Monday, June 8, 2020

Fate/Apocrypha Part 3 Episodes 9-12


From the blood stained fields outside of Castle Yggdmillenia to the skies above in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Mage Factions of Black and Red have begun their final battle.  In the middle of the chaos, Sieg begins his own desperate mission to free those like himself from imprisonment, and perhaps discovers the wish he is also seeking.  Meanwhile, Ruler sprints across the battlefield, heading directly for someone whos powers far exceed their intended role in this war.  The Holy Grail emerges and old scores and new rivalries head towards their violent conclusions.  At the end of it all, is Yggdmillenia the true threat, or has someone else been pulling the strings all along?

So there’s a lot, aloooooooooot to unpack with this midseason set of episodes.  We got some important character revelations, a couple of surprise twists, and the mountains of action that ended last weeks set of episodes proved to be just an appetizer for the all out carnage of these four episodes.  If I could boil it down simply: we definitely got what Fate/Apocrypha advertised with a feature length fight sequence that rarely let up.  In a way, im glad we’re not done with this series yet but after everything that’s happened, how the hell is this gonna get topped.

Pretty much every servant and master who’s been in this series from Episode One and is still around got a chance to shine this week, this goes double for the Servants, who continue to steal the show at every instance (sadly except for Atalanta, aka Archer of Red, who hasn’t had a chance to really stand out beyond her cute design).  Vlad and Karna’s clash was particularly epic with impalement spikes popping up all over the place and littering the night sky above (fighting in the shade anyone?).  I like that Vlad was determined to fight this war without resorting to his truest nature, aka the Noble Phantasm that would turn him into, you guessed it, DRACULA!!!.  But Darnic, aka the Yggdmillenia head who set this whole mess in motion, had his own plans…plus he knew that you cant throw Vlad the Impaler into a Holy Grail War and not bring Dracula out to play.  The beast like Dracula design looked freaking awesome and was truly terrifying, it’s no wonder Vlad tried his best to not bring it out.  But Vlad wasn’t the only one mutating into something big and dangerous.  Spartacus was back, now under the control of the Black Faction, and his crazed wishes to purge all oppressors turned him into the latest ode to Tetsuo from Akira…and unlike Dracula I don’t know why that was needed.  Spartacus was kind of one note when he first appeared and his tune hadn’t changed.  I guess the only reason to turn him into a Tetsuo Umbrella Corp bio weapon looking mass was so Jeanne could step in and show us what a Ruler class Servant can do when she has to step in.

Fairing a bit less better in the OP department was Mordred.  Now let me be clear, I like Mordred, she’s a fun character.  But I don’t like that somehow Saber Servants stand above the rest as the most powerful of Servants (shouldn’t that be Berserker?).  In this way, Mordred basically became a nigh invincible Terminator who was starting to sound like Gilgamesh after a little bit (aka one of the most infuriating Anime characters ive ever known).  You kind of lose any notion of worry for Mordred after she’s easily able to plow her way through Astolfo, Frankenstien and Sieg as Siegfried.  I truly wonder what a fight between Mordred and Jeanne would look like now, especially considering that, because Ruler is meant to be a mediator in the war, she is meant to be OP beyond reason.  And no, you weren’t misreading a second ago, Siegfried did return this week and im glad that he’s going to be around in some capacity, even if it is Sieg channeling his spirit.  Initial thoughts are it’s because Sieg has his heart and is putting it to good use.  Sieg had already successfully liberated his trapped Homuculi siblings from the Yggdmillenia labs and risked his life to take on Mordred to protect Astolfo.  Yeah his, “I want to save everyone” sounds annoyingly familiar.  But I don’t know, something about the way he talks sounds different from the blind faith approach of Shiro “People Die When They Are Killed” Emiya.  Guess I just like Sieg better than the Fate “hero” I love to hate.

I do want to touch on poor Frankenstein for a second.  The poor cute Berserker met her end in a fittingly tragic sacrifice play…that Mordred just shrugged off like when Chaotzu tried to blow up Nappa in Dragon Ball Z.  Before then, William Shakespeare aka Caster of Red (yep the Bard is a Caster just FYI), trapped Fran in a prison that forced her to remember the anger and terror her creator felt when she was completed.  Whether or not Berserker’s screaming and wailing on the battlefield is grating to you or not is one thing, but her actual crying in pain over that memory was one of the most heart shattering moments of Fate/Apocrypha so far.  Even more so was Caules forcing himself to sacrifice his Servant, even though he cared deeply for her and might very well have been that creature Frankenstein longed to have that her creator refused to give her.  As far as Servant deaths go, the end of Frankenstein was one of the saddest.

One thing I haven’t really talked about is Yggdmillenia’s grand plan, specifically the grand plan of the Head of the Family, Darnic.  So he’s had the Holy Grail since he stole it in the Third Holy Grail War (killing the Matous and Einzeberns’ in the process apparently).  But because he did just that, stole it, and didn’t win it legit, he couldn’t use it’s power?  Or has he just been using it to lord over everyone until he finally wanted to use it 60 years later against the Mages Association?  I get the standard bad guy trope of wanting the family legacy to live forever, but I feel like Darnic could have pulled this off forever ago.  Granted the time lapse between Grail Wars is tricky and nonsensical (60 years between this war and the Third one while there was only a 10 year break between Fate/Zero and the 4th Holy Grail War in Fate/Stay Night).  It’s kind of a wonder that the visual feasts of battles, magic and giant flying fortresses playing Independence Day above Castle Yggdmillenia kind of caused me to look the other way on this matter for the most part.  Also, why was Jack the Ripper (sporting an wayyyy to inappropriate thong on a character being portrayed as a little girl…seriously?) there when she didn’t do squat?  What is her purpose in this show and what’s the purpose of her “Mommy?”  I guess that’s a question to be answered in the second half but im guessing right now it’s not going to be worth all the inappropriateness around Jack’s character.

Like I said, a lot was going on in these four episodes, so much this could’ve been a series finale if they tied up all loose ends.  Still, things ended on a great note that the second half will no doubt run with.  We’ve got a truce between Servants to mop up a Vampire infestation.  You’ve got Fiore taking over the Yggdmillenia family (did she even know Darnic wasn’t going to make it?) and assuring her kin that the war was far from over.  Darnic even fused with Dracula in a last ditch effort to fulfill his cryptic dream only to be taken down by Shirou…who is NOT Shiro Kotomine, but Shirou the Ruler Servant from the last Holy Grail War and his plan is, you guessed it, save the world…but the way he says this to Jeanne, clearly it’s not going to be by giving every human being a hug.

I do know that I need a minute to catch my breath before I go any further.  And trust me I am beyond excited that there’s still 13 more episodes to go.  Am I worried that Fate/Apocrypha might’ve peaked with this epic 4 episode long battle, absolutely.  But despite some missteps with some Servants and Villains not getting enough screentime or clearer motivations, I’ve been having a lot of fun watching everything unfold.  Right now, this is a much better watch than Fate/Extra: Last Encore.  Let’s hope Apocrypha can stick the landing in a couple of weeks.  For now, congratulations on a stellar first half Fate/Apocrypha, you’ve made Fate/Stay Night fun to watch again (you know along with Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel haha).  See ya next week everyone.

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