Monday, July 16, 2018

Fate/Zero Part 4 Episodes 14-17

The river by Fuyuki Bridge erupts in violence as Saber, Rider, Lancer and even Archer join forces to battle Caster and the beast he has unleashed.  Meanwhile, their masters clash behind the scenes.  Kariya confronts Tokiomi over the Toshaka heads questionable decision to give Sakura over to the Matoh’s.  Kiritsugu plots his most daring moves yet to move put himself in front of the running for the Holy Grail.  And Kirei’s true nature begins to emerge, under the dark tutelage of Gilgamesh.  Mages will fall, allegiances will be challenged and changed.  In the ultimate battle to attain the greatest magical artifact, no price is too high and no course of action can be ruled out.  The Grail must be attained…no matter the cost.

Well that Avengers reunion was short lived.  Then again, everyone more or less getting along wasn’t going to last forever.  This whole event is a battle to the death after all.  But gone are the days of playing by righteous rules (if there ever was a Grail War like that).  To put it in simpler terms this round “**** just got real).

Starting from where we left off last week, we finally got the all out brawl of heroes we’d been waiting for.  The six remaining servants may have fought separate battles but each one was so entertaining it didn’t matter they weren’t all focused on Caster.  My most favorite of these brawls had to be Berserkers Macross laden battle with Archer: a possessed fighter jet vs…whatever the heck Gilgamesh was flying, it looked like a leftover Lelouch toy from Code Geass.  One nitpick I have from this whole affair.  I did like how this battle was big enough to attract a crowd…but did anything else come from the real world witnessing a Grail battle?  Chances are the church and the observers who keep track of things have some sort of mind erasure magic or something like that, I just don’t think it was ever shown. 

Seeing as how this set of episodes kicked off the second half of the series, it was time to see some players finally get taken off the board.  In a span of four episodes we lost Ryunosuke, Caster, Lancer, Kayneth, Sola-Ul, Kirei’s Father and Tokiomi.  Each one could have a spot for bloodiest demise but each one did have their own separate set of feels to them.  How ironic is it that a serial killers greatest wish is to experience his own death?  The look of joy on Ryunosuke’s face was a good cap off to his disgusting murder spree.  Caster was right behind him as Saber was given her full abilities back and able to slice him down the middle right back to Hell.  And yet, with the dispatching of the two biggest monsters in the Grail War…the “real” monsters came out to play in their stead.

Saber and Kiritsugu finally had their long awaited verbal throwdown over Kiritsugu’s actions.  Saber is a knight of honor, one who values tradition and chivalry above all else.  Kiritsugu is an assassin moving in the shadows and employing every deceitful tool at his disposal to win the war.  He snipes Rynosuke from afar (pretty cool too).  But his biggest F’ed up moment yet comes from creating a contract that allows Kayneth and his finacee to live, so long as Kayneth forces Lancer to kill himself.  That was tough to watch.  Lancer has always been a likeable guy and his rivalry with Saber has played both parts respectable fighter and also cute flirting.  Yet he dies cursing someone he saw and an honorable rival because her master employed such underhanded means.  It’s a far less glorious death than Lancer deserved.  Follow that up with Kiritsugu’s back up, Maiya, killing Sola-Ul followed by Saber killing Kayneth out of mercy…and you begin to realize, if you haven’t already, this was all planned by the guy Shiro Emiya looked up to as an idol…no wonder that kid is so messed up with his notions of heroism.

Still that begs the question: in a battle for a super powerful magic relic that can grant any wish, is it worth sacrificing honor?  Of all the characters, who are masters, who have shown any sense of being honorable participants in this contest, probably Kariya’s probably the only one who has noble intentions, saving Sakura.  Waver is a distant second, since he was in this to prove himself and has complained quite a bit until this set (he does stand his ground with Rider, so he’s showing progress).  Kiritsugu, Kayneth, Tokiomi and Kirei have all played by their own rules in this way and have used deceit, treachery and simple logic to get their ways.  Victory and the power of the Grail is all that matters and they don’t care who gets hurt in the process.  Kiritsugu may be claiming he’s doing all of this killing so no one will ever have to again but clearly he’s full of crap (so much so I cant believe Iri supports him, much less gave him a daughter).  Kayneth and Tokiomi were in it for the glory of their families.  And Kirei…well his true darkness is finally coming through and God only knows how he’ll react when he realizes what he really wants out of this whole event.

Gotta give credit where credit is due when it comes to the writing of this series.  It instills deep discussions like the one above but it also does wonders for even when they kill off the weakest of characters.  Kayneth and Sola-Ul fit that bill easily for me.  From Kayneth’s boasting to his bizzare relationship with his fiancĂ©e, both characters we bare bones in terms of presentation and confusing as to their character arcs.  I guess Sola-Ul was accidentally seduced by Lancer and his curse to make all women fall for him, but the set up for that was pretty weak.  Doesn’t change the fact that they way Kiritsugu set up their demises was tragic and sorrowful.  The same kind of goes for Tokiomi, actually.  Though he did get off the bench and faced Kariya, the father of my favorite waifu was pretty underwhelming overall.  First off, his twisted notions of sacrificing Sakura for the benefit of his family are total crap.  Sure he’s a traditionalist but I would still hold out hope that Rin and Sakura could be raised as sisters and not have to compete for who would become the next true heir of the Tohsaka family.  Secondly, for a man with all kinds of plans, wow was he totally blind to the growing darkness in his own apprentice.  I loved this moment a lot.  Seeing Kirei and Gilgamesh standing together felt like a moment long built up to that paid off completely.  Of the many setups laid for Fate/Stay Night, this was one of the big ones to keep an eye on and it was worth it.  If the deaths of Tokiomi and Kayneth taught me anything here, it’s that if you think the standing of your name and house will garuntee you a win…best to forfeit now and stay out of battles that will clearly end you.  I do feel bad for poor Rin, who will be crushed when she finds out about her dad.  But Tokiomi was far from father of the year and Im not going to feel bad that he got taken out.

Yeesh, this review got deep, real deep.  And yet for all its deepness, could I ignore all the cool that came with it?  What about the possessed fighter jet fighting a UFO?  Or Saber and Lancers beautifully choreographed final battle?  Or Sabers Super Saiyan God level takedown of Caster?  Yes, the spectacle where the action was concerned was at its finest but this is also a series that makes you think and think a lot (such is the power of Gen Urobuchi, the man who wrote Madoka Magica and the first season of Psycho Pass).

Anyway, The prelim battles are over, enough recon has been done and now its time to start the power plays.  So, much like I did for X when I reviewed it, here’s the list of remaining masters and servants:

Alive:

Kiritsugu/Saber

Kirei/Archer

Waver/Rider

Kariya/Berserker

 

Dead:

Ryunosuke/Caster

Kayneth/Lancer

Tokiomi

Assassin

Two more sets of episodes to go.  Even though we may know who ends up surviving this whole ordeal, we don’t know the full story yet…and itll suck to see it end cause Fate/Zero continues to blow Fate/Stay Night out of the water in every conceivable way.

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