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[Hereafter] Chapter XXXIX: Test of Valor (Patreon)

Published:
2022-01-19 04:19:51
Edited:
2022-09-14 11:52:17
Imported:
2026-06
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This is a little later than I wanted it to be, because some stuff happened this weekend and it also fought me a little bit. But I like how it wound up going anyway.

So. We get to see how badass Aífe is. One of the editors commented, "Holy shit, she could have solo'd the entire Singularity, couldn't she?" And I tilted my head a little, nodded, and realized, "Yeah, she really could have." Because she's not that far off from her own era, she's so close to the peak of her strength that the only way to make her stronger would've been summoning her in Ireland.

But then, Sca and Cu are also in that boat, basically. And it's not like that isn't a thing that could be said about certain other Singularities as well, since FGO essentially consists of, "The pieces are all in place, but Chaldea is what makes them work together to solve the problem."

And also Primordial Runes are hax. So much hax. Nasu, you made them too hax.

EDIT: Moving down all the way.

Comments

EVA-Saiyajin

I mean, for a given value of “solo” given EMIYA was handling her fine without getting serious. But she does have the skills to potentially handle a Singularity if she’s ruthless and doesn’t care about fair fights. But honestly, that applies to a LOT of Servants.

EVA-Saiyajin

Say, isn’t Chaldea meant to bear the brunt of Servants exerting themselves? Sorry if the answer came up already.

James_D_Fawkes

Chaldea can supply the lion's share of magical energy. But Servants still take some from their Masters, and the twins aren't used to channeling much in the way of magical energy through their circuits, since most of their more strenuous exercise takes place in the simulator. Ritsuka does this in the Babylonia anime, too. He runs himself dry trying to support both Quetz and Ishtar as they use their NPs against Tiamat.

Waldo Terry

I liked the fight a lot! Even if Boudica joining in at the end was a bit out of the blue... but I guess she wanted to make real sure there were no corpses by the time the dust settled, so I can roll with it. I like how you handle fights because they feel very dynamic and the perception of servants as antagonists here is great because they are far above Taylor's capabilities, but unlike Endbringers for example, she understands the sort of threats they represent and they're still within her ability to work around. I like that, it has a feel very much like early Worm where Taylor really had to put her brains to work to get through situations (even if I personally think that QA's power had to have some reinforcing components in it to allow Taylor quite so much versatility with web threads made as quickly as she made them). I understand from this chapter that there's no element of QA's power in Taylor that's tethered to magic, or Aife's ward would have nullified it, right? In that respect, up to this point QA hasn't visibly interacted with magic at all, then. I was wondering, could Taylor use reinforcement or something similar to make her bugs more of a hindrance to servants? or are mortal mages in fate so far below the capabilities of servants that it's a moot point to try, even if it were possible? Great chapter! This and the last couple chapters were very informational to a total fate scrub like me, because I honestly though servants mimicked a mortal form completely when they materialized... shame that they don't :( I'll have to put away that shameless Tay/Cu ship I'd been nursing aaaall the way since the beginning, more's the pity. Still, I'd love to see Cu again, I felt that he meshed so very well with the party that for a good chunk of Connla's early appearance I really thought it was a young Setanta. I had to have it spelled out to be convinced that it wasn't him. Even so, if the brat sticks with the group, I think it'll make for good comedy with the twins... eventually :P

James_D_Fawkes

Stuff about Taylor's power, I can't solidly answer, because there are things coming up later that will cover exactly what's going on with Taylor her bug powers. However, they're far enough away from regular magecraft that simply disrupting magecraft itself won't stop them. Insofar as Servants go, they're all massively superhuman. Their casual jogging speed is somewhere north of the speed of sound, their strength is enough that the combat-type Servants (the Knight classes particularly, like Saber, Archer, and Lancer) can have a comfortable spar with some of Worm's highest of high tier Brutes, and they can take hits that would definitely kill ordinary people. But, like, internal organs are inconsistent. We know, from the original FSN visual novel, that Servants have (mostly) functioning sex organs, even if they can't actually reproduce, and we know they have a heart and brain and stomach, since two of those are "sure kill" points and the other Saber uses to eat while she's with Shirou, but as to whether or not any other parts exist or matter when they're basically clumps of shaped magical energy, well, that's harder to say. Some of it has to come down to a form of censoring, that is, that Nasu and Takeuchi didn't feel like drawing internal organs hanging out for whatever reason, but whether it means something otherwise, even my editors and I mostly went around in circles when discussing it. I'm still on the fence about what to do with Connla. I think his and Aife's schtick could get old if they're in the story too much, but their dynamic can be a bit fun to watch.

Waldo Terry

Yeah, I can see how Connla and Aife's schtick would grow stale after a time, but I don't know. Something about his situation and Boudica's really struck me as terribly tragic. The kid didn't get to grow up past seven or eight years I believe, somewhat like a child vampire perhaps, but worse because when he's summoned as a servant he knows his situation, he knows what happened to him and is forced to deal with it, every single time. I think this is something that's inherently very cruel in the setting when you consider those people on the throne who really, absolutely, met awful ends. It's totally different from heroic last stands and such. Boudica's situation is, to me, tragic in a similar way. Her legend itself is rooted in her rebellion and she needs to throw it out the window for the sake of the world? I mean, it makes sense and a reasonable (and much better person than the average, Taylor isn't wrong about that) would put it aside under those circumstances, but it wouldn't stop it from hurting. Are servants unable to grow beyond the circumstances of their death? I was wondering with Connla because Cu implied that he remembered what happened to him between summonings which would encourage growth (hence my thinking Connla sticking around wouldn't be so bad, if he got to grow out of his... recklessness? bloodthirst? brattiness? Any of those would describe him as presented, I think).

James_D_Fawkes

Servants generally don't keep memories between summonings. Since Servants are atemporal, they technically already have memories of the events of each summoning, so the method of summoning tends to have a built in feature to edit out the relevant memories from the Servant in question, even if the Heroic Spirit still on the Throne keeps them. And since each summoning is a separate instance of a given hero, Servants don't keep memories of past Grail Wars or past summonings. They're a clean slate each time. There are two exceptions to this rule: one is Saber, Artoria Pendragon, in FSN, who keeps her memories of previous Grail Wars because she hasn't actually become a Heroic Spirit yet, so the memories are sent back to the "still living" King Arthur on her deathbed. The second is Servants of Chaldea, who have their data backed up in the FATE system, so whenever they're resummoned, they'll have their memories of their time at Chaldea restored. As for Connla... Well, Servants *can* grow for the duration of their summoning, but it doesn't really stick after that. No matter how many times Emiya faces Shirou in some variation of the Unlimited Blade Works route in FSN, for example, the Heroic Spirit Emiya on the Throne won't resolve his bitterness. Or rather, if he does, the memory of that resolution will be edited out on his next summoning into HGW5. It's because Heroic Spirits are not only already dead, but they're "complete" existences, so they're fundamentally incapable of change.

Solo Living as an Autist

I just hope Taylor gets Altera as a Servant. A machine for massacre with a master who has been a machine for massacre.

James_D_Fawkes

Well, we'll have to see what happens with her this Singularity. Aife is already quite the powerhouse, even if her NPs aren't quite as destructive as Altera's are.