Part 73: Spear Barbed With Death - Cu Chulainn - Part 1

Spear Barbed With Death - Cu Chulainn





And now we have the last of Nero's Servants, Cu Chulainn. Cu Chulainn, and many other mythological figures from Ireland, are part of the Ulster Cycle, a collection of stories based around Ulster, in what's now Northern Ireland. Basically the Irish equivalent of the Matter of Britain (stories about King Arthur), and the Matter of France (stories about Charlemagne). Cu Chulainn was born under the name Sétanta, the child of the sister of the king of Ulster, Deichtine, and the sun god Lugh. Being that his actual father wouldn't accept parentage and his mother could not either, the nobles of Ulster instead agreed a number of them would raise the boy. They would teach him speech, protect him, instill in him a sense of justice, educate him, and nurse the child.

Even as a boy he was imbued with supernatural strength, and soon acquired the epithet Cu Chulainn from an incident where he had been invited to the home of Culann, a famous blacksmith. Due to roughhousing with some fellow youths, he missed the chance to get into the man's house normally, and tried to sneak his way in at night. Culann's hound, however, had been left on guard duty, and the young man killed the dog in self-defense. To make up for his mistake, Sétanta swore to protect Culann with his life if necessary. For his own part, Culann didn't need the boy's personal protection, but made him swear to become a great warrior who would protect all of Ulster against its enemies. After this incident, a druid named Cathbad bestowed upon the boy a new name, which would actually go down in history - Cu Chulainn (Culann's savage dog).

The boy would go on to get into all sorts of trouble, thanks to a near uncontrollable desire to fight and a strong desire to protect Ulster (my favorite incident being one where he used the king's chariot to ride into some neighboring country to butcher that kingdom's princes because of how many Ulstermen they said they had killed, came back in such a battle frenzy that the royals were convinced Cu was going to murder them next, so they tossed him into one barrel after another filled with water of various temperatures to calm him down). Eventually he was convinced to journey to the Land of Shadows to train with the queen, Scathach. He passes Scathach's brutal training, learning rune magic and receiving the queen's spear, Gae Bolg. He also gets into a feud with Aife, Scathach's enemy (and occasionally her twin sister). As the stories go (as is somewhat confirmed with Fate Cu Chulainn), he puts Aife's life at his mercy after he fights her and gains the upper hand with the old "Your chariot and horses are going over the side of the cliff" gag. In return for sparing her, she has to make peace with his master and bear him a son (who is named Connla, though he's never been seen).

After returning from the Land of Shadows with Gae Bolg, Cu would get himself caught up in a war with Connacht, led by the cruel queen Medb (extella will spell her name somewhat differently in Cu's second stage, but it is the same woman), who wanted to come and steal a bull. Unlike basically every man who came into contact with Medb during their lives, Cu would the only one to resist Medb's temptations. During this war, Cu Chulainn would also fight and kill his best friend Ferdiad (who he met during Scathach's training, and was competing for the right to use Gae Bolg himself). This is on top of having accidentally killed Connla a few years prior, so it just gives you an idea how much of a master of disaster Cu Chulainn is.

There are a number of other stories from Cu Chulainn's life, but his last story concerns a bitter, resentful Queen Medb who gathered the sons of men Cu had killed, and conspiring them together to finally kill the young man. Medb could only accomplish this after Cu had weakened himself from violating one of the geas's on his life, that is, never to eat dog meat (he was offered some out of hospitality, and not eating would have been a violation of good manners itself. Please refer to my "Master of disaster" line from the previous paragraph). After having been weakened, Cu tied himself to a rock and basically waited for death from anyone who could bring it. Eventually he is overcome, but only after taking scores of men with him.

Well, as with all of Nero's lieutenants sans Nameless, Cu's first stage is based on Flame Poem 1. I can't promise this is the last time we'll see it, but at least it'll be over quickly. This costume for Cu is based on his Prototype design. See, the origin of Fate goes all the way back to Nasu's high school days, when he would doodle ideas or something in the margins of his notebooks or some such. At the time, he had been influenced by a manga series called Makai Tensho (Samurai Resurrection. This is from more innocent days when the word "Resurrection" in a title was not a huge social faux pas), where dead samurai were brought back to life to fight against each other. The point is, he had the idea of dead heroes fighting each other 50 years ago.

From this point in Nasu's writing career, the Servants who survive most intact are Cu Chulainn and Gilgamesh, who were always planned to be a part of this series. Gilgamesh's personality and general design are still carried over from the first design, whereas Cu had a somewhat different personality but had this armor design (this design was made for the animated short that was based on Nasu's first draft). His blue tights design is pretty iconic, I will be the first to admit, but I like this one a lot, too. Reminds me a lot of a Celtic warrior.





Cu Chulainn stage 1

Since they completely got rid of the Holy Grail War, I was ready for a long, boring future, but...as luck would have it, there's a battlefield perfect for me!

Good, those are quite the encouraging words. Cu Chulainn, Child of the Sun! I have only one order for you. Attack, and scatter our enemies to the four winds! Destroy those who would dare invade my territories!

All right, leave it to me! I didn't have a chance to show it during the Holy Grail War, but I'm actually pretty awesome in battle. Hold tight. I'll just go hunt down the enemy general. Emperor, you relax on your nice throne back there until I bring you the good news.

You're free to run ahead of the pack, but don't forget to play nice with others. I'm heading out to the battlefield as well.

What, you're coming along too? Now that's just rude, pairing you up with me.

A man who rushes into danger and a man who plans ahead. It's hard ot say which is superior, isn't it?

Yeah yeah, it's your job to give a shit about the small stuff. All I'm gonna do is run free. I'll take the first stab at them. And of course, I'll take their general's head too!



Well, if you can keep up with him, the Child of Light is using his S S T attack, where he zooms around in a small area at a breakneck speed, stabbing folks. This'll give you a good idea how Cu plays, regardless of if you know anything else about him. Cu is *fast*. Fast to the point where the camera can have trouble keeping up with him sometimes. Of course, he sacrifices power in exchange, but the best way to play Cu is overwhelm the enemy with attacks, and his peerless ability to hit and run.



He also has a really good T T attack. He'll spin Gae Bolg in a circle twice, juggling airborne enemies for solid, if unspectacular damage. As I said, most of his utility comes in the ability to pile on a flurry of attacks to overwhelm either a group or enemy.



It should very much be noted that while Cu is moving as super sonic speeds, he can get hit if an enemy attacks hits him mid-stride. Normally enemies can't keep up, but projectile attacks will do the job just fine. It's still one of his most effective techniques.



Yeah we'll get to that point. This is Cu's S T move, which is deceptively short. He'll just swipe his spear upwards to knock targets in front of him into the air. Of course, ripe for a T T combo, but you really would expect him to pile on more attacks, wouldn't you? Well, sometimes you have to make your own combos.

When you get close to the Plant Sector...

What...is this called...? This singing voice has no equal...

This horrid sound is echoing through my soul. Hm? You say something, my Lord?

How mysterious.



It should be noted that Cu has a very slight delay on his EM. It can be a tad perilous if you're expecting it to operate the same way.



His S S T, which he'll gain in his early 20s, fires a blast of energy from his spear. It's the closest he has to a projectile, and it's decently effective.



Same scene as always until arrival...





You've been annoying me for a while now! What... What are you even doing? What? A concert? ...Great, I get to deal with your tasteless fans.

Th-They're not tasteless! They just love to move to my beats!

I recall Lancer's words about "a horrid sound echoing through his soul".

Hmm... Well, work hard, play hard, right? Get ready, little lady.

Free the music! Groupies, attack! *vanishes*

Hey, hey. Abandoning your troops... Well, whatever. I'll just take care of the grunts.



Cu's aerial dive attack operates quite a bit differently than everyone else's. Basically, he'll thrust Gae Bolg toward the ground, and if it connects with a target heavier than the normal grunts, he'll stab forward several times to pile on the damage, then jump backwards a bit. If it doesn't hit, he'll just glide toward the ground without doing any damage. It has good and bad points.

Also, I should point out this dialogue by Nero.

Elizabeth seems to have moved to a different Sector. ...All right. First, we need to retake all the sectors. I'm counting on you, Lancer. Make sure not to damage the concert hall, understand? No giant, burning straw men. No pyrotechnics at all.

I'll point out what she's referring to next time...



Oooh! What the hell?! They've completely taken over! Interrupting my concert? A crime like that deserves 100 lashes!

This isn't a concert! All you're making is noise!



While the Elizabeth is away...

















Normally Gae Bolg is an Anti-Personnel Noble Phantasm, where it seeks out the opponent's heart to stab it with a powerful curse that would instantly kill an enemy Servant, becoming undodgeable by reversing causality, where the conclusion of "You've got a big red spear sticking out where your heart is" is fact, and the act of Cu Chulainn thrusting his spear forward is a formality. The only way to dodge the cursed spear's ultimate attack is having a supernatural ability (via your Luck stat) to avoid it, but effectively, it's an insta-kill against a single target.

However, depending on when he feels lilke it, he can transform his spear into a simple thrown projectile that's titled "Soaring Spear that Strikes With Death". Also effectively unblockable by all but the finest shields, it lacks the refinement of the stabby version but it's most suited for group fights, like the fights he finds himself in in this game.



i mean, the Child of Light is an actual spearman, whereas Elizabeth is just pretending to be one...



That slow, huh? Cu's old age must be catching up with him.







My solo concert was a big success! All of the AIs were screaming for more. It was going so great until you crashed the party...!

Yeah I wouldn't call that screaming for more, more like screaming, "NO more!" "Concert" my ass. That grating on my spirit core made me think I was gonna split in half! Like, I HEARD the actual grating. Okay, now look here, little lady. You have the wrong idea about music to start with. Music should make you feel the passion of great heroes who died in war, it should sing of your wildest dreams or tell tales of maiden's tears. All you're doing is screaming at the top of your lungs. You should study the great bards, or just go bleat on some lonely mountain.

In other news, they really were chanting "Boo-urns!". Really.

What do you mean...? What do you mean...?! I-I put on a good show for everyone, didn't I...?

I don't think it's right to make Elizabeth cry, even if Cu is being pretty funny about it...

...But i won't give up! You better watch it the next time I see you, Cu Chulainn! Next time, my singing's going to leave to dizzy!

That's more like it.

Huh. Looks like she disappeared. So, what, that's like a facet of the other side's Regalia, I guess? I didn't bring her head home but...that's fine with you, right? I mean, since she's no stranger to you and all, Madam Emperor.

Of course, that's acceptable. That Elizabeth Bathory and I shall settle our own score one day, with a great song battle. However... How cruelly you split a maiden's heart in two... Just what one would expect from the mighty Cu Chulainn! Even your words strike with unparalleled power, straight through the heart! In any case, good work! You did indeed control the flow of battle with brilliance, Child of the Sun. I trust I can continue to rely on you!