Well it was quite a bloody episode so to speak. Lots of blood in fact, the first half of the episode was pretty boring, and was filled up with madmen playing with their corpses or celebrating the deaths or upcoming sacrifices for their ideals. There were a whole lot of psychos that’s for sure. Aside from that, at the very beginning of the episode, they shed light on Mordred’s past and his struggles, and how and when things went south with is relationship with King Arthur. But honestly, I couldn’t find it in me to care, there was something about it that just didn’t register with me and lacked impacted.
The second half however was much better since we’re finally getting actual battles between both servants and masters. It started off with targeting Black Assassin Jack the Ripper first because nobody on either side wants to deal with that shit. It’s Mordred VS Jack for most part before Chiron fires into the fight but isn’t able to finish either one of them. As result Jack ends up retreating to fight another day. Had she not retreated then she definitely would’ve been a goner given the pace of the fight was going, especially with Chiron in the fray. No escaping that sniper. With Jack out of the fight, the battle shifts to Mordred VS Chiron, which was quite impressive considering Chiron managed to deliver damage in an unexpected way, by sustaining an injury which enabled him to swiftly outplay Mordred in close combat. While those two duke it out, Fiore and Sisigo has quite an interesting fight, especially given Fiore is using Bronze Link Manipulator which is both a weapon and skeleton that enables her to move around more so than her wheelchair. 
However while it is powerful, it has its shortcoming and sure enough it’s downfalls are coming back to bite her. It was quite a mistake to simply face off Sisigo one on one without backup. If her brother or Chiron doesn’t jump in front of her to take the shots, then I doubt she is going to come out of this battle alive. Should Caules jump into the fray (and it’s safe to assume that he will), one has to wonder whether or not he had enough time to summon Frankenstein whom he had decided to go without.
But there is also one more player in the fight, and that is Shiro and his Assassin Semiramis. So there are bound to be more surprises in the mix, and potentially, he may look to eliminate two Black Fraction Mages and their Servants, and possibly three if Semiramis, manages to track Jack down. However taking into consideration we are only six episodes into the series, I do question whether or not it might almost be too early for two or possible three more to fall within the next three episodes.
Lastly, it looks like Gordes is going to end up as the sacrificial lamb for Caster’s Noble Phantasm. Can’t say I’m surprised. Also we already knew Astofolo’s master is a total psycho, but gosh, she and Jack the Ripper probably would’ve been a match made in heaven at this point.
As each week goes by, I am starting to question whether this series will be able to keep me interested for the long haul. To be frank, had the second half of the episode not happened, I probably would have dropped it today. But the battles did happen, and that was enough to reel me back in to make me come back for more. That being said though, I will be putting a time limit on this series. If it doesn’t improve/find it’s footing within the next few episodes, there is a good chance that I might drop it. Either way, what’s the most important is that it finds its footing sooner than later because the last thing we need is the story dragging its feet until episode 12, otherwise that kind of defeats the purpose of a 24 episodes series.
That said, it seems when Mordred and Sisigo are fighting hardcore, it is always more fun to watch (especially since I love the duo very much).
I feel like with your set of standards its best to just drop this series. Because if you were honestly thinking about jumping out if the 2nd half didn’t happen then well….how to put it delicately, this show isn’t for you. A question is that are you actually enjoying blogging this show? If it feels like a chore, then drop it. Last thing we need is to have another reviewer with a negative outlook towards the thing they’re talking about, and have all the comments devolve into people sharing the same sentiments, and stretching out their reviews for each episode trying to find something positive to talk about when they can’t find any. Though I guess this kind of hit the nail over my head about leaving this blogging site. Because it was kind of unanimous that this episode actually ended up being better than the previous ones with pacing and production, and it helps knowing who the people were being shown in Mordreds flashback, minus the people who’re pissed that Mordred and Morgan were throwing around the pronoun game.
I’m not the type to continue covering shows that I dislike (in fact I am an advocate against covering shows you dislike), especially when it feels like a chore. That being said I don’t like recklessly dropping shows either since I do have some days when I am under the weather. So that’s why I wanted to give it another episode or so to get a grasp on how I’m actually feeling about it because I do love the Fate series, it just could be for this show however, I’m better off watching it than covering it. 🙁
Overall I really liked this episode, easily the one that hooked me in the most… so far.
Very glad that they showed Mordred’s past, so far the most well-defined among the fifteen Servants. She went from being a member of the Knights of the Round Table fought to defend Arthur’s ideals to outright oppose and destroy her realm during the final Battle of Camlann because she rejected her as her “son” (although the whole downfall was largely due to Morgan’s manipulation). It broke Mordred’s whole being when it was denied by Arthur, she had been built up for something she had absolutely no control or certainty to get whatsoever. I mean, she was raised to love this person as a “father” and idol, and when she revealed her identity to Arthur she simply shut her down and disowned her entirely without a second thought. Her entire life was basically built up so that Arthur’s denial of her would break her to the core. Sasuga Saber, some “perfect king” you are, no wonder in Fate/Zero Iskandar (Alexander) called onto her inability to understand others being the eventual the downfall of her realm. That “C-chi…ue…(Father)” was just heart wrenching, kudos to Sawashiro Miyuki for her role as Mordred. ;_; Some added bonuses were Arthur’s lance (Rhongomyniad) finally having its official design due to Fate/Grand Order because in the past shows (especially Fate/Zero’s first ending) it was merely shown as a regular spear and they actually shown other members of the Knights of the Round Table (Merlin, Bedivere, Lancelot, Gawain, Tristan and Agravain) in their Grand Order designs too.
However, although I’ll give credit where it’s due, this show still has some big problems it must address. First, despite having a Servant pool larger than both Fate/Zero & Fate/stay night combined, the Master themselves were VERY poorly defined. Ignoring that Red Faction was already operating with only TWO Masters after the shady Shirou told the rest to hand over their Command Spells (thus denying them even a chance to interact with the cast) except Kairi, even the Black Faction Masters were just not appealing or less intimidating than anticipated. Darnic was the only competent one so far; Goudes was a fatass moron; Celenike was batshit crazy; Roche didn’t care as long as he becomes the ultimate golem master; Reika was operating independently for her own desires; Fiore & Caules were the only likable ones. Next, even the fights were still poorly shown it didn’t present Servants as supernatural beings. Yes, I can see that they upped the budget a bit because Mordred was the main spotlight in this episode, but the way they handled her fights against Jack & Chiron was still deprived of any sense of tension or urgency especially when they made Chiron’s “Pankration” a weak wrestling move when he’s the ancient centaur who taught many famous Greek heroes their skills (the notable ones being Heracles (Fate/stay night) & ACHILLES, who participated in this war on behalf of the Red Faction).
“the battle shifts to Mordred VS Chiron, which was quite impressive considering Chiron managed to deliver damage in an unexpected way, by sustaining an injury which enabled him to swiftly outplay Mordred in close combat.”
Like I said, it’s “Pankration”, the long-extinct ancient Greek martial arts not resurrected even in modern Olympics. This technique was taught by Chiron to many famous Greek heroes, and fate is about to step in soon because Achilles (Rider of Red) was one of his students.
“Fiore and Sisigo has quite an interesting fight”
Sorry, “interesting” was not the right term to describe the first proper Master vs Master battle in Apocrypha. Fiore’s weaponry was directly copied from Dr. Octopus in Spider-Man and Kairi’s “going all-out with any means necessary” was just a lame attempt to re-enact Kiritsugu’s battle tactics.
For this episode I’m going to give it 7/10, but it’s largely due to Mordred being on the spotlight.
Additional note: I love a small scene where Mordred was picking a fight with a cat, that was adorable. XD