#yuga kshetra

[hasasvatthamandoneanythingwrong]

[fgo-main-chapter-tournament]

Round 1, Match 1: Yuga Kshetra VS S.I.N.

[cynthiaandsamus]

(Why does everyone in LB4 have such a hard time understanding the mechanics of the Yuga Cycle? Like why did they think they could start a religious revolution before the few days are up and expect Arjuna to just... let that happen? Like the first villagers we see are under the impression that if they don't pray enough they'll get spirited away so why would we ever be under the impression that people that actively don't believe would stick around to undermine his power? We have Sherlock Holmes on the goddamn boat why is everyone so stupid about this!?)

[kaibutsushidousha]

So does Minase joins Meteo of being a writer that picked a figure from regions that aren’t as used as much in TM with the Trung sisters belonging to him?

This one is just a self-answering yes-no question, so I'll instead use it as a platform for the Minase thoughts I've been having since the wombo-combo of the new mats, the anniversary interview, and the Dubai event. It's probably what the anon wanted out of it anyway.

My inner ramblings start from something Nasu said in last year's interview and made a point to reiterate this year.

Ordeal Calls are meant to be each writer's best and most emblematic piece. Their artistic identity taken to its peak. That's something I believe Sakurai accomplished and Minase didn't. That obviously raises one question: what would a real Minase masterpiece look like?

By the Ordeal Call's premise, it would still need to be something that gave the supplementary information we were missing about the Alterego class, but let's ignore that angle and focus only on the goal of expressing Minase's personality in the best way possible.

What works with Minase and what doesn't? Compare his worst and best pieces. Agartha sucks because it focuses on his opinions about women and those are categorically rancid. Yuga Kshetra succeeds because it focuses on his opinions about ableism, which are far more poignant and agreeable. Minase has enough care about the subject to ensure that the plot is a series of arrangements where the characters triumph not despite their so-called flaws but specifically because of them.

So an ideal Minase Ordeal would focus on a different subject that Minase recurrently displays passionate, empathetic, and agreeable opinions about. So what can we find in his roster of character? Minase made Servant versions:

Zenobia, whose historical significance is entirely about resisting Roman colonization, although she failed. Minase portrays as someone who literally wears her failure and tries to conduct herself with dignity regardless to prove the point that the Roman conquerors couldn't truly defeat her Palmyra spirit. I think this one is a bust execution-wise, but it's significant that the idea is there.

Lakshmi Bai, whose historical significance is entirely about resisting English colonization. Minase portrays her as someone who can't help but disdain the innocent English civilian Holmes and acknowledges the irrationality of it, but the entire surrounding cast including Holmes himself assure her that she is entitled to her feeling because colonization is that gruesome and traumatic of a process.

The Trung sisters, whose historical significance comes not exactly from resisting colonization, but from leading an independence war, which is similar enough in spirit.

Columbus, whose historical significance comes from being a colonizer. I don't need to tell you how Minase chose to portray him.

With Fate/ drawing its action cast from history books, it's inevitable that we get a decent amount of characters whose bulk of their offscreen backstory was spent conquering, slaughtering, and assimilating other cultures. Some certified colonizers, like Richard and Takeru, are very self-critical about it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Iskandar, who gets flak from Faker and Ptolemy for his stupid decisions toward the Diadochi, but the journey of conquest and domination gets framed as the fun adventure no one is critical of. Either way, none of other characters not written by Minase get irredeemable treatment that Columbus gets.

The franchise's most prominent colonizer is, of course, Arthur(ia) Pendragon. Both versions are defined by the regret that comes with ultimately failing their kingdom, but their failings are never credited to the notion that violently conquering the British tribes and unifying the isles is an inherently bad thing. That's the image of greater good they fought for, and that part remains unchallenged. The closest Nasu got to criticizing Arthuria for being a colonizer is by showing the Round Table's brutal treatment of the Arabs in the Sixth Singularity. I'm mentioned this specially because this is Percival's first reaction to eating a mixed breakfast buffet in the current Minase-written Dubai event:

Minase's Percival is strongly defined by his respectful interest in foreign cultures and, fittingly enough for a knight who opposed the Lion King, he's maybe the first character to directly criticize Arthuria on her disregard for the traditions she trampled in the unification of Britain. That's a thing I'd appreciate more of and can only imagine Minase daring to touch on.

[connecticutsfinestconfessions]

my ultimate hot take is that Minase needs to decide if he's going to be a good writer for FGO or not!!! Minase is like. this fucking enigma of a person when it comes to the quality of his writing in FGO like. he's the script writer for the Prillya anime and co-wrote the Prillya event for FGO, which was so badly received Hiroyama never wrote for FGO again. he was also responsible for Agartha, which is universally hated. so it should stand he's just an awful writer and we should just expect everything he writes to be bad right.

but also he's done most of the Valentine events which are hit-or-miss but usually decent. and then the dude writes Yuga Kshetra and Paper Moon, arguably some of the best FGO content not written by Nasu. like what the fuck. it's like the dude decides every time he writes for FGO "i'm either gonna put actual effort into this or half-ass it until the deadline comes" and it's so!!! either just consistently be a good author or not stop making it a guessing game whenever we know you're gonna write something!!!

Yeah it's REALLY bizarre innit. On one hand I enjoyed LB4 so, so much more than I enjoyed any of the previous LBs. It's a thoughtful lostbelt that really felt like it got to the core of what Fate is. It's got great emotional moments, good twists, and is generally written as if the reader is a bit intelligent but not necessarily cryptic.

But then you run into a Valentine's day event and its "oh no men who don't get chocolate are an oppressed class" and I greatly reconsider the act of being literate.

[alessia-aoi]

I FINALLY DID IT!!

After 4 years (from his first release on Yuga Kshetra banner) and after nearly 800 SQ on the first attempt an 228 SQ this time! It's an ordeal that ends 😭😭

Thank you Gacha and Megane Event!!! ❤️❤️

Notable other drops

New Hajime came in NP3

2 copies of Gawain useful for NP5

*Gold rider appears*

me carelessly: Nemo?

Odisseus: Pardon me?

The end

[tgrailwar-zero]

It wasn't even a fight.

Already weakened by his constant mana burning, the hardest part of this opponent had long since passed. The LAIR SERVANT's head rolled cleanly off his shoulders, as ASSASSIN casually finished him off by jabbing his blade into the Spirit Core, finishing him off for good. As he pulled his blade out, another object shimmered.

You could recognize this enough as a Trigger Key, especially as ASSASSIN clutched it in his hands with a satisfied expression.

ASSASSIN: "Y'know, it wasn't the cleanest slash- probably because you all decided to get real talkative all of the sudden- but it worked well enough."

Shortly after, a figure appeared before ASSASSIN, shifting and holographic.

CASTER: "Good. That's a start- one out of seven. Let's not dawdle-- head back to base as soon as…"

The hooded man paused, before speaking again, his tone a bit more urgent.

CASTER: "…Assassin. Get out of the area, now. There's another Lair Servant approaching… his Spirit Origin is-- too late. It's too late. Just start running!"

Before any further warning could be given, a figure crashed into the ground, like a shooting star. Blue flames erupted from the crater, as the figure stepped out, slow and unfazed. There was a slight smile on his face, accompanied by a gaze that which made him even more disconcerting.

???: "This was a nice town. I visited occasionally. Perhaps after you're handled, I can help rebuild."

A voice from the crater said, his tone blunt, yet somber.

ASSASSIN: "Huh? Who're you?"

ASSASSIN brandished his weapon, yet he didn't seem to take the new arrival seriously at all. Perhaps the confidence of the previous fight was keeping his ego high, or something else was at play.

Perhaps because this was a memory, hindsight allowed you to see just how terrifying this Servant was.

Unlike the face of the previous LAIR SERVANT, who was hidden- forgotten, perhaps not worth remembering due to the speed that he was incapacitated, this next Servant's features were practically seared into your mind. His face, eerily calm, as he stepped forward and drew an ornate, burning bow.

This BOWMAN spoke again, with supreme calmness.

"BOWMAN": "Nine Servants summoned to protect this land. Nine Servants summoned to destroy it. You've killed one. Would it be improper for me to balance the scales?"

You knew that you had summoned nine Servants. Saber, Archer, Lancer, Assassin, Caster, Rider, Berserker, Foreigner, and Avenger.

But, nine Lair Servants… You remember what the NARRATING VOICE had said, that there were currently seven Lair Servants summoned, with your former Lancer being one of them. Perhaps the data from three of them had been lost in the carry-over from the Origin War to this one, or something else had happened. Maybe in order to recover, three of them had to be left behind and the system had to make do with LANCER to fill in one of the blanks. It was unclear, and it wasn't like this BOWMAN was exactly giving you time to think on it.

The BOWMAN took another step forward, not drawing back the string yet. His stance became prouder, and more heroic. A shining light against the bloodied backdrop of this town.

"BOWMAN": "I have a duty as a hero to kill those that disrupt the peace. However, unlike you, I am merciful."

"BOWMAN": "You can either give me the key and avoid confrontation for now, or keep it and die swiftly. Those are the terms."

You could tell that ASSASSIN wasn't planning on giving up the key. Which meant…

SERVANT: SLAYING ASSASSIN

T-SUMMONED: [PHANTOM COUNTESS]

Strength: C

Endurance: D

Agility: A (Raised from B)

Mana: C (Raised from E)

Luck: D (Raised from E)

NP: B (Raised from C)

HP: 7/5

MP: 5/7

Maximum Damage (Strength): 7 (Increased due to the amount of blood present!) Maximum Damage (Mana): 7 (Increased due to the amount of blood present!)

[reignsan]

Famitsu poll results for what chapter you want an anime of (this is a different poll than favorite chapter)

Avalon le Fae

Atlantis

Shimousa

Nahui Mictlan

Shinjuku

Heian-Kyo

Anastasia

Yuga Kshetra

Paper Moon

Traum

[vyragosa]

yuga kshetra? so limbo was out there in india fucking it up, obsession with your average white hair (for no discernible reason) LATCHING onto junao and we all thought "dammmmn this has got to do with the teachings someway like," and then the artist for the official SHIMOUSA MANGA on hiatus because they were working ON THAT WHOLE GAME ACTUALLY and it features most of HASENDOW'S CHARACTERS and now there's raikou lily appearing as ushi-gozen, but in fate that's the child of INDRA, but then ARJUNA is in the GAME, because of the syncretism so it's like, you know like,

[corvidmasters]

if anyone ever wants to know machas relationship with other characters. Feel free to ask in askbox,

just keep in mind i stopped playing after yuga kshetra released in JP so 1. my knowledge of the story after that is spotty 2. i relied on fantranslation and summary availability back then (i have actually been reading singularities in full to start fixing this recently thanks atlas academy) 3. i am old (25) and forgetful

[hasasvatthamandoneanythingwrong]

[fgo-main-chapter-tournament]

Round 2, Match 1: Avalon le Fae vs Yuga Kshetra

[animerpicons]

463 (100 x 100) icons of KOYANSKAYA OF LIGHT’S YUGA KSHETRA OUTFIT from FATE/GRAND ORDER

PURCHASE BY SENDING A MESSAGE! CHECK OUT MORE ICONS HERE. PREVIEW UNDER CUT:

[kaibutsushidousha]

What are your thoughts on Papermoon? Did it change your expectations for the Ordeal Call arc?

I really liked most of PAPERMOON's cast. My unpopular opinion is that Minase can be a garbage writer but he's a great character creator. His characters are always built around one solid core and can feel one-note due to how they never shift too far from this core element, but the element is always chosen with one impactful scene or interaction in mind, and these goal scenes generally hit more often than they miss. Maybe. At least in PAPERMOON, they hit with Lainur, Bhima/Cerejeira, Medusa, Kama, and Duryodhana.

Another thing that Minase always knows how to do brilliantly, better than Nasu even, is to re-deliver the most memorable quotes of past Type-Moon content in new contexts. Bazett's growth marked by well-timed use of Angra quotes pretty much carries her event, and Yuga Kshetra's remixes of JinaKarna interactions ultimately deliver what's still the most powerful scene in FGO. Honestly, only Haganeya (Lilim Harlot event writer) competes with Minase when it comes to hard-hitting references. His good sense for this shows in his great choices for which otherwise minor aspects of Sakura and Rani should take the forefront in this new context and which shouldn't. And then his handling of Lainur is about as masterful as his handling of Bazett. When Lainur drops the "Because it might cause something to change"? That's exactly what I mean by clever recycling of old quotes.

But enough about his strong suits. Minase's storytelling sucks for a couple reasons and the most prominent of them is that he almost never knows what to do in the middle. His good conclusions suffer from how he struggles to lead up to them in exciting ways. And his number one crutch for this problem is reaffirming the character traits that will be relevant to the good conclusions ad nauseam.

PAPERMOON also introduces us to Minase's crutch number 2: plot recycling. Again, his inability to plan the midfield leads him to corrupt one of the things he's legitimately good at. Here we get sections 5 to 12, a whole 50% of the chapter, dedicated to the most uninspired and uncathartic rehashes of Gilles and Zouken's arcs in Fate/Zero and Heaven's Feels respectively. Genuinely garbage recycling. This cool cast really could be doing cool things instead.

Ultimately, I think Minase was a poor choice for the Alterego chapter because the setting and concepts involved play directly into his crutches. Alteregos being isolated facets removes the absolute need for Minase to flesh out the characters beyond their necessary core, and System Grail War being a simulation taken from real samples facilitates otherwise inorganic repetition. He's an uncreative man thrown into the smack middle of his comfort zone and this is the result.

Final verdict:

As for Ordeal Call expectations, yes, they did change. Before, I saw two routes for Ordeal Call.

A: pure Class mechanics-based filler that doesn't advance any of the plot points necessary for the finale.

B: final showdowns with each of the Apostles since Kotomine is Alterego, Dantes is Avenger, and Holmes is Ruler.

PAPERMOON was neither. It was completely unrelated to Kotomine, but it still changed the board for the finale by dooming Sion's plotline at the end.

Sion's arc in this chapter comments on how she's been always a sidelined cheerleader than a proper companion to Novum Chaldea, with her reasoning that she's not fit to be Fujimaru's friend because she predicted a role for herself in the finale that requires her not being a friend. This was already alluded to in Imaginary Scramble but mostly forgotten by the narrative otherwise.

Our main companion through this ordeal is an Alterego in the form of Sion's childish aspirations to be Fujimaru's friend despite knowing she can't, and the two of them are stuck in an unreal world where her actions wouldn't have consequences. So little Sion wholeheartedly indulges in this fun adventure.

However, even the most childish side of Sion knows that this cannot be. In the end, when she finally returns Fujimaru's Alterego to their complete self, she chooses to stay behind. The joyful memories of the child's adventure can't be allowed to return to the adult. Sion can't be Novum Chaldea's friend. This is essential to preventing mankind's demise.

The young Sion closes the door behind Fujimaru and leaves herself stuck in an isolated micro-world. It's the only option Sion Eltnam Sokaris is capable of taking. And then comes the epilogue revealing the fallout of it:

Sion remembers the adventure. Sion remembers being Fujimaru's friend. The bystander "unfortunately" became part of the team. The actress can no longer take the role in her script. It's over. She got attached to her sacrificial pawns. Sion had a chance to save the bleached Earth, but now she's suddenly faced with the greater challenge of saving both the world and the people she was planning to discard to save the world.

This is a big game changer for the final chapter, and honestly, in a route much more interesting than anything I had in mind. The Sion hype for FGO's finale is finally undeniably real. Took her long enough.

[connecticutsfinestconfessions]

So, the whole thing about the bad bits of Ooku being attributed to Minase like... that's so disingenuous? He's also supposedly responsible for writing LB4: Yuga Kshetra and Ordeal Call 1: Paper Moon and as I recall, people absolutely LOVED those story chapters???

It's almost like a writer is someone capable of learning from their mistakes and improving their craft just like anyone else. Wild, right? But surely people already knew that, right?

... Right?

I don't know man. It's worth noting he's written some dumbass shit after LB4 (the chocolate virgin Valentine's Event for instance) but I do think he's given less credit than he probably should be.

[hasarjunadoneanythingwrong]

Day 734

GUYS I MISSED YUGA KSHETRA JP RELEASE DAY! IT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO YESTERDAY!!