Originally Posted by
Dullahan
it is an interesting question, though, is it not? does the 'timeline pruning' concept extend the role of CGs or make it redundant?
because it would seem at first glance that it does the latter. since, from fsn onward, we were told that CGs get summoned to stop things that would destroy humanity - but it has now become established that even if things like that do happen the timeline gets pruned anyway. so what is the point of summoning a CG to stop it?
h o w e v e r
if it is, as it has been alluded to, the case that the 'agent' which prunes timelines within the realm of human awareness is in some sense 'alaya' itself - then pruning could be considered an 'in extremis' case of the same mechanism which summons CGs. i.e. pruning as something that happens to a world when no potential CG summon would be able to prevent it from going to fuck. one would infer here that a timeline is pruned at that point where it becomes more 'expensive' in terms of 'energy' [whatever is meant when they explain pruning] to nudge it back on course than to maintain it, e.g., by summoning in EMIYA to kill people
which leads us to another possibility, which is that, if timelines where humanity 'does too well' [to grossly abbreviate] are also pruned - is it also the case that a CG would be summoned to stop something which would otherwise bring about a 'utopia' of this kind?
because, if CG summoning occurs for the same reason pruning does, to keep humanity within a certain 'range' on the spectrum of outcomes - then we must admit the possibility that CGs are also summoned to prevent things from getting too good