May 2nd, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 17 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 17
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
As Lancer battles Archer, Caster inquires of Souichirou’s desire. He gives a brief account of when he had to kill someone, then says there’s something he’d like to return to its proper place. Shirou and Rin enter, where Rin lays down her challenge. Shirou knows that Kuzuki-sensei has figured out their plans against him and Caster. As they begin their fight, the battle between Lancer and Archer heats up. Archer reveals he knows Lancer’s identity, Cú Chulainn. Lancer launches his Gáe Bolg at Archer, who in turn produces Rho Aias as a multi-layered magic shield. Lancer is surprised that such a thing can stop Gáe Bolg, and Archer is surprised that Gáe Bolg slowly breaks every barrier. Gáe Bolg returns to Lancer as Archer is defeated but not killed. Having done his job, Lancer leaves.
Inside the church, Rin battles Caster as Shirou battles Kuzuki, even though Shirou knows there’s no way they can win. Caster is impressed that Rin’s magic is able to stop every one of Caster’s attacks. However, Rin is running out of mana gems and thus running out of time. She goes on the offensive, but Caster easily stops it. Caster praises her, but Rin has a surprise, causing a gem to blind Caster, allowing Rin to physically attack her. While getting four blows onto Caster, she’s stopped by Kuzuki. Caster is going to finish Rin off when Archer attacks Kuzuki. Caster takes the hit instead and dies happily in Souichirou’s arms. Kuzuki them makes a suicide run at Archer and is killed. Saber is freed, but now Archer turns his attentions on Shirou. He traps Rin in a wall of swords as Saber stands to defend Shirou.
Thoughts/Review:
Well, things are never dull in Fate/stay night.
The battle between Archer and Lancer was pretty cool. Archer has always amused me since he’s usually seen as a dual-wielding sword fighter. So it was nice to see that when Archer was forced to put distance between himself and Lancer, he switched to his bow and fired a volley at Lancer.
I get that Archer’s Rho Aias is supposed to be a shield. Showing this as a multi-layered barrier allows for a cool effect as Gáe Bolg shatters each layer. However, since Archer produces physical artifacts, shouldn’t Rho Aias have been a physical shield as well?
I was surprised that after Lancer defeated Archer, he just left. I don’t know why (maybe it is because I’m so tired from the long hours I’ve been working of late), but I thought that Lancer would go in and Rin dispose of Caster. I thought that was what they were biding their time for.
Well, it does appear that Lancer realized that Archer’s plan was just to get Caster’s gaze off of him so that he could do the needful and kill Caster. However, I still would have thought that Lancer would have gone in.
As to Rin’s battle with Caster, I liked that Caster offered Rin praise. However, for some reason, I would have thought that Caster would have remarked on the flaw of needing mana-filled gems to cast spells. Caster had made remarks earlier about modern era mages vs. mages of the past.
Still, it was nice seeing Rin switch to melee mode after blinding Caster. In doing this, Rin revealed the one weakness of mages of old — they need a protector to defend them while they bring their “big guns” (powerful spells) to bear. Rin may be magically limited in casting powerful spells by the number of gems she has (I presume her magic circuits are why she can fire Gandr spells like bullets), but her physical combat training certainly proves useful, as Caster found out.
I’d remarked in a previous episode or two that Caster was being shown in a more sympathetic light so that when she died, it would affect the audience. The icing on that case was seeing Caster without her head garb. She was no longer the cold, calculating witch, but a lovely lady who just wanted to be loved and appreciated. Oddly enough, she achieved that with Kuzuki (Souichirou) and laid down her life for him.
I’ve never asked this before, but why does Caster have elf-like, pointy ears? Don’t get me wrong, she looks adorable, but she’s supposed to be human, so the pointy ears don’t make any sense to me.
As to Kuzuki, I figured we’d learn something about his past, but we didn’t learn as much as I would have liked. OK, so he killed someone, trained alone, and took responsibility for his choices. However, I was kinda hoping to see why he became a teacher, but that would have derailed the episode too much, I suppose.
It is good to see Saber back, looking lovely as ever. However, just as Archer’s ties to Rin were severed, Saber’s ties to Shirou were severed. With Caster’s death, it would seem that the clock is ticking for both Saber and Archer before they vanish as neither currently has a Master. Obviously, Saber could recontract with Shirou (I base this on the fact that we’ve seen Servants passed from one Master to another), but Archer wouldn’t allow that. So the only decent path I can see happening is that Saber kills Archer, or otherwise forces him to bow to Rin. If it is the latter, I imagine that will be one funny scene.
Finally, there was Shirou noticing that Archer used Shirou’s “trace on” ability. I guess it is here that Shirou might start to suspect the impossible is going on in regards to Archer’s true identity.
So, another good episode comes to an end. I’m really hoping that in the years to come, ufotable produces more in the Fate franchise because they’ve shown they can be trusted to do the franchise right.
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I guess next episode Archer will finally say who is he really…
We’ll see.
If people are unable to get who Archer is by now… well…
Stay tuned because next episode is going to blow everyone’s mind, especially for the few souls who still haven’t found out who Archer really is.
I just thought it now… we are at the same situation that the people that knew what Red Wedding was about and wait that episode of Game of Thrones happen…
Yes, your brains will blow up…
Heh!heh! I may need some headgear then. 😉
I’m erring on the side of caution.
Well, that was an eventful episode. I was wondering how they would manage to fit so much in, and while the whole episode is full of fights, I had the feeling that some parts felt weirdly short.
So, starting with Lancer vs Archer. The battle between them (the chapter) was named Lance of sure hit vs Shield of no loss, so while the focus of that battle is definitely Gae Bolg vs Rho Aias, there fought a bit more in the VN.
I found that rather interesting, because it’s specifically noted that Archer doesn’t use his bow in the VN. He is forced into a close-combat situation, but the omniscient narrator (or Lancer) also “speculates” that Archer isn’t giving his all, because he wasn’t using his bow.
[spoiler title="Lancer's abilities"]Well, Lancer actually possesses a skill named “Protection from arrows” (B), which basically means he can evade all projectiles in some way. Unless they are exploding or something like that, that is…[/spoiler]
As Lancer told Archer, he was bound by the Command Spell in their first fight. Well, that’s kind of true at least. Lancer’s Master gave Lancer two orders with two Command Spells.
[spoiler title="Command Spell orders"]The first one was “Accept me as your Master.”, after Kirei offed Bazett, the second one was to fight every Servant, but to not defeat them and survive the battle (that part at least wasn’t so difficult, since Lancer is a survival expert and one of his personal skills was “Restart”).
The Command Spell is too general and over a too long duration though, so Lancer following that order is only a formality. That’s why he still used Gae Bolg against Saber and tried to use it against Archer. Lancer doesn’t follow Kirei’s orders to a T, especially because Lancer only participates in the Grail War to fight other people, so he was pretty pissed about that command.[/spoiler]
So Lancer basically acted like a scout to get a first impression of the Servants’ abilities, he was never going all out against Archer in their first battle, which he did in this episode. Yes, he promised Rin he would not try to kill Archer, but:
Even Lancer makes no exceptions. Even though he told Tohsaka Rin, his ally, that he would “go easy”, that becomes secondary once the battle starts. It merely means that if his lance happens to miss Archer’s heart and if it does not kill him instantly, he will refrain from finishing Archer off on the spot.
Even in that case, his enemy will die in due time, but Lancer just needs to drag him to Tohsaka Rin before that happens. Lancer does not care what happens after that.
Lancer is noted to be one of the fastest, probably the fastest Servant in the war and it shows in this scene. Also, he puts far more power in his attacks, Archer cannot block them that well anymore. His attacks are so fast, Archer actually cannot keep up with his eyes anymore, they appear to be invisible to Archer.
However, Archer is still able to survive the battle because he can correctly predict and partially guide the battle. This is due to his vast experience, a skill obtained through sheer hard work, which is translated as the Eye of the Mind (True) skill. It allows Archer to deduce a strategy to improve his chances of victory. FZ-Lancer had the same ability, which is why he was an expert in 1v1 situations. Saber’s instincts on the other hand work differently, though.
Since Archer cannot follow Lancer’s attacks anymore, he intentionally leaves openings in his defense, which he anticipates Lancer will try to abuse, because an attack at that place would be fatal. It’s a high risk-high reward tactic, as Archer would slowly wear down, if he tried to dodge and get slowly cut by Lancer everywhere, but he prefers that method. However, this is only Archer being on the defensive. Lancer was still clearly winning.
Obviously, this is incredibly hard to adapt (I’d say almost impossible). I still would have liked it, if Archer and Lancer had fought more, but I guess ufotable was running out of time. DEEN let Lancer and Archer fight a bit more before Gae Bolg was unleashed, and the animation was definitely very fluid, but in exchange you got shots like this one (http://i.imgur.com/dR0REkn.jpg) and Gae Bolg vs Rho Aias was incorrectly portrayed by them as well.
Archer knew about Gae Bolg’s ability to definitely hit the heart (and he knows his luck isn’t good enough, so getting away before Lancer uses it would be the only way to dodge it), but he goads Lancer into using Gae Bolg’s other ability, by insulting Lancer and telling him “to feed his pride to the dogs”. You know, since Lancer is the Hound of Culann and he basically died, because he broke his geas to never eat dog meat…
I’ve brought it up before in the Prisma Illya reviews briefly, but I want to explain Gae Bolg again.
Gae Bolg’s original ability was always the anti-army function that Archer mentions. The “strike-the-heart” curse, Piercing Barbed Death, was something Lancer invented and it is “only” anti-unit. The benefits of the single target ability is that Lancer can basically spam it a few times, as it’s cost effective and is still a sure-hit kill.
The anti-army function, Striking Death Flight, will hit its target, no matter how much you try to dodge (making it similar to Odin’s spear, Gungnir, which Archer also mentioned in the episode), but it’s far more destructive. Lancer uses more mana for this attack and it’s supposed to look like thousands of thorns raining down on the opponent.
Anyway, this attack might be stronger, but it’s an attack Archer can actually block.
No, the original Rho Aias was indeed a bronze shield with seven layers of ox-hide, but its existence sublimed into a Conceptual Armament in the form of a seven flower petal shield – seven Bounded Fields each one as strong as a castle wall. This is what Archer uses. It’s still a physical shield, if you want to call it that. This Conceptual Armament carries the concept to provide absolute defense against projectiles. Damaging the petals will also damage its user.
I’ve talked about concepts before, and this is another case where the battle of concepts is used here. Gae Bolg and Rho Aias have contradicting concepts. Gae Bolg surely hits, but Rho Aias is supposed to stop every projectile weapon. (Also, its last layer was never broken.) These two concepts cancel each other out and the result is basically a draw.
Well, draw is probably not the right word. The winner is still Lancer. He did not use as much mana as Archer and he also was unhurt at the end.
[spoiler title="Archer"]Doesn’t really matter if Aias was shattered like that though, since it was a projection anyway. Still, while Archer can project things other than swords, they cost far more and the effect only lasts for an instant.[/spoiler]
Nah, as Rin said last episode, she has a way to “blindside” Caster and defeat her. Shirou noted the strange choice of words of Rin’s in the VN and he is also thinking during the fight with Kuzuki that he has to keep Kuzuki busy, because Rin has an actual plan.
Archer raises both his hands as if in surrender.
“…I see. I knew it. That was your intention from the start, huh?”
“Of course. I told you, right? I will only take the route with the greatest chance of success.”
“Heh. I really do hate you.”
Saying so, Lancer turns his back to Archer.
…His work is done.
His role of keeping Archer busy is meaningless now.
There is no more need for him to side with Tohsaka Rin.
At least that is what Lancer thought. Since Archer wanted to betray Caster from the beginning, Lancer thought the alliance was over.
[spoiler title="Next episode"]Still, it looked like he was going away in the episode, when he was actually just laying on the grass to wait and see. We’ll probably see him next episode again.[/spoiler]
So… what did I like about the anime portrayal of that fight? First of all, Gae Bolg vs Rho Aias was of course beautifully animated. That shot after Lancer kicked Archer looked a bit weird though (http://i.imgur.com/Dxe14dt.jpg). The leg looked far too long.
I kinda like the easier visual presentation with the layers as well, and it’s still very faithful to the novel (http://i.imgur.com/Cb6Djqf.jpg & http://i.imgur.com/IcWdWN8.jpg) and the damage that it did to Archer was also correctly adapted. Lancer’s anger and wonder that Gae Bolg was blocked was also well voiced by Nobutoshi Canna. He gave a performance that sounded very similar to the one he gave in the VN.
The music that was used was not Sword of Promised Victory, but then again, that’s Saber’s theme, and the anime used an adequate replacement, that wasn’t half bad. I… don’t really know why ufotable loves to show explosions, though. Well, maybe portraying Gae Bolg’s thorn rain would have been too expensive/difficult to portray. But the way Gae Bolg returned to Lancer was definitely something some fans always wanted to know (not me though ^_^) and I have to admit, it looked really cool.
Now to the other fight, which was in the VN aptly named Rin’s clever attack.
About that little scene with Kuzuki (not Kazuki ^_^) at the beginning of the episode:
That is new material that wasn’t in the original novel. It was from hollow ataraxia though. Kuzuki’s training as an assassin and his cover as a teacher and everything is explained there and I kinda hoped ufotable had shown more about him in their adaptation, especially because they still have eight/nine episodes of screentime left. Well, too bad.
[spoiler title="Other Type-Moon works"]The assassin school and their style is brought up in other Type-Moon works again. Not translated yet, though.[/spoiler]
Ah, now about the fight. First of all, why does Shirou still have that wooden sword in the anime? I guess to preserve mana against Caster’s little bone soldiers. Huh. Also missed that moment, when Rin looked a bit sad when Shirou projected Kanshou and Bakuya, but whatever.
I liked how they kept Rin trash talking Caster. That was always something I found funny. Also, monologues! Didn’t actually think ufotable would do that. Perhaps “show don’t tell” is far easier said that done here. I would have liked it a bit more, if ufotable had better shown how Shirou struggles and is hurt when he uses a new projection.
As with the previous fight, I found this one again a bit short and this one even choppy. I just think the anime didn’t flow very well here (like something is missing, I hope it’s different on the BD) and that hurt the tension.
I guess it would be more confusing if they attempted to explain more mechanics here, but Shirou is just following the will of his twin blades, that’s why he was able to keep up with Kuzuki for a while (but his body can’t take it). That and because he already saw Kuzuki’s “Snake” once. The surprise effect is gone, but Kuzuki still smashes one projection after another and utterly dominates the fight. Shirou’s headaches are also getting worse with every new projection of his.
The jewels that Rin uses are part of the 20 A-Rank jewels she stored for the last ten years. She used ten for Archer’s summoning and one against Berserker if I remember correctly. She might have used another A-Rank jewel when Rider activated the Bloodfort in episode 8.
Anyway, Rin has nine or eight A-Rank jewels left (the novel says nine, but I’m not sure about that, since Nasu sometimes couldn’t count correctly/mistranslation, I’ll elaborate later) and these are the jewels she uses to block Caster’s attacks. And as Caster correctly notes, she completely nullifies them so Shirou doesn’t die.
I think not getting serious/playing around and pointing out that Rin is wasting her trump to protect Shirou was enough heckling. 😛 I found it fitting that Caster praised how Rin tried to compensate the difference in mana output and speed by using high-class jewels.
I don’t think that would have worked on Cu Chulainn, if he had been summoned as Caster… ^_^
Anyway, Rin’s hand-to-hand combat style is described as some kind of pseudo-karate/kenpo that Kirei taught her. Kinda weird how the final jewels she used in the anime were flashbangs again (didn’t she use the same trick the last time already..?). Well, in the novel they were just used to nullify Caster’s attack and also served as a cover, so it’s basically the same.
I think you mean her Magic Crest?
There was that layer of irony that Caster kept fighting in the Grail War because that kept her and Kuzuki close. She didn’t realize he genuinely felt something for her, too.
That shot with Caster touching Kuzuki’s face is also a good adaptation of that one CG (http://i.imgur.com/XVBzGvc.jpg).
Anyway, Caster possesses extremely good healing abilities, but not even she can recover, when her Spiritual Core is severely damaged. Kind of a dick move of Archer’s to aim at Kuzuki though. That comparison with a Trojan Horse, since Caster was Greek, was hilarious though.
[spoiler title="Archer and Caster"]I find it kinda funny how many things Archer and Caster have in common, in hindsight.[/spoiler]
I suppose that’s how people from Colchis looked like…? 😀 Or maybe because she is the granddaughter of the god, Helios. I don’t know, really. I don’t remember any explanation for her ears.
[spoiler title="Greek Heroic Spirits"]Another theory could be that this is how people imagined how she looked like, since… you know, she’s a fictional Heroic Spirit, like Rider and Berserker, who became Heroic Spirits due to humanity’s beliefs in their legends.
In Rider’s case, her “snake hair” was just an exaggeration of her long hair.[/spoiler]
About Kuzuki’s suicide run, I kinda liked how they visually showed how Caster’s magic left him and thus no longer protected and strengthened him. It felt kind of sad. Also, there was a (rather meaningless) choice at that point. Shirou can decide whether he tries to stop Kuzuki or not.
If Shirou doesn’t try to, Archer will dodge Kuzuki’s attacks and stab him, which is what the anime went with. If Shirou tries to talk Kuzuki out of it, Archer will stand still and let himself get hit, but it’s like Kuzuki hits air and then he gets killed by Archer. Interesting choice.
As I’ve said before, sometimes, I felt something was missing. It was when Kuzuki punched Shirou to the wall, and when Saber saved Shirou by pushing him down. Either that’s ufotable’s method to saved money or they weren’t done with that scene yet and will add it to the BD.
Honestly I’m wondering how many more additional new scenes we will see in this adaptation, because there are still around eight/nine episodes left and they are almost done with the 14th day. Well, in ufotable we trust. Also, so much stuff is cut out this season, because Nasu apparently didn’t hold back on writing new stuff for the second half.
————————————————————————————————————————————–—
Additional notes:
1. Episode script cover:
http://i.imgur.com/6NNnsZ4.jpg
2. As of now, I haven’t heard of any scenes that will be added to the BD release for this episode though, so I won’t get my hopes too high.
3. I swear, Rin’s Zettai Ryouiki is a crime!
http://i.imgur.com/kE1rKAq.jpg
4. Notice the parallels:
http://i.imgur.com/4lDUMf5.jpg
5. This actually has nothing to do with the recent anime. You already saw that new Sakura art Takeuchi drew, right (http://i.imgur.com/1kymqD1.jpg)? If I remember correctly, the first chapters of the new Heaven’s Feel manga were in that magazine.
6. Dammit, forgot to mention the obligatory joke.
(Read from left to right.)
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/021/c/7/fate___comic_06_by_yumekage-d4n4k2j.png
Damn, I wanted to mention that one as well…
[spoiler]Gay Bulge vs Raw Ass, anyone?
http://i.imgur.com/EMZmJG0.jpg [/spoiler]
Har! 😀
😆 That was funny, and I needed a laugh after the crappy day today was. 😀
7. Aaaaand, forgot another thing. Rin was talking German again.
As I’ve mentioned before, Rin probably had eight A-Rank jewels left. That is because she starts with “Acht!”.
“Acht…! Sieben…! Sechs! Ein Fluß, ein Halt!”
(Eight…! Seven…! Six! A stream/river, a stop/foothold!)
“Fünf, drei, vier…!”
(Five, three, four…!)
“Der Riese und brennt. Das ein Ende!”
(The giant and burns. This an end!)
“Stark… Groß zwei!”
(Strong… Big two!)
I knew she was counting down her gems in the fight in the VN, but since I don’t know German, I couldn’t verify if she was saying the same thing in this episode. Sounded like it, as numbers in German kinda sound like their English counterparts, but I couldn’t be sure. Guess I could’ve checked the same scene in VN to make sure if the same terms, translated, were used, and it looks like they were.
Rin seems to have used a lot more gems in the anime than she did in this route in the VN due to all the scenes added by ufotable… Her wallet is really going to be hurting after the Holy Grail War is over…
Strike that, just checked the scene (Rin’s clever attack) again. They use the same German numbers to count, but they aren’t translated. Instead, Rin’s internal dialogue in her interlude during that scene keeps up her count of gems left, and they do correspond to the count shown in this episode.
Ah, I was the one who translated the German lines. I speak German, you know? ^_^
Figured as much. It was either you knew it yourself, or had some other way of translating it, and going off of the speed in which you write up replies to episodes, it was likely the former.
I was just mistaken about the mirror moon translation of the VN translating the German terms in the scene in question. Though as I said earlier, German numbers are similar enough to their English counterparts that you can get the gist of it if you know Rin was counting down her gems…
Oh. I didn’t realize you knew German. Cool.
Ah. Makes sense.
I actually forgot about Lancer’s Protection from Arrows skill… Guess that’s another reason why Archer doesn’t bring his bow out at all in this scene in the VN and is just using Kanshou and Bakuya instead.
Still, this is like the second time this anime we’ve seen Archer actually using a bow to shoot regular (for a given value of regular) projectiles where he didn’t do so in the VN.
Also, no gifs this time, Farray? Looks like I’m going to have to find some myself, then…
Surprising, since this episode had a bunch of fights and scenes that lend themselves well to making gifs of them…
Ah, oops, I knew I forgot something. Feel free to post the gifs if you like. I’m just so tired right now, I gotta go to sleep… ^_^ (When I wake up, I’ll post some, if you haven’t yet.)
[spoiler title="Archer"]Ah, and I intentionally left out the info about Independent Action, because that will be cleared up very soon, anyway. Well, not that it matters. It was in Archer’s stat sheet from the beginning. [/spoiler]
That’s me right now.
Thanks for that clarification. 🙂
Yeah, that leg looked stretched for sure.
Yeah…^_^;;;;;;;
The headache part really isn’t standing to me. Were you not mentioning it, I don’t think I’d know he had one.
Could he have been summoned as a mage?
Probably. I tend to get them mixed up.
Had Archer attacked him, then I would have felt sympathy for him. But Kuzuki just doing a suicide run for no reason just had me rolling my eyes.
Anyway, as always, thanks for the info. 😀
Yeah, well, seems like ufotable doesn’t deem it as important as I do, as…
[spoiler]…it’s proper foreshadowing and actually explains why Shirou is able to pull off his abilities that well, even though, unlike in the Fate route, he didn’t receive much advice from Rin, Saber and Archer.[/spoiler]
Indeed, he could have. I posted last week Lancer’s personal skills (http://i.imgur.com/Fu2OqtQ.jpg) and Rune (B) is one of them. Lancer is an expert in rune magecraft, which qualifies him as a Caster Servant. In the legend, Cu Chulainn was trained by Scathach and she gave him the 18 original Norse runes. One of them can be used to search and track, that’s how he found Shirou’s home so quickly, after his first killing attempt failed. He also saw through Rider’s Bloodfort bounded field instantly.
In fact, the upcoming mobile rpg for iOS/Android, Fate/Grand Order, features Cu Chulainn as Caster. And shortly after his announcement, fan art started popping out…
http://i.imgur.com/AiPm9MJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qwa2dJO.jpg
Oh, and Cu Chulainn also qualifies as a Berserker.
That part makes more sense, if one has played hollow ataraxia.
[spoiler title="Fate & hollow ataraxia]There is a scene where Kuzuki’s background as an assassin is revealed. In that same scene, the meeting of Caster and Kuzuki is told again from Kuzuki’s perspective. Kuzuki’s entire life felt empty, even when he killed for the first (and final time), but when he met Caster, he finally felt some kind of emotion. It’s actually a flashback.
That scene also fills a gap in the Fate route. Caster attacked Shirou, Saber and Rin at Shirou’s home in the Fate route, but what happened to Assassin and Kuzuki?
They were both at the temple (and Caster was not) when Gilgamesh decided to show up and wreck some chaos. Kuzuki dies in that scene with Caster present, finally feeling something like regret, and Caster turns mad. That is why she attacked Team Saber so suddenly.
Caster gave Kuzuki’s life a meaning. Her death makes it meaningless again. So that suicide run of his in UBW makes sense in my opinion. Well, probably not for people who only watch the anime or only read FSN. You almost learn nothing about Kuzuki in FSN.[/spoiler]
This is probably the final opportunity, now that Caster is dead, but I want to mention that a route was once planned for her.
[spoiler title="side material"]Rejected Routes [Other]
[…]Anyway, getting back to the rejected routes, it goes without saying that the Illya route tops the list.
Besides that, there was also the “Rider route where you fight against Rin and Saber”, and the “Caster route where Caster gets turned into a loli and becomes your partner”. While all traces of the Caster route were completely erased, the development where you teamed up with Rider was actually folded into part of the final story.
Caster [Servant]
[…]Ah, it’s so disappointing. A Caster route would have been great, dammit! Especially the part where you get stabbed in the back while having an affair with Rider…
lol.[/spoiler]
Oh, and I found some gifs, but most of them are from tumblr and of disappointing quality.
[spoiler title="GIFs]
Lancer vs Archer:
http://i.imgur.com/7jYrQko.gif
http://i.imgur.com/mUCG7Xm.gif
http://i.imgur.com/vYqWFSX.gif
http://i.imgur.com/zJfbutR.gif
http://i.imgur.com/x0P8f7p.gif
http://i.imgur.com/uWRfpBw.gif
http://i.imgur.com/jB0B09x.gif
http://i.imgur.com/ZHgb0ab.gif
http://i.imgur.com/7dtKAjI.gif
Gae Bolg:
http://i.imgur.com/ebXsQNz.gif
Rho Aias:
http://i.imgur.com/HJRoMHk.gif
FSN/FZ comparison:
http://i.imgur.com/0tgG6QX.gif
[/spoiler]
Sheeze. I can’t believe how far behind I am on comments. ^_^;;;
Thanks for the information. I didn’t know he could do three classes.
As for the other rejected routes, with as popular as the franchise is, one would think there would be financial motivation to do those.
And what was supposed to happen this episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8acZx2GC4w
[spoiler]It was an accident.
Damn you, Saber, you buzzkill! ^_^[/spoiler]
Har! 😀
Well, I’d been waiting for Lance of Sure Hit, Shield of No Loss for a while, and it didn’t disappoint. Still, Lancer launching his Gae Bolg kinda looked washed out to me, I guess due to filtering to make sure they don’t inadvertently hurt viewers’ eyes or something like that.
As this episode showed, Lancer was holding back in his first fight with Archer way back when, because his master used a Command Seal to make sure he held back and lost his first fight with every Servant he encountered but survived, seeing as how he was supposed to be scouting them out. With this restriction removed, Archer was having a difficult time keeping up with his attacks in melee, which is part of the reason he decided to bait Lancer into the whole thrown Gae Bolg thing. While a competent swordsman, Archer is unable to keep up with a spearman as legendary as Cu Chulainn was. Archer can try and keep up by purposely leaving openings in his stance for Lancer to attempt to exploit, then blocking those openings when his opponent tries to do so, due to his experience in combat.
Rho Aias was produced physically, but then Archer invoked it’s name, activating the Noble Phantasm’s ability as the seven petaled shield. Rho Aius is the shield of Ajax from the Iliad. It’s was said to be a shield layered with seven cow hides, impenetrable by any projectile, as it deflected a javelin thrown by Hector.
Archer purposely pissed off Lancer by telling him to feed his honor to the dogs, which if you know anything about the legend of Cu Chulainn, is a huge insult to him. In doing so, he got Lancer to use the thrown anti-army version of Gae Bolg, instead of the Anti-unit activation you saw earlier during Lancer’s fight with Saber. The thrown version doesn’t automatically seek the heart of a target, but creates a gigantic explosion to devastate an oncoming army by raining down numerous spearheads once thrown instead, which is very difficult to block. Archer was able to mitigate the damage using Rho Aias, but it broke through all seven layers of the shield and he got hit anyway, even after reinforcing the last layer of the shield with his prana. Still, Lancer found it aggravating that his most powerful attack was mitigated in some way at all. As he said, he doesn’t know of a bowman who would have a shield of that quality.
If you want to see how this scene went down in the VN, the link to the scene in the LP is here: http://lparchive.org/Fatestay-night/Update%20208/. It’s got links to a couple of videos of the climax of the scene in question, alongside music links as well. Also, here’s a webm of the scene from the episode if you want to watch it again: http://a.pomf.se/nekrkh.webm
Rin uses gems for her big spells because that’s what the Tosaka family specializes in: the storage of mana in mediums. She stores her mana in those gems, then uses them to cast her more powerful effects. The higher quality the gem, the more mana it can hold and store without loss. Therefore, the gems she uses tend to be very expensive, so that’s why Rin is seen as obsessing over money in the side materials. Her Gandr shots come from her Magic Crest instead, a specialty of the Tosaka line that they originally ripped from the crest of one of their rivals, the Edelfets, a couple of generations back, and added to their own.
Rin knows kung fu because Kirei taught her, as her magic instructor. She has a point in that for a modern mage, one has to train their body as well as their magic in order to be safe.
I think Caster’s elf ears are just meant to be a charm point, or an indication of divine descendence, as I think in some myths, Medea has some divine blood in her, seeing as how often Zeus and the other Greek gods got around…
I think Farray will have more gifs when he does his usual post, but here’s a quick couple of Rin going all kung fu on Caster’s ass:
[spoiler]
https://31.media.tumblr.com/de3c9b5a01d8c8942bdb97a70ec165f2/tumblr_nnql2i7TAS1s3dw0xo1_540.gif
https://31.media.tumblr.com/5f05c2f712298cce926ef002dc488ab0/tumblr_nnqkciykN71qk6z3co1_540.gif%5B/spoiler%5D
Saber yes, but the Archer class has an ability called Independent Action, which allows them to survive for a period of time without support from a Master. In Archer’s case, he’s got a rank of Independent Action: B, which allows him to stay in the world for 2 days without a Master, possibly longer with sufficient prana reserves. Archer used a bunch of his stores manifesting Rho Aius, though that was probably mitigated by a flow of mana from Caster that was still active at the time.
It’s fairly obvious what Archer’s identity is by now. It’s all but revealed at this point in the VN, though hints were dropped fairly often in the UBW route. I guess we’ll have to wait until next week before it’s fully spelled out, but by this point I’m guessing that the
[spoiler]Shirou is the red man[/spoiler]
joke spam common from fans familiar with the Fate franchise will finally make some sense to even the most dense of viewers.
One last thing ANB, you constantly misspell Souichirou’s family name as Kazuki, when it should be Kuzuki. Should probably fix that.
EDIT: Man, Farray posted most of what I wanted to say when I was typing up my own response, and quite a bit better as well… Maybe I should just wait for his post and comment on that one instead next time as it’s almost entirely sure to come out faster and more detailed? lol
That’s why I thought it would be a physical shield manifestation, not seven petals.
OK, thanks. 🙂
I think I remarked back when I watched the first anime adaptation that the magic system of Fate/stay night was always kinda whacked to me. You have Caster, who’s more in line with my image of a true mage, and Rin, who needs a crutch (as do all modern mages, as I see it). But, that’s how the system works in this universe, so there ya go. 🙂
I did. I really hate when I do that, and then don’t realize I’ve done it.
Compare Archer’s use of Rho Aius with Illya w/ Archer card in Fate/Kaleid. I’d say that this version is more accurate to the VN.
I’d say the version in 2wei is a perfectly accurate four-petal version of Rho Aias. (I will curse mirror moon for making that typo.) It was the first Rho Aias the mangaka drew in Prisma Illya.
The first Aias shown in the anime against Saber was from Silverlink, but you’re right about that one. That one didn’t look very much like Rho Aias from the VN.