Fate/Apocrypha 13
フェイト/アポクリファ episode 13

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Sieg ponders his Command Spells as Black Rider cries, relieved Sieg is alive. Black Rider offers his assistance, but his Master, Celenike, has other plans. She mocks her Servant as being a lesser copy of the Heroic Spirit, Astolfo. Celenike goes nuts, making herself bleed and trapping Sieg in place. She then uses a Command Spell to kill Sieg. Black Rider uses a Noble Phantasm to resist the Command Spell. Celenike plans to use a second Command Spell, getting off on what this will do with her Servant. Sieg protests, so Celenike uses her heel to pummel Sieg. She then uses another Command Spell on Black Rider, but Red Saber comes in and beheads her.

Back at the Hanging Gardens, Ruler confronts Shirou, who reveals he’ll stop at nothing to achieve his dream and with the Greater Holy Grail. Ruler suspects Red Assassin to have done something, but she states that she is merely a Servant obeying her Master. The other Red Servants of Lancer, Rider, and Archer arrive alone with Black Caster and Black Archer. Red Archer demands to know why the change of Masters. Shirou explains that he peacefully convinced the other Masters to give him control. Red Rider and Archer reject this and attack, but Red Lancer joins Red Assassin and defends her. He states he hasn’t yet accepted Shirou as his Master.

Back on the battlefield, Red Saber has left for the Hanging Gardens. Black Rider begins to dissolve, but Sieg forms a contract with him, becoming the Master of Black Rider. Meanwhile, Shirou offers Chiron (Black Archer) and Avicebron (Black Caster) a chance to abandon the Black Faction and join him. Black Caster agrees to switch sides, providing his Master is unharmed. This causes Black Archer attacks him, but Red Assassin defends him. Black Caster attempts to trap them, but Red Saber arrives and destroys his golems. Sisigou forbids her from battling Red Assassin, so she provides cover for Ruler to flee with Black Archer.

Sieg arrives at the Yggdmillennia castle, where he finds an injured homunculus maid in the rubble. The maid is fatally wounded, but still wants to return to her cleaning duties. Sieg offers to do them for her. Relieved, the maid agrees to rest, then dies. Down in the castle’s basement, Gordes is with Flore and Caules. Gordes is angry with the concept of homunculus having free will. Fiore shuts Gordes down, understanding the female homunculus reason for wanting to be free, but Fiore wonders what they will do. Sieg arrives with Black Rider and offers the Black Faction a choice. Black Archer telepathically gives Fiore the news about Black Caster and the search is on for Roche, who comes to Black Caster with a bloody, wrapped prize.

Thoughts/Review

Talk about twists, Fate/Apocrypha 13 was full of them and questions too.

The Breaking of the Fellowships

With Shirou now having control over all the Red Faction, save Red Caster, and Black Caster having joined with the Red Faction, we no longer have a real Red vs Black fight. Heck, Shirou may have Command Spells over Red Archer, Red Lancer, and Red Rider, but if they don’t agree to this switching of Masters, they won’t be effective fighters. He could burn Command Spells to force them to do his will, but as we saw with Black Rider, Servants can resist Command Spells given they have enough magic resistance or abilities.

So the Black Faction technically only has Black Archer. Black Lancer and Berserker are gone. Black Rider is now the Servant of Sieg. And Black Assassin has always acted outside of the Black Faction. Black Caster has switched to the Red Faction. Oh, and Black Saber is in Sieg. The Black Faction really has no chance any more, though it appears Sieg will ally with them (thanks to Fiore taking control of the faction). I suspect that because of Shirou breaking the rules, Ruler will also ally herself with the Black Faction to stop Shirou.

I’m going to make a guess here, but with Black Caster now working for the Red Faction, Roche is about to become the core of Black Caster’s Noble Phantasm. Not that I care about this shouta brat. Yeah, he’s a kid and the loss of his Command Spells apparently means nothing to him. If I’m right, the writers would appear to be trying to set up some tragic situation for this kid, but I’m not sure it will have an effect on me. We’ll see how it all plays out.

Red Saber Awesomeness

Red Saber got to be a complete and total arse in her battle against Black Rider. She now redeems herself by having two awesome, scene-stealing moments. First, she beheads the insane Celenike, almost as if an apology to Black Rider for the mean things she said about him and Black Saber. What happened to Black Rider afterward didn’t concern Red Saber, but I got the feeling that she figured that Sieg and Black Rider might make a contract.

Next is Red Saber coming in and rescuing Ruler and Black Archer.  Although we didn’t see Red Saber joining Ruler and Black Archer as they fled, I rather hope we see some sort of official alliance with Red Saber and Sisigou agreeing to ally with the remaining Black Faction forces. I’d enjoy seeing Red Saber bust up Red Assassin and the others.

Sieg and Fiore

I don’t care for Sieg as a main character. I have a distaste for MCs who have a lot of angst and such. Yet here he is taking a pseudo role of Black Saber and having Black Rider as a Servant. Oh, and he’s the liberator of the homunculi. Yay! He’s still irksome to me, and based on some spoiler images I saw in my Twitter feed, I suspect that’s not likely to change.

On the other hand, Fiore is good stuff. I like how she’s taken charge of the Black Faction and isn’t bat-S crazy. She and her brother seem to be the only sane members of the Black Faction as Gordes is borderline and Roche is just an annoying brat. I really hope for good things to come for Fiore, even though I suspect things will be rigged for Sieg (and possibly Ruler) to win the Greater Holy Grail war.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I swear, I sometimes miss the days when I had the ability to watch anime at work. Whenever I have free time, my mind is just not in a writing mode, which sucks. (Basically, I just sit and stare at the screen, or play some game in a mindless fashion.) But that aside, I’ll go ahead and wrap up my review of Fate/Apocrypha 13 and try to get moving ahead again with reviews.

• Black Assassin, where art thou?
• Are the former Red Master’s dead or just incapacitated?
• If Shirou is the Master of Red Archer, Red Rider, Red Lancer, Red Assassin, and Black Caster, how does he have the magic reserves to do this? Is it because he is a Ruler-class Servant?
• Why didn’t Sieg have two sets of Command Spells? He has one for activating Black Saber, but in my mind, he should have another set for Black Rider since they formed a new contract.

In the end, Fate/Apocrypha 13 ended up being pretty entertaining for me. I’m looking forward to seeing things continue to unfold despite some reservations about Sieg.