 I hope you don't insist on happy endings, as Fate/stay night comes to an end with a set of decidedly mixed blessings for its lead characters. Before we get that far, though, there's the small detail of the final Master to deal with, and some tough decisions for Saber and Shirou about how best to deal with the Holy Grail. Well, no-one ever claimed that this would be easy...
21 - The Star of Creation that Divided Heaven and Earth
It's slowiy beginning to sink into Shirou that he's long since stopped fighting with Saber to bring an end to the Holy Grail Wars - rather, he's now fighting just to be with Saber, and the realisation that the Golden King could bring their time together to an end gives a huge boost to his will to fight. Unfortunately, this is a battle that neither Shirou nor Saber seem capable of winning...
22 - The Result of a Wish
Venturing into the basement of Kirei's chapel may well turn out to be Shirou's final mistake - and he can't say that he wasn't warned, after the voices in his head warned him not to go there. He'd gone there for advice, leaving Saber, Rin and Illya at home - and himself defenceless. Rin, meanwhile, has determined that Lancer is no longer fighting for his original Master, and after discussing the matter with Saber their information leads them to one place: the chapel. Fearing for Shirou's safety, Saber races to his aid, but she may already be too late...
23 - The Holy Grail
Deciding to destroy the Holy Grail is one thing - for Saber and Shirou, doing it is quite another, and when the pair return home to make their plans, finding Rin critically wounded and Illya missing only adds to their problems. Kirei plans to use Illya as the vessel for summoning the Holy Grail, the human sacrifice that's required to complete the process. That at least means that she's safe, for now - Kirei can't summon the Grail while both Saber and Lancer are still alive - but their time to act is running out...
24 - All Too Distant Utopia
Shirou is able to break free of the curse that Kirei had placed upon him, and in doing so proves himself to be more powerful than anyone expected. He also finds himself with a renewed determination to defeat Kirei and his plans - although Kirei isn't out of tricks yet. Saber is also proving herself to be more of a challenge than Gilgamesh had expected, and he soon finds the battle getting away from him...
Hmmm. Along with "happy endings", you can add Rin and Illya to the list of things that don't really feature this volume - from being fairly key to events, both characters get somewhat shafted by events here, as Illya is almost ignored and Rin is pushed firmly into the background. In one way, that's a bit unfair on both characters, who had played important roles up until now - but to be fair, it's also to be expected, as Shirou and Saber - their relationship and their battles - take centre stage as the series reaches its climax.
And it's a climax that's reached slowly. Very slowly. Whenever I'm reviewing fighting shows, there's a frequent complaint I make about pacing of battles, and how I could well do without villains who spend what seems like forever posing, boasting, and explaining in minute detail just how they're going to whup your ass. Usually just before getting their own ass handed to them on a plate. Normally, 24-episode shows don't have the time to indulge in such luxuries, but somehow Fate/stay night finds some to spare, and we're left listening to Kirei and Gilgamesh droning on far more than I had the patience to listen to - to the point where I had a bad case of nodding dog syndrome at one point (I'm falling asleep.. no, wait I'm wide awaaaak.. zzzz). Not really a good thing for a series to induce in its audience.
The already-stretched battle sequences are then stretched further by flashback scenes, explaining events from the past for both Saber and Shirou that explain how they came to be where they are now and that give them additional motivation to rise to the challenges they're facing. While these flashbacks do usually provide useful information, they don't help the pacing. The end result is a closing arc from the series that ends up being far less eventful and entertaining than it really should have been, given the setup.
There's also less time spent on dealing with the aftermath than I would have liked, as Saber and Shirou get all of about 15 seconds to say their final words to each other before they're separated - and in one of the more bittersweet endings I've seen in a while, it's made very clear that their separation will be permanent and irrevocable. That being the case, I would have liked it to be a little less sudden, but so much time had already been used on the battle itself that there wasn't enough time to do much else.
If it sounds like I ticking off a list of flaws that I found with this volume, it's because I am, but for all that it does miss the mark on a number of points it still manages to be worthwhile, primarily as it manages to tie up all the little loose ends and mysteries that the series had carried for its length - you're not left at the end wonder why x or y happened, it all makes sense and is consistent with the mythology that the series built around itself, and that's increasingly unusual these days.
Overall, then, Fate/stay night has been an above-average series, and even though this volume misses a few tricks with the way that the final battle is portrayed. In presentation and consistency, though, it scores high marks, and with some likeable characters making up the core cast there's a lot to like. Well worth checking out.
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