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「最後の令呪」 (Saigo no Reijyuu)
“The Last Command Seal”
The Grail is a lie… but it makes for the perfect twist to showcase exactly what makes Fate/Zero such a special show. This episode in particular encapsulates the formula which the second half of this series has executed so well; start with arguably some of the best action sequences of the year, and then follow it up with some of the most cerebral and thought-provoking dialogue to finish. Reverse the order if desired, and rinse and repeat.
From watching the previous battles between the Grail War participants, my expectations for the highly anticipated final duel between the assassin-for-hire and the assassin-for-faith were rather lofty, maybe even unrealistically so. When two of the most talented killers in the world are pitted against one another in a fight to determine the winner of the Grail, it’s almost a crime to not ask for the very best action scene. Yet somehow ufotable managed to not only deliver on my expectations, but surpass them as well.
The change in scenery to a bright, empty, and sterile basement level, reminiscent of the Batcave from the 2008 film The Dark Knight, was a little jarring at first. It was far cry from the dark urban venues of past battles, but this also made it the perfect backdrop for what I thought was the most creative choreography of the series, if not the best. At long last, Kiritsugu and Kirei’s full arsenal of abilities were no longer confined to the shadows, and we could finally see their deadly talents in all their glory. With neither man holding back, there was nary a moment for me to catch my breath. I couldn’t even blink between sequences of Kirei deflecting bullets with his forearms and Kiritsugu pushing his Time Alter ability to its limit. Even if their duel hadn’t prematurely ended due to the ceiling’s collapse from the weight of the Grail’s wine (?), I still believe that Kiritsugu still would have emerged victorious. His regeneration abilities from having Avalon embedded inside of him would have mostly likely negated any advantage Kirei had in close quarters, and Kiritsugu’s Origin Bullets would have put him over the top. Nevertheless, Kiritsugu and Kirei’s superbly animated showdown is one which I’ll definitely have to watch again and again.
The conclusion to Saber and Berserker’s duel was a bit more brutal in comparison, and a little underwhelming as well. Then again, it no longer had to fulfill the action portion of Fate/Zero’s formula; instead, their fight served as a bridge to the heavy dialogue that followed by focusing on Saber’s internal monologue. She had finally realized the fallacies of her philosophy as King Arturia and had come to terms with the consequences of her actions, namely Lancelot’s hatred, madness, and thirst for revenge. Seeing the rivulets of tears coursing down her anguished face really drove home how firm her resolve was to win the Holy Grail to atone for all her misdeeds, and helped to explain a little more why she was so against Kiritsugu’s last order.
Compared to Kirei and Kiritsugu’s battle, I did not have any expectations for the dialogue in this episode because I thought all the heavy stuff was being saved for the finale instead of the penultimate episode. Yet what transpired inside the Grail between Kiritsugu and the evil entity inside it was important as any verbal exchange in the series thus far, and most likely even more so; it is what has set the stage for the final episode.
The Holy Grail of legend may have once been a pure and holy wish-fulfilling chalice, but it seems that the one found in this Fourth War is a corrupt one, with an evil entity inside calling itself Angra Mainyu whose influence has extended far and wide. Originally, the inside of the materialized grail most likely took the form of a favorite place of the person inside it: in Kiritsugu’s case, this was the nighttime shores of Alimango Island under a brilliant starry sky; and for Irisviel, it was at home in Einzbern Castle with her daughter Ilya. However, both of these once beautiful places had been tainted by a black rain and snow falling everywhere, signs that something was amiss. The Grail’s corruption most likely doesn’t merely end at influencing the place which materializes inside, but also extends to its will, and maybe even to what it can achieve. Its explanation that it is only able to perform “miracles” that Kiritsugu’s mind can comprehend and think of, but on a larger scale than humanly possible, makes me wonder if the holy chalice has always granted its wishes this way, or if this is the result of its corruption.
The dilemma of the two ships presented by the Grail also reminded me a bit of the one that the Joker presented Batman in The Dark Knight, but with some changes to make it more appropriate for Kiritsugu’s personality. The Caped Crusader is a hero who always tries to save everyone, even villains, while the Magus Killer is an anti-hero who supposedly follows a creed of killing one to save many, and thus the thought experiment was changed to reflect this. However, I really don’t believe that Kiritsugu would have made the choice to kill all two hundred people because that would mean that in total he would have only saved one hundred lives. By all counts, he comes off as a very logical person, a consequentialist who would have never made the decision that the Grail says he would have taken, simply because it’s not the best possible outcome. The thought experiment was in fact not about consequentialism, but about Kiritsugu’s method of sacrificing the minority to save the majority. It’s probably true that in most, if not all of the past situations Kiritsugu has found himself in, the best outcome was the one where he had to do exactly that, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that he believes this is the solution every time. He’s too much of a consequentialist, and much too logical to follow this ideology so blindly. It’s more likely that the Grail’s corruption has affected the solutions it thinks Kiritsugu would have chosen. It cruelly tries to make him believe that his method was always going about sacrificing the minority to save the majority, rather than focusing on the consequences. Like the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Grail repeatedly reminded Kiritsugu of all the moments in his life where he had to do exactly that, culminating with a scenario where he has to choose between the lives his wife and child, and the entire population of humanity.
I think that in this heartbreaking scene and the one that follows, we find out exactly who Kiritsugu is. First, when confronted that the ideal which had been pursuing all this time was not what he believed it to be, he realized that the consequences had changed, so therefore he had to change his actions. This meant rejecting the Grail, but in order to do so, both his daughter and his wife had to die by his hand, all while they stared directly at him. Although Kiritsugu knew that they weren’t really his family, this was still the first time I can recall that he had tears in his eyes while killing them, not after. Just goes to show how sad and deep his resolve is for his ideals, no matter what shape or form it comes in. Second, he doesn’t stop at merely rejecting the Grail, he knows that he must destroy it too – using up his last two command seals to order Saber to use her Noble Phantasm to destroy it. I don’t know if many others would have done what he did; they probably would have saved their seals to protect their own lives. Finally, when compared to the depraved man that Kirei is, a man who cares nothing for consequences, I see Kiritsugu as an admirable person who has a heart; a person who is a human, not a machine; and a person who is truly the main protagonist of Fate/Zero.
Preview
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Dear Emiya… There is only one way to achieve eternal peace… it is to kill all of the mankind.
Rest in peace! – for all of them.
Truly all the killing he has done has come back in a cosmic karma moment to bite back.
But Emiya, of all the people had the will to forfeit his dream when he knew its price.
You know what’s funny? How this clip suddenly feels so perfect for this episode.
Grail-kun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was truly heart-wrenching to see Kiritsugu having to forfeit a life with his wife and daughter, all for the sake of the world and people he does not even know.
Given the time constraint, I’m glad that they chose to focus on Kiritsugu’s fight with Kirei and his revelation inside the grail. Those are the parts that are most important to connect Fate/Zero to Fate/Stay Night. While it’s sad the fight between Saber and Berserker was cut short, it would have been better to have two out of three scenes done well than having all three done poorly. Like Kiritsugu would put it, choosing the greater good and sacrificing the rest.
For those interested, here is the section between Saber and Berserker in the novel. It should help explain the backstory to those unfamiliar.
Show Spoiler ▼
What a cruel fate, a person with an amazing heart and beautiful ideals is betrayed by the world itself, then chooses to see the worst of human nature and his own. No wonder the guy is synical, but sadly karma doesn´t seem to be over with the poor bastard.
The battle that we all wanted to see is here. And boy were we not disappointed.
Compared to Saber vs Lancer, with all their knightly chivalrous talk, and Gilgamesh vs Rider, with all their kingly trash talk, it was a breath of fresh air to see that Kiritsugu vs Kirei dispensed with all that talking nonsense and got straight to business right away.
This coupled with the ultimate “mind-rape” Urobuchi Gen prepared for Kiritsugu.
He already had Kiritsugu shoot down his adopted-mother’s plane in Mother’s Day.
Now he arranges for Kiritsugu to blow the brains out of the Evil Grail’s quite realistic manifestation of his daughter on Father’s Day.
OTOH Saber vs Berserker felt very rushed, understandably due to time constraints and being overshadowed by the “Final” of Kiritsugu vs Kirei. The Arthurian connection between the two meant an entire episode dedicated to their fight would have been more appropriate in dealing with Lancelot’s and Arturia’s past demons.
Hopefully ufotable will restore those missing scenes in the Blu-Ray release.
The voice in the preview is most likely that of young Shiro, meaning Shiro at last will appear as well, to finally bring things to full circle.
Yes, they certainly got straight down to business by slapping each other like women. If anything I hope ufotable fixes their fight for the Blu-Ray. The animation was terrible. And we all know what ufotable has been capable of in the past, so really, what happened here?
QQ more fanboys.
Maybe you could pin down why exactly you thought it was terrible instead of just saying it was terrible.
I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but I’d much rather have had ufotable scrap Rin’s episode instead of having rushed through Lancelot’s arc. And I really loved that Rin episode, a lot, especially since it fleshed out Kariya and Tokiomi as well. It’s just that episode 10 could have easily been a Blu-Ray bonus, while the Berserker plot lines really needed to be in here. While I’m sure that anyone familiar with the legend can make atleast some connections as to why Lancelot becomes Berserker, it’s an interesting take on Lancelot, who in truth ended up as a priest.
Perhaps, but had they done so, the first season would have ended in the middle of the Caster fight.
The best solution would be just to add an additional episode, rather than replacing one. There was a lot of material dealing with the story of Berserker. If it was to be done well, it needs an entire episode devoted to it.
Well since the season is already over, I’m hoping they will put the actual conclusion of the Lancelot fight in an extended version of this episode in the BD. Considering all that people are saying about how that fight actually ended, the sudden ending with no backstory/speaking from Lancelot is pretty disappointing. Especially since I thought Kariya collapsed because of Lancelot being beaten when it seems to have been the opposite. Even if it means this episode will be more than 40 mins they need to animate it.
Actually the best option would have been to place Kiritsugu’s back story right after his fight with Kayneth. Episode 13 would have ended with the banquet of the kings and Casters fight would have begin with the intro to the 2nd season.
Sorry to go off topic, but I genuinely do not understand why my post is generating so much negative votes when I can’t possibly imagined I’ve said anything controversial at all. (Though as of writing this, the positive votes still outnumber them. )
Divine, and anyone else in charge of RC, I know you won’t be scrapping the downvoting system anytime soon, so how about this?
Rather than having vote up and vote down scores side by side, which can create an unnecessary diversion and source of stress, as well as creating all sorts of meta-discussions about why certain posts were downvoted for no reason (like this one), how about just making an aggregate score of positive and negative votes?
This would still reward and encourage good posters without them worrying about any pedantic downvoters downvoting over some tiny trivial tidbit that irks only them, while any troll that deserves all the downvoting still gets them.
On the internet and in the rest of life, you’re going to have to accept that some people aren’t going to agree with you, no matter how good you think your point is. Just because a handful didn’t care for what you had to say doesn’t automatically mean they’re “trolling”.
Point taken, Bio D.
So to the 22 people who downvoted me, which I presume merely disagreed with me rather than wishing me any ill intent, this is yet another example where a post that is just sparking debate for debate’s sake rather than being an intentional troll ends up as a victim of the downvoting system.
Had the criteria for hiding posts been over minus 10, that post of mine would have been hidden and mistaken as spam.
The worst part is, Urubochi said that had Kiritsugu used Excalibur to destroy the black moon instead of the grail, all would have been well and there would be no Fate/Stay Night.
I believe Urobutcher has got to be tro- kidding about that aspect. For one thing how would Kiritsugu know that the black moon was a tangible, destroyable object? Origin Bullets and his Command Seals are too precious to use up attacking a possibly imaginary (not to mention celestial) object. So, better to focus on something he knows to be real such as the Grail.
Also. I don’t believe Urobutcher
King of Trollswould build in something so… easy. Here’s a fix-all button for your corrupted miracle wish-granting device! Yeah, gotcha…Yep, Kiritsugu truly got the development he deserved in this second half. Though I have to disagree with you that Kiritsugu wouldn’t have made that choice regarding the boats. Well, what you say is truth in that specific situation, as after realizing the pattern, he wouldn’t continue on choosing the one option he knew to be worst. But as independent events with no connection to each other, he’d have always made the choice of killing the minority to save the majority. And as we can’t know exactly all the consequences of our actions, this does end up criticizing consequentialism quite a bit, as if one follows this ideal, once can only account for the immediate consequences of one’s actions.
As for Saber vs. Berserker, I’m glad you could feel Saber’s resolve and her realization that her ideals were flawed, but I was rather disappointed with it, because I didn’t think those points were passed across well. Specially since the LN made such a better job at it.
The action was great though, no doubt about it. Ufotable delivered again in that point.
> The Holy Grail of legend may have once been a pure and holy wish-fulfilling chalice, but it seems that the one found in this Fourth War is a corrupt one, with an evil entity inside calling itself Angra Mainyu whose influence has extended far and wide.
Unless nico skipped this completely you certainly didn’t get this from the anime. You had to google it to know this.
While vague, the grail did call itself Angra Manyu, All the Evils in the World, which is why it chose Kiritsugu, who had chosen to shoulder those evils for the good of the world. Also, the the recurring blackness was a bit of a clue.
Where exactly did the Grail call itself Angra Mainyu? Cause it did not happen in nico subs.
There is dialogue from the entity calling Kiritsugu that name just during the scene on the boat after the scene with his dad + Natalia.
And how does that in itself say anything about the corruption of the Grail?
I think there’s an implication of Kiritsugu and the Grail being connected in that sense. May just be me, but the voice actors for the two sound very similar enough in that part to be the same seiyu, further hinting at that.
The Saber vs Lancelot part was really lacking but by rewatching it and connecting those scenes, Saber did make a certain movement to close the gap and then stabbed Lancelot. But it’s not the whole reason why she won. Kariya ran out of prana and Berserker, being a high maintenance Servant, depleted his reserves as well so he stopped moving and Saber went for the kill and then explained that she wanted the Grail to bring him salvation.
Though I really wanted the flashback scenes explaining why he descended to madness and a more extended dialogue after the fight in order to give out more details about Lancelot’s salvation and Saber’s resolve for the Grail but that’s slated for the BDs for sure.
Kerry vs Kirei was one of the most awesome things animated this year. Though I really wanted to see that corkscrew whirlwind punch from Kirei infused with the power of two Command Seals to deflect the second Origin bullet. Absorbing the bullet in his right hand and making it go out his arm hardly makes sense but it’s amazing nonetheless.
The inside the Grail scene was just outright perfect. From the 2 ships to the choking of the fake Iri. Kerry’s despair over how his ideals would manifest was just downright depressing. He would become empty now with this ordeal and so chooses to save the world rather than let the curse of Angra Mainyu to be born in the world.
Saber’s despair as well from being overpowered by Gil and being forced to destroy the Grail was also amazing.
Overall, it was still an amazing episode. The cuts were understandable due to time constraints and I appreciate their efforts to make the scenes as smooth as possible, though expanding on them in the BDs would be most welcome.
And so next episode would be where F/Z ends but it is also where F/SN begins.
And we will see that despite all of this tragedy, salvation can still be obtained.
Yeah, the “inside the Grail scene” was mostly perfect. except Irisviel’s dress should have been BLACK. I know it sounds stupid but it was the thing that bothered me the most this episode, even more than the shortening of the Saber vs Berserker battle. I mean, it shows that it’s not really Irisviel, but the will of the Grail, using her personality as a shell. It was also in the episode Kirei “kills” her, and I thought it was very nice foreshadowing at the time. So why was it white now?
Weekend of Mother’s Day: Kiritsugu kills his foster mother
Anniversary of Alexander the Great’s death: Rider dies
Weekend of Father’s Day: Kiritsugu kills Grail!Illy
Freaky…
OH GOD I can’t believe there’s only one episode left! I would definitely buy this series on Blu-Ray…
…IF IT DIDN’T COST OVER $700 FOR THE WHOLE THING. Screw you, Aniplex!
YES. I knew I couldn’t have been the only person to notice this shit, lol.
So, after watching this episode, I turned on the living room TV, and what do you know, one of my favorite movies, The Dark Knight is on. Holy shit, the similarities in theme, characterization, and even setting are absolutely fucking mind blowing.
While the Kirei is essentially a counterpart to The Dark Knight’s Joker, a destructive, one-man apocalypse who kills for entertainment and finds pleasure in challenging his heroic opposite in both morals, wit, and ability, Kiritsugu represents Gotham City’s citizens while retaining traits of the Batman himself. Like the citizens of Gotham, Kiritsugu is in a way, mentally weak. He’s easily seduced by the evils of the “greater good”, and commits atrocities for the sake of preservation of society and to a lesser extent, himself, with Kiritsugu’s murder of Natalia being similar to Coleman Reese being hunted by the citizens of Gotham City. Kiritsugu gives in the escalation and is forced to make normally impossible moral and ethical decisions, and like the Batman in The Dark Knight, faces enormous emotional damage and repercussions when forced to choose between the lives of lovers, friends, and family members who, again, parallel the role of Harvey and Rachel in the phone call scene of The Dark Knight. Going back to Kiritsugu and Gotham City, during both boat scenes in this episode and the film, although Kiritsugu, the criminals, and the innocents decide to annihilate one side, they just can’t do it. Kiritsugu finds that there is no real scale for human lives, and that under the guise of preserving human lives, mankind is willing to commit heinous acts of violence which destroys “the common good.” He just can’t make the decision anymore.
The similarities between The Dark Knight and this episode are daunting. The boats, the themes, even the moral compasses and roles for the characters masks. It’s truly an unique coincidence.
Oh, and the location for Kitsugu’s and Kirei’s last battle? ITS CLEARLY THE FUCKING DARK KNIGHT BATCAVE LOL
And also, there’s not much to say about the confrontation between Saber and Lancelot, because they weren’t able to give us much about it in the first place. While it is fairly disappointing, what was shown to us extremely well done. Naturally it sort of leaves a bad stain on the series as a whole, but hopefully the Blu-Rays will fix this.
Fate/Zero predates TDK though.
It definitely is all coincidence, but it’s still a pretty funny overlap though. In any case, this may have well been Fate/Dark Knight (okay, that was a terrible joke, but still).
I think it was a garage/bunker but I totally dig the overlap. lol By why a bunker under a church…. Damn were they prepared for the worst.
I loved this episode, but was severely disappointed with Saber vs. Berserker. It was oversimplified, on top of not really explaining that Kariya ran out of prana, so I’m hoping their battle gets extended in the BD release. I’m a little surprised that Saber of all characters didn’t get extended development for these particular scenes.
Even so, the entire ‘inside the Grail’ segment was extremely well-done. There was a sense of urgency and despair that caught me off guard.
And yeah, some serious Batman vibes in this episode. From the Kiritsugu vs. Kotomine fight location, to the two ships dilemma.
P.S.
Gilgamesh’s idea of a marriage proposal and ceremony is pretty amazing.
Well, in his mind he already owns her and he won’t let anything as trifling as consent stop him from making it official.
In Gilgamesh’s mindset he either destroys or acquires. He didn’t need another king.
I think they needed to focus more on Saber’s side. The way that Saber was able to suddenly realise that her ideals were at fault seemed just a bit too rushed; no one ever gives up their beliefs so easily, not because they don’t want to but because they don’t doubt themselves although given that she saw Lancelot the way he was may have inflicted enough upon Saber, there isn’t really a connection to be drawn between Saber’s rule and how Lancelot became the way he was.
They should have delved a bit into Saber’s mindset a bit more, not to the extent that she steals more spotlight but so that we as the audience feel that there was a lot more meaning behind Saber’s methods and ideology and maybe to show her approaching that self-doubt before suddenly realising that she was wrong. It’s just a minor thing, I didn’t really notice it in the series though due to the magnitude of the other plots all reaching a conclusion.
The way the story laid out and the cinematography involved especially in the Kiritsugu backstory arc and this episode really got the message that they needed to get across, across. And I speak for everyone when I say that I really began to truly understand Kiritsugu in this episode as more than just a cold-blooded killer shown in most of the previous episodes but more as an extremely resolved saviour and it really cohered with his short childhood arc.
I agree with you regarding Saber, and what you say is done in the light novel, which is why I was hoping for a flashback, as well as some more internal dialogue. I can’t really blame ufotable, since the time constraints are always something hard to pass by (even though they could have wasted a little less time in some of the previous episodes), but I’m still hoping for some more relevant scenes in the BDs. After all, they’ve proven to be a rather “perfectionist” studio so far, and the first half BD is an example of that, so I hope they’ll better this already great adaptation.
「最後の令呪」 (Saigo no Ryou Noroi)
I’ve been learning japanese for around 6 months but i think this is read as “Saigo no Reiji”
“Reiju”.
^^^ That
Thanks for the correction!
Made those exact connections to The Dark Knight first time going through the episode as well. Man, was that quite the delivery. Ridiculously superb direction in the fight scenes. How the grail started overflowing and the ceiling collapsed from what is presumably blood onto the two masters, holy shit.
On another note, I can’t help with be dissatisfied with Kariya’s end, if that’s it for him. At the start of the series I felt so pitiful for him, then it gradually turned into frustration as his madness drove him to fail upon common sense and do things almost as wretched as Caster and Ryuunosuke. Now for him to just die like that is too anticlimactic considering the drastic covering of his actions thus far. Sigh.
This series is too much of a tragedy for all characters. Sit down, Shakespeare.
I was slightly disappointed with Kariya’s end as well. He simply slumped over and died. What sucks is that he was set up as this tragic figure with a selfless cause…and then ended up killing Aoi, and ultimately went insane. A harsh and cruel end, and I have no idea why I expected anything different from Gen Urobuchi. What’s worse is I feel that he was underutilized throughout the course of the series. He wasn’t a major player like the rest of the Masters, and had limited screen time. I wonder if he was given such a sadistic end – in contrast to his seemingly selfless cause to protect Sakura – because of how possessive he was of Aoi. He wanted to kill Tokiomi after all, which obviously wasn’t what Aoi wanted. Maybe Urobuchi was sending a cynical message to the audience, as if his noble cause was deceitful and wasn’t so selfless in the end. I don’t know. In any case, Kariya wasn’t of much help, and made things worse, sadly. I take it this means Sakura is screwed? Poor girl. Zouken’s going to have a field day with her.
Sakura is screwed both in the figurative AND the literal sense. Kariya and what ideals he may have had pretty much died the moment he killed Aoi, this is just the aweful, aweful coda.
I don’t understand why Gilgamesh have to be so pissed when Kiritsugu ordered his servant to destroy the Grail.
Maybe it was all just because of Kiritsugu making his own scenes.
First of all, it interrupts his “wedding” with Saber and forces her into doing something entirely unintersting to him. Secondly, since he already owns the world, the Grail is his by rights and if anyone is going to destroy it it won’t be some scruffy looking assassain interrupting a royal marriage.
Now that I think of it, Saber is Gilgamesh’s property and Kiritsugu is commanding her. It now makes sense.
I prefer this episode compared to the previous one…..but the only thing is Berserker died so easily in the hands of Saber who is gravely injured during that time.A stab and he is gone….rather impossible for even Saber. They should make it more intense and longer!
The reason why Saber could stab Berserker was because he stopped moving after running out of Prana. Had Kariya had more prana, Berserker would have killed Saber.
Lancer’s curse came back to bite hard.
Karma’s a bitch.
I like to think it was Lancer’s curse that drove the corruption in the Grail past the tipping point; it makes everything that much more horrible and delicious.
What about caster’s curse? Do not discriminate base on looks, damn it! Caster was just as good servant to his master as Lancer ever was!
I’m surprised by how many people are posting about a more positive view of Kiritsugu after this episode.
Sure he’s sacrificing his dream, but it’s because the Grail exposes the moral bankruptcy of his dream (and his entire life). Ultimately he’s just another killer justifying his actions in the name of the greater good, as defined by Kiritsugu. He’s more dangerous by far than a mere psychopath like Kirei.
I agree. In the end, he accomplished nothing. His ideals and methods were proven wrong by the Grail. Now that’s he finally realized his mistakes, it’s too late; the Grail won’t be destroyed. Imagine being in his position, growing old and alone and nothing to look back on except for all the people killed by your hands, including those closest to you. It’s a life of absolute suffering, all for nothing really.
Ironically, the ever practical Kiritsugu destroyed himself and everything he cared about by being too optimistic in his pragmatism. Had he known what Alexander did and not bet every last card on the small chance of the Grail being everything he hoped of it, had he not given in to despair and tried to find another way, he may have at least saved that much.
Men damn themselves, it just took untill now for Kiritsugu to reach that moment of peripeteia.
If Kotomine had made a wish upon the Grail he would have killed 6 billion people. Kiritsugu put the Grail out of commision for 10 years and saved the lives of 6 billion people. Also, people are killed for the greater good all the time through the line of military operations and war. Not all conflicts can just be talked out.
You completely misunderstood Kiritsugu. Not once did he ever try to justify his actions because he is already aware that what he does is wrong. That’s what makes him different to Iri, he understands how horrible he is and how he is willing to find the one impossible miracle to end it.
That’s why he was betting everything to the Holy Grail because he was under the impression that it was an omni-potent wishing device. But he soon finds out that it isn’t omni-potent, its an evil device that twists everything thought that comes into it. Hence why he rejected it.
That’s why Kiritsugu is ridiculous. He bet everything on the Grail like a poor child would have on a gift from Santa before he realized that his mother starved herself for one week in order to buy him a present. Nevermind this is a magic world, it works the same way as the real one, and believing in an omnipotent wishing device which works without any counterpart is beyond foolish. He’s a murderer who killed countless people in the worst way imaginable for nothing but his own pleasure of thinking himself a hero (despite what he says), and I dare say that, at least, Ryunosuke wasn’t trying to justify himself with pretends of saving the world (and neither did Kirei), and that make them that much more likeable than Kiritsugu in my eyes.
Did you not just read why I said? Kiritsugu didn’t try to justify his actions or paint himself a hero. HE KNOWS he is wrong. The LN’s make this very clear. His participation in the Holy Grail War isn’t because he is trying to take a moral high ground, its a desperate move to make some right of the horrible life he led.
I did, but I fail to see the logic in his actions through your explanations. If he knew what he’s doing is wrong, and yet had nothing to justify it, he would have stopped. The only reason he’s kept doing it is because he believes himself a martyr to a greater cause : winning the grail and thus saving the world. If that isn’t a justification or a desire to be a hero, I don’t know what that is.
Also I can’t forget his reaction when Saber called him on out on his wanting to be a hero when he was young. If he had been above it, he wouldn’t have reacted the way he did.
^But were Kiritsugu’s actions, through all his years including prior the Grail War – were they all truly wrong?
Remember, he took down a plane full of zombies in order to stop a plague that might have cause thousands of lives to perish. Will it really matter if he was trying to be a hero at that point?
It just so happened that the Grail was a lie, and Kiritsugu and many others didn’t know that. In my opinion, it was worth the gamble.
Despite acting cold hearted and all, the true Kiritsugu is still the childish wide-eyed idealist. That’s why he put all of his hopes in the holy grail.
I guess I’m not idealist enough to understand.
As for the plane of zombies, imo there is no correct answer, both are wrong, but it just so happen that the one Kiritsugu chose is not mine, and thus he earned my eternal scorn. I would have let the plane land a thousand time had I been in his place. The hypothetical death of hundreds I don’t know means nothing to me compared to my mother’s life.
Well, that’s just it. Everyone has a different relation with his/her mother. And in Kiritsugu’s case, in that he met Natalia in the conditions that happened and wherein Natalia acknowledges and accepts every bit of Kiritsugu’s ideals, he chose the opposite of what you hypothetically would have.
^Then it all simply boils down to one single question ~ “What would a person value more?”.
You’re clearly misunderstanding:
Kiritsugu was being practical. Every life had the same value, his own did not matter and how he valued lives. In the bigger picture every life is worth the same.
Think of it as the lesser of two evils – killing a hundred or a thousand.
The Grail is an omnipotent device (under the right conditions) i.e. it can do ABSOLUTELY anything. Kiritsugu pinned his hopes on it to save everyone, not just the majority.
The Grail (before being corrupted, which he didn’t know about) would have freed him from having to kill, and if it ain’t reasonable to hope on that…
But Kiritsugu isn’t working in the bigger picture. He’s alone, he owns no army, no country, no nothing. His actions have no repercussion on the bigger picture. That way of thinking fits politicians who were entrusted with military power and the lives of civilians in their countries, not serial killers tortured by guilt who believe they did some good through killing people, as if they weren’t any other way to do some good on earth.
Not every life has the same value to everyone. It all depends on circumstances. Between the death of their most loved one and that of another person at the other end of the planet, most people would choose the latter. At the end of the world, had the last of humanity that remains been a boat with one hundred children aboard and a boat with a thousand old people aboard, the choice would be obvious as well.
Kiritsugu is a machine. He has feelings but doesn’t act on them. It’s a wonder he even has a brain, he should only need a spine and a finger to pull the trigger to his gun.
Kiritsugu was never under the obligation to kill, he only made himself believe so, just as he made himself believe omnipotent wishing devices existed.
And hope is not reasonable. Ever. You don’t kill people for hopes and bets (we already saw how it ended in Mirai Nikki), that’s just irresponsible.
In case you hadn’t noticed the grail is omnipotent. Read the wikia on the type-moon universe before making further comments.
This is a made up universe, call it stupid if you like, but don’t question what the creator has written explicitly.
Now that’s been established, it is perfectly reasonable to rely on something omnipotent that exists for certain. Omnipotent = do anything, so can save everyone if that is Kuritsugu’s wish.
Also you’re wrong. “The bigger picture” is the survival of humanity, the more over the few. In your scenario humanity would die with the 1000 old, so he would save the 100 children, who are capable of reproducing and thus continuing humanity.
My statement was somewhat ambiguous, sorry. Kiritsugu, when valuing lives, ignores personal relationships he may have with those in the situation. This stems from his failure to kill Shirley due to personal attachment, so he refuses to let it cloud his judgement.
Sorry I should have said “omnipotent devices which do not ask for any counterparts”. I know what the Grail is in universe, and what omnipotent means, thanks. It’s just, I’ve always thought Kiritsugu’s blind faith in this thing quite naive. The cake is always a lie after all. Be it the grail, human transmutation, or maho shojo powers. But I guess it all comes down to Kiritsugu still being an idealist child in his head.
That scenario was to illustrate some lives aren’t as valuable as others, that circumstances are everything in the choice to save a life over another, and that numbers did not make everything. The dilemna with the boats the Grail gave Kiritsugu was a metaphor tailor made for Kiritsugu’s philosophy, but that doesn’t mean it is a situation likely to happen IRL. Of course, I would (and anyone would i think) have answered the same thing as Kiritsugu. But it doesn’t matter because Kiritsugu himself realized that such a philosophy doesn’t work when brought to a greater scale, and because it’s a fake problem. Imo, humanity will never need to be saved, in this way anyway. After all, nevermind crimes and slaughters all around the world, the fact remains we have never been more numerous than we are now. I doubt that even a nuclear war or a natural disaster would be enough to reduce our numbers beneath the billion.
And again that’s why I say he’s a machine. If he doesn’t act on his feelings for others and take them in account in his calculations, then he only needs a spine and a gun. He’s below human.
Seems like you’re nearly there.
Firstly: Kiritsugu may make decisions like a machine, ignoring his own feelings for the lives involved, but afterwards he still cries, and doesn’t like having to do what he is doing. That’s been shown quite clearly in the anime – he is human, but has learnt the hard way emotions can get in the way of what is, ultimately, the best course of action.
Second: The Great Grail (look it up) reaches the Root, and allows you to do anything for nothing. In other words, it is exactly what Kiritsugu wants.
Remember: as far as the anime goes, Kiritsugu would still lose Irisviel to make the Grail to grant his wish. So he is far from gaining something for nothing. And the Grail does take lots of :effort: to acquire.
The Berserker fight was the first part in this series I felt was rushed. I get that ending the episode with the destruction of the Grail is logically the proper way to do things, but onsidering that this series excells due to the strength of its characters and how completely brilliant Nasu’s take on Arthurian mythology is, with everyone in the perfect position to screw everyone over just by being themselves, it was a real shame. Considering that Fate/Zero has to be one of the best tragedies I’ve ever watched, to see it stumble so late is as heartwrenching as any of its contents. It’s still possible we could get Lancelot’s full dialogue (I assume there is one, anyway) at the beginning of next episode, where it would fit pretty nicely, though. Here’s hoping. Also, the way Kariya’s death was shot (the death being brilliant in its own right, not only dying in vain and delusional, but probably scarring the girl he wanted to save even further by failing to live up to his promise in front of her eyes) made it look like Lancelot died first, which I don’t think happened considering the upper hand he had.
The Holy Grail is not that Holy Grail. It’s simply a wish granting device that is called that.
Angra Mainyu Show Spoiler ▼
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I wonder if the other previous grail wars will ever get the same exposure as the 4th and 5th did. Besides, the use of Avenger, we know that in the 3rd War, there was a family that used twin Saber Servants, and the Assassin from this war was in the 3rd as well.
One correction: The Einzbern didn’t summon a eighth servant; they just summoned Avenger in Berserker’s place. There were always nine potential classes to choose from, but the HGW only uses seven servants in each war. It was similar to how Caster in FSN summons False Assassin in True Assassin’s place.
So what’s the 9th one? Saber, Archer, Rider, Lancer, Caster, Berserker, Assassin, Avenger and…?
Forgive me if I’m wrong. But shouldn’t Kiritsugu have accepted the Holy Grail? All the Angra Mainyu wanted was a body. Once it achieved that, the Grail became untainted and could seriously grant any wish. At least that’s what I thought Show Spoiler ▼
The fight between Saber Berserker was what I’ve been waiting for and it was a huge disappointment. It was supposed to be intense with Berserker utterly destroying Saber until he ran out of Mana. What’s worse is that F/Z had characterized Saber far better than F/SN did and this was supposed the crucial moment with Lancelot that would challenge everything Saber believed in and yet it was all reduced to a sudden cut of Saber winning.
The fight with Kirei and Kiritsugu was better at least, as well as the monologue of Angra Mainyu. It was a powerful moment when Kiritsugu rejected the grail, and truly highlighted how the entire battle he fought proved meaningless.
I give this review 10/10. Nice job Verdant.
Did you just…review his review?
So am I right in thinking that whatever wish Kiritsugo made, it would’ve ended in major tragedy? Even if he’d wished for somthing smaller, yet helpful like a million billion tons of unspoilable food?
Yes, my understanding is that at this point the Grail is basically Calypso from Twisted Metal. Whatever you wish for gets turned inside out so that it’s technically granted but in a horrible twisted way.
Turkey’s a little dry…. TURKEY’S A LITTLE DRY! DAMN YOU MONKEY’S PAW!
oh no! please, did I just watch what I thinj I did???!!!
Saber took a sword (launch as an arrow [Gilgamesh style] ) to the knee !!!!
Some things will never change 🙂
did that happen somewhere before? Perhaps in FSN? You sound as if you’re implying this.
I used to be a king, until I took Gilgamesh’s arrow to the knee. 🙂
WAIT I AM GILGAMESH.
That was a Skyrim “arrow to the knee joke”
best anime of 2012 so far
I never considered the Grail to be something good and beautiful. It is a device born of war, sometihng from which has never been sometihng to be proud of. Fate/Zero has shown what war truly is; corruption, betrayal, murder, innocents being dragged into the crossfire, pain and suffering. It is only fitting that the prize that is gained from such an act is something just as corrupt as the methods being used to obtain it.
I have to say, it was a rather fitting end for Kirei. He messed around with nearly all the participants and in the end he had to desperately beg Kiritsugu, one of the people he screwed around with the most, not to destroy the Grail, only for Kritisugu to kill him by nonchalantly shooting him in the back with the words, “You’re just too stupid for me to understand.” It’s a shame that it won’t stick.
A little commnetary on the final fight – Kirei’s use of the Command Seals to create advanced magecraft is actually a very effective fighting method. An ordinary human being can damage or perhaps destroy Servants using the power of the Command Seals. Oringinally, it was planned for Kirei to defeat Zouken and True Assassin using such a manner in Fate/Stay Night but was ultimately dropped. Kiritsugu is really lucky he had Avalon with him.
“In The Grim Darkness Of The 4th Holy Grail War There Is Only Despair”
Since the episode brutally deconstructed the ideals Kiritsugu held, I’m going to compare it to another one series were the plot revolves around wish granting: Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Homura’s continued dumping of cosmic karma on Madoka via Time Travel To Set Right What Was Once Wrong allowed the eponymous character to turn the scales slightly in the favor of mahou shoujo by making her wish in the present timeline of episode 12: erasing all witches by her hand, past, present, and future, which allows her the loophole of being able to stop her own turning into a witch.
That episode showed that Madoka essentially cheated the system the incubators set in place via a miracle. This is a “miracle” that was in keeping with the usual definition of the word: something that could only be granted by the permission of a higher power, or something attributed to divine intervention. This what Madoka got, and what Emiya Kiritsugu was aiming for when he accepted the Einzbern’s offer to fight in Heaven’s Feel IV.
In Fate/Zero, the corrupted grail didn’t allow (or perhaps it maliciously decided not to allow, Grail-kun being a bastard and all) the “miracle” that Kiritsugu had been aiming for. Rather, the grail just wanted to “help” him realize his miracle via a warped version of the Magus Killer’s ideals. (Isn’t Grail-kun such a great friend? Here, take this knife and save the world! XD)
To end conflict, one must destroy the source of conflict. If the source of conflict in the world is humanity, then a wish for the “salvation of the world” means destroying humanity – I seriously doubt the human population was 6 billion at the time of Fate/Zero, though. It was probably closer to 4.5 billion, but I digress.
Grail-kun really wanted to take Kiritsugu’s ideals Up To Eleven. Maybe Urobuchi Gen at the time of writing Fate/Zero wanted to show us that “changing how the world works via a ‘true’ miracle” wasn’t a valid option – then changed his mind and invoked the He Got Better trope when he made Madoka Magica; it sure looks like it, read the Afterword of Fate/Zero Volume 1, look at Madoka Magica, then look again at Fate/Zero.
“Therefore, in order to write a perfect ending for a story you must possess the power to break the chain of cause and effect, invert black and white, and act in complete contradiction to the rules of the universe.” – from Urobutchi Gen, the magnificent bastard himself. This was what Emiya Kiritsugu wanted to achieve.
If you look at it from the viewpoint of “only results matter in the end”, Kiritsugu undoubtedly failed. Ouch. Nice job breaking it, hero.
To Emiya Kiritsugu and Kotomine Kirei, Happy Father’s Day. Perhaps in another timeline where everyone has a good life you two would have been friends and fulfilled fathers.
Madoka is lucky that, unlike Grail-kun, Kuybey is a non-malicious being whose ultimate goal is positive.
Otherwise, she would not have fared better than Kiritsugu.
This episode proves a great saying,
It says ” THAT MAN CAN NEVER ACHIEVE HAPPINESS. ”
A TRAGIC WAY OF LIFE MATCHES WELL WITH KIRITSUGU. BECAUSE IT TOOK HIM A LOT JUST TO BUILD HIS RESOLVE TO SACRIFICE THE WOMAN AND THE DAUGHTER HE LOVES; ESPECIALLY THE WISH THAT HIS SERVANT HOPES TO ATTAIN FOR HERSELF.
HAPPINESS DIDN’T COME FOR HIM. IT WASN’T MEANT FOR HIM. AND HE CAN NEVER ACHIEVED IT EITHER. EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE IN HIS LIFE JUST TO SAVE THE WORLD DIDN’T BRING HIM “HAPPINESS”…..
REALITY HAS NEVER BEEN KIND TO HIM SINCE THE BEGINNING OF HIS LIFE.
THIS IS THE LIFE OF EMIYA KIRITSUGU, THE MAN WHO CAN NEVER HAVE HAPPINESS, EVEN IN THE AFTERLIFE.
HIS ACTIONS WILL JUST HAUNT HIM FOR ETERNITY….
Very depressing episode but amazing fighting sequences
So the all mighty Holy grail cant in reality grant a wish? I am so angry what was it all for? If i would want a lot of money it would probably want to kill all rich people or rob a bank? Because the grail knows what i truly want. Yeah … Did the grail granted any wishes in the past? They should probably seek the dragon balls or Aladins lamp. Sorry for the rant but it was necessary for me :D. Great episode nice fight at least 1 of 2
According to the extras on the first BD, all the participants of the previous three wars ended up killing each other before the Grail manifested. So no, it’s never granted a wish.
The Holy Grail is a troll.
“She had finally realized the fallacies of her philosophy as King Arturia and had come to terms with the consequences of her actions, namely Lancelot’s hatred, madness, and thirst for revenge.”
This is what bugged me the most about how much they neutered the fight with Lancelot in this anime. It’s quite understandable that you would think that, because that’s really what it comes across as without the dialogue from the light novel that got removed, but Lancelot wasn’t after revenge at all, all he wanted was to die by Arturia’s sword so that he could atone for what he had done. Arturia had never blamed him for his affair with with Guinevere, which meant that he didn’t feel like he could find redemption, and that’s what drove him to madness and qualifies him to be summoned as Berserker. In removing the dialogue that explains this, the anime gives a completely opposite impression of what his motivation actually was.
Wait a minute if he killed Illya what’s she doing in Fate/Stay Night?
That wasn’t real, it was in Kiritsugu’s mind
woops my bad I’m only following this series through verdant’s blog see, not actually watching it xD since I already know how it’s gonna end.
In case you haven’t noticed, that’s not the real Illya. And that’s not the real Iri too, though her reaction to the kill would have been the same as the real one as Angry Manjew took on the real Iri’s personality.
So would/did the real Iri curse Kiritsugu? Just wondering.
@ Sekai:
No, the real Iri didn’t curse Kiritsugu; she was already dead. It was Angra Mainyu that cursed him.
It’s just a stupid cup, darn it~~~~!!!! A cheap gold-tint foil wrap one at that!
Saber vs Berserker had a disappointing conclusion. Anyone can tell that they cut a lot from that fight.
The Kiritsugu vs Kotomine fight was amazing, the animation was superb. Gil’s proposal was pretty amusing, he is an amazing character.
I hope Kariya gets a proper conclusion next episode or else I’m going to rage.
Archer to male Rider: I kill ya!
Archer to female Saber: Marry me!
My only gripe with this episode is the… conclusion, if you can even call that a conclusion, between the fight of Saber vs Berserker. IMO Ufotable should have got an special of one hour like they did with the first episode. But after that superb episode, really liked the part where Angra Mainyu talked to Kerry.
Oh, and why Kaijura didn’t make a remix of Emiya?; it would have been great for all FSN fans.
Verdant just wanted to point you. The choice of the 2 ships wasn’t killing 200 to save 100 total. It started at 500 people, 300 on one, 200 on the other. Hence the grail said Kiritsugu would’ve killed everyone on the ship with 200, thus saving 300.
Anyway, this episode was pretty badass. The fight scene was amazing, especially that animation quality of Kirei’s Baji Quan skills (spelling?).
The Saber/Berserker fight was kind of a let down though. I understand the need to cut time but they could’ve done so much more with that scene. Instead we just see Berserker get stabbed, off screen at that. Could’ve at least done a dramatic “final charge” from Berserker.
There was some boss fighting in this episode, such fast pace. I wanna say I’m kinda glad Kiritsugu technically won, but it didn’t go as I thought it would, lol.
It’s so interesting how different your views are from Guardian Enzo’s, Verdant. I love both of your writing styles and reviews, and they definitely give a much wider perspective on the same show! Thank you!
As for the episode…it was so heartbreaking to see Kiritsugu’s interactions with Ilya…she was so adorable and he clearly loves her so much. D: I really wanted to just give him a hug….
On another note…I’m so jealous of anyone going to Anime Expo. Rikiya Koyama, Kiritsugu’s voice actor will be there, wah.
Angra Manyu is being tricky with its two-ship dilemma for Kiritsugu.
Well I know that details shouldn’t be taken seriously ~ it’s just an allusion of Kiritsugu’s wish when it is realized, but I can’t help but ponder few things.
300 on one ship, 200 on another. Both ships failing and Emiya alone has the ability to repair a ship. Emiya chose to repair the ship with 300 people and killed off the all the other 200.
Then here comes the wierd part ~ The surviving 300 splitted themselves (2:1) between the two new ships and continued their journey,
What does that mean? Emiya killed the 200 earlier, then after that he repaired both ships? Why kill them on the first place?
Even if killing the 200 was necessary, Is there even a need to split the 300 into two? Why not let the 300 people stay on a single ship?
Why are the people splitted unevenly? Normally, it should be fair like 50~50 because If I got transferred to the ship with lesser people, it’s like a death sentence lol.
Because the people are stupid and did it for the lulz. I think. As you already pointed out, it’s not important anyway
Angra Mainyu was illustrating Kiritsugu’s philosophy in the dilemma: Kill the few to save the many.
However, what Kiritsugu realized the flaw in his philosophy and the means the Holy Grail granted wishes. The (corrupted) grail can only fulfill wishes by means the user only knows how; in this case, saving the world by killing the few to save the many.
However, Kiritsugu saw that in this world, there will always be people who needs saving, and therefore there will always who needs to be killed. Although the grail would’ve granted Kiritsugu the ability to “kill the few to save the many” without limitation, he realized that the accumulation of “the minority” killed eventually will become greater than the number of people saved, thus contradicting his goal.
Therefore, he decided to ironically fulfill his true wish by destroying the entities (the grail vessels, Irisviel and Ilyaviel) that would’ve granted this corrupted false wish to save the many (the world).
After waching this episode, and kiritsugu’s heartwrecking fight and resolve, i ask myself if i were in this situation, what would i do?. And more importantly, is this how a insane man would actually feel while doing something horrible… Maybe some man actualy believed they where saving something important before kiling… is kiritsugu right? Is there a right side at all??? How can you justify kiling your daughter and wife like that, and even if he knew it was an ilusion. My heart almost bursted in those scenes, i really got to love the characters… maybe i just dont have the coldblood needed, but i dont want it. I still want to be human…
Irisvile scream after kiritsugu shot ilia will haunt me forever… :'(
I know. ;_;
Because of that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch the episode over again. Powerful acting by Sayaka Ohara.
It won’t do anything to me. In fact, I forgot it already!!! :O
Its such an incredible episode, so well produced and animated, but i cant bare to watch it again… it sucks.
I was reminded of Full Metal Alchemist rather than The Dark Knight…nice one° :O
the world: 6 billion lifes
family: 2 lifes
it’s as simple as this
This episode was ‘with the hindsight of the rushed Berserker-Saber fight’ brilliant. The fight between Kirei and Kiritsugu was marvelously executed (pardon the pun) and the dialog within the grail was amazing. I actually could not peel my eyes away from those scenes and the questions the grail/Angra Mainyu had for Kiritsugu. But, it was obvious, from the moment Irisviel appeared that she was not the Irisviel that we all come to love and know. Sayaka Ohara portrayed this ‘fake’ Irisviel perfectly including the part where Kiritsugu denied the grail. Her scream of horror when Kiritsugu ‘killed’ Illya was so filled with a mother’s feeling that it just blew me away. That includes the final scene of the episode where Saber screams ‘no’ – that part was so well acted that Saber’s feelings of anguish just made me want to cry for her.
But, I have to say, the downfall of this episode has to be the rushed and brutally cut Lancelot/Arturia fight. There was so much emotion in the last episode, so much build up that I was expecting the fight to be half the episode long. But alas… that was not meant to be. As someone who can’t afford to go to Blu-Ray yet, if they do extend the episode in that version I will never get to see it.
The way Kariya died was also too fast. If you blinked, you would have missed that part. I have never read the LN so I had to question that part, wondering ‘hey, wait did he just die?”
All in all, I wish this episode would have been an hour long, so the animators could get everything in that needed to be in this episode, just like how they did the first episode. Fate/Zero is an amazing series, I don’t think many of us fans would have complained if this extremely important episode was half an hour longer.
My comment:’wow!’ and ‘SIGH…’
Wow:
The fight between Kirei and Kiritsugu is great and, not because of something like special effect or angles of camera–those are great, too, just not the main reason–but how did this scene being executed. Both killers, equally lethal but armed and trained differently, used ;everything in their asset with proper tactics. Man! To think I can see such a military logical fighting scene in a story about sword and sorcery. What can I say? The part I loved most is: when both killers have been wounded (Kiritsugu took a punch and Kirei took a bullet) and, despite their difference in weapon, tactics and specialty, both of them took the same approach: count the weapons first, then chose the one to be used; finally, an all-out-attack!
It’s decided: this will be one of my favourite fighting scene of all time.
SIGH:
Without a doubt, the scene that Kiritsugu was ‘trapped’ inside the Holy Grail is the saddest scene in the whole episode while the one we saw him killed his daughter and wife is the most heart-breaking one. Strangely, although I am not a fan of ‘dark’ story, I am captivated by these powerful scenes. Especially the one when Illya and Irie were killed when Kiritsugu looked at them at the eyes and crying. That reminded me of the lyric in the theme song of ‘Starship Troopers 3’, ‘It’s a good day to die!’. That is:
A NOBLE SACRIFICE! WHEN DUTY CALLS YOU PAY THE PRICE!
Emiya Shirou (protagonist in Fate/stay night) is right: Kiritsugu is a hero.
Also, although the little Illya ‘killed’ is not the real one, the Irie who was cursing Kiritsugu was probably the ‘real’ one. It is because she has mentioned earlier that her personality has been ‘recorded’ by the Holy Grail. That’s why the Grail chose this ‘Avartar’ to communicate (or persuade?) Kiritsugu. And all these meant one thing: the ‘true’ Irie was really cursing Kiritsugu. To be hated by his beloved wife like that, he really has to cry.
Finally, for those who don’t know: the original story of Fate/Zero was not completely written by the authors of Fate/Stay Night but by the creator of ‘Puella Magi Madoka Magica’, Gen UROBUCHI, who also wrote the script for several episodes of ‘Blasreiter’. This guy is famous of having a ‘liking’ to ‘dark’ stories and scenes and, in all his works, there are always female characters, who are beautiful, elegant and, in most ‘other’ anime, would remain unharm throughout the story, ended up collapse, died, murdered or being betrayed.
Now, take a look at Fate/Zero, both the mother of Rin and Irie are beautiful, elegant and don’t deserve to die, right?
Sometimes, whenever I remembered the scene that Rin’s mother was killed by Kariya, I can’t help but think: were the lines that Kariya spoke when he killed Rin’s mother are, actually, what did Gen UROBUCHI thought (and probably still thinking) when he saw women (or ‘a certain someone’) who looks like Rin’s mother?
I thought the Iri in the grail was simply Angra Mainyu that stemmed from Iri’s personality being the grail’s vessel, not actually Iri herself.
I see. Thanks for answering.^_^
Definitely the best episode of Fate/Zero so far but damn, I feel like I say this every week.
Clarification of Angra Mainyu Show Spoiler ▼
And trust me when I say it, they cut-short Saber/Lancelot dialogue to a few lines. This is the only thing that pissed me off about this episode because he deserved his limelight like the other servants. Okiya Ryotaro’s voice has went to waste. I might perk up later if there’s some BD Specials announced of extra footage.
Last but not the least for those, who are watching Nazo no Kanojo X this season, this is a crossover cookie: http://metanorn.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/28019501.jpg
Show Spoiler ▼
So that black moon was the real holy grail leading to the so called “root”.
So I take it that it doesn’t need EVERY servant to die to be filled? Seems that I forgot about that. Saber and Gilgamesh were still alive when Kiritsugu had to make his wish.
Why was Kiritsugu chosen though and why not Kirei, who was still alive at that time?
I don’t Know if this would be an spoiler so ..read if you don’t care abaut FSN’s Heaven’s feel route
I’ll explain what the grail is, In my own words
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Kiritsugu was chosen because the grail wanted him to win so that it could grant the wish the way it wanted; by killin all the people of the earth.
Kirei didn´t have a wish, only doubts and questions.
i kinda wondering.kiritsigu is master assassin and expert doing terrorism action.why don’t he just blow up the building that kotomine kirei are located.since kotomine have enormous advantage in close range.why don’t just destroy the whole building and rule him to open space,so kiritsigu can just snipe kotomine into obvilion.
Because it takes up a lot of time to set up, he only learned of the place where Kirei was hours ago, and the Grail was still inside the building and he needed it, just before he knew of its corruption.
Kirei vs Kiritsugu is amazing! I love how they animate Kirei’s martial arts. That sort of sliding step (can’t remember the technique’s name). Made remember some manga I read years ago about that particular martial arts.
Alright, I’ve finished Ep 23 of Stay Night and…I now know everything about how the final episode of Zero is going go. The only thing I haven’t done is actually watch it happen.
It’s a pretty weird ride watching the last 6 episodes of Stay Night right after seeing Ep 24 of Zero. That said, Stay Night reallllly dropped the ball. Ufotable should really remake it with the Heaven’s Feel route so that it’ll be a proper sequel.
did kiritsugu really killed his daughter or it’s just an illusion made by the grail?? Confused.. U_U
Illusion. She shows up in Fate Stay Night. (Fate Zero is the prequel)