THIS ISN'T KINDNESS - Fate/Samurai Remnant - 20 

Holy shit, this storytelling just gave me the goosebumps.

There's a lot of foreshadowing to Iori's true nature. If you look back to the first route before the fight against Yui Shousetsu, Yui describes Iori as selfless which then Iori immediately said "I am not a selfless man, Yui Shousetsu" similar to how he describes himself as being not a kind person to Saber. Then after the big battle against Rider Yui entrusted Iori with a promise to bring peace to the world, but after Iori made the promise Saber questions Iori "Is it okay to make a promise like that?". What once was a sweet moment between both of them is then recontextualized as a sad one because the reason Iori took on the promise might be because it helps him to "win". Yui sees him as a ray of light but that light cast a looming darkness.

Iori: "All my kindness is just a lie so I can have the best chances of winning..." Saber: "Is that why you constantly are doing every meaningless side quest to help people?" Iori: "I'm telling you I don't care about anyone." *5 minutes later* Iori: "DON'T TOUCH MY LITTLE SISTER YOU ASSHOLES!"

"Why are these scenes NG+ only?" Rather than some grandstanding hidden meta narrative like some might think, I believe the true reason is perspective. In everyones first playthrough, players saw Ioris deeds and what others thought of him, giving the player the same perception of kindness as everyone else. However, in the second playthrough onwards, we got to know Sabers inner thoughts about Iori and from there, how Iori thought of himself. That the "kindness" he exhibited does not come from him truly caring for others, but rather a byproduct of his mindset to try to understand everyone, so he can win against them. Some characters, most notably Musashi as shes his master, but also some others like Caster that has incredible insight into a person, also realized who Iori truly is, which is where the majority of the hints in the first playthrough is from. To add a little tip at the end, you can now check the logbook in the main menu so you can end an episode checking if theres additional information/insight, rather than waiting for the start of the next episode, especially for the endings. Oh, and you've gotten everything you needed to do from the Kawasaki Daichi branch so you can load up the Todoroki save file and continue without missing anything.

"Iori is so kind" Iori: "What do you mean, I'm literally a sociopath."

You will notice that in one Zheng’s previous digressions that the last time he cried was when his mother took her own life. From there, he sacrificed his men, friends and family in the pursuit of the restoration of the Ming, and while he may have been saddened, he didn’t grieve. Which leads to the scene after archers death, he finally cries, and states how “Even after all he had seen, there’s still room in my heart to grieve for a fallen friend.” This shows just what Zhou Yu, his friendship and support meant to Zheng. And once again Zheng resolves himself to pursue the restoration of Ming, wanting to be someone that Archer could be proud of. There’s an interesting parallel between Zhou Yu, and Zheng’s mother. They are the only people he cries for, the people he dedicates his ambition to because of the support they gave him before taking their own lives. It could be interpreted that his grieving of them above others is that they are the only people who understand what he has to do, and provide their full support for him, even in death.

Iori is a professional, he's polite, he's efficient and he makes plans to kill everyone he meets.

Kou Shibusawa, CEO of Koei Tecmo, was the person who really wanted to make a Fate project. He felt that a Fate game deserved the highest quality writing, so he assigned the Three Houses writing team to this project. I think now's the proper time to mention that!

I love how the story flips your perspective of Iori and Saber on its head. When you start the game, you see Iori as a kind person who wants nothing more than a peaceful life, and Saber as a ruthless swordsman ready and willing to kill at any time. But then the story flips that on its head later on, they're BOTH hiding their true personalities and their real beliefs are what we assume at the start the others is. In reality, IORI is the cold blooded swordsman ready and willing to kill at any time, and Saber is the kind person who desires nothing more than peace and is forced into violence. Its brilliant. (It's also more brilliant because it juxtaposes certain characters from Fate/Stay Night as well but I obviously can't go into detail about that)

So... the game took the word "subversion" to a whole new level. Choosing to not show us this side of Iori's personality throughout the entire game, it made us, the players, view everything from the perspective of the characters around Iori and Saber. By consequence, we finish the game still seeing Iori as Saber views him in up to the point of this episode: A weak, but kind swordsman who whishes a peaceful time getting progressively stronger. But no. He was never like this. We just guessed that could be something wrong with Iori, but it didn't really pay off until now. By doing that, the game essentially say:"Now, let's see how Iori views everything that happened, Shall we?" This is a great and unique way of telling a history. I'm curious to see how everything unfolds.

It's a pretty common Nasuverse trademark where the protagonist almost always comes across as either a kind dude or a self-insertable character- but in reality they are consistently almost ALWAYS the most effed up person in the room, and you hardly realize that until later on. I love it and it's why I love the Nasuverse!

Yeah the scene with Iori and Saber is creepy and gave me chills in the best way, but I think the creepiest part was when Kaya comes back and his voice switches to a much more "chipper" tone. Like immediately. the fact he can so easily switch back after a conversation like that messes with me. Again, in the best way.

The identity of the swordsman, who slew the bandits that took little Iori, is never explicitly revealed. The fanbase speculates that it's most likely Yagyū Munenori, the swordsman who served the first three Tokugawa shoguns as a retainer and sword teacher. The Logbook entry describes the unknown swordsman as a sword saint, which in Fate is a title that is tossed around a bit, but mostly associated with Yagyū Munenori (and Miyamoto Musashi). Also the "sword like the Moon" comparison may be a reference to the anecdote, where Munenori accidentally cut his son's eye, while teaching him a technique called Moonlight Sword (月影の太刀).

The moment Iori reveals his true motivations feels just like that moment in FE3H when Dimitri reveals that his reason for coming to the academy was purely for revenge.

Yeah, that's my favorite cutscene, you can really feel the tone shift, specially when Kaya comes back, iori's voice does a 180, and you realize how deep an truly unsettling he was acting, and even that cheerfulness is creepy on its own

TYPE-MOON 101 COME FOR THE CHUUNI FIGHTS AND MAGIC SYSTEM, STAY FOR THE EMOTIONALLY DAMAGED PEOPLE INVOLVED

Knowing Iori "kindness" When scenes where a character says "you are a kind man" Iori respond with something similar to "oh I see....."

11:25 - this here was when I realized that yeah, Iori is a Nasuverse protagonist. To say they are all "flawed" is the understatement of the century. I appreciate how, in an age where it seems many franchises are too afraid to show their main characters being simply mean on the idea that it might bother people, Type-Moon is unafraid to present you with someone that makes you reconsider if you should even being doing this second playthrough. It's great. I won't get into specifics, but a similar thing occurred when I read one of the main Nasuverse visual novels. There was a character who let their true intentions show, and it recontextualized a lot of stuff from the first playthrough, and I actually felt as betrayed as if it was a real person who betrayed me. I was sick to my stomach. I had to have friends convince me to continue (it's a good thing I did! There's great stuff past it!) The best media, in my eyes, makes you feel something. However, that feeling doesn't have to be happiness. Keep this in the back of your mind for this route, and don't forget it for the final final decision.

Iori really be like "Figure out how to kill every person you meet."

Assassin: I don't like cats Dorothea: THREE COMMAND SPELLS IN CONJUNCTION! ASSASSIN, I ORDER YOU TO PET THE FUCKING CAT!

To add onto the COTD, Torikoe Shrine, near lori's house, is dedicated to Yamato Takeru and might have also contributed to Iori summoning Saber.

“Iori’s such a good guy” Iori: IN THE END PEOPLE ARE NOTHING BUT TOOLS. AS LONG AS I WIN, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS “HOLY FUCK”

the subtle implication that kaya is one of the few things that keeps iori not as full on psychopathic as he could be (since he immediately changed plans to go save her and she'll always keep checking up on him, make sure he eats between training and all that normal people stuff) makes me...worried...like...what if kaya died?

If there’s one thing that’s very compelling about the Type-Moon stories are their protagonists. Usually they are suckers who got roped into some sort of conspiracy, be it a Grail War, vampire hunting, or whatever shenanigans out there that is supernatural. However unlike most stories, while they seem like an ordinary person, underneath is some sort of grand ambition, trauma, or dark side to themselves that is kept hidden and only a few people can recognize (Like Musashi and Chiemon recognizing Iori’s true nature) that is unraveled the more playthrough, more routes you go through.

And this is part of the reason I fell in love with the Fate/ franchise, the storytelling and character work tend to be really solid. It has the sort of stories that you can take your time to watch again and really think it over. I mean, let’s just think about it, Iori was raised by Musashi of all people. Yes, she is a fun character and a fan favorite, but she also freely admits that she (along with the male Musashi) raised Iori with the express purpose of having him become a strong opponent she could eventually defeat and likely kill. Even the version of Musashi we meet here (after she went through some character development in other games) is not exactly responsible or empathetic, following the promise of a good fight and also willing to have that fight to the death despite knowing that if Iori were to die there would be no one to stop the Waxing Moon ritual. So how would someone who spent their whole life fighting and searching for a way to become the strongest swordsman in the world raise a child? Thinking back, it made no sense for Iori to be kind when he would’ve been taught that the most important thing in life was pure, raw strength, he wasn’t raised as a son, he was meant to be a warrior…and yet, he appeared to be kind. It was a bit illogical, but because Kaya was also there, and we see grandpa Red have seemingly normal family interactions, it became really easy to forget the sort of person Musashi (both male and the one we meet here) would’ve brought him up to become and how odd it would be for him to be genuinely kind. The game even sort of hints at it a little bit with Zheng, who at a first glance appears to be kinder than most other masters, trying to reduce colateral damage and keeping the people safe…only for us to find out later that he was very much willing to betray Iori. He killed his own family for the sake of obtaining his goal, and both he and Archer agree that Iori resembles him. The game does a really good job with making you misinterpret the main character’s personality while also not shying away from hinting at it.

I don't know much of anything about Fate, but I do know a bit about the actual historical Miyamoto Musashi. This side of Iori is much more in line with him and his beliefs, which are Quite the far cry from our fun-loving, English-spouting, gluttonous gyaru Musashi-chan here in the Nasuverse - though I guess that's part of her appeal to people who know the facts about him. Musashi was a very practical swordfighter, which we can see even with the Ni-ten Ichi-ryu style he developed. Most Samurai would carry two swords by shogunate law in the Edo period: the longer one, the katana, was the one used for combat and duels, while the shorter, the wakizashi, had a mostly ceremonial role, notably in the ritual of seppuku. Musashi pretty much said "if I have to carry around two swords, I might as well use two swords" and developed an unorthodox style of fencing that uses both. Many of his contemporaries saw as dishonorable, due to the wakizashi's traditional role being almost sacred. Another example is his rivalry and famous duel with Sasaki Kojiro (Iori's second master in this timeline) that was mentioned in the comments a few episodes ago. Sasaki was known as quite the opposite of the pragmatic and worldly Musashi: flamboyant and theatrical, and all about the honor and pomp of being a swordfighter. In the famous duel, Musashi set the place and time to be on an island - allowing him to arrive from a direction of his choice, namely from the west. He then arrived intentionally late, with the setting sun low at his back, blinding his opponent. He also carved the oar of the boat he used into a blade and used it instead of his katana, which served a dual purpose: Firstly, Sasaki was known for using a nodachi, an especially long sword originally made for fighting from on horses or against cavalry, and gave him a longer reach than most of his opponents (see also: Sasaki was one of the inspirations for Sephiroth's design). The boat's oar was longer, effectively nullifying that advantage - and unlike buying an actual longer sword - doing it this way, Sasaki's spies would not inform him and this would be a surprise. Secondly, being wooden: a wooden sword does not slide as well against a metal one, allowing Sasaki to use his experience with the Nodachi to leverage and overpower Musashi in a sword clash. Perhaps more importantly - a wooden sword is considered a training implement and not a proper duelling weapon. Being disrespected both by Musashi's lateness and his choice of a joke weapon (and in some retellings, also by some words Musashi spoke), Sasaki became enraged and careless, which eventually allowed Musashi to kill him. Using the receding tide to mount his boat and escape faster (again, his choice of timing the duel to align with the cycle of the tide), Musashi was able to escape the wrath of Sasaki's followers for breaking pretty much every single code of honor a duel between samurai dictates. Even more than that story, Musashi also wrote a part-philosophy-book, part-swordfighting-guide named the "Book of Five Rings" (Iori's five stances in this game are named after these "Rings"). In this book, you can find several principals - which were very much opposite of his contemporaries like Sasaki - that you might find familiar. For example: * The only goal of dueling or swordfighting is to cut down the opponent - anything that needs to be done to reach that goal, should be done. * During a sword duel, every motion or cut you make should be only with the intent of cutting down the enemy and killing them, do nothing unnecessary. * Percieve everything around you in as much detail as possible, but do not do it in a way that reveals what you are focusing on (look without turning your eyes). * Know your enemy as well as possible, so that you may use this knowledge against them. * A warrior's life consists also of the small and large things outside the scope of swordfighting, such as daily life, how to excel at other professions, or global politics and events. * The only way to achieve excellence is through training. * Learn techniques from other swordfighting schools so you can both anticipate and counter them, or integrate them into your own style. See for example: Iori's mixing of Musashi's dual sword style with Sasaki's Swallow Cut triple slash to produce the sextuple Swallow Cut you get in this game. While I don't know the ending(s) for this route, I suspect some of Musashi's philosophies in the books of Wind and Void might also come into play as Iori walks down this path - but I won't mention them here since I fear spoilers in the replies. Truly Iori is his adoptive father (and blood uncle)'s son.

There's a reason why my favorite character of all time is a Type-Moon protagonist. Nasu is something else when writing characters, though he's also done standard voiceless main characters as player avatars a couple of times. In this case, he wasn't the actual writer, but he was the story planner. In fact, this would be a good time to mention that originally Iori wasn't going to be the protagonist. The developers wanted to add him to the game as a servant, and even made a design for him (you can see it if you look for the Famitsu interview with the game's artists), until Nasu saw that and told them he wanted him as the MC. Not sure if they've ever mentioned who was meant to take his place originally, though.

The main reason why in new game+ things is different and Iori is painted as a much more unhinged person is because he stopped holding back from the start.As nice as our power progression is shown on the first playthrough,the truth is that nobody is capable of learning all those stances and tehniques in a couple week's:he knew them from the begining of the story! (the exeption is servant's tehniques of course)

welcome to the most important part of nearly every Nasuverse protagonist! MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND A LOT OF PENT UP TRAUMA

God dammit. Every time I think Team Archer can't possibly break my heart even more, this game manages to prove me wrong. 😭😭😭

Iori's on his villain arc? Always has been...

Nico’s Foreshadowing and Prediction abilities keep getting stronger and stronger with each LP he does. Episode 13 1:00:15 Nico: “Speak for yourself Saber. I’ve been killing them all up until now. I just didn’t want you taking them away from me. Turns out I’m a f*cking psycho.” Maybe Nico is actually a Caster and can predict the future through his jokes and ad-libs.

I've mentioned this in other comments but i thin i should bring this up for you to see, nico: I don't think its as simple as "Iori was ALWAYS callous and ammoral and thought only of manipualting people in case he had to fight them one day".Ifhe did, he wouldn't have cared at all about Saber accidentally killing a bunch ofpeople during their fist fight with Rider, or when Kaya got kidnapped he wouldn't have cared about ehr at all, let alone ask so many people for help in saving her. In Fate (based on like just one other game) the routes show different siddes to a character and a refutiation or reconstruction of their percieved character. I beleive that's happening here: the first route was a construction of Iori as a kind man. Here this route is showing him as a swordsman to the highest degree: cold and ruthless. of course I could be super wrong. Hell, the cutten the excess scene could be seen as him removing his ruthlessness or his lingering mercy depending on how and which route you view it from

Yeah, I don't think that Snickers bar is going to work anymore...

What makes Iori's approach to finding every advantage to winning especially terrifying is, that's very much the philosophy of Miyamoto Musashi had. In every fight, seek out every advantage you can in order to win. Weather it be using unconventional weapons, the time of day, or even your surroundings. So it's a philosophy he's obviously inherited from his late master and father. Yet Iori has taken it to such an extreme it's actually rather frightening. The thought that every halfway pleasent conversation he has with anyone is not actually him being 'kind', It's him acting in a way he can gain an advantage over them puts a lot of his stoic and calm demeanor into a whole new perspective. This game's storytelling is some thing else. Gotta love it when a game makes you re-analyse previous scenes to see a whole new meaning to a characters words and actions.

I think the “Born in a different era” thing could be meant to be interpreted in different ways relating to the path you’ve chosen for Iori: in the Snake route it means that Iori is way too kind and honorable in a world full of injustice and driven by ambition; in this route it means, just like Nico said, that Iori just can’t stop thinking and acting like a warrior in a time of peace. Iori’s true nature is probably neither singularly, but rather a mix between the two. That being said, the “save Dorothea/fight Tsuchimikado” choice will probably be the turning point. And that’s where your decisions as the player really start to matter.

Iori may claim to "care only about victory", but I suspect that's not as true as he thinks. You kinda skipped over a lot of it, but I suspect Kaya getting kidnapped by Chiemon immediately after that conversation was done like that for a reason. Iori spoke in a logical way that sounded like he was putting his true thoughts out in the open, but I believe that's just a lie he tells himself, at least to some extent. When Kaya got kidnapped moments later, he was more worried about her wellbeing than "victory". He threw down his pride and immediately asked for help from Zheng and Musashi. He even has thoughts noting it as selfish and that he shouldn't even have had involved Saber a little later, but did so anyways. For someone who claims "victory" as his highest priority, he clearly has things he prioritizes over it. Iori comes off to me as a boy chasing a dream. He has an ideal and strives to live up to it. The Waxing Moon Ritual is probably a dream come true for him. But sometimes the cracks in that ideal of his show through. He claims he isn't kind, but his actions all throughout the game betray this. While this mostly comes up around Kaya, it is not exclusive to her. Iori may strive to live up to an ideal, but he is not so simple as to be only an ideal. Even if he doesn't want to believe this to be the case.

hello Nico, time for a lesson in the nasuverse, what makes a good mage is not what would make a good person. Many mages are like Iori, or they have a messed-up way of showing kindness. They often see humans as tools for their own gain, even their own children are seen as property very few are truly kind because the world of mages is a cruel and dangerous world.

Iori: Everything I do is the win and kill… Chiemon: He’s just like me FR FR!

I'm still in the first 15 minutes of the episode and this twist really makes sense to me, not only because it had already been hinted at but also because in the previous route things turned out so conveniently for Iori that it makes so much more sense that his kindness has been part of his strategy from the start. Also, the way he defeated Musashi seemed incredibly underhanded to me for someone so many people consider kindhearted and honorable.

God, it's such a good twist...Type-Moon storytelling is really at its peak when it's about characters who are honestly mentally ill.

Reminder that Iori is not evil His mindset is "I will surpass a strong opponent" Edit: Iori is not a killer as well Hence why he stop Saber from pretty much nuking the area Why does Iori turn down Zheng offer to join his war? Because it doesn't make him a better swordsman just a better Killer Iori just want to be a better swordsman Which is also why he doesn't join any samurai family and stick being a ronin because he has more freedom to train and get better against bandits

HE'S LOVING IT CHAT! THE NASU MAGIC IS WORKING!

I imagine on the last "now back to" Nico gets some of his mods to record themselves chanting "one of us, one of us!" while he tries and fails to keep himself from joining in.

It wouldn't be a Type-Moon project without the protagonist having some sort of severe psychological problem, now would it. I love this company. You do the same few twists in a good chunk of your stories & it hits just as hard every time in it's own little way, it's that Nasu touch, dude. He just Salt Baes a little bit of his spice into the plot & it is magnifique without fail.

Kindness?.... THIS IS FATE!!!

I'M HAVE THROWN AWAY MY HUMANITY SABER!

One of the things I adore the most about this franchise is it's ability to use perspective and information to tell an engaging and interesting story. From the original visual novel and how it uses routes to give us a better understanding of the main character in Shirou, to the novels like Strange/Fake using multiple characters and factions perspectives to paint a bigger picture, to even the mobile game using interesting twists and ideas on the missions and the world's within to allow for some engaging characters and moments. For all the faults this franchise has, it consistently blows my mind how well it can guide someone along a story and still have them guessing or surprised when it comes to characters, motivations, and developments without it feeling out of place or poorly written. As I said, not everything's perfect and if you do fully go down this rabbit hole (which it seems like you might), there will be characters, choices, and story beats that will FRUSTRATE you. However, the overall quality and what this Franchise has to offer is worth it in my opinion. I hope you keep enjoying this game, and maybe even more in the future

When Iori was explaining he's not actually kind Bury The Light is playing in my mind

Iori looks like he could kill somebody at any moment. Aria walks in… Let’s just say, Nico would be satisfied if that happened.

This game sure loves talking about the moon

And here is where we get into what is one of my favorite tropes in Fate stories. The MC is usually at least somewhat unhinged in their own way. Be it from just having a casual disregard for what other characters consider "normal", or an obsession that drives them to the point of borderline psychopathy or just outright psychosis. Fate MCs have more or less covered the entire crazy spectrum all on their own. The only one I can think of that's relatively normal is quite literally surrounded by what is the most outlandish Holy Grail War to date which is best summarized as a "VR Death Match Tournament Taking Place Inside The Moon". That's Fate/Extra, btw. It's getting a remake released in, I think, 2024. Plus, the sequel Fate/CCC just got it's English fan translation done after I think 5+ years of work. That, combined with the fact that "Witch on the Holy Night" got a Remaster on Switch and PS4 last year? Nico, you may have accidentally chosen the best time in franchise history to get into it.

Looking back on this stuff after my playthrough, the Digressions are often kind of pointless in the grand scheme of things, but it makes me realise the staff really loved these characters and wanted to take any opportunity to write more for them. Even something as simple as "they decide to scout out another area and find nothing". And I respect the hell out of that.

Nico by the first ending: Iori's such a bro and amazing protagonist, I love how much of a hero he is! Nico by the second episode of the alternate route: Kodaka, Uchikoshi, Araki or at least Joseph Joestar, and now Nasu... I'm sensing a dangerous pattern here.

When the protagonist is portrayed as kind-hearted and thoughtful of others only for the game to thoroughly tell you in the next playthrough that this was all just an act.

Iori is slowing pick up his speaker, play the song the “**** the light”, sit down his plastic chair, & said “I need more Power.” This is how Iori becoming “Vergil”

Well holy crap, this NG+ has gotten REALLY interesting! I never thought I would get into anything Fate-related, but the focus on just a few characters and the close relationships between them has really hooked me in this game ^^' Thank you so much for going through and doing this multiple times by the way, Nico! Obviously it feels a little weird at first, but you're showing this game off in a very enlightening way haha

52:07 Oh look its Yagyū Munenori, the Peerless Swordsman, the Moonlit Sword

Something I'm confused about regarding Iori's "It's not kindness" speech, is what about all the stuff he talked about in earlier chapters with "We can't allow this grail war to hurt the citizens" and he also talked about following the "path of peace" or something like that, I don't quite remember the exact wording. Just seems like they don't quite go together? Why does he care about the citizens being harmed by the grail war? Well... Maybe they'll go into it more as the story continues. Definitely a really cool story-telling moment, either way.

Mind someone try and exlpain the silence that Assassin did at 39:30? I completed the game, but it still eludes me. Is it like he wasn't happy that Dorothea didn't press on? Like she didn't believe in herself and instead retreated? Did he just now get the idea to test her by allowing himself to be controlled on the next attempt? So that Dorothea would be forced to confront him and grow as a result? It's just the silence at that time was really important as a certain thought came to him.

I thought Musashi was the one who killed the bandits and saved Iori because he said that he saved him in one of the flashbacks.

the person of the comment of the day did not say that the temple near ioris house in Asakusa is a temple were yamato takeru has a certain level of connection even if is not for him, just like how dorotea use a fragment of the temple of the god that curse assassin as a catalyst to summon him since she know that there is a hero with a connection with the god ibuki. in that same way you can say Asakusa it self was ioris catalyst.

So when it comes down to it, characters in Fate can be quite complex to the point where their true nature has to be hidden from the fans in some way. Of course, there are some who are straight forward with their nature and don't need their true nature hidden. But with what we saw with Iori, his true nature makes him less of a heroic person and more of someone who can be referred to as a manslayer. And manslayer is literal, as its actually a skill used by servants who specialize in killing humanoid enemies, mainly humans. Of course, the skill is used by only one servant that appears in FGO/The mobile game. Which means if FGO gets a Samurai Remnant Collab, then Iori will become a Welfare(free to obtain) Servant and will have the Manslayer skill.

Iori is quite interesting as a character, despite innitially coming off as a very bland protagonist that is prone to react, rather than take action himself. Once you learn more of his backstory though, you start seeing some nuance . We know little of his actual childhood, but the first cutscene in the game paints quite a picture. The only survivor of a raid to his town, forced to serve the bandit leader. To survive among such volatile people, you need to be perceptive and know how to placate a violent temper - wear a mask, read people's emotions and keep your own in check. Yet, he was powerless to free himself and doomed to eventually die, once the leader grew tired of him. When Musashi came into the bandit camp and slew the bandits, he/she saved Iori and showed him another way to survive: the way of the sword. His drive to survive by getting stronger seems to be the key motivation to press on. To a frightening degree in fact. Iori isn't bloodthirsty or powerhungry, his urge to become stronger is more cold pragmatism. Even The first stances he uses: water and earth - elements often associated with firmness, control and inner focus - reflect this mindset . In a time of crisis, such as war, a pragmatist can flourish as a warrior and survive on their own. In a time of peace, however, they need to adjust to social queues. To survive in a social setting, you need to be a people pleaser. Once again he had to restrain his own intentions and emotions, don a mask and act friendly with people. This holy grail war puts him in a crisis and he now has to face some critical questions: what does he want? Who is he? Is he just a pragmatist that manipulates people to gain an advantage? Or has he grown to like the mask he wears, the bonds he made? - he decides. (I will point out i havent played through the story and I go purely by what I've seen in this playthrough)

Random Fate Trivia #18 Today we'll do another short and simple trivia! The original classification (by which I mean how you can tell) for being in the Saber class meant a mastery over the sword (swordsmanship). This kind of evolved (or devolved, depending on how you really view it, viewer) to just mastery of close combat using bladed weapons. Yeah, its generic sounding but honestly, Sabers have historically used a sword as their main weapon. Well, apart from that one Saber that uses his fist as his main weapon. That one doesn't count. If you know, you know. Edited for clarification!

Iori what about Kindness? Iori: Kindess?... THIS IS FAATEEE!! (Proceeds to grind swords, and fill the cocaine leyline)

In the goal of perfecting his swordsmanship and to victory Iori has thrown nearly everything away, or the ‘excess’ that could have given everything away that could have allowed him to life comfortably in an era of peace. The only exception seems to be Kaya. I like to consider in the first play through the reason Saber didn’t immediately notice this side to Iori is that Kaya’s safety in the war after she found out more about it meant he actively focused on ending it while fighting as long as possibly. But for new game plus? That discrepancy is growing murky as Iori sets out on master his swordmanship in the conditions of the war to levels Musashi as a human could not.

So, that cutscene at the end was the cutscene at the beginning of the game just from iori's perspective.

Lmfao I want to put this into perspective of what just happened too me. I was sitting there with my co worker. I go to check nicobs channel, no video. Suddenly. A notification. I get super happy and excited and yell "Yay nicob! ^^" And then the first thing my co worker hears is Blurahahblablahblahblah bluh. And I just look at my co worker and he looks at me and we both just laugh. Love you nico!

And thus, Iori joins the ranks of other horribly effed up Fate protags. But seriously, all of them need therapy. Lol

Thats right Ioti whom we'd all though was the 'only sane man' was in fact crazy this entire time.

Thanks for playing this game Nico! If you read fate stay night visual novel or any of the other nasuverse visual novels, those will blow this out of the water easily

I love seeing nico play fate its so good

YEAAAAAAH MY MC

Oh NOW this feels like Nasu's writing, holy shit!

POTENTIAL SPOILERS I DUNNO MAYBE BUT NOBODY READ ANYWAYS IF YOU'RE AS BLIND AS ME I've been trying to wrap my head around who could possibly be Rogue Saber, and it was way harder than i thought because Fate characters are everywhere if you're trying to look for historical figures online. I thought it was maybe Tenkai, a monk working for the Tokugawa bakufu around the same time as Miyamoto Musashi, and mainly because Tenkai in SMT4/4A looked similar to Rogue Saber, but that was a bust. I thought it might have been Yoshitsune, but that was also a bust, considering that servant already exists in the form of Ushiwakamaru. And it couldn't have been any of thr Shinsengumi like Sakamoto Ryouma or Okita Souji since they wont be alive for another 300 years from when the game takes place. My strongest guess i have, but im still not comfortable with, is Minamoto no Mitsunaka, or Mankei. He was a powerful and wealthy samurai long before the events of the game, he has strong involvements with both Raikou and Ushi Gozen in their myths, and as far as i know isn't a pre-existing Servant yet, so thats what I'm sticking with until proven otherwise

This game is so frickin good, like I wait for every single episode to get uploaded

13:03 We got him. He’s hooked

Assassins tend to be weaker than the other Class Servants.

I’m liking the narrative with Iori, but I do find it a bit strange that throughout the whole story Iori has made an active effort to stop Saber from killing (and even hurting) other people, but now it seems that he actually wants or intends to kill others instead of just defeating ir incapacitating them (he literally says that he uses his sword and skills for this purpose). I wonder if the game will mention that at all.

# 964 comment of the day Iori: Show me everlasting darkness!!!

It was his cousin not his brother

This isn't kindness, This is PATRICK!

Just a fun but unwritten rule about the moon, don't talk about the moon or mention it. Hehe.

If I had a nickel for every Assassin Class Servant with stretchy arms, I'd have two nickels. That's not a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.

Is thumbnail Iori is official image? Where can i find it? I like it.

It makes me really sad to see this side of Iori. I liked him kind!

somebody did explain why the extra scenes were there,you must have missed it

⛄Awesome 🎄

You should reload back to the other choice.

Does anyone have these stuttering issues where the video would stop for a second and start again

Now for Fate/Zero after this as a Reaction Abrjdged. If you see this Nico, IMO, thats the best next step for you after this game.

The big thing I Iove about this scene with Iori and Saber is the story and gameplay integration. By this point if you done all the side content on your first playthrough, Iori's level now matches or possibly even surpasses Saber's. In the initial playthrough Iori's level was I believe 5 to 8 levels behind creating on a visual level a gap of power between the two but now since they're on equal footing, Saber's now noticing Iori's skill the blade and in turn seen his true nature for the first time.

That chicken cookooing is annoying.

So the reason why we never see Iori act like this or being remarked by Saber in the beginning of the game is simply because Iori was, in both the story and game play, actually weak as we can see when we are controlling him. He was a Level 1 character who only had one style of the Niten Ichiru ingrained within him and though it made him a formidable fighter it did not mean that he had reached his potential as a swordsman. Since Iori lived in peaceful times he did not experience too many fights or battles so all he could do was practice constantly by himself while adapting to the times where swords were no longer needed as much. But that all changed when he was dragged into the Waxing Moon Ritual. For the first time he was finally able to test his sword against powerful foes who helped sharpen his sword skills to the point that he was able to eventually defeat even his deceased master from a parallel world who had accumulated more knowledge and skill throughout her adventure through the verse. But during that time Iori had Saber who constantly pegged him as weak to help humble him while helping him stay grounded and not give into these deep desires he had about himself. While Iori does achieve his goal of destroying the Waxing Moon his desire to push further as a swordsman is unfulfilled thus the quote of his blade not being sated. Still while Iori does feel unsatisfied he is content at that moment of pushing aside his desires in order to do the "right" thing for the time that he is living in. The difference here in NG+ is that all of the experiences and abilities you've learned all carry to Iori which Saber recognizes by him remarking how sharp Iori's sword skills are and not calling him weak as much as he does when you start a new game. With skills that helped him conquer so many foes in the Waxing Moon being available from the start Iori now starts to crave more opponents and his inner desire to become stronger is not far off. Not when its against foes like Servants in the Waxing Moon who have a history of being powerful warriors etched into the world as legends. SO essential by starting NG+ you unintentionally unlocked Iori drive to be stronger by any means necessary. Going so far as to throw away the kindness that he had due to it being a burden and an excess.

That ending killed my desire to play the game. Why should I enjoy playing as an unredeemable psychopath?

Now the true Iori is coming out, or is it? This is interesting Iori claims he has cut off from himself anything that could distract or prevent him from ensuring his absolute victory in the ritual that anything he's going to do from now on will be with the intent to kill and win, he claims that he has never really cared for anyone beyond knowing them so he knows how to kill them effectively and from the flashbacks of Iori's childhood is clear that the only thing he will live for and by is the sword and nothing else, and yet literally moments after stating this, Kaya gets kidnapped by Chiemon, and saving her suddenly becomes his top priority, not finding and kill Chiemon and goes out of his way to ask Musashi, Zhou and Zheng to help him find Kaya. He says he never cared for anyone and yet he contradicts himself the moment Kaya is in danger. Why is it? Yeah sure she is his sister, but I repeat, with all this information the conclusion should be that Iori does not care for anyone but strong opponents to face and anything but his swordsmanship and strength, but put Kaya in the picture and the situation suddenly changes, why?