For a long time now, I’ve wanted to rant about Fate/Stay Night, but somehow it turned into one those tasks that seemed best left until some asymptotic ‘tomorrow’. At long last, however, the time has come to turn my attention to the series and give it the shredding it deserves.
The length of time it took me to even start writing this rant perhaps says something in itself about the quality of Fate/Stay Night- where Mai-Otome, Good Witch and the rest demanded to be written about with some idea of promptness, the ending Fate simply left me so apathetic that I couldn’t bring myself to bring pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keyboard) to mention it ever again. At the back of my mind, however, I knew it had to be done, that my disappointment in the series would have be collected together into a single document, no matter how long it took, or how poorly written it might turn out.
As with its fellow trainwrecks, in the early weeks, Fate seemed to be blessed with no shortage of potential. The initial Curtain Raiser had seemed full of action scenes and intriguing personalities, and it seemed only natural to want to see their full TV series glory. And indeed, as the series began, everything seemed set to fulfil our expectations. A war between seven pairs of Masters and their summoned Servants with the Holy Grail as the prize- each one a legendary hero of a different class-what better set-up for the ultimate battle royale, an emotional and tactical extravaganza beyond anything ever seen before?
Unfortunately, such was not to be the case. Even at that stage, treacherous thoughts were beginning to invade my mind. What if the first half of the series turned out to be episode upon episode of ‘attack and retreat’ to keep everyone alive until death was switched on at around episode fourteen? What if our plucky and annoying hero, Emiya Shirou, used the powers of love, friendship and plot necessity to beat his worthier and more experienced peers? What if the whole thing turned into Shirou’s Harem Diaries? As it turned out, I was right to fear these things, and worse yet, they would be only the tip of a larger iceberg.
For indeed, as the weeks went by, more and more characters of limited depth and intermittent likeability were introduced, all destined to survive until death was activated at episode twelve. By that point, however, it was hard to care about such shallow characters suddenly turning into coloured sparkles or otherwise departing the storyline, leaving the survivors to join Shirou’s growing harem. Awful CG dragons, dull harem building, black slimy tentacles, crazed and illogical mid and final bosses- Fate had them all, and it wasn’t afraid to use them. By the end, all that could be said was this- “thank god that’s over.”
Character Summaries: the lazy efficient way to rant about the story
Shirou “I want to be Justice Man!”
I have a particular dislike of the ‘typical’ short-haired cocky lead, the sort who uses their position as main character to build harems and generally circumvent the usual rules of whatever world they live in. Unfortunately, Shirou is among the worst of the lot, an irritating character who refuses to let his servant, Saber, fight, simply because she is a woman (never mind that she is an accomplished swordmaster with years more experience than him). He is also at the centre of two of the series’ worst plot devices- the sheath of Excalibur within his body that makes him practically invincible, and his special ability to create anything he can visualise in his head. The latter is particularly ridiculous- in the fight against Berserker, for example, why imagine a sword instead of a flamethrower, immobilising block of crystal, or even just a very large anvil?
Saber “Honour, loyalty, and more honour”
As a legendary servant, and the reincarnation of Arturia (King Arthur, female edition), it’s no surprise that Saber ends up by the side of the destined main character. Predictably, Saber is the staid and loyal knight of justice who eventually falls in love with Shirou but has to return to her own time before she can settle in as first wife of his harem. At one point in the game, Shirou had to sleep with her to replenish her mana, but the anime takes a creative new route by making him destroy an incredibly ugly CG dragon inside her. Not so much a dislikeable character as a predictably dull one.
Rin “I want to be the main character”
Rin is one of the few things about Fate that can actually be said to be worthy- a cool and experienced mage with a fierce intellect (and a superior character design). Unfortunately, even Rin is far from perfect- for no discernible reason, she has a soft spot for Shirou, going so far as to use a valuable magical gem to revive him, and even summoning his heroic spirit in the form of Archer. By all rights, Rin should have been the main character, but instead she is relegated to the position of harem member.
Poor Rin, she deserved better than this.
Archer “I am the bone of my sword? Can I talk to the writers?”
Rin’s servant, Archer may be archer class, but for reasons best known to the creators, he shuns the bow in favour of a pair of swords. The white-haired reincarnation of Shirou (how could anyone count such an annoying lead as a legendary hero), Archer is forced to spend most of his time off screen in invisible mode, before sacrificing himself with a Bad Engrish final attack in order to whittle down Berserker’s life count. Oddly, he is then glimpsed in a duel with Shirou in the second OP, a duel that can never come to pass in the anime. To his credit, he tries to impart some wisdom to Shirou, but his younger self refuses to listen.
Ilya “I want to sleep with Shirou-niichan!”
The series’ obligatory loli-bait, Ilya controls the ultra-strong Berserker, but always manages to get bored or call off the battle if there is any chance of her winning and defeating a main character. Her primary aim is to become first wife in Shirou’s harem.
Berserker “…”
The hulking reincarnation of Hercules, Berserker is a convenient mid-boss with twelve lives (give or take a few inconsistencies) and nothing in the way of dialogue. His lives are whittled down via Archer’s sacrifice, Rin’s jewel magic and a convenient plot device sword created by Shirou.
Lancer “Why did the writers forget about me?”
The reincarnation of an Irish hero, Lancer must be applauded for trying to kill Shirou not once, but twice (and if not for the demands of the plot, he would have succeeded). Unfortunately, for the bulk of the series, he is forced to take an extended holiday in Ireland whilst waiting for the writers to remember his existence.
Shinji “Hahahahaha!! Does that sound unbalanced enough?”
Every series needs a psychotic yet ultimately cowardly antagonist, and Shinji fills in that role for Fate until his timely demise. He’s more of a warm up to the main event than anything important in himself.
Rider “Fancy a little S&M?”
The bondage queen reincarnation of Medusa, Rider gets to dress up in her dominatrix outfit and attack the heroes with her chain whips until finally death is switched on and she becomes the first to die.
Sakura “Shirou was mine first!”
Shinji’s sister, and Shirou’s default live-in housemaid, Sakura handles the housework so that Shirou can scout new harem members. She is later revealed to actually be Rin’s long lost sister, and even gets a turn as a bondage queen under Caster’s control, but by then, there’s little reason to care.
Kuzuki “I want to be EVIL”
A teacher at Shirou’s school with pretensions to evil, Kuzuki works with Caster (although technically, he isn’t her master). Both he and his mild backstory are entirely uninteresting.
Caster “I also want to be EVIL”
The reincarnation of Medea, Caster killed her original Master, teamed up with Kuzuki, and summoned Assassin to be a frontline attacker. Despite her superior character design, she chooses to remain hooded.
Assassin “Let’s have an action scene”
Default hired muscle for the Kuzuki/Caster faction, he is more of a samurai than an assassin, and a reincarnation of a hero who is fictional even in the Fate world.
Kirei “Let’s destroy the world- come on, it’ll be fun”
At the beginning of the series, Kirei is the arbiter of the Holy Grail War (he won the last one by default, but received no prize), and the go-to guy for exposition. Since he is a priest, however, he is naturally the evil final boss of the series, who takes pleasure in capturing Ilya and using black slimy tentacles. Master of both Gilgamesh and Lancer, his goal is nothing less than to make the world more exciting by turning it into a flaming bloodbath. Who wouldn’t want to aspire to that?
Gilgamesh “Saber is mine, Saber is mine, Saber is mine…”
The leftover Archer class servant from the last Holy Grail War, Gilgamesh has exceedingly poor fashion sense, favouring Gold Piros armour and a spiky haircut. His goal is to make Saber his woman, and to that end he too forsakes the bow for any number of swords.
The curse of being an even more minor character than Lancer: The above characters may seem underdeveloped, but they are nothing compared to such personalities as Shirou’s teacher Taiga, friend Issei, or the head of the archery club- each of whom seem to have some purpose at the start, but are forced further and further off screen.
Final Thoughts
And so, at its conclusion, did Fate leave us with anything except a bitter mixture of relief and disappointment? Not really, it seems, unless one counts the money casually spent on overpriced Rin and Saber and figures. Unfortunately, the anime itself fell far short of expectations, and so, after the “True Mai-Otome” (contrary to all evidence, I am still working on this) expect “Fate/Stay Night Remix”, aka “yet another attempt to rewrite the story”.
Afterword: 6 things that are actually good about Fate/Stay Night
1. Character designs and artwork (selected characters only)
2. Rin
3. Selected 1/8 and 1/6 figures
4. Next episode preview music
5. Shirou getting run through with a lance (why did he have to survive?)
6. First OP, “Disillusion”
Sakura was Rin’s sister?? Okay, either a) I had really bad fansubs, b) I wasn’t paying attention at that point, or c) the writers kinda lazily squeezed that fact in with a 5 second piece of dialogue. Any of the above is quite possible.
I mean I knew there was something going on at that stage, but just really had no idea.. and figured they’d explain it in another episode.. but they didn’t.
Oh, and Caster was an asshat. I’m not quite sure how many times she had Shirou and co. pwned, but each time it was like “ah hey guys.. why don’t I give you a chance to get away and mess things up. Oh here’s a map to my secret lair.”
Also, when Saber pulled out her fatality on Gilga in the end.. I thought that move was sealed by Caster’s rulebreaker? Did I miss that legal loophole as well?
Provided I didn’t imagine the whole thing, there were a couple of ‘blink and you’ll miss them’ flashbacks about Rin and Sakura being sisters before Sakura was sent to be with the Matou family.
For Saber vs. Gilgy, I think the excuse was that Caster sealed Saber’s original Noble Phantasm, but in the final battle she suddenly gained her ultimate levelled-up convenient plot device Noble Phantasm which wasn’t subject to the same effect. We’re probably not supposed to think too deeply about that, though.
One thing I can’t believe I forgot to mention in the main rant was the knife that Kirei conveniently gave to Rin all those years ago- “Here, this is the one item that could defeat me- hold onto it until the final boss battle, will you?”
digiwombat: You’re going down, man. DOWN BY BUTTSEX.
And for those of you who keep ranting about how shitty the show is, do yourself a favor and play through the game.
Go play the game and you won’t have most of these complaints. Though, the bulk of the TV series is based Fate, the first scenario, and the weakest of the three. Then again, it’s still very good.
Oh, the show should have been based on UBW or HF, preferably UBW, but everyone knows this.
I’ve no doubt the game is a lot better, but I’m somewhat put off by the propect of the H-scenes, not to mention the fact that I doubt I’d get much out of a visual novel in a language I can barely read.
Oh I didn’t realize that we were supposed to play game from a completely different entertainment medium before watching that mess of an anime series.. they really should have had a disclaimer after the title credits so us noobs would fully appreciate it’s awesomeness.
Or they could have just made a decent adaptation of this purportedly great game in the first place. I dunno, that’s just me.
Game players and newbies alike have been disappointed by the anime adaptation of Fate/Stay Night.
For the game players, they’ve been deprived of the events that they really wanted to see. On the top of this list is Shirou vs Archer. Archer was a broken, weary Shirou who had enough of his own ideals after it cost him the lives of the people that he cared about, but only gave him nothing but more suffering for himself and for the people around him. This epic clash of ideals makes Unlimited Blade Works the choice for many game players, but the anime refused to take this route, since it required the knowledge of the characters that the anime failed to give anyway.
Some might have wanted to see the Heaven’s Feel route, but that would’ve meant that Shirou had to kill Saber, and that was a big no-no commercially. Coincidentally, Heaven’s Feel was not very well liked because of the huge slaughterfest involved. (You’ve got Sakura going berserk and devouring Servants left and right, while the Servantless Masters try to team up and try to take her down before they all die)
Newbies to Fate/Stay Night were displeased because at the first glance, all the characters seemed to be one-dimensional and it felt like a monster-of-the-week type of deal. Studio DEEN really dropped the ball on this one. Shirou becomes a dolt that can’t think, Sakura is useless, Saber has no personality, etc. etc. The insight into Shirou’s mind that the game player gets but the anime watcher lacks makes pretty much all the difference to his character. Furthermore, the lack of background information on the other characters, like Ilya’s tragic past, makes them look rather illogical at times. This can be attributed to the fact that the path Studio DEEN took was only the introduction route where everybody gets to know a little about everybody else, but that shouldn’t really be the case. There were 24 episodes, they could’ve at least fit SOME of the backstory into that time.
In any case, I’ll do some people a favor and tell you more about the characters. You can do whatever you want with ’em, or something.
Emiya Shirou – Ten years ago, back during the fourth Holy Grail War, he was trapped in Kotomine’s basement as mana supply for Gilgamesh. When part of the city exploded into flames, he found himself to be the only survivor of the chaos, because of Kiritsugu’s help (Avalon). He wondered why he didn’t die like the rest of them, and why he had to live while everybody around him passed away painfully. (Survivor’s guilt) He couldn’t let that out of his mind, so when he heard about how Kiritsugu wanted to become a Hero of Justice and help people, he decided that since other people died for his sake, it was only fair that he would dedicate his own life for the sake of others. That way, he could truly be at peace with himself. (In Unlimited Blade Works, he realizes that he was just deluding himself to be happy since he was following the ideals. In Heaven’s Feel, he grows up and scraps the ideals altogether.) In order to accomplish this, Shirou picks up sorcery (but never goes past the basics) and archery. Five years later, his father passes away because of the Holy Grail (more on this later) and Fujimura, a close friend of his father, decides to move in to comfort Shirou at his time of loss.
Three months before the war, Shirou and Shinji have a fight because Shirou found out that Shinji was harassing Sakura. He notes that Shinji has changed for the worse. He allows Sakura to come over to his house soon afterwards, lifting the spirits of a depressed girl. Shortly before the war begins, Shirou quits the Archery club. Shirou was the best archer in the club, and the club was reluctant to see him go.
When he threw himself in front of Berserker to save Saber, he did it out of instinct. It was because that his ideals were so ingraved into his mind, that he did something without even thinking about it.
His Unlimited Blade Works Reality Marble was formed out from his reinforcement sorcery and from his ideals. The countless blades represent just how he will spend his life fighting for his ideals. This is the result of specialization sorcery, when he spent the last ten years during nothing but reinforcement. Reinforcement by nature allows the user to see the properties of a material, and then change it. It wasn’t much of a leap to be able to create his own materials inside of him. This is why he is able to create weapons out of nothing. Furthermore, by seeing the properties of a material he can by extension use this power to ‘see’ a user’s skill of a weapon, and then copy such skill and ability. However, this process uses a lot of mana, so creating something really mana-heavy (like Excalibur) will probably wipe him out. And since he’s just copying the skill, he won’t be a good as the person he’s copying.
Saber – King Arthur, aka Arturia. She was a noble warrior that found herself to be king after she pulled the sword from the stone. Nobody really cared that she was a female, since she was a pretty damn good leader. No, the thing that bothered them was her lack of humanity. She sacrificed many people to achieve her own goals, and her people hated her for that. Since she couldn’t get rid of the guilt that followed her, she decided to redo her life all over again, in hopes that somebody else would do her job better. (Er, nothing more can be said here)
Rin Tohsaka – She looked after her father, a Master in the fourth war that was betrayed by his friend, Kotomine, and wanted to become a Magi just like him. Her father put priority on his duty over his family, and like him, Rin put being a Magi over anything else in her life. She even gave away her sister, Sakura, to the Matous, since it was her duty to do so. (She regrets doing so, but she had no other choice.) Occasionally, she would go over to Archery field and watch Shirou practice, but that was because she admired his dedication. Also, she was thankful that Shirou was taking care of her sister when she herself could not.
On the day of her summoning, she found out that her clocks were an hour off but she forgot to do something about it. Thus, her wavelengths were completely off, and instead of summoning Saber, she summoned Archer instead. (That’s what she originally thought, but it was actually the pendant that made her summon Archer) At their first meeting, Archer immediately mocked her for her failure to summon properly, and Rin had to resort to using a command seal in order for him ‘to obey her commands’. Basically, if he disobeyed anything she said, his body wouldn’t be able to move. Archer finally admitted that she was actually a worthy master after that. (And then Rin left him to clean up the mess he made in the living room. In the morning, she found that her living room was in perfect condition, AND Archer made black tea. Rin later said angrily that she didn’t want a ‘domestic’ servant. The relationship was off to a rocky start.)
When she found out that Shirou was stabbed by Lancer, the first thing on her mind was Sakura. She couldn’t stand to see her sad again, so she used all the mana in her father’s pendant to revive Shirou, then left it behind. Shirou later picked it up.
Archer – Shirou from an alternate future. In his timeline, he killed Sakura, watched Ilya die, and failed to keep Saber from trying again. Rin also died for his sake later in his lifetime. When Shirou grew up, he pursued his ideals as a hero of justice, defending the weak from the strong. Unfortunately, as he later found out, such ideals were pretty much impossible to attain. He found himself killing more people than he could possibly save. And when he saved people, he found himself killing them to save others. He shed innocent blood to save innocent blood, hoping that each kill would be his last. He even sacrificed his own afterlife to save a handful of people from a destined death, only to kill them all off later. He died a broken man, betrayed by one of the people he saved. But that wasn’t all.
Since he sacrificed his own afterlife in a vain attempt to fulfill his ideals, he now had to pay the full price for his choice. He was condemned to kill people over and over again, in different parts of history and different universes, in the name of protecting the rest of humanity. By this time, he was sick of it all, and he spent every moment in the afterlife waiting for an opportunity to be summoned in a Holy Grail War that Shirou participated in. It was very slim chance, and he knew that it might never have happened. However, if he did manage to get summoned, he would basically be able to kill himself and cause a time paradox, wiping himself out from existance. More importantly, he would be able to take out his frustrations on the idiot that caused him so much pain in the first place.
Archer still has the pendant he picked up when he was revived. He gave that to Rin, while Shirou had the one that Rin actually used.
Sakura – Within her calm, cheerful exterior, hides a tormented soul that secretly resents her sister. As soon as she entered the family of Matou, she was designated the future of the family due to her latent sorcery abilities, much to Shinji’s displeasure. She then went through a very painful process to obtain the family magical seal as proof of her ‘Matou-ness’, which changed her hair color amongst other things. She was also infested with her new grandfather’s parasites, which leeched away her mana in order to keep him alive. (One particular parasite held a piece of the Holy Grail from the fourth war, which will come into play in Heaven’s Feel.) She was constantly abused by her brother out of resentment, and was even raped. She knew though, that Shinji was not the one at fault, since he was getting the shaft too. Needless to say, she was not a very happy camper.
She found Shirou who took her in and actually made her feel as if somebody actually cared about her. She started to brighten up a bit as she continued to stay by Shirou’s side. Even though she was forced to summon Rider, and was later forced to give her away to Shinji, she could still find something to smile about, as little as it were.
Shinji – He was originally a pretty good person to be around. He was nice, helpful, and actually didn’t act like a complete and total jackass to everybody around him.
Yeah, well, that’s before he found out that his own family pretty much disowned him for not being able to use sorcery. The new future of the family? Some girl that wasn’t part of it to begin with. No matter what he did, nobody would listen to him, so he grew an inferiority complex. That’s when he changed. He took out his frustrations on Sakura, and became an ass so that he would be able to feel better about himself. This later prompted him to steal Rider by copying down Sakura’s command seals onto one of the family tomes, essentially ripping out her seals and placing it onto the book.
Rider – A servant loyal to Sakura. She disapproved of Shinji being her master, but Sakura told her to follow him, and so she did. She actually is a really quiet and emotional person, and likes reading.
Ilya – As you may have suspected, Ilya is actually Shirou’s sister-in-law, as her biological father is Kiritsugu. She was born artificially using Kiritsugu’s sperm and a magically crafted egg. Because of this, she doesn’t grow normally, and despite her appearance, she is actually nineteen years old. A few years before the war began, she was forced into the wilderness by her own family as a method to force her into summoning a servant. It was basically do or die, and she had no choice in the matter. She managed to summon Heracles and save herself, but in doing so experienced horrible pain. She hated Heracles for making her suffer like this, and so she made him into a Berserker so that he would be able to experience the same pain of not being able to express oneself.
Furthermore, she was also supposed to be the vessel for the Holy Grail. This was the very reason for her existance: to be able to win the war, and then become the grail so that her family would be able to claim it for themselves. A win-win situation for them, but not for Ilya. The only family that she ever grew close to was with her father, but she never saw him again after the fourth war. She grew a liking to Shirou because of his connection to her father. (She dies an year after the fifth holy grail war is done. No exceptions.)
Berserker – A softie at heart, he bore the pain of being a Berserker for Ilya’s sake. He would sacrifice his own life to save his master.
Kuzuki – He was raised to be an assassin from his very day of birth. His entire life’s purpose was to kill off a single target, and he spent twenty years preparing for that moment. And then after it was over… that is it. He fulfilled his purpose for living. Feeling very unsatisfied, he went around searching for a new purpose in life, trying to find a reason to live. And he ended up teaching in Fuyuki City.
When he found Caster and heard about the war, he decided to help out. He wasn’t interested in the prize, but he just wanted do actually do something for a person, the complete opposite of what he had lived for previously. Even if he had to kill, he would now kill for a person that needed him.
Caster – Medea had a very harsh life. She had several boyfriends betray her during her lifetime, and when she was summoned, her own Master was a really big jerk too. She didn’t want to be betrayed anymore, so she killed her Master and then stumbled around knowing that she would die pretty soon. That’s when she met Kuzuki, who helped her without even knowing who she even was. She fell in love with him after staying with him for some time, and so she decided to win the war so that she could be with Kuzuki.
Assassin – Since he was summoned by another Servant, he can’t even be considered a real Servant. He had no real reason to win the war, but he decided to stick around for the battles. (And uh, that’s basically it.)
Lancer – Originally summoned by a different master, he found himself working under Kotomine after his master (after falling in love with the evil church dude) had her arm chopped off by the same guy. But he couldn’t attack Kotomine. He wasn’t the type of person that would betray his master, even if he wasn’t his original one. He shook it off after a few days, though he did think of Kotomine as a cowardly loser. After all, he also had no reason to win the war anyhow. He was also here for the battles.
Unfortunately for him, Kotomine sent him off to be recon instead. Because of that, he took every opportunity to pick a fight with someone (like Archer). What he didn’t know was that he was only useful for info because Kotomine already had Gilgamesh. If he had known, he would have immediately left his service. (In Unlimited Blade Works, he fights alongside Shirou and Rin and fights Archer, then is killed when Kotomine forces him to stab himself. Before he dies, however, Lancer stabs Kotomine with the same lance as well, killing him too.)
Kirei – He was raised by his father to become a nice, good figure. But, he couldn’t find any enjoyment in that. In fact, he couldn’t feel any emotions at all. He tried having a lover, being a friend, etc. etc. but all he could only find fun in ripping that all apart to shreds. And so, he betrayed his friend, Rin’s father, and was about to win the fourth Holy Grail War when he was shot by Kiritsugu. Because he was on the verge of death, the Holy Grail appeared before the two Masters and Servants. Kotomine, detesting everything in this world, wished for it to be destroyed, causing the fire that destroyed part of the city. When Saber destroyed the Holy Grail, the contents of the grail fell upon Kotomine, giving him an artificial heart. He wished to know more about the Holy Grail because of this incident, and specifically, what would happen if someone with a pure and good heart would wish upon such a tainted and evil artifact.
Gilgamesh – Despite appearances, Gilgamesh actually had a reason to get the Holy Grail. While it was true that he was the most egotistical person on the side of the planet, he was still a ruler, and a ruler had to take care of his people. When the Holy Grail spilled upon him during the fourth war (which gave him an almost physical body and allowed him to stay longer in the world), it gave him an experience that he would never forget. He encountered all the sins of the world, which quite frankly shocked him. He couldn’t have such evils haunt his kingdom. So, he aimed to use the grail to destroy such evil, basically using the sins of humanity’s own medicine against them. Oh, and he also wanted Saber to drink fom the grail and stay longer too, since he didn’t realize the consequences of such actions. (If she did drink from the grail, then her heart would’ve been severely corrupted [See Heaven’s Feel]. Gilgamesh was too full of himself for that.)
And besides these characters, there’s a whole lot of backstory involved in the Holy Grail War itself. But my hands are too tired to type. If you want to go see some of this for yourself, then check out Insani’s translation of the Fate prologue.
http://www.insani.org/fate.html
Completely translated and h-scene free.
I didn’t even make it to the third-of-a-way-through mark before I quit in disgust, frankly.
I got sick of the flat main characters, the fact that the good characters were pushed to the side or delegated into stereotypical roles, the fairly formulaic episodes, and Rin’s flip-flopping. But then it had the nerve to go and turn into a harem show.
Forgot to add this bit:
ARCHER = FUTURE!EMIYA?!
That’s it, I’m going to go kill myself.
Oh, and from what you’ve said, I’m REALLY glad I didn’t force myself to continue the seres.
Lol oh Fate/Stay Night. my friends like it. but after like 11 episodes of Emiya, I cried and haven’t seen anymore since. I simply refuse D: And sadly, I… didn’t like Rin. It’s like she could have been cool, and then she brought Emiya back to life D: Respect. Gone.
I did like watching Emiya getting mauled a couple times. My favorite was definitely when he pushed Saber out of the way to get smattered by Berserker.
Even Emiya’s character single was pathetic D: siiigh