June 14th, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works – 23 review
フェイト/ステイナイト [Unlimited Blade Works] – 23
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Saber, Rin, and Shirou embark upon a plan whereby Saber goes up the Ryuudou Temple steps through the front gate to distract Gilgamesh while Rin and Shirou sneak in and free Shinji. Since Rin is supplying mana to both Shirou and Saber, Saber will only be able to use her powerful attack once, after which she’s gone. Saber goes up the stairs and is stunned to see Assassin is still there. His presence is tied to the temple grounds due to him being a fake Servant. Rin and Shirou are confronted by Gilgamesh. Rin consumes a mana gem to protect herself from the cursed fluid and materials of the Holy Grail and goes to rescue Shinji, leaving Shirou to deal with Gilgamesh.
Because Gilgamesh would consider it a defeat to go all out on Shirou, he toys with him as Rin slowly makes her way to Shinji. Thanks to the mana boost from Rin, Shirou is able to copy all of Gilgamesh’s weapons as he produces them, but Shirou isn’t as fast and struggles to keep up. Rin frees Shinji, so the mass of the Holy Grail, missing its heart, seeks a new one and targets Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is not amused and summons his powerful sword Ea, which Shirou is stunned to discover that he cannot fathom its construction in order to duplicate it. Gilgamesh dispatches the “arm” from the grail, then is further displeased at Shirou lying on the ground. Back at the temple gate, Saber is finally able to dispatch Assassin and enter the temple grounds.
Thoughts/Review:
I have to hand it to Rin here. After all of the crap Shinji did to her earlier in the day (or the day before…sometimes it is difficult for me to remember how much time has passed in the series), she wants to rescue Shinji and not kill him. Granted, she wants to protect Sakura with this action, but it is still a gracious act on her part.
I’m just confused on how Shinji, who had Ilya’s heart in him and turned into that flesh mass, was able to be extracted as a whole person. The episode showed Shinji apparently merged with the mass, then just showed Shinji as being held down by arms and freed by Rin fairly easily.
I made the mistake of listening to the preview last week, which totally spoiled the fact of Assassin still being alive and waiting. Had I not known that, it would have been a big surprise. Considering their previous fight, I suppose it is fitting that Saber properly dispatch this fake Assassin.
As for Shirou’s battle with Gilgamesh, it is lucky for him that Gilgamesh doesn’t go all out for convenient reasons. Shirou is still massively outclassed and I don’t see how he defeats Gilgamesh as Archer seemed to think he could. Since Saber has now defeated Assassin, I suppose she could help, but she has limited mana so I’m not sure how much help she’d be.
It was interesting seeing Shirou’s reaction to seeing Ea. That’s such a bizarre weapon, which is supposedly a sword, but doesn’t have a blade. And as Shirou learned, is very special indeed since he apparently won’t be able to copy it…unless he does figure out a way to do so.
I also find it interesting that when the Holy Grail flesh mass reached out what appeared to be half a mile or so to grab Gilgamesh, he felt the need to produce Ea and take this threat seriously.
In the end, this was an enjoyable episode. I think the final episode is double length, which will be needed to properly wrap things up. I’m looking forward to that.
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The anime has been dragging a bit over these last episodes. Still good, though.
About Ea, it is the highest ranked weapon available to Gilgamesh and capable of “world destruction”. Copying it should be way above Shirou’s ability.
It’s not about capability in the case of Ea. Ea is a weapon made before the concept of “sword” was even born. It was made during the Age of the Gods by gods. Therefore, it’s construct is that of divine nature. In essence, Shirou cannot copy Ea, let alone comprehend its construction, because it is something that humankind cannot create. It is totally unique in its existence and Shirou’s weapon processing function just stops when he sees Ea.
TL;DR: Copying Ea is not about ability, but possibility, which is none.
I’ve enjoyed it. I can’t say I’ve noticed drag, but then I’m really not versed in the story.
As someone who played the novel, Shinji surviving this always sounded a hell of a lot forced to me. No, seriously, my willing suspension of disbelief was strained to the limit, I was like “OH COME ON!!! Even if he somehow survived that, how in the name of fu…. did he even breath!?” The bastard is just a human, for Alaya’s sake.
Thank you (both Ragna and ANB) for voicing that you also found Shinji’s easy rescue a bit ridiculous. I had thought that maybe I was just being prejudiced*, because IMO Shinji is Gilgamesh’s best argument that sometimes the gene pool needs a little chlorination.
* – But to be fair, I figured out why (and that) I’m less than rational about the manga trope of “Aww, but he didn’t finish raping her, so he just needs a punch or two and all is forgiven”. I lost one of my best friends in high school because there was no Lancer (or bf, brother, both, etc) there when someone very much like Shinji chose to attack. There almost never is in real life… which is why as far as I’m concerned, at least in storytelling, wholehearted intent is no different than commission.
😆 Thanks for the laugh with that line. 😀
I am sorry for your loss.
[Sorry for being even more cynical and depressing than usual… it was mostly to put into context why my views on the subject are pretty cold-blooded. Thank you for your kindness.]
I understand completely. I’ve never had anything as tragic as your experience, but in college, I had a lab partner for computer science classes whom I came to know and respect. He was killed after some punk tossed a lit cigarette into his car. My partner got out to confront the punk over it, so the punk ran to his car, then ran over my lab partner. It was pretty devastating to me (and shocking to the whole campus), so I can only imagine how much more devastated you felt in your situation.
Indeed. He was a bastard during the entire route, not only willing to rape, but to kill mercilessly as well. And. He didn’t even begin to regret it, nor did he try to make ammends in any way. I don’t find his sort of character redeemable at all.
This gets even worse when you consider that… Major Heaven’s Feel Route spoilers prevent me from saying.
Also, I don’t find your views coldblooded at all. I’d probably feel the same way or even worse if this ever happened to someone important to me.
Yeah, I agree. When Gilgamesh forced Ilya’s heart into Shinji, Shinji’s body became the mass. So in my mind, that entire flesh mass should be Shinji.
Yeah, I really don’t think that was properly explained even in the VN. Maybe in supplementary material? I dunno… but I believe a story should be able to stand on its own and not rely on such things. Anyway, you really need to suspend your disbelief a lot to think that he could’ve survived that — especially with the way the scene was animated in the previous episode. Also, I just wanted to see him die a horrible ‘orrible death.
Anywayz, Shirou’s going to become the epic determinator he always wanted to be pretty soon.
Pretty much.
Which is why Rin is a better person than me, as I would have though, “I’ll just kill the bastard.”
The reason he can’t copy Ea is due to its origins. It’s the first blade, created when the earth was split from the heavens, and is older than the very concept of a “weapon” as it predates life, death, and by extension, tools of either. It’s fundamentally something a human can’t imagine.
While Excalibur can be used up to an anti-fortress level, Ea is supposedly an anti-world weapon should Gilgamesh use it to its fullest. Honestly, if he had no other weapon aside from Ea, so long as Gilgamesh used it seriously, he’d win every fight almost immediately. But thinking himself to be so much greater than everyone, ever having to go all-out would be a serious blow to his pride.
Thanks for the info.