given up his wish, so he basically suppresses all hatred, but that also means suppressing happiness = no strong ties to anyone??? I wonder how he feels about being a "teacher" for lily, a hs who can still "grow"

JEANNE TOO MY GOD I love how she acts like a “person,” bickering + getting help from amakusa (like siblings), being happy that she gets another little sister, acting a little childish towards guda when they say that “she multiplied again…”, her convos with cas!gilles and santalter, the very little interactions that she had with the charas in that 1 goddamn event gave more characterization for jeanne to me than her having to fucking babysit sieg… it also helped me appreciate jack more too…

This is a big mood of mine too anon: “Let the Ruler kids relax and be happy 2kforever”

In fact, I might as well stop looking into the historical event at all and stay in my happy Fate lane, because I really don’t have the stomach for it (let’s just say that Avenger Shirou’s Reality Marble make absolute sense and I have no difficulties understanding him. Also some vivid graphic mental images to picture with that RM and let’s leave it at that). 

If anything, I’ve come to appreciate his Fate incarnation more and more so… profit? Profit. 

Bless Chaldea, truly (btw, since you’re liking “Rulers kids bickering but working together towards a common goal”, the Dantes event should be of you liking too, try look it up).

About the cutting off part now, I don’t think he did it for all the feelings. 

The constant smirk is absolutely a mask and man does he drop it and get angry when poked where it hurts (one of the few instances where I prefer the anime), but even in Apo he has no problem goofing around or being more relaxed with Semi or Shakespeare. He even seems to have cared for Risei and Kirei and Apo mats confirm he wanted to help the younger step brother but had to keep away once he got the gist of Kirei’s true nature. 

Then we have this blast of an event (have you seen the Tuxedo Mask-like animation when he arrives? Priceless) and even in the interlude, before getting the Grail become a possibility he’s quite relaxed and troll-ish.

The JAlter Lily question is interesting. On top of teaching in general, in particular I wonder if she reminds him of his younger siblings (I’m positive he had at least one sister since she’s been reported as… well, the one who had to identify him). Plus, they were low nobility ok, but a family of Daimyo nonetheless. Surely they trained together? And now this kid is replicating his moves in combat. 

I don’t know how much of what I’m reading into the event/gameplay was intended (but Higashide absolutely knows of his sister, in my defence), but it’s a warm headcanon to think about so I’m keeping it. 

Changing Rulers… praise the Lord above for savage af Jeanne, I’ve been waiting so long for this part of her to appear/be recognised in Fate! 

It adds to the character and was one of my favourite discoveries when I read up on her!

Now I have hopes for the day they drop in a reference of that one time she chased a soldier and a prostitute out of the camp brandishing her sword and threatening him to either marry her or stop using her, or else.  

Let her be her snarky self 2kforever.   

GO Jack is absolutely precious and I can’t believe they managed to make me care for her when all I felt in Apo was boredom. But then again, it’s not that she had interactions with different people in it, so.               

[cielospeaks]

2018 new servant headcanons

-team natm is. uh something. i gotta work out the kinks on it maybe next year

-in any case napoleon takes well to being the uncle/big brother of both natm and batea teams. the latter is so small that he ends up getting pretty close to sajalterko and billy, theyre both younger ish? smaller for sure

-the twins are really hecking into sal. will not stop making love love eyes at him whenever they run into him. the twins also have a hinako shrine and cheer her name whenever they go summoning

-cleone never knew the crypters, but she doesnt like to see them get hurt. she’s vowed to get her brothers friend caddock back to the best of her ability. ophelia is still comatose but what meager doctors they have (the twins and sanson) are always on call by her side, napoleon too.

-tho nanashi is still sad at the absence of caddock hes made friends with the 20 mozarts and 1 cu that live in second archive

-emperor and napoleon are both like. big friend energy. in completely different ways ofc, but theyre both loud and dramatic. the twins and cleone dote on them, and they both are always there to cheer them up

-drake usually doesnt get as much opportunity to fight, due to being the third 5 star rider. but she for sure supports everyone whenever they need her help. she has been approached eagerly by ryoma to share her stories w him

-kintoki has his hands full with two shutens now! but kintoki has two hands! and the two shutens get along well. they tease the heck out of him relentlessly. medb tho sees another shuten and insists that cleone roll for her next summer. she gotta compete w shute and kiyo too

-jalterkos feelings have mellowed out a bit abt jalter, its been abt 2 years and she has more faith in her own autonomy and identity. so when jalter zerker comes home shes more excited than anything to see her big sister. billy and napoleon of course back her up 100 percent of the way. she also ends up gaining a “big bro” in sieg, who knew her other big sis from apoc

-bryn and schehe, who came home abt the same time, make somewhat of friends with each other. theyre both more quiet and prefer to have alone time, so sometimes they help each other out when either is feeling overwhelmed

-the twins and cleone absolutely adore shion and captain ofc. tho surprisingly they arent as much of a fan of the new hq, and sometimes will still sleep in the motorhome. especially nanashi, he tends to sleep there, one mozart or more around him making sure the others stay quiet to let him rest

[cielospeaks]

rating the free fgo servants

halloween: liz is ok, im kinda.... maa maa abt her, like shes not a big fave but im also not like opposed to her? i support this smug cosplaying dragon (esp after the nasty comments abt brave liz and how small chested ladies “arent allowed” to wear bikinis bc they “look bad” as compared to larger chested ones) also hyped as heck for shuten! i have regular shute, she was one of my first 5 stars, but im looking forward to this shuten too!

christmas: tbh? some of the best(?) overall free servants, like personalitywise. like santa alter is so cute and good probably a bit more fond of her than alter in the other parts of fate tbh, jalter lily is an absolute gem and heck all those people in the na fanbase who act gross abt her who dare i say gets better development than most of the fan favorite characters, santa altera is so cute and ive been fond of altera since day 1, so it was really nice to get her in the event (i even cleared the damn story for her tbh)! so like overall christmas servants are always good. dont heck this up 2018

collab: id say also like overall really good? knk- good story, good characters, free shiki! shiki is amazing and i lov her. fz- not fond of the story but its better than canon, all my fondness goes to iri tbh and shes the free servant sooo!!!! tbh i could barely get through the rerun for that reason prilya- good story, good characters, free kuroe! shes strong and cute so extremely good! apoc- good ish story (i wanted to see the apoc masters + the rulers back too but :^) especially after they did the same for zero without even a decent reason), great characters, free sieg caster! all around good! raids are..... ehhh but its ok. i also didnt play the extra one bc of the annoying difficulty spike so i cant comment on it

gudaguda: also very good overall? but that just might be me getting back into bakumatsu era stuff and hard ; ; 3 star limited servants is silly but i do like izou so... u good dude. difficulty spike was actually fairly fair and still enjoyable for guda3? guda1 and 2 were also fun, the free servants were all three good and enjoyable. nobukatsu when

summer: hhhhhonestly besides summer 1 im not sssssuper a fan of the free servants? like im neutral towards ishtar and mixed feelings? abt jalter tbh. but its better than the other options for summer servants that people wanted shishou is amazing tho and i lov her. summer events are..... something? tbh mostly just like a time kill but it is cute to see the servants in their summer wear. they kinda got all my faves out of the way in year 1 tbh. tho im still gonna try for ibaraki next year

other: like other free servants not pertaining to any of the above- i think its only lily saber and kintoki rider? saber lily is good and pure keep her away from the nasty camelot crew tbh. kintoki rider is also really sweet! ive grown fond of kintoki and im glad we got a version of him for free! tbh more like “free servant but not specific to a theme” events are good. event beethoven or schubert from a vienna mini event when