The word that encompasses this episode in a nutshell would be brutal. Whether you love her or hate her, I say few would believe that Illya deserved this fate. The tragedy is ever more pungent if you know the full details of her past. Anime only viewers may not get the most out of this episode however as even with Ufotables efforts to make Illya more sympathetic, it’s hard to truly feel for a character who hasn’t been present for most of the series. Quite honestly while the flashbacks do explain how Illya became so ruthless and amoral, I would have prefered to forgo them for more action sequences. I think Ufotable missed an opportunity here. Now people do give Studio Deens 2006 Fate/stay night a lot of grief(And some even are audacious enough to claim that Ufotables version isn’t doing the source justice) but one of the most memorable scenes from that anime is a fight that was never present in the source material. I am speaking of Fate’s Archer vs Berserker fight, which is what many Fate fans refuse to admit was the one of the very few things that Deen did right. In the visual novel this took place all offscreen and only portrayed a weak conclusion but Deen took this moment and made it the highlight of the series. Ufotable could have done the same here. They could have took what was originally a one sided slaughter fest and made it into a full blown showdown. But instead the focus was on flashbacks to Illya’s past which was for the most part anime original.
My reaction to this material is mixed. As I said before, it does provide a reason for Illya’s psychotic nature but if does bring up some questions. People only starting from this anime will have no idea what’s going on and even I as a Fate fan am not certain as to what it was. Is it simply Illya’s imagination leading her to dark conclusions or a connection to a certain dark entity? The second option is feasible…I guess. But I am not certain if I am happy with it. It is understandable that they wished to give Illya some more attention before the big scene and this in turn does bring one of the faults of bringing Fate/stay night into anime. For you see the three routes of the Fate/stay night visual novel are not meant to stand independently. Each one is there to strengthen the others and are meant to be viewed in order. The fate route helps build a bond to Illya’s character so that her scene here would affect the reader more so than the characters themselves. But without it this does come across with weaker impact. The scene with the homunculi in the water chamber was also pretty bad. Just clunky exposition that wasn’t needed and doesn’t make much sense in context. The start of the wolves scene was also awkward with Illya standing up and more or less explaining to the audience what’s going on by talking to herself.
However seeing the wolves knock Illya down and proceed to attack her was a difficult scene to watch. That wasn’t the only scene that was hard to watch. Anyone who read this route knew it was coming as it is one of the most defining moments of the route itself. And make no mistake, Illya’s death was just as sad as it was there though missing a certain heart wrenching finale. Made all the more tragic by Rin desperately holding down Shirou to prevent him from running out to try and save her which I thought was a good change as in the visual novel he just waited and ran down the stairs when it was already too late. It makes more sense for his character to jump into action immediately rather than watch over silently. There is some disgust with the fanbase over Berserker breaking the chains of Enkidu as that should by all means be impossible. In the visual novel it’s just said that he escapes it somehow but doesn’t break it. Honestly though, this is the Nasuverse, where every unbeatable thing has an exception or several. I will admit that I am disappointed as to how this was handled. The flashbacks broke up the action and messed with the pacing. The new material was not the best. And cutting out the last part of the scene, while understandable as to why they did it, still left me wanting. Well now things are not looking too good for Rin and Shirou with the man turning his blades at them and them no servant to hide behind. But from the look of the preview a neglected fellow is about to get some spotlight.
Yeah. I was bracing myself for this arc but it still got to me somewhat. I wonder if the sheer tragedy might give a boost to the upcoming third season of Prisma Ilya.
Anime only viewers may not get the most out of this episode however as even with Ufotables efforts to make Ilya more sympathetic, it’s hard to truly feel for a character who hasn’t been present for most of the series.
Since her first appearance last season, I was thinking that it was intentional, maybe to help numb the audience to this particular plot twist. I mean, this route is the worst for Ilya. However, one thing weird about last week’s episode was how happy Ilya was to meet up with Shirou to talk about Kiritsugu, especially now that we know that she’s been under the influence of an infested Iris for 10 years. (Man, THAT was creepy.) If they were planning to play the infested Iris card, Ilya looking forward to talking about Kiritsugu felt like a weird slip. Were they working a bit too hard to set up a false sense of hope before the freefall?
The scene with the homunculi in the water chamber was also pretty bad. Just clunky exposition that wasn’t needed and doesn’t make much sense in context.
I get what you mean but I actually liked this scene. One of the biggest issues I had with the Einzberns is how they could continue with the ritual so many times when it kept failing so spectacularly. Especially when I feel they should be the most aware of how badly they shot themselves in the foot in the Third War. They are in the best position to know what’s infesting Iris and yet they kept coming back, in spite of it. I think this scene might be a setup for the coming Heaven’s Feel movie, arguably FSN Ilya’s most shining moment.
They could have took what was originally a one sided slaughter fest and made it into a full blown showdown.
I don’t know. I think ufotable did the best they could under the circumstances. The result couldn’t change so they didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver. I’m trying to make sense of blondie’s taunt to Berserker to let Ilya go and come at him with his full strength. Did Berserker have any other tricks up his sleeve that he could have used if he didn’t have to worry about covering Ilya? I mean, your reference to Berserker vs Archer by Deen, the result remained the same. We just got to see more of Archer’s abilities and her acquaintance with Ilya. And I always thought that Archer intentionally lost that time. He had the same advantages over Berserker that blondie did. This time, could Ilya, and even Shirou/Rin been able to do something? Distract blondie so Berserker could come at him from a blind spot maybe? But I suspect any such distraction would be a Dead End for Shirou/Rin. Could Ilya have maybe teleported Berserker to point blank range to blondie with a Command Spell? But even caught by surprise, blondie was able to take Berserker out in an instant. I don’t know. I felt like in spite of blondie’s taunts, Berserker never had a chance. Those blades came out way too fast. I don’t know how they’re going to settle future battles involving blondie if he’s this OP.
Bracing myself again for next week’s episode. I highly doubt they’ll cut the plot critical coup de grace. I wonder who that black chess piece is supposed to be? The guy with the artificial heart sitting behind the scenes as explosions go off all around?
This is going to attract angry replies, I am sure. But as someone who started from Fate/Zero first, this episode was perfectly understandable – whatever abomination lies within the grail basically tormented Kiritsugu’s daughter for ten years till Illya’s sanity was greatly weakened and personality, wrecked. Which makes the entire flashback rather horrifying and effective – that young girl that Kiritsugu left behind was psychologically tormented by corruption in the Grail taking the form of her mother.
The implication of the Corruption speaking to Illya though, offers interesting possibilities to Caster’s Search for the Grail Vessel. We know that in the previous war (for Fate/Zero watchers), Irisviel was the Grail Vessel, given autonomy and the ability to defend herself. The Corruption being able to speak to Illya.. suggest that Illya is also somehow connected to the Grail – by virtue of being the daughter of the previous Grail Vessel? It also then puts Caster’s frantic search in the Church, in a very amusing light.
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