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Post by Lorpius Prime on May 25, 2012 19:32:57 GMT -5
A Primer on Fate/Stay Night, in preparation for watching Fate/Zero[/u] Part 1: BackstoryThis is Emiya Shirou: He is, to all outward appearances an Ordinary High School Student in Fuyuki City, Japan. Ten years before FSN Shirou was nearly killed in an enormous fire that destroyed a large portion of Fuyuki City. It did kill a large number of other people, including Shirou's parents. Shirou himself was only saved by the timely intervention of this guy: No, that's not just some random bum. It is Emiya Kiritsugu, the one and only. Not only did Kiritsugu save Shirou from a fiery death, he adopted the young boy as his own son, hence the family name. What was Shirou's original surname, you ask? Well, if he even remembers, he never shows any sign of caring. You see, from that moment on, Shirou began worshiping his adoptive father as a genuine Hero of Justice, a complete badass who could do no wrong, and dedicated his life to saving others (like Shirou). As soon as Shirou had recovered from his injuries, he pressed his father to teach him how to be a Hero of Justice, too. Shirou spent long hours training in the Dojo of Kiritsugu's mansion in the old part of Fuyuki City. Oh yeah, and it turns out Kiritsugu was also a Mage. How's that for winning the Orphan's Lottery? In addition to studying martial arts (kendo and archery), Shirou also got Kiritsugu to teach him the basics of magecraft. Unfortunately, magic either isn't something you just pick up in a couple of years, or Shirou just wasn't cut out to be a first-rate mage. After years of study, all Kiritsugu had managed to pass on to his "son" was the art of forming a simple magic circuit (the first step to performing any magic at all), as well as some simple analysis and strengthening magic. ==> Tossing around fire and lightning was still well beyond the boy's reach. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), Shirou's first and only response to failure was always to just try harder. He never gave up, and never stopped practicing. Until, one day, five years after the great fire, Emiya Kiritsugu died. Shirou was, once again, an orphan. Bummer.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on May 26, 2012 1:17:23 GMT -5
Part 2: SitcomFast forward 5 years to the present day (best guess is late '90s, cell phones still don't seem to have caught on). Shirou is living "alone" in his mansion and attending the local high school. The school has a name, but it's not actually important. Since Kiritsugu's death, Shirou has been looked after by his neighbor Fujimura Taiga: Taiga (called "Tiger" at one's own risk) is only a few years older than Shirou, teaches his English class at school, and is something of a legendary kendo practitioner. Oh, and her grandfather is totally the local town's Yakuza boss. The Fujimuras were apparently old friends of Kiritsugu's, which is how they met Shirou, and why they go out of their way to help him out now that he's alone. In any other story, Taiga would be a primary badass, but in this one she's a relatively minor character. Shirou's other recurring house-guest is Matou Sakura: Sakura goes to the same school as Shirou, one grade behind him. About a year ago, Shirou suffered some kind of sports injury which seems to have moderately inconvenienced him. Sakura nobly volunteered to drop by Shirou's house before and after school to cook for him (and Taiga, that leech) while he recovered. Then she just continued to do so even after Shirou was all better. Only a True Protagonist like Shirou could fail to pick up on the fact that Sakura has an enormous crush on him. Taiga constantly needles her about this in Shirou's presence, but he remains steadfastly oblivious. At school, Shirou is also friends with Matou Shinji: Boo! Hiss! Shinji is, as you might guess, Sakura's brother. He's also a complete jerk, arrogant, selfish, and physically abusive of his sister. Yet Shirou insists on calling Shinji his "friend" and often deferring to him as if the kid deserved any kind of respect at all. Which he doesn't. Anyway, life seems pretty normal for Shirou, finishing out his last year at school. Or at least, life doesn't seem like it's about to throw any giant, upsetting curveballs to him. So absolutely no one following the story should be surprised when, while at the school well after-hours, Shirou encounters these two oddballs engaged in a mystic deathmatch: Cue up your laugh tracks.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on May 26, 2012 2:44:12 GMT -5
Part 3: The Worst Best Luck In The UniverseWell, Shirou may have dreams of being a Hero of Justice just like Daddy Kiritsugu, but the reality is that he's just not a very sneaky kid. Seriously he probably wears, like, gongs instead of sneakers. If there is any part in this story where it sounds like Shirou is being stealthy, let me tell you now that you have misapprehended. Shirou is anti-stealth. So yeah, the two fighters notice him. And this blue guy basically says "You've seen us! And because you have seen us, I am going to kill you." And then he chases Shirou into the schoolbuilding and stabs our hero in the heart with his big red stick. No, seriously, that's what he does: So the Blue Stabber skips off, leaving Shirou lying in a pool of blood. Shirou's thoughts then go something like, "Wow, mortal wounds really suck. I mean, after almost burning to death, I was already pretty sure that was true. But now after having my heart run through by a giant blade on a stick, I have pretty solid confirmation. Oh well, at least since I'm dying I'll never have to feel this way ever again." And then Shirou dies. And then a few minutes later he gets back up again, perfectly alive and uninjured. Only now he's got this cool pendant: It's probably some sort of consolation prize from the Afterlife. Like a way of saying "Sorry for making sure that you'll have to die at least three times before the end. Here, have this pretty heart-shaped pendant instead of eternal peace. You know, because you just had your heart brutally shredded? Well I thought it was clever, anyway." So Shirou staggers back home to his mansion, determined to resume his normal life routine because that's just the kind of Protagonist he is. Only no sooner has he sat back down at his dinner table than the old alarm system goes off (the magic alarm system, which apparently doesn't do anything to actually ward off danger, just turns off all the lights when there's an intruder so you know to be really scared.). And in a flash, Blue Guy is back, standing right in front of Shirou. Apparently Shirou was actually supposed to stay dead. "You know, most people have the courtesy to die after being stabbed once through a vital organ. But I guess if you're really into that sort of thing, I can oblige with a second painful demise." Never fear though, for it is at this precise moment that Shirou remembers he's actually had five years of combat and magic training from a Hero of Justice, topped off with five more years of his own independent study to hone his skills. So Shirou grabs the nearest convenient weapon (a rolled-up metallic poster left by Taiga-sensei), hastily forges a magic circuit, and performs strengthening magic to turn the poster into a solid weapon. When the Blue Bandit swings for the killing blow, Shirou deflects the spear with his own weapon. Well this utterly flabbergasts Big Blue. And while he's occupied by picking his jaw up off the floor, Shirou beats a hasty retreat out to the shed in his backyard, which he mostly uses to meditate and practice magic. Well it takes only a few seconds for Shirou to realize that maybe fleeing into a little building with only one way in or out was not exactly the best plan. So he crouches in the shed, waiting for the mysterious blue spearman to track him down and kill him again, and thinks about all the terrible life choices he's made which lead up to this point. Then a magic circle in the middle of the floor activates. In Shirou's defense, he probably thought Kiritsugu drew that thing just because it looked really badass. And not, you know, because it might have any actual function for a mage.So the circle does its wild glowy thing, and in the center of it... something appears... something big... something dangerous... something... Blonde. Shirou stares at the vision, enraptured... Their eyes meet... His heart flutters... "Yo," she says.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on May 27, 2012 0:06:11 GMT -5
Part 4: Asymmetric Information.Actually what she says is something like "Are you my master?" But this story is so much more than just a stereotypical harem anime, so let's just go with "Yo". Anyway, Blonde Lady asks Shirou a few serious, urgent questions, to which he can't come up with a reply much more coherent than "Bwuh?" Thankfully, Blonde not only seems to realize that Shirou is in imminent personal danger, but actually wants to help him, despite his Protagonist's-Brand Speech Impediment. She rushes out of the shed and immediately starts fighting Big Blue with her own mysteriously-invisible weapon. This is a typical Anime Battle, made even more agonizing by being presented in visual novel form. Big Blue and Blonde spend more energy hyping the deadliness of their weapons to one another than using those weapons to cause actual harm. After a 20 minute contest to determine which combatant is the most smug, Big Blue finally has enough. He stabs Blonde Lady in her side. Apparently, though, he meant to stab her in the heart like Shirou, and is shocked to discover that women do not keep their hearts in their abdomens. Appalled, he flees the battlefield, leaving a wounded Blonde bleeding but victorious. "I'll be back! Just as soon as I have finished reviewing my anatomy notes!" At this point, Shirou runs out to the backyard, babbling like an idiot trying to tell Blonde Lady just how freaking awesome that whole thing was, and would she give him her autograph and possibly marry him, too? To which she replies: "Yeah, I get it. I'm a total badass and your new primary love interest. But right now I've got a hole in my kidney and I can sense another Servant just beyond that wall over there, so would you please hurry up and heal me so that I can go save your sorry life a second time?" To which Shirou replies: "Bwuh?" "Never mind, I'll just go kick their ass like this. Wait here." And she promptly leaps over the two-meter wall surrounding Shirou's mansion grounds. Shirou, who had not yet been able to vanquish his childhood nemesis, the high jump (not even kidding, that is a major plot point), was forced to follow by running out the gates like an ordinary person. He rushes out just in time to see his Blonde Savior stabbing another familiar face... The Man In Red: "You will find this highly ironic in about forty years." Red promptly vanishes, and Blonde closes in on the person standing just behind him. And, oh look, it's someone else Shirou knows: "Hang on a second," Shirou says. "Maybe don't kill this one yet. I think she's supposed to be part of my harem." "Bwuh?" says Blonde. "Bwuh?" says Tohsaka Rin.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on May 29, 2012 0:28:15 GMT -5
Part 5: Unhelpful HintsRin was actually introduced earlier in the story (before Shirou, even), but I took advantage of the time-honored strategy of completely omitting hints and clues in order to make the final reveal more of a surprise! I'm so clever. Anyway, Rin is another student at Shirou's high school, part of his same year, but in a different class. She's got a reputation as somewhat stuck-up honor student, but Shirou has admired her from afar for a while. And now it turns out she's been a magus leading a double-life the entire time. What a tease. Anyway, Shirou manages to restrain Blonde Girl from slicing and dicing his schoolmate. He invites Rin into the mansion for tea and to tell him what the hell is going on. Blonde does not approve, but doesn't do anything worse than giving Shirou a dirty look. Not that Rin is much nicer. Half of her lines in the entire game basically come down to calling Shirou an idiot. So if you're ever having trouble imagining a scene involving her, this can be a good shorthand. Shirou: Glad I could save your life back there! I don't suppose you could tell me what in the name of all that is holy is going on? "Idiot." So once inside, and after much verbal abuse, Rin finally starts getting around to the point that you've been waiting for: explaining just how completely screwed Shirou is. You see, it turns out that our hero has gotten himself sucked into an elaborate suicide pact called The Holy Grail War.Shirou is now, like Rin, a Master in this conflict. Each Master in the war gets a Servant. And, as should be obvious now, Shirou's servant is the Blonde Lady with the invisible weapon. Servants are referred to by their "class", the sort of warrior they are. Shirou's servant is Saber. Rin's servant, the vanishing Red Dude, is Archer. And the Blue Gentlemen with the poor memory for human anatomy was Lancer. There are actually 7 classes of servants, each with their own collectible trading card: Before Shirou can ask about Saber's auction value, however, Rin tells him to shut up. They need to go to Church. Yup. Alas, Rin's goal isn't to convert Shirou from his pagan ways. No, it just turns out that the church is the headquarters of the Holy Grail War's Supervisor. Because an apocalyptic death match without a referee would just be silly.So, fearing that Saber's cool armored dress might look conspicuous walking down the street at midnight, Shirou and Rin throw a raincoat over her and set off for the church. Now might be a good time to mention that Fuyuki City is split into two parts. The old part is where most of the houses are, and the new part is like the public and commercial district, with shopping centers, a park, and the church. In between the two districts is a river, crossed by a bridge. This one. About 25% of the entire game takes place either on or within sight of that bridge, and it's probably the most significant location in the entire story (or possibly second to Shirou's mansion). There's not really anything otherwise special about it, it just shows up a lot. So Shirou, Rin, and Saber cross the bridge and come to the church. Rin insists that Saber stay outside. Shirou's a little worried, but Saber says it's okay, she's got a raincoat. "It's cool, dude, I've totally got a raincoat." So Rin takes Shirou inside and introduces him to Kotomine Kirei: Dun dun dunnnnnn! Kirei looks and acts like a complete smarmy bastard. But he's also apparently the only neutral party in the Grail War (who isn't just a hapless victim, anyway), so it's up to him to explain the basics to Shirou. Get your notepads out, there will be a quiz afterwards.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on May 29, 2012 3:16:00 GMT -5
Part 6: The Reasons That You Are Going To DieRin waits outside, too. It's pretty clear that she doesn't really like Kirei very much. That or she doesn't really want to sit through the long-winded lecture on stuff she already knows. Anyway... "Listen very carefully..." Two hundred years ago the Holy Grail War was begun by three great magus families: Einzbern, Makiri, and Tohsaka. It was conceived by the Einzberns as an attempt to recover the poorly-explained but very powerful Third Magic ("magic" in this universe is apparently a distinct concept from the still supernatural, but much less powerful "magecraft"). They decided that the best way to do this was by summoning the legendary Holy Grail, which artifact's miraculous power was such that it could grant effectively any wish its controller desired. Summoning the grail into the mortal universe was no simple task, and would require enormous amounts of magic energy. At the time, the Mage's Association was pretty much at war with the Church, and a ritual on the scale required would have been almost impossible to complete anywhere Church Executors might find them. As a result, it was decided to conduct the ritual in a distant eastern land... which would be Japan, in what is now Fuyuki City. This region was under the domain of the Tohsakas, and was a focus of unusually large amounts of magic energy (strange ley-lines and whatnot). So the Einzberns provided the knowledge of the Grail itself, creating the necessary materials to bring it into the world. The Tohsakas were responsible for providing the land and energy to fuel the ritual, making it possible in a place safe from the notice of the Church. Since the Grail is an absurdly, ridiculously powerful artifact which should not even be able to exist in the normal world, summoning it would require something of a delicate approach. It was basically decided that it could not be done all at once, nor even directly, there simply wasn't enough magic power left in the world. Instead, the mages would have to summon other powerful entities first, and then use those as sacrifices in order to build up enough energy for the Grail to manifest. These were the Servants. Each Servant is a Heroic Spirit, imbued with tremendous power by the popularity of his or legend, the nobility of his deeds, courage, sacrifice, etc. Basically, they are just about any Epic Hero you can think of, and whether they were real or fictional isn't even that important (though in this setting, more probable than not even heroes that we think were made up probably actually existed). The Servants are each individually enormously powerful beings, capable of feats and magic well beyond the imagination of any living human by the time of the Grail War's start. The magical energy needed to summon and sustain one of them was immense, and it was decided that summoning the Grail would require the sacrifice of seven Heroic Spirits. The mages' plan was to summon these Servants, and then have them fight each other to the death, with the energy from each sacrifice going towards the completion of the Grail itself. Hence, Holy Grail War. There was only one problem left for the mages: how does a mere mortal maintain control over a Heroic Spirit powerful enough to fight entire armies without even breaking a sweat? This was the problem which the Makiri family were brought into the project to fix. Their solution was to design the Command Seals. "Look at your left hand." "Huh? My hand? I was totally listening, that is. You know, because I'm sure this is all important and not boring--" "Look at your freaking hand." "Oh... huh... that's... that's uh... Actually, I do not remember getting that tattoo." "Those, Emiya Shirou, are your command seals." Each Master gets three command seals. They bind his Servant to him, and allow him to issue three orders which the Servant absolutely must obey, no matter how strong their objection. Most Servants will cooperate with their Master to an extent, simply because they share the same goal of seeking the Grail. But they can be willful and obstinate. After all, they are still their own selves, and are quite powerful, at that. The magic of the Command Seals will allow you to check their independence. They can also allow some abilities which would be otherwise physically impossible, such as having a Servant teleport instantly to a Master's side even from a great distance. But each time the Master gives such an order, he loses one of his seals. The seals should not be spent lightly, therefore. And all Masters traditionally take care to preserve at least one seal for the very end of the Holy Grail War, so that they may order their last, victorious Servant to fulfill the Master's wish, rather than attempting to seize the Grail for the spirit's own use, as many of them would be wont to do. So with those basic elements--Grail, Spirits, and Command Seals--in place, the Grail War was more or less prepared. It was designed as a cooperative venture among the Einzberns, Tohsakas, and Makiri, of course. But that alliance didn't last past the first round of summonings. As soon as the Masters (the three great families and four others, minor mages or clueless slobs dragged into the proceedings by the inexorable power of the ritual itself) had their Servants, they set to fighting, hoping to achieve their own selfish ends. This is actually the Fifth Holy Grail War. Four times before, as a result of betrayal or incompetence, the Einzberns have failed to acquire the Grail and recreate the Third Magic. And so the ritual repeats. Usually it takes about sixty years for the magic circles governing the War to recover enough mana to recharge and start again, but this time has been unusual. It has only been ten years since the Fourth Holy Grail War. And yet it has begun again. "Wait... wait a second, here. My plot senses are tingling..." "Yeah. Your dad totally fought in the last Holy Grail War." "What?" "So did I." " What?"
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 1, 2012 2:53:35 GMT -5
Part 7: EtiquetteSo it turns out the giant fire that killed Shirou's original parents and nearly him, too, was a result of the Fourth Holy Grail War, in which Kiritsugu was a combatant. What a twist!Shirou is now thoroughly weirded out, but manages (just) to not run screaming from the Church. Kirei offers a final reminder about just how dangerous the Grail War is, and how Shirou will probably need to do some rather horrible things if he wants to survive it. This, of course, is especially awful for Shirou because of his commitment to becoming a Hero of Justice. The only way out (other than dying painfully), Kirei tells him, would be to give up his command seals and resign as a Master now, before the War starts. In that case, Kirei and Church can offer him sanctuary until all the killing ends. "There's no shame at all if you decide to do that. Only everyone will think you're a giant wimp, and your father's ghost will probably return from the afterlife in order to disown you." "No, I'm going to stick it out. After all, a real Hero of Justice doesn't give up when the going gets tough and the choices look bleak." "That's the spirit, kid. Now get out of my church and don't come back until that spirit is utterly broken and all your ideals crushed under the merciless jackboot of truth." So Shirou leaves in a defiant huff and rejoins his companions outside. He tells Rin he understands why she doesn't like Kirei. True to form she calls him an... "Idiot. I don't dislike him, because I am a magus, and therefore above such petty emotions. I just don't trust him." Anyway, Rin explains that after tonight, she and Shirou will be mortal enemies. She only took him to Kirei because she felt bad that he was so completely clueless. But he's another Master in the Grail War, so it will be her duty as head of the Tohsaka family to kill him. "Haha, you're such a kidder." "I can't smack my forehead while wearing this raincoat. I consider this a serious design flaw." The three of them set off for home, spending the last moments of their brief truce walking in silence. But, then, just as they're coming over the top of a hill, they run into this lovely couple: In case it's not clear, what we have there is a white-haired girl who looks like she can't be more than 12 years old, backed up by a rather intimidating man who can't be less than 12 feet tall. The girl politely curtsies to the group and introduces herself. "Good evening, everyone. My name is Ilyasviel von Einzbern. This my butler." "████████! ███ ██████! █████████████!!!!!"* (*"It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintances.") "Hey, Rin. I know I'm new at this whole 'Holy Grail War' thing. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this anyway: I don't think that person is her butler. I think that he is actually a Servant." "I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over the fact that we are all about to die." "You are correct, Miss Tohsaka! Now cut off their heads and rape the corpses, Berserker!" "Awwww! She's so adorable!" "You've been a true friend, raincoat. But I'm afraid here is where we must part ways. Fear not, for I shall always remember your comforting, yellow embrace." "Now come at me, bro!" And then Saber and Berserker have an epic fight. And by "fight", I mean Berserker hits Saber with a stone sword-axe roughly the size of a pro-football linebacker. This nearly cuts her in half with a single blow. "Well... there goes my other kidney." It's at this point that Shirou enters Chivalry Mode and decides that it's absolutely criminal to let the woman with superior combat abilities, magic, and an actual weapon to fight because she's a girl. So he runs forward to stand between Saber and Berserker, throwing out his arms in a protective gesture. "You shall not pass!" And, indeed, Berserker does not pass. He just hits Shirou with the axe, too. "Huh, you know, there are so many things in life that you just never really appreciate until you no longer have them. Like ribcages." Shirou decides that, all things consider, his best option at the moment is to lose consciousness, and perhaps dream of happier days when he still had all of his internal organs. Before he can completely black out, though, he observes one last thing: "Hmmph. Bored now. Forget the atrocities, Berserker, let's just go home."
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 11, 2012 2:15:39 GMT -5
Part 8: Go Team Hopeless!Shirou wakes up in his mansion, not only in possession of all his organs, but without the slightest touch of pain to remind him that they were scattered across a road a few hours ago. "Gee, that's weird. Oh well, guess I'll make breakfast!" It's never explicitly stated, but one conjectures that Emiya Shirou truly took the proverb "curiosity killed the cat" to heart. At no point does he ever display the slightest curiosity about, well, anything.Anyway, Shirou finds he has two guests for breakfast. Not the usual Taiga and Sakura, but rather: and "Oh yeah! I'm totally a participant in a vicious murder festival! Well, do you two want breakfast?" It turns out they do. Saber in particular is a voracious eater. "Now that I've finished my share, I'm going to eat yours, too. Because, let's face it, you puny mortals can't actually stop me from doing whatever I want." Rin and Saber explain to Shirou that they brought him back to the mansion after the battle with Berserker. They bandaged him up, but found that his wounds had already miraculously healed on their own. Unlike Shirou, they're actually rather mystified by this. Rin has a theory. "I think you screwed up Saber's summoning so badly that the flow of mana between you two is actually reversed, and rather than being able to heal her injuries, you're leeching her power to heal your own. This probably occurred because you're a complete amateur magus. And an idiot. Can you actually even do any magic at all?" Shirou tells her that his dad taught him how to do strengthening spells, but that he's still not very good at them. Rin tells him that strengthening magic is, like, the worst magic, and that his father probably thought Shirou was a complete failure. She also laments that she was not the one able to summon Saber, who is clearly the best class of servant, because together they would have won the Grail War with ease. Burying her jealousy, though, Rin notes that Berserker is ridiculously overpowered, her own Servant, Archer, is still wounded and recovering, and Saber has a crappy Master. So with all of those things working against them, it may be a good idea for her and Shirou not to kill each other after all. At least not until Berserker is defeated. "Kay!" With the great Alliance thus formed, the two Masters begin planning their strategy for victory. "Any ideas on where to start?" "Nope!"
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 11, 2012 3:30:55 GMT -5
Part 9: What Are Friends For? No, Seriously, I'm Asking.My memory is fuzzy on the exact chronology of some of the following events. But the order of most of the details don't matter too much. For instance, sometime in the next few days, Taiga and Sakura discover Saber staying at Shirou's house. Shirou is, of course, oblivious to Sakura's upset body language: "I see, senpai..." Not so much to Taiga's: "My fists will now communicate the extent of my displeasure." Fortunately, Shirou and Saber are able to deflect the suspicion by claiming that Saber is a relative of Emiya Kiritsugu's come to visit the mansion for a while. Saber also promises that she will be giving Shirou self-defense lessons in the dojo. Everyone but Shirou enthusiastically approves of Saber beating him up with shinai. "This is going to hurt quite a bit for you, and not at all for me. Master." After the initial distrust, Sakura and Saber actually become something like friends. Enough that Sakura lends Saber the casual clothes in these pictures, so that she isn't always forced to choose between battle armor and a poncho. Shirou has a much harder time explaining himself to Sakura later on, when Rin starts to stay at the mansion. But rather than letting Shirou blubber pathetically to invent excuses, Rin pretty much just says: "Leave, Sakura, and don't come back again until you're told." "...yes, senpai." "Phew! I was worried she might be offended!" Anyway, back to the plot! Rin and Shirou eventually manage to discover that some magus has placed a bunch of magic circles in and around their high school. This was almost certainly done by a Master, as the circles are a type designed to drain mana from the people in an area, which can then be used to power a Servant. Rin says that this is the kind of strategy that someone like Shirou might actually want to use, so that Saber doesn't burn through all her power because he's too crappy a magus to give her any mana himself. All of them find the idea of sucking the life force out of innocent victims to be rather distasteful, however, and Saber even goes so far as to say that Shirou would have to use a command seal if he ever wants to make her feed on people to gain energy. In any case, they're all agreed that the sick bastard who's setting this up (the circles haven't actually activated yet, fortunately) needs to be taken down hard. At some point in the middle of their investigation (during which they're still attending school as a cover), Shirou's old friend Matou Shinji suddenly pops up: "Hey, dude! Guess what? I'm totally a Master just like you!" "What." "Yeah! Isn't it great! My family is actually an ancient line of mages. Our magic has been dying out in these last few generations, but apparently I've still got enough left in me that I get to be in this whole Holy Grail War, too. Isn't that awesome?" "What the... so does Sakura know magic?" "Heck no! Only the oldest child of a magus family gets taught its secrets and receives the magic crest. That poor bitch is just spare body parts, and she doesn't even know it" "Huh, fascinating. And I guess that's really cool for you, Shinji-- wait..." "Hmm?" " You're not the one that's put all these magic circles up around the school to suck out everyone's souls, are you?" "No way, dude! That's just sick! But hey, listen, you should totally team up with me! We can help each other out like pals!" "I made an alliance with Tohsaka Rin, I'd have ask to ask her." "Blech, Rin's a complete loser, Shirou! You should totally dump her and join up with me." "Maybe so, but I can't go back on my word. I'll let you know." "Fine, fine. Listen, as a show of good faith, let me tell you my Servant and I have figured out there's a pretty powerful Servant up at the Ryudou Temple, if you want to check them out. Its Master might even be the one who's been putting the circles around the school." "Really? Thanks, Shinji! You're a great friend. I'll let you know what Rin says." "Right. You do that. See you later. Friend."
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 11, 2012 4:53:18 GMT -5
Part 10: Critical Intelligence.Let's cover a few important details about servants that I couldn't elegantly wedge into the info-dumps in Parts 5 & 6. 1) As Heroic Spirits, a Servant's default form is actually as sort of an incorporeal ghost-like entity. The Master provides the energy to allow them to have a physical body, allowing the Servant to use all the massive amounts of mana from the summoning to power their cool combat techniques. In spirit-form, a Servant is invisible and intangible to everyone (though a good magus might still be able to sense their presence), but can still communicate with its Master either by a sort of telepathy or by projecting a physical voice into the world. Since the night Shirou became a Master, Rin's Servant Archer has been confined to spirit-form so that more of the mana Rin provides can be used to heal the wound that Saber gave him. Saber, on the other hand, due to her apparently botched summoning, can't enter spirit-form. Shirou is providing her with no mana to heal or sustain her own body. This is first of all a logistical inconvenience, as she can't covertly accompany Shirou. Shirou's been leaving her at the mansion while he attends school, which Saber was not happy about. He's been relying on the self-defense lessons she's been giving him, and the ability of his command spells to teleport her to his side in a hurry. But the more serious implication of the disability is that Saber's power is significantly hampered as a result. All the mana she started the Grail War with is all she'll have for the entire time. She can only heal or use her most impressive attacks a very limited number of times before all of her energy is drained. This suggests that she and Shirou ought to be cautious and pick their battles. 2) Shirou doesn't know Saber's true identity. Normally, a Master would want to know so that he could make the best use of a Servant's particular abilities and fighting styles. But keeping a Servant's identity secret from one's enemies is also of supreme tactical importance, as it prevents those enemies from predicting and planning against the same. Because Shirou is an amateur magus, it would be very easy for a skilled magus to extract information from him, via hypnosis or mind-reading or even simple torture. As a result, he and Saber have decided that it's best for him not to know who Saber really is, either, and just trust in her own fighting abilities and battle planning. At this point, the only Servant whose identity we know is Lancer's. It was actually revealed in his very first fight with Saber, as explained in this next point... 3) Every Servant is associated with (at least) one special weapon with which it fights. Such weapons, usually artifacts as famous as the Heroic Spirit itself, are known as Noble Phantasms. In Saber's first battle, Lancer revealed his noble phantasm to be a spear called Gae Bolg, which is guaranteed to pierce the heart of its enemy when used. When Lancer announced this as he tried to deliver a killing blow against Saber, she correctly identified him as Cuchulainn. Saber only just survived this attack because she has a special resistance to magic that allowed her to avoid the killing blow, though not without taking serious damage all the same (the Holy Grail War only appears to have clearly defined rules, but most of the Servants manage to have abilities allowing them to break a few of them). Saber's noble phantasm appears to be some kind of invisible sword, but more than that we don't yet know, nor have any of the other Servants been figured out. Getting back to the current plot, now. Ryudou Temple, which Shinji just identified to Shirou as the location of another Servant, is a Shinto temple on top of a big hill in the forest on the outskirts of town. It's run by the Ryudou family. Shirou is actually friends with Ryudou Issei: Issei is the student council president, and often gets Shirou to help him out fixing broken equipment around the school (while Shirou makes covert use of his magic to identify the problem before making repairs). Issei's moderately interesting, a nice guy, and has some kind of unexplained history with Rin (he doesn't like her). Unfortunately for him, he's no more than a bit character now that the Grail War has started. So Shirou attends a daily strategy session with Rin and Saber (like a good telecommuter, Archer's presence is assumed but never confirmed), where he tells Rin about Shinji and the Servant at Ryudou. "Oh yeah, Shinji asked me to team up with him before you summoned Saber. He was pretty pissed off when I turned him down." "Okay, you know what? I'm just going to blow right past the fact that you didn't tell me about Shinji and ask what we should do about this other Servant." "Let's go shank him. Right now." "We need more information first, I don't trust Shinji." "I trust Shinji, but I'm actually opposed to shanking anyone before exhausting our options for a peaceful, amicable solution to our differences. Neville Chamberlain is like my idol." "It's decided then. We'll go to bed without doing anything to further our cause at all." "Goodnight, Rin! Goodnight, Saber! I'll see you again at breakfast!" And then they go to bed. ... But in the darkness, a lone figure creeps silently out of the mansion... "Come, trusty poncho. It is up to us to save the mortals from themselves."
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 11, 2012 19:54:14 GMT -5
Part 11: Teen Drama DetourSo, Saber, lamenting the fact that her Master isn't taking the Grail War seriously, sneaks off by herself to do battle with the Servant at Ryudou Temple. Hope you like stairs. At the top, barring the way through the temple gate, Saber finds this fellow: Now, we ordinary humans might just conclude that this man was obviously a hired publicist for the Purple Fabric lobby. But Saber knows better. "Servant?" "You got it." "Great. Let's fight." So they do. The Purple guy wields an unusually long Japanese-style sword, and Saber is surprised at how well he appears to be able to handle the awkward thing. She is also a little surprised to discover that she can't seem to sense any magic abilities or power. In fact, the only evidence that he's a Servant at all is that he's apparently able to match another Servant in combat. It takes her longer than usual to put everything together, because she's engaged in battle with another warrior of similar abilities who has the high-ground advantage on the temple stairs. But eventually she figures it out. "Aha! You're Assassin!" Purple immediately admits as much. This is a very strange (or so we're told) development. Typically, the Assassin class of Servants are not good warriors, and shouldn't be able to hold up to the other servants in face-to-face battle. Rather, they use their special abilities to hide their aura, preventing them from being detected, and attempt to kill other Servants (or, better, Masters) with surprise attacks. Saber eventually realized that Purple's suppressed aura meant he must be Assassin, but she's surprised (and more than a little worried) at his swordsmanship. He's so good, in fact, that with the high-ground advantage, she's afraid he might actually be able to beat her in their duel. "Yes. But, you see, I'm not a real spirit..." Assassin explains that his true identity is Sasaki Kojirou, a legendary samurai. But, he laments, Sasaki was actually just a fictional construct, a story which gained credibility through retelling over time, and not a genuine Heroic Spirit. This fits with his class, too, as assassins aren't noble creatures, and no one that could be summoned into the class could truly be a Heroic Spirit. As a result of these two things, Assassin is a deeply flawed Servant. Indeed, much as he would like to be out combing the city and doing battle with other Servants, his Master has bound him to the Ryudou gate, and he can merely stand there and guard the entrance. In fact, he's rather grateful Saber has come by, as it means he now has an actual opportunity to test his mettle in a fight. "Truly that is a heartbreaking tale of woe. I suppose the only honorable thing to do now is to end this battle with a contest of our respective noble phantasms." Assassin agrees. His noble phantasm is apparently a special attack that Sasaki (supposedly) developed to kill a flying swallow with a sword. It screws with space-time to allow him to swing the sword in three different directions at once, preventing it from being dodged. This inescapable blow will surely kill Saber when he uses it. Saber, for her part, starts charging her laser. But then! All at once! "Saber! I am very disappointed in you!" "You have got to be kidding me." "You come home right this instant, young lady! And apologize to that nice man with the sword!" "Sigh. I'm sorry I tried to kill you, Assassin. Even though it's the entire reason for our existence." "Meh, that's all right. There's another Servant spying on us from the bushes, anyway. It wouldn't really be fair if you revealed your noble phantasm and identity to that coward." " What?" But before Saber can go running through the bushes after the interloper, Shirou grabs her by the ear and drags her all the way back home to the mansion for a time-out.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 11, 2012 20:02:49 GMT -5
11.1: Omake. Because everything up to now has been 100% accurate and serious."No! Stop! Let me go, damn you! Doesn't anyone care about advancing this plot besides me?!" "What the hell do you mean we're not even half-way finished?"
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 12, 2012 3:57:28 GMT -5
Part 12: I Was Surprised. Were You Surprised?After a stern talking-to back at the mansion, Saber begrudgingly agrees that she shouldn't have run off like that, and promises not to ever do it again. Always the forgiving type, Shirou lets the matter go and they both get some sleep. The next day he leaves her behind to go to school like normal. Only this time all the soul-sucking magic circles suddenly activate, and everyone begins melting around him. "Gosh. Maybe Rin and I should have spent more time fixing these rather than pretending to be normal students while we were here." Shirou himself seems to be barely affected by the energy drain. So he spends a few seconds wandering around looking at the damage in a daze. When he checks on Taiga, he finds her trying to crawl towards a phone to call for help, but she passes out before she can make it. Rather than doing it himself, Shirou runs around the school looking for the Master or Servant behind this evil. No prizes for guessing who it is. "I should have known it was too much to hope that you'd be killed at the temple." "Shinji! How could you?" "I told you, I'm lacking in magic circuits, so I have to give my Servant power some way. After this, we should have plenty of energy!" "Imma punch you!" Shirou dashes across the hallway in order to sock Shinji in the face. Shinji conjures up some shadowy magic blades to throw at Shirou. But by now Shirou's gotten so used to dodging Saber's shinai in the mansion dojo that he has no trouble dodging Shinji's attacks. "No! I'm too pretty for a broken nose!" "Defenestration-jutsu, go!" " What the--" BONK! Crash!Shinji's Servant kicks Shirou clear out the top-floor window of the school building. "Well, looks like I'm falling to my death now. Wonder if I have enough time to magically turn myself into a whale or a bowl of petunias." "Hmm, probably not. It's only three stories." "No wait! I'll use a command spell to make Saber do that teleport thing!" WHOOOSH!And as if by magic (because it is), Saber appears and violates conservation of momentum to safely catch Shirou. Just like a feminist-positive version of Superman. "There you are, Master. What's up?" "Shinji and his Servant are up there in the school draining the life force from everyone inside!" "Would you like me to try to appeal to their senses of reason, honor, and human dignity?" "Nah, just go kick their asses." "Gladly." Saber leaps up to the hallway to confront the enemy. "Hi there! I'm Saber. What's your name?" "I am the Servant Rider. And I--" "Just kidding, I don't actually care. But I am going to kill you and your Master now." "Or, I suppose, you could just cut your own throat. Like that." "I'll be honest with you. Most people usually try to fight a little bit first." "They don't, um, they don't just... uh..." "Hmmm." KA--POW!
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 12, 2012 23:25:35 GMT -5
Part 13: Rock Beats Scissors. Paper Beats Rock. Sword Beats Everything.Shinji and Rider escape the school mounted atop some sort of hideous laser-beast that Rider has summoned. Saber gives chase. She's not as fast as Rider's mount, of course, but she can still probably outrun a good sports car on foot, and she's able to track Rider's magic aura. They set off towards the other side of town, across the river. "No no! That's okay! I'll just walk!" Saber eventually tracks Rider down to the commercial district of the city. They then proceed to have a sweeping battle, culminating in one of the coolest visual sequences in the entire game, as they exchange blows while running straight up the side of the largest skyscraper in town. Shirou, for his part, takes the stairs. "Express elevators are for-- *gasp*--wimps who'll never be Heroes of Justice. *Pant.*" On the roof of the skyscraper, Saber and Rider prepare for their final showdown. "How very convenient. You've picked a perfect location for me to use my noble phantasm." "Mine too. I didn't want to have to hold back for fear of massacring hordes of innocents." "Weren't you just trying to eat the souls of an entire building full of schoolchildren?" "I don't know if you noticed, but my Master's kind of a jackass. This, however, is all me. Prepare for oblivion, Saber." "Same to you, Rider. Let's finish this." Rider materializes the terrifying creature that she has been using as a mount. What kind of awful monstrosity is it, you ask? All right, so I guess it's Pegasus. Not a pegasus, mind you, but the Pegasus. The way the mythology of this universe works, all the old pantheons of gods were real, and at creation the world was full of magic that has long since faded by the modern day. Mages today have just a tiny shadow of the power that was common among mortals in the "Time of Legends". So now Rider's summoned a winged horse that is itself half-divine. It's not inconceivable that her mount is actually more powerful than any of the full Servants fighting in the Grail War. Turns out Rider's noble phantasm is a bridle called Bellerophon (ha ha). This lets her control any mythical beast, to the point of ordering it into a "charge" that basically transforms it into a living beam weapon. So she's pointing a gun at Saber, and the bullet is a demigod. It looks like this: Saber's not worried, though. She just stands her ground, smirks a little, releases the swirling winds rendering her sword invisible and-- "Hey Saber, I finally made it up here! Phew! I was thinking maybe we should reconsider a negotiated settlement after--" " EXCALIBUR!" Now as any good Arthurian historian will tell you, Excalibur was really an immensely powerful particle-cannon that was only disguised to look like a sword. It instantly vaporizes Rider, Pegasus, and probably Tranquility Base on the Moon. "Awww, never mind." Shirou and Saber return home, victorious. Saber's even nice enough to show her Master how to use the elevator so they can get down faster. Elsewhere in the building, however, skulking... "Stupid, crappy, useless Servant... I ordered her to win... how could she do this to me...?" "There, there, Mr. Shinji, don't cry! It's going to be all right. Now eat him, Berserker."
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 13, 2012 1:21:39 GMT -5
Part 14: Stupidity Is Not A Tragic FlawYeah, so it turns out Saber is Arturia, a woman who masqueraded as a man in dark-age Britain, becoming the legendary King Arthur. She's a huge ball of angst, too. Apparently she never really felt like she'd managed to be a successful King. Shirou actually starts having dream-visions about Saber's past, where he learns about her history, along with dreams about the fire from which Kiritsugu saved him as a child. The game tries to draw a parallel between her endless quest to "save" Britain and Shirou's own desire to become a Hero of Justice. As she lay dying after the Battle of Camlann, she made a final agreement to become a Heroic Spirit in exchange for the opportunity to acquire the Holy Grail, which she regretted never being able to manage before. This makes her somewhat unusual among the Heroic Spirits. Most of the others are reincarnated after death (and possibly just copies of the original), while Arturia actually has her spirit transplanted out of the past, to which she'll return after the Grail War. Shirou finds her whole existence rather sad. Apparently the only person who should be able to dedicate his entire life to selflessly helping others is himself. For the moment, though, he doesn't have a way to do anything about this. The Grail War continues at a sluggish pace. Despite Rider's defeat, Shirou and Rin are still pretty much just fumbling about without much of a clue. Archer is still healing, Saber's now used up even more of her magic strength, which makes them wary of throwing her against Assassin, much less Berserker. So they wait, scouting around at night and trying to come up with a plan. At one point, while Shirou is out shopping for food to make the next round of meals, he encounters a familiar face at a local playground. For some reason, it seems, Ilya is wandering around town without Berserker. Shirou, intrigued by the little girl, and feeling more than a little sympathetic towards her sad-and-lonely expression, joins her in the playground for a conversation. "So I know we're both Masters in this awful War. But what do you say to us, just during the days like this, forgetting about all that and being friends? It's nice to be able to just sit and talk peacefully once in a while don't you think?" "Wow..." "Don't be shocked. I can't imagine what it must be like for a little girl like you to be forced into such a horrible fight like this. But you're safe here with me, if you want to be. Deal?" "You are a complete idiot, little brother." And suddenly Shirou finds himself unable to look away, or move his body at all. He starts to pass out, but remembers one small nugget of wisdom from Rin before he goes completely: "One of the worst things you can do is look an enemy magus in the eyes. An amateur like you has no way to protect himself from mystic eyes or even simple hypnosis." Shirou wakes up some indeterminate amount of time later. He's still mostly paralyzed, but for good measure has also been tied to a chair. And he's apparently in an elegantly-maintained little girl's bedroom. "I'm going to bind your soul to one of my dolls. That way we can be together forever! Tee hee!" "Okay, I'm starting think your psychological issues may be deeper than just loneliness."
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 13, 2012 23:55:23 GMT -5
Part 15: Beat A Very Brave RetreatBefore Ilya can get started on the nightmare toy surgery, however, she has some business to take care of. "It seems Miss Rin is coming to rescue you, little brother. You just wait right here while I go teach her a lesson!" She skips off, leaving Shirou alone. He spends the next few minutes trying to figure out a way to untie rope bindings while magically paralyzed. "Even Houdini didn't have to deal with this kind of crap." Fortunately, though, the bedroom window is soon smashed from the outside. And a welcome sight leaps through. "Come on, moron! I'm busting you out of here!" "I appreciate the sentiment, but you and what army?" "Yo." "I'm actually just here to laugh at you." "Okay. Yeah. That might be enough." They get Shirou moving again and prepare to make their escape. Turns out Ilya lives in a giant castle in the middle of the woods outside of town, so they've got a long way to go. But Rin explains that she set up a decoy to get Ilya and Berserker chasing a ghost while the rest of them got away. This plan seems to work right up until they're running out the front hall of the castle and hear a small voice pipe up from behind them. "Oh, look, Berserker! They're all gathered together! Do you think we should annihilate them now?" "██████████████!!! █████ ██████████████!!! ███████!!!!!!!!"* (*"I think that sounds like a splendid notion, Mistress.") "Excellent." "Well I'm just going to throw this idea out here: I think we should try running away really fast now." "I approve." "Fine, but only because you promised curry for dinner, Shirou." "You know what? You guys go on ahead. I'm going to stay here for a little while." "Archer..." "It's been swell, Rin. You should probably start running now." So our heroes, minus Archer, make a mad dash from the castle into the woods. Behind them, the sounds of the two Servants battling is like a small earthquake. "So... what are the odds Archer actually wins?" "He's already held Berserker off longer than I would have expected. But actual victory? Don't count on it. That thing is on a completely different level from a normal Heroic Spirit." "I'm afraid Miss Rin is correct. Archer may buy us some time, but we will not be able to escape at this pace." "So... what do we do?" "I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" "Does that usually help?" " AHA! I've got it!" "What, what is it?" "It's exactly what we need..." "...a ruined old shack!" "Is... is it, like, a magic shack?" "It is about to be." " ....yayy?"
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 15, 2012 0:08:09 GMT -5
Part 16: Mana Transfer DragonRin has decided that enough is enough. Saber needs her magic energy recharged so that she can properly fight Berserker. It's time for Shirou to start providing her with mana. Her solution? "All right, we should have a few minutes, at least, so you two need to have sex now." "...is your plan is to mortally wound Berserker's old-fashioned sense of propriety?" "No, idiot. The connection you two establish should right the flow of mana between you. At the very least it'll give her a small boost of energy." "Wait, you're serious? Come on, there's no way magic works like that." "No, no, I'm pretty sure it does. Trust me, I used to know this guy named Merlin. You'd think he was just a dirty old man, but he actually--" "Oh god, I don't want to know. Seriously, Rin, this is beyond ridiculous." "Just shut up and do it already! I know what I'm talking about, I'm a freaking magus!" "..." And, so, with a little bit of "help" from the great magus Tohsaka Rin, Shirou and Saber have sex in a tiny ruined shack in the forest while a giant insane monstrosity is hurling towards them with intent to kill. This is what anime producers think sex looks like. "Well, there go my command seals. I hope you two perverts appreciate what Archer and I have sacrificed for this." "GAH! Why are you watching?"
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 15, 2012 1:38:27 GMT -5
Part 17: Secret Weapons"Okay, so Saber can use her armor and basic attacks again, but no Excalibur. Jeez, was that really the best you could do, Shirou?" "I am not having this conversation with you." "I can indeed fight again. But I am afraid it will not be enough to defeat Berserker." "Don't worry about that, I have a plan. I just need you to distract him long enough for me to set up my ambush." Rin explains that, for most of her life, she's been storing up her magic energy in gems that she carries around. Her plan is to use all of these at once, channeling their stored power into a single deadly blast. But to do that, she needs to be absolutely sure that she can land a hit on Berserker. Saber's job is to survive long enough to lure him into place and keep him there for the attack. "I guess I'll help Saber, too." "Please remember that if you get killed, she'll lose the power to maintain her existence. Stay back and don't take stupid risks." "I appreciate the offer, Shirou, but Rin is correct. You must not allow yourself to be harmed." "Fine." They pick a spot near the shack to await Berserker's arrival. Rin climbs a tree and tries to suppress her magic aura, while Shirou and Saber stand on open ground. It doesn't take long for the enemy to arrive. "I see the two of you at least realized that running away was futile. Are you trying to cover Miss Rin's escape? Don't worry, Berserker will catch her too once we're done with you." Berserker starts the attack. It's immediately clear that Saber is still not at her full strength, but she manages to keep her feet and avoid any serious injuries for the few seconds it takes before Tohsaka to leap out of the canopy and zap Berserker with a gem. The small magic blast goes awry, and Berserker grabs Rin out of the air, preparing to crush the life out of her with one hand. Which is exactly what she wanted. "Gotcha." BLAM!Rin blasts off Berserker's head with 12-odd years' worth of magic energy. And Saber helpfully cuts off his arm to free her from being crushed as the Servant collapses. Unfortunately for our heroes, Berserker doesn't collapse and dissolve into magic energy. Instead he just grows a new head. "What magic is this?! And don't tell me magic! I know magic, and my magic should have ended that monster! Magically!" "Well, well. You get an A for effort. I did not expect you to be able to kill Berserker even once. But I'm afraid it's going to take much more than that." Yeah, it turns out Berserker is Hercules. His noble phantasm, summoned as Berserker, is God Hand. This is basically 11 "extra lives" given to him by the Gods, with the practical result that he has to be killed 12 times (the symbolism is related to Hercules' 12 labors) before he can actually be defeated in the Grail War. "OMG Hax!" Rin's attack, awesome though it was, only stripped one of Berserkers' lives. Ilya reveals that Archer actually took a few lives himself... but that still leaves around half a dozen more times that Berserker can "die" without really dying. "All in all, I'd say you're pretty screwed." Berserker resumes whalloping at Saber. She keeps fighting, but is clearly being worn down fast. Rin is out of ideas and power. "Guess that just leaves me." Shirou gets an idea. He's had plenty of dreams about Saber and her past by now. He knows her story. He also knows that strengthening magic, the only stuff he's ever been good at, is kind of like another, more advanced bit of magecraft: projection. Projection is the ability to magically create items out of magic energy alone, effectively summoning them out of thin air. Saber can't use Excalibur right now, she just doesn't have enough magic energy for it. "But maybe..." "... trace..." "... ON!" So what Shirou projected there was not quite Excalibur. It's Arturia's original sword, Caliburn. Not that Saber's about to complain, it's immediately clear that this is exactly what she needs. Because Shirou can't let go of the sword himself, lest the projection disappear, Saber grabs his arm to wield the noble phantasm alongside him. And together they kick Berserker's ass. "Berserker..." Yep, apparently all it took was a single blow from the sword to instantly destroy all of Berserkers' remaining lives. Our heroes emerge victorious! Ilya is most distraught over the loss of her Servant (and apparently friend). But Shirou, against the better judgment of Rin, decides to invite her to stay at his mansion now that she's no longer an enemy Master. "She can be the plucky comic relief character! We need another one now that Taiga's in the hospital recovering from being soul-sucked." "Yaaaay!"
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 19, 2012 18:03:34 GMT -5
Part 18: DupedSo Shirou and Saber have established a proper Master/Servant connection that will allow her to fight closer to her full strength for the rest of the Grail War. Shirou himself has discovered his great new potential as a magus, using projection magic to create powerful weapons. Archer is fallen, but Tohsaka Rin is still a first-class magus now allied to Shirou without reservations in the War. Rider and her Master have been defeated. The behemoth Berserker is also vanquished, and his powerful Master now under Shirou's protection. Things are looking up for our heroes, right? No. That night, after everyone has returned to the Emiya mansion in order to recuperate, the magic alarm goes off, crashing and turning off the lights just like during Lancer's attack. Shirou and Saber both dash outside to confront the intruder. What they're confronted by is this: " Caster! Prepare to be destroyed!" "Be careful, Saber. There's something... odd about that knife she's got. Behold its alien geometries and opalescent shine, they seem to mock the very laws of nature. I fear that knife could--" But we never find out what Caster's knife could do, because there's a harsh ripping sound, like a machine gun. And the machine gun apparently shoots swords, because Caster is suddenly impaled by about a dozen long blades. "Wait, I didn't even get any lines-- GLLLGGGHK!" Caster dies, and our heroes notice another figure standing up on the wall surrounding the mansion grounds. "Well that was just pathetic. I'll take care of the rest of you lowlifes later." And the guy in gold armor vanishes into the night. "Huh, well that was weird." "..." "Any idea who that was, Saber? He looked kinda like another Servant to me, but I thought we knew everyone now." "..." "Um, Saber?" "It... it was Archer." "Huh? He looked nothing like Archer. Plus he was killed by Berserker, Rin said so--" "No. It was Archer from the last Grail War." "..." "Is it too late to get my money back for the ticket to this whole train wreck?"
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 19, 2012 20:56:24 GMT -5
Part 19: What Has Gone Before"I apologize, Shirou. Seeing Archer again has only now jogged my memories." "That's fine, let's just get this infodump over with." Saber, it turns out, was also summoned in the Fourth Holy Grail War as well. Even better, she was Emiya Kiritsugu's Servant. "You knew my dad?" "In a way..." Kiritsugu was Saber's Master, but they did not have a friendly relationship like she does with Shirou. In fact, he only ever spoke to her a handful of times. And one of those times was to order her to destroy the Holy Grail. " Destroy the Grail?" "Yes... he used his command seals to force me to do it. I was furious with him. He never explained why, just said 'the Grail is something that no one should possess'." Kiritsugu's actions actually ended the War prematurely, while both Archer and Saber still survived. Saber speculates that she can remember this stuff because of her unique status as a Heroic Spirit--she's still her original self just being transported through time and space by the Grail, rather than a copy of a dead spirit. But Archer, it seems, must have found a way to actually survive past the end of the Fourth War, despite not having the Grail to provide the energy to maintain his body. "So... does that mean you don't actually want the Grail anymore?" "Of course not! I swore an oath that I would not rest until I had attained the Holy Grail and saved my country. I will win the Grail this time, Master." "..."
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 19, 2012 21:23:03 GMT -5
Part 20: Can Never Be UndoneShirou doesn't like this answer at all. Saber's whole attitude is just depressing to him (the hypocrite). She thinks she's a failure and wants to redo her entire life because of it. It frustrates Shirou that she can't think of her own happiness, let go of her whole mission and just live for herself now. Angsting over what he ought to do, Shirou decides he should seek advice. And what is obviously the best place he should go to get such advice? Kotomine Church, of course. "So you've returned, Emiya Shirou. Decided to give up your command seals and forfeit the battle?" "Nah, I'm just looking for some advice." "Is that so? Well I am indeed a great font of wisdom. What would you know?" "It's about Saber. She... wants to use the Grail to completely redo her life as King Arthur. She's so determined to save her country that she'll destroy herself to do it." "I see. Tragic." "I wanted to know if... if I won the Grail, do you think I could use it to give her just a normal life? Not have to be a Servant or a Heroic Spirit or King Arthur at all. Just let her be free of all those worries and experience real happiness for once?" "Ha! Don't be absurd. Such a ridiculous wish is impossible, even for the mighty Grail." "But... I thought the Holy Grail could do anything!" "Nonsense. A fantasy conjured by the minds of the desperate and the hopeless. The Grail will not answer such worthless pleas. You and your Servant had both best give up on those dreams." "This isn't reassuring at all!" "Glad I could help. Now get lost." Shirou leaves the Church again, feeling even worse than he did before.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 19, 2012 22:46:02 GMT -5
Part 21: Prior EngagementShirou decides that, if he can't give Saber a normal life, then at least it's within his power to give her an idea of what such a thing would be like. Even if it's just for one day. He just wants her to feel happiness once.So he takes her out on a date. D'awww. They spend most of the next day in the commercial district, going to an aquarium, a movie theater, getting lunch, etc. Shirou buys Saber a cute stuffed lion. Neither of them really have much of a clue what they're doing, but they manage to have a good time. Then, on their way back home, as they're approaching the bridge... BRIIIIIDGE! ...this guy shows up again: "Having fun?" Saber drops immediately into fighting mode. But the golden Archer laughs, completely unconcerned. His true identity, which he has no qualms at all about revealing, is Gilgamesh, the legendary "King of Heroes". And he has one demand. "I insist that you marry me, Saber." "I already told you, Archer: no." "It's not a request. I guess I still need to teach you that lesson: everything in this world is mine." While Saber readies her sword to fight, Gilgamesh prepares his own noble phantasm. This is called the Gate of Babylon. It gives Gilgamesh access to his old Treasury, containing all the stuff he ever collected in his days as the very first, half-divine epic hero. Apparently that includes the original version of every noble phantasm, ever. "Okay, scale of one to ten, how completely screwed are we?" "Eight." Gilgamesh fires a volley of mystical weapons at Saber. Shirou does the chivalrous (and stupid) thing and throws himself in front of her, shielding her with his own body. Once the smoke clears, Saber and Shirou are both pretty battered, but alive, somehow. They decide that they need to make a run for it, Gilgamesh is too powerful for them to face right at the moment. Gilgamesh, for his part, is annoyed at Shirou's interference, and lets them flee. "Where are we going?" "I've had enough of the rules being changed on us every single fight we get into! We're going back to Kotomine Church and demanding that this War's so-called 'supervisor' actually do something."
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 20, 2012 18:01:37 GMT -5
Part 22: Heart Of DarknessBack to the Church our heroes dash. They burst through the doors, calling for Kirei's attention. But he's not there. "Hello?" Receiving no answer, but not willing to give up just yet, they start scouring the grounds, searching. As he explores the courtyard, Shirou starts to get a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Some instinct tells him to run away right now. But he swallows it down and keeps searching. Eventually he and Saber enter a dark, basement corridor. Shirou's sense of foreboding becomes overwhelming the moment he sets foot inside the place. But it takes a few seconds for him to realize why. The corridor is full of people. Dozens of emaciated, moaning people barely distinguishable from corpses are chained to stone slabs all throughout the hallway. They've clearly all been there a long time, and have long since descended into madness and catatonia. "Holy crap!" "What is this horror?" "Well, this is inconvenient. Now I'm definitely going to have to kill this mortal. Real nice work protecting this place, fool, very professional." "Sorry, guess I just wasn't paying attention." " What the hell is going on?" "Oh, I suppose it won't hurt to tell you now. Very well, mortal, I shall indulge your curiosity before you die." Yeah, so it turns Kotomine Kirei is the Master of both Lancer and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh, as Archer, was Kirei's Servant in the Fourth Holy Grail War ten years ago. Gilgamesh was still alive at the end of that War when Saber destroyed the Grail. When she did that, the contents of the Grail burst out, and some of it spilled on Gilgamesh. This apparently did... something to him. Even after the Grail was gone, Gilgamesh did not immediately disappear. Kirei then found a way to sustain his Servant's body until the next time the Grail would appear. He used the people in the corridor. Remember the fire that nearly killed Shirou? The one that was apparently caused by the Grail War? Apparently Shirou was not the only survivor. Emiya Kiritsugu saved his life in the conflagration, and then came to the hospital and adopted Shirou. But there were others, other children orphaned the same way Shirou was. And they were adopted by the Church. Kirei took them in... then chained them up in the basement and has been draining their life force ever since to provide the magic energy needed to sustain Gilgamesh. When the Grail became active again for the Fifth War, Gilgamesh once again had access to its enormous power. But rather than reveal him, Kirei committed another act of treachery. He located Lancer's Master almost immediately after the summoning, killed her, and took the command seals and Mastery over Lancer himself. "He's... he's been playing us all along to get the Grail for himself!" "Yep. It's been quite the show watching you all struggle so hard, but there's really been no hope at all. Anyway, time for you to die and for Saber to be my wife." "Nah, you know what? I think I'm done." "Excuse me?" "Yeah, I never liked that bastard priest anyway. And now that I think about it, I really don't want anything more to do with this evil. So I'm switching sides." "And do you think I'll allow this betrayal? Or do you really think you can defeat me, Lancer?" "Nope. But I can think of plenty of worse ways to go. Now you two kids get out here while I hold him off. Good luck giving these villains what they deserve." So Lancer and Gilgamesh start to fight. Shirou and Saber make yet another dash for safety. This time running for the Emiya mansion, with even less of an idea about what they're going to do now.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 20, 2012 20:22:19 GMT -5
Part 23: Out Of OptionsSaber and Shirou finally make it back to the Emiya mansion. And there, they are greeted with another distressing sight. "Oh, hey guys, welcome back. Did you have a good time?" "Not so much, no. But what happened to you, Rin?" "Oh, you know, stuff. Kotomine Kirei decided to drop by and kidnap Ilya. And also stab me a few times. That's about it, really." "Dammit, we just found out Kirei's the Master of both Lancer and that other Archer from last night. He's been our enemy all along!" "Well that just figures. I never did like him." "But why would he want to kidnap Ilya?" "Oh, didn't we tell you? She's the Einzbern Master, so he needs her body in order to summon the Holy Grail." "The Holy Grail? But can he do that? The War's not over yet." "Yeah, probably. It won't be at full strength yet, but it could probably start to manifest." "So... what do we do?" "We fight. It's the only choice we have left." "I... don't have a better idea. But do we really have a chance against that Gilgamesh guy?" "I will defeat him. I still have enough energy left to use Excalibur one or two more times." "I understand. All right, then. Do we know where he's gone?" "There are only a few places you can summon the Grail. Considering the state of the ley lines right now, he's probably gone to Ryudou Temple." "Then I guess that's where we're going. Are you going to be all right, Rin?" "Yeah, I'll recover. Here, take my Azoth Sword." She gives Shirou the large dagger that she carries around. It's not anything particularly special like a noble phantasm or magic weapon at all. It's just a focus--basically a magic wand--in the shape of a dagger. But it's better than nothing. "Good luck you two. Kick his ass." And so our heroes march off to Ryudou Temple for their final battle.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 20, 2012 21:05:08 GMT -5
Part 24: Eye Of The BeholderRyudou Temple. Up the mountain steps they climb. Through the gateway at the top. And find their objective. Shirou stops dead in his tracks. "That..." "Shirou?" "That thing..." "I've seen..." "I know I've seen..." "...that thing..." "...I've seen it somewhere..." "...before."
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 20, 2012 23:54:59 GMT -5
Part 25: Fate"You've arrived then, Emiya Shirou. Excellent." " That's the Holy Grail?!" "Indeed. Isn't it beautiful?" "That thing caused the fire ten years ago! It killed hundreds of people!" "Of course it did. That is the way of the Grail." "The Holy Grail is the Cup of Christ! Pure and holy! It grants the wish of any who--" "Fool. The Grail knows nothing but destruction. Any request you make of it, it grants... but its method is always to destroy. The fire ten years ago was the result of a weak and cowardly wish." "It's evil..." "It's glorious." Gilgamesh appears alongside Kirei, ready to fight. Saber and Shirou both grit their teeth and start the battle. Gilgamesh fires off his collection of noble phantasms at Saber in bursts. She tries to dodge or deflect them while approaching to strike at him. But it's clear he's just toying with her, rather than going all out. Kirei seems to be able to control the substance of the Grail to some extent. He flings its contents (described as a kind of black "mud") at Shirou in tentacles. Shirou dodges and hacks away at the stuff with the Azoth Sword as best he can. It burns like physical acid as well as causing him great mental anguish from proximity to stuff that, as best he can tell, seems to be made out of pure evil. Neither of our heroes has a really good time of this battle. Kirei's apparently an incredibly skilled martial artist who could tear Shirou apart even without the giant tentacles of evil to through around. Gilgamesh isn't much of a fighter, but his weapons collection is just so absurdly powerful that he doesn't need to be. Eventually, Gilgamesh manages to land a few hits on Saber, knocking her down. He then picks her up again, by the foot. After demanding once again that she marry him and being turned down, Gilgamesh finally seems to lose patience. Rather than continuing to try to convince her with violence, he decides to just kill her and be done with it. He draws a new weapon out of his treasury. Neither Saber nor Shirou have any idea what the heck this thing is. They describe it as a "sword", but it's got three counter-rotating cylindrical sections instead of a blade, and a blunt tip. All they can tell is that it's powerful. Gilgamesh, of course, has no qualms at all about enlightening them. He calls the weapon Ea, and it is a "sword"... one forged by the Gods for him, personally, and one of only a couple weapons he never allowed out of his Treasury where it could become someone else's noble phantasm. Supposedly it's powerful enough to destroy entire planets if Gilgamesh wants, making it more than sufficient to eliminate a mere Servant. "If you have any last tricks up your sleeve, Master, this may be the time to use them." "Sorry, I wish-- wait! Yes!" Shirou realizes that he's been overlooking one apparently inexplicable thing for some time now: his seemingly miraculous ability to recover from the most terrible of wounds. Tohsaka Rin had thought that it was a side-effect of Saber's botched summoning, and that he was leeching mana meant to maintain her own existence. But Shirou realizes that there's probably a different explanation. He fires up his projection magic. Looks inside of himself to confirm to confirm the truth. "Saber, catch!" And throws Saber the scabbard of her sword. That would be Avalon, one of Saber's noble phantasm, a legendary scabbard granting incredible healing abilities to anyone who possessed it. Emiya Kiritsugu implanted it in Shirou after the great fire to save him. It was likely the catalyst which allowed Shirou to summon Arturia in this Grail War the same way his father had in the last. And once Saber was summoned, her presence reactivated the scabbard, allowing it to keep Shirou in remarkably good health despite all his injuries. Saber takes the Avalon. With it, she is able to withstand Gilgamesh's attack. And while he is still stunned with disbelief at the failure of Ea, she lands her own strike with Excalibur. The "King of Heroes" is defeated, and his essence is absorbed into the Grail. Shirou then takes advantage of the distraction of losing a Servant to land his own killing blow against Kirei. With their enemies vanquished, the two heroes take a few moments to catch their breaths. Then Shirou squares his shoulder and confronts Saber. "Saber. We have to destroy the Grail." "I agree." "It's--you do?" "Yes. It is clearly not the holy artifact that I believed. Kiritsugu was correct. I shall use Excalibur to destroy this abomination." "I see... thank you, Saber. For everything." Saber readies her sword one last time, and then fires it at the Grail, destroying both the vessel and its hideous contents. Without the power source, Saber immediately begins to fade from the world. She and Shirou say their goodbyes, and Saber smiles, appearing to have finally found a bit of peace. Saber once again returns to the time of her death, lying beneath a tree after the battle of Camlann. But this time, she accepts her fate, and gives up her wish to achieve the Grail, telling Sir Bedivere that she can rest easy now. In the present, Shirou gathers up Ilya, now freed from the Grail, and begins carrying her back home. He's sad to have lost Saber, but glad for the time that he got to spend with her, and that she seemed to have found happiness at the end. Roll credits.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 21, 2012 20:09:10 GMT -5
Part 26: Second ChanceAll right, that whole story was only about one third of the entire Fate/Stay Night game, and covered the first route, called Fate. The second of the three routes is called Unlimited Blade Works. It's roughly the same length as Fate, and further develops the characters and concepts introduced there. However, very little of the information revealed in UBW is relevant to the story in the Fate/Zero prequel, so I'm going to skim through the highlights here in a single info-dump post. In Fate, the focus of the story was Saber and introducing the Holy Grail War. In UBW, Shirou's love interest is Tohsaka Rin, and the story is much more about Shirou himself, and his personal character development. The story starts off the same way as in Fate, but diverges after Saber has been summoned and chases off Lancer. Rather than quickly going on to wound Archer and threaten Rin, Shirou orders her to stop, unwittingly using a command spell and saving Archer from a lengthy incapacitation. From there, events unfold along a much different path, although most of the participants and elements are basically the same as in Fate. So, the primary antagonist for the first part of UBW is Caster. We learn that she is actually the Master of the Servant Assassin. The peculiarity of one Servant summoning another is the reason for Assassin's deficiencies as a Heroic Spirit. Caster's Master turns out to be Souichirou Kuzuki, a History teacher at Rin's and Shirou's school. Kuzuki was not Caster's original Master. She killed the first guy immediately after her summoning, after deciding that he was too weak. But she underestimated how much power she needed to survive on her own, and was quickly fading from the world. Kuzuki offered to help her, and they formed a contract that allowed her to live. He has no interest in the Holy Grail itself, but seems to have fallen in love with Caster (in his own, stern way), and will do anything for her. Much to everyone's surprise, he turns out to be an absolute master martial artist, and with Caster's spells reinforcing his fists, he's actually able to fight against Servants: he kills Rider and severely wounds Saber. Caster's noble phantasm, the curved dagger she carries, is called Rule Breaker. It's not particularly deadly, but its sole power is quite frightening: it can break any enchantment or magical contract. And at one point Caster uses this to end the contract between Saber and Shirou. Caster attempts to become the Master of Saber, too. But Saber's strong magic resistance ability lets her fight Caster's command spells long enough to be rescued. Eventually, and after much drama and twists in the fighting, Caster and Kuzuki are both defeated and killed. Though before they die, we learn that Caster's identity was the witch Medea. The second major antagonist in the story is actually Archer. Righ from the beginning, he and Shirou don't get along. Archer continually mocks Shirou's dream of becoming a Hero of Justice. At one point he goes far enough start a fight between the two of them, and Rin uses one of her command seals to order him to leave Shirou alone. Well Archer does not like this at all. He betrays and attacks Rin, allowing Caster to use Rule Breaker on him to destroy their contract as she did to Shirou and Saber. Archer reveals that his desire all along has been to kill Shirou. Archer, you see, is the Heroic Spirit Emiya Shirou. After many years, Shirou finally realized his ideal of becoming a Hero of Justice, using his powers for the sake of humanity and the world. However, as time wore on, he became increasingly disillusioned by his fate. He found himself often forced to kill many people in order to save even more. And for his efforts he was denounced and hated by the people for whom he struggled. Eventually, he allowed himself to become a Heroic Spirit because of the possibility that he would be summoned into the past... where he might have the opportunity to kill his younger self, creating a time paradox and preventing the fulfillment of his old ideal that now seems so tarnished. The catalyst for his summoning turns out to have been this pendant: Back when Shirou first ran across Archer and Lancer fighting in the school grounds, and Lancer killed him, Shirou later awoke with that pendant in his possession. It was actually one of Rin's jewels, and she used it to heal Shirou after feeling sorry that he'd gotten himself killed needlessly. Shirou had held onto it ever since. So when Rin performed her summoning ritual, her possession of that object became the connection needed to draw the Heroic Spirit version of Shirou into the past as Archer. Anyway, Shirou and Archer fight a few times. Shirou firmly rejects Archer's vision of the future, becoming angry and redoubling his commitment to become a Hero of Justice without ever letting his ideals become so corrupted. Along the way, we find out that Archer doesn't really have a proper noble phantasm. Instead, he can project a reality marble, which is a sort of pocket-dimension that certain powerful mages or beings can conjure. Archer's reality marble is called Unlimited Blade Works, and as the name implies, it allows him to produce absolutely any sword or blade that he can imagine, including noble phantasms. Archer is actually a skilled swordsman himself, but he can also turn the noble phantasms he produces with the blade works into magic arrows of tremendous power. After much fighting and arguing, Shirou finally seems to convince Archer that he has gained both enough strength and wisdom to avoid making the same mistakes. And with confidence that Rin will help him keep to the path of a true Hero of Justice, Archer finally allows himself to be defeated by Shirou. Our last antagonist is Gilgamesh. For this route, he casts off his golden armor in favor of some snazzy modern wear. "I'm so hip and cool." Early in the story, Rider is killed by Caster's Master Kuzuki (though at the time it's a mystery who did it). Shinji runs to Kotomine Church, seeking the protection of Kirei as the War's supervisor. Kirei, however, decides to prove just how much of a crazy and inscrutable bastard he is. Rather than just offering Shinji sanctuary (or killing him), he gives Gilgamesh to Shinji as a replacement servant. Unlike Kirei, Shinji is way too stupid and cowardly to be able to control Gilgamesh in the least. So it's pretty much just Gilgamesh running the show from then on. At one point in the story, after Shirou has lost Saber and Archer has betrayed Rin, the two Masters decide they need to take desperate measures. They go to Einzbern Castle in order to ask for help from Ilya and Berserker. Unfortunately, Gilgamesh beats them to it. He uses one of his noble phantasms, a chain he calls Enkidu to hold Berserker in place while tearing the monster apart with his other weapons. While Berserker dies, Ilya's backstory gets fleshed out a little bit. Apparently she was regularly left outside in the snow in the forest around her home (presumably somewhere in Germany) to fend for herself. By the end of this rather brutal endurance training, Berserker was pretty much her only friend (and he was only summoned a couple months before the War). Despite his utter madness--an effect of his summoning into the Berserker class--he apparently is deeply fond and protective of her. Awwww. Also, the command seals she needs to keep Berserker in check are completely insane. They cause her excruciating pain whenever he's awake; which is the reason Shirou occasionally finds her wandering around town alone: Berserker is asleep. Feeling bad for Ilya yet? Good, because while her story is tugging on your heartstrings, Gilgamesh takes the opportunity to rip out her heart. I mean that literally. Gilgamesh takes her heart, which is the key component of the Holy Grail's vessel, and makes off with it. He ends up implanting it inside Shinji, turning the poor kid into a new, mutated container for the Grail. Basically he becomes this giant, hideous mass of flesh, filled with the "black mud" of the grail and pulsating horrifically on top of the Ryudou Temple mountain. And yet I still don't feel sorry for him. Oh, at some point earlier Lancer ends up betraying Kirei in order to help Shirou and Rin, much like in the first route. Only this time, Gilgamesh isn't around to punish him. Kirei ends up forcing Lancer to kill himself... and then Lancer kills Kirei with the Gae Bolg. Both of them die, leaving just Gilgamesh as the final bad guy. The heroes head up to the temple just like last time in order to finally put a stop to the madness of the War and destroy the Grail. This time, however, Saber has become Rin's Servant, after the debacle with Caster's Rule Breaker. Shirou, having started to figure out how to use the Unlimited Blade Works, is considerably more powerful himself. Saber gets held up at the temple gate by Assassin, who's been holding on to life since the death of Caster in order to have just one good sword-fight before he fades away. Shirou and Rin leave them behind and proceed alone. Shirou ends up fighting Gilgamesh while Rin goes wading through the Grail-Flesh in order to cut Shinji out of the monstrosity. "There'd better be some kind of reward for this in the afterlife." Shirou is able to hold off Gilgamesh remarkably well by tapping into the Blade Works to copy every noble phantasm the Servant throws at him. He flings the copies right back to counter each barrage. "Bring it on." Eventually, Gilgamesh is pushed back and falls into the Grail. Before it can consume him, however, he grabs Shirou with his chain, attempting to pull Shirou into the Grail as well. At this point, Archer makes a heroic reappearance. Apparently he was not actually killed by Shirou earlier, and retained enough magic energy after Caster died to continue existing (it's some special ability of his, "Independent Action", just roll with it). He fires a final, powerful blast at Gilgamesh. And the "King of Heroes" dies and is pulled into the Grail. Archer then has a final, touching moment with Rin, much like Shirou's with Saber at the end of the first route. He makes Rin promise to continue guiding Shirou, so that he never loses his way. Like Saber, he then smiles for the first time in the game, having achieved his goal to avoid a terrible future, and in a much happier way than he expected. Saber, for her part, manages to defeat Assassin, then joins everyone at the end to use Excalibur in order to destroy the Holy Grail. Like last time, she fades and returns to her own time as well. The story ends by jumping forward in time a few months to the school graduation. Rin has been accepted into the Mage's Association as a member of the "Clocktower" in London. She asks Shirou to come along as her apprentice. He agrees and everyone lives happily ever after. The end.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 21, 2012 23:09:20 GMT -5
Part 27: Or Is It?The third, and last, route of FSN is called Heaven's Feel. By now we're pretty comfortable with the setting and its characters. We know about the Holy Grail War and the senseless violence that it causes. We know who and what the Servants are, and we know what they can do. We know who the Masters are, we know their stories, we know how they fight and how they think. We know what each of them wants. But there's something else. Something we've missed. Something that's been lurking just below the surface the entire time. We've felt its presence with every step and every action. But we never knew the truth. We never knew anything at all. Buckle up.
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 22, 2012 21:51:16 GMT -5
Part 28: Do You RememberOrdinary high school student Emiya Shirou has a secret: he's not so ordinary as he appears. After his parents were killed in the great fire ten years ago, he was adopted by a magus, Emiya Kiritsugu. Ever since then, Shirou has been training himself in the hopes of becoming a Hero of Justice just like his dad. Five years since Kiritsugu's death, Shirou still has a long way to go to reach his goal. Shirou doesn't complain, though. He spends most his days patiently getting through school, training, and working part-time jobs. Though he technically lives alone now, he's often joined at his large Japanese-style mansion by his childhood friend Fujimura Taiga... ...as well as more recent acquaintance--and sister of his school "friend" Matou Shinji--Matou Sakura, who's been coming by and helping to cook meals for a little over a year now. It's a quiet, peaceful life for the most part. Although lately Shirou has started to become concerned by the news he's been seeing on TV. It seems there's been a spate of murders, break-ins, and even a few deaths from gas explosions these last few days in humble Fuyuki City. As a prospective Hero of Justice, Shirou always grits his teeth to hear such terrible news. But lately he's been feeling something else, too, a sort of general unease for reasons he can't explain. Whatever the cause, though, Shirou is worried...
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Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 23, 2012 17:19:05 GMT -5
Part 29: Walk To RememberSo one night, after dinner is finished and cleaned up. "Come on, Sakura, I'll walk you home." "Oh! You don't have to do that, senpai." "Nah, it hasn't been safe around town lately, so I want to make sure you get home all right." "My brother won't be happy if he sees you." Apparently Shinji doesn't like Sakura hanging out with Shirou (oh god why are there so many S-names?). So Sakura has been saying that she's going to Taiga's house to cover it up. "Eh, screw him. If he wants to fight me over it, that's fine. But I'm not letting you walk home by yourself in times like this." "If you insist, then." The Matou household is a big western mansion on a hill, not very far from the Tohsaka mansion. "You don't see anyone strange lurking around outside the house, do you?" "No... has there been someone lurking around your house?" "Some odd guy with gold hair. He looks almost like a male model, actually." "Right... well if you see him again, tell Shinji or me, and we'll chase him off for you." "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for walking me home, senpai. You should do it more often." "No problem. Thanks for cooking me dinner!" And Sakura goes inside. "Huh. Lot of bugs around here for winter time. Weird."
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