Xebek’s Blog

Saber and Shirou confront Gil and Kotomine for the final battle after Ilya was kidnapped to become the vessel for the Holy Grail.

Summary:

We start off with Shirou and Saber arriving home. They notice something isn’t right right away and yell for Rin. They run though the house and Shirou finds her in the dark, against the wall covered in blood. He turns on the lights to see a huge splatter of blood against the wall and Rin barely conscious saying he is late, covered in blood as well. They try to treat her injuries right away but Rin just says she is sorry she couldn’t protect Ilya. She says that Kotomine came and took Ilya. She says that he probably wanted to make her the vessel to begin with. She says how magicians are humans with a magic circuit, but Ilya is a magic circuit made into a human, so she will be Kotomine’s sacrifice for the Holy Grail. She tells them how she thinks Kotomine will be at the temple that Caster used to be at, because it will be the perfect place for the descending of the Grail. She says finally, Shirou isn’t strong enough to beat Kotomine and she asks if he will go anyways. He says he has to, as a survivor of the calamity before. Rin says she sees and gives him a dagger, Azoth. She says it is like a magic rod made into a dagger, that it has a lot of mana in it and he should use it in his fight. Rin says she is getting sleepy so he better head off and win, if she wakes up and he has been defeated she will be mad. Rin then passes out. Before heading off Shirou and Saber head to the shack that he first summoned her in. He says that he wants to return Avalon t her, that it is only right. They do a quick ritual and Saber recovers Avalon from Shirou’s body.

They arrive at the steps of the temple and they can feel the magic in the air so they know Rin was right about this being the place. Shirou says he will take on Kotomine, and she will handle Gil. They wont’ interfere with each others fights; if either of them wins they won’t be able to summon the grail. As they walk up the steps Shirou says to himself that how no matter the outcome of the battle, Saber will disappear. He remembers all the times he has spent with her and starts to get sad, saying he can still turn back now and find a way to preserve Saber. He turns and looks at her and as they look at each other they both come to an understanding and continue on up. Gil is there when they reach the top waiting for them. Gil says how the moment is finally here, the Grail will appear. Saber yells at him and asks what it is he wants. He says her, to make her drink the curse and stay with him. He says to Shirou before they fight however that if he has something with Kotomine to get out of his sight. Shirou runs past him into the temple to face Kotomine. Gil and Saber start to fight and Shirou reaches the temple. Inside, Shirou sees Ilya hanging up high glowing as dark energy swirls around dripping from the sky. Kotomine says the Holy Grail has appeared, but its womb is still unstable. As Shirou looks around at the dripping black ooze, Kotomine says this is the power of the Grail overflowing. He says it will flow endlessly and create calamities all around. Kotomine says this is the closest the Grail has ever become to being complete. Previously it either had some failure in being summoned or it was destroyed, like what Kiritsugu did. Gil and Saber continue to fight on outside as Kotomine talks to Shirou. He says there is value in humans only when they die, that he wants to watch as the Grail works.

Kotomine says that the calamity ten years ago wasn’t bad. That only through great disaster and evil can humans see the brightest light, the greatest power. Shirou gets pissed at Kotomine and charges him but the black ooze shoots forward towards hi and wraps around his legs and arms, burning him like acid. Kotomine says there is a difference between them, that Shirou will never be able to fill. Meanwhile, Gil and Saber continue to fight. Gil says that Saber never learns, as Saber seems hard on breath and Gil is perfectly fine. Gil finally rains down swords upon her and causes her to fall to the ground. He says he will let her know the difference in their power, and pulls out his special sword Ea. He shoots forth a blast and Saber does the same with Excalibur. Meanwhile Kotomine keeps talking to Shirou. He says how happy he was when he found out he was in this war, how he resembled Kiritsugu even on the inside. He says he never dreamed he would be able to end the life of Kiritsugu again. Kotomine says how he killed Kiritsugu; he couldn’t stand it that he was defeated by such a person and then just let to live. He couldn’t stand a magician as cold as him saved his life. He said that the real mistake Kiritsugu made was thinking that he could stop the fighting and the Holy Grail War. We see a shot of Saber again being overcome by Enuma Elish’s power and she flies back, injured on the ground. Kotomine says how he will give Shirou the same end as Kiritsugu. He holds out his hand and collects some goo and says Angra Manyu. He yells at him to suffer all the evil in this world and throws it at him and Shirou is overcome by a blob of evil and disappears. Back with Saber and Gil, Gil walks up to Saber on the ground saying it looks like Shirou is defeated. Saber says he isn’t’, she still feels her connection with him. Gil says soon he will have Saber drink the curse and become his. He holds her up by the leg. She says she will never be his. Gil criticizes Saber about why her country defeated her but Saber gets serious and criticizes back about how he destroyed his county and she kicks him in the face and flips back. Gil gets incredibly pissed and decides he will just kill Saber and powers up his Ea sword.

Impressions:

Noooo, omg no. Ok, I am 98% percent sure that Saber will disappear at the end. I mean, Shirou said to Saber that this would be the last battle, and that no matter what the outcome of the battle Saber would disappear. From the scenes for the next final episode of the series it seemed almost certain that Saber would disappear. It showed Shirou back in everyday life with just Sakura and a shot of Rin. It showed a shot of Saber with her hair down but she wasn’t with Shirou, almost as if it was her goodbye scene. She had her hair down, it was a dark surrounding and she seemed sad but smiled anyways know there was nothing that could be done. The only way for Saber to stay in this world would be to drink from the Holy Grail, but that’s what Gil wants her to do so we can kind of get from that that it wouldn’t be a good thing. The grail is evil and has a curse on it so if she were to do that then she wouldn’t really be her anymore. It’s not a question of whether she wants to go back or not, and people need to realize that. She doesn’t want to go back, she wants to stay with Shirou but there really is no way to do that. I think it will go like this, Shirou and Saber will defeat Gil and Kotomine with the important help of Avalon, Excalibur’s scabbard. Then they will destroy the Holy Grail together, Saber will say her goodbyes to Shirou, telling him that she loves him before he disappears, and Shirou will live out a normal life with Sakura and Rin. It’s not the ending I want, not the one I would have preferred but for me to say it is any other way would be grasping at straws.

Ok, ok, for hope here is the only way I see it ending with Saber and Shirou together, but I don’t think this will happen at all, less then a 1% chance. I thought what Gil said to Saber was interesting, he said, “A hero is someone that bears all the people in his sight on his shoulders.” This could mean that if Saber really was a hero, that she would be able to stand up against the curse of the Holy Grail. That even if she drank it and had it poured on her or whatever, she would be able to stay herself because of how strong of a hero and person she is. That would allow for her to stay with Shirou. However, I don’t see this happening. First off I don’t really know what time there would be between now and when they destroy the Grail for her to drink it, second in the preview for next episode when it showed a shot of Saber and a shot of Shirou it really seemed like a goodbye scene and I don’t see a scene like that coming close to happening if she stays.

This episode had actually not that much advancement of plot. It set up for the finale mostly. We did get the information about what was up with Ilya. The fact that most magicians are humans with a magic circuit, but she is a magic circuit with a human form. Sort of that she was artificially created, which is why she would make the perfect vessel for the Holy Grail. It explains why she had that huge magic mark on her body when she had a fight with Saber and Shirou, and explained her sickness prior to this episode, saying that her body couldn’t’ take it anymore the longer the war went on since its not a normal body. The other big plot thing was that Kotomine was the one who killed Kiritsugu. I guess I never gave it much thought about what the hell happened to Kiritsugu, if we saw flashbacks of him raising Shirou he obviously didn’t die after passing Avalon to him, but then he kind of disappeared. The other thing which wasn’t as big because we kind of already knew this, they just made it clear and explained it in more detail was the Grail being cursed. They did mention Angra Manyu which is the curse of the Holy Grail, the everlasting darkness, complete evil, etc. I believe it played an important role in the game and they explained it a bit more but they fit it in ok here I guess, not explaining too much about what it actually is but not making it such an important thing that we had to know.

Ok, now this is important. I will not hate the ending where Saber leaves. It is not a bad ending! Now, I would much much much more prefer a different ending where they end up together, but the other ending is not bad. People need to realize that actually most anime does not have fairy tale endings. It is about telling a story. The ending that I’m sure this is heading to is a bittersweet ending. It is sad yes, it will probably make me cry, but it is not a bad ending. I don’t care whether you want it to happen or not, people need to realize that just because something isn’t the way they want it to be doesn’t mean it is bad. I’m not saying this because I want Saber to disappear, or because I want to side with the ending that will happen, I am saying this to get people to not hate the anime because of the ending. I have seen countless people say depending on the ending I will love or hate the series. NO. NO. I will touch on this more after the last episode, but people just need to realize that it is not a terrible series and ending if it goes that way. Again, I would much much much rather prefer them staying together, and to me that is a better ending in a way, but that does not make all other endings absolute crap. In a way the ending where Saber leaves is a happy ending. Just look at it in a different way.

Shirou – Saber – King Arthur

Rin – Archer – Emiya Shirou

Ilya – Berserker – Hercules

Shinji – Rider – Medusa

Unknown – Caster – Medea

Caster – Assassin – Sasaki Kojirou

Kotomine – Lancer – Cuchulain

Kotomine – 2^nd Archer - Gilgamesh