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Fate/Apocrypha |OT| Saber, Rider and the Star Servants

T-Rex.

Banned
Was dying when he got into the car lmao.

The show's alright but nothing special. I don't particularly think the action's good either, seems to be getting worse in every ep. Mordred vs Arturia (Altria NEVER) should have been hype, but ended up being shite.
 

Kenai

Member
Been trying to watch some of this.

it's not as good as I was hoping it would be but it's likeable enough. There's at least a few interesting characters on both sides even if the screentime for them is uneven. My main worry is that a lot of random stuff is going to continue to to make sense for forever.

"Karna, go kill that really strong neutral bystander with the flag" was a big one but the rest have pretty much been discussed already.

Also I dunno if it's the sound quality but I really ain't feeling the opening theme.

If it gets notably worse I'll probably binge it later but for now I am happy enough.
 

Laiza

Member
As I was afraid of, Jack in her "battle" costume is fucking horrifying and I just can't take this show even halfway seriously whenever she's onscreen. The sad thing is that her design would actually be perfectly okay if they just gave her shorts or some trousers, but no, she's gotta expose her undies because... reasons... sigh. And then that shot of Astolfo's master in her undies torturing a... wooden puppet? That was weird. That was really weird.

And yeah, Mordred and Artoria's confrontation wasn't as hype as it should've been, but it could be that they're expanding more on that later. It's actually a bit weird to me how the animation waffles between showing servants as insanely OP as they actually are and then sometimes showing them moving like normal humans. Reminds me of Dragon Ball Super in that regard - the animators just can't seem to nail down a consistent pace for these superhuman characters.

Still, I did at least have some fun with this episode, with Chiron's response to Mordred's charge being to tank the sword swing and throw her into the ground being a particular highlight for me. Love that stuff. I hope Doc Ock doesn't bite the dust with just that one finger buckshot(!) volley, though. That'd be disappointing. I fully expect her brother's gonna step in at the very beginning of the next episode, heh.

I'm not dropping the series, but I'm mostly holding out hope we get at least one standout fight. It's not like A-1's bad at that sort of thing, after all. (It was one of the only redeeming factors of SAO, for that matter.) Still, yeah, this is not Fate/Zero level or even Fate/Stay Night UBW level. About what you can expect given the source material and A-1 Pictures's involvement. I wonder how much of the good stuff will only show up in the second cour, though...
 
Eh, the fights aren't Ufotable's level, but they're pretty decent. Jack's outfit is still cringeworthy. Mordred is still best girl, her playing with the cat was hilarious. Also, the cameos from the entire Round Table + Merlin. Still, yeah, the fact that nobody thought Artoria was a girl is standing up to less and less scrutiny now.

Still, it does explain why Artoria used Rhongomyniad instead of Excalibur to take down Mordred. Mordred knocking the Sword of Promised Victory out of her hands was actually pretty badass - I don't think anyone else has actually done it in the entire series.

Also, Kairi Vs. Fiore was also pretty rad, sorta in a Kiritsugu Vs. Kayneth sorta way, with similar roles, even if Fiore's mystic code isn't quite as broken as Kayneth's. Still, I knew said mystic code was pretty rad, but an in-built machine-gun? Awesome. Chiron Vs. Mordred was pretty neat, too.

Artoria[/s] Altria appears as a guest character and even the enemies can't stop saying how perfect she is. Yep, this is Fate.

To be fair, it's a reference to how Artoria was the 'perfect king' by throwing away her humanity, making the 'right' decisions even if it cost lives, but it also caused her to forsake crucial human emotions, including empathy, which caused people to question whether she was even human, and caused some of her knights to leave her service, and likely also the result of why she had a cold reception towards Mordred's reveal of her heritage (though it would've helped if she told Mordred the reason why right off the bat). At the end of her reign, when she regained her human emotions, she absolutely freaked out, as she believed she was a failure of a king, causing her to fight Grail Wars in hopes of achieving her wish of having someone else take her place in history in hopes anyone would do a better job. Courtesy of the Type-Moon wiki:

She strictly kept to the oath that a king is not human and that one cannot protect the people with human emotions. She never narrowed her eyes in grief while sitting on the throne, and she settled every problem while working hard in government affairs. She managed to balance the country without any deviations, and she punished people without a single mistake. Even after, or possibly because of, winning battles in victory, commanding citizens without disorder, and punishing hundreds of criminals, one of her knights murmured "King Arthur does not understand human feelings."

It is possible everyone felt that way, that the more perfect she became as a king, the more they needed to question her as a ruler. They felt that a human without emotion cannot rule over others, leading to several reputable knights leaving Camelot. She simply accepted this to be a natural event that is part of the process of government, isolating the fair king honored by her knights. Having abandoned her emotions from the start, she did not change her mind even if she was abandoned, feared, or betrayed. There was no right or wrong to someone who saw such events as trivial.
 

Maebe

Member
Other than Sieg, Jeanne, Karna and the cat girl who's name I have forgotten having no discernible personalities the cast is pretty fun
 
Ep. 7

Cliffhanger from last episode turned out about as expected. Aside from that, nothing really to the episode aside from setting up a big brawl next episode. Hanging Gardens look pretty neat, though they haven't really done much yet.

Shakespeare is great at least, probably funnest Servant after Mordred.
 

RangerBAD

Member
Who is this old man? Sword belts certainly aren't typical. I guess you could put a knife or axe in it.

Other than Sieg, Jeanne, Karna and the cat girl who's name I have forgotten having no discernible personalities the cast is pretty fun

Atalanta is her name.
 

Laiza

Member
Finally, the action properly begins! Loving the displays of servant power here. I also really enjoy the master-pupil relationship between Achilles and Chiron, and the irony of them having to face each other in the Holy Grail War. This is pretty much when Fate is at its best - matching up historical or mythological figures who interact well with one another and playing that up as much as possible.

I'm really curious to see how Shiro fares in combat against a servant as well. I've always enjoyed the master battles the most in this franchise, as they somehow end up with the most interesting circumstances and choreography. Shakespeare buffing up his sword to NP level is a good use of his ability, too, much like Kuzuki getting his fists buffed by Medea. I actually have no idea what Shiro's actual abilities are at his point in time, but I'm guessing they're a mix of Shirou Emiya's and Kirei Kotomine's judging by his weird name. Gonna make for some fun fights!
 
Dr. Frankenstein just comes off as somewhat pathetic in those flashbacks. Granted, his terror is entirely understandable, but good God, man. That being said, I do appreciate that the animators showed some restraint and made him a fairly normal-looking guy, instead of making him a bishie, really handsome or a shota like practically every other male historical/fictional character in this series.

Also, there's something cathartic about seeing Zouken Matou a completely broken man (both figuratively and physically) in that flashback to the Third War. Granted, it's the Nazis fucking him over, but then they got fucked over as well. It's a round trip of karma in this thing.
 
Yes, she is. Also, the anime-only watchers finally know what's the deal with Sieg :)

And poor Fran.

Also, Jack's scene is so blatantly tonally dissonant it's crazy. What she's doing in the scene is horrifying, but she's also fucking adorable.
 
And the best girl for summer is...
tumblr_ousndbqdby1sebz5yo1_540.gif
 

Baalzebup

Member
If this is all done by Semiramis as an Assassin, how would she manifest as an actual Caster? The number of features in her Hanging Gardens is insane, she is crazy good at Magecraft. What is the effect of her manifesting as Assassin?!?!
 

T-Rex.

Banned
Karna just taking the piss out of Vlad was so rude. I always kinda forget he's Gilgamesh tier OP.

Jeanne, Mordred, Karna all had good moments in the ep so I'm happy.
 
RIP Darnic and Vlad. The former will not be missed.

And now the people who didn't know before now know what the deal is with Mr. Kotomine -
the name was a massive red herring this whole time. Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, an apocryphal Japanese Christian saint. And if it wasn't immediately obvious (I mean, the Irisviel lookalike made it fairly obvious anyway), he's the nail that caused this timeline to split off from mainline Fate - he was the Einzbern Servant in the Third War instead of Angra Mainyu.

My personal theory is that
in mainline Fate, Darnic tried to steal the Grail but the corrupted Grail killed him, his Servant and the Nazi collaborators.
 
Same, really.

And this is pretty much the point where the actual heroes and villains are starting to fully be established. Well, the ones aside from Sieg and Jeanne. Red Faction + Avicebron being the main antagonists (Amakusa being the big bad in charge of the whole operation) with Black Assassin and her Master being the side-antagonists, and everyone else who isn't dead by the end of the episode being the heroes.

This episode also establishes the full dramatic tension and stakes for the rest of the story - Black Faction is basically in disarray and at a major disadvantage, with two rogue Servants, and two more dead, and a third basically being part of Sieg as a now two-time-only transformation. Red Faction has the Greater Grail, only one Servant down and one rogue, a second Caster switching to their side, with a Ruler in charge of the whole operation, and a flying fortress fully operational. The heroes are at a major disadvantage, no matter how you slice it.

Also, Kairi and Mordred working overtime with two Big Damn Heroes moments, bloody hell.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Er but the hero is Jesus Shirou.
 

KMRiku

Neo Member
If this is all done by Semiramis as an Assassin, how would she manifest as an actual Caster? The number of features in her Hanging Gardens is insane, she is crazy good at Magecraft. What is the effect of her manifesting as Assassin?!?!

Late response, the anime doesn't really explain it, but Semiramis was summoned with a skill called Double Summon, which means she can use both Assassin and Caster class skills. The Hanging Gardens is basically her Caster Noble Phantasm.

Also the new OP and ED are sooooooo much better.
 

gaiadyne

Member
If anyone was waiting to watch this show legally, the first half is on Netflix now! Not only that but it is also available dubbed!
 
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