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My thoughts and feelings on Fate/Zero.
Not spoiler free.
Not spoiler free.
First of all I want to thank @Aleczandxr as I've watched his videos on the series first before writing this thread in order to gain a different perspective on it, and understand why other people may consider it a masterpiece. Those videos were very insightful and interesting.
I know I made it sound like I was gonna slander the show and that I didn't like it at all, but that is absolutely not the case, overall I did like Fate/Zero and consider it a good addition to the Nasuverse and the main Fate storyline, I'm going to talk about what I liked first.
A disclaimer is necessary here: I am judging Fate/Zero not as a standalone story, but rather as a prequel to Fate/Stay Night, and as an extension of the experience, so there will be some inevitable comparisons between the 2 series,
So to start with, Fate/Zero tackles the events of the 4th Holy Grail War, an event that was brought up often in Fate/Stay Night, one that affected many of the characters in it and changed their lives. This already establishes how important this story is to the overall universe
It can basically be called an origin story. The 4th HGW was described as particularly brutal and this show definitely lived up to that. I would say that I am pretty satisfied with how this war was portrayed overall.
Now when it comes to the plot, Fate/Zero was quite different from what I got in Fate/Stay Night, it was faster-paced and much more action packed, where F/SN liked to spend a lot of time setting up and building up the situation as well as getting you attached to the characters
F/Z's story had no place for that, things happened every episode and it would switch from one side to the other, almost every scene brought progression to the story, it was like a train that never stopped moving *with few exceptions*.
There was no real main character in this story, despite how Kiritsugu stands out if you're viewing this as a prequel, the story focuses on other characters just as much. The story followed each of these characters as if they were the protagonists
And didn't hide anything from us as the viewer, all of their plans and schemes and the subtle changes in their characters, in that sense, it had less *suspense* and *mystery* than it's sequel, but it makes up for it by creating a situation that is more interesting to analyze
And this style of storytelling is very similar to my favorite Anime and one of my overall favorite fictional works, Hunter x Hunter, especially during the Yorknew and Chimera Ant arcs, as well as A Song of Ice and Fire.
Now when it comes to the characters, Fate/Zero doesn't have a very large cast just like it's sequel, since it's a relatively low scale conflict, but all of these characters had unique motivations and stories to tell, not all of them were great and interesting
But even the most uninteresting characters had a bit more to them than meets the eye at the end of the day, which is something I appreciated. They all had their own beliefs and ideologies that the story didn't presented without *much* bias. They all had their arcs.
Unlike F/SN, in this war the Servants were more eccentric and played a bigger and more independent role of their Masters, in a way they were protagonists in their own rights. This was pretty refreshing to see and it allowed for grander thematic exploration.
When it comes to characters, the highlights for me were without a doubt, Rider and Waver, as well as Kiritsugu and Kirei.
The former duo were essential to the story, they were a big emotional core of it, and their interactions and arcs prevented it from being too nihilistic
The former duo were essential to the story, they were a big emotional core of it, and their interactions and arcs prevented it from being too nihilistic
They were well developed characters in their own rights as well, especially Waver. I was emotionally invested in their story. Now when it comes to Kirei, he is a character that I already loved in F/SN, and while he wasn't as entertaining in here as he was there
It was great to see how he arrived at the point he was in during F/SN, and I like his arc leading up to it, the arc of a man slowly realizing that he is broken and can never be like other people, and instead of rejecting that he learned to embrace it and pursue it.
Kiritsugu is a character that was essential to F/SN, despite not even being alive in it, he was at the center of several characters' lives. And his character arc was perhaps the most powerful because of that, seeing the origin of the character who inspired Shirou was impactful
His backstory was one of the best parts of the show for me, seeing his journey in full gave much needed context for his relationship with Shirou and it made the latter's arcs more impactful in retrospect, the contrast and parallels between the 2 might be my favorite thing in Fate
And although I wasn't emotionally very attached to him, his arc was still fascinating to see. There were characters that are worth mentioning such as Kariya and Irisviel, who had good and tragic arcs, and they expanded more on the story's themes, especially Kariya.
Gil was kinda boring on his own, but whenever he was with characters like Kirei and Rider, he was entertaining and showed more interesting sides. I appreciate his role as the Jester in the story and understand how important he was, even if his character itself wasn't interesting
Now talking about themes, F/Z covered many different themes, almost as many as there are characters, the big one being the conflicting ideologies they all had. It covered war, heroism, honor, how one should pursue one's dream, how flaws exist in every ideology, and more.
Those themes were explored relatively well. The overall tone was pessimistic but through Rider and Waver's arcs it retained some needed optimism at the end.
The presentation for Fate/Zero was very good, and while I still think that Unlimited Blade Works looked better, Zero is still one of the better looking Anime out there, the direction is particularly good and contributes to the narrative.
The OST is great and added to the atmosphere, the VAs were all good and renowned roles and they performed the characters very well. Overall not much to say on this front aside from it being one of the show's biggest strengths.
Now as for the things I didn't like very much. To start with, while the fast pacing and spread focus on many characters that I mentioned earlier makes for a more epic plot, it's weakness is that it made it hard for me to get emotionally invested in most of them.
And it's ultimately the biggest reason why I couldn't love F/Z as much as F/SN, because the latter managed to get me much more emotionally invested in most of its characters which is perhaps the best way to get me to love a story.
There were some characters that I wasn't a big fan of and thought they were boring, and that they could've been handled better and made more interesting, mainly the Caster and Lancer teams as well as Tokiomi. Their screentime hindered my enjoyment in the first cour.
More than anything, those who've seen my posts over the past few days are aware I have a major problem with the portrayal of Saber/Artoria in this series, since like I said I view F/Z as a prequel, and I find her character inconsistent and contradictory to her F/SN self.
I understand *why* it was done and see how it contributed to the narrative of F/Z as a standalone, but F/Z is not a standalone and it doesn't work anywhere near as well without F/SN in context, but a contradiction like this makes it hard to be fully immersed.
And I'm aware that she's still a good character on her own, but regardless, as someone who loved F/SN's Saber to death and was fully invested in her character and arc, it's not fun to see her changed forcibly by the narrative in order to contrast other characters
And expand on the themes of the story. I think this kind of thing could've been done without changing her character, and Lancer's character which was so similar yet nowhere near as fleshed out could've been used for that instead.
This problem prevented me from enjoying many of the iconic moments in this series such as the Banquet of Kings, the fight with Lancer and climax of Saber's story and only served to annoy me and make me unable to enjoy other aspects of the story.
And while F/Z explored many themes through many character arcs, I don't think it did so with any of them to the best extent, it felt like it was a bit dry, I think more focus on fewer themes and arcs would've been better, like in F/SN.
Overall Fate/Zero was a consistent story that rarely did anything "wrong", and handled many things well enough, but didn't reach a big high with any of them, it stopped short before that imo. I still appreciate it as an addition to the Fate universe and as a prequel to F/SN.
My overall score for it is an 8/10. I understand why many may consider it a masterpiece and why they might prefer it to Fate/Stay Night, even if I find the latter much more impressive and interesting as a fictional work. I am satisfied with what I got from it.
One thing I forgot to mention, it's so funny to me how much and how casually they spoiled many things that were considered big reveals in F/SN and were teased throughout the routes, there were also many things that are impossible to understand without Heaven's Feel context
And I just wanted to say that I really feel like F/Z is best experienced after reading F/SN and not before, as watching it before can be both confusing and also ruin many reveals and plot twists in F/SN.
