It’s never too late to post this. The God of Motivation certainly wasn’t there for me this week. I’d also like to say that there won’t be any Fate/Zero post this weekend since I have a big midterm assignment to start and finish. So, next weekend, it will be a double-episode coverage (Ep 4 and 5).
Humbled Master is humbled.
I noticed that Fate/Zero will be separated into 2 seasons in order to keep the animation quality of the show consistent. So, the 2nd part of the show will actually air in Spring 2012. This should give me a good break to blog something else in Winter 2012 and, hopefully, that “something else” will be Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka? Season 2.
Fate/Zero’s 3rd episode was sadly nothing epic, evil, or exciting. Though less complicated than the first episode, there is still a lot of formal talk. We still do not have a fight, not even a kid getting tentacle raped (or killed). It’s clear that I already miss Caster and Uryuu LOL.
In replacement for the kids, Waver offers us his rape face.
The masters are starting to strategize for the war. Alexander the Great is learning about the world by watching TV, even though the grail should have given him enough information about the world. He’s even set his first target for world domination if he ever wins the war. Bill Clinton, YOU’RE NEXT! So, this reminds us that the show is set sometime in the 90’s. Rider displays a very chill attitude towards other servants, even towards Archer who has an intriguing Noble Phantasm that allowed him to kill Assassin very easily. He clearly has no plan whatsoever as he intends to go out to have fun and wait for the enemy to appear… like a baws! The best thing he ever said is: “Food, Sex, Sleep and War… Whatever you do, enjoy it thoroughly. That’s the secret of life”
It’s hard to imagine he’s the fastest. LOL
The death of Assassin was actually a plan concocted by Kirei and Tokiomi in order to fool the other masters who observed the incident. No one knows that Kirei’s Assassin wasn’t just Hassan-i Sabbah, the leader of a muslin assassination group called The Assassins (or the Ḥashshāshīn), but rather the entire group itself. Since Kirei (as a master “without” a servant on the outside) goes under the protection of his father aka the Judge of the Grail War and the Church, that of which serves as a Neutral Zone, he can actually hide in the Church where he can send his group of 20 to 30 Assassins to sneak around and murder the other masters. Screw the Rules, we got the Church! Yup, the church is evil.
That’s some hax servant.
Of course, the brilliant Kiritsugu doesn’t buy the BS that Kirei is out of the War and so, he sends a familiar (or spy) to watch out the actions of the Church. Kiritsugu is pretty well prepared for the war. He makes his wife, Irisviel, the proxy master of Saber in order to fool some masters who don’t know about him being Saber’s real master. He’s armed with hand guns, sniper rifles and grenades. He’s certainly ready to kill. However, he does hint that he’s rusty as he comments being dull after reloading a special one-bullet gun in only 2 seconds… Right, that’s still freaking fast LOL.
Headshots assured?
One thing I will give props to Gen Urobuchi is that he made a complex and imperfect character in Kiritsugu Emiya. Though the animators could and should have provided us some flashbacks, we can still see an internal conflict inside the mind of Kiritsugu who has to win a war to kill his wife. Throughout the 3 episode, Fate/Zero has been hinting that Irisviel is a homunculus made to become the vessel for the Holy Grail just like Illyasviel. This is why Kiritsugu said that he’ll be the cause of her death in the first episode. He’s confident enough to not believe that no one will defeat him. I doubt anyone can deny he’s the favourite to win. In order to prevent emotional harm, he avoids taking more time with his wife. Sadly, he even commits adultery with his equally cold assistant, Maiya, even though she was clearly the one humping on him. This allows us to sympathize more with Irisviel. She has to die for the first time she’s allowed to step out of the Einzberg castle. It’s kind of tragic, but, at the same time, I’m looking forward how much emotional her end will be.
I clearly wasn’t expecting that.
Saber and Iris seem to have formed a bond of friendship or rather a knight-princess relationship. Clearly, Saber cares more about Iris than her own master.
I like her clothing, but WTF is up with Saber’s eyebrows?!?!?!
We learn something new that wasn’t in Fate/Stay Night! Saber explains that servants are given the ability to ride modern life vehicles through the Grail powers and intuition. This leads to a small joke that shows the cultural differences of Saber who says she only needs to ride on a saddle and hold a rein to pilot something like a plane. Okay, joke aside; I think that kind of kills the purpose of having a Rider class if everyone can ride on something. Then again, it would be fun to see someone fly a military helicopter and start shooting down others with missiles.
I still can’t get used to those eyebrows…
The show ends in a cliffhanger with Saber being challenged by Lancer whose master is presumably Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi. Well, this Lancer’s really not much different from Fate/Stay Night’s Lancer. Aside from the fact that one uses 2 lances, their looks are pretty much the same. I notice the Fate franchise is making both Lancer mention the “rules” in their first appearance. Zero’s Lancer states to dislike the Grail War’s rules. In Fate/Stay Night, the other Lancer tries to kill Shirou Emiya because he follows the RULES to “perfection”.
Overall, we get a lot of chit-chat. I felt that the discussion between Waver and Rider was close to an info-dump. Did we even need Waver to get more air-time? I think Archibald and Kariya need to appear in the next episode. Seriously, Archibald got lesser exposure than Rin or Sakura (LOL) and Kariya is pretty much the only GOOD-willed master of the show.
Fight Fight Fight!!
Score: 6/10 – I thought the episode lacked excitement. I hope next week’s episode will deliver something great. Hopefully, this is the final preparation for the war. If the first episode wasn’t 47 minutes long, the show would be going nowhere now.
Bokutachi no BLOG 
well, just a few info for you.
Only Rider and Saber class has the “riding” skill. the other servant’s can’t do that.
and obviously, Rider is a better pilot than everyone there.
And yes, fate zero has a lot of talking, some are really entertaining like the bill clinton joke, but believe me, one of the best parts of the history are the conversations.
The battles are interesting as well.I think that the next episode will be 70% fighting scenes, and 30% of short talks and movimentation of the side characters.
nice blog, nice review, i’m sure you’ll enjoy the next episode because is really a unexpected battle.
In the beginning I though Assassin was only 4 or 5 but when they revile themselves, I was like OMG, there is a whole army of them!!
Plus, where is my Berserker? That Kariya has only about 1/2 month of life left. I wish they could hurry up and give him some screen time before he return to earth or become bug food.
I’m certainly more interested in seeing the suffering of Kariya than seeing Waver piss his pants on a bridge. lol
You Sadist, LOL, but really, I’d like some screen time on Kariya and his Berserker. I heard Berserker need a lot, and I mean A LOT, of mana, or power to support him….