An action focused episode and as such I have very little I can say about it. Considering that Avicebron was more about brains than brawn it’s rather odd to see him get taken down like this. In a way I find this to be a big heel turn for him as I originally took him for the more logical type. I don’t think that him using his former master as the core for his golem is out of character as he has shown that all that really matters to him is the completion of his golem. However I thought he was working out of artistic integrity and not making this golem in some bid to save the world. Truthfully I am rather disappointed in that. I rather liked the idea of Avicebrons main goal being to complete his life’s work and that being his only reason for his position in this war. Upon completing it I thought he wouldn’t really care as to what purpose it served and that his only real intent was it’s creation. This however just transforms his motivation into something more petty and stupid. Bringing back the garden of Eden by creating a golem? Why not bypass the golem making process and just use the holy grail?
I feel it would have been better to make this situation more sympathetic. Have him sacrifice his master to create the golem. Upon it’s creation just let it roam wild, only to be destroyed by the servants. Once the golem is defeated, Avicebron is found by the servants where he laments at the realization that he killed a kindred spirit in blind pursuit of his goal. Avicebron then takes his own life as compensation for his mistake. Now that I believe would have really made this work. But sadly at this situation Avicebron is just made into a generic villain who is “saving” the world by destroying it. It’s a pity, as I at least like the situation of having the servants take on a massive golem and team up with Mordred. Even if it feels a bit like a unconditional mid-boss. I do find it funny that Ruler is still operating under the guise of a referee even at this point so that she must come up with cheap justification in order to help. The rules of this holy grail war have already been thrown out of wack so she needs no further reason to join a side.
Another servant has been removed from the game though even with that it seems the red side have a huge advantage. Looks like Atlanta and Achilles couldn’t manage to join the Black side so they are unwillingly on the red team. One thing I am rather disappointed about is that this anime cut out Mordred’s first reaction when she saw Ruler. Much like Gilles did during the fourth holy grail war, she first mistook her for Arthuria and as we know she has some daddy issues. Though I suppose at this point they have sexed up Joan of Arc’s servant design that it’s pretty difficult to see the Arthuria in her. Still it doesn’t solve the problem that she and Sieg are still dull as dishwater and it grows increasingly tedious to see them interact and build what looks to be some sort of romantic tension between them. So we have twelve episodes left for this series and for a halfway point assessment I would say this anime is a decent watch for Fate fans. It’s certainly lacking when compared to Ufotable adaptations but it may be on par with the likes of the 2006 Deen adaption to which I found to be decent as well despite the hate it gets. I feel like this story could have been stronger and A-1 have failed in that regard on adaption. Still with this animated that means Type Moon has one less Fate property to milk and with some hope that might finally get them to work on that Tsukihime remake they promised ten years ago.
Bringing back the garden of Eden by creating a golem? Why not bypass the golem making process and just use the holy grail?
I’m also having difficulty figuring out how exactly this golem is supposed to save the world when it seems to eat people in order to power itself. Or is it just people with magic circuits like homunculi and mages? Chiron somehow seems to acknowledge that the golem could save the “exiles”, meaning humanity(??) But I’m not really sure how. Strangely enough, Ruler, apparently summoned by an unblemished Throne of Heroes and Saint of God, identifies it as an enemy, in spite of it apparently having the ability to recreate the Garden of Eden. So, yeah. The Servant of God vs the Mechanism to Recreate Paradise. Yeah, whose side do you take here? Meanwhile, why does the other Ruler let this happen? If, by some accident, Joan and her side had failed, would that be okay for Amakusa? Are we perhaps not supposed to read that deeply into it and just take it as another chuunibyou fantasy drama and drool over the hot Servants?
One other thing I was wondering about Mordred. Is she aware that King Arthur is actually Arturia, a female? She calls her “father” so I’m not sure if Morganna filled her in on this. Then again, she still calls her father in the Camelot singularity when Arturia has more obvious female traits. I get the feeling that Mordred mainly identifies Arturia from her sword, so Ruler, with her flag, seems more obviously identifiable as Joan d’Arc or at least, not Arturia? But Gilles definitely mistook Arturia for Joan. Maybe they didn’t want to touch on this since it’s from another studio production?
Putting aside the stupid golem saves the world deal, the set up of the fight is also incredibly stupid. If the golem isn’t yet immortal and soon will be once it recreated enough overgrown flower garden, why didn’t Avicebron chose to avoid the heroic spirits and attempt to make it immortal to truly “finish” his life work first. It makes no sense.