JUST FIGHT ALREADY. Gah, alright, this episode had a lot of good things in it. Most of them having to do with Lancer, who had sky rocketed to probably one of my favorite characters in just one episode. However, let’s leave the actually interesting stuff for last and focus on the part of the episode I could barely focus all. Shirou’s introspective.
After all of about 20 seconds of a fight, the summoning of UBW and not much of a fight. We get a huge internal introspective into Shirou and his ideals. While the throw backs to Zero were really nice, and Kiritsugu ended up with more overall screen time this episode then Kirei did. It was just sort of boring to trudge through information we’ve gone over before.
Yes, Shirou is blindly following Kiritsugu’s dreams. Yes, he plans to overcome that and actually become a hero of justice that he can be proud of. It’s just….can we get to the fight? Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate these parts of the episode but compared to what I was expecting and the scenes with Lancer. The Archer/Shirou stuff was just kind of dull.
We all know what most of us are here for. The fighting, the beautifully animated Ufotable budget fight scenes. We’ll get to that next week hopefully. NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT THE PART OF THE EPISODE WHERE CU CHULAINN WAS AMAZING, and Shinji was a creep. What else is new on that one though, am I right?
So, as we all remember from last episode. Kirei used a command seal to have Lancer stab himself and die. Kirei proceeds to turn to Rin and monolouge about how she will become the grails vessel. However, you should watch your surroundings when having an evil monologue. Cu gets back up and shoves his spear right through Kirei.
Alright, this isn’t so much a complaint at the anime as it is at the route in general. That shouldn’t of worked, Kirei after Zero is technically dead. Sustained by the grail, his heart is not beating ever. It could have to do with the Lances abilities, but it seems like such an anti-climatic death for a character with so much power. It just seems like they didn’t know how to kill Kirei in this route.
As for how the animation handled it? Beautifully. Though I have to say, low blow there man.
Um, Lancer from Fate/Zero might have a word or two for you Cu.
So anyway, now that Kirei is dead, Shinji can return to being a class A creeper. First off all, he kicks Kirei’s dead body. I may not be Kotomine’s biggest fan, but that’s just awful. Shinji, I just….GAH anyway. He places his hands all over Rin, including going to strangle her. I’m so sorry Rin. I don’t think even a hundred bathes will wash the Matou off. Good thing Lancer still isn’t down for the count, he knocks Shinji away from Rin. Shinji, like the little bitch he is. Whines for Gilgamesh to come and help him.
Lancer walks over and merely pokes him with the end of his spear before he runs off crying like a five year old girl. Then, just as he’s about to die. He draws the rune for fire and begins burning everything.
[Props to the Ufotable staff for looking up the proper rune for it too]
Well even if Kirei was still alive after taking a spear to the heart, not even someone like him could survive burning to death. I am once again, a little disappointed here. As he’s speaking to Rin before he writes the rune, he says he wishes that he had a nice female master like her. I feel as if they could of taken this opportunity to cut to a flashback or even a fleeting image of his ‘true’ master.
His master before Kotomine killed her and took Lancer for himself.
I fear that they’re just trying to pad things at this point with all the dialogue between Archer and Shirou. The best parts of this episode belonged to Lancer for sure. Oh well, at least Shirou gave the Fate fandom new meme material. The new “People die when they are killed” is now, “Just because you’re correct, doesn’t mean you’re right.”
Oh Shirou…
~Midnight
Where to begin… Oh, right, with Cu Chulainn! 😀 I knew it! I knew he couldn’t have died! A quick trip to the Fate Wiki afterwards revealed that it IS part of a skill he has! I also wish they would have shown his original master, but maybe that’s for Heaven’s Feel? I just remember seeing many pieces of artwork of them together.
“Just because you’re correct, doesn’t mean you’re right” is pretty amusing out of context, although, even then it makes sense with its message of fact vs morals. As for what Archer forgot about from the inception of his dream to be a Hero of Justice, I’m a little surprised that wanting to feel that same happiness as Kiritsugu, happiness for such a splendid reason, isn’t explicitly a part of it. Perhaps it just doesn’t need to be said though.
Lancer’s original master was neither seen nor spoken of directly in any of the Fate routes. It was not until Hollow Ataraxia that she was revealed.
“That shouldn’t of worked, Kirei after Zero is technically dead.”
Stop with that. ZERO DIDN’T EXIST WHEN THIS WAS WRITTEN. No one had even come up with the idea for it. If there is a flaw in the continuity, it is ZERO that is wrong, not FSN. Point your blame correctly.
Two words: Heavens Feel. That was written at the same time as UBW, i won’t go into details because spoilers. However, a simple spear to the heart without the effects of the spear should not of killed him. Via the logic presented in Heavens Feel.
If you make me look up Heaven’s Feel again I’m going to have to hurt you. :p That route is far too disturbing for me to look at it for fact checking.
Information on the wiki implies that his heart is still vital for his survival. While he can exist for some time without it beating, DESTROYING it (which is what Lancer’s spear DOES to anyone it pierces) should kill him just as surely as anyone else.
All AM did was rebuild his destroyed organ(s) out of cursed mud. It didn’t make him invincible or immortal. It protected him in HF because True Assassin was tried using (lesser) magic of the same type on them; the curse he attempted was simply absorbed by what was essentially a greater mass of curses. Physically destroying the rebuilt organs again still works just fine, the same way destroying a real person’s artificial heart would leave them just as dead.
At the same time it lends itself to confusion because of the nature of AM and that True Assassin was amazingly powerful and it SHOULD have killed him. To say a lesser method of killing him makes sense just rings a little hollow for me.
You’re overestimating TA, he’s a chump by servant standards, most assassin-class servants are, they’re mainly suited for gathering intel and assassinating masters, rather then straight up fighting.
Besides, TA’s NP functions purely as a curse, whereas Lancer’s is a weapon that is cursed. That’s the key distinction. The changed nature of Kirei’s organs only protects them from curses; it doesn’t do jack against physical attacks like a spear through the chest, even if that spear happens to be cursed.
Granted, since in HF Kirei was able to hang on for a little while having his heart crushed, I’m willing to accept the possibility that the spear probably didn’t kill him so much as just knock him out long enough for Lancer to burn his body.
Yeah Shirou was one hundred percent pure shonen protagonist in this episode”I have unconvertible proof that the my way of life is going to end in misery and suffering, but I’m still going to stubbornly follow them be because that’s my Ninja/Hero of Justice Way”.
Yeah beautiful episode though.
That now famous line is from a misunderstanding by the translator. Its a word similar to right, but not exactly right.