Hereafter [Worm x Fate/Grand Order]

[rafuki22]

Christ, is it too much to ask for her to even be able to beat the shit out of D-rank Servants like Mata Hari?

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She can, probably, alredy do that(If you ignore her noble phantasm).

And i don't have a problem with Taylor not being the hypercompetent genius munchinker that the Worm fandom expects her to be all the time, maybe this is my cynism speaking after watching too many Worm fanfics, but i actually think that most people just want to see Taylor be badass and show her munchinkry to the Nasuverse because they like and project on her and i'm fine with not seeing that.

...But, yes, she could have learned something, altough realisticly i don't see things changing a great deal in the short time they have.

Despite her distinctive voice, Taylor has absolutely no personal agency due to having no personal capability in a world (FGO) founded on powerlevels, the equivalent of being a normal human in DBZ. If she's in trouble, ultimately the only thing she can ever do is to call for help from someone else, with no exception, no matter the level of the enemy.

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So did Ritsuka(and Hakuno), and they didn't do too bad.

And i suppose that Bael will not be angry this time because he would think "they only won because of this impressive Beast candidate guiding them".

 

[Syqadelic]

"The only other thing I'm hearing is 'wait and hope,' and that's the same as leaving him to die!"

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"Wait and hope," Marie said wearily, "that either Ritsuka has become strong enough to make it through this or Da Vinci will figure out how to break it herself."

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Interesting that they're literally saying "Wait and hope", the actual theme of the Count of Monte Cristo. Oh, and that it's the name of the next chapter, too.

It's not exactly something that I hear that often in the common vernacular.

 

[Finagle007]

Just pointing out, if HS Nero can and does empower human Nero, why exactly can't HS Taylor empower human Taylor? People in the past were better, yes, but in the AoH, it's not to the extent of fighting Servants without some superpowered non-human bloodline or insane levels of training, neither which Nero has.

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The problem is that there are two seperate and distinct Heroic Spirits Nero Claudius - the Nero we know and love, and Draco the Beast. But there's only one possible Heroic Spirit Taylor Hebert - namely, Khepri. We don't WANT Taylor becoming more like Khepri, Taylor doesn't want to become more like Khepri, so it ain't happening.

 

[Impstar]

I do want to see Taylor lean more into learning Primeval Runes. If she can just reproduce the flashbang runes, she could potentially have her swarm carry them into actual Servant fights and make a tangible difference there, and that's just using the rune she's already made use of in the past (albeit someone else made them for her). Aife's ability to raise heroes appears to be borderline non-existent in this class because the twins, for all the instruction she's given them, are very much baseline humans still (albeit probably way more in shape and fit than your average human). That's not the path to getting superhuman anytime in their timeframe. Somehow enhancing her bugs to the point where they don't explode by getting too close to a Servant fight might also add utility.

 

[veekie]

You can literally delude yourself into unlimited cosmic power in the Nasuverse. Take Soujuurou for instance, he spent his life in the mountains and was literally the most powerful Fate/ protagonist at the beginning, but gradually became weaker as he adjusted to civilization and limited himself to the common sense of man.

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Usually at some terrible cost to humaning though, along with consequences to everyone. Its Khepri all over again.


Sometimes you have to push that button, but you'd best make sure you actually have to

 

[James D. Fawkes]

I do want to see Taylor lean more into learning Primeval Runes. If she can just reproduce the flashbang runes, she could potentially have her swarm carry them into actual Servant fights and make a tangible difference there, and that's just using the rune she's already made use of in the past (albeit someone else made them for her). Aife's ability to raise heroes appears to be borderline non-existent in this class because the twins, for all the instruction she's given them, are very much baseline humans still (albeit probably way more in shape and fit than your average human). That's not the path to getting superhuman anytime in their timeframe. Somehow enhancing her bugs to the point where they don't explode by getting too close to a Servant fight might also add utility.

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It's as she says when she's originally introduced: when she was summoned, Aife's form was focused almost exclusively on her martial aspects, to the detriment of her abilities as a teacher. She can still teach and impart her skills, but she doesn't get any of the bonuses that come from things like actual Skills and Noble Phantasms, including the ability to speed up and smooth out the learning curves.

It's one area where I think Nasu kinda nerfed Scathach. Maybe, as a proper Caster version, she would have gotten a more fitting expression of it, but since Aife and Sca were basically tutelary gods, their teaching abilities (and the Skills and Noble Phantasms reflecting them) should be much closer to something like an Authority. Specifically because I didn't want Taylor going fisticuffs with Servants, I made the narrative choice to limit the expression of that in this version of Aife, but the greater focus on her as a warlord also made her a bit fiercer as a direct combatant.

In other words, Aife is too strong, but she's already been nerfed.

 

[Cookiesndip]

Specifically because I didn't want Taylor going fisticuffs with Servants, I made the narrative choice to limit the expression of that in this version of Aife, but the greater focus on her as a warlord also made her a bit fiercer as a direct combatant.

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More artificial nerfs and crippling Taylor? But, like why even? Even if Aife wasn't nerfed and there was an actual teacher Servant, Taylor wouldn't be fighting anything above a floor-tier Servant in melee any time soon, they're still Servants. It just makes her relevant and able to do more than cheerlead or do stuff like fight phantasmal beasts, but that can't possibly be allowed. Hopefully she summons a real trainer during this round of summons, but like, I'm not exactly holding my breath on the progression front.

It's like you took every excuse to strip every opportunity for power, agency, advancement, or even utility from Taylor, then stripped out her drive to improve or learn one iota to ensure she never moved beyond being worse than her canon self. No seriously, she only recently regained her bug control, doesn't have Amy's repeater bugs or anything she engineered, or anything even vaguely useful on that metric. She hasn't learned any magecraft, she hasn't trained even a bit, or even gained anything from training with fucking Servants. For being in London, that's just depressing at this point. Skitter/Weaver is literally better than her right now.

She may as well just be purely canon Ritsuka at this point on every level, tbh, she has the exact same role, the exact same level of capability, the exact same level of agency, the exact same abilities (sans insect control, which is utterly useless), and the exact same lack of improvement so there's absolutely nothing distinctive about her aside from her personality, and any attempt at her gaining any level of agency or relevance fails horribly (see: wyvern). Fundamentally, the differences between the two are minor at best at this juncture. It just feels like a total waste of using Taylor's character here at all, like she could be a peggy-sued Ritsuka and there would only be the most tiny of changes to the narrative, mostly flavoring and internal dialogue. I'm not looking for a memetic Taylor here, but it's like you ripped away almost all of more interesting approaches to a FGO Taylor, of a heavily seasoned human trying to improve with the help of Servants to be more than a mere spectator and claw her way into fighting on a higher level against enemies that outstrip her on every level, to instead retread canon, with some minor changes and added details while ripping away core character traits of the MC to justify her being Ritsuka v2.

 

[Kirai]

She may as well just be purely canon Ritsuka at this point on every level, tbh, she has the exact same role, the exact same level of capability, the exact same level of agency, the exact same abilities (sans insect control, which is utterly useless), and the exact same lack of improvement so there's absolutely nothing distinctive about her aside from her personality, and any attempt at her gaining any level of agency or relevance fails horribly (see: wyvern).

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I feel like you're focusing on a story that the author isn't trying to tell. The story I believe the author is trying to tell is one of recovery, where do you go when you've hit the top and slammed back into the bottom? When your previous life fell apart and you have to reconstitute some kind of meaning.

Having Taylor immediately going into physically improving, gaining new abilities and powers, personality-wise would be backsliding. The point of this story isn't Taylor vs the Nasuverse, it's of Taylor's growth into a more sustainable lifestyle. Not a lifestyle of focused improvement in a mad-dash to prevent the apocalypse.

Having a mostly powerless Taylor helps drive this home, and shows her value lies in her experiences and knowledge, rather than her abilities. It also allows her to have an interesting teacher/student relationship with Ritsuka/Rika, which I really appreciate.

 

[SaltyWaffles]

I feel like you're focusing on a story that the author isn't trying to tell. The story I believe the author is trying to tell is one of recovery, where do you go when you've hit the top and slammed back into the bottom? When your previous life fell apart and you have to reconstitute some kind of meaning.

Having Taylor immediately going into physically improving, gaining new abilities and powers, personality-wise would be backsliding. The point of this story isn't Taylor vs the Nasuverse, it's of Taylor's growth into a more sustainable lifestyle. Not a lifestyle of focused improvement in a mad-dash to prevent the apocalypse.

Having a mostly powerless Taylor helps drive this home, and shows her value lies in her experiences and knowledge, rather than her abilities. It also allows her to have an interesting teacher/student relationship with Ritsuka/Rika, which I really appreciate.

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I think the main issue is that Taylor's experience and knowledge haven't really changed anything, though. The only substantial divergence is saving Marie, and that's it. And you can argue that things will change not too far from now, but holy shit, we're so far into the story and there's only been one divergence thus far.

Things have stuck pretty damned closely to the rails, so Taylor's experiences and knowledge aren't really counting for anything.

 

[Kirai]

I think the main issue is that Taylor's experience and knowledge haven't really changed anything, though. The only substantial divergence is saving Marie, and that's it. And you can argue that things will change not too far from now, but holy shit, we're so far into the story and there's only been one divergence thus far.

Things have stuck pretty damned closely to the rails, so Taylor's experiences and knowledge aren't really counting for anything.

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Mm, that's a decent point. I will clarify though, I haven't actually seen much of FGO and it's canon, I've only read Worm and watched F/SN lol. What interests me the most is the character relationships and Taylor's personal growth as a person, which is why I'm seeing the story through that lens.

 

[Impstar]

Things have stuck pretty damned closely to the rails, so Taylor's experiences and knowledge aren't really counting for anything.

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To be fair what should they be changing? It's not like the big bad is going to change plans he's spent millennia on just because Taylor is here. So the singularities themselves will be the same. The events in the singularities have already been subject to change, and making things change for the better is difficult when in canon things already turned out about as well as they reasonably could.

 

[James D. Fawkes]

Super Bajiquan + Command Spells as single-use mystic codes was enough for Kirei 10 years past his prime to fight against Cursed Arm Hassan pretty evenly.

Modern rune magic stitched into her clothes + basic boxing is enough for Bazett to match that.

Medea's reinforcement + an unconventional fighting style based upon feints and indirect strikes lets Kuzuki manhandle Saber.

Primordial Runes + Ancient Celtic martial arts would absolutely let Taylor punch (no pun intended) way outside her weight class. That's why I'm being super careful about how much of that she gets, because otherwise, she really can start fighting Servants fairly evenly. And with her knife, she's got a decent shot at killing them all on her own.

To be fair what should they be changing? It's not like the big bad is going to change plans he's spent millennia on just because Taylor is here. So the singularities themselves will be the same. The events in the singularities have already been subject to change, and making things change for the better is difficult when in canon things already turned out about as well as they reasonably could.

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My big gripe about Nasu's style of storytelling. The entire sequence of events is usually such a finally balanced tower of dominoes that trying to meaningfully alter them within the narrative of the original story often just throws later beats completely out of whack. Okeanos frustrated the absolute fuck out of me because of that. I tried to put in subtle twists so that things felt a little fresh and new — see the other pirates, like Bellamy and Captain Kidd, and Medea splitting herself in half, and Davy Jones — but I didn't have as much leeway as I wanted. I also didn't get as much info about Hippolyta as I wanted by the time she got to show up on screen either, so she got to do a lot of standing around.

I've said before, but I'm saving a lot of big stuff for America, and then a few more things for Babylonia. First, however, we have to get through London, and I'll be starting that properly...maybe next week, but at the latest, the end of the month. Unless of course you consider the interlude I did last week to be the start of London, since it follows a Caster Servant summoned into the Singularity trying to find his bearings in the fog.

 

[Finagle007]

Modern rune magic stitched into her clothes + basic boxing is enough for Bazett to match that.

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Bazett also has a Rune of Resurrection set to trigger if/when her heart stops beating. Don't think that counts as a modern Rune. Also, she has a Divine Construct NP.

 

[James D. Fawkes]

Bazett also has a Rune of Resurrection set to trigger if/when her heart stops beating. Don't think that counts as a modern Rune. Also, she has a Divine Construct NP.

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The Rune of Resurrection can be written off as Prisma being Prisma. If she had that in FSN canon, Bazett would've been up and fighting Kirei for Cu's contract instead of bleeding out on the mansion floor and getting into contracts with Angra Mainyu to live out time loops.

Fragarach is also a weapon she can use a limited number of times in a limited set of circumstances. It's almost useless against Kirei and in a fist fight with any Servant.

 

[Impstar]

Primordial Runes + Ancient Celtic martial arts would absolutely let Taylor punch (no pun intended) way outside her weight class. That's why I'm being super careful about how much of that she gets, because otherwise, she really can start fighting Servants fairly evenly. And with her knife, she's got a decent shot at killing them all on her own.

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I think the biggest point of contention is... why is this a bad thing? Outside of an Assassin or Caster class servant, her odds of beating anyone with this combination of abilities (and even then a number of Casters and Assassins would eat her for breakfast) are low, she would not be carrying a singularity on her back by any stretch of the word.

 

[veekie]

The Rune of Resurrection can be written off as Prisma being Prisma. If she had that in FSN canon, Bazett would've been up and fighting Kirei for Cu's contract instead of bleeding out on the mansion floor and getting into contracts with Angra Mainyu to live out time loops.

Fragarach is also a weapon she can use a limited number of times in a limited set of circumstances. It's almost useless against Kirei and in a fist fight with any Servant.

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Wasn't it just a powerful contingency healing rather than true resurrection?
It only fixes the physical trauma after all, and I don't think she can keep it up indefinitely, she'd have to prepare and empower it specificially if she expects she might die.

 

[Black Duke]

Part of the reason Kuzuki was able to match saber was because Shirou greatly limited her abilities by being a poor master. If Kiritsugu had been her master there, saber probably would have slaughtered him.

But on the other hand, Rin was able to run up and beat up Medea and take her lunch money with just reinforcement.

The thing about most fights in the nasuverse, is that the raw power levels usually don't end up mattering too much. The winner is often determined by some obscure magicbable reason. Like, you could justify anyone winning any matchup as long as you came up with some kind of convoluted explanation for it, and it wouldn't be out of place for nasu.

So, for me at least, I could see it work where Taylor and / or the twins get some power ups, but they don't really make a meaningful difference. Either because the power of mystery had waned, so they aren't able to match the pinnacle of feats with cletic martial arts or what have you, or maybe the enemies they face are powered directly by the grail / demon god / whatever else and that means the masters aren't effective. That sort of reasoning could even be used to justify letting the masters make direct combat contributions without training power ups; they get temporarily buffed by a friendly caster or something and suddenly they can fight on the level of a servant. The nasuverse is basically made up of exceptions to the rules, so basically any exception you as an author want to make wouldn't be unprecedented.

 

[readerdreamer]

Modern rune magic stitched into her clothes + basic boxing is enough for Bazett to match that.

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This greatly underestimates Bazett's skillset. There's a reason why she's one of the best Enforcers, and it's not just her Fragarach, and this is even more exemplified by the fact that Kirei decided to backstab and ambush her instead of confronting her directly to steal her Command Seals despite being a former Executor himself.

Setting aside the ridiculousness of her Prisma version where she defeated a Mud empowered version of Gilgamesh largely by herself, she was still strong enough to toe to toe with Servants in Hollow Ataraxia. Sure, the time loops helped but no amount of timeloops would've helped her if she herself wasn't already punching out of her weight class already. I believe Nasu even mentioned at one point that if she hadn't been ambushed by Kirei, none of the other Grail War participants would've stood a chance between Cu, Bazett, and Fragarach.

 

[Cookiesndip]

I think the biggest point of contention is... why is this a bad thing? Outside of an Assassin or Caster class servant, her odds of beating anyone with this combination of abilities (and even then a number of Casters and Assassins would eat her for breakfast) are low, she would not be carrying a singularity on her back by any stretch of the word.

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This, like, why is it a bad thing if Taylor can actually do anything against Servants? It's not like she's going to be 1v1ing Heracles, Artoria, or goddesses any time soon, so like, why not let her able to fight and actually contribute meaningfully, instead of artificially crippling Taylor to be far weaker than her canon self, while cutting off any and all paths of advancement even halfway through the entire story, while warping Taylor to be passive and content with her weakness? It's even more of a joke when you take into account the canon Servant progression. Given by OP's attitude I know they won't ever permit Taylor anything vaguely powerful, useful or even effective, so I've basically given up on her ever doing more than fufilling redundant useless roles at levels far below the weakest of Servants, and being essentially Ritsuka with a different attitude, a really disappointing direction tbh.

The singularities scale crazily in terms of power levels, and magecraft is all about esoterics combating esoterics, this includes alot of Shirou's fights which tend to be more physical than most. So why not let Taylor be able to do things? Christ almighty, the reasoning is absurd. OP says they're 'being careful' about her power progression, but she hasn't had even an iota of progression yet, she's far weaker than she was in Worm! The narrative feels actively abusive to Taylor, shoehorning her into a permanent hollow, empty role as a battery.

She isn't even learning magecraft, and it's not like she's permitted gifts such as even remote talent in anything, on any level, just a mediocre walking battery all the way down. I mean, if OP was vaguely sensible earlier, they'd have built Taylor into a utility powerhouse focusing on runes. Now, given how far we are in the singularities? She'd need temporal compression or literal bullshit to teach her anything even vaguely useful new, best we might get is some blaise equipment and expendible bugs thst never do shit.

 

[catDreaming]

This, like, why is it a bad thing if Taylor can actually do anything against Servants? It's not like she's going to be 1v1ing Heracles, Artoria, or goddesses any time soon, so like, why not let her able to fight and actually contribute meaningfully, instead of artificially crippling Taylor to be far weaker than her canon self, while cutting off any and all paths of advancement even halfway through the entire story, while forcing Taylor to be passive and content with her weakness? It's even more of a joke when you take into account the canon Servant progression. Given by OP's attitude I know they won't give Taylor anything vaguely powerful, useful or even effective, so I've basically given up on her ever doing more than fufilling redundant useless roles at levels far below the weakest of Servants, and being essentially Ritsuka with a different attitude.

The singularities scale crazily in terms of power levels, and magecraft is all about esoterics combatting esoterics, this includes alot of Shirou's fights. So why not let Taylor be able to do things? Christ almighty, the reasoning is absurd. OP says they're 'being careful' about her power progression, but she hasn't had an iota of progression, she's far weaker than she was in Worm!

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To be quite honest, you aren't describing progression in terms of Taylor as a character. You're describing progression in terms of an RPG, and ignoring the fact that this story pretty clearly isn't meant to be 'Taylor as the protagonist of Fate/Grand Order'.

Granted, I also find the story as it is pretty interesting. Taylor is, perhaps not quickly and definitely not easily, learning how to be human again in my eyes. She certainly isn't learning how to be normal again, though that could still come and might be an interesting story in it's own right, but the story is stated in the foreword to be explictly Post-Golden Morning. Taylor has done her time as the hero who saved/helped save her own world; Now she's learning how to live in a world while helping others do the same. She doesn't need to be powerful to do that. And if she's overshadowed by Heroic Spirits, well, so are Rika and Ritsuka. I certainly don't see you complaining that the main characters of Fate/Grand Order are being left unable to face down the incarnate spirits of humanity's heroes on their lonesome.

 

[Cookiesndip]

To be quite honest, you aren't describing progression in terms of Taylor as a character. You're describing progression in terms of an RPG, and ignoring the fact that this story pretty clearly isn't meant to be 'Taylor as the protagonist of Fate/Grand Order'.

Granted, I also find the story as it is pretty interesting. Taylor is, perhaps not quickly and definitely not easily, learning how to be human again in my eyes. She certainly isn't learning how to be normal again, though that could still come and might be an interesting story in it's own right, but the story is stated in the foreword to be explictly Post-Golden Morning. Taylor has done her time as the hero who saved/helped save her own world; Now she's learning how to live in a world while helping others do the same. She doesn't need to be powerful to do that. And if she's overshadowed by Heroic Spirits, well, so are Rika and Ritsuka. I certainly don't see you complaining that the main characters of Fate/Grand Order are being left unable to face down the incarnate spirits of humanity's heroes on their lonesome.

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It's very different. Canon Ritsuka is a bland SI-esque character with no experience, shitall magecraft that needs a mystic code to even use, 1 circuit, never fought in his life, but had charisma and master cheats. And I mean cheats, he's beloved by everyone, with no exception, good or evil and can hold a gorillion Servants when a normal mage can hold 1. That is his ticket.

Contrast to Taylor who has spent years fighting, defeated a TYPE-adjacent being, and immediately hopped into Chaldea to safeguard humanity once again. Taylor actively signed up to protect the world, and got to work studying her ass off for years to be able to, this entire crisis is just an escalation of what she even signed up for at the beginning. If we were reading the story you think we were, she wouldn't have even signed up for Chaldea, she'd go retire or some shit, and she wouldn't be in FGO. She's not 'learning to live as a human', she's been actively forced into the background, while blatantly being lobotimized and handicapped by the narrative to never learn or improve in any sense. She has fuckall cheats, her talent is mediocre at best, and she's outclassed by everyone. in canon she worked with what she had despite being weaker than everyone, and trained her ass off with what she didn't, but here she is artificially prohibited from any of that, because it might give her agency, a degree of personal power, or even utility.

And honestly, if the lesson to this story is 'Taylor learns to get in the kitchen where she belongs, and let the real heroes do the work, while she is roughly as useful and has as much agency as an inflateable blow-up doll', I think that's pretty damn shitty trajectory to go, even if it's been going that way for a long while.

 

[Vecvitus]

You're describing progression in terms of an RPG

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Exactly. It isn't the first time when Taylor meets enemies stronger than her, and she isn't shounen protagonist who "trains 10000 hours and become strong enough to beat them". Taylor used her brain and worked around their abilities, used their weakness or manipulated them in situations, when they can't be that strong. Through all Worm story, right until Khepri, she isn't become stronger in terms of her power, she is become smarter in using what she have.
It would be nice if Taylor will find a way to contribute more in battles, but definitely not by punching enemies harder. And she's not weaker than canon Taylor, she's actually have a couple new triks - costume, knife, crows and all. She's just facing strong, competent enemies.

 

[catDreaming]

It's very different. Canon Ritsuka is a bland SI-esque character with no experience, shitall magecraft that needs a mystic code to even use, 1 circuit, never fought in his life, but had charisma and master cheats. And I mean cheats, he's beloved by everyone, with no exception, good or evil and can hold a gorillion Servants when a normal mage can hold 1. That is his ticket.

Contrast to Taylor who has spent years fighting, defeated a TYPE-adjacent being, and immediately hopped into Chaldea to safeguard humanity once again. Taylor actively signed up to protect the world, and got to work studying her ass off for years to be able to, this entire crisis is just an escalation of what she even signed up for at the beginning. If we were reading the story you think we were, she wouldn't have even signed up for Chaldea, she'd go retire or some shit, and she wouldn't be in FGO. She's not 'learning to live as a human', she's being actively forced into the background, while blatantly being lobotimized by the narrative to never learn or improve in any sense. She has fuckall cheats, and in canon she worked with what she had and trained her ass off with what she didn't, but here she isn't allowed any of that.

And honestly, if the lesson to this story is 'Taylor learns to get in the kitchen where she belongs, and lets the real heroes do the work, while she is roughly as useful and has as much agency as an inflateable blow-up doll', I think that's pretty damn shitty trajectory to go, even if it's been going that way for a long while.

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Ah. So because Taylor, and please correct me if I'm wrong, has:
-learned Magecraft at a notably faster rate than anyone expected, as pointed out by Marie in the most recent chapter
-limited access to bugs when not in a Singularity because the Chaldea base is in Antartica, no access to her capabilities as Khepri, and has discovered that her bugs and multitasking simply don't help as much when dealing with things as fast/strong/resilience as Heroic Spirits
-shifted to a backrow role due to facing foes who are significantly more capable than her in a frontline role
, but she is unable to physically or magically compete with any heroic spirit, she is neutered into a role of uselessness beyond being a mana battery and is being metaphorically forced to sit down in the kitchen while the real heroes do all the work?
In spite of her trying to reach out and be a good friend to Marie, and being the de facto leader trying to help direct the team while in Singularities when not in contact with the main base? And she lacks agency?

I'm sorry, but everything you're saying suggests that you don't want to read a story where Taylor is a human Master working with what she has, you want to read a story where Taylor is a Demi-Servant or Heroic Spirit. And it's been... well, outright stated in the Foreword that you won't find that here.

What This Story is Not: a power fantasy. Taylor will not trample over all the peons, magically defeat even Servants with her mad skills, and master magecraft in two years that took Clocktower prodigies whole lifetimes (or generations) to perfect. If you're expecting her to steamroll everyone, you've come to the wrong place. I told you already, didn't I? This isn't going to resemble An Essence of Silver and Steel much at all. Welcome aboard the strugglebus.

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The bolding here is mine, but given everything you've said, you really sound you disagree with this portion of the Foreword. You definitely aren't the first person who I've quoted that paragraph of the Foreword at in this thread.

 

[Formerly]

I maintain that Taylor needs her terrarium and bugs so she can get to work on learning how to magic them up and use them to aid in magecraft.
Taylor shouldn't be learning PR and ACMA, or at least not going all in on learning them (primarily because Aife's the wrong class to be teaching them right now). She needs to be learning things that apply to her strengths and what would be most useful to her station as a Master.
Primarily, familiar creation/modification because duh,
Formalcraft because her use of bugs allows the heavy mitigation of the single biggest drawback to the craft (time/workload),
Material enhancement (I can accept that no amount of even magically enhanced silk line will stop the likes of Heracles, but not every enemy is a Servant, very few Servants are the likes of Heracles, and even having to run blindly through a forest full of impeding trees was enough to slow him down) because her use of tools was always paramount to her most effective tactics,
Sensory enhancement/sharing because she has hundreds of feet of expanded sensory range, alternate nonhuman senses, and independant allies/minions that could benefit from expanded battlefield awareness (just so long as it doesn't fry their brains),
and/or illusionry (because her deception and obstruction with her bugs can always use a bit of a buff) would all be massively useful things for a Master with her skills and abilities to have.

A Master should not be fistfighting the enemy (both in Fate and in Worm); they should be standing back at a safe distance coordinating the fight and using what abilities they have to support their side. Taylor is a Master/Shaker/Thinker not a Brute, Striker, or Blaster. She knows she can't go dust it up with most things she'll be fighting, and even if she could meaningfully hit them she can't risk being taken out in a fight she doesn't absolutely need to be fighting, nor can she take the hits they'll dish out.

 

[James D. Fawkes]

I maintain that Taylor needs her terrarium and bugs so she can get to work on learning how to magic them up and use them to aid in magecraft.
Taylor shouldn't be learning PR and ACMA, or at least not going all in on learning them (primarily because Aife's the wrong class to be teaching them right now). She needs to be learning things that apply to her strengths and what would be most useful to her station as a Master.
Primarily, familiar creation/modification because duh, formalcraft because her use of bugs allows the heavy mitigation of the single biggest drawback to the craft (time/workload), material enhancement (I can accept that no amount of even magically enhanced silk line will stop the likes of Heracles, but not every enemy is a Servant, very few Servants are the likes of Heracles, and even having to run blindly through a forest full of impeding trees was enough to slow him down), sensory enhancement/sharing, and/or illusionry would all be massively useful things for a Master with her skills and abilities to have.

A Master should not be fistfighting the enemy (both in Fate and in Worm); they should be standing back at a same distance coordinating the fight and using what abilities they have to support their side. Taylor is a Master/Shaker/Thinker not a Brute, Striker, or Blaster. She knows she can't go dust it up with most things she'll be fighting, and even if she could meaningfully hit them she can't risk being taken out in a fight she doesn't absolutely need to be fighting, nor can she take the hits they'll dish out.

Click to shrink...

It's almost like Taylor really wants that goddamn spider puppet, Da Vinci, why are you taking so long?