Fate/Apocrypha 18
フェイト/アポクリファ episode 18

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

In the dream world created by Black Assassin, Red Archer finds herself surrounded by unwanted, unloved children. She recalls her life as Atalanta, where her king father abandoned her for being a girl. The goddess Artemis took pity on the child and eventually, she came into the service of a fellow Argonaut named Medea Lily. This founded Atalanta’s feelings about saving children. Back in the dream world, she’s soon screaming as she’s pressed by the throng of children.

Sieg encounters a young teen girl (prostitute) being assaulted. He causes her attacker to flee, but she is killed when she’s run over by a horse and buggy. The child “Jack” and other children point out that unwanted children, born or aborted, end up in the River Thames. The ugliness of this London horrifies Sieg. Elsewhere, Ruler walks these same streets, dressed in clothing almost from that era. She realizes this is the dream world of Black Assassin and puts out a Holy glow to repel Jack’s approach.

Sieg’s devastation continues when Black Assassin’s former Master has a chat with him, followed by Jack and a ton of children,making him sink further into despair. Elsewhere, another Jack flees from Ruler. A host of children plead to Saint Jeanne. She tells them they cannot be saved and must be destroyed. The children are horrified by this as is Red Archer, who happens by. She stops Ruler and demands to know what Ruler is doing to the children.

Sieg comes by as Red Archer makes an impassioned plea for the children. She fails to convince Ruler, who knows these children are evil spirits, dregs of abandoned children who’ve merged together to form Jack the Ripper. The teen girl from earlier asks Ruler if she really intends to kill them all. Ruler has a moment of hesitation, but says it is the only way. The young teen girl agrees. To Red Archer’s horror, all of the children join the young teen girl and are purified by Ruler and sent to the afterlife.

Red Archer, who’s one arm has a black aura around it, snaps mentally. She accuses Ruler of also abandoning these children. Ruler sees that Red Archer is caught up in emotion and won’t see reason. Red Archer attacks, but Black Archer helps Ruler. Red Archer is forced to flee, but she vows to never forgive Ruler and to prevent anyone of them from getting to the Holy Grail. Black Rider pursues, but Red Archer loses him. Sieg and Ruler discuss the situation before returning to the castle, where the town returns to normal.

Thoughts/Review

One thing you can always count on in a Fate franchise title — getting some story that will depress the heck out of you. The story of Black Assassin does this for Fate/Apocrypha 18.

Black Assassin, Jack the Ripper

My theory that Jack the Ripper was a very young (possibly prepubescent) prostitute didn’t turn out to be correct. However, it does appear that Jack the Ripper was composed of not only young teen prostitutes (I’m presuming the young teen girl in this episode is one of those 12-13 year old prostitutes, based on the makeup) and other unwanted children from London, she’s also the byproduct of the souls of aborted children in the womb.

Watching Fate/Apocrypha 18, I actually felt as devastated as Sieg was shown to be in this episode because of how horrible these children had it. Even the unborn children, all of whom were unwanted, and then to learn that they were all discarded into the River Thames. And then I read about Amelia Dyer, who lived around the same time as Jack the Ripper and slaughtered unwanted children like crazy (possibly 400). Those were some dark, f’d up days. And we think our trivial problems of today are something.

Red Archer vs Ruler

I had forgotten that Red Archer’s wish for the Holy Grail was for the children of the world. So I can understand how her emotions got the best of her. Heck, even Ruler had a moment of weakness. Were I in this situation, I would have been like Red Archer. I would have been desperate to save these children from the horrors they’ve seen. Even the aborted children, who’ve technically never seen a day, yet to be thought of as mere trash to be disposed of rather than a human being deserving life. Ugh.

And yet it was Ruler who understood that these were merely representations of those unwanted children. The evil surrounding their deaths had caused them to become tainted, evil spirits, forever doomed to walk the horrors of these late 1800s streets in London. Ruler did the right thing by exorcising them and sending the children on to the afterlife. I’m glad that the children volunteered for this, starting with the young teen prostitute. It is sad that Red Archer’s emotions got the better of her, but I understand it.

I’m not sure what happened to Red Archer’s arm though. Did the kids do something to it? I didn’t catch an explanation for that, and I kinda suspect there wasn’t one. Sometimes, anime adaptations expect you to have read the source material and know what’s going on. 🙁

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Heh. I thought I was busy before. I’m twice as busy these days. So let me wrap up my review of Fate/Apocrypha 18.

• Artemis gets a cameo in the episode. Yay! I have her in my Fate/Grand Order lineup.
• Medea Lily also got a cameo, complete with lines. I also have her in my Fate/Grand Order list of Servants, though I’ve not done anything with her to date. The game is too much of a time-sink, and I don’t have the hours a day required to get a ton of Servants powered up and leveled up. That aside, it is nice to see Medea Lily before she became the evil Medea (Caster) in Fate/stay night.
• Seriously? We are going to really push a love triangle between Ruler, Black Rider, and Sieg? 🙄

In the end, Fate/Apocrypha 18 is a rather depressing episode, keeping in line with the Fate franchise need to have horrible things done to innocent people. Now if you’ll pardon me, I think I need a massive dose of lithium carbonate.