I can’t help but feel disappointed when the epilogue of Lord El-M skips the entirety of the epic use of Rhongomyniad, and Hecatic Wheel smashing into each other. It doesn’t make for an exciting climax when the antagonist just simply teleports away before those two noble phantasm meet each other in a violent explosion. I understand that the show is simply following the source material and that wiping out the main baddie this early on in the game would be narratively unsatisfactory. It still sucks that after all the effort put into assembling the cast to help out Waver, Kabetro ends up dying and there is no payoff to show.
The rest of the episode is simply wrapping up the remaining plot threads with a really cool look in the ceremonial rituals within the Clock Tower. Apparently, in addition to titles, there are ranks to denote the skills of a magus. Waver holds the rank of Fes, which is the fourth out of seven, which doesn’t surprise me since his magic circuits are third rate. Life in the Clock Tower as shown by those ranks is as much about politics as it is about magecraft skills and it certainly shows with the heiresses of Mrs. Amuinupshere and Reine reaching a mutual agreement of cooperation for the future.
The best moments certainly come in the end with Grey finally giving her present to Waver and Iskandar speaking for the first time in the entire series. Grey is one of my favorite version of the saberface and her reaction to the affirmation of fighting together. I don’t think her feelings are romantic as its portrayed as more of a servant and master relationship Besides, by wielding a divine weapon like Rhongomyniad, she behaves far more like a servant than a teenage magus. After that touching scene ends, we are treated to seeing Iskandar show up even though it was just a dream sequence. The voice change from his adult voice to his younger is a good reminder of Waver’s journey to this point from his beginnings as an ambitious student in Fate/zero to his current status as a Lord.
With Dr. Heartless still on the loose, Lord El-Mello is begging for a second season to be made especially when the entire reason for summoning Faker hasn’t been revealed yet. There is still a metric ton of future light novels to cover and given how the Fate franchise is at its peak with F/GO printing out money, it’s more than likely that it will eventually be adapted. Overall, I’m quite pleased with Studio TROYCA’s efforts in continuing the canon Fate timeline by pulling in everything from the Fate franchise and the greater Nasuverse. Yet, they managed to carve out its own distinct identity with the array of characters, both familiar and new, that Waver get entangled with in the Clock Tower. I didn’t care that they didn’t set up the story so that the audience could figure the mystery of the week for themselves. Afterall, a mystery is only as good the first time around and I’m much more interested in being exposed to all sorts of weird applications of magecraft. If you haven’t enjoyed the alternate/spinoff Fate series
80/100
