[EN] Lostbelt 5.5: Heian-kyo: Thunderous Flash

[Reign]

I expected Shuten to turn into Ibuki through some Douman ritual.

[eddyak]

What plot armour, that decision ruins his plan and he couldn't even absorb her properly leading to her making him basically vomit out the sword that was used to kill him.

Douman's been literally nothing but plot armour and plot-driven competence wrapped around a disney villain.

"Hello Lostbelt king trying to purge evil from the world, I'm an obviously extremely evil dude, let me be your advisor and do as I say!" "Sure, whatever."

"Sup, lemme just make these Servants impossible to kill and also evil mind controlled but not mind controlled so they're still just as smart and strong as they were before, yeah, dw about it not making sense"

"Yo I'm just gonna cut off Chaldea's all-seeing eye, block them from being able to send any Servants except this specific one, and also turn off my evil and also my spirit origin so I can't be detected by people looking for the exact thing I am"

"Hey fam in this latest video I'm going to create a goddamn Tree of Emptiness all by myself as a side bet in case my original plan of creating an entire Holy Grail War didn't work out, also I'll just summon eight gods in Servant bodies as a side hustle innit"

Why does a Tree of Emptiness need a Grail if it's already got the mana of a solar system? The fuck does he need a Grail War for in the first place if he can just summon eight stronger god-Servants without one?

This entire Lostbelt made no goddamn sense to me.

[Pokesamus217]

I really want to read the version of FGO you have if you think the story portrays Douman as competent.

Also the point of the trees is that they’re replicas they don’t just automatically come in with all the mana that the rugular ones do.

[SpoonyViking]

Not saying I agree with it, but isn't that his argument? That Douman's plots don't display cunning or competence and basically only succeed because of writer's fiat?

[Pokesamus217]

For a given amount of success sure, but basically all of his appearances end in spectacular failure. By the end of Shimousa his plan to corrupt Musashi gets fucked over by a basic debuff cleanse spell, his use of Danzo leads Fuuma stronger than ever and he gets cut down by one of his own minions. And I’d argue this is one of his more dignified times in the game.

The thing with Douman is that no matter how competently his plans start his rampant ego and needless cruelty will bite him in the ass one way or another in spectacular fashion

[eddyak]

He's competent in that he accomplishes things that literally no other being in the entirety of Fate has ever done, and he does it casually, and then he hints that he can do more, and there's literally no reason for it. Not even the Grand candidate Casters seem able to pull off what he does on a seeming daily basis, because if that was something even slightly possible under Fate's systems, it would've been done by everybody.

You expect a villain to be able to do stuff that the heroes can't or won't- that's writing 101, give the villain a death star or allow them to tie a damsel to train tracks- but this is an escalation to stupid levels. It feels like FSF fanfic levels of wankery and bullshit.

[Pokesamus217]

Reminder that this is the high servant fused with two gods that got fucked over by two modern day mages who by all accounts didn’t need to try too hard to deal with some of his most potent and useful spells.

[Comun]

He's competent in that he accomplishes things that literally no other being in the entirety of Fate has ever done, and he does it casually, and then he hints that he can do more, and there's literally no reason for it. Not even the Grand candidate Casters seem able to pull off what he does on a seeming daily basis, because if that was something even slightly possible under Fate's systems, it would've been done by everybody.

You expect a villain to be able to do stuff that the heroes can't or won't- that's writing 101, give the villain a death star or allow them to tie a damsel to train tracks- but this is an escalation to stupid levels. It feels like FSF fanfic levels of wankery and bullshit.

LB6

Just warning in advance that you'll have Morgan. She's just as much of a genius as Douman when it comes to putting her projects in motion, but unlike Douman, her projects aren't inherently bad ideas.

[eddyak]

Spoiler:

You expect ridiculous shit out of a magus that's had thousands of years to improve at their craft and prepare ever more powerful and ridiculous nonsense.

Not when it's a guy who's been there for about a week with seemingly no resources to work with.

[Kratosirving]

Dat Ibuki Fight Tho

All I can say, goddamn I'm glad I somehow rerolled Vessel of the Saint CE at some point. I know I burned it long ago even though it MLB'd because I didn't see much use for it. Hah, proved me wrong. Let me use Castoria's skills to buff Kuro, than a swap to Support Castoria let me use both Holmes and Kuro's NP, and the ball kept rolling from there.

[Kuzu]

Can't believe they weaponized the "No Way F*g" meme for the Shuten fight with Kintoki lmao./

[mami-kouga]

Douman's been literally nothing but plot armour and plot-driven competence wrapped around a disney villain.

"Hello Lostbelt king trying to purge evil from the world, I'm an obviously extremely evil dude, let me be your advisor and do as I say!" "Sure, whatever."

"Sup, lemme just make these Servants impossible to kill and also evil mind controlled but not mind controlled so they're still just as smart and strong as they were before, yeah, dw about it not making sense"

"Yo I'm just gonna cut off Chaldea's all-seeing eye, block them from being able to send any Servants except this specific one, and also turn off my evil and also my spirit origin so I can't be detected by people looking for the exact thing I am"

"Hey fam in this latest video I'm going to create a goddamn Tree of Emptiness all by myself as a side bet in case my original plan of creating an entire Holy Grail War didn't work out, also I'll just summon eight gods in Servant bodies as a side hustle innit"

Why does a Tree of Emptiness need a Grail if it's already got the mana of a solar system? The fuck does he need a Grail War for in the first place if he can just summon eight stronger god-Servants without one?

This entire Lostbelt made no goddamn sense to me.

Not sure Arjuna Alter should be used as a good example of your point when he's pretty strongly established to barely be holding things together mentally and so as long as you don't do something to grievously offend him he won't actively target you (like with how he didn't exclude chaldea or Pepe from the yaga cycle even though he'd been aware of the presence from the start)

- - - Updated - - -

The tree of emptiness was just a fake rather than the genuine article, I thought it went without saying that he'd have to use extra factors to get an approximation of the thing? The grail war itself seemed to exist mostly for theatrics so that chaldea could despair at failing to stop it but that's where the "bad habits hurting his own plans" bits comes into play.

- - - Updated - - -

Honestly while most of your points don't make sense to me (and I still wouldn't call any of it plot armour, but plot convenience is fine), I'm surprised you didnt mention the one thing that actually feels like an asspull- Douman somehow eating several gods despite this never being foreshadowed at any point in the past unlike Koyan and her animal collection

[Gehennahem]

I'm pretty sure Ashiya Douman's BS powers is due to being a top tier Omniyjou Mage and him being an Alter-Ego of the Foreign God and everything it implies:

Spoiler:

He has the power of 3 Gods within him(Though it's implied he aimed for them himself) and most of the things he does seem to be because he's the 2nd best when it comes to his craft.
Even with all of that, it's stated that Abe No Seimei is STILL his objective superior.
It's also funny that despite all of his BS powers, he primarily screws himself up because he hates Humanity and loves to screw around so hard, he primarily destroys his own plots for the sake of trying to surpass Seimei when he can just win by gaining some sense of perspective.

[Tamamo-no-Mae Goshujin-sama]

Just finish it today and I still think Douman is an idiot I liked the story and think I understand why he was.

Spoiler:

I think Douman biggest problem is he need could seem to remember this was his last chance to win thanks to Peperoncino. He mentions once about having more lives only to remember he didn't anymore but when he was overconfident he seem to me to talk like if this pan fail he could try again some place else. At the end when he lost it read to me like he planed to move his soul only to realize to late he couldn't.

The hardest battle for me was Ibuki-douji I took 45 min to break 2 bars (it took 2 attempts to learn I was hitting CRT so just hitting with arts was not always going to work) only for her to stun Casto, and Kuro then hit with her NP then wiping out my back row next. I won with a Tamamo, Casto, and Kuro (with invincibility pierce CE) Normaly using Kuro-Casto-Tama NP in that order.

At the end Tama just talk to the Left Minister and that's it. It hint she looked in to what was going on so I do wish she played a roll especially since she to is one of the 3 grate evils of Japan. She could have been an element Douman couldn't have for seen and help add more weight to why he failed.

I really enjoyed this chapter most characters had a chance to shine and despite Douman craziness the story was not to confusing. I look forward to the next one.

[Lily Emilio]

I think Douman's writing has always been intentional. Comically evil villain, screw up every nonsense plans he made because of some dumb shits he caused himself. And that makes him a great clown.

[Mattias]

So I got trashed and blitzed half the story tonight. Fuck Tsuna and his NP next turn bullshit. Coincidently, thank fuck for Squirtle and her NP drain NP while being able to loop basically by herself, let alone with Tamamo and Castoria. Also fuck Jk and Rice and their post wipe vulnerability. I should have probably just used Merlin instead of Castoria, but I don't have Buster Archers. Or an available Merlin. Oh hey it's that Servant from next year, cool cool cool. Still not going to roll for her.

[Mattias]

I burst out laughing when Ibuki showed up and the narration was talking about how she looked like a person but wasn't. What kind of people are you seeing that someone with tiny toothpick legs, or a U turn in her spine is normal?

[Altima of the Gates]

So getting you drunk is the proper way to get you through the wordswordswords? Sounds like an awful way of actually retaining all the gobbledygook, but whatever works.
And I think its mainly her being humanoid and not just a dragon, or a tree, like what other nature spirits would normally be like.

[Comun]

I remember to check the Heian translation to see the official localization for Philosophy Key but forgot to also check what's the official localization for Pure Eyes. Well, the answer is

Spoiler:

"You have blue eyes."

"Are those of yours Pure Eyes?"

American Ibuki didn't read Tsukihime because it isn't localized.

[Mattias]

Wait, That's why they kept talking about his eyes?