June 3rd, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy フェイト／ステイナイト Ep 17
Fate/stay night episode 17
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
After having a dream about Saber in the past, where her people questioned her judgment, Shirou gets up for breakfast. Rin has introduced Ilya to Sakura and Fujimura as her distant relative who will be staying at Shirou’s home. Both ladies have no problem with this and Fujimura tells Ilya to address her as “Fujimura-oneesama.” After breakfast, Rin, Saber, and Shirou discuss the master living inside the Ryudouji Temple.
When Ilya joins the discussion in the dojo, she reveals that there are two servants at Ryudouji — Assassin and Caster, who is a mage-type. Caster was previously known as the witch Medea and she is the one who summoned Assassin. Caster had been summoned by a mage but has killed that mage and put a non-mage in his place.
Issei stops by and during his talk with Shirou, he reveals that 
Kuzuki-sensei from school has been living at Ryudouji. Immediately, suspicion is placed on him as being the pseudo-master for Caster, so a trap is laid for him. Late one evening when Kuzuki-sensei walks home, Rin ambushes him with a Gando attack. Since he nullifies the attack, it proves he is a master and Caster soon appears. Saber and Shirou also appear and after discovering that Kuzuki is behind the continued attacks on humans for mana, the trio decides to stop him.
Kuzuki asks Caster to enchant his fists and with that, he’s able to easily handle Saber’s weakened state. Rin tries to get into the fray but Kuzuki points out that the weakness of a mage is needing time to cast spells. Thus to stop a mage, you prevent them from casting spells, which he does by punching her in the gut. Shirou tries to attack but also fails, so he thinks again of Archer’s words and creates Archer’s twin scimitar (or falchion) blades — Kanshou and Bakuya. Rin is amazed by this and with the swords, Shirou is able to somewhat hold his own.
Caster calls the fight to a halt and suggests and alliance, citing they need not kill each other to obtain the Holy Grail as there is another way. Shirou is listening but since this will require humans to be sacrificed as wood on a fire, that’s a no-go. Further, the core will need to be a mage and Caster asks which one of them would like to sacrifice themselves for the others. They have no intention of doing so, so Caster and Kuzuki-sensei retreat, Caster informing them she has someone in mind.
Suspecting she means Ilya, Shirou sends Saber ahead to protect the girl. At Shirou’s place, Saber doesn’t find Ilya but does find Sakura on the ground. However, Sakura is actually possessed by Caster, who uses her Nobel Phantasm “Rule Breaker” to stab Saber through her armor. While the attack was not enough to break her contract with Shirou, it was enough to seal Saber’s sword, thus making her weaponless and even weaker. Sakura-Caster then floats off, challenging Saber and the others to come to Ryudouji to save Sakura, whom Caster has chosen as the mage sacrifice.
Thoughts/Review:
Woo! Hoo! I knew there was something special about Sakura even before seeing some of the information and videos showing her as Rider’s true master. So, unlike her brother Shinji, Sakura actually had a mage circuit.
It seems strange to me that Caster would kill the mage who summoned her, then establish a puppet as master in his place. In slaying her master, I would guess she’d obtain freedom to 
do as she chose. I don’t know the purpose of placing a pseudo-master in the place of the original would do except perhaps to keep someone like Rin or Ilya from forcing her into submission (I’m not sure how the masterless servant/servantless master thing works completely).
As to Caster stopping the fight, I’m guessing that Shirou became the wild card and so to take out Saber with the lowest amount of risk, she laid the trap for them at Shirou’s house when she possessed Sakura, thus killing two birds with one stone. Wicked.
With Saber’s blade gone and the talk of a scarab, I would guess that it is time for Shirou to make Saber some new toys that supplant what she’s lost.
And speaking of Shirou the creator, I laughed when I saw him create Archer’s swords. As I write this, I don’t know if those folks knowledgeable in these matters have given an answer or not, but I just can’t get over how much Shirou is trying to become Archer. The idea that they are the same person is less powerful in my mind these days as it was when Archer died, but regardless, Shirou is determined to at least become as powerful as Archer without actually being a servant.
I was glad to see Fujimura and Sakura back, though they didn’t have the problem I expected they would when introduced to Ilya. Still, no time for even addressing the issue of Shinji now that Sakura has been kidnapped by Caster. I guess that’ll come up when they rescue her. I’m also going to guess that when Shirou wins, Shinji will be back, Saber will be able to stay with him, and even Archer and Berserker might come back, though in different forms. ^_^
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I’m surprised you haven’t commented on the new OP. There’s a couple of images in it that are vital. Firstly, there’s the scene of Rin and Sakura walking by each other. Then, there’s the mysterious figure firing something at Saber. Doesn’t he kind of look familiar? *cough-first-scene-of-episode1-cough*
It takes someone with Magic Circuits to summon a Servant. However, no one has been born into the Matou family with magic circuits for at least thirty years. So, if this is true, how could Sakura have summoned Rider? (I do know the answer, I just wanted to put that question out there, so please, no one answer yet. Wait until next episode to find out.).
Caster killed her Master because she has no desire for the Grail or even to exist in this time. Servants can’t exist for very long without a Master unless they have the Independent Action ability (which is usually held by Archers). Even if they have a source of prana, they need an anchor to the World that the Master provides. She was essentially committing Murder-Suicide and she knew it. But now, she has a reason to exist.
Caster has every right to fear Saber. Saber’s innate Magic Resistance is so powerful that Caster really can’t do anything to her. Rule Breaker is about all she has that would work.
In this case, Rule Breaker has only sealed the true power of Excalibur. It will be unusable for as long as Caster is around.
Good riddance to Shinji. The world’s better off without him. Sakura may feel bad about him being gone, but her affection derives only from pity.
Shinji, may he rot forever, is done. He’s dead. One of the core themes and principle parts of the show is that you can’t bring back the dead. What’s done is done. Resurrection is the realm of True Sorcery, and the Third Magic has been lost for a Thousand Years. There will be no bringing people back.
Only three Servants remain (Caster, Assassin, Lancer). The Grail is being filled and will soon be complete. The end is near.
Keep up the awesome blogging and the awesome questions. It’s a blast.
“I’m surprised you haven’t commented on the new OP.”
I don’t remember why I haven’t mention the new OP. I’ll need to watch it closely as at the moment, all I remember is Shirou and Archer fighting in a Reality Marble.
“Caster killed her Master because she has no desire for the Grail or even to exist in this time. “
Oh. Now that makes a whole lot of sense based on what I’ve seen. We can discuss that more in the next episode comments section.
“Shinji, may he rot forever, is done.”
*LOL* So I take it you don’t like Shinji? ^_~ I didn’t like him either and couldn’t see how Shirou was a friend of his.
“*LOL* So I take it you don’t like Shinji? ^_~ I didn’t like him either and couldn’t see how Shirou was a friend of his.”
Well, you seem surprised only because you don’t know what he did when he was alive. Sakura sometimes had bruises from him. And that’s the least of what he did to her. He really was a pathetic soul. Like I said, Sakura’s affection for Shinji is mostly based on pity. Shinji is consistently one of the least popular characters in F/SN.
It’s especially hard to like him when Sakura is my second favorite character.
“Sakura sometimes had bruises from him. And that’s the least of what he did to her.”
That’s jacked up for sure. *_*
Ah, Medea, one of the great tragic figures, the betrayed and the betrayer. Princess and Priestess of Colchis, guardian of the Golden Fleece. Abandoned and scorned by Jason, the man she loved and the father of her children so that he could make a political marriage, she slew her children and then poisoned herself.
But I must agree with Garik about Shinji, good riddance to bad rubbish.
Oh, and did I mention that it’s heavily implied that Shinji used Rider to satisfy his lustful appetites?
Based on everything else said, it doesn’t surprise me. It wouldn’t surprise me if you told me he used to do the same to Sakura. *_*
“It wouldn’t surprise me if you told me he used to do the same to Sakura. *_*”
I think I just heard the sound of a nail being hit on the head.
Sakura’s life has been painful and arduous. The Matou sorcery is not kind to its practitioners, and Sakura has had it very bad. Shinji’s lustful abuse is only part of what she endured.
Sakura’s tragic tail is only hinted at in the anime. In the VN, you get to hear of her plight and get a sense of her true despair and anger.