I understand his motivations and can see somewhat how he thinks but at the same time it's pretty easy to see his actions and call him out on it. It's worse for people who don't know his backstory and he comes off even shittier. The anime doesn't do much of a good job explaining either. It doesn't help that I don't like his character either.

Pretty much the post above I made goes here too. I will say that I haven't gone over everything regarding backstories, I've read a bunch here and there and the wiki when I want an overview, so I don't know some specifics. After reading on Maya's history (From the wiki.) it comes off a little better but it still leaves a taste in my mouth that I don't like. I mean he has a kid with Irisviel.

 

No matter his backstory and his goals, it is an undeniable truth that he is a douchebag of the highest magnitude, even if he does it for the greater good/perfect world, a goal which I personally find to be naive and unreasonable, which makes his actions even worse.

He may be an asshole on purpose while not wanting to be one, he may be sorry for it, thinking the pay off will be worth it to the world but he still is an asshole.

Zero sympathy from me.

 

But why is he an asshole?

The Lancer situation was done because he is a massive coward. Lets assume a bunch of things about it.

Lancer and Saber fight and Saber wins, and he lets Kayneth and Sola-Ui live because he is generic nice guy. Oh wait Kayneth comes back in a few months to personally get revenge and someone he knows dies. Another possibility is a Master like Waver dies and then Rider has Kayneth as a Master. Why take the risk? Just kill him.

This is also assuming that Saber will win 100% of the time. Considering Kiritsugu acts like a real person, he can't be assured that Saber is one of the core characters in the story she has to win. If Saber died, he would look back and think, what could he have done? He could have done exactly what he did in the series. This not done because he enjoys being cruel and gets off at misery, it is because that is the safest possible action and least likely to backfire. Does it make him look cruel? Yes, but that is because he is not taking any risks.

On the Saber situation, he has a personal reason to hate everything she stands for and it is understandable. I assume because Sabers sense of Honor makes her a likeable character that if he doesn't like her he is wrong because you say so.

Someone please explain why he is an asshole, because I only see jaded Human coward in his actions. If you only base why you say that he is an ass because you only saw the anime, well then yeah I understand.

To Maiya, does it say anywhere she has been his lover in the novel? The only thing she does that remotely hints that is the one kiss but I admit I could have missed it.

Overall, I don't want to sound like a blind fanboy or anything of the like, but I find the character amazing due to how human he is.

 

So, I saw episode 19 which somewhat explains Kiritsugu's back-story. And I still can't like him, in fact (Not to shit on you or anything SmileOfTheKill, this is just to me.) I dislike him even more. I can understand not wanting to kill his friend/Dad's assistant and I can even understand running away from that. What I don't get it going from loving his father to suddenly hearing some woman he doesn't know asking "Where the bad mage is?" and coming up with the reason from that to justify killing his dad. And then after doing the deed he tells the woman who he met not even a quarter of a day that she's a good person. How the fuck did he come up with that reasoning?

Is his dad most likely a sociopath for not really caring for what happened to the village? Probably, yeah. Kiritsugu finding out that his father wants to turn him into something like that is disturbing too except that his father wants to get rid of the crazy part so he can make his family immortal. But he didn't mean or even intend to cause the villages destruction. Shirley did by taking the medicine, he only did so by making it and she ran off with it. Making him this monster, in Kiritsugu's eyes, makes sense if you put your father as the blame but if Shirley waited or didn't take the medicine then it wouldn't have been an issue. The one who screwed up here was Shirley, not his father.

In short, Kiritsugu is a mess of a character for me. I can look at his past and understand a little on what makes him him but I hate the character on a personal level and in general think he's a shitty person. His views on saving as many people as he can to me is fucking stupid and I'm not looking forward to seeing more screen-time of him in Fate/Zero.

 

You should probably read the novel, Crimson13. I'm not saying it'll change your opinion of him but it lays out Kiritsugu's mindset pretty well, probably better than the episode did but I'm not interested in watching it.

The less I see of Kiritsugu, the better.

 

Those two episodes were the low point of the series, by far. It included a plane flown by a woman who didn't know what to do while she was surrounded by undead people and magical super bees and it made it boring, which is an achievement in and on itself.

Yeah, I just hope that this was it about Kiritsugi. Don't think I can stand another such episode. Will definitely read the novel after the series has ended though, if only to get the full info on that guy. Don't think it will change my mind but it has to be better than what we have seen so far.

 

Agreed, and thank god yes. The Rin episode and these were just plain boring.

 

Huh, while I am looking forward to going back to the main Fate Zero plot, I loved these last two episodes. Thought Kiritsurugi's back story was very interesting, and these two episodes were well put together as a story.

Natalia's death was a really sad scene. Ironic that the (translated) episode came out on Mother's Day as well...

As for Kiritsurugi, I can't find myself liking him on a personal level, but at the same time I find him a very interesting character to watch. In this anime we have a mix of very different, very extreme personalities who are all, to some extent, the protagonists. And I think that's largely what makes it so interesting.

The flashback came at a good time as well I think.

I think the reason Kiritsurugi acted the way he did in that scene was probably more because he had just gone through the experience of seeing the horror of seeing what everyone in the village had become. That kind of thing has gotta fuck him up in the head, and have him looking for someone to blame.

He was given someone to blame. And to make matters worse, when he confronted his father about it, his father acted in a manner that showed no care at all for the victims. I'm not terribly surprised Kiritsurugi killed him after that. Especially since they didn't have a super close familial relationship before that to start with.

Even though he becomes the type of person who tries to think things through in a calculated and logical fashion, I think him killing his father was something I can imagine a normal person doing.

 

I agree with Jarik that the interludes themselves were pretty well constructed. However, I feel like it was a bit awkward in the overall narrative and I for one am ready to get back to the main story.

 

Ahh, such a fun episode. Best in a while! The race was well animated, and Kirei's little plan was delicious. I'm also a little surprised that they decided to show the scene with the Tosaka wife in such detail.

 

Episode 23.

I can't deal with all these feels. Next week will probably straight up kill me.

 

This is why Fate Zero anime is leagues above Fate Stay Night anime.

When you see Gilgamesh use Ea in Fate Stay Night, he just pulls out a sword which spins and makes weird red shit come out. Seems like a strong special weapon, but that's it.

In Fate Zero, you really get a feel for just how ridiculously epic Ea is. It's not just a weapon - it's a motherfucking world breaking Noble Phantasm. It's a legend.

Same thing with the first time you see Excaliber in FSN against Rider vs the time you see it against Caster in Zero. Or even comparing Fate Stay Night anime and UBW movie, Archer's UBW is way more epic in the latter.

 

I was a it disappointing though. I was expecting an epic fight between Rider and Archer but it was over so fast. He just drew his extremely broken weapon and bam, he won. It looked cool but meh, a bit disappointing.

 

It was cool. And the entire scene with Waver was actually really touching. I was expecting awkward, but I was moved.

And yeah, Zero > Fate anime, obvious stuff.