You know, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop laughing when looking at this.
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Summary
Waver comes back home and gets snagged by his “grandfather”, who has a talk with him about him knowing they aren’t related, causing the kid to start thinking about the right thing to do. Meanwhile, Kiritsugu tries to prevent Kirei from acquiring the Grail, not sleeping and feeling like a loner because that’s what he is sobsob even Saber keeps her distances, poor him.
Irisviel, on her side, is still captured, and she provokes Kotomine Kirei, who can’t seem to understand Kiritsugu at all. She tells him the reason why he fights, to which Kotomine replies by strangling her and leaving with a smile and a goal that’s the way to go. He intends to ruin Kiritsugu’s ideals by stealing the Grail from him…
At night, Waver and Rider spot a signal of challenge sent by Kotomine Kirei and Gilgamesh, to which Rider responds accordingly by going to fight. He forces Waver along despite him using up all his Command Seals, and everyone else also hurries to this challenge as the episode ends with the idea that next episode will be fucking badass.
Impression
Oh man, oh man, THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!! This episode was a huge lump of suspense and storyline building up…
There are so many things that need mentioning, therefore I warn thee, this is going to be long.
First, I find it important to mention the nice bro-ship Rider and Waver have, because it’s seriously awesome to see those two as Master and Servant. Everytime we see them together, it’s like I’m looking at a father teaching his son about the things in life, all while protecting him and taking care of him. Meanwhile, Waver tries incessantly to be less of a burden to him, but of course a father never lets go of his child… That’s what it feels like to me, and I really like how it was shown in the anime, for them not to have as much air time as others and still be incredibly important is what makes this show awesome.
Now, on the other side, you can’t say the same thing about Saber and Emiya. Those two, well… You know… Irisviel was linking them together, and now she’s dead so Kiritsugu’s stuck being a loner again. I really feel bad for him, he just had to be the good, unlucky guy who loses every single person he loves. Good thing he hasn’t lost his daughter yet… Note the “yet”. I look forward to the next few episodes to see what will happen between the Master and Servant on their side, since right now they are not cooperating at all. The more things go, the more credibility Kiritsugu loses as the episodes go on. He doesn’t have much resources anymore…
As for Kotomine Kirei, he’s picking up all the credibility Kiritsugu loses over time. After killing Irisviel, figuring out what Emiya’s goal was and calling out to everyone for a challenge, he acted way too freakin’ badass not to be the coolest at the moment. Now, it’s only a question of who wins between Kiritsugu and Tokiomi… Because honestly, next week is the fight between Rider and Gilgamesh, and I can kinda guess where it’s going already. I don’t see Rider and Waver winning anytime soon, they’re clearly a whole level under the other two competitors, so I’ll be curious to know who will win between Saber and Gilgamesh in the end. I’d bet my hopes on Gilgamesh, but I want Saber to win so… We’ll see what happens shrugs I kinda wish I’d read the novels, I’d be able to discuss a little bit more, but at least not knowing is what makes the anime more surprising and interesting. 
To end this character analysis, I’d like to discuss Irisviel in a little bit more detail. I didn’t understand all the symbolism going on in this scene completely, especially since I don’t know exactly what’s going on in Irisviel’s head, but it seems like that woman is a maniac on her own, and I’m not as sure that she’s such a good person in the end. Yes, she did seem to agree with Kiritsugu’s ideal, but…
It might just be me imagining things… But, there is definitely more to know about Irisviel, and I expect her to show up again sometime soon to pull out some crazy speech which will surprise even Kiritsugu. Even though she’s dead in real life, she’s still inside the Grail, and that last scene only reinforced the idea that her death will not wipe out her character just yet. Which is awesome, because I tend to love Irisviel 🙂 She’s awesome.
Ah… I wouldn’t say that Waver-Rider have a father/son relationship. He is a mentor for Waver, but Waver has been attracted to him since the moment they met (it’s clearer in the novel where he experiences sexual arousal the very moment his sees him). Urobuchi has said many times he is pretty into the idea of romantic male bonding of the ancient Greeks (he saw Saber/Shirou as example of this in FSN and Saber as a guy). Alexander was taught by Aristotle, the master of this style. That’s how the manga version portrays their meeting like Shirou and Saber in FSN.
Waver even blushes scarlet in this episode to make his crush clearer.
His future self seems to have zero interest in all the women who want to sleep with him. Just hints. 😉
…AH. Well… That kinda destroyed everything I thought was cool about them. I’m far from being a Yaoi fan lol! But aside from that, I guess “mentor” also cuts it, and while the crush Waver has on Rider isn’t portrayed very well in the anime, I have to say that it’s not such a big surprise, after all I find the age difference to be… Intriguing?
Also, I haven’t watched/played FSN, so I wouldn’t be able to compare.
Really now? It changes nothing. The mentorship between a young man and an older one is the based of one of the most important relationships for those in ancient Greece. Considering how women were viewed the same as children and slaves.
I would say it’s portrayed well enough. Waver’s tsundere around him and goes dere (although it is more obvious in the manga where he keeps blushing and they actually portrayed the nudity instead of censoring it. The pants scene in episode 7? Alexander was naked actually, only with his tiny t-shirt). The staff has fun to compare them to a bitchy girlfriend (Waver) and an indulgent boyfriend. Remember that Rider is Alexander the Great you’re speaking about, he’s bisexual with homoromantic tendencies (his greatest love was his companion Hephaestion, the Patroclus to his Achilles). Gen Urobuchi claims he would have slept with Kayneth and his fiancée if they would have summoned him. It doesn’t mean that Rider returns Waver’s potential feelings. Even if there are parental undertones sometimes, keep in mind that Natalia wanted to sleep with Kiritsugu her ‘adopted son’ (it’s clearer in the side story Heart of Freaks, go read it).
Speaking on this subject: Gilles de Rais was homosexual (made bisexual in Nasuverse because they turn his platonic devotion to Joan into something romantic) and his Master seems like a modern version of his lover and partner in crime Prelati. That’s why Ufotable says they are a ‘married couple’. Gilgamesh is pansexual, and his interest in Saber (who once had a penis, for your information, she was Mordred’s father), is due to her resemblance to his soulmate, the wildman Enkidu. Anime cut his flashback to Enkidu’s death in his arms. Fortunately, they might include it in the uncut episodes and his official tribute song is about his loss and sorrow for Enkidu.
I wouldn’t call it BL, it’s accurate to their historical and legendary eras.
It makes sense when you think about it, because it does work with their historical background, however in the end I hadn’t realized any of what you said before you told me 😛 I guess it’s something you realize much more when you know more about the characters, and it’s fun extra info which adds a bit to the background. There were a lot of things which I didn’t know at all before you told me though.
It’s good that Waver and Rider had a friendly relationship beyond the normal Master-Servant one, since normally, using up all 3 command seals ends in death for the Master since the Servant isn’t bound by it anymore. Someone like Kariya would never dare to do what Waver did lol.
About the Irisviel thing – it’ll be obvious if you’re familiar with F/SN, but try to think of it in another way (not what was in Iri’s head to begin with, but rather the significance of the black muck and her current location). And oh god, that Ilya scene broke my heart ;_;
Alright, I’ll be looking forward to knowing a little bit more about Irisviel, and worse off if we don’t get any answer I’ll go fetch it somehwere 😛 And for Kariya to do the same thing would be completely suicidal, especially considering he has Berserker, who can’t be controlled at all.