Recollections of Babylon: Part Twenty (Part Three)

Mashu:

Ms...Quetzalcoatl...

Oh... Her flames have been extinguished, and she's falling into the black sea...

Romani:

Beast II was forced back, but it was not wounded at all...

The ultimate technique of Quetzalcoatl, her last phantasm, could not break the horn of Tiamat...

Tiamat:

AAAAAAAA!!!

Romani:

Chaos Tide, resurgent! Beast II is counterattacking.

This isn't good. The teeth of Utnapishtim will -

Mashu:

The Chaos Tide is coming here too! Many Lahmu are approaching. Sempai, please give orders!

I, I'm not going to just run away like this!

(Battle)

---

Romani:

The teeth of Utnapishtim is gone! The Chaos Tide is flowing towards Uruk!

Damn it, I'm detecting a massive magical signature behind Beast II! Its skeletons are expanding. It's going to fly!

Ishtar! Can't you do anything?!

Aren't you supposed to be the mistress of heaven? This is your domain! The skies of Mesopotamia!

Ishtar:

If I could do something don't you think I'd have done something? My bow doesn't work on primordial gods!

Mashu:

Tiamat is flying! She's headed towards Uruk - but wait!

That doesn't look right. There's something in the Chaos Tide, That is -

Tiamat:

AAAAAA!!

Mashu:

Black snakes??

Many black snakes have appeared! They've wrapped up Tiamat! She's fallen to the ground! That's -

Ishtar:

S-so strong! To beat mother in a contest of strength ...?!

What's going on? What's that thing? Where is it from?

Lahmu:

Let me go. Let me go let me go let me go!

Dirty, ugly... fake!

Mashu:

Ah! Master!

Gorgon:

...Hmph. You are the ones that are ugly.

You are nothing more than clay, without individual will. How dare you laugh like humans?

Romani:

Unbelievable! It's Gorgon! The spiritual core reaction is from Gorgon!

Gudako, be careful! Gorgon is near!

Gudako:

...No, Doctor, please be quiet.

(Pause)

Gorgon:

.......

(Pause)

Gudako:

....

(Pause)

Gudako:

...Thank you, Gorgon.

Gudako:

Please, please help us!

Gorgon:

...Does it look like I know you?

I am taking revenge against Tiamat out of my own choice, so don't add any more troubles to me, Gudako.

Lahmu:

(Angry Lahmu noises)

---

Gorgon:

Hmph, looks like my avatars can't hold her for long. Must I use my own snake's body...?

Mashu:

...Goddess Gorgon, are you working together with us?

Gorgon:

...Did I not say you're an eyesore?

Look, you will only get in my way here. It's pointless to just stand here, so hurry up and go back to Uruk.

Leave it to me to break Tiamat's wings. She needs to be taught a lesson on how she should be crawling on the ground!

Mashu:

B-but, let's work together! Let us help you!

Gorgon:

Don't make me laugh. You can't even defeat the Lahmu.

Quetzalcoatl's gone, and you, you're already beat-up.

Look at the fingertips of your master over there. She's about to die because her magic circuits are about to burn out.

Look at you. How sad you look, you can barely hold up that shield.

If you are a weakling, then do what weaklings are supposed to do! Go on! Go, go home! Get out of here!

Mashu:

...That...

Gudako:

...Let's go back, Mashu.

Gudako:

...Can I leave it to you, then?

Gorgon:

Do I need you to tell me that? Hurry and go!

Romani:

The fourth Chaos Tide is here! If you stay, you'll be swallowed up!

Mashu, Gudako, hurry and go! Listen to Gorgon. Right now, the only thing for you to do is run!

Ishtar:

Yeah, let's leave, Mashu. The dinosaurs of Quetzalcoatl are no more, so you're going to have to hold Gudako in your arms and run.

...Or you could give her to me, I can give her a ride. But, I will tell you, if you put her on my boat, then she's my property.

Even if this singularity gets repaired, I'm not going to return her to Chaldea.

Gudako:

Mashu, let's go.

Mashu:

But! B-but, sempai! Ms. Gorgon, she's An -

Gudako:

Don't say it.

Mashu (is about to cry):

Wah...!

Sniff, wwwww...!!

(Gudako and Mashu are the only one left)

Gorgon:

Go. No need to say farewell.

That's because, I don't know you. I don't know any of you!

Gudako:

... Goodbye, then, Gorgon.

Gudako:

As always, thank you. Thank you so much.

(Leaves)

Gorgon:

(Gorgon lets out a beautiful smile)

...Speaking of which.

I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to the others.

But, you know, that flower wreath? I wore it at last.

For me, that is enough.

Tiamat! I am allowing Gudako and the others to flee to Uruk not so that they can flee from you.

I simply do not -

I simply do not want them to see just how terrible of a monster I have become.

For if they see me like this, I will surely cause unnecessary pain in their hearts.

But you! You, I shall truly inflict pain and misery. Consider this a gift, on behalf of acting as your proxy.

This enormous snake body of mine shall drag the dragon of earth back to the ground!

Composite divinity, critical mass fusion!

Let all be dissolved! Forced Seal: Pandemonium Cetus!!

(Noble Phantasm)

Tiamat:

AAAaaaaaaaaa!!!

(Tiamat art changes)

---

Mashu:

...The right horn of Tiamat is destroyed!

Goddess Gorgon, visual confirmation... She's gone.

But...Tiamat is still... alive...

Romani:

I know you're all greatly saddened, but hurry and run!

The fifth wave is coming, and there's no more defenses against it. The black mud is going to come at last!

Hurry and flee to the wall before it's too late! Hurry!

Mashu:

...Ugh, yes...

Master, please forgive me for being disrespectful!

But, this is precious time that Ms. Quetzalcoatl and Ms. Gorgon bought for us. We can't afford to waste any of it!

---

Bel Lahmu:

Kekekeke! Kekekekekekekeke!!

Funny! Futile!

Two goddesses to have met their ends like that!

Ten minutes! Ten minutes! Just ten minutes!

A tiny delay. A tiny delay a tiny delay!!

Gilgamesh:

Filthy inferior thing.

No matter how many lines it parrots, it'll forever be a retard.

For them to have accomplished this much, that is truly the greatest of accomplishments.

...So there are useful and hard-working ones among the goddesses too. Who would have thought that Tiamat could fly? To be able to stop that was a miracle.

Without those two's hard-fought battles, Uruk would have fallen right there and then.

But, even so, there is no more time.

Hey, that other useless goddess! How are things? Tiamat will arrive in less than two hours!

Ereshkigal:

Don't make it so hard on me! I'm plugging as much mana as I can, but it's too big! Even if we don't care about the underworld and ram everything through, I'm racking my brains to come up with the proper solution!

It won't take long, but we can't open the gates just yet!

Gilgamesh:

Ugh...!

So... This is it, destiny cannot be altered after all?

No. Not that at all. Because those ones are still trying hard on everyone's behalf.

Alright, then.

Come at me, Tiamat!

With all the might of Uruk, I, the king, shall cast you back into the imaginary world!

Hurry back, Master of Chaldea! It's time for you to witness Uruk's greatest all-in gambit!

(Fades to black, chapter ends)

---

Okay. Some thoughts. Apologies. This is a tad long, but since I can no longer access the game, I might as well channel my fan-spirit into this instead.

This entire chapter was a heart-wrenching string of heroism. Every single character I felt like ... just, they truly livened up the drama of F/GO.

Except one.

Ishtar's pettiness knows no bounds. Wow. Let me recap for a bit. Her boat can carry at least one more person. She could have given Quetzalcoatl a ride (or even kept Gudako near her since she's highly mobile and that thing is basically like an F22 fighting propeller planes), but instead she literally lurked around that battle and again... didn't do anything.

And she spent her entire dialogues here literally salty over everyone else.

...Did she (or Nasu) not remember that she's the fucking PATRON GODDESS of Uruk?

These are her people. Uruk, more so than anything else, is her city. That "idiot" is supposed to be the king of her city.

I didn't have much of a positive opinion, but I'll be honest, it's pretty flatly negative now. The battle with Quetzalcoatl using her noble phantasm... If you think about the feats of speed she's displayed so far, she can easily get out of the way. It's just a few hundred meters and if Mashu and Gudako can do it on foot (they got off the dinosaurs), Ishtar - who's on the fastest thing in all of Mesopotamia - could definitely get out.

You don't think she might have been able to help Quetzalcoatl a bit? Like, I dunno, shoot down some of those Lahmu? Like she was doing earlier in the chapter? There's no sound effect or any indication that she's helping, and given what she's been doing in the entire story, my hopes aren't up.

Also the bit about her bow. I've got something to say about that next chapter. Won't say anything here for now.

I don't know if this is intentional on Nasu's part or an accidental neglect, but even one line demonstrating her doing SOMETHING would have made that much better.

And I've just about had it with the banter. It's not fun at all. It's just childish. The bit about anyone riding on her boat becomes her property isn't funny and if I can continue with my tantrum here, I hope Gudako (or Gudao) pick Ereshkigal over her. Seriously.

If she had any sense for the gravity of the situation she'd have taken Gudako and ran rather than having her continue with Mashu (on foot or otherwise).

Note that Gorgon called out both Mashu and Gudako's condition, but didn't even spare her another glance. Nasu is nothing if not good at keeping an eye to detail. I don't think this is unintentional at all.

By the way? Gorgon-Ana is a far far far, far better tsundere (on the tsun side) than Ishtar is in this chapter.

I think on one hand, it shows just how obscenely powerful Tiamat is. On the other hand, it actually shows how powerful our allies were as well. It's just convenient that both Quetzalcoatl and Gorgon are more or less on the verge of death. If either one of them is at full power (or at least not critically injured), then I think Tiamat would have been held off for at least that much longer.

Look, there was so much heroic sacrifice in this chapter that even Gilgamesh was impressed and inspired by their actions. Sure, Quetzalcoatl's thing was a bit cheesy, but I have to admit, seeing Gorgon reappear...

Normally I would have said, waitaminute, how and why???

But, remember what I said about Ana's character. I made the argument that Ana is a great character in part because what we, the readers, know about Rider and everything that has happened to her. In that sense, then, having Ana reappear is a truly fitting end. It doesn't make the legend of Medusa in TM-verse anymore tragic, but she even managed to warm the heart of someone who's supposed to be pure vengeance.

It's thematically appropriate. The beasts are such great threats that even the spirit of vengeance joins the side of humanity. As Merlin would have said, there's no more beautiful story than that.

If I could do F/GO again, I would have liked to roll for Gorgon and Ana...