「開戦の狼煙」 (Kaisen no Noroshi)
“The Beginning of War”

This week’s episode was exactly what I’ve been looking for — Servants and Masters leaping out into the battlefield, ready to rip each other apart.

General Impressions

Finally, after weeks of buildup, it looks like the Greater Holy Grail War is finally beginning to rise toward a climax. With both factions ready to use whatever means may be necessary to secure victory, I can’t wait to see what happens as this giant battle wages on. But what may have been even better than getting to see all these awesome servants fight may have been how the show finally started to use the story as a tool for more than throwing exposition at us.

For a specific example, I was caught completely off guard (in a good way) when we got that quick but touching moment between Achilles and Chiron. Besides revealing that the Red Faction’s Rider was Achilles (I didn’t realize, wanna fight?), it was really cool to see the story use the history of its characters to really emphasize just how difficult the fight was about to become. As short as that flashback may have been, it did a great job at revealing just what kind of person Achilles truly is as well as adding some complexity to Chiron. With the former having to come to gripes that he has to kill someone truly important to him and the latter demonstrating that even with his calm demeanor, he’s capable of putting his duty ahead of his feelings. Hopefully, we’ll get to see just how this all progresses as the two end up duking it out against each other.

Changing things up, god am I glad that Mordred and Shishigou exist. Serving as some well timed comedic relief for a rather serious episode, you have to love how they poke fun at some of the mechanics that exist in the Fate world. Just like back in Fate/Zero, it must be nice for someone outside the Rider class to have the skills to “drive” any type of vehicle.

While this post could go on and on about things like Astolfo being best boy, Shirou being a complete badass and leaping into the fields of battle, or Sieg’s plan to free all the Homunculi, let’s save those topics for next time when we’ll hopefully get to see where things go. Overall, I must say that each episode of Apocrypha has been getting better and better and I hope that this trend continues all the way till the end. Catch you guys next week!

26 Comments

    1. [b]Honestly. Rider needs to show his Master some love.[/b]
      Celenike is no longer Astolfo’s Master

      [b]Sigh, question. Who is Rider’s love interest in the end? Freedom?[/b]
      Didn’t you pay attention to episode?
      Sieg can hear the voice of Astolfo and Astolfo can see the Sieg’s wish.
      Sieg and Astolfo are already synchronized.
      Guess what happened?

      Santoryu_XBurner
    2. Just to add, I read Cheesyhoboe’s post in the last episode.
      Show Spoiler ▼

      https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
      Now the question is, did Astolfo go with Sieg and Jeanne into that pretty world we saw, in episode 1, or was Astolfo one of those characters that ended up with a “begin a new journey, meet new people, and maybe find love along the way” type of character ending.

      p.s I am surprised that Yuuichirou Higashide is into Yaoi stuff since spoilerman said, in the previous episode, that Astolfo Wants to marry Sieg and live forever with him; I now question Astolfo’s sexual preference.

      L002
      1. I am surprised that Yuuichirou Higashide is into Yaoi stuff
        Here’s an excerpt from the LN ( http://imgur.com/a/rsPjk )
        Sieg rolled up the sheets, revealling the Astolfo that was wrapped around his legs. In spite of the turmoil that just ocrred, he was still soundly asleep, a far cry from the image of a Servant protecting his Master. But more importantly…

        Astolfo Wants to marry Sieg and live forever with him
        To be honest, that’s not a spoiler, but a stretch of the Higashide’s interview to Animage magazine august 2014 issue, which it was posted on reddit in 2015.

        I now question Astolfo’s sexual preference.
        Astolfo doesn’t care about male and female gender differences at all. If he loves someone, whether they’re a man or woman is a trivial issue. In novel, Astolfo don’t show any interest on women. Sieg was the only person who Astolfo showed great interest and his feelings towards Sieg are passionate and frank.

        CrallyLystia
  1. Episode was completely a tease. they set up all the match ups, gave us visual candy with karna vs vlad, Sieg trying to save others was interesting. maybe he’ll start a rebellion of the homuncules, and that was about it.

    i think fran is going to bite it next episode.

    Switch
    1. https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
      I think this episode played well as with the title – “The beginning of the war” and we have got some actions and dialouge exchanges. I wonder what’s up with the MC’s plan? And looks like the leader of the homunculus Army joined with him which was good to see it. Was it just coincidence that Sieg choose to save the leader of the homunculus Army, or is he really a smart guy?

      https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
      Shirou is like one of those dangerously crazy insane villains wanting to play God by shoving his delusional distorted crazy ideals on other people.

      Switch
      1. Well Gendo is not a really good example, the guy was a selfish bastard that wanted to destroy all makind to bring back his wife who was also a selfish monster as well, SEELEE on the other hand the guys who were really playing god with an instruction manul they didn´t even understand.

        shirou Kotomine is even more dangerous than all of them put together, he truly belives he´s the chosen one to save all those poor lambs so this battle is the final test to clear all doubts. The problem is that this salvation he´s talking about does not seems very nice or good for that matter, remember that the is like magnet for all kinds of lunatics, Kiritsugu wanted to save the world but his selfish, ruthless and monstrousios action caused the death of almost 600 hundred people in the most horrible way you can imagine and Shirou is most likely walking the same path.

        haseo0408
  2. You can take Shirou out of the fire, but you can’t take the fire out of Shirou.

    Hopefully the next episode answers the burning questions, like: “How will Shirou survive against waifu Berserker?”, “Whose face will Spartacus crater next?”, and “When will Sieg and Astolfo consummate their love?”.

    Bob
  3. https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
    If I recall correctly, during this time Chiron was a Divine Spirit. Dumb question, since I only have a rough understanding of Type Moon “gods,” just how strong are Divine Spirits? A rough summery would be nice, such as how many times stronger a Divine Spirit Chiron would be compared to a Servant Chiron?

    On the side note, Atalanta’s Noble Phantasm involves Apollo and Artemis. Just curious, does anyone think Orion (Fate/grand Order) can do same thing? Firing countless beams of light from the sky?

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
    According to what spoilerman said about Gordes
    Show Spoiler ▼

    I frankly find it hard to believe that such an excessively haughty person can change towards a positive direction. If he did, I do find hope for the Homunculi to gain a life of peace. Though a better elaboration, of how positive Gordes’s change was, would be nice.

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
    I would have liked to see Mordred drive Truck-san. I am confident she can kill even a Servant with a Truck; sadly, I would also imagine Mordred’s Master may also die from the truck accident.

    Anyway, I read that Artoria Pendragon’s Riding was B rank during the 5th Grail war while A rank during the 4th Grail War. Regardless, I can understand Artoria could still ride a motorcycle the same way in either rank; Mordred’s B rank driving skills isn’t that bad if we consider the fact that she didn’t crash into destruction. Notably, another speculation if we are basing this on the way Mordred is driving, I can guess that Irisviel Von Einzbern’s Riding is B rank.

    L002
    1. Divine Spirits relative power is unknown for the most part, as by 1000 BC the Gods decline had accelerated even faster than it had by 2500 BC. 2500 BC even had most of the Babylonian Gods incapable of manifesting physical form, though creatures like Giants, Dragons, Fairies, Centaurs, etc. could still live on in the world of man just a tad longer. Giants died out because they couldn’t leave for the Reverse side like the.

      FGO displays what some gods were capable of though. And there is also the fact that the Olympian/Roman Pantheons 12 Gods are incarnations/Bunreis of the Twelve Conceptual Gods who had thrived in the world before the Second Age of Gods went into decline 12-14,000 years ago.

      Show Spoiler ▼

      TheVoid
  4. Just curious, if anyone can answer my question for future reference. What causes a comment to go under moderation? At this point, I imagine it must be either images and spoiler tags?

    L002
    1. @Dafka
      I often do long sentences, yes, but I think that is pretty common in many posts. And I am pretty sure that I avoided bad language completely.

      @Takaii
      I only put three links (in my above comment), which I thought was the max to avoid moderation. Looks like two is the safest. Anyway, thanks sir. Please let me know any problems that my recent comment has, if any I should be aware of.

      L002
      1. Well acording to status Karna´s most powerful Noble Phantasm is greater in power than an atomic bomb and because he has the highest rank in divinity among the Heroic Spirits, Sunya the sun god is his father, he could pierce that Achilles inmortality and Sieg´s Armor of the Evil Dragon but the big downside is that he looses his Armor of the Sun forever so it´s a very bad idea to use it unless it is the very last choice he has; man Indu Mythology does not mess around! Only Ramses II from Fate Prototype could take this guy one on one and actually have a shot to kill him! Seriously, Ramses is OP as fuck as well, his Nobel Phantasm are the stuff of nightmares for even gods!.

        haseo0408
      2. Well I do agree that Karna power lvl is class on it’s own in this war but Vlad acutally have a chance in beating him. While Karna is broken, Dracula has a home ground advantage, I mean its kingdom he ruled in past and as his master did mention he is basically historical hero there. That is insnae power boost for servan, add all power and fame for Legend of Dracula + huge mana pool that black faction prepared allowing Vlad to just spam his noble phantasm. I don’t see any reason for him to lose since Atlanta was already proved useless in that clash of monsters. That of cosures is IF Karna armor is mana based and not just “my skin can’t be pierced with anything beneath rank A” type of defense.

        RandomGuy
      3. In that case Vlad does indeed have the edge in this battle, because Karna´s only weakness is that all his Noble Phantasm consume insane quantities of mana, specially Armor of the Sun.

        haseo0408

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