VotedforKodos

No, the mobile game said show is based on.

Plot unfolds in a way that Natsu doesn’t get sent to the future, and is instead actually contained in the Book of E.N.D., which makes its ways across the world. It acts kind of like a genie lamp, such that he has to obey the person who has the book. Eventually it makes its way into Mavis’s hands during Blue Skull’s attack on Red Lizard. From there, plot reaches the current era where people regularly try to get their hands on the book to get control of him. Primarily females because he’s slightly less prone to actively sabotaging them than when a male has the Book. So a series of women having the Book of E.N.D. and control of Natsu, and using it for both power plays and sex. Natsu goes along with it because he kind of has to, but also because being an long-lived Etherious leaves him basically viewing it all as unimportant in the long-term. But one rule stands out above the others: Mavis is his favorite Master, because she was the first one who was kind to him, and the first one who used him as something other than just a beat stick to overpower enemies.

I don’t dismiss things that happen within the VN aspects, even if I find them weird and questionable. EMIYA definitely killed Hercules 6 times, Sasaki definitely pushed back every Servant in the Fifth War, Lancer definitely fought Gilgamesh for 12 hours. I don’t question Bobmiya destroying the asteroid. But for comparison, look at fighting games like Unlimited Codes, where some of the Masters fight and win the Grail War by themselves, and that can happen because of game balancing. Do I doubt EMIYA could beat all the opponents in Extra or CCC? Not particularly, but not in a straight, open fight the way it happens. And what I’ve been able to find says that in Extella, in the other timeline he did have the Regalia and he lost to Altera before moving to the main timeline. As for Karna, no, it doesn’t show him fighting the Velber, but it does show that that timeline does continue, so someone had to have, and given that he beat everyone else, he’s the best candidate. I honestly don’t think either of us is going to budge on the topic, and power level debates aren’t what we’re here for. At least not this kind. But for really crazy “plot writes the power level,” in FGO, Mashu is the only Servant that canonically goes along with Gudao to fight Goetia, and then she dies protecting Gudao. Which means that, until Solomon himself shows up, it’s just Gudao fighting against Goetia. A single, normal mage, fighting against one of the Beasts.

Eh, a lot of that comes down to Extra, which kind of plays fast and loose with a lot of universal mechanics. Like, the “representation of nameless heroes” thing is something that I’ve basically never seen brought up or taken seriously. As for why, maybe because it makes his power level unquantifiable, or because it goes against a preferred idea of him being (comparatively) a normal guy who just took wanting to be a hero too far and happened to have the right skill-set to go as far as he did, or because people think having EMIYA be the face of ALL the nameless heroes throughout history is just wanking. Even all the stuff with Kiara is debatable, because a)video game mechanics means you have to be able to fight and defeat the final boss, even if it doesn’t really work with the logic of the setting, b)the Sakura clones that she absorbed to become the final boss resisted from within because they wanted to save Hakuno, and c)Kiara became the demon god by using Andersen’s Noble Phantasm, which works on the basis of the story and Andersen’s own vision as an author, and he couldn’t allow something as convenient and simple as her becoming the “ideal self” she imagined just by absorbing them. And the stuff that he did in that alternate timeline also came with having the Regalia that gives control of the Moon Cell. Compared to, for example, Karna, who did the same thing (soloing Nero and Altera’s factions, as well as the Velber) on his own abilities… I like EMIYA. He’s one of the most interesting characters in Fate, and a better portrayal of the flaws in wanting to be a hero than most fiction. But within the universe, his role is to be Batman: smarter, more knowledgeable, and more prepared than basically everyone else. And making him that much stronger, making him actually physically comparable to other Servants is basically like making Batman from Krypton: now you have someone who is smarter than everyone, has a plan to defeat everyone, and is also strong and fast enough that he can still fight everyone without those things, and who really wants that?

Mumei, Nameless, it’s one of the names people use for Archer as he appears in non-Stay Night works, since him being Shirou doesn’t come up and isn’t relevant. He’s just “the nameless red Archer.”

Well, without plunging too deep into the rabbit hole of explaining FGO, his skills and Noble Phantasm are basically what you get if you mash other characters’ stuff together without balancing it. For example, Charisma works as an attack buff, and Helena Blavatsky has a skill that charges your party’s NP gauge; Merlin has a skill that has an equivalent attack buff to Iskander (AKA the guy whose literal entire thing was how much people loved him and wanted to follow him and has A-ranked Charisma) and is also an NP charge that from the start is equal to Helena’s at its max level. The rest of his kit is similarly bullshit, but it will suffice to say that he is such an efficient damage buffer that, in the latest update, to prevent people from cheesing through boss fights by using him to buff an attacker like Kintoki to one-shot the boss, they added multiple HP bars. And there is no overflow; if the first HP bar is finished, you won’t touch the second until your next turn. As for favorite pandery Servants...kind of all of them. Especially ones I don’t have, because I’m like a small child or a cat and want the things that other people have that I don’t. Shuten is probably the best example, though: a drunken, lewd, loli oni, voiced by Aoi Yuuki. I never conceived of such a thing, and it’s such blatant waifu-bait that anyone can see it. But my dick doesn’t care in the slightest, and I will want her until I get her, which will probably never happen.

Honestly, as someone who has played FGO since very early on, a lot of the time there’s basically 4 reasons to like it: the characters, occasionally interesting bits of lore (Presidential Counter Force), the MEMES, and the addiction. It’s not exactly great mechanically (see the early problems with NPCs spamming dodge/invincibility skills, Merlin breaking the game so hard they had to add in a new mechanic to counterbalance him), but better than what I would have expected from a mobile game. But at the end of the day, it mostly boils down to FGO being very, very good at making characters you didn’t know you wanted. “Jeanne d’Arc Alter Santa Lily” is a string of words I never imagined hearing together, but when I did, I knew I wanted her. Sure, a lot of characters are shameless pandering, but I don’t mind that. At the end of it all, I kind of just love seeing what they’ll come up with next (always hoping for a George Washington Servant, even if it won’t live up to the idea I have in my head), and can’t bring myself to dislike even the most shamelessly pandering Servants. Except Merlin. Fuck him and his brokenness.

An idea where Whitley sort of somersaults backwards into a hentai plot with Neon Katt (her because Penny, Ciel, and Trophy Wife are the only non-Schnee females we know of in Atlas, and also because a Faunus works better for reasons I will explain). It's a basic "son of rich CEO blackmails daughter of employee to be his slave or her father gets fired" plot. Except there was never any blackmail, or attempt at blackmail. Neon's father works for SDC, and there's some corporate event going on where she and Whitley are talking because they're the only people around that age present. Neon's dad had made some small mistake, nothing close to a problem, and Whitley makes a comment about his continued employment. But because he can't seem to do anything without seeming like a smug asshole, Neon interprets it as "Your dad screwed up, and his job is hanging on by a thread." More talking convinces her that Whitley is playing the "if you don't have sex with me, I'll have your father fired" card, and she coaxes him out of the main area into a private area, where she aims to just get it over with. Meanwhile, Whitley is hopelessly confused, and a little afraid. This girl (more specifically, this Huntress in training who could break him in half if she wanted) led him off into this secluded area, then started stripping and talking about sex. He tries to get her to explain, which Neon sees as the classic "I want you to ask for it" thing, and just goes straight for doing everything and being the aggressor to play along with what he wants. Whitley goes along with it, from a strange combination of lust and fear for this apparently unstable Huntress. At the end, they clean up and return to the party. Everything should be over. But Jacques saw them talking and leave the party, and thinks it's a normal teen romance. He encourages (tells) Whitley to pursue it further, because he should experience more of life, and because the Schnee family's only son dating a Faunus girl makes for some good publicity. Whitley goes to Neon to tell her what his father wants, she hears "you're my bitch until I say you aren't," and they start an awkward relationship where both parties think the other is forcing them to have sex, and they're both starting to really enjoy it and actually care about each other. TL;DR version: Neon thinks Whitley is blackmailing her to be his sex slave. Whitley thinks Neon is crazy, possibly obsessed with him, and forcing herself on him because of it. Together, they fuck a lot. Or, alternately, maybe Whitley actually is the standard rich hentai protagonist and actually is blackmailing her, until she actually starts to like it. And given the lack of background for most characters in RWBY and that people can choose to go to schools outside the kingdom they’re from, most characters could be used. Maybe Coco and Velvet are childhood friends from Atlas, and Velvet’s dad works for the SDC and just got promoted out of doing the worst work, and she’s being threatened with his demotion. Coco finds out and volunteers to take Velvet’s place as long as Whitley doesn’t touch Velvet, only to find out once she’s gone past the breaking point that he was still using Velvet all along.

Any word on progress, or if there’s anything else interesting coming down the pipeline anytime soon? Also, of use for this story since Mordred is involved, and since I’ve been looking for it off and on for a couple months now, you know how Mordred’s final ascension form very definitely looks like she’s wearing no panties? Well, I vaguely remembered seeing a picture that proved that, no, she does, they’re just not the sort that would be visible with that view. What’s more, it was something official, canonical, that couldn’t be argued with. So I tried off and on for a while to figure out where I saw that image, and I finally tracked it down. It’s not what I thought I remembered it being; I thought it was a concept art type thing, similar to what Type Moon always releases about Servants, but instead it came from the data mine when Mordred was first added to Grand Order. It’s a breakdown of her sprite, as in actually broken down into pieces, kind of looks like a taken apart action figure. And there you have it, showing that Mordred does in fact wear some very skimpy underwear. Just a fun re-discovery I wanted to share.

Nothing ever really goes into that, unless it’s in Babylon, which isn’t translated, so...But Ishtar’s profile makes a point that her personality has been influenced by Rin so that the cruel part (i.e. the part that sent the bull after Gilgamesh rejected her) is suppressed and her good side is more prevalent. Also that, since she’s possessing Rin, a human, she doesn’t look down on humans like a god normally would. And the description of how the relationship with the Master develops is: “She will come in contact with him in an affective and friendly manner, but just as 『a toy worth teasing』. But as their bonds become deeper, her natural disposition to take care of people and emotional weakness (she ends up empathizing with him) work against her, and he changes from 『a toy worth teasing』 into 『my precious contractor, whose future is worth watching over』.”

And Tiamat’s corruption...well, from what I understand, what usually happens to humans that are effected… But again, in this instance, Gamer’s Body could come into play.

So it got clarified that, rather than using Extra Rin’s body, Ereshkigal and Ishtar are both using Rin’s body, and her hair turns blonde when Ereshkigal is in control because that’s the “proper” appearance for a goddess. It was also explained that Tiamat can corrupt and control Servants, similar to what Dark Sakura does in Heaven’s Feel And with Babylonia completed, the final battle was released and cleared within 3 days. As far noteworthy reveals… As for where Grand Order goes from here, who knows, besides that they’ve mentioned another Valentine’s event. But as one person pointed out, even at the end of the “final” battle, Mashu is still only at NP level 3 out of 5.

A lot like Rin, but with a sisterly rivalry. In fact, there’s a segment where you travel through the underworld that Ereshkigal rules, and there are required dialogue choices that determine what battles you fight. Each one basically boils down to choosing between the two of them.

Probably? It’s also worth noting that Medusa Lily is ecstatic to be reunited with her sisters, but if you put Gorgon in a party with them, she’ll run away and hide from them.

No word on anything about Rider Nero, but Babylonia just came out not that long ago, so who knows? The thing about Waver’s “possession” is that, apparently, Zhuge Liang just sort of popped into him, gave Waver all the power, and stepped out, so it really is just “Waver with the power of a Servant.” Ishtar seems to be straight up “Rin fusing with Ishtar to become a third, semi-separate being as a Servant.” I kind of want to draw comparisons to regular fusion or the Namekian fusion thing in Dragonball. Tiamat is basically described as a living natural disaster. “Nothing bearing resemblance to a personality could be found.” She exists for the sole purpose of being the mother of everything, but when humans reached a certain point, they rejected her as “no longer necessary,” and she was basically banished from existence. So, when she appears, she has the basic instinctual response of “For me to survive, humans must be exterminated.” But unlike other examples, there is a mutual fear, where humans view her as a terrifying monster, and she views them as frightening aliens. Regarding a Master, she is supposed to only see them as “another human to exterminate.” But as far as all that goes, for comparison, that sort of stuff was how the Tailed Beasts in Naruto were originally described, and then they wound up having personalities and motivations, so an author could do whatever. In fact, since you brought it up, the Gamer abilities could even be enough of a change that she doesn’t recognize Shirou as human. The physical effects she would cause would probably come up as status effects that Shirou would have to deal with but could probably be removed with the right items/abilities, and mental effects would just depend how Ichasennin wanted to do it, since he went with Shirou’s normal mental state rather than using the Gamer’s Mind. There’s not really anything yet about Gorgon (Avenger Medusa). But Lancer Medusa has at least had her dialogue translated. She feels happy that she’s in a form similar to Stheno and Euryale, along with noting that, as you ascend her, she is developing in a different way than she did naturally. She also comments about how, since she’s in that younger form, she is also weaker, and specifically that “The closer I am to becoming a monster... the stronger I will become.” And her wish for the Holy Grail is just to spend forever happily with her sisters. So she’s another case of her strength by lore being much different than her strength in the game, since she’s a higher level than regular Medusa.