I’m a bit confused here by the nature of those hand seals. First of all, it really appear that Assassin died last episode because Kotomine Kirei fulfilled his duty to spy on the five other masters, which already seems a bit strange to me on its own: this is a battle to the life and death. Are these mages really that good to have anticipated exactly every possible outcome or tactic that could be employed to kill them? It seems really early to just abandon Assassin like that.
Then this episode goes and out of nowhere makes Kotomine Kirei a potential master again… because apparently “the grail says so”. At this point I find that more like a Deus ex Machina, to be honest. Where did those seals come from? Are they from Lancer? But didn’t that red haired woman take them? So are they the remaining seals from Assassin? Does that mean that you can just continue to participate in the holy grail war as long as you don’t die, as long as you can capture another servant? Then why didn’t people worry about this when they learned of the first Assassin death?
Also, I fail to see the true importance of the seals here, and why having one extra counts as a tremendous advantage. Sure, it’s indeed handy if you’ve got a servant who won’t listen like with Lancer or Berserker, but with servants like Saber and Assassin they’re pretty much useless, while Caster and Rider drag their masters around so much that it would be impossible to control them with just three commands.
What I also wonder: what’s in it for the holy grail to see a bunch of magicians fight for it? I get why everyone’s fighting, but why was the holy grail created in the first place, and why does it have to have a war once every few years to hand out a wish? If it wanted to achieve something, couldn’t it just use that wish and achieve it anyway?
Oh, by the way: this episode is starting to work better than the casual talking episodes of early in the series, because we’re getting to know more and more about the characters. Seeming them discuss the plot becomes a lot more interesting this way.
Also, I know this is nit-picking, but this bothered me when I saw Archer with his hair down: how can he have his hair up in the ED?
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Almost all of the questions you asked were already answered in F/SN actually. As for why assasins were killed last episode, it was because Tohsaka wanted to see Riders NP. But to do that, Rider would have to be cornered, so they had to use all the assasins. And why did Kotomine not save one of them, because Tohsaka was too confident and thought he has no more need of assasin.
And yes, even in F/SN, it was said that a master can participate in a Grail War as long as he is alive even after he loses his servant, thats why a servant-less master goes to church after losing his servant for protection(and this is why they didn’t worry about it after assasin’s death).
As for why every one is fighting for the grail, short answer is that it can fulfill one wish each of winner master and servant.
There’s also the issue that with every Assassin killed, they lose general power. So if, say, haalf Assassins were sent in and killed, the other half would together have only half the stat points, making him far less useful.
Alright lets try to answer these.
First off the previous episode had a large amount of it cut out due to broadcast restrictions. I think it was originally 30 minutes long. The answer to the question of where Kirei got the command seal from is there. Basically his father is the referee of the grail war and gave him the command seals.
Yes, you can continue to participate in the grail war when your servant dies. Master who have lost there servants can contract with another servant. I think it’s also possible to resummon your servant as well. I can’t be sure of this but after Assassins fake death I think the church sent out a message that confirmed they took in his master. If the church takes you in that means you have dropped out of the war.
Command seals don’t just force a servant to do something. They can make a servant do the impossible. For example, teleportation or powering up a noble phantasm.
As for the actual reasons for the war itself I have to agree there. To be honest the system came out of nowhere. The grail seems to be a thing with a mind of it’s own and decided this by itself.
Yes, it is. And the details are a SPOILER so just wait for it.
I was referring more to the system of the holy grail war. Sure there are explanations about where the grail came from and details about the war but nothing really concrete about why it must be done this way. (Though I haven’t read fate/stay night in a few years and my memory isn’t reliable enough to prove that statement)
From how I understand it the holy grail war is a very roundabout way of doing it. It’s like pouring water out of a cup into another cup. Then taking the filled cup and pouring the water back into the old cup.
Ugh, It’s hard to explain the Holy Grail war without spoiling. It was explained in the VN and I heard it was also explained in the F/Z novels (hopefully the second season will explain things). There’s a lot more about the war than meets the eye.
Also I would add to Diasen’s explanation that the command seals belong to masters, not the servants (Kirei’s seal is for him regardless of what servant he has). And their only purpose it’s not only making the servant obey; in FSN Shirou uses it to summon Saber from a faraway location.
The most important (okay, okay, most useful) function of the seals is not control, actually. You can make your Servant do the impossible, like teleporting to your location from half a city away, with one. They are also a potent source of prana so they can be used for a “free” use of a freakishly costly Phantasm, like Excalibur (though I picked a terrible example – a Seal won’t cover the full cost of THAT). In F/SN, a Master had also used a Seal to temporarily grant their Servant Independent Action, thus allowing himself to remain hidden.
About what you wonder: it’s a huge spoiler, or, rather, the answer will contain rather huge spoilers. The Grail does have a purpose, one that cannot be achieved without completing the ritual. It NEEDS 7 heroes, or, rather, 6 of the 7 to die. There is a very good reason for that.
As for why Kirei got the Seals back: the system that governs the seal distribution is not something conscious; it’s a purely reactive “program” running within the Grail. Kirei got back his own seals, the two that he hadn’t used when he had Assassin. It’s explained in F/SN and you’re only confused because you haven’t watched it – you can continue to participate if your Servant is dead. In fact, if there is a Servant willing to make a contract with you, the Grail will return your unused seals, unless they had been given to someone else by that point and there aren’t any left, that is. The reason why no one was alarmed when Assassin “died” was because Kirei had seemingly resigned from the War.
About Gil: he’s a demigod. He can. 😛 Or it’s hair gel. He has full plate armor so why not? XD
As a few others have pointed out, a post that were to answer those questions would basically amount to a gigantic mine field of spoilers for the second half of Fate Zero.
psgels, you don’t lose the Command Seals that you have not used up. Kirei only used 1 command seal, so he still has two left. I don’t know where you could get the idea that his seals would randomly disappear.
Watch episode 12. The “ownership” of the seals returns to the Grail once a Servant dies.
If you had read the VN (heck, it’s even in the anime – episode 14), you should remember that each time a Servant had died the seals their Master had disappeared.
I think they mentioned early in the series that the grail is a device made by the Einzberns, the Tohsakas and the Matous. It’s not the actual grail, but a replica of sorts. The goal of the war is that it charges the grail with the essence/prana of all the servants in the war so it can start its ritual. This ritual is the fabled wish people talk about. Now, it’s not the actual grail, so it mostly just summons a portal to the conceptual actual holy grail.
This last thing is something a normal magician cannot do, so they had to create a device that could summon all the necessary prana for it to work(AKA it summons the servants to magicians to fuel itself, binding it to them with command seals).
Psgels, since you watched kara no kyoukai, you perhaps remember the fifth movie, in which a character tried to find the root of the world, the mythical beginning. The grail is a portal to that concept and its will is similar to the counter force discussed in that movie.
Also, as explained in this episode, a master will retain its potency. This means that if another master dies, the servant of that master will be bound to another ‘free’ master. If there isn’t a free master, it will be bound to the occupied masters. Hence why you want to kill the master as well as the servant. As for the command seals: they’re actual seals, so they can be transplanted.
And for archer’s hair? Heroic willpower! Dramatic wind!
Umm… no. The Grail’s will has nothing to do with the Counter-Force. In fact, one of the main points of the whole damn ritual is to distract the Counter-Force so that it doesn’t interfere and eliminate the wish-granting element.
The Counter-Force is a concept that protects humanity from itself. If an element that threatens to eliminate humanity (by any means, be it self-elimination, some kind of virus, or triggering Gaia’s Vengeance) appears, the Counter-Force steps in to deal with it in the most efficient way possible – by eliminating everything and everyone related.
Just saying: Archer wears his hair up when in battle gear. But in casual clothes, it would look odd, so he wears it down.
*SPOILERS*
Wanted to add that it’s possible for a Master to have more than one Servant. However, I’m surprised to see Command Seals appear for a Master without a Servant. I could have sworn those things only show up once a contract is formed and disappears when it’s broken. Having Seals or not shouldn’t affect one’s qualification (or lack thereof) to be a Master. This feels like a special case just for Kirei. Was he chosen early on by Avenger or something?
Also, just to confirm, that new residence Saber and Iris went to, that’s the Emiya residence that Shirou will one day live in during the 5th war right? That storeroom where Iris places her magic circle, that’s the place where Shirou first summoned Saber. In FSN, he must have accidentally stepped into Iris’s (Saber’s?) circle and inadvertently activated it to summon Saber. Explains why he used the storeroom to practice his tracing too. It was a magician’s atelier all along and he never knew it.
I wonder what’s up with Iris’ sudden weakness. Iria was never like that. Also, it’s kind of curious how Saber knows how to draw magic circles and stuff.
You Idiot No none of that was said yet in the anime and it will, at later very important point in the novels. Everyone else in earlier coments was trying not to spoil it you could have taken a hint.
Er…what? What did I say? I didn’t read the novels either so I have no idea what’s about to happen. I’m just speculating. Anyway, I did mark my whole post as a SPOILER. I have no idea what’s going to be revealed later….?
Anyway, if it’s a big deal, psgels, sorry could you delete my post again?
What are you talking about Troy he’s only explained what has already been said about the servant system and the command seals. Which is basically they will have their unused seals assuming they did not surrender it to the church however if they do ‘vanish’ or better put should only reappear should the master have formed a new contract with a servant. Unless of course you’re talking about Avenger but that isn’t a big deal since its not exactly going to be mentioned or play THAT big of a part here since that is for the game but not that bad of a spoiler since the real implications are known elsewhere.
Other than that he’s revealed an easter egg though it is one that doesn’t concern psgels since its more of a fun fact for fans of the series.
I enjoyed this episode.
The whole seal thing feels unnecessarily confusing, but I guess that’s because it stems from a… game, is it?
it’s like rule explanations, and i guess you’ just have to accept that’s how it works.
But whatever, I liked the interaction between Kirei and Gil, and how Gil gets him to see where he isn’t complete neutral and passionless. Oh that bit where Gil tells Kirei he needs to steal somebody else’s servant.. and then pickts up the archer piece on the board = DELICIOUS.
I hope it does happen! (no don’t spoil me please!)