Fate/Apocrypha / First Impressions

「彼方へと」 (Kanate E To)
“To The Other Side”

Even though I was really hoping that my favorite duo would make it to the end, I have to give it to the show for giving them such an amazing farewell.

General Impressions

Boy, even though there was some crazy stuff going on toward the latter half of the episode, there’s no way I can’t talk about Mordred and Shishigou’s final fight together. Starting with the most obvious — boy was that a pretty fight. Even though it may not have been as stylized as some of last week’s crazy fights, the animation through and through felt crisp and clean as we saw Mordred clash with Semiramis. And while I would normally complain about the completely blown out sound effects that make my eardrum feel like it’s ripping itself apart, I can give it a pass for just how great the fight itself was. Moving on from the animation, I thought the fight itself was just plain fun. Looking back at all of Mordred’s previous opponents, there really hasn’t been one that’s given her too much trouble. Sure, Frankenstein may have given her a good run for her money, but besides that and a good kick from Chiron way back when, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Mordred had the upperhand in most of her fights. That is, until this week, where we got to see her back against the wall with Semiramis unleashing an effective strategy against the berserkish Mordred. Toss in the fact that Mordred and Shishigou teamed up together to take down the Queen of Babylon and you had one of the best fights of the show.

And as if an epic battle wasn’t enough, we were treated to a sweet scene between Shishigou and Mordred during their last moments together. As fan favorites, it was awfully bittersweet watching the two share a smoke together as they revealed they realized just what it is that they wanted. With Shishigou admitting that he just wanted to bring his daughter back and Mordred realizing that she didn’t necessarily want to become king, it really felt like that our two characters had finally reached a point where, even though they were satisfied with how far they got, they could have achieved their goals had they just managed to hold on just a little bit longer.

Shifting gears to Jeanne’s situation, I can’t help but feel bad for her. When she was alive, she gave up everything in order to become a Saint and in return for her work she ended up being burned at the stake. As a Heroic Spirit and Ruler for this Greater Holy Grail War, she’s been thrown around like a rag doll with little to no concern for her well being. With that in mind, it’s not too difficult to see why if she did end up falling for someone, she’d fall hard. Which is probably why, even though I haven’t managed to empathize for this girl at all throughout the series, I felt pretty terrible as I saw her lose her mind when she started to believe that she was the reason why Sieg was going to die.

P.S. I could go on and on about how Shishigou saw Mordred as a stand in for his daughter and that Mordred viewed Shishigou as a parental figure, but I can already feel the tears building and I’m not about to start crying on a plane flight.

75 Comments

    1. True Tears set the flame of rage inside me and it hasn’t gone out entirely even after all these years

      I just hope this show doesn’t make the matter worse. I’m not going to say which girl I support though.

      David
      Reply

  5. Official relationship chart for Fate/Apocrypha
    https://i.imgur.com/5iZ3mX8.jpg

    Sieg ↔ Astolfo “Trust and mutual dependence.”
    Sieg ← Astolfo “Willing to help him out whenever he needs” & “Romantic love ♥”
    Sieg → Jeanne “Love…?”
    Sieg ← Jeanne “Pledge to protect” & “Romantic love ♥.”
    Sieg ← Siegfried “Sacrifices itself to save the boy.”
    Sieg ↔ Shirou “Enemies.”
    Sieg ← Celenike “Jealousy, envy and hatred.”
    Sieg ← Avicebron “Wanting to use him as his Golem’s ‘core’.”
    Astolfo ← Celenike “Please pardon me.”
    Astolfo ← Celenike “Obsessive–compulsive disorder.”
    Jeanne → Red and black faction “Supervisor”.
    Spartacus → Avicebron “Captured by.”
    Atalanta → Achilles “Don’t call me ‘Big Sister’.”
    Achilles → Atalanta “Likes to call her Big Sister.”
    Achilles ↔ Chiron “Has a connection in their past.”
    Siegfried → Gordes “Obeys.”
    Gordes → Siegfried = “Distrust.”
    Mordred ↔ Kairi “Trust & mutual dependence.”
    Mordred → Semiramis “Distrust.”
    Kairi → Shirou “Distrust.”
    Shakespeare “Forever alone.”
    Shirou ↔ Semiramis “Mutual cooperation.”
    Karna → Siegfried “wanting/swearing to battle him again.”
    Avicebron → Roche “Sees him as a student.”
    Roche → Avicebron “Respect.”

    ultimatemegax
    Reply

  7. https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2023%20-%20Large%2010.jpg
    Semiramis is a servant that requires major prep time in order to be usable at all, but once she has prep time she’s a monster. In order to create Hanging Gardens of Babylon NP you need a few tons of dirt from her home town shipped in, and a lot of man hours for her to assemble it. If a master doesn’t have adequate prep time for her then she’s almost useless. But once she has it assembled she’s almost unstoppable within her fortress. She’s a servant who relies entirely on her NP. Within her fortress she can even create magic strong enough to completely fuck up people with A rank magic resistance, but not strong enough to hurt someone like Jeanne with EX rank magic resistance.

    Semiramis is a major figure, its not someone that a third rate character form King Arthur legends should really be beating like this. Semiramis was a demi-god queen of poison who poisoned her way to victory and fucked up nations in life, she fucked up all those who wouldn’t go under her thumb immediately. The oldest story of murdering with poison. Her poison isn’t anything weak, it’ll fuck up most servants.

    Fighting Semiramis in her throne room, Mordred was in a supreme disadvantage, she couldn’t expect any of her resistances to mean shit since Semiramis was boosted and her poison was at its most potent. All her attacks would be enough to fuck up even Saber from FSN if they managed to hit. Mordred only survived as long as she did since one of her NPs gave her some resistance against poisons. Her magic resistance was basically useless fighting a magus of that level within her own territory. Even Saber FSN can still be effected by some magics, but Medea isn’t that great.

    Kenshin_Himura93
    Reply

  8. Didn’t understand why Saber’s Master need to throw an Eye into the Throne Room. I thought he could see through Saber’s eyes since Saber is his familiar.

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2023%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
    What was that drug? Was it made from the Hydra that Saber’s master got from Clock Tower? I thought that Hydra was going to be used as a dagger. Meh. Anyway, I find it reckless that Mordred had tried to kill Assassin like that. Correct me if I am wrong, but when Servants die then their Noble Phantasms would obviously disappear with them. So even if Saber and her Master survived, they would have died due to how Assassin’s floating castle would fall apart. Well, unless Shakespeare can fly, that would be his fate.

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2023%20-%20Large%2041.jpg
    For some reason I feel the anime toned down whatever occurred in the Novel again; Giles looks a little too sane when he first sees Jeanne. Would hope there is a translation about that later.

    Overall, this episode was great. Would have loved to see Mordred meet Shirou and his buddies. Shirou was the person that saved King Arthur from the isolation that Mordred wanted to save her “father” from.

    L002
    Reply

    1. It sounded like they knew that and simply aimed at mortally wounding her (would still remove her from being helpful all the same), but not instantly killing her given the mention of her dying “soon”, so that still can leave a bit of time for Sieg and Jeanne to get their job done before things start falling apart. (Unless it’s all another bad subbing job.)

      HalfDemonInuyasha
      Reply

  10. I always saw Shishigou and Mordred’s relationship similar to Waver and Iskander in Fate/Zero. The way they interact being far less Master and Servant and more like best buds. especially with Mordred choosing to stay and die alongside Shishigou rather than make a new contract with another Master and continue on to try to get her wish (which also turned out to be deeper than even she herself realized).

    And damn, seeing Gilles with those Caster eyes again x_x

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    Reply

    1. Because he’s cute? Why would there be any other reason?
      Don’t let the dumb memes or the stigma attached to cute boys deter you from how you really feel. If you find them cute, then they’re cute.

      Makiechang
      Reply

      4. Everyone can enjoy whatever they want. Animals have homo/bisexual activity all the fucking time, it’s something natural, saying I’m gay (which I, as I said, am) is something only us as humans can identify and label, if that’s not a social construct I don’t know what is.

        Spleen
        Reply

      5. I don’t know what your point is. Of course we made up all the words we use, but there is in fact a subset of the population that exclusively lusts after the same sex. We use the word “gay” so we don’t have to constantly say, “Ah yes, he belongs to that subset of humanity which exclusively lusts after the same sex.” None of this means you have to base your whole identity around being a faggot, just recognize that you are in fact a faggot, as is OP to some degree.
        Now stop being a bunch of faggots and lewd this dude with me.

        Middlesbrough
        Reply

  14. In typical Apocrypha adaptation fashion, we got a good chunk of Mordred cut out before her demise, and Jeanne’s mindbreak was way too quick. Like it went 0-100 in a snap. Especially when Jeanne knew that everything she was seeing was fake, so to have a mindbreak over a rather unresponsive Seig was pretty dumb. I can understand if Shakespeare decided to up the drama, and have Seig scream in pain as he was burning to make it more realistic….but nope….this was Seig “….-_-….” same with the decapitated head. C’mon people. If you’re going to mind break someone do a better job at it.
    Shakespeare: Well I’m going to throw your mom, dead soldiers, and dead children at you to make you feel guilty!!!
    Jeanne: *Saitama face* Okay….whatever…its all fake anyways. Besides, that stuff happened in the past, not like I’m guilty about it.
    *Shows Husbando anti-climatically getting killed
    Jeanne: NANIIIIII?!?!?!?

    SDFGS
    Reply

  15. “I could go on and on about how Shishigou saw Mordred as a stand in for his daughter and that Mordred viewed Shishigou as a parental figure, but I can already feel the tears building and I’m not about to start crying on a plane flight.” – This is how i saw it in the end as well and i thought it was fitting in that they both kinda got what they wanted…easily the best two characters in the show and sorry to see them go. Loved this episode. I am not much for the shipping of Ruler and the guy…what’s his name….but will see it through to the end.

    Incidentally, I saw that there is a new Fate series for next year. How does it fit in with this one?

    Kurik
    Reply

    1. To be honest with you, Modred is one of those one-dimensional shonen tomboys stereotype and his master, well, he had zero character development and almost no screen time. Well, thanks to your predictable shit tier taste, no one needs to be a genius to know that you’re one of those secondary weebshits from the MAL or reddit and a mobage player.

      leatherhead
      Reply

    2. If you are talking about Extra it’ll have no relation to Apocrypha, Stay Night, UBW, Heaven’s Feel or Kaleid. It takes place in its own universe in the multiverse.

      Last Encore looks to be a telling of the 1st Extra game, Fate/Extra. Which has the main character team up with a Saber (my waifu) who’s from Rome (she spoils that easily). They are fighting to obtain the Holy Grail of the SE.RA.PH..

      I’m thinking through that they’ll combine both Saber and Caster’s routes, because of what happens with the third game of the series Extrella.

      Then again, for all I know this could end up being a continuation of the game series, hence the title Last Encore. We’ll need to wait and see.

      At least I’m assuming that’s the one you are inquring about. There’s also Kaleid’s next season that’s coming next year as well. Heaven’s Feel as well (though that’s movies) and I wouldn’t doubt that Fate/Grand Order finally gets more releases movie/series wise as well next year. Probably some unexpected project. Fate’s like all over the place nowadays.

      Dorian S.
      Reply

    3. All girls are sluts. Their cute/innocent stage is over by 11. It is a losing battle to attempt to try to guide or control them. They will use their burgeoning bodies to elicit attention from boys and when they realize they have this shallow conceited power it will be used first for recognition, then for influence, then favors, and finally for pleasure. The woman seeks nothing more than self gratification at the fact that they have leverage and significance due to the simple virtue of them having a cunny. Your best attempts to mentor her will be futile as all she cares about is what the latest style is, whose dating who, and “hanging out” after school with her friend on the football team.
      The fact is your daughter will be craving the cock and getting nailed by Chad at 16, doing butt stuff at 18, and gangbanging Tyrone and his friends at 20. You’ll be spending $20,000 a year to send her to some nice college where her goal is not to gain an education or a future but rather to have orgies at her dumbass sorority house which you for some reason donated an old couch to. Her aspirations only lead to the next Friday night where she’s contemplating what panties she’ll wear and whose schlong she’ll be swallowing. And if by some miracle she does make it through her schooling all you can do is hope she’ll finally gain some responsibility, get a fuckin job, and not bother you for anymore money. All you can look forward to is that she’ll choke on the right guys cock and she’ll marry a decent man who will put some babies in her and offer her a home and that maybe she can unfuck her sensibilities and raise your grandchildren in a somewhat respectable manner.

      So to answer you question OP, it’s not the father that lets their daughter dress that way. It’s the daughter deciding on whether she’s going to be a shameless slut or not.

      johngen
      Reply

      1. Sincerely, we hope it never happens, All that Fate/Grand Order does is to destroy character and their stories from their origin series, besides transformingthem into yuri/pedo/waifu pandering characters and use them for fanservice and use them for fanservice and Otaku pandering in order to pander to the Otaku audience’s sense of wish-fulfillment. Thus, Fate/Grand Order is a childish wish-fulfillment mobage for the (debased/virgin/desperate/less-cultured) audience, who just wants to feel strong/powerful/successful/loved/whatever.

        Voradors
        Reply

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