Reaction Shot: Fate/Apocrypha S01E22 (or, hi Studio Trigger!)

[spindizzy]

• OKAY, the art style has DEFINITELY changed, it looks like they straight up got the team in from Gurren Lagann to do the fight scenes and I AM HERE FOR IT. The colouring style is a lot flatter than their usual, but that works because it means that they can do a lot more nonsense with the choreography and how Atalanta fights and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa


• Atalanta doesn't move like a human anymore. Like, my brain sees the way she fights and says "spider" even though no part of what has happened here involves spiders at all.


• I still don't know why she had to end up in a fur bikini, but GO OFF I GUESS Type-Moon!


• Oh wow and she straight up just throws them both off the plane. Bold choice! Cannot end well for anyone! Especially not because apparently boar powers mean she can fly now.


• Karna looks like a murder ballerina. And bless him he sounds so disappointed that there's a time limit but still asks Sieg to wait before he transforms again.


• (Sieg. Honey. Angel child. I know that you're new to this whole "being a person" thing but people need their blood to be on the inside.)


• Caules just there like "... Fuck, how did he know I was here."


• Karna is such a decent person. He asks Caules to rescue the former masters, because they're no longer participants in the Holy Grail War! And both of the theoretical good guys are there like "Wait what? Why? What's in it for you? Does this mean you can be on our side?" HOW ABOUT NOT LEAVING FIVE PEOPLE TO DIE, COME ON YOU MUPPETS. Also I think the only person with command seals left is Sieg and maybe Fiore, so... Nah mate, that was never a good plan.


• Why does Caules has a mass teleport spell and why did he never use it before?


• Seriously! He's just like "Oh no, if you decide to stall for time, that's fine too." What a good. And I think Sieg thinks he's okay too, with that "Out of everyone I've faced in this Holy Grail War, you seem different."


• THEY ARE BOTH SO DEDICATED TO THE AGREEMENT THAT KARNA HAD WITH SIEGFRIED, BLESS THEM.


• And he's not stalling, he's actually fighting!


• The colours are so flat and I like them!


• ATALANTA HAS WINGS. AND HOOVES. AND IS STRAIGHT UP JUST WARPING WITH HER GRIEF.


• "I didn't fight for a future like this." The Grail War is cruel in so many ways, but the fact that it takes people who had hope in the impact they made and shows them that it was nothing at all is a special flavour of cruelty. And Servants have no memories of what happened the last time they were summoned, so Atalanta would have to face this despair again and again and again.


• The effects are so cooooooooooooool!


• I don't know how killing Jeanne is going to achieve Atalanta's goal of a world where every child is loved, but I guess it's good to know that my read on Jeanne's motivations here was correct.


• She just RIPPED HER OWN WING OFF what the fuck what the fuck


• I have a lot of emotions about Achilles limping onto the battlefield to face Atalanta because he understands what it's like to destroy everything while in the depths of grief.
  
  • How dare you.
  
  
  • How. Dare.
  
  
  • I did not authorise these emotions about FUCKING ACHILLES.
  
  
  • They're theoretically on the same side, and he's lost his immortality, and he still tells Ruler to leave because it's a battle between him and Atalanta.
  
  
  • The way the background music cuts off as he steps in front of her!
  
  
  • "I always end up being apathetic for important matters." / "When it comes to things I know are important, I'm careless." ... It's true, and the fact that he knows it is terrible but also delicious, ugh.
  
  
  • Is that sound Atalanta's bones cracking as she keeps warping, because I swear that's what I'm taking from that noise over that image.


• I'M SO ANNOYED THAT THEY CUT IT THERE. RUDE.


• Damn, everyone is getting called out for believing in Shiro. Harsh. (But fair.)


• Assassin just there like "Who cares about whether it's true or not?" is impressively poised considering that Caster was just prising this out of her earlier like a state secret.


• ... I am always fascinated by takes like "There is no need for an empress to reign in a post-salvation world!" or "It can't have been a utopia, because if it had been there would be no Superman!" I just always end up mentally stumbling because for all that I spend half my time in and on fantasy worlds, my brain trips on the idea that royalty and heroes are a human creation that we can change or refuse?


• Yes, I am the person who needs that Ursula K le Guin quote about "We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings."


• Her faith that Shiro can do both – save humanity while granting her a world to reign over – suggests that Semiramis also has this glitch in her imagination.


• DID YOU SEE THE TEXTURES ON THE BACKGROUNDS IN THIS FIGHT SCENE like I know that's not what I'm supposed to be looking at right now but the texture on the rocks and the fire is bringing me a lot of joy. ... Seriously, if they did get Studio Trigger in to do this episode, I can see why. It's almost entirely setpiece battles, and that's where they shine!


• (Memo to me: I really need to watch the anime of The Count of Monte Cristo for the funky patterns and textures.)


• The scale of this fight and the way they're carving through each other's magic is so good.


• Holy shit I know that I said Karna is a murder ballarino, but the way that he bends and glows is so cool. Also I like that he's acrobatic and dramatic and Sieg/fried is so straightforward in comparison.


• Look at the SCALE of them! The tiny figures and the huge waves of power.


• Like, I got nothing except for how cool this is and how much they respect each other and how much sparkly lights and murder balarinos make me happy.


• SIEG YOU HAD ONE FUCKING JOB AND IT WAS TO NOT USE THAT THIRD COMMAND SEAL, COME ON


• ASTOLFO NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU CAN'T STEP TO THIS!! YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN BLOWN UP TWICE TODAY, STOP IT!


• "It's not like I need a shield now anyway," STOP GIVING ME FEELINGS ABOUT FUCKING ACHILLES OH MY GOD


• And he gives Rider his Noble Phantasm's True Name as well oh my god


• Did Rider just absorb Karna's attack into Achilles' reality marble???!?!?! That was so smart but also holy shit.


• You can see Sieg taking his own shape again by degrees! Like the hair and the eyes!


• ... This fight is so pretty, that's literally the take-home point here.


• Karna is so pretty, and Sieg is so apologetic for cheating and getting help, and Karna doesn't care! They got to fight at full strength and that's enough! Waaaaaah


• "We are merely shadows of the past. You, living for the future, are treasures for Heroic Spirits, no matter who you are. We all ran towards you, who are our future. / We are merely shadows of times long past. People like you, who live in this time, are treasures to Heroic Spirits. Everything we fought for was the sake of the future." This is the complete opposite of Atalanta's view on this future, and I don't know if that's because they gave her a backstory and not Karna, so there's nothing to hang disappointment on, but I like that speech. I like that reading of hope.


• Karna sending Sieg off to rescue Rider from Shakespeare, oh bless him.


• Astolfo and Karna respecting each other and having a moment where they acknowledge Karna's pride and happiness is so nice!


• ... So of course we immediately jump back to Achilles and Atalanta because this episode can't end on a cathartic note!


• They are so fast and so pretty. ;_______;


• Oh shit he got her, and she got him, oh no. And him just holding onto her with all of those arrows sticking out of his back while Atalanta admits that she knew that Jack the Ripper couldn't be saved! Oh no, oh this is terrible, who authorised this.


• The affection they have for each other, and their faces when Atalanta puts her hand on his cheek and fades away! *gross snuffling*


• Semiramis shooing Jeanne off to face Shakespeare like it's nothing is probably the biggest indicator that this is going to be a disaster.


• Oh sweet Christ they're dropping like flies.
  

  Lancer (Black): Vlad the Impaler. Lancer (Red): Karna
  Saber (Black): Siegfried. Saber (Red): Mordred.
  Archer (Black): Chiron. Archer (Red): Atalanta.
  Berserker (Black): Frankenstein. Berserker (Red): Spartacus.
  Caster (Red): Shakespeare / Avicebron.
  Rider (Black): Astolfo. Rider (Red): Achilles.
  Assassin (Black): Jack the Ripper. Assassin (Red): Semiramis
  Ruler: Jeanne D'Arc / Amakusa Shiro Tokisada