spindizzy | Reaction Shot: Fate/Apocrypha episode 18 (or, maybe the loli is political commentary?)

I'm not gonna lie to you, this is the only episode of Fate across the
entire macro fandom where I can actually remember the episode title. In my
defence, "From Hell" is pretty memorable, that was the whole point.

[CAUTION WARNING FOR THIS EPISODE: death of children, assault of a child.]

I was very confused as to whether I'd looped back to the end
of the episode, but hey, look! The person with issues about children is
surrounded by tiny children asking why she killed their mother!

SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY JACK DOES NOT IN FACT HAVE A HUMANOID
SHAPE. THEY LOOK LIKE A NIGHTMARE CREATURE.

Don't go into the light!

Oh, no, wait, it's a flashback, that's possibly worse for you.

So Atalanta gets thrown back to her past, and because Sieg doesn't
HAVE a past, he gets thrown back into Jack's...?

I'm sure that the purple woman must be magic, because she's got elf
ears. But if she's not Artemis I have NO IDEA who she's supposed to be.

Well, being buried alive by the ghosts of children who want to feed on
your warmth is nightmarish!

Especially because that is A LOT OF CHILDREN! SO MANY!

Welp, that's a man attempting to assault a small child, Jesus
Christ.

I wonder if that child specifically looks like Leticia because it's
Sieg looking at her.

... The constant rain of children is DEEPLY unnerving, good job
show.

But yes, the fact that the guy who was never a child, who encountered
his FIRST child today, is the one that is getting the explanation from
children is... Sure something.

And he doesn't know enough history to identify where he is and when he
is, so he has no way of knowing that 19th Century England has very little
in common with 21st Century Romania. He doesn't know enough about people
that he could argue against this.

I like Jeanne's casual outfit, that's pretty cool.

So Jeanne can't perceive the adults clearly, but she CAN perceive the
children.

So this is the nightmare of an abandoned child, or the nightmare of
SEVERAL abandoned children. Okay. Got it.

OKAY, I promised to rant about Jack's murder loli outfit here, and the
most non-fetishy explanation I can think of (bearing in mind that Jack
appears to be about ten and wearing a leather tankini) is that
it's the embodiment of the way that they were sexualised and reduced to
body parts in life? It would line up with the other children in Jack's
memories, but their sexualisation is a lot less overt and explicitly shown
as disgusting and painful, so I have NO IDEA what the fuck is going on
here, and I don't know that I WANT to find a Watsonian explanation for a
Doylist problem.

REIKA IS BACK! Because it's Jack's nightmare, of course.

AH, okay, I get it! The reason Sieg is getting this particular
mind-whammy is because the children were a disposable resource, just like
the homunculi! I understand the purpose of this.

Sieg: *discovers that structural inequality exists in the wider world*
*has nervous breakdown*
Reika: We can't change anything! :)

Is this the Omelas thing? People sacrificing others for their own
happiness?

Man, if we were in any other timeline but this one, I probably would
care less that Jack/Reika/everyone has just gone "Yeah, structural
oppression exists, it can't be changed."

I am VERY interested in the approach that Fate/Strange Fake takes to
Jack the Ripper, as opposed to this one. In this one, Jack the Ripper is
the embodiment of the societal victims of the Victorian era – the
discarded, the unwanted, the abused. In Fate/Strange Fake, where they're
summoned with a fake relic that's a prop from a video game, they're the
embodiment of the mythology of Jack the Ripper, who Jack might
"really" have been, with all of the malleability and shape changing that
you'd associate with something with no fixed form. Which is cool, but
they're very different tacks.

"Aren't you scared of Jack the Ripper?"

Jack the Ripper used GUILT TRIP! It's not very effective.

So, Jeanne just accepts that not everyone can be saved, even as she
acknowledges that they're victims. Just... The kids' anger and hatred has
been fused into the Jack the Ripper mythos. Wow.

ARCHER. ARCHER WHY IS YOUR ARM PURPLE.

LIKE, I'M NOT EVEN SURPRISED THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL JEANNE TO
PROTECT JACK THE RIPPER

"You think my hands are not stained with blood because I did not use a
sword?"

WHY IS GILLE DE RAIS THERE, NOPE NOPE NOPE

"This is a world composed of their memories," so they're trapped in a
hell that they can never leave, made entirely out of their suffering.
RIGHT. OKAY.

Of course tiny!Jeanne gets it.

... And the kids are just... Giving up. Fusing with tiny!Jeanne, and
there's Jack whole and well.

... This visually looks like a laying to rest, but the dialogue makes
it very clear that that's not what it is. Oh.

"You poor thing, I feel bad for you," says the embodiment of the pain
of a generation of discarded children.

Atalanta looks like she's been BROKEN. Like someone's just cracked her
in half.

Poor Atalanta. I'm annoyed that she has this storyline, but this
reaction is really well done.

She was clinging to hope, and Greek mythology always punishes
that.

"They weren't even mages! But they created that hell so easily?!

"Losing faith in humanity is easy."

Sieg is so confused that she hasn't given up on humanity, even though
she's just explained that she herself is as human and disappointing as
everyone else.

And of COURSE dawn rises while she's talking. OF COURSE THAT'S HOW
NARRATIVE WORKS.

Jeanne: *MORTIFIED TO REALISE THAT ARCHER SAW EVERYTHING*
Archer: *VERY SMUG ABOUT SEEING EVERYTHING*

FIORE ALREADY ORGANISED AID FOR THE TOWN, AND HER TWO MOST TRUSTED
PEOPLE WANT TO BACKSTAB HER?! REALLY?!

Sieg's face when Ruler spells out that Archer thinks she's evil... Oh
honey, did you not realise?

Jeanne: *repeatedly has to explain that she is fallible and could be
as evil as anyone else!*

Poor Sieg. He had faith in the world and its beauty until this,
DESPITE LITERALLY EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO HIM SO FAR. SIEG.
HONEY.

"Is something wrong?" Jeanne asks, like no one went through anything
traumatic at all.

OF COURSE SHAKESPEARE GETS TO SOLILOQUISE AT THE AUDIENCE, AND KNOWS
EXACTLY WHAT EVERYONE'S ROLE IN THE STORY IS. OF COURSE. I LOVE HIM. HE'S
TRASH AND I ADORE HIM.

~~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