June 19th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy フェイト／ステイナイト Ep 21
Fate/stay night episode 21
Fate/stay night – 21
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
To Saber’s dismay, Shirou tells her she has to run as he charges Archer-1 and with the snap of a finger, Archer-1 has stopped Shirou cold and has him on the ground bleeding. Saber gets angry and attacks but it is no use. To her amazement, Archer-1 has a dizzying array of Nobel Phantasms. He simply states that this is nothing considering he was originally Gilgamesh. He decides that he and Saber should go at it and despite Shirou’s protest, Saber uses her Nobel Phantasm against one of Archer-1’s. She loses and also falls to the ground as a bloody mess.
Shirou manages to stand up and use his ability to recreate a sword, but Archer-1 not only easily breaks this copy, he slices Shirou good too. Saber wants this to stop but before she has a chance to submit to Archer-1’s demands, Shirou again is up, this time creating a sheath of energy based on Archer’s words of advice to him. Archer-1 is amazed by this as is Saber, who gets up and with Shirou’s help, places Excalibur into the sheath. When Archer-1 launches another ranged attack, the attack is deflected by the combined power of sword and sheath and hits Archer-1 full blast. With this, he elects to retreat and Shirou passes out.
Later, Shirou wakes in his room to discover he’s completely healed. Saber comes in, having been tending to him. When Shirou again expresses his wish for Saber to give up on what he feels is her foolish desire (based on a shared dream he had with her), Saber leaves and attempts to make dinner. Shirou has to teach her and tells her he saw her dream, attempting to get her to change her mind. She leaves, but he follows her, preventing her from entering her room by embracing her. She can’t push him away because she doesn’t want to and despite her protests, Shirou kisses her. They then apparently spend the night together but in the morning, she’s her normal, distant self.
Shirou decides to speak with Father Kotomine at the church, but doesn’t find him. He has a terrible feeling and his mind urges him to flee, but he doesn’t. Instead, he looks around and finds and underground church with lots of desecrated coffins and rotting bodies. Shirou backs away, only to back into Father Kotomine. Shirou is stunned and Lancer appears, piercing Shirou in the process and apparently causing Shirou to black out.
Thoughts/Review:
Hey! My name is Shirou. No matter how many times you tell me I can’t stand up to a Servant, I will ignore you because obviously you are lying. No matter how many times a Servant kicks my sorry rear end, it has to be just luck because I’m going to keep on fighting Servants no matter what. My name is Shirou and I cannot die.
Yeah, yeah, I know — he became Saber’s sheath (or always 
was in some sense) and he does have a power that combined with Saber makes him fairly powerful. Alone, he’s still nothing though.
That said, you have to give the boy his props though. After all, he’s not stammering around when it comes to Saber and wanting to be with her. Nope, he goes on in and even scores the kissed. Granted, he already had a sexual relationship with 
her (implied) in the fight with Ilya in order to recharge her mana. I gather he did the same after he kissed Saber, though she simply decided to act as if the act were nothing more than a recharge for her. My point is that while he acts an idiot by constantly going off without Saber and constantly doing things to protect the woman who’s stronger than he is, he does get props for going after the girl in a fearless manner.
I’m going to guess that the sheath Shirou summoned was in fact Excalibur’s original sheath. What I wonder is that as a mere copy of the original, can this copy be used as if the original once Shirou really masters his technique?
Also, I’m still thinking that Shirou is healing himself and that the power is not coming from Saber as Rin suggests.
So, my initial thoughts about Kotomine being Lancer’s Master 
were correct. I admit, the arrival of Archer-1 threw me for a bit though since both Kotomine and Archer-1 were from the previous Holy Grail War. In my mind, it would make sense that Kotomine had somehow found a means of retaining his Servant, but then I was never quite clear on when Kotomine was knocked out of the fight.
So, if Kotomine is not Archer-1’s Master, then who is? I 
suppose that being Gilgamesh in his former life, Archer-1 could somehow have the power to stay on his own after the war — either that or the destruction of the Grail caused some sort of feedback that allowed him to stay.
Well, another episode down and one that just smoked by. To me, that’s always a sign of a good series is when the time flies by when you watch an episode.
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I noticed no comment on Archer-1’s spiral-sword Noble Phantasm. I will say that it is very significant for any weapon to overpower Excalibur.
Archer has unveiled his strongest weapon. While Excalibur is an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm with a rank of A++ (meaning it can exceed A rank by a factor of 3 at times), this sword is ranked EX (meaning its powers are unquantifiable) and is classified as Anti-World. Of all the Noble Phantasms, only three achieve this rank, and of the other two, one is strictly defensive and the other is a Reality Marble that uses the combined will of hundreds of Heroic Spirits. That makes this weapon the strongest offensive Noble Phantasm ever seen. It is also the only sword that does not exist in Unlimited Blade Works. Even Emiya, the greatest Faker ever can’t replicate it.
So, if Shirou’s projection magic reduces the rank of a projected weapon by one rank (i.e., making a B rank NP into a C rank, or a B+ to a B), then what rank must this sheathe be?
Remember also that a specific Servant will only be summoned if you have a relic connected to them. So, what is the relic used to summon Saber? Shirou had it on him, but didn’t know he did, and Saber doesn’t realize it yet either.
Now, I know that the conflict with Archer is presented differently in the VN, so I’ll have to go back and check what’s different, but I know that the sheathe shouldn’t be able to deflect Enuma Elish like that. It would protect Shirou and Saber absolutely, but it won’t deflect; it just doesn’t work that way.
Shirou has never been one to back down once he’s made up his mind. Saber is fighting a losing battle to keep him from loving her. 🙂
As for Kotomine, I’ll get into more detail about him later. Suffice it to say, he is one of the most dangerous men you could find. He is a trained killer who lacks true empathy. As for his role in the last war, I will say that nothing he ever says is a lie. What he said was that he lost his Servant early on. Remember that nothing prevents a Master from making a contract with a Master-less Servant. As long as one has the Command Seal…
Archer-1’s origin will be explained further later. I will say, however, that he did have contact with the Grail.
The climax of Fate approaches. Five Servants have been defeated, three remain. However, the Grail requires only six Servants to die before it becomes a wish-machine.
Well based on your remarks combined with things said in the anime and the fact that Shirou constructed a sheath, then I suspect that the relic is Saber’s long-lost sheath.
Kotomine looked suspicious from the start. I wonder why he bothered to help raise Rin then.
“I wonder why he bothered to help raise Rin then.”
As far as I can tell, raising Rin as his student appealed to his sense of irony. The reason why this is ironic is something I plan to discuss after the final episode.
One further note on Shirou’s healing power: In the VN, during the scene where Rider knocks him out of the school window, you are given a choice. You can summon Saber with differing levels of hesitation and conviction. In one scenario, Shirou fails to summon Saber in time and hits the ground. His body erupts as swords from inside of him tear him apart. With another choice (oddly, the choice which seems to garner the most Saber “relationship points”), he summons Saber in time, but not quickly enough. He hits the ground, but is only injured. It is the difference between these two scenes that highlights the origin of Shirou’s “self-healing” power.
After re-watching the scene where Shirou and Saber confront Gil-sama and going through the scene I realized that it’s much more ambiguous in the VN as to how Gil gets injured by Shirou’s projection. I suppose deflection/recoil could be the cause, but it doesn’t exactly fit with how I understand the sheathe works… :/
By the way, you didn’t mention that Archer revealed his own identity as the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh.
I also want to say that I can’t totally agree with your statement that Shirou is nothing on his own. His projection and tracing are at a level that would normally be impossible. To project a Noble Phantasm at EX level like he does here is a ridiculous feat.
One part that the anime fails to portray is how Shirou, as he rises to face Gil, acknowledges that his way of thinking, without concern for himself, is really really messed up and can’t lead to true happiness. Shirou’s personality is damaged and he knows and accepts that fact. Still, he will not back down. This leads me to really like him as a character despite his general bone-headedness.
It should be noted that Shirou in Fate, the scenario presented in the anime, Shirou is at this weakest. Admittedly, he has access to assistance and plot devices in the other two routes that help him to realize his potential, but still, he is stronger the less he has Saber to rely on. As her sheathe, he cannot become the sword he is. After all, his body is made of swords.
In an additional case of irony, it is true that Shirou cannot beat a Servant. After all, he is a mortal against a legendary Soul. There is, however, a single exception. One Servant is similar to him in that he is an owner of weapons, but not a master of them. Therefore, if he realizes them, Shirou’s powers are the one weakness and ideal countermeasure to the King of Heroes. The strongest of all Servants is the only Servant whom Emiya Shirou is allowed to defeat. Of course, he can’t do it at this point in his life without outside assistance…
Ah, now I remember what was different about that scene. In the anime, Gil deflects Saber’s sword blows with floating swords. In the VN, Gil simply takes the attacks on his armor. This shows how damn strong his treasures are. I do think, however, that the anime makes for a better image.
I didn’t realize Shirou’s body is made of swords. ^_^; Man.
Thanks for all the great information though. ^_^
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