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「顔の無い王 -ノーフェイス・メイキング-」 (Kao no Nai-Oh -Noufeisu Meikingu-)
“Faceless King -No-Face May-King-“
One more indication that Fate/EXTRA Last Encore expects its viewers to have played the game, or at least have some greater knowledge of the Fate/ franchise: the Command Seals. This week Hakuno burns one of them and makes Saber cook-off like it’s the most natural thing in the world, and then no mention is made the feat again for the rest of the episode. While this is one of those motifs that veterans of the franchise will be used to, there’s no recourse for newcomers to Fate/ except to wonder which orifice they pulled their super-move out of. To explain in brief: the Command Seals are basically a limited number of get-out-of-gaol-free cards that all Masters have access to, which can be cashed to power up their Servant temporarily. As a narrative device, I suspect they were originally designed so that Masters don’t feel completely out of place in the clash of titans that is the Servant vs Servant match-ups. Honestly, Hakuno, being mostly a normal-high-school-student-protagonist, still feels out of placem but this would have been less noticeable in a visual novel. It’s much easier to ‘hide’ the protagonist when we’re just dealing with first-person text, but in an anime, where an entire scene has to be blocked visually, Hakuno has little to do except run around and be a liability. Since he only has those three Command Seals, he’s a very limited character from the get-go, so mostly he can only once in a while pretend to be impactful, fail to do so, then need justify his existence at some other point. In the videogames, it’s quite clear; you were playing as the Servant. The Master was an afterthought.
Back to the original point, the other indication that Last Encore wants us to have to have played the game first is that without doing so we won’t appreciate the differences between it and the anime, and those differences are becoming increasingly significant. Last week I talked about Shinji’s characterisation and how it differed between the game and the anime, about how putting the two versions together gave a complete picture. I suspect that will be the case for this stratum’s boss as well. I won’t go into it in detail for now so as to avoid spoilers, but I will say, though, that here he behaves in ways that are arguably contrary to his characterisation in the videogame. The dissonance is great enough that I believe it to be a deliberate juxtaposition. Perhaps the game and anime are deliberately starkly different continuities. Perhaps there has been some change in motivation. More on this next week.
As for this week, the overall narrative is starting to take a clear shape, somewhat faster than it did in the videogame. For this we have to thank Rani XIII, who takes a break from the universal hobby of Last Encore — pose and monologue — to be our Person Who Explains Stuff. That’s a fantasy stock staple, much as Rin served previously, and if we were to have one of these every stratum the cast is going to get cluttered very quickly. Thankfully Rin has disappeared with great timing to do enigmatic, offscreen things, so we can focus on the exposition instead. I hope the nature of the setting of Fate/EXTRA, its particular digital world and its particular Holy Grail War, are starting to click now. This was supposed to be more than a quest for a religious artefact, or a contest with a wish as the prize. Fate/EXTRA wants to go one further, to be an obvious metaphor for humanity’s search for utopia. But traditionally, the quest for the Holy Grail and the quest for utopia are both defined by their failures. And so the question for Last Encore: will be a story about how far we get, or about how far we fall short?
End Card
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Game and anime isn’t starkly different continuities. My guess that this is the sequel to Extra’s storyline and the set up for Extella’s storyline has just likely been confirmed during this episode.
Really do not read this if you don’t want some spoilers from Extra storyline and some of Extella.
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Needless to say, I’m thinking episode 6 will probably drop all the bombs for either my theory to be correct or dump it all to shreds.
I agree. Hakuno only remembering the feeling of hate I think also backs up your theory.
Does he know he used a command seal? I was confused by that scene actually. Because it was not spoken of later on, I assume he knows? Or just not relevant to plot perhaps.
It doesn’t feel that way at all honestly. The story of Extella’s backstory for Extra is also greatly different and says a number of things happened the way they did originally on Nasu’s Blog. Earth was still habitable in Extella but humanity as a whole were stagnating and self-destructing as CCC materials mention. The Moon Cell at the end of Extella was a gateway for a new possibility for the stagnated humanity and so people headed there to live.
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The current speculation is more likely
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@TheVoid, @Naru and Spoilers
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Way longer than I intended, I’m just tossing everything into spoiler tags to make sure I didn’t miss something.
Not quite
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Also Show Spoiler ▼
Wow, the whole Nasuverse is much very too convoluted.
Its like you guys have some PHD in Nasuverse to be conversing like that.
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20EXTRA%20Last%20Encore/Fate%20EXTRA%20Last%20Encore%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
Rani is Waifu.
Normally it would be TsundeRin for me, but Rani is just too much waifu material to pass up
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20EXTRA%20Last%20Encore/Fate%20EXTRA%20Last%20Encore%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
Umu butt crack is best butt crack
Love how Flaunty this Red Saber is XD. My favorite Saber XD
Is there really any need to put that “umu counter” on the top corner of the subs? Feels kinda awkward to be honest
Is this a fansub? Being just a fansub, there is perhaps not the same level of professionalism one may want.
Boy, Saber sure is naked alot.
Roman’s took baths every day in large baths a very social interaction setting. Originally sex-segregated, mixed bathing did occur later and a Emperor did what they wanted. So not showing Nero taking a long bath in a big room over and over and wanting to chat while doing it would not be in character.
The ascending the floors thing reminds me of an old favourite Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru.
Can really feel the Shaft-ness but luckily its not overboard talking like Monogatari, that one brought me to near sleep at times.
Everything is happening in the Moon Cell computer thing if I’m not wrong?
Makes me think Nier Automata is happening on the IRL Earth, lol
The way Nero goes umu and that chirpy voice reminds me of some other anime character which I cannot remember.
Will the resistance character be a recurring thing for each floor?
Yes it’s very virtual reality esque as the Moon Cell was made by aliens before the earth or moon even existed/put there after the aliens kicked Type-Moons butt. I don’t remember which.
The virtual space seen works like the Third Magic and humans whose souls normally degrade with time are functionally immortal unless they get killed. The resistance thing is likely only due to Rin and Rani becoming allies as Hakuno does a thing in game with them. Unless CCC characters start showing up.