Fate/Extra Last Encore

I am more confused than ever.

So, the story of the game Fate/EXTRA has already happened. And it looked like Tamamo was Hakuno's Servant back then. For some reason, Chakravartin has revived all the Masters and Servants (seemingly just the ones that Hakuno defeated) that died back then to serve as Floor Masters... they can't ascend because they've already been defeated before. So... their new purpose is merely to serve as obstacles for ascension.

And Dead Face. It looks like Hakuno has... residual memories of other Hakunos? From branching timelines or a recursion? Because by Rani's account, it sounds like this twisted Holy Grail War has been going on for 999 years, which seems to indicate that this isn't a loop, but a single occurrence.

Whatever the case, Dead Face gives Hakuno superpowers for some reason, but Rani thinks it will ultimately destroy him.

Speaking of... bye Rani. For being one of the game's main heroines, you sure didn't last long.

Saver, WTF are you doing!?

Umu counter: 22

SHAFT head-tilt counter: 5

edited 25th Feb '18 11:11:22 PM by DarkHunter

Maybe they're clones?

That wasn't Tamamo, that was Saber from CCC Foxtail.

Yeah Tamamo doesn't use swords. He crushes mens dicks with her fists.

I think it is indeed a loop, but only for Hakuno and not everyone else.

So this been going continuously for 999 years? And this seems to be a direct sequel to the game... kinda. The servant we see in the flashback is Fox Saber, but she was never Hakuno's servant I think? In any case this is all very anomalous. What is even the point of all this, given that nothing seems to been achieved after a millennium?

Saber fight with Robin Hood was pretty cool, and I like how they remembered that particular ability of hers.

I'm not sure what Hakuno did to beat Blackmore tho. There was and explosion and then he just... shot him with his bare hands?

Oh look, Rani died. Rin is still fine tho, so nothing of value was lost.

Look again, one way or another, Hakuno was actually using a gun to snipe back at Dan with. It probably ties into how Rani nodded when Hakuno asked if she could "still fight", even after she shook her head when asked if she could "still walk".

As for the deal with the explosion and such, there's a site that gives explanations to some of the terminology used in-setting. One, IIRC, the one discussing the Forest of Regret (the second floor), explains Dan's strategy in general. The entire thing revolves around a giant con he's playing on enemy Masters.

1: Dan is not at any point actually in the clock tower - he's in the upper floors of the same castle that Masters arriving to the Second Floor emerge from. He's deceiving his opponents by performing ricochet shots off the clock tower's bell to make the enemy think they're being fired on from the tower.

2: If the enemy Master isn't killed by the ricochet shots, they'll dive into the forest to take cover. At which point they have to contend with Robin's traps, invisible poison arrows, and the Yew Bow as the finale.

3: Even if the enemy manages to get through the forest to the clock tower, there's an open clearing between the forest edge and the tower, where Dan can kill them either by direct fire or a ricochet shot (the former being how one quick shot shows another Master died, the latter being how Dan sniped Rani off the bike).

4: Even if the enemy manages to get past the other steps and gets into the clock tower, all they'll find at the top is a dummy (or perhaps a hologram?) of Dan at the window and a room full of proximity-trigger explosives.

Now as for how Hakuno worked that out, going off of how Rani implied that Hakuno is the embodiment of the grudges of the fallen Masters...

Hakuno was wondering both why the shots keep happening in time with the bell ringing, and why an expert sniper would be firing from the most obvious vantage point. As he's dwelling on that, he seems to get a flashback of a Master who died while trying to cross the clearing to reach the clock tower... from a shot to the back of the head. The moment he puts the pieces together is when he goes Dead Face and rushes to carry Rani back into the cover of the forest.

I admit, it's still a little vague how Hakuno tripped the mines without dying of them. I don't know if Rani provided something, or if the Dead Face just allowed him to tank the blast.

Finally, given the implications of Hakuno being the fallen Masters' grudges incarnated, it's possible that many of the quick shots of Hakuno dying by various means might actually be Hakuno projecting his own self-image onto the various other Masters whose grudges are carried in him.

EDIT - Double-checked Episode 4. Rani did say that the 'dolls' of her can perform complex tasks if programmed, and can transform into 'swords or armed machinery'. So the gun was almost certainly a transformed Rani doll.

edited 1st Mar '18 12:17:31 PM by Tsuzurao

Episode 6: Wow, they did a really good job making the Third Floor look bizarre. Weirdly enough, this was one of the easier episodes to follow.

In which we spend an episode inside a witch's labyrinth

Actually fairly straightforward, with the big question being what those flashbacks have to do with anything

Shit always gets weird when this Servant is involved. Laughing at SHAFT basically just going full Madoka Magica for the episode though.

So a Dead Face is a "manifestation of death"... different from a ghost, but we're not sure how.

I like that they bring up the Mind, Body, and Soul thing that Extella used so heavily.

Alice always struck me as bratty and annoying in the games, but here she's actually likable. Interesting that they reveal she's a ghost from the start, too. I forget, was she aware of her true nature in the games?

Umu counter: 27

SHAFT Head Tilts: 5

She only became aware after her defeat in game

Nice episode. It was mostly many small characterization moments for multiples characters in turn and that's great. Too bad the subs were getting one every three lines wrong this week though. Worst offenders were the subs saying the doctors were "violating her" when Alice just said everything they did hurt. Other highlights include Rin getting called a pacifist when she says she just doesn't want to fight Amari specifically and replacing every instance of "hurt" and "hospital" in Alice's backstory for "ill", while still keeping the "ill"s that should actually be there, resulting in the word "ill" being written 3~5 times per line.

Apparently the guy who was doing the subs up until now dropped the series, so others are taking his place.

The version I had was translating "Sousha" as "Ludius" (?).

edited 7th Mar '18 12:24:58 PM by DarkHunter

Yeah, the whole deal is that Episode 2 emphasized the intent behind Saber using the title "Sousha" (instrument player), as she elaborates that the intended meaning is 'someone who can use her like a musical instrument, well enough to make the Muses jealous'. As such, different subbing groups are divided on how to respond to that.

I've seen one group stick with Praetor (a particular level of Roman magistrate) because that's what Aksys used when localizing Fate/Extra, and other official translations had stuck with that for consistency. One group went with Maestro (a term for a musician, usually referring to a conductor, but can also apply to performers. Plus, it literally means "Master" in Italian). One group went with Ludius (Latin for a performer, especially on-stage, but also can be used for gladiators, it seems).

edited 6th Mar '18 4:29:01 PM by Tsuzurao

On an unrelated note, can I just note how amusing it was that Tohsaka brought up that the monsters on the Third Floor do not die when they are killed?

Probably over thinking it but when I think about it the plot of the second level doesn't make sense. Like, if the master has an Archer then it should be able to see the old guys trick in the very first shot (since it was established in Fate/SN they have insane eye sight), if the master has an Assassin then he only needs to bunker down somewhere safe while the servant sneaks and kills the sniper and if the master has a Caster then he should be able to nuke the belltower from afar.

Battles aren't determined purely by abilities and given stats, or Gilgamesh would win absolutely everything ever.

Battles are also determined by the individual skills and ideas of each combatant, not to mention, at times, pure luck.

I think Dan was so effective because he would snipe people immediately and if they didn’t die, they’d take the bait of going in forest in which case gg May King and Yew Bow.

So you have an example of Master and Servant using their abilities synergistically to great effect.

Of course you would assume higher level Servants and Masters can out wit or straight up overpower this duo. RIP Fuuma, isn’t it sad?

But I think the point of the second round was to show it was ultimately futile, Dan was never going to ascend and Robin played along in honor of the man he once knew

I finished watching a Let's Play of Fate/EXTRA just now, partly to see more of the Fate series (I've seen Fate/Zero which was great, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works which was also great, and Fate/Apocrypha which was terrible), and partly so I could watch this anime without getting lost.

...so, about that...

Well it's not the adaptation I was expecting, but I've gotten caught up with the plot now. It is confusing until you get that this is a sequel telling its own story.

Have I mentioned how weird things get when Nursery Rhyme is involved? This Servant may just be the most bizarre of them all.

Fairly certain Hakuno believes he's a Dead Face. A deceased person reanimated by negative feelings. However, Rin suggested that Dead Faces can never move on, and just stay in one place stewing in their negativity. Hakuno has been ascending. Makes me wonder...

Speaking of Rin... she's Cu Chulainn, apparently. How exactly did she absorb his powers? We've seen similar in Prisma Illya's "Install" system and in the Demi-Servants in Grand Order, but I'm fairly certain neither of those circumstances apply here.

In any case, I'm guessing that's why she was able to kill Nursery Rhyme's monster form. Gae Bolg manipulates causality to ensure the target's death retroactively. I'm assuming Nursery Rhyme was "resetting" by turning back the Reality Marble's internal time just before it died, but if it was ALREADY dead, it couldn't do that.

Finally, Saber mentions another Master, who had no past, who ascended to the Seventh Floor, and was defeated by Twice. The way she described that Master sounds exactly like Hakuno from the games, and with the prologue showing a dying female-Hakuno, I'm guessing that's who Saber is referring to. I know she said that that Master has no relation to male-Hakuno, but I have my doubts that they're completely unconnected.

Approaching the halfway point. the 4th floor. Wonder who the Floor Master is going to be this time, because there are several options.

Umu counter: 30 SHAFT Head Tilts: 6

There's one rule of Fate: Character says something as absolute be it a rule or being, story proceeds to have characters fuck said rule and do it anyways.

Ah, that was great. Excellent mix of the tragic, weird, and scary. The ending relying on the viewer knowing what Gae Bolg does is iffy, but I did, so...

Yeah, that was messed up. Alice story was so sad, and she turned into something straight out of Madoka.

It's kinda weird how in the end they resolved things just by killing her again, just with some hax to make it stick.

Hakuno is the least hateful person filled with hatred I've ever seen.