Fate/Zero and the Impact of the Environment
By: Aspiring Shoulder
Aw shit, here I go.
So, this essay seeks to examine the popularity of the Fate/Zero anime, why it stands atop a pedestal of "best Fate property" for many in the fandom, and my personal opinion on whether or not it deserves that pedestal. I will not examine the light novel, because the light novel isn't relevant to this discussion, as it didn't have the widespread audience and impact that the anime did. Seriously, anyone who takes Kiritsugu seriously after the hamburger speech fundamentally missed the point of Kiritsugu's character.
To begin with, we must paint a picture of the anime fandom circa 2011. I will be honest and say that I have not spent as long as many in this fandom, so I cannot speak from direct experience. I will be using the 2011 anime roster and the experiences of many other anime Youtubers as seen through their videos to make this point.
The anime fandom was still young in 2011, having only begun to move towards the SAO boom of 2012 that would begin anime's push into the mainstream. The climate at the time was characterized by several competing big shonen: Naruto Shippuden, Bleach, One Piece, Fairy Tail (and isn't that a trip down memory lane), etc. There were few shows that could legitimately be pointed at as "mature" and "adult", and Studio Ghibli films had achieved a distant, elevated status from seasonal anime with Spirited Away's Oscar win, so attempting to associate them with conventional anime was a tough comparison. The older classics such as Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and more recently Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood all could reasonably be claimed to be adult shows (indeed, Bebop was marketed as and treated itself as a product for adults), but all three fell short of the "mature" image in some way. Bebop was an excellent action flick set in space, but its topics and theme statements on those topics took a backseat to its entertaining action. They were there, but never front and center. Eva's cast consisted of teenagers—extremely disturbed teenagers that were used to explore adult themes, but still teenagers. Fullmetal Alchemist "suffered" even more in this regard, as the teenaged main character's hair-trigger temper regarding his height was frequently exploited for comedy, despite the fact that the show contains one of the most compelling portrayals of attempted ethnic cleansing and the consequences thereof. The two most prominent candidates for this role of a "mature" and "adult" story were Puella Magi Madoka Magica (also written by Gen Urobuchi, incidentally), and anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day. Puella was well-received and praised for its subversive take on the magical girl genre, along with character writing that heavily emphasized consequences of tragically natural actions, but its aesthetic still unfortunately did not fit the fandom's requirements. Puella was still a show based upon the principles and conventions of the magical girl genre, so its aesthetic lacked the gritty, dark aspects that most characterized "mature" shows by. anohana is, to this day, hailed as a masterpiece of the medium, using a painfully real depiction of teenage depression and PTSD to tell a story of healing and moving forwards from a traumatic event in one's life. Yet, as masterful as its writing and story are, it was still a show about teenagers, with all the baggage that comes with that aesthetic. Despite the very mature take on the topics it tackles, anohana's cast still did not fit the preferred age group for a "mature" show. The fandom was hungry for something to come along to prove that this was a medium that adults could enjoy, and Fate/Zero was uniquely suited to fill that slot.
Fate/Zero hit the anime scene in fall of 2011, and it soon became one of the hottest shows on the market. The first few episodes promised a long-winded, tragic tale that would pull adults from all walks of life in the magical world to fight a war for a wish-granting device, summoning legendary figures of myth and history to do battle as their Servants: in other words, a suitably fantastic yet "mature" set up the fandom had craved for a long time. The anime ran for 2 different seasons, playing out over 25 different episodes, over the course of which copious amounts of death, philosophical ruminations, and tragedy occurred. A perfect storm to fill the "mature, adult show" niche the fandom had craved for so long.
Naturally, Fate/Zero made quite an impression on many fans. Several people in the Fate community still to this day praise it as the best property in the franchise, calling attention to its "mature" feel compared to the other shows of the franchise. Another common claim is that all the characters in Fate/Zero felt more fleshed out and developed compared to the characters of the other entries, particularly Fate/stay night. Others still claim that it is the only entry in the franchise to fully deliver on the battle royale premise, showing how chaotic and messy a true Holy Grail War would be. Finally, there are those who say that it's a good entry point into the franchise since it's the most accessible property.
I believe I have made my case as to why the "mature" feel isn't an indication of the show's quality, but rather of the environment the show came out in. It's true that Fate/Zero is probably the only property that delivers on the chaos of a battle royale, and true that it's a good entry point into the franchise due to its accessibility, but I must contest the claim that all of Zero's characters are more fleshed out and more "mature" than those of Stay Night.
Let's begin with the Masters of the War, starting with Kiritsugu.
Hoo boy.
Kiritsugu Emiya begins the show as an entirely different person from the man he is at the end of the show. He begins as a hardened, bitter mercenary that has been jaded by his own life and what he has seen of the world over the course of his career, and ends as a broken, sobbing wreck, yet somehow a kinder, more honest man. The fact that his fall ironically makes him a better person is one of Zero's most fascinating story arcs, and I will fully give it credit for that.
However, I have two major issues with Kiritsugu.
The first one is the idea that he is "mature". He shows maturity in his actions, yes, but one thing that few people seem to notice is that he only ever uses introspection in order to reaffirm his actions and goals, rather than using it to examine them. As anyone who's ever been a teenager knows, this is very much a sign of immaturity, and something that his son, Shirou, handles far better, as seen with his decisions in Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel. Whilst Shirou examines his ideals and comes to his own conclusions on their worth, Kiritsugu merely reassures himself to stay in his toxic utilitarian mindset.
The second one is… well, for all that people remember him, Kiritsugu's presence throughout the plot is minimal. Until the very end, his situation is much the that of the other Masters: one of many players simply looking to claim the Grail for their own reasons. There is no reason to believe he is any more important than the other Masters other than his connection to Shirou, which anime-only fans frankly did not know nor care about.
Kirei is someone that I will commend Urobuchi for writing well: though he's certainly not the most complex character in the world, he serves his narrative purpose well. I have no complaints regarding his characterization in Zero, and I can see why people hold him and Iskandar (more on him later) up as shining examples of mature characters in the show.
Tokiomi is a man who believes in the power of bloodlines and legacies, placing absolute faith in the continuation of the Tohsaka family's jewelcraft research and Rin's abilities as a magus. He's a man whose trust in the next generation is, in a way admirable, but his treatment of his daughters less like humans and more like vessels for knowledge paints him as an estranged father by his own actions and magus tradition. If he was handled well, he could very well been one of the most tragic characters in Zero.
He isn't, for two reasons: for starters, the lack of context behind his decision to give Sakura to Zouken.
Zouken Matou is the most blatantly evil character in the entire series, and he makes no effort to hide his sliminess and vile personality throughout the entire run of the show. Now, the technical explanation for this decision was that Tokiomi felt that Zouken was the best choice to both safely raise his daughter and help her reach her full potential as a magus, and due to how Magic Crests work he couldn't raise them both. However, the show provides no context as to why motherfucking Zouken Matou was Tokiomi's best choice, instead simply using this decision to fuel Kariya's motivations to win the Holy Grail War. Given the horrors that Sakura goes through under Zouken's "care", this critical mistake transforms Tokiomi's death from a tragic end to a justly deserved punishment of a negligent parent. Leaving something as important as this decision to barely-there telling and vague references was the largest writing mistake of the entire show.
Secondly, he's also shockingly immature.
Tokiomi likes to think of himself as the quintessential magus, willing to sacrifice anything to achieve the ultimate goal of all magi: to reach the Root. He paints himself as a noble, putting on airs as a man of elegance and taste. His battle style is also reminiscent of a traditional fantasy wizard, using a jewel-topped cane to summon fire and cast spells. However, for someone that is very much immersed in the world of magi, people who he knows to be amoral and will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, he commits impressive amounts of doublethink as to the behavior of other magi. Leaving the obvious issue of Zouken Matou, he seems to believe that Kirei Kotomine, the man he personally trained to be a magus, would not take to the magus mindset, thus leading to Tokiomi not seeing Kirei's counter backstab coming.
Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald has little depth beyond caring for Sophia-Ri and being a classist, psychotic pomp. Every time we see him on screen, he's either proclaiming his superiority and threatening to kill his opposition, or pathetically whimpering in his broken state. However, much like Tokiomi, Kayneth also demonstrates surprising immaturity when it comes to the magus mindset. Though he figures out the inner workings of Kiritsugu's innate time control from just one glance, Kayneth never once considers that the Magus Killer may have other tricks up his sleeve. Kayneth is a pitiable character, and his death at the hands of Kiritsugu alongside Sophia-Ri is horrifying and is sad due to the sheer tragedy of the situation, but he himself as a character has practically no depth.
Waver Velvet is a fan-favorite character of the series for a damn good reason, but many people seem to forget how much of a whiny little brat he was at the beginning of the show. Much like Gundam fans forget how Amuro Ray acts in the original Mobile Suit Gundam, many Zero fans seem to forget where Waver started, treating him as if he was the same beaten-but-determined young man that emerged at the end of the War throughout the run of the entire show. I appreciate Waver a lot for what he represents, but to forget where a character starts in their development does a disservice to said character.
Ryuunosuke Uryuu is just a psychotic killer. His character has no facets other than "stereotypical card-carrying villain", and whilst this may or may not make him a compelling antagonist depending on your tastes, it certainly does not make him a complex or "mature" character.
Kariya Matou is a tragic character, yes, but his motives are not necessarily more "mature" than any of the other characters we see: if anything, his motives are perhaps the least mature among the main cast. He begins the show with a pact with the metaphorical devil, allowing Zouken to infest him with Crest Worms so he can sustain a Servant in order to win the Grail for him, in exchange for Sakura's freedom. This is a noble and understandable motivation, but as the show progresses the audience sees Kariya's vengeful, almost mad spite against the man who he blames for this entire debacle: Tokiomi. He rages and spits at Tokiomi, and through his past, the audience also sees that Kariya has never moved on from his love for Aoi, despite the fact that she has long since moved on. In the end, Kariya's actions seem as motivated by his vengeful spite as his desire to save Sakura, and the audience never really gets a permanent answer before he succumbs to his tragic fate.
Now, on to the Servants.
Saber, on the surface, is a well-written character, but upon closer examination, her writing is remarkably inconsistent. She says that she was an emotionless king in life who could not understand the hearts of her people, but we never really see that in-show, and she seems less like someone who had the capacity to be a king and more like someone who was a loyal knight to a king. In short, Urobuchi focused too much on the "Knights" in "King of Knights", which I consider a disservice to Saber's character. In Fate/stay night, Saber is shown to have stripped her border villages bare and burned them down in order to prolong the existence of Camelot and to preserve her kingdom, and she would quite frankly have had a much more interesting dynamic with Kiritsugu if her issue was that they were much too similar rather than much too different. Instead, we get an almost comically naive knight who seems to only exist to be looked down upon and ridiculed.
Lancer is a great character, but the fact remains that he does not have the force of personality required to truly stand out, and his actions in the show are fairly straightforward. His straight-laced personality and rigid obedience to his Master, regardless of who they are, is rooted in a tragic motivation, but this has the unfortunate side effect of making him one of the duller characters in the show. By contrast, his Stay Night counterpart, though much less complex in motivation, is far more enjoyable to watch, with his easygoing and friendly demeanor acting as a great contrast to his ferocity in battle.
Gilgamesh is someone that I have trouble comprehending as popular. Yes, he does have motivations that could be interpreted as complex, and yes, there is more to him than overwhelming power, but all of that is buried under an ego the size of the galaxy and an insufferable attitude towards everyone else. He views them all as mongrels beneath his attention save for Saber, who he makes very uncomfortable and frankly creepy advances on, treating her as more a possession than a human, and Rider, who only earns his respect at the very end of the show. Gilgamesh is meant to be a hate sink, and has little in the way of redeeming qualities, and yet for some reason many people hold him up as a great character that they enjoy. Perhaps it's due to the unapologetic nature of his larger-than-life personality, but I feel that Gilgamesh is far from the best character in the franchise.
Rider is another character in Zero that I have few complaints about, and those complaints come less from him specifically and more the treatment that the show as a whole gives Saber, as I mentioned above. In this show filled with dark, brooding Masters and psychopathic loons, he and Waver bring a much-needed sense of levity and fun into every scene they're in, with Rider's bombastic boasts contrasting with Waver's terrified whimpering and screaming. As the show goes on, their dynamic improves as well, with Rider becoming (slightly) more reserved as he spends more time with Waver, and Waver slowly growing a spine and becoming more willing to stand up and fight as he sees his newly-found king charge headfirst into anything the War throws their way.
Caster also has little depth beyond "psychotic killer", matching his Master atrocity for atrocity and reveling in it the whole time. Everything I said about Uryuu applies to Caster, so let's move on.
Assassin is barely even a character, serving as little more than cannon fodder and a scout that gets killed off early on in the War. Which is disappointing: the fact that their Noble Phantasm is basically weaponised dissociative identity disorder could have led to an interesting exploration of that particular mental illness, but instead Urobuchi chose to simply use them as a plot device.
Berserker is only slightly more of a character than Assassin, with his Mad Enhancement reducing him to a screaming beast who happens to be good with a sword. His identity remains a mystery throughout the show, only being revealed at the very end to be Sir Lancelot, serving no purpose but to twist the knife some more in Saber's entire experience in this War. Berserker is little more than a plot device, and unlike his Stay Night counterpart, has little in the way of relationship with his Master.
To say that Fate/Zero is a bad show is patently false. Urobuchi has written a grand tale of tragedy with his darker take on the Holy Grail War that many justifiably enjoyed, and it gripped the entire anime fandom in fall of 2011 for a reason. But that reason has less to do with the quality of the show itself and more of the niche that it filled due to the environment at the time, and the fact that its status in the franchise meant that there was little issue in terms of accessibility. These factors have caused many fans to view the show through a nostalgic lens, forgetting its faults and creating an attitude of toxic elitism among the fanbase. To all who still regard Fate/Zero as the greatest work of the Fate franchise, I hope that this has highlighted the flaws of the show for you and encouraged you to give ufotable's TV adaptation of Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] and their film adaptations of Fate/stay night [Heaven's Feel] a chance. Who knows? You might come away with a newfound appreciation for the franchise as a whole.
