Spoilers? yes

Fate/Zero, just like UBW and HF, showcases the course of a Holy Grail War. The baseline was - 7 Masters, 7 Servants, 3 command seals each. Simple enough. Add in betrayals, alliances and changing sides and you have a very interesting battle royale.

Mostly everyone was a solid character (Ryuunosuke was meh). A thing in particular i loved were some of the character interactions/relations:

• Gilgamesh’s (philosophical?) talks with Kirei,
• Rider’s speech to Saber what a real king is, and then Saber slowly realizing how that was true, through Berserker
• Rider telling Velvet how he is a "loser" too, clinging to an endless dream after all this time

Another interesting sideplot was the constant discord between Kiritsugu and Saber. Kiritsugu even mentions at the end that he never saw Saber as part of his plans. He just saw her as a weapon, and nothing more.
Contrast this to how Saber was surprised when Shirou offered a handshake in UBW, since she would never expect her previous master to do this. It’s really small things like these that give weight to the story.

One small thing at the end which hit me was that the Einzberns refused to let Kiritsugu see his OWN DAUGHTER, Illya, just because he didn't win the war.
This makes me realize that all the 3 major mage clans, and perhaps a lot of mages in general, have a somewhat twisted mentality. Matous with their crooked magic, Einzbern with their homunculii with sad destiny, even Tohsaka for giving away his OWN DAUGHTER, Sakura just for some insignificant mage reason

Plot → As i mentioned before, there are constant feuds, and people changing sides, making alliances, and even betrayals. It doesn’t bore you for a second

Animation → ufotable. Fate/Zero lack of budget (haha funny right? ...guys?)

!https://c.tenor.com/fB3FVn-W5LwAAAAd/fate-zero-battle.gif

Fights -> It's not Fate without badass fights haha. One fight which stood out from the rest was Saber/Rider vs. Caster's weird Cthulu form. Despite facing two very strong servants, he easily kept his ground.

• Gilgamesh vs. Berserk was also a fun fight, tho a little out of place haha
• Kiritsugu vs Kirei... dope fight. We really get to see Kiritsugu utilizing his powers to the full - Origin rounds, time accel (all the way upto square), even Avalon. Really goes to show he took Kirei very seriously, and knew if there was someone who could beat him, it was him.

Music/OST → While i didn’t enjoy the op/eds as much as other fate installments, it was good enough. Kalafina sings the opening, they're also the ones who sang the endings for UBW.

Overall it’s a solid-packed show that not only does a great job at being a prequel, but has it’s own charm!

Finally, i’d like to conclude with these words:

Iskandar best girl