The Scáthach thesis

My Scáthach character analysis was originally completed in March 2017 and written out of spite after I saw someone say she has no personality. While I'd regularly engaged in longform character analysis on tumblr before then, this was the first time I tried to make a comprehensive document like this, so I'm still very fond of it. I was also in the middle of writing my Bachelor's thesis at the time, but the Scáthach character analysis ended up being longer by a wide margin, sitting at around 14k words.

It originally lived in a google document and has been ported to this site with minimal changes. This means the listed sources are almost all fantranslations and summaries, because none of the games involved had an official English localisation yet (English FGO went live June 2017). It also ignores Scáthach=Skadi entirely, because she didn't exist at the time of writing either (LB2 JP release was July 2018). In fact, this was so early in the game's lifespan that there hadn't even been a second "summer event" yet that my citations of "the summer event" could be referring to (Dead Heat Summer Race was August 2017), nor was there a FGO Material profile for Assassin Scáthach yet (FGO material IV released December 2017). Also, the Fate/hollow ataraxia translation patch was still a work in progress at that time, and some parts of its script as shown in my screenshots were adjusted in the current finished version.

I never bothered to update my citations with any of the official translations, because as far as I could tell none of the official translations meaningfully differed from the ones I cited, though I still might do so later here just to clean things up. I also decided against rewriting things to include Skadi after her release because Skadi's character turned out to have very little to do with Scáthach, despite sharing a name. I just don't like Skadi much either, but that's another matter. We're talking about Scáthach now.

Scáthach

Scáthach didn’t actually have a very large role in the collection of manuscripts we call the Ulster cycle, and as a result a lot of what’s there in Fate is completely original content (not that Fate ever shied away from doing whatever the hell they want with mythology). The base points - her being Cú’s teacher and ruling the Land of Shadows - are still there, but they’re stretched and expanded upon to make her into a fully fledged character that fits into the existing narrative.

Scáthach's power and how it caused her deathwish

The biggest change, which was already established in Fate/hollow ataraxia, is that she is immortal. She used to be human, but eventually she became so strong it turned her into an eternal existence etched into the world, who has already reached the height of everything she might attempt to do.

Conceptually this makes sense: immortality means you have all the time in the world to master things. Because Scáthach achieved too many things that should not be possible within a human lifespan, she had to be granted an infinite lifespan in order to justify her impossible actions to the world. Paradoxically, this then also became the reason she was able to achieve those impossible things in the first place. She became immortal through achieving impossible things, but retroactively she was able to achieve those things because she was immortal.

Noble Phantasms represent the same concept as their wielders, so naturally this is connected to Gae Bolg’s reversal of causality too. The spear pierces the heart, and then makes its way over there to justify piercing it. Scáthach, through logical yet paradoxical necessity, was immortal before she did the things that caused her immortality. It’s impossible to point out when exactly she became immortal, because the world had to retcon her into having always been immortal.

Setting abstract symbolism aside for now though, her actions explicitly have no limits because she’s no longer limited by time.

Scáthach: After I slaughtered so many divine spirits, I gained the the wisdom of the dark realm. I exist outside of the world and if I possess an immortal body, then I also possess eternal knowledge.
(Scáthach introduction event)

She has no limits and no concept of when to stop, especially when it comes to fighting. Her training methods would occasionally kill her students because they were too intense for anyone except the absolute best to keep up with. Her standard of what is reasonable has shifted to be absolutely ridiculous due to being so ridiculously strong herself.

Scáthach: I know how you feel, but don't get careless. Fergus, don't forget if you meet an enemy as strong as ten men, you must be as strong as hundred men.
Fergus: Yes, of course, I always intend to use all of my strength. But you want me to go as far as shredding my enemy to bits and breaking all of their bones? Hahaha! I expect nothing less from Big sis! There's a limit to how savage one can be, you know!
(Scáthach introduction event)

Cú: Man, I haven’t fought her so fired up since we apprentices teamed up against her in the land of shadows! Fergus, Ferdiad, and some twenty other people I think. She springs this stuff on us, the final trial she calls it. “All of you band together and kill me right now. If you won’t, then die. Because I am going to kill all of you right now.” It’s probably to cull out the ones with no promise, but talk about spartan.
(Kara no Kyoukai collaboration event)

Scáthach is insanely powerful and worked hard for it. She was placed in charge of the Land of Shadows because she was deemed strong enough to kick the dead, which often included near-gods, back into the underworld, and eventually became so good at it that she could simply no longer be called human. Her personal skill, Wisdom of the Abyss, is the ability to display every skill that she could reasonably obtain within her lifetime (that is, every skill excluding those specific to a single hero e.g. Medusa’s mystic eyes) at B~A rank (Scáthach material profile) - because she has in fact obtained all these skills within her infinite lifetime. Regardless of innate talent and retroactive paradoxes, whatever power she has now could not have been achieved without immense hard work from her side.

She’s a huge fan of self improvement. She’s highlighted as a teacher character a lot, with her being Cú’s teacher obviously, and also in how Wisdom of the Abyss comes with the perk of being able to teach any of the skills she can display through it to other people she determines to be worthy. She likes those who are “full of potential”, and everything she comes across is examined for a way to use it in training. She enjoys guiding people with potential into reaching that potential.

Likes: What I like are courageous people. Not just ordinary warriors; nor just foolhardy brutes. A brave warrior full of potential, is what I favor.
(Lancer Scáthach's lines)

Scáthach: This… is for training the semi-circular canals, is it? And you could rain arrows from here too.
Mash: Scáthach-san looks quite imposing standing on the merry go round as it spins at top speed…
(Chaldea Summer Memory)

However, her power doesn’t actually mean anything when she has all the time in the world to obtain it. Scáthach values the extraordinary, but because she isn’t limited by time, nothing she does is extraordinary and instead becomes simply something that would have happened eventually. It is regular humans, and what they can do with and despite their short lives, that are extraordinary to her. She would much rather be a hardworking human than an immortal being of immeasurable power. She also says she doesn’t want to live this way for the sake of her own wish.

Scáthach: Fufu. When you get scared, you cling to hope. How simple, but there is strength in simplicity. Player facing forward and Mash guarding the rear. I acknowledge both of you regardless. Even in the past 2000 years, they haven't changed much. Weak and short-lived. Yet, noble and loving. You humans.
(Scáthach introduction event)

Scáthach: There is a replacement when they grow old; there is a replacement when they are left out. They fear death as an individual, but do not fear death as a whole. Hmph, when you think about it, these things are the complete opposite of humanity.
(Solomon)

Bond lvl 4: Incinerate the world...even if that truly came to pass...I wonder if it could kill me...no, it's not that I can bring myself to try. But for the sake of my single wish, I do not want to live this way…
(Lancer Scáthach lines)

She’s massively depressed, and thus says she wants to die. In FGO Material she talks about how she can’t really bring herself to care about anything. She calls sorrow a luxury, and hope an unwelcome intrusion. Cú also says her soul died in exchange for her body becoming immortal, which is an obvious metaphor, and in her second interlude she again talks about how everything has become dull to her.

I cannot remember how much time has passed since I held a spear for the first time. No, that’s wrong. By being in this supernatural realm and continuing to defend this gate, I acquired the Wisdom of the Abyss, and so it is possible to measure time accurately.
However, I simply don’t care.
It is different than melancholy. It is different than resignation.
Is it regret?
I do not know. Perhaps it is, but I cannot affirm that.
At least, there certainly is no longer the feelings I had during my slaughtering or when I taught the mighty warriors of Ulster within my current self.
(Scáthach material profile)

Scáthach: It is because I live that I want to die. In addition, I thought “it would be good if” it was by the best spear. I know of both the luxury of sorrow and the unwelcome intrusion of hope.
(Scáthach interlude 1)

Cú: Your soul died in exchange for your body being unable to die.
(Scáthach interlude 1)

Scáthach: I thought. While protecting the gate to this land, for many months and years. I have seen every life and every death. It would be better to rot—
That’s what I thought. But this body will not rot, this soul remains as it always has, frozen, unchanging. However, it seems the way I am now has surpassed decency and fallen down into the depths of wickedness. My greed has faded, and my senses only convey to me silence and eternity.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

Scáthach also considers herself effectively dead already, and she merely needs to be killed properly to make it official (again an obvious metaphor). She says she considers herself a type of undead spirit, and in her bond CE she talks about how the Land of Shadows represents that “the dead will not revive”, and that those who live in it cannot move to the outside world - properly speaking. Since she is a resident of the Land of Shadows and yet walks around in the outside world, she is an anomaly that needs to be fixed. It also connects to the paradox of her immortality. She was originally mortal, but due to her actions she was retconned into always having been immortal. If she dies, the paradox/anomaly of her existence will be resolved, because her immortality is what caused and upholds it.

The following day, everyone’s ready to go and Scáthach comments on Nightingale’s habit of labelling everything as diseases and patients. They briefly chitchat about Scáthach herself and her “condition”; with her saying she doesn’t consider herself to have “overcome death” so much as become just a different flavour of lingering undead spirit.
(E Pluribus Unum)

……In the Land of Shadows, there are seven ramparts.
No. They are not literal structures.
They are as symbols to exemplify a fundamental truth you, too, are aware of. That is-
“The dead will not revive.”
Those that reside within the Land of Shadows cannot cross the walls or be seen by the outside world. Properly speaking, that is. That is the extent of that truth.
(Lancer Scáthach bond CE)

The main cause of this depression and consequent deathwish is that all the skill and power she has worked so hard to obtain is meaningless now that she’s additionally immortal, so her reasoning is that if she were to die, then it would mean something again. She doesn’t see the point in being alive when living in itself means what she did with her life so far is pointless. She’s highly critical of herself and constantly downplays her own achievements as something that is natural for her, even though they’re objectively impressive, because for her, who has all the time in the world to get to that level, it’s not impressive at all.

Scáthach: Like those walking bones and the walking dead appearing by the tens of thousands. Well, that is neither here nor there. I mowed them all down. That lot was nothing but fodder too.
Mash: T-tens of thousands?
Scáthach: Hahaha! I'm glad you're so shocked by that, but you were meant to laugh at that, Mash. To a Celtic hero, that's but a paltry number.
(Scáthach introduction event)

Battle finish 2: *Sighs*...To think that this doesn't even qualify as training.
(Lancer Scáthach lines)

Scáthach: Alright, that’s a good warmup.
Mash: I don’t think you’re supposed to get nearly killed during warmup…
(E Pluribus Unum)

What’s not helping things at all is that she’s also incredibly lonely. While she claims in her myroom lines that the Land of Shadows wasn’t lonely, that was only because people gathered to be her students. Eventually they all left and died as mortal humans, and she still spent centuries alone, to the point where she forgot about nearly all of them. With no possible way to improve herself further nor anyone around to help improve instead, there’s just no point to anything whatsoever for her.

Generic 3: Lonely? No, I am not. Though I am confined to the Land of Shadows, I've had many young aspiring warriors gather as my students, after all.
(Lancer Scáthach lines)

Ah, that’s right. I have taught many mighty warriors.
As a result of the passing of so many years, everything should have died out, but in my vague memories, there remains one.
(Scáthach material profile)

Mash: Yes. But more importantly, why did Scáthach bring Master to the Land of Shadows……?
Cú: It’s Scáthach’s idea, you think a normal mind understands it? Well, I don’t think this is too big a deal? Just a little sad, to an extent. She was alone in this land for hundreds of years, without even anyone to fight or hate. Once upon a time there were disciples, including me…… We heard that defeating Scáthach would make our names known so we wanted to have a go, then we got beat up, lost time after time, and all those idiots were made to be disciples…… Well, as usual, we all died. As it were, maybe half of it was because of us.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

The bottom line of it all is that power does not equal happiness. Scáthach is insanely strong and talented, she’s immortal, she’s the absolute pinnacle of everything she might want to achieve - and it just left her suicidal. To an extent, said power is precisely what's keeping her from achieving happiness in the first place. Being so far removed from everyone else in terms of ability, as well as the knowledge that she’ll outlive everyone eventually, gives her a hard time forming meaningful connections that would bring her happiness.

Scáthach's actual wish

Scáthach doesn’t see the point of living, but despite what she says, she doesn’t actually want to die. She reasons to herself that “not wanting to live like this” is the same as “wanting to die”, but not very convincingly, because Cú sees right through her. “Being reckless” here refers to their fighting styles and intentions. Cú likes to fight to the death because that’s when he feels most alive, and he’s accusing Scáthach of wanting that kind of fight even more than he does when she counterattacks him right as he’s about to kill her.

Cú: Aren’t you being more reckless than me!? Are you sure you want to die!?
Scáthach: N- Not in this way! My opponent must be strong enough that I can see their essence. Strong enough to love and respect, that I want to cross blades with them! Therefore, getting stronger should be self-evident! It’s not my fault!
(Scáthach interlude 1)

Whenever the chance for her to die does come up, she makes excuses on why she can’t take it. In her first interlude it’s because Cú isn’t strong enough yet and she won’t die to someone who can’t give her a good fight. In E Pluribus Unum the situation all but perfect according to the conditions she set herself: Cú is the one who is capable of killing her, he’s gone beyond mastering Gae Bolg as a weapon and become the weapon, he has the power of a Grail and thus the power to “grant her wish”, and her profile says "If something like the Holy Grail is truly almighty, then is fine to hand it over to someone who is capable of killing her.” Still, she absolutely refuses to let him kill her while he’s Alter.

Scáthach: I’m that sort of being, a Servant that can survive taking even a fatal wound. I’ve gotten some skills having lived so long and they come in handy. But my pupil [Cú Chulainn] is really the strongest. With the proper timing, he could destroy me.
(E Pluribus Unum)

Scáthach: Still, having to kill you seems like something out of a dream.
Cú Alter: …
Scáthach: ‘Ahhh, I wish I had died first.’ I felt that sort of regret back then, but I don’t feel like being killed by the current you. I liked you better the way you used to be.
(E Pluribus Unum)

Scáthach actually lies to herself a lot. She convinces herself she’s not your teacher, then teaches you anyway. She convinces herself she wants to die, but makes excuses whenever she gets the chance. She convinces herself she retired from the battlefield, then joins in on the first fight she comes across. FGO Material even explicitly says she lies to herself on the regular to make excuses to join battles, and Cú says she’s unlikely to reflect on her wishes when she’s wallowing in self-pity. Depression tells her to back off and be miserable, but that’s not what she wants, nor what is natural to the person underneath the depression.

Scáthach: Well, I'm just an old woman who resigned from the battlefield. I can't say for what reason I was summoned here, but this time I've shown up like this. So in order to wake up from this dream, you two, Master from Chaldea and new Servant, should stay calm and keep your eyes peeled. The one who brought about this strange situation is coming.
???: AAAAA...... AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Mash: Magical presence sighted and confirmed. Master, the hostile is approaching!
Player: If it came to attack us then we have no choice but to send it packing.
Mash: Yes! Commencing counterattack.
Scáthach: Until now, it was just a matter of me transcending time. But those reactions. And that degree of good morale. Well now...I intended to have a nice and easy retirement, but when I see your gallant and brave form, I changed my mind. Here we go!
(Scáthach introduction event)

……But, because she really likes fighting, she deceives herself with some kind of reason and joins in local battles to show off her special moves.
(Scáthach material profile)

Cú: It’s how she is right now. No matter what she wishes, it’s unlikely Scáthach will reflect.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

She convinced herself that she wants Cú to kill her the same way. She’s depressed as all hell and feels like there’s no point to living as she is, and yet out of all the warriors she forgot over time he’s the one she still fondly remembers. Somewhere along the line she combined “I want to stop living like this” and “I still remember Cú really fondly” into “I want Cú Chulainn to smash Gae Bolg over my head killing me instantly” and ended up honing in on him as the one who has to kill her. It’s been about 2000 years since she trained him and it seems roughly the same time since she became immortal, which is more than enough time to form an unhealthy obsession with the concept of your beloved student ending your miserable existence.

Ah, that’s right. I have taught many mighty warriors.
As a result of the passing of so many years, everything should have died out, but in my vague memories, there remains one. There is only a single man whose appearance is still clear to me.
Red eyes—
His eyes. It is only when that radiance passes through my mind that I know something in my heart.
Warmth lingers in me, who is immortal and immutable.
Does my heart wish for a reunion?
It isn’t that. I can affirm this.
Then what is it? Strictly speaking, that’s right, that man—
—I want him to kill me.
I want to die as a human.
(Scáthach material profile)

Scáthach: …………This is my chance. Human life burned away. And I encountered a comfort in my eternity of boredom……I was granted a golden opportunity, the chance for a genuine death.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

Scáthach convinced herself she wants to die, but what she actually wants is to enjoy living again, and specifically, to enjoy her power again. The drive to improve is one of the most valuable things to her, but none of it means anything when she’s immortal and all her achievements become something that would have happened eventually, because there’s no challenge in that. She wants to be challenged again. She wants to feel like there’s still a point to becoming even stronger.

“I’ll be serious. Yeah, of course I will. In my serious opinion, there isn’t anyone on the earth suitable to be my opponent.”
(Scáthach material profile)

As a side to this, she doesn’t like people calling her old because “haha old woman” jokes of course, but also because it’s a reminder that she exists outside time and none of her skill means anything for as long as she continues to grow older.

Fergus: Fergus Mac Roich, at your service! I was wondering when I would be my time to shine, Big sis. Hahahahaha! But man it is hot in here!
Scáthach: I thought I told you to stop calling me "Big sis". When you say that, I realize how old I really am.
(Scáthach introduction event)

Cú: “Eh? Wah!? What’s with y’all? Sitting in silence slurping tea while watching weird rocks… you ok? You look like a collection of old farts. Like senior citizens looking after their lower backs.”
Scáthach: “Who’s the senior here, idiot disciple!?”
Cú: “Ah, no, I didn’t mean y- Woah, stop it with the foot Bolg!!”
(Chaldea Summer Memory)

She also wants to just have fun again for once. A lot of her actions that seem ridiculous or contradictory are her clumsy attempts to have a good time. Everyone’s swimsuits during the summer event were because she insisted they have fun during their castaway adventure. In her valentine’s event scene she says she had fun making chocolate even though it felt out of character. In her first interlude she says she didn’t let Cú’s spear hit her because she had fun watching him fight. The more fun she has the less she wants to die, because the reason she wants to die in the first place is that nothing is fun anymore.

"This is the long-awaited sea, we should enjoy ourselves" Such is the basic stance of Assassin Scáthach.
(Assassin Scáthach profile)

Scáthach: Mm. I had a fun time making this. I…… No, that’s enough of acting like a young girl.
(Lancer Scáthach valentines)

Scáthach: H- Hm. Somehow…… It seems you’ve become stronger than before to me. ……No, the feeling I had was that I had fun…… Watching you in my spare time killing dragons, and giants, and monsters, and……
(Scáthach interlude 1)

Fun, to her, is usually a fight to the death of course. She is a Celt and a warrior and like other Celtic warriors it is battles of life and death that she enjoys the most. These obviously become very hard to find when you can’t actually be killed, which also contributes to her not seeing the point of living when she can’t die. The more powerful her enemy, the more excited she gets.

Scáthach: Is your past that is in ruins? Or your future? Which is it? Either way, this partial spirit is still a divine spirit! Fufuhahahaha! It's been a long time since I've killed a god! Now this is something that gets my blood boiling! Prepare to die, Artemis! Even if you're a partial spirit at the moment, you need to know your place!
Player: Scáthach is hyped!
Scáthach: It's just been such a long time since the time with the god of the Mediterranean Sea! I feel alive again! Everything from my limbs to my chest is screaming out to me!
(Scáthach introduction event)

Scáthach: A fortress-class Demon Boar… something on the same rank as the Clan Calatin… fufufufufu…
Player: Reel back the battle mania.
Scáthach: [Blushing] Uh, uhm, I get it, I get it. I’ll obey Master’s orders properly. I’m a good Servant.
(Chaldea Heat Odyssey)

She also feels like she doesn’t get to cut loose because she has to keep up a calm face as a teacher and queen. Because of her overwhelming natural talent, she feels obliged to put it to use for the sake of those less gifted than her, rather than doing what she herself likes to do, again showing that power doesn’t equal happiness. Her natural disposition is of someone who hungers for action however, and it seems even her formal speech patterns are an act: when she loses composure her speech patterns switch to something that is clearly far less dignified (although this seems to be a one-time thing in her introduction event, so either translators tend to not convey this properly or they just dropped the speech pattern part later in the game).

Brimming with talent, she understands better than anyone that she is different than average people.
“Because I am superior, I will rule the people”
“Ruling the people is a duty of the ruling class”
Rather than fulfilling her own desires (happiness), she would “rule for the sake of the common people.”
That idea seems natural to her.
(Scáthach material profile)

Even if the world falls into danger, it would be rude to “those who currently live in the world” to solve the problem herself, as it takes away opportunities for growth.
Basically, Scáthach will not join the battle directly, and her cooperation ends at giving advice.
……But, because she really likes fighting, she deceives herself with some kind of reason and joins in local battles to show off her special moves. After taking away other Servants’ turns, she goes back to her room to reflect on her actions.
(Scáthach material profile)

Scáthach: Oi, were ya not listenin' to me words? Hm, I mean "did you not hear what I said?"
(Scáthach introduction event)

Speech patterns aside though, Assassin Scáthach is tangibly less formal and laughs more because cutting loose was her intention behind the swimsuit. She went in thinking “I will not be a teacher” and is now genuinely having a good time at the beach, living with a good dozen other people and building things and killing giant monster boars. Most importantly, she doesn’t speak of wanting to die nearly as much as her Lancer self. While most of Lancer’s myroom and battle lines are about being suicidal, Assassin’s are her enjoying the summer. None of her lines mention death, and the only time during the summer event where her deathwish comes up is when Cú insults her on accident and she tells him to train “until you come up with a way to kill me.” Unlike Lancer, Assassin has myroom lines for more than one character, and she also directly addresses some of those people in them. She actively interacts with others instead of looking on from a distance.

Lancer Cú in party: Cú Chulainn is here, yes? It seems he has matured a bit. The man called the Hound of Culann…
(Lancer Scáthach lines)

Blackbeard in party: Recently, I have felt a gaze on my back numerous times. But when I turn around there is no one there. I'm even hearing auditory hallucinations such as "For a hag to be in that outfit is dangerous"... Is it that the opponent is just excellent at masking their presence, or am I just getting dull…
Fergus in party: Fergus. You can speak your mind if there is anything you want to say, but I'll readily kick you to death at any time.
Lancer Cú in party: Setanta. I need to talk with you. You said something about this outfit of mine, didn't you? No, you definitely said something. Hm? If you lie to me, then you are prepared for what comes after, right?
Medb in party: Medb, huh. I'm sure she'll come spoiling for a fight if she sees me dressed like this. She's tricked Cú-chan a lot... really, no matter how much time has passed she's still full of energy.
(Assassin Scáthach lines)

She’s in an unusually good mood, and also switched from being critical of her achievements to being proud of them. The desire to die isn’t nearly as strong when she’s having a good time doing what she wants to do, rather than forcing herself to do what she thinks she should do. She has company, she has a goal, she has tough enemies to kill, she has all the things that were missing from the life she wanted to end and thus doesn’t want it to end nearly as much.

Scáthach: “Alright, the stuff that needs to be done is piling up. What shall I start with next, fufufu… [Blushing] What? You’re saying I’m in a good mood? Must be the sea, the beach and the incessant sun having an effect on me. How strange…”
(Chaldea Summer Memory)

Scáthach: [Thinking] (Hum. I originally made it so it’d look broken but able to fulfil its practical use but… looking at the un-collapsed parts, it’s not bad at all. I’m quite the craftsman, fufu…)
(Chaldea Summer Memory)

It’s questionable to what extent she even realises that she wants to have fun, too. In her first interlude, she didn’t notice that she was re-training Cú because it was fun watching him. It takes half the summer event for her to somewhat remember what fun is, and this is implied to be over the span of months or even years. She thinks she does the things that are fun to her out of obligation. Getting stronger is fun to her - but she does it because it’s her duty as someone with her kind of talent. Fighting strong enemies is fun - but she does it to guard the Land of Shadows. Teaching others is fun - but she does it for their sake. All her power and achievements, the teaching, the godslaying, the immortality, it was all because it was fun and she wanted to see if she could, but she believes, or rather convinced herself, that it was out of duty. It doesn’t occur to her that duty and fun are not mutually exclusive, because she operates on this idea that she should put her own happiness aside for the sake of that duty. Her power doesn’t bring her happiness in part because she doesn’t consider that it could.

Assassin Scáthach, again, seems to be doing a lot better on this front than her Lancer self. In her bond CE she’s slowly accepting that her desire to fight (as a duty) and her desire to have a good time (by fighting) are not mutually exclusive, but rather two things that are equally important in taking care of herself. Denying herself the fun of battle because it is part of her duty won’t do, nor will denying herself the fun of being a teacher just because it is her duty. Tending to both sides of herself is the minimum amount of care she should take of herself.

It’s because I take the minimum amount of care───
She certainly said as much.
On a holiday retreat, enjoying it with all your being,
It is necessary to have proper “care” as a lady.
[...]
“To adorn oneself in glamor is a woman’s care for herself.
To prepare oneself for an unexpected battle is a woman’s care for oneself.
One should never lack either. Isn’t that a matter of fact?”
───I see.
───This is what “care” is.
(Assassin Scáthach bond CE)

In addition, in her valentines scene, she is far less reserved than her Lancer self in giving you chocolate - or a bottle of alcohol in this case. Rather than tell herself not to get carried away and stop “acting like a young girl”, she gets mad when you imply you can’t accept her gift because she’s too old. She freely refers to herself as an old lady, but doesn’t let it keep her from going out and having fun anyway, and gets annoyed when people imply her age means she can’t do whatever the hell she wants. She’s slowly moving away from telling herself she can’t do the things she likes for arbitrary reasons such as “you have to be a cool & collected teacher” or “you’re old”, and she’s definitely not going to let others tell her the same.

Scáthach: There’s an age limit check? “It seems unreasonable, so can you take it?” Well, even if there was an age limit, I assume I’d be over it. Fufu, I hoped to have someone to enjoy it with, but if that’s the case it can’t be helped, so I’ll enjoy it by myself. I can’t overlook that much.
> L- Let’s drink it together! Teacher!
Scáthach: What……?
> (You stare silently)
Scáthach: ………………
Scáthach: ……That’s a bad joke. That was bad of you, my disciple. Honestly, where did you pick up such wiliness from? This is dangerous. That was quite a dangerous feeling I had just now. If I wasn’t an old lady I wouldn’t know enough to figure out what’s going on. If I were still a young woman, I wouldn’t have noticed……
(Assassin Scáthach valentines)

In the end Scáthach is a teacher above all. She wants to get stronger, and help others get stronger too. One of the first interactions you have with her, during her introduction event, is Scáthach awarding Mash “three stars” for knowing who she is. FGO Material notes that she tends to accidentally go into teacher mode, and Assassin Scáthach’s bond lines show this too. Teaching comes so naturally to her that she does it without realising.

Scáthach: Oh? So that girl knew? That is correct. You deserve some points. Hmm… Since you were fast-talking and pretty close, you get three stars!
(Scáthach introduction event)

In regards to her Master, she recognizes them as her partner in a temporary alliance, but sometimes, perhaps because of her previous role of teaching disciples, that side of her comes out and she acts like a teacher once more. When she notices it happening, she’ll say, “……No, I am not your teacher, so just forget about that,” with a smile.
(Scáthach material profile)

Bond 1: I am not your teacher. Therefore I will not bother you too much with nagging words... but it's a good opportunity. How about running a few laps on the beach? It'll feel good.
Bond 2: It may just be in my mind, but your face seems to have become more fearless. Is that an achievement from your running? ...no, forget it. I had no intention of training you.
Bond 3: It's about time to go long-distance swimming. It's a good thing. An endless sea means that you can swim continuously to the limits of your strength. It's a good way to understand your own limitations.
Bond 4: It looks like your stamina is up to scratch. Then finally, you can do some long-distance swimming right after you run. Don't lose your concentration. Because I prepared some particularly interesting things of my own devising, you might lose your life if you make a single misstep.
Bond 5: I'm sorry... you completely went along with it. Though I said that we are not master and disciple, I put you in imminent danger of becoming prey to my creed. ...forgive me. Tonight, as an apology, I will offer my thighs as your pillow.
(Assassin Scáthach lines)

What she wants is to see people reach their full potential. She enjoys seeing people perform impressive feats. She’s noted to be an exceptionally good judge of character and she decided to train Cú because he was extraordinary (Lancer Scáthach profile, Scáthach material profile), which combined with her own drive to improve suggests she has a strong dislike of the mediocre. She isn’t unnecessarily cruel to those without potential though, considering how she’s noted to be “a queen who bestows happiness as self evident” (Lancer Scáthach profile, Scáthach material profile). She just doesn’t want to bother spending time on those who are average when there are above average people she can guide into being exceptional.

The reason she’d like Cú of all people to kill her is related to this too: he was her favourite pupil, so with her focus on achievements, of course she would want him specifically to be the one who earns the achievement of killing an immortal being. According to Cú, beating her was known as something that would make you famous, but she wouldn’t let anyone who tried get even close to beating her before she’d trained them properly.

Cú: We heard that defeating Scáthach would make our names known so we wanted to have a go, then we got beat up, lost time after time, and all those idiots were made to be disciples……
(Scáthach interlude 2)

This also pops up in her bond CE, where she talks about how the Land of Shadows is a land of death and how she hopes you will “send [her] back to that land” sometime, in other words, kill her. Her death, or rather the privilege of getting to kill her, is reserved only for those she cares about and wants to see achieve great things. If she likes you and you can’t kill her, she’ll train you until you’re so great that you can.

Scáthach and Cú Chulainn

4th ascension: With this we've reached the top! How is it? My spear is is the strongest now right? Man~ how I wish I could show this to my master Scáthach!
Fergus in party: Many thanks, Master. With Fergus here, our strength has gone up big time! Now, if my teacher was here, we would be unbeatable!
Scáthach in party: Hey, Master. Scáthach may be my teacher, but... What is this, is she's stronger than the time she last ruled the castle? I mean, she's dual wielding Gáe Bolg! What's the point of me being here!?
(Lancer Cú lines)

Scáthach cares a lot about him in return too, she immediately asks if he’s doing well when she hears the player and Mash met up with him (while trying not to break her cool teacher front), and of course wants him to be the one who gets to earn the achievement of killing an immortal. More subtly, she also mentions that the Land of Shadows wasn’t lonely because people would gather to be her students, and that the things she likes are courageous warriors full of potential. She also occasionally calls him Setanta or even Cú-chan.

Mash: Yes, Fou. It's also thanks to him that I managed to control and partially evolve my noble phantasm. Caster Cú Chulainn. I can't thank him enough.
Scáthach: ...Oh? Now, I see. That's how it is. You two became acquainted with "that", huh… Mash. Player. Sorry but can I ask you two something? Was "that" doing well?
(Scáthach introduction event)

Generic 3: Lonely? No, I am not. Though I am confined to the Land of Shadows, I've had many young aspiring warriors gather as my students, after all.
Likes: What I like are courageous people. Not just ordinary warriors; nor just foolhardy brutes. A brave warrior full of potential, is what I favor.
(Lancer Scáthach lines)

Scáthach: If a hero is the pride of his people, then their final moments are almost always tragic ones. I may be immortal, but when I look back, that is how it's always been. Were Setanta's final moments happy ones?
(Scáthach introduction event)

Medb in party: Medb, huh. I'm sure she'll come spoiling for a fight if she sees me dressed like this. She's tricked Cú-chan a lot... really, no matter how much time has passed she's still full of energy.
(Assassin Scáthach lines)

However, it doesn’t seem like she actually says that to his face much. When she talks about him while he’s not around she calls him Setanta and asks if he’s okay, but in front of him she calls him Cú Chulainn and is harsh as his teacher. Setanta is his “you’re in trouble young man” name when he’s around rather than an affectionate name, and she also calls him fool and idiot a lot.

Scáthach: Gah, enough with this and that! Setanta! Just what was that mess!
(Scáthach interlude 1)

Scáthach: Cú Chulainn. We’re going to retrain your body. We’ll get that part of you back immediately with training.
Cú: Huh? You’re going to train me again?
Scáthach: You heard me, fool. You already have a foundation. After that comes experience through combat.
Cú: Huh, right now? Hey, don’t pull my hair! It’ll turn red and white! Don’t laugh-!
Mash: ……T- They’re gone. Let’s do something, Master. That’s right. We don’t have a choice, so let’s go!
Scáthach: Alright, you’re to exterminate these chimera. Get to work.
Cú: I got it, I got it, so stop pulling my hair! ……Jeez. Meeting you is nothing but trouble.
(Scáthach interlude 1)

Scáthach: In that case, do your best in the front line!
Cú: Alright, roger that, Master! …wait, what?
Artoria: [Looking at him pitifully] Lancer…
Scáthach: Be at ease, my disciple. It’s simple, a job anyone could do, in a friendly environment in harmony with one’s co-workers.
Cú: [Agitated] That’s an obvious sweatshop-style recruitment line!
Scáthach: It’s fine. I believe in you, and since I believe in you… go hunt down a hundred Demon Boars. A bunch of them are the giant type, so hang in there.
Cú: Are you a demon!?
(Chaldea Heat Odyssey)

When she praises him in the summer event he reacts as if that’s a rare occurrence, and when he finishes the task she gave him in her first interlude he seems to expect complaints about how he did it rather than praise. He’s clearly not used to receiving compliments from her.

Cú: Haah haaah haaah. W-what a horrible experience…
Player: You’re alive!?
Cú: Yes I am! Hahh, I really thought I was gonna die when that wave caught me! I dog-paddled my way so as to use as little stamina as possible. What a thing for a human (heroic spirit) to do!
Scáthach: Even for my disciple you are astonishingly resilient.
Cú: Hahahahaha. You praised me, Master.
(Chaldea Heat Odyssey)

Cú: Last one. Let’s go— “Gae Bolg”!! Got ‘im! There, so don’t complain, Teacher!
(Scáthach interlude 1)

Cú doesn’t praise her where she can hear it either though. He won’t shut up about how cool she is when talking to someone else, but when she’s there he mostly complains about how ridiculous she is, often in response to her being a harsh teacher to him. This is not in the last place because she is actually incredibly embarrassing.

Scáthach: Oh, that's right. Get this. They say he was dressed up like a real druid.
Fergus: What! Was he being bullied?
Scáthach: Hahhahahha! Oh my, I wish I could have seen his face. That alone would have made for a great story.
(Scáthach introduction event)

Scáthach: ……No, sorry. I was just reminded of the old days.
Cú: Talk like that is embarrassing so stop for my sake.
(Scáthach interlude 1)

[Scáthach drops from the ceiling, wearing the mask from her 1st ascension]
Mash: Y-you are Scáthach…?!
???: Unfortunately, I am not she who is the strongest and most beautiful of Celtic warriors. I am a nameless ninja who conceals herself in the dark.
(Kara no Kyoukai collaboration event)

Cú: Man, my body’s just throbbing from doing nothing.
Scáthach: Is it? In that case, I can be your partner any time.
Martha: [Blush]
Cú: Hey, I can’t go and kill time with you! You shouldn’t speak like that. Learn to read the mood a little. This isn’t the Land of Shadows where everything’s just decided by brute force, try to behave in a more civilized way.
Scáthach: Grrr… what a foul-mouthed disciple… but he’s right… grrrr…
Cú: Alright, I managed to get Teacher to shut up. Feels like old times, I think I’ll manage one way or the other.
(Chaldea Summer Memory)

Cú then grumbles about how Scáthach shouldn’t have needed to change since the stuff she was wearing was already waterproof.
Cú: Alright, this time I better stay the hell away from her. Definitely can’t get close. Don’t care ‘bout the beach. Better go to the mountain. Might set up some crops or something…
(Chaldea Summer Memory)

Cú is also not dedicated to killing her at all. He absolutely does not want to kill her. Even Cú Alter, who puts all his effort into being a mindless killing machine, sighs with relief when he finds out she’s your ally and thus won’t have to kill her.

Scáthach in party: Whew... I'm relieved. Even I have one or two people I don't want to have as an enemy.
(Cú Alter lines)

Despite this, he feels guilty about not being able to kill her when the time came. Not strong enough to kill her after she became immortal, and not fast enough at becoming strong to finish his training before she became immortal. Back in Fate/hollow ataraxia Cú seemed to believe he had in fact killed her, and he regrets this too.

It’s a huge mess that he never wanted to be a part of, even though he knew it was coming. Scáthach’s not-death was a turning point in his story, she was the first of the people close to him who he killed, and it was the moment where the “tragedy” part of his prophesied life started to kick in - even sooner than the original texts would say, since I haven’t been able to find anything about Cú killing Scáthach in the actual Ulster Cycle. It’s the end of youth, the loss of innocence, etc etc. Finding out he actually failed to kill her leaves him in a weird spot, because while it resolves his guilt about killing her, it’s replaced by guilt about failing to fulfil her final request.

On top of all THAT, he also feels like he’s partially to blame for her depression in the first place. Her loneliness is a big factor in it, and Cú feels guilty about leaving the Land of Shadows to live his own life instead of keeping her company for the rest of eternity.

Mash: Yes. But more importantly, why did Scáthach bring Master to the Land of Shadows……?
Cú: It’s Scáthach’s idea, you think a normal mind understands it? Well, I don’t think this is too big a deal? Just a little sad, to an extent. She was alone in this land for hundreds of years, without even anyone to fight or hate. Once upon a time there were disciples, including me…… We heard that defeating Scáthach would make our names known so we wanted to have a go, then we got beat up, lost time after time, and all those idiots were made to be disciples…… Well, as usual, we all died. As it were, maybe half of it was because of us.
Mash: What do you mean by that?
Cú: The training from Teacher was ridiculous. And they were all guys who loved things like their three meals a day, fighting, women, drinking - those bastards really were the worst. Because of that, if we were noisy she’d kick us flying, but it was fun. “The day ghosts get a chance to get into this world is the day their racket will finally quiet,” is what Scáthach would always complain. But we had countries to return to. The Land of Shadows was just a side trip. Then, Scáthach’s disciples all died prematurely. ……I guess that’s what made me a Heroic Spirit. If I think about it, well, we might’ve been able to stay and fight forever with Scáthach in the Land of Shadows. But I didn’t. Maybe I do regret it a bit.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

Scáthach’s first interlude seems to be one of their first meetings after both being summoned, and while he’s very unenthusiastic about killing her (again), he does attempt go through with it, and he also guessed it was coming the moment Scáthach called for him. Killing her is a duty that needs to be fulfilled and something he has to do to make up for a mistake he made, rather than something he actually wants to do.

Scáthach: ……Well then. Are you prepared, Cú Chulainn.
Cú: I’m not prepared, you haven’t even told me why you called on me…… No, well, I know approximately why.
Scáthach: Mm. That you were summoned is something like fate. This once I think I’ll let you kill me.
Cú: Ah-, yeah, yeah. With so much life in ya, would it be better to go for your heart or head?
(Scáthach interlude 1)

Cú: Isn’t it a student’s job to perform the last rites of the deceased?
(Scáthach interlude 1)

Cú having the premises of his existence as a legendary hero challenged is a running theme for him, first in Unlimited Blade Works with Archer’s namelessness forcing him to question his own status as a hero, and in FGO with Caster and Alter having no idea who to be when they’re not “the legendary hero Cú Chulainn.” His inability to kill Scáthach continues this by questioning his status as “Ireland’s greatest hero”. Scáthach is an unattainable goal. The greatest achievement granted to him, but which he cannot achieve. The logical pinnacle of everything he knows but will never be able to reach himself, because his life is short and hers is eternal.

That’s an insecurity that is reflected in his myroom line for her: he’s genuinely incredibly excited to see her, but also jokes about how there’s no point to him being around if Scáthach is here to do everything he can except better. He has nothing to offer that Scáthach didn’t teach him and outranks him in, including his Noble Phantasm. Not even his warp spasm sets them apart, since Scáthach reportedly has access to a similar transformation.

Even though this form is adequate and she boasts a performance as a Top Servant, her body seems to have another stage.
(Scáthach material profile)

Although Scáthach wants Cú to kill her and Cú intends to follow up on that, neither Scáthach nor Cú actually believe he’s capable of killing her.

Cú Chulainn
In truth, although she thinks him killing her = wanting to be saved, she also thinks he can’t really do it, so she isn’t that serious.
(Scáthach material profile)

Cú: Honestly, leaving me with such an unreasonable demand. To kill that woman, you’d need the talent to cut down God.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

Cú worries about more than that though. He’s worried he can’t kill her. He’s worried whether it’s ok that she wants him to kill her in the first place. He knows the way their dynamic is now isn’t right, but he’s convinced Scáthach will get mad if she finds out because questioning her wish is disrespectful, and so he won’t voice these concerns even though Scáthach actually agrees.

Scáthach
The teacher that I respect...but, "this woman, is it ok as it is?" Though my worries are a secret. If she finds out I'll be torn into 8 pieces.
(FGO material relationships)

While Cú won’t be able to “save” Scáthach the way she wants him to, he is in a good position to help her actually get what she needs. One of the greatest hurdles in her recovery is that she simply doesn’t consider that the things she does out of duty can also be fun. Cú on the other hand took on his lifelong duty because it’d be fun. He became a warrior not because he felt like he had to as a demigod or whatever, but because he figured it’d be fun to live his life like that. Cú is a master of having a good time while doing things he may or may not actually want to do, and while he too has a strong sense of duty it was never mutually exclusive with fun to him. Whether he’ll lead by example or get tired of being respectful and kick down the door going “Scáthach you stupid motherfucker” at some point, Cú is about as good as it gets when it comes to having someone address Scáthach’s weird aversion to just letting herself have a good time, because he relates to that sense of duty but also deals with it better.

Diving back into the abstract symbolism again for a bit, since it is Gae Bolg’s reversal of causality that metaphorically caused her immortality, it is also Gae Bolg that will eventually be able to kill her. You simply have to cancel out one reversal with another to leave her mortal again. From this it logically follows that with enough mastery of Gae Bolg, Cú would eventually be able to kill Scáthach. Which brings me to Cú Alter, who has effectively become his weapon and is also canonically capable of killing her.

Scáthach and Cú Chulainn Alter

Cú Alter sees Scáthach’s immortality as the greatest obstacle he will have to overcome eventually to prove his power. Scáthach is the ultimate unachievable goal after all, and Cú Alter clings entirely to power and “being the strongest” as the justification for his life. It’s something he has to do, but it’s still not a fight he wants to have, and he already knows that victory won’t actually bring him anything - hence his relief when he finds out they’re on the same side. Scáthach isn’t just an obstacle he can’t overcome, but one he doesn’t want to overcome in the first place. Although Cú Alter already considers himself beyond saving, since Scáthach’s not-death was such a turning point to him previously, killing her again would mean he’s truly passed the point of no return and he doesn’t want to go there.

Scáthach
The greatest wall. Crushing, overcoming, trampling. Not desiring battle, but aspiring to victory. There is an emptiness after that victory, precisely because it is only good if it feeds the dog.
(Cú Alter material profile)

E Pluribus Unum is a weird situation for them, because it’s effectively a reversal of their usual roles. Here it’s Cú who is being contradictory and lying to himself about his wish,

Cú Alter: Yes, it’s just as you say, master. I never thought of becoming king while I was alive. But this is a wish that was born afterwards. That is often the case with Servants, isn’t it?
Scáthach: So it’s backwards? Because you became a king, you wished to be a king? What a stupid contradiction. You might have become one, but you don’t show anything like a king’s spirit. So you need to destroy everything. Certainly, if you reduced this land to an uninhabited wasteland, there’d be no one who could raise objection to the king.
(E Pluribus Unum)

who keeps fighting and killing until he’s nigh impossible to kill himself,

Too many—
I’ve truly have taken too many lives. Those of people, of the undead, of divine spirits.
I have encountered countless numbers of existences, and I have slaughtered all of them.
I fight. And fight. And fight. I kill, and kill, kill, kill. And in the end, all the blood that flowed out of those countless beings stained this body, and it became immortal.
(Scáthach material profile)

Killing, killing, continuing to kill.
The end result is a hill of corpses piled up.
Declaring himself the strongest, boasting about being the strongest, roaring out he is the strongest.
(Cú Alter bond CE)

who wants to just burn out and die already (but not without a good fight).

Scáthach: I thought. While protecting the gate to this land, for many months and years. I have seen every life and every death. It would be better to rot—
That’s what I thought. But this body will not rot, this soul remains as it always has, frozen, unchanging.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

Cú Alter: Heh, it’s just as you say, bloodstained holy woman. The day of my healing will not come in all of eternity. I will continue as the king until the day I am defeated and rot away. If you will come, then come. We will fight in Washington.
(E Pluribus Unum)

And this time it’s Scáthach who can’t kill him, even though she feels she has to.

[Scáthach] says she’d like to help, but she’s not sure she can beat Cú like he is now.
(E Pluribus Unum)

Cú realizes that Scáthach knows she can’t beat him, so she’s trying to kick him straight into the land of the dead. He summons his Curruid Coinchenn NP and tears a hole through her stomach to stop the activation of the Gate.
(E Pluribus Unum)

Scáthach feels personally responsible for Cú Alter’s actions as his teacher. She repeatedly tries to appeal to the person he was before, the first time they face each other by calling him Setanta, calling upon her position as his teacher and thus superior, and demanding to know why he’s doing this.

Scáthach: That idiot pupil is looking even more stupid than usual. As his teacher, I should be the one to collar him back again.
(E Pluribus Unum)

Scáthach: Good, good, he’s an obedient boy. Completely different from you, Setanta.
Cú Alter: Don’t call me by my childhood name, it gives me a headache. Can’t believe you were summoned too…
Scáthach: I’m the one that should complain. You fool, is that the way to talk to your teacher?
(E Pluribus Unum)

Scathatch: I can’t even look at you in this state. Yet, fool that you are, a pupil is still a pupil. I should at least show you the mercy of beheading you. Answer, Cú Chulainn, what has possessed you?
Cú Alter: …
(E Pluribus Unum)

The second time, they actually fight, and Cú Alter beats her. Before the fight, she again demands to know what is making him do this, but after he disembowels her she asks with far less bravado just what happened to him, because she genuinely can’t understand how someone who wholeheartedly enjoyed the thrill of the fight like Cú could become a mindless slaughter machine like Cú Alter. When he answers that he’s simply acting the way he thinks he should as king, she sighs that he’s an honest idiot - the same words she often uses for his Lancer self. Appealing to who he used to be didn’t work, because essentially he isn’t being a different person than who he used to be anyway.

Cú Alter: I have no need to shoulder your responsibilities, my path lies only straight ahead. I have no time for stop-overs or carrying someone else’s burdens. I will take the shortest route to becoming king, and I shall take the shortest route to subjugate all before me!
Scáthach: For whose sake? Medb’s? She might have used the Grail to install you as King, but that is not your own wish.
(E Pluribus Unum)

Scáthach: …So you’ve gone that far. That power is enough to devastate the world…
Cú Alter: That’s right, I will destroy the world in this way.
Scáthach: I don’t understand, Cú Chulainn. Fighting was your greatest joy while you were alive, and you lived beautifully following that principle. Why then have you taken such an ugly shape?
Cú Alter: Ugly, is it? That’s what a ‘King’ was to my eyes.
Scáthach: …Haah. You really are that much of an honest idiot…
(E Pluribus Unum)

Over the course of the chapter Scáthach loses all interest in being killed by him. The Cú Chulainn who can kill her is not a Cú Chulainn she ever wanted to see, and he’s not secretly a different Cú Chulainn either. He’s the same honest idiot as always. Cú Alter is a Cú Chulainn who fulfils the unreasonable wishes of those who are obsessed with having him grant them. Medb's wish is the catalyst for his summoning, but it’s no coincidence that he can kill Scáthach too. It also left him unable to actually help her though, because the Cú who can kill Scáthach is a Cú who doesn’t have fun doing the things he has to. He can’t help her learn something he forgot how to do himself.

He is a Servant reflecting Queen Medb’s wish to the Holy Grail, to “have Cú Chulainn as an evil king at her side.”
(Cú Alter material profile)

It forces Scáthach to reflect on just what she’s demanding from him - because Cú is that much of an honest idiot, and will absolutely ruin himself if that’s what it takes. “Being defeated by her own pupil’s spear” is something negative now rather than what she wants the most, because she’s been faced with the consequences of it. Additionally, Cú Alter ruining himself in order to fit the role of “king” he was given, and losing all his love for the fight because of it, reflects on Scáthach too. After all, she is the one who set aside her own happiness for the sake of her role as queen of the Land of Shadows first.

Li: “Yours is the divine spear that has mastered the deepest secrets beyond human reach. I’d go mad it were to disappear before I could test myself against it.”
Scáthach: “How insistent, but I guess I can’t refuse if you’re this devoted to it. Very well, hold onto that fighting spirit. That is, if you think a fool who was defeated by her own pupil’s spear is good enough.”
(E Pluribus Unum)

E Pluribus Unum is a rude wake-up call for Scáthach, because within it Cú Alter reflects both her demands and her issues, and she has no choice but to acknowledge they are a problem and change her ways. Now that Cú has become stronger than her and the opportunity to die is actually here, dying isn’t nearly as interesting to her as things like saving the world and fighting Li Shuwen. Incidentally, her taking an interest in the Lancer with a one hit kill technique who’s simply looking for a good fight obviously doesn’t come out of nowhere.

Scáthach and Cú Chulainn's relationship going forward

Ultimately the whole business with Scáthach’s death is nothing but an elaborate ritual between them. The “right” for Cú to kill Scáthach and the “right” for Scáthach to be killed by Cú are used as a kind of bargaining chip between them, despite neither of them actually intending to exercise that right when it comes down to it. Scáthach scolds Cú by telling him to train until he can kill her, and she scolds Cú Alter by saying she won’t let him kill her at all. Cú in turn scolds Scáthach by saying he won’t kill her if she’s not trying her best to fight back and go out the way she told him she intended to.

Cú: This doesn’t mean anything, does it Scath? You can’t be killed in a memory. This is a fantasy death. That being the case, this death is superfluous. Even if you die, you won’t die in the real world. And if we’re talking about superfluous, that would be losing the fight, right?
Scáthach: ………………….
Cú: To begin with, “don’t hold anything back,” was it! You weren’t serious at all! You don’t just have spears. If you were serious, you should’ve had that gate.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

It makes their relationship really difficult, precisely because neither of them actually intend to kill/be killed by each other. Killing each other is treated as an act of kindness between them, “I’ll let you kill me”/”I’ll kill you” are the main and almost only shows of affection between them when face to face, but it doesn’t mean what they want it to when they don’t intend to follow up on it. This is also why Cú is scared to question her wish to her face, they have to pretend they mean it, or else the way they express affection for each other becomes void.

At the same time, threatening to kill each other is the interaction pattern they’ve set up for themselves, so breaking from it and developing healthier ways to show affection is hard. Scáthach isn’t being honest about her wish, and Cú still feels guilty about not being able to fulfil her wish and doesn’t really dare to call her out on lying to herself. They can’t change their habits without either side giving in and acknowledging that their habits need to be changed.

Cú is slowly starting to get real tired of her shit though. In her second interlude she involves Mash and the player in her issues by dragging them into a dream where they could very much die really easily, and Cú intends to beat her ass for that kind of irresponsibility alone. It’s only because she involved them that he’s so agitated though, if she’d kept it between the two of them he wouldn’t have been this mad at her. Only now that others are getting involved is her wallowing in her own deathwish starting to get out of hand as far as he’s concerned, otherwise he would’ve let things keep going the same way as always.

Cú: Well, don’t worry. This is carelessness on her part for involving you guys. I should’ve been the only one involved, you guys should have never been brought into the picture. That’s why this is an extermination of a woman who endangers bystanders. Let’s go get her!
(Scáthach interlude 2)

After the fight, he scolds her for letting herself be defeated too easily. In her previous interlude she told him that she can’t let him kill her too easily, because she wants to go out in a glorious fight with someone who is genuinely stronger than her. Regardless of how eager Cú is to comply with that, it’s a wish he can respect because he lived with the intention of dying in a blaze of glory too. Now she’s blatantly contradicting herself though, and it’s made his concerns from the previous interlude grow into full blown suspicion about how genuine her wish to die really is. Calling her by a nickname is also far more casual and possibly straight up disrespectful than ever, so you know he’s not even remotely fucking around here.

Cú: This is the end, Scáthach. If you’ve become this senile, don’t wake up.
Scáthach: I’m not dead yet. And you too, are alive. Why did you stop. Our mutual killing has just begun.
Cú: This doesn’t mean anything, does it Scath? You can’t be killed in a memory. This is a fantasy death. That being the case, this death is superfluous. Even if you die, you won’t die in the real world. And if we’re talking about superfluous, that would be losing the fight, right?
Scáthach: ………………….
Cú: To begin with, “don’t hold anything back,” was it! You weren’t serious at all! You don’t just have spears. If you were serious, you should’ve had that gate.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

He calls her out on it as directly as he thinks he can get away with. While he doesn’t question the legitimacy of wanting to die in general, he does say that for her to let herself be killed this easily is just escapism, and that it’s not worth it to die just to escape a life she doesn’t see the point of. He’s willing to comply in a wish to die in a blaze of glory at the end of a good life, not a wish to die miserably to escape an equally miserable life.

Cú: Scáthach. Right now, wishing for death is just an escape. You aren’t that person. Look. As a reward for fighting to the bitter end, did you dream of a death as quick and painless as a lightning bolt?
Scáthach: ——. Talk as much as you like. But, that’s right. Right now, my want to destroy everything and attain death is nothing more than an escape.
Cú: Jeez, it’s not worth it.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

He also subtly tries to tell her to practise some damn self reflection and think twice about whether she wants to die in the first place. He says that the player is someone who looks back every now and then in order to find the strength to keep going when they’re discouraged, and that Scáthach has to do as much to not be weak, trying to play up her competitive spirit to actually get her to do that. Scáthach is the strongest physically but mentally, at least currently, she’s just several contradictory bad excuses in a trenchcoat. He then adds that Scáthach is unlikely to reflect on her wish, so by now he figured that she basically just decided several centuries ago that she wants to die and then never critically examined that wish again.

Cú: That’s the face of someone who knows I hit the nail on the head. Wow, that’s actually pretty rare. ……Maybe it’s because you were summoned. You, right now, smell pretty human. Well, it could also be Master’ disposition. This guy is nothing if not a humane human.
Player: What do you mean? / A humane human?
Cú: In the sense that if something is in your power to do, you do all you can. And if it’s impossible, you try to do it anyway. You’re the forerunner in enlisting aid, dreaming of the future. Even in desperate circumstances, you fight against it as a proper human being should. You’re likely to get discouraged— But you look back. You take a moment and stop and look back. See? Does that make sense?
Scáthach: …………You got me. I didn’t realize it, but Master has influenced me.
Cú: You have to do at least that much to not be weak.
Player: Eh— / Scáthach, weak?
Cú: It’s how she is right now. No matter what she wishes, it’s unlikely Scáthach will reflect.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

Scáthach agrees that losing the fight too easily was just escapism, but she immediately comes up with a different - and even flimsier - reason to die instead. “I want to die” is what she convinced herself is her wish and won’t reflect on, and she’ll come up with whatever arguments she needs to justify it totally being her wish despite never acting on it. Still, admitting that it was escapism at all is already progress, and Cú seems satisfied with this for now. Telling him to shut the fuck up (with a smile, I must note) is also progress in some way, because it means she knows he’s right, whether she wants to acknowledge it to herself or not. Give it another interlude and maybe they’ll actually talk to each other like reasonable adults instead of bribing each other with affectionate murder.

Scáthach: Sorry. Forget it. …………*sigh*. Of all things………… I showed my weakness to you. That was a terrible mistake as a teacher. Hm. To overwrite this mistake, I’d have to die three times over.
Cú: That’s just venting!
Scáthach: Fool, I’m talking about restoring my honor. Because there isn’t an opponent to make give up, I have to overwrite it with a more severe memory.
Cú: That’s terrible. Nothing really changed. But, well—Thanks to Master, you were able to see a human face. I think that was a valuable experience.
Scáthach: —Hmph. You keep running that mouth of yours, Son of Light, and I’ll hit it closed.
Cú: Even this is struggling through problems in it’s own way.
(Scáthach interlude 2)

Scáthach and Medb

Since writing this, Medb has received several more appearances and my understanding of her has developed, so please take this section with a grain of outdated salt

Scáthach doesn’t actually interact with Medb at any point so far, but there’s still a strong thematic connection between them. Scáthach conceptually forms a “missing link” between Cú and Medb in the sense that she embodies the traits that they don’t share. Her colour scheme shows this by being the colour between Cú’s blue and Medb’s pink. The main trait that they don’t share is “the drive to improve oneself”, something that Cú lives by and Medb refuses to do even if it kills her, and which forms the center of Scáthach’s character.

Both Scáthach and Medb also cling to Cú as the one person who can grant their wish, being loved unconditionally in Medb’s case and being killed for Scáthach. He can’t actually grant either of their wishes though, because neither of them are either able or willing to meet him halfway in fulfilling it. Medb refuses to reach out to people, and thus will never be able to make Cú love her. Scáthach does not actually want to die, so she will never be able to let Cú kill her. Cú Alter, while created through Medb’s wish, is able to fulfil Scáthach’s wish as well because their obsession with having Cú grant their wish, as well as how unreasonable that wish is, is the same.

Scáthach doesn’t seem to hold Medb in very high regard. The few times she refers to her all carry hints of contempt, and while it’s noted that she can’t genuinely hate Medb, overall she doesn’t really seem to consider Medb worth her time. This is not surprising, considering Medb completely lacks what is most important to Scáthach, but also has the same kind of wish. While Scáthach doesn't like Medb, in the end they’re too similar for Scáthach to truly dislike her.

Scáthach: I see there’s no need to answer. But this is not the place to kill each other, I have to help that green calabash escape, and you’ve got that Medb woman as baggage.
(E Pluribus Unum)

[Scáthach] says that the best plan would be to take the Grail back from Medb, but not to count on her to do it, because if Scáthach were to fight her, she’d probably end up destroying the Grail along with Medb and then they wouldn’t be able to restore the timeline.
(E Pluribus Unum)

Scáthach: To think a brat would be lectured by another brat. I surely have lived for long.
(Solomon)

Medb in party: Medb, huh. I'm sure she'll come spoiling for a fight if she sees me dressed like this. She's tricked Cú-chan a lot... really, no matter how much time has passed she's still full of energy.
(Assassin Scáthach lines)

Medb
A helpless and mischievous child. She likes men too much. But, she honestly can’t hate her.
(Scáthach material profile)

Scáthach and Bazett

Scáthach was originally introduced in Fate/hollow ataraxia in order to draw parallels with Bazett, and ultimately Scáthach’s main character themes lead back to Bazett’s.

For the both of them, power very explicitly does not bring happiness. It’s something that alienates and dehumanises them. Bazett’s physical strength makes it hard for her to connect with people because she’s seen as a convenient tool, and she feels like she can’t show emotional vulnerability because she’s physically strong. Said physical strength was also developed in order to hide her emotional vulnerability, forming a downward spiral. In Scáthach’s case, power literally made her no longer human, to the point where she can’t even die, and thus she can no longer connect with humans as equals. Even death, which all humans are equal in regardless of status or ability, is something she no longer shares with them. She outlived everyone she used to be close with and ended up in horrible social isolation. FGO Material also notes that her awareness of her natural talent created a distance between her and regular people from the start.

She has the disposition of a monarch, and thus has decided it obvious that she should reign as a queen that brings happiness to her people.
Brimming with talent, she understands better than anyone that she is different than average people.
(Scáthach material profile)

Neither of them have control over their fate anymore either, with even their deaths being out of their hands. Scáthach is immortal obviously, and in FHA Bazett will continue to revive indefinitely to repeat a Holy Grail War she can’t win by design. They’re stuck in an endless cycle of doing things that feel entirely meaningless. For neither of them getting stronger physically will solve their problem, Scáthach has already reached the pinnacle and Bazett fundamentally cannot win the four day war no matter how strong she becomes. Instead, it’s forming human connections and finding the emotional strength to keep going that helped Bazett escape, and which Scáthach will have to do to get better too.

In FHA, Cú seems worried Bazett might become the same type of undead spirit Scáthach is/considers herself to be if he allows her to keep repeating the same meaningless war for too long.

Bazett however is saved by being killed by Cú, which partially makes up for his inability to save Scáthach the same way. The details of him killing Scáthach even come up in the scene where he kills Bazett, drawing parallels with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Their situations were the same, but only one of them was saved so far. Cú was able to save Bazett like this because she didn’t rely entirely on him to do this for her, she was already working hard to save herself, and the part he played in it was just a small push in the right direction. The big, final message of Fate/hollow ataraxia is that you can’t count on others to carry your emotional baggage. They can support you while you figure it out yourself, but ultimately it’s on you to find your own reason to keep going. Scáthach can’t be saved by Cú (or anyone for that matter) for as long as she doesn’t realise this and wants others to do the work of saving her for her.

The constant drive to become better is what Cú respects in both of them, but when it comes to being saved, Bazett continues to struggle by herself to find reasons to keep going while Scáthach, at least for now, has given up and is waiting for a miracle.

Summary

Scáthach is incredibly powerful and worked hard for it, to the point where she became immortal because she simply couldn’t be considered human anymore. Now that she’s immortal, all her achievements became “something that would have happened eventually” though, and it flung her into a huge depression because she feels there’s no point to her life if there’s no challenge. Having outlived all her students, she’s also horribly lonely, which doesn’t help.

She does not actually want to die though. Whenever the chance to die comes up she makes excuses. She lies to herself a lot, and simply convinced herself that her not wanting to live the way she is now is the same as wanting to die. What she actually wants is to enjoy life again, and she makes a lot of clumsy attempts at it. A fight to the death is the most fun to her, and the stronger her opponents the more excited she gets. However, she feels she doesn’t get to cut loose and enjoy herself because of her responsibilities as a teacher and queen. Assassin Scáthach is having a far better time than Lancer Scáthach because she’s not trying to keep up her formal appearances and lets herself remember what fun is. It’s not impossible she doesn’t even realise she wants to have fun. She trains herself and others because it’s fun, but convinced herself it’s out of duty.

Scáthach is a teacher above all, and she often ends up training people without even noticing. She’s a good judge of character and enjoys guiding those who have potential into reaching that potential. Because killing an immortal is a huge achievement, getting to kill her is something reserved only for the people she cares about and wants to see achieve great things.

Cú and Scáthach care about each other a lot, but the whole business with Scáthach wanting Cú to kill her makes their relationship difficult. They rarely praise each other to their face and instead threaten murder. Cú is aware that Scáthach is lying to herself about wanting to die, but doesn’t dare to question her about it because he doesn’t want to disrespect her, he still feels guilty about not being able to kill her and grant her wish when he was still alive, and he feels like he’s partially to blame for her wanting to die in the first place. Neither Cú nor Scáthach actually believe he’s able to kill her, but affectionately threatening to murder each other is the interaction pattern they’ve set up for each other, and breaking from it is hard when neither of them is being honest.

E Pluribus Unum is a reversal of their usual roles. Cú Alter here is the one who’s lying to himself, is nigh impossible to kill, and wants to just burn out and die already, while Scáthach is the one who can’t kill him. Because Cú Alter is the result of someone’s obsession with having him grant an unreasonable wish, and also shares Scáthach’s inability to enjoy their duty, it forces Scáthach to confront how unreasonable her own wish is. By the end of the chapter she considers Cú beating her to be a bad thing rather than what she wants the most.

Scáthach and Medb, although complete opposites in their drive to improve themselves, have the same obsession with having Cú grant their wish. Scáthach doesn’t have a very good opinion of Medb, but she can’t truly hate her because in the end they’re too similar.

Bazett and Scáthach are in similar situations, where their physical strength alienates and dehumanises them emotionally, and they have reached a point where their death is out of their hands. Cú is able to save Bazett but not Scáthach by killing them because Bazett continues to struggle to save herself and just needed some help, while Scáthach has given up and is just hoping for a miracle.

Sources

Most of the translations and summaries I relied on to write this back in 2017 miraculously still exist at the time of writing this page, though that was in part because I had my trusted friend queenofnohr translate a bunch of it for me. I decided to still link all of the fantranslations I used as a fun bit of history to show what kind of things we had to work with back in the day.

1. Assassin Scáthach bond CE (translated by queenofnohr)
   

   The Minimum Amount of Care
   
   It’s because I take the minimum amount of care───
   
   She certainly said as much.
   On a holiday retreat, enjoying it with all your being,
   It is necessary to have proper “care” as a lady.
   
   For example, accessorizing with a large flower.
   A Southern Sea hibiscus to adorn beautiful black hair.
   
   For example, accessorizing with throwing knives.
   Eleven blades to gently adorn the limbs.
   
   And a swimsuit and pareo woven with magical power.
   In fact, it seems they are stronger than thick steel.
   
   “To adorn oneself in glamor is a woman’s care for herself.
   To prepare oneself for an unexpected battle is a woman’s care for oneself.
   One should never lack either. Isn’t that a matter of fact?”
   
   ───I see.
   ───This is what “care” is.
   
   Her way of being is always beautiful and strong.
   

2. Assassin Scáthach myroom lines
3. Assassin Scáthach profile
4. Chapter America Summary - E Pluribus Unum
5. Cú Chulainn Alter bond CE
6. Cú Chulainn Alter myroom lines
7. Cú Chulainn myroom lines
8. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia - Day 1, streets, “Horn (definitely)”
9. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia - Day 1, streets, “Spearman at work (flower shop edition)”
10. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia - Day 1, streets, “That past is already”
11. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia - Night, “Ath nGabla”
12. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia - Night, “Reverse Moon”
13. FGO material III - Cú Chulainn Alter profile
14. FGO material III - Scáthach profile
15. FGO material Celtic Servant relationships
16. Grand Time Temple Solomon - Chapter 6
17. Kara no Kyoukai collaboration event - room 704
18. Scáthach bond CE
19. Scáthach interlude 1
20. Scáthach interlude 2
21. Scáthach introduction event
22. Scáthach myroom lines
23. Scáthach profile
24. Summer event part 1 - Chaldea Summer Memory (The original source I used for this in 2017 is gone now)
25. Summer event part 2 - Chaldea Heat Odyssey
26. Valentine’s event Assassin Scáthach gifting scene
27. Valentine’s event Scáthach gifting scene