Fate/Zero

[Ryllharu]

Not obeying Waver doesn't make him less impressive. It doesn't make him more impressive either. Any Servant wouldn't respect him. He's just a wuss, full of himself and confident of his own abilities, before he got into the War. Now he shows, or is at least discovering, how outclassed he might be.

What disappointed me is that he's just a noble idiot thus far. You have a point that he may be faking it, and that certainly is a possibility given his earlier displays of robbing libraries and watching tons of videos and declaring Bill Clinton as someone he'd have to worry about. Where he failed was underestimating the pride of both Saber and Lancer. Granted, there isn't much of a way to know how much Saber (possibly above all other Servants) wants the Grail. Seeking it was a major one of her life goals. In his heyday, he commanded a great deal of respect, and brought a huge number of warriors into his armies, as he conquered them. But here he is fighting heroes and Kings. So few of them would ever bow to the authority of another besides their Masters.

It was like Rider was ignoring everything he should have learned from the Grail. The Grail imparts knowledge of both the War, its rules, and the modern era. Yet Alexander chose to study on his own as well, and apparently ignored what the Grail would have told him about the relationship of Servants and Masters. He was appealing to other Servants warrior to warrior, something he could understand. He should have been appealing to their Masters.

He's got a lot of pride and confidence. That's great. But he isn't showing much subtlety or insight, yet. Confidence and pride without insight brings hubris. Hubris in a War like this leads to one's undoing.

Sorry but I don't remember Saber's Excalibur being faster than any attack the fifth Rider could throw at her. Saber using Excalibur and hitting Riders Bellerophon that was rushing towards her doesn't really mean it's faster than Bellerophon, that's more a question of timing. Shiro could probably throw a stone at Bellerophon before it hit him but that wouldn't prove that the stone he throw is faster. There's also the fact that we don't know if the chariot is his only Noble Phantasm.

Rider's own words in episode 12 of the FSN anime: "Curse yourself as much as you can, for you are not even able to touch this creature." Rider truly believed that Saber would not be able to touch her once she was on her Pegasus. Both from its aerial maneuverability and its speed, especially with Bellerophon. Excalibur moves in a straight line. Even while she was charging, if it truly was slower, Rider should have been able to dodge it.

[fireheart]

The fact that Rider didn't listen to the Grail just showed me that he's someone that won't blindly follow something just because it said so. The fact that he wanted to find out on his own is by all means more impressive than any other servant since he's the only one that actually questioned the source.

Judging from what he said he's not interested in the war in the first place other than the prospect of facing other heroes so why should he care about the knowledge that the Grail imparted to him? And I don't think he was serious about them joining him in the first place considering he said he wanted to duel both and that it'd be a shame to let them die, if they had accepted he'd have been fine with that but it didn't feel like he was serious about it.

If you asked me he made the right choice in appealing to the servants instead of the masters, because it's the masters that's actually interested in winning the war the servants from what I understood not so much except for Saber so appealing to them would have been useless in the first place. However as things stands he's won some respect with both Saber and Lancer one might even say a favor and unless the masters want to use an command spell that means they might help him against another foe say Gilgamesh or Berserker and that's not something he'd get from dealing with their masters. This is why I think he benefited more than the other servants other than Saber whom faced an potential loss against Lancer twice if it weren't for Rider. Sure Gilgamesh won't be coming to his aid but that was impossible from the start.

Rider's own words in episode 12 of the FSN anime: "Curse yourself as much as you can, for you are not even able to touch this creature." Rider truly believed that Saber would not be able to touch her once she was on her Pegasus. Both from its aerial maneuverability and its speed, especially with Bellerophon. Excalibur moves in a straight line. Even while she was charging, if it truly was slower, Rider should have been able to dodge it.

You can interpret that line like you did but I never did, it always sounded more like Pegasus was such a holy creature that Saber literally wouldn't be able to touch it. Not because it was to fast but because it's protected and that Excalibur was just a lot stronger and blew it away. And according to the not so reliable type moon wiki the Pegasus has insane defense, divine protection as strong as a dragon and already high defense even without it.