#I've been playing through hollow ataraxia

[versegm]

I've never been much for body horror, but I've been enjoying your way the body mirrors the horrors inflicted on the mind - or vice versa. Would you have any suggestions on what to read to find more of this?

There is probably a very obvious exemple out there, but after 25 minutes scrolling through tvtropes & my discord archives I have to say I'm drawing a blank on this one, so here are some recs that aren't quite "If your trauma manifested physically /If you got body horrored and it drove you insane, would that be fucked up or what" but close enough

Princess Mononoke, you know, the Ghibli movie. If you somehow dodged any spoiler about this movie in the past twenty years, the pitch is thus: you follow the story of Ashitaka, an Ainu prince who recently got cursed by a demon and forced into exile. It's relevant to your interest because it features a lot of these cursed characters, and the more the curse spread the more body horror they get (usually in the form of tentacles or various marks on the skin) and the more they lose themselves in favor of all-consuming hatred.

Library of Ruina, The story of Roland, a normal guy from a normal city (lying) who gets drafted into working for an eldritch library that gather people and turn them into books. Features a lot of people who get twisted physically and mentally the local plague. That being said, it is the sequel of another game called Lobotomy Corporation, which I highly recommend to play for extra context, though I don't think it features that specific brand of body horror.

We Know the Devil, a short visual novel about three kids at summer camp being sent to meet the devil. Features a few characters getting body horrored as a result of their own mind, but it's in a more positive light than the others.

Technically Fate/Stay Night and its sequel Fate/Hollow Ataraxia both qualify. FSN (story of a bunch of mages doing a battle royal to fulfil their wish) features a guy who slowly goes insane as his body turns into swords. FHA has a girl physically turning into a monster as she loses herself into her bloodlust. That being said both of these games are fucking long and the body horror is kind of a footnote compared to everything else, so though I do rec these games because they fucking rule, don't expect to see that trope early on.

I guess Soul Eater (manga about lads turning into weapons fighting witches) qualifies?? This one is admittedly stretching a lot, but madness as a disease manifests as your blood turning black.

Feel free to reply to this post if you've got any more exemple, or to send me an ask about it ig. It's a kind of body horror that is dear to my heart but I don't recall seeing a lot of it.

[itsbenedict]

get star seeker sequel adventure thing up and running and through the first case

get datasouls combat toy complete up to the first miniboss combat

catch up on TFJ recap logs

become an accredited AWS Certified Solutions Architect and get that raise my boss has been talking about for ages

get an adjustable standing desk and under-desk elliptical thingy, and otherwise get an ergonomic workstation set up

fix the light situation in the bathroom

get through The Sekimeiya and really go to town on that mystery until it’s solved

also finally play Disco Elysium

finish TFTBN character portraits

get a beatrice portrait for my poster wall

run some TPIVW games

badger the condo association landlady until she does something about the junk clogging up that basement storage room i’m supposed to own, and clean unused bulky stuff out of my house

clearly this waitlist thing isn’t working out so take some steps to see an actual doctor for the first time in like three years (and maybe get a cancer screening, or do something about that closed sinus)

get through the remaining 7 WaniKani levels

So, June! As predicted, wedding travel stuff ate up a bunch of that second week, and getting the art done took the full two weeks. I did not successfully launch the thing in June, even though I technically could tonight- I'm traveling to visit my grandparents through the 4th and it'd be a bad time to launch it when I'm away, but I should be able to get it running next month no problem.

I finished all 60 levels of WaniKani! I'm going to keep up with reviews, but I need to get serious about the next steps of language learning next.

I've continued working on that Fire Emblem engine- units now move, engage in combat, die, end their turns, and change phases when their team is done. you can zoom in and out, inspect unit statuses, and control the game with mouse, keyboard, or a controller. I still need to implement some basic features like inventory management and trading, and some more advanced stuff like Shove and Rescue, and there's a few UI things to work out (I need an x2 indicator for double attacks), but after that... the big next step is configurability. Lots of stuff is hard-coded spaghetti, which I need to tear apart and make modular- the objective here is a tool for other people to use, not a game, so I need to focus on making it as clean and extensible as possible. This isn't my strong suit. It'll be tough.

I played some games in June:

I beat Zelda, which was very fun but kind of showed how skeletal it all was towards the end- a lot of the cool new stuff was frontloaded, and it became clear how much was being shamelessly recycled to pad things out as I progressed. Very impressive technical achievement, the mid-game twist was super cool, but it didn't really come together in the end except for a spectacular final boss fight.

At the wedding, my cousin showed me an Etrian Odyssey knockoff called Labyrinth of Galleria which looked cool, so I got the first game in the series (Labyrinth of Refrain), which is so far... mechanically, very fun and polished (save awful inventory management and weapon drops) and comparable to mainline EO, with a lot of depth and teambuilding options. Unfortunately, it's anime horny in all the most Fucking Terrible ways, with sexual assault and child abuse played for comedy and possibly the least likeable protagonist in the history of anything. Not sure if I'll stick with it.

I started Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, a direct sequel to Stay Night, which is thus far very interesting- it's doing a weird thing with how it handles which of FSN's multiple endings it follows from, and there's lots of confusing what the fuck moments and interesting uses of characters. It's structured like a fanservice omake compilation on the surface, but there's, like, a secret plot in the background that I have loads of theories about.

...so that's June. First half of the year. How am I doing? What's left?

Datasouls combat toy

Actually launch Star Seeker Justice/Arcana and finish case 1

Get the elliptical, whoops, forgot about that

Catch up on recap logs (currently blocked for Reasons)

Play The Sekimeiya

Get a Beatrice portrait

The storage room is cleared out but I need to communicate with the building guy vis-a-vis not accidentally clearing out my stuff

run some The Price Is Very Wrong, which I keep dragging my feet on

That's eight things to do in six months, but one's almost done, two more are half-done, and three of them are pretty easy. I'm on track to do most of it- I think for July, since Trails into Reverie is coming out this month and some work stuff is ramping up, I'll take an easy one- on top of the Star Seeker launch I spent June prepping, I'll just do some shopping and try and get that portrait and elliptical.

[pan-gya]

thinking about how Avenger's nickname isn't Angra, it's Anri!!!!!!

because the Japanese pronunciation of his name omits the "g" and "n" in Angra Mainyu and adds an "i" to become "Anri Maiyu"

Anyways, Anri is my baby boy I love him

[brave-symphonia]

Well, that just shocked me. I forgot that Kanto is an actual place in Japan, and I momentarily thought Shirou was talking about the Kanto region in Pokemon.

[unofficialshippingtrash]

Out of curiosity, why do you love Edelgard so much? Also, I've seen you blog a lot about Fate, I've heard about it, but I'm not too familiar with it. Can you explain it in simple terms?

Long answer here, so check it out under the cut. Also, spoilers for the Black Eagles route in Three Houses.

Why I love Edelgard: Partly because I love how determined she is to fix what she believes to be a broken world, and despite her brave facade, she's very emotionally vulnerable and in desperate need of love and attention, and seeing her open up in her supports with Byleth, Dorothea and Hubert is really sweet. 

Edelgard isn't 100% right in her methods, her bias against the church for what it did to her and her family is why she decides against diplomacy due to her own deep seated resentment for crests and those who perpetuate a system that supports them.

Also, I'm just a sucker for edgy waifus.

As for what Fate is: Basically it's a giant magic battle royal where famous people from mythology and real life are summoned by mages to fight for possession of the Holy Grail, a device that will grant the wish of whoever acquires it.

The appeal of the series comes from watching these cool match ups come to life. You can have Cú Chulainn fight genderbent King Arthur, or have Jeanne D'arc fight William Shakespeare. Artemis versus Jack the Ripper? Sure, why not? It's also got very attractive waifus and husbandos if that's what you love. (You've already seen my love for Saber and Jeanne alter)

If you need a guide to watching, here it is. I'd recommend starting with Fate/Zero first. It's got a great anime adaptation, and it really adds more substance to the first Fate work, Fate/Stay Night. That VN has three routes, with adaptations of varying quality. 

The first route called "Fate" has a very bad anime adaptation (or so I hear) so you might want to watch a play through or something. The second route; "Unlimited Blade Works" is widely considered the best by many people, myself included. It has a superb anime adaptation by ufotable that's a joy to watch. Finally, there's the last route: "Heaven's Feel" which currently being adapted into 3 movies by ufotable. Two have been made already, with the final movie scheduled for an early 2020 release.

The routes should all be experienced in that order, any deviation can result in certain scenes or character moments not appearing to make sense. 

After that, you have a few options. There's the pseudo sequel Fate/hollow ataraxia that is just a silly "what if" AU. There's also the alternate continuity Fate/Apocrypha that you should avoid at all costs because it's god awful. And then there's also the various video games, but the main ones to check out would be Fate/Extra and Fate/Grand Order.

(Exhales) Well, that was a long answer. Sorry for the massive text block, I tried my best to avoid info dumping, but oh well, here we are.

[wendiuh]

Hey hey hey question! 😄 I've been wanting to start the fate series for awhile, and there was one I had watched some time ago, but I've realized there is multiple series? I've noticed you like it so I was hoping you could help me figure out where to start, what order to go in...? Thanks in advance dearie!

You have no idea how happy i was to see this ask omg girl I’m in Fate hell. This will get lengthy, so beware haha. If you have any other questions, feel free to come to me! If it becomes too much reading (I think it’s like 1.5k words oops) just scroll to the bottom for the summary XD. I’ll put my essay explanation under the cut:

If you’re completely new to Fate, then allow me to explain how the story is set up structure-wise. It is split into 3 separate routes that start off from the same point. Each route has a set heroine/love interest and explore different aspects of the story and characters. These routes are viewed in the order of Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven’s Feel. Fate focuses on the character Saber, UBW focuses on Tohsaka Rin, and HF focuses on Matou Sakura.

Now the first thing all faithful Fate watchers would say is to read the original visual novel. I, however, did not start with this, but it is easy to see why people recommend this first. The Nasuverse (the world of Fate and other related series, named after creater Kinoko Nasu) is a very, very detailed world that has so many aspects to it. Reading the original story will definitely provide the most helpful context. I am currently reading the VN now to get a better understanding of the universe, and it is pretty enjoyable, but can get pretty slow.

Fair warning, though. The original VN is an adult game, meaning it is somewhat gory and deals with adult themes (aka sex). There was a re-release of it without any sex scenes called Realta Nua. I wont provide any links on this post on how get the VN, but there’s definitely YouTube videos out there to help.

If sitting through 80+ hours of reading isn’t your thing, and I don’t blame you if it isn’t, then we must turn to the animes. That’s where things get complicated.

There are 3 currently accessible animes out there set in the Fate/sn universe. There’s the orginal anime from 2006 that “covers” the 1st route, Fate, and was made by Studio Deen. I’m going to refer to this as Deen/stay night. I put the word “covers” in quotes because many Fate fans view this adaptation as a disgrace. I didn’t watch it, but many say it tries too hard to cover the story of the visual novel and somewhat combines the routes. Basically, it tried to adapt all of the visual novel but under the cover of the route Fate. However, it does seem to serve as an okay introduction to the Fate universe in general since it is the first anime adaptation out there.

In terms of release date, next comes the famous adaptation of Fate/zero by ufotable. This is a prequel follows the events prior to the beginning of Fate/stay night, and is hands down a phenomenal series in general. Many view FZ as a classic and a wonderful story, but it does have a few spoilers in terms of some big revelations that happen in the Stay Night routes. If you want to watch an amazing series and you’re okay with some spoilers for the main series, start here. As for me, I didn’t start here because I wanted to save it for last because of how many people that praised it.

Finally comes the UBW anime (the series by ufotable. Not the movie!). Commonly known as Unlimited Budget Works for its beautiful animation, this series focuses on the VN’s second route. This was released after FZ, so I do think ufotable made this series thinking fans already watched the prequel. However, I did start with this series first. Though there were some confusing points, I was able to understand most of the anime and it was pretty good. It took a second watch for me to fully understand the plot, but that’s kind of how a lot of animes work. You never enjoy the full scope of the series until you rewatch it. Both this series and FZ got at least 3 times better when I rewatched it, and that is saying a lot considering how much I liked them the first time through.

So, which one do you start with and what order to watch it in? For the sake of chronology, watch Deen/stay night, then FZ, then UBW. If you want to skip Deen/stay night (which is okay to do), then it is up to you what you want to watch first.

In my opinion, watch UBW first, then FZ. This saves the more serious and dark series for last, which will make the transition to the tone of the upcoming Heaven’s Feel adaptation movies more smooth.

But I think either way you watch the series will still get you a good amount of exposure to the Nasuverse. It’s complicated to start, but once you’re in, it gets better. Heck, even if you don’t fully get immersed into the universe, the 2 ufotable animes are still stellar and carry heavy messages as well as are pretty much eye candy thanks to that animation quality.

But what about all those other things with “Fate/” stamped onto it?

There are a couple of other major Fate installments out there, but they are NOT taking place in the Stay night universe. They are AUs that overall expand the lore of the Nasuverse (and also give the creators some more money lol). These include:

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA - A magical girl AU that is extremely different from Fate/sn. I think one should watch this after they finish the Stay Night series, but don’t feel forced to watch it, for it is completely non-canon.

Fate/apocrypha - This anime is currently airing as of my writing of this post. It follows a parallel universe “what if” situation. If this one certain event in history happened differently, then the events of Stay Night turn into this. This deals with completely different characters and set up. I only watched a few episodes of this anime and found it is probably most enjoyable to those familiar with the Nasuverse.

Fate/extra - Another parallel universe series coming out. Just like Apocrypha, this deals with new characters in general.

Fate/hollow ataraxia - A sequel Visual Novel to the original Stay Night story. Same characters and world, but 6 months later. It is another adult VN game, so it’s pretty much half-lore expansion and half-fanservice. 

Fate/prototype - This is a 1-episode OVA of Kinoko Nasu’s first envision of the series. There are some minor differences lore-wise, and the characters are mainly the same, save for a few design differences and gender swaps.

Carnival Phantasm - Ever watch those “crack” videos on YouTube? Like “Fairy Tail Crack” or “Boku no Hero Academia Crack”? These videos take an anime and make jokes out of its content and have many, many memes. Well, Carnival Phantasm is exactly that. It combines many series of the Nasuverse (mainly the Fate/stay night series and Nasu’s other work, Tsukihime) and makes it into a joyful, cute, hilarious, and downright amazing anime. It is filled with inside jokes of the universe and has some spoilers, so save this anime for last. I did skip the Tsukihime skits simply because I didn’t get the jokes, but there’s a montage of all the Fate skits on YouTube here. This series is the source of many, many fandom memes. You don’t have to watch it, but it is so funny.

Fate/Grand Order - A 1-episode OVA that adapts the first storyline of the famous mobile game with the same name. It is another parallel universe of some sort. New characters with some familiar faces of the Stay Night universe. The game is currently released in Japan and North America on the iTunes and Google Play store. It may be a waifu and husbando collector, but it is so addicting…

To conclude, there really isn’t a right answer that I can give you. But here’s my suggestion (aka the way I watched the anime):

1. Watch the Unlimited Blade Works anime by ufotable.

2. Watch Fate/zero.

3. If you want to rewatch then watch the first season of the UBW anime again, then watch FZ again, then watch the second season of UBW. Totally optional, but a fun way to watch the 2 series imo.

4. If you are okay with spoilers for Heaven’s Feel, watch Carnival Phantasm for the Fate sketches. By spoilers I mean there are some jokes from that series that rooted from Heaven’s Feel, but you may only catch them if you squint. It never explicitly spoils the story.

5. Watch the Heaven’s Feel movies. Only 1 out of the 3 is currently out/coming out internationally in theaters, so I guess just try to watch the first 1 if it is available to you at this point?

Feel free to start the visual novel if you want. In regards to the other series I mentioned, they are optional as well.

If you watch UBW and FZ and feel that there are a lot of unanswered questions, then expect Heaven’s Feel to address those issues. Remember that even though the 3 routes are all different stories, they are written in a way that you don’t get the whole picture until you have completed all three routes (too bad the Fate route anime is completely butchered and unreliable plot-wise. But I think you can manage without it. It’s more of an introduction to the story than anything else.)

Hope you understood what I was saying! Again, please message me if you have any questions or just want to talk about the series with me! I am in absolute hell with this universe so don’t hesitate to talk to me!