I like the ED, how it shows the lives of the servants before they became… servants. I do have one major problem with them though: why did they find it a good idea to spoil the looks of the servants before they appear in the story? The OP is like that too. I mean, the whole point of not showing certain characters, while introducing them, especially in such a series where the amount of characters is fixed from the start, is to build up suspense. What will these servants look like? Just showing them takes away part of the suspense.
Aaand that’s about the only negative thing I have to say about this episode. The major theme of this Fall Season is taking time to build up your story and characters, with Un-Go and Ben-To being some of the major exceptions. In that area, Fate/Zero is among the best in the building up department. While other series might have more lively characters, a more imaginative setting or a more exciting opening, the dialogue is very well written and presents its exposition in an interesting way, the acting is rock-solid and the build-up is slowly but very solidly creating its atmosphere, helped a lot by Yuki Kajiura (that’s why I’m so disappointed at the OP and ED for trying to go against that).
It’s a bit of a shame that there’ll be a 3-month pause in the middle, but at least that will ensure that those episodes too will receive the attention they deserve, rather than rushing through the ending. This episode was solid and promised a lot for the next episode. I hope that like last week, the battles in this series instead of dragging on, they are to the point. Those fit this kind of series much better, when it’s expected of everyone to think smart. Everyone is actually very busy keeping surveillance on each other with the use of familiars (I also like that we don’t exactly see who the four people who watched on last episode’s battle were; again, suspense). My prediction on the first one to fall is Rider. His master so far has been the most naive of the bunch.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Fate/Zero – 03
Well with the Mawaru Penguindrum OP it was kind of cool to speculate how the shown characters (for example Sanetoshi) might come into play, but I guess in F/Zs case it’s just that they want to include all the important characters but don’t want to alter the opening as they come in.
I see your point about the OP/ED, but really if you’re new to a series you don’t really know who is who so it doesn’t really matter if you see them in the theme songs, in my opinion. And even though we’ve seen Lancer in the OP we still didn’t know who was going to fight Saber at the docks until they met up.
Loved the Clinton reference XD
Nah, I don’t think Rider will fall first. Waver may be the youngest, but he’s actually pretty intelligent in magic. Also, Rider is really strong and makes up for Waver’s weaknesses in battling and strategies.
I think the Caster duo will be the first to fall.
I don’t really mind them showing the identities of the servants in the ending. In fact, I like that they did that. It’s a really nice detail on their part to draw the images parallel to actual artwork of their counterparts in real life, coupled with a strong and melancholic song. Comparisons here:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/members/162050-albums4880-picture51856.jpg
I don’t think their identities will really spoil any plot points.
ooohh that is interesting indeed.
who is missing? beserker?
The story doesn’t have a main character, so I don’t think that showing all the Heroes spoil it. Maybe their true identities could be hidden, but again, if we didn’t knew who Rider was, maybe his speech would have to be different.
And also, Rider is fucking Famous, he can’t be the first to die! A Hero power is proportional to his fame!
luckily, rider isnt the first to fall… i wont exactly spoil it, though if you want it spoiled you can go to the type moon wiki and do some research. now that i think about it, i kinda spoiled it…
what do you mean by 3 month pause?
Please, loser: let us speculate about what will happen without having to fear about these kinds of spoilers.
As for the 3 month break: this show will be split up in 2 seasons of 13 episodes. The second season will air next spring.
Since we already got Rider Spoiler… Who else would fall first? Since that teacher from the Magus Association seems a douchebag, i would pick him! My guess is that people just love to see those kind of people fall.
Yeah, or maybe Caster? Somethig like evil always loses?
why would rider fall first? his master has the most potential for character development – it would be a waste.
oh dear sorry about that, ill wont spoil any more of it, but as a type moon fan i find it surprisingly hard to keep myself bottled up.
Same here, loser. I’m actually trying to find a place to talk about Fate Zero that’s actually safe for different levels of spoilers. Eg. I’ve played FSN and FHA and watched the anime and the UBW movie. I never read the novels but I did spoil myself somewhat on the wikis (way before there was even a hint about a Fate Zero anime), although IMHO it’s not all that detailed but does spoil major events and identities.
Right now, I’m trying to get a read on Tokiomi, Rin and Sakura’s father. *SPOILERS* There’s a Fate Stay Night principle, in which the summoned Servant usually shares character traits with his or her contracted Master, even when they’re summoned with artifacts. I’m trying to get a read on Tokiomi’s true character as reflected against Gilgamesh’s mannerisms, which seem pretty similar to his incarnation in the future 5th War that happens in the main FSN storyline. He seems like a masterful strategist and schemer but I don’t know whether to peg him as a villain or not, given that he’s Rin’s dad. I’d like to think that he’s actually working for a good cause and may not have known exactly what he was putting Sakura through when he made his deal with the Matous. I’m also wondering about Gilgamesh’s character and whether he’s truly as wicked as he was/will be in the 5th War or whether something happened to him, referencing stuff from FHA.
The magus can only give their magical crest, “the source of all it’s family magical achievement”, to one child. My guess is that Tokiomi just wanted to get the crest, or something on those lines, from the Mato, so Sakura could learn magic too. But maybe he knew what kind of treatment she would get, but accepted it, nevertheless..
So maybe he isn’t cruel, he just puts sorcery in first place.
. I’m also wondering about Gilgamesh’s character and whether he’s truly as wicked as he was/will be in the 5th War or whether something happened to him, referencing stuff from FHA.
well, read up on real life Gilgamesh 🙂
Arrogance, greed, as well as honor and respect for those worthy of him are kind of defining traits of Gilgamesh from the legends and from what we see of him so far he certainly is pretty much the same old gilgamesh from legends, who wanted to trick death so he could rule forever. 🙂
*SPOILERFUL*
My guess is that Tokiomi just wanted to get the crest, or something on those lines, from the Mato, so Sakura could learn magic too.
Hm, I see. From what I read, it seems both Rin and Sakura had strong magical talent but Tokiomi wanted to send Sakura to Matou not only to learn about Matou magic but also so as to avoid a rivalry between Rin and Sakura over succession of their House. Still, it would seem exceptionally cold of Tokiomi to put Sakura through Matou rituals if he had any idea what it would be like. And I would think he would have some clue as his own wife’s friend and love rival ran out on the Matous to avoid Sakura’s current fate.
he certainly is pretty much the same old gilgamesh from legends
Hm..I was thinking of how, in FHA, Gilgamesh winds up actually helping the others hold back the tide of shadow remnants to give Shirou a chance to climb the final stairway. Even Lancer sat that battle out, even though he should have had a personal stake in that final battle. Kind of a far cry from his behavior in FSN. I also understand that between Zero and Stay Night, Gil stooped down to something similar to Bluebeard’s most recent method of mana replenishment. Now, THAT seems out of character. I was wondering if somewhere down the line in Fate Zero, Gil takes a dip in some black goo…not enough to turn him into Archer Alter, but enough to make him nastier than he usually is.
He says so himself in Fate, meow. But then he adds that he wouldn’t be the king of heroes if he couldn’t withstand a curse of at least thrice that power. So no, he isn’t polluted in any way. Most likely, just disappointed in how humanity had turned out.
Caster and his master just seem like a characters thrown in without much of a role to play except to be the seventh master/servant duo (at least not yet because there is absolutely no development for them except being murders). If Caster died first it would make his character extremely annoying because then he had absolutely no role in relation to the rest of the story, no development, and the serial killing/torturous murder of the boy would be for nothing (story-wise) and it would seem like the creators of the show just wanted to through in a bit of disturbing murder for the fun of it, which I would find quite off-putting.
I don’t think anyone should be dying for a few episodes anyways, just so that characters can develop more and their deaths actually have an impact instead of just eliminating a servant for the sake of having less.
Taji I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Unlike Fate Stay Night, with it’s multiple alternate routes which give the spotlight to different characters each time, Fate Zero’s novels seemed to give a lot of development to every character in this one single storyline. To be honest though, I’m not looking forward to this Master/Servant pair’s story.