Here are the basic settings, I'll slowly update some weird doodles later.
Don't try to reason with me, this is a byproduct of Brainrot, so logic doesn't exist from the beginning (of course you can also understand that I'm just modifying CasGil because I want to see him in new clothes so bad (truth
What do you think would happen if the Lostbelt War was simply carried out properly?
The only way the Lostbelt War could only be "carried out properly" is Novum Chaldea not appearing. And Chaldea is relevant to the motivations of many participants, so why they don't appear alters the situation.
If the cause of the divergence is Chaldea dying in the prologue, Beryl has no reason to bother anymore, so he just remote-triggers everyone's Sirius Lights. However, Akuta amputated her Sirius Light long before, so only her Lostbelt doesn't explode. ORT could possibly survive the Sirius Light, but he would explode his own heart in one year anyway, so it's just a matter of waiting. Eternal China Ending.
If the cause of the divergence is Chaldea never returning from their Imaginary Number dive, there's no proof they're gone and Beryl will keep waiting for Mash, extending the conflict a lot more long-term.
January
Chaldea takes 3 months to come back, so the movements of the Crypters will remain pretty much the same until March. Keyword: the Crypters. They're not the only players in Part 2.
As soon as the Lostbelts form, Kama escapes India and begins planning her Oo'oku. She's supposed to build it in 6-7 months by yoinking roughly 210 Servants from Chaldea, but here her best option is to take everything from Atlantis. It's the Lostbelt with the most Rogue Servants and it's the only one with a surface level not supervised by its Lostbelt King. The Godbreak Alliance plus the Atlantis Defense Servants gives her roughly 20 Servants, allowing her to build Oo'oku in 60-70 months if the world there keeps spawning new Rogues at the same rate.
"Doesn't Traum have 1000 of Servants to grab at once?" Yes, but Traum didn't appear in Sion's map scan at LB3 prologue, so I'm assuming it doesn't exist yet. Novum Chaldea only discovered it after the New Year, but since Don Quixote moved to it before their arrival in Atlantis, I'll assume it formed somewhere between June and October.
March
Without Fujimaru summoning Avicebron, Kadoc doesn't have the means to beat Ivan. After his Amadeus dies and his Salieri can't handle the job, Ivan awakens and learns the truth as he did in canon, but here he survives and remains active.
Rasputin's main interest is in letting Anastasia be satisfied with her ending, so in canon he only ensured Kadoc's survival and freedom after Kadoc and Anastasia had an honest shot at ruling the Lostbelt, but since here that didn't happen, Rasputin will take both outside to try conquering a new Lostbelt. There are six options for Kadoc to go to, but for reasons, I have to choose Rasputin sending Kadoc and Anastasia to Britain.
April
Gotterdamerüng without Chaldea leaves Napoleon and Sitonai as Ophelia's only opponents. Even if they still have the idea of freeing Brynhild, they lose the fight if they rush in unaware of what Ophelia's eyes do. This means Sigurd's body isn't killed, therefore Surtr doesn't incarnate in April, therefore Skadi is still in control of the Fantasy Tree. No progress on Ophelia's side until Russia grows big enough for their walls to touch. Checking the map, the distance between Scandinavia and Russia is roughly twice the distance between Britain and Atlantis. Atlantis touched Britain during the climax of Olympus, but that was a case where Britain wasn't growing. With both sides growing at decent paces, we can schedule the contact for October.
"But why Russia? Britain is closer." Yes, Britain is also not growing because its tree was sucked dry 2017 years ago, and most importantly, due to the reason I had to send Kadoc to Britain. Britain has a prophecy I'm forced to deal with. There inevitably has to be one outsider mage who accompanies Arthuria's journey and all the steps there need to happen, including all bells, all calamities, and the journey allowing Cnoc to dethrone Morgan. And I feel like Kadoc has the best opportunity to do that. Avalon le Fae in April causes fewer changes than you'd expect. All parties were pretty much done with their 16 years of prep time and were only waiting for the Child of Prophecy. Pretty much everything would play out the same except:
Mash's absence means Beryl would be not invested enough in the plot. After he was done with Spinel and Morgan lost the throne, he'd declare himself a loser and bail to Olympus before the calamities began.
Pepe isn't there to save Kadoc from the Moss humans, but that's nothing Anastasia can't deal with. Freeze them without touching and everything is fine.
Koyanskaya is not developed enough to survive Muryan's request very long. Koyanskaya dies in April.
Muramasa's absence means Arthuria fully becomes a Holy Sword.
Arthuria needs to save Kadoc from the Garden of Lost Will. He can't get out on his own like Fujimaru. And recovering from this would require gigantic progress in his romance arc with Anastasia. Huge increase in Kadoc's protagonist level.
Anastasia was a member of Aesc's party. I really would rather have Kadoc there, but if she has the reaction speed to shield him from Billy's bullet in canon, she has the reaction speed to shield him from the Water Mirror.
The most instrumental changes come from the differences between Mash's and Anastasia's personalities. With how deeply devoted she is to her emotional attachments, she'd take Morgan's side in the faerie conflict. In the Camelot invasion, she'd beg Morgan to escape Britain with them and find a new home in Yaga Russia. Morgan is absurdly stubborn but if they get her to check her memories with Nastya, have this emotional appeal from both Nastya and Habetrot, have a logical appeal from Kadoc telling her that Britain is doomed and that Cnoc will steal her throne but the prophecy doesn't mention that Morgan has to die so she can get away with just disappearing to Avalon, and Spinel's murder removing her last attachment to the fae world, they have a chance of getting through to her.
The last thing Kadoc's journey needs is a means to let him escape Britain during the calamities. Which he can get if he manages to recruit Morgan, the other Avalon le Fae. While Arthuria will forge herself into the Holy Sword, Morgan could forge herself into the Avalon sheath, allowing Kadoc to survive Britain's collapse and return to Russia. Like in canon, Oberon's world-ending hole fails to expand and consume the planet because Melusine cuts him off. But since Kadoc didn't fight the calamities, this time it's a mutual kill from both of them starting at full health. Britain excised. 6 Lostbelts remain.
Another April event in canon is Nemo diving into Imaginary Sea in search of the Chaldea survivors but in this version, we can't have him finding them. He could still find Gogh drifting there, but without Fujimaru forcing riskier decisions, he'd dump Gogh back there if not outright kill her. If Sion's canon plan was already revealed, I could work out a Sion plotline by having her redo her predictions and respond accordingly, but since that's not the case, I'll just write Sion and Nemo off by saying their computer tells them Chaldea is in the Imaginary Sea and they keep searching indefinitely.
May
Kadoc, Anastasia, and Habetrot sneak their way back to Russia. Kadoc could use his new tools as a catalyst to summon King Arthur but opts against it because he can't afford Excalibur coming out of his own mana supply. It's better to lend his Holy Sword to a capable Rogue Servant, and luckily Beowulf is a suitable option for the job. Beowulf excaliblasts Ivan dead. It was a convoluted journey, but Kadoc has finally established Anastasia as his Lostbelt King. Now it's steady expansion progress until contact with Scandinavia.
June
Without Chaldea's intervention, Shi Huang's war preparations continue smoothly. They finish reverse engineering Mei-ren's body for themself and she gets paid with Xiang Yu's ownership. Lan Ling and the couple retreat to the peaceful uninhabited mountains and Akuta stops attending the Crypter meetings. Nothing to worry about until contact with India, and even then that's mostly Shi Huang's problem. China and India's distance is not that much bigger than the distance between Britain and Olympus, so I'll schedule that for November (it won't happen).
September
Without Chaldea's intervention, I think Nezha kills Pepe here. Even if Pepe survives and fights the same way Chaldea did, with Koyanskaya dead in April, Daybit can't save Pepe from Asclepius. Pepe dies. 6 Crypters remain. Lakshmi and Jinako are the only forces opposing Arjuna. "How does Jinako's big cube work?" I have no idea. It may have never existed. Doesn't matter either way without anyone to pull Jinako out of the cube.
October
Three more Yuga cycles after Pepe's death, Arjuna burns his own Fantasy Tree as Douman planned. India excised. 5 Lostbelts remain. Douman once again moves to Olympus.
In the same month, the walls of Russia and Scandinavia touch. Ophelia has the overwhelming advantage in soldiers (the giants and Valkyries vs the Yagas) while Kadoc has the overwhelming advantage in heroes (Anastasia, Habetrot, Beowulf with Excalibur, Billy the Kid, Minotaur, and Atalante Alter vs only Sigurd possessed by Surtr). Kadoc has enough of a tactical eye to figure out that Skadi is not a fighter while she's using all her power to keep the giants (+ Surtr) in check, so his strategy should be to assassinate Skadi first. But all the snow serves as Skadi's eyes, so she should know that's what he's going for. I don't think aiming for Skadi first would work, especially with Ophelia's eye being a factor. But Kadoc is informed about her eye and not informed about the consequences of killing Sigurd's body, so his logical approach would be: Attempt to kill Skadi regardless of counters -> Ophelia stops this possibility -> kills Sigurd instead. That causes the Surtr scenario. Skadi hits the panic button and frees the prisoners Napoleon and Sitonai. Kadoc is forced to shoot his trump card: Beowulf with Excalibur. Ophelia's sacrifice Sirius Light + a blast of the Holy Sword + an overloaded Grendel Buster + Napoleon's finisher should defeat the giant. Ophelia dies. 5 Crypters remain. The last major enemy left in Scandinavia is Skadi, who wishes only for her children not to be trampled. Kadoc seizing Scandinavia's Fantasy Tree instead of cutting it down doesn't make him an enemy, and it only plays to Kadoc's advantage to recruit Skadi instead of fighting her. Russia and Scandinavia merged. 4 Lostbelts remain.
But October is not over yet. Fantasy Tree Magellan is blooming. That's where Zeus set up Demeter and Aphrodite to die fighting Chaldea so that he could run away from the incarnated Alien God without shaming himself in front of his family. But here there's no Chaldea. So we're left with the challenging question of "Would Zeus prioritize his pride or his survival?". And that's the divergence point of the Lostbelt. This is a Zeus that chooses to survive at all costs. Zeus would abandon Demeter and Aphrodite, moving the two to Kirschtaria's side. Zeus escapes the Lostbelt and tries to escape Earth. But like Koyanskaya's egg, he can't leave. The dome to the cosmos is closed. He'd need to open a hole with a properly charged World Discipline Keraunos but other things are happening at the same time.
As usual, Muramasa kills Atlas, preventing Kirschtaria's plan while Kirschtaria is being held off by Beryl. The Rhongomyniad tactics aren't at play here, but Beryl can still fight full-power Kirschtaria because he got his Woodwose transformation earlier than canon. U-Olga successfully emerges. Apostle count 3->4. Muramasa is urgently dispatched to deal with Zeus, causing the last World Discipline Keraunos charge to be wasted smiting him. Muramasa dies. Apostle count 4->3. Olga gets to consume the Olympus Lostbelt, removing the Cronus Crown power source that let Zeus use his Noble Phantasm, so now he's just stuck on Earth, humiliated and desperate.
Olga didn't consume Olympus in canon because of Kirsch's Sirius Light kicking her away, but here there was no Rhongomyniad that he had to wall, so no opportunity for Beryl to fatally stab him, and Kirschtaria wouldn't use Sirius Light if he wasn't about to die anyway. He has the option to survive. Caenis was always in and out of the Lostbelt walls thanks to Poseidon's authority, so Kirsch could have an emergency escape route by having Caenis pilot the actual Poseidon Alitheia carrying his party of Dioscuri, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Artemis.
Since U-Olga still manifested, Douman still got inspired to develop Naraka Mandala, and Beryl refuses to die without seeing Mash again, so he allies with Douman and uses that as his ticket out of this doomed place. Olympus excised. 3 Lostbelts remain.
November
Zeus studied his options. He has nothing left to lose. He just wants to get away from CHALDEAS ASAP and needs all Fantasy Trees gone for it. South America is a time bomb thanks to ORT's heart, so Zeus will resort to stalling against this one. China is beatable at any time despite Shi Huang's Grand-level body. But Russia is an easier pick now since Skadi still hadn't much time to recover. Zeus attacks Kadoc and can counter or overpower all of his remaining options.
Meanwhile, Kirschtaria has a big target on his back due to betraying CHALDEAS. With his plan lost, trusting his friends is his only option. He mainly trusts Daybit to save the day, but he can't join Daybit because that would draw U-Olga's attention to him. Instead, he chooses to join Kadoc's side. Kirschtaria with his party of 5 gods is all Kadoc needs to turn the tides against Zeus. Kadoc's roster suffered a few casualties, but should still have its most important members (Anastasia, Habetrot, Skadi). Kirschtaria's third and last use of his ideal magecraft happened here, so he's no longer a combat asset for Kadoc.
At the same time, Douman is running the Imperial Holy Grail War in the Heian without Fujimaru's presence to intervene. This time he also brought his new assistant Gatto Beriru, probably with a really stupid spelling like 歹戸辺璃瑠. Fujimaru is honestly not much of a factor in Heian. Douman would still set up Ibuki to become a Beast, still realize the day before that Ibuki was not guaranteed to be loyal to CHALDEAS, still try to become the new Beast himself instead, still fail because he never loved mankind, and still get chopped by Kintoki. Cagliostro obtained. Apostle count: 3 -> 4.
There is a crucial difference in this scenario, however. Pepe never put Douman on his last life. Kintoki's victory accomplishes nothing. Douman can just reset the Singularity and try again. Grab a second copy of Cagliostro while he's at it, why not? Neither he nor Cagliostro can be turned into Beasts by the Fantasy Tree because they never knew true love, but Douman's team in this version has one more member. One full of opinions on love and beauty. One with a solid vision for the mankind he wants.
Speaking of Beasts, Kama also lost her source with Olympus being excised. She needs to reevaluate where's the new best place to grab Servants from, and luckily, Traum exists now. That's a few thousand Servants taken, making for a bigger, badder, and more loading-screen-filled labyrinth than ever before. However, Traum fails to provide with a human to complete the ritual by breaking all the Buddhist vows. Our twig and nerves friends aren't too equipped for that life of desire. Kama returns Bluebook to Traum, where they begin to rebuild their Servant armies from scratch. His main partner Zhang Jue might be still around.
December
Douman's second round of Heian concludes with the manifestation of Beast VII, U-Beryl. Now that he has Independent Manifestation, he can roam the Imaginary Sea in search of the disappeared Shadow Boarder. He plans to keep his word about being an allied force to CHALDEAS and U-Olga Marie, but he'll only be back after he finds Mash, and since that'd defeat the premise of this scenario, he'll never do. Nonetheless, Douman and Cagliostro consider this a job well done and regroup with U-Olga and Kotomine in Mictlan. Beryl doesn't die but metamorphosizes and leaves the plot for good. 4 Crypters remain. Cagliostro 2 obtained. Apostle count: 4->6->5 if you want to count U-Beryl as one.
Beryl's metamorphosis leaves Kadoc and Kirschtaria as the last two humans on Earth, therefore Kama's only options for Oo'oku. I don't think either of them would be able to cheat the system the ways Fujimaru did, but together, they have the combination character traits necessary to succeed. Without Goredolf completing Kama's maturation, she shouldn't be much trouble. Mata Hari's hypnosis duty can be done by Aphrodite. Scheherazade's Reality Marble duty can be done by Demeter's land-making authority. Tajima's swording really good duty can be done by a Saber from grabbed Traum. We know Yamato Takeru was one the earliest summons of the Revenge Realm, so that works. Kama gets defeated not too differently from canon. Unfortunately without Kiara to enable her development.
Second January
The canon crumbling of Oo'oku returned all Servants to Chaldea, so in this versions, all Servants in the walls should return to Traum (except Takeru who went to Kadoc's party). But Traum was already reconstructing for 2 months, so it already developed new factions. Kriemhild and Constantine are no longer faction leaders and I don't think they could manage rising to the top again. Kriem probably wouldn't even try since she'd find Siegfried in their return. Either way, someone would get the three Grails, and Zhang Jue would lead the attack on Antarctica.
We still don't know enough about CHALDEAS's total forces, but considering Kriem with 2 Traum Grails was on Siegfried's level, I can confidently say Bluebook's army gets easily wiped. No casualties among the 5 Apostles.
With that surprise threat quickly out of the way, the Apostles can return to their respective plans. A Douman shikigami attacks Kadoc, dies easily to his current party, as everyone including himself expected, and the two Cagliostros get planted in Kadoc's and Kirschtaria's heads. They don't have Dantès to cause an Id scenario, but Aphrodite continues to be an extremely value party member, allowing an Anastasia power of love solution to the horrors that inflates Kadoc's protagonist levels even harder. Kirschtaria's relationship with Caenis is unfortunately not like that, so he'd have a worse handle of the malignant information, but he can infodump all of the plot's secrets to Kadoc before he's gone. Cagliostro double dies. Apostle count: 5->3. Kirschtaria dies. 3 Crypters remain.
Second February
Kadoc and Kirschtaria not dying at the same time causes a huge disadvantage state for CHALDEAS. Remember, the reason why Bluebook could command millions of Servants at once was because he gained Representative of Mankind status from being the last human of his world. Camazotz seems to count as another example of the power a Representative of Mankind gains. Akuta and Daybit aren't human, so Kadoc is the last one left. He now can make his own Traum equivalent and become a threat CHALDEAS can't afford to ignore.
However, this is happening at the same month as ORT becomes accessible. They need to be on these two battlefronts at the same time or else they're checkmated by the one they previously ignored. The smartest option here is send Olga to get rid of Kadoc and send Douman and Kotomine to kill Daybit and secure ORT.
Even if Kadoc doesn't stand much of a chance against full power Olga, I don't believe there is any fast solution for a Representative of Mankind, so the Mictlan side of the conflict should end first. Not much to say here. Kotomine and Douman just kinda get hard walled by Camazotz. Daybit wins the race.
Izcalli's change of heart comes from the Dinosaur King reveal rather than from the few times Chaldea humiliated him, so I think he'd still say no to ORT at the last minute. And without Olga's heart to make Daybit a viable core, they have to use blond Tezca to wake up the spider. ORT retrieves the sun with practically no resistance. Apostle count: 3->1.
Kadoc and Olga probably disengage to go after Olga. Camazotz is also fighting on their side. I think ORT still takes this one. Kadoc's Servant army is very whittled down from holding off Olga, Olga can't assimilate ORT because Tezca is already there as a core, and most importantly, even if they manage to destroy ORT's body, it should be able to make shikigami copies after eating Douman. RIP Earth. Kadoc, Akuta, and Olga die. No Apostles remain. 1 Crypter remains. The Russia-Scandinavia, China, and Latin America Lostbelt weren't excised but their lands were shattered, so maybe they still exist but only in the shard that contains the tree. Lostbelt count: 3->0 or 4 depending on how this works.
ORT, Daybit, and Camazotz all survive to either be lost in space forever or become another planet's problem. The end.
What do you think would happen if the Lostbelt War was simply carried out properly?
The only way the Lostbelt War could only be "carried out properly" is Novum Chaldea not appearing. And Chaldea is relevant to the motivations of many participants, so why they don't appear alters the situation.
If the cause of the divergence is Chaldea dying in the prologue, Beryl has no reason to bother anymore, so he just remote-triggers everyone's Sirius Lights. However, Akuta amputated her Sirius Light long before, so only her Lostbelt doesn't explode. ORT could possibly survive the Sirius Light, but he would explode his own heart in one year anyway, so it's just a matter of waiting. Eternal China Ending.
If the cause of the divergence is Chaldea never returning from their Imaginary Number dive, there's no proof they're gone and Beryl will keep waiting for Mash, extending the conflict a lot more long-term.
January
Chaldea takes 3 months to come back, so the movements of the Crypters will remain pretty much the same until March. Keyword: the Crypters. They're not the only players in Part 2.
As soon as the Lostbelts form, Kama escapes India and begins planning her Oo'oku. She's supposed to build it in 6-7 months by yoinking roughly 210 Servants from Chaldea, but here her best option is to take everything from Atlantis. It's the Lostbelt with the most Rogue Servants and it's the only one with a surface level not supervised by its Lostbelt King. The Godbreak Alliance plus the Atlantis Defense Servants gives her roughly 20 Servants, allowing her to build Oo'oku in 60-70 months if the world there keeps spawning new Rogues at the same rate.
"Doesn't Traum have 1000 of Servants to grab at once?" Yes, but Traum didn't appear in Sion's map scan at LB3 prologue, so I'm assuming it doesn't exist yet. Novum Chaldea only discovered it after the New Year, but since Don Quixote moved to it before their arrival in Atlantis, I'll assume it formed somewhere between June and October.
March
Without Fujimaru summoning Avicebron, Kadoc doesn't have the means to beat Ivan. After his Amadeus dies and his Salieri can't handle the job, Ivan awakens and learns the truth as he did in canon, but here he survives and remains active.
Rasputin's main interest is in letting Anastasia be satisfied with her ending, so in canon he only ensured Kadoc's survival and freedom after Kadoc and Anastasia had an honest shot at ruling the Lostbelt, but since here that didn't happen, Rasputin will take both outside to try conquering a new Lostbelt. There are six options for Kadoc to go to, but for reasons, I have to choose Rasputin sending Kadoc and Anastasia to Britain.
April
Gotterdamerüng without Chaldea leaves Napoleon and Sitonai as Ophelia's only opponents. Even if they still have the idea of freeing Brynhild, they lose the fight if they rush in unaware of what Ophelia's eyes do. This means Sigurd's body isn't killed, therefore Surtr doesn't incarnate in April, therefore Skadi is still in control of the Fantasy Tree. No progress on Ophelia's side until Russia grows big enough for their walls to touch. Checking the map, the distance between Scandinavia and Russia is roughly twice the distance between Britain and Atlantis. Atlantis touched Britain during the climax of Olympus, but that was a case where Britain wasn't growing. With both sides growing at decent paces, we can schedule the contact for October.
"But why Russia? Britain is closer." Yes, Britain is also not growing because its tree was sucked dry 2017 years ago, and most importantly, due to the reason I had to send Kadoc to Britain. Britain has a prophecy I'm forced to deal with. There inevitably has to be one outsider mage who accompanies Arthuria's journey and all the steps there need to happen, including all bells, all calamities, and the journey allowing Cnoc to dethrone Morgan. And I feel like Kadoc has the best opportunity to do that. Avalon le Fae in April causes fewer changes than you'd expect. All parties were pretty much done with their 16 years of prep time and were only waiting for the Child of Prophecy. Pretty much everything would play out the same except:
Mash's absence means Beryl would be not invested enough in the plot. After he was done with Spinel and Morgan lost the throne, he'd declare himself a loser and bail to Olympus before the calamities began.
Pepe isn't there to save Kadoc from the Moss humans, but that's nothing Anastasia can't deal with. Freeze them without touching and everything is fine.
Koyanskaya is not developed enough to survive Muryan's request very long. Koyanskaya dies in April.
Muramasa's absence means Arthuria fully becomes a Holy Sword.
Arthuria needs to save Kadoc from the Garden of Lost Will. He can't get out on his own like Fujimaru. And recovering from this would require gigantic progress in his romance arc with Anastasia. Huge increase in Kadoc's protagonist level.
Anastasia was a member of Aesc's party. I really would rather have Kadoc there, but if she has the reaction speed to shield him from Billy's bullet in canon, she has the reaction speed to shield him from the Water Mirror.
The most instrumental changes come from the differences between Mash's and Anastasia's personalities. With how deeply devoted she is to her emotional attachments, she'd take Morgan's side in the faerie conflict. In the Camelot invasion, she'd beg Morgan to escape Britain with them and find a new home in Yaga Russia. Morgan is absurdly stubborn but if they get her to check her memories with Nastya, have this emotional appeal from both Nastya and Habetrot, have a logical appeal from Kadoc telling her that Britain is doomed and that Cnoc will steal her throne but the prophecy doesn't mention that Morgan has to die so she can get away with just disappearing to Avalon, and Spinel's murder removing her last attachment to the fae world, they have a chance of getting through to her.
The last thing Kadoc's journey needs is a means to let him escape Britain during the calamities. Which he can get if he manages to recruit Morgan, the other Avalon le Fae. While Arthuria will forge herself into the Holy Sword, Morgan could forge herself into the Avalon sheath, allowing Kadoc to survive Britain's collapse and return to Russia. Like in canon, Oberon's world-ending hole fails to expand and consume the planet because Melusine cuts him off. But since Kadoc didn't fight the calamities, this time it's a mutual kill from both of them starting at full health. Britain excised. 6 Lostbelts remain.
Another April event in canon is Nemo diving into Imaginary Sea in search of the Chaldea survivors but in this version, we can't have him finding them. He could still find Gogh drifting there, but without Fujimaru forcing riskier decisions, he'd dump Gogh back there if not outright kill her. If Sion's canon plan was already revealed, I could work out a Sion plotline by having her redo her predictions and respond accordingly, but since that's not the case, I'll just write Sion and Nemo off by saying their computer tells them Chaldea is in the Imaginary Sea and they keep searching indefinitely.
May
Kadoc, Anastasia, and Habetrot sneak their way back to Russia. Kadoc could use his new tools as a catalyst to summon King Arthur but opts against it because he can't afford Excalibur coming out of his own mana supply. It's better to lend his Holy Sword to a capable Rogue Servant, and luckily Beowulf is a suitable option for the job. Beowulf excaliblasts Ivan dead. It was a convoluted journey, but Kadoc has finally established Anastasia as his Lostbelt King. Now it's steady expansion progress until contact with Scandinavia.
June
Without Chaldea's intervention, Shi Huang's war preparations continue smoothly. They finish reverse engineering Mei-ren's body for themself and she gets paid with Xiang Yu's ownership. Lan Ling and the couple retreat to the peaceful uninhabited mountains and Akuta stops attending the Crypter meetings. Nothing to worry about until contact with India, and even then that's mostly Shi Huang's problem. China and India's distance is not that much bigger than the distance between Britain and Olympus, so I'll schedule that for November (it won't happen).
September
Without Chaldea's intervention, I think Nezha kills Pepe here. Even if Pepe survives and fights the same way Chaldea did, with Koyanskaya dead in April, Daybit can't save Pepe from Asclepius. Pepe dies. 6 Crypters remain. Lakshmi and Jinako are the only forces opposing Arjuna. "How does Jinako's big cube work?" I have no idea. It may have never existed. Doesn't matter either way without anyone to pull Jinako out of the cube.
October
Three more Yuga cycles after Pepe's death, Arjuna burns his own Fantasy Tree as Douman planned. India excised. 5 Lostbelts remain. Douman once again moves to Olympus.
In the same month, the walls of Russia and Scandinavia touch. Ophelia has the overwhelming advantage in soldiers (the giants and Valkyries vs the Yagas) while Kadoc has the overwhelming advantage in heroes (Anastasia, Habetrot, Beowulf with Excalibur, Billy the Kid, Minotaur, and Atalante Alter vs only Sigurd possessed by Surtr). Kadoc has enough of a tactical eye to figure out that Skadi is not a fighter while she's using all her power to keep the giants (+ Surtr) in check, so his strategy should be to assassinate Skadi first. But all the snow serves as Skadi's eyes, so she should know that's what he's going for. I don't think aiming for Skadi first would work, especially with Ophelia's eye being a factor. But Kadoc is informed about her eye and not informed about the consequences of killing Sigurd's body, so his logical approach would be: Attempt to kill Skadi regardless of counters -> Ophelia stops this possibility -> kills Sigurd instead. That causes the Surtr scenario. Skadi hits the panic button and frees the prisoners Napoleon and Sitonai. Kadoc is forced to shoot his trump card: Beowulf with Excalibur. Ophelia's sacrifice Sirius Light + a blast of the Holy Sword + an overloaded Grendel Buster + Napoleon's finisher should defeat the giant. Ophelia dies. 5 Crypters remain. The last major enemy left in Scandinavia is Skadi, who wishes only for her children not to be trampled. Kadoc seizing Scandinavia's Fantasy Tree instead of cutting it down doesn't make him an enemy, and it only plays to Kadoc's advantage to recruit Skadi instead of fighting her. Russia and Scandinavia merged. 4 Lostbelts remain.
But October is not over yet. Fantasy Tree Magellan is blooming. That's where Zeus set up Demeter and Aphrodite to die fighting Chaldea so that he could run away from the incarnated Alien God without shaming himself in front of his family. But here there's no Chaldea. So we're left with the challenging question of "Would Zeus prioritize his pride or his survival?". And that's the divergence point of the Lostbelt. This is a Zeus that chooses to survive at all costs. Zeus would abandon Demeter and Aphrodite, moving the two to Kirschtaria's side. Zeus escapes the Lostbelt and tries to escape Earth. But like Koyanskaya's egg, he can't leave. The dome to the cosmos is closed. He'd need to open a hole with a properly charged World Discipline Keraunos but other things are happening at the same time.
As usual, Muramasa kills Atlas, preventing Kirschtaria's plan while Kirschtaria is being held off by Beryl. The Rhongomyniad tactics aren't at play here, but Beryl can still fight full-power Kirschtaria because he got his Woodwose transformation earlier than canon. U-Olga successfully emerges. Apostle count 3->4. Muramasa is urgently dispatched to deal with Zeus, causing the last World Discipline Keraunos charge to be wasted smiting him. Muramasa dies. Apostle count 4->3. Olga gets to consume the Olympus Lostbelt, removing the Cronus Crown power source that let Zeus use his Noble Phantasm, so now he's just stuck on Earth, humiliated and desperate.
Olga didn't consume Olympus in canon because of Kirsch's Sirius Light kicking her away, but here there was no Rhongomyniad that he had to wall, so no opportunity for Beryl to fatally stab him, and Kirschtaria wouldn't use Sirius Light if he wasn't about to die anyway. He has the option to survive. Caenis was always in and out of the Lostbelt walls thanks to Poseidon's authority, so Kirsch could have an emergency escape route by having Caenis pilot the actual Poseidon Alitheia carrying his party of Dioscuri, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Artemis.
Since U-Olga still manifested, Douman still got inspired to develop Naraka Mandala, and Beryl refuses to die without seeing Mash again, so he allies with Douman and uses that as his ticket out of this doomed place. Olympus excised. 3 Lostbelts remain.
November
Zeus studied his options. He has nothing left to lose. He just wants to get away from CHALDEAS ASAP and needs all Fantasy Trees gone for it. South America is a time bomb thanks to ORT's heart, so Zeus will resort to stalling against this one. China is beatable at any time despite Shi Huang's Grand-level body. But Russia is an easier pick now since Skadi still hadn't much time to recover. Zeus attacks Kadoc and can counter or overpower all of his remaining options.
Meanwhile, Kirschtaria has a big target on his back due to betraying CHALDEAS. With his plan lost, trusting his friends is his only option. He mainly trusts Daybit to save the day, but he can't join Daybit because that would draw U-Olga's attention to him. Instead, he chooses to join Kadoc's side. Kirschtaria with his party of 5 gods is all Kadoc needs to turn the tides against Zeus. Kadoc's roster suffered a few casualties, but should still have its most important members (Anastasia, Habetrot, Skadi). Kirschtaria's third and last use of his ideal magecraft happened here, so he's no longer a combat asset for Kadoc.
At the same time, Douman is running the Imperial Holy Grail War in the Heian without Fujimaru's presence to intervene. This time he also brought his new assistant Gatto Beriru, probably with a really stupid spelling like 歹戸辺璃瑠. Fujimaru is honestly not much of a factor in Heian. Douman would still set up Ibuki to become a Beast, still realize the day before that Ibuki was not guaranteed to be loyal to CHALDEAS, still try to become the new Beast himself instead, still fail because he never loved mankind, and still get chopped by Kintoki. Cagliostro obtained. Apostle count: 3 -> 4.
There is a crucial difference in this scenario, however. Pepe never put Douman on his last life. Kintoki's victory accomplishes nothing. Douman can just reset the Singularity and try again. Grab a second copy of Cagliostro while he's at it, why not? Neither he nor Cagliostro can be turned into Beasts by the Fantasy Tree because they never knew true love, but Douman's team in this version has one more member. One full of opinions on love and beauty. One with a solid vision for the mankind he wants.
Speaking of Beasts, Kama also lost her source with Olympus being excised. She needs to reevaluate where's the new best place to grab Servants from, and luckily, Traum exists now. That's a few thousand Servants taken, making for a bigger, badder, and more loading-screen-filled labyrinth than ever before. However, Traum fails to provide with a human to complete the ritual by breaking all the Buddhist vows. Our twig and nerves friends aren't too equipped for that life of desire. Kama returns Bluebook to Traum, where they begin to rebuild their Servant armies from scratch. His main partner Zhang Jue might be still around.
December
Douman's second round of Heian concludes with the manifestation of Beast VII, U-Beryl. Now that he has Independent Manifestation, he can roam the Imaginary Sea in search of the disappeared Shadow Boarder. He plans to keep his word about being an allied force to CHALDEAS and U-Olga Marie, but he'll only be back after he finds Mash, and since that'd defeat the premise of this scenario, he'll never do. Nonetheless, Douman and Cagliostro consider this a job well done and regroup with U-Olga and Kotomine in Mictlan. Beryl doesn't die but metamorphosizes and leaves the plot for good. 4 Crypters remain. Cagliostro 2 obtained. Apostle count: 4->6->5 if you want to count U-Beryl as one.
Beryl's metamorphosis leaves Kadoc and Kirschtaria as the last two humans on Earth, therefore Kama's only options for Oo'oku. I don't think either of them would be able to cheat the system the ways Fujimaru did, but together, they have the combination character traits necessary to succeed. Without Goredolf completing Kama's maturation, she shouldn't be much trouble. Mata Hari's hypnosis duty can be done by Aphrodite. Scheherazade's Reality Marble duty can be done by Demeter's land-making authority. Tajima's swording really good duty can be done by a Saber from grabbed Traum. We know Yamato Takeru was one the earliest summons of the Revenge Realm, so that works. Kama gets defeated not too differently from canon. Unfortunately without Kiara to enable her development.
Second January
The canon crumbling of Oo'oku returned all Servants to Chaldea, so in this versions, all Servants in the walls should return to Traum (except Takeru who went to Kadoc's party). But Traum was already reconstructing for 2 months, so it already developed new factions. Kriemhild and Constantine are no longer faction leaders and I don't think they could manage rising to the top again. Kriem probably wouldn't even try since she'd find Siegfried in their return. Either way, someone would get the three Grails, and Zhang Jue would lead the attack on Antarctica.
We still don't know enough about CHALDEAS's total forces, but considering Kriem with 2 Traum Grails was on Siegfried's level, I can confidently say Bluebook's army gets easily wiped. No casualties among the 5 Apostles.
With that surprise threat quickly out of the way, the Apostles can return to their respective plans. A Douman shikigami attacks Kadoc, dies easily to his current party, as everyone including himself expected, and the two Cagliostros get planted in Kadoc's and Kirschtaria's heads. They don't have Dantès to cause an Id scenario, but Aphrodite continues to be an extremely value party member, allowing an Anastasia power of love solution to the horrors that inflates Kadoc's protagonist levels even harder. Kirschtaria's relationship with Caenis is unfortunately not like that, so he'd have a worse handle of the malignant information, but he can infodump all of the plot's secrets to Kadoc before he's gone. Cagliostro double dies. Apostle count: 5->3. Kirschtaria dies. 3 Crypters remain.
Second February
Kadoc and Kirschtaria not dying at the same time causes a huge disadvantage state for CHALDEAS. Remember, the reason why Bluebook could command millions of Servants at once was because he gained Representative of Mankind status from being the last human of his world. Camazotz seems to count as another example of the power a Representative of Mankind gains. Akuta and Daybit aren't human, so Kadoc is the last one left. He now can make his own Traum equivalent and become a threat CHALDEAS can't afford to ignore.
However, this is happening at the same month as ORT becomes accessible. They need to be on these two battlefronts at the same time or else they're checkmated by the one they previously ignored. The smartest option here is send Olga to get rid of Kadoc and send Douman and Kotomine to kill Daybit and secure ORT.
Even if Kadoc doesn't stand much of a chance against full power Olga, I don't believe there is any fast solution for a Representative of Mankind, so the Mictlan side of the conflict should end first. Not much to say here. Kotomine and Douman just kinda get hard walled by Camazotz. Daybit wins the race.
Izcalli's change of heart comes from the Dinosaur King reveal rather than from the few times Chaldea humiliated him, so I think he'd still say no to ORT at the last minute. And without Olga's heart to make Daybit a viable core, they have to use blond Tezca to wake up the spider. ORT retrieves the sun with practically no resistance. Apostle count: 3->1.
Kadoc and Olga probably disengage to go after Olga. Camazotz is also fighting on their side. I think ORT still takes this one. Kadoc's Servant army is very whittled down from holding off Olga, Olga can't assimilate ORT because Tezca is already there as a core, and most importantly, even if they manage to destroy ORT's body, it should be able to make shikigami copies after eating Douman. RIP Earth. Kadoc, Akuta, and Olga die. No Apostles remain. 1 Crypter remains. The Russia-Scandinavia, China, and Latin America Lostbelt weren't excised but their lands were shattered, so maybe they still exist but only in the shard that contains the tree. Lostbelt count: 3->0 or 4 depending on how this works.
ORT, Daybit, and Camazotz all survive to either be lost in space forever or become another planet's problem. The end.
I feel like some people need to relearn Genre Expectations... "Man, this tragedy sucks!!! Why didn't they just do XYZ, then everything could have ended happily!!" well, then it wouldn't be a tragedy, would it. "Man, this lighthearted teen romcom is terrible, it's so sappy and unrealistic!!" Well, yeah. If it had been gritty and dark, it wouldn't have been a lighthearted romcom, would it. Is the writing actually bad or are you just trying to order a milkshake from a Home Depot
Have you ever articulated your thoughts on Ms. president? Like in the way you did with Kiara?
It can't be the way I did with Kiara because Olga is still not a character with a complete narrative. I don't have a conclusion already to work backwards what she's about. That said, I think the latest reveal about her is something with a lot to comment about.
Olga Marie Quest 2 reveals the original Olga Marie was created as a control unit for CHALDEAS's system. That's a thing we speculated about before but now it's important to have it confirmed. It's really significant information when it comes to defining Olga.
As we can see her now, Olga is a machine who was never told she was a machine. She assumed she was a real girl, and because of that, she thought she needed approval from the creator she assumed to be her real father. She didn't get the approval that should come naturally to her apparent identity, so she began to hold herself to higher standards for it, which also comes with holding everyone else to higher standards, consequently making her a deeply unpleasant leader.
Her complexes blew up with Marisbury death, which pushed her to take command of Chaldea before she felt like she was ready for it, and made her contend with the fact that despite her incredible power, she was somehow unable to Rayshift and contract Servants (probably a more extreme case of Daybit inability to summon because he's not part of Earth's humanity). Olga Marie never felt more out of place in the identity she wrongly assumed to be hers.
In contrast, U-Olga is far more aware of what she was made for and a lot more in her element. She still holds everyone to very high standards, as it shows in her commentary about humanity's war and fuel problems, but her attitude about it is less that of an aggressive boss and more that of an attentive teacher and advisor.
But even then, U-Olga still proves herself too heavily affected by labels and the perceived responsibilities attached to it. In her reset state, she found dear companions in Fujimaru, Mash, and Marine 4, and she found her ideal in the deinos society that Wak Chan showed her, but at that point, she couldn't bring herself to act upon these desires that clearly originated from herself, because she was vaguely remembering her identity as an enemy of humanity. The only thing that ultimately made her break out of this role was accepting the other role Fujimaru said belonged to her, that of Chaldea's director.
One of the bigger mysteries in Fuyuki's story is how did Olga rayshift to Fuyuki when as far as everyone knew, she was incapable of rayshifting. The answer Lev gives is that Olga Marie's body was vaporized by being at the epicenter of the bomb, and without the restriction of the body, her mind and soul were naturally capable of rayshifting. Back when this was all it had, Olga being a ghost through her Fuyuki screentime feels like a really random twist that added nothing to plot. But now, Olga being unaware she was a ghost becomes part of a pattern of Olga being always incorrect about what she is.
Before Fuyuki, she assumed she was a human when she was actually a part of a Mystic Code. In Fuyuki, she assumed she still had a body when she didn't. From Olympus to Mictlan, she assumed she was an alien god who traveled to Earth to answer the SOS signal of a tortured peer (but in her Mictlan reset state, she changed her fake backstory to answering Earth's death cries) when she was unknowingly a Servant version of the Alien God CHALDEAS in the position of one of its Apostles. I don't have a conclusion to drop since the story isn't over, but I look forward to seeing how the 4 E-Olga Maries are also misinformed about their identity.
Have you ever articulated your thoughts on Ms. president? Like in the way you did with Kiara?
It can't be the way I did with Kiara because Olga is still not a character with a complete narrative. I don't have a conclusion already to work backwards what she's about. That said, I think the latest reveal about her is something with a lot to comment about.
Olga Marie Quest 2 reveals the original Olga Marie was created as a control unit for CHALDEAS's system. That's a thing we speculated about before but now it's important to have it confirmed. It's really significant information when it comes to defining Olga.
As we can see her now, Olga is a machine who was never told she was a machine. She assumed she was a real girl, and because of that, she thought she needed approval from the creator she assumed to be her real father. She didn't get the approval that should come naturally to her apparent identity, so she began to hold herself to higher standards for it, which also comes with holding everyone else to higher standards, consequently making her a deeply unpleasant leader.
Her complexes blew up with Marisbury death, which pushed her to take command of Chaldea before she felt like she was ready for it, and made her contend with the fact that despite her incredible power, she was somehow unable to Rayshift and contract Servants (probably a more extreme case of Daybit inability to summon because he's not part of Earth's humanity). Olga Marie never felt more out of place in the identity she wrongly assumed to be hers.
In contrast, U-Olga is far more aware of what she was made for and a lot more in her element. She still holds everyone to very high standards, as it shows in her commentary about humanity's war and fuel problems, but her attitude about it is less that of an aggressive boss and more that of an attentive teacher and advisor.
But even then, U-Olga still proves herself too heavily affected by labels and the perceived responsibilities attached to it. In her reset state, she found dear companions in Fujimaru, Mash, and Marine 4, and she found her ideal in the deinos society that Wak Chan showed her, but at that point, she couldn't bring herself to act upon these desires that clearly originated from herself, because she was vaguely remembering her identity as an enemy of humanity. The only thing that ultimately made her break out of this role was accepting the other role Fujimaru said belonged to her, that of Chaldea's director.
One of the bigger mysteries in Fuyuki's story is how did Olga rayshift to Fuyuki when as far as everyone knew, she was incapable of rayshifting. The answer Lev gives is that Olga Marie's body was vaporized by being at the epicenter of the bomb, and without the restriction of the body, her mind and soul were naturally capable of rayshifting. Back when this was all it had, Olga being a ghost through her Fuyuki screentime feels like a really random twist that added nothing to plot. But now, Olga being unaware she was a ghost becomes part of a pattern of Olga being always incorrect about what she is.
Before Fuyuki, she assumed she was a human when she was actually a part of a Mystic Code. In Fuyuki, she assumed she still had a body when she didn't. From Olympus to Mictlan, she assumed she was an alien god who traveled to Earth to answer the SOS signal of a tortured peer (but in her Mictlan reset state, she changed her fake backstory to answering Earth's death cries) when she was unknowingly a Servant version of the Alien God CHALDEAS in the position of one of its Apostles. I don't have a conclusion to drop since the story isn't over, but I look forward to seeing how the 4 E-Olga Maries are also misinformed about their identity.
I made a meta post about Ophelia like 3 years ago on a blog I have since deleted. Here's me trying to rewrite it without the twitterspeak.
I feel like a semi-popular take back when LB2 first came out on NA was that Ophelia was not actually in love with Kirschtaria, that she had mistaken admiration for love out of compulsive heterosexuality, and that she was actually in love with Mash.
I think the first two parts of that statement just straight up aren't true. It's a cool idea, but I just don't think you can dismiss her feelings for him as fake without dismissing her arc entirely? At that point, it's just a different character.
Ophelia isn't mistaking admiration for love; the entire first half of her arc is the reverse, with people constantly trying to get her to admit that she is in love as she insists that the only thing she feels for Kirschtaria is admiration. "Admiration" isn't consistent with the weird, singleminded devotion she has towards him. This is pointed out. She eventually admits she is bullshitting you.
Yes, it's true that she makes no real attempt to act on her feelings for him, but she makes no real attempt to act on her feelings about literally anything... which is, you know, the point of her character arc. She doesn't love Kirschtaria because a relationship between them will never happen; I think it's more accurate to say that the impossibility of those feelings are why she refuses to admit she loves him, and why it's so important to her development that she does.
So she expresses her feelings for Kirschtaria by doing her best to advance his goals. It's the only way she knows how. But her behavior towards Mash is actually kind of similar; she debuffs her own servant when he attacks her (knowing damn well that the whole Lostbelt is screwed if he "dies"). That's a bit much for "I want to be her friend." On her deathbed and throughout the Lostbelt, she herself admits that her feelings for Kirschtaria and her "desire to befriend" Mash are in direct conflict; she can't commit to fighting Mash, but she can't betray Kirschtaria, either. It's an either/or. She's being pulled in opposite directions.
Almost as if her feelings for Mash and her feelings for Kirschtaria are similar.
Ophelia doesn't even know Kirschtaria that well. They didn't talk much in Chaldea, no matter how much she wished to. They aren't particularly close. All she really knows is that he risked his life to revive the other Crypters, but that's just one moment she has zero context for. Why would she be in love with him?
Ophelia doesn't know a single thing about Mash except for the general circumstances of her creation, which she can see herself in. They didn't talk at all in Chaldea, no matter how much Ophelia wished to. The Mash she sees now, in front of her in the Lostbelt, is an entirely different person -- strong, beautiful, self-assured, nothing like Ophelia. An enemy that must be defeated at all costs. Why would Ophelia want to get closer to her?
And with Mash, you can read it how you wish -- platonic or romantic doesn't matter so much. The irrational part of Ophelia's feelings for Mash is that they exist in the first place, where the irrational part of her feelings for Kirschtaria is that they're specifically romantic. It makes sense for Ophelia to admire Kirschtaria's power, and it makes sense for her to admire him as a person. These are consistent with the stories she tells about herself. But it doesn't make sense that she's in love with Kirschtaria, and that's why it's important that she does. It doesn't make sense that she'd want to be friends (or more) with Mash; that's why it's important that she does. I'm sure the intention is "just friends", but the way it's positioned in the story -- in opposition to Ophelia's loyalty to Kirschtaria -- implies much more. So YMMV.
Ophelia is ashamed of herself for having feelings she can't explain, for being hopelessly devoted to a man she barely knows, for selfishly wanting to get closer to a sworn enemy. She hates herself for having these desires because she knows they'll never be realized. She's supposed to be competent! She's supposed to have her shit handled! She shouldn't be preoccupied with regrets and impossibilities. That's the central conflict of her emotional development; the "irrationality" is precisely what makes those emotions important.
Her feelings for Kirschtaria and her feelings for Mash are, ultimately, two sides of the same coin. Either/or. So I think that acknowledging Ophelia's feelings for Kirschtaria as valid actually strengthens the argument that she's in love with Mash.
She's torn between her feelings for two people. She doesn't have the strength of will to fully commit to fighting Mash, but she'll never betray Kirschtaria, either. She can't decide whether she loves or resents her parents. She can't decide whether she wants to interact with or shun others.
Ophelia's problem is that she lacks the confidence, maturity, and resolve to follow through on her own emotions. She can't be true to herself. But her emotions contradict themselves, and she herself doesn't know what being "true to herself" would actually look like. So the resolution isn't just to pick a side and stick to it...
Ophelia's coming-of-age story is about having the confidence to acknowledge her own feelings, the maturity to understand that they're still valid despite being irrational, and the resolve to know that she's no less of a person because of it. Yes, she and Kirschtaria wouldn't be a good match. Yes, the idea that she and Mash could have any sort of relationship considering the circumstances is bizarre. But those feelings exist, and there's nothing wrong with her for having them.
She thinks Mash and Kirschtaria are an either/or, but those desires can exist simultaneously. She's fine the way she is, contradictions and all. And it's only when she realizes that that she's able to get up and stop Surtr.
TLDR: Ophelia's feelings for Kirschtaria and her feelings for Mash are inextricably linked because they occupy the same role in Ophelia's character arc. I think she is probably bisexual. I wish she got more screentime. I reread her FLB chapter and now she's my favorite Crypter again.
To be honest, your discussion of Minase's positive and negative qualities piqued my interest. What do you think are the main recurring fgo writers' strong and weak points?
Also where would you rank the lilim harlot event?
For the sake of brevity, I'll stick to one per writer. Picking apart everyone to the extent I did with Minase would take forever and would be better done after their respective Ordeal Calls.
I hesitate to call Higashide's comedy his strong point because his huge hits are about as frequent as his huge misses. I suppose I'll go with clarity for Higashide's main strong point. Even when I think he sucked at delivering his point, I can always tell what he's trying to say, which is not something I can say about Sakurai's most compressed scripts. His weak point is his lack of ambition. It's nice to have at least one person in FGO's team who will never try to escalate things, but I can't see it doesn't make his stories more forgettable in the long run.
Minase was already detailed in his own post.
Meteo’s best quality is a tone setter. Requiem, Salem, and all his events come with an atmosphere that feels very tangibly different from what FGO usually does. Often his events are bad, but never they lack a unique identity. Which segues into his weak point, being that many of his events are comedy events and the man is simply not funny. Bullying Erice is his only consistently good joke, and when he tries other things, the results are more miss than hit. See Las Vegas and Wandjina World Tour for major examples of comedy events that failed hard at the comedy side.
Nasu is a master recycler. I don't know how he does it but the man is constantly reusing the same structures, the same themes, or the same dynamics and somehow it never feels repetitive. There is always something that makes the whole recipe feel fresh and unique despite being so easy to recognize the same usual ingredients there. And what I dislike about Nasu in FGO is how he's still stuck at the concept of selling waifus from the girls with routes days. Everyone has their list of characters who get ship tease with Fujimaru but only in Nasu's case it feels like an overwhelming majority and that some of the choices create too large of a difference between the summoned character and the character in the main story. Was it really necessary to do this with, say, Morgan? Melusine? Tenochtitlan?
And Sakurai I saved for last because one major reason this post took this long is that I was struggling to sort out what is characteristically good and bad about her. Well, even now I don’t have a simple and satisfying answer. Things can’t be simple with Sakurai, unfortunately. One friend of mine described the experience of reading Sakurai scripts as “playing chess against an opponent that doesn’t tell that you are in a game of chess” and that’s honestly a fascinating way to phrase it.
Sakurai is an intriguing combination of inflexibly ambitious and inflexibly professional. She has grand ideas for her characters and she will include them in the script without fail. But she's also strictly adherent to script size limitations. While Nasu is making Camelot and Avalon le Fae with total disregard to every possible limit, Sakurai is cramming so much into Septem's and London's microscopic file space that it becomes utterly incomprehensible. Nasu wrote Last Encore's plot as a whole ass novel and hired Sakurai to convert that into anime scripts because Sakurai is his expert in fitting a lot of stuff into tiny spaces. Tunguska was tossed at Sakurai because probably no one else could fit into its raid event constraints. And because she doesn't compromise on what goes in, her alternative is not revealing the mysteries about her characters but laying out all the hints so the players can figure it out themselves, which is a really fun thing once you're used to it (read: aware that you're playing chess against her).
And the answer to "Where would I rank the Lilim Harlot event" is 1st place.
Woobie point: Servants who're like "The past is past :) I don't hold grudges :) Let's move forward :)" because if they think about what happened in their past they'll start screaming and never stop.
at a phase in my life where when i get the sense a book is trying to offer me Representation (TM) i hiss and scream and start kicking and ripping bricks out of the wall. this character's Coherent Identity And Articulation Of Their Issues had Better fit in with the rest of the worldbuilding (it won't)
meet my new oc blorbinia who introduces herself to other people in fantasyland with exacting microlabels based on her recurring visions of Social Media Identity Discourse from this world. it is her goal in life to establish as many other people's labels as possible because she believes if you die without knowledge of your Correct Terms then the gods don't know what Community you belong to and your soul roams the empty betweenspace of the afterlife forever.
blue archive sensei is like some kind of grain weevil to me. you think it'd be easy enough to avoid him by just not caring about blue archive, but he shows up everywhere in fanart for every franchise and I want to annihilate that nasty little beast with a can of sensei dissolving spray
sensei is a special kind of wretched because he takes like ten seconds to draw and can tempt an artist to effortlessly turn any art of a fully clothed female character into some sort of heterosexual gnome-based harassment prelude
hitting him with a broom. get that goblin out of here.
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