Anime Discussion Thread - Page 2272

I think I prefer Zero just a little bit more.

*Sure Night Stay has some of the typical "anime" humor and I got to laugh a few times. Quite a strange contrast between humor and how dark their world actually is.

*Zero is more dark, I actually fear for the lives of the character I am attached to. In Night, this feeling quickly goes away. It feels like the "bad guys" don't die (Yes I know, no one is truly bad in the Fate universe, well except some like Caster/Gilles de rais and his master. This is what I really like from this universe : its not always all black and white. Everyone has their reasons and as a viewer, you get to appreciate them, even if you dont agree with them).

Unfortunately, with Shirou in Night stay, it felt like he could get along with everyone (for the first half of the serie) : Rin wants to kill me? No problem, lets be partners
Ilya wants to kill me, and killed a friend of mine (who turned bad)? No problem, lets be friends.
This is something I cannot stand from some animes (the "lets all get along mentality"). Feels too childish (and I guess it is inevitable considering how young the cast is in Stay Night, compared to Zero - sure I get the idea behind this : its not all good or bad. But when poorly executed, and I think it was the case with Ilya + Rin, it feels cheesy as hell). The Zero serie was much more dark : people kill people, which is the essence of the Grail War. In Night Stay, even the non-participant couldn't die (well almost all of them : some people do die, like the victims from the News Broadcasts) because Shirou and friends would intervene and save them.

It also felt pretty cheap that Shirou could always do all the sacrifices, yet these aren't true sacrifices because of his infinite healing power... All the scenes were not touching because I knew he would survive. So the scenes were incredibly annoying.

*I was also surprised by Sakura. After Zero, I thought she would play a great role in the next Grail War. I was even expecting the tragic confrontation of Sakura vs Rin (which might have been a good theme). Unfortunately, the theme of the two sisters splitted wasn't really explored. Plus, I got the feeling throughout Night stay that these two weren't even sisters.
Unfortunately, she played a pretty minor role. Considering all the sacrifices Kariya Matou made in Zero, its really a shame Sakura didn't get to play a major role.
I also hoped to see the perverted Zoken Matou appear in Night Stay, but it would appear he died before seeing his wish of immortality come true. Too bad, I wanted him to pay.

*In Zero, I didn't get the feeling that one party deserved it more than the others (In Zero, for example, Kariya had good reasons, Kiritsugu, although enigmatic, had some. Velvet too) - whereas in Stay night, it was Shirou from the start to the end. I think this is mainly due to multiple POVs in Zero. In Stay night, the main POV is Shirou and we barely get to know the other masters. In Zero, the masters were given screen time and we got to explore their desires, and even cheer for them, sometimes.. The politics, mind games were also stronger in Zero (almost non-existent in Night Stay).

*I was really touched by the stories of the "kings" in Fate/Zero, mainly the confrontation between Saber and Rider and their definition of what it is to be king. I loved their story, and especially Saber's one, really a sad one. The story of Zero felt like it had more depths because of this. Sure, there was the Grail war, but there is also the individual struggle of all characters, and also their servants. In Night Stay, although we do get some glimpse of these struggles, the focus was almost only on the main characters. (lack of mutliple POVs). Because of this, Night Stay felt thinner than Zero

I was first curious as to whether Saber retained her memories from the last Holy Grail War. (In the first episodes, she looked like she didn't keep any of her old self from the last war. It is only near the end, when she meets Gilgamesh again, that we get to know that she remembers. Pretty cheap in my opinion). If only Night Stay was made after Zero and her story was more consistent, I feel like Saber story could have been the strongest point (in my opinion) from these two series. Kind of similar to Lucas making Star Wars 4-6 before making 1-3. Even though 4-6 are supposed to be after, by making them first, you can put some strong restraints on what you can do for 1-3. And sometimes, stuffs from 1-3 won't naturally transition into 4-6. I feel this is the case here. Zero showed some tragedies : Rin losing her family to the man whom her father trusted, Saber failure, Sakura taken away and corrupted by Matou, Kirei + Gilgamesh "winning", Valvet going to travel around the world etc. There were so many openings, but because Night Stay was made before Zero, these possibilities were never explored

Lancer looks like the same one from 10 years ago, in Zero, however it would appear he didn't keep any memories in Night Stay. Its also sad he didn't get to continue his knight battle against Saber (it was also one of the great confrontations from Zero)

I don't know what the ideal way of watching the Fate serie. I myself started with Zero. I must say that knowing the parents of many of the characters from the orginal Fate Stay Night affected my view of the original serie. Very tragic, in some way. For example, at first, i thought Ilya would be the "bad guy" so I found it very tragic considering all the sacrifices made by Kiritsugu + her mother Iri. Unfortunately, she turned out good and I also never really grasped her reasons of wanting the Grail.

TLDR: Overally, I enjoyed both series alot (I watched all of them in like a 2 days marathon!). I would probably put Zero higher than Night Stay though, because of how much more mature/dark/serious it felt.
I kind of wish for more Fate series (will there be any more?). But at the same time, I was overly attached to the characters from Zero, and up to a certain extent their offsprings in Night Stay (although, many of the stories disappointed me, like Sakura's one). I don't know if its possible for them to make another Grail War using the same cast (or their children).

Also, what is the Fate/Prototype? I hope its not a preview for the new Fate serie :O

Lancer in FSN is Chu Chullain. Lancer in FZ is Diarmuid, completely different people. Also, the servants don't get to keep their memories except for Saber(which is a special case which was again explained in the VN). Servants are not really the real heroic spirits, but they are a manifestation of the heroic spirit made by the power of the holy grail. This was explained more thoroughly in UBW route I think. Sakura's story is told in Heaven's Feel route.