Entertainment to the death, make a tokusatsu film that will crush the entire internet.

The night that episode 23 of Fate/Zero, "The End of the Sea," aired...

According to data from Starlight Video's backend, the number of simultaneous online viewers that night set a new record high since the platform's inception.

The load on the bullet screen server once soared to 97% of the warning level.

Someone made a joke in the technical department's duty group.

"If the price keeps rising, I'll have to manually limit the traffic."

The director replied instantly: "If you dare to limit the flow of traffic, you can expect to be buried under a mountain of complaint letters tomorrow."

There is no other reason.

"The End of the Sea" is the kind of show that will leave all viewers speechless for a long time after watching it.

Fuyuki City Bridge.

The final battle between Iskandar, the Conqueror, and Gilgamesh, the Hero King.

A clash between kings, a conflict between ideologies.

Two people standing at the pinnacle of Heroic Spirits acknowledged each other in the most exquisite way under the Fuyuki night sky.

The moment Iskandar charged toward Gilgamesh on horseback, thousands of iron hooves shattered the night.

When Gilgamesh took out EA, the heavens and earth were split apart.

EA tore apart the inherent barrier of the King's army, and the Conqueror King uttered that line that broke the hearts of countless people the moment he fell.

"If I could do it all over again, I would still choose this life, because conquest is everything to me."

Gilgamesh put away his EA, stood in the ruins, looked down at the vanished giant, and for the first time, his tone was devoid of contempt and amusement.

It is a solemn recognition that belongs only to a king: "You are the only man worthy to be my king."

"The Conqueror King!!! My Conqueror King!!!!"

"EA's power is outrageous! It shattered the entire Reality Marble with a single strike..."

"Gilgamesh's approval was more painful than killing him..."

"The farewell of two kings, the curtain falls on two ideals on the same night."

However, before the audience could recover from the shock of the King of Conquerors' fall, the plot shifted to the battlefield between Saber and Berserker.

Berserker's real name is officially revealed in this episode.

The black armor peeled away piece by piece, the helmet shattered, revealing a face twisted by madness and pain.

Lancelot.

The first seat of the Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur's most trusted subordinate, and also the one who fell in love with Queen Guinevere, ultimately leading to the collapse of the Camelot dynasty.

He fell into the throes of a berserker not because he hated King Arthur, but because King Arthur had never punished him.

"My king... I went mad because you didn't punish me and Guinevere for what happened."

"You pretended not to see it, and that's when I felt abandoned, and that's why I went crazy like this."

Lancelot's voice changed from a roar to a hoarse whisper, "But even so... everyone at the Round Table... still loves you."

Saber's hand holding the sword trembled.

She has faced opponents far more terrifying than the berserker.

But Lancelot's last words, spoken not as a curse, were words of love.

It was the loyalty and affection from all the Knights of the Round Table that she could not reciprocate.

After this episode aired, four out of the top ten trending topics on Weibo were related to "Fate/Zero".

The discussion thread on Tieba reached over 20,000 pages, and dozens of edited videos flooded Bilibili's fan creation section that night, all of which used tragic instrumental music as background music.

Someone wrote a comment that was shared tens of thousands of times.

"Lancelot went mad because he couldn't be punished, and the Conqueror died because he lived for himself. Putting their fates side by side, Gen Urobuchi, you have no heart."

Meanwhile, the internet across the ocean was boiling over at a speed he could not have imagined.

The animation section of Reddit was the first to be ignited.

A British user named "RoundTableFan" posted a message after watching "The End of the Sea" with a title consisting of only one sentence.

"So King Arthur is... a GIRL?!"

The body of the post was even more agitated than the title, a scrambled mess of emotions.

"Wait wait wait——Berserker is Lancelot?!

And Saber is KING ARTHUR?! A BLONDE GIRL WITH A SWORD WHO DOESN『T PUNISH LANCELOT BECAUSE SHE』UNDERSTANDS』?!

THIS IS THE MOST INSANE TAKE ON ARTHURIAN LEGEND I』VE EVER SEEN AND I'M BRITISH!」

The translation is...

"Berserker is Lancelot?! Saber is King Arthur?! A blonde girl with a sword who doesn't punish Lancelot because she understands him?! This is the craziest adaptation of the King Arthur legend I've ever seen, and I'm British!"

Within ten minutes, the comment section was flooded with hundreds of replies.

Among them were international students studying in the UK who were also watching the show, who acted as class representatives and patiently explained it to foreign netizens.

"This is an animation that summons historical/mythological figures to fight in the modern world. King Arthur is portrayed as a woman, and she is depicted as very serious."

But the more he explained, the more intense the reaction from British netizens became.

The problem isn't whether the explanation makes sense or not, but that you've turned King Arthur into a woman.

"Excuse me, is this the Arthur Pendragon who pulled the sword from the stone, founded Camelot, and led the Knights of the Round Table to unify Britain?! Gender-swapped?! Do you know what King Arthur means to us British people?!"

"The sword in the stone has been there for over a thousand years, and now a little girl has appeared. I think Merlin needs to reassess the prophecy."

"This is a desecration of British cultural heritage."

This comment received over a hundred likes in a short period of time, but at the same time, an equal number of people disagreed with it.

But what truly ignited this discussion on mainstream social media platforms was a comment from a British historian with a verified blue V badge.

"As a scholar who studies medieval English literature and the Arthurian legends."

I have to admit that this Eastern animation's understanding of the core theme of the conflict between royal power and human nature in the Arthurian legend has surpassed many of our own adaptations over the past two decades.

The tension between King Arthur and Lancelot is distilled to an extremely pure degree in this episode.

It is not a simple betrayal and punishment, but an impossible choice made by a king between loyalty and forgiveness.

To be honest, I was initially resistant to the gender-swapped concept, but in the final shot of episode 23, Saber's silhouette resembled both a weary warrior and a lonely king.

At that moment, I realized that this was a creator who truly understood the core of King Arthur's tragedy.

This comment was screenshotted, translated into Chinese, and sent back to China, where it was posted in the Fate thread on Baidu Tieba.

The original poster only wrote one sentence as an introduction.

"Enjoy this live performance of a British historian sliding on his knees."

Then, netizens unearthed a long article from a medieval literature forum at a British university.

The poster is a professor who has studied the lineage of King Arthurian legends for over fifteen years. In his post, he made no attempt to hide his curiosity about this Eastern director.

"What he wants to tell us may be exactly what we have forgotten."

Meanwhile, British users on Twitter launched a vigorous campaign to defend their local traditional culture.

Or, to put it another way, a global debate about whether King Arthur could have been a girl.

The debate escalated from "It's cultural disrespect" to "Actually, it's a better adaptation than the BBC's last three King Arthur shows" in less than six hours.

On TikTok, a British comic book critic recorded a reaction video.

The recording captured the moment he first saw Lancelot remove his helmet.

In the video, Lancelot's face emerges from the shattered armor, causing the blogger to jump up from his chair, his headphones flying off.

When it landed, it hit his own cat right on top of him. The cat yelped and jumped out of the picture frame, but he was completely unaware.

The video garnered over five million views in a single day, and the comment section was flooded with rows of hilarious memes.

The top-rated comment: "Can this cat sue the Land of Light for emotional distress?"

Even the BBC's morning news program took notice of this cultural upheaval.

"In Chinese animation, King Arthur is depicted as a blonde woman."

A cultural commentator was also invited to provide commentary via video link.

The commentator was a middle-aged man wearing round-framed glasses. He spoke slowly and deliberately, but his views were surprisingly sharp.

"As a Briton who is used to seeing our historical symbols being used repeatedly in various adaptations, this way of hurting my pride is quite novel."

Over the years, we've become accustomed to Americans playing villains in movies with British accents, and we've also become accustomed to our own TV dramas portraying historical figures in various ways.

What we find unusual is that an Eastern creator understands the cultural core of this symbol in such a serious manner.

This is what truly unsettles us—not because we did something wrong, quite the opposite, because we were right in the first place.

Domestic netizens stayed up all night to share these overseas reactions, and the Fate-themed thread on Baidu Tieba was built overnight, with wave after wave of viewers who had just finished watching episode 23 flooding into the thread.

While wiping away tears, I watched the British break down and had a good laugh.

"After being torn apart by the Conqueror King and Lancelot all night, now it's their turn to be brutally attacked by Saber's gender-swapped look. So satisfying!!!"

"In the past, we were the ones who were afraid of spoilers when watching anime, but now it's the British who are posting about King Arthur everywhere. What is cultural export? This is cultural export."

However, some Britons at the center of the storm were clearly not content with just posting on forums and recording reaction videos.

They decided to express their shock in a more direct way.

Two days later, in London, on the third floor of an old Victorian building.

This is an office surrounded by bookshelves on three sides.

On the walnut desk in the center of the office, an old-fashioned fax machine suddenly came to life.

The machine started automatically with a roar, startling Elizabeth, who was flipping through "The Once and Future King" by the window.

Elizabeth put down her book, walked over, and picked up the paper.

She recognized the handwriting on the paper at a glance.

"Charles!"

A series of hurried footsteps came from the end of the corridor.

Charles Godfrey practically ran over.

He is 63 years old this year, and half of his hair is white, but he is in very good shape.

He is the head of the Arthurian Classics at the British Library, but his more important role is that of president of the Association of Descendants of King Arthur.

This association represents the most dedicated group of people in all of Britain when it comes to the Arthurian legend.

Their members include a retired history professor, an insurance salesman who writes fantasy novels part-time, and several medieval reenactment enthusiasts who can actually wield two-handed swords barehanded.

Charles took the fax from Elizabeth, looked at it for a moment, and then slowly read it aloud.

"To the esteemed Ms. Elizabeth Holland, Director of the King Arthur Archives at the British Library, and Mr. Charles Godfrey, President of the Association of the Descendants of King Arthur."

Having learned that your country's cultural heritage, the Legend of King Arthur, has been reinterpreted in the Eastern anime series Fate/Zero, I, as the 73rd direct descendant of King Arthur, the heir to the Crown of Windsor, and the monarch of the United Kingdom and its territories, express my deep concern regarding the subversive portrayal of my ancestor's gender and image in this work… deep concern…”

Charles couldn't continue reading.

Elizabeth nodded expressionlessly: "Note."

"...We are paying close attention."

Charles uttered the last word, "I hereby solemnly request the Arthurian Alliance to immediately launch an investigation and take appropriate action to uphold the dignity of our royal ancestors and the cultural heritage of our kingdom..."

Elizabeth raised a hand to stop him from continuing.

She took off her reading glasses and placed them on the open pages of the book, looking at Charles.

"Charles, Her Majesty just celebrated her 97th birthday last month, and she was discussing AI ethics with the Prime Minister during their meeting last month. Do you find it strange that she has learned to use social media platforms?"

"Isn't that surprising?"

Charles Godfrey slammed the fax paper on the table. "How did she find out about this?!"

"His Majesty has a great-granddaughter who is fourteen years old this year."

Elizabeth reminded her.

Charles seemed to remember something, so he took out his phone from his jacket pocket and started scrolling through Twitter, muttering to himself.

"Netflix, BBC, 20th Century Fox, Kenneth Branagh, my god, how many versions are there... Does His Majesty still care about this at his age?"

Elizabeth put her glasses back on and picked up the fax paper to look at it again.

The signature is "Elizabeth R" in handwriting.

The letter R ends with a small circle, a feature only seen in the Queen's handwritten signature.

She recognized the signature.

"Fortunately, it's not the official stance."

Elizabeth folded the fax paper and put it in the drawer.

"It is His Majesty's personal opinion."

There is a subtle difference between the two.

The former represents royalty, while the latter represents an old lady who was indignant after watching an animated film.

Charles Godfrey remained silent for a full ten seconds.

Then he walked to the desk, pulled out the chair opposite Elizabeth, and sat down.

"Elizabeth, you are the best medieval scholar in the Federation, and I am the one most familiar with the lineage of King Arthur."

The two of us combined are the people in all of Britain who know King Arthur better.

Elizabeth looked up at him, waiting for him to continue.

Charles took a deep breath and turned to the title page of the open book, *The Once and Future King*, on the table.

The title page bears the opening line of Sir Thomas Mallowley's *The Death of Arthur*: "Hic incipit liber qui vocatur le Morte D 'Arthur.'"

"Today we are going to write a formal, academic, and carefully worded inquiry letter to an Eastern animation studio."

"We need to find out exactly how this Chinese director came up with this idea, setting King Arthur as a woman and distilling the conflict between Lancelot and the king into a tragedy of unrequited love."

What Charles didn't mention was that he also received a text message from his daughter.

His youngest daughter sent him a text message.

"Dad, you're already inquiring about the Land of Light, aren't you? Could you buy me an acrylic standee of Saber?"