a few interesting points in "C"
Quote Originally Posted by Deadfire
C: They defeat all the servants (I mean who is left? If you kill Caster there goes Assassin, Rin and Ilya have had theirs killed off, Rider's master was killed, and Lancer has been missing in action for to long to be still alive. This is very possible as an ending as (at least to me) is the most simplistic way to end it)
I wonder where Lancer is, and what he and his mystery master are up to right now. I get the feeling that guy's going to end up the big wild-card at the end of this game -- if they were dead, we'd have already been told that. I doubt that his relevance to the story is already over -- if it is, that's just poorly played. Cuchulain is a much cooler character than than to show up in eps 2 and 3 and then go die quietly somewhere, you know?

As far as Caster and Assassin go, I don't think that's how it'd go down. Servants need masters to sustain their existence. If a servant doesn't have a master, it disappears, but not right away. They linger on a little while -- it's been explained that a "stray" servant can forge a covenant with a new master.

So if Caster were to be removed, Assassin would stick around for a while. Probably long enough for Kuzuki to recruit Assassin. After all, those two seem like they would get along ... they have similar personalities, similar philosophies on killing (ie: assassin is an assassin, Kuzuki just likes slaughtering people for the fun of it, apparently).

Moreover, Kuzuki is as potent a fighter as a very strong knight-type servant, Saber. Even without Caster's enchantment, he totally shut down Saber's attacks without looking like he was exerting himself to do it. And Caster's enchantment was "on his fists" -- which would explain how he was able to stagger Saber in one or two good hits, and reduce Shiro's arms to what amount to numb stumps of mutilated meat just for defending a couple times. But it wouldn't explain how he parried Saber's attacks, nor would it explain his incredible speed. Enchanted fists don't make faster feet.

So, presuming someone were to be able to get past Kuzuki and kill Caster, Assassin wouldn't immediately disappear, would probably join up with Kuzuki (unless Ilya recruited him first -- she's got command spells left, after all). And that's just some serious bad news.

If you want to make that troublesome servant chain disappear, you need to get rid of the master that's anchoring it in reality, and that's Kuzuki. But that isn't working out so well. After you take him out, Caster's got to worry about finding another master (command spells or not, apparently -- since Kuzuki's not a magician, and apparently isn't Caster's summoner either, unless someone was totally off base saying that Caster killed her original master).

Now, Rider couldn't take out Caster, so we know she's got some level of formidable defense too -- maybe she'd be easier for Saber to take down in a fair fight, but Medea's too clever to let Saber get her in a fair fight, y'know? Saber can't get by Kuzuki, regardless. Berserker might have been able to, and I'm pretty sure Archer would have found a way to deal with him if he were still around.

So the big question is this: how is Shiro going to beat Kuzuki? What is he going to be able to imagine to beat that bastard? Or is Lancer going to ride in and save the day, despite having a cowardly master and Cuchulain's penchant for senseless killing?

Here's another thought... Caster and company never really claimed all the "coma incidents" that've been happening -- and from what Kuzuki said, it seems like that pattern is a little out of character. Why would they be holding back, leaving people alive? What if Lancer and his master are responsible for those, and are building up Lancer's capabilities as the other servants fight it out and wear each other down, in the hopes that Lancer can sweep in, jacked up on as much mana as he can hold, and kill the last servant/master standing?