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derekscorner · 6 months ago

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Fated Rantings: The Grandest of Orders

Truly a grand epic

I don't know where to begin honestly. I thought that I would have it figured out once I had seen the anime but I don't. I started FGO nearly two years ago I believe after watching some Fate lore videos.

It was the free way to start but probably not the easiest starting point for the series. I have actually been clawing my way through the game as I watched all the other Fate works I could get a hold of.

If you were to look through my Fate posts you'll see that the first one is about Apocrypha and Astolfo even though that wasn't my true starting point.

But I grind no longer! Last month I finally finished the Solomon singularity on the mobile game and the night before last I finished the anime! And I'll admit that I didn't expect the anime of FGO would be that good.

I say that because despite the anime having three movies, a few specials, and a twenty something long anime it's not the full story. There is no logical way to fit FGO's initial story into an anime.

You'd have to commit to years with each singularity being an anime unto itself. So I say this again to warn you, you can not see the full story just through the anime alone.

This anime project they created is very much a companion piece to it's mobile origin. It is not like Fate Stay Night which has it's original visual novel version with various anime adaptions.

This is probably the one case in which a Fate project isn't a thing unto itself. You could watch it and research FGO to understand what's going on but I promise you that the emotional weight of the story will be halved that way.

Although, I guess you could read someone's long play of FGO on youtue if you wanted but good luck. FGO is practically a visual novel hidden within a gacha game.

Mashu Kyrielight

But enough of the warnings and intro, where do I begin? Why with the best kouhai in the world of course!

She's your main servant for this story and she's the one that bounces off the characters the most due to your insert character being silent in the game.

She does this less in the anime due to the PoV character being given a personality but I still consider her interactions more important. This poor girl is a test tube baby made with a woefully short lifespan for a specific purpose.

As a result of this origin and upbringing the poor girl is quiet and reserved. Her greatest desire is to just see a blue fucking sky. Do you know how tragic that is?

Chaldea resides in the Antarctic. The facility has windows but that area of the world will be lucky to see a clear sky one day a year. On top of all that her room is hilariously sterile with nothing but a glass roof and walls so that she can be observed.

These things aren't done to torment her, for that to be a thing Chaldea would have to see her as a person. No, it's done because they wanted her as blank a state as possible for their demi-servant experiments.

An experiment that goes bad quickly. They successfully summon and bond her to a servant but the servant is so appalled by what Chaldea has done that it immediately tries to kill the Chaldea Director Marisbury Animusphere.

This is only averted because Mash herself resists. From that moment on the servant, who turns out to be the knight Galahad, refuses to awaken. Considered a failure despite it being beyond her control, Mash is then kept around just because.

She chosen as a master candidate since she had the potential but for the most part Mash was seen as a dud by Chaldea.

Why is this important?

I'm not rambling for the sake of recapping. I want you to understand just how pure a soul this girl is. She doesn't hold grudges against people, she doesn't wish evil upon anyone, despite all of what I just listed.

That's why I find her interactions through FGO both in the game and anime more interesting than the main characters. She reacts to things in a pure and naïve way but never in an annoyingly naïve way.

She even explains why she calls your character or others "senpai". I mean, sure it's for the people that take the self insert too seriously. It's a gacha, it's Fate, let's not fool ourselves here, those people are appealed too.

But the other reason is that her life left is short and she's never left Chaldea before to experience life. To her, everyone is her "senior in life". It's silly but I also found it sad despite the story wanting me to find it sweet.

I found myself genuinely attached to this character in a sense.

I know I should provide better examples but FGO is so long that it's hard to really. I even mentioned her interactions with characters a second ago but I can't pick one that I like more than the other.

I talked about her dynamic with Lancelot in the Camelot posts but that's more to do with how Galahad views Lancelot (his father) which influences Mash.

I don't want to list the MC because they're a self insert. The dynamic between the two in the anime is good but Ritsuka himself is a bit bland so I can't exactly pick it apart.

Or perhaps I can't focus on a specific one because I liked all of them both animated and in mobile. She's a precious lil soul and I loved to see it.

Everything from her trying her best to be a servant in the Fuyuki singularity to her sacrifice against Goetia. Hell, I loved watching her fan girl over meeting Sherlock.

She's remarkably human for someone who thinks she isn't.

^ Both versions of this scene actually put a tear in my eye

Before I unintentionally make this a post about Mash I'll switch gears and talk about other characters in the Chaldean cast.

Such as our point of view character Ritsuka Fujimaru. The male version is referred to as Gudao by fans and the female Gudako respectively.

In terms of the mobile game I don't have anything to say, they're silent, self insert characters in the purest sense of the word. In the Type-Moon spin-off Carnival Phantasm the female is used in FGO skits.

I've yet to see Carnival Phantasm so I'll have to leave it out but it's worth mentioning that the female Gudako does have an animated self.

Instead, I'll focus on the male Gudao used for the FGO anime. Unlike my smartass PoV character or the unhinged Gudako from the spin-off this Fujimaru is given a very "simple" personality.

Not in the sense that they're stupid or slow on the uptake. They just do not flesh him out as much as they could due to his silent hero origins.

I find it a shame that they didn't but unlike many Fate fans I've seen I do not find this offensive either.

When they're bouncing off Mash the duo is as cute as can be but any other time Fujimaru will have a very optimistic or overly nice personality and that will either rub you the wrong way or it won't.

The only time this persona truly breaks down is when Mash falls against Goetia and he's ready to fucking throw down.

I'll even go out on a limb and say that Fujimaru does a few things well despite what I've just said. Sure, the fondness servants have for him is...uh something especially in the anime with his goddess count.

But I did see what the writers were doing. Fujimaru isn't some grand mage with a lineage nor any special powers. All versions of Fujimaru is literally just a normal person that somehow got to Chaldea after seeing a job ad.

However that is the point. In many Type-Moon works it'll boil down to a human vs a godlike or monstrous force. Fujimaru is that in the purest since.

I may joke but it makes sense for the goddess to be fond of him in the anime because he represents what a human should be and despite what the gods of Fate say they do love humans.

I'll even throw my hat into the conspiracy theorist ring and say that Gilgamesh's own inclinations toward aiding Fujimaru is due to this human fondness.

In his mind, the age of gods should be ended by the people of his era. He thinks the ordeal as a whole should be dealt with by human hands.

And despite everything Fujimaru has done that, six times over, seven once Tiamat is stopped. Again, I won't argue that FGO isn't pandering to a certain type of person but I do think our MC does right in those moments as well.

It's a normal human that convinces the goddess to turn on Tiamat, it is a normal human that fist fights with Goetia as the world is about to end, it is a normal human by nothing but the virtue of their choices that stopped Solomon's incineration of humanity.

I wish Fujimaru was given a bit more of a personality in the anime but I do see what they were going for and I can appreciate it.

Da Mona Vinci

Another Chaldean character that will grow on you in any version is Da Vinci. Why is Da Vinci a girl? Funny thing, there is no magical, logical, or even "fuck it" logic for the changed gender. Da Vinci likes beautiful things and made themselves as you see after becoming a servant.

How? I have no clue. I just find it funny that they chose the Mona Lisa as their appearance because that's a pinnacle of beauty to them. So yes, even in Fate Da Vinci was a man in life but as a servant she remade herself into her own painting which I find hilarious.

It's a testament to how silly Da Vinci actually is. She's every bit the genius she's reputed to be and can be serious and responsible quite reliably. In fact, you could argue that she's the most reliable adult there given that the only other options are Romani and what's left of the staff.

You sadly see little of her in action in the anime save for the Camelot films due to her role as a support but what scenes she gets in the anime never disappoint.

To be honest I'm not sure if she even has to stay in the command room or if she does so simply due her responsible nature of keeping it running or keeping Romani on task. The sixth singularity is the only time she really sneaks off to join you on a mission.

I also love how some of her inventions are just nods to old blueprints Da Vinci made in life. Like her vehicle she's so proud of or the small flying machine that hangs from her offices ceiling.

One of her weapons for combat is a literal fuck you gauntlet that just hits really hard. Da Vinci is a caster, that's equivalent to giving a bard a shotgun. The gauntlet even has a press like thing that makes it hit harder. Similar to when you see the mech from Big 0 finish off a monster.

By far her greatest feat is being the one being to earn even half of Romani's trust which is only seen in the final moments of the final singularity.

It's hinted that they're close or that she knows more throughout the whole story but you don't really see the gravity of that until Romani reveals himself. Speaking of which....

Romani Archaman

This fucker right here....he's shockingly complex? For most of FGO he seems like a silly and usually unreliable man but not a bad one. he genuinely cares about Mash when most do not and it is only by luck that he survives the initial bombing due to meeting Fujimaru while slacking off from work.

If you play the game you'll even learn that he's a fan of an idol called "Magi⭐Mari" whom I just learned was actually Merlin....which is a quandary that I'll save for later.

What makes him complex enough to discuss is his conflicting nature. He's the type to observe or run away despite seeing the gravity of something yet all it takes for him to take action is to see someone doing their best.

I would say that most of this is a façade but that'd be a half truth I think. He's genuinely this silly and clueless to some social cues but he is that way for a good reason....which is spoilers.

I'm going to spoil it so if you're some rare person who hasn't played FGO before this is your hint to skip ahead.

Solomon

The truth is that Romani is Solomon, the king of magecraft. The inventor of summoning magic, the last great king of a united Jewish kingdom.

More importantly, he fits into what you could call monstrous or inhuman. He had God's blessings and a miracle but he didn't really do anything with them.

Not for any morally or religious reasons, rather Solomon claims to have not had the freedom to do so. He wasn't free to be mad at humanities bullshit like Goetia was.

He didn't truly long for anything, he didn't truly live. Once he helped Marisbury win a grail war he simply wished to be human but even that was denied him in a way.

Right before Romani lost Solomon's clairvoyance he saw one last future of humanity going extinct. So now Romani felt compelled to work to stop that but fully lacking the powers Solomon had.

This is what makes Romani who he is. He was human for ten years but he says things he shouldn't and misses social cues among other things that come off as him being silly or somewhat introverted.

He just lacks the common sense as it were. You can't expect an inhuman being to just adapt instantly to the modern world in ten years. Especially when he was secretly using that time to stop his premonition.

The only person he truly opened up to was Da Vinci and I think that is due to how she is and her nature as a servant. She was summoned to Chaldea which would make her easier to trust than people within Chaldea who had been there years and possibly as sleeper agents.

Which is only more true when you realize that his other "friend" Lev truly was a sleeper agent. The anime movie glosses over it but Goetia actually planted it's 72 demon gods into the genetics of bloodlines.

One day Lev quite literally just became aware of his true nature.

I'd even argue that Romani took such a stance of being Mash's personal doctor because he identifies with her to a degree. She is denied being truly human and he finds that tragic.

In an odd sense, Goetia also identifies with Mash for that same reason. Both Romani and Goetia pity her for her life but while Romani is trying to make her as comfortable as he can with human experiences Goetia wishes to turn that into hatred.

Because both Romani and Goetia were forged from Solomon's inhuman behavior.

And it's tragic to know that even when truly human Solomon could not enjoy his time. Romani never got to live as he wished too and that's tragic in of itself.

Gonna have to make this into two parts

This has gotten a bit long. I expected it would since I had always planned to meld my impressions from FGO's game and mobile but there is way too much to put into written form.

Even what I end up having will be a fraction I think due to how long it's taken to beat Solomon's arc in the game and watch the anime.

That said, if you read this then by all means click my link below. I should have part two there by the time you find it.

P.S. A final bit of FGO lore for you. If you thought Romani and Da Vinci were cute or like an old married couple in a few scenes then relish in the fact that their japanese voice actors are married. Byeee~

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For my other experiences with Fate go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

#fated rantings #mashu kyrielight #romani archaman #fate da vinci #goetia #ritsuka fujimaru #fgo #fate grand order

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