Episode twelve of 'Fate/Zero' had finished airing. Because Yosuganosora Animation Studio needed a short period to recover from the pressure of producing episodes eleven and twelve, there would be a gap of around ten days between episodes twelve and thirteen.
At the beginning of October, production on 'Fate/Zero' was progressing steadily overall. Kamiyā Yuu traveled back and forth between Shindō Tsukasa's sound department and the company. As the director, reviewing the voice actors' performances was already part of his job, so voicing Lancer was more like something he did on the side. A few lines here and there hardly took up any of his time.
As the anime's plot progressed, his voice-acting work was also nearing its end. After Caster's exit from 'Fate/Zero', Lancer Zhao Yun would soon be schemed against by Emiya Kiritsugu and make his regrettable exit as well. However, Kamiyā Yuu had made some changes to the circumstances surrounding Zhao Yun's departure.
In the original, Emiya Kiritsugu threatened Director Kayneth with the life of his fiancée, forcing him to sign a contract ordering Lancer to commit suicide. In exchange, Kiritsugu would no longer harm either of them. Kayneth had no other choice.
Lancer Diarmuid was forced by a Command Spell to kill himself. After signing the peace contract, Emiya Kiritsugu could no longer personally kill Kayneth. However, his assistant, Hisau Maiya, who had long been waiting in the distance, used a sniper rifle to shoot and kill Kayneth and his fiancée.
This episode changed quite a few viewers' opinions of Kayneth. He had been born into a prestigious family of magi and looked down on Waver, who had no distinguished magical lineage. During the Holy Grail War, he had behaved arrogantly and conceitedly, making him a typical buffoonish villain. Yet in the end, he was willing to abandon the Holy Grail War for Sola-Ui, a fiancée who did not love him, even casting aside the honor of his mage family. At the same time, the episode made the audience deeply realize that Emiya Kiritsugu truly was a ruthless killer who would stop at nothing and kill without batting an eye. Even after Kayneth withdrew from the Holy Grail War, Kiritsugu did not hesitate to order Hisau Maiya to shoot Kayneth and Sola-Ui dead to eliminate any future threat.
The problem lay in the characterization of Lancer Zhao Yun. He did not possess Diarmuid's pedantic obsession with chivalry. Not only did he have enough combat strength to suppress Saber, but he was also one of the more intelligent participants in 'Fate/Zero'.
Zhao Yun was, after all, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms period. There was no way he could be as straightforward and guileless as Diarmuid. To protect Kayneth, he went to the church to obtain Command Spells. Yet because he had no formal contract with Kayneth's fiancée, Sola-Ui, he could barely sense the abnormality that befell her. As a result, Sola-Ui's right hand was severed by Hisau Maiya, completely cutting off her connection with Diarmuid.
The moment Lancer Zhao Yun realized Sola-Ui had been abducted, he began considering the significance behind the move. Why hadn't Sola-Ui simply been killed? Then Saber arrived, and his Mind's Eye detected Hisau Maiya lying in ambush far away with a sniper rifle. The answer was basically clear.
Saber had previously been wounded by Zhao Yun's Bright Silver Spear and could no longer use her left hand, making her unable to unleash the Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm, Excalibur. Although Zhao Yun's Gentian Bright Silver Spear had broken during his confrontation with Ionioi Hetairoi, the wound on Saber's left hand still needed him to remove it.
Furthermore, Emiya Kiritsugu had once contacted him through Irisviel's phone. From the initiative Kiritsugu held throughout the situation, Zhao Yun could at least conclude that he was the leader of Saber's faction.
A diversion.
Saber and Irisviel, who appeared to be her Master, were both here. In that case, the mysterious man issuing the orders was probably targeting Zhao Yun's own Master, Kayneth. Sola-Ui was most likely a bargaining chip for negotiation or a hostage used as leverage. The objective was either to secure cooperation or force his Master, Kayneth, to withdraw from the Holy Grail War. Given how much trouble the mysterious man had gone through, the most likely objective was undoubtedly to force Zhao Yun himself out of the Holy Grail War.
After realizing this, Zhao Yun said nothing. Kayneth's actions had already disappointed him, and he likewise intended to use this situation as a test of whether Kayneth was qualified to be his Master. If Kayneth lacked the resolve to burn his boats and fight with everything on the line, there was no possibility of victory in this battle. Zhao Yun forced Saber to make a choice, bluntly telling her that he already knew what Emiya Kiritsugu was planning. At the first sign of anything unusual, he would throw the spear formed from magical energy in his hand, and his target would be Hisau Maiya, who was stationed in the distance with a sniper rifle.
This was Zhao Yun's test for Saber: would she go and save Hisau Maiya, or remain beside Irisviel von Einzbern and protect her? Saber could not be certain Zhao Yun would really do as he said. What if it was only a bluff, and his true target was Emiya Kiritsugu inside the building, or Irisviel von Einzbern? Saber could not afford to gamble on that possibility.
Of course, she had no idea what Emiya Kiritsugu was planning. But after receiving Kiritsugu's order to come here, she knew he was inevitably planning to make a move.
"At least by my standards, Saber, you are a worthy king."
Those were the words Lancer Zhao Yun left behind before taking his own life. It was impossible to tell whether they were sarcastic or his genuine assessment. Beset by enemies on every side, with even his own Master effectively his enemy, killing Hisau Maiya was already the greatest act of loyalty Zhao Yun could offer Kayneth under the circumstances.
Hisau Maiya, wielding the sniper rifle, had her heart pierced by the spear of magical energy. Director Kayneth and his fiancée were then killed by Emiya Kiritsugu's backup measure: a time bomb hidden inside the bandages wrapped around Sola-Ui's severed hand. The contract Kiritsugu signed only specified that, from the moment the contract was signed, he could harbor no malicious intent toward Kayneth. But the bomb operated on an automatic countdown, and it had been placed inside the bandages before the contract was signed.
In truth, Kamiyā Yuu himself was somewhat puzzled by Hisau Maiya's role as a character. In the original, aside from assisting Emiya Kiritsugu, she did not seem to have any plotlines that had a deeper impact on the Holy Grail War. Even her death was remarkably casual. Lancelot, disguised as the King of Conquerors using the Noble Phantasm Knight of Owner, casually killed her. In the end, her only real purpose was to act as a surveillance camera, and the intelligence she provided was not even particularly accurate.
Therefore, Kamiyā Yuu simply used her death as the trigger for Emiya Kiritsugu's childhood flashback.
...
Kamiyā Yuu had considered the deeper significance of Lancer's suicide scene. Judging from the original, Diarmuid's dying curse served as foreshadowing for the Greater Grail having been corrupted by Angra Mainyu. That dying curse truly was heartbreaking. Secondly, it emphasized the brutality of this Holy Grail War while also leading into Emiya Kiritsugu's childhood. But 'Fate/stay night' did not exist in this world. If he copied the original wholesale, Diarmuid's dying curse alone would definitely be insufficient as a clue foreshadowing the Grail's corruption. To solve this problem, Kamiyā Yuu had simply planted another piece of foreshadowing from the very beginning.
Before the Heroic Spirit was summoned, the elder of the Einzbern family who handed Avalon over to Emiya Kiritsugu had subtly foreshadowed through his words and actions that the Holy Grail was not something good. In fact, it could be said that the reason they hired the Magus Killer, Emiya Kiritsugu, was precisely to destroy the corrupted Holy Grail system itself. They wanted to discover the cause and effects of the Grail's corruption so that they could rebuild it afterward.
As for Zhao Yun, who had replaced Diarmuid, the purpose of his exit was more about developing Saber's characterization. Her choice here would be contrasted with the later plot in which Emiya Kiritsugu personally killed his own mentor, ultimately leading to the conclusion that, fundamentally, the two of them were the same kind of person.