GHOSTS OF THE PAST - Fate/Samurai Remnant - 13 

See? I freaking knew Saber was actually King Neptune from that one episode of SpongeBob.

The reason why Saber’s sword is water themed is because it was previously the sword of Susano-o, the Japanese storm god.

Saber: "I miss my wife Iori" Iori: "where is she now?" Saber: "in your little sister"

They were talking about the mind controlled soldiers not Servants being under Tsuchimikado and not Yui

Ototachibana-hime is what is called a Psuedo-Servant, a special servant that manifests inside a human vessel when they couldn't otherwise. Which is important because, in most Psuedo-Servant summons, the host body is aware of the Servant within them, and the Servant will either take control of their body for combat, cede control to the original human, or they will swap at will. Ototachibana is the first Servant that cedes control and DOES NOT reveal herself to her vessel...which is, again, important, because she's shipping her brother with her inner self's husband. Which must get...strange for Ototachibana.

Nico the "samurai" that Tsuchimikado were controlling wasn't Rider, it was those random red-eyed mooks you kept running into that Iori kept assuming were being controlled by Yui.

I am calling the end of this game right now and that's gonna be Boss going: "Finally! My work here is done!", Saber going "But you didn't do anything!!" and he just walks smugly into the gates of Babylon 😂

28:20 Saber is referring to the mind-controlled minor samurai enemies we have been fighting this whole game. Saber was very convinced it was Yui controlling them, while Iori said he wasnt so sure since Yui seemed so honorable.

Yamato Takeru is the evolved persona of Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4. Which is fitting considering they are both androgynous and have crossdressed

Fun fact: Torikoe Shrine, near Iori's house, is dedicated to Yamato Takeru (and is possibly why Iori summoned Saber)

Iori: Yui Shousetsu, you’re a hard one to find. Just where have you been hiding this whole time? Yui: Oh I was just at the McDonald’s down the street eating lunch. Saber: I TOLD YOU THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST PLACE WE LOOKED!!!

If you ever go back through some of Kaya's early game dialogue, just after Saber is summoned, you might catch glimpses of Kaya accidentally referring to Iori by name before correcting herself and changing it to "brother." Ototachibana-hime was the one behind the wheel for more instances than we may have realized.

Fun fact! There is some historical influence on why Chiemon detests Iori. Both Musashi and Iori were involved in quelling the Shimabara rebellion. In fact, that was the first and last time the pair participated in a conflict of that scale. As Chiemon is an OC survivor of the rebellion, the writers may have created him to be a foil. That being said, Chiemon unfortunately doesn't get too much characterization to make that foil aspect work in a first playthrough

Okay, I’m oddly relieved that Otatachibana was only residing in Kaya’s body. If Kaya was actually her reincarnation, it’d be kinda awkward. Like, she’d have been basically trying to ship her former husband with her new brother. There’s having a cuckold fetish and then there’s whatever the heck that would have been.

Even just a slight research of Yamato Takeru (which I think literally translates to "Brave [Prince] of Yamato") honestly makes me feel like Saber is such a great representation of him. It explains so much about them, their arrogance, their willingness to defeat whatever stands in their way, their lack of doubt. It's a really old legend, too, and by Fate logic, the older your legend is, the more powerful you tend to be. I think they really did it justice. And I like how it represents the idea that "conquering" a wild and untamed world isn't necessarily something glorious. There's a lot of bloodshed to trying to unify a country, even if that allows things to be peaceful afterwards. They don't absolve him of responsibility for that.

Honestly a game where the mods show Nico a character from FGO (Western ones maybe so we don't burn this poor man's braincell) and Nico has to guess who it is would be really fun.

So yes Yamato Takeru. So about Orochi, yes that is what was happening with his sword, which is one of the Three Legendary Treasures of Japan, Also known as the Grass-Cutting Sword. Funny that in this game Saber is defined by water when in a lot of other media it is wind but thats Fate for you.

Random Fate Trivia #12 In a Famitsu interview with Takeuchi (co-founder of Type Moon and Fate Samurai Remnant's Design Supervisor) and Shou (Koei Tecmo Producer) and Wataru (Character Illustrator for Fate Samurai Remnant), they had a really tough time trying to figure out how to approach Archer. Firstly, Archer Zhou Yu was made as a homage to Koei Tecmo's famous series, Dynasty Warriors, and Takeuchi really wanted for fans to look at Archer and go "Oh yeah, this is a Koei game" as well as being a Fate/ game (the forward slash is included yes). When Takeuchi saw the finalized design for Zhou Yu, this is what he had to say: "I was at a loss for words when I first saw him, but going against the trends to make this character look so young is a very Fate/ idea. Seeing him looking so young was striking enough for me to okay it." His design had visual clues for the players to pick up who he is and his handsome/pretty face is deliberate, which is why Takeuchi gave them the thumbs up.

Saber: "I miss my wife, Iori. I miss her a lot. I'll be back." Iori: "....Where did that come from?"

I'll be honest, I thought I was pretty good on Japanese myths and history but Yamato Takeru was a total miss from me. I thought it was going to be his ancestor, Susanoo (which I knew from Digimon and Okami). The thing is, Gods themselves are almost never summoned as Servants because they are WAY too strong to be fit into a Servant class. To combat this, the mobile game actually DOES let Gods be summoned as servants... in the bodies of previous human characters from the series. It's one way to get both more playable characters that are call backs to the franchise, and get some Gods in the game.

I'm glad you asked your mods and guessed sabers name as Yamato is a pretty cool servant to me. A fun fact, you remember how you said king Arthur as a guess for boss, well that was fun for a few reasons but the important one for this game is that Yamato Takeru is called Japanese king Arthur because their legends have some structural similarities.

Circe has been mentioned since the first Fate Visual Novel where she was like Jinbei from One Piece where it took many years before she finally appeared with her official design in Fate Grand Order where she appear in one of the major chapters of the game. Additionally, Circe later got an Event in the game where you can see why she like Odysseus and I mean I can't argue with how he looks like.

Nico: And now back to feeding my new addiction.. You're not the only one, Nico. I binged all of Unlimited Blade Works in two days, ignored all my school work, and am trying *very* hard to ignore every merch site in front of me, all because of this LP. Help.

So about Kaya/Ototachibana-hime situation, they’re something known as a “Pseudo-Servant”, a Servant that gets summoned into a human vessel instead of materializing a body by themselves like a normal servant does. Pseudo Servant normally are reserved for summoning Divine Spirits (for example, Artemis or Ishtar) instead of a heroic Spirit simply because an normal Servant vessel is too weak to contain a literal god inside it. Normally, after becoming an Pseudo Servant, the personality of the Spirit and Host are fused together, creating a new personality with attributes from both parties, and whether it’s consensual or forceful, the more dominant personality of the two will have more of their traits in this fusion of two personalities. Kaya/Ototachibana-hime on the hand is a special case just for this game, since they can switch between the two personalities instead of being a fusion of the two like most Pseudo-Servant.

Saber can be summoned with Ototachibana-hime but Rama still can't be Sita. DAMN YOU TYPE-MOON!

The chapter 4 will have a point were you will make a decision that will effect what route the game will take. I recommend a save file so that you can do both routes.

That story about passing as a maid didn't just translate into saber looking androgynous, they never correct anyone ln what their actual gender is. Yamato "I'm whatever gender gets the assassination attempt done" takeru.

"clearly this game was designed with only japenese history in mind" -Nico Should we tell him that most of the servants hes met so far arent japanese or should I?

*Iori:* Wait, so you've been aware of what Kaya's doing, right? Does that include... *Ototachibana:* Yes, even what she think of you and Yamato. She has certainly made things... difficult. *Iori:* Yeah, I can imagine it's been hell for you. *Ototachibana:* It is indeed hellish to see your own spouse have an affar right in front of you... *Iori:* Wait, you think we're like that too!? I though you said Kaya was the one making things difficult! *Ototachibana:* She is. She's keeping me from killing you on the spot.

Oh my god... I thought this day would never come, I had to rewatch the scene with Circe giving it over multiple times just to ensure I wasn't hearing things... NICO ACTUALLY PRONOUNCED MOCHI CORRECTLY FOR ONCE!!!!

Just in case someone else doesn't say it, the "Samurai" whom Saber and Iori suspect was/were under the control of Tsuchi since the beginning does not refer to True Rider, but instead, the generic enemy human soldiers with yellow eyes you had encountered, before. Remember when these men were first encountered in their possessed, hollow state, one of the first suspects for the possession had been Shousetsu. After the dialogue Saber and Iori held with Shousetsu this episode, they realized that was entirely misled, and, since the start, Tsuchi and True Caster were behind the possession. As you observed, True Rider is entirely loyal to Shousetsu. Or, at least, WAS. We dunno what he's doing, now. Cleverly, because his face is hidden underneath a mask, we can't tell if his eyes were glowing yellow; the tell-tale sign of possession. Was he being controlled, or did he turn against Shousetsu of his own will...?

"the smell is different" he remembers it from when he was a pig

Hey Nico, as I'm unsure if it's going to be the next episode or the one after that, I'm leaving the comment on this one. You are going to be presented with an important choice, and for the sake of having the optimal experience, you should choose the one that says "Persue" in it. Can't say much more than that about it, but it's generally agreed that this is the best way to get all the content and the best choice for narrative delivery.

After what happen last episode and part way through this one, having Gramps turn into a pig was the best way to get saber and iori laughing.

Hime: it's been awhile Saber(walks up to her and caresses her face) Hime: huh? Saber tearfully: you're as beautiful as the day I lost you.

Just a reminder, but Musashi realized that Yui in this game is a girl, unlike the Yui from her orginal world. That was why she called Yui a boy before and what got you so confused in the first place.

Just to clarify about the Gilgamesh/Tsuchimikado thing, they were always separate roles. There's the "observer of the ritual" which is a separate thing from the Ruler class. Both are kinda referees in a sense, but Tsuchimikado is kinda the one who organizes the whole thing and is supposed to keep it a secret from the public, while the Ruler class servant is only summoned when something's gone wrong, and their role is supposed to be to serve as a sort of balancing force to level the playing field. Tsuchimikado being the observer has nothing to do with Gilgamesh being there.

Lancer being unaffected by the spell might have somthing to do with her allready corrupted by Chiemon

I like to imagine that Rogue Berserker in his head was like "Oh god damn it me so mad" when Tushimikadio casted the spell again

You know, i really like that so many of these masters have respect for each other during this time of unfairness due to Tsuchimikado. Dorothea, Dayu and Yui don't take advantage of the confusing situation and it was only when the fight was fair that they were willing to defeat another competitor. It's not a shining example of chivalry. But it's definitely nice for what it's worth

Without getting too into spoilers, if you want to see all the content the game has to offer in as few playthroughs as possible, I'll recommend picking the first option in a choice coming up. For a more detailed explanation: While you'll need to do at least two playthroughs no matter what, certain digressions are locked to a specific combo of two major choices. You already picked the first choice earlier in the game, so by picking the second option at the major decision coming up you'll lock yourself out of both sets of digressions and need to do two more playthroughs if you'd like to see them both.

Saber was saying all those random samurai (often with the glowing red eyes) who kept being sent after you was Tsuchimikado's doing. They thought it was Shosetsu because they started popping up around the time they were investigating his place. But nope, it was the evil wizard guy all along!

So, something rare that happens in Fate from time to time are people who embody or carry the Heroic Spirits in them. How this happens as well as how it manifests changes from case to case. But, generally speaking, the heroic spirit resides within them and is able to manifest themselves through them. Depending on certain factors this can be as long as their is a mana source they can draw on, to simply fusing with the person's being. This is referred to as a Demi-Servant or Pseudo-Servant In the Case of Kaya here, it's likely that Oto had a strong resonance with her and attached to her essence. Kaya herself likely allowed this (though unknowingly) by desiring to help her brother or via some other similar desire. As such, oto may posses her body, liking using Kaya's own mana alongside leylines to sustain her possession. That said, thanks to her being inside Kaya's body, she can't be possessed! Her essence isn't tied to a Leyline, it's tied to Kaya. meaning that so long as nothing happens to Kaya, Oto is fine. It can be a double edged sword, but in this case, it works to hide her from the enemy's grasp

I think Circe in this is kind of a mix between Circe and another Greek mythological figure, Calypso. Circe's fear of being abandoned doesn't really fit with anything I can recall of her story, but it did make me think of Calypso. Calypso was a nymph, also in the Odyssey, who fell in love with Odysseus and tried to keep him on her island, only for him to abandon her.

And now you know. Saber's name is Yamato Takeru. The second form of Naoto Shirogane's Persona. And a boss that appeared in Shin Megami Tensei IV that could be recruited in the later part of that game through special fusion. Probably a lot more awesomeness shown here than in Persona 4 and SMT IV. Fun Fact: Assassin also appeared in SMT IV, alongside Yamato Takeru. Though, Assassin looked a lot cooler in that game, in my opinion.

The funny thing about Kaya and Ototachibana is that technically it's a ghost possession, as servants are basically super ghosts. So she's, unknowingly, doing a spirit channeling like she was Maya Fey. The actual name for it in Fate is a pseudo-servant, mostly reserved for divine spirits (gods) because they're too poweful to be summoned like normal servants, or in this case because the waxing moon had already used too much energy summoning more than the normal 7 servants. There's another Fate entry where something similar happens...funnily enough with Jeanne (I mention it because it's not a spoiler, it happens at the start of that story). Pseudo-servants vessels always have some strong compatibility with the spirit possesing them, which you can clearly see with Kaya. She's a bit of a special case, though, as normally the human is aware of it and they either fuse their personalities, or the servant lends their powers to the human and stays completely silent, or it takes over completely for the duration of the war.

28:30 their refering not to a servent. but the samurai that kept getting back up and looked possesed that you kept encountering early on

I always knew Saber was Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.

Chain-summoning and Pseudo-Servant. Chain-summoning is pretty easy to understand. When you summoned a Servant, especially in a ritual or environment that’s rather unstable, you tends to also summoned something related to that particular Servant, be it their partner, or fated enemy. Pseudo-Servant is a bit of a controversial topic, mostly in Grand Order. Sometimes there are Servants that can’t be summoned due to either interference or their legend being so minor that they cannot be summoned on their own, or they are gods who are too powerful to put in a Servant container wholesale. You can still summoned them by making them possess a human body, either summoned with said body or possessing someone already there. There need to be a strong similarity between the Servant and the vessel for there to be a Pseudo-Servant. In Grand Order it’s a bit controversial since this is how they made iconic non-Servant characters playable as servants, wasting the potential of the servant possessing them. Fun fact: Zhou Yu is actually mentioned to be summonable as a Pseudo-Servant a few years back, but here he’s just summoned as himself.

Wait.... it took this long for Nico to realize Chiemon is Bakugo?

Feel like one reason I rlly got into Fate was it IS kinda like Danganronpa in a way... It's basically a killing game... Especially if you watch Fate/Zero there's like strong vibes of that since the masters in that one are like legit trying to kill each other... At least a lot of em are... Especially the protagonist...

Tsuchimikado’s place in the war was to be a referee of sorts like in a real holy grail war. A neutral party that oversees the servants and masters, however when he started constructing and adding extra servants (rogues) to grant his wish. It disrupted the balance of the war leading to Gilgamesh being summoned as a ruler to fulfill the position he abandoned. If that makes since lol. It’s not that Gilgamesh was the overseer and then tsuchimikado took over or anything but the other way around

I think when they talked about the samurai being controlled by Tsuchimikado what they meant was like... The shogun's samurai being controlled by Tsuchimikado through his influence over the shogunate...

The overseer of the holy grail war is not a Ruler, it's just whoever is appointed. Also the samurai saber was talking about were the humans with red eyes

The thing about Yamato's gender is that, despite it being a case of a historical male who occasionally crossdressed as a female as an act of subterfuge, that means very little for the Fate franchise. There's instances of genderswaps being something that was always the case, there's instances of genderswaps happening in the time of after becoming a servant, there's some servants who present as female and use male pronouns, there's some servants whose gender is actually "unknown" and go by they/them, and there's even some who change depending on mood or masters wishes. So while WE know Yamato Takeru is historically male in our real world, for Samurai Remnant, this doesn't actually provide any answer. Still a Theyber in the eyes of most of the fanbase lmao

This must be a strange reunion for Saber and Ototachibana considering the circumstances they are in now. One is a Servant for a master while the other is inhabiting their sister’s body. At the very least, they should hopefully get closure after fate tore them apart when they were alive.

I'm pretty sure the "Samurai" that Saber was referring to as being under Tsuchimikado's control were the mind-controlled enemies, and not Rider. Though I can see how you got there, given they're mostly recognized by their big Samurai armor. Also, I've really been enjoying this LP! Similarly to you, I hadn't touched any sort of Fate media before, but I'm really glad I bought this game and can experience it alongside this playthrough. I hadn't played a Musou either, but the combat system of this game has been really fun - especially on hard where the fights feel quite intense. Also! Not sure if you realized, but there's actually another LP in which you've met Tsuchimikado before, that being Paranormasight! It's actually quite funny how the same guy ended up being at the center of two completely separate battle royale scenarios, one involving curses, and the other heroic spirits...

Just for fun... a handful of justifications the Fate series has used to explain their genderbends: -As part of a "What if secretly girl?" scenario (this is OG Saber, possibly Musashi as well) - They're a character's girlfriend, sister, daughter or wife taking the role of the more familiar male figure - Cross dressed once in history (our FSR Saber here being but one example of this, funny enough) -Is someone else entirely, but because of thematic similarities they are now girl-shaped -Everyone else is a girl, why not? -They're from Space -The Artist Just Wanted To Draw A Waify Don't Judge -The CHARACTER THEMSELVES Wanted To Become A Waifu Don't Judge -Are actually not a girl OR a boy, because why would Servants need gender, anyway? -They do have a male form but either the male is from a scrapped project, another game or an NPC -Astolfo And those are the ones I can think of from the top of my head, though there's probably a couple more I'm missing. (Bonus, at least one of the Rogues sorta/kinda has a female representation of them in another series... and I am not talking about Musashi. First one to answer gets a thumbs up in real life)

The whole samurai thing is because saber and iori thought that Yui was using magecraft to mind control the human samurai that you encounter the one with glowing eyes.

Ototachibana-hime's design is interesting because it is a well-executed combination of fish and a bride (or that is how I interpret it). First of all, she is dressed in a white kimono, which is similar to wedding clothes. Another detail is the gown that she wears in her hair. However that very gown is made to resemble a fisher's net with starfish and seashells adorning her head. She also wears this scale-patterned clothing underneath her withe kimono. All in all her design feels a lot more comprehensible when we get to know her true identity of being Yamato Takeru's lover and also a sacrifice to quwll the sea god.

At least Circe managed to escape the island with Leo. Unfortunately to end up in a similar situation again here. So sad.

yes it is chiemon when you investigate his abandoned base there is a message that say you will not find anything good by staying here and you maybe turn into a pig(writhe by her)

Another reason why Tsuchimikado was able to become the ritual's observer is because he is the one who created and organized it

So again on Yui Shousetsu: Yui is a female, Musashi confirmed this earlier in the game and external canon media such as the Fate/Samurai Remnant Material Book further confirms this, just clearing it up since outside of when Musashi said it the game doesn't clear it up anymore since it expects the player to know other Fate/ characters in the same situation and get what's going on.

No, when Saber says "the person controlling the samurai", samurai doesn't mean Rider. If they meant Rider, they would say Rider. It means the random samurai who show up and attack you, who come back after being defeated. The ones with the red glowing eyes. Yui is Rider's Master, and Rider is being controlled by Tsuchimikado

the samurai the game is referring to is the random people with red eyes that where attacking you saber thought it was yui but it wasnt so no rider is bieng controlled hope that clears nicos confusion

"the samurai" was meant as plural, as in the hordes of mind-controlled, monotone speaking, nameless samurai that attacked you previously.

Something funny is that a good portion of the Fate fanbase accurately guessed the identity of a good amount of the servants introduced in this game based on the trailers and designs alone. Not me though, cause I'm too lazy.

Fun fact about Saber's appearance; Aside from being tied to their character, it's also a bit of a reused character design. In the fate series Some character designs (excluding clothing) are reused as a means to bring back people's favorites, but the characters themselves are often unrelated. If you keep delving into fate it won't be long before you find other characters that look very very similar to saber from this game.

So yeah Oto possessing Kaya. That is what is called a pseudo-Servant. Its a thing but mainly in the mobile game. Still it is not unheard of Servants possessing a human to manifest onto the world

7:41 true names of every servant is a number one importance 49:04 …

Neat song about Circe: "Circe's Spell" by Kalidia 🎶🐷🎵

38:39 Kaya: "Iori--... Brother!" So that was the Servant talking, not Kaya, understood. I now understand this situation.😂 At first I was like "This is super weird, no other situation like this has played out in this way", but no yeah, this is the same as all the other times that it's happened. The Servant is possessing her body 24/7, and this one is just "nice" enough to actually ACT like Kaya in front of Iori so he doesnt have to worry. Got it. Now watch, I'm gonna be proven wrong in the next 30 minutes.😂 Edit: lol, yep. Proven wrong in the next 30 minutes. 😂😂😂

1:38:29 I don’t think they were talking about Rider. They were talking about the other samurai who were attacking you. But I could be wrong about that.

Ototachibana-hime, staring at saber as they're eating: oh all my shinto gods, that smile is *_KAWAII_* - CRAP! i've been seen! im so busted!

By "samurai", Nico, they meant the hoards of possessed samurai that kept trying to attack Iori and Saber. They had originally believed that Yui was the one responsible, but it was actually Tsuchimikado. Yui is definitely the master of rider who happens to look like a classic samurai. I believe they usually refer to the hoards as ronin, which are just samurai without lords, so I can see where the mix-up happened

28:21 so nicob just to clarify I'm confused also but if you remember we thought yui was working with the shogunate and sending possesed samurai to kill us

28:00 When they are saying "the samurai" that they thought were being controlled by Yui, they mean the groups of samurai with red eyes that were being mind-controlled, I believe. Initially, it had appeared to Saber that Yui was the one controlling them, however as Iori and you yourself had pointed out previously, that seemed out of character. This is just confirming the fact that, like you had guessed, it was not Yui controlling people like puppets to send after you.

I believe the "Ame" in his Sword's name means rain in Japanese, I think. Hence the water abilities it has

So, Nico, something VERY funny I want to bring up about Crossdressing, Fate, and World Mythology. So as we know Yamato Takeru crossdressed which is in fact, yes why they have a gender neutral appearance in Fate and why Naoto has them as a Persona. As a note this is NOT THE ONLY CROSSDRESSING ASSASSIN IN MYTHOLOGY. Yamato Takeru is one. Another? Achilles (using the name Pyrrha) and Thor (though in his case it's pretty obvious he wasn't passing and only fooled the giants near him because of Loki) Funnily enough, while Fate has a fair number of genderbends which have no real life reason, another fair number that ARE genderbent or look neutral are because of their own legends having something like that.

"**** everybody else right? All we care about is what the people in our country know about this story." I wouldn't say that. There's still plenty of servant characters in the game who aren't Japanese, and the Japanese players may not know about. Servants like Lancer (Joan of Arc), Archer (Zhou Yu), Gilgamesh and Rouge Caster (Circe). Plus Rouge Archer, Rouge Lancer, Rouge Berserker, and Rouge Assassin, who I won't spoil their identities but at least confirm they aren't Japanese. So, players in Japan may need to do their own bout of research to know & understand some characters and references, especially if this happens to be their first Fate game. Side note: Saber's association with water is because their sword (Amenomurakumo-no-Tsurugi) was extracted from Orochi's tail by Susanoo, a storm god. Storms = water.

territory creation is just the ability to bend the area's terrain so that it's more advantageous for the user

So I need to explain this a tiny bit, the overseer of the ritual, that’s for the most part, a normal thing, as for him being a master at the same time, yeah that’s why this worked the way it did, they wanted to control things behind the scenes if they could, Gilgamesh is only the overseer in class, ruler, which comes only in weird circumstances, namely a crappy holy grail as well as an abundance of servants, and the thing I find funny is Gilgamesh has all the power and means to fix this if he wanted, partly cause ruler is a bit of a busted class for this circumstance since they get 2 command seals per other servant to use on any of them, and also cause he’s Gilgamesh

The samurai under Tsuchimikado's control are the grunts who were thought to have been mind controled by Shousetsu, not Rider

Iori: there sure a lot of pigs here. Circe: yup, that'll teach them to mess with me. Iori: those poor people...... *looks at a pig with blonde hair, wearing blue armor, a furry cape and an eyepatch* and who was this? Circe: oh, some boar king who was cursed to be a human, so I changed him back. Bizzlead and nicob: THATS NOT TRUE, CHANGE HIM BACK NOW!!!!!!!! Felix, pursuing his professors: I guess it is true: love makes you do stupid, crazy things.

The Masterpiece Senju Kannon carving kinda frustates me for the wrong reason because I accidentally got it 6 times when I was trying to get Bishamon for the Workshop upgrades.

I absolutely love this series and kinda hopes it be like KH where we continue to another fate game or series after this one

Ototachibanas clothes colour palette reminds me of Christmas

Gilgamesh is an arbitrator from the system's side. By imitating the Grail Wars, it copied over these sort of emergency measures. Rulers enjoy special privileges, most of which he doesn't have because this is an imitation, but simply being extra man power is already a counter measure. Tsuchimikado is the person who initiated the ritual to begin with. The planner, organizer, and a master. Since he's the one who made this, he has some admin privileges. He can play dirty if he wants to. In a usual Grail War, the Church does this since they have no desire for the Grail (because it's a fabrication of mages and not the real artifact), although there has been an exception but it was personal. In that case, since they didn't make the ritual they only referee, which they're ok with because they want to maintain public order.

25:28 for the whole rant about a participant of the ritual also being the referee so that's bs because he can cheat yeah . . . that happen in like almost every holy grail war, mages are so used to cheating it's actualy normal

essentially the current thinking is that lancer WASN'T the one mind controlling all the enemies during the search for Yui portion of the game, and instead it was Tsuchimikado. Which makes sense, after all if Yui wanted to send minions after you they already had samurai loyal to them, mind controllng them doesn't really add much if they're jsut gonna do it anyway regardless.

Otatchibana is the closest thing this game has to a Pseudo-Servant. Their portrayal of the historical/mythological figure really vary depending on who's in the driver seat. On one extreme, Ishtar is mainly her namesake without her worst attributes thanks to her host's influence. On the other hand, "Ganesha" is a Servant version of a CCC Master in everything but name.

Damn that void stance is broken

Depending on the entity, they may need to need to take a vessel to be a Servant, such as Ototachibana-hime here becoming a Caster. Note that because these Servants take a living vessel to incarnate through, they are categorized as Pseudo-Servants, as Servants normally wouldn't need a physical because their "Saint Graph"/"Spiritual Foundation"/"Spirit Origin" is worthy of proper Heroic Spirit that can physically manifest when summoned, while those that don't for one reason or another need to take on a host to be summoned. Unlike a Demi-Servant where the host has full control of themselves while being possessed by the Heroic Spirit, Pseudo-Servants share their consciousness with each other. My own speculation is lesser, but still important, characters of legends fall under the category that can't form a proper Heroic Spirit. Divine Spirits are gods that have lost much of their origins since the fall of the "Age of Gods", that being the case Divine Spirits are still the highest rank of Nature Spirit, which are Spirits that are of the natural world itself instead of just a legend written in ages past, being well past the requirement of power for summoning, if not being a bit too far beyond that, though are not always given enough for them to have much of a legend to them to be given a Heroic Spirit to manifest with on their own. I could tell more, but at that point I might as well just direct you to the Wiki.

16:29 I can kind of hear bakugos voice actor now that you mention it

I would like to point out that now that we clearly see that its a servant inside Kaya if you count the servant numbers don't match up. There are supposed to be 15 servants. There are 7 main servants with masters, and then 7 Rogue servants of the same respective class. But then you have Gilgamesh and Ototachibana-hime. So Gilgamesh is definitely working outside the bounds of the Waxing Moon Ritual.

watching the beginning and as nico has a good time with this game, I hope that in the future nico will at least play the visual novel of fate stay night and react to the characters, will be fucking awesome!

Nico. If you're still wondering about Ototachibana-hime and Kaya thing, here's the explanation. Kaya is a Demi-Servent, Huamans who had Heroic Spirits transplanted into them. The concept was used in Fate/Grand Order, the Game's lovable kohai Mashu Kyrielight was I think the first one being a Demi-servent. A similar concept first appears in a Fate spin-off called Fate/Faleid Liner Prisma Illya, it's basically Fate series magical girls. Instead of servants, they have Class cards which imbue the user with the skills and power of the servant and gives them a new "outfit" in typical magical girls' fair.

It's not that the referee was "supposed to be Gilgamesh". Gilgamesh is still here as a Ruler, that's still his role, he just doesn't give a shit. The Ritual still needs an observer on the outside, however, in order to actually do all the things needed to BEGIN the Ritual, because a Ruler can't do that, they're summoned with the rest. So there is always an outside overseer for any Holy Grail War or similar ritual, and that is supposed to be Tsuchimikado. Unfortunately, there's nobody around to keep HIM in line, so he's basically cheating by putting himself in the Ritual (which he isn't supposed to do). Something you'll find very fast in Fate: There's always that one dickhead who is just exploiting, loopholing, or otherwise ignoring every rule and is just fucking cheating his way through everything. It's a very funny pattern to see

so, ototachibana-hime is what's known as a pseudo servant, a concept introduced in the original fate's sequel game hollow ataraxia, a game i know little about, the basic premise is if a heroic spirit is to weak to be considered legendary they'd still be able to manifest in the body of a living person of the era or if there are other extenuating circumstances, there is an inverse for when the one trying to manifest is too powerful such as a god that's higher on the chain of command than Circie, like thor or Izanagi, so as to diminish their power enough that it's even possible in the first place, but in all it's a concept much more explored in fate grand order