seems like enkidu & gil are more aware of the fact that they're servants, not people than many other servants or even fans of the series.
enkidu's point of view is easy since he doesn't seem himself as a person in the first place, and gil because he has no wish for the grail and zero stake in the game most of the time so it's just a bit of fun.
But if you don't treat servant as a person at least, it's very likely that you will get bad end
That line of thinking really worked out for Kayneth
they weren't wrong though, they just acted stupid because magical caricature clones think they're the same person even when they're not so badmouthing them openly is a bad idea.
Why badmouth them at all? Sure getting attached is a bad idea if the grail is your end point, but wouldn't it be better to have good synergy if you're going to be working together?
They can not be the actual person but the Servant that is fighting alongside you is a specific person that shares the enviroment and situation with you, hence why the lost of a Servant in FGO hurts.
It's the complete opposite. What happened to Kayneth was because he couldn't do the magus thing and treat Diarmuid as a complete tool from the beginning.
The first chink in their relationship was Kayneth thinking of Diarmuid as a person and therefore becoming insecure when he couldn't comprehend Diarmuid's goal of "I want to serve my Master well" because no sane human is not self-interested in some way.
He covers up his doubt with "well I'll just treat him like a tool." But as the situation becomes worse and worse, he considers Diarmuid more and more as a rival for Sola. Kayneth became threatened by Diarmuid as a person until he makes this realization.Kayneth said within his heart. Sola may or may not know, but Diarmuid Ua Dubhine, the heroic spirit, is not such a commendable person.
Certainly, heroic spirits who are called by the Holy Grail as Servants, would form any contract in order to participate in the Holy Grail War. As heroic spirits or not, they are expected to have a reason for seeking the Holy Grail. Because they have wishes they have charged to the Holy Grail, they submit to their own Masters, and dash forward together to receive the blessings of the Holy Grail.
Because of that, a Servant's Master would face the summoned heroic spirit and start by asking his wish. What he wished for to seek the Holy Grail, why he had responded to his summon and appeared. As long as those reasons were not cleared up, their relationship would not work out. This is because, by any chance, if their respective wishes are totally contradictory, he may go through a painful betrayal once they acquire the Holy Grail.
Naturally, Kayneth had already asked Diarmuid about his wishes earlier on. Along with or not whether he had wanted to do anything in the event that they managed to procure the Holy Grail.
Nevertheless, the heroic spirit did not answer.
No, that is not correct. Diarmuid did not refuse to reply. Just that he denied the question itself.
In other words, “he was not seeking the Holy Grail”.
Repayments are not necessary. To merely devote his loyalty to his summoner who is his Master in this life, to fulfil his honor as a knight. That is his only wish.
He could not understand. For a person who was renowned enough to be a heroic spirit to abandon his pride and be the familiar of a human being, it doesn't add up if he did not have a great reason as well. It did not turn out to be “free service” or other jokes.
Yet, no matter how skillfully he tried to question him, stubbornly, Lancer did not take back his previous answer.
“If I can fulfill my honor as a knight, that would be good enough. I will cede the wishing machine, the Holy Grail to Master alone.”
All the time, with that persistence, Lancer continued to refuse the Holy Grail.
...If he were to reflect on it, it is possible that since that time, he started to feel distrust towards the Servant he contracted with.
It is impossible for a Servant not to seek the Holy Grail.
If that's the case, Lancer's answer was definitely an obvious lie. His true intentions were definitely hidden.
That's fine as well, he thought. On Kayneth hands are the Command Spells. As long as he has this absolute commanding authority, Diarmuid's betrayal is impossible. Servants are after all, just tools, no different from any ordinary machines. It is not a problem for something like a tool to have anything bad hidden within its heart. If it can carry out its functions perfectly, then that is good enough. That was Kayneth's decision until yesterday night.
Of course this probably wouldn't have worked out. But you can see here what Kayneth did was at least in his mind treating the Servant as a person."If you are dissatisfied, then try using that pride and honor of which you speak to withstand my Command Seals—hm, no match? This then is your true ability. The spirit and fortitude of which you speak are not even worth mentioning in the presence of the Command Seals. Those are the real tricks of puppets such as Servants, then.”
"... Kayneth... sir..."
Facing Kayneth who was loudly mocking him, Lancer weakly lowered his head, unable to make any sort of rebuttal. The previous majesty of brandishing the twin lances in the presence of warlords had long since vanished without a trace; whether from weakly slumped shoulders, or the unfocused eyes staring at the ground, it was impossible to see any trace of heroism.
Looking at his miserable likeness, Kayneth finally felt that he had vented all the grievances he had been continuously accumulating, and felt slightly relieved.
Perhaps up till now, Kayneth had finally been able to establish his ideal master-servant relationship with this Heroic Spirit. Though it was somewhat late; he should have been able to, at an earlier time—preferably immediately after summoning—completely strike down his pride. If this had been done earlier, this presumptuous Servant would probably not have had other intentions, and served him compliantly.
Last edited by You; January 29th, 2020 at 09:41 PM.
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions IThough abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
Machines do not lose their worth when a newer model appears.
Their worth (life) ends when humans can no longer bear that purity.
Ah okay. I guess I was taking what he thought for granted (calling him a puppet/a tool etc). Oh wait, nvm I see where i got it from. The Fate Zero material, but maybe the material's a mistranslation, because it said he saw a servant no different than a Mystic Code & that he had never understood Diarmuid's humanity (loyalty) even until the end, which was one thing that destroyed him.
Last edited by jennajayfeather; January 29th, 2020 at 10:32 PM.
There isn't anything wrong with that passage.
The way I see it, Kayneth did treat Diarmuid as a tool but it was after Kayneth realized he didn't understand him as seen above.
In treating him as a tool, he never felt like he needed to get to know Diarmuid better, to see things from his point of view.
But the foundation of that mistrust is in something very human.
"I don't understand this person, oh whatever he's just a tool anyway."
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions IThough abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
Machines do not lose their worth when a newer model appears.
Their worth (life) ends when humans can no longer bear that purity.
And Altrum
Take note this only is somewhat possible because Diarmuid and is only possible if you have the luck of summon a Servant with a somewhat tolerant personality (or lack of it) or someone with such extreme urgency for the Grail that will endure whatever abuse. Do that to one with a strong ego and you are screwed or use yours CS to make it commit suicide and you are screwed.
I don't know who start with the mindset of "Servants are tools, try them as such" but he/she was a fucking idiot.
Last edited by ballinamon; January 29th, 2020 at 11:38 PM.
The main reason why so many masters have a dismissive attitude towards servants is simply because the culture surrounding magecraft in general is amoral. It's established early on in FSN that mages do kill people to further their magecraft, and the magic association is ok with it as long as it stays secret. In strange fake, when discussing Flat's origin story, there is the lamentation that he can't reach his full potential as a magus because actually has morality. Really all the master (except Waver and Caster's master) treat their servants as tools. Masters that don't treat their servants as tools are usually special cases as masters or they don't have a moral alignment that makes them good as a magus
Just finished volume 6. Excellent climax for Tsubaki. Really nice progress on Ayaka's, Richard's and Sigma's states as well. Now every character in the war has a defined goal, except for Doris and maybe Orlando. Looking forward to see what the whole deal with Mesara is.
What are their goals?
Spoiler: