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「魔眼蒐集列車2/6 神威の車輪(ゴルディアス・ホイール)と征服王の記憶」 (Magan Shuushuu Ressha 2/6 Gorudiasu Hoiiru to Seifuku-ou no Kioku)
“Rail Zeppelin 2/6: The Gordius Wheel and the Memory of the King of Conquerors ~And yet humans still become slaves to what they see.~”
For the second installment of our six part ride, the train continues chugging along in the British countryside while murders and attempted murders connected by mystic eyes are conducted across the board. While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the execution of the mystery premise so far in this series, but the Rail Zeppelin arc has immediately proved itself to be above and beyond the rest. Which makes sense, considering it’s the only bit of actual source material Troyca has adapted, compared to the rest being anime original. We continue at the scene of Trisha’s murder, and I can’t deny that her decapitated corpse made me feel quite queasy. Nevertheless I have to admit I felt extremely fascinated and excited, because there’s so much fun to be had in speculating about the setup behind the mystery. I had assumed that the person targeting Waver and the person behind these murders were one and the same. They might still be related, but I get the impression that they’re two separate entities. My conjecture from the previous week was also wrong. It isn’t the case that these mystic eyes are a threat to the perpetrator, considering they have the ability to work around such visions. The goal seems to be the mystic eyes themselves, though I’m not sure if they were stolen for their value or for their utility. Personally, I think utility because surely auctioning on the black market would expose the perpetrator as the murderer? And a third party seller would be no use, because they’d be implicated as having ties either way. So from my perspective, that would limit the case on our hands to a crime that isn’t inspired by monetary incentive. There’s so much we don’t know about, and the existence of magic means that conventional logic and alibis don’t apply, which massively blows open the window as to who could be the potential perpetrator. If we’re talking about an inside job by someone from the Clock Tower, Adashino is from Policies so she’s my primary suspect. Yet I can’t help feeling the series has tried to establish her as the red herring multiple times, and I’m not enthusiastic about falling for this trick again. And another candidate has appeared as a potential suspect, which I’ll get onto later.
The appearance of this mysterious figure related to Iskandar really surprised me. The action scene between Gray and Hephaestion was a joy to behold. The red crackling energy was really cool, the clash of blades was well choreographed, and the reveal of mystic eyes and the Noble Phantasm were shocking to say the least. My only qualm is that the scene was short, and I wanted it to be longer! You would think that Waver, a massive expert on Iskandar, should recognise them. But that hasn’t been the case, even though a Google search indicates that Hephaestion (the identity they claimed) was indeed among Alexander’s closest subordinates. I guess this raises questions to me, as to why Hephaestion would be relatively unknown to Waver in the context of the Fate universe, and who their master might be (as well as said master’s ulterior motive).
Outside the train, the team of Reines, Kairi and Luvia are working to discover who exactly could have carried out the inside job. For a long time, I had also assumed that Kayneth was the previous head of Modern Magecraft. I guess now we’ve found out that isn’t the case, and it makes sense. Kayneth had a particular disdain for Modern Magecraft, as shown through his conversations with Waver in Fate/Zero, and saw it as significantly inferior to the old and traditional magecraft inherited through generations of the important families. After all, why would he take up a senior position within a department he couldn’t care any less about? As to who this previous head might be, I’m really annoyed that Luvia stopped just short of dropping a name. But I definitely get the feeling that he’s connected to Waver’s missing relic or the murders on the Rail Zeppelin. Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading my post and see you next week for more on this magical murder mystery thriller!
So I want to point out that waver said this episode was that he doesn’t recognize her as Hephaestion because he has never seen her before. Since he has technically seen basically every one of Iskandar’s Close subordinates he was just shocked and was wondering why he has never seen her in rider’s RM before he passed out.
Well, Hephaestion’s probably not lying. She’s dressed exactly like boy-Iskander.
That being said, it’s no surprise Waver doesn’t recognize her. Iskander had a butt-load of subjects when he used his Noble Phantasm, and it’s not as if he went around being introduced to each and every one, especially given it was always in the middle of battle.
And it’s not like the historical records could be counted on to accurately describe a Servant. They couldn’t even get Altria’s gender correct.
Well, to be fair, King Arthur is considered to be a “mythical” person in a real world history viewpoint; in a frank view, the less reliable the records, the more likely gender bending is possible. OF course, we have exceptions like Drake and Nero. In Paris’s case, I am interested what the writers had envision Helen to be like.
https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
So tell me, who is the culprit if anyone can spoil me.
https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
While I know Alexander’s Noble Phantasm can summon an army. I think a pretty woman like that should have been noticeable in Waver’s view, especially if she could summon a chariot; I actually find it strange most of Alex’s army had no horses. Anyone can fill me in on why she wasn’t in fate/zero? On the side note. we know Alex’s army were divided into 3 war kingdoms after his death; we can see an example in how some people, who are Alex’s subjects, argue with each other.
An interesting point, but my counter is this: While King Arthur is considered mythical in the real world, in the TM-verse, Arthur was real. That’s why they were able to use Avalon as a summoning catalyst (or in alternate universes, portions of the Round Table).
As for why Hephaestion isn’t in F/Z, there’s a very practical real world reason. Her TM incarnation wasn’t invented yet. F/Z manga/anime was a long time ago and (I’m guessing) the El-Melloi case files manga wasn’t even a twinkle in the creator’s eye at the time.
As such, Iskander’s NP was largely filled with faceless Heroic Spirits, all dressed identically (and one or two exceptions to break up the uniformity of it all)
There was actually a good bunch of unique faces in Iskandar’s NP. At the very least 7 or 8 unique designs. Those are supposed to be his closest friends and the Diadochi.
Anyway, I can confirm that Show Spoiler ▼
Like Shift said there is actually 8 unique character design for the inner circle members of Iskandar’s retinue in Fate zero anime. In an interview with Urobuchi after Fate zero was aired he was asked on the identity of these unique designs specifically on the identity of the waver look alike while he remained tight lipped on who they were suppose to be, he only confirmed that the waver look alike was not waver and that the rest are famous historical generals/adviser the likes of Poros, Eumenes, Parmenion, Hephaestion and Ptolemy whom Urobuchi asked the artists to design for the show.
So the fact that this servant claims to be Hephaestion and waver ‘s response to it is a good indication to me that She is not who she say she is. Most likely fate zero viewers and waver have already seen Hephaestion whether they know it or not.
https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
I hope the writers can explain about this scar. This seems to be a good plot device.
Notably,
https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
Wonder if Waver is the one that recommend that Caulus learns this type of magecraft
I know fate apocrypha is not in this timeline but if you watched the last episode of Apocrypha, its Flat who introduced Caules to that particular field.