Xebek’s Blog

A huge episode with the conclusion for now of the fight versus 2^nd Archer, 2^nd Archer’s identity as well as a huge advancement of Shirou and Saber’s relationship with a cliff hanger that will leave you wanting more.

Summary:

We start off where last episode left off with 2^nd Archer appearing. Saber tells Shirou to run but Shirou says Saber is the one he wants and pushes her aside and tries to attack 2^nd Archer, thinking he will trace Saber’s Caliburn. 2^nd Archer just snaps his fingers and Shirou is impaled by some blast and near unconscious bleeding on the ground. Saber tries attacking him but 2^nd Archer just stands there and swords appear around him and block all of her attacks. 2^nd Archer says since Saber is pulling out all the stops so shall he and says, “Gate of Babylon” and a wall of energy appears behind him and many swords as well. He pulls out a scythe and from a long distance impales Saber’s arm. Saber asks who he is; no Servant could posses so many Nobel Phantasms. He says of course he can, there was once a time when the entire world was unified and the King of Heroes possessed all the treasures in the world, Gilgamesh. Gil pulls out another sword saying this will be more suitable for fighting and the swords starts to glow and so doesn’t Sabers sword. They each yell out their attack and fire a huge blast that connect with each other. Eventually Gil says this bores him and his blast overcomes Saber, sending her heavily injured and flying on the floor.

Shirou staggers up saying he wont’ let Gil loose. He images Caliburn to attack Gil but Gil says if he is to use the sword which selects the king, he shall use an equally fit weapon. He pulls out a sword saying it is the sword which was stuck in the Tree of Life that grants sovereignty. He says that his sword is the origin of Shirou’s swords legend, and that a duplicate can never defeat the original. Shirou attacks but Gil slash once and breaks Caliburn and slash Shirou deeply in the chest. Saber tries to tell Shirou to run, it’s her he wants. Shirou just staggers up saying he won’t let her loose, she is more important to him then anything and he wont let a jerk like Gil take her away. He says Screw off King of Heroes and we see his magic circuit go wild as he images the most powerful thing he can. Gil powers up his sword and in front of Shirou a long glowing object appears. Saber sees this and is shocked and manages to get over there telling Shirou to stick Excalibur in. Gil attacks but it is blocked and reflected back by the glowing object, Excalibur’s Scabbard that Shirou imaged. Gil is actually hurt by this and retreats for the time being. Shirou passes out and Saber holds him saying she finally realized he is her scabbard.

Back at home, Shirou is asleep and sees in his dream a flashback of Saber’s past. She is atop a hill from battle and is then seen fighting someone. The armored person she is fighting is asking why she didn’t’ abdicate the throne to her. Saber says because she doesn’t qualify and stabs her in the stomach. The armored person manages to stab Saber in the stomach as well as her helmet breaks off and she calls Saber Father, looking just like her. Shirou wakes up and Saber is there by her side. Saber goes to prepare dinner but doesn’t really know how so Shirou helps her. He mentions a little ways I how she should re do the selection, she should stay with him. Saber walks away but Shirou follows her. Shirou grabs her arm and pulls her in close, embracing her. Saber says to stop and Shirou says to just push him away but she doesn’t’ and stays in his arms. Shirou is saying how she doesn’t have to go back; she fulfilled her duty she should stay with him because he loves her. We see Saber shedding a tear and Shirou kisses Saber. The next morning we see Shirou walking alone. He heads for Kotomine’s church and he gets there and finds no one around. He all of a sudden however gets a weird felling and hears voices. He wanders around the church and finds a basement to an underground church where he sees corpses of people all over. Kotomine appears behind him saying welcome Emiya Shirou. Shirou backs off in surprise and Lancer appears and stabs him.

Impressions:

This was one of the biggest episodes of the series. It defiantly tops episode 14 as being my favorite. It has a cool fight between Saber and Gil and then Saber and Shirou versus Gil. Not only that but it has the appearance of what I KNEW would appear, Avalon, Excalibur’s Scabbard. Then, to top it off it had a huge moment between Shirou and Saber relationship wise and the drama behind the question whether Saber will return to her own time or stay with Shirou. To overflow that we had the appearance of a new Servant, oh wait no we didn’t just a Servant we haven’t seen for like 20 freaking episodes. Not to mention Lancer’s Master, a big clue to Gil’s Master and of 2^nd Archer’s Identity, Gilgamesh.

The fight between Shirou and Saber vs. Gil was amazing as well. Not only during the fight did we find out 2^nd Archer’s identity, Gilgamesh but Gil was kick ass in fighting. He had an infinite amount of any swords to use, including Balmung from Norse Mythology not to mention at the start of the fight snapping his fingers and impaling Shirou. He also easily defeated Saber and if it weren’t’ for Excalibur’s scabbard he would have completely and utterly won every aspect about that fight. I did love the look on Gils face when Shirou imaged the scabbard. Shirou’s magic circuit thing went crazy, before he had gotten like two out of the many dozens of lines to light up but this time all of them did.

The thing I seemed to like most about this episode, however, was the moment between Shirou and Saber after the fight. Mainly because the whole drama about what Saber is to do and that Shirou loves her is something that is going to carry on through what’s left of the series and be a prominent part. We got a huge advancement in which they kissed which just blew my mind. I also loved the part right after the fight where she was holding Shirou saying she finally realized that Shirou is her scabbard, not referring to the fact he imaged it and such but just that she is like the sword and he is there protecting and backing her up, always with her and such. Shirou again argued that Saber shouldn’t re do the selection kings and die and such, saying she should stay with him. This time, giving the reason that he saw her dream and she did fulfill her duty and such. I think at this point it is almost as if Saber doesn’t want to go back but has to because of what she has promised herself and her country. You can tell she really cares about Shirou too the way she was crying when she said she had to go back and when they kissed. She is using the excuse that she is king and doesn’t have the freedom to stay with Shirou which shows she kind of wants to but just thinks she has to go back. This may be me being pessimistic as I want Saber to stay with Shirou but I think she will in the end go back but still love Shirou. There is the possibility still that he could use his last command spell to stop her from going back which may be a bit more viable now of an option seeing as how Saber herself almost seems like she doesn’t want to go back so if Shirou stops her she may not really object but I still think he wouldn’t’ do something like that to her.

There was enough of a hint to say that Kotomine is Lancer’s Master. Just for the fact that when Shirou walked into the basement and Kotomine appeared behind him, Then Lancer appeared at his side and attacked Shirou as if he was working with Kotomine so I think it’s safe to say Kotomine is Lancer’s Master. There was also a huge clue as to Gil’s Master; I’m calling 2^nd Archer Gil now since we know his identity of Gilgamesh. When Gil made the huge attack at Saber we saw a brief glance of Kotomine who smiled at the shot hitting and basically defeating Saber. Before we got kind of a hint he may be involved such as his reaction to the 8^th Servant when Shirou talked to him as he knew about it but was surprised Shirou did.

Shirou - Saber - King Arthur

Rin - Archer - Emiya Shirou

Ilya - Berserker - Hercules

Shinji - Riedr - Medusa

Unknown - Caster - Medea

Caster - Assassin - Sasaki Kojirou

Kotomine - Lancer - Cuchulain

??? - 2^nd Archer - Gilgamesh