Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia 10
#FGO_ep7 #FGOBabylonia
Fate/Grand Order -絶対魔獣戦線バビロニア- Episode 10
Fate/Grand Order: Zettai Majū Sensen Babylonia ep. 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Gilgamesh welcomes Ritsuka’s party back and congratulates them on landing Ishtar. This leads to a squabble between Gilgamesh and Ishtar. To defeat Gorgon, they need to retrieve the Axe of Marduk. However, this artifact is in the goddess Quetzalcoatl’s realm. On cue, Quetzalcoatl shows up in Uruk, apparently slaughtering 100 soldiers before stopping. She claims she is on a mission for her mother, but she has to stop at 100 for personal reasons. She leaves and Jaguar Man arrives to pick up the bodies and manages to escape with them.

The group return to Gilgamesh to discuss the situation. After a group discussion that involves Romani and Da Vinci, Gilgamesh orders Ritsuka’s party to head to Eridu to deal with Quetzalcoatl  and get the Axe of Marduk. As they travel, Mash expresses her grave concerns. That night at camp, Ishtar gives Ritsuka some advice.  The next day as they travel, Jaguar Man besets them, but they ignore her. Merlin advises Ritsuka to bring this Servant to their side, so he does. As such, she forms a contract with Ritsuka, much the same as Ishtar.

Jaguar Man safely guides them through the jungle. Eventually, they arrive at what appears to be a prison camp, where all of the “dead” Uruk soldiers are very much alive. Jaguar Man explains that Quetzalcoatl killed them, but immediately revived them as well. The soldiers haven’t been allowed to return to Uruk. Jaguar Man explains that this is because they are needed for Quetzalcoatl’s army. Ritsuka decides he’ll win Quetzalcoatl over, though Jaguar Man believes this is impossible.

Thoughts/Review

Although the story of Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia 10 was very enjoyable, the subtitles from Aniplex (as shown by FUNimation) pissed me off.

Quetzalcoatl Comes

Because I pretty much always skip the story when playing FGO, I didn’t understand why a Mesoamerican deity would be in Mesopotamia. Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia 10 doesn’t exactly explain why either. Nevertheless, Quetzalcoatl is here and is another nutty Servant. She’s not in my FGO stable, but she’s a Rider-class Servant.

That aside, her nuttiness includes killing folks, then instantly bringing them back to life. The episode stated it was so she could have an army. We’ll see what happens with that. After all, Gorgon and Kingu are taking humans to convert to their own army.

Taiga Jaguar Man Returns

Speaking of nutty Servants, Jaguar Man returns for more Taiga fun. I did get a laugh at Ritsuka flattering Jaguar Man by comparing her to a Demonic Boar or a Gazer. (As an aside, we haven’t seen those monsters show up in the anime, though I believe both were opponents in different fights in the Babylonia chapter of the game.)

Nevertheless, I could have done without her “ikuuuu!” moment in Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia 10.

Ishtar’s Mystery

Although I know bits of why Ishtar turns into a blonde haired girl, I don’t know all of the details. As I said, I skip the story when I’m going through the tedious battles. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to discovering more of the ins and outs of this. Sadly, I don’t expect we’ll get an explanation of why TOHSAKA Rin is involved in this (just as we won’t get an explanation of why Taiga is Jaguar Man).

The Subtitles SUCK

Since I’m watching the FUNimation release of this, my instinct is to blame them. And I think I’ve done that in the past. However, I’m told that Aniplex is actually doing the subtitles that FUNimation is using. Regardless, they are AWFUL!

Whenever Quetzalcoatl spoke Spanish, I had no problem with the subtitles leaving said Spanish untranslated. But when the translator/adapter goes, “You know, the Japanese didn’t go far enough with Quetzalcoatl’s use of Spanish. Lets translate some Japanese things to Spanish in the English subtitles ’cause ‘reasons’! Localization is the awesomest!” 🤬🤬🤬

At another point, it is mentioned that Gilgamesh has secret construction going on (which he denies). However, this was changed in the subtitles to “little side project”, apparently ’cause “Localization is the awesomest!” 😒

This next one is also in the game, which is why I knew Aniplex was responsible here. When Jaguar Man first showed up, the subtitles had her as Jaguarman, which wasn’t exactly correct, but whatever. The Japanese use the literal “Jaguar Man” as her name. However, for Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia 10, she became Jaguar Warrior! And that’s because the bozos at Aniplex renamed her to that in the FGO game. I never caught that in the game ’cause I skipped the story. But now I’m pissed about the change. 😠

And though I’m sure I could go on and on, I’ll stop with this final example. Jaguar Man ends her sentences with “Nyaa” in the Japanese. It is silly, but it is a trope in Japan to have certain characters do weird things like that. Aniplex decided to use “mew” as an IDIOTIC pun for “you”. That means that “Nyaa” (meow) is ignored except for when they could construct idiotic sentences with the word “mew” as a moronic pun.  🤬🤬🤬🤬

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia 10 was an enjoyable episode, though the subtitles were irritating as all get out to me.

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