Friday, August 3, 2018

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Part 6 Episodes 17-19


With Shinji’s servant revealed to be Gilgamesh from the previous Holy Grail War, Shiro and Rin decide that they must take out Caster and Kuzuki to level the playing field.  Even with the added help of Lancer, the battle will not be easy, nor will it be what it seems to anyone involved.  New plays are made and more betrayals spring into action.  Archer’s true colors reveal themselves and Rin finds herself the prisoner of her own servant.  To save her, Shiro must confront the servant alone and deduce why Archer is so intent on killing him.  Meanwhile, a familiar face reveals himself as Lancer’s master, one who lost the Holy Grail once before and is unwilling to let it slip through their fingers again.

Well this show was doing alright.  But now we’ve reached the point where Archer’s identity was revealed.  And all I can think of is a quote from Red vs. Blue, “I cant believe I have to deal with two of them now”.

Yep, the big take away from this set wasn’t the downfall of Caster and Kuzuki or the return of Saber, it’s that for the next foreseeable couple of episodes, Shiro is literally going to be arguing with HIMSELF, since Archer is revealed to be the future Shiro Emiya.  He’s the man who became what Shiro always wanted to be and man did it backfire on him big time.  And you know, I’m sure there was a pretty valid reason for why Archer ended up that way.  But for the life of me, the show got so lost in trying to sound so profound in its reasoning that I got lost.  If I had to sum up: Shiro didn’t listen to anyone, not even Kiritsugu and ended up becoming just like Kiritsugu, only he didn’t have anyone to redeem him and here we are.  See? Couldve summed that up just as quickly.  But as I said above, now there are two Shiros to spout out how their ideals are the correct ones and nothing is going to change their mind.  This is going to be a problem.  I cant even tell you if id be satisfied if Archer won this battle and erased both of their existences…do I even really care at all?

Well, when Unlimited Blade Works didn’t want to focus soley on being “A Tale of Two Shiro’s” there was a little good to be found.  Before he was revealed as Shiro’s annoying future self, Archer did get another good rematch in with Lancer, one more explosive than their first encounter.  And once Kuzuki and Caster were both taken care of, this meant Saber could get back into the action after sitting things out for far too long.  Gone was the skimpy dress and back was the sexy battle armor.  And Rin’s got a new partner.  At long last she’s now servant to Rin, feels so good (though she still dedicates herself to Shiro as well…so they’re sharing?).  Sadly, it looks like Saber will be sitting on the sidelines some more as Shiro battles himself…damn you Unlimited Blade Works.  The Shiro revelation kind of overshadowed the fall of Caster and Kuzuki.  Im not sure either of them found their illusive wishes but…um…at least we got to see Caster without her hood on and she looked really pretty?

As expected, Kirei returned after faking his death (I guess) to drop some big revelation bombs on a captured Rin.  At last, I finally got the Fate/Zero connective tissue id been waiting for since the beginning of the series and I’m glad it was something that affected Rin cause Rin would actually give a damn about it.  Learning that Kirei was the one who killed her father produced exactly the kind of Rin comeback I know she’s good at.  Even tied up she could still throw plenty of verbal jabs at the psychopathic priest (not that it phased him but it was good to hear).  Likewise, I also like how Rin stood her ground against the creepaziod that is Shinji and her patience was rewarded with Lancer smacking the hell out of the brat as he came to Rin’s rescue.  Clearly Shinji is a wannabe small fry compared to the true evilness that is Kirei and Gilgamesh.  And with Lancer seemingly down for the count, courtesy of some foul play from his Master, Kirei, things aren’t looking good for my favorite Waifu.

With the show now dead set on having Shiro literally argue with himself over dreams and ideals I have to ask a couple of questions.  1. The momentum got a little crushed towards the end of this set, courtesy of Archers yammering.  Will that be a problem going forward as the final push to the end gets going?  And 2. When the hell did Shiro get so good that he could go toe to toe with a servant in a fight?  Rin I believe could do it cause she’s been training for years in magic combat and it showed when she kicked the crap out of Caster.  Shiro, feels a lot like Tetsunosuke from Peacemaker Kurogane.  Suddenly, he’s jumped from novice to bad ass when all he’s done is get his ass kicked continuously.  The only difference between Tetsu and Shiro is that we’ve seen Shiro training but not nearly as much as he should be to take on someone as powerful as Archer.

Either way I hope Rin and Saber can survive The Shiro Show next week…as can the rest of Unlimited Blade Works as the war of the two Shiro’s starts the beginning of the end next week…God help us all.

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