>>535128726
Fate/Zero is the most mature Fate work. It's an example of how to do an ensemble cast. Everyone feeling like a protagonist in their segments.

Kiritsugu is Adam and the grail is the apple. The snake could be Kirei, his own ambitions, or a symbol of temptation and what the grail would actually bring.

The snake is Gilgamesh and the apple is Kirei's "pleasure." Making Gil wear snakeskin pants was the ultimate metaphor.

Sneks have been associated with immortality since the dawn of man (a snake eats the leaf of immortality or whatever in the epic of gilgamesh while gilgamesh takes a bath, giving them the ability to shed their skin)

Themes that represent how a soldier feels living in the squalid trenches killing people all day for a soulless empire. Artoria and Diarmuid represent the bonds of brotherhood forged in war. Etc.