Awesome / Fate/Zero

Moments subpages are Spoilers Off.

• The entire Summoning of the Servants sequence in the anime. Accompanied by Ominous Latin Chanting on top of it.
• Kariya Matou learns that after he ran away from inheriting the Matou family magecraft, Sakura was taken to replace him. He doesn’t hesitate to walk into the Matou manor, and speak directly to Zouken Matou himself. He promises to give Zouken the Holy Grail, in exchange for him safely releasing Sakura. As Zouken swiftly points out, Kariya is a failure of a mage offering to fight against some of the most powerful magi on the planet, and the only viable method of doing so is the Crest Worms, liable to devour him alive if he’s too weak. He goes through with it anyway, and in a year he manages to acquire Command Seals, then summon and barely control one of the strongest Servants of the Fourth War. It was outright stated that if he had summoned a less mana-intensive Servant, he would have been able to use them fine. Not bad, for a “failure who never trained a day in his life”. All to protect an innocent child.
• When Lancer and Saber team up to fight Caster in the forest, Saber launches Lancer at Caster by using her Invisible Air ability to "Strike Air", creating a wind tunnel that propels him past the army of monsters and gives him the chance to slash Caster's Tome of Eldritch Lore with the Gae Daerg spear. Immediately after, the book dissolves and Caster's demons explode into bloody pulps. Saber, does not even flinch as veritable fountains of blood erupt all around her in incredibly awesome fashion. And all set to the tune of Point Zero.
• In the anime, Rin actually manages to break an enchantment set by Caster. Keep in mind that she was in elementary school at the time.
  • Caster wasn't actually a mage in life, so his spells are no match for a proper Caster (like the one in Fate/stay night), but he's still a Heroic Spirit, and has magic that surpasses modern magecraft by an order of power. And keep in mind that a proper Caster has magic surpassing a nuclear warhead, so being no match for one is nothing to be ashamed of...oh, and he pulls out some such magecraft not much later.
  • From the same episode, Kariya's Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Waver standing up to Gilgamesh after he defeats Rider. The meek little boy with absolutely no chance of surviving more than two seconds stares down one of the Nasuverse's most powerful characters and declares his endless loyalty to Alexander. And Gilgamesh lets him live.
  Gilgamesh: I see. But boy, if you truly are a loyal subject, you have a duty to take revenge for your deceased King, do you not?
  Waver: If I challenge you, I will die.
  Gilgamesh: Of course.
  Waver: That won't do. I have been ordered to live.
  Gilgamesh: *Stares for a moment before turning away* Your loyalty is splendid! Never tarnish it. *Vanishes*
  • While it may be a Pet the Dog moment for Gilgamesh, getting himself spared after Rider's death was a pretty serious CMOA for Waver, especially when the light novel makes it clear that if he had shown the slightest hesitation or weakness, Gil would have snuffed him out like a candle and not given it another thought. This is the scene that shows just how much Waver has grown throughout the series; from being reduced to a gibbering wreck by a few well-chosen words from his former teacher to facing down the King of Heroes himself after said king just cut down Waver's own Servant in front of him.
  • Him ending up taking El-Melloi's title and position after the war also counts as an after-story crowner.
• In the anime, Ea, Enuma Elish, oh, Enuma Elish. It's not the same crap as it was from Fate/stay night. It's much more lethal and awesome. It was even locked using another sword before he finally decides to use it.
  Video Description: You cannot imagine the immensity of the fuck that Enuma Elish does not give about the laws of reality.
  • The same episode, Rider telling Waver to live and then showing his dream by going against Gilgamesh, charging to the death after losing his Ionian Hetairoi.
• Berserker utterly humiliating Gilgamesh by grabbing the weapons from Gate of Babylon whilst they were being thrown at him, then using them himself to deflect the rest◊.
  • If that's not enough, he proceeds to humiliate Gilgamesh again during the battle against Caster's sea monster by shooting down his legendary flying machine with an F-15 fighter jet. The anime version of the battle itself is easily one of the most epic dogfights of recent anime.
    • And he wasn't even trying. Berserker was completely focused on Saber; Gilgamesh just got in the way.
  • What about his battle with Saber? He catches Excalibur, like it's nothing! He even starts to soak it in his prana to try and take it from Saber! Hell, it wasn't even able to dent his armor when she tried to stab him with it through a car she'd been using as a shield! And by catching it, thus revealing he knows exactly how long Excalibur is, it sets off all sorts of alarms in Saber's head as she realizes they must have known each other their lives at some point.
• Alexander is a walking, talking being of awesome, but it can all be summed up in four words.
  Alexander: Behold my peerless Army!
  • The whole scene is one ginormous CMOA for the guy, what with his thousands-strong army charging at and annihilating every one of Assassin's personas in a barren desert that made them exposed targets.
    • To expand on what happened: Assassin was actually eighty sneaky murderers, and Saber had declared a king must be alone. Then he summoned his Badass Army of True Companions (that includes not just Greeks and Macedonians, but also a contingent of the Persians he became famous for defeating) and his sandy battlefield, thus leaving Assassin no place to hide, inverting his usual numerical superiority and shattering Saber's idea.
    • Oh, and Mithrenes, the soldier he summons in the real world to relay and receive messages? He was the Armenian commander of a Persian force who switched sides in awe of Alexander's might and fought for him at Gaugamela. Just to show off how awesome he is...
    • One more: If you pay attention to the crowd within Rider's army, you'll notice this black-haired fellow. Who is that? It's Adult Waver! Maybe. Somehow he joined the army through time and space! Maybe. True bromance, indeed.
• Kiritsugu Emiya's Dungeon Bypass against El-Melloi.
  • In addition to utterly going Combat Pragmatist on him in the Einzbern castle. In the course of one attack, he's all ready figured out El-Melloi's automatic defense's speed and operation. In the span of minutes he's able to successfully plan out, out-maneuver and permanently cripple El-Melloi. How's it feel to be Out-Gambitted with a single bullet, ya' Smug Snake?
    • Judging by the clawing and staggering and torrent of Blood from the Mouth that resulted from Origin-induced magic-circuit Heroic RRoD... Probably pretty bad.
    • Give Kayneth some credit though. Despite existing to show off how amazing Kerry is, he managed to easily survive Kerry's dungeon bypass. An explosion which Kerry himself described as being unwithstandable to any magical barrier in the world. Then he manages to deduce Kerry's time alteration powers and the toll it takes on him seconds after seeing it.
• And his duel with Kirei near the end. And his line when he shoots him.
  Yeah. And you're too much of a fool to understand.
• Gilgamesh himself is a much more likable character in Zero. His turning of Kirei into a man who lives For the Evulz, forcing Angra Mainyu to submit to him, and his final words to Alexander after defeating him were incredible.
  Gilgamesh: Until the end of time, this world will be my garden. Thus, I can assure you. You shall never find this world tiring.
  • Getting Gilgamesh to respect him counts as a crowner for Alexander, as well.
  • The one about Gilgamesh and Angra Mainyu has to be elaborated on. Even though the outcome was obviously pretty bad for the world, what Gilgamesh did here was actually sort of heroic in its own, Blue-and-Orange Morality kind of way. And it gets even better with Avenger's Woobie status. Essentially, Angra Mainyu is the incarnation of everything bad about humans. Sins, negative feelings, you name it. It knows nothing but those thoughts. Only hatred and denial. Nothing else can exist within that black mud because it is immediately swallowed up. So it is left alone for all eternity with nothing but its loathing for the world and itself. But Gilgamesh defies that. His existence is so absolute that he can stand where nothing else can. And he tells Avenger that it's okay. That he will permit it to exist. He gives confirmation to something that is antithetical to the very concept of it. And he succeeds. He's practically comforting the devil at that point, in his own, strange way. So he's a hero alright. Somehow.
  • It also function as a Take That! to those originally responsible for Angra Mainyu, as they put the blame for everything on one person so that they didn't have to shoulder the responsibility of their own evils. Gilgamesh rejects that because he, as the king, will shoulder the weight of the entire world, so there is no need for a scapegoat.
    Gilgamesh: The King will acknowledge it; the King will permit it. The King will bear the burden of the entire world.
• It just wouldn't be Wave Motion Sword time unless they break up the word and start with 'EX—!
  • —CALIBUR!
    • Bonus points for Excaliblasting the actual Cthulhu.
• Irisviel has been kidnapped, is on the verge of death, and is being interrogated by Kirei while being held by the throat. Her response? She calls Kirei a coward, tells him that he has no chance to defeat Kiritsugu, and pushes Kotomine Fucking Kirei to the edge. Apparently old man Acht must have given her massive adamantium balls.
• The fight between Gilgamesh and Alexander, starting from Gilgamesh using the true power of his Noble Phantasm to completely wipe out Alexander's entire army. Then after losing said army, Alexander decides to rush Gilgamesh all by himself and while constantly being showered with legendary weapons and even then he doesn't falter, he only stops his advance when his thwarted by Enkidu and slain by Ea.
• Kirei seemingly gets completely checkmated by Irisviel when she binds his hands with magical wire and ties him to a tree. What does he do? Snap the thing in half to break free. With sheer physical strength. No magic, no power-ups or assistance from anywhere or anything, just his own sheer concentrated strength and force. The best part would be his complete nonchalance throughout the whole thing, like what he's doing is as natural and normal to him as breathing and nothing to make a big deal about, total opposite to the powerful show-offs that tend to make up this series.
  In a way, it could be said that the women still underestimated the terror that was the Executor of the Church.
  • Kirei kind of did have a power up: a little phenomenon that has escaped official naming by scientists to my knowledge. You know how a mother can lift a car of her baby? Yeah, that's because everyone Is that strong. Your body just can't handle doing that 24/7. Executors are trained to activate it at will. Understand? You would break your own bones, starve your lungs, and burn up all your nutrients. You cannot take it. But Kirei, he can. And he's not even using magic. Imagine what kind of terror he'd be if he mastered Self-Reinforcement. Doubles as a moment for the entire Holy Church if people like him are their foot soldiers. An elite one, but still a food soldier. He's their equivalent of a Marine.
    • Kinda doubles as a big Fuck You to all the supernatural... everything, really, that they hunt. Mages, vampires, phantasmal creatures, the whole lot of them think themselves so far above the everyman. And the Church positively slaughters them with strength every man possesses. Sure, they have special weapons, but good God, vampires have got to have nightmares about these guys.
  • This scene was also a giant Moment of Awesome for Irisviel. Every bit of her character we'd seen so far had suggested a devoted loving housewife, with only a hint of her badassery coming out when she was driving with Saber. What we'd seen about her magic before suggested that she was a healer and overall just a sideline character. But when Kirei starts coming she stands in his way knowing full well he is an Executor of the Church. Because she will not let him hurt her husband. She busts out some fancy wire work and stalls him long enough for Kiritsugu to do what he needs to do. The leitmotif that plays for her while she does this? Let the Stars Fall Down. The fact that she lost does not in anyway diminish the awesomeness of that scene.
• The anime really made the not awesome scenes from the Light Novel into awesome. Lancer's curse, while tragic, it becomes sort of awesome and the moment Kirei kills Tokiomi became epic, both mainly thanks to the fact it's visualized and also the camera and faces of the people involved (Lancer's rage, Tokiomi's surprise and Kirei's evil smile).
• Lancer lifts the curse he put on Saber's hand to stop Caster from killing hundreds of people, then swats Berserker's hijacked F-15 out of the sky like it's nothing. Doubles as heartwarming.
• Saber's Riding skills were an Informed Ability in Fate/stay night. Not so in its prequel, since Kiritsugu was able to procure a steed for her... which happens to be the world's fastest motorcycle that is nigh-untamable by normal humans due to its excessive torque. Saber was not only capable to ride it without so much as batting an eye to the traffic in pursuit for the Berserker disguised as Rider, she further reinforces the bike by equipping her armor on it so she could catch up to Rider's Gordius Wheel.
• The entire fight between Kotomine and Kiritsugu in the penultimate episode. The Shocking Moments went through the roof once Kotomine, with a disabled right arm and with Kiritsugu moving at triple speed, still managed to singlehandedly block every one of Kiritsugu's knife attacks with his left hand.
  • How do you handle someone using Super-Speed against you? Kirei handles it by simply adjusting his speed to compensate. That's right. He's just fucking triples his speed naturally to compensate for an opponent using magic to do the same.
  • Don't forget that Kiritsugu was attacking from Kotomine's blind side, since Kotomine's left eye was obscured by the blood from the bullet-wound to the head he still managed to mostly dodge.
  • From the same episode: "Daddy loves you, Ilya." (BLAM)
    • Remember, that episode was aired on what is Father's Day weekend in the states.
  • "Six billion people... or two members of my family. I will kill you. And I will save the world." He beat the Grail with its own logic... which was Kiritsugu's logic to begin with.
• Caster summoning the Nasuverse equivalent of freaking Cthulhu all the while delivering an awesome Blasphemous Boast:
  Caster: And now once again we raise the blood-soaked flag of salvation! You who are abandoned, gather here! I shall lead you! I shall rule you! The resentment and rage of we, the oppressed, shall reach unto lofty throne of God himself! O Lord in Heaven, with word of condemnations I praise your holy name! O, arrogant God! O, cruel God! We shall pull you down from your throne!
• Alexander's heroic speech to Waver. He gets a lot of impressive speeches, but this one takes the cake. Basically, Waver is questioning his right to have such an awesome servant, saying he'd be better off with Assassin and Rider must resent him for having to be led by someone so small. In one grandiose speech, Alexander both confirms that he thinks Waver is a fine master, and someone he respects, and points out that his attempt at conquering the world was a Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? moment, and he believes Waver is doing the same thing, punching out his own Cthulthu. This is, of course, right before the pair of them ride off to fight Caster's Cthulhu.
  Rider: Look at this, boy. This is the opponent I'm fighting. [points to a map of the world] Now draw a picture of us two, right next to this enemy. And do it to scale, that we may compare ourselves.
  Waver: That's...
  Rider: Impossible, right? Compared to the enemy we're facing, you and I are the same, no more than dots! What's the point in comparing our heights? That is what makes this exciting! The smallest, the weakest... it doesn't matter! I should still wish to go and take over the world, with nothing more than my tiny dot of a body! Within my chest beats the heart of the King of Conquerors!
  Waver: So then, you don't care who your master is? It doesn't matter how weak I am.
  Rider: Who said that? Your own feeling of inferiority signals a fine military leader. Despite your grumbling, you recognize how small you are. And even still, you choose to ignore it, to claw your way to greatness.
  Waver: That's not a compliment. That's an insult.
  Rider: That's true, boy. You're a fool, through and through. Your desires are beyond your abilities. "Glory awaits beyond the horizon." In my day, that was one of life's basic tenets.
  Waver: That's why you kept charging east, like a crazed maniac?
  Rider: Indeed. I wanted to see Oceanus with my own eyes. Unfortunately, my dream never came true. Oceanus is still my final destination. A dream that never ends. Go ahead and laugh. Two thousand years later, and I still have the same dream. Every bit the fool as well. And so, boy... a pact with a fellow idiot seems ideal.
  

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