English Dub Review: Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia; “The Tablet of Destinies”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Ritsuka and Mash are sent on a mission to retrieve a prophetic tablet. During their mission, they encounter more entities that lie at the heart of this conflict. 

Our Take

This is yet another episode spent briefly examining characters and introducing antagonists, rather than advancing the plot. 

Ushiwakamaru, one of the servants that Gilgamesh summoned to help in the war, receives a heap of praise from Ritsuka for his efforts. Ritsuka’s efforts to strengthen himself are then in turn praised by Merlin. Everybody is doing great, but again, no progress is being made.

Gilgamesh orders Ritsuka and the group to go to the city of Kuhta to retrieve the Tablet of Destinies. Written on this tablet is a prophecy Gilgamesh foretold a long time ago but conveniently forgot about until now.  And much like many other cities in Mesopotamia, it is haunted by some sort of evil spiritual force. While investigating Kuhta, Ritsuka accidentally wanders into the underworld somehow and is ambushed by some zombies. He is then saved by a beggar he gave charity to in a previous episode, who fortunately turns out to be a god of some sort. And when he wakes up, he inexplicably has the Tablet of Destinies in his hands, which nobody truly questions. 

As one can see, Ritsuka spends most of this episode stumbling his way through an obstacle course of what seems to be conveniently important plots. However, any potential importance these plot points have may have is not revealed in this episode. And I have a suspicion, like many plot points from earlier in the show that didn’t come back until just now, these will also be shoved onto the back burner. 

Most of the focus of this episode is given to the goddess Ishtar. Some parts of her origins are revealed but like many other backstories, most of it is still kept under a lot of mystery. 

The parts of her we do see are not flattering at all. She protects random people from the demonic beasts but then steals all of their valuables in recompense. She attacks Ritsuka and the crew out of the blue for no reason at all. She is incredibly temperamental and acts like an impudent child. 

A potential explanation given for all of this is that when she was summoned into the body of a girl, their personalities fused and became twisted. While this may serve as some exposition, it doesn’t make her already irritating character any more compelling. The show is trying to portray Ishtar as an antagonist that we should feel some sympathy for, some sort of pitiable villain. But every time she shows up, she’s annoying and I want her to go away. 

Fortunately for Ritsuka, Ishtar’s childish nature allows him to bait her into an incredibly obvious trap and they’re able to smack her down and question her. Seeing Ishtar fall into this simple trap is a little satisfying. But with how quickly Ishtar is incapacitated, the show skips over an opportunity to have one of the battles it usually likes to put on. Sometimes these battles have felt a little bit intrusive, but this is certainly one episode where I wouldn’t have minded the intrusion. 

Ultimately though, this episode is just like the last few. Gilgamesh sends Ritsuka and Mash on another glorified errand. We get to see another evil force at work in this world. Then everyone gives up and goes home without doing anything about it. There is no plan, they’re just playing it by ear and making it up as they go along. Maybe they’ll eventually get around to thinking about stopping all of these bad guys.