April 19th, 2012 
AstroNerdBoy フェイト/ゼロ Episode 15
Fate/Zero – 15
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
With no way to defeat Caster’s giant monster, Rider decides to envelope it within his Reality Marble for his army to fight, buying precious minutes for Saber, Waver, and the others to come up with a plan. Emiya calls Iri, who doesn’t know how to work her cell phone, so Waver answers. Emiya asks him if Rider can release the Reality Marble is a certain spot, which Waver confirms. Emiya tells him to wait for his signal, but also has a message for Lancer — Saber can defeat the monster with her Noble Phantasm, but only if she can use her left arm. Despite Saber’s objection, Lancer breaks his weapon, Gae Buidhe, thus freeing Saber of the curse.
Meanwhile, Archer has turn tables on Berserker, but when Berserker sees Saber, he starts attacking her, leaving a surprise attack for Archer that destroys Archer’s craft. At the same time, Kariya is unable to penetrate Tohsaka’s barrier, and as a result, Tohsaka casts a spell on him to incinerate him. Kariya goes off the bridge, cursing Tohsaka, and is found by Kirei, who initially thinks of killing Kariya and ending his suffering, but then gives in to his sadistic side and heals him. As this happens, Lancer destroys Berserker’s jet, as the irritated Archer sends an attack on Berserker, defeating him. Saber unleashes her Noble Phantasm, Excalibur, and destroys Caster. Archer and Rider exchange words and part company. Archer decides he wants Saber as his own.
Thoughts/Review:
So, now Caster is destroyed along with his Master. What will the Church do regarding those extra command spells?
I like the strategy employed here with Rider taking Caster’s monster into the Reality Marble to allow the others to come up with a plan.
Emiya’s scheme was clearly to unleash Saber for her future fights as much as it was to defeat Caster. Now that Saber is back to full strength, thanks to Lancer’s actions, Saber can go on to “win.”
Which reminds me, where is Lancer’s Master during all this? I suppose he nor Sola-Ui need to be nearby for Lancer to get his required magical energy.
As to Berserker’s and Archer’s fight, I liked that Archer got the equivalent of a slap in the face. He might not have suffered greatly, but he was forced out of the air.
Regarding Kariya’s and Tohsaka’s fight, it’s a shame Kariya could do nothing. If only he’d taken lessons from Naraku in Inuyasha regarding barriers and using youkai insects in fights, maybe things would have been different. ^_~
While it was clear that Kirei was getting sadistic pleasure from Kariya’s suffering, I can’t imagine that’s the only reason Kirei healed him. Considering how Kirei survives the war, one wonders what scheme he’s embarked upon.
So, another interesting episode. I guess it is Saber vs. Lancer next.
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What will the Church do regarding those extra command spells?
As promised, those who played a major role in defeating Caster will receive another Command Spell. Berserker and Archer basically wouldn’t count in my opinion, though that’s up to Risei’s judgment. However, it’s the best if you just watch next episode and see what happens.
I like the strategy employed here with Rider taking Caster’s monster into the Reality Marble to allow the others to come up with a plan.
Really? I thought that was just sth like: I don’t have a plan, so I’ll give you time to come up with a plan, good luck! ;D
Which reminds me, where is Lancer’s Master during all this?
I assume you mean Sola. See episode 13, bluray release. Sola is kept out of danger(although she wanted to come along) far away from the river because Lancer thinks she is too inexperienced compared to Kayneth. Kayneth on the other hand had other important things to do. Like trying to fix his arms, since not all his nerves got destroyed.
The thing about Kirei is that not even Kirei himself knows what exactly he is doing. It was just on a whim and he keeps reminding what Archer told him. As he seeks answers to his questions, keeping Kariya alive seems to be important. What I think is funny and ironic is the fact that of all kinds of magic he can do, the only outstanding magic he can do is healing magic. First evil smile of him in FZ, I guess.
What I also found interesting were Kajiura’s remix of “The Sword of Promised Victory”(not outstanding, but still very good) and the fact that my favorite Gilgamesh flashback is missing at the end of the episode. I hope they’ll at it with the bluray release.
So, are there any differences in the TV and BD versions of the episodes? Because I wanted to watch them, but since I don’t have much time, decided to skip them. But if there are new scenes and such I’ll have to watch them.
Yeah, there are new scenes. Lots of them, in fact. About one each episode, more or less, I believe. A few scenes are lengthened as well, such as one of Kirei’s talks with Archer.
Not to mention censoring and overall fixes on the art and animation, of course.
Dammit, I need to find time (and some HDD space) to watch them. And I wanted to watch the BD of “Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari” from Final8 and finally finish Blood-C BDs… *Sigh* Seems like Masaki Kenshi have to wait.
>I like the strategy employed here with Rider taking Caster’s monster into the Reality Marble to allow the others to come up with a plan.
>Really? I thought that was just sth like: I don’t have a plan, so I’ll give you time to come up with a plan, good luck! ;D
Heh. Well, it is that, but he’s being honest. ^_~
>I assume you mean Sola. See episode 13, bluray release. Sola is kept out of danger(although she wanted to come along) far away from the river because Lancer thinks she is too inexperienced compared to Kayneth. Kayneth on the other hand had other important things to do. Like trying to fix his arms, since not all his nerves got destroyed.
Hmmm…I haven’t been watching the BD releases. ^_^; I guess I should have been.
Yeah, right now I’m wondering should I wait for the BDs for the second season and not watch the TV broadcast. But then I won’t be able to read your thoughts and threads comments about FZ (by then I’d probably already forgotten about it or be too lazy to do it).
Lancer doesn’t need that much mana seeing as his Noble Phantasms are passive. Furthermore, he did not even take part in the battle, except for the whole spear breaking business.
Ah. That is a good point.
!!!POSSIBLE SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Ekkusu.. KARIBAAAAAAA!
One of the scenes i was waiting for since the moment this show started airing. Ufotable sure has shown Dean how you should animate the very embodiment of glory, dreamed of by warriors of all times and generations, of the ideals held by the knightly king, who, with numerous sacrifices, for ten years protected her country from invasion, against impossible odds; the light that was able to reach even the mad Bluebeard. Suck it up, king of conquerors (yeh, I don’t think it could be any more obvious on who’s side I was in the debate between kings).
A little trivia from this episode: have you noticed the music that played when Excalibur was charging? It was Kajiura’s arrangement of the original theme of Excalibur from the Visual Novel- Sword of Promised Victory. You may remember the version of it that played in the first anime.
The girl that Caster saw when he was hit by Excaliblast was Jeanne d’Arc, as you’ve probably guessed. Her design comes from Fate/Apocrypha, Type-Moon’s cancelled project for an online game. Excaliburs light makes him recall the time spent as Jeanne’s companion-in-arms and clears his insanity (note that his facial features are significantly less distorted).
This scene is probably when the story reaches its highest point- not in terms of quality but rather… moralty, let’s say? The rampage of a pair of child murderers is stopped, the huge monster is destroyed by cooperation between four servants ( in the end, even Gilgamesh helps Saber by shooting down ‘Zerker, Lancer nobly and honorably sacrifices his Noble Phantasm to let Saber use hers. But it’s all downhill from this point on. With this episode ButchGen has finished warming up, and we’ll soon see what he’s truly capable of. And it WON’T be pretty.
So all aboard the Despair Train, next stop:
deepest circle of hell.
>A little trivia from this episode: have you noticed the music that played when Excalibur was charging?
I didn’t pay that close attention, but I’m glad for the tieback.
>The girl that Caster saw when he was hit by Excaliblast was Jeanne d’Arc, as you’ve probably guessed.
I figured it was, but I wasn’t 100% sure. (That image link isn’t working for me.)
>With this episode ButchGen has finished warming up, and we’ll soon see what he’s truly capable of.
OK, I’m drawing a blank here. ^_^;
Just remove the last “/” from the link and it’ll work.
By the way, you should definitely see the BD ontent. Apart from bonus scenes (episode 11 is especially worth seeing, it’s mch longer and they managed to fix some QUALITY issues it had), it has the first part of the soundtrack, a drama CD showing the development of relationship between Iri and Kiritsugu (the ending to the second cours ties to it closely) and, last but not the least, Please!Einzbern Consultation Room, a series of three shorts, explaining some of the aspects of the show in… less than a serious way. Judging by your enjoyement of the Shakugan no Shana-tan, I think you may like it. If you decide to blog about it I’ll be looking forward to your posts.
You may find the BD content translated on Unlimited Translation Works’ fansubs site.
One more coment about the music in this episode, I was elated to hear the theme of Excalibur, but that it only played over the charging and stopped just before Excaliblast was kind of a letdown.
Remove the “/” at the end of the image link. The way it is, you will be searching for an index file in the “Joan_i.png” directory. Without it, it will load the pic.
It was logical that it was Jeanne d’Arc since she is the one Caster admires. In the first season he said it a few times (usually mistaking Saber for her). Not sure, but he probably said her name again while dying in the episode (already forgot that).
And if we use the principle of elimination here, since the picture isn’t showing Saber, then who else than Jeanne d’Arc?
“I suppose he nor Sola-Ui need to be nearby for Lancer to get his required magical energy.”
A servant like Lancer actually don’t need that much magical energy to fight. He can go fighting for quite a long time without replenishing. Unlike Saber and Rider, whose Noble Phantasm waste a lot of energy (furthermore, Saver can use Mana Burst, exchanging lots of mana for power, as seen when she propelled herself against Lancer much earlier).
Also, I may be mistaken, but I believe the master don’t actually needs to be nearby to pass the magical energy, so this is not much of an issue either. The master presence is useful for other kinds of support, though, such as healing.
Thanks for the info. ^_^
Is it me, or the second pic reminds me of Kushana from Nausicaa managa?
Actually, I thought it looked like Saber in dress gear. *lol* But, the gear does remind me of Kushana, now that you mention it.
>> I thought it looked like Saber in dress gear.
That’s the reason Caster mistook Saber of Joan – they are intended to be similar in appearance.
I like this episode very much ! So good Fate/Zero 🙂
Watching the BD releases is definitely worth the time. As far as I know, the scenes were already done, ufotable just had to cut a few parts out because of the 23min time limit. And as anon said, improved art and uncensored overall(though the scenes aren’t really that gruesome).
Alternatively, you can just read the light novel. Reading it will probably leave no questions left, as actually almost every scene gets extremely long explanations(as expected of Type-Moon works), though it never hurts to have some knowledge about Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai and the FSN Visual Novel, since they are all somehow related.
Sword of Promised Victory is, besides EMIYA, probably one of the most famous tracks of the FSN VN that always gets a remix. Personally, I’m not that big of a fan of this track, but overall it seems to be quite popular.
Btw, Fate/Apocrypha game might have been cancelled, but it seems like it gets a light novel adaptation. CanonRAP has translated the only chapter for now. Guess Type-Moon loves milking the fate-franchise…
(http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/554010 this is a link for Jeanne d’Arc’s character page, she can be a Saber, though she acts as the new Ruler class)
P.S.
Have I actually ever mentioned that Lancer Servants always have such bad Luck stats(almost always rank E) and they die an absolutely stupid death all the time?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBG2r-CncnY
(FSN-Lancer’s Gae-BolCar)
Being Lancer is suff-… okay, that meme is getting old. >.<
I need to look into scoring the BD versions.
16th episode of FZ is out. In it: Kiritsugu at his finest (i.e. continuing to troll Kayneth the hard way 😀 – what can I say, Kayneth just always have bad luck around Emiya.).
I’ll be watching soon.