We need to talk about the ending...
With the June Aftertime story chapter coming, with many signs pointing to revisiting past Singularities and Lostbelts but this time with Olga Marie I need to bring some thoughts and theories.
First of all I found it increasingly hilarious right now that Nasu's supposedly brillant and final "themes-and-such" ending has become increasingly cheap and pointless in every passing day. Not just because of its glaring flaws (which there are a lot) or the continued need for monetary gain, but also because the recent announcements imply an entire Part 3, a new multi-part storyline that could span yet another decade judging from the game's current update speed. Even if Aftertime turns out to be just one long epilogue it still pivots to the whole ending being altered considerably or even undone altogether.
Even if the Aftertime doesn't change much and reaffirms the ending, if only meant that the emotional factor of said ending is forever trivialized since what's the point if it could just be disrupted or permanently altered when the actual Part 3 does roll around (because face it, not only is the game too much of a golden goose for so-called small indie companies Type Moon and Lasengle to just kill off, a LOT of story elements remain unaddressed).
Now for some theories:
Obviously Maris Chaldea is still out there, if not as the mastermind then at least as a major power behind the scenes. One thing that keeps me thinking is that the announcement visuals of Aftertime are uncannily reminiscent of Maris Chaldea's Beast form in which they have a while or palish blue exterior that contains what could be described as psychedelic technicolor acid. Plus Maris' Beast form itself. It could resemble "Biblically accurate angels" but also Lovecraftian abominations (Here is an illustration of Yog Sothoth for comparison). And one of the theories for Aftertime is that it could be a placeholder for the mysterious Foreigner OC, featuring a class that had been conspicuously absent througout the finale.
Secondly, there is something going on with the current "Blue Sky PHH" and its connection to Aftertime. A lot of things involving Holmes and how he and Maris revealed that the FGO timeline is Lostbelt 0. Either said Lostbelt was never pruned to begin with (supported by the fact that in the end of the raids the tree count suddenly went from 0000 to 1) or that FGO never was a Lostbelt after all, and that supposedly defeating Maris had led to the FGO timeline to transition into LB0. TLDR we're likely bamboozled by Holmes and possibly Levtia and Fou. The whole line of humanity looking into and widening cracks at the end of the Aftertime prologue implies that something isn't quite right...
Thirdly I really don't think Nasu is truly done with writing for FGO. Yes the coming story chapter likely has Sakurai as the writer, but what's preventing the mushroom from coming back sooner than later which can be attributed to: (a) Nasu himself is a chronic liar especially when it comes to Fate. Remember when he insisted that CCC would be the final Fate installment, that was a mere three years before FGO's release and (b) Olga's sudden appearance in Aftertime prologue all but hints that her story and that of Chaldea isn't over just yet. Said story is Nasu's pet project within the game with his alleged themes. For better or for worse the mushroom is going to stretch the game as humanly possible, especially in light of Extra Record in limbo and VN projects such as Red Garden and Mahoyo 2 being radio silent for half a decade or more at this point.
In any case, feel free to discuss, vent and speculate. Cause we all need that.