>>279663743
>Trying to place importance on shizu's mask and fucking with diablos backstory was super fucking gay
What the fuck are you talking about? Did you only read a wiki or something? Shizu's mask is a key plot point and Diablo's connection to Shizu is also (briefly) mentioned in the LN. Also "Diablo's backstory" was infact written by the LN author himself.
>shizu was a literal who in the ln that rimuru knew for like 10 minutes before she died and was barely mentioned afterward
Oh, I see. Let me guess: You only read the Web Novel? That's "abandonware", anon. It hadn't been relevant for almost 10 years now.
If you actually read the first LN volume, you'd notice that (unlike the WN) Shizu's PoV was like 1/3rd of the entire first volume and she showed an important contrast between Rimuru and Shizu as isekai-jins and how they handle it. The manga and (to a lesser extent the anime) skipped her PoV parts, but in turn show Rimuru thinking back on her more. I do give you that the anime tends to bring up Shizu a tad bit too often where it's really not warranted though.

But Shizu isn't irrelevant, because first the entire motivation for saving the children is because of Shizu, and her story only gets properly finished in LN vol. 11 which is the part that the manga is starting on now and which the anime will cover in season 4.

As for the "fated one"... Chloe is probably the true "fated one", not Shizu. They were both shown in the crystal ball.