I have tags on this blog for Grail Romance and Arthurian Legend. And I have a tag for talking about the Fate/ franchise, the centerpiece of Type Moon’s Nasuverse. It’s surprising then that this is my first post with all three of those tags, since the Fate/ story is technically all about the Holy Grail and King Arthur. But I wanted to talk about other aspects of what I like about it first.
For people who want a summary of how the Holy Grail War works in Fate/, I recommend OtakuDaiKun’s lore videos on YouTube, though they will spoil the novels and shows if you haven’t seen them yet. The Lore of Fate/Stay Night Part 1: The First Four Grail Wars, and The Lore of Fate/Stay Night Part 2: The Fifth Grail War and Hollow Ataraxia.
Needless to say, at face value it seems like a pretty loose take. And it might seem outright hypocritical for me to express annoyance at how unresearched Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade seemed, and then call Fate/ the best modern take on Grail Lore and Arthurian Legend.
For one thing, as I’ve noted elsewhere, the original Grail Romances were connected to Arthur merely as a framing device. So to someone in the know Arthur seeking the Grail herself is almost as shocking as Arthur being a Woman. Meanwhile it seems like Perceval has still never become a summonable servant, even in Grand Order which seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel.
First from a continuity standpoint, it seems unclear to me whether or not the Grail being sought in these Grail Wars even is the same one sought in Arthur’s time (we know that Fate/'s Grail is explicitly not the Cup from the Last Supper). Meanwhile Artoria is currently seeking the Grail because of how her reign ended in tragedy.
Conceptually however, I feel like Illyasviel and Irisviel von Einzbern sort of play the role of the Grail Maiden, a role often forgotten in modern takes on Grail lore.
There is no denying that the people at Type Moon did their research far more than Lucas and Spielberg did for their movie. Everything different in the Nasuverse is a conscious decision, not a result of ignorance.
The themes of Grail Lore are echoed in Fate/ far more than in The Last Crusade. Fate/Stay Night is about Shirou’s Hero’s Journey, Lucas told his Hero’s Journey story in Star Wars, Indiana Jones is about someone whose origin story in well in the past, and not really much of a Hero anyway.
I know one blog online that is particularly interested in fiction about King Arthur’s Children. He might enjoy Fate/Apocrypha, where it turns out Mordred is also female, or at least assigned female at birth, how they identify gets a little confusing. The one backstory flashback Mordred has had so far (in episode 6) was pretty interesting.
My knowledge of Grand Order is still very limited. I’ve watched a little bit of Live Stream footage of it. I’ll be watching the First Order OVA when it’s Dub drops in late October. As I already mentioned Percival doesn’t seem to be included yet, but Galahad is, and is apparently fairly important.
Another reason why I think it’s best to start with Fate/Zero is that it explains right in the first episode that this Grail was not the Cup at the Last Supper. This helps make the story less potentially offensive to Christians knowing this Grail has nothing to do with Jesus. And it fits to me on a meta level because the Grail was just a Christianization of a Pagan concept to start with, the mythical Cauldrons of Celtic Mythology.
Thanks to Grand Order however, three Biblical Figures are summonable Heroic Spirits now.
David is an Archer Class Servant, which is a decision I agree with, if throwing swords at people through the Magical gateway to your infinite Treasure house can qualify as being an Archer, then certainly using a Slingshot can, since I grew up with Ocarina of Time where the Slingshot and Bow are treated as counterparts.
Solomon is a Caster, largely because they’re going off Kabbalistic and Masonic lore about King Solomon controlling Shedim. I would have made Solomon a Rider because of his Chariot mentioned in the Song of Solomon. It’d be funny to me if eventually the game has Salmoneus as a separate servant.
Martha, the sister of Mary of Bethany, is summonable as well. But the myth this Heroic Spirit is based on isn’t anything Biblical but about her traditional activities in Southern France according to the Golden Legend. (I added a reference to this tradition about Martha to my Apostles of Ephesus post because I’d read up on it after watching a Grand Order livestream).
If they ever add Joshua, I would make him a Lancer based on Joshua 8:18-26 (Psalm 35:3 is also interesting here). Though I suspect they’d want to base Joshua’s Noble Phantasm more on the Fall of Jericho.
Characters known mostly for their Brawn tend to become Berserkers, which wouldn’t be a good sign for Samson.
Well I’ve technically rambled off topic now. So I hope my observations proved enlightening.
No comments:
Post a Comment