Lonely

I’m going to try to be concise with this post, but it will probably be a long one, knowing me—so be prepared. I want to properly highlight Deku’s character, the main themes of My Hero Academia, and how those themes relate to Deku and his uniqueness within the cast. I’ll also explain what his character represents in the story.

Deku is my favorite character in My Hero Academia, but I’m going to be as objective as I can while briefly analyzing his character and what he represents. As many know, Deku receives a lot of unnecessary hate and false criticism within the community that simply doesn’t apply. Of course, I’m not saying Deku has no flaws—he absolutely does. At times, he can feel like “One For All: the character,” and some of his development is subtle or slow in certain parts of the series. He’s not a character for everyone, especially as a main protagonist. But he’s placed in that role because of his strengths, ideals, and what he represents in My Hero Academia.

I’m going to explain why many of the criticisms against Deku are misguided, why his character has always been unique among the cast—especially compared to his classmates—and, finally, how the main theme of My Hero Academia ties directly into Deku and why he’s the perfect protagonist who will ultimately become the number one hero.

Manga spoilers ahead.

The Main Theme of My Hero Academia

The central theme of My Hero Academia is: “What does it mean to be a true hero?” This question drives the entire series. The story constantly explores this theme through different heroes, villains, and perspectives, examining their motivations, intentions, and flaws.

Human beings are imperfect. We make mistakes, act selfishly, and fail each other. That imperfection is reflected in the world of My Hero Academia. Many heroes become heroes for reasons that aren’t purely altruistic:

Mt. Lady initially wanted fame and attention

Endeavor sought to surpass All Might

Some heroes chase popularity and rankings

Iida strayed from his ideals and sought revenge against Stain

Ochaco wanted money, though for the innocent reason of supporting her parents

Mineta wants attention from women

These motivations blur the line of what it truly means to be a hero. Even when characters want to save people, there’s often an extra motive attached.

Deku and All Might: The Ideal of True Heroism

Enter Izuku Midoriya—and All Might.

These two are the most unique characters in the series when it comes to the theme of true heroism. They embody the idea of saving others purely for the sake of saving them. This is why Stain approved of Deku during the Season 2 arc. When Deku said that a true hero meddles when someone needs help, Stain smiled and declared him worthy of the title “hero.”

The Stain arc fundamentally shaped My Hero Academia, reinforcing its core themes. Deku has represented true heroism from the very beginning.

Deku ran to save Bakugo when no one else would. Whether you think it was reckless or foolish doesn’t matter—it was heroic. If Deku hadn’t acted, Bakugo would have died. That moment, especially the line “You looked like you needed saving,” embodies Deku, My Hero Academia, and the series’ philosophy as a whole.

Deku doesn’t prioritize himself. If someone is in danger, he will act—no hesitation. That instinct is why All Might chose him as the successor to One For All. Yes, it’s reckless, but that’s the point. Deku’s insane drive to save others no matter the cost is what makes him exceptional. It mirrors All Might’s own extreme idealism.

All Might and the Symbol of Peace

All Might created the Symbol of Peace, an ideal so powerful it reshaped society. He became a living comic-book hero—someone who took the burden of fear, crime, and safety onto himself so others wouldn’t have to.

If someone in real life said they wanted to become a Symbol of Peace, people would laugh. But All Might did it anyway—and succeeded. However, that idealism came at a cost. He overburdened himself, ignored warnings, and ultimately paid the price. His final battle against All For One shattered the illusion of an invincible symbol and forced society to confront its dependency on him.

This context is crucial to understanding Deku.

Deku as the Embodiment of All Might’s Ideals

Deku embodies All Might’s ideals—arguably even more intensely. He rushes in without hesitation to save Ochaco, Eri, Kota, Iida, Todoroki, Bakugo, and countless others. He destroys his own body repeatedly to protect people he barely knows. His only motivation is saving others.

This reckless, idealistic drive is what sets him apart. While many characters want to save people, no one does it with the same consistency, instinct, and self-sacrificial nature as Deku—except All Might.

A perfect example is the Forest Training Arc. Deku was physically broken, barely able to move, yet he continued fighting and strategizing to save Bakugo and Tokoyami. When told to choose, he refused: “I’m going to save them both.” That line perfectly defines him.

This level of idealism separates Deku from Class 1-A and explains his leadership and inspirational impact. Shoji, Bakugo, and others follow his lead because his resolve is unwavering.

Flaws and Balance

This idealism isn’t always good. Deku is reckless, disobedient, and self-destructive. Gran Torino constantly scolds him for it. But that flaw is part of who he is—just like All Might. What makes Deku compelling is the balance between his analytical mind and his reckless heart.

Comparison to Other Characters

Bakugo seeks victory and recognition and only gradually learns self-sacrifice. Mirio embodies heroic ideals but hesitated when Eri first appeared, a hesitation Deku never showed. While Mirio later redeemed himself spectacularly, Deku’s defining trait is consistency.

Chapter 287 describes Deku as having a drive to save others that “eclipses all common understanding.” That single line encapsulates his character perfectly.

No but I have thought of being keylimegrape or keylimemangosteen (an really good fruit, 10/10 would recommend)

My general overview of Elden ring.

Note that names that being with ‘G’, ‘M’, or ‘R’ are generally related to each other. Also note that a heavy theme/motif in this game is duality/twins/split personalities. Something to keep in mind. Finally, note that multiple ‘Outer Gods’ seem to exist in this world and an ‘Elden Lord’ can refer to whatever ruling entity that has allied with an ‘Outer God’ in a way that would make the ‘Elden’ title proper to capture this ruler’s true power as a lord.

The game refers to the Greater Will, which although ambiguous appears to refer to a literal entity that is an Outer God. It seems to be some sort of cosmic parasite, but who knows. This entity’s influence is represented by the golden light (‘grace’) that is seen everywhere. Queen Marika will come to be this entity’s vassal, who bears the Elden Ring, which is the physical manifestation of the Greater Will’s power and is made up of disparate runes (and is also the source of the power of the Erdtrees). The Two Fingers are literal emissaries that try to enact the desires of the Greater Will (not sure exaclty how the Two Fingers are created/born, are they also from space?). The Golden Order, as a human system of beliefs, eventually comes about to be to help enact the Greater Will’s desires.

Starting at the beginning, the Lands Between were first ruled by the dragons, led by Dragonlord Placidusax. The dragons were allied with an unnamed Outer God, who over time abandoned them and led to a soft decline of the Dragons power (and probably also to the crumbling of their sky city, Farum Azula, which gets subsumed in some sort of temporal vortex for some reason). Also around this time, what is now known now as the Erdtree was in a ‘primordial’ form and was understood as the ‘crucible’ of life. At some point, the Greater Will sends the Elden Beast within a star as a vassal and as mentioned Marika then becomes the vassal of the Greater Will (the Elden Beast is absorbed into her body). All that is known about Marika before this is that she is descended from the Numen race, which is a race that originated outside the Lands Between. For whatever reason, after becoming the Greater Will’s vassal, Marika goes into the Lands Between and establishes Leyndell. This will lead to many conflicts, one of which is the conflict with the dragons. As can be seen in the capital, the dragons attack (presumably for encroaching on their territory) but ultimately with the Greater Will’s power, Leyndell is able to stave off the Dragons. Over time, some individuals will join dragon cults and wish to become them. For example, the Magma Wyrms are actually humans who attempted to transform into dragons, but it only half-worked and they end up cursed to never fly. Eventually, Marika’s son Godwyn (Marika’s family tree is addressed a little later) will even befriend one of them, namely Fortissax. Another will join the magic academy and overall the dragons are clearly mostly pacified and that conflict is now over and dealt with.

Sometime around the establishing of Leyndell, the primordial erdtree is transformed into its current version. The crucible knights that defended the prior version were allowed to remain. One important falling out from this transformation is for the “omens”. Before the Golden Order was established, those born with signs of the crucible (e.g., horns, tails etc.) were seen as a blessing from the crucible. Afterwards, it is viewed as a curse (presumably because the Greater Will views it as an affront to its unity of power). In general, it is unclear how much of Marika’s actions and motivations could be ascribed to her or to the Greater Will, who uses her as its vassal. Anyways, those born with horns are shunned into the sewers and elsewhere. This would even escalate into Omenkillers deciding to hunt them down and was presumably a contribution to discrimination in general to any others seen as “impure”, which would also include the demi-humans and misbegotten, the bats (who sing a sing in real-life latin lamenting their new fate), the albinaurics, and the vulgar milita.

Noteworthy during this time period of Leyndell and the Golden Order, immortality is a power conferred by the Greater Will and the rune of death is held by Queen Marika’s half-brother, Maliketh, for safe-keeping. Well, technically the rune of death was held by the Dusk-Eyed/Gloam-Eyed Queen whose followers were the Godskin Apostles that use the blackflame and seemed to also use the deathbirds as its emissary. Maliketh slew the Queen and took her rune of death for himself/Marika’s purposes. Afterwards, it seems that beings during this time do not die up until they visit the Erdtree at which point, and this is only a theory, they are presumably absorbed into the Greater Will (or something like that).

Around this time, at the fringes, are some other Outer Gods. These include the ‘Formless Mother’ (a blood-based Outer God), a God of the Scarlet Rot, the Frenzied Flame, the One-Eyed Fell God of the Giants (essentially a fire god), and the aforementioned Gloam-Eyed Queen (essentially a goddess of death). I’ll get to most of those later, but for now want to camp out on the Giant’s Fell God, as this leads to war. Marika wages a war on the Fire Giants (led by a ‘Storm Ruler’), presumably because of the threat of their Forged Flame, a very powerful fire that emanates from the Giant’s pact with the One-Eyed Fell God and has the potential to burn the Erdtree. Marika has two noteworthy generals at this time, Radagon and Horah Loux (who is a chieftain of the neighboring Badlands). One noteworthy thing that occurs in the war is the Trolls betray the Giants and ally with Marika. They have holes in their stomachs as they removed the eye that used to be there to mark the presence of the Fell God. Marika’s forces win the war but when Marika realizes she cannot eradicate their Flame, she cursed the last fire giant to attend it for eternity, and that giant responded with a curse on Radagon to have his red hair (which is something he resents although some like Radhan view it with pride, presumably Radagon’s hair was golden before the curse). The Flame Monks are tasked with guarding this flame, although over time they are seduced by its power.

Queen Marika decides to marry Hoarah Loux, who rebrands himself and takes on the moniker Godfrey presumably to better enact the Greater Will (note this marriage may have already happened earlier). Godfrey and Marika have (at least) three children, Godwyn the Golden, as well as the twins Mogh and Morgott. Note that Morgott is also ‘Margit’ who you fight at the beginning because he is testing you. Mogh and Morgott are banished after they are birthed because they bear the aforementioned ‘omens’ (their horns) and are considered cursed. Mogh will resent this and eventually fall into league with ‘The Formless Mother’, while Morgott takes over the Capital in the long-run (as he remains a true believer in the Golden Order despite its treatment of him).

One event worth mentioning around now is the twin underground cities of Nokron and Nokstella. The lore around these cities is a little small, but it would seem what happened is certain individuals (the Nox) started messing with alchemy in a way the Greater Will did not approve. In other words, they created things such as the fingerslayer blade (a weapon powerful enough to kill the Two Fingers). This was naturally not considered okay and these individuals were essentially banished to live underground. In the past, an underground society already semi-existed with the Uhl (the minotaur people) but they were already gone or the Nox built around them. Over time, the Nox would experiment with creating artificial lifeforms and lords and also attempted to transform people into dragons (e.g. the dragonkin soldiers), presumably for power reasons. They are also the creators of the Albinaurics, who are artificial lifeforms. Eventually, these cities would be destroyed by beasts carried on falling stars (e.g. Astels). It would seem quite possible that the Astels were sent by the Greater Will to eradicate the dangers of these civilizations after they were self-contained underground (and remember the Elden Beast was itself sent as part of a falling star). I’m not so sure about that though, since you can see the fallingstar beasts and alabaster lords etc. in other areas besides underground. Further, they generally use gravity magic while you would think a creature in control of the Greater Will would be Holy-themed. Regardless, these twin cities get wiped out by the beasts contained on the stars that crash into them.

At some point, Marika sends Radagon to go to war with the neighboring Carian kingdom (who is the Liurnia region in the game), who is led by Queen Rennala. The true might of Carian is through the Academy of Raya Lurcaria. As a side note, the royals of Carian made their own brand of “retaliation” magic as a trump card in case the leaders of the Academy ever decided they wanted to take control over the royal family. This never needed to happen though as Rennala was respected with the Academy anyways. As another side note, Carian comes off as more egalitarian than Leyndell. As an example, after the trolls pledge fealty to Marika’s forces, you can see they were allowed to serve as knights in Carian. Meanwhile, in other places they are more likely to be seen used as slaves to pull carriages. Presumably, the conflict between Leyndell and Carian happens because the Greater Will views it as a threat to is unilateral power. The Academy uses intelligence to derive power from the stars instead of deriving power form faith in some sort of Outer God. It would seem the “primeval current” forms the basis for most sorceries and is not an Outer God itself (hence the distinction between the two although turtle pope would argue all of it could be conjoined with no inherit conflict). Although a sorcery town of Sellia exists in Caelid, the kingdom of Carian clearly has power through its high-level sorcery studies.

After meeting on the battlefield, in a surprise twist Radagon and Rennala fall in love and decide to wed. They perform the ceremony at the Church of Vows, deciding to forgive their past transgressions against each other (and between the kingdoms) to instead go forward in peace. They have three children, General Radahn, Praetor Ryhrad, and Lunar Princess Ranni. Meanwhile, Godfrey (aka Hoarah Loux) becomes the first ever Tarnished and is banished from the Lands Between. Why did he become Tarnished? It’s certainly ambiguous but it is indicated after he defeated every foe (i.e. the dragons, the fire giants, Carian became unified through marriage etc.), there was no further purpose for him and he had no use to the Greater Will or Marika. I would think there’s a little more to it though. Perhaps he discovered a certain secret of Marika we’re about to get to? Regardless, this leads over time to more and more Tarnished becoming banished (i.e. these people are not possessed by the Greater Will, that is they do not have the yellow/golden light inside of them).

After Godfrey is banished, Radagon in a surprise move decides to leave Rennala and marry Marika becoming the second queen consort. He leaves behind a piece of the Elden Ring (i.e. a rune) with Renala as a gift, indicating he truly did love her and there was a greater reason to this decision. So why did he do this? If you talk to the turtle at the church of vows, he mentions that a sculptor of a statute depicting Radagon knew a secret. If you go to the statute and cast a very specific incantation (Law of Regression), a message appears. This message simply states ‘Radagon is Marika’. Now, this does not mean that Radagon was Marika going incognito, they are clearly two separate people, but rather they are split halves of the same person. How did the former being split off into these two beings? Unclear, but presumably the Greater Will gave whoever the original predecessor was the ability to do so (or that person always had that ability). Another theory is the curse of the Fire Giants is what led Marika to be split into two beings to begin with, since it’s unclear when exactly Radagon was supposed to be around. Regardless, what is important here is they are each other halves, but they have different personalities. Radagon is more of an adherent to the Greater Will while Marika seems a little more tired of it. So it would seem Radagon marries Marika on behalf of the desire if the Greater Will, who wants this to happen so as to have more complete power (i.e. it is better that Radagon is the consort than Godfrey).

Radagon and Marika would go on to have two children, Malenia and Miquella (and maybe also Melina, as discussed later). Both of these children are born cursed, with a curse of rot and youth respectively. Presumably, these children are born cursed because of the nature of their parents although the state of Mogh and Margott would maybe suggest its moreso that other Outer Gods are just trying to interfere the best they can. Miquella ends up rejecting the Golden Order and the Greater Will because it did not have the power to cure his sister from the rot that afflicts her. Thus, he rejects the fundamentalism and ends up creating the Haligtree (an artifical erdtree) to help search for a cure. This also becomes a home for those discriminated (albinaurics, misbegottens etc.) by the Golden Order. Malenia ends up essentially serving Miquella instead of having her own ambitions from a lordship perspective. Incidentally, Miquella is also St. Trina (which is an alias used for an unclear reason).

In lieu of another time to discuss it, now is a good time to mention the Frenzied Flame. It’s not entirely clear why, but the tribe of normadic merchants were rejected by the Greater Will/Golden Order (again also refer to the discrimination against omens and misbegottens). Accused of heretical beliefs, they were rounded up and buried alive underground. Afterwards, they chanted a curse of despair and summoned the Frenzied Flame. This would seem to be a chicken and the egg situation. Were the nomads already adherents of this flame, or did the Golden Order bring this about by bringing the merchants to such despair as to create what the Golden Order feared from the grief they inflicted. In the end, the frenzied flame does currently exist and it uses the three fingers as its emissary. Presumably, it does this to be misleading to people as it tries to seduce adherents of the Golden Order (i.e. people who need to listen to the Two Fingers) to follow it. By all accounts, it seems to desire nothing other than chaos.

After the Radagon/Marika marriage, Ranni in specific is pissed about Radagon leaving her mother (who is devastated by it and ends up locked away because she is such a shell of herself). Ranni ends up organizing the Night of the Black Knives. She does this by stealing the rune of death from Maliketh and using it to form special knives that can kill the previously immortal demi-gods. It’s unclear how exactly she accomplishes this, and it seems suggested that Marika was actually involved because the Black Knife Assassins who enacted the plan were said to be from Marika’s tribe (e.g. Numens), and it is mentioned that Maliketh was betrayed by Marika in some way. Marika being involved would also explain why she ends up shattering the ring afterwards, but we’ll get to that in a bit. One thing that is known is that Maliketh definitely was not in on this all happening. This is known because he takes penance for the situation and becomes Gurranq, who in present times is constantly fighting the urge to feed on death and this is why he wants deathroots in present times.

Ranni’s orchestration of these events is able to kill Godwyn the Golden (more on that later), although not the other demi-gods. Godwyn’s death is devastating to Marika. In grief, she shatters the Elden Ring. Radagon attempts to repair it, but is unable to do so. It’s worth taking a second here to think about this. Why exactly does Godwyn’s death make Marika shatter the Elden Ring in defiance to the Greater Will? Is she literally just crazy in her grief? Does she view the Greater Will as the cause of these conflicts leading to her beloved son’s death and just wants it all to end? One answer would be the aforementioned thought that she orchestrated the events and just needed a pretext to get out from under the clutches of the Greater Will. Perhaps she knew having her beloved child killed would create enough emotion in her (grief) that she would then actually physically be able to do something the Greater Will would otherwise not allow her to do. Regardless, the Greater Will is angry about this but without the concentrated power of the Elden Ring it cannot do much about it other than to have Marika and Radagon imprisoned in the Erdtree to help keep its fading influence in-tact. Over time, this fading influence lets the Tarnished come back into the lands, although the Greater Will and the Two Fingers view this as an opportunity to get that Tarnished to repair the Elden Ring and began its rule anew. All of the NPCs mentioned in the intro cut-scene are Tarnished returning with various motivations, discussed a little later.

Thus, the Shattering War (confusingly named since the shattering of the ring is distinct from the Shattering which refers to the war afterwards…) between the aforementioned children begins. Dealing with Ranni first, one omission left during the Night of the Black Knives is that she also died during the events. However, her death was intentional. Ranni, along with Malenia and Miquella were Empyreans, which is to say they were chosen by the Two Fingers as potential suitors to become Elden Lord. I’ve seen talk that being an Empyrean means its required to be born of a single god, but that item description doesn’t actually say that, it just states Malenia and Miquella are empyrean and also are born of a single God. Still, presumably their status of being “pure” Marika offspring is probably why they are chosen. But why is Ranni chosen as suitable? Was she just that great of a person? Is she not actually Renalla’s child and is Marika’s child with Radagon instead? Nothing says that to be clear, and nothing indicates why she is an Empyrean, as far as I’ve seen. That part is extremely unclear to me. Regardless, what matters is Ranni rejects the status. Thus, she has her body killed so that she will never be forced as a vassal to the Greater Will the way that Marika is. Perhaps Ranni has strong feelings about this after seeing Radagon leave her mother seemingly only because the Greater Will desired it. And perhaps from potentially colluding with Marika who seems to not enjoy her vassal status anymore. After casting off her body, Ranni resides in a doll made to resemble a snow witch, who was a former mentor to Ranni and taught her own brand of dark moon magic. Presumably, this is also why Ranni interacts with Selvius, as the ‘art’ of dealing with dolls is necessary for her soul/spirit to stay alive now that her body is gone.

During the Shattering, Radahn claims a great rune. As indicated by a cut-scene, his forces attack Leyndell, presumably because he desires to be the ultimate ruler. However, Morgott rises up and defends the Capital. Morgott then goes to lead the now leaderless capital, although he does it in secret and assumes his “Margrit the Fell” form when needed. While Morgott is a true believer despite his treatment, his brother, Mogh, leaves to enact his ambitions with the Formless Mother instead. The irony with Morgott is he ‘should’ be accepted as the proper ruler by the Greater Will since he truly believes in it and is also suitably powerful, but alas he was born cursed and that is that apparently as far as the Greater Will is concerned. Sometime after, Malenia marches her cleanrot knights from the Haligtree to Caelid to do battle with Radahn. Why Malenia does this is extremely unclear to me. Is it as simple as she also desired to rule everything and viewed Radahn as the greatest threat and thus sought to defeat him first? The strange part is she marched essentially pass the Capital (and also Rykard and also Godrick) just to fight Radahn specifically which wouldn’t really track if the goal was to defeat all the other potential ruler candidates. Malenia doesn’t want to rule herself and acts in service of Miquella (who is beloved and considered a good ruler) but it’s not clear what Miquella’s beef would be with Radahn either beyond the other demigods who are around and more nearby.

Something worth noting is Radahn is holding up the stars during this time. As far as I know the reason for this isn’t explained. Presumably, the two reasons to do this is 1) to prevent beasts on the stars such as the one that wrecked the underground cities from destroying things; and 2) to prevent those who derive their sorcery powers from the stars from obtaining such power. The fact that within the game itself Ranni wants Radahn dead so the stars can create passage to the underground cities where the Fingerslayer Blade rests would suggest it is moreso the latter, an attempt by Radahn to hold off other people accessing forbidden power. But why would Malenia (or Miquella) care about that? Regardless, Malenia does march to Caelid and a battle ensues. The battle ends with Malenia ‘blooms’ her scarlet rot inside of her. One would infer that she does this because otherwise Radahn would have won the battle. Still, since Malenia does in fact do it, this devastates the region of Caelid and leaves Radahn a sicken shell of himself (which leads his followers to desire a festival to kill him, as he needs to dies but is considered too great to die anything but an honorable death). This bloom leaves Malenia comatose. One of her cleanrot knights, Finlay, manages to carry her back home completely by himself. Malenia remains alseep and during this time, Mogh steals away Miquella. He does so, presumably at the behest of the Formless Mother, with the intent of making Miquella the ultimate ruler in name, but in reality would want to use him as a puppet and essentially rule ‘through’ his name and acting as his consort. Miquella apparently rejects this and Mogh’s ambitions do not come to fruit.

Two asides during this time are Rykard and Godrick. Godrick is a descendant of Godefroy the Grafted, who is imprisoned in this game. It’s not explained but presumably they are descended from Godwyn, and thus descend from Godfrey who Godrick admires greatly. Ultimately however, Godrick is not respected. He ends up claiming a great rune (in the name of the Godwyn’s golden lineage) but he is defeated by Malenia in battle and ends up needing to flee Leyndell by disguising himself. Subsequently he claims Stormveil and Limgrave as his territory. It is not clear to me who was supposed to be holding that territory beforehand but presumably the golden lineage in general controlled the region. Meanwhile, Rykard rejected the Erdtree and Golden Order and instead committed what was considered blasphemy by trying to become a God himself (and without any Outer God). He attempts this, essentially anyways, by trying to devour anything and fusing all of that power together into one being (i.e. him).

One other thing to cover, Melina. Melina’s origin is basically not talked about in the game so basically all of this is conjecture. One notable thing is within the game’s code (although never in the game itself), Melina is referred to as Marika’s daughter. Given Melina’s actions and objectives during the game, it seems that Marika, somehow, managed to create her to have her enact her wishes. Now whether she was conceived before Marika was imprisoned or during, or if she is an actual child of Marika/Radagon, or just an ‘aspect’ of Marika is all unknown. But that is my read of her. No idea about her cursemark on her eye though. Let’s now discuss the tarnished named in the intro.

Motivations of Hoarah Loux: Is Godfrey, and wants to reclaim his title. Motivations of Fia: Godwyn did not actually die a true death (you can see his new form under the capital in deeproot depths, and presumably his body’s entwining with the roots of the Erdtree is causing the sprout of deathroot in the worlds and those that ‘live in death’). Eventually, Godwyn became worshiped as the prince of death. Fia desires the Elden Ring to be reformed, except with death as being a possibility in the new age. Motivations of Goldmask: Goldmask (and Brother Coryn) believes in the Golden Order but do not like how random people seem to act in a self-interested way while claiming it is the name of the Golden Order. Basically, they don’t like the fallibility of humans. The thing is, this also applies to the demigods and even Marika/Radagon. The problem that Gods can act as fickle as mortals. Thus, they want the Elden Ring reformed, except with a better distinction between Gods and mortals. Motivations of the Dung Eater: He was born cursed, presumably the ‘omen’ curse that emanates from the crucible form of the erdtree. Presumably, this led to discrimination toward him and he has responded with an attitude of ‘fuck the world I hate all of you’, combined with the idea that if everyone is cursed then no one is cursed. Thus, he wants to reform the Elden Ring but with everyone being ‘cursed’.

Motivations of Sir Gideon, the All-Knowing: Originally, Gideon appears to be a true follower of the Two Fingers and just wants the Elden Ring reformed, and also to learn things. However, it is later stated that while gaining knowledge, he glimpsed into the will of Queen Marika and shuddered in fear. It is also stated that “Gideon gained true knowledge after his long exchange with the Two Fingers - discovering all had been broken long ago; that the trembling fingers, bent with age, and the Erdtree itself, were no exception”. It would seem that, as discussed earlier, Marika’s true desire is to have the Elden Beast/Greater Will slain so she can be done with it all. Sir Gideon views this as a bad thing because without the Greater Will, everything will go to how it was before it got involved (which I guess he views as bad). Thus, while he originally supported the Tarnished potentially reinstating the Greater Will, what he discovered is what will really happen if a Tarnished reaches inside the tree is the Elden Beast will end up slain (as Marika desires) and he does not want this to happen, hence his change of heart.

Thus, leads to the endings of the game. The ‘normal’ ending and its variants are essentially already covered. In addition, one can ally with Ranni or the Frenzied Flame, which make of all that as you wish.

My general half-baked theory in terms of Melina is that she is sort of another version of Radagon. Marika herself is the Elden Ring - we can see in Radagon's boss fight that the elden ring is inscribed within his very being. Thus when Marika cut off a portion of the Elden Ring, she cut off a portion of her soul and made it into a new being - Radagon. Radagon was made from the cross grid pattern part of the Elden Ring, which I think is the Rune of Regression. He went off and fought wars for her, eventually developed his own personality and beliefs, and in the end became part of her once again.

Melina is the same, but borne through the rune of destined death. There are lots of videos out there discussing Melina's connections with the Gloam Eyed Queen and Destined Death (stemming mainly from the Frenzied Flame ending). I think the simple explanation is that Marika created the Gloam Eyed Queen when she separated the Rune of Destined Death from the Elden Ring (herself).

Eventually Marika didn't like having the threat of Destined Death outside her control, or perhaps the Greater Will did not, and so she had Maliketh kill the Gloam Eyed Queen and take the Rune of Death for himself. The Shadows of Empyreans are completely loyal to their Empyrean, so this was a more stable state of affairs. (Note: I think the Shadows might be even more loyal/controlled by the Greater Will, which is why Marika had to betray Maliketh and why Ranni attempted to have the Black Knives kill Blaidd and why he is hostile at the end of his questline once it becomes clear Ranni is moving against the Greater Will).

Ranni is the same - she was probably created by Radagon using the same method, which is why her real body looks just like Melina and why she is an Empyrean where her siblings were not. Each of them have a missing eye from their deaths and disconnections from their Empyrean bodies and powers. By extension they both probably look like a young Marika.

When Ranni acquired a shard of the rune of destined death, she was able to release Melina's spirit into the world using her spirit magics. Or perhaps Ranni's death resulted connecting Melina to Gowdyn's shining soul and Ranni's Empyrean spirit-body. Melina's spirit eventually meets the player character and sets the story in motion, eventually leading her to understand her own story (which is kind of Marika's) and help the player on a path to complete Marika's plot to kill the Radagon and the Elder Beast.

"Light is a boring character".

"Light is just a textbook villain that only wins because of the plot".

I'd argue that Light is actually a pretty well written character. He has a unique personality. He's driven by emotion and ego. He's the embodiment of human arrogance and he even changes and develops over the course of the story.

Who was Light Yagami before he picked up the Death Note? 

Some people will complain that Light jumped into killing far too easily for a normal high school boy. I'll counter that Light was never a normal boy in the first place.

From Light's very first moments on screen we can see just how disinterested he is in the events going on around him. He doesn't appear to be listening to his teacher's lecture nor does join in on any of the conversation going around the classroom - even though we later learn that Light is actually very popular. He just sits at his desk with a bored look, in a world of his own. One of his first lines is the infamous quote, "This world is rotten" - a line that he happens to share with a god of death.

At this point in time, Light is considered to be a genius by everyone around him. He's at the top of his school, he's diligent in his studies, he's hardworking, and he's talented in many different areas. Light has probably grown up being praised for anything he does. Due to his intelligence, athleticism, and looks, he has constantly been the center of admiration. These traits have turned him into a very vain and egotistic person; it's made him into a narcissist. Since there are only a few days that lie between his pre-Death Note personality and his post Death Note personality, I will use some examples from the latter's examples (since there isn't much change) to explain his narcissism:

In Sandy Hotchkiss's Why is it Always About You? The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism", the author outlines the traits of a narcissist - traits that Light Yagami falls under.

Shamelessness - The inability to process shame in healthy ways: Throughout the anime, Light is shown multiple times to be "absolutely humiliated" simply by suffering a defeat no matter how minor. He vents his frustration either through anger or by becoming eerily calm. One of the most prominent examples is in episode 9 when L reveals who he is to Light, ruining Light's chance to anonymously kill him. Light walks home without uttering a single word and the camera fails to show his expression. Only when he gets into his room does he vent his anger. Does this seem like a healthy way to show one's shame?

Magical thinking - The distorted way of thinking that causes one to believe they're flawless and perfect: Light is the poster child for someone who has a God complex. He believes that he is in the right no matter the circumstance.

Arrogance - To put oneself above others: Light definitely thinks that he's was better those around him. He even goes as far as putting himself right under the nose of his enemy fully believing that he wouldn't be caught.

Envy - To secure a sense of superiority in the face of another person's ability - One of the driving forces behind the plot was Light's need to beat L. Light just had to show that he was better than L. With the information that L had to work with, he would have never discovered the notebook, therefore never being able to catch Light...Until Light gave him everything he needed to know.

Entitlement - A sense of being perfect and superior enough to receive special treatment: Because Light is getting rid of the world's criminals, he should be forgiven of all his crimes. This is what Light believes and he has the ability to enforce it.

Exploitation - To exploit others and show no regard or empathy for their emotions or interests: Light is shown many times to be very manipulative, using the emotions of others to get what he wants. Acting as both Misa's and Takada's boyfriend is a prime example.

Bad boundaries - Failure to recognize that other people are individuals: People either exist to meet Light's needs, or they might as well not exist at all. Light gets rid of anyone who serves no use to him, no matter how minor a threat they are.

These are all traits that must be taken into account when you look at Light Yagami as a character. I'll reiterate the notion that Light has been like this for a long time, or at least since well before he picked up the Death Note. His Narcissism combined with his boredom and childlike sense of justice (all bad people must die) made him yearn for a God-like power, which is why there was little hesitation for him to begin using the Death Note. The "good student" and "dutiful son" that he played was just a facade, and once he got the ability to change something, he was eager to do so. Power corrupts.

Now that I've gone over Light's persona, how does the Death Note affect him?

It's hard to deny that Light's level of arrogance was extremely elevated after he found the Death Note. I'll use his great plan that spanned across 9 episodes as an example. This image that's been glorified into a meme actually says quite a bit about Light's character.

Before I delve into Light's plan, let me remind you why he had to enact it in the first place. Because Light's plan was so well thought out, and the fact that he ended up in a more advantageous position, people tend to forget that the entire plan was the result of Light's back being against the wall. The police had just caught the 2nd Kira, who just happened to be someone who was deeply in love with Light. With evidence that hard, Light had to play some of his cards - revealing the Death Note - the biggest element that led to Light's downfall.

In hindsight, the outside appearances of his plan seem pretty simple:

Become L's prisoner in a way that'll ensure that Light will be placed under 24 hour surveillance.

Give up his memories and a notebook (Misa's) in order to get a 3rd Kira to start killing again.

Catch the 3rd Kira himself.

Regain his memories and have L be less suspicious of him.

Light's goal wasn't to put the blame entirely on the 3rd Kira. Light predicted that L was smart enough to realize that the 3rd Kira was a different person than the original. His goal was to convince L that Kira's "power" was something that moved from person to person taking control of their actions and once the power moved on, the person lost their memories. He even went a step further and added an extra rule to the Death Note that would prove his innocence beyond a doubt.

So what exactly does this plan say about Light?

Think about that plan and then put yourself into the shoes of the person that came up with it. For that plan to work, the 3rd Kira had to be caught. This says one of two things:

Light absolutely believed that he would be able to catch another Kira without any knowledge of the notebook. This plays into Light's arrogance in him fully believing that he is superior to anyone out there. Remember that Light didn't know who the notebook was going to.

Light absolutely believe that no Kira other than himself would be able to evade L. Again, this plays into his arrogance with him full believing that he is the best and that no one would ever be able to top what he has done.

How badly would this plan have gone if the Death Note went to someone more intelligent than Light Yagami? Well according to the way Light thinks, that's an impossibility.

So how does someone with all that power and intelligence lose? Light lost because he, and the people that he surrounded himself with (Ryuk excepted) were human. An unfortunate fact of life is that all humans make mistakes.

Light's first fatal mistake was killing Lind L. Taylor. For the first time, Light killed a man who he had thought to be a non-criminal. This proved to L that Kira was a human. A human that was mortal enough to feel threatened by a man on the television. This also proved that Kira's ability was something supernatural.

Another fatal mistake of his ties in with the first one - allowing for the deterioration of Kira's ideals. He stops working towards the pursuit of justice and joins in on the cat an mouse game - killing multiple innocent people along the way. One could argue that if Light had only kept killing criminals, he never would have been caught. How could he have been charged if everyone thought that Kira was truly a god? Killing the innocents that tried to catch him only proved his mortality.

Even with those mistakes, Light was smart enough to still come out on top. So what actually made him lose was the fact that he relied on others far too much.

He relied too much on Misa and her notebook. Misa - the one who was the cause of the Death Note being discovered.

He relied too much on the task force. Even without accounting for their suspicion towards Light, they gave out too much information that led to his downfall. One example is when Aizawa was reporting to Near for the first time. He stated that during Soichiro's car ride when testing "the suspects that were in L's captivity", Soichiro claimed that he would "kill [the suspect] then kill himself". This led Near to believe that the person that L had suspected was Soichiro's son. This led Near to finding out the 2nd L's identity.

He relied way too much on Mikami - the sole reason why Light's last plan failed. Light gave him strict orders not to use the real Death Note, and Mikami disobeyed him thinking that he would be able to help Kira by killing Takada. This led to Near's detective being able to find and steal the real notebook, which put Light in a very bad position.

Post-Timeskip

Most people will agree that the writing after the timeskip is subpar compared to the first half of the show, but I'm not going to delve into that for simplicity's sake.

5 years after L died was when Light started to show that he'd become an even more flawed human. He was quicker to lose his cool, less collected, and admitted defeat too easily. We even have less of his "headspace" monologues.

This is because Light is arrogant and riding a 5 year high after defeating the one person who he believed could topple him from his throne. He doesn't care about covering his tracks because he believes that he can outsmart anyone in the task force. He made more mistakes because he believed that he could afford to make them.

Again, his downfall all leads back to his immense pride and hubris.

Fate/Stay Night (F/SN) is a Japanese visual novel produced in 2004 by Type-Moon as an adult game for Windows. In 2007, Fate/Stay Night Réalta Nua was released as an updated version for PS2 with a rating for ages 15 and up.

F/SN was written by Kinoko Nasu, and covers the story of Emiya Shirou during the 5th Holy Grail War in the city of Fuyuki, Japan. The full VN takes an estimated 50-60 hrs to read, similar to 120 episodes of a 25min anime.

Routes

F/SN is divided into 3 routes: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. These are three separate stories on parallel timelines, with sequential themes.

1st Route - Fate

Theme: "Oneself as an ideal"

This path is both an introduction route and Saber's route. In Fate we are given most of the god-tier world-building the author Nasu is known for. It also tells the complete story about Saber, who she is, and what she is after by taking part in the war.

2nd Route - Unlimited Blade Works (UBW)

Theme: "Struggling with oneself as an ideal"

This is both the Archer and Tohsaka Rin route. Most of the mysteries left unanswered in the Fate scenario are revealed and things start to go very "wrong" in this route. The reveals in UBW makes you re-think everything you knew about the previous story.

3rd Route - Heaven's Feel (HF)

Theme: "The friction with real and ideal"

This is both the conclusion act and Matou Sakura's route. The increasing development of Emiya Shirou's character reaches its final act. If you thought things went wrong in UBW, this route laughs at it and redefines what the word "wrong" means.

Versions, Translations, and Patches

In 2012, the Realta Nua version was released as three separate .exe files (one per route) for Windows. Realta Nua changes:

Adult content was removed (age rating is approximately 15+), with erotic scenes replaced with alternate scenes,

Fully voice acted,

A bonus ending called 'Last Episode' once all 5 endings have been completed,

Many new event CGs (with some of the original art assets touched up as well),

Around 20 new BGM tracks,

New and more dynamic animation effects in many scenes,

Different OP videos than original version,

Text is generally edited for quality, as well as to meet age rating.

The game has never been officially released in English. It was fan translated by the group mirror-moon.

u/jacktheinfinite101 and Koto have made a patch for Realta Nua PC that is hosted on Beast Lair's forums. Their patch combines the original version, Realta Nua, and an English translation. Jack & Koto's patch features:

English translations,

The choice between the original H-Scenes or the Realta Nua alternate scenes,

The option to view de-censored images,

Can choose 2007 release or remixed 2012 release background music by track,

Has all the OP videos from both the original and Realta Nua,

And many other features.

Jack and Koto's patch for Realta Nua is the best way to read the VN. See u/torik0's F/SN VN Installation Guide for more info.

The Sequel & Prequel

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia (F/HA) is the 2005 visual novel sequel to F/SN. It has a complete translation. Installation information can be found at the bottom of the F/SN VN Installation Guide. F/HA is set 6 months after F/SN and is a mix of all the different F/SN endings. It can be read any time after finishing the 3 routes of F/SN.

Fate/Zero

Fate Zero (F/Z) is the 2006 light novel prequel to F/SN, written by Gen Urobuchi. F/Z develops the story of the 4thHoly Grail War that takes place in the same location but 10 years prior to the events of F/SN.

Anime Adaptations

Ufotable

In 2011, a 2 season anime adaptation for Fate/Zero was produced by Ufotable. F/Z was the first time that an anime got free streamed on a world wide scale subtitled in 8 different languages. Fate/Zero was very well received, qualified as "magnificent" by most anime fans; it was one of the highest quality anime that ever aired on Japanese TV for its movie-like production values.

In 2014, Ufotable aired a 2 season anime adaptation of the 2nd F/SN route titled Fate/Stay Night [Unlimited Blade Works].

Ufotable has also announced that it will be producing an animated film adaptation of Heaven's Feel. There will be three films with the first being released October 14, 2017!

Studio DEEN

DEEN made an anime adaptation of Fate/Stay Night in 2006. It used the Fate route as its base story, but tried to adapt all three routes into one. It is widely considered a bad adaptation, as the attempt to combine the routes only introduced spoilers without context, and it failed to characterize Shirou accurately. It is recommended that you do not watch DEEN's Fate/Stay Night (2006), and if you do watch it, wait until after you've read the VN.

This is certainly not to say that criticism against the character isn't valid; I can't defend the perv jokes nor do I intend to beyond my general belief that they are simply bad, outdated jokes and not meant to represent Sanji's actual character. You can also feel like the explanations given are bad writing on Oda's part, but I'm making this post because I feel like there are a lot of people that missed Oda providing some deeper insight into Sanji's character

So, the thing I like most about Sanji is how he's a character that won't compromise who he is. We can see all the time that Sanji chooses to make things harder for himself because of his beliefs. From choosing to save his family that didn't deserve it, not poisoning Big Mom's cake, refusal to hit women, and even his refusal to use his hands in a fight - Sanji's character is defined by the limitations he places on himself, and I think its neat that these limitations can both bite him in the ass and help him out when he meets people that have similar values to him. Whole Cake really shows this. Sanji's insistence to stick to his values constantly puts him in hot water, but its also how he gets Pudding to fall for him and a captain that will starve himself in yonko territory just to get him back. I just think that's neat and plays into One Piece's general theme of relying on others to do the things you can't

Sanji's refusal to compromise on who he is extends into Wano as well. We can see he is willing to sacrifice his pride to use his raid suit, something he doesn't like but also doesn't contradict his ideals and code, but he destroys the raid suit the second it starts to change him because he'd rather die than risk losing who he is as a person

Sanji's Code

I think the biggest disconnect with people that don't like Sanji (other than the perv jokes, which is, again, a perfectly valid reason not to like him) comes from the general idea that Sanji's code of refusing to hit women comes from a sexist ideology. And it does, but not from Sanji. It comes from Zeff:

Sanji originally doesn't understand why it's an issue

Which makes sense given that his sister was his strongest sibling. Sanji's code doesn't come from himself, it comes from his desire to please his father figure.

Doesn't that paint Zeff in a worse light? Well, yeah, but we're talking about a guy that was introduced to the story robbing an innocent ship of their food. He's more of a morally grey character than most in this idealistic series, and I don't think his sexism paints him much differently from how he was initially portrayed.

Regardless, we can see that Sanji's code doesn't come from his view of women, which is reinforced when he is willing to put Robin in danger to do something he couldn't do, and I think that's neat.

Sanji playing up his chivalry

Another thing I want to talk about is how I feel Sanji is often playing up his chivalrous, women-obsessed side in the series. I'm talking about times where he claims he's only concerned about the safety of his female crew members. I think this is mostly an act (because Oda thinks it's funny, but in-universe, I think its more of a pride thing). This is best shown in Whole Cake where Sanji shows concern for the safety of everyone before quickly correcting himself to say he's only concerned about Nami

I think Sanji, more often than not, wants to attribute his more caring side as chivalry rather than general concern, which leads to him saying he only cares about the safety of his female crew members despite his actions showing otherwise

I think one other thing that gets missed about Sanji is his obsession with women isn't just as a horny simp. In his flashback, we see he gets beaten and bullied by his brothers, he gets shunned and abandoned by his father.

But his mother showed him nothing but unconditional love until she died. She ate every meal he prepared for her, no matter how disgusting and revolting, just because it came from him. She was the first human being who he felt love from and who he felt genuinely cared about him.

The second was his sister. While she laughed at him when his brothers bullied and beat him (to keep up appearances), she never once joined in or directly contributed, and after their mother died and he was imprisoned, she would bring leftovers of food secretly to him. She then broke him out upon realisation that there was no way he could survive there under Judge if he was as emotional as he was. So the first two females in his life were the first people who showed him true kindness.

Basically how the Holy Grail works in Fate.

Fate/zero is kind of glossing over the rules of how the Holy Grail War works, but luckily these rules were explained in great detail in the original (visual novel) version of Fate/stay night. Part of the explanation will be consolidated and rephrased here for the benefit of people who just want to watch their Japanese animes, without having to find and play the game first. I'll do my best to avoid spoilers, even for events in the first episode of F/z, but I'll also point out some of the weird things allowed by the rules so that it doesn't catch people off guard too much when it seems like they're just ignoring the rules and making shit up.

So, obviously, there are a bunch of mages, and they summon legendary dudes (Heroic Spirits) to fight each other. In case it's not clear, "summoning" here means "performing a weird ritual to request the services of a spirit from another realm," and a Heroic Spirit can be just about any individual whose amazing deeds have been immortalized in myth or legend. The deeds can actually be fictional, but the spirit cannot.

Anyway, once they're all summoned, the designated summoners (called Masters) turn them against each other and make them kill each other. This is itself part of a much larger ritual to summon and activate a nigh-omnipotent magical artifact, affectionately nicknamed "the Holy Grail" by participants in the ritual. Seven spirits get summoned, and six have to die, preferably in combat. When only one is left, the Holy Grail automatically shows up long enough to make a single wish. The seventh spirit has to stick around to perform the final step of the ritual once the Grail has already appeared.

The Einzberns (backstory, but not a spoiler) were the mage family that originally organized the ritual. They had a wish they wanted to grant, spent hundreds of years researching it, and concluded that the only way to succeed is by using the Holy Grail, and the only way to get to the Holy Grail is to summon it using Heroic Spirits. See, there's a ritual to summon a Heroic Spirit to save the world in the event of a major catastrophe (asteroids, Hitler, etc.), and they found a loophole in that. More on this later.

When you summon a Heroic Spirit, normally they'd just be pretty much a ghost, because magic that makes things take physical form consumes a ridiculous amount of power. (This is an important plot point eventually in F/sn, but I'm not sure about F/z.) However, the Holy Grail ritual permits (and in fact requires) a more advanced type of summoning. The Heroic Spirits become Servants, who not only get powered-up physical bodies, but also recreate all the memories and personalities they had in real life. As Rin explains in the game, this is orders of magnitude more ridiculous than an ordinary summoning, reaching levels of absurdity on par with walking to the moon.

The ritual has to cut a few corners to make these summonings physically possible. First of all, the primary magic circle governing the whole ritual takes about 60 years to gather enough mana to perform a summoning. (It's implied that it would take centuries if the ritual was performed in a different location; the town of Fuyuki has unusual magical properties.) For this reason, nobody is prepared for the Fifth Holy Grail War in F/sn: It happens only ten years after the fourth one, which is 50 years too early.

The second major caveat is that a place in the world must be prepared for each spirit before the summoning begins. The Einzberns didn't know which heroes they'd be able to summon, so instead of preparing places for specific heroes, they prepared fairly generic ones, each with a distinct class. These are like RPG classes; for example, WoW has Warrior, Mage, Shaman, and the like. The Holy Grail War has seven classes, each with certain compatibility requirements:

Saber must be a master swordfighter. There are obviously quite a few options here, so this is regarded by many as the best class.

Archer must be well-versed in projectile weapons... Not necessarily bows, but then again, there aren't a whole lot of world-famous gunslingers capable of standing up to fucking Hercules or whoever else might show up.

Lancer must be capable of close combat (not just mounted combat) with long weapons like spears and lances. Staves might count. I'm not sure.

Rider must have some manner of unusual ability for riding a certain kind of mount, or for mounted combat in general. This can mean either living steeds, or vehicles.

Caster must be a powerful mage, sorceror, or summoner.

Berserker can be any warrior associated somehow with madness or brutality, but the summoned version will be insane and bloodthirsty regardless of what the spirit's actual life was like. This class is liable to drive its Master insane as well.

Assassin must be a killer whose identity remained a secret throughout their life. Except under very weird circumstances, the only spirits summoned into this class have been members of a famous brotherhood of assassins whose individual members were anonymous.

Some Heroic Spirits seem to correspond to more than one class until you take into account their signature items, or Noble Phantasms. These are weapons, equipment, or even magic powers with key roles in their legends. For example, King Arthur was very skilled at both mounted combat and sword fighting, but since his name is almost synonymous with that of the sword Excalibur, he can presumably only be summoned as the Saber class. Normally you can expect each Servant to have only one Noble Phantasm; spirits with two or three are extremely rare. However, there's an important loophole, in that some Noble Phantasms consist of an ability to summon other powerful items.

I don't know if there's a magical reason for each class to be unique. Maybe there isn't, but at any rate the ritual is set up to summon exactly one Servant of each class, meaning there would never be a Holy Grail War with seven Assassins or whatever.

It is explicitly stated at one point that the Einzberns could add more classes if they chose. However, this would consume more mana, and they already have to wait sixty years between attempts. Besides, they only need seven Servants anyway, so more would be pointless.

The third caveat is that the ritual can't actually supply enough mana to maintain the Servants' physical presence. The additional power supplied by a typical human mage is more than enough to make up for this, but only if each Servant has an individual Master. Having more than one Servant would quickly kill you (magic is dangerous like that) unless you supplemented your own abilities with a ridiculously bountiful power source. Like the Holy Grail, for example.

The fourth caveat is the problem of controlling the Servants. Remember, the ritual requires them to have physical bodies and their original powers and personalities, so often as not they'd rather go off and do their own thing than listen to the dorks who summoned them. A popular hobby among Servants is to try to get the Grail for themselves, so as to remain in this world indefinitely (see above) and live out a second life, or even become immortal. To ensure that the Masters at least have a chance of getting their wishes granted, the summoning ritual grants three command spells to every Master. A command spell invokes the power of the Grail ritual to briefly force a Servant into obedience, even for orders that would normally be physically impossible. Teleportation, for example. It's common wisdom to save one command spell for your wish, in the event that you win.

Mages can volunteer to gamble their lives as Masters before the ritual nears completion. If there aren't yet enough Masters when that time comes, the spell governing the ritual will automatically select some. It even seems to be capable of summoning Servants automatically in places where previous Servant-summoning rituals were performed.

There's one last rule that applies to Heroic Spirits in general, as far as I know: The identity of the person who shows up depends on a nearby physical object being connected to them somehow. If you don't explicitly include such an object in the ritual, there's pretty much no telling what will happen, because you have no control over which object gets used. (This might not be important in F/z, but it has "hilarious" consequences in F/sn.)

(Ps.notes)

Skip the TV series altogether. Just skip it. It's an awkward jumble of the Fate route (the least fun one, IMO) from the VN, plus scenes here and there that spoil stuff in the UBW and HF routes. That, and everyone's faces are stuck in a permanent "ಠ_ಠ" look, and most of the fun music is discarded in favor of.... non-fun music.

The TV reproduction is a condensation of the series that fast-forwards through the plot to show off the fight scenes, which is all the series was good for in the first place (if even that). If you don't already know the story, you'll have no earthly idea what's going on.

Unfortunately, the UBW movie has all the same problems as the TV reproduction, on top of which the fights aren't terribly well choreographed. It's a nice refresher for someone who hasn't played the VN in a long time, though.

(I have to stop on my fixation, if I go any further on a character from full metal alchemist - I will go insane.)

Alphonse character anaylsis

Episodes 1-13 The Child

Al's main character traits starting out are his kindness, his hopefulness, and his dependence. His dependence will grow into independence over the course of his journey. His hopefulness is also his weakest character trait at this point, as it is centered on his and Ed's quest.

While Al's personality is quite distinct from Ed's, he doesn't really do much except follow Ed around for a the first arc. Ed seems to have decided to do alchemy first back when they were kids. Ed decides to do the human transmutation. Ed becomes a state alchemist. Ed finds records of the philosopher's stone. Al follows him around, helps out during fights, and makes friends with just about everyone. Ed is the sun and Al is the moon: Ed shines the light and Al soaks it up and reflects it.

Al is, however, a sweet kid at heart. Everyone who meets him ends up liking him. The incongruity of this, the tiny boy voice in the spiky armor, the way Al sort of folds up his body like he's trying to be smaller, is gloriously fun. But Al's body is primarily his purgatory. He is effectively a ghost, as a consequence of his own and his brother's 'sin.' It thus makes sense that the armor is, generally speaking, a hindrance at this stage. Al can do nothing at all when Scar attacks Ed. His armor is quickly disabled, and he's left to shout and despair as Ed lets Scar kill him. He can't help Ed go into the Fifth Laboratory, and when Greed's people attack him they manage to control him from the inside out.

Al's total dependence on Ed is also why Al is vulnerable to Barry's accusation that Al was never really real. Al is in a permanent state of absolute trust. That makes him vulnerable, and that's terrifying. However, Ed does indeed really care about him on a non-selfish level, which results in the two of them being able to move forward.

Episodes 14-21 Building Independence

This phase begins when Al gets his memory of Truth back. At that point, he and Ed are equal in alchemy skills. Ed is rather upset by this, visualizing them as a pair of scales where Ed used to be 'heavier,' but now Al is the heavier one, the bigger deal. Part of why this joke works is that Ed has become very used to being a 'bigger deal,' than Al, and the disturbance in this balance hits him right in the pride.

Then there's Hughes's death. Ed is openly baffled by the idea that Al is also responsible for Hughes's fate, even though the primary focus of both boys is Al getting his body back. Al states what is to become a key part of the equal relationship between the brothers: "If it means people getting hurt, then I don't want my body back." Al repeatedly asserts his own responsibility in Hughes's death, in spite of his brother. It's why he ends up getting more involved with Mustang, and leads directly to himself and Ed making the first alliance that eventually leads to Father's downfall.

When Mustang kicks Ed and Armstrong out of Central, the result is a huge stride in character development. Without Ed to depend on or to follow, Al decides to join up with Mustang and his crew to fight the homonculus all on his own, due to his own feeling of responsibility for Hughe's death. He and Mustang pool their information, without which Mustang would have been completely unprepared for the third laboratory. Al is a full member of that team--in the manga, Hawkeye says she'll be depending on him if something comes up that a soldier can't handle. And so we come to the scene with Lust.

When Hawkeye collapses and gives up, of course Al wasn't going to leave her. But Al didn't just not leave her. For the first time, he used his metal body as a strength. His kindness, his depth of caring for other people, explicitly grows into a desire to protect people. It's not just that he won't let someone else get hurt as a side effect of his own quest: he doesn't want anyone he cares about to get hurt if he can help them. It's actually not far removed from Mustang's own worldview, the one Hughes himself referred to as naively idealistic. Both Mustang and Al prove Hughes wrong in that scene. All together, it's a sign of Al stepping forward, taking ownership of his own life and his role in other people's lives.

So, at this stage we have Al being defined by kindness/protectiveness, hopefulness, and growing independence.

Episodes 23-27 New Perspectives and a New Relationship with Ed

This all results in some important re-orientation, when Ed and Al discuss Al's form and his life on the stairs of the hotel. Al explains that, all other things being equal, he really would be all right staying in this body. Anyone can die at any time, after all, and there's plenty of people who aren't human who are still people.

But he still wants his body back, because he can't stand the nights alone. His kindness and his (currently transforming) dependence are both ways he connects to other people. He cares about people, friendship, companions, relationships, a lot. And he is cut off from them as long as he spends his nights alone. Like he tells Scar, there's a lot about that body that's not great. This, added to the fact that his body is waiting for him (they theorize, at this point), means that he does still want his body back.

Al's renewed desire to get his body back is also linked to the same thing that allowed Ed to start seeing the truth about the Truth. The knowledge that they didn't bring their mother back only to suffer and die frees both of them to hope in a way they hadn't before. And it's made more intense by his knowledge that his body still exists somewhere, and therefore they won't have to completely rewrite nature to get it back. He isn't dead, and it turns out he never was. This is, to say the least, liberating.

Al also firmly establishes the basis of his no-longer-dependent relationship with his brother. Again and again, Ed has insisted that he'll get Al his body back. Ed considered himself wholly responsible for that loss. Al explicitly rejects that here, insisting that they are both responsible. It's an important assertion of independence and borderline adulthood from Al. A running theme in the relationships in FMA is that, while you often don't get to choose the people who are important to you (your family, mainly), you can choose what form that relationship will take, and when the terms aren't working anymore you can move them. If the other person cares about you, not just how they feel about you, then they will work with you to do that.

At one point in the manga, as Ed and Al consider what they can sacrifice to get Al's body back. Ed clearly considers giving up his left arm to see if that would work, and Al straight up says that is not all right. They promised each other to get both of their bodies back. In these scenes, Ed and Al re-form their relationship, agreeing on their past and laying out a new path for their future.

Like Al tells Scar, he doesn't hate or reject that body anymore. It was the best possible option, it was the only way he survived, and he is grateful to his brother for it. He doesn't want Scar's pity. His body isn't a punishment, and it isn't a sign of his dependence on his brother. It's a sign of hope, of the possibilities of alchemy and of the future.

Yet, all of Al's growing independence is thrown into chaos when he faces the possibility of losing Ed. At that point, Al gives up (just like Ed did when Scar cornered him, and will do again soon when Envy swallows him; just like Ling will do in Gluttony's stomach; just like Hawkeye did when she thought Mustang was dead). Just as he is now capable of forming stronger relationships, so too he is more vulnerable to being hurt by the threat of those relationships ending.

But, when Gluttony gives him a shred of hope, and Al grabs it and goes with it. Ed wouldn't give up on him, so he won't give up on Ed. Al draws his strength directly from his brother's and from their bond, fans the flames of that hope, and it takes him all the way to the center of everything.

Woven in amongst all this, and important for the future, is that Al picked up Xiao Mei. This is inherently ridiculous. A stray animal that wants to bite everything? While they're trying to draw out some of the most dangerous individuals in the world? But Al sees a small, lonely creature, and he has to take care of her.

Episodes 28-41 Only Alphonse Elric

Wrath's manipulations result in everyone laying low for a while, including Al. Al falls back into the old pattern of following his brother around. However, he also has a growing connection to Xing, based on Xiao Mei and Mei herself. This relationship is uniquely shaped by both Al's personality and his armor.

Al's armor and his intense desire to protect everyone--even strangers--is what allows him to sneak an injured Mei out from Father's lair. Scar couldn't have done it, Ed couldn't have done it. But Al is large enough, with enough space for a small girl to hide, that he manages to reverse what happened before when Bradley murdered a woman inside him. And only Alphonse Elric could be such a sweetheart, as a disembodied soul in a suit of armor, that a little girl would fall madly in love with him (and it's worth noting that Mei Chang makes no distinction between him in or out of the armor, fantasizing about an imagined handsome version of him while also hugging the armor).

That connection to Mei Chang is also what helps them get Winry out of her hostage situation, as well as enabling their meeting and alliance with Scar and Marcoh. The fact that Mei, on seeing him, immediately runs to him, is because of Al being himself. If Al hadn't picked up Xiao Mei, she would have either hidden or found her way back to Mei on her own. If Al hadn't been the type of person to hide a little girl inside his armor, and if he hadn't had the armor to hide her in, she would have probably died in Father's lair at the hands of a homonculus. If Al hadn't been his sweet kind self, he wouldn't have come across as so dreamy that a little girl fell madly in love with him--and if she hadn't done that, they may never have found Mei, Marcoh, or Scar in the north.

Al also draws on how well he and his brother know one another, the strength of the new equal relationship they have formed, to coordinate their escape from Kimblee and his agents. Al knows exactly what Ed isn't saying when he pretends to Winry that Kimblee beat him. He doesn't even consider the chance of being mistaken. And, of course, Al's armored body is again essential as Winry uses it to escape Kimblee.

Episodes 42-47 Relationships

This is the section in which Al's independence from his brother allows him to begin to form real, reciprocal relationships. This begins when Al goes out in the middle of a blizzard--death for anyone else--to keep Winry, Scar, Mei, Marcoh, Yuki, and the chimeras from returning to Briggs. If there was no one like Al, it would have been a catastrophe. But finding him in the snow diverted them and kept everything from exploding.

Al's connection to Mei Chang grows stronger here, as he seeks to learn alchistry from her and, together, they and Marcoh defeat gluttony. They are no longer on opposite sides or saving one another, they are fighting together and stronger for it.

Then Al meets his father. Where Ed was immediately confrontational--and Hohenheim was emotionally raw and in a bad place--Al immediately sets different terms by calling Hohenheim, 'Dad.' Al falls back on his kindness and hope here, reaching out to his estranged father, which again leads directly to an important new ally. Al's openness, contrasting with Ed's closed fury earlier, is all the more valuable to Hohenheim, who comes completely clean with Al.

For those keeping count, Al's kindness and protectiveness is now responsible for bringing Ling, Mei Chang/Scar/Marcoh, and Hohenheim into the loose alliance against Father, not to mention saving Hawkeye's life back in the day, and without her Mustang would have died. Without Al and his particular way of interacting with people and building relationships, the whole thing would have fallen apart.

Episodes 48-64 Full Circle

Al's relationship with his father, their mutual trust, also leads to them successfully tricking Pride. Al here leans on his armored form again, using it as an advantage in the fight. He draws on his hopefulness and his trust in his friends to remain calm and comfortable, despite being locked up alone in the dark with a monster. Though this plan ultimately fails, it does keep Pride out of the fight until the very end, and results in Kimblee never being directly involved in the Promised Day. Either Pride or Kimblee being involve more would certainly have raised the death toll, and possibly led to ruin.

It would have been nice if Al could have restrained Pride--there would have been no way to send Mustang through a portal--but Al's kind instincts work against him. He still sees Selim as a child first and a homonculus second, and so he dismisses it when Selim "plays" with his helmet. Thus, he is utterly unprepared for Kimblee's attack.

However, this actually results in another step forward in Al's character development. Al does what was previously unthinkable and uses a philosopher's stone. It's not because there's no other choice. It's because, as the lion chimera puts it, the people in the stone deserve a chance to fight too. It's a powerful declaration of the humanity of those who, like Al, have no body. Suits of armor and souls in stones--they're all still people. This also foreshadows Hohenheim's plot to foil Father nicely.

Al then sits out the Promised Day until Father draws him through the gateway. At that point, he again does the unthinkable and chooses not to return to his body. It's everything he has wanted for years, and he doesn't do it because he wants to protect his friends, to fight alongside them, more than he wants anything for himself. Yet, his hopefulness is still present: he promises his body he will return. He isn't giving up. And it's a good thing he made that choice, or Mei Chang would have died in the blast.

Al has now come full circle in his relationship with his brother. When this was all beginning and Scar attacked them, Al's body was partially destroyed and he couldn't move. That happens again here, as a result of Father's blast. Ed now has no right arm, again, meaning he can't perform alchemy. And so Al can only watch helplessly as death bears down on his brother.

But while Al was once dependent on begging Ed to run, he is now powerful in his own right, with the ability to set the terms of relationships himself. He takes the sign of his brother's love and sacrifice, and of his own fragile existence and its dependence on his brother, and he reverses it.

Where before he drew hope from his brother, now he gives hope to his brother, telling Ed to keep going, keep fighting. And so, while Al once again ends this scene lying on the ground (just as after the scene with Scar), now he is once again sitting on the ground, too weak to stand. But he's in his own body, in Truth's realm. And rather than being furious with his brother, he is now full of hop. Ed is going to come get him. It's not even a question. Their relationship is that strong.