Remove ads

Fate/Ethereal Order

Reader mode
Squirtodyle said:
Damn right you did, but you take that little ball of warmth you can feel in your chest and snuff it out immediately. It's manipulation, plain and simple. Animusphere probably just wants someone to get on your good side after remembering who she pissed off, now that you're armed again. You're too smart for that kind of simple manipulation, too smart to let a little praise go to your head.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

"HAH JOKES ON YOU YOU DUMBFUCK, YOU CAN'T TRICK ME. I KNOW I CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT."

Squirtodyle said:
"Mmh. He seems nice." You're not really sure what to say, and a part of you is bubbling with a little jealousy, but you stamp it down. Not the time or the place. "You both recognised me."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

this man in 9000% abandonment issues and clingy neediness by volume and i love it.

what a disaster.

ZerbanDaGreat said:
Seems pretty obvious really. The other two options are overtly self-deprecating and very uh... kneekjerk reactions, if that's the right phrase to use? This is the only one that has Ed actually think about things beyond the surface level, linking the idea of taking up the shield to protect people with the idea that his whole job is, in his mind, to protect people as well. If this is what he chose to do because he wants to do it, it stands to reason he should choose to do it again for the same reason, right?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Honestly I think I have to dissent here, 'cause to me it's more...Edward to an extent is just a nested doll of abandonment issues, attachment issues, and borderline arrogance matched to apocalyptically low self esteem. With a generous helping of guilt, self-and-external-loathing, and contempt seasoned on top of it all. He's kind of riffing on some of the same like- the same problem Shirou has in a sense. The idea that wanting to save people means that people need to first be in danger, to require saving. Edward wants to save people but it's up in the air how much of that is just because he's not a complete bastard and how much of that is because it's one of the few ways he can milk a few shots of dopamine out of his brain. It's one of the contradictions that underlies all his everything and- honestly Edward himself being made up of impressive contradictions and low-grade background radiation hypocrisy all being held together by a profound tension.

And at the root of it is just...fear, I think. Fear of being alone. Fear of not being alone. Fear of never being understood. Fear of being understood. Fear that people will see him and it won't be a grand rejection or nakedly unfair disdain or aristocratic condescension but a kinda "actually you're kind of just a damaged and morally mediocre person man". Fear of himself, fear of others, fear of people stronger than him, fear for people weaker than him. For all that he's a food processor on two legs Edward is kinda just constantly, tragically, afraid of everything and everyone including himself. He's afraid of dying but he's afraid of living too, so he's kind of just constantly held in this weird purgatory of Enlightened Misery. Above it all but not actually standing for anything. It's kinda telling imo that the same chains that are explicitly, like, often acting as shackles are also the things that hold him together and that he uses to interact with the world and hey they're weapons too.

That's not metaphorically loaded at all.

So with that in mind I think- yeah.

[X] Fear. You'll die if you don't take the shield, you can already see the cracks. You're the first one in the path of what's to come, after all. Without its power, you'll be burnt to nothingness before anyone else. You have to take the shield because you aren't ready to die.

Beneath what he tells himself and what he tells others and what he's constructed for himself after escaping the shadow of his family Edward's still just-

Afraid really. And his first instinct isn't a noble sense of duty or a knightly aspiration, it's just this kind of scarred up panicked animal scrabbling. Living just to live. Surviving just to survive. Trying to squeeze some good feelings out of cerebral tissue along the way but even that's more habit and a half-assed attempt to be a good person than anything.
 
Last edited:
[X] Shame. You failed, utterly. You ran when you could have helped, and when you so lazily returned, you did nothing but get caught off guard so you could limp your way into danger and die pretending you did anything. Now, you have a chance to atone. To make it right.

This option stands out to me as what is at the forefront of his mind after what have just happened. It matches well with what he does during the simulation too. He values life and lost of it, especially when he can prevent it, affects him greatly.

Fear on the other hand, everyone have those, there isn't anyone without fear that when you dig deep enough, you will find it. What people do in face to this fear speaks more than the feeling itself.
 
Last edited:
Okay @TenfoldShields has convinced me, changing my vote.

[X] Fear. You'll die if you don't take the shield, you can already see the cracks. You're the first one in the path of what's to come, after all. Without its power, you'll be burnt to nothingness before anyone else. You have to take the shield because you aren't ready to die.
 
[X] Shame. You failed, utterly. You ran when you could have helped, and when you so lazily returned, you did nothing but get caught off guard so you could limp your way into danger and die pretending you did anything. Now, you have a chance to atone. To make it right.
 
[X] Shame. You failed, utterly. You ran when you could have helped, and when you so lazily returned, you did nothing but get caught off guard so you could limp your way into danger and die pretending you did anything. Now, you have a chance to atone. To make it right.

Let's make the bad decisions
 
[X] Duty. You became an Enforcer to protect the innocent from the magi that preyed upon them. Whether it's someone taking them for their experiments, or someone trying to destroy the world, it's only a matter of scale. At the end of the day, you made your choice because you wanted to protect.
 
[X] Fear. You'll die if you don't take the shield, you can already see the cracks. You're the first one in the path of what's to come, after all. Without its power, you'll be burnt to nothingness before anyone else. You have to take the shield because you aren't ready to die.

To continue the analysis that @ZerbanDaGreat and @TenfoldShields put out I would also add that I feel that something that wasn't mentioned yet that edward feels that he needs to do something for others for them to give him the time of the day.
Look at her he classifys people and that he feels more comfortable with those where he can argue " I am doing something for them" which leads to "if I am of use, people will care for me." Which leads to the conflict also that part of his use is in being a killer, and so someone that is harder to aproach.
Which he then purts into his own narative framing as a lack of worth of himself and them.
 
[X] Fear. You'll die if you don't take the shield, you can already see the cracks. You're the first one in the path of what's to come, after all. Without its power, you'll be burnt to nothingness before anyone else. You have to take the shield because you aren't ready to die.
 
[X] Fear. You'll die if you don't take the shield, you can already see the cracks. You're the first one in the path of what's to come, after all. Without its power, you'll be burnt to nothingness before anyone else. You have to take the shield because you aren't ready to die.
 
@TenfoldShields raises a pretty excellent point and it's a dimension I'd never considered, I think he's got a way better read on Ed than I do, so after some deliberation I think I'll change my vote.

[X] Fear. You'll die if you don't take the shield, you can already see the cracks. You're the first one in the path of what's to come, after all. Without its power, you'll be burnt to nothingness before anyone else. You have to take the shield because you aren't ready to die.
 
This count isn't taking Zerban's revote into account, so we're actually tied right now
Adhoc vote count started by Squirtodyle on Dec 10, 2019 at 11:24 PM, finished with 31 posts and 29 votes.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
[X] Fear. You'll die if you don't take the shield, you can already see the cracks. You're the first one in the path of what's to come, after all. Without its power, you'll be burnt to nothingness before anyone else. You have to take the shield because you aren't ready to die.

listen to your brain stem
 
So what does a tied vote result in? Edward just not knowing the answer or something?
 
Four hours and twenty minutes left to vote, and we still have a tie.

I fully expect someone to vote Duty just to fuck with me at this point, because you're all evil. :mad::mad::mad:

(i love all my voters)
 
I've been putting off making a long response but I figure I should just get my vote in before it's too late

[X] Duty. You became an Enforcer to protect the innocent from the magi that preyed upon them. Whether it's someone taking them for their experiments, or someone trying to destroy the world, it's only a matter of scale. At the end of the day, you made your choice because you wanted to protect.

Save Matthew or else
 
[X] Duty. You became an Enforcer to protect the innocent from the magi that preyed upon them. Whether it's someone taking them for their experiments, or someone trying to destroy the world, it's only a matter of scale. At the end of the day, you made your choice because you wanted to protect.
 
[X] Duty. You became an Enforcer to protect the innocent from the magi that preyed upon them. Whether it's someone taking them for their experiments, or someone trying to destroy the world, it's only a matter of scale. At the end of the day, you made your choice because you wanted to protect.
 
Belatedly, voting closed at midnight and the winner was Duty.

Ideally I'll have a post up tomorrow, but we'll see how we go, still two finals left. I appreciate you all waiting so long!
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top