FGO New Year Craft Essence Forces Mash x Lion-Head Shipping AGAIN — Players Fed Up With Annual LB6 Trauma Reminders

Every single New Year — without fail — FGO drops another Craft Essence or manga panel pairing Mash with the Lion-Head (Habetrot's adoptive father figure from Lostbelt 6). riyo and Kinoko Nasu, are you guys not tired of this? Is this some kind of annual ritual at this point?

For those out of the loop, here's the context. The girl standing next to the Lion-Head in the illustration is Mash Kyrielight, widely regarded as the canon heroine and the ultimate "ML" (Master Love) character in FGO. She is so dominant as the protagonist's love interest that the community uses the term "shield-adjacent girlfriends" to categorize other female Servants — the "shield" being Mash herself. Whenever another character flirts with the Master, Mash is always shown getting jealous in the background. She is THE main girl.

Then came Lostbelt 6: Avalon le Fae, where Nasu dropped a narrative bomb that many compare to Girls' Frontline 2's infamous "Raymond incident." Mash lost her memories upon entering a new Lostbelt, was found and sold off to the Lion-Head, and tricked into believing she was his bride. The internal void she couldn't fill across dozens of worlds with the Master? Apparently marrying the Lion-Head fixed it — straight from Nasu's pen. She was nearly sexually assaulted by the Lion-Head, only saved by her body's instinctive rejection.

But here's the real kicker: even after Mash regained her memories, she continued to identify as the Lion-Head's knight and vowed to protect his people. Chinese players lost their minds — first getting silenced on the Japanese server by people calling complainers "NTR fetishists," "controlling boyfriends," and "Guda supremacists" who supposedly wanted to interfere with a female colleague's personal life. Then when the Chinese server implemented the story, the backlash came back with a vengeance. Mash's reputation in the CN community tanked from "heroine" to "female colleague" and "Mrs. Lion-Head."

Despite the community outrage, the devs keep rubbing salt in the wound. In 2022, they released art of Mash wearing a Lion-Head costume and had her voice actress Kana Hanazawa pose with a lion plushie. By 2024 New Year, riyo's official manga featured the duo together AGAIN. One commenter noted that every New Year since LB6, Mash's chibi sprites have included white lion motifs — this is clearly deliberate, not coincidental.

The comment section erupted. One player put it bluntly: "The main story was tolerable — amnesia, no actual contact. But the constant follow-up crossovers are what truly make it disgusting." In other words, LB6 itself could have been forgiven, but the annual reminders are what keep reopening the wound. Another commenter went full scorched earth: "Either quit or stop whaling. You stick your head in the sand pretending nothing happened, then swipe your card for the next guaranteed gacha banner — who can you blame when the devs keep stepping on you?"

Perhaps the most devastating take: "Anyone who only blames riyo is basically a coping spouse. These manga panels go through internal review every year — you think this is just riyo slipping in personal stuff? It's simple: as long as you keep spending money while looking the other way, the company assumes you genuinely don't care." The message is clear — silent spending equals silent approval, so the Lion-Head x Mash content will keep coming.

Players also drew parallels to Girls' Frontline 2's T95 controversy, saying "FGO players looking at GFL2's T95 situation... don't even need the recap" — implying both games pulled the same stunt of ruining their main girl's romantic arc. Others quoted GFL2's infamous meme "Sheffield's Knight, step forward!" to mock Mash's new identity as the Lion-Head's knight.

It has been over three years since Lostbelt 6 hit the JP server in 2021, and instead of backing off, the devs have doubled down through riyo manga, Craft Essences, chibi designs, and voice actress promotions to cement this pairing. For players, this is no longer just a harmless meme — it is a systematic disregard for the emotional investment of core fans. As long as the silent majority keeps swiping, the annual "Mrs. Lion-Head" ritual is never going to stop.