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「こんにちは、太陽の女神」 (Kon’nichiwa, Taiyou no Megami)
“Hello, Goddess of the Sun”
Ah, now we see what Ritsuka is good for. Sure, he doesn’t bring much to the table as a protagonist. But simply by virtue of being the protagonist, a self-insert no less, he has access to the most potent weapon in the protagonist’s arsenal: preternatural charisma. Protagonists are just positively magnetic. If you’re the hero you can basically expect women (and men, for that matter) to fall head over heels for you for no discernable reason. Even Mesoamerican goddesses have no defence against the average Japanese pretty-boy.
Speaking of Quetzalcoatl, she’s an excellent demonstration of why it doesn’t pay for Babylonia to take itself too seriously. Carnivorous onee-san (look, retractable teeth) just has a silly design in general. I suspect she’s half the reason Jaguarman even exists in this story; next to Taiga’s hyperactive ridiculousness everything looks sane in comparison, so at least we’re already anchored appropriately low. Why is Quetzalcoatl a female wrestling-aficionada from Dinotopia? Basically, ‘because Fate/‘ and we just roll with it (the philosophy being, I suppose, that common sense only gets in the way of stories like this). I also suspect that the average Japanese media consumer doesn’t actually know that much about Mexico so lucha libre it is. Granted, the average person anywhere probably doesn’t know much about Mexico other than taco, drugs, and piñatas, unfortunately, and a piñata goddess would be lacking in combat effectiveness. That said, I’m sure with enough imagination one can kill with a piñata. Let’s say, via diabetes.
Speaking of diabetes, how about that other goddess who also seems to be inexplicably smitten? Following the ad hoc motif of Babylonia, it appears that not only is Tiamat not really Tiamat, Enkidu not really Enkidu, Benkei not really Benkei, Ishtar may not actually be Ishtar either. Or at least, not when she has hayfever. Babylonia is basically falling over itself to spoilerise Blonde!Rinface at this point (after having already plastered her all over the OP/ED). We don’t exactly know is up with that yet but we’re definitely invited to be highly suspicious of Ishtar(?)’s, shall we say, inconsistent behaviour.
Speaking of behaviour, it sure feels like nothing much happened this episode, doesn’t it? One would have expected that the introduction of our next major antagonist would have prompted more fanfare but, nope, she just barges in, announces herself, then promptly exits, stage left as if she’s read the script. Well, next week there’s supposed to be a confrontation at her seat of power, so we’re sure to be in for… something. I dare not telegraph what.
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20Zettai%20Majuu%20Sensen%20Babylonia%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
Servants die when they are killed.
Now this is Fate franchise
This whole episode was insane which ironically made it my favourite. It feels like a freaking fever dream, makes me even sadder that they didn’t keep the spriggan scene and all the other “Gil acts like a 10 year old” scenes but I’m happy they’re letting him be a bit undignified now. In hindsight, barring Gorgon none of the goddesses were particularly intense (gameplay not withstanding). Ritsuka’s seduction of Taiga was…something else
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Hello, Lucoa. I could have sworn you were a lot bustier (and a shotacon) the last time I saw you… Still giving off the occasional “Ara ara” onee-san vibes, though.
Anyway, I’m a little put off by
LucoaQuetzalcoatl’s use of Spanish (instead of the Yucatec Maya language–see Apocalypto for examples), considering her myth is supposed to be older than the time when Spanish conquistadors came to the American continent (along with their language).https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20Zettai%20Majuu%20Sensen%20Babylonia%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2010.jpg
“♪ You are harboring a fugitive
(Dat a**!)
And my justice will be punitive
(I’mma smash!,/b>) ♪”
– “Finest Girl (Bin Laden Song)” by The Lonely Island
(Note: Wanted to use that song on that scene with “IshtaRin” showing off some noice backside in the jungle, but due to lack of that screenshot, this will have to do. *sighs*)
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20Zettai%20Majuu%20Sensen%20Babylonia%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2022.jpg
Show Spoiler ▼
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Yeah, I thought the same. On the other hand, every episode I feel the same every time a Sumerian character starts using Akkadian terms and names in the series, starting with the very word “Babylonia”. Or in this episode, when Gilgamesh talks about Marduk and his legend, which is further from his era than the Aztec Empire is from ours.
I suppose that the in-lore answer might be that Servants embody concepts, ideas and attributes. Like how this Quetzalcoatl also answers to the name Kukulkan and her Mayan and Toltec versions. As long as modern Mexico keeps the memory of Quetzalcoatl alive, Quetzalcoatl will take up influences from modern Mexico. Or something like that.
It could be worse. I’ve just started the Okeanos Singularity in the game and Francis Drake is depicted as a stereotypical 18th century pirate and introduced as “the first voyager in history to sail around the globe and live to tell the tale” (Juan Sebastian Elcano must be rolling in his grave).
Not really, Quetz simply likes Lucha Libre and that´s also why she uses Spanish. Cuz she wants. No deep lore or mythological reasons. She´s that much of a free spirit.
I wonder if Quetzalcoatl has a luchador mask? That said, I’m kinda expecting her to use Yucatec Mayan for her higher-tier Noble Phantasms.
OTOH, “Lucoa’s” situation does remind me of Zange (Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens). Originally a Shinto goddess, she adopted a Christian motif (the cross, nun-like dress) after a church was built near the tree where she lives.
The 2018 Christmas event shows that Coatl-nee (playing the part of a wrestling Santa in a samba dancer outfit because she confused the two terms) has two lucha masks. One for a technico (face) persona, and one for a rudo (heel) one.
I wonder if that translated right. Wikipedia “first to complete the voyage as captain while leading the expedition throughout the entire Circumnavigation.” And with the major research Type Moon does I’m sure something like that is what was being aimed at to be communicated.
Juan Sebastian Elcano probably rolling enough from only Magellan being mentioned as the first to do it or some variant like Magellan’s expedition to sail around the world. Elcano gets very little credit.
Because the legend of Quetzalcoatl wasn’t conveyed in “Mayan” as extensively as you seem to think through “MesoAmerica”, until after the Spanish conquest.
Needless to say, Quetzalcoatl’s legend survived due to research in European writing and language, not Mayan.
Unfortunately, European scholars today are trying to retroactively invent a Mayan writing system these days – because making up crap in your head is easier, more profitable, and less expensive than site-prep and excavation.
For one thing, the Mayans didn’t have as widespread and advanced writing system as many want to believe – Mayan “glyphs” were at-best idiographic which depicted abbreviated pictures to convey ideas and situations, rather than standardized symbols for words – and there’s no proof they’re anything else ie they are not “words” until somebody can prove that standardization, a “primer”.
I was surprised the developers of this anime had the protagonist utter the tidbit about MesoAmerican tribes lacking a developed writing system…until I remembered that Asian scholars are not as politically-correct (in this specific area anyway) as their Caucasian counterparts.
There are many fraudulent scholars today who’ve gone past archeology and the codices and have simply invented theories out of whole cloth based on a host of unsubstantiated assumptions that there was a standardized Mayan writing system – even making dysfunctional “lessons” on how to “read” Mayan glyphs – all of which holds no water.
You can make “lessons” on how to read finger paintings on cave walls and ascribe syllables and sounds to them – that doesn’t make it 21st century Mandarin or the Alphabet.
It’s not to say that a relatively dense local population can’t have a pictographic system (and by “dense”, I mean in the tens of thousands, not the millions that new-age scholars like to pretend existed) that might have become a full-fledged writing system with enough development, though they ultimately didn’t (what we would call a “logograph”, which has not been borne out). And yes, the Mayans had “numbers” – it’s proven they could count and write them down.
But scholars today – having been unable to accept that multiple symbols and glyphs cannot be reconciled with each other, have thrown up their hands and lazily said “they’re the same ‘word'”, therefore we have “standardization”, therefore the Mayans have a writing system. In such a way, MesoAmerican specialists have literally committed research fraud.
They literally tell other scholars “2 + 1 = 4” because “1 = 2”.
I’m serious. It’s really that stupid.
Except “3 + 1 = 4” too, and “4 + 4 = Iguana”
Huh?
Their “political correctness” is obscene – and eye-rolling.
And of course, that doesn’t mean Asian or South and Central American researchers are necessarily going to go along with the fraud – and Caucasian researchers should quit being so yellow-bellied about being called “racist”. Many will say to these idiots’ faces that what they claim is bunk – small wonder the frauds are careful around non-white “deniers” (as if archaeology and anthropology were a matter of “belief” and “dogma”, rather than “skepticism” and “proof”).
So imagine trying to decipher what these glyphs mean to later generations of “fallen” Mayans in the 15th century, or tribes in other regions, let alone enemy populaces like the Aztecs. Part of the problem might be that it’s like dealing with Ancient “Chinese”. Anyone who’s dealt with the Oriental languages, knows that there were literally dozens of languages on the Mainland at any one time. Even assuming the Mayan glyphs are a proper writing system like Li-Shiu or Kai-Shiu, part of the problem may be that these scholars are ideologically forcing themselves to assume all the glyphs they’re studying are the same “language” – although it’s just as likely they’re a personalized artistic style for each ruling and noble family.
Anyway, there are so many problems with the post-modernist theories of making up a writing system for the Mayans (and now even trying to invent phonetics for glyphs they can’t begin to verify/justify based on circumstantial and primary source material).
Maybe one day, we will find a “primer”, a “Rosetta Stone”, that will prove the Mayan glyphs are a writing system, like a Benjamin Gates moment in the movie “National Treasure 2” which sent his mother into a state of glee regarding the Olmecs.
But until then, quit the BS.
Just ran into the current avoidance of the term Dark Ages because it’s wrong to judge a time period. Here there is a little room to understand this avoidance as the original meaning of Dark Ages as used was there was little written during that time so we are in the Dark about that time period. Bad research and assumptions were made in past few centuries describing the period even worse than it was and changing the definition to basically things suck hard then. But still it the aftermath of a fall of civilization, science lost ground and stopped, and things got massively worse for the common man making it one of the worst European periods to live in so it did suck fairly hard. So I don’t get the don’t judge a historical time period thing.
Britanica lists the period with many wanting to label it Age of Migration of Germanic Peoples, a very politically correct way of describing invasions. Early Middle Ages the other label.
The early Middle Ages (what some refer to as the “Dark Ages”) is best summarized as the rise of Islam, its conquest and consumption of vast Christian territories and centers of learning from Alexandria to Damascus (arguably the seat of Christian knowledge and learning). From there, an enormous dislocation in trade from these territories combined with constant piracy and pillaging from raiding of the Mediterranean seas, cutting off Western civilization’s traditional mode of sea-born trade and wealth.
For all the exaggerated stories of “Viking” and “Barbarians” bringing down the Empire (in fact, the Visigoths had already assimilated and been making great contributions to the Western Civilization, from Civil administration to architecture), it has long been recognized that Islamic depredation was the cause of the Empire’s fall and the “Dark Ages” – Christian scholars/priesthoods and populations being massacred and enslaved, entire libraries and scroll repositories destroyed throughout the Middle East and North Africa, while the European coasts and sea trade was plundered and countless slaves taken to the Islamic markets.
It’s only been Revisionist history and political expediency in more recent centuries that has sought to find a different (and laughably absurd) “alternate” explanation for why the Christian world’s economy stagnated in the early Middle Ages and why so much knowledge was lost.
@Jerry: I’ve let slide some replies of yours in the past since they did raise valid points, but these days I can’t help but sense a fondness for putting me in your crosshairs every chance you get.
That being said, “I have several questions.”
– Do you have any citations, sources or proof of fraudulent Meso-American scholars? (Names of those fraudulent scholars, even? And if such research turned out to be fraudulent, wouldn’t that be news by now?)
– Does said “fraudulent research” include whatever information can be gleaned on Wikipedia?
– Is the fact that there are native Central Americans who can still speak one form of Mayan or another one big fraud as well?
There’s a certain saying: “One who believes in nothing will fall for anything.” So yeah, I can’t help but question your allegations if they don’t have reputable sources backing that up.
When I mentioned Quetzalcoatl potentially using the Yucatec Maya language, I was referring to the spoken language (or oral form) as opposed to written form. And it doesn’t have to use the actual Maya script/glyphs (save perhaps for magic circles/runes, in which case, color me impressed). Heck, modern-day Yucatec Maya is written in Latin script (thanks to the European missionaries who bothered to make transcriptions), which should make it easier to read! Or pronounce, for that matter.
BTW, being dismissive (your “quit the BS” line comes off that way) of other people’s desire to want to know a bit more about the world (or in this case, an ancient language) in their own way really isn’t a helpful way of persuading anyone to your cause. Also, God knows I’ve had enough trouble with “political correctness”, especially when it’s used as an excuse to censor legitimate criticism of people, organizations, corporations or governments.
Harem protagonist powers activate! Now I can’t help but wonder what the scene would have looked like with the female version of the main character…
To be honest, when compared to other crazy things in Fate, this depiction of Quetzalcoatl looks downright realistic in comparison. Let’s not act as if, from the very first episode, “Ishtar” wasn’t basically an excuse to have Rin Tohsaka parading around in a fantasy bikini.
At least Quetzalcoatl’s attire looks appropriately Mayincatec, which is more that can be said of other Servant designs in terms of historical accuracy (yeah, the bar is pretty low).
That said, it was a fun episode. Jaguarman’s introduction was jarring in episode 4, because there was a huge contrast between the depressing events at Ur and Not!Taiga’s hyperactive jokes, but I don’t have the same impression with Quetzalcoatl. The entire tone of the episode was funny and light, and the reveal that she wasn’t really killing her victims (never mind using them for gruesome experiments like Gorgon and Kingu) instantly made her look more sympathetic. A potential ally, perhaps?
I still don’t know what the deal is with Ishtar (or should I say, “Ishtar”), but I like her chemistry with Ritsuka. I ship it. Sorry, Mash. You were quick to present yourself as the main girl (sorry, “official Servant”) to Jaguarman, but your true rival was right behind you.
She is the best goddess! If you’re lucky to roll her, all of her bond dialogues are very sweet.
And regarding about Quetz, I can only say that she’s a really good onee-san.
Outfits are explained in that the Servants are aware of modern things and even some future things so their look is what they pick from a person with modern knowledge as well as their past life knowalge. So it up to each Servant how period authentic they wish to be as they could wear just about any fashion they wished to from any time period and place.
That seemed rather fast. Ticked sever boxes in the checklist rather quickly. From introductions to switching sides.
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Ana should’ve taken Jaguarman out when she had the chance. Would love to see Ana skin her alive. Just the jaguar parts mind you.
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20Zettai%20Majuu%20Sensen%20Babylonia%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
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Mash will forever be used for upskirt fanservice shots huh.
I loved playing through the Quetz and Jaguar sections of the Babylonia singularity the most so it’s exciting to see how well they did with the transition between Quetz’s warm & welcoming demeanor and the moment she’s ready to whip out her dinosaur grin.
Hiroe Rei did a great job at giving Quetz a fun and imposing look to her. She sadly keeps evading me when I pull on the singularity rate-ups, but next Christmas should be more promising for NA.
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20Zettai%20Majuu%20Sensen%20Babylonia%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2007.jpg
If I could get a hug from a goddess, it would be so worth the hug. Anyway, I think the animators didn’t see Quetzalcoatl Samba/Santa version, she has more lovely muscles. Sigh, when will anime show more “physically fit” girls. Speaking of which, I would have wanted to see that Onee-san do a Samba dance. Honestly, if it was an option, I would so say to lovely Quetzalcoatl “if you please join me then I will gladly marry you.”
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20Zettai%20Majuu%20Sensen%20Babylonia%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2011.jpg
Can Servants summon “sharp” teeth like that? So it is not just Berserkers with Mad Enhancement. Anyway, like Ishtar, I am assuming an older version of Luvia was summoned as a pseudo-servant. Maybe that is why Ishtar reacted strangely about a blond Onee-san; I don’t know if every divine spirit needs a body, I am still confused.
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20Zettai%20Majuu%20Sensen%20Babylonia%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
So Fou can casually smack a goddess, like to see Fou smack zelretch
Luvia is in FGO too but as a Show Spoiler ▼
“Anyway, like Ishtar, I am assuming an older version of Luvia was summoned as a pseudo-servant.”
Show Spoiler ▼
Well I can’t help but think quetzalcoatl and Luvia are VERY compatible. Why doesn’t quetzalcoatl not need a body?
I’m guessing it has something to do with having different circumstances/requirements/catalyst (to use game terminology) for her summoning, compared to that of Ishtar.
Quetzalcoatl’s Ride, the Quetzalcoatlus, was a real Pterosaur (flying “Dinosaur”), so it makes sense for her to ride a creature named after herself.
What doesn’t makes click with me is her being a Woman… she should be a man, why gender blend so many characters when there are other female goddess options in Aztec and other Mesoamerican pre-hispanic Mythologies, but I guess there was some Dragon maid’s Lucoa fans in the design team and this is Fate.
Nope. Quetz is some weird ass space bacteria so she swaps bodies. This was mentioned in the game but got cut in the anime. She was probably male ay some point, but the current body is a woman’s (its also the reason she likes wrestling as one of her incarnarions led to her being introduced to it)