Attack On Titan: Hange Zoe

First of all, Hange has a huge fandom so you'll get flamed if you even remotely criticize her.

I dislike Hange, too. At first, I kinda liked her for her eccentricity but as time goes on, the "mad scientist" archetype gets boring when she became an annoying character with an unnecessary cruel side. For instance, her Titan experiments: I understand that she had to cut/stab them to experiment but instead of acknowledging it as a form of torture, she named them "Sawney" and "Beans". You know what, naming them doesn't make it cute. It would have grossed me out less if she HADN'T acted cute with them as if she'd so cared about them; it's hypocritical. She has a morbid fetish/obsession that is repulsive to me, such as, after Eren was beaten up by Levi in the courtroom, she eagerly asked him, "So how exactly does it hurt?" This isn't intellectual curiosity at all. When Eren's face was messed up after the transformation, she wanted to draw a picture of his face.

When she and Levi were torturing a guy in S3, she told him "I'm not asking you anything until after we get all your nails!" WTF? Looks like just wanted to get off on torture. Apparently he screamed louder when she did it than when Levi did it.

I also dislike Hange when she probed Eren when he was in jail as if he were up to something - it's dickish, considering that they all knew what Eren's going through. There are more than 1 occasion when Levi had to tell her to shut up because she's being a dick to someone.

And yet Hange's fans try to pass this scene as a "joke/humorous scene" - they must be trying to convince themselves that bullying is funny.

The scene made it crystal clear: Levi wouldn't jump in to defend Eren if she wasn't being an asshole.

Hange's fans:  "She's just asking out of curiosity".

Oh really? Sure, she's a curious person but that doesn't exclude her from being a cruel dick. She would have asked differently if it was pure curiosity. The manner AND the kind of questions she asked were more like, "Hey, you're up to something, aren't you?" attitude.

Even back when everybody just discovered Eren was a Titan, Erwin and Levi didn't show him that much distrust.

Hange's incompetent leadership post-Shiganshina:

Hange has a reputation of rubbing people the wrong way. Appointing her as the SC's Commander was Erwin's big mistake.
Also, I don't give a shit who appointed her. I judge leadership on an individual basis. Also, Erwin is someone who didn't think highly of his position; he thought "anyone can replace" him so of course he thought Hange could.
In a situation when 90% of the Survey Corps had died and only Levi and Hange were the remaining veterans, you can't exactly say you were the best choice when there was no competent person around. She hasn't demonstrated any intelligent battle tactics. In terms of intelligence, she pales in comparison to Armin.

How a person acts in a position of power speaks a lot about his/her personality.

• S1:  People hail her as a "genius scientist" but nothing she's done has impressed me. Her experiment with Titans didn't even have a "control group" - how the fuck do you even accept or reject the null hypothesis when there's no standard to compare to?! Also, she's been in the SC for 20 years and this is the first time she thought of cutting a Titan's nape open and experimenting with sunlight?!
• S3P1:  She isn't smart strategically, either. Her carelessness caused Pastor Nick's death. When Hange said "it's my fault that he died," Levi's response was a long silence - his expression told you, "of course".  You had an important witness but all you did was put him in a faraway place without guarding him. 
• Hange also said, after being in the Survey Corps for 20 years, that "I didn't I think that the MP would go to this extent [of killing Pastor Nick]". She was naive, stupid even. 
• She's terrible at "reading" people. For instance, at the end of S2 when Erwin said, "My father had a theory...", Levi immediately realized that that was the reason Erwin joined the SC while Hange was like, "huh?" She didn't have a clue!
• Another instance of her failing to "read" people:  mocks Eren when he's in jail and does it again 4 years later. 
• She insulted Shadis because of the real reason he had left the SC. Ok, how about herself? She's in the SC for Titan experiments. Hypocritical to judge someone else for his selfish motive while you're never even questioning yours!
• Season 4:  She struggles to understand the concept of "nations" - something that even 10-year-old kids understand the first time you explain to them. 
• It doesn't take a genius to AVOID making the rookie mistakes that Hange did: She allowed a foreign visitor who is drooling over their resources to discuss Paradis' internal affairs while keeping information from the public. 
• The only way Hange uses to resolve issue is by locking up people. Four Survey Corps beat Hange at logic in their small debate, lock them up. She makes enemies of her own soldiers. 
• She said that they'd need the Rumble but still locked Eren up (for 2 months, or longer if he didn't break out), failing to see that doing so would cause dissent among the populace. 
• Paradis is like a puppet in Kiyomi's and Zeke's hands - that wouldn't happen with any competent leader. 
• Hange herself admits in hindsight that her actions and inaction brought a civil war upon the land.
• "Erwin, why did you make me Commander?" Nah, I still don't have sympathy for you. You should've turned down the offer 4 years ago, not when things have spiraled to the point of no return. Not doing so demonstrates a lack of foresight and self-awareness.
• People say, "but she tried her best". I'm not sure if they want to use that argument because if *this* is her "best" then imagine what her "average" is like.
• "But she has a lot on her plate". No shit, such is the role of every SC Commander. 
• You know you fail hard when the people prefer a crazy hobo over you.
• Her behaviors in front of foreigners have been embarrassing. For instance, she made a fool of herself many chapters ago when she and Levi "welcomed" foreigners to the island for the first time and continued making a fool of herself whenever the foreigners introduced something new to them. Even Levi who grew up in the Underground felt embarrassed by how she "represented" Paradis...
• She thinks cars can eat carrot. Even Levi who isn't a scientist can tell that you can't feed food to a lump of iron. How can you expect a "leader" like this to "read" the enemies?!

A parallel between Kenshin Himura and Erwin Smith

Kenshin Himura, a former war-assassin who had killed and stolen so many lives, held a sense of deep regret and guilt, hence he thought nothing of his own life and disregarded the fact that his, too, is another human life. Because he had slain so many lives, he didn't even value his own and was more than ready to throw his life away in battles.

Here we see a parallel in Erwin Smith from Attack On Titan:

He was burdened by guilt for "leading soldiers into death", believed that everything he did was just for his personal search of truth, hence he did not value his own life - as apparent in his talk with Levi before the Shiganshina battle. He thought that his life was "expendable" and that anyone could replace him. He never realized his importance to the Wall Society's survival and that his talents and skills cannot be easily replicated.

However, Kenshin had a mentor/father figure who taught him the importance of valuing his own life, and he grew stronger from that. Erwin doesn't.

How to get into the Fate series

FATE is originally a visual novel (VN) and light novel (LN) series that has  been adapted into manga and anime.   

I suggest watching FATE anime series in this order:

1. Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (watch the 2014 TV series by Ufotable Studio, not the movie by Deen Studio): I suggest you start with this one to get familiar with the Fate world first.
2. Fate/Zero 
3. Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel (3 movies) 
4. Fate/Stay Night (2006):  the animation isn't good and the plot isn't faithful to canon. You can watch it or skip it, your choice.

After watching those first 3 series, then you can watch other Fate anime in whatever order you want. So far there are:

• Fate/Extra: Last Encore 
• Fate/Grand Order: First Order (movie)
• Fate/Grand Order: Babylonia - The Absolute Frontline Against Demonic Beasts (2019)
• Fate/Grand Order: Camelot (2021 movies)
• Today's Menu For the Emiya Family (spin-off)
• Lord El-Melloi Case Files
• Fate/Apocrypha
• Carnival Phantasm (parody)

Here is Fate/Zero Light Novel if you're interested in extra dialogues among the characters.

A timeline of how all the Fate projects relate to one another

There are also several other Fate series that have not been animated:

• Fate/Prototype (earliest script)
• Fate/Hollow Ataraxia
• Fate/Extra CCC
• Fate/Extella
• Fate/Grand Order (other Arcs)
• Fate/Unlimited Codes

Ufotable is the best studio for the FATE series

Having seen Fate/Apocrypha by A1 Studio, Fate/Extra by Shaft, Fate/Grand Order by Lay-duce, FGO Babylonia by Cloverworks, I conclude that all those studios did not adapt Fate nearly as well as Ufotable did.

I want Ufotable to animate ALL of Fate series - especially my favorite Arcs: Babylonia and Solomon!

Ufotable's quality animation is what brought me to, and kept me hooked on, the Fate series in the first place.

What other studios did better than Ufotable:  Shaft - for example - did a better job than Ufotable at delivering the chemistry between the 2 main leads in Fate/Extra and making Nero very likable.

Ufotable's artwork is superior to most other studios.  They make the characters' faces look very beautiful.  My only pet peeve with their artwork is how characters seem to lack noses (LOL).

Ufotable did a splendid job at showcasing each character's personality to the fullest.  Every moment delivers.  Every character gets their personality shine perfectly. I doubt that other studios would be able to deliver interesting characters like Gilgamesh, Iskandar and Archer as perfectly as Ufotable did.

Cloverworks' animation is very good but the artwork is lacking: there is a "same face syndrome" and the faces lack depth/shading and also look 5 years younger than how they should look. It's not comparable to Ufotable.

UFOTABLE's strength is not only animation and art but also at delivering epicness and emotional impact, such as:

1. eg1, summoning scene
2. eg2, Iskandar vs. Gilgamesh
3. eg3, Archer
4. the moment when Kiritsugu saved Shirou 
5. UBW ending scene

The only studio that I've seen that is equally good at delivering scenes is WIT Studio.

Ufotable + Fate = dream team!

The Charm of New York City

I interned and lived in NYC for 5 months and it was the best 5 months of my life. I'd go wandering the streets every evening after work and seeing where it would take me. It felt like adventures were waiting around every corner.

I stumbled upon all kinds of fascinating places, from obscure bookshops to thrift stores to tiny art galleries to amazing hole-in-the-wall restaurants I never managed to find again. I didn't have to plan ahead for weekends - I'd just walk, and experiences opened up. I got to see a huge cross-section of society that felt like all humanity represented in one place. I loved the disorganized coziness of Greenwich Village and how every building felt rich with history. I'd trek west through open avenues and hang by the piers, listening to the waves rush against the concrete; I'd watch the sunset over the Hudson River and feel at peace with the universe. I'd walk through the streets near midnight and see the city alive with lights and sound and life and distant skyscrapers with glowing windows hinting at the thousands of lives going on all around me. I'd get lost in Central Park as the evening darkened into night and left me wandering through fields of fireflies towards the far-off glimmer of civilization, and I never felt more alive.

I rode a train to Coney Island, gazing out the window as whole neighborhoods whizzed past. I felt the wild sea breeze against my skin and walked the beach beneath an overcast sky. I rode the ferry to Staten Island and got lost among streets of silent houses, braving the light rain until I found a bus shelter and got on a bus of people quietly chatting or dozing away in the afternoon lull.

I loved the subways with all their weird smells and assortments of people; the way that peak hour subways were packed tighter than I thought was physically possible and it almost felt like a daily hug. Off-peak, I watched empty stations zoom past like mysterious places from some fascinating dystopia, portals to yet more streets waiting to be explored. It felt like the whole world was out there, calling to me. All I had to do was go.

Favorite character: Merlin

Merlin from the Fate series has been made into funny meme and people who don't know much about him tend to reduce him to a "dickwizard", which drowns out all the good aspects that his character has to offer. Some fans think that he is an asshole and when asked why they think so, their reasons can be summarized as:

"He cannot empathize with people. He has, can, and will fuck with people just for his amusement. He planned Artoria's life from her birth to her death and his one only real regret is that he made a kingdom collapse along with her."

I totally do not see it this way. Hopefully, with the release of Babylonia anime, the perception of Merlin will improve within the community.

Regarding Arthur and the fall of Britain:

Uther Pendragon secured Merlin's assistance in winning Igraine's - the wife of Duke Cornwall - love at the price of leaving his child in Merlin's care. Merlin told Uther a prophecy about his child, who would become his appointed successor during their war-torn times. This child was Arthur, the King that succeeded Uther and received Excalibur from Merlin. Merlin arranged the advent of Arthur to the throne (the sword in the stone), the founding of Camelot, and guided Arthur to establish the Knights of the Round Table. His knights ventured forth completing fanciful adventures involving mythical creatures with supernatural happenings at every turn. The wise wizard guided and protected Arthur and his court by using his magic to wondrous effect. It was Merlin that brought about this golden age. For years, the world came to Camelot to learn from Arthur and Merlin alike. . . . However, this is where our tale turns sour. Merlin disappeared (he fled to Avalon to evade the witch who wanted to kill him). Seemingly as a result, Arthur and his knights fractured. Camelot was in disarray. An evil reared its ugly head. Mordred now challenged Arthur for the throne. Arthur's Court was in shambles, and when King Arthur needed Merlin the most, Merlin was nowhere to be found. Soon, a battle ensued and in the aftermath, Arthur was mortally wounded, Excalibur was lost, and Camelot has fallen. The reign of the great King Arthur has ended. Britain had been fractured and wars over the crown were plentiful.  

1. In Fate, Arthuria wanted to become a king of her own volition. When Merlin asked if she was sure about her decision to pull the sword from the stone, she did not hesitate. So, nobody forced her to be king. It's in her blood.
2. "A foolish man, who playfully meddled with the fate of a single girl" -- this is assuming that Arthuria would have been happy living as a normal woman, which I doubt she would. 
3. Arthuria wasn't the ideal King. This is the cold hard truth that Merlin realized too late into her kingship. She wanted to save only the people but not lead the country as a whole, which is evident through her wish to go back and change the past just to save "her people" regardless of how that would change world history. She failed to win the hearts of the people mostly because she believed that being King meant being a rigid/inflexible ruler. While the people needed a king, Arthuria's intention was to coddle the people, not to lead them.
4. The series is called "Fate" for a reason. 
5. Morgan le Fay played a big role in turning many important figures against Arthur; she's also the reason that Arthur died in the last battle because she stole Avalon. If there was someone to blame for the fall, it's Morgan. It's ridiculous how she gets a pass while Merlin gets all the blames.
6. Merlin can predict the future with his Mystic Eyes so he knew what would happen to Arthur. On the other hand, he also saw an alternative future where every Briton was enslaved and an age of darkness was ushered in. Britain was doomed from the start. The King of Britain would drive the Saxons out of their country but inevitably, the Saxons would overcome the Britons and ruled over Britain. The fall was delayed for at least a few decades by the ascent of Arthur to the throne.
7. Merlin did try to tell Arthur about the future that he saw. Remember that Merlin once tried to cue a talk about the future only to be dismissed by her stubbornness. As a demigod, Merlin's policy is to not be biased toward individuals but only be concerned with the fate of humanity as a whole. 
8. Merlin deeply regrets Arthur's fate to the point that he secludes himself in a tower out of guilt. For he who claims to not possess human emotions, this is a big deal.
9. Some people hate on Merlin for giving Arthuria a magic penis, oblivious to the fact that it was Arthuria who asked for it in order to have a child with Guinevere. She possessed both Excalibur and Avalon but didn't have any intention to become an immortal ruler and still needed an heir.

"性別を偽っての王宮生活は気苦労の連続であったろう。 なかでも困ったのが世継ぎの問題だが、マーリンの魔術で事なきを得られたそうだ" [ "It must be tough to live in a palace while disguising her gender. The greatest problem was probably producing an heir, but that was solved by Merlin through magecraft." ] ~ Fate/Material pages 63-64

From "Garden of Avalon" CD Novel:

> With a joyful smile on her face, she said, "Yes. I have faith that I'm doing well in that regard. Please watch me, Merlin. I can't say it will be soon, but I will definitely turn this island into a prosperous country. One that can even measure up to the utopia spoken of in the legends, Avalon." As if feeling happy from the bottom of her heart, she puffed out her chest in pride. 

> “—————————” It was at this moment that the mage realised his mistake. [...] If she continued on this path, she would face nothing but regrets.  "Avalon might be a little too grand. Even I have never been there before."

At this moment, Merlin realized that Artoria wouldn't be able to handle the fall of her kingdom. He constantly reminded her that Camelot would fall.

> "Arthur, no matter how hard you try, all must come to an end. Nothing lasts forever. Everything is constantly transforming into something new. Therefore, it isn't the future that you should be protecting." 

... to which she responded with: 

> "Jeez, what is it this time? You're being awfully talkative today." 

Regarding empathy/emotions:

1. While Merlin claims he isn't human, his actions prove that he is among the most humane, having a real sense of kindness that few other heroes possess. 
2. In Babylonia, everyone and their grandmother loves to bully Merlin but that doesn't change the fact that his heart is big enough to take all that crap upon himself while still continuing to help and guide them to victory, saving them as he's been doing since the beginning.
3. Merlin thinks that he's unable to understand emotions but he found enjoyment in human activities. "I love to see reveries of hope and joy". 
4. He sees people's stories through empathy and offers wisdom to whoever needs it.  "Go, Cath Palug, I’m fine here. With your freedom, you will play into something really beautiful."
5. When he saw the burdens that Arthuria was carrying, he realized that she would regret her kingship regardless of the outcome. In another instance, he sees through the truth of what's really troubling Ana about humans. 
6. In Garden of Avalon CD, Merlin muses on the irony that neither he nor Arthur understood love. Merlin might not understand what love is, but he seems to have a lot of love even when he doesn't realize it (eg, he seemed to have developed real bonds with Arthur, Guda et al, and found that he cared for them more than he thought).
7. "Go, Cath Palug, I’m fine here. With your freedom, you will play into something really beautiful."

Relation to humanity

1. In My Room Lines, Merlin says that "humans" are one of the things he likes. He doesn't like individual humans but loves the stories we create. He risks his life to save our ass in Babylonia, helps out in America and Camelot and has been supplying Chaldea with mana all this time.
2. Like Gilgamesh, Merlin does not like/care about individual humans. They both simply love the stories and the progress that humanity creates. That is a good thing, is it not? The difference between them is that Gilgamesh is more active in pushing humanity forward while "Merlin takes a laidback approach of letting humans handle their own business and only interferes when necessary. Merlin shall believe in the Master, the hope of human history; he shall lend his power to the utmost, and then he shall entertain himself relaxingly. Merlin's desire is to carve open a path for the protagonist's destiny, to watch him off as he walks towards the future, to gaze at that kind of "beautiful view".
3. Merlin is constantly learning about humans despite stating that he does not understand them. For example, he wants to try out Master-Servant relationships to experience them = he's learning to be human.

To me who has been a longtime fan of Disney's Merlin, Dumbledore and Gandalf, Fate's Merlin quickly caught my attention. I didn't like him at first because of his youthful design that is very different from the fairy-tale archetype. But, his presentation in Babylonia is absolutely delightful! His Room Lines are the definition of "cuteness". His stage play version came across adorable. Nothing fazes him in any situations. He's cool, tempered, wise and playful - like I imagined.  80% of Merlin already comes from already existed legends; Fate simply adds 20% to it. Reasons this character is one of my top favorites are the above plus the following:

• Merlin the Wise. He's a kind soul who's willing to impart his wisdom and magic teaching on anybody who asks for it. Look at how well he brought Arthur up! I love how he served as a Court Mage and a mentor for both Arthur and Gilgamesh. His leadership in Babylonia plays a huge part in the battle's success. Gilgamesh gives orders from the throne while Merlin leads the squad. Merlin never loses his calmness - he's staying calm to make sure that the Master of Chaldea feels assured that everything is okay.  
• THE Merlin. Merlin is accepted as one of the wisest, most powerful wizards of all time. But he has no interest in power-tripping or world domination. He mostly keeps to himself and occasionally interferes with human affairs to push humanity forward.
• Super chillax and funny. Merlin doesn't bother with formalities and treats people as equals from the get-go. His antics may bother some people but to me it's fun and lively. When I'm old, I wish I'd be as cool as him :D
• As powerful as he is, he is not embarrassed to ask others to protect him when necessary [ eg, when faced with Gorgon's Mystic Eye of Petrification, Merlin shouted out to his comrades, "Protect me, whatever it takes, defeeeeend meeeee." ] :D
• Strong sense of self-awareness. Merlin understands his own flaws more than most people understand themselves. 
• White magic. The first time I saw his Noble Phantasm "Garden of Avalon", I immediately knew that he's on the side of goodness. Flowers bloom around his feet when he walks. He can make flowers bloom in the darkest of places. Someone who possesses such pure, beautiful magic cannot be a bad person.
• "Generally, he is the Mage of Flowers who retorts at most things with a refreshing smile and a calm expression such as 'now, now.'” Overall, Merlin's personality makes it impossible not to like him.

Other criticisms of Merlin from other Fate fans include:  "Merlin came up with even weirder things than penis:

1. "Insists that you call him Big Brother Merlin (Merlin onii-san)"

• Okay, this is a criticism that I agree with. Merlin's character design looks very cool and I don't mind his young-looking face since Fate tends to make Servants young for the sake of appeal, but his voice sounds too young. I imagine that his voice should sound a bit warmer. They gave him the same voice as Proto Arthur, too, which I think is unnecessary =.=  Plus, the way he acts in the Babylonia stage play: telling the MC to call him "onii-san" + a teensy dance, which make me go - in the words of another fan: "This Merlin gives off the feel of a hooligan".. LOL!  Merlin isn't an "onii-san" in any sense. I don't mind deviating from the original myth, but this kind of change is out of place / awkward for his character and feels very fanservice-y.  The stage actor who played him is pretty good; his voice is warm and his Merlin is adorable but I don't think he's supposed to act like a teen, especially not an "onii-san".

1. "Trolled Quetzalcoatl so hard she got struck by divine punishment and lost half of her Divinity."

• Rebuttal:  Quetz had the possibility and reasons to turn her back on humanity; she could become an Avenger due to how her civilization had crumbled and abandoned her. While Quetz didn't agree with Tiamat's plan, she didn't want to protect Uruk, either. She chose to protect some people, get rid of others and repeat because she felt it's fun to mess with humans and their struggles. In the war against the almighty gods, Merlin was able to disarm a powerful goddess without a physical fight! 

1. "He doesn't use incantations because he bites his tongue while chanting". 

• Okay, this is one way that Fate nerfs Merlin because the series can't afford to have a too-powerful character, otherwise he would win every battle and the MCs would have nothing left to do. Same reason for him being stuck in the Tower and can't participate in the Solomon Arc finale.

1. "Lazy as fuck. Him: "Why need to use spells when you can just hit it with a sword?" (He fights like Gandalf, with Excalibur).

• This is actually something I really like about his character. Merlin is like Sun Wukong in this aspect: enjoying trolling people / making them do the work just because it's fun AND having the power to get away with it. The Mage of Mages doesn't bother with "trivial" stuff but when push comes to shove, he will always be one step ahead when possible.

"Only the sinless may pass."

Why would Merlin judge himself as a sinner, if by his whimsical nature, he does not sin? 
Why would Merlin, who carried out the future that he saw, feel any guilt over guiding the king down his path?

… Humanity is a strange thing.
Not all who are of its species are humane in their thinking, while many beings that humans shun and fear would be, in fact, the most humane of us all.

The most powerful speeches in anime history

"The protection of gods is no longer needed in the world of man. As proof, I built a fortress, and you all answered my call. I know now, with certainty, that it was no mistake. And now this final trial will test it, and us, to the utmost.
Now is the time to deny the primordial gods and begin the Age of Man! Mind yourselves, my elite warriors! This is the battle for true separation from the gods! Give your lives to me, the king! Pass on the glory that is Uruk to generations to come, to the last man!"
~ Gilgamesh's declaration to Uruk in Fate/Grand Order: Babylonia



"It's all meaningless. No matter what dreams or hopes you had... No matter how blessed of a life you've lived... It's all the same if you're shredded by rocks. Everyone will die someday. Does that mean that life is meaningless? Was there even any meaning in our being born? Would you say that of our fallen comrades? Their lives... were they meaningless? NO, THEY WEREN'T!  It's we who give meaning to our comrades' lives! The brave fallen! The anguished fallen! The ones who will remember them... are us, the living! We die here, trusting the living who follow to find meaning in our lives! That is the sole method in which we can rebel against this cruel world! MY SOLDIERS, RAGE! MY SOLDIERS, SCREAM! MY SOLDIERS, FIGHT!"
~ Erwin in Attack On Titan



"And there you go. You heard her, Iri. Our Heroic Spirit over there considers a battlefield to be better than hell. What a joke! A battlefield is Hell itself. There's no hope to be had on one. There is nothing but unspeakable despair. Just a soulless crime we call victory, paid for by the pain of the defeated. But humanity has never recognized this truth. And the reason is that, in every era, a dazzling hero has blinded the people with their legends and kept them from seeing the evil of bloodshed they bring. True human nature has not advanced a step beyond the Stone Age."
~ Kiritsugu Emiya in Fate/Zero



[ to be updated ]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Stone Ocean's ending

I absolutely detest this ending in which the universe is reset, thus effectively erased everything we know. All the characters in the previous Parts are replaced by alternate versions of themselves so they aren't the same characters that we know anymore. The timeline that we know is gone. Everyone IS dead and the result IS a fresh universe. This is the biggest defeat for the Joestars and their allies.

1/  You can say that "Jolyne is reborn as Irene" and "everyone from Parts 1-5 still exists as they are" but that is not the same characters that we know. This is NOT similar to the case of Dio where he just glued his head to Jonathan's body. This is a complete overwrite - an analogy is rewriting a hard disk in your computer = all your data got replaced by new data. Jolyne's group did not simply kill Pucci and be done with it; when Pucci dies, the universe is reset into a new universe where he doesn't exist. A universe where the course of events doesn't allow for Pucci's existence simply cannot be the same universe. Even IF the new timeline is 100% similar to the old one, it is still a different one. Not to mention that in this timeline, the characters have lived different lives with different relationships: 'Anasui' dating 'Jolyne', Jotaro being a good father, the gang not in prison, etc.

The Joestars are freed from Dio's curse and having completely new lives.
Also, for the Dio Curse to go away, there must be a substantial change to all events in time.
No Dio curse = no Part 3 = no friendships with Kakyoin, Polnareff, Avdol = no character development for Jotaro = Part 5 changes completely without Polnareff.

An analogy is if you created a clone of yourself before you died and the clone lived on, the clone is still NOT you. It is just a copy of you. It doesn't change the fact that YOU - the original version - had died.

2/  Memories and experiences are a large part of what makes you who you are. The character F.F. shows us that: when F.F. died, she was dead because her memories were destroyed. That's why it was important to Jolyne to keep her father's memory disc from fading away, because she knew that those memories were what made Jotaro Jotaro.

These new universe versions might have happy lives but they're strangers to us the readers. It's not a happy ending.

3/ There are other ways to free the Joestars from Dio's curse. For instance, I would like Part 6 if the author let Giorno show up and use his Gold Experience Requiem to PREVENT Pucci from resetting in the universe in the first place, then eliminate him. That would be a logical conclusion. (I'd also like Giorno to meet the other JoJos). Then Araki could have made the characters in the later Parts descendants of Jolyne or Giorno.

4/ Because of this kind of ending, I don't feel like I can enjoy the later Parts of JJBA as much because everything thereafter takes place in a different universe. Even though Part 7 is considered the best Part by many people, I'm really not a fan of it starting a new universe. I fell in love with the universe and the characters we already had, and it was special how everything was connected in one way or another. But now we leave it behind and move to new, different stories that frankly don't have the same weight.

Best fights in anime

• Conan and Akai vs. the Black Org. (Detective Conan)
• Iskandar vs. Gilgamesh (Fate/Zero)
• Levi vs. Beast Titan (Attack On Titan)
• Kakyoin vs. Death 13 (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
• Iggy vs. Pet Shop (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
• Doppio vs. Risotto (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
• Kenshin vs. Seta (Rurouni Kenshin)
• Archer vs. Assassin (Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel)
• 
  

Best anime duo

• Shinichi + Akai
• Reinhard + Kircheis
• Reinhard + Oberstein
• Reinhard + Hildegard
• Erwin + Levi
• Iskandar + Waver
• Integra + Alucard
• Giorno + Bucciarati
• Nero + Hakuno
• Weather + Anasui
• 
  

The saddest deaths in anime

1. Erwin Smith (Attack On Titan)
2. Tenmei Kakyoin (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
3. Solomon (Fate/Grand Order)
4. Iggy (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
5. Siegfried Kircheis (Legend of the Galactic Heroes)
6. Bruno Bucciarati (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
7. Caesar Zeppeli (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
8. The Black Moon Clan (Sailor Moon 1992)
9. Cath Palug (Fate/Grand Order)

[ to be updated ]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - my favorite Parts: Part 3 Stardust Crusaders

My favorite JJBA Part is Stardust Crusaders and here's why:

1. Part 3 introduces the concept of Stands and multiple Jobros.
2. The Stand battles in Parts 3 are excellent. I like the Stands that can only be defeated with tactics, such as: Death 13, Hanged Man, The Lovers, Tower of Grey, Pet Shop, Vanilla Ice,...  
3. Even the enemies' deaths are sometimes sad.
4. This Part has that epic road trip adventure where everybody was going for a purpose. It's refreshing to see different countries/landscapes and cultures. 
5. Amazing cast.  It felt like the Stardust Crusaders were my friends when I was watching them. I'd love to just chill with these guys. They all seem like such bros.
6. Incredible friendships - which is the theme of Part 3. Their interactions and comical scenes make them a lovable group. They started out as strangers but in their journey, they grew to become best friends and bros. They are an unstoppable force with an unbreakable bond.
7. Character development:  Kakyoin and Iggy overcoming their fears, Polnareff rising above his "sister issue", Jotaro learning of trusting people, Joseph's final closure vs. Dio,... Everyone finds their true friends on his journey. This part is just THE part, for me.
8. Araki has a unique way of writing characters' deaths. Unlike other shows where it's usually foreshadowed and characters have time to prepare, JJBA protagonists can drop at any point. It feels like every character is constantly putting their life on the line, and their deaths feel so real. 
9. The main villains and their Stands of both Parts are extremely entertaining! Dio, and Diavolo even more so. 
11. Epic Finale (except Star Platinum's asspull, of course).
12. The Stands are not as creative as the latter Parts but Part 3 sure as hell deserves to be the most popular Part in the series for how it changed the series for the better.
The opening songs "Stand Proud" and "End of The World" are my favorites. The visuals in these OPs are gorgeous; every frame is a piece of art.
13. The ending song "Last Train Home" hits me right in the feels because, for our heroes, there is no last train home.  
14. There's a really strong charm in Part 3 that any other Part can't capture. Stardust Crusaders will always be THE Part for me.
15. Last but not least:  Props to David Production for amazing adaptations of these Parts! 

My ranking:  3 > 5 > 6 > 2 > 1 > 4

PS:

1. Criticism for Part 3:  The author introduced many cool concepts of Stands but the executions weren't ideal. The methods in which the Crusaders beat those Stands should have been more creative than letting Jotaro and Polnareff handle most of them. Kakyoin and Avdol should have more screentime.

Best fictional names

In alphabetical order:

• Albus
• Alucard
• Diavolo (literal: devil)
• Dio (literal: god)
• Eren
• Erwin
• Gilgamesh
• Haibara
• Hildegard / Hilde
• Integra
• Merlin
• Shinichi
• Tenmei
• 
  

Favorite character: Tenmei Kakyoin

• Kakyoin's true first name is Tenmei, but Araki's editor misread and published it as "Noriaki". Araki still calls him "Tenmei".
• Kakyoin is kind and genuine. After his defeat by Jotaro in episode 2, Kakyoin retains a strong sense of responsibility even though everyone knows he had no control over it, even asking why Jotaro would save his life despite the cruel things he'd done while under Dio's control. And he teared up when hearing Jotaro's answer!  
• Kakyoin's motivation to join the Crusaders was a noble one: He wanted to protect the Joestars who were kind to him, to return the kindness that Jotaro showed him, even when he really didn't want to face Dio again, and to conquer his fear.
• Kakyoin is ruthless with his enemies but loyal and cares deeply for his friends. He is an absolutely brutal fighter because while the thing he despises most from an internal standpoint is weakness, he hates evil even more. He sees evil as those who manipulate and make people weak for their own gain, like DIO did. He despises manipulation and to him, that is evil.
• The smartest Crusader, the tactical mind, the sanity throughout the bizarre journey. Without him, they would have lost Polnareff early on, then got killed by Death 13 and would have never made it to Egypt. And even if they'd somehow made it, they would have lost to Dio.
• In every fight, he always thinks about the others before himself, eg, "how to save Jotaro," "how to let the others know", etc. In his 2nd encounter with Death 13, when he could die at any second, why did he carve letters into his arm? Because if Death 13 killed him, then Jotaro and co. would figure out who the enemy was from the clue he left them. Even in his final moment, all he thought about was how to figure out Dio's Stand so that the others would survive. He willed himself to destroy the clock to give the message because that's what best guys do.
• Kakyoin vs. Death 13 was an amazing battle of the mind. When you encountered an enemy that controlled your mind and made you think you were going crazy and even doubt yourself, how could you maintain your sanity and save everyone? Think about it: it's quite terrifying to almost die in your sleep then wake up remembering nothing about it.  In the end, only Kakyoin knew that Death 13 existed and had nearly killed all of them. The other Crusaders have forgotten about the baby Stand User but Kakyoin never cared about that; all that mattered to him was that they were safe.
• He's not only fighting for them but dying for them. At the moment he realized he had found "his people", he ended up dying for them. It's quite sad when only 3 of them managed to catch the Last Train Home. 
• Friendship with Jotaro:  Kakyoin was the only guy who could crack through Jotaro’s tough exterior and earn both his respect in battle and a friendship. Kakyoin despises submitting to people or sucking up to them. We know he didn't have any friends because he felt like a freak with his Stand. He probably wanted to goof off with everyone else but he never really learned how. Now he’s got the Crusaders who all know exactly what he is dealing with. Kakyoin thinks only a respectable individual can be his friend. The same goes for Jotaro.
• Kakyoin is the JoBro of Part 3 and should get more screentime than Polnareff. I think the reason that Kakyoin was absent for most of the Egypt Arc was because his Hierophant Green would make all the fights leading to Dio look like a joke: With a long range and an ability to morph, plus the tactical mind of its User, HG could defeat most of the 9 Egyptian gods easily. Ponareff's character arc was nice and concluded with the Judgement Arc, so the best thing to do would be to have him hospitalized instead of Kakyoin. The fact that Kakyoin's character is shaped by his isolation as a child could be explored really well if he was the one transformed into a child in the Alessi fight, and the Anubis episode could have allowed for more screentime with Jotaro. The exploration of their friendship is few and far between, but when it pops up, like against Steely Dan, it's amazing and it would be nice to get more of that. I'd also like to see more battles of wits like the Death 13 fight. Both Kakyoin and Jotaro catch some flak for having "weaker characterization" than Polnareff. But, flamboyance doesn't equate to interestingness in my book. I like Polnareff, but not enough to feel like he should have hogged the spotlight too much. Kakyoin is just a pretty neat and awesome character, even if Araki did not fully flesh him out.  All he needs is a bit more depth - like Bucciarati in Part 5. 
• Character growth.  Kakyoin proved to be a brave warrior throughout the trip, and was able to keep his nerves even in the direst situations such as having been punched through by The World. When he met Dio for the first time in his life, he was shaking in fear. But in his final stand, he was looking Dio straight in the eyes and challenging him. Kakyoin has accomplished his personal goal in this journey.
• I wish he had survived and reappeared in Parts 4, 5, 6.  Would love to see the adventures of Kakyoin and his Emerald Splash post-Dio, now that his world had opened up.
• His 2 theme songs are awesome:  
• Kakyoin's theme
• Kakyoin's theme 2

Who is a "JoBro"?

A JoBro is one who:

• is best friend of the main JoJo
• is (often) the first protagonist to fight JoJo
• takes on the main villain of that Part
• dies for JoJo

 and there can only be one JoBro in each Part.

Who I think are the JoBros (except Okuyasu, they are my favorite characters of each Part):

Part 1:  Will Zeppeli

Part 2:  Caesar Zeppeli

Part 3:  Tenmei Kakyoin

Part 4:  Okuyasu Nijimura

Part 5:  Bruno Bucciarati

Part 6:  Narciso Anasui

Poll (anime only): https://www.strawpoll.me/17976641

Fruits Basket (2019) episodes 1-3 Review

I'm very pleased with how the first 3 episodes turned out. Beautiful visual, fluid animation, awesome voice-acting! I hope this quality will be maintained till the end!

I have an impression that they tried very hard to follow the old anime scene-by-scene, which I believe they shouldn't, because it made some scenes feel awkward. This remake should be completely new with their own touch (and follow the manga, of course, which I'm glad they do).

The scene in which Yuuki turns around in the sunset and the music starts playing softly is beautifully done!

The remake artwork and animation are SO much better! The story flows more naturally now. The smooth animation makes Kyo's personality more interesting than how he appears in the manga. I find the Cat more relatable now than back then.

Back then, a lot of anime male characters were voiced by women. But now, male characters are voiced properly by men. This is a great change!

The new opening song is very good but the old song is unbeatable. I used to sing it on my road back from work in 2010. I wish they kept it as a background soundtrack or something:)   The old OP song is even more feels especially if you understand the lyrics:

♫ I was so happy, you were smiling
With a smile that melts everything away
Spring is still far away, inside the cold earth,
Waiting for the time to sprout
For instance, even if today is painful
And yesterday's wounds remain
I want to believe that I can free my heart and go on
I cannot be reborn
But I can change as I go on, so
[...]
I understand the meaning our living here
It is to know the joy of having been born
Let's stay together always ♫

Episode 3

Even with their idiosyncrasies, all of characters' body movements look so natural!

Momiji has made his appearance at last!!! My favorite character! XD.. The animation is exactly how I imagine for his character. Awesome! And Tooru be like, "Sorry, I don't speak English".. XD.  Waiting for his dramatic backstory! 

Yuki has lots of self-awareness, very relatable.  Poor guy thinks him being nice is just manipulating people to like him. That's when you know it's true kindness. Real manipulators don't even think twice about their hypocrisy.

"Yuki's kindness is like a candle; it lights up and makes me want to smile" - best quote of this episode.

"I want you to believe in people. Doubting people is easy. You can be the kind of person who can believe in people".  Well, I know the kind of message that Fruits Basket wants to send us, but I really don't agree with this "teaching".. LOL. That's a very naive belief. Trusting without verifying is a recipe for failure. It's great that it works in FB because "kindness" is what the series is about, but it doesn't work IRL, or if Tooru's circumstance changes. Especially when [Maybe spoiler](/s "Tooru lives under the protection of some of the Souma members, she's like a family member that they care about and thus she doesn't need to worry about the dangerous members of society"), but if the Souma didn't take her in and she had no one to rely on (even with her 2 friends), living by this ideology would be very dangerous.

But anyway, with Shigure, Yuki and Kyo, there's no room for doubt; you can tell that they are very kind people from the beginning by letting Tooru stay in their house and treating her like family.

Fate/Stay Night: Arthuria being a female is no more than a plot device

While women weren't eligible to inherit the throne back then, The Sword of Selection had chosen her, which would be a valid reason for people to accept her reign because they had long accepted that whoever pulled the Sword would be king. Even if people were dubious about her being the person pulling the Sword, she could have just put the sword back like Arthur in Disney's The Sword In the Stone did, let other guys try unsuccessfully first, then pulled it herself right in front of their eyes. Also, everyone in her kingdom totally trusted Merlin's prophecies. Given those conditions, I don't see why (other than plot device) Artoria "had to" hide her gender. Doing so had caused problems for herself and the kingdom.

Morgan - her half-sister - had always vied for the throne and didn't care that she was a woman and ineligible.

Nero didn't hide her gender, either, and her time was 57 AD which far preceded Artoria's time. There had been ancient queens before, during and after Artoria's time.

Even for plot device, Fate doesn't even do it convincingly: "hey, King Arthur was, in fact, a woman pretending to be a man, but we design her wearing a ball gown dress (1) for the sake of appeal and (2) because she needs to be 1 of the waifu in FSN".

Being a fan of a series does not mean I would blindly accept any explanation offered to me regardless of how nonsensical and inconsistent it is.

There are people who will defend everything the franchise presents to them, think that the words of Nasu are absolute. But to me, King Arthur being a female is simply a plot device because Fate/Stay Night needed her to be a waifu.  FSN originally had Arthur as a male but Takeuchi advised Nasu to genderbend Arthur and make FSN an eroge so that the game would sell because the majority of fans were/are young males.

That is all.

Merlin and Fou

Many people seem to think that Fou (Cath Palug) hates Merlin but I think that was just at the beginning and also for comic relief. Fou loved staying in Avalon but Merlin kicked him out of the Tower so that - in his words - Fou can go "to experience all the beauty this world has to offer". It was for Fou's own good, and later Fou does acknowledge that it helped him grow and prevented him from becoming Beast IV. Also, they have always been bickering since the beginning (like Disney's Merlin and Archimedes' dynamics). 

I 90% agree with this post so I'm copying it here:  

While Cath Palug smacking Merlin is a running gag throughout the singularity, I get the feeling that, while in the beginning he hated him (for kicking him out of the Tower), Merlin eventually grew on him, not that Cath Palug is about to admit it.

Cath Palug pushes Merlin to go to sleep, and while the smacking seems like a joke, Cath Palug had interrupted Merlin while he was being uncharacteristically depressing. Whether Merlin sees it as him caring or him simply hitting him is honestly nebulous; Merlin IS highly intelligent even if he acts like a moron. Whether he has the capacity to understand that Cath Palug cares much for him is up for debate.

Much later, when you talk to Merlin, just as Merlin’s being Merlin and bullshitting you, Cath Palug smacks him again and pretty much tells him to open up to you. Because Cock Wizard needs friends.

So as abrasive as Cath Palug is to Merlin, I do think he genuinely cares about him.

Fate: About Cath Palug (Fou) at the end of Solomon singularity

Is anyone else upset about Cath Palug (Fou) at the end of the Solomon singularity?

I'm never a fan of his, but I find it fucking absurd to have Cath Palug lose intelligence and personality to revive Mash. Even in the form of an animal, Cath Palug is an individual with high sentience. He understands and participates in human conversations, understands himself and the world (something that "lower" mammals don't); as proven by his dialogue at the end of "Solomon", he's at least equivalent to an 8-year-old human child.

Damn, Mash can just stay dead. And after she "wakes up", there wasn't even a discussion within Chaldea about the magnitude of what Cath has done.

Also, when a mortal character "sacrifices" herself and later comes back to life, it feels cheap. And when you review the Arc, you won't feel anything for her "sacrifice moment" because you already know she'll come back anyway. The power of the goddamn waifu/protagonist.

Poll: https://www.strawpoll.me/17615603

My head-canons regarding the Fate franchise

1. Servants don't lose memories of their past summons.
2. There exists only 1 timeline.
3. Gilgamesh failed to obtain immortality because a snake ate the Herb; he never went back to retrieve the Herb just for the sake of collection and never used it [ true to the original myth ].  Reasons being.
4. Servants can teleport.
5. Male Arthur instead of Arthuria.  Or Arthur and Arthuria are siblings.
6. Merlin is the younger version of Disney's Merlin, the all-time most powerful wizard, has Clairvoyance of past, present and future like Solomon's + Sha Naqba Imuru like Gilgamesh's.
7. Merlin can teleport in and out of the Tower at will.  [ This is actually canon now ].
8. Gudao and Gudako are Rin and Shirou's future children.
9. Gudao is pretty skilled at combat to fend for himself whenever the Servants aren't around. 
10. Mash really dies when she sacrifices herself in Solomon Arc, thus, Cath Palug remains a magical beast with intelligence and personality.  [ It's incredibly absurd to have Cath Palug sacrifice something as significant as sentience to save the protagonist "waifu". The fanbase would riot if it were a human character that did what Cath Palug did. Also, when a mortal character "sacrifices" herself and later comes back to life, it feels cheap ]. 
11. 
    

[to be continued]

My unpopular opinions on the Fate franchise

1. Male Arthur > female Arthuria.
2. Last Encore is a decent adaptation. 
3. I despise the Fate protagonists' thick plot armors.
4. I read F/E CCC just for Gilgamesh; I don't like the plot at all.
5. Fate/Zero > F/SN.
6. Male Hakuno > female Hakuno.
7. Nero > Tamamo.
8. I hate the idea that "ANYONE who left a significant reputation among humans is deified", thus we have Jack the Ripper. By this definition, suicide bombers would qualify as "heroic spirits". This is absurd and made for the purpose of including any character the franchise wants to include = $$$.
9. I don't like Illya and loli in general.
10. Mash is boring and her coming back from death (worse, at the sacrifice of Cath Palug) is cheap protagonist/waifu armor. I wish I could trade her for Galahad.
11. I hate all the overused Saber/Rin/Sakura faces.
12. Excessive gender-bending sucks. 
13. I hate how the most relevant (eg, Archer, Lancer) or powerful (eg, Merlin) characters are pushed aside so that the MCs (Shirou, Gudao, Mash) can have the spotlights. 
14. Shirou and Archer are 2 different individuals.
15. Nasu's anti-immortality viewpoint that he forces on Fate is dumb.
16. The Ishtar hate is unfounded. Ishtar is delightful in Babylonia. Especially her and Gil's interactions are awesome!
17. The Merlin hate is unfounded. Merlin is delightful and helping us out tremendously throughout the series.
18. Merlin is severely nerfed so that other characters can play their roles.
19. Enkidu has no personality, and he isn't this cutie pie that everyone makes him to be. His whole existence was to develop Gilgamesh's character.
20. I see no romance between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
21. While I like the dark theme in Heaven's Feel route, I hate it for the bad romance and unconvincing characterization (Sakura).
22. Nasu is a kinda crappy, pandering writer who created too many tropes and waifu/protagonists plot armors.
23. I hate the fact that Jaguar Man is Taiga in Babylonia. What a waste of a potentially awesome new character! 
24. 
    


My headcanons regarding Fate franchise

Fate Lore: The Legend of King Arthur

1. Legend of King Arthur (not Fate)
2. Merlin (not Fate)

Fate version:

Arthuria was born during the war-torn Dark Ages after Britannia lost its protection from the Roman Empire. During this time, Uther Pendragon was the King of Britain and he had already fathered a daughter (Morgan le Fay).

Merlin, an Human-Incubus Hyrbid and a powerful Magus, had prophesied that their next child would be Uther's successor and Uther believed this. However, when Arthuria was born, Uther despaired as she was born a girl, not a boy. In those times, a King could not make a child that was not a male his successor even if she was fated to one day become a king. Merlin was delighted because the sex of the child had never mattered and he was confident that if Arthuria was separated from the castle until the day of prophecy, it would be proof that she would become king.

At the age of five, Arthuria was entrusted to one of the king's vassals, Sir Ector, who while he did not believe in the prophecy, he did feel the same air from the young Arthuria as he did his king. Arthuria was then adopted and raised with Ector's own son Kay training them both as simple knight apprentices.

Kay could tell that Arthuria would grow up to be a beautiful woman but his father told him to guide her like she was his brother and decided to treat her in that manner, though he did not believe it would be kept secret. Initially, Arthuria was raised under the belief that she and Kay were related by blood but she was later told the truth while growing up. Despite this their relationship did not diminish from the truth, and they still felt they were true siblings.

Arthuria acted as Kay's squire and received training from him while also doing other chores such as pulling along his horse. During their sparring, Arthuria was the greater in terms of swordsmanship however Kay would use "warped reasoning just on the verge of being correct" to make her feel like she had lost despite winning, reasoning like:

"You lose since you threw away your sheath!"
"I'm still alive so don't act like you won!"

While Arthuria was being raised by Ector, Merlin also visited teaching Arthuria and acting as a father figure to her.  He also also revealed Arthuria's gender to Kay making him swear to secrecy.

When Arthuria was 15, the day of prophecy arrived and Merlin prepared Caliburn for the selection of the next king. When the Knights and Lords gathered for the selection of the next king, they expected the selection to be through jousting to select the most superior one to become a king, but they were presented with Caliburn stuck in a stone with the inscription on the hilt reading:

Whosoe'er pulleth out this sword of this stone is rightwise king born of England.

While many knights grabbed the sword trying to follow the command, none was able to pull it out. With no successful attempts, they began the expected jousting to make the selection. At this time, Arthuria was still an apprentice and thus not qualified to joust. She walked to the now deserted stone and reached out for the sword without hesitation.

Before she started grabbing it, Merlin appeared before her to tell her to think things over before taking it. He told her she would no longer be human upon taking the sword, but she had been prepared for the fact that "becoming a king means no longer being human" ever since she was born knowing that a king is someone who kills everyone to protect everyone, having thought about it every night and shuddered until morning came with not a day passing where she did not fear that fact. To Merlin, her response was a nod saying that the fear she has felt would end then Arthuria pulled the sword out effortlessly as per her fate and in that instant, she became something not human. To everyone else there, so long as she acted like a good king, no one would care for her appearance or gender. Taking the sword also had an effect on her body stopping her from aging as such from then on the King would have a body of a 15 year old.

After that Arthuria, Merlin and Kay went through various adventures while training the rightful King of the country while reclaiming the country and the 3 of them formed the Round Table but later was joined by Bedivere and Gawain who along with Kay became the most senior knights.

Morgan le Fay, who was born as the proper, recognized daughter of King Uther and Arthuria's older sister of the same status, in her eyes believed Arthuria received the love and hope of their father that should have been hers, became a witch queen who craved for vengeance. After Merlin taught her so much she became "the wisest woman in the world", Morgan betrayed Merlin away by threatening to torture and kill him. During their adventures, Morgan executed a trap which saw Arthuria lose Caliburn.

After the final battle against her uncle Vortigern, Arthuria claimed her kingdom Camelot and spent 10 years in peace. During this time, Arthuria had to deal with the problem of being able to produce an heir. To help, Merlin used his magecraft to make Arthuria into a pseudo-male capable of producing sperm for an unknown duration of time. During this time, however, Morgan le Fay used her magic to enchant her sister to take some of her sperms. Using her own ovaries, Morgan developed the sperm and have birth to a homunculus clone of her sister, named Mordred.

Arthuria met the daughter of King Leodegrance, Guinevere, and the 2 wedded to make an outward appearance of a "kingdom" in Britain. They even held a grand wedding ceremony that lasted close to 7 days and was celebrated throughout the land. However, it was a marriage out of necessity rather than love, where Arthuria, the "husband", was not a man and the marriage would never be consummated.

During this time, Mordred was raised by Morgan to believe it was her right defeat the King and inherit the throne. Through her mother's recommendations and a presentation of her own swordsmanship, was able to be counted as one of the Knights of the Round Table. Despite her mother's obsessive hatred for Arthuria, Mordred never hated Arthuria yet idealized her as the perfect king. She later learned of her heritage of being Arthuria's "son" and was happy in learning that she shared the same blood as the king she idolized, however Mordred also felt ashamed of her twisted birth.

As Arthuria continued to be king, she kept to the oath that a king is not human and that one cannot protect the people with human emotions. Never narrowing her eyes in grief while on the throne and settling every problem while working hard in government affairs, Arthuria managed to balance the country without any deviations, and punished people without a single mistake. This however lead one of her Knight, Sir Tristan, to leave Camelot saying:

The King does not understand how others feel.

Hearing this, Lancelot wished to lessen the burden for his King, a wish that Guinevere also held. While they conversed with each other, they came to recognize each other as friends and it was then that Lancelot began to fall for Guinevere. It was through Guinevere that he learned of Arthuria being a woman and the true meaning to Guinevere's marriage to her.

At some point in time, Mordred approached Arthuria about her identity and her "son" but rather getting the acceptance she had hoped for Arthuria rejected her stating that while Mordred was her child born from her and Morgan's plotting, she could not recognize Mordred as her "son" or give her the Throne. Mordred believed this was because Arthuria hated Morgan and no matter what she did, the moment she was born from Morgan, she was a dirty child and the shame of her birth began to become hatred.

Lancelot and Guinevere began to have an affair and this was discovered by Agravain, one of Arthuria's Knights, and an assassin hired by Morgan whom he hated. Agravain was loyal to the King, however, he hated women due to Morgan and when he uncovered the affair, he also learned of Arthuria's true gender. He tried to threaten Guinevere with the fact of her affair but failed. Before his death and seeing Mordred's growing hatred (while probably not knowing Mordred was a woman as well), he revealed the affair to her who used it to sow mistrust in the Knights of the Round Table and destroying the prestige of the King in the eyes of the people.

When Arthuria learned of the affair, she did not blame anyone but rather understood knowing Guinevere's and Lancelot's sacrifice. However, still acting in the capacity of a king and this times adultery was a serious crime, Arthuria discarded her emotions and had Guinevere executed. Lancelot tried to save her, killing several of his fellow knights including Gawain's brothers, Gareth and Gaheris, but ultimately failed and fled to his homeland of France.

When Arthuria left for the Rome expedition, Mordred became the leader of the rebellion representing the national discontent towards the King. When Arthuria returned, Mordred raged and proclaimed her hatred of the king and that only she was fit for the throne. The truth was that she only wanted to be accepted by Arthuria as her "son". This sparked the civil war that would later claim their lives.

Shortly before the final battle of Camlann Avalon, the sheath to Excalibur that gave Arthuria immortality, was stolen due to the machinations of Morgan le Fay. Lancelot, even after being excommunicated, wanted to participate in the Battle of Camlann to serve his King but Gawain hostilely rejected him.

Merlin left Arthuria before the final battle because he claimed that an evil witch (Morgan? Lady of the Lake?) tried to murder him so he fled to the Reverse Side of the World and thus the land of Avalon where he thought the witch couldn't reach him; however, the gate he encountered was a trap which created a sealing "tower" called the "Garden of Avalon", and having transcended death, is trapped for all eternity.

During their final battle, Mordred hated the "Son of Morgan" but Arthuria replied: "Not once did I despise you. There was only one reason I would not give you the throne. You didn't have the capacity of a King."

In their battle, Mordred was fatally wounded by Rhongomyniad but because of a curse on her, still swung her sword and fatally wounded Arturia.

Arthuria's dying body was escorted to a holy isle by Sir Bedivere where she ordered a grieving knight to dispose of Excalibur by throwing it back to the Lady of the Lake, an order he failed twice believing that the moment Excalibur was returned to Vivian, Arthuria would die.

In Bedivere's absence, she reflected on her personal failures, regretting her life as king. Before her last breath, she appealed to the world; in exchange for services as a Heroic Spirit, she asked to be given an opportunity seek the Holy Grail to save her country.

source

Fate series: The View on Immortality

This is a combined post written by me and Ashe_Black.  I agree 100% with Ashe_Black.

The general theme in the Fate Universe has always been that the antagonist or the "perceived villain" are the ones who seek immortality or believes immortality to be a benefit to humanity. While the protagonists have always been those who oppose it or believe it to be a detriment to humanity. 

Fate generally argues that using Magic to grant humans immortality would be akin to cheating, or halting their growth, or is just bad. For reasons as trite as because it is not natural.

I completely disagree with Fate's view on immortality.

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the only reason that Gilgamesh (and mankind) didn't become immortal was that the Herb of Immortality that he had obtained was eaten by a snake. But in Fate, it was said that Gilgamesh "went back and obtained the Herb of Immortality again just for the sake of collection" but didn't use it because blah blah. Total BS and out of character for Gilgamesh! To Gilgamesh, he did not only fear death because he loved living, it was also because he wanted to observe humanity's path until its very end, so he saw death as an end to his duty as humanity's guardian. In Fate/Zero, he agreed to participate in the HGW because, in his words, Tokiomi had summoned and given him a body/a second life ("I treat him as my vassal and he supplies me with mana"), and that he later let Tokiomi be killed when Tokiomi planned to kill him. In UBW ending, we see that Gilgamesh stubbornly clings to life. It's because he hasn't fulfilled his goal or it's because he wants to see Kirei's path, etc. For whatever reason, for whatever purposes you see him cling to life, it shows that he still sees purposes in life and never wants to die. So, if Gilgamesh successfully obtained a method for immortality, he would no doubt use it!  "Oh I'm over death" is an excuse to insert the "immortality isn't good" notion into the work - this is the authors' view - and not a representation of how the character should be. Gilgamesh in The Epic became more human because he had failed to achieve what he wanted, failed to overcome his human limitations. His brief sense of accomplishment and joy vanished just as quickly as he obtained it - that made him realize the full extent of his humanity, which was the final crucial step that completed him as a man and connected him with his people. The grief of Gilgamesh, the questions that death evoked and his quest for immortality resonate with every human being who has wrestled with the meaning of life in the face of death. Also in The Epic, Gilgamesh could not achieve the kind of immortality that was available to gods.  Fate - by having him able to obtain immortality but turn it down by his own will - negates the whole meaning of his journey. Fictional authors have been using characters to speak their own minds, and anti-immortality is the message that Fate wants the audience to believe.

Gilgamesh, Alucard, Sun Wukong, etc. - all these characters who strive for immortality have an interesting thing in common:  They all share a great fear of death. That fear alone motivated them to master great deeds.   Their desire for immortality and power was also motivated by the fear of losing what they had.  This is a very HUMAN desire, considering that immortality has always been humanity's greatest dream!

There's nothing "unnatural" about immortality - just as there's nothing unnatural about the advancement of Medicine and technology.

Given that life has been struggling to evolve and survive as long as possible through any means possible, reproduction is just a very poor form of immortality. If we could pass on our consciousness through our offspring akin to instinct then it would be by definition immortality.

Not only in Fate but in a lot of other fictions (like Hellsing), the anti-immortality perception is widespread.  I believe that it is some authors' way of giving solace to themselves and to the human audience watching their fictions. Ultimately it's all a form of convincing oneself that one's own state is okay because there is no better alternative realistically.  IF the immortality option is actually available to us, how many of us will honestly turn it down?!

As I wrote about this for Hellsing, I completely disagree with the "reject immortality for any reason" notion. Because it is anti-progress for attempting to put a stop on humans  dreaming about and striving for the possibility to begin with. More of my view on Immortality

Fate/Zero: Did Gilgamesh plan to kill Tokiomi from the beginning?

"So was rewatching F/Z and was curious about a few things: Gilgamesh was actually goading Kirei into killing Tokiomi, right? And when Kirei and Gilgamesh met in the room after Kirei was ordered to leave Fuyuki and Kirei told Gil he was gonna kill Tokiomi, Gilgamesh still said something like, "Your teacher's servant is here and is your enemy, why shouldn't I kill you for trying to betray him?" Is this because Gilgamesh's honor/kingly conduct needs a legitimate reason to betray his master or he would feel his honor gets besmirched or something? Or was Gilgamesh just messing around with Kirei and would betray Tokiomi regardless?"

This is a question that a Fate fan asked on Reddit. Here's my response:

That is something that I think there can be multiple interpretations for.

Basically the contract between Gilgamesh and Tokiomi was that as long as Tokiomi supplied him with mana and was loyal to him, he would be Tokiomi's "lion".

One thing, though, is that Gilgamesh has a Noble Phantasm called "Sha Naqba Imuru" ("He Who Saw the Deep", aka, "Omniscience Star") that enables him to see all truths and origins and the future. But he suppresses it most of the time because he doesn't want to use it on "boring mongrels" so he didn't know about Tokiomi's plan.

Gilgamesh's interest in Kirei stemmed from the fact that Kirei was selected by the Grail because he had a wish worthy of it but he did not even know what that wish was. He blindly believed that pleasure was a sin as decreed by his religious faith. Gilgamesh was one who lived for pleasure and believed it to be the root of one's humanity, hence he's greatly perplexed and wanted to see what Kirei - when freed from indoctrination - would do. Observing Kirei's path was a pleasure to him.

Gil did encourage Kirei to take the evil path since "joy in seeing suffering" was the first sign of pleasure he saw in Kirei. However, judging from Gil's rage upon discovering that Tokiomi was planning to betray him all along, I don't think that he had planned to kill Tokiomi from the start. Ruthless as he may be, he values loyalty (that's one of the reasons he spared Waver) and was under the impression that Tokiomi was a loyal vassal. The only reason Gil tolerated him was because he saw him as a subject who followed him and offered mana as tribute. What seriously turned him against Tokiomi was finding out the real purpose of the Servants to the 3 families. So he was looking for a legitimate reason to kill him and wanted Kirei to give him that reason. When Gil asked how Kirei would circumvent Tokiomi's Servant, he was seeing whether he actually had a plan that would entertain him. If Kirei underestimated Gil's power by coming up with a stupid/boring/futile plan, I think Gil would kill him. Tokiomi might not have died if Gilgamesh had not found out about his plan. Kirei's true nature was a convenient way to get rid of him.

What if Kirei had answered with, "Tokiomi is boring. I'm a better Master who can keep you entertained, you should partner with me"? I don't think it would have been that simple with Gil, either.

Favorite character: Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is a character that I went from dislike to like as I went through the Fate series. I initially disliked him when I got into FATE starting with Unlimited Blade Works and Fate 2006.  Then I realized that Gilgamesh FSN version is just where the author (Nasu) inserted a quick villain to be an "anti-Shirou" device, no more and no less - anyone could fill that role - whereas his character is very well-developed in is character is very well-developed in Fate/Zero (by Urobuchi) and subsequent works where we can see his reasoning, his legend (which is one of the coolest) and his dynamics with other characters. Even his interest in Arthuria in Fate/Zero has some basis in ideologies rather than FSN's "yo, I'm just here to be the MC's love rival".

If I have to say anything about Gilgamesh, it's that he's defiantly got a personality. His backstory and complexity fascinate me despite the fact that I don't normally like arrogant people. Gilgamesh in his younger years was never "good" in a Disney sense, but not evil, either.

An interesting "grey" character is much better than a boring hero. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest hero story of mankind where the MC has more character development than most fictions nowadays. Fate/Zero is just a glimpse into that. There are also F/E CCC, Extella and Babylonia, which together give us a complete picture of who he is.

Guardian of Humanity

All of Gilgamesh versions would die for humanity.

"At first I acknowledged the gods and protected humans. When my childhood ended, I hated the gods and favored humans."

Born from a goddess and a human king, Gilgamesh was created by the gods to connect humanity closer to them. However, he dislikes past kings because they were god-fearing weaklings in his eyes, and he chose to depart from the gods so that humanity could thrive. And his rule, with him rejecting the gods, began the Age of Mankind!  

The protection of gods is no longer needed in the world of man. As proof, I built a fortress, and you all answered my call. I know now, with certainty, that it was no mistake! And now this final trial will test it, and us, to the utmost. 

Now is the time to deny the primordial gods and begin the Age of Man! Mind yourselves, my elite warriors! This is the battle for true separation from the gods! Give your lives to me, the king! Pass on the glory that is Uruk to generations to come, to the last man!

~ Gilgamesh's declaration to Uruk as Tiamat approaches

In UBW, Gilgamesh wasn't trying to destroy humanity; he's trying to save it. He's willing to make himself a villain as long as it means humanity's improvement in the long term. While he floated through the Grail's mud at the end of Fate/Zero, it showed him visions of all of humanity's worst moments. Gilgamesh loves humanity's potential and was already expecting us to expand to the stars in his vision but he found that we grew complacent instead. For he who thinks lives are worthy only if they strive to live their hardest, seeing modern humans' complacency compared to the people in his kingdom (which is described in Babylonia where people remained steadfast and unbroken before the daily assaults of deities) made him feel disgusted. And being given a physical body by the Grail, Gilgamesh felt that he had the responsibility to steer humanity's path.

I think that his thinking was, to some extent, correct:  comparing Babylon in ~2600BC vs. the Middle East today, and ancient Egypt vs. today's Egypt,... I can't help but wondering: After thousands of years, humanity should be much much better than that, right...?  As another fan pointed out: "Gilgamesh's end-goal of 'purging' through Angra Mainyu (aka: All the World's Evil) was "fair" from his point of view: It's 6 billion humans vs. 6 billion evils born from themselves. And it made sense to him that humanity should be able to defeat its own evils". So he tried to fix it by kick-starting a Darwinism process with himself as our immortal leader to guide us - though his method in UBW was bad. But then, being an "Ally of Justice" doesn't mean being chivalrous or altruistic. Like EMIYA who has to do a lot of killings as a Counter Guardian to 'save' humanity, what Gilgamesh tried to do is what Counter Guardians do on a larger scale.

While Gilgamesh does not like individual humans, he loves humanity as a whole. Like Merlin, he doesn't like individual humans but the stories, the legacy, the achievement of humanity. He works his people very hard because he thinks that lives are worthy only if they strive to live to the fullest. He challenged people to grow because he thought protection could make them complacent and stagnant. I do not agree with this line of thinking. (But as we can see in F/E CCC, he enjoyed pushing Hakuno because he wanted "to see the story of the human Hakuno"). At the same time when people were threatened by something huge (eg, Humbaba, Altera, the Shadow, Tiamat,...), he went to fight them to protect humans.

An Epic Journey

Coming face-to-face with his own mortality set him on a quest for immortality, only to fail to gain it and eventually, he accepted that he would someday die. To Gilgamesh, it's more than the fear of death itself: "The despair that he felt was because he saw death as an end of his duty as the observer of humanity: in order to fulfill his mission completely, he wanted to observe humanity's path until its very end."

Gilgamesh wanted to escape human limitations, to get answers to questions not available to his contemporaries, and most importantly, he wanted to overcome mortality both for himself and mankind. At the end, he came to term with his limitations as a human. This completed his journey, achieving the final crucial step: By pushing himself past disappointment and grief and focusing on the needs of his people, Gilgamesh triumphed and became a nobler sort of hero. Is he a role model? No. But he can serve as a symbol for an aspect of humanity, of growing past mistakes and accepting limitations. In the end, Gilgamesh is considered a hero not just for his incredible deeds but for coming to understand and accept his true nature.

• One of Gilgamesh's achievements was the construction of the city walls of Uruk to defend his people from enemies. 
• Gilgamesh designed and beautifully remodeled the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk. 
• Uruk's flourishment speaks for itself.
• His departure from gods (despite his mother being a goddess) enabled humanity to stand on its own feet. This feat alone qualifies him as Best King in my standard.
• He protected humanity against superthreats like Humbaba.
• His wish to escape human limitations, to get answers to questions not available to his contemporaries and to overcome mortality. 
• He proclaims the worldwide glory of "He Who Saw the Deep", who shall be remembered for his wisdom, who disclosed a secret and who brought back reports of what had been before the Deluge.  
• His path was long and difficult, a road less traveled, a way of many trials and tribulations. He nevertheless completed the journey and became wiser than any on Earth, and he engraved what he had learnt on a stela for the sake of posterity. 
• He's a true renaissance man who embraced humanity advancements. For example, the future he wants to for humanity is one in which we'll emigrate to other planets and explore the universe, which is pretty awesome! Tell me how many modern leaders even have this on their mind?!

Gilgamesh wants to see exceptional things, especially people who are trying to do impossible things and have the abilities to come very close to obtaining these dreams, those who defy gods/destiny, those who never give up no matter what.

This character has so much depth and complexity that I can't put all into words.  Easily 1 of the top 3 in the Fate franchise. I take Fate/Zero Gilgamesh as canon and much closer to the complexity of his legend. Urobuchi says that he tried his best to give more dimensions to Gilgamesh but "didn't quite succeed" because he had to keep his character somewhat close to FSN. In my eyes, he has succeeded, since Fate/Zero characterization of him has set the precedent for his subsequent installments in CCC and Babylonia. 

These other instances illustrate the reasons why I came to appreciate this character:

Banquet of Kings scene - see this entry for my take on this brilliant scene.

Then:

Kirei talk with Gilgamesh (part 1)
Kirei talk with Gilgamesh (part 2)

Kirei's talks with Gilgamesh felt like therapy sessions for Kirei. Gilgamesh's read on humans is remarkable. As a little example, he could instantly tell when Kirei deliberately withheld information and lied to him. Kirei was an enigma, even to himself, and that fascinated Gilgamesh. Kirei was selected by the Grail because he had a wish worthy of it, yet he did not even know what that wish was. He did not even know what pleasure was, and just blindly believed it to be a sin as decreed by his religious faith. He was a man who was unlike others yet performed outside of his nature for he was instructed to do so.  Gilgamesh had quite the plaything in front of him to try to unwrap and enlighten. By having Kirei undertake the exercise of learning the wishes of the other Masters, Gilgamesh was able to pick up on what Kirei unconsciously was drawn to the most: the plight that Kariya Matou was suffering in his "foolhardy" attempt to save Sakura. (If you paid attention closely when Kirei was talking about Kariya, you see that he smiled for the first time in the series). As Gil pointed out to him, 'it is possible to find pleasure in suffering and tragedy'. Kirei quickly rejected the thought as inhumane and a sin, and thus something he, as a member of the Church, should reject. Yet the Grail granted him new Command Seals. Thus, with the aid of Gilgamesh's prodding, started the path of Kirei finding his own (albeit twisted) happiness, freed from being Tokiomi's minion...

This scene shows how Gilgamesh is not only a fighter or an experienced king, but a man. He has seen much of what the world has to offer and learned much in the process. According to him, one should seek pleasure instead of drowning in hypocrisy. I can’t really put it any better: This scene shows the audience how wise Gilgamesh is! (when his ego isn't talking). He taught Kirei to question doctrines. He didn't mind what Kirei chose, as long as it's his own choice. [ Not sure if I agree with the "do whatever you want as long as it pleases you" line of thought - it makes me THINK -- this is why Fate/Zero is brilliant! ]. Gilgamesh likes it when people are honest. He is also self-aware.  As an example, you can totally say he's a tyrant and an asshole to his face and he will laugh and praise your honesty (eg, Andersen, in contrast to the pretentious majority on this planet who would 100% get mad if you told them they were fat/short/thot/etc).  Everyone whom he has taken a liking to are those who never kiss up to him. He likes Kirei, Iskandar and in a terrible way, he "likes" Saber as well. There are 3 characters in the series that Gil uses the more friendly "omae" for: Enkidu, Kirei and sometimes Saber. Iskandar, he calls "sonata" which is very respectful and he only uses it for him. None of these people ever had to work to make him like them. In fact, Kirei spends most of F/Z trying to ignore and insult him. Despite this, Gil is barely ever rude to him and only threatens him once: he says if he ever tires of Kirei, he'll kill him, but considering they spend the next decade together, it just enforces how much he likes him.

"'All the evils in the world'? Bring thrice as much if you want to taint me!"

How Gilgamesh overcame All the World's Evil when he was bathed in the Grail's mud in Fate/Zero (excerpt from the Light Novel):

—A vortex started up. Sin, the evil in this world, circulated and multiplied and chained and changed as it whirled into a vortex. Gluttony lust greed depression wrath sloth hypocrisy pride envy, over and over again encroaching and sprouting, whirling into the vortex.

The crime of rebellion, the crime of intimidation, the crime of adultery, the crime of destruction, the seven cardinal sins, the crime of coercion, .............. all crimes should be assessed and sentenced to capital punishment or severe punishment. Refuse and deny all hatred. Kill kill kill. It is absolutely forbidden. Kill kill kill. He will absolutely not agree. Ah it is really boring to have only this one thought—

“—!?”

The vortex of sound that was the curse now circled. There existed something here that should not exist; from within the barrage of denying curses, a voice cried out, 

"Yes!"

Impossible. Affirmations and correctness did not exist within this cursed vortex of hatred. Because everything had determined that everything was ugly and hateful, this word could not appear here—But that voice announced again clearly, 

“That is right.”

That is right. The world was originally already like this. Since the truth has been put before your eyes, why do you sigh? Why are you surprised?

“—!?”

The voice of the curse asked, "What was right? Who was there to acknowledge it? Who was there to permit it? And who was to bear the burden of sin?"

Facing the bombshell tossed from the darkness—in reply, a resounding and concrete sneer:  "A foolish question. That goes without asking. The King will acknowledge it; the King will permit it. The King will bear the burden of the entire world."

“—!?”

The mud asked, "What is a king?"  But at the same time it asked the question, it realized it had contradicted itself. In this place that strictly did not allow the existence of entities, the mud had admitted that there was someone else within it. Some strange foreign object that could not exist had appeared here. That was—King—the presence of an absolute controller, as well as one without equal.

"His name was—King of Heroes, Gilgamesh."

“That is I!”

The black mud cracked and dispersed away, leaving flying droplets. The foreign object it could not digest even by mobilizing all its hatred appeared from within the black mud. Within the burning ruins, he once again stood upon the ground. The perfect, golden-proportioned body was no longer the spirit form that it had taken during its time as a Servant, but a true flesh body. The black mud that denied all life crystallized the impurity within itself and then abandoned it, with the result that a certain Heroic Spirit had realized his wish of obtaining a corporeal body and returning to this world.

Even standing right amid a burning hell, the majesty emanating from the body of the king made the surrounding flames afraid to come close. Gilgamesh generously bared his naked statue-like body, sneering impatiently.

Even though he felt it to be very troublesome, he could not refuse to meet battle since this was the challenge issued to him by the gods. Gilgamesh began to laugh wryly again at his status as the King of Heroes.

Also, Kirei's revival:

"The black mud which had been unable to corrupt Archer followed the path of the mana supply that had formerly linked Archer to his Master, arrived at Kotomine Kirei’s physical body and became the source of a life-force supply that substituted for a heart". Thus had Kirei revived.

Why did the mud spit Gilgamesh back out?  Because the Grail could not corrupt him even after utilizing all of its hatred. Servants are normally corrupted upon contact with the Grail, but Gilgamesh is incorruptible due to his powerful ego that can stave back the mental pollution. The anime makes it look like "being spit out of the mud" was no big deal, but this is one scene I hate Ufotable for leaving out. It's one of the reasons Gilgamesh is the most badass King - who else but he could emerge from that, even better than before?  

"I have been bearing the burden of humanity from the beginning of time".  He doesn't "break" under such burden and we all know that he will never "break". Other instances that demonstrate his strength were when his only friend died and then when his search for immortality failed, he turned pain into character growth. I like how he can stand up to everything. Strength of mind, strength of body, courage and intellect - Is there anyone else more fitting to be a King of All?

Babylonia Arc - Grand Order

It is here that Gilgamesh's good qualities really shine: He fully commits to the betterment of his kingdom and genuinely cares for his subjects. In turn, he is rewarded with their loyalty and love even in the face of destruction. He also shows a better degree of patience and tolerance when first meeting Gudao and co., testing their value by having them first perform menial tasks. Also, his interaction with Ishtarin makes for comedy gold! This Gilgamesh here is Fate/Zero Gilgamesh who is tempered and wise - the older version of him after he returned from his long quest for immortality - and rules over Uruk with more wisdom. He no longer considers Ea his greatest treasure, but the people of Uruk themselves (he gave away most weapons in his treasury to his people). This Gilgamesh is the one who has reached the depth of mankind's wisdom and has returned to instruct mankind.  However, it's not a 180° change of character - he still retains a lot of arrogance.  [ I actually like that it isn't a complete 180° change because that wouldn't be interesting anymore - especially when he brings comedy to many scenes that he's in ].  In short, older Gilgamesh is "He Who Saw the Deep", he who leads the present to the future.


Addendum: 

1. The view on Immortality in Fate (concerning Gilgamesh)
2. In Fate/Strange Fake, Gilgamesh acts as a mentor to his little Master, telling her that "children eyes should be shining with potentials and wonders" because he sees through it that the adults are using her as a figurehead, so he tells her to follow her own path, and shows her that is more in life than duty and sacrifice.  One look at this tells me that Fate/Strange Fake intends to do the Sesshomaru-Rin moe-moe relationship type with Gilgamesh-Tine :P
3. In Fate/Extra CCC, Gilgamesh learns to like Hakuno; although he scolds him from time to time, he dispenses wisdom along the way and saves his life by breaking the rule at the end.
4. In Fate/Extella, Gilgamesh offers himself as "second in command", pretending it's to honor his father's promise when he's just there to watch out for Hakuno.
5. Even in Fate/Zero, he's nice to Iskandar and Kirei, offers a bit of wisdom to Saber (by telling her she's not wrong and to continue on her path), and spares Waver out of admiration for his loyalty (while other Masters don't spare each other).
6. Gilgamesh subreddit :D

[ To be updated ]