Reaction Shot: Fate/Apocrypha ep 16 (or, the murder loli strikes again)

[spindizzy]

... Oh great, it's the gore episode.

(Caution warning: this episode has on-screen torture from pretty much
minute one.)

• Man, this guy is having such a bad day. Like, any day when a
  murder loli is torturing you to death with a smile while not wearing pants
  is fucked up, and I am judging Type Moon for this bullshit quite a lot.


• (This is your reminder that I have genuinely given up on series that I
  otherwise found interesting because the male characters got to wear real
  clothes and the female characters didn't, I AM that petty.)


• I didn't know that Leticia could appear in Jeanne's memories! That's
  kinda cool. (I have no idea if the revelation about betrayal is canon, btw,
  this is about eight hundred years too late for me.)


• I don't know if we ever get to see Leticia as her own person, really,
  because we only ever really see her interacting with Jeanne who she is
  clearly awed by. Which, y'know, fair cop, but I don't know that you can
  judge someone's entire characterisation based on how they react to a saint
  literally showing up and bodyjacking them.


• ... Wait, are you talking about your feelings for a boy.


• "That is one thing I do not know" and "That is the one thing I am
  unsure of" have very different connotations to me, which is kinda cool to
  pick apart because the difference is only REALLY one word.


• (Yes I'm watching with the dub on and the original subtitles, fight
  me.)


• Oh, so the braid is Jeanne, not Leticia.


• I'm glad everyone is working to help the homunculi, they deserve
  it.


• "It's nothing," says man who literally collapsed on the floor with
  plague markings growing on him.
  "It is 100% not nothing" says literally every person who sees him.


• So it's like an organ transplant, but instead of being rejected, the
  heart is trying to take over. And Sieg is just like "Okay, I hear what
  you're saying, but we kinda need it?"


• "Compared to me, you're pretty childish." DAMN SON, THAT WAS A
  BURN.


• (Also, "I'm not a child" he says, despite being like three months
  old.)


• Poor Sieg, realising that he did have something to lose.


• Look at Fiore, being responsible and knowing that if something's too
  much for her she can reach out and get advice! And look at Moustache
  Douchebag explicitly not being invited to the grown-ups talking!


• (HOW DO YOU KNOW IT'S MAGES FROM THE NEWSPAPER. OR WAS IT THE MAGIC
  NEWSPAPER, I DIDN'T CLOCK ANYTHING BUT THE TITLE.)


• That little "um" she does when she's reading makes it sound like
  Jeanne has to take a second to translate, which isn't the impression I got
  from the subs? It's interesting. Especially because Heroic Spirits are
  supposed to be summoned with everything they need to know to get by, so...
  Does Jeanne's weird summoning not have that?


• I mean, at least one of the mages was relevant to the Grail War, I'm
  just saying.


• See, Fiore CAN do the hard choices and responding rationally thing!
  She's lost eight people already and she's called a council of war instead
  of freaking out!


• ... Wait, did they make non-combat homunculi too? And give them
  different uniforms?


• Is Jeanne allowed to help them to kill Assassin of Black? Oh, okay,
  Assassin attacked unrelated people so it IS in Jeanne's wheelhouse.


• I AM SO CONFUSED BY HOW THE DUB DOES PRONOUNS. Like, using he/him for
  Astolfo and they/them for Assassin (although the subs use he/him), so they
  clearly CAN do the gender-neutral pronouns and just decided not to for
  people.


• ... Wait, they've all forgotten what Assassin looks like?! ... Is
  their solution going to have to be "Just look for someone trying to kill
  us, then kill them first"? Because that doesn't sound safe.


• I mean, having the True Name and not the face is the opposite way
  round that it usually goes.


• WHAT A LOVELY DAY IN TRANQUIL RUSTIC GENERIC FANTASY TOWN LAND. I'M
  SURE NOTHING TERRIBLE HAS HAPPENED HERE AND NO ONE WAS BRUTALLY TORTURED TO
  DEATH WITHIN SHOUTING DISTANCE OF THE MAIN ROAD.


• Astolfo cheerfully yelling "Yoo-hoo, we're here!" to a corpse is very
  them, but also... No.


• Wait, they took Caules? Why?!


• I love Astolfo's outfit, it's very cute and pretty the casual version
  of JeOH MY GOD IS THAT ARCHER IN A SUIT


• Okay, not all of them were tortured. Hey. Hey Caules. Did you know any
  of the mages? Do you, say, know whether any of them have information that
  maybe the others didn't? Like, say, how to get into your FUCKING
  CASTLE?!


• ... Caules. You idiot. What the fuck are you doing trying to replay a
  TORTURE VICTIM'S last memories?


• Fiore deserves better than all of you.


• OH NO, THIS FOG IS NOT GOOD. LOOK AT IT TAKING OUT THE FAMILIARS.


• There is a lot of screaming going on here, which, y'know, ain't
  great.


• SURELY YOU CAN RECOGNISE YOUR OWN CLAN'S ALARMS?!


• SERIOUSLY CAULES YOU KNEW THE GUY'S LAST MINUTES WERE AGONISING AND
  DISGUSTING, DID YOU NOT THINK ABOUT NOT SYNCHRONISING WITH HIM
  FULLY?!


• Fiore doesn't know how to use the phone! Oh bless her.


• LEAVE THE HOMUNCULI ALONE, OH NO.


• Well, this is bad for everyone.


• Archer: *straight up leaps across the city in a single bound*


• Moustache Douchebag is still fixing the homunculi, but also still
  referring to them as "it"s. YOU DIDN'T EVEN MANAGE TO BE A DECENT HUMAN FOR
  THIRTY SECONDS, FUCK YOU.


• Also, seriously, Sieg, you aren't immune to acid fog! STOP THAT.


• They have a smoke kettle that dispels poison mist, that's useful.


• Everyone: *has a discussion about how Fiore's alone right now in the
  house with a serial killer*
  Sieg: *takes off running*
  Moustache Douchebag: Wait a minute, where are you going?!
  WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU USELESS BUCKET AND SLEAZE AND INADEQUACIES?!


• Okay, respect to Fiore for being able to self-propel her wheelchair
  with one hand, ESPECIALLY when it it's clearly not a chair meant for manual
  self-propulsion, ESPECIALLY when she also has to keep hold of her magic
  gas-mask handkerchief.


• (Wasn't her chair electric?! Apparently not.)


• FIORE NO, DON'T KILL FIORE!


• Oh shit her chair's outside and I don't know where she keeps her
  murder octopus, Fiore noooooooo.


• WHY DOES YOUR MAGIC LOCK NOT HAVE VOICE RECOGNITION OR SOMETHING?! WHY
  CAN SOMEONE JUST ABRACADABRA IT OPEN?!


• I find it interesting that Jack the Ripper uses plural pronouns
  exclusively. I know why, I think it's revealed next episode, it's just a
  thing that I didn't notice while watching it in the subs.


• "Are you having fun?" ... I think the worst part about the murder loli
  thing (Except for the outfit? I guess the worst thing about Jack from an
  in-character perspective) is how much FUN they're having, because it's all
  spite. Every last bit of it.


• FIORE HAS SPARE ROBOT LEGS, SHE'LL BE OKAY!


• ... Oh shit she's in the poison cloud and Jack's just cut her robot
  leg in half. Fiore nooooooooooooooooo.


• SIEG!


• ... I thought they dodged that?! Did they not dodge it?!


• Sieg, you are not fast enough to keep up with Assassin.


• Archer, PHEW! I'm glad you're there!


• I think part of my problem with Assassin's character design is that
  two-thirds of it is really cool! The cute day dress and the ominous cloak,
  both excellent looks that suit the character! The murder loli thing... I
  guess I'll yell about in the From Hell episode, because that's when we get
  what MIGHT pass in the same general area as an explanation that isn't just
  "And then Type Moon catered to that one specific side of their fandom."


• "I'm fine," says girl who sat in a poison cloud nearly being
  murdered.


• Fiore, you already got them to agree to deal with this problem for
  you?


• Sieg: *agrees to deal with Assassin*
  Jeanne: *stares intently at him like she doesn't think this is the best
  plan he's ever had.



• 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