Two Things to Know Before Watching Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel III

Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel III. spring song recently hit theaters here in Japan and, despite three movies worth of story, you may be a little confused while watching it. To help you out without spoiling the events of the film, here are two things about the greater Fate multiverse you should know before watching that may help you get a better grasp of what is going down.

Now to be clear, everything from here on in the article is spoilers. However, they are lore spoilers rather than plot spoilers. What’s written here isn’t designed to spoil the story of Heaven’s Feel for you but rather enhance it by giving you a bit more context than the film provides.

And one final note, this article is filled with generalizations. If we were to go into specific instances and notable exceptions, this would leave you more confused, not less. So just know that in some cases, what you read below is a bit oversimplified.

Image source: Fate/stay night on Twitter

The Third Magic

In the world of Fate, it’s important to note that “magecraft” and “magic” are not the same thing. Rin, Shirou, and all the other masters in the Holy Grail war all practice magecraft, not magic. On the most basic level, the difference between the two is that magecraft does things that can be achieved by other means (e.g., the Gandr spell can make small, lethal holes in a person but so can a gun). Magic, on the other hand, goes against the very nature of the world as we know it. Time travel, teleportation, human resurrection–these are the realm of true magic.

In the time when humanity was still in its infancy, magic and magecraft were almost one in the same. But since the end of the age of gods (ie., prehistory), magic has been in decline (as the world has become decidedly less magical with the rise of science) and magecraft is but the palest shadow of what it once was. In fact, in the time when Fate takes place, only five true “magics” exist.

Image source: Fate/stay night on Twitter

All five of these magics were discovered after the decline of magic by different mages who used their unique magecraft to find a way to the “root”–the source of everything. All mages of the modern era–with a few notable exceptions–are arguably trying to do the same thing themselves. The trick is that no path to the root can be used more than once. However, magic, once discovered, cannot be so easily lost–which leads us to the Third Magic.

The Third Magic, “Heaven’s Feel,” is the magic of the soul. In Fate, the “soul” contains a person’s mind and memories. The Third Magic is capable of making the soul a physical thing that no longer needs a body. The Holy Grail of Fate/stay night is a magical machine that utilizes and builds upon the Third Magic to make a sort of wishing machine. And while such a thing may seem all-powerful, it’s important to remember that the ability to change the composition of the soul is at the heart of everything it can do–from making servants to the way in which it grants wishes.

Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg

Zelretch is one of the main fixtures of the greater Fate multiverse and appears in–or is at least indirectly connected to–many of the stories therein. He is an immortal vampire, the elder statesman of mages, and, most importantly, the wielder of the Second Magic.

The domain of the Second Magic is Parallel Worlds. And much like how the Holy Grail uses the Third Magic as a power source, Zelretch has created several artifacts that utilize The Second Magic’s unlimited power.

Image source: Fate/stay night on Twitter

One pair of these are the self-aware Kaleidosticks (seen most prominently in Fate/kaleid liner) that allow chosen mages to download the powers and knowledge of other universes–i.e., to turn them into magical girls with the power of flight. But more relevant to Heaven’s Feel is the Jeweled Sword Zelretch which draws seemingly infinite magical energy from parallel worlds.

TL;DR: When Zelretch is involved with something, it’s safe to say it’s a big deal.

Image source: Fate/stay night on Twitter

Welp, there you have it. Hopefully, having a better understanding of the Third Magic and who Zelretch is will enrich your viewing of Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel III. spring song. And do make sure you watch it if you have the chance. While not the best entry the Fate franchise has to offer, it does contain a fight scene so amazing that it’s worth the price of admission alone.

Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel III. spring song was released in Japanese theaters on August 15, 2020. The North American release of the film is currently indefinitely postponed.

Top image source: Fate/stay night on Twitter.