Fate/Apocrypha 21 (“To the Pain”)

21Fate/Apocrypha 21
フェイト/アポクリファ episode 21

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Fate/Apocrypha 21Black Rider activates his special Noble Phantasm that allows him to block all attacks Red Assassin sends his way. As such, Black Rider begins destroyed the defenses of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Red Assassin dispatches Red Lancer to deal with this, but Black Rider is able to avoid his attacks by teleporting. In order to give Black Rider freedom to work in peace, Sieg transforms into Black Saber, causing Red Lancer to deal with him. Black Rider destroys the last of the defenses, but is exhausted and crashes to the floating fortress. Red Assassin is about to kill him, but Red Saber shows up with Sisigou in their jet.

Fate/Apocrypha 21On a passenger jet, Red Rider activates a Noble Phantasm to shift Black Archer and himself into a Reality Marble where time has stopped and it is no longer night. Black Archer gets Red Rider to agree to grant his wish in exchange for the battle. The two fight unarmed where Red Rider eventually punches through Black Archer’s chest. Before dying, Black Archer’s constellation in the sky fires a Noble Phantasm at Red Rider, removing his immortality. Black Archer then dies.

Fate/Apocrypha 21On yet another passenger jet, the enraged Red Archer accuses Ruler of being a child killer due to her actions with Jack the Ripper. Ruler does not deny this, which is the last straw for Red Archer. As such, she activates a Noble Phantasm Agrius Metamorphosis, which causes her to transform into a more beastly mode. Ruler is horrified by this as it means Red Archer is sacrificing her good name Atalanta. Back on the Hanging Gardens, Black Rider comes to and sees destruction all around him. He then finds Red Rider there, who has something for Black Rider.

Thoughts/Review

With Fate/Apocrypha 21, the wind-down begins with the elimination of at least on Servant.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

Black Archer vs. Red Rider

I have to admit, I had no clue about which way this fight would go. I could see things going either way in terms of who would win. However, I also didn’t care much about the fight, though I was mildly surprised to see it turn into fisticuffs of sorts. I’m still not quite sure how Black Archer pulled off that final Noble Phantasm, but then I guess I’m not as versed on the lore as I should be.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

Red Rider wins the fight, but he is honor bound by his promise to Black Archer to do something for the Red Faction. This reminded me again of how different this Holy Grail War is from the one in Fate/stay night. There, Saber was clearly good. Archer and Lancer, and (fake) Assassin were neutral forces that needed to be removed for the greater good. Caster, Rider, Berserker, and Archer-2 were evil. In Fate/Apocrypha, the lines aren’t so clear. And aside from Black Assassin, it is hard to call anyone evil.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

Since Red Rider didn’t kill the unconscious Black Rider at the end of the episode, I presume that Red Rider is going to do something for the Black Faction.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

Black Rider, Sieg, and Red Lancer

Black Rider got to be a useful Servant with a convenient Noble Phantasm that can be used on a moonless night. I thought Black Rider was finished after taking out the last of the defenses on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but instead, he just fell unconscious. And he was spared from death twice, first by Red Saber bringing her attack on Black Assassin and then by Red Rider not killing him when he had the chance.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

In some ways, it is a bit surprising that Red Lancer abandoned his mission to stop Black Rider, just because Sieg turned into Black Saber. As powerful as Red Lancer is, I think he could have thwarted Black Rider long enough to force Sieg to return to his normal self. But, that didn’t happen, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see the outcome of that fight.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

Ruler vs. Black Archer

From Fate/Grand Order, I only know of Red Archer’s Phoebus Catastrophe Noble Phantasm. I know nothing of her Agrius Metamorphosis Noble Phantasm (and funny how Servants all seem to have two Noble Phantasms in Fate/Apocrypha), but it seems like some kind of cursed NP like Black Lancer’s second NP was (which turned him into Dracula). But whatever it is, I figure Ruler will still defeat her.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

It is a shame that Red Archer lost her ability to reason. Her emotions overwhelmed her and have driven her to insanity. She was one of the few characters I found a little bit interesting. Hopefully, her sanity is restored before she’s killed.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Yeah, as always, I’m massively behind. So I better wrap up my review of Fate/Apocrypha 21.

  • Whatever Shirou is doing inside the Grail (within Heaven’s Feel) sure is conveniently taking a long time.
  • I guess Red Saber and Red Assassin have already had their battle, based on the amount of damage and fires around Black Rider when he came to. I hope we get to see a bit of that in the next episode.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

In the end, Fate/Apocrypha 21 was an OK episode. It entertained me and kept my interest, but after all is said and done, it is merely average.

Fate/Apocrypha 21

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7 Responses to “Fate/Apocrypha 21 (“To the Pain”)”

  1. Geburah san says:

    Vlad on Fate go does have all his NPs, but if summoned as a Berserker, the Legend of Dracula is activated by default, because if we consider his hatred for that part of his legend he must be “mad” to embrace it willingly (and yes thats the official explanation im not bullshitting this). Not having Darnic forcefully inside of your head plus not having commands seals forcing that state makes Vlad mind to not decay as it happened after the fight and getting bitchslapped by mere black keys, but i must admit he was hyper countered by a frigging SAINT exorcising his ass after being weakened by a Servant gangbang against him

    Agrius Metamorfosis, Increases all her stats but Luck and she gains the equivalent of A-rank Mad Enhancement and an A-rank Transformation Skill, able to bestow various characteristics depending on the environment.She shows the ability to transform the pelt into bird wings and fuse with her bow to shoot arrows weaved from magical energy. The power is gained in exchange for losing her reason, and it can be possible to even become unable to discern the identity of her Master in certain situations. It can be said to equal self-destruction of the Servant if it is used, so, as it is impossible to utilize in a regular Holy Grail War. Thats why in practice she only has Phoebius Catastrophe as NP

    And about Karna power, well if he goes all out hes on Gilgamesh tier, that doesnt mean that Gil cant beat him is just that their power levels are close enough to be comparable, Gil is the ultimate counter hero after all. Considering that Sigfried is overall a bit weaker that Artoria (even if he has against her a situational huge boost due to her draconing heritage and he being a dragonslayer) hes gonna need a plot armor as thick as dragon scales to have even a chance to get that powerhouse down and remember that Karma hasnt the Gil “lolmongrels” attitude so he wont be jobbing like Gil

  2. arimareiji says:

    Sorry for the complete non sequitur, but I was curious: Do you think you’ll comment on Batoto metaphorically getting taken on a trip to the Aokigahara Forest (now sadly made famous worldwide)?

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      I could for sure. I was contemplating doing something about the need for a legal aggregate site.

      As to Batoto, it does sadden me that it is gone. The reason I started buying D-Frag and My Monster Secret was because I first checked into the manga on Batoto.

      • arimareiji says:

        Just my odd cynical thought… but I wonder if we would be better off going semi-underground again. Non-hosting indexes to help fans find scanlation groups and material (since censored search engines are increasingly useless), with scanlation groups keeping blog-esque sites and helping fans “staying tuned” through RSS feeds.

        One Big Site may just be too vulnerable now, in the current climate. When MPAA, RIAA, etc say “Jump”, US courts and politicians say “How high?” in mid-air. And even those who still exert actual power (like Google) are falling into line.

        Sorry for the strained (no pun intended) metaphor, but: Remember when the approach to digestive trouble was “Kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out”, dousing the patient with antibiotics? We eventually learned that it’s a bad idea to indiscriminately wipe out all bacteria, because most flora are neutral or even help fill unmet needs in digestion. And a healthy population of them helps keep harmful bugs out, because “unmet needs in digestion” = food that harmful bugs can use to grow out of control”.

        I think the MPAA and their kouhai Cool Japan still have a lot to learn in that regard. I get the bad feeling that the underground manga/anime scene that created the market in the first place, keeps interest high, and lets even those too poor to be customers have something without feeding profiteers… is about to get doused in penicillin. ( ; _ ; )

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