Reaction Shot: Fate/Apocrypha S01E23 (or, SABERRRRR)

[spindizzy]

• Listen, this is the point where the characters I care about are usually knocked out of the running for winning the Holy Grail and they've got to do something with Saber and Necrodad soon, so MY HOPES ARE NOT HIGH ABOUT THIS EPISODE is what I'm saying. (Seriously, EVERY TIME. Every single one!)


• Saber and Necrodad strolling through the Hanging Gardens roasting Assassin's taste in interior decorating is the most them.


• "Like rage and fury from all the taunting you did, huh? I hope you'll handle it." / "I think it's safe to say Assassin's furious at you for taunting her. You're gonna take responsibility, right?" This goes on the list as ALSO being perfect usage of the "Take responsibility" line. But the fact that Saber has so much genre savvy and confidence, and Necrodad isn't surprised by their answer brings me so much joooooy!


• They're planning what to do after the war's over and he's cracking jokes about demanding the best wine for the king and NO I LOVE THEM THIS IS TERRIBLE.


• "Are you trying to convince people I'm the king of drunks or something?!" Listen, they are too cute and they love each other and I can't deal with it.


• Saber and Necrodad talking around Saber being king and Necrodad being a father and I just! I can't! I got nothing but love for these muppets and how they were the exact perfect match for each other and their issues!


• That sigh! That deliberate casualness as they go into the fight! They are so good and I love them.


• "Where's your throne again?"
  "I was planning on kicking you off yours."
  S A B E R!!!!


• Of course it was a trap, oh no, absolutely a trap. And Saber's first reaction is to kick Necrodad out of there so he'll be safe!


• His spell for seeing into other places is done via an eyeball. That he kept to hand to throw. That dissolved due to whatever fuckery Semiramis is doing. Oh this is not good. ... Wait, was that his actual eye?! Or did it just rebound on him?!


• He tries to pull Saber out! He blows a Command Spell on trying to get Saber out of a room that's going to kill them! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah why is he so good!


• I understand how and why Shiro learned how to nullify Command Spells, but also GODDAMMIT WHY DOES SHIRO KNOW HOW TO NULLIFY COMMAND SPELLS!


• I was wondering how the armour was going to protect them considering it had like, eye holes, and apparently the answer is "It's not." Oh.


• (And of course Semiramis is just sitting there like this is a cloud of perfume, because of course she is.)


• Oh, oh the scale of this. Saber is so small, and those magic circles and lasers and chains are all so large. Like, Saber never even gets CLOSE and Semiramis is just throwing them around like it's nothing.


• "Master, I'm gonna wring you dry!" Oh, oh they're going all out, oh this is going to be dangerous.


• PS I just told Lex that I was getting up in my Necrodad feelings again, and his immediate response was "Oh no." He knows, mate. He knows.


• THEY WERE SO CLOSE! THAT SWORD WAS INCHES AWAY!


• WHERE DID THE FUCKING WATER COME FROM?! WHY IS THERE A GIANT MURDER EEL! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN THIS THRONE ROOM?!


• Saber just planting their sword and bracing through the eel attacking so they can split it in half using its own momentum is so good. Even if Semiramis is there in the background like "Are you sure you're not a Beserker?"


• Oh shit the helmet gave up on them.


• Semiramis isn't even phased oh my god.


• ... Oh. Oh everything in there is poison. Her, the air, the water, Saber. Oh no. Oh this is hurting them, stop it.


• Semiramis acknowledging Saber turning on King Arthur as a lever to turn them against Necrodad is just! No! Stop it! You have fundamentally misunderstood Mordred's motivations in this universe and it's going to backfire on you spectacularly!


• Saber doesn't remember their wish!


• It's Merlin! I know him! Because Lex and I have watched the Babylon Fate/Grand Order show with the long name.


• If this vision is real, then that means that Mordred had a chance to draw it and didn't. And that everyone knew that pulling the sword from the stone was going to lead to tragedy and Arthur did it anyway because even if it did lead to tragedy, it was the choice that had a chance of happiness for people.


• The way Arturia glows in Mordred's memories, the way they look at her, Merlin asking "Now, what will you do," – Oh Mordred, oh honey, you can see the revelation hit them.


• Semiramis leaping back because she knows she's fucked up: smart move!


• ALL SABER WANTED WAS TO SUPPORT ARTURIA. THAT'S ALL. AND ALL NECRODAD WANTED WAS TO BE A GOOD FATHER TO HIS KID. *GROSS SOBBING EVERYWHERE*


• Saber committing treason and collecting everything that Arturia discarded as a way to try to make her happy fucks me up. (Also I love that Mordred calls her Father, to be honest.)


• Oh, oh Saber and Necrodad have corresponding eye injuries now, matching lines of blood, why do this to me.


• NECRODAD SUPPORTING SABER AS THEY DECLARE THEY JUST WANT TO BEAT SEMIRAMIS OH MY GOD I LOVE THEM?????


• "I have but one wish: YOUR HEAD AS A TROPHY!"


• Necrodad sprinting through lasers and Semiramis' wrath to give Saber a second wind oh nooooooooooooooooooooo


• Semiramis bragging about how she's going to dissolve Saber into nothing and then realising that Necrodad is also a problem is fun.


• OKAY THOUGH I AM REALLY INTERESTED IN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SUB LINES AND THE DUB LINES, because in one it's "I order you to slay the king!" and in the other it's "It's time to avenge the king!" and those are VERY DIFFERENT LINES.


• And Saber ripping through a beast of Tiamat with hardly any armour just so that they can take out Semiramis! Like, I find it weird that they left Semiramis in a state where she can still move, but I guess they're confident enough in the Spirit Core being broken that they don't care.


• I love that Necrodad's just at the back smoking a cigarette like "Yep, kid's got this, they'll let me know when they're done."


• "We were so close, weren't we Saber?"
  "Master, what the hell are you —"
  THE LOOK ON SABER'S FACE TELLS YOU EVERYTHING, EVEN BEFORE YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO NECRODAD.


• He tells Saber to go and make a pact with Yggdemillenia to stay in the fight! And Saber says no! *GROSS SOBBING INTENSIFIES*


• Look at them just sitting there together, smoking at the end of the world and admitting that they were wrong about what their wishes were. He wanted his daughter back! They finally understand their father so don't need to try to be them! Necrodad knows they'd be a good king!


• "Was it fun?"
  "Of course it was. Thanks to you."
  THE TWO CIGARETTES DROPPING TO THE FLOOR AND ROLLING TOGETHER. SABER UNDERSTANDING THEIR FATHER FOR THE FIRST TIME. *lies on the floor and sobs*


• Seriously, this is the exact point where my emotional investment in the series is over because all of the characters that I care about are dead. I'll finish watching it, and I'll finish capslocking about it, but NO, THE PEOPLE I WAS INVESTED IN ARE GOOOOOONE!


• Also the fuck is that tone shift, seriously. Can we not just – have a minute. Please.


• Jeanne d'Arc, probably: I can beat up a pen-pusher.
  Shakespeare, who knows that any writer in a Fate series has the ability to manipulate reality: Oh, worm?


• "Put out thy cigarette and take thy seat, no photographs allowed!" Okay, I admit it, sometimes the mishmash of English that Shakespeare uses tweaks me a little (I cannot stop my brain assessing whether thee and thine are used correctly, it's because of who I am as a person), but that worked.


• "Cue the thunderous applause!" [Jeanne immediately is shunted to a different scene.]


• Oh, they found Necrodad. So they know that Saber's gone too. ;______;


• Rider telling Sieg that they're fine even when Assassin's got them AGAIN so that he'll go save Ruler is pretty good though.


• I'm pretty sure Sieg's the only person in this Grail War who can stand up to Shakespeare right now, just because he's the one who doesn't have a legend of his own for Shakespeare to throw him back into. I think that's how his power works, doesn't it? He can take your story and force you to relive it?


• Shakespeare throwing Jeanne into different scenes to see what gets a response is cold. Especially as he's hardcore As You Know Bob-ing her. But I like that all of the faceless extras in the battle scene suddenly become Shakespeare! Every single corpse!


• OH, oh there we go, he's found the hook he needs to rip her apart. Like, I almost respect Jeanne for how in denial she is, because she has spent I think at least twenty episodes thinking that she's thrown Sieg into battle and that he's her responsibility, and guilting herself over how he's going to die in this Holy Grail War, and she looks at this mess and goes "I don't think that I've killed him." JEANNE. REALLY. COME ON.


• Like, he doesn't even look like a person there, he looks like a doll. ... Jeanne, just how do you see Sieg and understand his agency? Or do you not?


• OH SHIT GILLE DE RAIS


• DOES JEANNE KNOW ABOUT GILLE DE RAIS


• For the record, this is where Type-Moon draws the line. Château de Tiffauges, deliberately chosen to invoke the abuse and murder of hundreds of children at the hands of one of Jeanne's allies, decorated with blood-soaked mannequins rather than dead children. This is not a complaint, this is me being relieved to know that there is a line.


• Me, an idiot, five years late with Starbucks: Oh shit this is why there was an entire conflict about Jeanne murdering children! OKAY THAT MAKES SENSE.


• Jeanne: I suppose this is the part where you begin killing children in front of me, Caster?
  Caster: *looks genuinely horrified by the idea*


• ... Better suited?


• CASTER SUMMONED FUCKING GILLE DE RAIS OUT OF JEANNE'S MEMORY, WHAT NO TAKE HIM BACK


• OH NO, IT'S WORSE THAN THAT, HE JUST FUCKING SUMMONED GILLE DE RAIS. THAT'S SO MUCH FUCKING WORSE.


• Like, he's so mild and polite, like he's bumped into them at a café or something and I'm 90% sure that the parcel he's holding has a human head in it.


• FUCKING CALLED IT! AND OF COURSE IT'S FUCKING SIEG BECAUSE GUILT IS HOW CASTER'S GETTING HER.


• I have Opinions about this whole "You must hold all life equal" malarkey but I don't know what they are. Like, it is being specifically weaponised against her, particularly by a guy who in Fate/Zero spends half his time being That Guy over Jeanne and his unrequited ~feelings!~ And I know that loving people around you equally is a thing that's in Christianity, but also... No. This is cruelty for cruelty's sake, and wrong even on a logic level, and also probably at least part of my problem is that if you don't care about humanity at an individual level, only as a mass... What is it you care about exactly?


• JEANNE EVEN LETICIA IS CALLING YOU OUT ON YOUR SHIT BECAUSE SHE KNOWS. SHE KNOWS AND SHE TOLD YOU BEFORE THAT SHE'S NOT INTO SIEG.


• The progression of Gille de Rais' face from "relatively normal guy" to "fish-eyed monster" is well done, but also gross.


• And Caster just sitting there at the back looking smug because he didn't need to fabricate something to hurt Jeanne, he just put the right people together and watched them do it for him. UGGGGGGGGGGGH.


• And poor Leticia, stuck watching this and apologising for not telling a saint that it was okay for her to have emotions and care about people as individuals! IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT LETICIA!


• SABERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
  
  

  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