#pope johanna fgo

[coffeecakecatt]

Mephistopheles got a command code for the Valentine’s event in JP and I’m so excited because this means that he’s in the event.  And I’ve been reading it as it comes out, and there’s been a lot of allusion to Mephistopheles in it, and he relates super heavily to what the core themes are and I cannot stop thinking about this event and theorizing about how it’s gonna turn out. 

It’s all very weird, and almost there, and dream-like just wading at the edge of reading as the proper reality. Johanna is absolutely a person that Mephistopheles would sympathize with, and want to help in some way because she’s an entirely fictional person. And Mephistopheles cares about creations. He loves narrative servants and those created to fill a specific role. He’s friends with Nursery Rhyme and Moriarty. He helped Enkidu find their identity in their interlude. He killed Frankenstein in London and left Fran alive so she could go have an adventure with the Master. I’m sure he’d care for Johanna too. 

I think the event is a dream that Mephistopheles has made for Johanna because she wants to be a real girl, a real person, and she made a deal with the devil to grant this wish. It’s about what it means to be human, and what things are core to being real as a person, which absolutely parallels with Meph who is a homunculus who was made too human. He would know what it means to be human and want to be a real human being, since he’s an artificial being who was denied by his own creator. Not to mention that Mephistopheles controls dreams, has made micro-singularities in the past (which this event is) for other servant’s interludes, and is someone who challenges characters’ core values and morals. And everything feels just kind of off in the event, alluding to it not being how it seems. Johanna is just established to be there - no fan-fare, nothing, like it’s perfectly normal and reasonable that she’s in Chaldea providing Valentine’s blessings, even though that goes against her role in Traum. Goredolf is fully confident, he doesn’t seem to care about any holiday shenanigans, and everyone is really easily and casually ushered into what everyone thinks is going to be a very simple chill micro-singularity. 

Mash is in the event, but Mash isn’t really...getting as much of the spotlight as she usually gets. She’s only on screen for two or three dialogue boxes at most, she’s almost exclusively nudging you onto the path of the story, and she’s not getting her usual long Mash getting to say her opinion on things. Which, is how Mash acted in Mephistopheles’ interlude, where Mephistopheles made a fake Mash to keep the Master on track in his dream, and the Master didn’t notice. Which is something that is REALLY HARD to do and Mephistopheles has shown he CAN do, in the past.

Another thing - Nursery Rhyme is there! Only four servants were compatible to Rayshift: Rama, Jalter Santa Lily, Nursery Rhyme, and Johanna. Nursery Rhyme has been unphased by every weird thing to far. She’s just rolled with it a little too well, which would make sense, because Mephistopheles would need a storybook to help him write a story for Johanna.

And, there’s been a lot of Alice in Wonderland comparisons and references. And music specifically from Jeanne’s Casino in Las Vegas Summer, a place that Mephistopheles helped run, Nursery Rhyme took part in plays, and it was a casino run by a Saint who was having her time as a real girl.

The whole event is also in the perspective of a narrative, like a book, being recounted to you by Johanna with little narrative cut-ins from her at key intervals of her experiences. While there are dialogue options to choose, nothing is from their perspective. Any time we get narration, it’s from Johanna’s point of view.

Johanna also acts strangely. She knows things without evidence, and immediately pegs the grail in the basement of the Singularity’s church as evil, stops a mysterious sorcerer from wishing on it, and has her own wish prioritized over the initial wish that was going to be bad for the Human Order. A wish that Johanna claims she doesn’t even have, because she’s a Ruler and a Saint.

Then that wish caused a giant statue of her to be erected in the middle of the tiny peaceful town and now she’s beloved as Love Love Johanna-Sama!

Everyone has a little fun laugh as Johanna is in agony and embarrassment over this idea of being beloved and worshipped in such a loud and larger than life way, but I think she’s actually kind of flattered by it. She’s just grappling with this idea of only wanting what a Saint would, rather then what she actually wants. Because I think that Johanna wished to be a real girl, and to be a real girl she has to be known, and she has to be loved, and she has to accept that love. 

Love is what defines the weight of her life, and she has to accept and carry that love with her (in a little bag of luggage she’s given) in order to actually be real.  Which is what Mephistopheles is giving her, I think. He’s giving Johanna her wish of being a real girl for Valentine’s day.  TLDR: I’m pretty sure Mephistopheles has crafted an elaborate dream to grant Johanna’s wish to be a real person. Which means she has to learn what it means to be human. Love defines if you matter and are real, not the classification of reality of fiction. 

[sawbeaver]

FGO SD works

[ryohamu]

Her Holiness and His Emperorship of the Restoration Realm

[i-scream-for-fate]

Ruler class Popess Johanna for the Valentine 2023 event in Fate Grand Order.

Illustrator: Takenashi Eri.

[melonisopod]

I’m sick of the localizers putting feminine diminutives for words that do not need them. Please just call Pope Joan the pope not “Popess” please I’m begging -

[fgo-husbandry]

So I've recently adopted a Johanna and was really excited to bond with my first servant, but it hasn't gone at all how I expected. She's been very distant and hasn't wanted to do anything that hasn't been popely or proper. I've been trying to encourage her to come out of her shell but I haven't been able to make it past that holy barrier. I've heard that it's better to acquire servants in pairs and worry I made a mistake only adopting one for my first time. Do you have any suggestions of another servant I can adopt to help her feel more comfortable?

Servants are very social creatures, generally speaking. There's some Servants who do better alone -- perhaps even thrive -- but most of the time, unless you can dedicate huge number of resources to securing them the 100% perfect environment, they're at bare-minimum going to need play-dates with other Servants to fill their social needs.

So, to suggest another Servant to look at for a Johanna...

What about Mephistopheles?

If you need someone to help you loosen up, Mephistopheles is your guy. He's playful and fun-loving, and is great at drawing other's out of their shell with his tricks, jokes, and japes. I know, I know, you might be worried about how a self-proclaimed demon and a Popess can co-exist, but despite what he says, Mephistopheles Servants don't come from hell; they were produced by Faust, and would properly be classed as homunculi.

Really, the whole 'demon' thing is identity-seeking behavior, born from their creator not being happy with the batch and calling them failures at being homunculi. Legend has it that Faust was tricked by the demon Mephistopheles, but the truth is that Mephistopheles Servants tread the line between labels, and the story is just that -- a fantastical tale. Too much like homunculi to be human, made by mortal man so not demon, but unable to be a part of society just like demons because they can't be human. A Johanna, with her gentle demeanor and loving acceptance of others, may be just what a Mephistopheles needs to be comfortable.

A Mephistopheles may understand Johanna too, since she herself is more of a legend than a real person, defined by her saintliness and holiness rather than her own physical qualities. It's debatable if a real 'Johanna' ever existed at all! So much like Mephistopheles, she exists in a space between fiction and reality, struggling with her identity. This is probably the source of her aloof behavior; it's likely she herself doesn't even know who she is or wants to be.

Therefore, try a Mephistopheles today! Who better to assist your Johanna than a Servant who has forced the world to accept him as a demon-clown, because he wants to be more than he was created to be? And who better to pair with Mephistopheles than a Servant who does, deep down, actually like a few... explosions...

...huh.

...did I accidentally just give helpful advice???

~ Mod Foreigner

[innovatorbunny]

she's having a normal one

[radroller]

Pope Johanna: Plus, killing a Losbelt? It’s a sin in the eyes of the Servant Church.

Guda: We don’t need ROME telling us what to do.

[de-sterren-nacht]

when fgo na gets to them im gonna be posting so aggressively about constantine xi and pope johanna

[coffeecakecatt]

Incredibly self indulgent art of Meph and Johanna. I love them dearly and the pope and the devil should kiss.

[sawbeaver]

You don't deserve to scratch Ring of the Fisherman.

*Ring of the Fisherman became a custom after Johanna, but was commented out symbolically.

[itznarcotic]

there's no way in hell this is ever happening but it would be funny if FGO (Arcade) crossing over with FGO (Mobile) will finally mean that Persona 5, the ever infamous gacha game crossover staple, will finally be represented in the fate franchise in the form of Pope Johanna having a nuke-related attack