Reaction Shot: Fate/Apocrypha Episode 9, or Berserker's No Good Very Bad Terrible Day

[spindizzy]

THE BATTLE CONTINUES and everything is... Slightly less Not Okay than last week? Although caution warning for this episode because that sure was on-screen abuse right there, and also apparently I'm still mad about one of the characters from the main timeline so caution warning for yelling about rapists.

• OH. DARNAC WAS NEVER AFTER THE GRAIL AT ALL!


• Lex points out that the people who actually know how the Grail works rather than how they're told it works NEVER go for the grail, but I completely forgot this.


• (Basically, the magic energy being returned to the grail when all of the servants and Mages die... Opens a portal to the direct source of all magic? I think?!)


• I wasn't expecting how happy I'd be to see Zouken bleeding out on the floor while Assassin watches. ZOUKEN IS ABUSER WHO ENABLED AND GLOATED ABOUT THE RAPE OF HIS ADOPTED DAUGHTER, MOTHERFUCKER DESERVED A HELL OF A LOT WORSE.


• Actually, is that Assassin watching him die? This is probably from before Kiriya was even born so I'm sure it can't be him.


• Atalanta is so cool. *dreamy sigh*


• Seriously, she just charges and slides straight under Spartacus to get to a better position to shoot him, she's so brave.


• Of course, Spartacus is STILL TERRIFYING, and the fact that he went full "It's just a flesh wound!" about her nuking him from orbit is like nope.


• ... Does Astolfo have a tuba of death.


• SHE IS SO HAPPY AND CHEERFUL ABOUT BLOWING A HORN THAT LITERALLY EXPLODES AN ARMY OF FLYING SKELETONS, ASTOLFO HOW IS THIS YOUR LIFE.


• And then Assassin lasers her and just KEEPS LASERING HER until the griffin goes poof. D: D: D: D:


• I legit yelled out loud with my face at Achilles for being a stupid smug jpop fuckboi at his teacher.


• I did really like Chiron just kicking him across a clearing though, especially as those aren't Chiron's real legs. The fact that he's doing so well on two legs is really impressive, okay.


• ... Seriously, Achilles is at the "Talk shit, get hit" stage of probably going to be murdered by his mentor, he just might end up surprising Chiron before he goes.


• SHIROU IS USING KOTOMINE'S KNIFE SUMMONING TRICK HE REALLY IS HIS ADOPTED FATHER'S SON D: D: D: D:


• ... I just realised that yes, yes, Shirou looks like Marik from Yu-Gi-Oh (god, there's a blast from the past, right?), but ALSO he has the same haircut as Kiritsugu. ... Why you gotta play me like this show, why you gotta do this to me.


• ... Wait, the third Grail War never happened, Kiritsugu is probably off still being a magical mercenary and attempting to save the most number of people by killing the rest. .__________.


• I am seriously impressed that he's managing to keep up with Frankenstein, and that Shakespeare apparently has enough magic to do something to the sword to make it keep up with a Servant/ping as a Noble Phantasm.


• Assassin versus Jeanne D'Arc is bad for my heart.


• Especially because SHE IS LITERALLY FIRING LASERS FROM HER FLOATING CASTLE WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE SPACESHIPS IN THIS FUCKING SHOW?!


• "How is Assassin casting with the power of a Mage?!" I don't know love, maybe she's a magical assassin? But Jeanne did assume that she was Caster until she was corrected.


• Sieg breaking open the homunculus tubes! They all look so confused by the idea that he wants to give them their freedom, but I'm glad he's doing it, and that the others are helping.


• SHE'S A BERSERKER, WHY ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT SHE'S ANGRILY FOLLOWING YOU?!


• Ooh, ooh, is Shakespeare going to do something useful?


• ... Okay, looks like he has the power to change (the perception of?) reality for the people he targets. This makes a lot of sense for a playwright and actor! And it's a really interesting use of power!


• (I don't know if he's actually making a Reality Marble or just changing how people see the world.)


• Sieg seeing Astolfo falling from the sky and wanting to help! And the homunculi telling him to go, to trust that now they have their freedom, they're capable of keeping it. Oh my poor sweet summer children, PLEASE BE SAFE, I LOVE YOU ALL.


• (That is a fuck of a lot of matching blankets they found somewhere, okay. It's a good thing that all of the Masters are confined to quarters or this could have gone really fucking badly.)


• ... Did you just put Frankenstein in a reality with her abuser? D:


• I'M NOT FUCKING SURPRISED THAT BERSERKER FLIPS OUT AND TRIES TO BEAT HIM TO DEATH WITH HER BARE HANDS, MOTHERFUCKER TRIED TO DO THAT TO HER!


• ... No, seriously, he was yelling about how she couldn't be a new Eve, and then he just started punching her like it was a reasonable response. MOTHERFUCKER WHAT.


• I can't work out what Berserker was trying to give him. I THINK it was a dog heart? Maybe? It was definitely AN ORGAN. *texts Lex like this a completely standard thing to do*


• If it was a womb I'm out. I'm just saying, I'm OUT.


• The way they do Frankenstein's memories and thoughts like she's in a silent movie is REALLY COOL. Especially the point where she starts to lose her grip and it all breaks apart and scribbles over each other and becomes a page of white – it's a great visual representation of her emotions!


• Oh, oh her distress. ;_;


• I am still not sure how I feel about Doomed Brother using a Command Seal with the instruction "Calm down." Like, that rankles something fierce.


• Astolfo explicitly saying that she's not going to use her magic to win because it's going to kill Sieg's friends. ;__________; YOU DESERVE BETTER THAN THIS FIGHT, ASTOLFO!


• The trouble with series like Fate is that you're so invested in characters and you like them so much, and then they meet OTHER characters that you like! And then there's the horrible moment where you realise that these characters you love are strangers to each other and about to literally fucking kill each other.


• Necrodad bitching about Saber's driving: #relatable.


• ASTOLFO YOU ARE NOT A PRIMARY COMBAT CHARACTER GET OUT OF THERE.


• Especially because she's just been lasered like A LOT. ASTOLFO PLEASE, SABER ISN'T EVEN FUCKING ARMOURED UP YET, SHE'S PRETTY MUCH TOYING WITH YOU AND YOU CAN'T STEP TO HER.


• Saber, how did you even hear that Siegfried died. Unless someone phoned Necrodad?


• Astolfo thinking that Siegfried made a stupid fucking decision but refusing to let anyone make fun of it is heartbreaking, and pretty much the thing that encapsulates her character. SHE IS SO GOOD. SO PURE. SHE'S PROBABLY GONNA DIE REALLY SOON.


• ... Actually, even taking into account Jack the Ripper? The death toll of this series has been REALLY LOW so far. We're nine episodes in, but only one servant is dead, and one Master that we never saw onscreen and who was immediately replaced.


• Q: Susan, didn't Shiro take the command seals off the other five Masters of Red and then kill them?
  A: We have no proof they're dead! They could just be living batteries in a coma in the basement! There is so much precedent for that!


• ... I'm sorry, Shirou, I thought for a second that you said your plan was to lure Spartacus over to attack Ruler.


• Oh, you did?


• ... WHAT THE FUCK MY DUDE.


• I think Spartacus might be, uh, overhealing? Like, that arm that he regrew is still going, guys.


• What I'm saying is I THINK WE FOUND THE BLOB MONSTER FROM THE INTRO, GUYS.


• SIEG YOU HAVE NEVER EVEN DRAWN A SWORD MORDRED IS JUST GONNA KILL YOU.


• Me: Are you SURE that this isn't a twelve episode series? Because this seriously feels like we're heading into the ending.
  Lex: All I can tell you is what's on the internet.


• Seriously, I don't want to know what's going wrong that's going to draw this out to the full twenty-six episodes.