Fate/Zero S1E5: “A Wicked Beast’s Roar”

Evocative title. Let's see what it's referring to!

Alexander introduces himself, ignoring Waver's stammered insistence that he's not supposed to do that, and says that Fate has brought them together to do battle for the grail. Nice fourth wall breaking there, Alex.

...

Actually, outright mention of the Holy Grail in Arturia's presence makes me think of something.

The author's choice to put a version of King Arthur center stage in a story involving the Holy Grail is obviously just staying on theme, but within the world of the story what is Arturia's pre-ghostly history with the Grail? In Zero's pilot episode, the priests said that the artifact the mage clans are fighting over is most likely not the same "holy grail" that Arturia and her knights once searched for, but does Arturia herself know that? If so, what does she think of an unrelated, probably not-actually-holy in her view of the world, cup being called that? If not, how much of a personal stake does she have in trying to get the grail again, and how does she feel about masters of questionable worthiness being behind this scenario?

As far as the grail war itself goes, so far Arturia has seemed dutiful and businesslike, but not like she has any great personal stake in it. Which suggests that she knows this isn't actually the same grail. Or that she stopped caring about it for some reason. Or, I guess, that the stories about the royal knights searching for the Cup of Christ were falsely attributed to her after the fact.

It does feel like she should be saying something about it though, no? Maybe they just already covered that angle in Stay Night and didn't want to repeat it?

...

Alexander says that he's inviting them to defy fate, and possibly even Fate, though. If they yield their rights to the Grail to him and join the Neo-Alexandrian Empire, he will make them generals and noblemen who can rule alongside him as immortal lords forevermore. That's actually not a bad offer. The Servants are already going to be playing second fiddle to their masters when and if they get the Grail, and as it is only one of them stands a chance of reaping any reward at all. If they ally and overthrow their masters in favor of a fellow ghost and turn earth into their own necro-tyranny, they can ALL gain considerably from where they are now.

The problem, as both of them tell Alexander with bemused expressions, is that they are not capable of giving the grail to anyone else besides their masters. Diarmuid thinks it's funny. Arturia is insulted that he thinks she would think this was even remotely possible (and also, she adds, even if it WERE possible for her to get free of her master and still remain in the mortal world, she is NOT in the habit of bending the knee to pompous European aggressors). When Alexander keeps pushing, he only succeeds at provoking the British Islanders into ganging up on him first. 

Waver, who is still in Alexander's chariot and therefore directly in their line of fire, is unhappy about this. Roll intro.

I'm starting to think that Waver just botched the summoning. Uniquely among the Servants, Alexander doesn't seem to know the rules of the game, and he demonstrably has less knowledge of the modern world than Servants are supposed to get (Artoria knew not only what a plane was, but also how to pilot one. Alexander, meanwhile, had to learn these things by watching movies, reading atlases, and asking Waver). He did get PART of the information package, as evidenced by him speaking whatever languages the others are and being able to recognize Arturia by legend once she mentioned being the queen of England, but he's missing a lot. And, unlike the other Servants, he barely seems to care about the Grail even professionally, and needs to be reminded that it exists half of the time.

Considering that Waver didn't even know that the Grail War was a thing until a couple of days before he summoned Alexander using some hastily read notes that he stole, it seems entirely possible that he might have messed something up, and summoned Alexander with only part of the "programming" that Servants are supposed to get. The same probably goes for Uwu, who wasn't even a practicing wizard until he surprised himself by actually summoning Bluebeard. Of course, as the spirit of a wizard himself, Bluebeard might have known about the Grail independently, and perhaps even sought it during his mortal life.

After the OP, we see that Gray's assistant, I'll call her Bae, has her own crosshairs on Waver now that he's stuck his stupid head out of the chariot. Through her headphones, we hear Gray wonder aloud how this pompous idiot could have nearly conquered the known world. The answer, as some of my readers have already explained, is "daddy's money army."

Meanwhile, Diarmuid's master makes his voice heard again, and a look of absolute terror comes over Waver as he recognizes Professor Archibald's voice and is recognized in turn as the thief. Whoops. 

Archibald explains that he will be teaching Waver one final lesson, this one on the subject of how to torture someone who's stolen from you to death using magic. Yeah, that's about what I expected. However, while Waver hasn't exactly made a good impression on Alexander, Archibald is doing considerably worse. Alexander puts a comforting hand on the trembling Waver's shoulder, and bellows forth that it's a good thing he DID end up with a different Servant, because Alexander would have had zero patience for a cowardly worm who issues threats for his minions to carry out without even showing his face. And, Archibald gets mad at that. Being told that you're less brave than Waver will do that to a person.

But Alexander doesn't just stop there. Oh no. He's going full galaxy brain now. He screams out at the top of his ectoplasmic lungs that what he's saying applies to all entities who may be close enough to detect this battle and haven't deigned to show themselves. Come on out you cowards, show yourself or else you're a bitch!

Back in their respective sanctums, Goatee and Kirei stare at their comm devices in barely muted horror. They know what's coming. Either because of Hassan's espionage, or just because they've had enough exposure to Gilgamesh to know that he's not going to just ignore that. And, sure enough, the golden Archer teleports in atop a nearby lampost and demands to know who would dare trash talk the son of Ninsun. He also objects to Alexander's claim of being the "king of conquerors" in the presence of a true king like himself. 

Gilgamesh has a point there. Alexander only conquered about half of Eurasia. Artoria, also present as he makes that speech, only ruled England. Gilgamesh, on the other hand, ruled a whole entire city state all by himself!

Alexander tells the newcomer to kindly explain who the fuck he is, in that case, since if he's so important surely he should be proud to speak his own name. Alexander REALLY doesn't know the rules of this game, does he? Gilgamesh replies that if he can't recognize his glory when it's right in front of him, then he isn't worth talking to.

It looks like the part of the Epic of Gilgamesh where he learned humility and stopped being an overbearing prick was a later embellishment, in the Fateverse. I guess it's sort of like the part of the Arthurian legends where King Arthur had a penis.

Gilgamesh summons a big golden portal that swords start poking out of. I'm still not following how "summon a rain of swords" relates to Gilgamesh's legend, but it might be from one of the more obscure stories about him not included in the Epic. Alexander surmises that this is the attack that killed (as far as he knows) the Assassin. Just then, we suddenly flash to a man in a hooded black cloak lurking around nearby, who gives the order "kill!" Back at the encounter scene, a smoky black phantom in plate armor appears, and is identified by those present as the Berserker.

Okay, so that was Daisy all cloaked and hooded. We haven't seen him basically since the pilot, so I didn't recognize him at first.

Diarmuid ribs Alexander about how he should maybe invite the Berserker to be one of his diadochi next. Alexander mournfully replies that this guy looks even less interested in negotiation than he and Arturia turned out to be, and asks Waver what the scouter says about Berserker's power level. However, due to either this Berserker's powerset or to the extra enchantments that Darth Matou placed on them, Waver can't get a read. 

I guess masters can scout any servant's power level? I feel like there's been situations in the past where this should have been relevant.

Also? With everyone having these multiple supernatural senses (servants detecting each other, masters detecting servant power levels, wizards detecting spellcasting, etc) it makes it really hard to follow who knows what. I feel like we should be given some kind of visual or auditory cue that lets us follow what the characters are sensing with their ESP.

Arturia gets the same memo from Iri, and warns her that on top of Berserker being an opponent of unknown power who has them all at an information disadvantage, this situation is just incredibly perilous. If anyone fights anyone else, any of the other watching Servants or masters could take the opportunity to backstab one of them.

Gray and Bae, meanwhile, wonder why the Berserker suddenly materialized here. Which seems like a stupid question, considering what Alexander just did, but they might not have heard what he said exactly. Gray instructs Bae (whose name I actually caught this time. It's Maiya, Bae is Maiya, Maiya is Bae) to keep her sights on that watching Assassin while he tries to locate the Berserker's master.

And, Gilgamesh decides to kill the Berserker because he doesn't like the way he looked at him. Gilgamesh honestly comes across as the more "berserk" of the two. This version of Gilgy really did not end up any wiser or more patient than he was at the start of the Epic. Either that, or he's just REALLY not taking well to servitude. He reorients his sword-launching vortex to point all the blades at the Berserker, and opens fire. A high, desperate sounding fight theme begins, reminiscent somewhat of the Garden of Sinners soundtrack. The Berserker's lietmotif? Maybe. What happens next is too fast to see, but Alexander and Diarmuid helpfully explain it for us slow-eyed audience members. Unlike most Berserkers, who rely on sheer brute strength and toughness, this specimen seems to be all about speed and reflexes. Surprising, given the late medieval/renaissance vintage plate armor, but I suppose that armor could just be the manifestation of one of the buffs Darth put on them. The Berserker grabbed Gilgamesh's first projectile out of the air, and then used it to parry the next several. He keeps ahold of the first sword he grabbed. He didn't appear with a weapon, but he's got one now. 

What follows is a rather comical sequence of Gilgamesh opening bigger and bigger sword-launching portals, and getting ever angrier as the Berserker keeps deflecting everything no matter how many weapons he launches or how quickly. This guy really seems to be the rock to Gilgy's scissors, with his insane hand-eye coordination and reflexes. I wonder who he is?

I also think this is one of the best "fight" sequences in Zero so far. The smoky outline of the Berserker, twisting and evading the rain of swords as they ford Gilgamesh's barrages, captures that uncanniness and sense of magic that UBW had over Zero up until now. It manages to sell the impression that these are not just the usual animu superhumans, but otherworldly and fundamentally incomprehensible magical spirits. For Berserker, at least.

The battle ends with Berserker throwing some of the blades back and cutting down the lamp post that Gilgamesh was firing from, forcing the Mesopotamian to the ground and antagonizing him into opening his sword launcher to three story building size so he can just flood the entire street with weapons. Goatee, still being fed all of this via Kirei and Hassan is despairing at Gilgamesh stupidly showing off his powerset (which they call "the Gates of Babylon." Erm...didn't Gilgamesh rule a place called Uruk? Eh, same corner of the Fertile Crescent at least, I suppose) to the entire rest of the combatants and failing to even get a kill out of doing so. And, since Gilgamesh is all the way across the city (and seemingly went there of his own accord in response to Alexander's taunting), the only way he can give him a stand down order that he can receive at that distance is by burning one of his three Command Seals. 

Goatee tries to phrase his "desist and return here" order diplomatically and humbly, but Gilgamesh still whines at him like a little kid about having to abandon the fight he was failing at, and then trash talks all the other servants Xbox Live style before disappearing.

This is the least dignified take on Gilgamesh I've seen in anything.

Alexander comments that the Archer's master must be a whole lot smarter than he is. Diarmuid is all like "word." These two are kind of turning into the Statler and Waldorf of Fate/Zero, and I want it to continue. Too bad they'll have to fight each other.

Once everyone has finished blinking and WTF-ing over Gilgamesh's outburst and exit, the Berserker makes its move. It roars and shoots out a bunch of ghostly tentacles like a Dark Souls boss before solidifying again and going straight for Iri. Presumably because everyone thinks she's the Saber's master and she's standing out in the open. Saber just barely manages to block the attack, but it isn't easy; her hand is still injured by Diarmuid's spear of wounding, and Berserker is swinging a big weapon that she needs to wield Excalibur two-handed in order to parry; kinda tricky when your left thumb won't close properly. Thee "weapon" that Berseker is swinging isn't the sword of Gilgamesh's that he picked up, but an oversized clublike thing that I think might be a piece of the lamp post he cut down earlier. Said post is now writhing in black energy and harsh looking sigils, which Alexander surmises to be the result of a "turn any object I pick up into my Noble Phantasm" power of the Berserker's.

Hmm. European Renaissance style full plate, and an affinity for improvised weapons. Maybe I can figure this guy out if I put my mind to it? On the other hand, given the headscratchers that are this show's take on Gilgamesh and Alexander, that might be a fruitless exercise.

Berserker presses the advantage against the handicapped Arturia, but then Diarmuid intervenes and helps push him back. It's his fault her hand is all fucked up, after all, and he'd still like a chance at impaling her somewhere better designed for it before they have to kill each other.

And, at that, the still-unseen Professor Archibald just fucking loses it. 

I love how Archibald seems to have gone into this expecting the Servants to be mindless combat drones, and is just unable to come to grips with that not being the case. He's earnestly baffled and outraged by them all just wanting to fuck unless forced to do otherwise.

And, I guess he thinks that making Diarmuid kill Arturia first will sweep aside the reality he wasn't ready for and replace it with the one he was expecting. How very scientific of you, professor.

Diarmuid responds to this command by identifying himself by his full name. Maybe he's undermining himself out of spite for his master, now? He also begs his master to let him get Berserker out of the way first so that he can kill Arturia the proper honorable way, and is dismayed when Archibald refuses. Still, he has no choice but to obey. Apologizing to Arturia for having to do this, he backs away from the Berserker and turns on her (wouldn't it be funny if Daisy used this opportunity to have his Berserker just bash Diarmuid's head in while his back is turned? It's what I would do, lol). Arturia tells Iri to run, and hope that the two masters don't decide to send their Servants after her once the Saber has fallen. Iri does not run, however, and instead tells her to "have faith in her Master." Ah, right, we saw Iri noticing Gray's sniper perch a bit earlier, she knows he's got a bead on someone or other and is waiting for the best moment. Arturia catches her meaning, realizes that Gray is springing a trap on the enemies, and plays along with pretending that Iri rather than the unseen Gray is her master who should be considered a threat.

Sure enough, Gray decides that he's learned as much as he can about the other opponents by letting this nonsense continue for so long, and that it's now time to end it before he loses his Servant and/or wife. He tells Maiya to lay suppressive fire on the Assassin (presumably with +3 bullets of ghost stabbing) as soon as she hears his shot, puts the professor's forehead between his crosshairs, tightens his finger on the trigger, and...just then is distracted by the clap of thunder as Alexander charges his Gordian Chariot right into the Berserker's back, literally running them over. 

The armored fellow might be fast, but it appears that if you manage to land a solid hit like that one he will take damage.

And man, I really thought Archibald was going to bite it there. His role in the story so far has been fairly minimal, his characterization has been one-note jerkish, and unlike Uwu or Darth he's not even being built up as a threatening one-note jerk. If there's one Master who the story could discard early on to establish Gray's assassin cred, it would be him. Though, granted, it obviously has more plans for Diarmuid going forward, and killing Archibald would probably send the Lancer back to the netherworld, so I guess on second thoughts I shouldn't have been fooled.

The Berserker can still get up, but only very slowly, and he's smoking much more heavily at the armor joints. Clearly wounded. Alexander acknowledges the Berserker's respectable toughness, but he can tell he's not going to be much of a threat until he can get patched up. Sure enough, the Berserker teleports away, either on his own initiative or having been recalled by Daisy. Then, he tells Archibald, wherever he is, that unless he withdraws Lancer right now he's just going to gang up on him with Arturia; Lancer has already been embarrassed enough by association with you, please don't make this night any worse for the poor guy.

Archibald is furious, but he's intelligent enough to know that Alexander has him by the balls here. He reluctantly tells Diarmuid to retreat, and the Irishman thanks Alexander before vanishing. Alexander just gives him and Arturia a wry grin and rambles about how love can bloom on the battlefield. Once Diarmuid is gone, Arturia asks Alexander what he was originally intending to do when he first descended on the scene, and he says that he doesn't remember. I...can certainly believe that, given how flighty he seems. Speaking of which, he also says that he no longer wants to fight Arturia and Diarmuid, and that if they still refuse to join him then he'll just play victor after they've had their rematch. Yeah, this guy does not commit to plans. He then picks up Waver (who seems to have passed out from fear and/or motion sickness) and rides away, leaving Iri and Arturia alone, being watched by the hiding Gray, Maiya, and Hassan.

The leitmotif being played here, by the way, is one that I'm sure is supposed to be Arturia's theme. This episode hasn't been too clear about which song belongs to which Servant, so I haven't engaged with the OST the way I'd planned to, but here it's noticable. It's a wistful, pseudo-medieval string piece that's a little too tragic sounding for the circumstances, but I imagine it'll get more appropriate once we learn more about her.

Arturia and Iri approach one another. Arturia's hand is still injured, and she thinks it'll stay that way until Diarmuid is eliminated from the game. Unfortunate. I wonder though; do the Servants actually have some kind of conscious existence in the afterlife or wherever, when they're not being summoned by self-important wizards? Can they interact in the meantime? Unclear. Again, it's also unclear if these even ARE literally 1:1 representations of the dead heroes rather than weird manifested interpretations of them. Well, for the sex that CAN still potentially be had in the here and now at least, Iri thanks Arturia for protecting her, and Arturia says that she had an easier time fighting knowing that someone like Iri was relying on her.

Cut to Daisy, who's cackling madly to himself in what looks like a broken down factory or something. He's thrilled at how Goatee's Archer got absolutely humiliated by his Berserker and made Goatee look terrible. I can understand the sentiment; he's only in his current, worm-infested slave soldier state thanks to Goatee selling his daughter to Count Villain du Badevil, so I can imagine him relishing the opportunity to pay him back at least even if he can't do anything to Darth. He stops laughing long enough to vomit up some blood and baby crest worms, and then his entire demeanor changes and he starts bemoaning the Berserker's uncontrollability.

So that wasn't deliberate on his part. Wonder who he was planning to hit after Gilgamesh left, then, if not Arturia?

Hmm. Is Daisy just losing it because of what he's suffered, or was the cackling persona him being somehow "possessed" by Darth via the worms with the abrupt change being himself regaining control? Hmm. Probably the former. I'd be surprised if Darth and Goatee had that much animosity for one another, if Goatee was willing to just sell him his daughter for ???.

He also says that his body won't hold out if he keeps having to wrestle the Berserker's impulses like that. Weird. Wonder what the situation is, exactly, with how he, his Servant, and the crest worms are interacting.

Still, he's confident he can win if he strategizes right. He can still save Sakura.

Cut to the sanctuary church, where one of the Hassans is bringing Kirei a dead bat. She says she found it behaving suspiciously at the edge of the church's warded area, and killed it. Kirei recognizes it as a familiar, and concludes that someone might be on to him after all. I guess that was Maiya's eye in the sky; Gray overestimated its ability to avoid detection. Poor bat. :(

Then, we cut to Uwu's murderbasement, where he and Bluebeard have been watching events unfold in a crystal ball that the latter whipped up. Uwu is prancing around the room going on about how awesome that whole fight was, which...well, this is probably just intended to highlight Uwu's emotional immaturity and love of violence, but deliberately or not it kind of comes across as the show sucking its own dick.

He tries to ask Bluebeard a bunch of questions about what they saw, but the Caster doesn't answer. A moment later, Uwu sees that tears are leaking out from under those oversized eyeball-counterparts of his. He's hunched over the orb as he cries, and when Uwu asks him what's up he starts babbling about how he's found her! The maiden of his dreams! That noble bearing, that divine face! She who was forsaken by God and died in shame, but is now reborn through the magic of the Grail War! He's finally found her, and soon he will come for her.

Huh. Is Bluebeard a rule63 Morgan Le Fey to go with the rule63 Arthur Pendragon? Maybe a really fucked up interpretation of Merlin? He seems to recognize Arturia, and it seems to be from his mortal life. Then again, he refers to her as someone from his DREAMS, so it's possible he was just a medieval wizard who was haunted by visions of Arturia's career or something. I guess we'll find out eventually. End episode.

This was an easy watch, but very slow to write about. That's often how long, dense, episode-length action sequences are. Not a flaw of the show at all. In general, I'd say that this is about the same as the previous ep on all fronts in terms of content and the quality thereof. Same merits, same flaws, and in more or less the same proportions.