Fate/Apocrypha / First Impressions

「トロイメライ」 (Toroimerai)
“Dream”

I learned two major things from this episode. One — Sieg is denser than a 2×4. Two — Jack the Ripper uses a Reality Marble and I really love how thematic it is.

General Impressions

If I were to break down my impressions of this episode, I’d break it down into two parts. The first being the slurry of exposition we were given during the first half and then the up and down and then up again reaction to the “fight” inside of Trifas.

Starting with the former, I’m not sure that we really need all this exposition at this point in the story. Besides the fact that the show is really trying to develop Sieg and Ruler’s relationship with one another, I don’t think we really learned all that much for Team Red. Which is actually kind of depressing and refreshing at the same time. Depressing since it feels like nothing will ever go Ruler’s way, but rather refreshing since we finally got to see Sieg open up a bit and express some emotions. Changing gears to Team Black, as short as Shirou and Achilles interaction was, it was nice to finally get some more information on Shirou’s goal to save mankind. Sure, it may have been information that we discerned as a byproduct of Achilles questions to Shirou, but I for one am excited for a situation where the finale comes down to a battle of ideals where neither side is correct. Show Spoiler ▼

With that out of the way, let’s talk a little about Jack the Ripper. As a side character who isn’t playing for either side, I was really hoping that she’d have some kind of crazy moment where she did something that only a true “assassin” could do. Unfortunately, it looks like she’s become a casualty of a story that’s focused on specific plot points and characters. Something that not only sucks since she’s a cool character, but could have also been used to great effect if you were to play around with the “family” or “mother-daughter” motifs. For any naysayers out there, I think Jack’s Master’s final moments were a prime example of what could have been a great ending for a story between two misunderstood and underprivileged people. Luckily, even though the two were dealt a terrible hand, it looks like we’ll get to see a little more of Jack and hopefully it’ll be enough to give her more of a bang to go out on.

In any case, I’ll catch you guys next week where we’ll get to hopefully see Jack do some crazy stuff inside of what I assumed is a reality marble.

Spoiler Policy: Please enclose major spoilers with spoiler tags. If there’s something that needs to be tagged, shoot me a reply at @rctakaii on twitter. Thanks everyone!<3

141 Comments

  1. 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”.

    ultimatemegax
    Reply

    1. Censored sex scenes, new OST,voices, some new CGs, and a handful of edits to make it fit in a little neater with Fate/Zero and the voices. Mirror Moon patch should get you the best of both.

      Past
      Reply

  11. Which servant out of all servants has been given the worst treatment?
    I’m thinking Ushiwakamaru. Horrible fucking design, and a backstory and personality that’s an exact clone of Saber.

    Takokujin
    Reply

    1. Horrible fucking design, and a backstory and personality that’s an exact clone of Saber.

      I didn’t know saber was an imouto who only wanted headpats and didnt understand anything else about life. Interesting take on her character, bro.

      7jaws7
      Reply

      2. Still, all Lancers of the franchise don´t a candle to Brinhildr´s misery, the Lancer from Fate Prototype Framents of Blue and Silver, that girl must be the unluckiest girl of the Fate Universe!.

        haseo0408
        Reply

    3. There it is~ THere’s the comment~ I can’t be a typical weekly Apocrypha board without someone bringing up FGO and bitching about it for no other reason than “Notice me! I have a lot to get off my chest and this is apparently the only venue to do so! You know….despite reddit existing for this very thing.

      SDFGS
      Reply

  12. Damn the more I watch Apocrypha the more I don’t care about the plot. I should thank you for writing these reviews, Takaii.
    The big plus of Apocrypha is Astolfo. His chemistry with Sieg is more believable than Sieg with Jeanne.

    One Pinch Man
    Reply

    1. You are absolutely, 100% GAY if you think traps are hotter than actual girls by default. As in, you haven’t even watched the show, but you pick it up because of a trap, start trapposting, etc.

      If you watch the show, and just so happen to think that the trap was the “best girl,” then you ain’t that much of a fag.

      belindabird
      Reply

      1. 1.) There is no need for such homophobic language. Drop it, leave, or get booted if you’re going to be like that.

        2.) Have you even been reading this blog? It’s called a J-O-K-E. We PURPOSELY call Astolfo “best girl” because, aside from official background info saying he is male, he does very little to nothing to show that he is in fact male, but rather he looks, sounds, and acts far more female than male, especially with Sieg, even compared to most of the other females shown whereas your typical trap is usually pretty balanced in masculinity and femininity.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
        Reply

  14. https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2017%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
    I knew it. In any anime, that involves death, a mother and daughter are the first likely people that would get killed. Honestly, I have yet to know an anime/manga where a loving mother and child get a “happy ending.” T_T

    Well, after reading a bit about the nasuverse and souls, my understanding is that Souls, which can include Wraiths I think, should be able to reincarnate. So
    Show Spoiler ▼

    I am curious why did Archer of Red attack Jack when she should have attacked Ruler. Honestly, Atalanta wasted a perfectly good chance to kill either Ruler or Sieg yet she squandered it by killing a potential ally, Jack, who was trying to kill the Red Faction’s biggest obstacles.

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Apocrypha/Fate%20Apocrypha%20-%2017%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
    Wonder why Reika is a prostitute, she seems like a very well educated woman. Meh.

    Anyway, from my understanding, every Red Servant has accepted Shirou as their Master who fuels them via Holy Grail; I can at least understand that many servants can have the same “anchor.” Now, I can only wonder if Illya von Einzbern can do the same as a lesser Grail.

    Notably, Shirou mentioned about “throwing away his hatred.” How different would he be as an Avenger?

    On the side note, I saw a certain scene where a restaurant sign had a Vlad/Dracula image; the owner, if he is alive, must have an EX luck since he could have been killed by Vlad.

    L002
    Reply

      1. If you are trying to answer my question, with Archer of Red, your answer still doesn’t seem convincing.
        Archer of Red can easily put an arrow, through Sieg’s head, where I doubt Sieg can live through that.

        And I doubt an EX rank magic resistance can protect Jeanne from Archer of Red’s arrows.

        L002
        Reply

      2. Please read the Illyad. Atalanta’s arrows are enchanted to a magic boost .
        This was also mentioned at Xena: Warrior Princess series, Xena mentioned it to Gabrielle before the battle with Atalanta.
        Sieg can only die in two cases:
        – having your head cut off
        – using all its command seals.

        Vigilante024
        Reply

      3. @Vigilante024
        I would imagine that the impact, from atalanta’s arrows, can at least at least destroy a good chunk of Seig’s brain. At the very least, an arrow through the brain should cause brain damage for seig.

        L002
        Reply

      5. I´m not sure if cutting his head of blow it up will actually kill Seig at this point, Seigfried was completely inmmortal, you would need a weapon or magic powerful enough to slay a god to actully scratch the guy!. By the way, are we sure that Fafnir is trying to turn Seig´s body, I was thinking the dragon Seig was seeing was a manifestation of Seigfried´s magical core, kind of what Shirou Emiya saw inside Arturia in the original fate stay night.

        haseo0408
        Reply

      6. Can Sieg at least get Brain Damage? He doesn’t have to die, but brain damage can cause fatal effects. I can tell magic can heal a lot of stuff but brain damage is a serious issue

        L002
        Reply

  15. Sieg is denser than a 2×4

    He’s not even a month old, and still learning about humanity. Being perceptive of nuances in human behavior is impossible at this point. He simply lacks experience.

    Changing gears to Team Black, as short as Shirou and Achilles

    Shirou is Team RED. We’re more than halfway through the series and you’re still getting the factions mixed up?

    What I see in this episode is how different Jeanne and Shirou are despite both having been betrayed and executed as heretics. Shirou “has a plan for saving humanity”, but TBH he sounds more like a self-righteous zealot than an actual savior.

    Magnus Tancred
    Reply

    1. He gets shit handed to him way too much. Astolfo treated him nice cuz that’s how he was, Chiron respected him from a teacher’s pov, he gave Mordred a good fight. No other people even used his name and called him “homunculus”. Can’t say more because I’ve yet to read volume 5.

      I find Sieg interesting because he gradually changed from a human-shaped doll to a human. His inner conflict against Fafnir, his outer conflict about the beauty and ugliness of humanity, his acceptance of how little he is, his ability to choose his path, his unshakable faith in his closest ones. I find all of those endearing and admirable.

      Fai
      Reply

  16. Feels like most of the most OP characters in the Fate multiverse have a Reality Marble. No wonder the third time a Gilgamesh (well, it’s Angelica) ends up in one, almost immediate response is to whip out Ea.

    On that note, I still hope we get an FGO animation because I wanna see Shirou vs Shirou animated.

    It’s as epic as it sounds.

    JohnPeacekeeper
    Reply

    1. Jack and her mommy might look cute together but one must not forget those two are monster that pray on the happiness of others just because their lifes suck. That´s I feel nothing but joy when they are being corner like the rabid animals they are, just hoping Jack won´t anyone down with her/them.

      haseo0408
      Reply

    2. For some reason, I feel you obviously don’t know jack about what Reika and Jack had initially done. I mean they did some good things during the start, as explained in the first parts of the novel that I read, where the two initially went after “bad people.”

      L002
      Reply

    2. Some series grab the attention more than others. Some years ago I remember that the premier of Sword Art Online had insane number of comments and the last episode of Guilty Crown broke a recond in the number of comments, most of them full of hatred at how the series crash and burned so loudly.

      haseo0408
      Reply

  20. I honestly skipped all the Seig/Ruler scenes because I felt like they were going to be dull and forgetful.

    Funny enough, the few only people I cared about were Reika and Jack(despite them being killers and a bit messed) especially with the genuine mother and daughter relationship they have going. It’s a lot better than most f the other master/servant relationships in this series(though it’s not saying much with Astolfo’s previous only wanted him as a sexually toy; there really wasn’t anything to say about Seigfriend’s previous master; Caster of red and his master had that student/teacher relationship though there really wasn’t much too it and the betrayal part).

    Pretty sad they skipped/cut a lot of stuff regarding the their backstories.

    75ChaosFlare
    Reply

  21. I´ve noticed something about Jeanne and affections for Seig, she might be trying to justify her love for him as that being Leticia´s feelings, the share a body and they can access each others memories so Jeanne might be trying to fool herself into thinking that she can´t posibly be in love. Considering she has always being a person that thinks of others and never about herslef it makes sense she might be freaking out a little.

    haseo0408
    Reply

      1. Well, I´m saying she´s right, Jeanne is clearly 100% in love with Seig and I don´t know about Leticia but my moneay is in that she is as well. Most likely the initial attaction came from her vision, seeing how he´s destined to end the Graet Holy Grail War, possibly losing his life in the process, just like she did, she sees a reflection of helself on him and she does not wish for him to follow that path.

        haseo0408
        Reply

    4. Dressing up as a girl is an excellent tactic.
      Enemies would mistake you as a woman, underestimate you or even ignore you completely.
      In addition they won’t aim for your groin.

      Hisdon
      Reply

    4. Prostitute who’s a bit crazy who wasn’t supposed to become Jack’s master but Jack killed the guy who summoned her and so they became master and servant but Reika was a mere muggle so that meant she can’t transfer mana over to her (sadly) and so Jack had to kill people to get mana (not that either of them minded, Reika told Jack to go after dirty loan sharks and make it as painful as possible)

      They should’ve adapted that 1 chapter manga to clear things up considering Reika didn’t show up for like 12 weeks or something.
      I din’t even know who Reika is and she is already dead. There’s too many characters for this writer to handle.

      linlinchan
      Reply

    2. Death has no meaning to Hakunon.

      You are right in saying that. Also, because there are tons of her in all time-lines. I’m with Nasu when he said that Hakunon & Gil is the best ending in CCC. If we take into consideration that all possible routes are individual and separate time-lines, Gil is already with one version of Hakunon in some other time-line. Fate/Extella already proved that heroic spirits/servants are aware of the events in the alternate time-lines hence every route actually happened. It would really be great if Gil spill the beans in Fate/Extella Link and admit that he is taking care of Hakunon in another time-line. Multiple “what if” routes is getting lame and I hope they completely dissolve that notion and convey that all of them happened. Gil has GoB which transcends time and space. He can probably use that to summon the Hakunon that is with him in CCC.

      DerekTheRed
      Reply

      2. Even the true end sakura route in ccc does not really have the real Hakunon. It was just a body with conciousness and memories.
        Sakrura gives them an artificially created, complete human body with ***their mind and memories*** from the Far Side transferred into it. They have no way of knowing how the Holy Grail War on the Near Side will end after leaving, and there still exists the version of Hakuno within the war that still has the possibility to win and arrive at the core.
        Gil even explained it the Hakunon that the body is just created thing and from it consciousness/soul is born. He said this when Hakunon asked if he was really born of a god as said in his legends. Since he overrides every rule, he is the most capable one in extracting the real her. He literally took Hakunon and blasted themselves out of moon cell. I don’t even know if we can strictly call him a heroic spirit because his power and authority seems that of a god. Hakunon even pointed out how unique he is compared to other heroic spirits.
        – B-but how’s that for a Servant?!
        – If there’s a Servant who could replenish his Master’s Command Spells,
        – the entire premise of the Holy Grail War….
        – …….No, I see.
        – It’s because he was such a Heroic Spirit that he had sealed himself in this space.
        The true ending in CCC neutered his powers and restricted his actions yet again.

        Imperialkat
        Reply

      1. The point was, Hakuno was not fully extracted from the moon cell. The mind and memories were just replicas/copies. How did Sakura even created the body? In HF, Rin was having a hard time finding a decent body for Shirou. For her to be considered as the real one, she must be completely purged out of the system. Just like in the movie, “the matrix”. When they pull out of the system, they are really out. This excerpt proves that Gil really took Hakunon out of moon cell. Not a copy or a replica.
        (Gilgamesh) No, it doesn’t. Could you be any more stupid, Moon Cell? There’s no reason the winner should disappear on achieving perfect victory! If you have no need for her, then **I’ll take her!**
        How? His “I’am the rules” deus ex machina is the first thing that comes into mind

        Imperialkat
        Reply

      1. Well, she basically lived her whole life as a man, she literally had sex as a man. I mean, one thing Shirou did to Saber was treat her like a woman/make her feel like a woman.

        varmintx
        Reply

  25. Fate/Apocrypha Episode 18 Preview [Eng Sub]
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsMe6JrQNwg

    18. From Hell Shielding
    Jack the Ripper, Reika Rikudou, her Master, was shot to death by Ataranta, Archer of Red’s arrow. Although Jack the Ripper is shot by Atalanta’s arrow, the loss of Master makes her cover around herself with deep fog in sorrow. Atalanta, Sieg and Jeanne d’Arc are invited to her nightmare. While each stands against Jack the Ripper’s phantom, Jeanne d’Arc makes a decision.

    Pleroma
    Reply

      2. Trivia: After gaining Saber of Black’s heart, Sieg’s appearance physically changes and he gains a stronger constitution which leads Rider of Black to claim he can live for more than 100 years. Then, Astolfo and Sieg passionately kissed and Jeanne ran away because she was very jealous. The last sentence is just a joke but it will happen soon. ;_;

        darkchibi
        Reply

    1. Don’t worry about Takaii and their shit posts, people stop taking them seriously after episode 5.
      To give you a clearer idea of the status of Takaii shitposter. MAL, reddit, and the 4chan’s /vg/ (/fgog/) and /r/ boards are considered as the most disgusting and worst places to discuss any Type-Moon-related topic, and Takaii and their shit posts have already reached the same level as them after the episode 5.

      Takaii is totally obsessed with the idea that the homunculi should behave like a love interest and waifu pandering character like Illya in Fate/Stay Night or like an 10-year-old elementary school girl which is also a Magical/CGDCT girl like Illya in Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma, where Illy literally is used as a wish-fulfillment character through excessive and pointless fanservice, and pedo/yuri/waifu pandering to satisfy the sense of wish-fulfillment from the pedo/yuri/waifu fags.

      So you should just ignore Takkai and their shit posts, and move on.

      salukechechzkov
      Reply

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