On Fate

... Not the concept, but rather the Japanese anime/manga/game IP.
I got into Fate because of character designs for the most part, seeing Saber and others online before I had any clear idea of the source. Since then, I've watched a number of series and played the original visual novel through once - which is only the Fate/Stay Night "path." I also took up Fate/Grand Order on my phone, though "playing" that often entails poking at it a few minutes a day.
The basic idea is straightforward enough: a group of magi summon magical warriors of various classifications who are based on legendary figures to battle in a contest. The last Master/Servant pair standing gets a wish.
Of course, then it veers off a bit by making some of the characters deviate wildly from their historical/mythical selves. The most obvious of those would be the original Saber - Arturia/Altria/Artoria (depending on spelling translation) Pendragon. And King Arthur being female is sort of just the tip of the iceberg there.
What gets really crazy is making any attempt at continuity. I find it easier to think of each story as semi-independent. Fate/Stay Night itself has three distinct paths in the game, having been adapted over into other media as Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Unlimited Blade Works, and (upcoming in anime form) Fate/Heaven's Feel. Things play out differently in each route. Then we have Fate/Zero, which is so clearly a prequel because while it details the previous "Holy Grail War" chronologically, it sets forth a lot of things that make the twists of the original hard to buy. Then there's Fate/Aprocrypha, that seems a totally different timeline. And several games and such that I'm not even familiar with.
I watched Aprocrypha as it was available. It was entertaining to me, though not what I would call a deep series. Part of what makes the various series interesting, though, is the interplay between magi Master and heroic spirit Servant. Each pair is thrust together with a common goal, but how they get along can vary wildly.
So why's this on my mind? Well, last week I went back and watched Fate/Unlimited Blade Works. It follows a path I haven't run in the original game, making it interesting to see where things forked off. There's a much greater focus on Archer, as well as establishing a relationship between protagonist Shirou and Rin (rather than Saber). And... well... I found it remarkably depressing, to be honest. There's probably some personal resonance involved in that. I can't get into too much detail without spoiling aspects of the story, but Archer is a hell of a cynic and pushes a point that I find myself sounding entirely too reasonable.
So... feh. Maybe I'm just venting some general thoughts in the ether to try to shake that. I don't know that I can blame watching the series recently for it, but I'm feeling very, very down today. So if I can shake any of that feeling, that'll be good.

Comments

  1. LegionJanuary 16, 2018 at 10:35 PM

    *hugs*
    You never know what can trigger or contribute. Very sorry you aren't feeling good today. :<

    ReplyDelete
  2. KynElwynnJanuary 17, 2018 at 11:41 AM

    I'll be over here summoning Cleopatra.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RedwolfJanuary 17, 2018 at 12:26 PM

      Assassin class... http://fategrandorder.wikia.com/wiki/Cleopatra

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adventures in Rokugan (ongoing)

 So, yeah, I'm terrible at keeping up with between-session conversations and all the piles of possible channels/servers in Discord - especially when work gives me some time to think, but not Discord access. I believe a question was posed about thoughts on the state and future of the Adventures in Rokugan game, though, so here goes... In general, I'm enjoying the time and look forward to it more than feel burdened by it. The start time is a little earlier than ideal, but I don't mind making it work on Saturdays. So, net positive overall. I'm a touch "meh" on the mechanics of AiR. I like the familiarity of D&D, but the Rokugan-specific stuff doesn't feel very rewarding. Granted, this may just be my pick of a shadow acolyte, but I feel like I'm getting more functional mileage out of the sharpshooter feat than all of the special class abilities and level-ups haven't been particularly exciting. I've been tempted to multi-class into something els
Read more

Harbinger of Chaos (Godbound)

 Last night seemed to be the climactic finale of the ongoing Godbound game. I have some thoughts. The previous session ended with a couple PCs and a shadowy person in the special chamber with access to divine realms and their vacated thrones (in the campaign, the gods were sorta kicked out of their positions, making things up for grabs). Once PC had already claimed a throne. All the others were waiting outside. At the moment the session ended, no one seemed aware that the shadowy figure was Beryn, big-bad threat of the campaign. This is where I feel weird about things, because that little detail came up OOC and it changed everything. If the PCs had been aware at the time, they probably would have started a fight outside the chamber when they saw him. That didn't happen. But suddenly because the players were aware, they wanted to be able to plan before the conflict (with downtime glossed over previous) so they could go into the next session guns-blazing and as prepared as possible.
Read more

RPG Desires?

 So I was asked last night what I actually want in an RPG game/campaign. I came up with a few points, but that's a question I find hard to answer on the spot. It's easy to point at things in an ongoing game that I don't like, and a little harder to point at things I do (darn negative-focused psychology), but making generalizations is more difficult still. It does, however, give me something to focus a little on and ramble about for a time... Story I like a narrative through line - not usually to the point of "railroading," but I want more connective tissue than just returning to a job board after each mission. Sometimes that develops as things go, with character goals shaping things. Setting an end goal at the outset ("defeat the demon lord!") can have ups and downs. However it comes about, I really like to feel there is some forward momentum toward something, though. Consistency This one gets sub-points!  As far as setting, I sort of stopped using the t
Read more