Reaction Shot: Fate/Prototype (or, the Fate series that never was)

[spindizzy]

Right, here's the explanation for Fate/Prototype as I understand it: once upon a time, Type Moon took the original notes and setting they had for the Fate franchise and animated a tiny part of it! This was back when the anime apparently had a female protagonist (I AM SULKING THAT THEY CHANGED THIS) and Saber was a guy! I am confusion at the idea, but also very here for the idea of replacing Shirou with a goth girl who understands the plot and would rather not.

(Obviously the romances with Rin/Saber/Sakura would have to remain unchanged, gimme.)

(Oh, if you want to watch this, it's subbed on youtube, but I don't know where to find it legally.)

• Ah, even the holy grail can only affect the living, not the dead. That is an interesting stipulation that I know logically must exist in other Fate universes, but that I don't remember even seeing laid out explicitly before.


• ... Is that Gilgamesh looking even more like a fuckboi than usual? Because that sure looks like the fuckboi version of Gilgamesh.


• ... Okay, so Ayaka, our protagonist, is on a timer before she dies, and given that this is Fate I'm assuming that timer is very real and literal. GOOD TO KNOW.


• Saber looks like Li Syaoran from Cardcaptors here and you cannot convince me otherwise.


• I mean, if this ISN'T Gilgamesh, it's someone doing a great impression of him, what with the whole LET ME BAIT YOU INTO A FIGHT WITH A MYSTERIOUS GLOWING BLUE LIQUID THAT WILL PRESUMABLY SAVE YOUR MASTER.


• I'm not gonna lie, I do love the use of the train as distraction while they armour up; it's a classic, but it looks really cool!


• So Ayaka's dad and sister died in the previous Holy Grail war, which... Noooooo.


• "This is just my self-assessment, but I have a terrible personality. I'm gloomy, cowardly, narrow-minded, and a show-off." ... I'm not gonna lie, I kinda love her. She's depressed as fuck, but aware of it, and like Skip Beat levels of "Give me two minutes to reconcile these conflicting personality traits."


• What is she doing with that pigeon – OH NO.


• ... Okay, she might be all of the things she said, but she was brave enough to use her own blood for a weird magic ritual instead of killing a bird for it. I respect her for it!


• ... Was that Kotomine's original character design? Because oh NO. That's just UNFORTUNATE.


• This scene roughly translates to "Please allow me to bait you with the plot!" "No."


• It was very convenient(?) of them to die exactly on the stroke of midnight, wasn't it?


• Why is he surprised that she hasn't prepared to restart the grail war? Not deliberately starting the grail war sounds like a great plan to me. Like, I'm okay with her not wanting to do the plot!


• ... She is so tiny, though. SO TINY.


• "You have nowhere to run," is SUPER CREEPY, thanks random priest!


• I don't know if Ayaka has the same voice actress as Homura from Madoka Magica, but she does sound like her! ... I think if they actually did make Fate/Prototype into a full anime, it would probably be targeted at the same audience as Madoka Magica, now I think about it. (I think we've established that I'm always going to be yelling STOP USING THE MALE GAZE at franchises, haven't we?)


• I'm just picturing Ayaka in the main Fate universe, and I'm not sure how it would work because everyone else has such strong personalities? ... Oh but her and Waver! Being depressed loners who somehow end up with one (1) friend through the magical murder tournament! That would work for me! ... I don't know what it says about me that I just want the depressed anxious messes to hang out and be friends, but this is my life now. Whoops.


• (I finished Bioshock Infinite last night, so the image of someone using the universe to transmit morse code is sticking with me and I would gladly see more of it in my life if it means that characters can have friends.)


• SHE USES FEATHERS TO FIGHT PEOPLE! THAT IS A REALLY COOL VISUAL!


• LANCER STOP BEING A DICK!


• Every time. EVERY. TIME.


• (Also I assume that its his Master doing her nails there, and she looks like she's gonna be cool!)
  
• Awww, she yells for her dad to save her! ;____;


• ... Why do I get the feeling that this wouldn't have worked if she'd not used her own blood for whatever ritual it was.


• Bless him, Saber looks bland and generic as fuck. Li did not deserve that comparison, I'm sorry.


• ... Did Saber literally just cut that guy's spear in half? Because that sounds like cheating.


• Okay, so that bit was the bit that was actually a coherent narrative, and this bit is the end-of-episode teaser where EVERYONE IS YELLING, GUESS AT CONTEXT FROM THE YELLING.


• (I seriously don't blame her for wanting no part of something that killed her family, JUST SAYING. Like, she has more in common with Rin than she does Shirou, because Rin knows about the Grail War and lost three members of her family to the last one, but has decided that she wants to fight in it anyway. I think it would have been really interesting to have them in the same series, where they could be foils to each other!)


• (Rin should have been the protagonist of Fate/Stay Night and you cannot change my mind.)


• Oh, and I'm torn on the Master Degrees thing, because ON THE ONE HAND having all these different tiers is cool and dramatic, but on the other hand I would have 100% forgotten all of them when trying to write fic.


• Oooh, everyone's command seals are just ALL OVER THE PLACE. Interesting.


• There is so much eating ?people? in this trailer, I am concerned.


• You ever look at a subtitle and just wish you spoke enough of the original language to correct it? Because "A Master to suffer divine punishment hasn't existed for a long time" sounds CLOSE to making sense, but not actually.


• Oh no, she was the spare ;____; Her dad never had any expectations for her, this is sad.


• "As for me, I want a Hero who was killed by a woman." ... Literally me reading mythology when I was a kid, because god only knows I couldn't find any where the hero WAS a woman.


• I AM STILL ANGRY AT EVERY HERO WHO TRIES FOR AND/OR ACHIEVES INCARNATION WHO IS NOT RIDER FROM FATE/ZERO. HE CALLED DIBS. HE FOUGHT FOR HIS INCARNATION YOU POSERS.


• Nope, it does not explain which of the characters is a racist, good to know.


• "Even if I'm useless, at least I can choose to fight!" I have this horrible suspicion that that line would have made me cry my heart out if it was a proper series.


• ... So what I'm taking from this is that everyone's command seals actually bring forth the Servant, which is why there are at least two female characters who have their shirts off. RIGHT. SURE. Also tongue priest is creepy af, back me up.


• "The Grail isn't meant to be filled with blood," Oh no, that's a kinda sweet philosophy and also... Kinda right, if you go by the main timeline.


• I like the idea of it collecting wishes, although WOW this guy is bleak about the motivations behind everyone's wishes.


• ... Okay, I'm now convinced that that dude is Gilgamesh, but also I'm not sure I can believe in a canon where someone actually made Gilgamesh bleed his own blood who wasn't Enkidu.


• Also PUT A SHIRT ON.


• ... Is he literally summoning spears from space. Is that. Is that what he just did there. And somehow ruptured the magic circuits of an ENTIRE CITY.


• (... Did Saber literally dodge that spear by moving his head. Is that what happened there.)


• God this guy is bland to look at, but the effects on his Noble Phantasm are cool.


• ... Awww, I'm having feelings about Saber promising to protect Ayaka, because I bet she hasn't had many people telling her that they wanted to protect her in her life.


• Yeah, I think this looks kinda generic and yet kinda interesting, but I think it has the same problem as the Fate/Grand Order movie of "This would be so much more interesting if all of the main characters were girls." (Female Saber or bust!)


• (DO NOT GET ME STARTED ON FATE/GRAND ORDER, because I have STRONG OPINIONS on their choice to make the main character a boring dude with brown hair when they had the option to LITERALLY ANYTHING BUT THAT. Like, I am embodying that tumblr post about how anything would be way more interesting if lesbians, but SERIOUSLY they could have had a Fate/Series with three female leads and they opted out for NO REASON. GRRR.)


• Basically, this looks like a mildly grim shoujo anime, and I'm here for it? My recurring problem with Fate and its spin-offs is that they're not enough like shoujo anime, so this shouldn't be a surprise, really.


• I think that they made an audiodrama of this universe of Fate, so I might see if someone's transcribed and translated it, because that would be kinda fun? And yes, I do kinda want to write crossover fanfic with other Fate universes, because I am me and this is who I am as a person.


• ... Why is there a murder loli in a mountain singing about how much she loves Saber. What. Why is that a thing. ... Okay yes, I know the answer is "Because Type Moon," but SERIOUSLY WHAT IS UP WITH THE TINY MURDER CHILD.