The difference between Season 1 and Season 2 is the difference between watching a war and watching it consume everyone you thought had principles. Kiritsugu stops being a hero the moment he realizes what winning actually costs. By the finale, there are no masters left who haven't made a choice that destroys them, and the show doesn't offer you the mercy of believing any of them were wrong to make it.

The Fourth Holy Grail War drags on with no winner in sight. Church supervisor Risei Kotomine summons the surviving Masters and Servants to cooperate against a looming danger that threatens both the war itself and all of Fuyuki City. That fragile truce soon falls apart as the Masters show they will stoop to any tactic to take the Grail. Kiritsugu Emiya and his Servant Saber grow apart as their clashing views on heroism and chivalry breed mistrust. Meanwhile Kirei Kotomine, still searching for a purpose in life, forms an unsettling bond with one of the remaining Servants. As the war nears its end, the price of winning makes victory and defeat hard to tell apart. This second half of the Fate/Zero TV adaptation mixes action, drama and supernatural fantasy.