I actually wonder if a time will come when I have an actual idea of what exactly is going on in this series. But today marks Hakuno’s first true servant battle as he takes on Shinji and Francis Drake so that he can ascend to the next level. So to surmise what I can understand of the exposition in this episode, it seems that originally a pretty standard grail war tournament was going on with masters killing each other to reach the top floor. However something seems to have happened which has locked down each floor and put the Grail War on halt. Now it seems the only way to make one’s way up is to kill the Floor master, whom seems to have been selected by the bright circle in the sky. Shinji seems to have had the option to move up to the next floor but after killing yet another person to get further in the game ultimately decided that he wanted no more of this and built a town on the bottom floor. It’s not really certain whether anyone was in the town, or if the town was filled with the ghosts of the masters who died in the war, or if the town existed at all. But I will say that Shaft knows how to make a good servant match setup as the town is flooded to make the stage for Nero’s battle against Drake.
And yes, Francis Drake is a big breasted pirate in this universe and no, there is no real explanation as to why this is. Honestly I really like how this fight was set up though they really should have kept Drakes Golden hind in the water instead of having it weirdly floating. Also for all the grandstanding the fight itself is disappointingly anticlimactic with Drake essentially giving up the moment she runs out of bullets. Part of the reasoning suggested behind this is that Shinji was using Drakes treasure to sustain the illusion of the city and Drake is a servant whose power is dependent on how much treasure she possesses. Still this does feel like Drake was effectively given the short end of the stick as it doesn’t really show just how much of a powerhouse she can really be. She’s a five star servant for a reason so she shouldn’t be getting destroyed by a four star servant. She really should have put up more of a fight than this and it just seems so out of character for Drake to just lay down and die. Drakes a girl that fights with her fists when she runs out of bullets.
So my previous episode guesses turned out to be half right and half wrong. Right in that it appears there were no masters on the first floor but wrong in Shinji’s intention. Shinji seems to pity those that gave up on the fight and the town was really supposed to be just that, a refuge for the quitters. Or he believes that bringing a bunch of masters together will cause something to happen. Or he just wants to prove that humanity isn’t worthless. Honestly his motivation is rather confusing. This would be a good time to remind that this Shinji isn’t Fate/Stay Night Shinji. If this goes by the same lines of the games story, Shinji was a regional games campion who joined the Grail War because he thought it was just another game. He is also significantly younger than his teenager avatar would suggest. Same goes for Rin who may look Identical to her Fate/Stay Night counterpart but her real self actually is rather different.
For one, real Rin is blond. Still I find it really weird for Shinji of all people to accept dying with Rider. Shinji so far has been portrayed as being the usual Shinji we know though his final words certainly seem to suggest he went through a large change of heart in the time since coming to the first floor. Most curiously both Shinji and Rin don’t seem to recall meeting Hakuno in the school simulation and on top of which when Hakuno remarks about having been killed in the school, several shots of Hakuno’s dead body are shown with different causes of death. One I find most interesting is one where he is lying dead in front of a throne with a clear sword slash on his back suggesting that Nero killed him. There is most definitely some time looping shenanigans going on here. Last note, Rin states that her servant was taken but I hope that doesn’t mean he won’t be showing up. One thing I always thought was a massive shame with the Fate/Extra game was the lack of Rin and her servant interacting with each other.
One thing to note is that F/GO star ratings mean nothing. Fionn, an absolute powerhouse by the lore, is 4*. Asterios (able to go toe to toe with Hercules in the lore) is 1*. Meanwhile Okita, whose pretty weak by the lore standards outside of her flag NP, is 5*.
It’s basically random.
True though it isn’t so much random but rather more waifu desire based. So that people pay more to get them. Still I think we can both argee that drake really should have put up more of a fight than she did.
It felt like the first half of the episode was ending the first act of the arc and the second half of the episode was the ending of the 3rd arc. So much was haphazardly explained not for the purpose of mystery but because it seemed like it was rushed and crammed.
Super disappointed that this series is probably gonna be crammed into a rushed 12-14 episodes and that train-wreck called Apocrypha got 24.
Actually I was going to bring this up in the next post but this series actually has two arcs. Both of which seem to have 12/13 episodes. It doesn’t appear to be a second cour but some are suspected that it’s a prequel to this series with Female Hakuno as the protagonist. If that’s the case it might explain the rather confusing story here as maybe the explaintions are reserved for this second Arc.
I thought they just announced a special broadcast in vague terms. If they do another Extra I’d like to see Extra CCC since it’s supposedly among Nasu’s best works.
Doubtful. I would love to play Extra CCC myself but both it and Extra have been effectively dubbed non-Canon by Nasu himself. This anime is supposed to be the true canon of Extra.