Omega

Yeah, he was abused. So what? It doesn’t excuse what he’s done. He’s murdered more than a classrooms worth of innocents, has admitted to originally wanting to kill his little brother just to spit his father, stood by filming Twice dying rather than actually try and stop Hawks, doesn’t care at what his video will do to his siblings or mother, and has gone beyond the pale in terms of heinousness. Being abused doesn’t justify becoming a monster, especially when Shoto suffered abuse too and didn’t become one. His actions are his own fault, not Enji’s.

Enji was a piece of shit human being before, but continuing to treat him like a monster despite trying to atone while whitewashing Dabi? No. Just no. I don’t care if you think abusers are always abusers due to personal experiences, you don’t project your own life onto a fictional character, and I am speaking as someone who suffered abuse too. You don’t have to like Enji or excuse his actions, but do not defend the literal serial killer and condemn the former abuser because of your own issues.

This is Horikoshi’s story to tell, and right now, it’s not him vilifying a victim and whitewashing an abuser, it’s him showing that one’s past doesn’t define a person, if their present actions that do, and what it shows is that Dabi/Toya chose to become a monster, and that Endeavor/Enji chose to change even if he never is forgiven for his sins. You don’t have to like it, but if you’re gonna try and justify a serial killer while saying the man actually trying to do good needs to die, then all I can say is: y’all need to chill.

So.... remember how I said I wasn’t gonna roll for Prillya so I could instead wait for Sitonai, the true Illya? Well, I rolled the Prillya banner so I could get some of the CE’s.... and I got Prillya. Yep. And I just played her interlude, and surprisingly.....

It was actually pretty alright. Most of Minase’s trademark pedoshit was absent from it, and the story is more about Illya feeling she isn’t strong enough for her master. The story doesn’t frame it as her overreacting, nor does it claim she is weak. Plus, we get some nice cameos from not only Taiga as Jaguar Warrior and Kid Gil highlighting how he’s different from both his Prillya version and his adult version, Chloe actually acts decent for once, more focused on being a teasing sister to Illya, and we even get Orion not being a perverted Teddy bear and giving genuine advice.

That being said though, there were still some gripes I had.

* The perverted stick that is Ruby refuses to shut up and continued to be annoying.

* The first node involves facing three of the enemies from the Prillya event (I think, I haven’t played it yet), meaning once more Diarmuid is forced to be in a group he doesn’t belong in along with Blackbeard, Gilles de Rais, and the Phantom of the Opera. That being said, the interlude does frame it as something to never be spoken of again, so even they want nothing to do with that event anymore.

* While Orion isn’t a perverted Teddy Bear this time, Artemis is still an abusive bimbo to him, so that’s a minus on its own.

* The Gorgon sisters return, and its mainly the twins picking on Medusa, even repeatedly spanking her to relieve boredom. As someone who loves Medusa, being forced to see this made me want to throttle Stheno, and revoke Euryale’s Asterios privileges until she wised up.

Remember people. If there is ever a design in FGO you don’t like, just blame Takeuchi.

Even if he didn’t draw it, he still has final say in what designs make it into the game, and can easily override a decision design wise.

He’s the reason Ushiwakamaru is nearly naked.

He’s the reason Nitocris is wearing less normally than her Summer outfit.

He’s the reason Boudica’s first Ascension looks like it came out of a hentai.

And remember most of all, he allowed Minase’s character designs to get in, including Chloe and Wu Zetian.

This man is the cause of most design related issues.

I hate the Lion King. I’m not gonna mince it, I absolutely prefer Lartoria to the Lion King. I hear people praise the Lion King for being a complex and interesting villain that helped make the Camelot chapter great. I heavily disagree. She was the epitome of everything wrong with Artoria’s rule of Camelot. She is now a divine spirit and almost entirely emotionally detached, any compassion she demonstrates is more condescending outside of Agravain and Lancelot, she’ll execute anyone who refuses to obey her, the Gifts she gave her knights were insurance policies at best or slowly killing them like Mordred at worst, and she is ultimately a horrible person. Character flaws make a character interesting, but the Lion King is bland, nothing but flawed, and frankly overhyped.

Camelot was ultimately interesting to me because of everyone else. The Hassans, mainly Cursed Arm, Bedivere, Sanzang, Arash, Lancelot, Agravain, Mash, even Gawain. But the Lion King and everything she touched just irritated me. Mordred was a shadow of herself, basically amounting to the Lion King’s toadie and fangirl. Tristan was turned into a monster thanks to his gift. And the Lion King as stated previously was just so damn bland.

Admittedly towards the end she doesn’t seem as bland, but that’s because she isn’t the Lion King at that point anymore. The spear was destroyed, the tower collapsing, and the effects it had on her were wearing off. She was effectively losing her divinity and becoming similar to Lartoria. Notice how it was Lartoria who showed up at the Temple of Time with Bedivere to fight the Demon Pillars rather than the Lion King returning.

Lartoria I see everyone call a walking boob joke, but I find her more interesting than the Lion King. She is an Artoria who never discarded Rhongomyniad in favor of Excalibur. She has some divinity, but she’s still human. She feels immense guilt for the actions of the Lion King, even though they aren’t the same person, and is hesitant to form an attachment with the master since she feels as a being of Divine power, she need hold no attachments. However, in comes Rhomulus, Fionn, Gilgamesh, and Ozymandias, all forcing her to acknowledge her true feelings and finally open her heart. She may be divine, but she is not the Lion King, and she has a right to be close to her master. She has what the Lion King doesn’t: She has humanity. 

The Lion King was ultimately no longer Artoria. She was the will of Rhongomyniad using Artoria’s body, and she only came close to being Artoria after the spear was destroyed. Lartoria meanwhile is actually Artoria. She has connections with her Knights, is able to form a connection with her master, still gets flustered and even has a love for actual lions, one of her Bond Lines even having her state she loves that her helmet has a lion design.

Lartoria succeeds where the Lion King fails, she has flaws, but she also has positives. She has divinity, but she retains her humanity. She feels like a person, an actual character, whereas the Lion King feels like a robot.

While I’m happy to see that the 02 kids are coming back, I’m a little concerned at the fact so far their is no indication of anything from tri. Namely, Meiko is still absent.

Look, I get it, not everyone was a fan of tri. and Meiko is a rather divisive character. But remember how tri. ignored the 02 kids and everyone got pissed off despite before then the 02 kids being just as divisive? The same thing will happen if Meiko doesn’t at least cameo. I get she doesn’t have a partner anymore, but she is still of Digidestined, and could easily appear. Location isn’t an excuse considering Mimi used to live in America and Ken lives in another city and yet they could appear. And even after Juri lost Leomon in Tamers she wasn’t ignored by her friends.

It also doesn’t help that tri. left a lot of lingering plot threads open when it ended. Such as:

* How did Wizardmon actually manage to lend a hand. If the story about the reboot was correct, which was already suspect since Alphamon and Jesmon were exempt from it, even the Digimon that died in the human world like Wizardmon, Leomon, and even freaking Myotismon, should have been reborn with the Reboot, albeit without their memories. And while Meicoomon internalized the memories of the partners, she didn’t have every Digimon’s memories, and yet Wizardmon still appeared despite him logically having no memories.

* What is the Mysterious Man after? He claimed to be Gennai and even took his form, yet Gennai was seen with the comatose 02 kids in a capsule, and after Meicoomon died, he claimed Apocalymon’s data for himself and went off to go get Daemon and Diaboromon’s data. Why is he after the data of the Big Bad’s? Just who is he?

* What happened to Maki? Last Maki Himekawa was seen, she was drowning in despair after Tapirmon didn’t remember her, and somehow landed herself in the Dark Ocean, shortly before she was surrounded by Hangyomon. For those who don’t recall, the Dark Ocean was initially an almost lovecraftian location, and the Hangyomon, while looking like Divermon without their gear, were actually these shadowy entities that served the Cthulu-esque Dagomon and wanted to make Hikari their queen, but relented after she was saved, promising to return. They never did since the writer, Chiaki Konaka, had some creative differences with the other writers and Bandai, leaving until he came back to do Tamers. While the Dark Ocean would be featured several more times, it would simply be their color muted world where Digidestined are dragged into if they risk falling into darkness, the only other significant parts it played being that Ken soaking his Digivice in its waters made it the Black D3, and that it was the place Daemon was ultimately trapped in. Yet the Hangyomon actually return and surround Maki, and considering she was effectively the Hikari of her team, what became her fate? Did the Hangyomon kill her? Did they take her back to Dagomon and make her their queen as they intended for Hikari?

I get where a lot of people are coming from in regards to this but, I actually like Boudica. Yeah, I get people aren’t necessarily fond of her design or how she isn’t this wrathful Avenger servant constantly out for Nero’s head, but the design I can look past if I like the character, and Boudica has made it clear herself that she is ultimately just repressing her feelings for the sake of starting over. The Garden of Order event and the Current Ishtar event highlight that beneath her caring exterior, she is deeply hurt by what she suffered, and she should be, her entire legend is founded on her leading a massive revenge attack on Rome for what they did to her country and daughters. Its just that it isn’t at the forefront of her character.

Do I think she’s perfect? Oh hell no, her first ascension is out of a hentai and her second one is damage control, and her first Interlude is horrible for how much it tries to fetishize her fighting goblins. But I sometimes feel the hate can get a little overblown.

I bring this up cause of the current event: The Dead Heat Summer Race, where Boudica appears as the boss of the 2nd round much like Atalante did in the 1st. She becomes an Avenger and gets into a massive race with Nero and Salter, even willing to end her own life so long as she gets the chance to kill Nero. Nero meanwhile, screwball that she is, is just enjoying the whole thing much to Boudica’s frustration since she wants to make Nero suffer, even feeling betrayed that Salter, a fellow Brit, would be with her. She almost dies after she drives her chariot off the edge of the Volcano, only for Nero and Salter to save her and pull her up. 

I see a lot of people up in arms over Nero apparently being shilled again while Boudica suddenly likes her. Except I don’t see it that way. Her final words before she almost fell in to the Volcano was her resigned to her fate, that she failed to break Nero’s spirit, and even after being saved, she doesn’t address Nero, she addresses Salter. She asks her why is it that Salter, a child of Britannia and King of Britain can work with a Roman Emperor. And Salter’s simplistic comment about being a maid resonates with Boudica. Cause she is the Heroic Spirit, not the living Queen. Hatred may make up her legend, but it doesn’t need to be her sole reason for living. She can keep that hatred, but she doesn’t need to let it dominate her. She doesn’t forgive Nero, she never even says she likes Nero as she’s fading away. She simply reaffirms what she has done since coming to Chaldea, and thats not letting her legend rule her new life.

I actually liked this scene because it showed the anger and resentment from her life is still there, and unlike Septem where she basically said its all water under the bridge, Boudica doesn’t push it under the rug, rather she just decides to not let it dominate her. She doesn’t say how great Nero is, she focuses more on Salter when she isn’t yelling at Nero.

When I see people saying Boudica should be expressing rage at Nero by just seeing her, I feel people want Boudica to be another Penthesilea. Penth’s Madness Enhancement makes it so that if Achilles so much as comes up in conversation, she flies off the handle and tries to kill him. Her Noble Phantasm is her forcing herself to see the enemy as Achilles. She knows her hatred is ultimately overblown and that Achilles didn’t mean to offend her with his comment, but she still despises him because her legend is explicitly based around her hatred of him. 

Thing that separates Penthesilea from Boudica though? One is governed by Madness Enhancement, and the other isn’t. And even the one governed by Madness Enhancement thinks her hatred is overblown but can’t do anything because of said ME. Boudica is who Penth would be without Madness Enhancement. The pain of her legend is still there, it just doesn’t dominate her.

So the Re;surrection movie has come and gone, and with it an Alternate Continuity has officially begun. With the confirmation that there will be more Code Geass works in the foreseeable future, this means there likely will be plot points from Re;surrection further address. However, with the knowledge that with this movie, Lelouch’s tale, and by proxy C.C.’s tale, is over for now, where do we go from here? Well, lets discuss where. SPOILERS for Re;surrection btw.

* A new contract: Lelouch has effectively become immortal like C.C. after being revived, and with it, as well as his way of declaring his love for her, he’s taken on a new name: L.L. And come the end of the movie, we see C.C. and L.L. offering a contract to a girl in a pile of corpses. It’s possible this girl, or another character introduced later, will become a contractor for L.L. and C.C., and they will be the new main character, following their journey as they use their Geass.

* A War of Geass: Yeah, so after Shalio died, Shamna ended up losing it and pretty much destroyed herself in C’s World, creating numerous “Geass Fragments” that descend from the sky. Said Fragments will probably hit random people and give them powerful, unstable Geass’, and it will be C.C. and L.L.’s job to track them down. The story will possibly follow one such user, or will follow the other characters like Suzaku or Kallen as they are forced once again to be involved with Geass. The “War” I mention would likely be Geass users clashing against one another or causing mayhem with their powers. While Geass’ are all Psionic Powers, they can be pretty deadly. Lelouch’s is an example on its own, but you also have Rolo’s Absolute Suspension, Marrybell’s puppeteer, Bismarck’s Future Sight, Mao’s Mind Reading, and Shin’s Peace in Death, and you see that a single Geass can be trouble.

* The Skull: Yeah, the Skull that gave Shin Hyuga Shang a Geass still hasn’t been explained, nor has the manifestation of the Collective Unconsciousness’ statement to Leila that “Humans weren’t meant to have Geass”, so its possible that will be followed up.

* Other Code Bearers: If it wasn’t obvious enough, there are still numerous Code Bearers out there, and its kinda unclear where the Codes originated from. V.V. got his from a random bearer, C.C. got here’s from the Nun, and Shamna had one herself. Lelouch technically has a Code himself as well after being revived. But there is a lot about Codes, and Geass in general, that is unknown. V.V., the Nun, and Shamna had to get their Codes from somewhere, so maybe the origins of the Codes will be explored.

* The Zero Requiem Fails: Yeah, something else made clear is that, while the intentions were noble, the Zero Requiem still created a lot of issues, namely with War Mongering countries like Zilkhstan that profitted from War. And while Suzaku taking up the mantle of Zero was his means of Atonement and a good idea on paper, he still lacks the tactical knowledge the original Zero had, and as the movie demonstrated, could easily be captured and have his identity exposed. And since Peace is an overall fragile mistress, it only takes a single spark to light the powder keg that is the world. So something will happen that causes the Zero Requiem to fail.

According to Columbus’ Interlude, Blackbeard is simply putting on an act a lot of the time to make the master and other servants less suspicious of him, just as Columbus did during the Interlude, even being in a secret “villains group” alongside Columbus, Mephisto, and Moriarty. If he is really putting on an act, how much of his Otaku Lolicon behavior is legitimate, and how much is it his way of making everyone consider him a joke? 

If anything, he seems to exhibit more legitimate feelings towards Drake, with their bantering looking like the Belligerent Sexual Tension trope, and if the Grail provided him with information about the modern world, he’d possibly be aware of the rumor that his wife Mary Ormand married him at age 14, meaning he could pretend to be a lolicon under the basis his legend was technically one, and play off any behavior with Drake as him trolling her.