The final battle begins and this show yet again gives me little to work with. It’s funny but being a Fate fan I thought I would be able to go on endlessly about this show with little effort. Yet the pacing of the last few episodes has been dreadfully slow and not a lot has actually happened. That said, what did happen was pretty entertaining. For one our main villain is revealed to not be Darius Ainsworth but instead his son Julius Ainsworth. After being stabbed with Caster’s rule breaker his illusion falls and with it comes what seems to be his original personality. I actually prefer Julius’s now cold serious personality to that of his immense overacting when he was impersonating his father. The question is though, just why was he impersonating his father? Perhaps it as to maintain control of the family after likely killing his own father. What makes this reveal so strange is that this isn’t the first time Julius’s first time appearing as he turns out to be the boy that Beatrix was obsessively fangirling over. She too enters the fray after insinuating that she was just finished enjoying herself and asking to not go into more detail. It’s all too clear just what she was doing but what concerns me is whether all the Ainsworths are related because if so this becomes quite creepy. Well, creepier.
Well I will be damned, Hades really does have a cap of invisibility and here I thought Prisma was making up noble phantasms again. Though the design doesn’t look like it’s from ancient Greece, that’s for certain. What I can say is that it gave Gil some great moments. It’s a pity he’s not taking a more active role but having him bust out Miyu’s brother so the Ainsworths wouldn’t have anything to hold over Miyu was clever. They already knew where he was so getting him out wasn’t a big problem. I do feel bad for Erika this episode as Miyu admitted that she wasn’t her friend but all things considered I understand exactly why Miyu would say that. Erika does not mean any harm but she’s just been too far twisted to really see the wrong in her actions. Seeing her say she would put her trust in Julius just right before getting smothered in what looks like the black mud from the polluted grail was rather heartbreaking. If the parallels to Illya carry true then Erika is likely a holy grail as well so this really doesn’t bode well. Silver Link missed a great chance for some fanservice with servants who failed to get the grail appearing in droves. Come on, we could have had Diarmuid or Castor or Rider show up in mud form but instead we just get a bunch of generic dudes in Armour. Considering the level of power of heroic spirits, there should be no way in hell that Illya and crew should be putting up this much of a fight but we can blame them as being not full manifestations.
Miyu’s brother is revealed and to no one’s surprise it’s alternate universe Shirou. Making an admittedly badass entrance, the boy is ready to hijack the show and I really couldn’t be happier about that. Though I think Sliver Link picked a poor ending point for the episode. Given just thirty more seconds they could have ended this on a much more awesome note. Also it was rather strange to change it so Shirou blocks a hailstorm of arrows on Rin, Bazzet and Luvia because that suggests he can project Rho Aias from a distance. Which I am not certain he can do. The big question is that how is everyone else going to react when the Shirou they know was the lamest version to date compared to what some consider to be the best version of Shirou’s character. It is no joke that Miyuverse Shirou is pretty great as he feels like a combination of Unlimited blade works Shirou and Heaven’s Feel Shirou. He’s almost the halfway point to Archer as evidenced by parts of his skin turning tanned and the small dash of white hair. It’s a pity we won’t see his backstory as that’s for another season. Either way we got a pretty epic battle coming up and I am most certainly ready. Just make sure to play Emiya at one point and this will go marvelously.
If I have to guess, based on Julian/Dairus rants about myths, plays, stories and legends, I think Julian/Darius wants to create a legend worthy of being inscribed on the Throne of Heroes, with himself as the subject of the legend. So, rather than begin from scratch with his own legend, Julian decides to literally install the concept of his father into himself, and continue his father’s legend.
I won’t be surprised if the ironic consequence, is that Illya instead becomes the subject of the Legend Julian is trying to create, and this Illya gets inscribed on the Throne of Heroes by accident.
Now, how he intends to accomplish this, is a somewhat open question. I presume the tablet he was inscribing Miyu’s memories on, and the Cube might have something to do with it, somehow.
That’s my theory, but I do think given this is a Fate series work, all those meta-rants Julian/Darius made about scripts and legends is related to some kind of desire associated with the Throne of Heroes.
Though those rants appeared to be Julius acting out Darius’s character. That may have been his agenda but Julius may have an entirely different goal in mind.
Man, Imagine if Rin used the Kaleidostick as a articfact to summon a hero for the holy grail war in the main series and summoned Prisma Illya. That would be…interesting.
Actually Illya and Co are not putting up any fight. Chloe, the closest to being on that level got few hits in that did no damage and then had her weapons shattered in seconds. Bazzet, who legit can fight a servant defensively, is barely able to not die.
As for Jullian – well, from the way he talks it seems he is trying to amass conceptual power by building up a legend around himself. What exactly he wants to do I have no idea, but reason dictates its most likely the way he intends to save humanity.
But this is servents we are talking about here. By all accounts they should be dead in seconds. The fact that they can manage to stay alive sort of undermines the level of power of these mud servents.
I am going to make a wild guess and say he’s aiming for godhood. To not only save huminity from the decay of the earth but to also save humanity from itself. They are essentailly creating a new humanity and I think it’s fairly likely that Julius believes that he should be the one to lead and shape it.