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[Hereafter] Chapter CI: Mad God (Patreon)

Published:
2023-05-13 03:36:02
Edited:
2023-06-10 14:07:12
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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A little early this week. What can I say? I was particularly productive these last few days.

We are not done with the surprises yet. Still more to come. Fun fact: the editors and I were looking at it, and we went, "Yeah, no, the instant Herk is out of play, Jason loses," and so it became necessary for Jason to have more than one ace up his sleeve if we didn't want things to end prematurely. Place your bets on who this particular ace is.

As for Calliope... Well, I'm sure a lot of people saw that coming, so I'm not sure how many people I surprised with that. The nature of things, I suppose. Fanfics like this can't always hide all their secrets.

EDIT: Moving down.

Comments

EVA-Saiyajin

I’m not sure that a second ace was truly necessary. Sometimes the reward for hard work and success isn’t more hard work, it’s just, success. At this point it seems like it’s just a bit of a successions of throwing new hurdles Chaldea’s way solely for the sake of making it harder, that they’re extremely reactive to. You already had the mysterious fleet and “Davy Jones”, this just seems to be piling on unnecessarily.

Solo Living as an Autist

With that fixed, I can leave a review. Great chapter, good to see Ritsuka developing as a character outside that of what we see in canon. Oddly, I was totally imagining Jason with the voice of A Pimp Named Slickback. Weird. It'll be interesting to see what Jason is like as an opponent instead of just comedic relief. With the constant summoning of heroes, he's presented as a skeevy Emiya. I do wonder if Taylor's response to the reality marble being deployed is unique to people who have a Passenger, or if it was that way for everyone? Given RM's tend to be quasi-dimensional in nature, it could very well intrigue Taylor's oldest friend.

James_D_Fawkes

I can understand that perspective. Agree with it, to some degree. But this isn't just about adding another obstacle. To some extent, yes, it's about there being more to this Singularity that I want to have the chance to show the readers, so I couldn't let the team win this early, but it's also about missed opportunities. With Septem, there weren't enough Roman emperors and Roman Servants on the enemy's side, despite it being a Roman Singularity all about the Roman Empire. Here in Okeanos, part of it was the lack of pirates. For a Singularity all about pirates and the open ocean, the only actual pirates were Blackbeard and Drake, from two separate ends of the Age of Piracy, with Anne and Mary thrown in to fill out Blackbeard's roster. I added Sam Bellamy and William Kidd, the "mystery" fleet and "Davy Jones," because for a pirate themed Singularity, canon lacked in the pirates department. It needed more, and the only reason I haven't added even more is because it would bloat the cast for this part of the story. Canon Okeanos also lacked Argonauts. I mean, Herk is quite the ace to hold, but aside from him, it was Medea Lily and Jason, who aren't major threats on their own, and Atalanta, who defected because she thought the whole thing was insane. That's not even half of the roster attributed to it in Fate alone. I honestly wish I'd given it a little more thought before we got to this point, but I was focused on all the other stuff and all the other characters and forgot about it until it was right in my face.

Pedro F

Herk's God Hand always feels jank. A-rank is such an arbitrary limitation, considering there are certain NPs, Arash's Stella as the prime example, stronger than some A rank ones despite being lower ranked.

Raphael Mort

Like, honestly I disagree, I like it for the reason you dislike it: Herk's NP is literally a conceptual defense, and it bypasses the normal rules on strength. It doesn't matter how strong your attack is, it matters how conceptually powerful it is. Altho Arash is a weird example, since his NP should absolutely be able to take at least 1 life off, if not a few (his NP is B, yes, but canonically it's referred to as a "double broken phantasm", so the B++ should be enough to rank it up to A-equivalent, if not A+, in the same way EMIYA uses breaking NPs to get them back to their original strength).

Solo Living as an Autist

And in canon don't forget Arash's Stella was able to divert a fully empowered Rhongomyniad from Lion King.

James_D_Fawkes

Because it had a conceptual effect of "ending conflict." In terms of raw power, Stella is pretty incredible, sure, but the difference between it and Rhongomyniad or Excalibur is equivalent to two whole ranks, and when combined with the fact that it costs Arash his life, you have to be very strategic about when and where you deploy it, against who or what. The thing about Stella? It's one attack, and it costs you Arash as a combatant. His "rain of arrows" trick is almost literally a better option in nearly every situation, because it accomplishes much the same as a normal Noble Phantasm at a lower cost in just about every metric, even if it lacks some of the raw power of his actual NP. Even that would only take a single life from Herakles, at best. There's a reason why Illya isn't wrong to say, "Berserker is the strongest in the world!" The number of Heroic Spirits who can take more than a single one of his lives is vanishingly small, although not as small as it was pre-FGO.

James_D_Fawkes

Another fun fact: the original plan for Calliope was to have her reveal her identity at the very end, when the team was standing across from Jason, Medea Lily, and Herk, and have it be a surprise right there. The trouble is, she just couldn't keep her mouth shut, so it wound up revealed a little earlier, giving the team time to come to terms with it and ask questions.

Solo Living as an Autist

That actually raises an intriguing question. The Blade Works contains every weapon Emiya has ever seen. From all of the Gae Bolg variants, Excalibur's, etc. Even the weapons from the Gate of Babylon. So Emiya could very well have everything he needs to kick Herakles' ass, he is just limited to what Rika can provide. Therefore, wouldn't giving Emiya the Grail be the strategic choice?

Solo Living as an Autist

Truthfully given Medea's past, I am a bit surprised she didn't choose Hecate as her nom de plume