November 29th, 2011 
AstroNerdBoy フェイト/ゼロ
Fate/Zero – 09
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
The injured Kayneth awakens from a dream where he saw Lancer in the past, as Dairmuid, and his lover Gráinne, who was betrothed to another, older man named Fionn. Because Dairmuid ran away with Gráinne to be married in spite of her own status, he was eventually tracked down and killed by Fionn. Sola-Ui enters, revealing that Kayneth has effectively lost his magic thanks to Emiya’s attack and it was all she could do to heal him to a point where he would live. Since he is strapped to the gurney, Sola-Ui decides it is time for her to be Lancer’s Master in order for them to win the Grail. Kayneth is opposed to this, so she breaks one of his figures and calmly threatens to cut off his arm if he doesn’t give her the Command Spells.
Meanwhile, Iri continues healing Maiya at their castle base as Saber requests that she be allowed to go after Caster to prevent him from harming more children. Iri goes to see Emiya and reports on Maiya’s condition. Emiya already knows what Saber wants to do and reminds Iri that they aren’t in this war to save some children. Further to that, he’s not happy that Saber allowed Lancer to go free and though she trusted Lancer, Lancer could have betrayed her and killed him. As such, Emiya has decided that he will go after Kayneth and finish him off and requests that Iri and Saber remain behind.
Sola-Ui calls Lancer out and tells him that she now has the Command Spells after informing him of Kayneth’s grave condition. Lancer is not interested in fighting for Sola-Ui, which frustrates her, so she vows that her only desire is to win the Grail for Kayneth and thus restore him to normal. Lancer is able to see that Sola-Ui is in love with him as Gráinne had been in the past. Meanwhile, Waver has Rider collect water samples from the river, from which he determines Caster’s location. Rider is pleased to see his Master engaged in worthwhile endeavors. Waver wants to gather more intel, but Rider says that by waiting, they may miss their prey.
Rider takes Waver in his oxen cart to the sewage tunnel where Caster is suspected of hiding. Rider senses Caster is gone but tells Waver to not look. Waver ignores him and using two pills, is able to create two spheres of light by crushing them. He sees the gory remains of children and is sick. Rider understands but senses trouble and ends up killing an Assassin. Two more appear briefly before retreating, leaving Waver stunned by this revelation. Rider suggests they destroy Caster’s hideout and leave, which they do. Meanwhile, Kirei reports to Tohsaka on what they’ve learned about Rider and Waver.
Thoughts/Review:
Sola-Ui taking over as Lancer’s Master can only end in trouble. However, this does throw a monkey wrench into Emiya’s plans since he’s going after Kayneth and Kayneth is no longer Lancer’s Master.
Emiya still refuses to speak with Saber because of their differences in philosophies. Going after Caster would remove one more Servant threat, but Emiya is only concerned about tactics and removing Kayneth and Rider removes an impediment on Saber, thus returning her to full strength. In war, there are casualties, which is unfortunate, but if winning is your objective, then you can’t worry about casualties. See World War II as an example.
I guess Tohsaka is dismissive of Waver because Waver uses alchemy to accomplish tasks. And yet as Rider pointed out, the results are achieved regardless of the method. Waver found the hideout and I would guess that Assassin(s) simply found out by following Rider.
Regardless, Tohsaka is a huge snob. I can’t wait for him to be taken out, however that happens.
Anyway, I continue to like Rider’s and Waver’s relationship and as much as I look forward to Tohsaka buying it (I consider Kayneth to have already bought it even if he isn’t dead), I wish Waver and Rider didn’t have to buy it. Oh well.
So, more setup and though another Assassin has been killed, everyone else is still safe and sound, even if hunted (Caster). Still, I liked the episode for what it was.
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Kayneth is still Lancer’s Master. He only gave the Command Spells to Sola, the contract is still between Kayneth and Lancer. Also, Lancer doesn’t accept her as his Master anyway. So Lancer’s team is full of weaknesses. Sola is not combat-experienced and Kayneth is pretty much useless. Kiritsugu has so many options to take them out, it’s ridiculous.
Assassin already found Caster’s hideout, see episode 6. They were just afraid to enter his atelier(could have been full of traps, like Kayneth’s former hideout), as Caster Servants are given the class skill Territory Creation. Fortunately, Rider rushes in, however, one of the Assassins disobeys Kirei’s order to only observe and investigate and saw a great chance to kill Rider’s Master. Oh, and Waver was pretty much prepared to see corpses. However, the “art” he saw was truly disgusting(the instruments, furniture… and many of them were still “alive”… I guess I stop here).
Btw, you shouldn’t be surprised for Tokiomi acting like that. Basically, all the magi in the Fate- and Tsukihime-verse are cold-blooded and arrogant. Rin, Aoko etc. are exceptions.
Regarding Lancer-Fionn didn’t kill him. After Diarmuid and Grainne spent some years fleeing and hiding, killing many pursuers in process, Fionn decided to recognize their marriage and welcome Lancer back as his subject. He didn’t forget the humiliation Lancer brought him, nor did he forgive it. When Diarmuid was accompanying Fionn on a hunt, he was gored by a boar. The water drunk from Fionn’s hands had the power to heal, so he could have easily saved Lancer, but although the spring was just a few steps away, Fionn deliberately let the water slip through his hand TWICE while pretending to carry it to Diarmuid. Before hi was forced to bring the water on the third run, Lancer had died. And about what Waver’s seen in Caster’s lair, that wasn’t anything as nice as just “gory remains of children” Remember the human Organ? That would be just the tip of the iceberg as regards all the nasty things Caster can do with (sometimes still living) people’s bodies. Let’s just say his workshop was fully furnished using only humans as materials, and some were put out of their misery when Rider razed the place to the ground.
If this is as dark as it looks, I might get down with it.
I don’t think Tohsaka considers Waver weak because of the Alchemy. Probably because he considers him too young and just a student. And maybe because he thinks Waver is a coward. Of course, I might be wrong (or get wrong/forgot something – after all I watched the episode a couple of days ago. Or I’ve watched with a different translation and it didn’t make it clear).
Also, I think the Assassin(s) were already there, waiting for Caster. Probably more so to spy on him than kill him (so Tohsaka can find him and kill him more easily). But here I might be wrong again. I don’t know if the anime would clear that or we should ask the novel readers to clarify this.
P.S. Anyway, ANB, which group you use to watch Fate/Zero? Commie? UTW? Another one?
The Assassins had known of the hideout since mid-episode 6 (they followed Caster after he had shown himself before Saber). They just couldn’t get inside because of all the eldritch abonimations.
Kayneth is still Lancer’s Master. He only gave the Command Spells to Sola, the contract is still between Kayneth and Lancer.
Ah. Well, if she has the Command Spells, she can make Lancer do her bidding, thus I figured she was now the Master.
Also, Lancer doesn’t accept her as his Master anyway.
Is that something that comes up later ’cause it seemed like he was going along with Sola-Ui.
Fortunately, Rider rushes in, however, one of the Assassins disobeys Kirei’s order to only observe and investigate and saw a great chance to kill Rider’s Master.
Yeah, that didn’t come across at all. It seemed that Rider had sensed one of them and killed them, forcing the other two to reveal themselves just in case they needed to defend themselves.
Oh, and Waver was pretty much prepared to see corpses. However, the “art” he saw was truly disgusting(the instruments, furniture… and many of them were still “alive”… I guess I stop here).
Yeah, that didn’t come across either. *_* Ugh.
Btw, you shouldn’t be surprised for Tokiomi acting like that. Basically, all the magi in the Fate- and Tsukihime-verse are cold-blooded and arrogant.
Are those two franchises linked?
Regarding Lancer-Fionn didn’t kill him.
Man, the anime is either not conveying things or I’m just missing stuff. *_*
Let’s just say his workshop was fully furnished using only humans as materials, and some were put out of their misery when Rider razed the place to the ground.
Man, if all of this was animated for the DVD’s/Blu-rays, those will be dark things indeed. ^_^;
If this is as dark as it looks, I might get down with it.
Well, we are seeing a sanitized TV version for sure. I hear rumors that the DVD versions may be much darker and gorier. *_*
I don’t think Tohsaka considers Waver weak because of the Alchemy. Probably because he considers him too young and just a student.
My thinking was that Tohsaka is an arrogant mage, along the lines of pure blooded mages in Harry Potter. Anyone not doing things in a pure mage way (spell casting) is looked down upon. I think back to how Kayneth was dismissive of Waver back in the classroom since Waver wanted to do things in what was considered a radical way rather than the established mage practices.
P.S. Anyway, ANB, which group you use to watch Fate/Zero? Commie? UTW? Another one?
UTW…I think. ^_^; (Not at home presently to verify.)
The Assassins had known of the hideout since mid-episode 6 (they followed Caster after he had shown himself before Saber). They just couldn’t get inside because of all the eldritch abonimations.
I probably forgot that they had found the hideout.
My thinking was that Tohsaka is an arrogant mage, along the lines of pure blooded mages in Harry Potter. Anyone not doing things in a pure mage way (spell casting) is looked down upon. I think back to how Kayneth was dismissive of Waver back in the classroom since Waver wanted to do things in what was considered a radical way rather than the established mage practices.
It’s not that whether you are pureblood or not but more about heritage and generations. In the first episode Kayneth was mocking Waver just because he was 3-rd generation (or around there) and wants to change the magic world. Kayneth is around the 10-th generation. In the magic world, the more generations you have behind you, the more powerful you should be (or something like that was the Kayneth’s logic).
For Tohsaka and Kirei, they’ve seen him in the King’s meeting on the docs (I think it was 4-th episode), when pretty much everyone met one way or another. And I doubt they were impressed by Waver in any good way. If you add to that him beeing just the 3-rd generation magician (if they research him which is pretty obvious thing to do) and seeing how he performed in Caster’s hideout, I don’t think they consider him for a big threat.