Sakura’s Fairy Tale

Archer's true identity left many puzzled.

Some viewers believed he was a future version of Shirou, while others thought it was just a coincidence that they looked alike.

The plot didn't pause for audience speculation, though, as it continued to unfold. When Shirou attached the arm that Archer had given him, more viewers became convinced of the connection between the two characters.

Then came the scene under the moonlight where Shirou and Sakura shared an intimate moment. The LSPs (lewd scene appreciators) in the audience smiled widely during this interaction.

However, the scene quickly shifted. Accompanied by an eerie yet childlike BGM, Sakura suddenly found herself in an unsettling fairy-tale world. She wore a pure white dress, looking like a princess descending from the heavens. She followed small animals through this dreamlike land, seeming joyful.

As more puppet-like characters appeared, Sakura used a flicking motion, destroying each puppet, which then crumbled into small candy pieces. She smiled softly as she ate the candy.

This sequence confused many of the viewers.

"Is this just filler?" someone murmured.

Daniel sat in the theater, watching the scene where Sakura ate the candy, deep in thought. He wanted to dismiss it as filler, but knowing the Porter's past works, he doubted that it was so simple. The Porter didn't waste time with meaningless filler in his works. Daniel remembered how, in the Final Holy War, a character seen briefly turned out to be the protagonist of the next series, Ultraman Dyna.

"There must be a hidden meaning," Daniel mused.

As the screen shifted, the familiar figure of Gilgamesh, the "Helpful Gold Man," appeared, and the scene transitioned back to the dark alley shown in the earlier trailers.

"You looked pretty lively back then, which is why I told you to just die!" Gilgamesh spat, enraging many of the fans who loved Sakura.

The camera then returned to Sakura, her body covered in blood. She still held the candy, smiling as if unaware of the horrific change. The dreamlike fairy tale land transformed into a dark alley, and the "candy" in her hand... became a severed finger!

"Whoa!"

"Are you serious?!"

"That's terrifying!"

At that moment, many viewers came to a horrifying realization. The Porter had used a whimsical, fairy-tale lens to show a truly dark and terrifying story. Those who figured this out felt a chill run down their spines.

Before they could dwell on it, Gilgamesh made his move.

The golden ripples behind him flickered, and countless Noble Phantasms shot out like bullets toward Sakura.

In that instant, the fans who had been fond of Sakura fell silent. They had grasped the true horror of the earlier scene.

Despite their love for Sakura, they felt relieved to see Gilgamesh attack. She had become terrifying.

But the unexpected happened next—Gilgamesh lost!

The powerful king, who had survived the Fourth Holy Grail War, had his leg severed. Then, as Sakura chewed, he completely disappeared into the darkness.

As the golden light faded, and Sakura's enormous shadow loomed under the streetlights, more and more viewers finally understood the earlier scenes.

Goosebumps rose on their skin.

"So... that's what was happening..." Daniel whispered, part impressed and part disturbed.

The Porter had used whimsical, dreamlike imagery to tell a nightmare. The dream sequences were all symbols of real events.

The forest where Sakura first appeared symbolized the city's towering buildings, and the castle she entered represented the alleyway where this dark scene took place.

The puppets she destroyed and turned into candy likely represented people who tried to harm her—small-time thugs perhaps. But the "candy" she was eating? That was their bodies.

It all became clear when the earlier scene revealed the severed finger.

Sakura had been eating people!

What seemed like a whimsical game of gathering candy was, in reality, a horrifying display of carnage.

Daniel suddenly remembered the terror he felt watching Madoka Magica.

"This is why the Porter is a genius!" Daniel muttered.

This sequence, more than any of the servant battles, left the deepest impression on him. The contrast between a childlike fairy tale and the grotesque reality of Sakura unknowingly consuming human flesh was brilliantly executed.

The cheerful music, the candy, the puppets—it was all a grotesque mask hiding the true horror of the situation.

After the screen darkened, the story resumed. Sakura began to suspect what was happening to her and left Shirou's home. She used the last of her command spells to order Rider to protect Shirou.

As the audience watched her force a smile, Daniel couldn't help but shake his head.

Sakura was such a brilliantly written character, her tragic backstory and twisted fate leaving viewers torn between sympathy and horror.

So when Shinji (the seaweed-headed guy) pushed her onto the bed in one scene, many of the viewers were enraged.

Their anger didn't last long, though—it was soon replaced by satisfaction.

Because...

"That kind of person doesn't deserve to live!" Sakura muttered.

With those words, she killed Shinji.

At that moment, Sakura finally confirmed her suspicions—what she thought was a dream was happening in real life. The dream world had been a twisted version of reality all along.

As darkness enveloped her, Sakura's white dress turned black.

A fully corrupted, blackened version of Sakura appeared before the audience.

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