Fate/Zero S2E11: "The Last Command Seal" (continued)

Okay, so.

The demon is asking Kiritsugu what he'd do in a situation where two boats are going to sink, one with two hundred people aboard and one with three hundred, with him being the only one who can plug the leaks and the two hundred people on the smaller boat trying to force him to fix theirs first. Kiritsugu hesitates to answer, but then the sound of machine gun fire comes from outside the illusory hotel room. He opens the door, and steps out onto the deck of a ship covered in bullet-ridden corpses; an illustration of what the Nowhere King thinks he would do.

Because apparently, escaping the ship would require killing every single one of the two hundred people on it. I guess all of them were in single-minded agreement about forcing Kiritsugu to save them. And kept trying to force him even after he shot the first hundred. And the first hundred and fifty. And the first hundred and ninety-nine. They kept fighting him to the last man, without a single one trying to, oh, I dunno, beg to come to the other ship with him and hope that there's extra room.

Sure, demon. Sure.

As Kiritsugu stares at the scene in horror, the demon congratulates him on being the sort of person who would make the correct decision, and then puts him back in the hotel room. Kiritsugu's phone rings, and, picking it up, he hears the demon continue the scenario. Kiritsugu manages to save the three hundred people on the other ship, but his repairs won't last forever, so they're forced to divide themselves into two smaller boats and continue sailing. Um...did they NOT have those two smaller boats on hand during the crisis, when they needed space for those other two hundred people? Where did these new boats suddenly come from? Anyway, the same thing happens; two hundred of the initial survivors are on one boat, and one hundred are on the other. Both ships sprout leaks. The one hundred on the smaller of the two boats take Kiritsugu prisoner, because apparently they don't remember what happened the last time somebody tried this. And also I guess nobody bothered to learn how to plug leaks since the first incident, leaving it all on Kiritsugu yet again. Right.

Kiritsugu is then put in a version of the New York shipdock that he cast off to shoot down the plane from, where one boat is burning out in the sea and another has made it safely to shore. The voice congratulates him on having saved two hundred people. Feel like a hero?

Kiritsugu protests that this isn't what he wanted at all. He wanted to save more people than he killed, not the opposite. The demon tells him that that's irrelevant. He's always tried to kill the few to save the many. As a result, he's gone through life leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. Is he sure the balance is actually in his favor?

Maybe it is. I don't know. Either way though, watching Gen Urobuchi mangle the Trolley Problem this badly is unironically the funniest shit I've seen all month.

...

Okay, so, first of all. The trolley problem is set up the way it is for a reason. It's a simple, readily-understood scenario that doesn't really raise any questions. It also, importantly, posits that you have only a split second to react to the situation, giving you no time to think of a better third option let alone put it into action. This farce with the mitotic ships and violent maniac passengers raises a million questions, and is set up in a way that should enable not only a third option but a fourth, fifth, and probably sixth as well. Kiritsugu may be bloodthirsty, sure, but he's also contrarian, conniving, and a compulsive cheater. When confronted with a scenario like this, would he really not try to point out the obvious absurdities in the premise, or suggest better solutions just to spite the demon?

Second, the original trolley problem is basically an exploration of action, inaction, and culpability. You can let a large number of people get killed through inaction, or kill a smaller number of people through deliberate action. In the stupid ship scenario, everyone is going to die anyway. Both of the ships (or all four of them, between the two instances) are already sinking. Anything Kiritsugu does to change the status quo will be a net positive. This is a situation where doing absolutely anything makes him the good guy, it's just a question of how much positive difference he can make. By the end of the full scenario, he hasn't killed three hundred people to save two hundred. He's saved two hundred out of the total five hundred people imperilled.

Now, the intent here may be that this entire scenario is a product of Kiritsugu's worldview, and the demon is telling him that because he sees the world this way, mass murder becomes necessary for him. The way it closes its speech at the end does heavily suggest that. And sure, that's a fairly on-point criticism of Kiritsugu. "People are stupid pathetic self-destructive cretins who need to be saved from themselves, even if I need to kill them to do it, and I'm the only one who can be trusted to decide everyone else's fate because raisins." Kiritsugu's failure here is in not questioning the absurd premises of the scenario. Okay, sure. I'll ignore the contrarian aspect of Kiritsugu's character for now and grant that he's accepting the premises uncritically.

But in that case, why is he so horrified and disbelieving at the end result?

If you aren't questioning the scenario's premises, then Kiritsugu made the objectively right decision at every step of the way. He managed to save 40% of the imperilled people, despite their own best efforts to get themselves killed. If he'd done anything differently, he'd have saved fewer, or possibly none at all. So yes, if we're taking the premises seriously then he SHOULD feel like a hero. If he's not second guessing the demon's scenario, then his reaction to all of this should have been to shrug and say "Okay, and?"

It doesn't work no matter which way you slice it. And god, you can just feel the smugness radiating from the screen for every second of this sequence. The author is incredibly proud of himself for writing this, and he fully expects your mind to be blown.

He didn't blow my mind, but he did blow out my lungs, so I guess that's still something at least.

...

As the world around him turns back into Alimango Island, Kiritsugu protests that this isn't what he wanted. He wanted to wish for a miracle that would save the world without having to sacrifice so many lives. The demon tells him that the Grail might be an all-powerful wish granter, but it can't do the thinking for him. It can only do enact solutions that Kiritsugu himself is able to conceive of, and this is the best he can do.

Okay. Question.

What does the ocean in that scenario represent?

Kiritsugu can only think in terms of saving people by killing other people, okay, sure. But what was he planning to use his wish to save people from? The obvious answer is "each other." More specifically, people with power who selfishly abuse people without power. That's always been the type of situation he's confronted himself with as a mage-hunter. So, what kind of solutions to that problem would Kiritsugu be able to conceive of?

The most uncharitable answer I can think of would be something like "I wish that if anyone tries to use their power to hurt other people for selfish reasons, their genitalia will immediately turn into white phosphorous." Which, okay. Would Kiritsugu not be alright with that? He might be disappointed that the Grail couldn't come up with a better way than that to protect people on its own, but I feel like he'd still consider it better than nothing.

Or is the demon implying that the only way to grant his wish would be by killing everyone? Maybe? I don't think that that's actually a logical extrapolation of even Kiritsugu's worst behaviors. Also, it isn't suggested by the stupid hypothetical that the demon gave either. There are still two hundred and one people alive at the end, right?

Granted, even if it's just planning to kill most people, that's still pretty bad. And, to be fair, this is a demon talking, so it's probably misrepresenting Kiritsugu's own desires to make them (even) more destructive than they really are. But in that case, Kiritsugu's own flaws are almost immaterial. The demon would corrupt the desires of anyone who tried to claim the Grail, right? Why does this even merit so much screentime? Why is it being treated as some kind of meaningful incision into Kiritsugu's character?

It shows him flashbacks of him killing his father, and then of him killing his surrogate mother. As he sits in the motorboat off the coast of New York, it tells him that looking back through the story of Kiritsugu's life, it finds him to be a perfect match for itself. A vessel for all the evil in the world.

Angra Mainyu, also known as Ahriman, is the evil anti-god from Zoroastrian belief. A rare example of literal "evil incarnate" from world religion, much purer than the likes of Lucifer or Iblis who at least used to be good and/or have some kind of comprehensible motive for doing what they do. And, it seems that he either got into the Grail as a result of Kirei fucking around with the procedure, or the Grail was really just a Trojan Horse of his all along. Okay, that's kind of random, but sure, in an ultra-whacky fantasy setting like Fate I suppose it isn't a harder sell than most other things. Let's fight a battle of wits against Iranian Satan!

The Daddy of all Daevas tells Kiritsugu that he can still grant him a miracle. He can use his power to "complete that deed that (Kiritsugu) was unable to complete on his own." Erm, what deed is that? Killing all the bad people? Killing all people period, because everyone is bad? Well, before Kiritsugu can say anything more articulate than "nani," Ahriman presents him with a figment of Iri, Ilya, and Maiya. Telling him that these are "the only three remaining," and that he can either kill one and save two, or let two die and allow one to survive. Okay, pointlessly overcomplicate things, sure, that's probably a sin in Zoroastrianism so it could be in character. Anyway, I guess the implication is that Ahriman is going to kill everyone in the world besides Kiritsugu and one or two other people? Maybe? It's not very clear. Anyway, this would be a pretty fiendish choice to present Kiritsugu with...if he didn't know that Maiya was already dead.

...

Oh my god Ahriman actually is GLaDOS. "There really was going to be a party, you know. All of your friends would have been there."

Like, what, is he trying to imply that he's going to resurrect all of the world's dead people just to kill all but one of them again? And he thinks Kiritsugu is going to buy this as any kind of extension - or even corruption - of his own wish?

Dead serious here. This is only just barely less inept then trying to string him along by promising cake.

...

Wordlessly, Kiritsugu takes the knife that Ahriman just beamed into his hand and stabs Maiya to death. Then, he's in a recreation of his bedroom back in Castle Einzburn, in the presence of Iri and Ilya, who are being sickeningly cute and lovey-dovey at him. Kiritsugu asks Ilya if she's sure she'll be happy with being one of the three last people in the world.

At least, I think that that's what he's asking her. His actual question is "You'll be happy, even though we'll never be able to go looking for chestnuts again?" It seems to me that looking for chestnuts would be one of the few fun things you CAN still do with the world's human population exterminated. Unless Ahriman is also planning to exterminate all the chestnut trees, I guess. And Kiritsugu somehow knows that. Okay, yeah, I think I might be misinterpreting this entire "kill one save two" scenario. I have no idea what any of this is supposed to mean.

As he hugs Ilya, Iri tells him that this can be his future. He just needs to wish for it.

In other words, the phantoms of Iri and Ilya both fail the Turing test. Kiritsugu shoots the shitty Ilya hologram to death, and then strangles the shitty Iri hologram in a weird recreation of how Daisy killed Wife Tohsaka that is probably supposed to mean something but I don't know what, and I don't care enough to try and figure it out.

Did Angra-Mainyu honestly expect him to fall for that? Granted, he's been pretty clearly established as stupid by this point, so the answer is obviously yes. Still, it's kind of underwhelming as resolutions go.

Anyway. Cake is obviously a lie. Kiritsugu disregards it, snaps back to reality, and makes to throw Ahriman down an emergency intelligence incinerator. Of course, first he needs to deal with Kirei, who is waking up on the floor beside him. The black liquid-tentacles that Ahriman reached out of the Grail and broke through the ceiling with are gone, which I guess is convenient for both of them. Anyway, Kiritsugu gets up first, and manages to put Kirei at gunpoint before the latter can do anything.

Sorry Kirei, but Gilgamesh isn't here to help you set up the punchline this time. I know, I'm sad about it too.

Apparently, Kirei also saw some kind of vision from Angra-Mainyu, but wasn't offered a messed up wish. Weird. Not sure why it liked Kiritsugu better than him, or why it bothered interfacing with Kirei at all in that case, but whatever. Kirei can't understand why Kiritsugu didn't use it, after all that he sacrificed to get this far, and doesn't seem to understand when Kiritsugu explains that it's not the miracle-maker they've been led to expect.

...

Okay, seriously though, what did Kirei killing Iri before she could transform even do? Is that why Ahriman was in there?

Why is the Grail even available for wish-granting at all with only five Servants having bitten it? Was Ahriman just lying about being able to grant a wish with the power at his disposal? Is this all just more side effects of him hijacking the Grail due to the botched summoning, with him needing less fuel to do his fucked up miracles than the Grail itself would?

Nothing makes sense.

...

Kirei loses his cool, and demands that if Kiritsugu isn't going to use the Grail itself, then he should give it to him. He needs it. He needs its occupant to be born into the world, so that it can provide Kirei with the answers he seeks.

...what answers does Kirei seek?

It seems like he just found self-actualization and fulfilment by embracing his sadistic prank YouTuber nature. I guess he might want to know why he's like this, but the fact that he's no longer denying or being ashamed of himself seems like it should remove most of that pressure. So yeah, I don't know why Kirei wants the Grail. He seems to really, really desperately want it, but he's just begun the process of getting what he wants without it, so...yet another thing that makes zero sense to me. This would work a lot better if he and Gilgamesh hadn't done the stupid church thing with Daisy yet.

Anyway, he begs and whines, and Kiritsugu shoots him in the head.

I guess he comes back to life somehow, since he's still around to be the Dubious Priest in Fate S/N. I don't know how he's going to be revived in the next episode and change, but I'm sure it'll be stupid.

Cut to Arturia, who has emerged from the parking level up into the convention center and is being confronted by Gilgamesh now. He interposes himself between her and the big crater that Ahriman blasted in the floor that the Grail is hovering over, and tells her he OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE

Again?

Fucking again?

...

Okay. This thought occurred to me a few times over the last several episodes, but I didn't think it worth talking about until there was a little more evidence for it. And, very suddenly, the show has given me enough evidence to not only raise it, but to be all but completely certain that it is correct.

Team Caster only existed to be surrogates for Gilgamesh and Kirei.

The author wanted to wallow in the edginess of a sadistic serial killer Master who thinks that god loves murder, and a rapey overpowered Servant who torments Arturia. He was chomping at the bit to get Kirei and Gilgamesh on a team together so he could do that. He couldn't wait to get to it. So he filled in one of the unknown parties in the Fourth Grail War with not!Kirei and not!Gilgamesh so that he could write about children being tortured to death and Arturia being sexually harassed all story long.

...

Arturia tells him to get the fuck out of her way and let her get the Grail. Wait, does SHE know the Grail is already functional even though there are still at least two Servants active? Was every character in the fucking story informed of this sudden rules-change, but not the audience? Anyway, Gilgamesh shoots his treasure railgun at her, and his first shot hits her right in the leg and impales her to the floor, taking her out of the action without a fight.

Remember how Alexander got to make his badass suicidal charge against Gilgamesh and lose honourably? Yeah, me too.

...you know what should have happened?

Arturia should have gotten to make a fruitless Hail Mary run against Gilgamesh, and Alexander should have made a fruitless Hail Mary run against Arturia.

Alexander didn't get to do much of anything between losing his chariot to Arturia and dying to Gilgamesh. Aside from giving Waver that final pep talk, sure, but he could have just as easily given him that before dying in either of those battles. I wondered at the time why Arturia just walked away instead of finishing him off. Now, I'm pretty sure that it's because being taken out by Arturia would have been too undignified for Alexander, so Urobuchi couldn't allow it to happen. When you see how each of these characters are treated when they later fight Gilgamesh, it's pretty damned clear what the logic is.

The most surprising thing at this point is that Urobuchi let Arturia have that partial W against Alexander in the first place. I wonder if perhaps it went differently in the light novel.

It seemed like this story was getting a lot better about not being creepy with Arturia. There was her destroying the chariot, and then her winning the duel with Lancelot (even if the turnaround and final strike were offscreen for some weird reason). I guess we just turned around massively on that. Oh well.

Gilgamesh gives this whole rapey speech about how he's going to torture Arturia until she submits to him, while shooting a few more blades into her limbs while she's stuck on the ground screaming. Then, Kiritsugu enters the room. He draws Gilgamesh's attention away for a moment, giving Arturia time to pull the blades out of her limbs and get free. Then, he uses a Command Seal and orders Arturia to use her superlaser to destroy the Grail.

She protests, balking at that command. Kiritsugu could explain the situation to her in just a few words and secure her cooperation, but instead he just uses his third and last Command Seal to give her a double-order.

Her body is trembling as she begs him to rescind the command, moving puppetlike into position even though she doesn't want to do it. Kiritsugu just stands there as she begs and protests, not explaining, letting her fight against her own body and prolonging the process.

Fortunately, Gilgamesh doesn't use this opportunity to make short work of both of them while Arturia is fighting her own muscles and Kiritsugu is keeping his eyes trained on her. Just stands there whining about Kiritsugu's audacity, with his fucking treasure railguns open and blades in the ready-to-fire position. He doesn't fire though. Just complains. While Arturia slowly, resistantly, destroys the thing that he's trying to stop them from destroying.

To be fair, this scene isn't JUST written the way it is in order to torture and objectify Arturia as much as possible.

It's also written this way because if Kiritsugu explained his rationale to Arturia, then she would know that the Grail has a demon in it going forward, which would mean that the plot of the original Fate couldn't happen. In order to enable the plot of the original VN to happen, Kiritsugu doesn't explain it, and Gilgamesh doesn't take advantage of the situation out of his shared desire to let Fate S/N happen. Turning Arturia into an object being fought over by two men while she screams and begs powerlessly against two pairs of deaf ears is just an added benefit.

She (or rather, Kiritsugu's Command Seals controlling her body) raises the sword and fires her laser, tears in her eyes. End episode.

So, I guess Iri really did just get killed off with zero fanfare a couple episodes ago, then? That was the most dismissive treatment of almost any named character in this entire series. And she was a protagonist. Arguably the MAIN protagonist for a sizeable chunk of the story. That's almost impressive.

Granted, there's still a reason that I said ALMOST any named character. Because, Daisy. Good god, Daisy. Like, he literally just abruptly died when Arturia killed Lancelot. His neck just sort of twitched, and he slumped over in the corner he'd been sitting in, and that's it. What a pointless fucking character from beginning to end. Just existed to have good intentions and be extravagantly punished for them, even when it didn't make any damned sense. Like, Kirei and Gilgamesh driving him insane with the church stupidity, and then just ASSUMING they could use his Servant as a reliable security measure? What if he randomly used a Command Seal to make Lancelot attack one of them at the wrong moment? Wouldn't it have made infinitely more sense to save the torment for AFTER they didn't need him anymore? Kirei had gotten him onside for the capture of Iri. Wouldn't this part with him helping guard the convention center make more sense if he was actually HELPING them guard the convention center?

Everything is stupid. It's ten layers of stupidity deep. On everything. Piled up on every surface within sight. Worse, it's stupidity that exists for the sole purpose of being dark and edgy, but all it succeeds at is making the show a parody of itself. And not even a good parody of itself.

One episode left.