Fate/stay night / First Impressions

Summary:
With the appearance of the golden servant, Shirou pushes Saber back because he wants her to run away. He rushes forward, but before he can even reach their enemy, he gets shot right through his abdomen. Saber’s eyes widen as she watches Shirou collapse on the ground. She attacks the person she refers to as Archer, but his multitude of swords block her every swing. The golden servant dons his armor and opens the Gate of Babylon, bringing forth even more of his weapons. One of them is a chained scythe – he uses it to pierce through Saber’s arm and hit her neck. The servant tells Saber that he is the heroic king of the ancient kingdom of Uruk: Gilgamesh. The arrogant king doesn’t think that Saber can defeat him, but she says that she won’t know until she tries. Saber powers up her Noble Phantasm, so Gilgamesh pulls out a special sword and does the same. Excalibur clashes with Enuma Elish equally at first, but Gilgamesh soon gains the upper hand.
When the smoke clears, an injured Shirou sees Saber lying in a pool of her own blood. Saber calls out to Shirou, but she can’t tell where he is – her eyes have gone lifeless from the attack. With Gilgamesh laughing in the background, Saber admits to Shirou that she’s lost and that she wants him to run away. Shirou has no plans to do that; after struggling back onto his feet, he creates Caliburn and faces Gilgamesh. However, the Servant recognizes the sword and pulls out his own. One quick slash cuts Shirou’s replica in half and sends him flying back. Saber hears Shirou land behind her and start to gurgle in pain. She tries to get Gilgamesh to stop, but he wants her to promise to become his thing first. The ever resilient Shirou tells her not to answer and stands up yet again. Saber tries to make him realize that it’s futile – if he were to die, she’d… Regaining his focus, Shirou says that he doesn’t want anything other than Saber because he loves her. That’s why he can’t hand her over.
Gilgamesh decides to use Enuma Elish again, this time on Shirou. In response, Shirou activates his image powers and remembers Archer’s words about his strongest form. With that in mind, Shirou creates a pillar of light in front of him that surprises even Gilgamesh. What emerges from the light is a bright triangularly shaped object. Saber regains her vision and recognizes what it is. She rushes to Shirou’s side and passes him her sword. Together, the two of them place it into the glowing sheath just as Gilgamesh fires his Enuma Elish. The sheath protects them and reflects the attack back at him. Though Gilgamesh does not appear to be hurt too badly, he scoffs and disappears. With the battle over, Shirou collapses into Saber’s arms. She’s finally realized that Shirou was her sheath.
In his dreams, Shirou has another vision of Saber’s past where she is fighting an armored female foe. This person asks Saber why she won’t hand over the throne and her response is that this person is not qualified to be the king. Saber then slashes and stabs her opponent, but she herself takes a hit to the gut. The other person says “Father” and her helmet falls off – her face is the same as Saber’s. The vision switches to a scene of a mortally wounded Saber in the sunset and then what appears to be a monument or grave. Shirou wakes up and finds himself fully healed. He and Saber know that Gilgamesh will appear again. With Saber’s past fresh on his mind, Shirou wonders about Saber wanting to change the past through the Grail. She decides to make him something to eat, but her attempt at slicing involves holding the knife with both hands as if it were a sword and slamming it down on the vegetables. Shirou guides Saber through peeling and cutting while holding her from behind.
But with the dream still on his mind, Shirou asks Saber to stop thinking about trying to redo the selection of the king. He tells her about how he saw her dream and how she had fought to the death. He feels that she’s already accomplished her oath and that she’s done enough. After obtaining the Holy Grail, he wants her to stay here and smile for herself – he wants the two of them to stay together. Saber leaves his arms and walks back to her room. Shirou chases after her, and, unable to hold back, he grabs Saber and hugs her. Saber says that Shirou is being unfair since he knows her past from entering her mind many times. She thinks that he should already know her answer. But Shirou likes Saber so much that he can’t let go of her. Nearly in tears, Saber says that she can’t have freedom until she completes her responsibilities. During a moment of silence, Shirou leans in and kisses her, despite her gentle resistance.
The next morning, Shirou leaves the house and remembers what happened during the rest of the night. Saber had stepped away from him after the kiss. Sometime later, they were both in his room and she had told him that she had recovered her mana. She was ready to fight as his Servant. On this day, Shirou heads to the church again looking for Kotomine. No one appears to be inside, but Shirou soon detects something and starts to hear a young child crying. He stumbles through the grounds and into the church’s basement where he finds several corpses. Kotomine surprises him from behind, causing Shirou to turn around and take a step back. That’s enough room for Lancer to jump in between the two of them and stab Shirou in the chest.

Preview:

Saber and Shirou vs. Gilgamesh! Excalibur vs. Enuma Elish! The use of Avalon! Saber and Shirou kissing!
All of that was more than enough to get me excited and keep me excited through the episode. Gilgamesh was quite powerful, but Shirou’s cockroach-like resilience help him around until he and Saber finally used Avalon. The look on Gilgamesh’s face was priceless. So, the fighting scenes were superbly done, and the romantic moments were touching, thanks in part to their use of music during the kiss scene. I had been looking forward to this episode so much because of last week’s preview and I certainly was not disappointed.
And if you thought Shirou had taken enough of a beating from Gilgamesh, by the end of the episode he has another weapon stuck in his chest – Lancer’s. It’s been a long long time since we’ve seen him, but he’s still in the war, as is Gilgamesh. He appears to be Kotomine’s Servant, but the clues would indicate that Gilgamesh is also Kotomine’s Servant. We should be able to find out more next week. And keep in mind, the end is only three episodes away!

102 Comments

  7. And Lancer finally appears again. Saber and Shirou are such a nice pair *-*
    And FUCK!!!
    Waited patiently under high stress for this episode, and what happens??!
    Next episode shows Shirou bloody and Saber alone lying under a tree, made my day >.

    *Chi*
    Reply

  14. That´s how things happen…
    Or should I say, That´s how things Start getting better and better!!
    I trully love this ” mentira deslavada ” 😉 it´s how someone here in my country would describle this devastating fights 😉
    Omni you are the blog master right!?
    I hope you recover soon and fast my friend!I know how it is to be sick with a strange illness.I´ve spent more than 1 year only doing phisioterapy at home without doing nothing more!But I´ll tell you a hint ” ANIMES” helped me on my recovery 😉 so enjoy your kaifuku!!

    tensai_otaku
    Reply

  15. so what the hell? they kissed and everything but what’s with the preview for next week – is saber going to die? i’m gonna get so pissed off if they don’t give this a good ending! what does everyone else think is going to happen?

    Huo
    Reply

  19. “-Despite Saber’s gentle objections, the two kiss. We learn afterwards that Saber’s mana was recovered.”

    Hopefully dragon free ; ] Good to see they don’t have a problem with “that” now lol.

    Chewie
    Reply

  30. to T_I: my opinion is that saber is NOT a man… >_> the past episodes already
    told you… and she said before that she never saw herself as a woman but that doesn’t me she
    isn’t one.

    to mangamaxx: that picture was before they kissed…

    raww
    Reply

  33. Rin has noted before that if Saber transforms into her armor form that the clothes she was wearing before would be destroyed, but here we actually see Saber go back into what she was wearing before. Anyone else notice that?

    Also Gilgamesh or rather Tomokazu Seki laughs too much. He was laughing for a good five minutes. XD

    KiraTakuto
    Reply

  34. >> Trivia: The person Saber killed in the past was Mordred.

    Mmmm, Arthurinan legends are yummy :). But…

    Show Spoiler ▼

    And if I remember correctly, the people of Saber’s past always refer to her as a man…hence the reason why she’s the KING and not the Queen. I think she’s already proved she was a woman too, in the bath scene a while back.

    Why did all of this badassness have to happen on the week I’m going out of town?!? I’ll have to wait till Monday to download the sub :(.

    radda
    Reply

  39. Remember about the heroic spirits – You gotta die before you can be one of the Servants. So, Mordred vs Arthur and both killing eachother does make quite alot of sense

    And, yes. Saber with hair down = kickass.

    Shiirn
    Reply

  43. “Despite Saber’s gentle objections, the two kiss. We learn afterwards that Saber’s mana was recovered.”

    Waaaaaaiiiiittt a minute…omni, you’re mean. That toppled over my resolve to download a subbed ep to watch properly T_T

    Kenn1911
    Reply

  49. I’ve never played the game before, but watching this whole series is quite fun for me..

    but if FSN is gonna end with Shirou dead (as compared to the original game scenarios that everyone discussed before), this is so gonna suck. =.=”

    Kenn1911
    Reply

  50. >>You DO NOT have to die to become a heroic spirit. Saber wished she could become a Servant when she was still alive.

    But if Saber=Arthur, then she had to have died. Like T_I said, it’s still a double KO with her and Mordred, which is exactly what happened in Arthurian legend.

    radda
    Reply

  51. in Arthurian legend, Mordred is killed by Arthur, but mortally wounds him in return, and Arthur is taken to Avalon to await return “in time of neeed”

    so another mana replenishing done… offscreen 🙂
    Kotomine was suspicious from the very start, but now he has revealeed himself as the master behind Lancer… and there was long time no see witth Lancer, right? Lancer seems to be behind mana-killings…

    ewok
    Reply

  53. Saber is in limbo.

    She’s not quite dead yet, but she’s not alive either. If she gets what she wants, and becomes a true heroic spirit her real body dies.

    But yeah, it was a double KO

    T_I
    Reply

  54. Well, in the original FSN (game/e-novel), Saber was King Arthur who was a girl who was transformed into a man by Merlyn’s magic. However, this transformation was only in a short period of time — that’s why she got a son from her half sister.

    LQY
    Reply

  57. I think he gets an award for being the main character who gets hit and killed several times in any anime series and comes back alive and well. Makes me wonder what Archer meant by creating the strongest item he can imagine and a scabbard (or sheath) appears to protect them from Gil’s attack and reflects it back at him.

    rpgman1
    Reply

  58. Episode for avaible for download (as usual, Eclipse)
    There were some really rough scenes. Saber still doesn’t admit, that she loves Shirou.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Poor Shirou, there must be a huge conflict in him. On the one hand, stay with Saber, but one the other hand fulfill her wish. But what is really her wish? We still don’t know after all. I think at the bottom of her heart, Saber also wants to stay with Shirou. But she also wants tu fulfil her duty as king.
    Hmm, difficult, difficult, difficult. Hope they do a happy ending. I’m depressed enough after playing through Planetarian and crying after that for a long time.. These Visual Novells are really strange..
    Now I’m curious about next episode’s outcome. The title: “At the end of wishes”
    Whose wishes? Shirou’s? Saber’s? Nothing is sure until next week.

    *Chi*
    Reply

  61. “WAS” saber a man? urrgggh to think about it… he/she (saber) had a kid with xxxx and it turns out to be that she was a man for a short period of time —> sex op?

    Zrakula
    Reply

  63. Damn it! I can’t wait to see next week episode

    Finally Shirou does something incredible, pulling out AVALON and using more and more freely his Imaging (Now hi can create Excalibur as fast as you can say “HOLLY SHIT”). Maybe with this, maybe is still hope for Shirou using UBW here.

    So, Gilgamesh revels himself about his identity LOL. Sure, he has a lot of swords and many weapons but… AVALON is only for Saber. I love his WTF-face when Shirou maximize his Trace On to create Avalon. I think it’s too early for Avalon, but maybe this is the chance for Shirou. Saber can have Avalon and Shirou can use UBW.

    About Saber’s fatherhood, is interesting learn to know how can that be possible. A lot is said around internet, but I want to know the truth ^_^ as a good otaku.

    One more think that I don’t understand is Saber’s indecision about her oath and her own happiness. Sure, she pulls out Excalibur from the rock because she wants it, to protect her country, for England. But then… she makes a few mistakes like everybody else (don’t blame everything to you Arturia), and know she want to redo her life and remake her troughs about being the King of England.

    Only three more episodes to go… Subarashi! Please give me that happy ending for my birthday, Onegai!!

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

  64. i just watched it and i got 3 questions.

    1. who’s dat person saber was fighting with in shirou’s dream? da guy in da armour. yes i realised it was shpwn later that it is saber but… HUH??? i really dun get it.

    2. and wot is up with da ‘saber’ in da armour saying “father” ??????

    3. towards da end, when shirou went to da underground church thing, we saw lots of…. wel.. corpses??? were they actually corpses and did lancer suck out their souls or something?

    it be really great if sumone could unconfuse me 😀

    shia
    Reply

  65. uhhh….
    1. maybe it was Mordred like ewok said
    2. ehhh….. most likely to do with saber in another gender
    3. not sure….

    well.. that didn’t actually unconfuse someone though… :/

    raww
    Reply

  68. What make Gilgamesh so special, he keep saying hes King of Kings, so what, that doesn’t mean anything, he still just a King so is Saber then. Hes part god part mortal, ok so is Hercules, but Saber manage to beat him. So what make Gilgamesh stronger than anyone else? Did he kill a few hundred ultimate bad ass monster or something, if I remember correctly all he did was kill some giant boar then went on a trip to look for answer to immortality, nothing that special compare to Hercules the hydra killer.

    Mike
    Reply

  71. Yeah! Damn those writers

    At least here they can pretend that Saber & Shirou had sex and don’t need to show us, but no, that kiss do the job of a sexual intercourse (as literal as the game was). C’mon, Tsukihime has implied sex, what I‘m saying they had sex for Gods sake, and now only a little kiss… this life is really unfair.

    Who doesn’t love HDTV? Finally my HDTV episode is down and ready to see. I don’t mind if at the end Fate/Stay Night turns into a love history, that’s what I want since the beginning. I’m routing for that ending… a happy one.

    Let’s go people! Three episodes more to go

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

  72. =) hehe ok chi…but wouldnt it be awesome if they didn’t follow the game? =(

    like…i’m pretty sure most viewers would seriously want saber and shirou end up together in the end right?

    mango
    Reply

  74. One thing the author forgot was that Gilgamesh is a Bronze age Hero. The Iron age didn’t start until about 1000 year after his death, so the notion that he could have hoarded all those treasures is absurd.

    wontaek
    Reply

  75. Sure Mango, that’s what the most people wish for. It’s in the humans nature to wish for happy things^^
    Argh, can’t wait for next year to start my Japanese studies, then I’ll gonna play PLENTY visual novells 😉

    *Chi*
    Reply

  76. QUOTE from Xebec’s Blog

    I also loved the part right after the fight where she was holding Shirou saying she finally realized that Shirou is her scabbard, not referring to the fact he imaged it and such but just that she is like the sword and he is there protecting and backing her up, always with her and such

    That’s damn right about Shirou…

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

  77. rpgman1, what about Dokuro-chan, Beat to Death Angel? That kid gets killed by the same girl plus with over the top amounts of blood!
    —
    Hmm I though the person in the dream was her kid, as since Saber didn’t really see herself as a “woman”, her kid calls her Father instead of Mother.

    Jack K9
    Reply

  78. This is an anime, so there will be exaggerations in the legends. How come Enuma Elish is so powerful that Saber and Shirou survive? Saber used Excalibur against Rider and Bellerophon and both were wiped out with a gigantic flash.

    rpgman1
    Reply

  79. Quite a good episode…It’s a pity that they smoothed over some parts.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Note that Mordred is NOT CANON: He/She is never, ever mentioned in the game. The closest there is to it is a Dark Saber in the game’s Third Route. And yes, Saber is still alive, making her different from other Heroic Spirits, who are already physically dead. That’s why she can remember the previous war; Gilgamesh, however, IS dead, but he’s been around since the 4th War. That’s why he knows Saber.

    Chan
    Reply

  80. rpgman, Enuma Elish is the sword that separated earth & the sky or something like that. (correct me if i’m wrong). Excalibur may be strong, but it was incomplete without its sheath… So, what do you think?

    scsw
    Reply

  81. I think, that the weapons of Gilgamesh are abolute nonsense. I know the saga of the Babylon, and Gilgamesh is very strong, but he never had 1000 weapons.. (so just something to heat up the anime).
    And about which sword is stronger. I think i mentioned serveral times, that I’m doing chinese swordfighting. So I tell you one of my favourite phrases: “A sword alone possess no power, first the men awake it to life”
    Ergo, Gilgamesh can have a “whatsoever” sword, Saber is the better fighter, so she will win 🙂

    *Chi*
    Reply

  82. Saber is a lousy sword fighter.

    She jobs to nearly everyone without her Noble Phantasm. Her only win was agains Kojiro, a half assed no noble phantasm Servant on a mana budget whose most memorable feat was losing horribly to Musashi.. who had nothing but a boat oar at that time. And actually, in the game Saber only won because Kojiro’s sword was dented.

    She almost jobs as bad as Renji from Bleach.

    Gilgamesh has a gazillion weapons because he was at time, the King of the entire world and accumulated thousands of treasures in the process. Trivia: He has more than just swords.

    Mordred was mentioned in the game as adopted child of Saber, but never shown. However, he/she got impatient, and the rest follows the myth..

    T_I
    Reply

  85. Yea, i too wonder what will happen in episode 22. The preview is so vague. What’s Saber doing lying near the tree? They better give a good ending and that better be Saber and Shirou living happily together. I hope they do not follow the Fate route ending… dat’ll be extremely sad…

    Skysong
    Reply

  86. Well, for that… well Tsukihime was a little sad, after all, if she could live for 800 years and then dies as easy as a human; ejem… but hits is Fate/Stay Night… we,ve a lot of surprises at this point…

    O-O Hoping for a happy ending, because a person like Saber, King Arthur, after a life of suffering and devoting to her conuntry and her duty, a little of happines is to much for ask?

    3 and a half more days to go ^^

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

  87. The fate ending is clearly sad but so beautiful !! I hope that we’ll that king of ending, because a happy ending would be too “basic”, And yes I hope and I think that we’ll have a UBW !! With a Powerful Shirou mUAHHA !

    Charlog
    Reply

  91. As to whether Saber was ever a guy or not, I think that, even though she pulled out the sword in the stone, people would not accept a female as their leader, so her reputation was made to make her seem like she was a man.

    gbrn32e
    Reply

  101. The real master of Lancer who’s dead was a woman named Bazett Fraga McRemitz. Bazett killed by Lancer’s spear & Lancer realize the one who killed Bazett & stole her command seal is Kirei, Play F/UC on PS2 or PSP as Lancer, you’ll find out soon enough.

    Rawindradlc
    Reply

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