As first half of Fate/zero concludes, how the episode ended kind of reminds me of another familiar show.
Throughout the whole series, everyone has wondered about Caster’s and Ryuunosuke’s reason for murdering all these children. For Caster, he wanted self-divine punishment for the bad things that occurred such as the death of Joan of Arc. When it didn’t happen, he realized that his own self-interest destroyed himself and not God. This is especially true in real life since people who do immoral acts will eventually have a bad ending. On the other hand, Ryuunosuke’s holds a positive and radical view on God as he views him as being evil and loving immoral stuff. From what he said, it totally goes against everything in any religion and thus, makes them look like a psychopath. Still, they will eventually get the punishment they deserve.
Meanwhile, the focus is back on the ever so popular duo in the show with Weaver glancing through a book about Alexander the Great. Throughout the time he spends with Rider, it’s apparent that Weaver still has low self-esteem. He simply doesn’t believe in himself and therefore, feels unworthy since he can never to achieve the strength of his servant. What Rider says after that is important because everyone has some type of inferiority one way or another since a person is only a size of a dot in the world. However, if they work hard to achieve a goal or a dream, they can eventually aim higher. From this, I hope Weaver will get over his inferiority complex so he can make is dreams come true and other things.
Aside from these two moments, it was a great finale despite the big letdown at the end. Starting the Caster battle with Saber preparing an attack on him and ending it right there is perhaps the biggest troll attempt ever in Anime History. When I saw it end like this, it reminded me of Madoka Magica that aired earlier this year with the last two episodes delayed until sometime in April. The only big difference is that they didn’t start the battle, but with a flashback with despair. What I can see out of this is that this show has a problem with pacing. It’s somewhat all over the place not because of the painful cliffhanger, but focusing less on the other important characters, especially with Kariya who hardly gets any screen time. Despite these issues, I still felt that Fate/zero is superior to Fate/stay night with the animation and the approach it took for the story. Rather than stuffing action scenes to the brim, we get to learn more about the characters and of course, how good or bad human nature can get with the 4th Grail War. While the three-month wait might become painful, the series will greatly benefit from it with the overall outcome.
Note: Since this show isn’t over until Part II finishes, I won’t write a review on the first half.
I don’t think the series is badly paced. Some issues might arise with dialogue scenes since it was adapted from a light novel, where this is no problem. Fate/Stay Night’s anime is a poorly adaptation so I don’t think it should be compared to the Fate/Zero anime. Also, I’m not sure how much more Kariya is actually needed. I mean, his motivation and character is already completely fleshed out and Berserker hasn’t really been active either. Meanwhile, Caster’s been one of the main antagonists so far and Rider/Waver have so many things to do like in the development scene you described here.
Despite the few minor missteps, I agree that Fate/zero is leagues better than Fate/stay night with better character development, animation and other things compared to the mediocre adaptation by Studio Deen. Perhaps, this pre sequel got me a bit more interested with the whole Fate series and I think the second season will continue to impress.