| Gilgamesh |
 (Prototype) |
Gilgamesh (ギルガメッシュ, Girugamesshu?), Class Name Archer (アーチャー, Āchā?), is the Archer-class Servant of an unnamed Master in the Second Holy Grail War of Fate/Prototype.
Profile[]
Identity[]
The king of Uruk and the hero from humanity's most ancient epic.
Appearance[]
He shares a basic design with Archer of Fate/stay night. His armor is based on the design of Gilgamesh's armor in Fate/stay night, but it was designed with a more Mesopotamian-influenced style.
Personality[]
Gilgamesh is still the most self-centered person in the world like his Fate/stay night counterpart, but he lacks the same kingly temperament and he is able to properly read the situation around him. While he is not an evil person, he has a callous personality. He has no real interest in the Holy Grail, so he instead wishes to establish himself as the strongest of Heroic Spirits. He finds incomparable joy in the battle of heroes splendidly fighting each other to the death for a miracle, and is angered by the fact that such an event never happened during his lifetime. Due to his Master’s influence, he is a Servant accustomed to the modern society.
He falls in love with the glasses-less Ayaka Sajyou much like a typical shoujo mangaWP. Unlike his counterpart's haughty declaration that female Saber will become his possession, Archer proposes to Ayaka in a somewhat more normal manner. He finds her beauty to be incomparable to even that of the women of Uruk, who had never won his approval during life. In contrast, he bitterly detests ■■, whose name is left blank, due to the similarities he sees between her and Ishtar. He believes “women who are absolutely confident in their good looks are repulsive creatures!”
He, as the "best and strongest hero under the sky", wishes to be the highest ranking Servant. Having two above him enraged him to the point where he wanted to kill his own Master, but he decided to forgive Berserker because he did not hesitate to sacrifice his reasoning to seek power. He instead focuses on Saber, referred to as Holy Blade Wielder (聖剣使い, Seiken Tsukai?), as his target, seeing him as a formidable opponent. Though his Master commands him to simply let Saber perish on his own, he thinks that a disgustingly formidable opponent is more precious than gold. Wanting to kill another person from the bottom of one’s heart is something that can only be experienced once in a lifetime. He is still quite cocky towards him, telling Saber that he should smile at being Archer's opponent even with his Master on the verge of death, else he deserves to be trampled upon.
Development[]
While it is unknown if he still retains it in Fate/Prototype, he had a Noble Phantasm in the planning stages of the original novel, old Fate, that imparted the ability "Absolutely Survive" (絶対に生き残る, Zettai ni Ikinokoru?), which as the name suggests guaranteed that Gilgamesh would survive any conflict. It would have clashed with Berserker's Noble Phantasm at the time, which was to "promise victory for eleven battles." The concepts of the two abilities clashed and the paradoxical situation had to be resolved. Berserker did not technically lose but he did lose his life.[2]
Role[]
Fate/Prototype[]
Archer is the prototype version of Gilgamesh that was to be used in the original Fate/stay night novel that was penned and left uncompleted. He was only briefly mentioned in notes detailing the plot of the novel, and received an expanded role in Fate/Prototype. He is summoned by the unnamed owner and president of a skyscraper that overlooks the city. He dislikes his Master's methods, calling him a boring man. As a person careful to the end, he is a coward who will miss a good show like Archer's fights by using indirect methods.
On one particular night, Archer is visited by Lancer at his hideout who comes to check out his opponent. As Archer is watching the lights of the city from one of the windows, he scoffs at the greed of man and muses on how he shall embroil himself in the greedy desires that fill the city. He then questions the faith of the people and wonders what they are praying to. Suddenly, Lancer interrupts saying, "How should I know? Humans and the like, don’t seem to have changed much since my time,” before materializing. Looking at Lancer's shoddily made lance (the one created by Misaya Reiroukan), Archer insults it, but Lancer shrugs it off already realizing that Archer had already sensed him coming. Even though Misaya had ordered him to take out Archer if he wanted to, Lancer decides against it and leaves having realized that Archer is not an average Servant to mess with in his current state.[3]
While Saber and Ayaka fall into a romantic mood as they are alone in her classroom, Archer suddenly enters and begins a passion-filled speech on the Holy Grail War from atop the teacher's desk. He declares two things about the War leave him unsatisfied, their rankings and Ayaka. He, as the Archer-class Servant, is ranked third, while Saber is ranked as first among the seven Servants. He is currently focusing on Saber to obtain his rightful ranking, and he declares his attraction to Ayaka, telling her to become his empress once he overthrows Saber. Saber, displeased by the display, downplays it as insane talk, so Archer challenges him to show their difference in power with Enki.
After a week, Ayaka ends up poisoned by Sancraid Phahn, and Saber, while searching for him, meets Archer within the downtown subway at midnight. Challenging Saber with an arrogant, proud expression, he presents a medicine that can cure any poisons hurting her even if he doesn't actually know the specifics of them. Using that to issue their final duel, he tosses the bottle toward Saber and races towards him while wearing a fierce smile. As they fight through the subway to open air, they dogfight between the skyscrapers of Fukutoshin while engaging each other.
It is a close battle between them, and as each has met the conditions to unleash their final weapons, they are each looking for an opportunity of sure-kill. Once they reach the end of their fierce melee, Saber is knocked to the ground and Archer obtains his chance from atop a skyscraper. Summoning Enki, he seeks to overwhelm Saber with the tsunami. He is so exhausted that he can hardly move, but still manages to laugh as if it is the duty of the victor. Saber tells him it is too early to celebrate, unleashes Excalibur, and cleaves through not only Enki, but the arrogant king as well, as he sighs with despair at his defeat. He is not killed during their battle, as he is stated to be present alongside Saber and Lancer after Manaka resurrects the six servants from the First Tokyo Holy Grail War in a blackened state. Then blackened Ozymandias and Arash aim to fight Gilgamesh.
It is noted in Fate/Complete Material II: Character Material that he kills Berserker at some point.[2]
Abilities[]
Archer has two Noble Phantasms similar to Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon and Ea, Bab-ilu and Enki.
Development[]
Creation and Conception[]
Gilgamesh (Prototype) was designed by Ototsugu Konoe in Fate/Prototype.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7
[] Prototype material - CHARACTER Profile: Archer, p.034-035 Archer
- Addresses self as: 我 (read as “Ore”)
- Servant Rank: Rank 3
- Strength: C
- Endurance: C
- Agility: B
- Magic: A
- Luck: B
- Noble Phantasm: EX
Comment from Takeuchi Takashi: The basic design is the same as the Archer from Fate/Stay Night. The design for the armor was based off of the design from Fate/Stay Night, and integrated more of a Mesopotamian-influenced style. The twin swords on his back are quite cool.
Explanation: The most self-centered person in the world. However, he doesn’t have the same kingly temperament as the Gil from Fate/Stay Night, and is a man who is not unable to read the situation. Because of his Master’s influence, he became a Servant accustomed to the modern society. (*His Master is the owner and president of a building tall enough to overlook the entire city) Instead of the Holy Grail, he is more interested in establishing himself as the strongest of Heroic Spirits. Though his personality is callous, he is not an evil person. Thus, he sees the Servant who ranks above him, Saber, as a formidable opponent, and falls in love with the glasses-less Ayaka. What do you mean, shoujo manga? Just like in Fate/Stay Night, he is the king of Uruk, the hero from humanity’s most ancient epic, Gilgamesh. His Noble Phantasms are Bab=Ilu (The tattoo that identifies him as king, which is the key to opening his treasury – that is, Fate/Stay Night’s Gate of Babylon) as well as the sword Enki. Enki is a sword that can summon floods, and after it is deployed the volume of water increases daily. After seven days, it becomes a giant tsunami. It is called the Flood of Utnapishtim.
Because he sees similarities between ■■ and Ishtar, he detests her bitterly. “Women who are absolutely confident in their good looks are repulsive creatures!”アーチャー
- 一人称: 我
- サーヴァント階位:
- 筋力:
- 耐久:
- 敏捷:
- 魔力:
- 運:
- 宝具:
Comment from Takeuchi Takashi:
Explanation: - Addresses self as: 我 (read as “Ore”)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1
[] Fate/complete material II: Character Material - Characters: Berserker entry, p.064-065 Berserker
Character Data 008
Affiliation: Illya's Servant
True Identity: Hercules
Gender: Male
Height: 253cm
Weight: 311kg
Image Color: Lead
Talents: - (Nothing, since he is mad enhanced)
Likes: - (Nothing, since he is mad enhanced)
Dislike: - (Nothing, since he is mad enhanced)
Worst enemy: Gilgamesh
Origin: Greece
Nasu Kinoko & Takeuchi Takashi • Character Discussion
>The Catalyst for Berserker's birth
Nasu: Berserker's concept basically didn't change at all from the old "Fate" days. He essentially had to play the role of a stepping stone for Saber, but the player knew Berserker's identity was Heracles so it was hard to convince anyone that such a powerful titan should ever be portrayed as weak in any way. Saber may have an unparalleled set of abilities, but in terms of sheer strength and skill as a warrior, Berserker is far superior to her. The whole point was that we wanted the player to feel helpless when first encountering Berserker, as if they had just hit an insurmountable wall.
>Designing Berserker's outfits and armaments
Takeuchi: He's totally like the main character you'd find in a Western game, like Kratos from "God of War". Berserker's concept may have remained the same since early development, but his visual side went through quite a change.
Nasu: Did it?
Takeuchi: We went through a lot of trial and error before arriving at Berserker's current form.
Nasu: When you take a hero of Greek mythology and put him in a giant body, you're pretty much always guaranteed to end up with a design like this. Still, it can be pretty embarrassing to work with this "genre" of designs... especially the whole loincloth business. Takeuchi seemed to struggle the most with preventing Berserker from coming off as a simple barbarian.
Takeuchi: I even considered going with a sharper image at one point.
Nasu: We also tossed around the possibility of basing him on Talos, the bronze giant of Crete... but that didn't sit quite right with us in the end.
Takeuchi: Even Nasu suggested making half of his body out of stone or metal because he's supposed to be a superhuman existence, but we eventually settled on him being a superhuman existence in a relatively humanoid form. The protrusions on his elbows are remnants from the days when we were toying with the idea of making him a non-human character.
Nasu: We wanted the player to feel like a jackhammer on legs was barreling down on them, and you need a certain amount of power behind a character in order to pull that off. The tricky part was drawing a hulking, intimidating mass of a character without making him look like a common barbarian.
Takeuchi: I think Berserker became such a formidable presence in "Stay Night" because his colouring and shading made him look really dense, and everything about him portrayed him as a god of destruction. In the Japanese entertainment world, characters like Berserker are almost always designed to be defeated. Everyone loves that "David and Goliath" feeling you get from taking down a behemoth. Working on Berserker definitely taught me a thing or two about the different techniques and instincts you need to employ in order to build up a character who can pull that off successfully.
>The unequaled might of Berserker
Nasu: Shaping an event where the player encounters a powerful enemy in the middle of the night can be a bit difficult when the setting is a residential area. Can you imagine heading home one night only to run into a giant, half-naked man standing in your path? You would barely have time to scream "pervert!" before getting crushed under his massive heel. (laughs)That scene hasn't changed at all since old "Fate"... well, I suppose it changed a bit.
Takeuchi: Yeah, because Illya wasn't present in old "Fate". At any rate, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most urban legends thrive on the notion that just about anything can happen in residential neighbourhoods at night.
Nasu: Maybe in Shinjuku. (laughs) If you're playing Saber's route, you encounter Berserker on your way home from the church, on a hill in Miyama town. Rin's route, on the other hand, sees you encountering him in Shinto. The Shinto setting is a little better since it's near the church site, with almost no residential homes in the area.
Takeuchi: Can you imagine seeing a giant like Berserker strolling through a residential zone in a place like Miyama Town?
Nasu: No one saw him strolling! (laughs) He materialised on the spot from his spirit form. But still, I want everyone to imagine what it would be like to come home and see that thing standing in front of your house... That's a total "Yep, my life's over..." moment if I ever heard one.
Takeuchi: I don't know... I doubt most people would even register seeing a sight like that.
Nasu: True enough. I imagine most people would avert their eyes or do whatever they needed to in order to "not notice" something like that. (laughs) In old "Fate", Berserker's master was a slightly psychotic hitman sent in by the Holy Church. But Takeuchi suggested making Berserker's new master a Lolita character, I have to admit I was really excited by the idea.
Takeuchi: Berserker is like a blank state when it comes to his master, isn't he?
Nasu: You could say that. When we crafted the Noble Phantasm God Hand, I knew I didn't want a man who had accomplished such great feats to do anything below his dignity. Among all the summoned Servants, Heracles was a true hero. While Berserker still had a bit of awareness as Heracles, any thoughts he had spinning around in his head were constantly being channeled toward destruction. His new existence was consumed entirely by his Master's commands.
Takeuchi: I do wonder why Einzbern chose the Berserker class for Heracles. I'm pretty sure there was a special spell for the Berserker class, so does that mean it was a conscious choice. With Heracles as the Heroic Spirit, he would have been equally formidable as Saber or Archer.
Nasu: It's probably because Einzbern thinks the Berserker class is the best. When you take into consideration what happened during the previous Holy Grail War, it also makes sense that he might have wanted a pawn who wouldn't be burdened with the distraction of personal thoughts and feelings. I'd guess the selection was a result of Eizbern's notion that both Master and Servant are mere tools and nothing more. With Berserker's God Hand promising victory for 11 battles in old "Fate", and only six other Servants participating in the Holy Grail Wars, it seemed as if Berserker's Noble Phantasm all but guaranteed his victory. This theory was proven wrong in old "Fate" by Gil, who was able to counteract Berserker's God Hand with a Noble Phantasm that guaranteed Gil would survive. Due to the paradox created by a clash between an entity who "cannot lose" and an entity who is "certain to live", Berserker did not technically lose the fight but he did lose his life. When we were working on "stay night", we decided to change God Hand's effect to one that essentially casts a revive spell 11 times. Even with this change though, Berserker is still a pretty overpowered servant.
Takeuchi: That's why Rider was evading him. As with Saber, Rider had a way to kill Berserker for sure in Bellerophon, but she knew that Berserker would kill her as soon as she killed him. Because of this, simply killing Berserker once or twice would not be enough to ensure true victory for Rider.
Nasu: Though they existed at different times in history, Rider was also a Heroic Spirit rooted in Greek mythology, so she knew Berserker was Heracles. Due to this knowledge, one glance at Berserker was enough to tell Rider that she would not be able to defeat him, and she therefore decided to target his Master instead.
Takeuchi: Do the 11 stacks of God Hand recharge over time?
Nasu: Yes, since Illya's prana pool is absolutely ridiculous. If Berserker's Master was instead a mage of common power, they could spend their entire life generating prana and still fail to muster up enough to power even a single revive spell. For this reason, a less formidable master would mean Berserker would have to fight his way through the Holy Grail War with only 11 revivals. Of course, that's still plenty of lives by any standard. With a Master of Illya's caliber, though, Berserker is able to be revived 11 times in a single encounter. On top of that, once Berserker has been wounded by a specific attack, that same attack will not be effective a second time.
Takeuchi: What an annoying ability...
Nasu: Another thing that was briefly mentioned by Rin in Saber's route was the fact that there was a Servant who was said to share its life force with its Master. This was actually a reference to an early concept we had for Berserker. The idea was that Berserker and Illya basically shared a life pool, which essentially meant that targeting Illya instead of Berserk was a futile tactic. As long as Berserker was alive, Illya could not truly be killed. Of course, all logic dictated that Illya and Berserker formed an invincible pair in this case. It didn't take us long to realize that this would completely destroy any semblance of balance in the game, so the idea was ditched. This alteration to Berserker's concept is something that we can reveal now.
>The message Berserker carries as a character
Takeuchi: I guess it would be, "Muscles for the win!"
Nasu: No... it's more like "Mass times speed equals destruction." Fighting games and the like have instilled us with the preconceived notion that power characters have to be slow and ponderous in their movements. We wanted everyone to feel a very real kind of terror at the prospect of a mammoth-sized muscle man moving super fast. When the strongest enemy is also the fastest and is capable of attacking multiple times, the usual tactic of taking down the behemoth with agility and rapid strikes simply will not work.
Takeuchi: The combination of physical strength granted through birth and masterful skills acquired through training truly does forge the ultimate warrior. Add to that the fact that only A-rank attacks or above will be effective, and...
Nasu: Hacks. Total hacks. In a normal game, it's like the legendary artifact you'd expect to find right at the end... You basically can't so much as damage Berserker without a legendary weapon.
Takeuchi: On paper, I imagine there are many Servants who can't even touch Berserker under normal circumstances.
Nasu: It does take an EX rank Noble Phantasm or the A rank Saber to defeat Berserker in a square fight. He is quite literally a killer of mediocre heroes.
Takeuchi: Yeah, you'd have to be a top class hero to stand toe-to-toe with Berserker.
Nasu: Back when I wrote old "Fate" and indeed for quite a duration between the '80s and '90s, Heracles was the most popular and well known Greek hero in Japan. I first head of Cu Chulainn through "Megami Tensei" and took an interest in Irish mythology, but Greek mythology was more commonly known, and within that Greek mythology Heracles was of course hailed as the strongest hero. I was actually quite surprised when I recently found out that some of our "stay night" players didn't know who Heracles was . Even more shocking was when I found out that some players had never even heard of King Arthur.
Takeuchi: guess they fell through the cracks when the entertainment industry started diversifying their cultural sources.
Nasu: "Saint Seiya" was one of the most popular animes of our generation, but it had plenty of predecessors who referenced Greek mythology as well. Don't you remember getting excited over Harryhousen's "Jason and the Argonauts" as a child? Caster's Dragon Tooth Warriors were an homage to the skeletal soldiers I saw in that movie. I just loved the unsettling movements of those skeletal soldiers and found them very inspiring.
Takeuchi: With Greek mythology enjoying another boom of popularity in 2010, it's easy to see how history and the entertainment industry's fads repeat in cycles.バーサーカー - 破滅と狂気を誘う黒い戦神
Character Data ００８
所属：イリヤに仕えるサーヴァント
真名：ヘラクレス
性別：男性
身長：２５３ｃｍ
体重：３１１ｋｇ
イメージカラー：鉛
特技：－（狂化している為なし）
好きな物：－（狂化している為なし）
苦手な物：－（狂化している為なし）
天敵：ギルガメッシュ
出身：ギリシャ
奈須 きのこ&武内崇 • キャラクター別対談
強烈無比なバーサーカーという存在
武内：だからライダーは逃げていたんだよね。彼女のセイバー同様、ベルレフォーンを使用すれば確実にバーサーカーを殺すことはできるんだけど、殺している間に殺されてしまう。そんなので1回や2回だけ殺しても、結局は勝利に結びつかないですから。
奈須：ちなみに生存時期に重なりませんがライダーもギリシャ神話出身なので、バーサーカーがへラクレスであることは知っていました。だからー目て「こりゃ無理無理」と。彼女はバーサーカーを見た瞬問に、「アレは倒せないからマスターを狙おう」と決めたらしいです。
武内：“十二の試練”のストックって、回復するんだっけ？
奈須：イリヤの魔力量が半端ないんで回復します。仮にバーサーカーのマスターが凡庸な魔術師であったなら「蘇生魔術に必要な魔力量なんて、俺が一生懸けても容易できるかどうか……」ってことで回復もできず、聖杯戦争を11個の命で乗り切らなければならなかったでしょう。それでも十二分に強力ですけどね。でも規格外の魔力量を持つイリヤがマスターだと、バーサーカーは“一回の戦闘”で11回死ぬことができます。しかも1度受けた攻撃は2度通用しない。
武内：なんつー嫌な能力だ。
バーサーカーというキャラクターを通じて伝えたかったこと
武内：とりあえず「筋肉最強！」って言うんじゃないの？
奈須：質量×スピード＝破壊力ですよ。パワーキャラは動きが遅いという、格ゲーなんかでもたらされたよくわからない定説があるけど、「筋力のあるデカイ奴は速くて恐いぞ！」と。一番強い攻撃力を持っている者が一番速く、そして攻撃する回数も多い。そんな敵を相手にしたら「小兵の利を活かしてスピードでかく乱するんだ」と言われても無理無理。
武内：生まれ持った資質である肉体の強さと、修練によって鍛え抜かれた筋肉。まさに理想の戦士像。それにAランク以上の攻撃しか受け付けないとなると……。
奈須：超チート。普通のゲームだったらエンディング間近に手に入る伝説の宝具じゃないですか。伝説の武器系じゃないとバーサーカーには一切ダメージが通らないんですから。
武内：設定だけ見てると、普通に戦ったらバーサーカーにダメージを与えられないサーヴァントって結構いるだろうな。
奈須：宝具EXかAランクのセイバーでようやく正面から宝具で倒せる可能性がある。バーサーカーって“半端な英雄”キラーですよね。
武内：一流の英雄じゃないと正面からまともには戦えない。 - ↑ Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver Volume 1: Little Lady Arc - Bonus Act: "Servants"