Fate stay night/Characters/Masters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


This is a page about the characters taking the role of Masters appearing in the Visual Novel turned Anime Fate/stay night. Contains a LOT of spoilers.

Shirou Emiya

Voiced by: Noriaki Sugiyama (JP), Sam Riegel (EN)

"I want to be a hero."

The protagonist of the series, Shirou is a rather untalented magus whose only skill is basic Tracing and Reinforcement magic, which allows him to analyze the physical make-up of an object and then strengthen it. His dream is to become a "Hero of Justice", someone who can selflessly protect the lives of everyone from disaster. He inherited this dream from his adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya (who had given up on it) and is extremely naive on what it takes to reach that ideal.

Later it is discovered that he possesses an innate talent in Projection magic, which enables him to replicate items -- including Noble Phantasms -- that he can visualize in his mind (although the copies are inferior to the originals, being reduced in power by one rank). His talent stems from the fact that, in the explosion at the climax of the Fourth Holy Grail War where he lost his parents, Shirou lost all sense of self-worth and can only find meaning in other people -- thus, Shirou can use himself as a material component when carrying out Projection.

He also possesses a Healing Factor that makes him practically immortal. This is because Avalon, a Noble Phantasm once possessed by Saber, had been implanted into his body by Kiritsugu. Avalon also acts as the catalyst that allows him to accidently summon Saber for the Fifth Holy Grail Wars.

Shirou is an accomplished archer (having been a member of the school's archery club without ever missing the bull’s-eye except the one time he felt like doing so) and, following some training from Saber, is mildly proficient in swordplay. Like Archer, he possesses the Reality Marble "Unlimited Blade Works" -- which reduces the mana cost required for Projection magic to nil -- although his incantation to activate it is different.

Tropes exhibited by Shirou include:
  • Almighty Janitor: In the ending to Unlimited Blade Works, he becomes this. Shirou decides to tag along with Rin to London so that he can learn magic from the Magician's Association. Although enrolling as Rin's disciple means that he's exempt from tuition fees, it effectively puts him at the lowest point on the totem pole. Don't take into account the fact that at this point, Shirou possesses the extremely rare and powerful Reality Marble magic...
    • However, at his level of magecraft, he doesn't have enough prana to manifest it or use Noble Phantasms, so it's not overly powerful.
  • Always Save the Girl
    • Visual Novel: It's the point of Heaven's Feel. Not so much in the other roads.
    • Anime: Episode 4 of the anime, to Saber, though strangely only in the Japanese audio track.
  • Anti-Hero: What he becomes in Heaven’s Feel.
  • Artificial Human: Kind of. In the True End of Heaven’s Feel, Shirou's body has been destroyed and his soul, which was saved by Ilya, has been implanted into a human puppet, making him something closer to a familiar or a homunculus than a true human. He is indistinguishable from the real thing, but requires mana infusions to stay alive -- basically a non-squicky version of Zouken's existence, which only seems to work for one body.
    • And the way he gets his "infusions" ain't too bad either.
  • Badass: After he Took a Level in Badass in each route. Arguably he is the least Badass in Fate but in Heaven's Feel and Unlimited Blade Works he kicks a lot of ass.
  • Berserk Button: His loved/significant ones are his button.
    • In the Unlimited Blade Works movie, calling Saber "useless" in Shiro's presence will result in the loss of an arm and being thrown into a black hole/rip in the fabric of the universe.
    • You do not mess with Taiga.
  • Beware the Honest Ones: Shirou's a little too far on the idealistic side for even Saber, so while his allies appreciate him somewhat, they also know he'll do something stupidly reckless if it's the "right" thing to do. Tohsaka at the very end of the last route realizes she has no right to criticize because she isn't as ruthless as she thinks she is.
  • Big Freaking Sword: Berserker's sword traced in Heaven's Feel definitely counts, bonus points for wielding it with a single hand.
  • Blessed with Suck - Shirou's often-forgotten semi-unknown instinctual internal reinforcement works by protecting vital organs and holding normally-severed limbs together using his own magical energy, which happens to have a "sword" affinity, which means it manifests as thousands of ephemeral blades keeping him stitched together. The downside being that it works by creating a bunch of blades inside his body. The power's track record is a mixed bag:
    • In Fate: It lets him survive Rider's attacks, but also causes him to accidentally stab himself to death when he tries to use reinforcement to survive a three story fall immediately afterwards. However, it also saves him in the same route when it, along with Avalon's Healing Factor, sutures him back together after he has been cleaved in half by Gilgamesh's Merodach.
    • In Unlimited Blade Works: He masters it somewhat by absorbing the knowledge from Archer, basically giving him consequence-free reinforcement... well, unless he overloads, which isn't unlikely.
    • In Heaven's Feel: However, overloading on mana from Archer's arm causes the blades to manifest permanently, slowly skewering him from the inside, but the protruding blades also end up giving him an edge in his last fight against Kotomine.
  • Body Horror: See Impaled with Extreme Prejudice below. "I am the bone of my sword", indeed.
  • Broken Hero: Even called that in-series a few times. Much of Unlimited Blade Works is devoted to exploring it.
  • Bully Hunter: He was this as a child.
  • Captain Obvious: Has a reputation for this due to the completely serious "People die when they are killed" line. However, this is actually a play on a Japanese idiom and refers to his own healing factor and how he is choosing to give it up, as well as being taken out of context.
  • Character Development: He only gets a faint hint of this in Fate, but the other routes multiply this exponentially.
  • Chaste Hero: Averted Trope. He doesn't realize when someone loves him, but no worries, he is still an adolescent.
    • Hilariously Flanderized in an infamous h-doujin (origin of the "J-J-JAM IT IN!" and "You lost me" memes,) which has him utterly, hopelessly clueless about anything to do with sex.
    • Implied in Heaven's Feel to really not be as oblivious as he seems, at least regarding Sakura. It's mostly willful denial keeping him at arms length.
  • Chekhov's Hobby: The fact that he was in the archery club foreshadowing one of his possible futures and his mastery of Projection Magic.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Shirou's ability to use magic to create fake objects.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome
  • Comedic Sociopathy: Shirou honestly doesn't understand why ordering his male best friend to take off his clothes would be at all strange.
  • Deadly Upgrade: Archer's Arm.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He tends to snark a lot in his internal monologues, but not that often out loud, except maybe around Taiga and Rin.
  • Determinator: Shirou has shades of this in all three routes, but Heaven's Feel deserves a special mention: After having lost his servant, and discovering that the woman he loves is possessed by the avatar of all evil, Shirou decides that he's going to save Sakura, and he means it. He is supposed to drop dead after using Archer's Arm to project 3 times. He projects six times. He also fights both Dark Berserker and Saber Alter, both of whom are many times stronger than usual due to Sakura's increased prana, and wins. Oh, and his whole body is slowly being skewered by swords growing inside of him due to overuse of projection, he still keeps going. Then after all that, he still has a fist fight with Kotomine. Now with only a shred of his consciousness remaining, Shirou with his final thought projects Excalibur, and pops Angra Mainyu like a zit. Shirou should have been dead five times up this point, and he STILL. KEPT. GOING.

Shirou: I pour determination into my dying body.

  • Died Standing Up: Normal End of Heaven's Feel, and unleashing Excalibur on the Great Grail after he died.
  • Dual-Wielding: In Unlimited Blade Works and in Heaven's Feel, he begins fighting with Kanshou and Bakuya while copying some of Archer's technique.
  • The Dulcinea Effect: Combined with Chronic Hero Syndrome and, sometimes, Stay in the Kitchen, Shirou will do many reckless things for Saber in Fate. In other routes, Ilya is a notable target.
    • Shirou's Stay in the Kitchen tendencies are most notably restricted only to Saber and only in the Fate route. Something about seeing a bloodied half broken small girl trying her hardest to stand up and fight just spurs his protective instincts. Oh, and the fact that she's doing all that to protect HIM doesn't exactly mix well with his self-sacrificing nature either. Not seeing her bloodied and broken seems to completely change things, so much that it is the key event that separates the Fate route from the other routes.
  • Everyone Can See It: In Fate, absolutely everyone can see the Saber/Shirou attraction. Even Issei.
  • Expy: Shirou shares a character model with Tomoe Enjou; the two have similar issues regarding what is fake and what is real, as well. Also, Shirou becomes an Artificial Human like Tomoe in the True End of Heaven’s Feel.
  • Eyes of Gold: Rather unusual for a protagonist.
  • The Fettered: Shirou's ideal of wanting to save everybody is a large source of his strength. Unlimited Blade Works implies that his magic specialty arose specifically due to his lack of self-image.
  • Field of Blades: Can summon one in Unlimited Blade Works, and it's not just for show.
  • First-Person Smartass: Not very obvious. Then the realization hits that his narration is just as sarcastic as Rin's and boggling occurs. He is more of a snarker than people give him credit for, especially around Rin. Archer is basically what he would be like if he wasn't so polite all the time; is it any wonder why he and Rin have such great chemistry?
  • Fried Your Brain Punching Out Cthulhu: In Heaven's Feel Bad End #38, drawing on Archer's arm in order to use his super move against Saber Alter leaves Shirou a vegetable. To be sure, he's cut her in two, but she could fully regenerate in 10 minutes. And to think that he could have taken her out with him had he managed to destroy her head or heart...
  • Future Badass: In the final bonus epilogue of the Realta Nua port, you will learn that Shirou takes the same path that Archer did, minus the regrets and eternal loneliness. As Saber says, he no longer needs her to be his sword and shield, he is more than capable of taking care of himself now. Whether he got an extreme tan, white hair, and a ridiculous growth spurt from overusing Projection magic is unknown since first person view makes it impossible to see how he looks like.
  • Full-Contact Magic: An inversion of this trope as the only way he could initially use his magic is to reinforce his martial-arts abilities, not the other way round as this trope usually would.
  • Future Me Annoys Me: Shirou instinctively can't get along with Archer, even long before he knows his identity.
  • Generation Xerox: "Mind of Steel" sees Shirou go down the exact same route as his foster father and willingly damn himself for his ideals. Kotomine, who knew his father, even points this out.
  • Happily Adopted
  • Healing Factor: Shirou being Shirou, he wouldn't survive without it. It's caused by Avalon, Excalibur's holy scabbard, and had been implanted into his body by Kiritsugu when Shirou was dying from the 4th Grail War's aftereffects. He can't use it fully without his connection to Saber, so before the story it was barely noticeable, he was just a little more resistant. Notably, all three paths see him lose it.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In the Normal End of Heaven's Feel. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
  • The Hero
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Hell, even his affinity (and Origin) is "Sword".
  • H-Game POV Character: Comes off as a Type 1 in theory, though story events and characterization make him more of a Type II A/B.
  • Honor Before Reason: For better or worse.
  • Idiot Hero: He sometimes gets better.
  • Image Song: "Kogane no Hikari"
  • Invocation: Trace... ON!
    • Unlimited Blade Works: I am the bone of my sword. Steel is my body, and fire is my blood. I have created over a thousand blades. Unaware of loss, nor aware of gain. Withstood pain to create many weapons, waiting for one's arrival. I have no regrets. This is the only path. My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works.
    • Heaven’s Feel Bad End #38: Divine skill, flawless and firm. Strength moves mountains. Blade cuts water. Life approaches the Imperial Villa. Two great men, shared life!
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: With a twist towards the end of Heaven’s Feel. Shirou gets to be skewered from the inside out by swords slowly growing out of his body.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Deconstructed. This is basically Shirou's default state towards anyone. To clarify, unlike normal people who can somewhat create their own happiness, Shirou, thanks to his lack of any concept or sense of self, always places the need of others before his own and is completely unable to create his own happiness and has to live through others.

Rin: Shirou. Your way of life is really distorted.

  • Knight in Shining Armor: His role in the Fate route.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: What he becomes in the Unlimited Blade Works route. Hanging out with your cynical future self will do this to you.
  • Magikarp Power: The only kind of spellcraft Shirou is consistently skilled at is largely considered to be mostly useless, that is, until it turns out he's got a twist to it that allows him to materialize and use legendary weapons relatively at will.
  • Martyr Without a Cause: Only in the beginning in the Visual Novel. The Anime has him this way all the way through.
  • Mega Manning: The whole point of Projection magic is that it lets Shirou use any weapon he has seen the original of. Also copies Archer in Unlimited Blade Works.
  • Never the Selves Shall Meet: Works to his advantage. Shirou ends up siphoning skill and knowledge of fighting from his future self due to the time paradox that brought them together.
  • Nice Guy: Stay in the Kitchen tendencies in Fate and the anime aside, Shirou is considerate, thoughtful, industrious, and easily a textbook example of this.
  • Normally I Would Be Dead Now: Shirou is apparently not allowed to do anything awesome without first being reduced to a near-dead cripple. Ever.
  • Not Quite Dead: In the True End of Heaven's Feel. Shirou really did earn his happy ending in that one.
  • Not So Weak: His classmates, Shinji in particular, look at him like he's an idiot for his willingness to do all their work. The Servants and Tohsaka look at him like an idiot for being, well, an idiot. He has no real self identity, dreams or goals of his own and as such really views himself as worthless compared to saving anyone and everyone else that he can.
  • Oblivious to Love: Come on, man, look at Sakura! Look at her!
  • Parental Abandonment: Twice yet. Once when he was orphaned in the Fuyuki Fire, and a second time when Kiritsugu passed away.
  • Possession Implies Mastery: Played With. When he duplicates weapons, Shirou also duplicates the skill of the weapon's wielder. Like with the weapon itself, it's not as good as the original, but it works. It allows him to semi-replicate Berserker's offensive Noble Phantasm in Heaven’s Feel. It doesn't mean he has the muscle memory for it though.
  • Principles Zealot: He can be this in the Heaven's Feel route, should you choose. It's not a good idea.
  • Quote Mine: His "People die when they are killed" line. Shirou does say "People die when they are killed" but it's an out of context reference to a Japanese idiom[1], and even omits the last part of the quote: "That's how it should be", which Makes Sense in Context. The official translation of the line- from the Geneon DVDs- is, "If people are badly injured enough, they die. That's the way it should be."
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Shirou loves and is quite skilled at cooking, and owns a cute pink apron.
  • Redheaded Hero
  • Red Left Hand: In Heaven's Feel, Shirou loses an arm saving Ilya from a Cosmic Horror and subsequently has Archer's arm grafted to his body. It threatens to either annihilate his body and/or destroy his mind if he ever unseals it all the way.
  • Say My Name: KOTOMINE KIREI!
  • Selective Obliviousness: Trying hard not to notice anything in regards to how Sakura feels or how he himself is starting to feel about her since he feels it's inappropriate to be attracted to his friend's sister. Additionally, it's implied (and stated by Shirou himself, even) that he knew who Archer was all along[2], but couldn't possibly comprehend the idea.
  • Shoot the Dog:
  • Spam Attack: Nine Lives Blade Works. Shirou projects Berserker's sword. Much ass is kicked.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Shirou, or Shirō, depending on the source.
  • Staying Alive: Due to the Healing Factor mentioned above.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Shirou famously says some astoundingly sexist lines in both the anime and the Fate route[3] of the Visual Novel. This is likely rooted in his self-sacrificial tendencies (that is, he'd rather be hurt himself instead of seeing someone else be hurt) and in him trying to find an excuse to keep Saber out of battle (and to prevent her from getting hurt as a result).
  • Survivor Guilt: He has a massive case of this, shown during both Fate and Unlimited Blade Works, and present but barely and far more subtle in Heavens' Feel. Zig Zagged a bit later; on one hand, as Archer reveals the truth of Shirou's ideals, he points out that the reason for developing them and his dream of becoming a superhero isn't actually feeling guilty for being the only survivor. Rather, he only admired Kiritsugu and the smile he wore when he saved him, and that he took up Kiritsugu's own dream. On the other hand this still heavily applies to him in other cases.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: His moments of asskickery are usually signaled by "Emiya" starting up in the background.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Prior to his Character Development. Pretty much everybody calls him out on it. Visual Novel-wise, there are 40 main Tiger Dojos and nearly all of them call him out, especially 11, 24, and 36 which are Nobody Calls Me Chicken Player Punches.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Considering how relatively incompetent he is at fighting compared to almost every other major character in the series at the start, Shirou makes amazing progress in both Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel.
    • Unlimited Blade Works: Two moments cement this: when using Projection for the first time at a level superior to what he accomplished in Fate as well as learning some decent sword technique and the second when he uses the actual Reality Marble itself against Gilgamesh.
    • Heaven's Feel: He gets Archer's arm attached and gains a mastery of Projection on par with Archers... but it slowly kills him. At the same time, though, it's turning his body into swords and speeds up the process, but still useful in the middle of hand to hand combat.
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia:
    • Shirou lost all his memories prior to the fire ten years before from which Kiritsugu saved him.
    • After stabbing Saber Alter in Heaven’s Feel he erases all his memories of Saber over his crushing guilt at killing her.
  • Unusual Eyebrows: Of the kinked type.
  • Unwanted Harem: He started out with Taiga and Sakura... And then got Rin. And then Saber. And then Ilya. And Rider too in Heaven's Feel. Some people include Issei in this.
  • Weak but Skilled: Shirou was born with almost zero talent as a mage and with a single magic circuit (which is why it threatens to overload even by doing the simplest of magic like reinforcement). To make up for it, he work so retardedly hard that people even ridicule him for it. This is why his ( and Archer's) battle abilities are pretty much all fighter-oriented as opposed to talented mages like Rin.
    • Though it could be argued that the ability to utilize the Reality Marble "Unlimited Blade Works" (without even having to manifest it) is a talent in of itself, an extraordinary one.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: One of his defining traits. Eventually, heavily Deconstructed in both the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel routes.
  • You Killed My Father: In Fate, Shirou finds out that Kotomine killed Kiritsugu, and his original parents by causing the fire. He doesn't take that well. He finds out the former in Heaven’s Feel as well, but at that point it makes no difference to him.

Rin Tohsaka

Voiced by: Kana Ueda (JP), Mela Lee (EN)

"I'm not annoyed at you, I'm annoyed at myself for not achieving what I wanted."

One of the main Magi of the series, known in the Fandom for her Tsundere traits and her Grade-"S" Zettai Ryouiki. Rin is an honor student in Shirou's school, and the talented heir of the prestigious Tohsaka magus family, one of the founders of the Holy Grail Wars. She enters the Fifth Holy Grail Wars out of a sense of responsibility (as the Tohaska heir) and her own competitive desire to win, and tries to summon a Saber-class Servant (widely considered to be the best Servant class). Thus, it is a point of much irritation when she summons Archer instead. Eventually she grows accustomed to him, and they are partners in every route of the game.

While she is mostly an adviser to Shirou in Fate, she becomes the main heroine in Unlimited Blade Works and plays a major role in Heaven's Feel.

Rin is a complex person, using a honor student facade to hide her true character and using the Magus excuse for ignoring her own morals. Sakura is her sister and she is aware of the fact. They have been separated when Sakura was taken in by the Matou, but because she avoids her sister, she hasn't learned about her horrific life. More than anything, Rin seems driven by her sense of duty to the Tohsaka lineage, though her moral values save her from being a self-absorbed sociopath like most magi (including the father she idolizes).

Tropes exhibited by Rin include:
  • Action Girl
  • Alternate Universe: In Heaven's Feel, her Infinity+1 Sword (Zelretch's blade) works by pulling energy from these.
  • Aloof Big Sister: Rin does not make it very obvious she cares for Sakura, and will retreat to her "we're just strangers" mask when around her. Though she has reasons for this, whether they are good ones, is up to the reader.
    • Rin is also a possible deconstruction and later reconstruction of this trope. On one hand, this attitude gives Sakura the impression that she doesn't care, doesn't love her, and not only is this one of the motivations for Sakura's Roaring Rampage of Revenge, this can potentially lead to an extremely horrific Bad End as a result of Rin keeping up the mask for too long. Also, it's because of this incredibly convincing act that Sakura does not pick up on the hints that Rin does love and care for her deep down. On the other hand, Rin eventually realizes, in the very end and on her own, how she truly feels, and her admitting this to Sakura is what snaps her out of her Drunk on the Dark Side induced rampage. They eventually manage to restore their relationship so it all turns out alright in the end.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: Inverted. Rin is the POV character in the game's prologue before it switches over to Shirou once the game proper begins. She also gets the POV at several times during Unlimited Blade Works.
  • Badass
    • Badass Adorable: More relaxed than the stern and stoic Saber, but still more beautiful than cute...
  • Batman Gambit: During a battle against Caster in Unlimited Blade Works, Rin is hopelessly outmatched in sorcery, but it turns out that in case her original plan to Beam Spam Caster fails, she was fully prepared. She lulls Caster into thinking that she's given up, waits for Caster to get in range... And then shows that she knows Chinese martial arts, to the shock of everyone.
  • Beneath the Mask: Two different levels, and she's only aware of the first. Beneath her perfect student facade, she's grouchy, a Tsundere and a troll. But only halfway acknowledged beneath that is that she's actually pretty kind and strongly values both lives and fair play.
  • Bi the Way: She pulls this on herself, when having sex with Saber: "I didn't know I was into girls..."
    • In the True End of Heaven's Feel there's a throwaway line about Rider "recharging her mana" and Tohsaka's narration goes to great lengths to describe how beautiful the Servant is.
  • Blood Magic: Uses blood runes for summoning. It's later shown that she gradually enhances her magic arsenal by drawing her own blood and applying it to gems.
  • Blue Eyes: Blue-green.
  • Born in the Wrong Century: Rin, like most Magi, barely knows what a VCR is, let alone DVD or Blu-Ray. She hates technology with a passion since she can't understand it, although she is learning from Shirou.
    • In the Type-Moon April's Fool’s joke (with various Nasuverse characters setting up their own Twitter accounts), Rin has Archer set up her account, and starts using that as her secret diary. Hilarity ensues (scroll down to reply # 172).
  • Cheshire Cat Grin: If she's smiling at you, something bad is going to happen.
  • Creepy Cool Crosses: One is displayed on her shirt when she's in her casual attire.
  • Cry Cute: A great example of Cry Cute happens during the scene where Shirou comforts Tohsaka after Archer betrays her.

"... I can't believe it. A guy made me cry."

    • She gets another good one in the Unlimited Blade Works movie when Shirou tells her the story of how Kiritsugu saved him right after Gilgamesh rips Ilya's heart out. Its not even the story that does it, its the fact that it twisted him so much.
  • Damsel in Distress: Archer kidnaps her in order to force Shirou into a duel in Unlimited Blade Works.
  • Equivalent Exchange: Supposedly a strong advocate of this, but it's a very poor cover for the good natured aid she gives at almost any opportunity.
  • Expy: It's very hard not to see similarities between Rin and Akiha. They're both the young female heads of prestigious families involved in the occult with long black hair, blue eyes and essentially the same face. They even have the same Tsundere "humph!" pose, except that Akiha's lacks the flying hair that Rin has whenever she does it. Both characters are in turn partly based on Azaka -- young Rin and young Azaka look exactly alike.
  • Face Palm: Rin does this a lot, often because of Shirou.
  • The Gadfly: Mixed with The Tease. Tohsaka doesn't limit herself here. Equal opportunity harassment.
  • Girlish Pigtails
  • Gratuitous German: but beautifully spoken
  • Image Song: "Kirari" (Sparkling)
  • Infinite Supplies: Averted Trope. She stores her Mana into gemstones in order to use it for her big spells, but since jewelry is expensive, she only has so many shots. However, she gains an Infinity+1 Sword in Heaven's Feel, which gives her the ability to pull in Mana from alternate realities, theoretically giving her an infinite supply.
  • Ironic Hell: In what's widely considered to be the most twisted and horrific of all the Bad Ends, Rin shoots her mouth off to Dark Sakura about how she doesn't care about the abuse her sister went through. Sakura promptly summons Saber Alter, and the two subdue Rin and force her to experience Sakura's memories of her Rape as Backstory through Sakura's eyes. When Shirou dies, he can hear Rin screaming that she's sorry over and over.
  • I Uh You Too
  • Jerkass Facade: Her "uncaring magus" persona.
  • Kung Fu Wizard: She is a Nasuverse magus after all, so don't expect her to be useless in close combat.
  • Leitmotif: "Gentle Everyday", which often plays during light-hearted moments.
  • The Magus Who Doesn't Do Anything: ... let's be serious, most Magi in the Nasuverse are sociopaths at best in the name of Magic. Rin doesn't really want to wish for anything with the Holy Grail and she's very against the idea of innocent people being killed; no matter what she says to the contrary.
  • Magic Skirt: Despite that S-rank Zettai Ryouiki and micro-mini skirt, she only loses the magic once, very slightly, in exactly one scene in the entire franchise..
  • Meganekko: Only part-time. She states that she only wears glasses when doing work that requires extra concentration.
  • Not a Morning Person: Rin tends to be decidedly grumpy in the mornings... It clashes with her perfect schoolgirl image so badly that even after knowing her for awhile, people are outright shocked to see her dragging about in the morning, completely at a loss for words and unsure if what they've just seen was real.
  • The Ojou: Complete with a Big Fancy House. Despite this, she's mocked as a bumpkin by Luviagelita, since she's from a country the Magic Association considers a backwater. As it turns out, she actually isn't very rich. Jewel sorcery is expensive.
  • Parental Abandonment: Her father died in the previous Grail War. Her mother apparently died sometime before the Fifth War due to illness, but was presumably in a mental home before that.
  • Panty Shot: Shirou almost gets one of these in the anime, which distracts Rin enough to make her lose her concentration. Also lampshaded in Shirou's victory quote over Rin in Fate/unlimited codes.

"Isn't that mini-skirt a bit too... mini?"

  • The Rival: To Luviagelita.
  • Selective Obliviousness: Not her, but people around her. Whenever she does something that breaks her image as the "perfect model student"... like going full-on berserk Tsundere towards Shirou in the middle of a crowded classroom... other students will simply choose not to remember it so they can keep idolizing her in peace.
    • Rin herself seems to exhibit this in regards to Sakura. For someone who is usually very intelligent and observant, she is remarkably poor at noticing all of the things that have changed about her sister, including her hair color. When she goes into the Matou house for the first time, she immediately realizes what being the Matou heir means, and yet despite knowing that Shinji has no potential as a magus, and that her sister was adopted into that family because her father couldn't train both of them, she fails to make the obvious logical jump to working out that Sakura is Rider's true master, and the heir of the Matou family, until it is explicitly pointed out to her. Of course, since working it out would have meant either hand-waving the fact that her sister is suffering horrific torture, or breaking from her duty as guardian of Fuyuki in an effort to save her, it's perhaps understandable that she decided not to think too hard about it...
  • Shoot the Dog: She attempts this twice with Sakura in Heaven's Feel. The first time, Shirou calls her out on it, then prevents it. The second, Rin herself stops short because she can't go through with it. This is consistent with her advocating this mentality but not being able to reconcile it with her morals.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: With Sakura.
  • Short, Dark and Bishoujo
  • Smoking Is Cool: Her Super-Deformed version which appears in the Tiger Dojos.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Sort of. Different Romanizations have spelled her surname Tohsaka, Tousaka, Tosaka, Toosaka, Tôsaka, or Tōsaka. The first three seem the most popular in that order, but it still hasn't really been standardized in any way yet.
  • Stepford Smiler
  • Suddenly Always Knew That: She learned martial arts offscreen and that skill is not know before the plot requires it.
  • The Tease: She repeatedly teases Shirou in an overly flirtatious manner after finding out that he is easly embarrassed. It's turned back on her in her route when she starts becoming embarrassed when they're about to horizontal lambada.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: It tends to get lost because of comparisons to Sakura, but Rin is actually very feminine as well. It's just that she's also an Action Girl, who puts away any "feminine" traits when it's time to fight. The Tomboy in question here is Saber, who at some points adamantly refuses to even be considered a woman.
  • Tsundere: A textbook case. She is even tsundere in bed. Oddly, she doesn't act all that Tsundere in the anime, at least in that she tries to calm herself down instead of lashing out at Shirou when angry. She doesn't show the Dere side much either, as it's not her route being featured.
  • Walking Techbane
  • Wave Motion Sword: Her personal use of the Jeweled Sword of Zeltrech.
  • You Killed My Father: In Unlimited Blade Works, Rin finds out that Kirei is the one responsible for her father's death. She doesn't take it well.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: GRADE "S"! She actually helped really popularize the popular combination of twin tails, tsundere and zettai ryouiki.


Sakura Matou

Voiced by: Noriko Shitaya (JP), Sherry Lynn (EN)

"No, you are strong, Senpai. It's not because of your Magic Circuit or your talent, but because your mind is pure....I knew that from the first time I met you. I knew you would never betray anyone."

Shirou's timid neighbor. She often visits Shirou's house and does chores there, mainly because she has a massive and very obvious crush on him. She seems to be an ordinary girl with a respectful relationship with her big brother Shinji Matou. In fact, Sakura is an extremely powerful magus, and Shinji frequently abuses and rapes her under orders from family head Zouken Matou (and also to vent his own jealous frustrations). What's more, she is actually the biological sister of Rin Tohsaka, she was separated due to the events of Fate/Zero; Sakura's different eye and hair color are due to Zouken infecting her body with parasitic worms that feed on her mana and carnal impulses, greatly boosting her magical power and sexual aggression.

She was chosen as a participant of the Holy Grail War and summoned Rider, but discovered that Shirou was also a participant and did not want to end up fighting against him. Thus, she was forced into handing over her Command Spells to Shinji, and Rider also suffered much abuse at Shinji's hands.

In Heaven's Feel, Sakura becomes the heroine of the story, but also at cost of her sanity. She becomes consumed by darkness, turning into a proto-form of Angra Mainyu known as Dark Sakura. Giving into The Dark Side gives her tremendous power -- enough to kill anyone with ease, regenerate from any wound and corrupt Servants into her loyal pawns. She also feels resentment towards Rin for basically abandoning her to a life of hell at the hands of the Matou family (unknown to Rin herself), which is amplified massively by her dark side. She eventually makes peace with Rin and was rescued by Shirou when he uses Caster's Rule Breaker to sever her connection to Angra Mainyu.

Tropes exhibited by Sakura include:


Shinji Matou

Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya (JP), Doug Erholtz (EN)

"If you want me to drop the barrier, you'll have to get on your knees and beg."

Sakura's brother and Shirou's childhood friend. Due to the land of Fuyuki "rejecting" the Matou family, they had lost their magical potential by the time that Shinji was born. Thus, Shinji lacks a Magic Circuit (and thus, has no magical potential whatsoever). This caused him to develop a massive inferiority complex and a vast amount of resentment towards his adopted sister Sakura, who was brought in to continue the magical lineage that he could not. So when family head Zouken Matou orders him to periodically rape Sakura (to relieve her abnormal levels of sexual tension, caused by the parasitic worms flowing through her bloodstream), he takes far too much pleasure in it and even abuses her whenever it takes his fancy.

At school, he's a popular ladies' man, but also does terrible things like blackmailing other students and exploiting the character flaws of his "friends" to get what he wants. When confronted, his facade of superiority quickly crumbles to reveal a sniveling, pathetic coward.

When Sakura is reluctant to participate in the Holy Grail Wars (because she does not wish to fight Shirou and Rin), Shinji seizes his chance to surpass his sister and pressures her into yielding Rider to him. Because he is not a magus, he uses an artifact created from Rider's Command Spells called the Book of the False Attendant, which acts as a provisionary Command Spell and lets him control Rider. Because the Book is not a true command spell, it is destroyed either when it is pushed beyond its limits or Rider is killed.

Because he's such a lowlife, he never ends up well in any scenario. Ilya had Berserker kill him for being too pathetic to live in Fate. In Unlimited Blade Works, he is turned into a Holy Grail Core by Gilgamesh and nearly dies, which is enough to scare him straight after Rin saves his life. In Heaven's Feel, he tried to blackmail Sakura by threatening to reveal to Shirou how he had raped her, which pushes Sakura over the edge and leads to him getting decapitated by Dark Sakura.

Tropes exhibited by Shinji include:
  • Asshole Victim
  • Berserk Button: He frequently snaps if he is humillated.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Shinji, no means NO.
  • Big Brother Mentor: He tried to be this in the manga backstory, after he mets Sakura for the first time...at least until he found why Sakura was adopted in to the Matou family.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
  • Body Horror: In Unlimited Blade Works, Gilgamesh turns Shinji into a new vessel for the Holy Grail, which results in him being forced to endure a lake-sized mass of flesh growing from his body. The resulting Transformation Trauma eventually scared him straight.
  • Casanova: Character Material reveals that he is much less of a jerk if you aren't Sakura, though the only male he could actually get along with was Shirou, before their estrangement.
    • Casanova Wannabe: Continually tries to score with Rin; he never gets anywhere, but his ego doesn't seem to allow him to compute the fact that she isn't interested. This causes more conflict than you would think.
  • The Chew Toy: Shinji is introduced as an extremely ineffectual little slime ball. He is smacked around in confrontations with Shirou and other Servants, cannot get Rin's attention at all, is bloodily killed in two of the routes, and the sole remaining route spends a good deal of time convincing him that yes, Shinji, it really is not all fun and games being a magus/Master/the Holy Grail. Considering that he is a conceited little git at best and a sociopathic rapist at worst, he doesn't get too much sympathy about this.
    • Actually he wanted to prove to Zouken that he wasn't useless and that he could be Matou Family heir instead of Sakura and a lot of his actions are based off what he believed to be how Magus/Masters acted.
    • Averted in the manga adaptation, with good justification.
  • Chick Magnet: The main cast of girls don't like Shinji much, but he's very popular with girls at school.
  • Dirty Coward
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In the manga, he bullies an archery student over minor and imagined infractions, prompting Ayako to warn him that he's on the verge of being expelled from the club. In response, he orders Rider to attack her, putting her in the hospital.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!
  • Easily Forgiven: Rin still manages to find it within herself to save his life in Unlimited Blade Works in spite of the fact he tried to rape her while she was bound to a chair and completely helpless.
    • The fact that he is Sakura's adopted brother and she would be very upset by his death probably helped his cause.
    • In the manga, he gets this from Ayako, whom he had Rider attack, and Sakura, who saved his life. It should be noted that he does not rape Sakura in the manga, and this causes him to undergo a Heel Face Turn.
  • Eviler Than Thou: Shinji faces off against other villains in every path; Ilyasviel in Fate, Gilgamesh in Unlimited Blade Works, and Dark Sakura in Heaven's Feel. Too bad (for him) that he's the "Thou" part of the trope all three times.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: See Start of Darkness
  • Freudian Excuse: The Heaven's Feel route reveals that he belives he is justified to abuse Sakura, due to being trated with contempt and neglect by his grandfather and his own father all his life.
  • Humiliation Conga: In Heaven's Feel, right before Sakura kills him.
  • Jerkass
  • Karmic Death: In "Fate" and Heaven's Feel.
  • Like Father, Like Son: He strongly resembles physically to his father Byakuya. Not to mention that both are considered disgraces to the family...
  • Muggle Born of Mages: Could be viewed a Deconstruction of the trope, since it shows what would happen if that normal child grew up knowing he has no magic but still wanting to take over the family but due to his non magic status his dreams were shatttered while being cast off and completely ignored.
  • Parental Neglect: Zouken considers Shinji to be a disgrace of a sorcerer and often neglects him. In Heaven's Feel it is revealed that even Byakuya, Shinji's father, acted distant and with contempt towards Shinji and after he knew that Sakura was the successor, Byakuya started spending more time with Sakura until his death.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: His defining and most hated trait: he is violently attracted to girls of the Tohsaka bloodline; if they are unwilling to receive his monstrous "affections?" All the better.
  • Start of Darkness: The Heaven's Feel route hints at it, but the manga comes right out and openly states that Shinji's came when he discovered the Matou were a clan of magi and began putting all of his heart and effort into becoming one himself... only to later find they were a fallen clan who no longer had magical power, and that if anyone in his family was going to end up fulfilling his lifelong dream, it was going to be Sakura (not that she had a choice in the matter...). Basically, he Jumped At the Call only to discover that there was no call, and upon learning this reacted... poorly. Because Sakura kept pitying him (although her life was much worse) and apologizing, he took that as Sakura submitting herself to him since she displayed no other emotion, and things got worse from there.
  • Smug Snake
  • Spared by the Adaptation: In the manga, Sakura has Rider save his life.
  • Static Character: Apart from the ever present Villainous Breakdowns, he tends to remain a complete and utter jerk throughout every route.
  • The Unfavorite
  • Unwitting Pawn: Pretty much everything he does in Heaven's Feel is orchestrated by Zouken in order to further his plans for Sakura, culminating in his death, which results in Sakura's Freak-Out.
  • Villainous Breakdown: In the Anime and every storyline of the Visual Novel, with multiple breakdowns in Heaven’s Feel.
    • In the manga, when Shirou and Rin interfere with his plans.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Kinda like a certain other Shinji. He just wants approval from Zouken. But looks like he can never understand that "no" really means "NO".
  • Would Hit a Girl
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair


Illyasviel "Illya" von Einzbern

Voiced by: Mai Kadowaki (JP), Stephanie Sheh (EN)

"I don't intend to kill you, Shirou. You're mine. I'll kill the other Masters, but you're special. That's why I locked you up here, so there won't be any interruptions... "

The little noble girl, usually called Illya for short, send by the Einzbern Clan to be their champion the Holy Grail War. She is in fact a living vessel of the Holy Grail, and her body has Magic Circuits splattered all over, which provides her great supply of magic. She is Berserker's Mistress, and lives in a mansion in the middle of a forest, with her Servant and two maids. She may be a little girl, but she is just as ambitious as the other Magus to win the war, and approves even brutalities if it means winning the whole war in general. Although she is sometimes rough to Berserker, the bond between them are extremely strong.

She is rather attached to Shirou, but in the same time detests him too. This is due to the fact that she is in fact the daughter from Shirou's father Kiritsugu, and Irisviel von Einzbern, and not born naturally.

Tropes exhibited by Illya include:
  • All There in the Manual: Several notable things, for instance we only find out that she dies a year after the Holy Grail war in Archer's back-story via supplementary materials, and apparently the Dress of Heaven she wears at the end of Heaven's Feel will turn any human who touches it into gold!
  • Artificial Human: She was naturally conceived, but she's still a homunculus.
  • Badass Adorable
  • Big Brother Attraction: Played pretty darkly, especially since Shirou has no clue why she's calling him onii-chan until Heaven's Feel.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Illya's biological father is Emiya Kiritsugu and mother is a German homonculus.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: She really seems to be dead set on having Shirou be her servant; or worse, her doll. Heck, she'll settle for his still living head.
  • Cheerful Child/Creepy Child: Yes, she's both. It's not contradictory.
  • Clone Degeneration: Even if she survives the war, she still has less than a decade to live.
  • Creepy Cool Crosses: The cuffs of her shirt prominently display a row of them.
  • Cute and Psycho: But even without that she's a bit bipolar.
  • Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You: She just doesn't know. More to the point, she doesn't know that he spent the next five years (prior to his death) trying to come back (the Einzberns wouldn't let him see her). The fact that he told her he would be back and then never returned, for no obvious reason, is understandably upsetting for her (the Einzberns almost certainly made it sound as bad as they possibly could, too, because it gives her more of a reason to fight). She doesn't seem to buy the cover story entirely, but she's got a major grudge against Shirou to go along with some level of Big Brother Attraction.
  • Enfante Terrible
  • Evil Albino: In much of Fate.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: Illya is actually in a rather similar situation to Assassin, in that both are literally incapable of actually winning the Holy Grail war. As the vessel for the Grail itself, her mind is destroyed when it finishes forming, leaving her unable to claim the prize even if her Servant is the last one standing.
  • The Fake Cutie: She's genuinely quite innocent and naive, but in contrast to that she's probably the must brutal character in the story. Heaven's Feel makes it pretty clear that her little girl act is just an act. She's actually quite emotionally conflicted about what she should be doing and almost entirely lacks any hope for the future.
  • Fille Fatale: Exactly what she plans to do with Shirou once she gets him varies from route to route, but in Fate at least she made it pretty clear just what she was planning to do with her new "toy" (You can't get much more explicit than straddling a tied-up boy and asking him if he'd like to be your slave!). Tiger Dojo confirms there was originally an H scene here if you picked the wrong option. Partially Subverted by the fact that she's actually older than he is, although her mental age seems to match her appearance pretty accurately.
  • First-Name Basis: She generally prefers being called by her nickname of "Illya".
  • Freudian Excuse: Let's see... Parental Abandonment? Check. Isolated from the outside world and basically raised to be a sociopath by her mother's family? Check. Put through agonizing Training from Hell by said family so she could control Berserker and be their representative in the Grail War, despite the fact that she was mentally pretty much still a child? Check and check.
  • Go Out with a Smile: In Heaven's Feel True End.
  • Happily Adopted: The ending to Fate features her more or less adopted by Taiga. The two get along more like sisters than parent and child, but it's hard to dispute that Illya's having a much better time with the Fujimura than the Einzbern family.
  • Heel Face Turn:
    • Most notably in Fate after Shirou and Saber defeat Berserker.
    • Arguably in Heaven's Feel.
  • Heroic Albino: In Heaven's Feel.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In Heaven's Feel. She sacrifices herself to shut down the Artifact of Doom behind the Holy Grail War once and for all.
  • Hostile Show Takeover: She cheerfully announces her intent to do this in Heaven's Feel during a Taiga Dojo segment in Unlimited Blade Works. When it doesn't work out that way, she tries to take over the Dojo instead... with a tank.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: She just barely reaches her servant's knee.
  • Hypnotic Eyes
  • I Am Your Sister: She's technically Shirou's adoptive sister by virtue of her being Kiritsugu's biological daughter.
  • Image Song: "Tsuki no Namida"; also shares a more "fun" version with Taiga.
  • I'm Cold... So Cold...: When dying in Unlimited Bladeworks, she mentions that it's a little cold but things will surely be okay again soon so long as Berserker is there to protect her. He's already dead.
  • Kick the Son of a Bitch: Her ruthless murder of Shinji (who she doesn't even know) in Fate.
  • Legal Jailbait
  • Leitmotif: "Die Lorelei" by Phillipp Friedrich Silcher. Notable in being an actual German folk song.
  • Meta Guy: She becomes this during the Tiger Dojo segments accompanying each of the game's 40 Bad Ends.
  • Morality Chain: To Berserker.
  • Ms. Exposition: She fills this role pretty often, especially in Heaven's Feel.
  • Older Than They Look: She's actually in her 20's. Homunculi have strange growth patterns, but hers is nonexistent as she wasn't made to be able to live as a human.
    • To be exact, she is actually Shirou's older stepsister.
  • Oracular Urchin
  • Parental Abandonment: After thye previous Grail War, the Eisenberns wouldn't even allow Illya and Kiritsugu to meet, and having her mother already dead, Illya feels she has been abandoned. This distresses her so much that it is implied that the reason she keeps Berserker in an "always semi berserk" state is to deprive the only real father figure she's ever known of even the opportunity of leaving her.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Some of the time, anyway. Generally, if the narration starts focusing on her eyes, bad things are about to happen.
  • Restraining Bolt: For Berserker. See his entry for more details.
  • Sociopathic Hero: Averted, surprisingly enough. When she turns, her more sadistic tendencies seem to be put to rest.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: The arrangement of Die Lorelei (her Leitmotif) in this game sounds like a lullaby played by a music box. The first time you hear it in the very first Bad End, Berserker is chopping your limbs off, leaving your head kept alive as a toy for Illya. The leitmotif changes to a depressing theme on subsequent appearances, but still keeps the dissonance.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Even the official manga translation can't seem to decide if it's "Ilyasviel" or "Illyasviel". We're using the spelling that IMDB uses.
    • To make matters worse... Type Moon's official website uses "Ilya", while nearly all Type Moon merchandise uses "Illya". So it seems both spellings are canon.
  • Stepford Smiler
  • Token Loli: Lampshaded and providing the page quote.
  • Tyke Bomb
  • Units Not to Scale: Reversed from the normal presentation. The artwork actually exaggerates the size difference between her and Berserker. He's about eight feet tall while she's four to four and a half feet, but she doesn't reach much past his knee if the artwork is anything to go by.
  • What Could Have Been: It's stated in the Tiger Dojos that Nasu had been toying with the idea of giving Illya her own route if Heaven's Feel was short enough, but it wasn't. The details of her own route were largely folded into Heavens Feel instead. It's also mentioned once that there was originally a scene in the Fate route where she raped Shirou in a Bad End, but that scene was obviously cut.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl
  • Winter Royal Lady: Not literally, but certainly she is characterized both by her princess-like looks and character and her affinity with winter.
  • Yandere: Non romantic despite her clinginess. She just wants to be properly acknowledged and secretly believes that Shirou won't.
  • You Lose At Zero Trust: From early on in Heaven's Feel Shirou is getting along with her much better than in the previous two routes. However, thanks to Zouken dicking around, she feels she has to ignore how she feels and opts for pragmatism and kills him rather regretfully if you don't have a high enough affection score with her.

Kirei Kotomine

Voiced by: Joji Nakata (JP), Jamieson Price (EN)

"Rejoice, young man. Your wish will finally come true."

The Big Bad of the Fate route and also the Big Bad of Fate/Zero. Kirei is the supervisor of the Fifth Holy Grail War as well as Rin's legal guardian. As supervisor, it is his duty to uphold the rules of the Holy Grail War, cover up any incidents that might expose the War to the public, and give sanctuary to any Masters who drop out.

He is in fact a survivor of the Fourth Holy Grail War, in which he was a participant with his Assasin-class Servant, Hassan-i-Sabbah and eventually, an Archer-class Servant, Gilgamesh. At its conclusion, he was shot and killed by Emiya Kiritsugu, who went on to destroy the tainted Holy Grail. Kirei was drenched in the pollution that splattered from the destroyed Grail, which granted his wish (for destruction) and resurrected him with an artificial black heart.

His goal is to observe the effects of a wish made upon the tainted Holy Grail, for he is driven by a mental abnormality that can only find meaning in the suffering of others. To this end he hides the existence of Gilgamesh (who also survived the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War), kills one of the seven Masters to seize their Command Spells and Servant (Lancer), and quietly carries out his duties as the Grail War's overseer whilst hiding the Holy Grail's true nature as an evil artifact of destruction from everyone.

In other routes, he's not quite the Big Bad anymore. Gilgamesh takes that spot in Unlimited Blade Works, and he momentarily fights side by side with Shirou and Rin against Zouken Matou (who also takes that spot) in Heaven's Feel, though he's still the final obstacle in the very, very end and is a Final Boss of sorts in that route.

Tropes exhibited by Kirei include:
  • Back from the Dead: After Kiritsugu killed him in Fate/Zero.
  • Badass: Don't let those posers Lancer and Archer fool you. Kotomine is the badass of Fate/stay night. Pinning True Assassin to a tree and performing an exorcism on Zouken by grinding his skull into the dirt? Yes please.
    • Badass Longcoat: His priest garments are like a combo between this and Badass Long Robe.
    • Badass Normal: Technically, he is a magus, but all he seems capable of doing in regards to magecraft is healing others and exorcism. He's an extremely effective hand to hand combat, proficient with Black Keys, a type of throwing sword, and has extensive assassin training.
  • Being Evil Sucks: He has a conscience, which makes him aware that evil is wrong, but...
    • Being Good Sucks: Unfortunately, he takes no satisfaction from good. Poor guy just can't win. This is in fact a large part of his motivation: He basically wants to ask God why someone like him would be allowed to be born.
  • Big Bad: In Fate.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Due to immense training as a church exorcist, Kotomine is able to stand up to True Assassin and a body-transmuted-into-swords Shirou in Heaven's Feel.
  • The Chessmaster
  • Chewing the Scenery: He can sometimes drift into this territory, although this is partly just how Joji Nakata acts. He's generally fairly calm, however.
  • Church Militant: And he Knows Kung Fu.
  • Classic Villain: In Heaven's Feel Kotomine's parallels to Shirou become quite obvious with the classic climactic conclusion being resolved by Kotomine's lack of purpose outside the emptiness that is at both Shirou and his own core. Shirou's nature lies in defining himself through others, which is the same as Kotomine. The reason it is a virtue for Shirou and a vice for Kotomine is that Shirou's self definition lies in aiding others while Kotomine's is in harming them.
  • Creepy Cool Crosses
  • Death by Irony:
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life: When he was younger: Mage? Not fulfilling. Church? Ditto. Devoted husband? Empty. Evil? Bingo!
  • Deuteragonist: Does double time as primary antagonist and deuteragonist. While the main heroines generally have more screen time than Kotomine, he is largely the one who pushes the plot along and has a strong and complex relationship with Shirou, much to the latter's disquiet.
  • Disk One Final Boss: In Unlimited Blade Works.
  • Dissonant Serenity: In the Fate route, during the scene where Shirou discovers the little secret Kotomine keeps underneath the church and Kotomine more or less psychologically tortures him about it while they stand there surrounded by corpses undergoing Body Horror, he is described in the narration as speaking in his most genuinely cheerful tone of voice possible, smiling pleasantly, and generally treating him as a friend who came over for dinner. In the voiced version he even chuckles in between speaking as though at some kind of exceptionally funny joke he's listening to.
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness
  • Enemy Mine: In Heaven's Feel, Kirei teams up with Shirou once Zouken and Sakura kill off Lancer and Gilgamesh, putting Kirei on the losing end of Eviler Than Thou.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Whatever else might be said about Kirei, he holds Zouken Matou in utter contempt.
  • Evil Duo: With Gilgamesh.
  • Evil Feels Good: Kirei's entire raison d’être. He's lived his entire life being unable to find joy in anything other than the suffering of other people and what was the opposite of 'good'. Believing something to be wrong with himself, he tried out several vocations, including studying under the magic association, turning around and switching to the church (the association's exact opposite), and even loving an Ill Girl who eventually bore him a child. When said Ill Girl died, the fact that he felt sorrow only for being unable to kill her himself caused his true Start of Darkness, which in turn causes him to attempt to release the Artifact of Doom behind the grail war upon the world... For the Evulz. (In addition to other reasons.)
  • Fan Nickname: "Mr. Pretty", after the translation of his first name.
  • Foil: Is portrayed as quite an explicit one to Kiritsugu Emiya, Shirou's father. Whereas Kiritsugu is a just, moral man who makes of himself a monster to protect the innocent from supernatural evil and to preserve the world, Kirei is a sociopath who was raised to be selfless and to serve goodness, but finds no pleasure in anything except doing evil, and wants to destroy the world which created him. Shirou finds himself also as a foil to Kirei, once his motivations are revealed.
  • Friendly Enemy: The only way to describe his relationship with Shirou in the Heaven's Feel route.

Shirou: I see. I'm sorry I troubled you... um, I'm glad you were awake.
Kirei: You're thanking me? Are you sick? I will listen if something is worrying you

  • The Gadfly: He derives pleasure from the misery of others. According to a humorous little side-story in the manga adaptation, this includes giving Rin clothes she absolutely hates every year.
  • Good Powers, Bad People: What is his skillset? Magical surgery and performing exorcisms on evil spirits. That's it. Still nearly destroys the world.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Is a master of it.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: In both languages, he has the same voice as Count Edmond Dantes in Gankutsuou, and Deihart Ried in Code Geass.
  • Hidden Depths: You don't really get to know Kotomine until Heaven's Feel route. He's not as simple as he looks.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: He baptizes Zouken to death.
  • Leitmotif: "The Church on the Hill".
  • Light Is Not Good: He's a priest. An evil priest.
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • Mean Character, Nice Actor: On a recent edition of the internet radio show "Fate/stay tune:Unlimited Radio Works", Joji Nakata made a guest appearance and showed himself to have a great personality and sense of humor, among other things doing an impression of Ilya's famous "Get them, BERSERKER!" line, as well as some of Kirei's lines in Sgt. Frog's voice.
  • Meaningful Echo: In Fate, he tells Shirou that, to have a chance of winning against him, he has to put his life on the line. He applies what he said on himself in Heaven’s Feel upon finding his knuckles pulverized by punching Shirou's body which had been turning to swords.
  • No Cure for Evil: Seemingly Averted by his healing magic. Except that those abilities were inherited through a Magic Crest, and according to all descriptions of their functioning, his is an exception in that it's consumed through use. He has no reservations against squandering it and doesn't seem troubled by its disappearance.
    • Those Crests were more than likely leftover Command Spells from the Fourth War since the Kotomine aren't a family of magicians and as such it's unlikely that they have a Crest. The rest is probably Kirei screwing around with Shirou.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His final showdown with Shirou in Heaven's Feel boils down to this, largely because both of them have no Mana to use, and because their bodies are completely broken (Kirei from damage caused by Dark Sakura/Angra Mainyu twisting him and squashing his fake heart alongside Kirei's fight with True Assassin & Zouken, Shirou from the backlash of having used his Deadly Upgrade one time too many). Kirei loses only because his body gave out on him in the end.
  • Say My Name: Shirou and Kirei seem especially fond of calling each other by full names, especially when yelling.
  • Shadow Archetype: As Shirou comes to realize in Heaven’s Feel, Kotomine and he are Not So Different -- both have essentially no sense of self and can only find purpose through their fellow humans: The only difference is that for Shirou it is helping people, and for Kotomine it is to cause them pain.
  • Sinister Minister
  • Sympathy for the Devil: In HF Shirou realizes that the reason he was always hostile to Kotomine is because he actually likes him. Unlike Kiritsugu, Kotomine and Shirou are in fact very similar people. This doesn't stop Shirou from doing what must be done, but it does show that Shirou feels sort of bad about it.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Due to his time spent with the Church Militant "Burial Agency", Kirei has a supply of "Black Key" throwing swords similar to the ones used by Ciel.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Mapo tofu. And he likes it hellishly hot.
  • Tragic Villain: Once his motives are expanded upon in Heaven's Feel, he becomes far more sympathetic.
  • Treacherous Advisor: He technically fulfils this role for Shirou and Rin, but neither of them trust him very much.
  • The Unfettered: Not as bad as Kiritsugu but still...
  • Unusual Eyebrows
  • Villains Out Shopping: Shirou enters a restaurant and... finds Kirei eating infamously hot mapo tofu at a Chinese restaurant.
    • The first plate was probably an intimidation tactic. To signal the end of his conversation, he has second and third helpings sent to the table, starts gobbling scoops of it, and again asks Shirou if he wants some.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The main topic of his attempted Hannibal Lectures to Shirou in Heaven's Feel, where he argues that Shirou has no right to stop the Cosmic Horror about to use Sakura to let itself loose on the world because, despite the fact that it has killed scores of people in its embryonic state, all creatures deserve to be born into the world.
  • Will Not Tell a Lie: For shits and giggles. It's much more fun to trick people without lying.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Depending on the Alternate Character Interpretation. What could be worse than being born naturally evil, only able to take pleasure in the suffering of others, but still born with a conscience? This only shows up in Heaven’s Feel, however; the other two routes don't go into his back-story enough to show him as anything but in it For the Evulz.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Kirei will honestly applaud you for picking the choice that leads to Bad End #30, the infamous "Mind of Steel" Bad End.


Souichirou Kuzuki

Voiced by: Kazuhiro Nakata (JP), Patrick Seitz (EN)

"It is fine to assume that the Master's role is to support the battle from the back. But there are always exceptions. There are Masters who can only fight head on."

Rin's homeroom teacher at school. He lives in the Ryuudouji Temple and is Issei's older-brother figure. A tall, stern man who rarely expresses any emotion at all, he appears physically intimidating, but is really a gentle soul who does his best to give each student a fair and proper education.

In Unlimited Blade Works, Kuzuki is revealed to be Caster's master and a former assassin with a fighting style revolving around catching the enemy off guard and striking their vulnerable points. He found Caster after she had killed her original master. Low on Mana and about to disappear, she begged Kuzuki to become her master, which he readily accepted, if only because he wanted to help her. After forming a pact, Caster began draining Mana from the townspeople because Kuzuki, who is not a magus, cannot provide her with much. Kuzuki himself has no need for the Holy Grail, and is simply fighting to help Caster, although he does value his own life above hers, and makes it a point to tell both her and Shirou that he will keep himself alive no matter what.

In Unlimited Blade Works, Kuzuki is killed by Archer after the latter double-crosses Caster. In Heaven's Feel, he and Caster are the first victims of True Assassin and Angra Mainyu's embryonic form.

Tropes exhibited by Souichirou include:
  • Anti-Villain
  • Asskicking Pose
  • Badass Normal: He actually manages to defeat Saber during their first encounter with only magical enhancements from Caster toughening up his hands and his own unconventional martial arts style. It's stated that had they figured out his assassin-like fighting style, any Servant could easily beat him, but be that as it may...
  • Badass in a Nice Suit
  • Badass Teacher
  • Barehanded Blade Block: The very first demonstration of his Badass Normal status came when he caught Saber's invisible sword between his elbow and knee.
  • Battle Couple: With Caster.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: He's got an enchantment on his fists, sure, but the speed and technique with which he defeats Saber are the product of years of training as an assassin. Compare to fellow teacher Fujimura Taiga, a 5th Dan in Kendo, who couldn't touch a single hair on Saber's head during their "fight".
  • Confusion Fu: Kuzuki uses a very unusual martial arts style to pierce the defenses of skilled opponents. Once they're used to his movements, he loses a fair bit of effectiveness.
  • Crouching Scholar Hidden Badass
  • Curb Stomp Battle: His death is quite literally the only fight scene he has in the game where he isn't issuing one of these to somebody... and even THAT was a Curb Stomp Battle.
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: His eyes never have light on them.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome
    • He stood in front of certain death in the Anime, and simply refused to die until he was sure his beloved Caster died happy.
    • In Unlimited Blade Works, he stayed to fight Archer after Caster's death in order to avenge her; this in spite of the fact that he knew he couldn't win, his opponent was perfectly willing to let him go, and he himself had previously claimed he wouldn't risk his own life for her. He could have just walked out of there, but he decided to honor her memory, even if he died in the attempt... ::sniff::
  • Extreme Doormat: Fairly obviously in love with his Servant, Caster, but doesn't actually do anything of his own volition. In fact, he rather bluntly says that she can do anything she likes and he'll let her, and his only priority is his own life over hers. This really isn’t true ‘‘either’’, but whatever.
  • Good People Have Good Sex: Subverted, as he and his Servant Caster have a pretty decent sex life despite being among the enemies.
  • Hitman with a Heart: He really is a nice guy, but he'll ditch you without a moment's notice if he feels his own life is in danger.
  • Invulnerable Knuckles: Justified.
  • Megane
  • Perpetual Frowner
  • Power Fist: With a bit of help from Caster.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs
  • Rescue Romance: With Caster.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: In the anime and manga adaptations.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": As there are two long vowels in his name, there's quite a lot of possible permutations to it. It's usually spelled Souichirou, Soichirou or Sōichirō in Fate/stay night media.
  • Stern Teacher
  • The Glasses Come Off
  • The Stoic
  • The Undefeated: In Unlimited Blade Works, Kuzuki tries to fight Archer even after Caster is killed and his enhancements are gone, despite the heroes being willing to let him go. He gets to land one punch, which Archer doesn't even try to dodge or block, before being sliced in half.
  • Unholy Matrimony: With Caster.
  • Unusual Eyebrows
  • Weak but Skilled: He's a normal man with no knowledge of the supernatural world and no magical abilities whatsoever. Yet with an enchantment on his fists and his own unconventional martial arts style, he manages to temporarily overwhelm Saber, the best close-range fighter, and rips out Rider's throat during his most prominent route.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Even if you don't take Saber and Rider into account, he has no qualms about punching Rin. He even gets as far as to kill her if you pick the wrong choice.


Zouken Matou

Voiced by: Masane Tsukayama (JP)

The head of the Matou family and the cause of a great deal of misery for many characters. His presence is indirectly felt in Fate and Unlimited Blade Works, but in Heaven's Feel the true extent of his evil comes to light.

Though he is known as Shinji's grandfather, he is in fact over two centuries old, having used a breed of parasitic worms to prolong his lifespan. He has an instinctive desire to take control of the Holy Grail and attain immortality, and to this end he adopts Sakura and infects her with parasitic worms that have been tainted by the pollution of the Grail. This greatly boosts Sakura's magical power (and sexual frustration) but in Heaven's Feel it also allows Zouken to twist Sakura into a proto-form of Angra Mainyu that is completely under his control. He also summons True Assassin from the corpse of Assassin, officially becoming the seventh Master in the Fifth Holy Grail War.

However, he eventually loses control of Sakura, and eventually he is killed by a combination of Kotomine Kirei and Dark Sakura. Living through even this by sheer force of will, he is finally convinced it is his time by Ilyasviel during the final moments of the final ending.

Tropes exhibited by Zouken include:
  • Bald of Evil
  • Big Bad: In Heaven's Feel.
  • Black Eyes of Evil
  • Determinator: Still alive after being exorcised by Kotomine and having the worm carrying his soul crushed by Dark Sakura by jumping into a bunch of hastily created worms (all the while enduring agonizing pain for the sake of not dying) -- until he was convinced to finally let go by Ilya.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Killed by Dark Sakura when at his most vulnerable after years of mistreatment. It's implied (though not outright stated) in UBW that Shinji had Gilgamesh kill his body in that path as well, which if true would make it a double case due to him saddling Shinji with his inferiority complex.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: His plan for obtaining the Grail involves corrupting Sakura, who he has been torturing for over a decade, with an entity representing all the evils of the world, which also happens to give her almost godlike power and super-regeneration abilities, and then expecting her to follow his orders until she breaks down entirely, at which point he will possess her body. All this whilst the main worm containing his soul is buried within her heart. Three guesses at what happens... .
  • Expy: Of Michael Roa Valdamjong from Tsukihime. Both are Big Bads who perform Grand Theft Me and have an obsession with immortality -- the reason for which (falling in love -- with Arcueid in Roa's case, with Justizia in Zouken's) they both have forgotten over the centuries.
    • As well as Araya Souren, who he shares several traits with role-wise; being incredibly old, attempting Grand Theft Me, and having an ultimate goal that they sacrifice, use and manipulate others and forgot their original noble and selfless reason for.
  • Faux Affably Evil: The very first time Shirou encounters him, Zouken just looks like a normal, well-mannered grandfather to Sakura and Shinji ; he invites Shirou to stay for dinner and asks him to be a good friend to his grandchildren. He even threatens to call the police or to "hurt [Shirou] a bit" when he first mistakes him for a stalker following Sakura. Then we learn how he himself treats Sakura. Feel free to think about what he might have meant by that "hurting a bit" thing.
  • Grand Theft Me: In order to keep himself alive, he has to obtain a new body every few months (or when the old one is damaged beyond repair).
  • Immortality Immorality
  • Immortality Seeker
  • Karmic Death: Combined with Kick the Son of a Bitch.
  • Karma Houdini: Outside of Heaven’s Feel.
  • Leitmotif: "Wandering Shadow" plays almost every time Zouken appears onscreen.
  • Love Makes You Evil: His original (and long-forgotten) motivation for getting the Grail was to honor the sacrifice of the woman he loved, Justica von Einzbern.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He certainly attempts this with all his manipulation of the main characters.
  • Obviously Evil: Let's see... wrinkled and decrepit, his only "smile" sprite is a Psychotic Smirk, his eyes are solid black with white pupils... yeah, it was pretty obvious from his first appearance that he wasn't going to be a good guy.
  • Older Than They Look: And considering how old he does look, that's an accomplishment.
  • Shadow Archetype: His original motivation as a magus, revealed upon his death, was the betterment of the human condition, even if his life and efforts aren't rewarded at all. In the last portion he was exactly what Shirou is.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Depending on the source, usually either Zouken Matou or Zōken Matō.
  • The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: His original motive for attaining the Grail was to honor the life of a colleague who had sacrificed herself to create the original Holy Grail (in order to create the Gate of All Things, which would lead to the root of the universe itself). Over time, frustration, age and his deteriorating body caused him to forget his original goal, leaving only an unnatural obsession with immortality.
  • The Worm That Walks
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  1. ↑ something like "that guy's so tough, he won't die even if you kill him"
  2. ↑ Do note that even before Archer uses the Trace On spell, Shirou recognizes him someone who embodies his ideals
  3. ↑ The attitude is largely absent from both Unlimited Blade Works and Heavens Feel routes
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