Recap / Fate/Grand Order S3 E4: Yugakshetra

Pray to God. We do our best to live. Working hard, to live as good people. That’s why, God. God, please…… Guide us into the next Yuga as well.

—Asha

Full title: "Lostbelt No. 4 - Saṃsāra of Genesis and Terminus, Yugakshetra [The Final Dark God]".

Under Sion's directive, Chaldea must switch priorities from tackling Atlantis to India, as they need a very specific upgrade for the Shadow Border there with assistance from the Captain. Upon arrival and summoning the requisite Heroic Spirits as muscle, they find a fairly unremarkable village... with no knowledge of Indian heroes Rama and Karna. The arrival of the Kali to terrorize villagers only confirms Chaldea's suspicion that something sinister is at work to warp the timeline to this extent and thus begins their work to eliminate the fourth Lostbelt.

Watch the trailer here.

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Tropes found in this episode:

• Arc Word: Anyone who fails to meet Arjuna's standards of perfection is flawed and unnecessary, therefore evil. Expect to see these four words repeated a lot throughout the Lostbelt, usually on the same sentence.
• Alas, Poor Villain: As God Arjuna dies, he finally realizes his own hypocritical existence, stating that "[he] can't even become that man [Karna] always anticipated."
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: One of the reward for clearing the chapter is Karna's Burning Garment of Three Gods as a cosmetic skin for him.
• Arcadia: The first seven days of the Yuga cycle are spent in a beautiful world blooming with flowers.
• Back for the Dead: Nezha reprises her supporting role from the previous Lostbelt — only to be quickly and unceremoniously killed by her own Lostbelt version.
• Call-Back: As the main allied Servants are Karna and Rama, both of whom appeared in E Pluribus Unum, it was inevitable at least a few from that singularity would show up.
  • Karna once again tries to use Vasavi Shakti on a powerful enemy (Cu Alter, Aśvatthāman), but despite taking horrific damage they're able to survive thanks to a Healing Factor granted by a powerful source (the Holy Grail, God Arjuna's contract)
  • Rama ends up needing to be piggy-backed by Jinako after he takes Aśvatthāman's Curse onto himself heavily weakening him, much like how Nightingale had to carry him around due to his horrific injuries. He even mentions that he feels like he's been in this situation before.
• Central Theme: Flaws. This is a world ruled by a god regularly deleting anything with physical flaws, even if it's some simple thing as having a sprained ankle. He's ultimately defeated by the combined efforts Jinako, Lakshmi Bai and Ashwattaman (a useless member of society, a queen who failed to protect her people and a man who willingly choose to make his Fatal Flaw the entire core of his current identity), bringing along Karna to point out Arjuna's own flaws to himself. Nezha, Asclepius and Tell were also all defeated due to having their characteristic "flaws" forcibly removed from them. And Peperoncino, the resident Crypter, is, in a mindset similar to Arjuna's, a man very resigned to his own flaws in a way that he can't consider himself to be a good person regardless of all his positive qualities.
• Climax Boss: The Indian Lostbelt King, God Arjuna, against Karna in his Burning Garment of Three Gods form.
• Cool Chair: God Arjuna owns a massive throne that floats above his Lostbelt, giving him a full view of his world.
• Crapsaccharine World: Seven of its ten days in the cycle are spent in beautiful tranquility as flowers and crops flourish everywhere. The other three days are spent locked inside their homes, fervently praying that the Kali don't eat them and for their god to spare them from destruction. And because of its Lostbelt King, it happens again, again, and again.
• Deader than Dead: Even before their Lostbelt is erased, this is their fate if they get killed by the Kali, and no one can even remember them, shown with Asha, who doesn't know what happened to her mom, but infers that she had one given her own existence. Asha's Craft Essence, "Family Portrait", reveals that she was missing a lot more than just her mom.
• Despair Event Horizon: Flashbacks shown when God Arjuna sleeps reveal this as the For Want Of A Nail moment in the Lostbelt's history. This Arjuna suffered a mental breakdown due to the catastrophic destruction that resulted from the war in the Mahabharata. Concluding that humanity is too flawed to ever create a truly peaceful world without suffering, he decides he must become a god to do so in their stead.
• Dying Race: Humanity itself is doomed to extinction in this Lostbelt. God Arjuna wants to purge the world of all he sees as evil, but because no one else could ever match his impossibly high standards, it's only a matter of time before he purges all of humanity from the world. What's worse, the cycles are causing glitches that slowly destroys its own Tree of Emptiness, making this doubly so.
• Enemy Mine: The Lostbelt's Crypter, Scandinavia Peperoncino, disgusted by God Arjuna's madness and Ashiya Douman's sadistic cruelty, is forced to make an alliance with Chaldea to topple the Mad God. However, he's just so friendly that Chaldea literally thinks that he's done a Heel–Face Turn, and hehas to remind them that it's still an alliance. Naturally, once God Arjuna goes down, he and his Servant Ashwatthama serve as the Final Boss along with the Lostbelt's Tree of Emptiness Spiral.
• Final Boss: Unlike the first three Trees of Emptiness, Tree of Emptiness Spiral is faced with Pepe's Servant Ashwatthama, making it a Dual Boss.
• Flat "What": Gordolf gives one spelled as "Wat" in the English version in reaction to Koyanskaya's sheer audacity to ask for a ride in the Shadow Broker to escape the world reset.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Thanks to God Arjuna and Ashiya Douman, the Lostbelt is constantly being reset through the speeding of the Yuga cycles, with less and less humans being reincarnated within it. The reason Ashiya Douman is actually helping because he wants to see what lies beyond the Cycles.
• Heel–Face Turn: Tell and Asclepius go against God Arjuna after they've realized that something was taken away from them by the latter deeming the same to be "useless."
• Heroic Sacrifice: Karna is forced to take the blow of God Arjuna's reality-destroying attack with his Nigh-Invulnerable armor to protect the protagonist, and is seemingly wiped out for good... Until Ashwatthama uses the black cube to perform his own, bringing back Karna in his strongest form.
• Hopeless Boss Fight:
  • The first fight with God Arjuna is this. He has permanent Passives that render all damage done to him to zero, make him Debuff Immune, allow him to ignore both Evasion and Invincibility buffs, and for the kicker, he doesn't actually attack until his NP charges, at which point he party-wipes you with his Extra Attack, not the NP itself, and ends the fight there.
  • The fight between Ashwatthama and Karna to revive the latter looks like this at first, what with the fact that not only is Ashwatthama the only Servant allowed in this fight against an opponent with not only class advantage and two Break Bars but the fight forbids both Master Skills and Command Seals. However, it's inverted by the fact that Ashwatthama gets two permanent buffs for the fight: a max-HP Guts and a stackable Attack Damage Up buff each turn to deal with the class disadvantage, meaning he will win the fight eventually no matter what.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Arjuna's main three Lokapalas had Douman making them forget something essential to their motivation in order to make them agree with Arjuna's ideals. The other Lokapala, Ashwattaman was convinced through much less kind methods.
• Mad God: God Arjuna is completely insane, wishing to delete anything he sees as "evil," and is so bad that the Servants William Tell and Asclepius, who work for him, have to be brainwashed to do so.
• Mood Whiplash: Lakshmi Bai's Rousing Speech comes to an abrupt halt when she slips from atop the village wall and lands in a pit trap.
• Mordor: The Lostbelt turns from a lush green paradise to a barren wasteland in the last three days of the Yuga cycle.
• Negatives as a Positive: Fitting for a narrative about proving the value of flawed people, the heroes often find their worst traits proving essential to the plot's resolution. The key examples being Asvattaman using his own rage as his central defining feature that allowed him to resist Arjuna's control and ultimately assign himself the role of the rightful fury that would fight against the injustices his partner Pepe resigned himself to, and Jinako pulling off the Skyrock gambit because her tragic years as a hikikomori made her accustomed enough to isolation to be able to barely withstand the long wait.
• Not What It Looks Like: Upon hearing that Lakshmi Bai apparently houses inside her the goddess Sita is an avatar of, Rama wastes no time advancing towards her to find Sita, which results in Lakshmi Bai nearly crushing his skull because she naturally assumes that he's being perverted.
• Pet the Dog: Even when brainwashed, Asclepius stops the battle to tend to an injured child.
• Red Herring:
  • Scandinavia Peperoncino is shown for the banner of Yuga Kshetra, making it seem like he's got some big, dark secret like Akuta in S.I.N. Not really, only thing that is revealed is his true name (Aro Myorenji) and nationality (Japanese).
  • The existence of a "black cube" may cause some to think that it's the Moon Cell. They'd be both right and wrong, because it's actually a combination of Lakshmi Bai's and Jinako Carigiri's Noble Phantasms, sent back before the Yuga Cycles happen to allow for Karna to be revived in his strongest form. Aśvatthāman speculates that Jinako picked the most impenetrable thing she could think of for its shape, hence its resemblance to the Moon Cell's core.
• Ret-Gone:
  • No one inside the Lostbelt can remember those killed by the Kali, causing glitches that slowly destroys its own Tree of Emptiness.
  • Arjuna also does this directly to whatever he deems flawed, ranging from injured survivors to people who lose faith in him because they realize their loved ones have been erased from existence.
• Rogue Agent: Vitch reveals that she intends to become the New Nine Tailed Fox, which in turn means becoming a Beast.
• Sanity Slippage:
  • Jinako Carigiri/Ganesha's mind warped due to spending an uncountably long time in the black cube, forgetting all but the promise she made to Karna.
  • A much more Played for Laughs version happens with Rama, with him becoming despondent and depressed by the lack of Sita, echoing the fanbase's disappointment for there being no Sita in an Indian setting. It gets so bad he thinks Lakshmi Bai is a reincarnation of Sita, due to her allegedly having the same goddess as her.
• Serial Escalation: Besides the obvious jump in enemy power levels, story ally Servants start sporting the "NPC Support Craft Essence" to make them more viable by giving them half of their NP gauge at the start of a fight and increasing their NP generation by 50%.
• Taking You with Me: Koyanskaya asks Chaldea for a ride in the Shadow Broker to escape the impending reset since she was too exhausted in her fight against Ashwattaman to escape the Lostbelt with her own powers. Chaldea is hesitant at first but they become more cooperative when she threatens to expend the last of her energy to blow up herself and the Chaldeans if they won't help her.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: For Arjuna and Karna, their fated battle was interrupted back in the American Singularity thanks to Cú Chulainn (Alter) killing Karna. Here, they finally, finally face off against each other, with nothing holding them back.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: God Arjuna is revealed to have fused with the entire Hindu pantheon, including the ones who oversaw Mara, allowing her to fuse with Kama and become Beast III/L and cause the Tokugawa's Labyrinth event.
• Villainous Rescue: While trying to take down Asclepius, Arjuna suddenly appears and tries to crush them. He then leaves, and Asclepius prepares to finish them off, but Daybit Sem Void suddenly appears with his Servant to rescue them, destroying the regenerating undead. Turns out this was thanks to Koyanskaya, and before he leaves, he gives Pepe advice on how to beat God Arjuna.
• Wham Line: "Who's Vihan?"

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Ahh... Right. That's right.
As I thought, I. Have forgotten something, definitely. I have always, had this, kind of feelings.
Hey, that's why, tell me. About the important thing that I have forgotten about.

Asha (From "Family Portrait")