spindizzy | So we're up to episode 17 of original Fate/Stay Night, and it continues to be a thing!

Real talk, Rider earned her cool death and Shinji earned his ignominious one. I'm not even disappointed in Illya for getting Berserker to splat him, he had it coming.

ARCHER IS SO COOL AND I LOVE HIM AND HIS "WHAT IF I WANT TO DESTROY HIM" AND HE GOT TO HAVE AN EXTREMELY BADASS FIGHT SCENE AND KILLED BERSERKER FIVE TIMES BEFORE HE DIED! Also I love how they did the reveal of who Archer actually was! I don't know how well it would work if I didn't already know, but I was watching it like oh no he kept the necklace! and had to wail a little.

... Did that fight actually involve Archer using a bow?! That hardly ever happens!

RIN YOU COULD HAVE SUMMONED HIM BACK! I KNOW THAT THE WHOLE POINT OF THE FIGHT WAS HIM SACRIFICING HIMSELF TO BUY YOU TIME BUT YOU COULD LITERALLY HAVE PULLED HIM OUT OF THAT FIGHT AT ANY POINT AND HAD THE SAME EFFECT IN TERMS OF HERCULES BEING DEAD AND YOU HAVING NO COMMAND SEALS.

Me: ... This is the point where the sex scene was in the original game, wasn't it?

Me: I assume Tohsaka wasn't in the room during the sex scene.
Lex: Oh no, she was.
Me: .....................................................................................

TOHSAKA HAS NO SENSE OF BOUNDARIES AND I APPARENTLY SHIP HER AND SABER, GOOD TO KNOW.

Seriously though, why would you not mention that you could just give Saber Shirou's magic circuits before that point? It's debilitatingly painful, has a chance of permanently destroying his life, and would only be a temporary solution to the problem, of COURSE he'd love it!

Rin took out one of Berserker's lives! On her own! Proof that she is the most competent person there! Like bollocks a human can't take on a Servant!

Please picture me grumbling intensely about Berserker's power being multiple lives, because I know that mythology does not have one fixed form and any version we have will have been bastardised over the years due to censorship from the christian church and the victorians, and that we can only use the versions of the myth that survived to present times BUT ALSO HE CAN DEFINITELY DIE, IT WAS A WHOLE THING!

If Shirou had used Saber's sword without her, I would have been SO ANNOYED. It would have been EXCEPTIONALLY aggravating in the way that a mediocre straight dude being better at something a woman has spent her entire life on always is. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

At some point, Shirou is going to discover that Illya is his older sister and freak the fuck out, and the longer canon goes without giving me that drama the more I crave it. Yes, this is your reminder that Illyasviel is canonically eighteen years old and looks twelve, because Type-Moon is Like That.

Not gonna lie, I get why Saber has suddenly gone from "I am a tool, do not see me as a woman, see me as a sword," to "Oh shit physical contact with Shirou might make me actually explode with embarrassment" but it feels incredibly male-gazey and bizarre as a character choice! Like, my brain is ping-ponging between "Okay, so this is gap moé in action" and "The not-a-sex-scene reminded Saber that both of them have bodies and suddenly she cares what Shirou thinks of hers" and "As a grey-ace, this sudden desire to NEVER BE NEAR THE PERSON YOU REALISED YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON FOR AS LONG AS WE BOTH SHALL LIVE makes perfect sense" and just... I dunno, if it had been from anyone but Shirou's point of view maybe this would have worked for me! Or hell, maybe if they'd kept the "Banged the magic into her" thing! Because I like people suddenly being flustered by realising they have feelings, but this feels ham-handed and out of nowhere and I'm grumpy about it.

DOES SAKURA KNOW THAT SHINJI IS DEAD. IF YES, DOES SHE KNOW THAT THE PERSON WHO KILLED HIM IN LIVING IN SHIROU'S HOUSE. AND DOES SHE KNOW THAT SABER KILLED RIDER. COME ON.

A more suspicious soul might ask awkward questions about how Illya knows all of the information about Caster and the goings-on at Ryudou Temple. I'm just saying.

We've apparently hit the point where the anime swerves away from the plot of the visual novel! Lex reckons that the fight with Caster and her master is lifted from the Unlimited Bladeworks route? But the main thing I'm taking away from that entire confrontation is a) like BOLLOCKS a human can't take on a Servant, and b) Caster asks if any of them want to sacrifice themselves to save the others and everyone immediately goes SHIROU DON'T.

It's seriously lucky for the three of you that Illya was at your house so you went to the right place for the wrong reason! Because you know AT LEAST two non-Illya mages, RIN TOHSAKA, so you have no excuse for jumping straight to Illya! ... I don't think taking on Kotomine and making him the crux of a holy grail would be a good plan, mind you, but it is an option that's available!

Susan