Released by Type-Moon in the year 2004 on the PC, Fate/Stay night would be an adult
visual novel that would spark a large and popular franchise.
Written and Directed by Kinoko Nasu, the game would be one of the longest scripts ever written
in the history of games, in terms of word count, putting it on par with the Bible.
It's popularity have also spun off serveral other games of various styles, animes, manga,
and merchandising.
For characters, the game is mainly told through the perspective of Shirou Emiya, and centralizes
around his involvement in a magical battle royale to the death.
The story is actually split up into 3 very distinct paths depending on which of the 3
female protagonists the player chooses to involve themselves with.
For gameplay, as a visual novel the engagement is mostly at the reading level, and occaisionally
a decision point will be reached where one option is the correct route and the rest are
routes that typically lead to death.
Keep in mind, while there are multiple endings and nuances to each path, I will be covering
the True ending to each route.
This video will cover the Fate route, but please watch the other two paths linked at
the end of this video.
The story only gets larger from here, so let's cut it down to size with a RECAPitation.
As the game begins in the city of Fuyuki, we see a young Rin Tohsaka say goodbye to
her father as he goes off to war.
However, this is no conventional war, but rather, a secret battle between 7 mages for
the coveted wish-granting Holy Grail relic, aptly called the Holy Grail War.
So serious is the battle between them that battles are usually to the death until there
is one mage left, and unfortunately, Rin's father dies in this 4th Holy Grail war, which
is normally every 60 years, but somehow, the 5th war is beginning early after only 10 years.
Older, Rin is now living on her own, the last of her long magical bloodline, though like
other magic-users, she must keep her abilities secret in this modern world that doesn't recognizes
magi.
Her family specializes in Jewel Magecreaft, which is transferring and storing magical
energy into jewels, for utilization later.
For instance, her heirloom necklace that she wears is one such jewel that has an immense
amount of magical energy stored in it.
Outside her private life of magic study, she lives a normal high school life though her
proud and competitive nature leaves her with a shallow social life, despite her charming
looks and excellent performances academically and athletically.
This is partly because its an accepted practice to kill anyone who discovers the identity
of a mage, so she chooses not to let anyone get too close to her.
As she goes to class, she bumps into several of her classmates, like the mild-mannered
Sakura, the cocky vice-president of the archery club Shinji, her stern homeroom teacher, and
the handyman around the school Shirou.
When she gets home, her guardian and part magic teacher Kirei leaves a message for her
to hurry up and prepare for her role as a Master in the coming Holy Grail war, or waive
her participation and seek the protection of the church before it begins.
The Holy Grail war is a fight to the death between the participating Magi, but they are
not alone.
Each one is a master to a familiar called a Servant, whom they must summon and form
a contract with.
However, only one servant can be summoned, and if the summoner has a focus connected
to a particular heroic spirit, they can summon an even stronger servant.
There are 7 classes of Servants, Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker.
Rin herself is determined to summon a servant from the Saber class, which she considers
the strongest.
That night, Rin makes every preparation possible to complete her summoning, though botches
her timing, but still suceeds in producing a summon.
The spirit in question crashes into her living room, and is a red knight rather unimpressed
with Rin as a Master.
Like all Masters, Rin does indeed have a set of Command Spells on her hand, that allow
her to control her Servant, and are miracles granted from the Holy Grail itself unto its
participants.
He continues his condescending attitude and begruding servitude towards Rin, until she's
mad to the point of spending one of her command spells to demand obediance.
While more compliant, the servant reminds Rin not to be wasteful of her two remaining
spells, which can also be used to allow him to accomplish great or otherwise impossible
feats of strength.
Still, he has now observed her resolve as well as magical ability, and genuinely regards
her with more respect now.
When he reveals he's of the Archer class, Rin is openly disappointed, but Archer protests
how he'll show her he's no mistake.
When asked which heroic spirit he is, Archer pauses, explaining he doesn't know himself,
which puzzles both of them.
Regardless, with Rin now a part of the death battle, the war waits for its final Master
to appear before it begins.
In reflection, anyone who is Master but loses all three of their command spells, loses control
of their Servant and their status as Master, and certainly faces death.
With Archer's memory fuzzy, he also can't rightly recall his ultimate move, called a
Noble Phantasm, that every Servant has as a trump card.
She shows him around town, as servants can turn invisible to normal people, including
the site of the final battle of the last Holy Grail War, 10 years ago, now a park in the
middle of the city.
Archer can feel the overwhelming amount of regret there, and likens it to a Reality Marble.
Unlike a magic barrier, which is a field that protects its maker from outside danger but
still based on what's around them, a Reality Marble is a limited field in which reality
is removed and instead whatever the maker desires takes form.
Rin is interrupted as her Command Spell throbs, a sign that another Master is nearby.
Even though the war has not officially begun, Masters can technically begin fighting at
any time.
The next day, Rin decides to still go to school, as the battles between mages are supposed
to take place in secret, so she doubts a surprise attack will come hiding in plain sight.
Archer isn't so confident, and to her surprise, Rin notes the next day at school, a magical
field is being set up on the school itself.
After school, they investigate, and she learns this large boundary field, when complete,
will drain the life force out from everyone within, and claim their souls.
Archer confirms that as a spirit they can feed on souls and mental energy though they
don't need to, as usually the magical energy of their Master is enough.
But if they do, they can become tougher as their magical energy capacity will increase,
so stealing energy is an understandable tactic for this war.
Rin announces she has no intention of eating the souls of others to win, and Archer seems
glad to hear it.
As she begins to erase part of the boundary field, she is interrupted by a man in blue
armor, who recognizes her as a Master, and she recognizes him as a Servant.
Summoning a blood-red spear, he lunges for Rin, who dodges and begins to flee, as she
runs and heads for a more open area where she and Archer can counterattack.
Archer steps forward, and despite his name, wields a shortsword in hand.
The fight ensues with both spirits, as Archer is pushed back by Lancer's skill.
However, Archer then produces two swords, and though Lancer disarms the supposed bowman
dozens of times, in an instant, Archer produces new blades.
This confuses both Lancer and Rin, as Rin also thought each Servant only carries one
weapon that is filled with magical energy, which is the basis for their Noble Phantasm,
and cannot be replaced like Archer is doing.
Archer figures out what heroic spirit Lancer is based on his fighting technique, and as
a retort, Lancer prepares to unleash his Noble Phantasm and kill Archer.
However, everything is interrupted, as a student spots them, and Lancer suddenly turns and
moves to kill the witness.
Rin feels compelled to follow, as even though she knows there cannot be any witnesses, she's
always been careful till today, since she dislikes involving others.
As she finds the student, it's too late as he's been dealt with by Lancer and is dying.
She sends Archer to tail Lancer, though notes how odd this student has been pierced in the
heart yet hasn't died yet.
She recognizes the student as her classmate Shirou, and refusing to let him die, she uses
her last resort family heirloom to empty all of its powerful magical energy into reviving
him.
Returning home, Rin reflects how Lancer revealing his Noble Phantasm would also reveal his heroic
name, which would have helped them, as knowing the true name of any hero lets you know their
weapon, abilities and weaknesses, and thus why each Servant hides their identity with
their class name until they reveal and use their Noble Phantasm.
To note, a Saber has made it to the final fight in the last 4 Holy Grail Wars, hence
why Rin wanted one, though Sabers, Archers, and Lancers are generally regarded for their
high magic resistance.
Another one to note is the Berserker who possess exceptional strength but no sanity, and quickly
drain their Master's magic, leading to their ruin.
Rin suddenly realizes she forgot to wipe the memory of Shirou, which is her way of removing
witnesses, and rushes over to his house.
She senses Lancer already there, but suddenly there's a flash of white, as now a new, more
powerful presence arrives; a new Servant that forces Lancer to flee now.
However, the new Servant now attacks Rin and Archer, nearly felling Archer in one blow
had Rin not spent another Command Spell to send him away instantly.
As Rin is easily defeated, she sees its by the hand of the card she wanted, the Saber,
as she now waits for her early death.
As perspective now shifts to that of Shirou from earlier, we learn he doesn't remember
too much of his past, only that his family and neighborhood were lost to a fierce fire
10 years ago.
Though he alone was saved, inside, his heart has never recovered from the massive loss.
He would be adopted by a man who confessed to being a magi upfront, Kiritsug Emiya and
later Shirou would ask to learn magic from him.
He looked up to the Kiritsugu who rescued him and has since made it his goal to be a
man of justice like him.
We go back in time a month, as Shirou is now living alone, though his friend from school
Sakura and teacher often help him in his home.
Shirou himself enjoys fixing things, helping others, and is better at archery than even
the school captain, though his skill with magic is worse than amateur.
He has a secret attraction to Sakura, who is also sister to his classmate Shinji.
In truth, Shirou is a good handyman as he assists his repairs with the light bit of
magic he can use.
He's able to slightly strengthen things, and has a knack for being able to visualize the
structure of things and reproduce them in his mind.
That night, he runs into a strange silver-haired girl, who warns him to summon something soon,
else he'll die.
As he practices his magic every evening as usual, he reflects how he has few natural
magic circuits but no family crest, as he is an adopted son of the Emiya family, and
thus their magic crest could not be passed to him though blood.
Thus, as a normal human, he must work to strengthen the few magic circuits he does have with the
natural affinity of magic he's compatible with.
Personally, he's ok with never becomming a magus and instead being like his adopted father,
whom he views as a hero who helps people.
For example, Shirou doesn't hesistate to beat up his classmate Shinji if he catches him
hitting his sister Sakura.
After a strange dream about swords, he hears about a local murder of a family that were
all apparantly stabbed by a spear, and that night from work, he spots Rin from a long
distance with his superior eyesight, surveying the town atop a tower.
Please note, it is at this point that the divide between the three routes begins, If
you would like to continue to the Unlimited Blade Works routw with Rin or Heaven's Feel
route with Sakura, please select the appropriate video from the description below.
Otherwise, continue watching for the Fate route with Saber.
The following day, Shirou senses something strange around the school, but stays late
to help with a task.
That night, he hears a sound and goes to investigate, only to witness Archer and Lancer dueling.
He's spotted during Lancer's Noble Phantasm, and Shirou finds himself running for his life
to no avail, as Lancer catches up to him in the halls of the school and stabs him cleanly
through the heart.
Strangley, he doesn't die instantly, and instead, a few moments later, Rin finds him, resucitates
him and leaves.
When he wakes, he stumbles home, only to learn Lancer has followed him back and now moves
to kill him again.
Determined to at least fight for his life, Shirou reaches for a nearby poster tube and
uses his single Reinforcement spell to transform it into a metallic, sword-like weapon.
Seeing this, Lancer mocks and toys with Shirou, during which Shirou makes it to his tool shed.
On the floor of his tool shed is a magic circle left by Kiritsugu he's never really considered,
and as he curses his impending death, a light flashes out and the seventh Servant, one of
the Saber class, appears and immediately reacts to save Shirou from Lancer.
As Lancer backs off, Shirou sees his savior is a beautiful girl in knights armor.
As Lancer prepares his Noble Phantasm to kill her, Gae Bolg, it pierces Saber but somehow
she avoids an instant death, and in doing so, identifies the man's true heroic name.
However, Lancer's Master chooses to recall him, and so he leaves.
As things calm down immediately, Shirou is confused to the state of now being a Master,
but Saber now detects two more foes outside, jumping out to greet Rin and Archer.
Ambushing them, she nearly kills Archer had Rin not intervened and sent him away.
As she bears on Rin, Shirou halts Saber, and is shocked to find out Rin is involved in
all this.
Ordering Saber to stand down, she does so under protest, and reading the scene, Rin
proposes they all go inside as its clear Shirou has no idea what's going on.
As they talk, Rin quickly learns Shirou knows close to nothing about magic at all.
In return for sparing her life, she explains everything to him, including the Holy Grail
war and how the battle royale game is won.
Though, Shirou still has many questions, so she takes him to see the priest supervising
the whole war.
The priest Kirei, seems pleasant enough, but smiles stragely when learning Shirou's last
name of Emiya.
As he clarifies things, Rin points out the War is to determine the last Servant standing,
so its not strictly necessary to kill the Masters, but it usually ends up happening
since the easiest way to beat a servant is to kill the Master behind it.
In the event a Master is killed, a Servant lingers until its magical energy depletes,
during which, they can form a new contract with a Master who as lost a Servant and still
has at least one Command Spell.
Thus, killing Masters is more effective in that regard too.
Alternatively, if a Master has used all their Command Spells and thus loses control of their
Servant, they may seek sanctuary of this church for the duration of the war.
Shirou objects that an evil person can get the Holy Grail easily, and Kirei says then
the easiest thing is to simply win himself, else another side effect of the war, like
the blaze that killed Shirou's family ten years ago will occur again.
He also mentions the Grail will choose its own Master, and unworthy ones will be rejected,
as he found out as he was a participant in the last Holy War himself.
He says Shirou should be happy, as his personal wish of becomming a hero is able to come true,
as there is indeed a villain in this War that he can defeat.
Regardless, Shirou decides to stay in the Holy Grail war, which has now officially begun.
As they leave, Rin mentions how Kirei is her second teacher, but originally he was a senior
apprentice to her under the same teacher, her father.
She also mentions he's untrustworthy, hence why she didn't even tell him what class she
has.
Still, once they return home she breaks off, explaining that now that he knows the rules,
they're enemies starting tomorrow.
Though, as soon as she leaves, the small, silver-haired girl from before now appears,
this time with a giant of a man beside her.
She recognizes Rin and introduces herself as Ilya Einzbern, a family name Rin also recognizes.
Wasting no time to attack two Masters at once, Ilya commands her servant Berserker to kill
them all.
Berserker's powerful but wild swings are barely parried by Saber, who is already weakened
from her first two battles already.
As things seems grim, Ilya has no problem revealing her Berserker's true name as the
legendary Greek Hero Hercules.
With nothing he can do, Shirou blocks Berserker's blow with his own body, a maneuver that saves
Saber and shocks both Rin and Ilya.
As Shirou drops, dying again, Ilya oddly chooses to withdraw Berserker for today, and promises
to kill Rin later as she leaves.
The next day, he's surprised to be alive and Rin reveals his body regenerated on its own
with his magic, but Shirou protests that he doesn't know any healing magic.
Rin then proposes that since her Archer is still healing and Shirou is a weak master
for Saber, they should form an alliance until they defeat Berserker, and in return for the
protection she will teach him more about Magic.
Shirou agrees, though to himself he still doesn't have a personal desire to win the
Holy Grail.
After Rin leaves, he suddenly recalls the wounded Saber, and when he hurries to find
her, he finds her instead back to normal, wearing normal clothes.
He's immediately smitten, but focuses on getting to know her first.
He's glad she refuses to harm innocents to gain an edge.
He also asks her her real name, but she politely refuses, explaining that if he knew, because
he's so weak, anyone can use magic to pull the information from him.
He agrees, and now notices Rin back with luggage, explaining she'll be living here with him
as per their alliance.
At dinner, they agree for now they will continue letting their Servants heal while doing their
best to gather information on the other 4 Masters.
They continue living a normal life though at school, Rin lets Shirou know about the
life-stealing boundary field being set up.
After some investigating, Shirou finds the base point of the field, but is discovered
by Shinji, who has already surmised he and Rin are Masters working together.
Shinji proposes working together as well, and leads him back to his own house where
he reveals his own servant, Rider.
He explains that while his lineage, the Matou Family used to be Magi, the magic circuits
in their bloodline died out long ago and they only have their knowledge, while he can't
actually use magic.
He also mentions only one heir in a household can inherit a family's magic, and that's him,
so other children, like Sakura, are either kept in the dark about magic, or given out
to be adopted by other families.
When Shirou asks if he knows of the magic barrier, Shinji says its not him, but yet
another Master or Servant present at their school.
Shirou declines the cooperation agreement between them, and Shinji takes it surprisingly
well, and even drops that there is a Master at Ryudo Temple nearby, where there's a witch
collecting souls.
At home, Shirou reveals all this to Saber and Rin, mentioning he doesn't immediately
believe Shinji's claim of not setting up the boundary field around the school.
Also, without enough information, he doesn't want to risk attacking the temple Master.
Saber disagrees on so much inaction, and that night puts on her armor to deal with the Temple
Master herself.
She is stopped when she encounters an unexpected samurai guarding the temple, who shocks her
by fully introducing himself as the Assassin Servant, Sasaki Kojiro.
They waste no time clashing blades in fierce combat as elsewhere Shirou notes Saber's disappearance
and thinks she left for the temple herself.
A dagger in the night almost catches Shirou as he approaches the temple, which is noticed
by Assassin, who withdraws, noting that their 3rd party visitor is clearly here to witness
their techniques and prey on the victor.
He mentions his mission is simply to prevent entry to the temple, so he pulls back for
now.
As Shirou helps Saber home, his pride erupts on Saber fighting not only without his permission
but also because she's a girl.
Naturally, Saber is a warrior first, doubly so because she is also a Servant whose role
it is to fight in this war.
Shirou then proclaims he'll fight as well, and while initially rejected, Saber accepts
it with the help of Rin, under the condition that Shirou be taught swordmanship by Saber.
So, with sword training under Saber and magic training under Rin, Shirou gains a better
perspective of actual battle, and Rin fixes a lot of the magic dysfunction that has held
him back all these years.
She explains that after he gets the basics of his strengthening, which enhances the abilities
of something, he can also likely learn transformation magic, which adds new effects to something,
and then projection magic, which can create something.
Unfortunately, he's quite bad at everything, though unexpectedly, Archer comes down and
offers some advice to him at least winning his mental battles first before winning in
real life.
A few days later, Shinji calls Shirou and invites him to speak alone during school,
and Shinji complies, though as soon as he does, something is immediately wrong.
Suddenly, all of his senses are assaulted as the barrier field trap around the school
activates, and Shinji reveals himself, proudly claiming this trap to kill everyone in the
school and feed the souls to his Rider.
Enraged, Shirou attacks Shinji personally, but Rider intervenes now, kicking him out
the 3rd floor window.
As he miraculously survives the fall, Shirou thinks quickly and spends one of his 3 command
spells to instantly summon Saber here, who is miraculously teleported here, battle-ready.
He sics Saber on Rider, while he opts to confront Shinji himself.
Breaking shinji's arm and strangling him, he forces him to make Rider drop the killing
field, though Rider triggers her Noble Phantasm, creating an opening for herself and Shinji
to escape from.
Shirou collapses and Rin brings him home, heavily injured but mysteriously regenerating
and more importantly, successful in saving everyone in the school.
Still, this is a wake-up call to Shirou never to fight alone and to trust Saber by his side
going forward.
He chooses not to rest for long, as he knows Shinji must be stopped as soon as possible,
and given how he can beat Shinji one on one and Saber can beat Rider one on one, this
is their best chance, provided they strike before Rider can use her Noble Phantasm again.
However, as they search, Rider sneak attacks again, spurring another battle, and reveals
her Noble Phantasm to be the powerful gold-bridled Pegasus of the grek hero Bellerophon.
To counter, Saber releases the wind seal on her invisible sword, revealing it to be the
legendary gold sword, Caliburn, sword of the knightly King Arthur, and obliterates Rider,
whose true identity was Medusa, in a single swing with her Noble Phantasm, Excalibur.
Shinji, who was hiding nearby, panics and flees as his Command Seals burn away, removing
him from this contest, but Saber collapses after this, so Shirou lets Shinji go as he
carries Saber home.
Rin reveals Saber has expended a tremendous amount of magical energy, and unless her supply
is refilled, she'll disappear on her own.
Normally the Master supplies the Servant energy, but Shirou hasn't been able to do that so
far.
As he rests that night, he has a dream about Saber in her previous life as Artoria, nothing
how her sword wielded then was different than that of hers now somehow.
As he steps out to think on how to restore energy to Saber, he passes by Archer, who
says he's finished his recovery, and later when he's alone Shirou's kidnapped by Ilya,
who's been observing and knows Saber is weakened now.
Binding him and taking him to her castle outside of town, Ilya reveals she has taken a strong
liking to Shirou and won't kill him like the other Masters, provided he devote himself
to her.
Shirou refuses, even when she admits she killed Shinji after he fled from losing to Shirou.
She leaves now to go kill Rin and Saber, and leaves Shirou alone.
Shirou manages to break his bonds and is about to escape when Saber, Archer, and Rin come
in to rescue him, having waited for Ilya and Berserker to leave and following Saber's link
to Shirou.
However, they're shocked when Ilya is actually still there waiting for them, only having
pretended to leave.
Rin quietly asks Archer to hold Berserker off until they can escape, and then escape
himself, and a confident Archer believes he can do even more than that despite how one
sided the fight looks.
As they escape, they stop in a hidden ruin Archer uncovered earlier, and wait inside
for him.
However, after an hour, Rin suddenly feels a bit of pain on her command seal, confirming
that despite her orders and his confidence, Archer has been killed by Berserker.
She now figures that it'll be a matter of time before Ilya and Berserker catch them
now, so its important they not only fix Saber, but also defeat Berserker tonight.
She mentions there is one method they can use to restore Saber's magic energy, since
Shirou cannot naturally share his spiritually, and that is for Shirou to physically give
her magical energy though sex.
As Rin assists them in this necessary intimate threesome ritual, Ilya is slowed by Berserker
who must now stop and heal his wounds.
Before falling, Archer delivered 6 fatal wounds to the Servant, and would have won had it
not been Hercules he was fighting.
Still, she moves out with him barely recovered, as Shirou and the others formulate an ambush
plan now that Saber has more energy.
Shirou himself plans to fight supportively as well, crafting a bow with his improving
magic, as he's decent with archery.
As Ilya crashes in to kill them, their fight is still a desparate struggle, as Saber has
enough energy to fight, but not enough to use her Noble Phantasm.
Even Rin's sneak attack manages to kill Berserker, but Ilya proudly declares Berserker cannot
actually die until he's killed 12 times, as his body itself is his Noble Phantasm God
Hand.
Shirou's arrows are useless, but instead, as himself, Saber, and Rin are at death's
door, he imagines a more powerful weapon, Saber's Caliburn, at its maximum capacity,
and to everyone's surprise, an imitation materializes in his hand.
However, even though its a fake, its still powerful enough to cleanly slice off one of
Berserker's arms before dissolving into nothingness.
Wielding his new skill of Projection, he forges an even stronger version of Caliburn, and
alongside Saber, their combined power strikes through Berserker with a blow so powerful
it kills him seven-times over.
Slumping down, Berserker's sanity comes back long enough for him to recognize the strength
of the pair, as he dissolves away forever.
Stunned, Ilya cannot believe her servant is dead, but Shirou insists they spare her life
as they all escape the forest together.
The next morning, Rin reminds them that all they have now to worry about is Caster, Lancer
and Assassin, and after Berserker, they shouldn't be too hard, though she and Saber both disapprove
of Shirou's choice to spare Ilya and even offer her sanctuary in his home.
As time passes and Shirou continues his training, everyone begins to accept Ilya more as she
too grows fond of Shirou and wants him to win.
Rin also notes Shirou's stunt of projection magic should have blown out multiple nerves,
but is troubled on how strong an alien his regenerative abilities are.
She also notes she can't help him with his projection magic since she doesn't know it,
and its frankly unheard of to be able to reproduce a Noble Phantasm like he did and survive,
though it likely reveals he has an natural affinity for swords and should master that.
She also mentions she'll stick around here with him and will still fight, suggesting
they move their attention to the strange magical energies around Ryudou Temple.
As the air between Saber and Shirou is a lot more personal since that night, Shirou begins
to wonder what he can do to make Saber happy, since he knows the tale of king Arthur ends
in misery.
When he asks her directly what her wish is, Saber reveals she's not a true Servant summoned
by the Holy Grail, but instead asked to become a Servant in order to obtain the Holy Grail.
Rather, the deal is she will be a servant until she gets her wish which is for King
Arthur to obtain the Grail while still alive.
In order to make this happen, time has stopped for her at her moment of death, and she is
essentially immortal until that goal is met.
Hence why she can be summoned to multiple battlefields, like the last Grail War.
She also notes she is actually not a spirit but alive since she is merely frozen in time,
and never technically died.
However, her wish is for her own existence to be removed so that she never pulled the
sword from the stone, as she beleives her failure means there is likely a better candidate
than her who should have been selected as king.
After this wish is granted, she will die but become a heroic spirit, again, and able to
be summoned to fight again anyway.
Shirou rejects such a wish, but is interrupted as they are suddenly surrounded by Caster
and her army of golems.
Though weak, they are numerous, and as they move outside, they see Caster is by herself
with no master.
She confesses she killed her master and survives by consuming souls, and will still obtain
the holy grail for herself.
She also reveals Assassin has been defeated, and wishes to speak with Saber.
However, a man in gold armor suddenly appears and defeats the entire golem army by himself.
Summoning a hail of weapons, each one as unique and powerful as a Noble Phantasm itself, he
obliterates Caster easily, and turns to Saber, apparantly familiar with her.
Saber is surprised too, asking why the man, also named Archer, is still in this world.
He asks her to think on the decision he made 10 years ago, and then leaps away, sparing
the group.
As the group collects their thoughts, Rin is again amazed at Shirou's healing ability,
and asks Saber about it.
Saber herself doesn't have phenomenal self-healing to that degree either, but when she stops
to think about it, she suddenly freezes with an epiphany she keeps to herself.
Moving on, Rin deduces from what Saber has explained that this Archer is the winner who
beat Saber in the last grail war and has somehow survived to this day.
However, he seemed to have a legion of Noble Phantasms, so it seems impossible to determine
his real identity.
Saber mentions Archer also proposed marriage to her in the last war, but she declined him
then like she still does now.
She then suggests Archer may still be around because no one got the grail in the last war.
In fact, it turns out Shirou's adoptive father Kiritsugu was Saber's master in the last war,
and betrayed everyone by commanding her to destroy the grail.
In fact, Shirou's father was a stone-cold killer caring little about anyone but his
own objectives, much to the contrast of Shirou's own memories.
Still, even though she destroyed the holy grail, it must still be around because there
is still a war with servants present.
After everyone goes to sleep, Shirou thinks to speak to the other person he knows of who
fought in the last war, Kirei the priest, and heads back to the church.
After talking, Shirou learns there is a way to save Saber from herself and her fate as
a servant and that is by gaining a second life from drinking the water of the holy grail.
He says that there is a holy grail as its only a vessel, and if it ever goes away, then
the preparer will prepare another one.
He then explains the original holy grail exists in utopia, its not a cup that received the
blood of god.
Three magic families, Einzbern, Makiri, and Tohsaka spent generations researching how
to reproduce it, and succeeeded in doing so 200 years ago.
That was the first Holy Grail War, which is a ritual to summon the real Holy grail to
the artificial one.
The Tohsakas provided the land and the summoning system of servants, the Makiri, later known
as the Matou family, provided the command spell to bind the servants, and the Einzberns
provided the vessel for the Holy Grail to dwell in.
When Kiritsugu betrayed the Einzberns in the last war, they threw down their best trump
card, and Ilya, their current descendant, likely has the Holy Grail.
When Shirou mentions Archer from the last war still lingering, Kirei is puzzled and
tells him he will investigate that on his own.
As he leaves, Shirou admits to himself he likes Saber too much, and firmly decides to
take her out on a date the next day.
He indeed convinces her to go out with him, and while Shirou tries to make her a litle
happy and persuade her to stay, Saber still doesn't budge from her self-sacrificial mission.
As they walk home, Archer interrupts them, still claiming Saber is his, and crushes Shirou
to the edge of death, careful not to kill him early else Saber would disappear.
She arms herself and attacks the man, who dons his own armor and allows Saber to fight
him.
Shirou can see Saber is much better at swordplay than Archer, however, the man then calls on
his noble phantasm, Gate of Babylon, and like before, a countless number of legendary weapons
pour forth at his disposal.
Shirou thinks about how one man can have all the legendary weapons in his lifetime, but
then an idea sparks.
If the weapons were his like he claims before they became legend through someone else, then
its still possible he can have all the weapons.
The man agrees with Shirou, explaining that he comes from an ancient time when the world
was one and he was a king who had a perfect collection of every treasure in the world
till the time he died.
After his death, contents of his treasury spread throughout the world, eventually becoming
Noble Phantasms, yet it's still true they all once belonged to him, mankind's oldest
king of heroes and original legend, Gilgamesh.
Undeterred, Saber prepares to use Excalibur, which prompts Gilgamesh to produce his own
original, personal weapon, Ea, to match.
Saber unleashes her Noble Phantasm, only for her to be easily overwhlemed and blown away
by Gilgamesh.
With Saber defeated, a broken Shirou forces himself to stand up and produce yet again
his own duplicate Caliburn, but this time, the copy is so good, it even retains the will
and memory of the original, able to counter Gilgamesh's blows on its own.
Gilgamesh explains that the sword Shirou has is actually a copy of Caliburn, the sword
in the stone, and the model it's based on is Merodach, the sword of selection, which
Gilgamesh produces now.
Cutting Shirou down easily, Gilgamesh moves to pick up Saber, but again Shirou stands,
declaring his love for Saber, and refusal to back down.
Producing Caliburn once more, Saber now joins him and together like with Berserker, they
slash into Gilgamesh, cutting through his armor and slashing his face.
Enraged at the light wound, Gilgamesh chooses to retreat for now to the surprise of Shirou,
and again to his surprise, his body begins regenerating his overwhelmingly fatal wounds.
Saber is pleased, as she finally understands now, that the missing sheath to her sword
that would have rendered her nigh-invulnerable, was actually inside Shirou this whole time,
and that is what has helped him through this war.
That night, Saber overlooks Shirou as he recovers his energy, and Shirou doubles down on his
declaration of love for her, embracing her and kissing her, and Saber doesn't resist
him.
Instead, she accepts him and the two make love that night, restoring Saber's magic energy
in the process.
The next day, Shirou struggles to think of a counter to Gilgamesh, and thinks to ask
Kirei about him.
In the church, he doesn't find the priest, but instead stumbles into a ghastly room full
of corpses barely kept alive but mutilated and used for siphoning off magical energy.
Eerily, he is greeted cheerfully by Kirei down here, exposing to Shirou that under his
cold exterior is an unfeeling maniac.
He reveals all the bodies here are the living remains of the people laid waste in the massive
fire ten years ago that almost killed Shirou, and had Shirou not been adopted, he would
be one of the orphaned bodies here too.
He explains these are living batteries for the Servant he was keeping alive for ten years,
and he no longer needs them since Shirou and his Servant will be killed soon.
At this time, Shirou is impaled from behind, and Kirei reveals he is the Master for Lancer.
Elsewhere, Saber and Rin wonder where Shirou is, as Rin has not only figured out what Ilya
actually is, but also that Lancer's original Master was killed even before she encountered
him at the school, so someone else is controlling Lancer.
Saber explains Masters who still have their Command Seals and Servants after the Holy
Grail disappear are still Masters, and that can only mean that Kirei, the only surviving
Master from the last war, is more than likely the lurking Master hiding in plain sight.
Saber then gets the mental alam that Shirou's life is in danger and he's in the church,
so she wastes no time dashing there.
It appears that fatally wounding Shirou is bait for Saber coming here, and Kirei leaves
Shirou for dead.
As Saber kicks down the doors ready for battle, Lancer is there, ready to fight Saber, as
Kirei explains the Holy Grail can be called forth at full power when there is only one
Servamt left and the rest have been killed, though it can still be summoned incompletely
and still grant most wishes.
Lancer questions this, as he was told like all servants that the Holy grail with not
appear until there is only one Servant left, and Kirei points out that is true for the
Grail itself, not the vessel prepared to receive it.
The vessel will continue to receive power as each Servant falls until there is one Servant
left and the Grail is summoned.
This is verified by Saber, as both she and archer survived the last war and the grail
still appeared.
Dangling a dying Shirou in front of Saber, he asks Shirou what he really wants the Grail
for, tempting him with the opportunity to redo the great fire from 10 years ago and
live a normal life However, even with his dying breath, and the dozens of dying people
he couldn't save, Shirou defiantly states he doesn't beleive the path he's on is the
wrong one, and he cannot stray from it for the people he's left behind.
Saber's shaken, as her circumstances are so similar to his yet she is betting everything
to get the grail and reverse the fate of the people she could not save in the past.
Shirou's conviction gives her pause, and Kirei confronts that, telling Saber that if she
kills Shirou, he will simply give her the Holy Grail.
He reminds her Shirou is dying anyway so it would be a mercy, and this is exactly why
she became a Servant so its a win-win for her.
As she reflects, she realizes her longtime conviction was to be a king that always fought
for her country, even if it meant losing everything, and was not to make everyone happy, and to
that end, even though she did lose everything, it was not in a way that violated her oath
as king or pride as a knight, so really, she had everything she wanted.
Her mind made up, she points her sword at Kirei, explaining she will not kill shirou
to obtain the grail, and instead reaches for Shirou.
His regeneration kicks in now, healing him quickly, and Kirei now admits he must now
kill Shirou in order for his own wish to be granted.
Saber demands to know where the vessel for the grail is, and Kirei is shocked they of
all people don't know since they the ones hiding it, and Gilgamesh now enters the scene,
shocking everyone.
As it turns out, Archer was also Kirei's Servant in the last war, which bothers Lancer as it
exposes Kireai's deceit to him.
Even though Kirei was defeated by Kiritsugu, Kirei touched an incomplete Holy Grail and
wished for a diversion to split up Saber and Shirou's father, causing the massive fire
that ruined so many lives, including Shirou's.
He explains the grail is only full of darkness and curses, and when Saber destroyed the vessel,
it spilled onto Archer, thus corrupting him into the manner of today.
The grail is pure power granting the result of the wish, not ensuring the means, so whatever
you wish for will be granted through destruction.
This breaks Saber's image of what the Grail was, and Kirei laughs, satisfied at the entertainment,
and leaves Lancer and Gilgamesh to deal with Saber and Shirou.
Saber grabs Shirou and rushes past the Servants, and surprisingly, Lancer feigns attacking
them to instead attacking Gilgamesh, who parries.
Lancer declares he won't follow Kirei's orders, but its for himself, not to help Saber.
Gilgamesh turns to deal with Lancer's betrayal, as they both let Saber go, explaining he was
going to kill Lancer anyway, as only one more servant needs to die for the Grail to appear,
and he wasn't going to kill Saber.
Outside, Saber restores magical energy to the sheath in Shirou's body, explaining he'll
now heal up in a few hours, and reveals the missing sheath to the sword Excalibur is actually
within Shirou now.
While its disappearance is why king arthur died, its also why Shirou has miraculously
survived this whole time.
Possesing this relic is also why Saber was summoned specifically to Shirou, and it was
likely a gift from Kiritsugu, who used it to summon Saber in the last war.
Rin's injection of magical power is also how the sheath activated and saved him from Lancer
initially, too.
Now, with the enemy clear before them, Shirou announces his intention to destroy the Holy
Grail, and Saber agrees with him, now accepting that Kiritsugu didn't betray her as he knew
she didn't need the grail either.
However, when they return home, they are horrified to find Rin crumpled over in blood, a victim
of Kirei's sneak attack before they knew he was the enemy.
She explains Kirei took Ilya who was the vessel for the Holy Grail.
More specifically, her heart is, for as it turns out, magi are people born with Magic
Circuits, but Ilya was a human made from a Magic Circuit.
She also tells him Kirei would be heading to Ryudo Temple, as that's the best place
to summon the Holy Grail.
She then gives him her personal magic dagger Azoth to defeat Kirei with, as Kirei literally
backstabbed her father with this dagger, and falls asleep, wounded but still alive.
As she rests, Shirou prepares a strategy for the final battle, starting with returning
the sheath keeping him alive to its proper owner.
As they make their final preparations, they approach Ryudo Temple, seeing the dense convergence
of mana and figuring Lancer must have fallen to Gilgamesh.
By this time, Shirou's swordsmanship has grown through daily training and real combat to
the point of almost equalling his teacher, Saber.
As such, Shirou states their plan of only having to defeat one of the pair, either Kirei
or Gilgamesh, so she'll go all out on Gilgamesh and he'll take on Kirei.
Gilgamesh is there to greet them first, as the Holy Grail has now revealed itself, and
dismisses Shirou to see Kirei waiting for him around the back.
Stepping into the altar prepared by Kirei, Shirou sees Ilya strung up as the vessel for
the Holy Grail.
The black mud that is the contents of the grail has a mind of its own and attacks Shirou
with whip-like tentacles the moment he gets close.
As shirou struggles to approach Kirei, Kirei explains he is the most fit to receive the
grail since he loves humans the most, relishing the entertainment they provide especially
when they struggle or suffer, and he'll especially enjoy getting his revenge on Kiritsugu's son.
As both pairs clash, Shirou is overwhlemed but driven, as Kirei reveals how he also killed
Kiritsugu with this cursed black mud too and invokes the name Angra Mainyu.
A blinding light erupts, that is noticed even by Saber, who is losing badly to Gilgamesh,
even with her sheath.
Gilgamesh explains the light was a great curse from the Grail itself, said to be able to
curse everything in the world.
With Saber totally beaten, he intends to marry her and keep her in this world by injesting
some of the black mud like he had, though Saber realizes while indeed a little insane,
the only reason Giglamesh did not get totally overtaken by the black mud of the grail is
because of his enormous ego.
However, as she refuses, his killer instinct comes out and he chooses to end Saber, with
a blast from his noble phantasm.
Saber counters with her own Caliburn, and while Excalibur cannot beat Ea in a clash,
Saber pulls out her trump card, the sheath Avalon, and uses its ultimate magic protection
to reflect the blast of Ea back unto Gilgamesh, followed through with her own Excalibur, blowing
away the hero king and defeating him totally.
Meanwhile, Kirei is impressed Shirou has the willpower to stay alive and sane in the black
mud, and in defiance, Shirou projects a perfect copy of the sheath he's had in his body almost
his whole life, his trump card.
Avalon immediately repels the evil curses binding him, and in the moment Kirei is dumbfounded
at this turnabout, Shirou dashes at him with the dagger from Rin and drives it into the
false priest.
Triggering Rin's stored magic in the Azoth blade, the weapon explodes within Kirei, defeating
the master at the same time his servant is defeated outside.
As Shirou and Saber are the true victors in this Holy Grail war, Shirou frees Ilya, and
he is approached by Saber who informs him she'll destroy the Grail now, but as a Servant
she cannot do so until Shirou burns his last Command Spell to make her do so.
Shirou loves her, but still knows that she needs to do this herself so she can end the
contract with the Grail and die as a king, not a servant.
Giving the order, Saber destroys the Holy Grail in one fell swing, clearing away the
malicious relic completely.
As they watch the sun rise together, she turns to Shirou and confesses how she also loves
him too, right before she disappears in the next instant.
As two months now pass and life returns to normal for Shirou, Ilya has now joined his
normal house routine as she comepetes with Sakura for Shirou's favor.
He still goes to school alongside Rin, who notes how oddly composed Shirou is for losing
his love Saber.
She then realizes he has come to peace with his heart, and for herself, is happy with
that.
Moving forward to a new day, Shirou looks ahead, not soon to forget the memory of Saber.
Elsewhere, King Arthur is victorious in the tragic retaking of the country that destroyed
him.
Wounded and dying, she asks her knight Bedivere to take her sword and return it to the lady
of the lake, as her adventures so far still sit with her like a dream.
Satsified and without regret, Artoria, King of knights, dies a legend to be spoken of
in ages to come.
Fate/stay night has enjoyed the success of selling over 250 thousand copies worldwide.
This RECAPitation was chosen by Souvereign.
Thanks a lot for supporting the show as a patron, though sorry I couldn't get to all
of the routes in one video.
If you would like to support the show yourself, please follow the patreon link in the description
below.
Thanks for Watching and I'll see you on the next battlefield.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét