Title: Want and Need
Author: Kiiam
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/Supernatural
Status: Work in Progress
Chapters: 10
Words: 82, 400
Published: 09/26/12
Updated: 03/20/13
Fandom: Fate/Stay Night
Pairings: None
Summary: How does the Grail choose a Master or a Servant? Fact of the matter is, it knows the difference between want and need. Masters of the Fourth Holy Grail War know they want a strong Servant, but the Grail knows the Servants they need.
Link: Link

A Fate/Zero centric story based on a fairly interesting premise; is it the master who calls out to the servant or is it the grail that chooses the servant the master needs. I’ll admit to being fairly skeptical of it at first but after sitting down and going through the entire thing I can safely say I’m hooked.

Basically, it’s an AU version of the Fourth Holy Grail War with a couple of changes, the key one being that Kiritsugu ends up summoning EMIYA as Archer instead of Saber. A few other changes happen to the masters and servants participating in the war but that was the main one.

Rider is still here of course because he’s an absolute god damn riot.

The servants themselves are all interesting characters as well. EMIYA is conflicted having to deal with seeing the man whose ideals he took be almost exactly like him. Rider is hilariously spot on in his interactions with a lot of the servants. Lancer is one of the more interesting characters I’ve had the pleasure of trying to get a feel for in a while (though I really wish the author held out longer on actually announcing who he is). Thankfully the rest of the masters are just as interesting, Saber’s master confuses the hell out of me, Kirei is still horribly lost and tormented about life, and of course Kayneth is still a jackass. It actually surprised me just how well the author portrays most of the characters in Fate Zero.

Better yet is the fact that the author doesn’t do the classic blunder that so many do when creating a fic with different heroes in this fandom. Most people are so happy to announce to the readers just who the heroes they brought in are, not so much this guy. As it stands he has managed to still keep one of the servants’ identities a secret which is something I’m really trying to figure out. On the other hand a character who could have been really interesting to try and puzzle out had his name spelled out almost immediately after summoning, doesn’t diminish him as a character but it’s a disappointing missed opportunity.

My main complaints about it so far are the standard spelling and grammar errors. There weren’t any mistakes that really stood out to me or drew me out of the story. I get the impression that the author doesn’t really have a beta to read things over before posting and some things slip through the cracks because of it. It also has a rather slow first two chapters but after that it starts to pick up pretty quickly.

Overall I would give it a 4/5 right now with the possibility to go higher with more content and if the writing stays consistent.

 

One downside is it includes Caren. I haven't read much of the story, but I am already annoyed. F/HA is bloody terrible and anything that uses elements from it needs to be perfect.

Anyways, I will read tomorrow.

 

I found this a while back - and read it up to a certain point, but couldn't go through the rest.

Interesting plot and characters, but the spelling, grammar and general syntax is quite the letdown.

4/5

 

I couldn't get through enough of this. It was just awkward writing, and the constant break of the fourth wall or whatever the hell that was when the author was speaking directly to the audience was just annoying.

2/5

 

Your score doesn't match your comments. 4/5 = Library worthy, but you couldn't finish the story? If you don't like something, don't vote it into the Library. In case you're unaware, 3/5 and lower is a vote against entering the story into the Library. 4/5 and higher is a vote to accept it.

Personally, I'm going with 1/5. I couldn't even finish the first chapter.

 

I liked it, probably in my top 15 Fate fics, though that isn't saying much as the fandom is pretty trash. Anyways, Beserkers cool and has a decent character to him, Enkidu is... interesting and is helping Waver develop into a bamf earlier on imo. Rider is going to kill Kayneth and seduce his wife :awesome

Male Saber is a bore tbh, and I have no interest in Archer or Kiritsugu at the moment. Assassain is surprisingly interesting and Kirei is lost. Caster and Ryuunosuku showing Dat Bromance is 4/5 this should definitely be in the libary

 

Loved it. There's definitely not enough Fate Zero fics around (and yeah, not enough good FSN ones around).

I quite like the way it has diverged a fair bit. Enkidu is a fun character (seems to be able to pull whatever weapon he wants from Gilgamesh's treasury, but don't think he can just spam them out like Gilgamesh does). I even like the way Waver is developing a lot more than he did in canon.

Don't like male Arthur at all - especially given the fact Archer had summoned the female Arturia in his timeline. Wonder how that's going to be explained? If there's a good reason it could end up a good plot point, but if it's something stupid like "Alternative timeline" then it'll be fairly annoying.

Loving seeing Rider having to deal with Kayneth. And Kayneth's arrogance and pride being his downfall.

Kirei is interesting. Not having Gilgamesh around to play the therapist, he seems even more confused. His interaction with Kiritsugu is pretty fun.

On the whole, didn't quit pull me in as much as other FSN fanfics. It still is quite early on, and depending on how the plot goes from here, could easily increase the rating, but for the moment I'll give it a 3.5/5.

 

I found all the OC Servants annoying. Well, Enkidu was pretty cool (Jarik, I thought he can only pull one item at a time), but male Arthur was definitely a douche. Golden Boy and Kariya's interactions were also pretty cool, but all in all, I prefer the canon Servants.

The fic did end up on my favorites list, it was overall a pretty enjoyable time sink, but there were too many peeves to give it a solid 4/5. Barely doesn't make the cut, imo.

 

Stumbled on this a few weeks back when I was in my Fate fanfic frenzy and I really liked it. Liked the new Servants and their interactions with the Masters and that it really managed to uphold the tone of the Fate series. Even liked Proto Saber. So yeah, 4/5 from me.