The first time was much weaker though while the second fight Ares is arguably stronger than Kronos given that he’s a fight at all. Meanwhile Arthur does the same with no additional power up.
I disagree, ironically enough, his power is too wide since he see multiple future instead of THE future so he can easily miss stuff or decide to see / follow the ‘wrong’ future and can’t peer too far on a useful scale without mind-breaking himself, that’s how he could be completely taken aback by a random human emperor dismissing him for a petty reason.
Eh, Contessa SOUNDS more impressive than she actually is. The only reason that dude was that scared of her is because of the shard network basically feeding all the info on him to Contessa’s shard. That’s why in the end, she isn’t the deciding factor of the main plot.
This is exactly why she is strong, her shard is a planetary scanner, taking in information at depths and speed that is unprecedented even to the Entities, that’s why Eden was so distracted with her new toy that it lead to her death, and that’s why Contessa could even kill a god-like being in the first place. Because this shard is amazing even to beings capable of planetary destruction.
Eden herself had to nerf the shard because if she didn’t there would be no Worm, cause Zion would not live.
As for the deciding factor, she is one of the most vital elements in the plot. Besides, if one uses power as the basis of the plot, neither Taylor nor Victoria would measure up to the likes of the Triumvirate or the Slaughterhouse Nine, yet it was they that ultimately changed the game.
(Also, it’s the Goddess who was scared of her, who identifies as a woman).
Yes, I agree. That’s why I stated that Khan would still have a chance. Besides, Janus with Contessa-like power, while interesting, would be too boring to read about since winning would be preordained.
On consideration, I agree that barely is stretching it. My point stands however, that Arthur seems to be the weakest of the current fables, Ishtar, though had lasted two hours, did not even seem fazed. Meanwhile, Arthur:
It was not hard to pull your blade back and swiftly impale him. He shoved you back with all of his might, sending you careening into the nearby forest. Pain racked your body as it rocketed towards the hill, your skull slamming through the trunks of multiple trees.
When you regained your bearing you realized for the first time you were a significant amount of distance from Excalibur, which was still presumably buried in the body. You quickly turned and ran away from where a presumably dead Alexander was with all your might.
Arthur even left Excalibur, though I hope the author makes it clearer why. Ares is dead here, so why leave?
Ishtar managed not get hit because of her overwhelming strength and she tore his arms off, Arthur let his guard down after he stabbed Ares and got pushed back as Ares last ditch effort which did nothing ultimately and was perfectly fine getting up and sprinting away as to get away from Excalibur. Had Ares managed to get the same push in on her if would likely have the same effect. I believe they’re all relatively around the same power level just some excell at one thing specific, Ishtars raw strength, Arthur’s battle skill, Zeus and his lightning and Janus foresight.
What do you mean? The whole thing with Arthur weakness is that Excalibur makes him bloodlusted. Even away from the sword he remains just as strong and retains his abilities and immortality.
“Your life continued without Excalibur. Much of your time was spent journeying the world, eventually winding back up in England in the 1850s. Despite being so far removed from the sword, the changes it had on you seemed to be permanent. You remained superhuman in nature, and your bloodlust still tickled the back of your brain. And despite everything, you could feel Excalibur calling. It was out there, waiting for your eventual reunion. What was even the point of leaving it, you had thought so many times”
Sometime during WW2 they got Excalibur back though as they have it during the flashback with Yurui which take place during 1972 and now during the present. He got it back easily considering it can fly back to his hand on command no matter how far it is which it does when he calls it to kill Mordred.
Because for once he was away from Excalibur and hope that by running from it he’d be free of the bloodlust. That evidently didn’t work so he might as well take it back.
Arthur was perhaps fine, but this does not retract from him being the only fable to be fazed by Ares.
Ironically, it was the one with battle skill spec that let his guard down.
Note that I am not stating that Arthur is weak, for now he’s probably the strongest augment alive, only that Arthur is weak insofar as the other fables eclipse his strength. Which is to say relatively.
Janus can precog victories, which makes them win any battle where there’s a possibility of winning (for now). Zeus is Zeus. Ishtar is just ridiculous, who’s only weakness is not actually a weakness
it’s only fair, experience wise, since he’s the youngest of the augments.
He regained his bearing, which means those bearings were lost. Also, he got thrown back a distance away. Arthur’s not weak, he just currently seems to be the weakest of the fables. Future chapters may change this perspective.
I mean yeah he lost his bearing because he got pushed back, then just got up and was perfectly fine he sprinted. In pretty sure if any of them got pushed back by Ares so far they would lose their bearings. I’m agreeing with you though he isn’t OP like others, but still around the same power level he just doesn’t have easy win hax like them, he’s pure fighting and battle strength and skill and the other superhuman stuff. Though which probably does have to do with being the youngest. Which is honestly why I like it more to, plus evil Excalibur is cool. Although I wonder if his strength and power increases if he lets go and gives in to his bloodlust.
Ngl this is why I kinda don’t like her route, wish it gets changed to some other weakness cause so far everyone elses weakness is just far more interesting.
She basically has the reverse problem of Zeus. When Zeus get a high and make the hunger take a step back, he’s at his peak and slowly goes back down until he need another high.
When Ishtar take her medicine and make the brainwashing take a step back, she’s at her lowest and slowly go back up until she need to take her medicine again.
At least that’s what the game seemed to say.
Unrelated but I just thought it would be super fun to do something like use Zeus’s electricity to melt and forge some stuff.
This is exactly the spirit of my point. None of them got pushed back by Ares. Arthur is unique in this, and the whole thesis of why I don’t think he’s as strong as the other fables.
Can a weakness be self-imposed?
Ishtar is… well she willingly takes this medicine to suppress her powers. Without this medicine though she can use her most devastating power.
How is that a weakness? Push become shove, she can always choose to not drink the medicine, giving her a power-up. None of the other fables have this.
Janus is basically a Malkavian.
Arthur can barely control his bloodlust.
Zeus is an ambrosia addict.
She doesn’t take that medicine = no weakness. Again it’s self-imposed, while the other fables have no agency.
Yes? I don’t see why not. Also being unable to fit into society in the slightest is also a weakness in and of itself, you’ll just end up losing your mind.
Like being overconfident is THE most common weakness and it’s ‘self-imposed’ in a way.
That power mess with her more than it mess with its opponent and since some are just immune like Gilgamesh, it wouldn’t be unlikely that it just work on normal people, especially since Ares kinda no sells it.
Not being able to talk to someone isn’t really a power up.
Which is kinda the same as above, it’s only really harmful on social level.
Once again, same as above, only ‘harm’ the bloodlust does him is make him incapable of safely being near others.
By that logic nobody except Zeus has a weakness.
Arthur doesn’t care about killing people and being a murderhobo = No weakness.
Janus doesn’t care about being insane and looking like a lunatic = No weakness.
Ishtar doesn’t care about 99% of people being turned into drooling morons = No weakness.
I still don’t think it’s really fair to say he’s weaker because of that considering Ishtar rips him apart so he can’t do anything, Zeus spams lightning so he can’t do anything and Janus will know his every move either way so it doesn’t matter. Arthur just stabs him and doesn’t do all that extra stuff which he could with Excalibur if he wanted, Ares getting a push in is more of Arthur not being thorough and making sure his enemy is dead. Not saying he’s the strongest though I agree at the moment he isn’t, mainly because he doesn’t have easy win hax like the others.
The thing with the Ares fight as Arthur is that Ares has basically the same skill set as Arthur according to the Zeus origin (just replace Excalibur beams with flames) and Arthur wins by just being better at it. So obviously it look less dominating than when the others play their strength like Zeus essentially nuke him or Janus sand-bagging for hours looking for the perfect attack.
And even then, the only difference is that Ares land a hit as he dies after Arthur already impaled him.
If I had to criticize any Ares fight, it would be Ishtar’s because I didn’t get the link between flying (which is noted to be her main ability) and essentially just ripping Ares apart with her bare hands but that’s more nitpicking than criticism.
He did a good job as Alexander the Great. He might have been better at doing what Janus tried than him ironically enough. He might be the most successful of the cast when it come to influencing the world as a ‘normal person’.
Since Ishtar was mentioned to be the Sumerian goddess of war, she was sometimes shown to be winged according to the mythology and surviving religious deceptions of her. In other myths about her which it seems this game doesn’t take into account is that she could control thunderstorms as well
Technically, in context Ares seemed mostly to be searching someone to kill him. As Zeus he basically just charge at you to avenge Kronos or die trying while for the others, he basically just ask for a fight to the death out of nowhere so he might have put a better fight if he had actually wanted to live.
He probably didn’t take his sons ruining his empire very well.
Yeah, I know the mythological inspiration for her to fly, I’m just saying there isn’t much connection between that and pulling a bare handed fatality on Ares.
Now that I think about it, Ishtar might be the only one so far who fights bare handed. Arthur use Excalibur, Zeus use his lightning and a sword (at least against Kronos) and Janus has the dagger.
