Self-efficacy

In this post, I explain how Kiritsugu’s self-efficacy changed during his first battle against a Heroic Spirit. I refer to self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (Bandura, 1997, p. 3).

The first battle that Kiritsgu and his Heroic Spirit, Arthur, experienced was against Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, a Heroic Spirit of a demigod from Irish mythology. Kiritsgu had high self-efficacy in giving appropriate commands to Arthur during the fight to assist her (i.e., behavior, means) and eventually defeat Diarmuid (i.e., outcome, ends). His increased self-efficacy stemmed from his mastery experience; Kiritsugu had tons of experience defeating mages and soldiers as a mercenary in countless war zones, and he thought he could use his previous experience to combat Diarmuid. This assumption turned out to be wrong. 

The battle between Kiritsugu & Arthur vs. Diarmud started out slow but intensified rapidly as Diarmund pulled out his lethal weapon: Gae Buidhe, a cursed spear. To overcome the deadly spear, Arthur also pulled out her sword: Excalibur. The battle between the two Heroic Spirits then increased its speed drastically. Using magical forces, Arthur and Diarmuid began to move, attack, and defend at a speed that Kiritsugu could hardly see. This is when Kiritsgu’s self-efficacy started to lower. As he could barely see what the two Heroic Spirits were doing, he could not give commands to Arthur anymore. In fact, Diarmuid noticed that Kiritsugu could not catch up with the speed, so he started to attack only Kiritsugu, which made Arthur protect both Kiritsugu and herself at the same time. Kiritsugu noticed that he was being a burden to Arthur, so he decided to retreat from the forefront and leave Arthur alone so that she could fully focus on Diarmuid. At this moment, Kiritsugu realized that the Holy Grail War was completely different from the previous wars he had experienced. He had no self-efficacy anymore, and he was shocked by the fact that he was utterly powerless in front of Heroic Spirits.

After this fight, Kiritusgu changed his strategies and avoided combatting a Heroic Spirit. Depending on the subsequent topics of this blog assignment, I may have a chance to describe how he changed, and I look forward to it!

Reference

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman.