Fate / Zero 24 — What a stupid conclusion.

He said what we all were thinking.

Last week, I said that I couldn’t care less about this show now that Waver and Rider were gone. Well, I could still care less about all of the characters. But I did enjoy the episode immensely, in large part due to the fact that everything I didn’t care about amounted to nothing… or, Zero. How little I cared about the characters actually made the ending better.

Here are some good points to the episode:

Gundam SEED Style Epic Battles!!!!

This was so ridiculous I couldn’t help but laugh. We have Kirei deflecting bullets with his knives and his bare arms. I’m sure there is some explanation in the novel about Kirei’s magic cloak or command spells, but come on, this was just funny.

And when Kiritsugu uses his time magic to move at double speed, Kirei just has to adjust his timing to compensate. Somehow I don’t think the physics works that way… Anyway, it doesn’t matter, since Kiritsugu can also move at triple time and squared time. By the way, what the heck is square time? If double and triple time are in seconds, then square time is in seconds squared? It doesn’t make any sense.

In the meantime, Saber fights a tragic battle against Lancelot. No one gives a shit. Apparently there is an interesting backstory regarding Lancelot, but they didn’t explain it.

The Evil Grail is the Only Good Guy Left

Kiritsugu is convinced not to use the grail by… the grail.

Apparently Angra Mainyu is not a wish-granting device in the line of Arabian genies and trickster spirits. Even before you make your wish, it goes through a good deal of trouble to make it abundantly clear exactly what you’re wishing for.

It shows Kiritsugu exactly what his dumb ideals will lead to: plenty of people dying and suffering. And the grail will grant Kiritsugu’s wish and do exactly that.

But the best part is, despite realizing how flawed his ideal is, Kiritsugu continues to follow his ideal. In accordance with his ideal, Kiritsugu chooses the action which will kill the fewest people: destroying the grail. Kiritsugu follows through with his ideal and destroys his own ideal. After everything we’ve been through with Kiritsugu, his ideal isn’t even self-consistent. So Kiritsugu manages to destroy his own ideal while remaining loyal to it.

I Get to See Saber Suffer

I really enjoyed this part. Saber’s “honor” and self-righteousness have been pissing me off for the entire show, so seeing her defeated and forced to destroy all her hopes and dreams with her own hands was immensely satisfying. 🙂

Saber is the only one left alive who even cares about the grail. Gilgamesh doesn’t even want to bother with adding it to his treasure collection. Kirei seems to care about the grail, but I think he would have enjoyed watching Kiritsugu use the grail and end up destroying the world more than using it for himself.

Kiritsugu’s use of all his command spells to order Saber to destroy the grail was pretty badass. They don’t get along too well. I’m not sure why Gilgamesh was upset by Kiritsugu’s order though. I didn’t think he cared about the grail.

10 thoughts on “Fate / Zero 24 — What a stupid conclusion.

  1. I think Gilgamesh was angry at Kiritsugu as it made Saber get serious. He was standing in front of the grail and it would be destroyed, if she used her fortress beam-sword move. And then Gilgamesh’s proposal and fun was ruined by making saber have to engage in a serious fight. I think anyway.

    1. Yeah, you’re probably right. I guess it was more that he was having Saber ignore him than that he cared about the grail, that makes sense.

  2. Again, I can’t judge this episode yet without seeing the bluray version… damn.

    In the meantime, Saber fights a tragic battle against Lancelot. No one gives a shit. Apparently there is an interesting backstory regarding Lancelot, but they didn’t explain it.

    Cut. A shame. I liked that scene. Seeing Saber’s despair when Lancelot died with a smile on his face, freed from his guilt was rather cool.

    Even before you make your wish, it goes through a good deal of trouble to make it abundantly clear exactly what you’re wishing for.

    I just ignored that by telling myself that this is due to Angra Mainyu taking over Iri’s personality and that she is talking to Kiritsugu. The one whose method is fitting to “All the evils of the world”.

    It shows Kiritsugu exactly what his dumb ideals will lead to: plenty of people dying and suffering. And the grail will grant Kiritsugu’s wish and do exactly that.

    Well, he has two conflicting wishes. One, he just doesn’t want to see the people on the world and around him cry. Two, and that revealed the Grail, to live a happy life with his wife and his daughter in peace . As we all remember(even more the novel readers), he considered this option, but decided against this because he already killed too many to stop now. It was definitely for the world and its inhabitants the best decision to reject the Grail.

    No matter what, your wish is irrelevant. Angra Mainyu would have wanted to be born and destroy the world in one way or another. Since the Grail is already tainted, it doesn’t matter what you wish for, Grail-kun will screw that wish. :p

    Like this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmHTASY6oKA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiwHmKzD314

    :>

    I really enjoyed this part. Saber’s “honor” and self-righteousness have been pissing me off for the entire show, so seeing her defeated and forced to destroy all her hopes and dreams with her own hands was immensely satisfying.

    That was definitely awesome, but her hatred and the chivalry she was ignoring to get the Grail, only to get her hopes destroyed by Kiritsugu was even more delicious to me. It was described in the novel that her jade-colored eyes turned yellow and she looked like Saber Alter to me in that scene (http://sai-zen-sen.jp/sa/fate-zero/special/dl/vol6_1024_768.jpg). Too bad ufotable didn’t show it…

    I’m not sure why Gilgamesh was upset by Kiritsugu’s order though.

    Kiritsugu’s messing around with the King’s possession. Why else?:P And if Saber honestly tries to destroy the Grail, she will disappear, too.

    1. Seeing Saber’s despair when Lancelot died with a smile on his face, freed from his guilt was rather cool.

      Damn, this sounds way more interesting than the show made it, I will have to look up spoilers later.

      Since the Grail is already tainted, it doesn’t matter what you wish for, Grail-kun will screw that wish.

      You know, I did get this idea from the F/SN game, but the way they presented it in this episode made me forget. It really did seem that it wasn’t the grail itself which was evil, but simply that the logical conclusion of Kiritsugu’s wish was itself evil. Perhaps here the two simply happily coincided.

      And maybe Urobuchi Gen dislikes Saber as much as I do… Wish we could have seen her blow up. 🙂

  3. > so seeing her defeated and forced to destroy all her hopes and dreams with her own hands was immensely satisfying.

    Haha, if there’s a Fate character horoscope, you might enjoy a match to Gilgamesh.

  4. One of the best analysis of Fate/Zero I ever read.

    Kudos!

    Saber is too much annoying – the show annoys me, so kudos for this post.

    Cheers

  5. saber was the one thing that made this show watchable. everyone else was pretty much a murderer or a fucking sociopath. it sucks she was paired up with a piece of shit like kiritsugu, i especially despised how stupid he was, convincing himself he was sacrificing people in order to save more of then but later realizing he’s killed more than he has saved and everyone he’s sacrificed died in vain.

    and let’s be honest, enemies of humanity gilgamesh/kirei didn’t deserve to win at all.

    the only thing dumber than the ending was your commentary, it reeks of scum like you were a 13 year old boy in his EPIC PWNZ stage. learn to review before spreading your shit opinions around.

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