Chapter 69: The Opening of the Fourth Holy Grail War is Quite Eventful
Yan Qing had disliked Lancelot for a long time.
He remembered when he first received the script, Lancelot had complained about himself being depicted as a criminal in the script, with crimes including but not limited to lacking responsibility (abandoning his lordship), kidnapping a young woman, having no savings, being delusional, attempted murder, lolicon— He had basically committed almost all the crimes prohibited in a civilized society.
Lancelot's attitude seemed ridiculous to Yan Qing. Clearly, Kariya had committed almost the same crimes in the script.
At most, there was no lolicon, and the "attempted" in attempted murder was removed.
In Yan Qing's eyes, Lancelot and Kariya were like dung beetles finding each other, sharing the same stench.
But this guy dared to speak out against his "master."
Yan Qing, in his role as a servant, had long wanted to teach this guy a lesson, and now he finally found the opportunity.
It was just one Lancelot down, but thousands of "Knights of the Round Table" stood up.
"What's going on? Arturia actually got injured!"
"Yeah, it's unbelievable. This is King Arthur we're talking about!"
"My King, how did you become so careless in just a few days?"
...
Diarmuid's successful surprise attack, which disabled Arturia's left hand, left many fans of Arturia unable to accept it for a while.
Due to some accidental factors that made Diarmuid excessively popular among women, many male viewers hoped that Arturia would teach this conceited playboy a lesson.
But after three rounds of combat, it was Arturia who ended up losing?
Although in Fate/stay night, Arturia's track record wasn't too impressive due to the Master's burden, she had never been this careless, right?
"It's too tragic. Saber can't lose like this, right?"
One viewer said pessimistically while stuffing a handful of popcorn into his mouth.
"She definitely won't." His companion comforted him. "Don't forget, this is the prequel to FSN. Saber wins in the end."
"She wins? How?"
The other person shrugged. "How would I know! Just watch and find out."
Shinji listened to the audience's reactions, a smile playing on his lips.
He had similar doubts when he first watched Fate/Zero.
Why did Arturia lose so easily to that brush guy?
After all, according to the setting, Diarmuid as Lancer was just a "benchmark." The legendary King Arthur falling for such a simple trick was unbelievable.
Although powerful Heroic Spirits liked to boast—like Gilgamesh, who died arrogantly in all three routes of FSN—Arturia didn't seem like that kind of conceited Heroic Spirit.
It wasn't until Shinji learned scriptwriting and began filming Fate/Zero that he understood why the author wrote it this way.
Fate/Zero is a prequel story.
The biggest characteristic of prequel stories compared to sequels is that the audience already knows the "afterwards" of the story's development.
This is why most works release sequel stories first, because there are fewer restrictions and more freedom in creating them.
Of course, having restrictions isn't necessarily a bad thing for prequel stories.
The biggest driving force for audiences to choose prequel stories is their curiosity and the blank spaces in the "before," which is also the most attractive aspect of prequel stories for them.
For example, in "X-Men: First Class," the most enticing aspect for audiences was why Professor X and Magneto went their separate ways;
In "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace," what everyone wanted to know the most was the backstory between Obi-Wan and Anakin;
In the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, it was the process of Darth Vader's fall to the dark side— and so on.
Whether these prequel stories tell the story well is another matter, but they at least use suspense to attract audiences.
"Fate/Zero" is also a prequel film, so it naturally needs a hook to attract viewers.
And then the problem arises.
Arturia, the character with the biggest selling point in the "Fate/Zero" story, undergoes no fundamental changes in the story of "Fate/Zero."
She neither turns from a hero to a villain, nor does she become more mature through experiencing the Fourth Holy Grail War.
Whether good or bad, Arturia's changes are saved for the story of "Fate/stay night."
In "Fate/Zero," Arturia remains a righteous King of Knights pursuing the Holy Grail from start to finish, with almost no changes.
This is not Nasu's fault, but rather the nature of the story's setting.
Nasu could have chosen to write a story where Arturia chops vegetables and fights from beginning to end.
But in this case, a story without tension would not be able to arouse the audience's curiosity.
After all, "Fate/Zero" is going to sell several books, and a bland story can't guarantee future sales.
Nasu may not care how much money his books sell, but no creator wants their story to be understood by fewer people.
So the ingenious Nasu came up with a brilliant solution—since Arturia doesn't change internally, why not start her off with a nightmare?
Since Arturia mentioned her disagreement with Kiritsugu in "Fate/stay night," let's make this conflict as intense as possible.
Just that wasn't enough—Nasu even gave Arturia the limitation of her left hand being disabled and unable to use her Noble Phantasms.
It's like a League of Legends match where the team argues internally at the start, and the mid-lane fun wind guy ends up with a 0/5/0 record.
This kind of match, no matter how you look at it, is a guaranteed loss, but somehow they win.
Anyone would be curious about how the winning team managed to turn the tables.
Although people might criticize the out-of-character portrayal, compared to the benefits gained from this plot device, it's hardly worth mentioning.
As for the subsequent development— When other character images are established, who cares about that little King of Knights?
What? The protagonist?
Isn't "Fate/Zero" about Alexander the Great returning to modern times and his useless master?
Judging from the audience's reactions, Shinji felt that sticking to Nasu's design was the right choice.
At least the audience in the theater was also attracted by this gimmick, and they also wanted to know how Arturia managed to win in the end.
There are also a small number of viewers who don't care about these "minor matters," with the group of film critics being typical representatives.
Compared to how Arturia won, they are more concerned about the noisy fight scenes.
"Pandering to the masses."
"Meaningless noise."
"My ears are going to be deaf."
Various criticisms were uttered by the film critics, who couldn't understand why the other people in the theater were so excited.
"As expected, this audience isn't good."
Kawachi Ippei muttered with disgust all over his face.
But the film critics didn't know that the loudest guy in the room hadn't arrived yet.
Soon after.
With a thunderous roar, Iskandar made a flashy entrance.
The tense atmosphere was directly shattered by this somewhat out-of-place guy, and it even became harmonious.
When Iskandar pressed his head with his fist and said, "Are you trying to negotiate with me?" in a helpless tone, the entire theater burst into laughter.
"How big is this guy's nerve? He actually wants to recruit other Heroic Spirits."
Seemingly unable to control himself, Aoko laughed loudly, holding her stomach.
"What a thick-skinned guy."
Alice's comments are always so concise.
"I actually think that chariot is pretty cool," Shibamatsu said, looking envious.
Because he was sitting next to two female magus, Shibamatsu dared not make any overly critical comments about female characters and instead focused all his attention on things boys liked.
"If only I could summon this Rider when I participate in the Holy Grail War," Shibamatsu mused, "then I could sit elegantly on the chariot, sipping wine, calmly watching the great emperor ride into battle."
"And then spill all the wine on your pants?"
"You could wear dark pants, so you could use the excuse of 'I peed myself' to cover up your failed pretentiousness."
"See, little boys will always be little boys, always having unrealistic dreams."
Alice and Aoko's synchronized banter shattered Shibamatsu's dream.
"Come on, you two— Not like this."
Shibamatsu, whose dream was shattered, almost wanted to cry.
Fortunately, the plot development of the movie saved Shibamatsu's life. Alice and Aoko's attention didn't linger on him for long, immediately returning to the screen.
It's not that Aoko didn't want to continue teasing him, but the movie's pace was too fast. She had to focus all her attention on it to not miss any important plot points.
The action scene at the dock was indeed too exciting. First, Saber fought Lancer, then Rider intervened, turning it into Berserker fighting Archer.
After Archer was forced to leave, Berserker's target shifted back to Saber, then Lancer and Berserker teamed up against Saber, and finally Rider intervened.
A series of melee battles left the audience breathless, unable to guess who would be fighting whom the next second.
During the editing process, Shinji, who was already fed up with the movie, wasn't paying attention to the film when Berserker attacked Saber. Instead, he quickly turned his head to look at Lancelot sitting in the back row.
Perhaps because his summoning class was Saber, Lancelot always forgot to wear his helmet while filming. It wasn't until this scene that this guy, who abducted innocent women, finally remembered to put on his helmet. The reason was quite comical. Lancelot, who couldn't bear to attack Arturia, maintained a (;???Д??`) expression throughout the scene, often crying out while saying, "My king—! I'm sorry!"
Arturia couldn't stand Lancelot's antics anymore. In order to stabilize her volatile mood during filming, she directly ordered Lancelot to wear his helmet whenever he appeared on camera.
"Hey, Lancelot, what if the audience knew you were crying under your helmet— Huh, are you asleep?" Seeing Lancelot tilting his head to the side with a drool at the corner of his mouth, Shinji sat back, feeling dejected.
"Ugh, is my movie that boring?" Shinji pouted unhappily. "I've decided, next time I'll make you wear a dangerous beast costume and dance in front of Arturia!"
Shinji didn't care if this move would backfire; he sentenced Lancelot to social death without parole.
For other first-time viewers of Fate/Zero, they were already struggling to keep up with the movie's story rhythm, let alone paying attention to anything else.
"This Fourth Holy Grail War sure is lively," Aoko exclaimed, seeing Gilgamesh and Lancelot make consecutive appearances.
If FSN was like individual duels between Heroic Spirits, then Fate/Zero felt to Aoko like a melee brawl.
Before the battle at the docks began, Aoko thought it would be just a tentative confrontation between Saber and Lancer, similar to FSN. But she didn't expect it to be like an encore of comic sketches, with one battle after another, new Heroic Spirits constantly appearing, and fights happening non-stop.
Aoko felt like the movie's crew intentionally arranged this battle to tell all the viewers one thing—Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night are two completely different movies!
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