Hmm, the creators really are putting Saber in the underdog role. In this episode she again gets saved from being killed in the midst of battle, she walks into any trap her opponents throw at her, she has most of the enemies going after her, she is the only one who has gotten handicapped. I mean, if she really is supposed to be the king of kings, then she doesn’t need this. This is why I like Kotomine Kirei: at first he seemed to be the one who was going to play the role of main character, and yet his role in the story is a very interesting one as an observer.
In any case though, what I am very happy about is that again the battles are set up so that they can involve as many characters as possible. This episode already gathered three master/servant pairs and that makes things much more interesting than if it was just two characters fighting each other, due to the slow nature of the battles in this series. The intrigue works well, and I especially liked the battle between Emiya and Kayneth and that silver blob of his. Although the climax of the episode was a bit weird, in which Emiya first yelled before shooting, announcing his presence that he masked with so much care, so that Kayneth could react against it…
Oh, and by the way: this episode was very good at building up atmosphere. The thing about this season is that the majority of all good series (not counting the usual crap as Maken-Ki of course) are actively building up to something, and they all do this in many different ways and forms. This season has more long shows than any season since Spring 2009. Fate/Zero is a tad slow for my liking, but it has some very good promise on its second half here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Fate/Zero – 07
I also thought Emiya was a little stupid by yelled before shooting. But who knows, based on his smirk at the end of the episode he might have a plan.
No spoiler. Kiritsugu needed to hide so he wouldn’t get killed before having a chance to fire, but he needed Kayneth to be aware enough to block the bullets for his subterfuge plan.
Kayneth’s blob-thing reacts automatically. Shouting Kayneth didn’t change that. On the other hand, it showed Kayneth his inability to detect Emiya – and that Emiya is confident enough to shout his name before attacking.
Also, I really liked Emiya’s smirk. It showed not just a cold hearted but a sadistical side to him – that he enjoys outsmarting people.
Two words: Mystic Code.
People familiar with the Nazuverse will get the hint withouth getting spoiled. Others, will not get spoiled either way. Can’t wait for next week!!!!
“This is why I like Kotomine Kirei: at first he seemed to be the one who was going to play the role of main character, and yet his role in the story is a very interesting one as an observer.”
I am guessing that you meant to say “This is why I like Kiritsugu Emiya.” Come on mate. At least get the names right.
And Ransom. All someone needs to do is google it and then it’s easy to put two and two together. Either way why bother to point that out? To Nasu fans it’s obvious. You only serve to spoil the surprise on people who don’t know about it.
In other words. Stop being a dick.
Aidan: no, I really meant that Kirei guy. At the start he was the guy with the most airtime, so I assumed that he would sortof fill in a role of main lead. This only changed when I found out that he was supposed to be a bad guy in Fate/Stay Night.
@AidanAK47
Sorry if I bothered you. I don´t think I spoiled anything at all though 🙂 As you said, people just need to google it, so it’ll be their fault if they get spoiled, not mine 😛 But I sincerely apologize nevertheless.
Changing the topic. Having an idea of how things will progress I do wonder at what point are they going to close this half, though. It would have been good to have the whole series without a break.
Now, for Saber being the underdog, I can of see it this way: She has her own story. Fate Zero is the story of Kiritsugu´s war and Kirei. It sets the stage for the Fate Stay Night Story, which unfortunatelly wasn´t well animated.
“Although the climax of the episode was a bit weird, in which Emiya first yelled before shooting, announcing his presence that he masked with so much care, so that Kayneth could react against it…”
Actually it wouldn’t have mattered whether or not Kayneth was aware of Kiritsugu’s attack. His defense is automatic and not consciously activated.
@Psgels: Oh…That’s an interesting look at it. I guess I never really saw Kirei as a possible main character. To me he’s always the villain.
@Ransom: I admit it needed to be googled to be understood. Hell even I had to google it. I am rusty on my type moon terminology. Still I believe it’s best not to even give people a hint. Just let them watch and see.
Also I believe Saber played the underdog in Fate/stay night as well. Limited mana, a rookie master… In fact I still question why Saber was regarded as the best class. Cause from what I see it seems that Archers are always the best.
Archers usually have strong Phantasms but aren’t well-versed fighters in close range. And heck, both known Archers are really unusual. Goldie is canonically the most powerful Heroic Spirit, period, and F/SN Archer cheats.
Sabers are regarded as the best class for at least 3 reasons:
1) Powerful stats. And I mean POWERFUL. Berserkers only go above that by the virtue of ME. Their base stats are lower than those of the Saber class.
2) Highest basic MagiRes.
3) Legendary swords are Legendary.
In other words, Sabers combine powerful NPs with high stats, whereas Berserkers, for example, usually sacrifice their most useful abilities in exchange for hightened stats (seriously, Eternal Arms Mastership is probably the biggest cheat out there), and Riders and Archers don’t get physical stats and MANA as high as a Saber’s, which limits the usefulness of their NPs (unless they’re exceptions, like Goldie, or cheaters, like F/SN Archer, whose projection has a constant cost, and a low one at that – he can create hundreds of those swords without breaking a sweat).
pretty much what Ransom 612 said, Saber is in fact the most powerful class of servants in Nasuverse, it’s just that both the archers in the 4th and 5th war cheats. That, and the writers keeps handicapping Saber, you can’t win against the pen 😛
@psgel Saber is the King of Knights, not King of Kings 😛 Also, the fight was definitely not that one-sided in the novel – Saber couldn’t get to Caster, but Caster’s summons couldn’t do much to Saber either. If it weren’t for her crippled left hand, she could just easily finished Caster off with a single shot of Excalibur.
Imo Saber is just super arrogant. She totally underestimated both caster and lancer. I guess that’s how you would obtain the “king of knights” title, though, really.
I’m really looking forward to the next episode. From reading these parts in the novel, Kayneth is actually my favourite character. He’s such an arrogant prick: I’m not cheering for him, but i love his background and abilities. That “silver blob” is mercury, and stupid powerful. Next episode is gonna be awesome.
Also, since I dont know the ending, or ending parts through the novel, I’m really looking forward to Kirei’s development. Though I’m fairly certain he is the primary villain, at least for emiya, i feel as if up until the end he wont really grow enough to hate.
[i]”If it weren’t for her crippled left hand, she could just easily finished Caster off with a single shot of Excalibur.[/i]
@Mike
About that, I’m actually wondering why CAN’T Saber use Excaliblast? I mean, it’s only a thumb for crying out loud.
This is NOT a spoiler, just a theory since I never read Fate/Zero.
Maybe Emiya wanted Kayneth to use his Mystic Code so he’ll be blinded by what Emiya really wanted to do? The smirk only confirmed it in the end.
@Billish
not sure how Saber came across as arrogant, as far as I can see she never underestimated any of her opponents, she simply got the short of of the stick as far as being the first to eat everyone else’s noble phantasm while her own is sealed away, which is more out of necessity by the writers than anything else, since her noble phantasm is THAT powerful – there’s little chance Caster and Lancer could’ve survived against Saber otherwise.
@blackraven66
Gae Buidhe actually severed the tendon in her left hand, so she can’t use it for much other than barely holding on to the sword with it. Excalibur on the other hand is a two-handed skill, which means Saber can’t use it while her left hand remains crippled.
@raven: She can’t use Excalibur because it has recoil. It’s a Prana Burst type of attack, and if she used it now the force of the blow would simply disarm her before she could direct the blast.
“Although the climax of the episode was a bit weird, in which Emiya first yelled before shooting, announcing his presence that he masked with so much care, so that Kayneth could react against it…”
Then it probably means that Kiritsugu has a trump card and the battle will be settled with his win. He plans everything out very carefully, and he has to have the title of Magus Killer for a reason.
Random_passer_by: that explanation looks nice and all, but please remember that I am no gamer, and have no idea what all that terminology means.
@Mike. Maybe.. overly-confident, is better diction here, than. Or what i meant. One example that comes to mind is the moment Lancer is commanded to help Berserker and destroy her. She states something along the lines of, “I will defeat them anyways”, without the use of her ultimate ability. First, she lost the use of her ultimate weapon by fighting Lancer too aggressively, and yet she still believe that she can defeat him, who is barely wounded. Second, she has just watched Berserker defend an outstanding, and extraordinary considering the rules, attack from Archer. She seems overly confident, and arrogant, in this case, but than again it also builds her character as the “King of Knights”, since in writing knights have this “never say die”, chivalrous attitude. Also, she should know that in order to beat her these other heroic spirits would need to use their noble phantasms. She let her self be incapacitated by Lancer, instead of finishing him with her ultimate. It was a mistake, and one born through her confidence in beating Lancer with lesser attacks. Lastly, vs. Caster, again she makes a mistake and must be saved. In this case, I feel that she didn’t really have a choice; but still, she states that she WILL defeat caster. So far she has made two mistakes, that, in other circumstances, she would most likely suffer defeat from. I wonder how many more she will make before unleashing Excalibur, and rightfully judging the abilities of her opponents.
Also… if i’m not mistaken, revealing any of Excaliburs abilities would be a spoiler, for those who havent watched F/SN, right? So i suppose its good that you dont understand that, psgels…
Last thing… I hope they really explain what happens in the Kiritsugu vs. Kayneth fight. From what I remember its pretty complicated.
Oh, sorry about that… I guess I’m just too used to the environment of other Type-Lunatics like me. >.ME = Mad Enhancement. The Berserker class specific skill that increases their stats but deprives them of sanity in exchange. Simply put, power derived from insanity.
MagiRes = Magic Resistance. It’s granted as a class skill to the knight classes (Saber, Lancer, Archer), and Riders.
Eternal Arms Mastership. The personal skill of F/Z Berserker that allows him to retain his combat skills even when insane. In other words, it allows him to do more than just HULK SMASH! like F/SN Berserker did.
MANA – quite obviously, the stat that determines how much prana the vessel holds. More prana means more uses of Noble Phantasms, of course.
Those are all from the F/SN visual novel and the status pages of F/Z Servants given in the second book (IIRC). If anything else is unclear, please ask, and I’ll do my best to answer.
(After all, what better use to useless trivia than to poison others with it, muwahaha)
I’ll try to restrain myself on the account of game-specific terminology that wasn’t explained in the anime from now on, too.
@billish: Oh..definetely,i’m sure the studio will animate that properly^-^ even i had to scratch my head over n over when i’m reading all those type-moon terminology, reality marble, mystic code, etc, but still i found all those technobuble from nasu very imaginative&exciting for me>_
Hmm… I could be wrong, but… I never considered Saber to actually be the focus Servant for Fate/Stay Night. The title isn’t based on her, and though the anime focuses mostly on her story, the original Visual Novel had two other routes that pushed her into a side-character role while it brought other characters into the main Servant spotlight (just as Saber’s route did to them). Emiya Shirou was the main protagonist, after all.
So really, I’m not bothered that much by her lack of appearance. I don’t consider any one character in Fate/Zero a main character, either. They just have their roles for the series, and are mostly treated equally (assuming they have true character, and aren’t just insane). Of course, I need to start reading ahead again, as the anime is catching up to where I left off while reading the novels… D: