#Fate/type Redline | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

intrepid-fictioneer-7 · 22 days

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Recent chapters of the underrated Fate spinoff Fate/type Redline got me in my feelings so I had to talk about it at lengths, even moreso now that it hasn't updated in months (the mangaka, Ryouji Hirano, has health problems I believe). Spoilers obviously.

Now, when I call type Redline, "underrated", it's more of a subjective than objective assessment. Despite being a manga and thus far more accessible than the untranslated visual novels or light novel series of TYPE-MOON, I see it discussed fairly rarely. At the very least, as far as I know, there hasn't been much big posts analyzing it, so I believe this should be one of the first.

Just don't expect something really deep, these are mostly my musing, rambling observations.

In fact, for a long time, I didn't really have a well-articulated thought about Redline's themes. The contrast of a Holy Grail War taking place in the middle of a world war simply had me chalk it up to the tried and true "war is hell" and not think any deeper (which was a bit intellectually lazy of me). And there is certainly that, but it's a bit more elaborate than that, or else I wouldn't find Redline as interesting. And it all reached a thematic "climax" of sorts in the recent chapter as of the time of writingé

In reality, the story signaled its central theme from the very start, I just wasn't paying attention. One of the first chapters ends with this page:

At first, I thought this was just about Nobunaga. But it turns out this specific page and its text will become the precursor of how the manga is going to present Servants, and how this presentation fits into its larger representation of what war is.

Something you hear somewhat frequently when people mention Redline is "it made Servants scary again". It is only half true, Servants have usually only been "scary" in specific circumstances (Bluebeard in FZ, True Assassin in FSN, and Jackie in Apo come to mind). What they actually mean is that Redline shows Servants as above human again, and it does so by showing them brutally go through lots and lots of human bodies, when Fate is usually about Servants fighting each other. You see Servants vs. humans sometimes, but it's usually 1v1 deals. The only notable exception I can think of is Clan Calatin against Alcides in strange Fake.

There is also Apocrypha, but they are up against armies of homunculi, golems, and animated skeletons, so the dynamic is a bit different than with modern armies. It does however say this.

Indeed, Lancer of Red could burn to ash and crush the stakes with his flames and divine spear. But the Red camp's odds of successfully opposing the Black camp's overwhelming amount of material resources were fifty-fifty. Fighting a force of twenty thousand was beyond the capacities of even a mighty Heroic Spirit. Even then, there would have been no problems if they were alive, but right now they were Servants. The more they consumed prana in great quantities, the closer they approached death. (Apocrypha volume 2 ch.2)

Which is interesting in light of Redline's story, but I digress.

But here, in Redline, because it's during the Second World War, and members of the military are using Servants to do their bidding as well as planning to use them to win the war, there are a lot of interactions between Servants and modern human armies, usually violent ones, to catastrophic results, as Servants go through lots of human meat like cheese. The picture above is after Oda Nobunaga shoots down an entire fleet of American planes heading to Japan.

It's a type of interactions we only ever really saw when Berserker Lancelot in Zero overtook a JSDF fighter jet to fight Gilgamesh on Vimana, while the other plane got eaten by the Lovecraftian horror Caster summoned. The militarized forces of Faldeus in FsF mostly only go after human mages and steer clear of Servants.

And that makes for an interesting contrast that Redline is all too happy to highlight time and time again. When they say "Servants are scary", they mean "Servants are above human", in every sense of terms. No normal human can harm them or even pose a challenge to them, for they are above human strength and capabilities: they are superhuman, they are inhuman.

And that does not just mean inhuman power, but also inhuman thinking.

One of the main conflict throughline of the manga is the relationship between Kanata Akagi, our main protagonist, and his Servant Okita. They don't clash as such, it's not like Fate route Shirou hindering Saber from doing her job, nor is it like Kiritsugu disregarding Saber. It's more low-key, like a misunderstanding that can never be solved. Okita was a warrior in life, and this Holy Grail War in war-torn Japan is just another battlefield to her. Kanata however was born and raised in a Japan long after the war ended, in more peaceful times where he never had to kill. And it's this fundamental difference in lived experiences and mindset that stops them from ever reaching an understanding about how to approach the war:

Even later, as the war goes on, after Okita almost killed potential allies (more on that later), and Kanata reveals to her he comes from the future and what his goals are (ensure his grandma doesn't die and he can come back), and they decide to have a more honest partnership with each other, it's still not enough.

Because when Okita kills a human soldier again, this time a soldier wounded by Berserker who charged Kanata because he was a Master and he blamed magi for how pear-shaped the whole situation has become, this time she does a 180 and instead of convincing Kanata to become ready to kill, she instead wants him to think of her as his tool to kill in his place and take the burden upon herself:

Kanata can only ask her if she's really fine being a sword to be used by someone else and nothing more, to which she replies that's all she needs.

Do note how completely obscured, borderline blank (save for a small, thin-lipped smile), Okita's face is as she says this. As if Kanata and us readers really can't tell how she actually feels about her own words.

This is not the first time the manga does this with Okita.

Coming back to the almost aborted alliance I mentioned earlier, what happened is that, a few chapter before this, the Rider of this war, Sakamoto Ryouma and Oryou, met with Okita to ask her and her Master for an alliance to stop the war from spiraling further and kill more innocents. It would be normal to be suspicious of their intentions, especially since Ryouma initially hides from her that he is a Servant.

But that's not the reasoning Okita uses to reject the alliance and subsequently attack them:

"There is only one path for me (war)." And here it is again: "She's not human."

And it happened even earlier too. When Servant Assassin (Okada Izou) fights Okita, he grows more and more disturbed as he doesn't feel fear, anger, or exaltation as he fights and cuts her, feeling nothing at all from her aside from the scent of blood. Okada's thoughts are interspersed with Kanata's own thoughts about visiting his dying comatose grandmother in the hospital as a kid. And when Kanata touched his grandmother's hand, just like when Okada faces Okita, all it felt like was that:

As you can see, a lot of emphasis, both textually and visually, that Okita does not feel human, and her way of thinking is so alien people can't comprehend her.

And it's not just her, Servants in general are portrayed this way throughout. You saw the pilot's words about Nobunaga at the start of this post, but it occurs later as well. When she was first summoned in the previous war a few years ago by the Imperial Army, her summoner was an arrogant dude who tried to get her to submit and she casually beheaded him. Following that is this page:

Nothing showing on this blood soaked face except for elongated eyes like those of a monster. And after that, everyone in the room prostrate themselves before her like she is a god they worship.

She picks her Master from the crowd, the half-Japanese girl Kaname Asama, and she treats her surprisingly decently from what we see throughout the manga, giving the shrinking violet of a girl respect like she is her attendant, unlike Kaname's boss Magatsu (more on him later) who threatens her and even hits her.

So you would think they have a cordial relationship? Well, maybe they did, but that was until the recent chapter, which has Magatsu's Berserker fight Lancer, and instead of helping their ally, Nobunaga wants to leave, which leads to this exchange:

The same face and eyes again. Kaname doesn't understand her Servant, nor can she tell what she's thinking, just as Nobunaga's face loses all expression, making it impossible for us to tell as well.

(This is not exactly new in regard to Nobu: Keikenchi, the original author of Koha-Ace and the mind behind Redline, already made a Koha-Ace oneshot previously focusing on her, and in it it was shown that, when she was alive, Nobunaga could not "hear" the voices of other people, other humans, and it's her being unable to understand other people that contributed to both her rise and fall)

Another Servant serving as a good example of this is Berserker, which obviously makes sense when it's the Class that from the very start of the Fate franchise in Fate/stay night was there to be impossible to communicate with. But interestingly, everything that surrounds Berserker, not just the Servant itself, reinforces this theme, as if the story employs irony in making the maddest of them all in a war full of mad people the more in-depth examination of the idea instead of being the most obvious.

But I need to scale back a bit to explain.

The Master of Berserker is Major Magatsu, the head of the Imperial Army's magecraft division and one of the main human antagonist. He is kind of interesting in how it's not just his Servant, but his own actions that act as a fulcrum to demonstrate the point. See, in these last stages where it is clear Japan is going to lose, Magatsu wants to keep the war going. His main goal is that he sees the war as not just for the glory of Japan, but as an opportunity to create a world where mages stand at the top, even planning to orchestrate a secret coup within the Japanese military. He is able to amass a great number of men under him, all fanatically loyal to him due to a mixture of his own charisma and appeal to nationalism as well as cigarettes laced with suggestive tobacco making the soldiers smoking it pliable. His followers are so loyal in fact, that when a team of them comes back defeated after facing a Servant trying to deal with Team Kanata, they beat the only survivor up and torture him for his failure and for failing Magatsu, without Magatsu's knowledge or consent (in fact, he is slightly disturbed by this and thinks to reduce the dosage of the tobacco).

But that doesn't deter him from his tactics. Even when he has to hasten his coup after being forced to when pro-war proponents in the war ministry are assassinated, leading to his enraged troops to blame the proponents of suing for peace within the ministry, he still keeps with the easily pliable and fanatical troops even though it is clear he can barely control them. "When the madman runs, any man not mad starts running" is written on a banner hanging on the wall of the magecraft division's headquarters, and Magatsu, who doesn't know who wrote it, finds it a good quote, not knowing how prophetic the words would become. Regardless, Magatsu has made the entire magecraft division and then some fold under his command by making them believe he will be the hero to save Japan. He makes many speeches about saving the nation and how the preservation of the Empire is vital to the preservation of the soul of the nation, and can easily drive crowds into nationalistic frenzy with talks of using Archer and Berserker to fight on mainland Manchuria, and clearly invoking the spirit of complete sacrifice to the nation like in banzai charges and kamikaze, even if not explicitly:

Sometimes, an ordinary and unrefined person will defeat their fear of death and become a noble person with the resolve to throw away their own lives. This phenomenon, which one could call a miracle, is occuring at this very moment, in various places within Japan. War allows all sorts of miracles to exist.

For these reasons, the Colonel, the so far unnamed high-ranked Nazi who is Magatsu's main ally, praises him for "having a knack for understanding human nature", which is why he gives him Berserker, as he believes that, if he experiences the war from the same position as Servants, Magatsu may be able to come to understand them...especially, as he notes, Magatsu completely failed to have Nobunaga pay him any attention:

Magatsu, for all his charisma and servile attitude, completely fails to have Nobunaga pay him any attention even once since her summoning years ago. When summoned, she ignored him in favor of going to Kasame. She doesn't follow his orders nor does she even acknowledge him as a faithful follower: he might as well be air in her eyes. Not only that, she only talks to his subordinate Kaname Asama, whom he disdains for having foreign blood due to being half-Japanese. And the Colonel rightly realizes that Nobunaga's lack of interest makes him seethe. Magatsu seethes so much in fact that he comes to the conclusion that he doesn't need to understand Servants, especially to win when they don't seem to care what he's they're fighting for, so he would rather settle for Berserker than the unruly Archer, believing he can control him thanks to the Heroic Spirit Restraining Device provided by the Nazis. Very predictably, it goes pretty poorly.

As soon as he's summoned and out of the tank he was put in, Berserker immediately begins to indiscriminately kill soldiers of the magecraft division for no reason, and when Magatsu attempts to use his Command Spells on him, he cuts off his arm and crushes it, making the Command Spells disappear. Berserker then engages in a rampage throughout the magecraft division base, gleefully killing every soldier in his way, yet does not kill his Master despite his failed attempt to restrain him:

Magatsu is unwittingly along for the ride as Berserker carries him in his arms as he goes about his "fun".

Naturally, Magatsu's men try to slow down and stop Berserker using "anti-Servant" weapons (lol) that obviously do jack shit. But they use too much firepower and seemingly ignore Magatsu's cries for help, which leads him to believe that they are trying to kill them both. Berserker agrees in his twisted logic, and enacts more violence as he believes his Master is in danger.

The reality is actually different: when Kaname Asama try to get to exercise more caution so they do not accidentally hit and hurt the Major, when he is clearly an hostage, one soldier slaps her and rebukes her, madly stating that there is no way the savior of Japan would ever get hurt by these weapons.

They keep throwing weapons and men at Berserker, which eventually confuses Magatsu, because weren't they trying to kill him? Why then are they wasting their lives against a Servant?

Which is when the point is made.

As this massacre rages on, Magatsu is telepathically contacted by the Colonel, who congratulates him on summoning Berserker and says that the Restraining Device is working wonderfully saying as the major's mana and life are still intact. Magatsu, enraged, accuses the Colonel of having done something to his men, maybe brainwashing them to kill themselves, which is a fair accusation considering it is the Nazis who did assassinate the war hawks and forced Magatsu to accelerate his coup plans.

Except the Colonel says he had nothing to do with it and the reason for the soldiers' actions is far simpler: they admire Magatsu, they truly, genuinely do. The Colonel explains that his accomplishments, from taking control of the war to making a Servant protect the capital from air raids, made him look like a true messiah in the eyes of his men, and Magatsu was too blind to see it. Of course he denies it and calls the Colonel a liar, until he sees one of his men approach and try to reach him, only to be pierced by Berserker's spear for his troubles, and as he lays dying, Magatsu hears his last words on his bloody lips: "Glory to the Major."

As the one-sided battle against the human waves of martyrs continue, the Colonel throws Magatsu's earlier words about the war "allowing miracles" back to his face, bringing the whole arc to its logical conclusion, and I will transcribe the speech in its entirety since it intersperses scenes of the battle and that's too much images to for this post:

How about you open your eyes to reality for once? The only sane person in that battlefield is you. War is cruel. It burdens its victims with a detestable fate. But look at them. They do it for their country, for you. Their madness calls forth even more madness. All these men rush forward, knowing well only death awaits them. War takes these ordinary men, and turn them into martyrs. War allows all sorts of miracles. I thank you. You've allowed me to witness something beautiful. Did seeing people die finally get to you? Feeling remorse? I suppose you didn't have what it takes to be a soldier. This is no time to be losing your mind, Major. It's not everyday you get to experience war from such a safe position. Revel in it a little more. You are at the center of a miracle. That which creates miracles, and gathers people's faith. What do you call that, Major? Do you know? A God. Congratulations, Messiah. In this exact moment and place, you are the one closest to a God.

Just as the voice of God can't reach mortals, your voice can't reach these men. For alas, there are none who can hear it. Raise your head, Major. The curtain has fallen at last. And you should now be able to understand her a little more.

Archer arrives, looking down at Berserker and Magatsu standing on the mountain of corpses of all the men of the magecraft division, and Magatsu tries one last time to get her to look at him by calling for her help, as all he ever wanted was to prove he was worthy to stand at her side...and she laughs in his face. She mocks him for thinking he could ever control a Servant and finds his tear-stained and snotty face hilarious.

And Magatsu, at this last straw after everything, breaks.

As he begins to laugh maniacally, his Servant joins in, and as Archer, Berserker, and him laugh, it's as if the corpses of his men, their mouth frozen in bloody leering rictus by rigor mortis, are laughing with them. Magatsu finally realizes it was wrong to think to use Servants in a war, because they could never be measured by human standards.

It's not that Servants can't be understood, not solely. This sequence of chapters shows it goes deeper than that: it's war that turns everyone mad, and thus makes understanding impossible among humans. And Servants are humanity writ large, the highest of the high and the lowest of the low, because you need to be larger than life to be remembered for eternity in the Throne of Heroes. Which means that, where war turns humans into mad monsters, it makes the Heroic Spirits standing above humans into the embodiments, the apotheosis, the personified concepts of madness.

They are mad gods.

The World War and the Holy Grail War are both founts of insanity, because that's what war does. The average soldier's brain briefly brushes with the eternal sublime, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans that turns humans into figures of worship recorded and enthroned for eternity beyond space and time. And this brief contact with the Absolute gives them the divine language that makes them unintelligible to other men. Their visages, like Moses' after descending the mountain, can no longer be looked upon. They are completely obscured to us who don't live and breathe for war, for violence is their domain now.

War makes Berserkers of us all.

Is it any wonder that the Classes of the Holy Grail War by design favor warriors and warmongers? This war is rife with adepts of violence: a warlord (Nobunaga), a warrior (Mori), a secret police assassin (Okita), a plain assassin (Okada), and a martial artist (Li Shuwen). All of which mad in their own way and choosing the path of violence over any other options.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that the sanest and most "normal" Servants we have seen in Redline not only belong to the Classes less obviously about violence or weaponry, Rider and Caster, but their identities are also not famous for violence: the Rider was a politician and diplomat, while the Caster is a scientific thought experiment about the laws of physics.

I don't know how this will conclude or shake out, but I have my suspicions. Our protagonist Kanata comes from the peaceful post-war Japan and has so far always been repulsed by violence, despite attempts by his Servant and his grandmother to get him to get used to it to be more effective in the war. In fact, he reaffirms that he wants to win the war without becoming a remorseless bloodthirsty killer.

I can see potential routes the story can take depending on whether he slowly succumbs to war's madness or he heroically resists its call. Especially if he is pitted against what seems to be one of the main antagonists, the Nazi Colonel, clearly war's most fervent prophet, whose face is always obscured.

We'll see. The latest chapter as of the time of writing is the fight between Lancer and Berserker. Even the pair that seems to get along the best, Team Lancer, has the Master threatened by her Servant for almost "interrupting" his fight by trying to heal his wounds. And her (current) last words are a perfect encapsulation of the manga and my whole thesis:

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balmungkriemhild · 10 months

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some izou doodles cause FGO has a death grip on me again and I care him

#Vio's Art Tag #Okada Izou #Fate/Grand Order #Fate/Type Redline #Fate Series #what's up guys my month has been a mess #spent too much money at a convention so im broke AND THEN i had two 8-hour shifts at two separate jobs on black friday #where I sprained my fucking ankle RIGHT as the latter shift ended #but hey at least i have some art insp again #ok to reblog #anyhow i gotta show my doctor's note to BOTH jobs soon goodnight

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actual-haise · 10 months

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Went through the horrors on FGO recently but at least got Shinpachi earlier and man I was literally talking to a friend about how they gotta let the Type Redline artist draw a servant at some point (please check that out it fucks SEVERELY) and HE DELIVERED He's SO peak

#the suitcase chronicles #fgo #fate/type redline #nagakura shinpachi #like man #I do wish he was still old guy mode in ascension 2 but the casual drip is INSANE #and that FA? hello?

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mat2modblog · 2 months

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Apollogem

#fgo meme #fate meme #fgo #fate grand order #fate gudaguda order #koha ace #fate/type redline #fate type redline #sakura saber #okita souji #fate/gudaguda order #nobbu #fate franchise #fate series

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himbofan · 2 years

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So Kiss Me

Okada Izou X Reader one-shot

hiiiiiiiiiii i've actually been sitting on this one for a while and finally mustered up the courage to post!! idk how many fate fans I have following me but I love this man too much to not post

this is extremely self indulgent and sappy :3c i just wanna smother this man in adoration and love <3333333

this takes place in an unspecified grail war where izou is your servant!

cw: gn!reader, alcohol/drinking mention, kissing, hand holding, fluff, tipsy confessions, sfw

characters: okada izou (fgo)

wc: 1.5k

“Whadda I tell ya Master, no one can defeat the greatest man-slayer of Bakumatsu!” Izou cheerfully proclaimed while pouring another glass of sake, face already flushed from the previous rounds of drinks.

“Of course,” you smiled warmly, “I know your talent well, Assassin.”

Both of you were celebrating a recent victory on your couch, sake bottles and various snacks strewn about the coffee table in front of you. It was a bit into the evening, overhead lights turned off in favor of a few lamps strewn about the living room. The radio hummed quietly across the room as you poured yourself a drink.

Izou downed his glass with great fervor, placing the empty cup on the table as he gazed over towards your form. You were smiling that beautiful smile with a fondness in your eyes that he wasn’t used to. He never understood why you treated him so well, after all when he was alive he was treated simply as an object of violence.

“Say Master, why aren’t ya scared of me? I thought man-slayers were fearsome creatures that everyone hated.” he spoke with an uncharacteristic softness as his golden gaze bored into the empty sake glass.

You tilted your head to the side as you pondered, “Hmm, well I suppose I was a little frightened at first, but that was mostly ‘cause I was nervous to make a good impression.” you giggled.

His eyes widened, no one had really ever cared what he had thought or believed before. It was astonishing to believe that the Master that summoned him valued his opinion so much that they would be self-conscious.

“Y’know, I was never too fond of Master-Servant relationships, ‘was betrayed too many times in life by those above me.”

The expression on his face was mixed as he spoke, pouring another glass while avoiding eye contact with you. “They saw me as a pawn that they could toss when they were done.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll stick by you ‘till the end.” you responded, reaching out your glass to him.

The corner of Izou’s mouth tugged up into a smile as he returned the gesture, clinking your glasses together.

“Besides, I really like talking to you, and I think you’re a good person at heart. You just weren’t given the time to show it.” you added quietly, feeling your face heat gradually as you spoke.

Izou’s face turned pink as you laid your feelings on the table, mind racing as he processed the implications of your words. He turned his face to the side so you couldn’t see the blush growing over his cheeks, “W-well, all I can do is kill people,” his head lowered as his tone became melancholy, “that’s about all I can really do for you, Master.”

You shook your head viciously, “That’s not true at all! You can do so much more, I know it.” Your gaze flickered to his large hand on the couch, distracted by the thick veins running up his toned forearms.

“Also, please just call me (y/n), Master just doesn’t feel right after all the shit we’ve been through.”

“Well okay, then (y/n),” Izou smiled slightly as your name rolled off his tongue, it felt so natural and right. “But I’m serious ya know, I’m just a killer, and not a very bright one…” he mumbled.

You snuck a glance to the servant sitting next to you.

He looked absolutely stunning, with his wavy black hair released from its usual ponytail allowing it to fall over his broad shoulders. His yukata was looser than normal, giving you a slight peek at his toned chest.

With the alcohol giving you extra courage, you took a breath and reached for his hand to place yours on top delicately.

He seemed to flinch at the sudden contact but didn’t pull away, his face only growing a deeper shade of red.

“Mas- I mean (y/n), yer gonna give a guy the wrong idea if ya do that...”

You looked him directly in the eyes and responded firmly, “You’re more than you make yourself out to be, I’m dead serious.”

Your fingers curled tighter around his hand as you scooted closer, legs almost touching. “And… what if that idea isn’t wrong?”

You felt his hand tremble as he slowly faced his palm upwards to lace your fingers together, his face and ears now fully engulfed by the blush. The room grew hotter, and you weren’t sure if it was because of the sake.

“Ya serious?” he breathed shakily as he mustered up the courage to turn towards you fully.

You nodded while your stomach did somersaults, biting your lip before mustering up the courage to ask “Can I… can I kiss you?”

His brain had now fully short-circuited as the words left your mouth, unable to tear his gaze away from your adorable nervous expression. “I-I uh um, I mean, yeah. Uh yes. Please.” he stumbled over his words.

Your lips met in a shy, soft kiss, the thundering of your heartbeat in your ears drowning out the radio across the room. You felt like you were ascending in joy, the only thing that kept you grounded was the tickle of his stubble against your face.

His hand slowly came up to cradle the back of your head to deepen the kiss, which you took as an invitation to wrap your arms behind his neck. The taste of sake and magical energy danced between your lips as your bodies drew closer with you on top of his lap. You felt large hands snake hesitantly around your waist, as if he was scared he would break you.

As you pulled back slowly, you savored the image in front of you.

His face was fully flushed, with a soft emotion in his eyes that you’d never seen before.

You giggled as you brushed his bangs behind his ear so you could see both of his golden eyes. “You’re so cute Izou, how could I not fall for you?”

The assassin almost looked like he was about to cry, burying his head in the crook of your neck as he fully tightened his muscular arms around your waist.

“God, ya can’t say stuff like that to me.” he murmured in your neck.

“My heart can’t handle it.”

You carded your fingers through his wavy locks as you hugged him closer. He seemed to lean into your touch, eyes closed in pure bliss as you played with his hair. He had never felt this safe and loved in his life, and the foreign feeling almost frightened him.

You leaned to press a soft kiss on his forehead, “Well that’s too bad, you’re gonna have to get used to it.” you grinned.

Izou was in pure heaven, sake and snacks long forgotten on the table as he melted into your warm affection.

“Let’s jus’ stay like this forever.” he mumbled.

“I wouldn’t want anything else.”

You groggily opened your eyes as beams of light shone through the blinds. The sun shone across the glass of the sake bottles, sending rays of colorful light bouncing around the room.

You felt the steady rising and falling of a chest at your back while thick arms enveloped you. Izou’s body was flush against yours as his breath tickled your ear, quiet snores rumbling against your back. You simply closed your eyes as you sunk back into the couch, savoring the warmth of his body.

The assassin behind you began to shift as he awoke, stretching out a bit before snuggling you closer.

“Mornin’…” he sighed in your ear in a groggy, husky tone.

“Good morning Izou,” you responded, “Hey, y’know I was thinking about something…”

“Hm?”

“I think I know what I want to ask the Grail for now.”

He propped his head up on his arm and gazed down at you with curiosity as you turned to lay on your back so you could look up at him.

“I want you to have a second chance at life. I’d wish for the Grail to give you a human body so we could be together. No more killing or fighting, just a peaceful life where we do laundry and taxes and bicker over silly things.”

The boldness of your statement caught up to you, and you began fidgeting with your shirt to avoid eye contact. “I-I mean of course it’s only if you want to… sorry if that’s too weird…”

Izou looked astonished while you spoke, brows slowly furrowing as his eyes darkened. “But, I don’t want you to waste something that important on someone like me… you could wish for anything you want.”

“But I want you, more than anything.” You faced him and placed a hand on his cheek and stroked his face, feeling the rough stubble under your delicate fingertips.

His eyes softened and quickly filled with warmth, “Oh God darlin’, I’d love that, so so much.” he whispered, planting a loving kiss on your cheek.

#fate series #sfw #my work #fate grand order #fgo x reader #fate x reader #okada izou #gn reader #fate/type redline #fate/grand order #okada izou x reader #fluff #fate go #fgo fluff #x reader #comfort

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300iqprower · 8 months

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throwing gasoline on Fate and 1600s Japan discourse by claiming Maou Nobu is technically a Bodhisattva

#fgo #fate type redline #fate/type redline #oda nobunaga #fate nobunaga #maou nobunaga

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kara-knuckles · 10 months

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I might have been quiet about it, but don't be mistaken, I'm still not over GudaGuda 6, I just really don't know what to say after waiting for two years… So, here, have some Oryou-centric headcanons, since people don't talk about her as her own character nearly enough!

This event made it pretty clear that Oryou is supposed to be GudaGuda version of Hiruko. In his IRL myth, after being thrown away, he drifted to Hokkaido and was raised by the Ainu. I headcanon that Oryou was raised by the Ainu snake god instead, and he was the one who taught her how to change into a human form. Oryou didn't like how cold it was in Hokkaido, so, once she became strong enough, she migrated south. > IRL!Ryouma was interested in going to Hokkaido, so I like to think that one of the reasons Guda!Ryouma wanted to go there was because of Oryou's stories about it.

Back in the day Oryou was a chaotic evil goddess, but, after meeting Ryouma, she got inspired to become his mysterious, beautiful, chaotic good secretary.

Oryou speaks in third person about herself as Ryouma knows her (she really likes her name); she talks about herself as a goddess in first person.

Sea-related traumas aside, Oryou LOVES water. She invites Ryouma to swim or take a bath with her when she wants to bond with him, and going for a walk on a rainy day is one of her favourite kinds of dates. I headcanon that during the Age of Gods she had storm related powers, and even during Ryouma's times she was still attuned enough with them to precisely forecast weather for a large area.

When they were alive, Izou was the only one who knew about Oryou's true nature. Most people thought Oryou was some kind of yakuza, and you could probably write an entire book if you combined all the different theories people had about her past and connection to Ryouma.

She has two recurring nightmares: about being thrown away by her parents and about Ryouma's death.

There is a tradition in GudaGuda world to bring frog figurines to Ryouma's grave to pray for a safe voyage. It was started by the Kaientai members, who quickly put together what happened to Oryou after Ryouma's death, so they would bring frog souvenirs during their visits.

Since Oryou is a serpent, her body doesn't generate much heat on its own. I like to think that she produces poison (or whatever she uses in her Rider animations) somewhere between her chest and throat and this is her only natural source of heat. The reason she has scales on her neck in human form is to protect (and maybe cool off) this part, and she goes berserk if you touch her there because this poison temporarily goes to her head.

Her scales contain magical energy. She has transparent scales over her eyes that gain colour as her anger (read: magical power) rises. > Super Ryouma's "tattoos" are actually patches of scales, like snake skin. They act as substitutes for magical circuits.

Oryou's hair helps her to maneuver in both water and air (basically, it acts like fish's fins or bird's wings/tail).

She likes to build her own "nests", and from time to time changes placement of items in Ryouma's office "because keeping things the same makes it easier for enemies to find them".

She is lean, but well-toned. Snakes are all about dem muscles.

Her legs are fully functional; she has no problems with kicking or using them to swim, but she just can't figure out how to walk properly. Because of that (and her legend), she prefers to float. > Despite this, after GudaGuda 6 Ryouma asked Mata Hari for some dance lessons for him and Oryou. He wanted to show Oryou how much she changed compared to back when she was a helpless child, and that, even though she still has her shortcomings, she can always rely on him for support.

Like a real snake, she has an extra organ that lets her "smell in 3D". Ryouma compares it to a ship's radar, which Oryou finds annoying because ships are her longstanding rivals for Ryouma's affection.

She also has heat vision. This makes her great at scouting and spotting threats, like being surrounded or noticing someone eavesdrop on Ryouma. However, this has some negative effects: for example, she can't see well when fevering (or berserking). It also makes her a somewhat poor cook, because she gets confused by multiple similar heat sources, especially as it gets hotter in the kitchen. Still, she learned how to make simple dishes to impress Ryouma, and she is actually really good at making traditional tea because she can literally tell the temperature at a glance.

Oryou is fascinated by human "mating rituals" (not the lewd stuff, rather couple-y things like Pocky game and such), but because of her sources (romance stories, etc.) and ancient god-snake perspective there are a lot of misunderstandings. Ryouma finds it adorable, though. > One time Osakabehime advised her to watch Titanic with Ryouma, because it is "modern time classic romance story". Oryou now hates this movie because Ryouma wouldn't shut up about the ship for the entire duration. > She likes when Ryouma gives her bellflowers, because they symbolize her being a part of Ryouma's life and mean "eternal love".

Another thing that fascinates her are hand gestures. Her dragon talons aren't very agile, so she really likes using her human fingers for stuff like peace signs and handshakes. > IRL!Ryouma's hands were badly injured in an assassination attempt, I think that afterwards Guda!Ryouma gained additional understanding of Oryou's clumsy movements and appreciation for her interest in trying to figure things out anyway.

Oryou likes rhythmic sounds. Because of that, Ryouma sometimes sings or reads poetry to her, and they may even end up in a poetic match (no matter how it starts, it will always end up being about frogs). > This one is actually based on several things. The obvious is the (false) idea that snakes like music. The less obvious is the fact that Oryou rhymes in some of her lines and it was a normal pastime in Ryouma's household to come up with short poems. And the obscure I can't really verify because I can't find IRL!Ryouma's letters in English, but, apparently, he asked his sister to send him a poetry book so he could impress IRL!Oryou.

#Oryou #Oryou-san #Sakamoto Ryouma #Oryouma #Fate/Grand Order #fgo #Fate/Type Redline #i hate how i can't format this post the way i like #theories and headcanons

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