Questions, questions and more questions (READ THE OP FOR ANSWERS)

[Deathhappens]

They're not the best in "ordinary" magecraft precisely BECAUSE they are geniuses. And I can't imagine a lot ot magi would try to stand before them, even then. Clairvoyance Ex is a helluvadrug, for one thing.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

The way I read it. Grand Caster have clairvoyance because the pinnacle of mages have it as EX, but that doesn't mean having EX clairvoyance makes you a top mage. Gilgamesh himself is really not a caster, he's joking around at best.

Gil also admits he's not a grand in time temple, so it's not even on the table.

I personally read it as a Grand Caster candidate needing EX-ranked Clairvoyance as a SKILL, not through any NP, and Gil is only able to achieve the same thing through Sha Nagba Imuru.

Is it true that Medusa's best class aside from Avenger is Lancer, and Rider is just a really awkward fit for her? I heard it claimed somewhere, so I want to know whether it's BS or not.

[Altaris]

It's just BS

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Ok. Good to know. Also, this came up on the Badass Versus thread, but does Gaia summon Divine Spirits to defend itself and not Heroic Spirits like Alaya does?

[Iceblade44]

Gaia calls in Types like Crimson Moon, that and other Elementals and Phantasmal Beasts

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Ok. I see now. So Alaya is the only one that summons Heroic Spirits? Then what about Divine Spirits? Do they only exist because the Gods could no longer exist in the World?

[Altima of the Gates]

Yeah, Dark Sakura digested Gil, but it was Angra who was in control and it was his powers that were used to do so. Aside from that, I will agree that you are right about Gil's body. He got that through his sheer ego and magical prowess, but I would argue that Angra Mainyu also recognized their overlapping goals.

Didn't Nasu pretty much state it was due to her authority of being the lesser grail hooked into that allowed that to happen(that whole Gil is the Slayer of Heroic Spirits and she is the "Devourer", so type advantage). It's more the fact that when she took him in they were becoming one being which was what the nightmare interludes were all about.
Her ability has the portals, and she has been frankensteined into have the Matou absorbing trait since she was young. The story said many times that they had similar origins and that this came about because they were physically and spiritually merged for a long time.

[fire_mountain_30]

Depends on the magecraft there using, say what you want but these guys excel as geniuses when in their specialties(dreams and illusions for Merlin, Summoning for Solomon) other then that they are to lazy or introvert for anything else, again Merlin and Solomon respectfully

Yeah, I agree. They are great at their specialties but suck at the basics and at general skills.

Kind of like how Aoko is Aoko and Touko seems to regard her as a shitty mage. Same way that shirou is a shit mage but is great at projection

[Ronove]

Merlin and Solomon are actually rather shitty mages

???
Worst is a joke comment of how they stutter incantations and Merlin just prefers whacking people with Excalibur. Solomon was the one who made magecraft available for humans to use, how could he possibly be bad at it?

I personally read it as a Grand Caster candidate needing EX-ranked Clairvoyance as a SKILL, not through any NP, and Gil is only able to achieve the same thing through Sha Nagba Imuru.Is it true that Medusa's best class aside from Avenger is Lancer, and Rider is just a really awkward fit for her? I heard it claimed somewhere, so I want to know whether it's BS or not.

Gilgamesh has future sight as a skill when he was alive and that's what Merlin says is like his and Solomon's eyes. SNI came when he became a servant and offers a more expansive and combat applicable clairvoyance. They are 2 separate abilities.

[Iceblade44]

???
Worst is a joke comment of how they stutter incantations and Merlin just prefers whacking people with Excalibur. Solomon was the one who made magecraft available for humans to use, how could he possibly be bad at it?

The fact that never uttered a spell once in his life. That is why he was impressive, he became the King of Magic despite not being never performing a spell.

[fire_mountain_30]

Did the "never used a spell" part get redacted in the mats or is it literal?

Also, Solomon had Goetia as his assistant. You can be a shitty mage but do great things if your assistant is a good mage

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

So all his magic came from a direct communion with God, then? Also, does Gaia have ANY access to the Throne of Heroes if she so wished?

[Arashi_Leonhart]

What does Gaia have to do with heroes of humanity?

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

I dunno, that's why I asked. Also, she is the World, so she should be able to access the throne if she wishes, right?

[Arashi_Leonhart]

The Throne is literally "outside" the world, and why it is "accessed" by anything has to do with the system involved. Alaya is inherently connected to it because of what the Throne is.

Also you're attaching things like "if it so wishes" which suggests this conscious, thinking force or something. It isn't. It's a system. My antivirus doesn't want anything, it just tells me when I need to upgrade or alerts me if there's a problem or shouts CRITICAL ERROR if my computer is about to die.

[RoydGolden]

The Throne is literally "outside" the world, and why it is "accessed" by anything has to do with the system involved. Alaya is inherently connected to it because of what the Throne is.

Also you're attaching things like "if it so wishes" which suggests this conscious, thinking force or something. It isn't. It's a system. My antivirus doesn't want anything, it just tells me when I need to upgrade or alerts me if there's a problem or shouts CRITICAL ERROR if my computer is about to die.

Could it be ascribed a will metaphorically though? After all, people say things like "the heart evolved to pump blood" or "birds evolved wings to fly" even though those imply a teleology that doesn't obviously exist in nature.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

The Throne is literally "outside" the world, and why it is "accessed" by anything has to do with the system involved. Alaya is inherently connected to it because of what the Throne is.

Also you're attaching things like "if it so wishes" which suggests this conscious, thinking force or something. It isn't. It's a system. My antivirus doesn't want anything, it just tells me when I need to upgrade or alerts me if there's a problem or shouts CRITICAL ERROR if my computer is about to die.

Gaia seems weirdly proactive, then, in its attempts to destroy or block humanity unless humanity constantly puts it on red alert. Also, it is technically alive and can be killed, so...

[Arashi_Leonhart]

It isn't doing anything active in that sense again. An antivirus program "actively" looks for problems but it has no conscious thought about it.

Anthropromorphicizing everything was a mistake, Japan

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

I see. So did the Gods create Gaia using Ea? Also, is the Throne of Heroes restricted to human heroic spirits, or could it also include hypothetical heroes of alien species?

[RoydGolden]

It isn't doing anything active in that sense again. An antivirus program "actively" looks for problems but it has no conscious thought about it.

Anthropromorphicizing everything was a mistake, Japan

It makes me curious though; if we actually got to see a Divine Spirit Gaea in canon (or a similar earth god/dess for that matter), would they borrow traits from Gaea the impersonal system or just be completely separate beings?

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I see. So did the Gods create Gaia using Ea? Also, is the Throne of Heroes restricted to human heroic spirits, or could it also include hypothetical heroes of alien species?

Given that Altera is included, it seems heroes of alien origin can be recorded in the Throne as long as they're part of human history.