Howdy! So I got a lot of inspiration last night for a potential Kiara fic that I wanna start outlining. I remember you offered any materials that may be helpful, and I could use your expertise specifically on Kiara's golden "realm" that we face her in after ascending to her Demon form. It appears in the SERAPH event in FGO as well
I may have misread something or am forgetting things, but I can't quite figure out what it's supposed to be or represent. It's the core of the Moon Cell or a part of her authority, possibly? I could be missing something
I really appreciate you friend, and I look forward to sharing it with you once I have a rough draft ready!
Ooh, of course!
So on the most basic level, canonically, according to her Materials, the thing you see in SERAPH is the result of falling victim to her Charm: it transports you, mentally, to that sort of heavenly paradise, and the change in background is supposed to be a representation of what you see when you’re dazzled by the experience.
That background itself is based on the setting for her boss fight in CCC, and it uses iconography related to her and her ascension, hence the presence of the Moon Cell in the sky—though if you wanted to, you could probably argue it’s a reflection of the origin of SE.RA.PH.’s digitized space structure coming from her at the moment she was fused with the Moon Cell.
Thematically it’s a reference to the idea of a Pure Land, essentially a plane of greater perfections that you can be reborn into through some combination of faith, merit, and practice, based on the denomination. The idea being, you’ve been transported to her kind of Pure Land, a Pleasure Heaven that revolves around herself.
That in turn is related to a lot of the language used to describe the consequence of being absorbed by her, whether through the Ten Thousand Colored Stagnation (in its codecast or Noble Phantasm form) or Amitābha Amidala. It’s typically described as a sort of transmigration into the realm of her body, or something that seems that way for the moment of bliss you experience before you’re gone. It’s unclear in different original CCC sources whether her body is in fact meant to be essentially its own plane of reality, but by the time of FGO Nasu seems to have decided that would be cool, and the descriptive material for her FGO Noble Phantasm makes that more explicit.
I think there’s plenty of room to extend beyond that within the bounds of theme and lore, but if you’re just talking canon, that’s what I’ve got for you. Hope that helps!
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Starting to put together the new Kiara information I got, there's a lot of new info that kinda conflicts with what I have believed, and some stuff that comes down to translation, IMO.
CW: talking about abuse and CSA. Also suicide.
Off the top of my head: There's very little reference to Kiara experiencing abuse, and particularly sexual abuse, during her childhood. Besides the neglect of people giving lip service but not treating her--the exception being that her father clearly had some fucked up and inappropriate feelings toward her that he seemed not to realize until the end. My impression is that the Eiten-ryu village was a somewhat normal community before she turned it into a living Hell.
This is a departure from its depictions in FGO and even in the CCC manga as a cesspool of human evil where the worst impulses of humanity gathered at her bedside. Interesting to see--perhaps a change in direction over time?
Accompanying this, we've got more on the nature vs. nurture front. I've always understood her to be somebody born with all the qualities and capabilities expected of a bodhisattva
In her SG profile, she mentions reading as one of her favorite activities, especially "recently," presumably now that she's in the moon cell and with Hans as her servant. This is interesting--it's been mentioned in the past she sort of forgot about fairy tales, so did he re-kindle her interest? Could it be that she's just interested in fairy tales, now? Much to consider here. Previously, I had come to the conclusion that she would not have read or consumed much media due to the description in FGO's A Dream from the Cradle CE that she gave up on the words of others. Someone who sees people as insects, insensate creatures, wouldn't be interested in their words, right? But perhaps she would--after all, she's described as addicted to human lives despite viewing them as trash.
Speaking of which, we've gotten in other media, especially by the time in FGO, descriptions of her attitude toward people, and how she uses them up. It seemed in FGO that she would mess with and stimulate people to get a kick out of them and see the depth of their desires and depravity, but then lose interest when it got stale, leading them to kill themselves. However, in the section that covers her past in CCC, it says that she orgasms when she crushes their lives. That's interesting to me. The concept of people with interesting internal lives as more delicious sexual food for her to enjoy in a consumptive way by ruining them gels with the implied storyline of her FGO bond lines. Very interesting.
Her perspective on love! Koi, and its relation to ai! Previously I thought she had just never really considered koi. But apparently she has considered it and thinks it's irrelevant to her and a bad thing! Will have to dig more into this. Does she think it's a bad thing because to her, "evil" means "something that isn't pleasing to Sessyoin Kiara?"
Speaking of which, her attitude toward good and evil was made a lot more clear here--good is what she likes, what pleases her. Evil is what she doesn't. IIRC during her pre-battle conversation in SERAPH she says something to the effect that humans generally take this perspective, and I've had this as a pillar of her perspective for a while. But it's even more clear, and we got some nuances. Will have to probe into those!
As far as her attitude toward mainstream buddhism, I got some interesting info here. Previously, I had come to the understanding that she essentially views traditional buddhist views as a mistake. Now, I'm not entirely sure. There was a lot of "no, but virtue means this [heinous and terrifying thing], right?" that is wholly earnest. And seeing people that she takes no interest in as "Evil"--boring, flavorless priests who have cleansed themselves of desires--wouldn't she just directly see them as evil because of that perspective, rather than an opinion on the doctrinal difference? On the other hand, she went out of her way to break the Eiten-ryu precepts, and she does have some lines that really show a disdain for concepts like no-inherent-self (even if I think the translation kinda butchered it). It's hard to call. Much to look into
And finally, of the things that stood out most to me, is her general attitude and bearing. Her plan is deeply calculated, that much is for sure, but it was hard to get a reading on her, like... level of self-awareness. It sort of seemed like she had a naive and simplistic quality to her deeply twisted worldview, in keeping with the Materials profile that describes her as being like a hungry ghost, thinking unwaveringly that everything she believes is right. Elsewhere, especially in an event like Ooku, she seems to have a wider view surrounding what comes across as a complex and considered but extremely dark perspective on things. She feels... not less intelligent, here, but perhaps less wise. Will have to think on it more.
I'm worried that change in attitude might come down to the translation. I did notice, for example, that the translation for her voice lines for Daizushichi: yakan-po were much more... airheaded and hedonist, possibly as a result of localization efforts, and that the line for Eitenry: Mindful Circumambulation seemed... expanded on? We'll see.
All in all, there's a daunting amount for me to dig into, and it's troublesome to have some of my understandings of her cast into doubt, but I've wanted some of this information translated for literally years and it's SO exciting to finally have all the material I need line up, and to have clarity on what has been presented as canon.
So if you haven't heard, the recent chapter of the FGO SERAPH manga has revealed more details about Kiara's cult in Emiya Alter's world. Not only did it include people in positions of power around the globe
it also seemed to function as an aid and relief organization, providing medical care and (presumably highly suspect) remote therapy.
(seriously, look at the guy in the chair. what Ten Thousand Colored Stagnation does to a mf)
And following from this, the tidbit that's really hitting the fate fan news cycle right now is that we've gotten more details about the situation where killing cultist Taiga caused EMIYA Alter to become who he is. Apparently, she received medical care from the cult for her son, and after he was saved she stayed on. And when EMIYA went to go eliminate Kiara, Taiga shot at him.
That's really sad and fucked up as is.
But I want to add another little tidbit here that might not be common knowledge.
At the beginning of CCC, she introduces herself as Taiga Fujimura, taking the spot of homeroom teacher before Shit Goes Down and everyone gets taken to the Far Side of the Moon.
Kiara... isn't this just a little tasteless??
That said, I do want to add a little disclaimer: CCC Kiara is most likely not the Kiara that Emiya Alter fought against. I'm having a hard time recalling which of my sources that was in, but I'll link it if I can find it.
