[Vicious108]

So it was Berserker after all. Now that I think about it, it does make a lot of sense that the guy who curses his own body and envies shining heroic spirits would be able to assume the shape of one.

The chase scene between Saber and Rider was fun to watch, in the same way the Gilgamesh and Berserker dogfight was (even if not as fun as that one), but I felt their duel was the weak link in an otherwise excellent episode. The way they settled it was a little too anti-climatic, with Rider's tactics being pretty questionable. I get that he wanted to win her over first and forest, rather than truly wanting to win the physical contest itself, but still. Hopefully, the next episode's confrontation between him and Archer (the preview makes it obvious enough) will be more satisfactory. I expect nothing but greatness once those two giants and fantastic characters collide.

The Kariya and Kirei stuff was really good though. Speaking of which, Zouken was very intelligently used by Urobuchi in this episode. Not only does he serve as a device to fuel Kariya's misery, but here he also added to Kirei's character development, by showing the priest he still isn't entirely confident that this transformation he's embraced is for the best. Kirei's expression once Zouken likened them to each other tells the story. Faced with a true monster in every sense of the word, doubts begin to creep up in his heart once again and suddenly Gilgamesh's advice to disregard the sinful nature of his sources of pleasure doesn't sound as alluring anymore. Yet, as shown by the play he arranged at the end, he still can't resist the thrill of watching tragedy unfold. Either way, even though he's finally stopped repressing his true nature, he's still very much conflicted about it and will thus continue to obsess over the one he believes holds the answer to that dilemma - Kiritsugu.

And man, this episode finally solidified Kariya's character as one of the greats in the series for me. He was a little too absent in the first season and in the second season, up until now, he'd received almost no dialogue beyond telling magi to go fuck themselves, so all of his monologues in this episode were extremely welcome and did wonders for his character, who's quite possibly become the best representative of Urobuchi's apparent favorite type of character arc - taking a virtuous individual with a noble and seemingly selfless wish and corrupting them and said wish beyond salvation and recognition (very much like a certain Madoka character).

I imagine this will make some of his prior fans start hating his guts, since it seemed as if his initial appeal for most was him being the only truly good person among the participants (alongside maybe Waver I guess), but to me this was fantastic development for the character, whose actions in what remains of the war I'm very much anticipating now. Where can he go from here and just how badly will his already degenerated mind be further scarred by this incident? I imagine he'll either desperately hang on to the wish of saving Sakura, all the while loathing himself for having killed her mother, as the only hint of goodness he's got left in himself and his life, or that he'll throw himself into the chaos of battle, wishing to be put out of his unfathomable misery as rapidly as possible. Either way, it should be a dark yet fascinating ride, as usual.

Originally Posted by LunarMoon

It seems like they were really hammering in the rape imagery and metaphors, with Kariya's feelings for Aoi. He straddled her.

Yeah, that was a bold touch. I don't know if that much was described in the Light Novel, but if not Urobuchi was probably very proud of the direction of that scene. Not only that, the stills and black screens also really added to the raw emotion behind it all. Remarkable work by Ei Aoki.

Well, it could have used better character models in some of shots (this episode in general seemed to be cutting corners here and there), but it was still a mighty powerful scene. Kudos to Kariya and Aoi's seiyuu as well. The latter's surprised me in particular, since her character had been so meek and subdued up until this appearance. But she totally made the most out of this one chance to ham it up.

Originally Posted by Thess

If wasn't for Kariya, Rin would be processed prana for Caster. Mommy and daddy just suck to properly take care of their own children. At least she has a competent legal guardian now who can raise her properly... Kirei needs father of the year award.

It really is telling that a psychopath could raise a child better than them.

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Why Kariya... why!?

Being friendzoned can truly drive a man crazy.