Ok, maybe all this is written much better in the visual novels. I haven't read them and don't exactly intend to, but I'm more than willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, since that naturally there's plenty of points left out of anime adaptions that cover visual novels and light novels. I'm definitely leaning toward believing that what occurred in this episode was better fleshed out, made more sense, and was more impactful in the VN's. But again, I haven't read them, so all I can judge is this adaption. And this is what I think of this episode in particular:
It's shit
Hate to do this, but let's get the good thing out of the way first. Lancer vs Archer? Freaking spectacular, from a visual standpoint. The best LOOKING fight so far imo, both from here in UBW but also from any in fate zero. But once again, it carries no weight. Lancer kind of just goes "Oh I see what you were doing there", and walks off. Bye bye, that was fun time I guess. Bruh. The only impactful duel between two servants so far was Gilgamesh vs. Berserker, and I don't even believe that received enough build up. It kind of just happened out of nowhere, conveniently occurring exactly when Rin and Shirou were on their way to the Einzbern castle.
Alright now we get to the GOOD STUFF, Rin and Shirou, vs. Caster and Kuzuki-sensei. Now again, maybe it's handled much better in the VN's. But here, let's be f*cking real for a second. There's a huge issue with power scaling in this show. You could say that the predator is just toying with the prey, but no, don't give me that crap. If that were the case, it's happening way too often. Alright let's look at our players. We have Kuzuki, specializing in close combat, and was able to solo Saber single-handedly. And we have Caster, who's feeding off like all the mana in the city. I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm pretty sure that means that her attacks are going to be pretty freaking strong. Now with those two covered, let's look at their opponents for this match up: we got Rin, she's got some very cute blush, and she can throw candy- but she has a limited supply unfortunately. Not exactly S-class on the power-level tier list. But it's okay, she's not alone: because she's got Shirou, and he can... make things slightly harder than normal. That will definitely come in handy in bed. But we're in a fight right now, not in bed. Actually, here he doesn't use his strengthening magic, but rather his projection magic, using it to make for himself some blades quite similar to Archers. He is more capable with those now since they don't take a toll on his body anymore, since Archer gave him a good chiropractor session and unlocked all his circuits or whatever they are. So Shirou is certainly better off now... but still, no, just no. Let's say this again: Kuzuki SOLO'ED Saber. And here, Shirou was able to last for quite a decent amount of time against Kuzuki. This is no rock-paper-scissors situation, both Saber and Shirou are using close combat. But with some quick maths, judging from these fights, we can now see that someway somehow, Shirou > Saber. Huuuh?? What??? Meanwhile we have Rin defeating Caster, because oh, "she let her guard down", or, "it was a surprise attack". Archer stated earlier that even when knocked down, she would still be able to get away. But here, she doesn't get away, and instead stands still and takes some blows from Rin. Are we suggesting now that Rin has more speed than her heroic spirit servant Archer? Interesting. I truly underestimated Rin if that were the case. Whatever. Caster and Kuzuki are defeated, that's that. But this power scaling issues are not even what I'm most mad about from this episode.
Surprise, turns out Archer never was truly on Caster's side from the start; boy, didn't see that coming at all. Ok but: WHY??? Other than for the sole purpose of getting the audience on the edge of their seats in anticipation, I see no reason why Archer pulled the move he did if he was just going to kill Caster all this time anyway. Is it because... he needed a distraction to, again, get Caster "off-guard"? In that case, what's the point of joining her "team"? Just send Rin and Shirou to attack her some other time, distract her, and then show up at the last second like he did here and skewer her. Or maybe, is it because he needed Kuzuki and Caster together to be able to kill Caster (because he aims his blades at Kuzuki, as to which Caster jumps in and takes the hit for her master. Was that even Archer's intention?? I guess it doesn't even matter who dies first. Dude probably just went for the easier target)? Maybe this will all be explained better in the next episode, but for now the only good reason I can come up with to make sense of Archer's 'betrayal' was that to get Saber out of the way of protecting Shirou, who apparently, he wants to kill. Perhaps he saw that Caster had taken Saber and put her in a weakened state, giving the opportunity to attack a defenceless Shirou. Why doesn't he go after Shirou later when he's literally alone with no one with him besides Rin, and heck, even let's them go? Well I suppose that explains the whole distraction thing. He used them to distract Caster and Kuzuki (although I don't know how he could have anticipated for them to last this long), allowing an opening for him to easily dispose of them, and THEN finish off Shirou when that was done. Submitting himself as Caster's servant also freed himself from Rin's command spells, who would undoubtedly compel him not to attack Shirou. Well sh*t, I guess it sort of makes sense if you just think about it a little. Maybe I'll shut up for now and actually let the next episode play out, and maybe will help clear up some things.
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