Monday, December 19, 2016

Fate Stay Night Part 3 Episodes 13-18

With Shinji and Rider out of the running, the focus of the Holy Grail War turns to two of it’s most powerful entrees: Illya and her behemoth servant, Berzerker, and the crafty Castor and her own, unseen master.  With Saber in a greatly weakened state, it may fall to Archer to face an opponent he cannot defeat.  Things get further personal when Castor kidnaps Sakura, a girl who is very special to both Shiro and Rin for separate reasons.  The Holy Grail War grows more desperate and soon the true enemy, who has stalked Shiro and Rin’s every move since the beginning, finally emerges from the Shadows.

Busy, busy, busy.  I think that about best sums up week three of four of Fate Stay Night.  Servants were eliminated, masters were with killed along with them or given new roles, and we got a few new revelations to shake things up quite a bit.  It’s a lot to take in but ill try to get to it all.

I should feel a lot more sad about the loss of Archer than I really do.  He was one of the coolest characters and he was Rin’s servant.  There, however, lies the rub.  Rin and Archer really didn’t share a lot of screentime together.  In fact, the show seems quite content to keep most talk heavy scenes centered on Shiro, Saber and Rin and hardly anyone else.  I do feel for Rin since Archer was her servant and with his demise, she’s out of the Grail War running.  But if we had seen more of the likeable, bickering bond between master and servant develop futher, the impact would have been greater.  Even so, Archer’s last stand was awesome.  Even when it seemed obvious Berzerker was going to come out the victor, Archer never backed down and got his own fair share of solid hits in.  That and his skill managed to stun the annoying as hell Illya slightly, so added bonus there. 

Illya…gah never has a child ticked me off this much since Mariemea from Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz.  Except where Mariemea was a blind puppet, Illya’s just a very demented and disturbing little girl.  She has no qualms about killing with a smile on her face and throws a violent hissy fit when she doesn’t get her way.  And this kid is somehow involved in one of the bloodiest magical competitions of all time?  That is totally F’ed up.  Listening to her cheer on Berzerker to kill everyone pissed me off every time she opened her mouth to giggle and boast.  This kid needed an ass kicking more than any character we’ve seen so far.  I really couldn’t wait to see her inevitably get hers, maybe not death but at least the gut punch of things not going her way.

Before we could get to Saber taking on Berserker, we had to sit through one of the oddest scenes yet.  In order to heal Saber, Rin had to transfer some of Shiro’s magical circuits to her.  Interesting idea…until Rin kissed Shiro and suddenly started getting Saber hot and bothered to “throw them off balance”.  Now, in all honesty, this whole sequence could have been ignored all together.  It goes on a bit long and I think it’s unnecessary.  But then there’s Rin looking like she’s about to rock Saber’s world and Shiro seems oddly ok with that.  One the one hand…yeah, that’s a steamy Ship right there.  On the other hand we’re back to the Harem Anime aspect that I doubt many associate with Fate Stay Night.  It’s a little uncomfortable but still has to be seen to be believed…still, Rin and Saber, I’m all for that ship right there.

The Berserker take down was as epic as expected and everyone got in their own moment to shine.  Rin got to actually land a kill blow on Berserker all on her own, that’s my girl.  Of course the real win was the actual win as Shiro and Saber teamed up to use Saber’s legendary Excalibur (pretty much confirming Saber is King Arthur…or Arturia? I guess that’s the feminine use of that name).  I know I’ve given Shiro a ton of grief for…well being him.  But seeing Master and Servant come together as one to take down the strongest of opponents is a huge step forward.  Im not saying Shiro is out of the dog house just yet, he did take Illya into his house after the battle and that’s a huge WTF move right there.  Sure she doesn’t have her murderous giant to do her bidding anymore.  But is that really going to make her turn over a new leaf and NOT slit everyone’s throats in their sleep?  Actually, I’m just more worried that the Harem Anime aspect got amped up with this development: that’s Saber, Rin, Sakura, Taiga and Illya all more or less living under the same roof as Shiro.  Illya wants Shiro to be her slave (weird), Rin loves teasing the hell out of him in addition to teaching him.  Most criminally, Saber’s getting a bit shy around Shiro.  She didn’t have a problem with him seeing her naked before but now…sigh, love really does change everything I guess.

Wow.  Covered a lot and there’s still Castor and Kuzuki to cover.  With Berserker and Archer out of the way, the mysterious witch we glimpsed last time rears her head again, and it turns out her “master” is the freaking Terminator.  Kuzuki is an emotionless robot who can go toe to toe with masters and servants with his fists and doesn’t even flinch when he takes damage.  He easily mopped the floor with Shiro, Rin and Saber.  I get making opponents strong enough for the main trio to face.  But this guy is almost impossibly tough and as dangerous as Berzerker.  To be honest, much like Archer and his final fate, I think that Kuzuki’s character should have been given a bit more build up rather than one or two brief glimpses.  If anything, Shiro’s friend Issei would have been a better candidate for a surprise reveal.  Yeah I know they did that with Shinji being an old friend of Shiro’s, but Issei has never been a jerk.  So him hiding it so well, or playing the role of secret mage, could have been a better angle to play.

Lastly, we’ve got our other reveals.  It may seem like im just adding in a last “Miscellaneous” paragraph, but these developments were just as important.  Saber’s true identity was confirmed as the King Arthur of legend (does that make her Arturia technically?).  As to why she needs the grail, what went so bad that it would be needed for her to reset her own past?  And Rin and Sakura…well that’s a big one there.  Sisters?  Separated by family politics?  There had been hints to a deeper connection between Rin and Sakura, if only spotted in their brief interactions.  But Rin bore it all out here, risking all, even her life, to save the sister she couldn’t call sister for a really long time.  It was a really well done scene and further testament to how awesome Rin is as a character.  You’ve got to admire her strength and loyalty despite her bossy exterior.  There’s plenty of heart to go with those good looks.

I could go on a bit further about another thing or two but I think this is a good place to wrap it up for this week.  Yeesh, if this week was chalk full of material, just how bad is the finale next week going to be?  I haven’t even covered how Shiro is able to summon Archer’s swords so easily.  Well…I do know what the reason is…along with Saber and Rin’s motivations and answers to those questions I mentioned above.  But again, I’ll cover the why’s and how’s next week as I wrap up Fate Stay Night.

And barely any Shiro bashing this week…go figure.  See ya next week.

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