Fate/Zero/Characters: Difference between revisions

{{quote| ''"Even if I am to carry "all the evils of this world", it won't matter. If that can save the world, then I'd gladly accept it."''}}

 

{{spoiler|He orders Arturia to destroy the Grail, setting the entire city on fire. Wandering aimlessly through the destroyed city, he finds a small boy, miraculously still alive. And thus ''[[Fate Stay Night (Visual Novel)|Fate/stay night]]'' officially begins.}}

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* [[Ascended Extra]] - Went from a minor, backstory and flashback exclusive character in ''[[Fate Stay Night]]'' to a major one in the prequel.

* [[Badass]]

* [[Dungeon Bypass]] - Episode 6/the start of Volume 2 sees him blow up Kayneth's magic fortress. Kayneth, being way too prideful, thought that nothing will be able to pass his multi-layered magic fortress.

* [[Fatal Flaw]] - His idealistic beliefs of "saving everyone", [[Fate Stay Night (Visual Novel)|which his adoptive son takes up at his death]].

* [[Geas]] - He uses a self-geis scroll to {{spoiler|bind himself from attacking Kayneth in Volume 3 as part of a contract to remove both Kayneth and Sola-ui from the war. Of course, it doesn't say anything about ''someone else'' attacking Kayneth.}}

* [[Good Is Not Nice]]

* [[I Have Your Wife]] - Uses this against {{spoiler|Kayneth}}.

* [[Irony]]: Kiritsugu's wish for the Grail is to save the world, but instead ends up inadvertently destroying a section of the city.

* [[Jedi Mind Trick]] - He is capable of convincing a bellboy that he is Kayneth and that "he" and "his wife" Sola-Ui have evacuated said bellboy's building.

* [[Jerkass Facade]]

* [[Meaningful Name]] - "Kiritsugu" means "cut, connect". His parents named him based on his Origin, so this is directly tied to his powers.

* [[Moral Event Horizon]] - In-universe example: Saber thinks he crossed it and calls him out on it when he {{spoiler|forces Kayneth to have his own Servant commit suicide}}. Kiritsugu justifies it by invoking [[Necessarily Evil]] and [[War Is Hell]].

** This also serves as a reflection of Kiritsugu's ideals. He desired to become a hero of justice, only to find that, in order to save others, he needed to kill the ones that threatened them. In other words, the more Kiritsugu wants to stop blood from being shed, the more blood he has to shed to do so. This is what leads him across the [[Despair Event Horizon]].

* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]] - Shirley called him "Kerry" because she found his real name too much of a hassle to remember. He didn't really like being adressed as such.

* [[Parental Abandonment]] - Him to Ilya.

* [[Perma Stubble]]

* [[Self Made Orphan]] - Killed both his father and his mother-figure.

* [[Shadow Archetype]] - To Saber of all people. While much is made about how Kiritsugu and his servant are at odds, on a fundamental level they share many of the same ideals and much of the trauma they endure comes from the fact that they have been betrayed by their devotion to those ideals.

{{quote| '''Kiritsugu:''' When I was young, I wanted to become a Hero of Justice very much.<br />

'''Shirou:''' What? You're saying you had wanted to, then have you given up now?<br />

'''Kiritsugu:''' Hmm, it is rather regrettable. Heroes have a time limit too, and it’s hard to keep being one once you become an adult. It would have been better if I realized that earlier. }}

* [[Start of Darkness]] - The start of volume 4 in the novels, and episodes 18 and 19 in the anime. It starts with {{spoiler|Kiritsugu killing his father after the old man triggers a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] that wipes out their island home}}. It ends with him {{spoiler|sacrificing his surrogate mother figure to prevent another, much larger outbreak}}.

* [[Red Baron]] - "The Magus Killer"

* [[Smoking Is Cool]]

* [[The Stoic]]

** [[Not So Stoic]] - More so in the novels, where he shows emotion more openly as early as in his first appearance in the prologue.

* [[Totalitarian Utilitarian]]

* [[Tragic Hero]]

* [[War Is Hell]] - Here's a game. Read random quotes from Kiritsugu and [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman] and see if you can tell who said what.

* [[Weapon of Choice]] - His Mystic Code, the Contender Custom.

* {{spoiler|[[Your Days Are Numbered]]}}

 

* [[Abusive Parents|Abusive Parent]] - Actually subverted, he has both of his daughters' best interests at heart...though people outside the tradition of mages have a hard time understanding why he does what he does; see below.

* [[The Ace]] - Subverted, surprisingly. He is often perceived this way, but the novels state explicitly that he is "definitely not a genius", that he has little to no talent in magic, and he only became a strong magus through hard work (and even then, both his daughter and Kayneth are technically better magi than him).

* [[Arch Enemy]] - Of Kariya.

* [[Badass Bookworm]] - [[Zig Zagged]]. He's theoretically the strongest mage, but there's just more to war than that...

* [[Naive Newcomer]]

* [[The Napoleon]] - Iskander's even joked that he'd probably use the Holy Grail to make himself taller.

* [[Odd Couple]] - With Iskander.

* [[Running Gag]] - His Servant can literally knock him down with one flick of the finger. This shuts him up whenever he complains to his Servant.

* [[Smug Snake]] - At the beginning. He fancies himself as an outstanding magus, but nearly pissed his pants when he arrived at the battlefield and realized that he could be killed in a battle to the death. [[Character Development|Constant exposure to Alexander made him grow out of it to become a real man]].

* [[Sidekick]] - Ironically, to his own Servant. And he knows it, too.

* [[They Called Me Mad]] - His reasons for joining the Holy Grail War.

* [[Tsundere]] - In great [[Nasuverse]] tradition.

* [[Catch Phrase]] - [[Gratuitous English|"Cool!"]] Caster picks it up later on thanks to him.

* [[Evil Tropes]] - His character encompasses a good deal of those, though not to the same extent as his Servant:

** [[Complete Monster]] - In-universe he is called by the news services as a demon. Not that he minds though. His introduction has him giving a little speech casually contemplating whether he likes that title.

{{quote| '''Uryuu''':'' "'Sup! I'm Uryuu Ryuunosuke, and I'm a demon! I don't know if that's how I should be introducing myself..."''}}

* [[Doomed By Canon]] - He enters the war on the condition that Zouken will release Sakura if he manages to win. Needless to say, he's destined to fail.

* {{spoiler|[[Go Out With a Smile]]}} - {{spoiler|Kariya dies with a satisfied smile, comforted by dreams of escaping with Aoi, Sakura, and Rin and starting a family together.}}

* [[Hero Antagonist]]: Besides Kiritsugu, Kariya is one of few Masters with a noble goal.

* [[Hopeless Suitor]] - To Aoi.

* [[Papa Wolf]] - For Sakura, even though he's not even related to her.

* [[The Resenter]] - Towards Tokiomi.

* [[Unknown Rival]] - To Tokiomi, who barely acknowledges his existence. He got a confrontation with Tokiomi...which went nowhere, as they couldn't understand each other.

* [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]

* [[Unwitting Pawn]] - To {{spoiler|Kirei, who sets him up on a confrontation with Tokiomi... which [[Will Not Tell a Lie|technically wasn't a lie]], except that Tokiomi's a corpse at that point. Cue Aoi coming in and misunderstanding the situation.}}

* [[White Sheep]]

* [[The Worm That Walks]] - Not as extreme an example as Zouken, but Kariya's body is infested with the Matou family's crest worms. {{spoiler|He can actually vomit these worms out and transform them into much more dangerous bugs to use as weapons.}}

* [[Battle Butler]] - To Tokiomi, in whose service he is obedient, dutiful, and effective. {{spoiler|Until he's not.}}

* [[Big Bad]] - While it was [[Fate Stay Night (Visual Novel)|foretold by canon]], {{spoiler|as of ''zero'' he doesn't know it yet.}}

* [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] - Master of the Baji Quan martial art, and capable of keeping up with Kiritsugu's attacks when Kiritsugu is using time manipulation to speed himself up to three times past the human limit.

* [[Contractual Immortality]]

* [[Not So Different]] - Believes that he and Kiritsugu are very similar. {{spoiler|[[Subverted Trope|He's]] [[Foil|wrong]].}}

* [[Schrodinger Fu]] - With ''magic'' no less. {{spoiler|Kirei baffles Kiritsugu by using Magecraft to counter Kiritsugu's origin bullets, which are designed to kill magi with their own prana, by utilizing his command seals in place of his own magic circuits.}} According to the [[Light Novel]] this is {{spoiler|accidental on Kirei's part}}.

* [[Start of Darkness]] - ''[[Fate Zero (Literature)|Fate Zero]]'' is his.

* [[Super Speed]] - Can outright dodge ''and parry'' bullets.

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* [[Action Girl]]

* [[Armor Is Useless]] - Played with and used against her by Lancer. Since Saber's armor is generated by her prana, Gáe Dearg goes right through it. Once Saber realizes this, she invokes this trope and sheds her armor, only to learn the hard way that it would have been able to protect her from Lancer's other spear.

* [[The Atoner]] - Views herself as this, though Rider opines that her desire is selfish at heart.

* [[Badass]]

** [[Badass Biker]] - She rides a motorcycle into battle against Iskander in the fourth novel.

* [[Hair of Gold]]

* [[Heroic BSOD]] - Narrowly-averted after seeing Rider's [[Badass Army]] and having her beliefs on kingship shaken to the very core. A talk with Irisviel renews her confidence and her [[Temporal Paradox|wish]] - something she would carry until the climaxes of both ''Fate'' and ''UBW'' routes. She goes through it upon seeing Berserker revealed before her eyes as {{spoiler|Lancelot}}, and nearly gets killed as a result.

* [[Honor Before Reason]] - Much more knightly and chivalrous than in the fifth war. While she retained her knightly attitude in the fifth war, she was nontheless a little more ruthless and more intent on winning rather than proving a point. So you could say that in the fourth war, the "knight" aspect of her personality took precedence to the "king" aspect, while it became the inverse in [[Fate Stay Night]]. Considering the crap she goes through here, especially the disappointment in Kiritsugu, it's likely that she became a bit more cynical, whether she likes it or not. A case could also be made for Kiritsugu's own ruthlessness and pragmatic attitude towards winning the war rubbing off on her by the fifth.

* [[Hot Chick in A Badass Suit]]

* [[Not So Different]] - From Kiritsugu; both are very deeply idealistic people who throw away all their humanity and any semblance of a normal, proper human life to fulfill their ideals, and, as mentioned above in Kiritsugu's entry, share a lot of their ideals at the core and endure a lot of trauma from being betrayed to their devotion to them.

* [[Older Than They Look]] - Saber was around 25 when she died, but due to the fact that she stopped aging once she obtained Avalon, she looks around 14/15.

* [[Power Glows]] - [[Sword Beam|Excalibur]] being charged.

* [[Razor Wind]] - The offensive use of Invisible Air.

* [[Sugar and Ice Personality]]

* [[Sword Beam]] - Excalibur.

** Done again in the anime, with Yuki Kajiura nailing one of the three most epic songs of ''Fate'' (spoiler-in-video warning): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=[[M 1 Al Mgopg KQ]]

* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]] - Tomboy to Irisviel's Girly Girl.

* [[Tomboyish Ponytail]] - In civilian clothes.

* [[Walk On Water]] - Thanks to the blessings of the Lady of the Lake.

* [[The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask|The Woman Wearing The Kingly Mask]]

 

He is an antagonist in all routes of ''[[Fate Stay Night|Fate/stay night]]'' {{spoiler|as [[The Dragon]] in ''Fate'' and [[Big Bad]] in ''Unlimited Blade Works''. In ''Heaven's Feel'', he lost in the [[Eviler Than Thou]]}}.

 

 

(Go to the [[Fate Stay Night (Visual Novel)/Servants/Characters|Fate/stay night]] page for his role in the 5th Grail War.)

* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]] - Gate of Babylon.

* [[I Have the High Ground]] - One way his obsession with properly expressing just how much ''better'' he is than everyone else involves perching in high places. When Berserker cuts down the light pole Gilgamesh was standing on, the guy flips out at having to stand on the same ground with a rabid mongrel.

* [[Japanese Pronouns]]

** He uses the archaic ''ware'' ([[Alternate Character Reading|pronounced as ''ore'']]) when referring to himself, as the special skill "Word of the King".

{{spoiler|After Kayneth forfeits the War, he uses a Command Spell to force Diarmuid to commit suicide while fighting Saber. He is the third Servant to be defeated.}}

 

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* {{spoiler|[[A Plague On Both Your Houses]]}} - {{spoiler|He dies cursing his luck, Kiritsugu, Saber, the Grail, and everything else in the world, cursing that their wishes become disasters. Turns out that he's right with regards to the Grail.}}

* [[Beauty Mark]] - A ''plot important'' beauty mark.

* [[Beauty Equals Goodness]] - His love spot results in a Mystic Face, which gives him [[Chick Magnet]] powers.

* [[Cursed With Awesome]] - Seriously. What is his curse? ''Being a [[Chick Magnet]].''

** [[Blessed With Suck]] - His [[Chick Magnet]] powers really ''are'' a curse. He originally died because his lord's wife fell in love with him, ending up in him being betrayed. Then his Master's fiancee ''also'' falls in love with him, {{spoiler|meaning he gets killed ''again.''}}

* [[Eyes of Gold]]

* [[Failure Knight]] - Lancer's only ambition (apart from finishing his duel with [[Worthy Opponent|Saber]]) is to faithfully serve his Master as he was unable to in the past.

* [[No Pronunciation Guide]] - He's Celtic, after all. Something like "Deermood O'Deena".

* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]] - As he wounded Saber in their first battle, weakening her and rendering her left thumb worthless so that she cannot effectively wield Excalibur, his honor dictates that he's the only one who should properly fight her. His Master is not amused.

* [[Spin to Deflect Stuff]] - Deflects Kiritsugu's gunfire with but a twirl of his lances.

* [[Tareme]] - The Character Material mentions them as a [[Charm Point]] of his.

* [[Wound That Will Not Heal]] - Gae Buidhe, the Golden Rose of Mortality, has the ability to inflict one.

 

==== Voiced by: [[Akio Ohtsuka]] ====

[[File:rider_fate_zero_portrait_7742.jpg|frame]]

{{spoiler|In the final hours of the War, he confronts Gilgamesh, who is holding the bridge against him. Having lost his chariot, he summons his army and charges Gilgamesh, who activates Ea, destroying the Reality Marble. Running alone, Iskander is bound by Enkidu and killed by Gate of Babylon. He is the fourth defeated Servant.}}

 

 

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'''Waver''': ... }}

** He was kidding, though, and mocks Waver for believing him. But still, drinking party with Saber and Gilgamesh... Wha?

* [[Cultured Warrior]] - He likes to read [[The Iliad]], and spends a lot of his free time watching documentaries.

* [[Curtains Match the Window]]

* [[Defeat Means Friendship]] - His entire ideology, based around conquering without humiliation. Waver occasionally catches glimpses of Iskander's life whilst sleeping and marvels at how those he conquered became swept up in his goal to conquer the world.

* [[Determinator]] - In Volume 4, after {{spoiler|losing his army to Gilgamesh}}, Iskander simply charges forward, right through {{spoiler|all the Noble Phantasms fired from the Gate of Babylon}}, keeps going even after his horse has been shot out from under him and has been skewered multiple times and came within inches of actually landing a blow on {{spoiler|Gilgamesh}}, who finally had to resort to {{spoiler|Enkidu}} to restrain him before finally being finished off.

* [[Go Karting With Bowser]] - He holds Gilgamesh to his promise of the two of them finishing off the remaining wine before {{spoiler|facing off in a deathmatch}}. The two were quite cordial and even clicked their goblets before draining them. Waver was surprised that the two got along quite well.

* {{spoiler|[[Go Out With a Smile]]}}

* [[Honor Before Reason]] - In a game where [[I Know Your True Name|the players' names and special attacks are jealously guarded secrets for strategic reasons]], he interrupts a battle between Lancer and Saber using said special attack and then introduces himself by name.

** It pops up again later when he insists on fighting {{spoiler|Saber}} in a disadvantageous situation because that's 'his duty as a fellow heroic spirit' to {{spoiler|make her abandon her ideals before she gets crushed by them}}. This resulted in him losing his chariot.

* [[Odd Friendship]] - With Waver.

* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]] - To Saber. After witnessing her use Excalibur on Caster, he believes he's the only one who can save her from her ideals.

* [[The Power of Friendship]] - The reason his Reality Marble, Ionian Hetairoi, exists is the bond between him and his men, who are so devoted to him that even death cannot erase them. At the same time, Iskander considers them to be his greatest treasure. All of this is why even though Iskander himself is not a magus, he, along with all of his men are able to bring out the Reality Marble that recreates the land that they once marched over.

** The Hepburn romanization of the original Japanese Hetairoi Phantasm goes like this: Aionion Hetairoi - which is (most likely badly conjugated) Gratuitous Greek for "Eternal Companions". You can google "aionion" to find a great deal of theological debate on the proper translation of the word.

{{quote| '''Iskander''': [[Badass Army|BEHOLD MY PEERLESS ARMY!]] [[Deader Than Dead|Their bodies may return to ash]], [[Back From the Dead|but their spirits still hear my call!]] [[Undying Loyalty|These men are my legendary heroes - my loyal followers!]] [[The Power of Friendship|They're my true friends - breaking the rules of space and time to fight once more at my side!]] [[Badass Boast|They are my treasure within treasures; they're my right to rule!]] [[Game Breaker|They make up Iskander's mightiest Noble Phantasm - Ionian Hetairoi!!]]}}

** Also delivers one to Kayneth in the first real battle of the war when Kayneth starts taunting and intimidating Waver. Rider proceeds to call him out on his hypocrisy on having Lancer do all the fighting while Kayneth himself remains in hiding. He then states that only someone who would ride into battle at his side would be worthy to be his master (Kayneth was originally supposed to be Iskander's Master until Waver stole the needed relic).

* [[Red Baron]] - "King of Conquerors"

'''{{spoiler|Gilgamesh}}''': Hm. And?<br />

'''Iskander''': Once again, will you not be my ally? If we join together, we can surely conquer as far as the ends of the stars. }}

 

=== Gilles de Rais (Caster) ===

* [[Evil Tropes]] - Encompasses a good deal of those:

** [[Black Magic]]

** [[Chaotic Evil]] - His in-universe alignment.

** [[Dark Is Evil]]

** [[Black Swords Are Better]]

** [[Face Heel Turn]] - Previously amongst the mightiest of the holy swords -- up there with Excalibur, in fact. {{spoiler|Lancelot}}'s act of {{spoiler|spilling the blood of his companions among Knights of the Round Table guarding Guinevere's execution}} turned it into a demonic sword.

** [[Named Weapons]]

** [[Power Glows]] - Shines much like the light reflected from {{spoiler|the Lake}}.

* [[Death Seeker]] - {{spoiler|Just as he dies, his Mad Enhancement wears off and he tells Arturia that he "wanted to die by her sword" to atone for his sins}}.

* {{spoiler|[[Dying As Yourself]]}}

* [[The Faceless]] - His helmet hides his face {{spoiler|until the final day of the 4th Grail War}}.

** {{spoiler|This is also the primary function of his Noble Phantasm, For Someone's Glory, which obscures his identity and also hides his stats from the other Masters of the Grail War. Unfortunately, because of his status as a Berserker class Servant, Lancelot can't use this ability to its fullest potential (which would allow him to take on the forms of other Servants) unless Kariya sacrifices at least two Command Seals to do so.}}

** [[Implausible Fencing Powers]] - The very first thing we see him do in battle is catching a rocketing sword flying straight at him and swinging it immediately to deflect a second rocketing polearm that was coming right behind it. It happened so fast that only the Servants themselves could actually make out what happened. He continues to survive the barrage in this manner for another sixteen projectiles or so, and actually switches out the weapons he uses when a stronger one comes along. He even throws Gilgamesh's own weapons back at him. Everyone watching is understandably shocked, since he's supposed to not be sane enough to even ''think'' about such complicated maneuvers, let alone actually do them.

*** [[Barehanded Blade Block]] - He grabs Excalibur, despite it still being sheathed in Invisible Air. {{spoiler|This convinces Saber that he '''had''' to be someone that knew her in life, to know Excalibur's shape so well}}.

*** [[Guns Akimbo]] - At one point, he gets equipped with two MP5 sub-machine guns.

** [[Improbable Weapon User]] - Street lamp poles, fighter jets, the aforementioned submachine guns...

* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]] - The girly girl to Saber, or to Maiya's, tomboy.

* {{spoiler|[[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]}}

* [[White Magician Girl]]

* [[Woman in White]]

* [[Sugar and Ice Personality]] - As revealed by her conversations with both Kiritsugu and Irisviel.

* [[The Stoic]]

 

=== Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri ===

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]] - {{spoiler|Calls Kariya out after the death of her husband.}}

* [[Disposable Woman]]

* [[Hime Cut]]

* [[Hot Mom]]

* [[Cheerful Child]]

* [[The Cutie]]

* [[Older Than They Look]]

* [[Red Eyes Take Warning]]

 

=== Shirley ===

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* [[Dead Little Sister]] - To Kiritsugu.

* [[Posthumous Character]]

* [[Unwitting Instigator of Doom]] - She drank one of Noritaka's potions under development out of curiosity, which caused her transformation into a vampire and the destruction of her village.

* [[Irony]]- Shinji [[Give Him a Normal Life|is out of the picture due to studying abroad at the time of the 4th Holy Grail War]], which means that Byakuya was probably hiding the fact that the Matou family was a family of Magus from Shinji. Too bad Shinji [[Go Mad From the Revelation|eventually not only found out]], but proceeded to [[Inferiority Superiority Complex|let it go to his head in a big way]], and when Byakuya finds out that Sakura will be the successor to the family in the [[Fate Stay Night|Heaven's Feel route]] he starts neglecting Shinji.

* [[Parental Favoritism]] - In the [[Fate Stay Night|Heaven's Feel route]], after (unsuccessfully) trying to hide the nature of the Matou family from Shinji Byakuya starts favoring Sakura.

* [[The Unfavorite]] - Because he is weak as a Magus.

* [[Unwitting Pawn]] - Subverted, since while he is the one in charge of training Sakura in the worms' storage, the novel clearly states that he is fully conscience that he is being used by Zouken, but he doesn't care.

* [[Posthumous Character]]

* [[Senseless Sacrifice]] - She ended up committing suicide in hopes that Kirei would find compassion within himself again. And failed.

* [[Woman in White]]

* [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]