Fate/Zero S1E4: “Spearhead”

I guess dealing with the Lancer and his elusive master will be making up a significant part of this episode, going by the name. And sure enough, this picks up right where we left off, with the Lancer and Arturia starting their duel while Iri keeps an eye out for the master.

Arturia shrugs off some sort of invisible magical effect, which she identifies as a charm spell. The Spearman apologizes, and says that it's something he was born with; a mystical aura that makes him nearly irresistible to women. He'd turn it off if he could to have a proper fair fight, he explains, and is happy to see that Arturia resists it. Either because she's another Servant, because she's strong willed, or because she only females. Of course, if this IS the same Lancer from UBW, his charm didn't seem to do much of anything to Rin either, so this could just be him talking nonsense to throw his opponent off.

Spear-using hero who's an incredible ladykiller. Hmm. Nothing comes to mind, though as I acknowledged he might be bullshitting about the ladykiller part. His armor is also basic and undecorated to the point where I can't place a geographic origin (and we haven't gotten a good look at his feet, so I can't tell if he's wearing boots or sandals or moccasins or what), so yeah, this guy could be from anywhere.

He muses that the Sabers' extra magic resistance might be helping Arturia out against his charm. Okay, noted. After both expressing gratitude to be facing an opponent with a similarly honorable and courteous disposition, they start fighting.

The fight choreography is good, and the breaking of the pavement beneath the force of their blows communicates the otherworldly force of these entities as per Fate standard. However, I can't help but be a little spoiled by Unlimited Budget Works' execution of a similar battle with one of the same(?) combatants. Though to be fair, this fight is mostly from Arturia's perspective, as opposed to that Archer vs. Lancer one which was mostly from outside observer Rin's, so everything being slowed down makes sense from that angle. Still though, this mostly just looks like any well-done fantasy anime fight, rather than capturing that eye-straining canniness that UBW's crazy production values allowed it to.

After they cross weapons a few times, we cut to what looks like an industrial district, where Gray and his colleague-with-benefits are setting up a base with a good overlooking view of the city. They both sense other wizards raising protective barriers, indicating that the battles have started. He then tells her that they'll split up and each take a different side of the city; it's not specified, but it kinda seems like he's letting Arturia wander around far from him so that he and his assistant can surprise attack any masters who get distracted by her. I'd suspect that he's also using Iri as a decoy master, but it was made clear that she and Arturia not rendezvousing with him hours ago was completely their own idea, so I guess not.

He's...surprisingly unperturbed by not having heard from them in a while, come to think of it. Hmm.

So, they split up, with him reminding her to also keep an eye on a large crane that's standing near their base as she works. Wonder what that's about. Maybe they've rigged it up to work as a giant anti-master laser and they just need to lure their rivals into the open. I'm going with that until I'm forced to acknowledge that it's something lamer.

He also makes a demeaning comment about Arturia, while seemingly waiting to see what opportunities she gives him.

Gray is kind of a prick, but I guess that's what you'd expect from an assassin with a reputation for collateral damage.

Back to Iri and the dueling Servants. Just like the last time we saw this Lancer in action, he has an extremely aggressive fighting style, which is probably one of the defining Lancer traits in general now that I think about it. He also seems to employ misdirection quite a bit, flourishing both spears at once so that Arturia can never be sure which one he's going to attack with. She keeps to the defensive for now, trying to get a better sense of his abilities before making a counterattack, but it's hard.

Also, weirdly enough, Excalibur is manifesting as this ghostly, barely-visible beam of mist and light, rather than appearing solid like the other Servants' equipment. Wonder what's up with that? The intent could be that Excalibur always looked like that even while she was alive, but somehow I don't think it's that.

She's parrying his spear in this screenshot. You can just barely see the shape of Excalibur's hilt, cross-guard, and blade.

When I paused it to take the above screenshot, I also noticed the decorative patterning on that spear shaft. That looks Celtic, or maybe Scandinavian? Definitely western European of some stripe.

We hear Lancer's thoughts next, as he gets similarly worried about his own opponent. Her defense seems to be holding out against his offense. Excalibur's semi-invisibility is also making this much harder for him. He can't tell exactly how long its blade is, which means he can't properly leverage his spears' reach advantage. Interesting! This was probably a built-in feature of the sword, if that's the effect that it has. That lake goddess thought her shit through. Arturia has managed to draw blood from her opponent's face, and his luck isn't getting any better.

As his mind races, we go back into Gray's POV. He's got a bead on them with some kind of magic sniper scope that can detect and highlight Servants, and is waiting for the moment to pull the trigger.

He also catches sight of Iri nearby, and she seems to notice him as well. It looks like he's still perched on that crane. I thought he said that he and whatsername were both going to move around the city, but I guess I misunderstood. He's staying in his sniper nest, while she runs off to spot for him or something. I still like the laser idea more. Finally, he also notices another figure standing nearby, watching the battle. Unidentified. When he switches to a mundane scope, he sees that the figure has some sort of partial invisibility spell on as well. This has got to be the Lancer's master.

He radios whatsername, and asks if she has a line on the guy as well. She doesn't; either he's covered from her current direction, or his invisibility spell is working better against her. Gray acknowledges, and informs her that he'll be taking the shot then.

Before he can, though, he sees yet another watching figure. And this one he recognizes as the allegedly dispelled Assassin.

That takes us right back to Kirei and Goatee. Kirei is being relayed everything that Assassin-instance sees by another of Hassan's selves or minions or whatever, and in turn using a magical megaphone type thing to share that info with Goatee. Presumably, a normal phone would be at too great a risk of wiring tapping and the like.

Kirei reports that the Saber and Lancer are fighting. Hassan...or whoever? I'm just going to call all the assassin ghosts Hassan for now...sees them and Iri, but doesn't seem to have spotted Lancer's master, or Gray. The Saber is slowly gaining the upper hand, and Kirei lapses into more videogame jargon in describing her abilities.

I complained about this before, and I don't have anything new to say about it now. So, I'll just make sure you all know that it's still stupid and it still takes me out of the story.

The topic of conversation then changes to the woman Hassan sees observing the fight from up close. Silver hair, and unnaturally vivid red eyes. I guess blue and green hair are just part of normal human diversity, but red eyes are not in this particular anime. Who'd have guessed? Goatee knows that the Einzberns are the ones with the Saber in this war, and that platinum blondness is one of their distinctive inbred traits. He also recognizes the messed up red eyes as the tell of a haemonculus, which the Einzbern clan has been known to create.

Okay then. I guess Iri was being literal when she said she was created for a specific purpose. This might also recontextualize her never having left the Land of Always Winter, and her lack of general knowledge until she married Gray. Depending on how Fate haemonculi are created and how quickly they mature, she might have only been a few months old at the time of the wedding.

This throws Kirei for a loop, as they'd really been expecting Gray to be the Einzbern champion. But if they have a haemonculus at the scene of the battle and Gray is nowhere in sight, then that means that they've probably done something else instead. Kirei doesn't understand how a synthetic life form could count as an Einzbern family member for Grail War purposes, but there's no such thing as no such thing with haemonculi, so who knows.

Strangely, neither of them seem to think of the possibility that the Einzberns are using decoys to take the fire off of their actual champion. If I were them and I saw Einzbern constructs standing around the battlefield doing nothing, that would probably occur to me pretty quickly. But I guess I'm under a lot less pressure than they are, so there's that.

They don't strike yet, fortunately. They decide to have one Hassan trail Iri with its Assassin stealth ability engaged and figure out what's going on first. Okay, I wasn't giving them enough credit, they're making sure of things before jumping to conclusions.

Back on Gray's perch, Gray discloses the Assassin's presence to whatsername. He had a feeling there was something up with that alleged defeat the Assassin suffered to the Archer. In the meantime, he decides to hold his fire; it's possible that Kirei or whoever is actually in control of the Assassin might be about to take out the Lancer himself, in which case Gray should let him do that before springing the trap. He has whatsername keep her eyes on the Assassin, while he watches the Lancer's master through his anti-invisibility scope.

On the ground, Lancer and Arturia have slowed down the fighting and are mostly just exchanging complements on each other's abilities and valor now. Seriously, from the looks on their faces I'm half expecting Arturia to call off the match and invite him to stick his sword in her stone while they each take a sip from Iri's chalice. In between openly eyefucking each other, their conversation indicates that there's some kind of magical prohibition against them telling each other their actual names. I guess that's why their masters just call them by their role when in public; I thought that was just for dehumanization purposes, but maybe there's another reason as well.

Unfortunately, that's when the Lancer's master speaks up through what sounds like a megaphone, telling Lancer to stop flirting and use his Noble Phantasm already.

We get a brief glimpse of the guy. Skinny, middle aged, trenchcoat. Can't get a good look at his face, though.

Actually...I had a hunch, and looked back at some earlier bits, and I think this might actually be Professor Archibald, the guy who Waver stole the Alexander artifact from. Guess he had a backup? Or, more likely given how powerful the Lancer seems to be, he tracked down some other schmuck who was planning to join the game and killed him for his artifact before the war could begin. Explains the Celtic looking spears, if this was an artifact he had to grab quickly, not too far from his homeland.

So, resuming his more battle-focused persona, Lancer drops his shorter spear and does a...thing...with the longer one, causing it to turn ruby red from tip to butt, and renews his aggressive fervor.

...

Wait a second. Celtic. Red spear handle. Red...branch? Cuhullin?

Did he use a spear, as opposed to just being a member of an order with a spear-ish name? I honestly don't recall if he did.

...well, first pic I found of him is this one.

So yeah, that's probably who this Lancer is.

Someone just needs to summon William Wallace now, and I'll have so damned many "English(wo)man, Irishman, and Scotsman" jokes set up for me going forward.

Also also: I looked back at my UBW screenshots for more clues, and...I actually don't think it IS the same Lancer after all. Just another lithe, slender guy with dark colored armor and hair in some shade of blue. Also, he notable only used one spear, instead of two like this guy.

They look just similar enough for me to confuse them for one another if I haven't seen UBW recently enough. This makes me wonder about Archer again; IS that the same one who got a new look and attitude, or not? They're juuuuust similar enough that that might be the case, but I'm much less sure now. Although...they both have a sword-summoning ability, which can't be standard for Archers I don't think. Maybe it's a "different interpretations of the same hero" type deal after all. But then, as someone pointed out after my last post Rin DIDN'T use the same artifact. So...IDK.

...

He presses the attack, and something odd begins happening to Excalibur. With every hit, it becomes less and less intangible and glimmery-looking, and easier to see properly. Eventually, he's able to see and judge her reach, negating one of her main advantages. Arturia's thoughts inform us that his spear is somehow chipping away at the "invisible air" enchantment she has on Excalibur. Okay, I guess that's a thing, why not.

Once he can see what he's doing, the Lancer who may or may not be Cuhullan lands a blow on Arturia, and it's a significantly nastier one than the scratch she cut across his face. Iri gasps. Arturia is confused, at first, when she sees that her armor is unbroken, as if the spear's blade phased right through it and cut only her ghostly flesh. As Iri casts a healing spell on her, Arturia guessing what that red spear actually does, and the Lancer confirms it for her. It's an anti-magic weapon. That's why it's been weakening her sword's blur effect whenever they parry, and - since her armor is something she summons from megukaspace entirely - it can pass through it as if it's not even there. That...raises some questions about what the ghosts themselves are made of, but I'll roll with it for now.

Since her armor is useless against this weapon, she unsummons it to improve her mobility, leaving behind this...I don't know what this outfit is supposed to be, but it's apparently what was left when she got rid of her armor.

I'll take this as confirmation that the suit Iri got her that she was wearing before is in fact burning in hell now.

Arturia's blood is all over the cracked and cratered pavement (wait, isn't Excalibur's scabbard supposed to prevent blood loss? Maybe she doesn't get a ghostly version of that due to Gray having used the real version to summon her, or something), but with Iri's healing she's as good as new. The Lancer responds to her ditching the armor by conjuring his other, shorter spear as well, and this time it's also glowing, albeit yellow rather than red. He warns her that ditching her armor might not have been the best idea after all, but she infers that he's just trying to rattle her and lunges aggressively with her new, unencumbered speed.

...ouch. Looks like she called a bluff when he was being genuine. Damn, Arturia. You should have been able to infer from the character he's displayed up to this point that he wouldn't resort to lying during an honorable duel.

He cuts her across the arm with his golden shortspear, and this time weapon draws much more blood. I get the impression her armor would have worked against this one. Oops.

Up on the bridge, Alexander is getting really invested in the duel as he watches it from afar. He says he needs to go stop them from killing each other, which provokes a (reasonable, for once!) protest from Waver. Wasn't the whole point of this to wait for one to kill the other, and then attack the winner while they're weakened? Alexander grants that that WAS the plan, but now he's changing it.

He's been so impressed by Arturia and the Lancer's performance that he's now eager to test himself against each of them, so he doesn't want one to die before he gets to. God damn is Alexander flighty; I'm actually kinda sorta almost feeling bad for Waver now. Alexander summons his chariot, and prepares to ride forth and interrupt the duel before it can conclude.

...

You know, between the personality, the bulk, the red hair, and the chariot drawn by horned animals that appear in a flash of lightning, I'm really starting to wonder why this character is being called Alexander the Great. Aside from the style of dress, everything about him says "viking," and this take on the Gordian chariot is much more obviously reminiscent of Thor's goat-drawn thunderwagon.

I do LIKE this character, but it still feels like a waste to use Alexander's name for him. Alex has the potential to be weird and entertaining in a much more uncommon way than the "impulsive, bombastic punchy guy" that you could get out of almost any warlord, and the story certainly could have had room for both. Call this guy Erik the Red or something, and give a proper Disaster Twink take on Alexander to a different master.

...

Back to the battle. It looks like Arturia and the Lancer actually both slashed each other's arms up pretty badly back there. In order to strike her with that deadly yellow spear, he had to get close enough for its shorter length to connect, putting his arm in sword range. They start flirting again, and once more the Lancer's master who may be Professor Archibald yells at him through a voice amplifier to stop trying to get his third spear into Arturia and just stick to the two he's already gotten wet. He also heals the wound Arturia gave him; looks like Iri isn't the only Pokemon trainer with a healing-focused build. Speaking of which, Iri tries to heal Arturia again as well, but it doesn't work this time.

Lancer explains that his golden shortspear, the Gae Buidhe, inflicts wounds that do not heal, even by magic.

Okay, not Cuhullan then! I had the right island and the right pantheon of demigods, at least. This is another of the Tuatha De Danaan, a fellow named Diarmuid. I hadn't heard of Diarmuid before now, but some quick googling says that he's an honorable-but-rakish warrior with a pair of magical spears and a special mark given to him by a goddess that makes him irresistible to the opposite sex. Again, the sum total of my knowledge of this character at this point comes from Wikipedia and a few random blogs so take it with a huge grain of salt, but at least based on that he's being given a much more faithful treatment than Alexander.

Arturia recognizes who he is now, though she doesn't say his name aloud. There must be some sort of magic that makes doing that a bad idea. He returns the courtesy; now that he's seen her sword properly, he recognizes the King of Knights, even if she's actually a Queen as it turns out. He's heard of her, somehow, despite him being from a much older story. Maybe word travels around the afterlife.

They stop fighting and talk each other up one more time, going on about how honored they are at having managed to injure each other, they each look up to each other's legends so much. Just as Diarmuid's master is just about to give himself a concussion banging his head against the walls in frustration, the scene is interrupted by the only servant who cares even less about the actual Grail War than his.

Also, Alexander just fucking announces his name and title for all to hear as soon as he lands, so if there are any magical consequences for disclosing this as it's been implied he's about to suffer them. He really didn't get the orientation packet, did he? Or maybe he just didn't bother to read it, because there weren't enough pictures of explosions. End episode.

Fun watch. A little more monotonous than the previous episode, due to the repetitive dueling-and-eyefucking back and forth, but I was entertained all the way through. And...hmm. At this point, I think I've come to a conclusion about this franchise as a whole.

It's much better when it doesn't try to be smart.

The Nasuverse is fundamentally really dumb and campy, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's at its best when it embraces that and delivers unpretentious popcorn entertainment. When it tries to be serious and heavy, you get cartoonishly evil charicatures of villainy committing random atrocities against random innocent children. When it tries to be smart and philosophical, you get fucking Garden of Sinners. Meanwhile, when some dumbass teenaged wizards who you love to hate are making ninja Abraham Lincoln and stripper Genghis Khan duel with lightsabers, the runtime flies by and you get only-kind-of-ironically invested.

So, for what it is, I give this episode top marks. I'm hoping F/Z will be more of this and less of the more ambitious stuff that Type Moon has proven itself unsuitable for.