June 8th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy フェイト／ステイナイト Ep 19
Fate/stay night episode 19
Fate/stay night – 19
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Saber and Assassin battle as Shirou and Kuzuki-sensei battle while Caster prepares to sacrifice either Rin, Sakura, or both. Despite letting Assassin get to flat ground where he can use his Nobel Phantasm Hiken, Tsubame-gaeshi. Despite this, Saber is able to avoid the attack with only a graze to her hair while slaying Assassin. Shirou does what he can to defend against Kuzuki-sensei but ends up beaten back and falling down into the ceremony area of Caster.
When Saber arrives, Caster isn’t worried since she’s sealed Saber’s sword so that it can’t harm her. However, an Archer-type Servant appears and slays both Caster and Kuzuki-sensei from a distance with lots of swords. This Servant knows Saber and mentions facing her out of this cave before leaving.
Shirou grabs Sakura and Saber assists Rin and the four flee as the Greek town vanishes now that Caster has been slain. They make it safely back to Shirou’s place where Sakura is put to bed. A discussion takes place regarding this new Archer-class Servant (“Archer-1” as I will call him), whom Saber identifies as being a Servant from the previous Holy Grail War. Apparently, Archer-1 proposed to Saber toward the end of the war and she responded by attacking him. Further, 
Saber reveals that her Master in that war was Shirou’s step-father, Kiritsugu. Saber feels Kiritsugu betrayed her by using a command spell to force her to destroy the Holy Grail, which caused the destruction of the town that Kiritsugu found Shirou in as the lone survivor.
This is shocking news to Shirou, but Saber doesn’t want to discuss it further. Shirou speculates that if the Holy Grail can 
make a Servant stay alive after the war is over, then he can do this for Saber. She rejects the notion, citing her desire to go back and change things in the past. Shirou argues she could do that in the present. Shirou then takes off to see Father Kotomine to inquire about what could happen if he wins the Holy Grail War. Shirou receives confirmation that Saber could be made to live and still be a Servant. Father Kotomine then sternly advised Shirou to get home since it is dangerous for him to be out without Saber. Shirou asks about an eighth Servant being in the War, which seems to surprise Kotomine.
Thoughts/Review:
Well now, well now. This episode certainly threw some wicked curve balls. For starters, what the smeg happened to Rin? I mean last episode, she’s bleeding pretty badly; this episode, she’s not only not bleeding, she’s strong enough to flee the underground temple with Saber’s assistance. Further, there’s no mention of her injury once they reach the relative safety of Shirou’s house. So either she’s still injured badly and hiding it or the writers simply decided to move along. If Rin shows any sign of injury next episode, I’ll let it pass. If this is forgotten, it will be tagged as poor writing and a terrible red herring.
Next is Archer-1 (since he was before the Archer of this series). I knew it had to be at least an Archer-class guy the way he acted, but while I initially thought, “Oh! Somehow Archer came back to us for the dues ex machina,” that quickly vanished. Yeah, Archer-1 has a massive number of swords like Archer had, but it was different. That begs the question — why is a 2nd Archer-class keyed in on sword usage? It makes sense for Archer to be into swords because as Shirou, he was 
good at both archery but became very skilled with the blade. For a second Archer-class Servant to also primarily use bladed weapons, even as a ranged weapon like an arrow, seems a stretch to me.
Continuing with Archer-1, why save Saber and company at all? The logic of this fails me, though clearly there’s a serious lack of information from which to form any kind of hypothesis. After 
all, Archer-1 should not be around if he were a Servant from the previous Holy Grail War and Saber destroyed the Holy Grail then. I suppose answers will be coming in the near future along with why Kiritsugu ordered Saber to destroy the Grail rather than use it. Regardless, his appearance and then lack of follow through made for a rather anti-climactic end for Caster and Kuzuki-sensei. At this point, I look forward to the explanations about Caster’s summoning and everything else from those with the information. ^_^
OK, what’s next on the curve ball menu? Oh yes, Kiritsugu being Saber’s Master in the previous war and Saber being the one who apparently destroyed the city that Shirou was the lone survivor of. I suppose it is poetic that Saber would be summoned, even accidentally, by Shirou and that she would see through Shirou the man Kiritsugu would become after the war. I wonder if the VN foreshadowed the Saber-Kiritsugu connection because I didn’t see it coming at all. Then again, I have to admit that I really didn’t think about what Kiritsugu’s role in the earlier war may have been.
Now that Kiritsugu’s role in the war is known, I’ve begun thinking again about Father Kotomine’s role in the previous war. I think I’d previously mentioned that we didn’t know Lancer’s master yet. Father Kotomine is the only person we’d been introduced to with magical abilities that might be his master and I hinted at this without saying anything. My other thought was that we might get something completely unexpected, as we did this episode with an 8th Servant and a second Archer-type Servant at that.
For some reason, Shirou’s visit to Father Kotomine made me strongly feel that he may well be Lancer’s Master. It just feels like this is the way things will go. I may be way off key here, but I’m hoping for a 2-fer since my gut also told me Shirou had to be Archer even though the anime did not provide enough evidence to support such a fact (in my opinion). Of course, Kotomine may be Archer-1’s Master now that I think of it since both come from the earlier war. ^_^;;;
So, a lot of stuff going on as we rapidly move toward the end of the series.
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Of course when I wrote this about 2-weeks ago, I didn’t have the G-man’s excellent information about Caster. ^_^;
Poor Caster. She always seems to get impaled to death with swords. She really is quite cute when she isn’t a selfish and uncaring maniac. Of course, anyone familiar with the myths of Medea will know her tragic story.
And the strongest Servant of all makes his appearance. Now, all shall know the true King, Mongrels.
Servants as a general rule are much stronger than normal humans. So, how does one measure power when dealing with superhumans? The real difference between Servants lies in their Noble Phantasms. These mythic armaments are what generally determines the outcome of a fight. Do you really think Assassin would have stood a chance against Saber if Excalibur wasn’t sealed and Saber had free reign to use it? Fully powered, Excalibur could have taken all of Berserker’s lives on its own.
Now, most Servants have one Noble Phantasm, some have two and a very few have maybe three. This Archer-1, as you have dubbed him, has ALL OF THEM. His firepower is unmatched. Does your Servant have a weakness to a certain weapon or attack from their legend? This guy has it. You see that armor he’s wearing? It’s a Noble Phantasm. All those swords he was firing? Noble Phantasms, every one of them (except Excalibur, which is a special case). The true Noble Phantasm is the key that unlocks the gate to the Royal Treasury, where all the King’s treasures are kept.
He isn’t exceptionally strong, no more than an average Servant, so Archer-1’s real weapon is his wealth. No one can match him when it comes to firepower, and he has a counter to every situation based on the variety of tools at his disposal (he even has a flying machine in there, although it’s never used).
The reason for Archer’s rescue of Saber and company is really quite simple. Saber is his property (at least that’s how he sees her). You do not mess with the King’s stuff. Simple, right?
Continued…
Part 2:
The real question is this: In the last war, Saber’s master was an exceptional Magus and Saber’s power was at its peak. She still could not beat this golden Servant. How can she be expected to beat him now with her powers weakened and her prana levels low?
And then there’s this question: If Saber destroyed the Grail, then how is it summoning the Servants and running this War?
And why did Kiritsugu order Saber to destroy the Grail. He wanted it in order to fulfill his own wish. By destroying it and betraying the Einzberns, he not only abandoned his ideals, but he was in essence abandoning his own daughter just after he had lost his wife; he knew that the Einzberns would never forgive him and never allow him to see Ilya again.
Now, with the identity of Saber’s previous Master revealed, we get closer to the reason why Shirou summoned Saber. Remember that the defining factor of which Servant a Master will summon is determined by the catalyst, the artifact with a connection to the Epic Spirit. For Berserker, it was the stone axe he weilded, a stone from the temple of Heracles. For Lancer, it was a pair of earrings he wore in life (you can see him still wearing them). For Archer, it was the jewel pendant given to Rin by her father. Shirou has the same catalyst used to summon Saber by Kiritsugu. He had it with him that night and he still carries it, although neither he nor Saber are aware of it. It is the first gift that Kiritsugu ever gave to Shirou, and it will be the miracle that gives them a chance to win this War.
As for the last war, I can tell you that nothing Kotomine said is a lie. He summoned Assassin at the beginning of the last Heavens Feel and his Servant was the first to be eliminated. In fact, the Master who summoned this Archer is now dead, literally stabbed in the back by his own student.
Now, it is not impossible for a Servant to remain after the Heavens Feel ritual has ended. A Servant needs a lot of prana to stay in the present time, after all, they are not really alive and do not belong. This prana is provided jointly by the Grail and the Master, as the amount is too great for a normal Master to provide alone with a few exceptions (such as Ilya). Although the Grail no longer helps, a Master may be able to provide the Servant with enough prana if they have outside help or an outside source. Caster, for example, received no prana from her Master, instead she utilized her location on a local leyline at the temple to absorb prana from the city. Still, if the Servant has no body, they need a master or something like it as an anchor.
Woops, I made a mistake in my first post. I meant that Archer-1 has all the Noble Phantasms except Excalibur.
“And then there’s this question: If Saber destroyed the Grail, then how is it summoning the Servants and running this War?”
I didn’t question this too deeply because with the war flaring up every few years, I figured that the Grail wasn’t something that could actually be destroyed. Instead, I figured that if Caster could summon the Holy Grail, then like the Servants, the Holy Grail comes back time after time.
“And why did Kiritsugu order Saber to destroy the Grail. “
Now that is a good question. If Kiritsugu and Saber “won” the last war, there’d be no need to sabotage the Grail unless there were a danger in letting their wishes be granted.
Thanks as always for the great info! I’ll reread this again when I’m not falling asleep at my desk. ^_^;;;
Ah yes, Assassin, the fictional character from a story, not a hero, epic or otherwise. Interesting that such is the only oriental servant, ah well.
So now Golden Boy has shown up, hmmm, I seem to recall that he was really dark-haired and had a beard, oh well, if Type-Moon can turn Arthur into a woman, this is not too nuch, I guess….
Nice job in seeing that there’s more to the Grail.
It really goes back to the origin of the Grail Wars 200 years previous.
The Einzberns, who had been seeking the Grail for 800 years, finally abandoned their pride and sought outside help. They turned to the infamous vampire, and user of the Second Magic, Kishua Zelretch Schweinorg and the magus Zoken Makiri.
Together, they worked on the Grail system and created the Heavens Feel Ritual. Fuyuki was land owned by Zelretch’s student, Nagato Tohsaka. It was very rich in spiritual power and located far from the Magic Association and the Church.
The Makiri provided the technique for summoning the Servants and the idea for the Command Seals.
And Einzbern would provide the basis for the System and the required Vessel for each War.
It is this Vessel, which holds the souls of the defeated Servants, that was destroyed by Saber at the end of the last War.
Let’s hope that the vessel for this War fairs better than the last.