Part 79: He Who Saw The Deep - Gilgamesh - Part 1

He Who Saw The Deep - Gilgamesh





And now comes Gilgamesh, the only one who could credibly wear the title of "History's oldest hero". He of course comes from the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, a record of the life of a demi-god king who ruled over Uruk at the dawn of recorded human history. The Epic recounts the tyrannical King Gilgamesh, who would use his might as the king to sleep with newlyweds as he saw fit (exercising his droit du siegnuer), and generally be as much of a dick as he wanted, which was apparently a lot. In response to the people's prayers, the gods created the wild man Enkidu, who would come to Uruk and hopefully bring even the king to heel. After a long fight, the two admitted a draw and became fast friends. Even when he's summoned to a new battlefield, Fate Gilgamesh considers only one person his true equal.

After they met, Enkidu and Gilgamesh would go to the Cedar Forest (probably somewhere around modern Lebanon), and killed the gigantic guardian of the forest, Humbaba. After returning to Uruk via cedar tree they cut down and put in the Euphrates, the goddess Ishtar would come down from heaven and ask Gilgamesh to marry her. Citing the misfortunes of all of Ishtar's other lovers, Gilgamesh would turn down the request. In response, Ishtar basically bullied all the other gods into letting her unleash the Bull of Heaven (Gugalanna). Again working together, Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed the bull and saved Uruk. The Epic even adds that after Ishtar appeared again, Gilgamesh and Enkidu chucked a piece of the bull's hindquarters at her.

Killing two divine beasts, however, was a bit much for the gods, who then demanded that one of the Gilgamesh x Enkidu power couple had to die. As it went, Enkidu was marked for death, and his death prompted Gilgamesh to throw away everything and venture into the wild to find the secret of eternal life from the one person he knew who had been bestowed such a blessing: the wise man Utnapishtim (also known as Ziusudra or Atrahasis), who survived a great deluge from the gods in ages past. Gilgamesh embarked on a grand adventure to find the man, including killing some lions for their pelts and an encounter with scorpion men. Finally, he found Utnapishtim, who told him how he had received his eternal life and told Gilgamesh his search was futile, as death was what was allotted to man, to eternity, the gods. And himself and his wife, of course.

Failing a test to even conquer sleep for 7 days, Gilgamesh got something of a consolation prize. He was told of a plant at the bottom of a lake that would restore his youth, at the very least. Gilgamesh retrieved the plant, but while he was resting, a snake stole it and used it to shed its skin for the first time (which is why his summoning catalyst in Fate/zero was the skin of the first snake). Having failed on either eternal or reborn life, Gilgamesh found new purpose as a wise king who would rule Uruk as a harsh, demanding, but ultimately benevolent man. Sometime after he returned to Uruk, he would help build its massive walls and ziggurat, and would pass away.

As for his status as an actual historical personage, it's generally believed he was a real person who acquired a massive reputation (not unlike Iskandar, but in his case we are *pretty* sure he lived and know of his deeds) shortly after his death, who reigned sometime between 2800 and 2500 BC. Quite a window for him to be alive, but when you go that far back into the historical record, definitive statements about when certain people were alive becomes exponentially harder to make with confidence. There are also outside references to people associated with Gilgamesh in the Epic, so it would not be direct confirmation of the man's presumed existence, but it would be like finding references to a Sir Agravaine or Sir Ector in British history. As a final note, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a compilation of a number of related stories, with the earliest known version dating back to 18th century BC, Shūtur eli sharr ("Surpassing all other kings"), but the more complete version coming from a few centuries later, titled with incipit Sha naqba īmuru, "He Who Saw the Deep", or "He Who Saw The Unknown", if you're the unpoetic type.

Relatedly, Gilgamesh's costume here (without the upper half of his armor and a different haircut), is the Original Mythic costume. Its first appearance was in Fate/hollow ataraxia, and it usually shows up when Gilgamesh is starting to take things seriously. And he just naturally likes to bare his body (two times, fully nude and proud of it in Fate/zero and CCC), of course. It also shows up as his third sprite in Fate/Grand Order.

Gilgamesh's first stage is based on Dawn Arc 4, the one with the Amazing Disappearing Li Shuwen. No Sector Traps, so you can go with whatever Mystic Code you want.






Gilgamesh stage 1

Hm... I had thought that it might be amusing to play a supporting role for once, but I've changed my mind.

...What kind of change is this? I thought you said that you would only lend me your hand once?

Don't talk such nonsense. Are you even awake? Let's be clear. I haven't even lifted a single finger for you yet. Don't get that wrong.

...So being my support staff doesn't count as "effort" for you. Consumed with your pride as usual, I see. If you're considering lending a hand now, this must be serious.

Ah, that almost sounds like understanding. Better late than never, I suppose. I'd say that Red Saber is a match for you. Give her a chance. You two might make a nice couple.

Good ol' Gil, talking shit as always, but I bet you wouldn't have expected the protagonist of mankind's oldest story to ship a female Nero Claudius and a female Attila the Hun, huh? He goofs around and is hardly ever serious when he's talking, but the air changes around him considerably when he is being serious, and he's much smarter and perceptive than he lets on most of the time. He just enjoys pressing people's buttons and taking the piss out of way-too-serious types like Jeanne. Nothing wrong with that, I think.

I'm not here to listen to your nonsense, King of Heroes. Is this your idea of "help"?

This just a game to me. I spotted a familiar face in the enemy ranks, and I thought, "Why not put them down here and now"? Return to your throne, Altera. Both you and that mongrel Master of yours should conserve your power for now. Your battle with destiny isn't here. So don't misjudge where to put your life on the line.

...Fine. Thank you, King of Heroes. I'll leave this battlefield to you. Rampage as you see fit.



That's the idea. As with most maps, there's a number of ways to handle this. For some reason I keep wanting to go to the top of the map, but strictly speaking that probably isn't best, since Li Shuwen will first appear in the south, and Nameless is hanging out in the west, too. There's only a Plant in the north, and the travel time between north and south can slow you down a bit. Well, I decided to go north first.



No amount of hidden intelligence and conscientiousness can hide the fact Gil's a dick, and he fights like one too. He loves his projectile attacks, and indeed, he can wipe out crowds without even getting close to them. His S T attack is simple enough, a swipe with one of his swords and then an upward shot with several weapons out of his Gate of Babylon. He is *very* versatile with those magic circles behind him. The lore reason behind them is he has a golden key which connects himself to his treasury, something only he has access to. This allows him to summon any weapon in his vault instantly to a field, in any number he wants, and indeed, part of the reason Gil's basic melee attacks are pretty slow is basically he pulls out a new weapon for every attack. You think that inefficient, but this is coming from a man who wears the fanciest, shiniest armor he can find. As I've mentioned before, Gilgamesh has the original or prototype of nearly every famous weapon ever used by a hero hanging out in his treasure vault, that he acquired on his considerable journeys.



Gilgamesh and Gawain are two units who rely on T attacks for reliable, fast damage, and Gilgamesh is even better in this department. He'll basically summon weapons to attack from one side, then another, then when he levels up enough, one final hit coming from weapons fired from behind him. All of these attacks come out pretty quickly. Easily decimates a mob of low-level enemies, and juggles smaller Aggressors and Servants.



His aerial T attack is firing a bunch of weapons straight down. It covers a wide area underneath him and gives you a nice safe place to land.



Aerial combo is similar. Seems to do a bit more damage than the previous attack, however.



S S T fires a pretty powerful concentration of weapons in front of him. Gil doesn't really have a way to do heavy damage, and this move is one such answer to that concern. Once again, a potent projectile attack.



In spite of the fact he's not particularly good at using any one weapon, S S S S T launches a very fast combo attack with minimal chance of being interrupted. Kind of situational, since Gil has better ways to deal with crowds or single targets than a melee combo that's a little hard to control.



S S S T will bring out a drill-sword thingy. Gil will charge forward, hitting any enemies in his path, then knocks them into the air where he follows up with the drill rotating and then exploding enemies away. Good for single-combat, I suppose. Not really that strong.



His EM also deserves mention. Enkidu was also known as the Chain of Heaven, a bridge between the gods who birthed them (Enkidu has no gender), and Gilgamesh, who they sought to bring back into line. By whatever reason, Gilgamesh came into possession of some of Enkidu's actual chains, and he can use them to restrain targets. It's more effective on those more closely related to gods. The higher the Divinity, the more their movements are shackled. He'll also gain a special attack making use of the chains.



Nameless dinged me with a pretty nice aerial Caladbolg there, even if it only winged me with the weakest part of the attack. Still pretty professional. Anyway, Gilgamesh has a TON of special attacks, and we haven't seen them all yet, but overall he's really good. Gameplay-wise, one of the best units in the game. Kind of on the weak end of attacks, but he can fire such a volume of attacks that it hardly matters. If some Servant is getting all up in your grill, just swat them away with a really fast T T T combo. I still say Artoria is overall better, but Gilgamesh is very good.



At the end of Gil's very long S combo chain, he'll fire out a full blast from Gate of Babylon. It's actually not that effective, but it does look neat.



Li himself is not hard as Gilgamesh, namely because all but one of his attacks are short-range, and his long range has a noticeable charge up animation to easily get out of the way before it fires. Meanwhile Gil can make sure Li never gets anywhere near him.



One advantage to the drill-sword thing I mentioned prior is that it knocks a target into the air, and if you're on the ball, you can jump right after them and follow up with a powerful air combo. Stacks quite a bit of damage on. Once our Irish friend arrives...

Just looking at your face annoys me. This is perfect. How long can I keep this battle going?

I would tell you "watch and learn"...but mongrels like you only deserve to be put down!



Unfortunately our favorite bloodhound makes a good counter to Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh operates by being able to keep enemies away from and not getting into the thick of a fight, whereas Cu specializes in being able to close distances very quickly and attack at range with his spear. Gilgamesh has to be very careful around him, since many of Gil's attacks have a delay on them and they can give Cu the opening he needs. Ultimately you'll want to play somewhat cautiously and not try to keep up with him, since anyone will lose that fight to Cu.



The Golden King grows weary of this.



















Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasm is called Enuma Elish, which is not the name of his sword. His red-spiral drill sword is called Ea, aka Enki, the Sumerian (later Babylonian and Akkadian) god of creation and water. Enuma Elish itself is the name of the Babylonian creation myth, which describes the war between Marduk, the eventual king of the gods, and Tiamat, the primordial god of oceanic waters and mother of several other gods (including Ea). Marduk was eventually victorious, and cleaved Tiamat's body in two to create the earth and sky. As far as Gilgamesh's attack goes, his sword represents this act of creation itself, dividing heaven and earth and creating both.

As far as Noble Phantasms go, Enuma Elish is about the top of the list in terms of power. It's not really a sword, but it serves as the prototype for all famous swords that would follow. There's all sorts of crazy metaphysical stuff about what Ea can actually do and how it works, but the short answer is it crushes, compresses, and obliterates anything sucked into the void, recreating the creation of the world itself. It's basically impossible to defend against, with one exception only one Heroic Spirit kind of possesses, but that's a story for another time. Befitting his personality, Gilgamesh really doesn't like bringing it out, viewing people unworthy of even being able to look upon such a divine weapon, especially something that only he possesses, with not even a rough equivalent anywhere in the world of Heroic Spirits. It's boss.



Man, that was close. Defeated the final Aggressor in that nice short window between defeating the boss Servant and the stage ending.



Not something that merits the king's effort, after all.








You look ready for your last rites. Let me be the one to finish you, Lancer!

Hey, sorry to cut in when you're on a roll, but looks like your home base is in danger.

What?

I'm not actually the main event. I think your house should be on fire just about now, thanks to our great Emperor's blitz tactics. Simply put, you won the battle and lost the war. This isn't the first time, you know. You get so caught up in your games that you leave your ass hanging out. Right?

You fool. What kind of man could ever get anything done if he were always looking over his shoulder? The backstabbing cowards are at fault here, not me?

I guess you could say that, but...was it really such a great plan to not pay attention?



Not a common look for the king. Never admit a mistake, after all.