Fate/Zero Season Two episode 12

Ready for tears?!

XO I has no time for a starter paragraph! Not when I have so much to say about this episode! So lets get right to it! Fate/Zero Season Two episode 12! Spoilers for almost everyone being miserable YAY!

So Emiya has decided to put aside his murderous ways...and this happens.

Episode Summary: Saber reflects on the fact that Emiya doesn’t know her at all and really never tried. She lets her blade fly and the Grail is destroyed and Saber disappears thinking this is her punishment for not understanding the feelings of others. Much to Emiya’s horror the black goo in the cup is not destroyed and falls to the ground, turning into some lava crap. Archer is quickly consumed along with Kirei as the lava spreads everywhere. Illya wakes up from a dream, where she is a cup and is filled with 7 lumps. Her mother (a voice) tells her it will be okay. So Illya promises to sit and wait for him, her hero. As Illya talks Emiya loses his mind and races towards to the destroyed areas of town, desperate to find anyone!!! While this is all going on Kariya has made it back to his father’s home, saying to Sakura he has come to rescue her. He is suddenly in the park where the entire family is reunited and Aoi thanks him. In reality Kariya has fallen into the worm pit dead. Sakura smirks as this is what happens to traitors.

I wonder what would have happened to Emiya had he not been able to rescue ANYONE!

Kirei wakes up not dead to find a naked Archer looking at him. Apparently the goo brought back Kirei and gave Archer a stable way to stay in the world. Kirei wants to know why this has happened and takes it as a sign that he is to do great (evil) things in the world and the Grail understands that. He basically loses his mind while Archer has an orgasm. Kirei eventually decides that this is the conclusion he wanted but he needed to see the math, not just get the right answer. Kirei sees Emiya and thinks it is time for part two of their battle. But Emiya is looking in the rubble, trying to find anyone and is basically a broken person. Kirei and Archer leave disgusted. Emiya does find someone though as Shiro states. Shiro thinks back to how Emiya was so happy to find him in all that rubble, that he had a reason to live now. The next day Waver tells the fake grandparents he wishes to stay with them a little longer. He then goes upstairs and sees a lot of Rider’s things. Waver smiles…and plays the game Rider bugged him to buy.

:( Poor little Chibi Rin.

Kirei officiates Tokiomi’s funeral. Rin looks very mature and even takes care of her wheelchair bound mother. Kirei smiles and goes on and on about how brave Rin must be to take on all this responsibility. Kirei then gives Rin the knife he used to kill her father with. Rin finally breaks down and Kirei nearly licks up Rin’s tears from the sidewalk. Saber is on the bloody field, unable to die. She thinks back to how she lost the Grail at the last moment and what Lancelot said to her before he died. She says she will never stop seeking the Grail so she can change the fate of all her people. She basically cries a lot saying it is her fault. Emiya thinks back to how he was unable to rescue Illya but his life was not a total lose. He raised the boy from the fire, Shiro. Years later Shiro and Emiya are chillin on their porch looking at the stars. Emiya talks about how he wanted to be a hero when he grew up but that is a dream you can only have for a little while. Shiro agrees, that being a hero is for young people. He volunteers to be a hero for Emiya. Emiya smiles, unable to tell him the truth about what the word really means. Emiya thinks back to Shirley and THE END!!!

Well....she isn't dead....

X______X This episode did not go the way I thought it was going to go. I mean not sure what that means or what I thought was going to go down but…yeah. That was interesting. As every other episode that proceeded it. XD Shall I begin with the review?

Insane? But yes I forgot all about you from Fate/stay Night.

First off…I really think that forgetting almost everything about Fate/stay Night really helped me enjoy this series. I remember so few details from the first…well I guess “sequel” that its pathetic. I remember THAT Archer chanting in English (which sounded way cooler to me than Kirei’s prayer), that Rin was trying to summon Saber, that there was an ugly Berserker, Emiya was Shiro’s dead father, and Saber liked to sit on the storage room floor a lot. And I BELIEVE that Shiro told Saber to destroy the Grail and she did so willingly. I believe that is what happened. That is about it folks. So while I should have known a lot more about this show I really didn’t. So everything was almost new for me. I knew this War wasn’t going to end well but I didn’t remember or know why.

But you being a cup is something important to remember....

Second…I am going to make the previous paragraph not matter at all. XD This series was really made for fans of the games. Each episode it seems someone had to comment or explain to me what was going on. That topics were never explained fully. One would assume by watching this series that the Grail was just interpreting Emiya’s wish really wrong. Or the Grail was evil. But players of the game or readers of the novel were like Um no, there is a big reason why the Grail was acting like that, that no matter who “won” destruction was going to be the answer. Sure the name was mentioned but it was in passing and really made no sense to me. Like oh okay Angra Mainyu….

I knew something bad happened in the 4th War but not this. X___X

So does that make the show hard to watch for people like me, someone who has never played the games or read the books? Slightly. While I understand that it is hard to cross over into different medias (IE the Hunger Games) I feel as if a LOT of details were left out. So much time was spent on killing Caster and Archer and Kirei making love with their eyes I felt confused on some of the terminology or why Rider was talking the way he was to Saber. Perhaps this was the best that could be done given how complex some of the concepts were. But if one was just watching the show I don’t think they would get the actually purpose of the Grail, the War, and a bunch of other topics.

I know way too much time about this....hot mess of a situation.

Now that I got ALL of that out of the way lets talk about this episode! XD I spent a great deal of the day reading and clicking various links about this show that I probably forgot half of what happened in this episode. X___X My brain is so full of knowledge and information on a crazy person who thought up this entire series.

I wish she could have screamed one last thing at Emiya.

I thought that there was going to be more Saber in this episode. That maybe Archer was going to stop her from destroying the Grail. I didn’t think Archer was going to die but I didn’t think Saber was going to explode it and herself in 10 seconds. I thought there was going to be something more between Saber and Emiya. Like a plague on both your houses type deal. Archer trying to stop his….love or whatever Saber was to him.

Saber tries to be a good King and she punishes herself forever. Fair.

That makes me sad of course. My favorite character in the entire series is Saber (as probably is for most people) so a pretty Saberless episode was a bit sad. Especially given the state Saber was in. After all my internet learnings I have a better understanding of what is going on with Saber. That she is a special kind of Servant as her time has stopped and her desire for the object called the Holy Grail is what allows her to be summoned more than once. That she doesn’t get to move on like the other Servants. She is stuck in a state where she can’t die or won’t die I should say. As long as she wants the Grail she will be stuck on that field, wishing to change her lot in life.

Can ANYONE catch a break in this show?!

In the end I am going to say the exact same thing about Saber that I have said from day one. Even though I don’t hate Rider as much as I did before….I really can’t get down with Saber being all upset with herself. I don’t see her as a horrible King. I have said this before but Saber being a distant King doesn’t bother me. If she wanted to put aside her emotions and be a King from a distance that is fine. Her subjects turning on her was…I don’t know if uncalled for was the right word. She didn’t want to blame her favorite people for “betraying” her and she can’t be blamed for the civil unrest their sexy times caused. I guess I am done with that topic but I hate how Saber goes on and on about her being a weak King and that somehow she deserves this.

What did I do to deserve this life?!

So now that we have covered 10 seconds of the show on with the rest. X__X Poor Emiya. He thought he was saving people by destroying the Grail. His whole life he played a numbers game and thought the Grail would be the ultimate miracle, to stop all the suffering when he could only do small things. After he decides that his wish won’t be made and he has made the tough decision to destroy his last hope…it turns into a steamin pile of lava and destroys a great portion of the city. Emiya clearly is going to suffer more than Kariya simply because Emiya lives longer and has more “innocent” blood on his hands.

Some sexual healing or something....

This was magical lava though. It destroyed buildings and people and the ground yet Archer comes out okay. Of course he is magical too so that might not matter. Also the fact that the Grail was sitting there deciding who won the War when it was missing two Servants makes me think it can do whatever it wants. So if it wants to eat Archer’s clothes and leave him in this world semi permanently I guess it can do that.

This zombie conversation would be more interesting if Archer was wearing clothes.

Since the Grail was being random it brought Kirei back to life. Well I am not sure that is the correct choice of words if Kirei has no heart beat. Is he a zombie? Quick get Daryl! Okay he is probably not a zombie. But he is something…not completely human. Perhaps the Grail sensed the potential for true evil in him and so wants to make him a Master again in the next War. Or maybe the Grail just wanted to make another Archer and Kirei moment.

Your mortal enemy is just a shell now.

While Emiya and Kirei both seem….well evil I think their true nature shined after the lava. Kirei was ready for another battle, that he could destroy something. But Emiya was no longer his opponent. That man was gone. Kirei instead saw a broken man who lost his dream and was searching for one tiny glimmer of hope. Just ONE person to save. After spending years playing a numbers game Emiya broke. He could no longer hide his emotions even if his face looked blank. So while Emiya went around killing a lot of people to save TONS and he appeared to be an emotionless person he deep down cared the most about people.

OKAY! Now he is dead!!!!!

Speaking of suffering…I was wrong. Kariya didn’t die last episode. He just didn’t have enough mana to keep Berserker alive. But he did have enough energy to drag himself back home to save Sakura. Or make it to the steps, say he was going to save Sakura, and die right in front of her. At least in his delusional state he thought he had saved her so maybe he died happy? What I didn’t like about making Kariya suffer more was Sakura’s face. To me it seemed she was smiling at the punishment Kariya received. My learnings have showed me that she was merely noting help was not on the way and if she acted out of line this was going to be the result. I think that could have been portrayed better, to show that Sakura was sad and not going to the dark side.

This would be Waver...playing video games. After all of that.

Amidst all the chaos and pain….Waver gets to live people! Woohoo! He must have cried all his tears last week because this week he was able to think back fondly with his time with Rider. Pulling out that video game and free shirt without crying. Asking the fake grandparents if he could stay there a little while longer. I am not sure if he knows the extent of the crazy that went on during the War and that might affect how much he changes and grows as a person. But I am glad that his rash decision to join the war didn’t kill him. People make mistakes but I don’t think he deserved to die. He grew as a person, saw Rider as a real person, and in the end will be more grateful for the life he does have. So out of all this suffering Waver will be okay. Yay for miracles?

Through my learnings I understand that Emiya was slowly dying when he was raising Shiro. That whole curse from Corrupt Evil Grail man. So evil. I suppose the real tragedy is that Emiya never got to save his daughter Illya. She was probably raised thinking the worse about her father but that is to be expected. So even though Emiya was trying to live the rest of his life to the fullest, giving back instead of taking, he was never going to be happy. NEVER!

Everyone go AWWW!

Emiya must have done something right though. Checky little Shiro (while implying older people get no dreams at all) volunteers to take on Emiya’s dream ,that he will be a hero. Now apparently Emiya DIES after giving Shiro his blessing. I didn’t get that impression from watching the show and quite frankly I might be traumatized for life if I was Shiro. Like I agree to do something and you smile and die? Um no I am going to cry for the rest of my life.

He feels better that he didn't carry on the Mage Killer legacy?

But apparently that is supposed to be a bitter sweet moment. Emiya knows that Shiro wishing that or taking on the role of a hero will probably leave him broken. Not in the same way (hopefully) but Emiya probably figured that if he (Emiya) was trying to be a practical hero and failed no one else had a chance with the traditional save everyone and be a hero route. Emiya smiles though. He thinks well what could this boy get into really? He taught him a little magic but probably thought that Shiro would be long dead or removed for the next Holy Grail War…. 

So there you have it folks. Longest post ever. XD This series was great though yes? Beyond amazing art quality, a story that kept you on your toes, and deaths galore. The show could have done a much better job explaining….well a lot of things. But overall I really had a great time blogging and watching this show as well as all the discussions that took place on my blog. XD Who knows when a super solid show like this will happen again…hopefully soon. Thanks for reading!!! XD