Fate/Zero #4 Reaction - Early Access!

There hype at the animation makes me really excited for them to see UBW after this

10:23 - Eric and Aaron synchronized head tilt.

Iskandar is indeed Alexander the Great, it's just the eastern (as in Middle East, Arabian, and Central Asian) translation/variant of his name. Most heroes can technically qualify for more than once class. For instance, Saber (Arotia) can also be a Rider, a Lancer, and an archer due to her numerous legends. But the artifacts used to summon Arotia were deeply connected to her legends as a sword wielding knight, which is why she was summoned a Saber-class. Her other class are very interesting though. Generally speaking Saber is the best of the normal classes. Gilgamesh and Iskandar can also be summoned as Sabers. Similarly, the different classes may represent different times in a heroes life, which can cause them to seemingly have different personalities. For instance Caster Gilgamesh represents a time period further in Gil's life when he has matured and is far less haughty. Saber Iskandar is much more serious than Rider Iskandar. Sometimes it's not even just about the class as the legends themselves can indeed effect the personalities of the summoned, heroes. Furthermore, generally speaking, most of the heroes have full knowledge and memories from their actual lives and are thus perfectly aware of any subtle changes made to themselves. In the franchise's lore some of the servants don't care, others hate and actively fight the change to their personas and their legends altogether. How and why this occurs would be even bigger spoilers.

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Ah yes, Eric has been initiated into Iskandar gang

I'm seriously loving the discussions. You guys have a nice range of knowledge and understanding. Well done.

Diarmuid is pronounced Deer-mid and his red spear is Gáe Dearg (Gay Da-rig) and Gáe Buidhe (Gay Bwe). Gráinne is pronounced Graw-nyah Source: Am Irish (and when I first watched this lol'd hard at the pronunciations)

the fairy tale you are thinking of rick is snow white and red ROSE not ruby red lol. read the first volume of fables (comic). their version of those characters are BOSS

I'm glad that you guys are enjoying this series as much as you are. I was a little nervous.

I officially cosign on them reacting to dub because they sure missed some stuff that was explained in previous episodes... not the least of which is that they stated in like ep 2 that Archie got another relic, command seals compel the servant to do as commanded but can only be used thrice, and Ilia is a homunculus... lol among other things. I quite enjoyed the reaction, discussion and confusion lol I hope someone clears up the things that they have questions about that were answered in previous episodes since that's not really spoilers but may help they understand a little better. :)

Well Aaron was indeed correct about Irisviel, knew he wouldnt let it slide

The specifics of how summoning works are explained later....I think. I can't remember exactly I just know it is. You guys are close.

As I understand it, summoning a historical servant doesn't get you the exact person from history. As a few others have stated, servants can be summoned in multiple different classes. Each of these classes is a different aspect of the character, meaning their personality can be different from what it was in life. Just look at Berserker for example. He was able to be summoned as a Berserker because he went mad at some point in his life, but that doesn't mean he was always that way. That part of him manifested because he was summoned as a Berserker, but if you summoned him as a different class than you wouldn't get an insane person at all. Believe it or not, the creepy Caster can also be summoned as a Saber, who's noble and just (even if he is pathetically weak). The reason Rider is not exactly like his historical counterpart is because only an aspect of him was summoned, the relentless conqueror. This is the case for most servants, with a few exceptions, but those can be explained another time.

Animated by ufotable, same studio as Demon Slayer. They put a lot of emphasis on post production and CGI, letting their anime have a quality / cinematic look

Watching the crew genuinely enjoy Fate is the best vibe I could have for my week of coronavirus quarantine

Don't stress out over why Arthur is a woman haha. She's only female to appeal to the male weeb audience that the original game was targeting.

Pretty sure you guys were on the right track when you we’re discussing the origins of the servants. My understandings of the shitshow that is the Fate lore is that servants are basically 2 degrees removed from the actual historic figure they’re based on. If a person or character’s legend is badass enough, that legend (not necessarily the person itself) gets personified as a heroic spirit. And then the grail basically helps summon a clone/ghost of that spirit for the war. Some diehard Fate fan can correct me if I’m wrong there.

There are 2 ways to summon servants; with a catalyst and without a catalyst. If you summon with a catalyst, then you can pick which servant you summon (or narrow it down if the catalyst in question is related to multiple heroic spirits e.g. a piece of the round table could summon any of the knights)meaning that you will get a strong one but that servant may have low compatibility with you personality wise, leading to distrust and low teamwork. On the other hand, summoning without a catalyst will result in a servant with high compatibility but potentially low combat capabilities. Using Excalibur's sheath basically guaranteed that Kiritsugu would summon Artoria/King Arthur, but while she would most likely be summoned as a Saber, she also could have been summoned as a Lancer with her spear Rhongomyniad or a Rider with her steed, Llamrei because she also fits the criteria of those classes.

If i'm not mistaken Rider(Iskander) said he received the chariot because he was summoned into a Rider Class.

You guys are great, and your guesses so far are pretty spot on. Keep a few things in mind: 1. Just because they are holding or using a weapon doesn't necessarily mean the weapon is their "Noble Phantasm". Just as well, as we've seen, some servants can use more than 1. In a lot of cases it might not even be a "weapon", per se, but instead, a unique kind of ability having to do with their legend. 2. As you may have guessed, A Hero can be summoned into a certain class, so long as they have a legend and Noble Phantasm that can apply to the class. For instance: Arthur, or in this case, Artoria, can also be potentially summoned as a Lancer. In the mobile game, the Lancer version of King Arthur is a much older (much more voluptuous) Woman who wields a Lance called the "Rhongomyniad". This version of her is taken from a time later in her life, in an alternate universe where she decided to wield a Lance, rather than a sword. In the same vein, Gilgamesh, who is the Archer of this story, can also be summoned as a Caster, taken from legends of his Later life as well. He's also a lot nicer, and more respectful of human dignity than Archer Gilgamesh, so it seems he mellowed out a bit. It's not too relevant for this show in particular, but keep it in mind if you guys decided to watch UBW. Outside of this show, it's just a bullshit concession they made to stuff in more "Saber-faces" into the franchise, since the character is stupid popular and Weebs have lots of money to spend on terrible mobile games to get their waifus. As you might imagine, there's a RIDICULOUS amount of Saber variations. Specifically, variations of King Arthur.

I'm so hyped for the next episode, it's going to be epic