Oh Rider…
So FABULOUS!
Only Rider… I can only imagine what Waver is thinking at this point.
Kingly Beatdown
This was by far my favorite episode yet of the series. You may have noticed I’ve been complaining a lot about how boring Saber and Lancer have been with their gratuitous display of nobility. Lancer got better a few weeks ago when his story became tragic. And this week, my enjoyment of Saber improved as Rider gave her the royal beatdown while they drank.
I must say I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Saber’s petty little ideals decimated by Rider. I never particularly liked Saber, even in the original Fate / Stay Night.
I don’t know how, but Type Moon managed to make King Arthur boring. I would have thought that would be impossible. But they tossed out everything that made Arthur fascinating— his love triangle with Guinevere and Lancelot, his incestuous bastard son Mordred, the knights of the round table, and Merlin— and replaced it with a noble little girl following her petty little ideals. Saber isn’t really even a human so much as she is an ideal. And she isn’t a British king so much as a Japanese yamato nadeshiko. Boring.
So seeing Rider not even acknowledge her as a king was incredibly satisfying. I was surprised to see that even Gilgamesh felt a bit sorry for her and tried to comfort her.
Further Thoughts
- Seeing Gilgamesh pull the wine out of his storeroom was hilarious.
- I loved how Waver objected when Rider said he wanted to gain a real body, not to conquer the world, and Rider flipped him over backwards with a flip of his wrist. Waver seems to be getting into Rider’s rhythm.
- Rider’s reality marble is badass. I completely agree that he would make a much better king than Saber.
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The only thing I like about Saber is her character design.
Broskander is making a run for my favorite male character of the year. This was undoubtedly the best episode yet.
“Broskander”… I like it.
“- his love triangle with Guinevere and Lancelot”
It exists… Believe me, it does.
“- his incestuous bastard son Mordred”
Mordred exists too (Merlin gave Arthuria a penis for lols for a while… True story). See the ending, that’s Saber slaying Mordred.
” the knights of the round table, and Merlin”
They all exist.
Not sure if you’re only familiar with the anime adaptation of FSN… But Arthur’s background is similar, only that she dug her own grave by trying to be an ideal king to compensate her gender insecurity, because people wished for it… and the same people who wished for it hated her for granting them that. Lol…
Not that I like Saber better than Rider, but she has enormous depth and a really messed up background. Hell, her misunderstanding with Mordred is worth of Manly Tears.
Wait, what? Seriously? I saw the anime and also played the game… I don’t remember any of this, except for how Saber died at the end. Was this from the game? Or from the Fate / Zero novel?
Regardless, though, Saber as she appears in the TV show is not all that interesting for me.
About eight episodes ago I came to the conclusion I would never be able to comprehend just how awesome Iskander is. Watching him try to destroy Saber’s worldview was quite satisfying, and as soon as his offer of a drink was turned down, even people who hadn’t read the novel translations knew that was the last thing Assassin would ever do. Broskander’s not just in the running for best male character of the year, he is it.
Rider is great. Part of what makes him work so well is Waver, too, even though I never thought I’d say this. It’s the contrast between them which really lets Rider shine.
In the novel Gil’s line is clearly not about him feeling sorry for her, though. It’s amazing how he can make ‘King of Knights’ sound so patronizing.
Personal favorite episode as well. ufotable’s doing a great job with the adaptation imo- it’s just that the verbal exchange between Lancer and Saber was kinda dull, even in the novels.
Very interesting. Here I didn’t get that impression at all, it actually seemed like he respected Saber and was trying to comfort her.
And I agree that the problem is the idea of the dialogues rather than the delivery. It’s the content itself that’s boring.