Fate/Apocrypha 24 (Penultimate Surprises)

Fate/Apocrypha 24
フェイト/アポクリファ episode 24

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Fate/Apocrypha 24Shirou reflects on his vision to save humans, but that would not include Sieg. Meanwhile, the verbal assault on Ruler by Gilles and Red Caster has taken its tole so that she actually contemplates joining Shirou’s side. Sieg arrives and though this restores some of Ruler’s thoughts, she still figures to join Shirou. Sieg challenges Shirou’s vision by expressing his own experiences with humans. This causes Ruler to change her mind and challenge Shirou.

Fate/Apocrypha 24Ruler gets Gilles to defend her with her primary Noble Phantasm in her banner as she uses her second Noble Phantasm to destroy the Greater Grail. Shirou sacrifices one of his hands to use a Noble Phantasm to counter her. He defeats Ruler and Gilles. Sieg laments as he holds her dying form. Ruler as a vision, seeing a dragon with Sieg. She gives him encouragement before abandoning Laeticia’s body. Black Rider arrives with Caules, but is bound by the injured Red Assassin.

Fate/Apocrypha 24An enraged Sieg challenges Shirou and keeps up with him. Red Assassin and Red Caster are shocked by this, more so since Sieg’s power has grown to that of a Servant, even though he can no longer summon Black Saber. Caules realizes that somehow, Black Berserker is within Sieg. As such, he orders Berserker-Sieg to take out Shirou. Sieg battles Shirou, but gets stabbed. Sieg pulls Shirou to him and activates Black Berserker’s Blasted Tree NP.

Thoughts/Review

Well, I gotta say that with a couple of exceptions, I didn’t expect things to go as they did in Fate/Apocrypha 24.

Fate/Apocrypha 24

Ruler vs. Shirou

As expected, Ruler did manage to overcome the despair brought on her by Red Caster and Gilles. And it isn’t surprising that her feelings for Sieg caused this change of heart.

Fate/Apocrypha 24

What I didn’t expect was for Ruler to basically prevent Gilles from shifting into full evil and even gave him her banner so that he could use her Luminosité Eternelle Noble Phantasm to protect her. I didn’t expect Ruler to have a second NP, though I should have since I recently remarked on how so many Servants in Fate/Apocrypha have two NPs for some reason.

Fate/Apocrypha 24

Since Shirou is also a Ruler Class Servant, it did not surprise me that he was able to overcome Ruler’s NP. However, I didn’t except Ruler to die here. I had figured that she’d do something with Sieg to overcome Shirou. I was wrong, and I’m sorry to see Ruler go since I like her.

Fate/Apocrypha 24

Sieg vs. Shirou

While it wasn’t a surprise that Sieg would get involved in the final action, him having Black Berserker within him came out of left field. I’m not sure how that came about, though I do remember a bit of foreshadowing done when Caules took over the Yggdmillennia family and a flower petal floated to his hand.

Fate/Apocrypha 24

I had actually expected Sieg to turn into the dragon Fafnir. I’m guessing this will still come into play for the final episode since Ruler saw a vision of the dragon when she looked at Sieg before dying.

Fate/Apocrypha 24

I also suspect that Shirou won’t be killed by Blasted Tree. He did activate Third Magic, and he is a Ruler Class Servant, so I figure Sieg will have to kill him by turning into a dragon.

Fate/Apocrypha 24

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I’ve got to shut down to get to the airport (as I write this), so I better wrap up my review of Fate/Apocrypha 24.

  • As expected, Black Assassin wasn’t dead. I half expected her to not be injured though. After all, Servants can quickly regenerate. Sisigou was dying, but it didn’t stop Red Saber from recovering from all her injuries.
  • The art and animation were mostly OK in this episode, except for the heat of the fight between Sieg and Shirou. At times like this, one REALLY misses ufotable’s superior work in the Fate franchise.
  • Black Rider is mostly put on the shelf here. I will laugh if he somehow survives death once more. Hey, Caules is there and you never know.

Fate/Apocrypha 24

In the end, Fate/Apocrypha 24 had some expected moments mixed with some completely unexpected moments. One more episode to go. I may actually get to episode-blog Fate/EXTRA Last Encore. ?

Fate/Apocrypha 24

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2 Responses to “Fate/Apocrypha 24 (Penultimate Surprises)”

  1. Geburah san says:

    She can use La Pucelle also on Fate Extella, but she dies after using it (forcing you to use all your comand seals to revive her or instatly lose the stage). Its power goes from C before activation to EX (A++ on _Extella, it gets a rank down). On Fate Go is probably not used because death is cheap there plus she has Luminosite Eternelle, not counting the fact that Arash NP self kill is most of the time not very useful aside very specific resurection gimnicks

    La Pucelle: The Crimson Saint is the suicide-type Noble Phantasm used by Jeanne d’Arc It is a crystallized Conceptual Weapon that acts as an offensive interpretation of her burning at the stake, a subtype of Reality Marble that has the imagined landscape crystallized as a holy sword.[3][4] The sword itself is the Heroic Spirit Joan of Arc. It uses the Sword of St. Catherine, which Ruler never swung once in her lifetime, as its catalyst, and manifests the flames which once burned her to death by saying “O’ Lord, I entrust this body to you—”, a line from a death poem, as an activation incantation.

    By using this Noble Phantasm, Ruler loses her own life after the battle. But in exchange for her life, she can annihilate anything in existence. Its designated rank of C refers only to its pre-activated state while the sword is still sheathed. The EX Rank after activation is because its pure destructive power cannot be calculated. These flames only destroy that which she thinks must be destroyed. In other words, this Noble Phantasm cannot be used against simply a strong enemy or out of emotions like hate. These flames exist in order to save something, and in Fate/Apocrypha, she decided to use this Noble Phantasm out of her sense of duty to save the future of humanity.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      As an aside, it is amusing to me that so many Servants in Fate/Apocrypha had suicide, secondary NPs.

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