Oh, Fate/Zero fandom, really?
Assumes the reader is familiar with the premise of the Fate/ franchise. Spoilers for up to episode 9, stuff about Sola-Ui's backstory that I don't expect the anime to touch on anyway, vague ones about the fates of the Lancer trio and one big-ole end-of-story one for Lancer himself. Kind of uncharitable towards Kayneth, but I promise I like him too. Also this got pretty wordy.
So, um, hey there, Fate/Zero fandom. Can we talk? I wanted to have some words with you about your comments on NicoNico’s livestream of episode 9.
So, I couldn’t help but notice that the moment that Sola-Ui appeared on screen, and basically every line she spoke thereafter, virtually all anyone had to type into the onscreen comment box was some variation on “whore,” e.g. tramp, slut, bitch, jezebel, harlot, and, in one more inspired case, “Go back to Babylon.” Now, you and I both know that the way fandom uses those words is not even remotely connected to the reality of prostitutes or sexually active women, and they’re really just vitriolic shorthand, but I wondered if we could talk a bit about it anyway, in more general terms, because it quite ruined what is normally a fairly entertaining way to go and rewatch the episode after my first viewing.
Oh, Fate/Zero fandom… You are aware, aren’t you, that this is not a show about teenagers in the first blush of idealized romance? Or about plucky youths fighting for their beliefs? Or about children whose intentions are good and therefore never going to cause anyone to really get hurt? That it is, in fact, a show about adults? Adults who have grand ambitions, jaded worldviews, powerful magic and sneaky ways to use it, and, most importantly, big, messy, at times quite unattractive character flaws? Because I think you may have missed a memo somewhere that Fate/Zero was written by Urobochi Gen-you might remember him from a certain deconstructed magical girl show that hit it big recently-a man who never met an uplifting story concept he didn’t want to subvert until it was six feet under the sod.
So, Sola-Ui.
Here we have a woman who, if we wanted to characterize as of the beginning of the story in broad strokes, would evoke phrases like “aloof” or possibly “ice queen.” In a magical society that prizes above all else the purity and strength of magical bloodline, a world which breeds for talent like the American Kennel Club breeds for shiny coats, Sola-Ui was raised knowing certain truths about her position. She is a mage. She is a mage of fine lineage. She will be expected to continue that lineage with another strong mage. To be more specific, she will be expected to marry a strong mage to help continue his fine lineage, seeing as how her parents have chosen her older brother to carry on her own family line’s magic.
She has always known that a significant portion of her personal worth is solely determined by her ability to bear powerful children. It has simply been a fact of her life, and she long ago accepted that “love” would not be even a passing consideration in her eventual marriage. For that reason, she closed off her heart, so as not to set herself up for a fall, to be hurt by rejection, to be pained by separation, to be unbalanced by emotions that could not have any bearing on her life.
Her fiancé Kayneth (though probably just as emotionally maladjusted by his upbringing as Sola-Ui is by hers) did not cause any surprises on this front. Though it’s evident in the series that he loves her, he brought her into a deadly war between magi intending to use her as an ace up his sleeve. He would summon a Heroic Spirit to be his Servant. He would hold the Command Seals that would ensure power over that Servant. He would be the one to have his wish granted if he and his Servant won the Grail War. And what would she do? Why, be the battery for the Servant’s powers, his attacks, his ability to take physical form, the reason he can manifest in the world at all.
She would be the mana source. You remember about mana, don’t you, Fate/Zero fandom? Oh, sure, there’s a certain amount of daily recovery, but the one everyone remembers is the transfer of mana through bodily fluids, winkwinknudgenudge.
So sure. Kayneth loves Sola-Ui. But not so much that he isn’t totally all right with having her take all the risks of powering his Servant, and if Lancer is ever in a truly critical state, well, it’s not as if love or romance has ever been a consideration in her sex life before now.
And what does she get in return for this? Well, we don’t know exactly. We don’t know what Kayneth was going to wish for had he won. It would be nice if it was going to be something that she could share in the benefits of, but there’s no guarantee of that, no promise of it. So Kayneth, love her though he may-and I note that I’ve yet to see him express this to her directly on any level-is basically using her to further his chances in the war with no established recompense for her.
And then his Servant turns out to be Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, the Irish hero who, as you know, Fate/Zero fandom, has a mole on his face which causes every woman who gazes on it to fall madly in love with him. Whoops. Well, that’s going to cause some trouble for the engaged couple in daily contact with him. It’s his whole tragedy, in fact. But it’s not Sola-Ui’s fault that he’s cursed, or that no one made any efforts to maybe put a band-aid on the damn thing, is it?
OH BUT WAIT, you say, smug in your condemnation. It’s in the novel that Sola-Ui could have resisted! She’s a trained maga, after all; that kind of curse is really more effective against mundanes, not people with actual power. So she chose not to resist and let herself fall prey to Lancer’s curse. So it follows that all the tragedy that befalls poor innocent Lancer and the very unfortunate Kayneth is all, in its entirety, that stupid bitch’s fault.
So she allowed herself to fall victim to Lancer’s curse. You know what I say to that? Well, why shouldn’t she? Lancer made her feel things she had always assumed would not be for her, could not be for her. Her husband is an arrogant, calculating asshole. All she feels for him is icy disdain. But Lancer, now… Passion. Warmth. Affection. Attraction.
She doesn’t act openly against Kayneth, not until his overconfidence and lack of real understanding of what it means to tangle with a man called Magus Killer land him paralyzed and magic-less in a pool of his own blood. What exactly is he going to do to advance their chances in the war in that state? He can’t help. He can’t fight other Masters. He can’t even scry via familiar anymore. He certainly can’t offer her any kind of protection. He is, it is very reasonably arguable, not fit to be a Master anymore-but she’s still maintaining Lancer, so they could still have a chance if he passes the Command Seals, the evidence of the Master/Servant contract, to her instead. He refuses, unable to trust his Servant’s desires or his fiancée’s intentions.
So she starts breaking his fingers to convince him. Woah, okay, we just careened out of Reasonable City and straight over into Yandere Land. Sola-Ui is allowing herself to fall in love in almost the worst possible circumstance; there are a lot of smart reasons to continue to deny herself those emotions. So some of the wretched fate that befalls herself, Kayneth, and Lancer is, indeed, her fault. But lets consider those other two as well.
Lancer is honorable to his very core; he claims to want nothing more than to give his entire loyalty to his Master and have that loyalty rewarded, as did not happen in his mortal life. But his honor and his desire to be loyal clash badly when his Master turns out to be Kayneth, who is much too calculating, and not anywhere near concerned enough with whether a glorified tool gets any personal satisfaction out of the battles of the Grail War, to mesh well with the upright Lancer. But Lancer values his honor more highly than his Master’s orders; if he’d been more willing to do what his Master commanded of him without having to be magically compelled, who knows how events might have gone differently?
And then there’s Kayneth. Oh, dear, is there ever Kayneth. I don’t think that Kayneth is a character worthy only of hate (and if I did, I certainly wouldn’t say it on hated_character!), and believe me when I say that I have all due sympathy for the man, but Kayneth El Melloi Archibald is, come on, kind of an asshole. He’s a blood purity snob, he’s arrogant, and he has a nasty tendency to wax verbose about all the tortures he has planned for people that dare to offend his discriminating magus sensibilities. If he’d been more cautious in engaging Kiritsugu, had made more effort to make his battle plans in a way that would be acceptable to the honor of his Servant, hadn’t drug his fiancée out to battle with a Heroic Spirit whose tragedy was that his lord’s wife fell in love with him, or, better yet, had refrained from pawning off the real work of maintaining a Servant to the woman he’s ostensibly in love with… Again, who can say what might have gone differently?
None of these three are blameless, although, yes, Lancer is probably the most sympathetic. They are adults, they are making decisions that will frequently prove to be poor ones, following their instincts and their desires and their personality traits in the face of common sense or due caution. That is what makes them interesting and, more to the point, when they’re badly outthought by Kiritsugu and continue to follow those character flaws all the way to the end, it’s what makes them tragic.
Sola-Ui throws caution and unquestioning wifely devotion under a truck to get closer to the first man to make her feel alive. But she’s not the one who maimed Kayneth. And it’s not at her command that Lancer dies impaled on his own spears and screaming blood curses against all Masters who place personal renown above honor.
So, you know. Credit where credit is due.
So, um, hey there, Fate/Zero fandom. Can we talk? I wanted to have some words with you about your comments on NicoNico’s livestream of episode 9.
So, I couldn’t help but notice that the moment that Sola-Ui appeared on screen, and basically every line she spoke thereafter, virtually all anyone had to type into the onscreen comment box was some variation on “whore,” e.g. tramp, slut, bitch, jezebel, harlot, and, in one more inspired case, “Go back to Babylon.” Now, you and I both know that the way fandom uses those words is not even remotely connected to the reality of prostitutes or sexually active women, and they’re really just vitriolic shorthand, but I wondered if we could talk a bit about it anyway, in more general terms, because it quite ruined what is normally a fairly entertaining way to go and rewatch the episode after my first viewing.
Oh, Fate/Zero fandom… You are aware, aren’t you, that this is not a show about teenagers in the first blush of idealized romance? Or about plucky youths fighting for their beliefs? Or about children whose intentions are good and therefore never going to cause anyone to really get hurt? That it is, in fact, a show about adults? Adults who have grand ambitions, jaded worldviews, powerful magic and sneaky ways to use it, and, most importantly, big, messy, at times quite unattractive character flaws? Because I think you may have missed a memo somewhere that Fate/Zero was written by Urobochi Gen-you might remember him from a certain deconstructed magical girl show that hit it big recently-a man who never met an uplifting story concept he didn’t want to subvert until it was six feet under the sod.
So, Sola-Ui.
Here we have a woman who, if we wanted to characterize as of the beginning of the story in broad strokes, would evoke phrases like “aloof” or possibly “ice queen.” In a magical society that prizes above all else the purity and strength of magical bloodline, a world which breeds for talent like the American Kennel Club breeds for shiny coats, Sola-Ui was raised knowing certain truths about her position. She is a mage. She is a mage of fine lineage. She will be expected to continue that lineage with another strong mage. To be more specific, she will be expected to marry a strong mage to help continue his fine lineage, seeing as how her parents have chosen her older brother to carry on her own family line’s magic.
She has always known that a significant portion of her personal worth is solely determined by her ability to bear powerful children. It has simply been a fact of her life, and she long ago accepted that “love” would not be even a passing consideration in her eventual marriage. For that reason, she closed off her heart, so as not to set herself up for a fall, to be hurt by rejection, to be pained by separation, to be unbalanced by emotions that could not have any bearing on her life.
Her fiancé Kayneth (though probably just as emotionally maladjusted by his upbringing as Sola-Ui is by hers) did not cause any surprises on this front. Though it’s evident in the series that he loves her, he brought her into a deadly war between magi intending to use her as an ace up his sleeve. He would summon a Heroic Spirit to be his Servant. He would hold the Command Seals that would ensure power over that Servant. He would be the one to have his wish granted if he and his Servant won the Grail War. And what would she do? Why, be the battery for the Servant’s powers, his attacks, his ability to take physical form, the reason he can manifest in the world at all.
She would be the mana source. You remember about mana, don’t you, Fate/Zero fandom? Oh, sure, there’s a certain amount of daily recovery, but the one everyone remembers is the transfer of mana through bodily fluids, winkwinknudgenudge.
So sure. Kayneth loves Sola-Ui. But not so much that he isn’t totally all right with having her take all the risks of powering his Servant, and if Lancer is ever in a truly critical state, well, it’s not as if love or romance has ever been a consideration in her sex life before now.
And what does she get in return for this? Well, we don’t know exactly. We don’t know what Kayneth was going to wish for had he won. It would be nice if it was going to be something that she could share in the benefits of, but there’s no guarantee of that, no promise of it. So Kayneth, love her though he may-and I note that I’ve yet to see him express this to her directly on any level-is basically using her to further his chances in the war with no established recompense for her.
And then his Servant turns out to be Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, the Irish hero who, as you know, Fate/Zero fandom, has a mole on his face which causes every woman who gazes on it to fall madly in love with him. Whoops. Well, that’s going to cause some trouble for the engaged couple in daily contact with him. It’s his whole tragedy, in fact. But it’s not Sola-Ui’s fault that he’s cursed, or that no one made any efforts to maybe put a band-aid on the damn thing, is it?
OH BUT WAIT, you say, smug in your condemnation. It’s in the novel that Sola-Ui could have resisted! She’s a trained maga, after all; that kind of curse is really more effective against mundanes, not people with actual power. So she chose not to resist and let herself fall prey to Lancer’s curse. So it follows that all the tragedy that befalls poor innocent Lancer and the very unfortunate Kayneth is all, in its entirety, that stupid bitch’s fault.
So she allowed herself to fall victim to Lancer’s curse. You know what I say to that? Well, why shouldn’t she? Lancer made her feel things she had always assumed would not be for her, could not be for her. Her husband is an arrogant, calculating asshole. All she feels for him is icy disdain. But Lancer, now… Passion. Warmth. Affection. Attraction.
She doesn’t act openly against Kayneth, not until his overconfidence and lack of real understanding of what it means to tangle with a man called Magus Killer land him paralyzed and magic-less in a pool of his own blood. What exactly is he going to do to advance their chances in the war in that state? He can’t help. He can’t fight other Masters. He can’t even scry via familiar anymore. He certainly can’t offer her any kind of protection. He is, it is very reasonably arguable, not fit to be a Master anymore-but she’s still maintaining Lancer, so they could still have a chance if he passes the Command Seals, the evidence of the Master/Servant contract, to her instead. He refuses, unable to trust his Servant’s desires or his fiancée’s intentions.
So she starts breaking his fingers to convince him. Woah, okay, we just careened out of Reasonable City and straight over into Yandere Land. Sola-Ui is allowing herself to fall in love in almost the worst possible circumstance; there are a lot of smart reasons to continue to deny herself those emotions. So some of the wretched fate that befalls herself, Kayneth, and Lancer is, indeed, her fault. But lets consider those other two as well.
Lancer is honorable to his very core; he claims to want nothing more than to give his entire loyalty to his Master and have that loyalty rewarded, as did not happen in his mortal life. But his honor and his desire to be loyal clash badly when his Master turns out to be Kayneth, who is much too calculating, and not anywhere near concerned enough with whether a glorified tool gets any personal satisfaction out of the battles of the Grail War, to mesh well with the upright Lancer. But Lancer values his honor more highly than his Master’s orders; if he’d been more willing to do what his Master commanded of him without having to be magically compelled, who knows how events might have gone differently?
And then there’s Kayneth. Oh, dear, is there ever Kayneth. I don’t think that Kayneth is a character worthy only of hate (and if I did, I certainly wouldn’t say it on hated_character!), and believe me when I say that I have all due sympathy for the man, but Kayneth El Melloi Archibald is, come on, kind of an asshole. He’s a blood purity snob, he’s arrogant, and he has a nasty tendency to wax verbose about all the tortures he has planned for people that dare to offend his discriminating magus sensibilities. If he’d been more cautious in engaging Kiritsugu, had made more effort to make his battle plans in a way that would be acceptable to the honor of his Servant, hadn’t drug his fiancée out to battle with a Heroic Spirit whose tragedy was that his lord’s wife fell in love with him, or, better yet, had refrained from pawning off the real work of maintaining a Servant to the woman he’s ostensibly in love with… Again, who can say what might have gone differently?
None of these three are blameless, although, yes, Lancer is probably the most sympathetic. They are adults, they are making decisions that will frequently prove to be poor ones, following their instincts and their desires and their personality traits in the face of common sense or due caution. That is what makes them interesting and, more to the point, when they’re badly outthought by Kiritsugu and continue to follow those character flaws all the way to the end, it’s what makes them tragic.
Sola-Ui throws caution and unquestioning wifely devotion under a truck to get closer to the first man to make her feel alive. But she’s not the one who maimed Kayneth. And it’s not at her command that Lancer dies impaled on his own spears and screaming blood curses against all Masters who place personal renown above honor.
So, you know. Credit where credit is due.