Fate/Zero S1E9: “Master And Servant”

You know, it's kind of starting to grate on me that there's been no real plot advancement since episode 3 or so. Arturia's arm got hurt. Gilles has been partially de-powered (might be temporary, might be permanent). Other than those minor losses though, everyone is in pretty much the exact same position as they were at the war's beginning. Lots of battles, but none of them have been conclusive, and only a couple of them had any impact at all.

None of this is illogical or SoD-breaking. In a conflict where the participants all have some combination of multiple quick-escape methods, disposable conjured minions, and healing magic, it would take a lot of time and effort to make damage stick. As a story though, it makes things a little repetitive. Well, anyway, let's see what happens in episode nine!


We start with a Diarmuid flashback. It seems to be a condensed, but more or less mythologically accurate, recollection of Diarmuid's final adventure as a living man. Involving a princess with seductive charm powers similar to his own that they mutually-assured-thirsted each other with, the elderly god-king she was supposed to be betrothed to, and a series of assassinations and revenge-killings that culminated in Diarmuid's own death.

Then the person having the flashback wakes up from the dream, and reveals himself to be a heavily bandaged Professor Archie.

Some kind of Servant-sympathy fugue brought on by the magic warping bullet Gray shot him with, probably. Getting some of Diarmuid's memories in his dreams. Roll intro.

After the OP, the groggy Archie quickly puts his dream together with the legend of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, and comes to the same conclusion I just did. However, he's still in a lot of physical pain, and in an unfamiliar location, so there's not much he can do with it just yet. After a moment, that redheaded lady who I think is his wife, Sona, shows up. He tries to sit up to talk to her, despite his injuries, only to find that he's strapped to the gurney. He demands to know the meaning of this. She replies by asking him if he remembers anything that happened. Her tone and expression suggest that she's plotting something.

The last thing he remembers is getting shot. She explains that whatever the hell that bullet was, it *really* fucked him up. His own magic broke loose and tore his body apart from inside. She just barely managed to regenerate his vital organs, but restoring his "magical circuits" is beyond mortal sorcery. Kayneth Archibald El-Meloi the status-obsessed magocrat will never be able to cast a spell again.

Alright. That last shootout between Archie and Gray actually DID have some longterm repercussions, even if Diarmuid prevented them from being imminently fatal. Good start.

Archie still has the command seals on his hand, and as we've seen, Diarmuid remained active even after whatever happened to Archie happened. Although...oh, wait, right, Archie's wife can also pump mana into Diarmuid. That must be how Diarmuid is still able to be active, right.

So, Archie still has his remaining command seals, but without mana he can't really use them, and Diarmuid won't be as powerful with only one mana-donor unless they start scrawling sacrificial runes on high schools on the double. Or they could pay another wizard to fuck Diarmuid, that would also power him up.

Hahaha, you thought I was going to let that little worldbuilding detail go? Weep and despair, you fools, I'm never letting it go!

Unfortunately, Archie is far too insecure to ever let someone else fuck his stand, and he's in no condition to FMA a bunch of teenagers into magic crystal meth right now. So, only one option left. Sona thinks she can transfer Archie's Master-ness into herself, inheriting his command seals and his mana-link with Diarmuid. If he agrees to the process, she promises that if she wins the Grail she'll word her wish so as to include restoring Archie's health and powers. Also, she has him chained to a gurney in a dingy, prison-like environment with no witnesses.

"What," she asks him, feigning indignation, "don't you trust the woman you're going to marry?"

Ah, so she's his fiance, not his wife. Well, Archie might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he knows better than to trust someone who would marry him. On top of that, he doesn't trust Diarmuid to remain controllable after an unconventional master-switch like this, considering his behavior up until now. Oh my god Archie you are such a fucking snowflake.

When he asked Diarmuid why he responded to the Grail summons, he apparently told him that he doesn't care about the Grail, which is categorically impossible for a Servant. Archie describes everything that defies his expectations even mildly as impossible, so whatever. Either Diarmuid just didn't want to share his greatest desire with this high-strung asshole who he's found himself forced to work with for it, or he was telling the truth and his real wish is just to be able to walk the earth again for a little while. Anyway, Archie interprets this as a sign that Diarmuid is a fire that shouldn't be played with, and also he's just stubborn and anal-retentive, so he refuses to give up his Master status.

His beloved fiance tells him that she understands his reservations, but that he doesn't understand the situation. Then she starts breaking his fingers and telling him he's going to lose entire limbs next unless he cooperates.

Well, like I said. The kind of person who would look at Archie and think "husband material."

I think that this will in fact be the end for Professor Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi. Like I said, he's arguably the most boring of this set of Masters, and now that there's a way to keep Diarmuid in the story without him I don't see much reason for the author to spend any more time on him. I suppose it's the most karmic way his story could have ended, de-mastered, de-wizarded, and murdered by someone he thought he could rely on.

Maybe Urobuchi will surprise me here and let Archie survive this part. Well, if so, I hope it's for a good reason and not just defying expectations for the sake of defying expectations.

Cut to the Einzbern castle, where the other casualties of last night's battle are patching themselves up. Iri is as good as new, but Maya is still unconscious, bandage, and in need of further magic before she can fight again. Iri's done good work on her so far, but alchemical healing apparently takes a lot out of the patient, so healing Maya's wounds is also keeping Maya unconscious.

I wonder if Iri's homunculus physiology deals better with healing magic, or if it's purely because of the Excabbard that she's in perfect condition again already. Well, either way, Iri's back in action, but Maya will be a while.

Before they adjourn for what's left of the predawn and try to get some rest (well...for Iri to get some rest, at least. I don't think heroic spirits need sleep), Arturia asks Iri to please try to talk sense into Gray with regards to the hunt for Gilles. If Iri is smart, she can probably sell this to Gray pretty easily in the wake of last night's events. If multiple other Masters have already broken the truce, then that means the truce can't be relied upon for Gray's intended trick. And, if we're back to the free-for-all, Gilles should be at least as high priority of a target as Diarmuid. After all, what's going to hurt their chances of victory more? Arturia's hand being injured, or Arturia being hounded at every turn by a monomaniac enemy? Even if he can't fix his tome, Gilles is still powerful enough to really screw things up for them.

Arturia's motives in wanting to take out Gilles are of the moral kind, of course. But there's just as many pragmatic reasons to do it, after what they saw Archie and Kirei pull. Hell, there's a good chance Gray has already come to this conclusion on his own.

So, Iri goes back to the stateroom to talk to her husband. Before she can open her mouth, he asks her how long she thinks it'll be until Maya is combat-ready again. If nothing else, Gray's work ethic is admirable. Iri tells her it'll be at least 36-48 hours, and he just sighs and says he's going to go track down Archie and finish him off on his own right now. Meanwhile, he wants Iri and Arturia to stay here and keep working on Maya.

Iri starts to say something, but he interrupts her and asks if she's about to relay Arturia's desire to hunt the Caster. When she confirms this, he tells her that they have much bigger things to worry about than a few dozen dead children; you know, like that chocolate-peppermint flavored semen that he plans to wish for, any amount of death and suffering will be justified in the end if he gets that.

Or, well. I don't know, what the hell is he even planning to wish for at all? The guy hasn't exactly come across as a humanitarian. A man who kills entire passenger planes full of civilians just to eliminate one target is not someone I'd expect to wish for a golden age of peace and happiness for all humanity. Maybe he's looking for redemption after his lifetime of murder, but if so he doesn't seem to have actually learned anything from his regrets, given how callous he's still being. Anyway, until we're given more information, "I wish my semen tasted like chocolate and peppermint" is my hypothesis, and I will be judging all actions he performs in the interest of obtaining the Grail accordingly.

He also says that Arturia has terrible judgement and that he doesn't intend to listen to anything she has to say on principle now. Why? Because she let Diarmuid run off to stop Gray from killing Archie, and she had no assurance that Diarmuid would keep his promise not to kill Gray while he was at it.

Oh man is there a lot to unpack in this scene.

Doing the opposite of what Arturia wants, just out of spite. Yeah, sure, right, Gray is the guy who'll do anything for victory. Nothing but cold, efficient pragmatism here.

Going after a target with unknown allies and defenses, alone, with no intel on current whereabouts, just because he can't stand Arturia's optimism.

An optimism that turned out to be wholly justified. She and Diarmuid speak the same language. She knows him. They've saved each other before now, in cases where it wasn't just the pragmatic choice. Gray's failure to acknowledge this is just bad situational awareness. And a massive heap of hubris, with him being unwilling to acknowledge his own blind spots.

You know, Gray keeps getting protagonist framing, but he still has yet to do a single thing to warrant it. He's not more interesting than the other Masters. He's not more sympathetic. I have no more reason to want to see him win than any of the others (as long as Iri survives). I wonder if this is the same issue that I've been having with Kirei's villain-coding? If we're supposed to think well of one and badly of the other due to things that haven't happened yet?

Cut back to the new Lancer Lair, which turns out to be an abandoned industrial complex or something. Sona calls Diarmuid over for a talk while Archie writhes in broken-fingered agony in the basement. He asks her how Archie is doing. What, has he just not been paying attention? Well, I guess he might have been visiting Arturia for a quickie while Iri and Gray were having their unproductive meeting.

Sona tells him that she's done everything she can, but there's still no way in hell that she's getting him combat-ready again. I'm guessing she must have put Archie in a state where he's unable to talk, since Diarmuid - regardless of his dislike for his master - doesn't seem like he'd approve of what she's doing to him. Anyway, she then shows him the command seals on her own hand, and tells him that Kayneth has decided to back out and yield the Lancer faction to her. Is that okay with him?

It's not okay with him. Diarmuid says that he made his pact with Archie. If Archie is out of the fight, then so is Diarmuid. That doesn't really make sense to me, and it doesn't make sense to Sona either. She makes a point of asking Diarmuid why he won't look her in the eyes when he's talking to her, and he just deflects. Hmm. I'd normally think this was some kind of old timey proto-Celtic sexism making him reluctant to fight with/under a woman, but he showed no sign of that when dealing with Arturia, so it's got to be something else. Maybe he knows about Sona's treachery, but doesn't want her to know that he knows?

Although...hold up. If Diarmuid can operate just fine on Sona's mana alone, why did she even need the command seals? She could have just let Archie remain his Master in name, while effectively taking point in fueling and directing him in combat, right? Would he still get the wish instead of her, or something?

Also...who actually makes the damned wish if they win, the Servant or the Master? Do they each get one? What if they wish for mutually exclusive things?

Regardless, Diarmuid still isn't having it.

In the end, she ethically manipulates him by telling him that what Archie wants more than anything now is to get his magic back, and the only way that can happen is with a miracle, and the only way they can get a miracle is with the Grail. When pressed she vows that she's only going to be doing this for Archie, as his wife (fiance?) and proxie.

Okay, but like...if that were true, why would she need his command seals? Why would he need to give his Master status to her? Again, he seems to already be able to use her mana instead of Archie's, so what more would she need if she actually was just doing this for him? We've seen from Arturia and Iri's example that the Servants don't need to be led in person by their Masters, and that spouse-proxies work just fine. So yeah, what exactly IS the story she's trying to sell to Diarmuid, here?

Well, whatever the heck he's supposed to believe, he believes it at least provisionally for now. Also, we learn that the reason he's uncomfortable with Sona - aside from him probably sensing her duplicity - is that she reminds him of his wife Grainne. The one who running off with ended up getting him killed by the intended husband of. Okay, I can see how this situation might ring some alarm bells for him. And also how Sona's physical resemblance to Grainne might unsettle him.

I also kinda have to scratch my head at the author's decision to use that gimmick twice in the same story. Arturia reminding Gilles of his old crush, and now this with Sona and Diarmuid...I dunno, seems a little too much.

Diarmuid goes down to where Archie is unconscious on the gurney. Probably induced unconsciousness, to stop him from talking.

I'm guessing Sona also got rid of the restraints and healed his fingers, but...how could she have known Diarmuid wasn't watching when she did all that? This whole situation just doesn't make sense to me. He muses to himself about how he wishes he could find the "loyalty" he never had in life. Does he mean loyalty on his own part toward is ostensible liege (who he kinda sorta betrayed by running off with his betrothed), or loyalty toward himself by others? Unclear.

Jump back to the very lonely and confused castle that the Einzberns built in the middle of Japan. Arturia and Iri are up on the battlements, and Arturia is telling her about how she remembers having to sacrifice innocent lives for the greater good during her time as queen. A career of making hard calls like that are why she can kinda sorta understand where Gray is coming from. However, she always followed the laws of warfare, and understood the need for both sides to restrain themselves to ensure that there's anything left worth fighting over and people worth saving by the end of it. In this case, the entire point of the ritualized, church-overseen Holy Grail War is to allow the mage clans to fight it out over the prize while minimizing then collateral damage. If they're going to let Gilles go out and maximize collateral damage for the sake of a (highly debatable, at this point) tactical advantage, then what even is the point?

Well, given that the referee is corrupt, half the contestants are breaking the rules independently, and at least one participant is a random lunatic serial killer whose Servant is *also* a random lunatic serial killer and who doesn't know the rules even exist in the first place...I think it's safe to say that the system has failed. Comprehensively. Whatever noble (or even just pragmatic) intentions the Vatican had when it set this up two hundred years ago, the inheritors of the situation have ruined it. As it is, no one - including the guy conspiring with the damned referee - can even be trusted to keep a truce even if that puts the entire masquerade in jeopardy.

Arturia is depressed. Iri is conflicted. Finally, Iri just tells her that they WILL make sure it's all worth it in the end. And they're going to need her to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Just remember the big picture, Arturia. Chocolate. And peppermint. Flavored. Semen."

We then finally leave the houses of recursive angst and start having fun again, with the revelation that Waver's cool grad student friend Alexei has introduced himself to his "grandparents." The poor old couple can't get enough of Mr. The Great, as he charms them with his earnest, revelrous self over drinks. Waver, who came downstairs to be greeted with this without warning, is looking more and more outraged by the second as he stuffs his face with trembling hands.

Why is Waver so upset about this, aside from the obvious fact that he's Waver? I think there might be two reasons. First, most obviously, because he's afraid of Alexander blowing their cover, and is just generally uncomfortable with how independently he's continuing to act. But the focus of the scene, while Waver was trembling and fuming, wasn't on Alexander doing anything risky or counterproductive. It was on how well he was hitting it off with these two random elderly brainwashees. How they were enjoying his company, and he theirs, in a genuine, human way. Waver, meanwhile, only ever got the time of day out of these people because he mind controlled them.

Of course, Waver has been treating this couple like tools to be used and barely acknowledged when he's not using them. He's put zero effort or attention into building a rapport with them, instead relying solely on magical brute force. But now Alexander is showing him what he's been missing by interacting with the world this way, and that really pisses him off.

If I'm reading this correctly, then I can see the sort of arc they're going for with Waver, and it fits with what I heard about his adult self apparently being one of the more likable Fate characters. He started out as basically Archie Junior, which makes sense for a literal student of Archie's. Now he's starting to break out of that programming (fittingly, in the same episode where Archie himself is defeated and ousted from the Grail War).

Given that Waver's powerset has also been a chibi version of Archie's up until now (alchemy, hypnosis, etc), I wonder if he's going to learn some new and very different types of magic as part of this arc. That's often how personal growth arcs get illustrated in the genre.

Anyway, speaking of alchemy, Waver is doing some in his guestroom in the next scene. Alexander has (grudgingly, due to how menial a task it seemed) brought him water samples from two dozen points along the river that Fyuki City is built around. He's got all the sampling sites marked on a city map, and he's doing some kind of magi-chemistry with the samples.

When asked, Waver explains that detecting magically-charged effluent within water is a simple alchemical procedure, and that thanks to how straight the river flows through the middle of the city it should be very easy to track down the influxes. They know that Gilles is doing a bunch of blood sacrifices, so his lair should be one of the biggest sources of magical water pollution in Fyuki, if not the biggest. So, if Waver can determine where most of it is entering the river, they can probably figure out where Gilles is operating from and attack him there.

Well, at least SOMEbody is taking this truce seriously, heh. Granted, it may also be that Alexander's willfulness is just making Waver really, really, REALLY want an extra command seal.

They find a major influx point, and Alexander confirms that there was a big sewer main emptying into the river just upstream of that sample site. Alexander is ecstatic, and wants to go kill him a dead Frenchman right this minute. Waver asks him why he's in such a great mood all of a sudden, and Alexander replies that he both a) is heartened to see his Master be not completely useless for once, and b) always likes a simple solution to a complicated problem. As Waver explains, his little forensic alchemy trick is the simplest, most unimpressive way to find a hidden magi-lab, which means that most of their overpowered weirdos wouldn't ever stoop to thinking of it...or defending against it. The Gordian Knot solution.

Waver thinks he's making fun of him, because he's Waver. He clearly isn't, though.

Waver wants to gather more intel before trying to attack Gilles' lair, but Alexander urges otherwise. Sure, as a Caster Gilles is likely to have a considerable homeground advantage via traps and summoned beasts and the like, but on the other hand he has a lot of people hunting him and might be going through lairs fast for all they know. Sometimes acting quickly is better than acting methodically, and Alexander thinks that this is one of those times.

Cue the two of them riding Alexander's chariot up a ludicrously spacious drainage pipe. They know they're going the right way when they encounter a small group of tentacle monsters, and run the lot of them over without slowing down. Waver is starting to reluctantly agree that this was a good idea, and also really badass. He even smiles briefly as they smash through the wave of guardians.

He's considerably less enthused when Alexander spots the source of the magical runoff. Alexander tells him not to look, but Waver conjured a light and looks anyway. His reaction to the pile of hideously mutilated bodies, all of children his age or younger, is exactly what Alexander warned him would happen.

Alexander tells him not to worry; he'd be more concerned if Waver *didn't* have a strong emotional reaction to this. Waver is just about to turn around and ask him how HE can be so calm in that case, but Alexander is saved by the bell when a band of ghostly hashashim decloak all around them and start attacking.

Guess someone else already found this hideout. Either Kirei has already evicted Gilles from here, or he just has Hassan's men waiting for him to come home.

On the other hand, these guys might have spotted Waver and Alexander on their way here, and followed them into Gilles' killing pit without knowing what they were being led to.

At any rate, Waver and Alexander are both confounded by the Assassin not only still being around, but having quadrupled. Alexander manages to fight them off though, killing a couple and forcing the rest to retreat. With there being no way to tell how many more assassins there are, or even what the deal is with their apparently being more than zero at the moment, they can't just camp here and wait for Gilles to come home. They also don't want to engage the Assassin(s) here, as the dark, mazelike environment favors them and limits the use of Alexander's chariot. So, Alex just has Waver torch the bodies with some alchemical firebombs and they ride out of there. The mission wasn't a total failure. They've hopefully forced Gilles to reveal himself in the process of creating a new base for himself, and they also learned invaluable information about the Assassin(s).

Really, just learning that there are still seven factions in play makes this whole outing worth it. Assassins are far, far deadlier when you don't know they're even there, after all.

Cut to some radio chatter between Goatee and Kirei. Kirei reports that a few of his spirits engaged the Rider, but unfortunately weren't able to defeat him or learn anything too useful about his powers and weaknesses. They did confirm that that kid from the waterfront fight is, in fact, his Master, though. Definitely a net loss, in terms of what both parties learned about the other.

The episode ends with Kirei visibly growing tired of Goatee's passive, slow-moving strategy, and recalling what Gilgamesh said about how dreadfully boring and mediocre a man Goatee is under the superficial charm. I'm pretty sure Kirei is going to be the reason Rin's father never came home from this Grail War.


A much better episode this time. The battle at the Einzbern castle and its aftermath have taken way too much time by now, but things picked up pretty much immediately when we (at long last) shifted back to Team Macedon. Like I've said many times now, Type Moon is at its best when it's being dumb fun, and the second half delivered that in spades while also doing some subtle character work that I enjoyed. It had also been way too long since we last saw Kirei and Goatee conspiring at each other and pretending to be smart. It's always fun to watch those dorks at it.

So, high point was the Alex And Waver Show, the low point was whatever the hell Diarmuid's situation is supposed to be right now, and everything else was between. The emerging theme of chaos as a self-destructive force and the importance of rules and restraint is also pretty well executed, though I'll have to see how it's developed going forward. Anyway, this one was a bit above average for F/Z taken as a whole.