So, that's that. Fate/Zero is not good. It looks better than it is if you squint from a certain angle, but even that falls apart once you hit the finale.

I mean, is anyone surprised at this point? Anyone at all? Even a little?

I see the words "Fate/Zero," and I have an immediate, positive emotional response because of how long I spent mostly liking it. It only takes a second for my mind to catch up to where I am right now, and I just feel this crushing dissonance that almost makes my head spin. I've seen other shows whose quality fluctuated massively from season to season, but in this case the story was adapted (very closely) from a single book by a single author.

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.

This demon is a goddamned joke. No fucking wonder it still hasn't gotten free after all these Grail Wars.

Well gee Arturia, I don't know. How COULD he have become Berserker? You don't think that maybe somebody summoned him into that role, do you?

...maybe I should just treat Kirei's motivations the same way I'll be treating the Grail rules. Just make like the TNG showrunners and leave "(insert technobabble here)" on the scripts for other people to fill in.

My preemptive apologies to anyone who was planning to commission more of the Fate S/N animes. Thanks to Zero, this is what Gilgamesh and Kirei will always be to me now.

Almost three thousand words already, and the second half of this episode is going to make me say...well...words. Plural. Very plural words.

Fate/Zero didn't start out as shit, but it sure became it by the final quarter.

I still don't understand why Arturia wasn't able to make a counterargument to Kiritsugu's philosophy if the story itself thinks it's wrong.

Those bees look like wasps. This breaks my suspension of disbelief and ruins the entire series.​

She Shirley did.

The author isn't normally anywhere near this bad at exposition. I suspect that this is that ever-annoying adaptation decision when they take a piece of third person omniscient narration and shove it into the mouth of a random character.

I have no idea why THIS act of lethal violence, rather than all the many, many others that the characters have performed over the show so far, is being shot like Michael Meyers murdering a suspiciously mature-looking cheerleader.

For the time being, I'll just reiterate what I said before about Fate/Zero epitomizing both the best and the worst aspects of Gen Urobuchi's writing.

Full circle.

As much as they both enjoyed that post-battle spitroasting earlier this evening, Arturia has orders. And, really, this was going to have to happen sooner or later. As she summons her armor, she explains that the other Servants are either banished, exhausted, or off being salty right now, so this would be a perfect time for Arturia and Diarmuid to finally finish that duel they started all the way back in early season one. Diarmuid smiles, says that it's been fun, but he agrees. Not that either of them really have much of a choice.

It's one of the lesser known Arthurian legends; in some versions of the Second Siege of Camelot story Arthur could turn Excalibur into a lightsaber, but only as long as he kept both hands on the hilt. Nice bit of mythological accuracy here!

Arturia can use her super attack now. Yay.