History Characters / FateStayNightHumans

* CreepyCoolCrosses: The cuffs of her shirt prominently display a row of them.

* CreepyCoolCrosses: Given his evil personality and his clerical vocation, crosses met at a cross section.

* TookALevelInKindness: In the timelines in which he survives the Holy Grail War, such as ''Unlimited Blade Works'', the ''Fate'' manga and ''Manga/TodaysMenuForEmiyaFamily''. All in all, it looks like competing for the Holy Grail brought out the worst in him, and with it gone, he's back to his arrogant yet tolerable old self.

* EightiesHair: His [[FanNickname Magic Mullet]] is often joked about to be an aftereffect of his hereditary [[SuperpowerfulGenetics Sorcery Trait]], as his late father shared the same kind of hair.

* SmugSnake: While '''FAR''' more formidable an adversary than Shinji Matou, he in many ways comes across as a highly competent version of [[InadequateInheritor his magically inept grandson]] seeing how both their plans are undermined by their own [[{{Pride}} overconfidence]] and [[EvilIsPetty pettiness]]. [[spoiler:Despite becoming dangerously close to [[GrandTheftMe taking over Sakura's body]] and ultimately [[HijackingCthulhu seizing control over Aŋra Mainiiu]], he overlooks the fact that his entire plan depends on Sakura remaining an ExtremeDoormat right up until her mind breaks down. Consequently, he never bothers to consider that [[DespairGambit plotting to give his "granddaughter" a glimpse of a better life only to tear it away]] might backfire and goes out of his way to make her long-sought romance with Shirou a living nightmare [[ForTheEvulz for his own twisted amusement]]. The extent of his hubris becomes most glaringly apparent when he cackles sadistically at a writhing Sakura as she becomes one with All the World's Evil (all the while [[EvilGloating boasting how he "trained" her and worked behind the scenes during the Grail War to destroy her sanity]]). Ultimately, after becoming [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity corrupted by Aŋra Mainiiu's power]], Sakura finally [[TheDogBitesBack rebels against him in retaliation for all the suffering he caused her]].]]

Tohsaka is one of the main Magi of the series. She is known in the {{fandom}} for her {{Tsundere}} traits and helping popularize the twin tail tsundere with ZettaiRyouiki look. 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 Tohsaka heir and her own competitive desire to win. She tries to summon a Saber-class Servant, which is 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.\\
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Rin is a complex person, using a honor student facade to hide her fairly abrasive nature, but this is [[{{Tsundere}} also]] a disguise for her rather good nature and the strong morals she tries to ignore. More than anything, Rin seems driven by her sense of duty to the Tohsaka lineage, though her moral values save her from being the cruel, emotionless magus her brain tells her she's supposed to be.\\
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* AcademicAlphaBitch: The highest-ranked honor student of her year and ''the'' SchoolIdol of Homurahara Academy. She deliberately plays up the trope to keep people from getting close enough to notice the supernatural aspects of her life.
* ActionGirl: She has a take-charge attitude by nature, and is extremely competent with her magic.
* ActionGirlfriend: Heroine of the second route who fights alongside Shirou in times of danger.
* ACupAngst: Luvia often pokes fun of her smaller chest size, much to her anger.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Though the central conflict between them still remains, Rin comes off as much less harsh and antagonistic towards Sakura in the ''[[Anime/FateStayNightHeavensFeel Heaven's Feel]]'' movie trilogy adaptation as compared to the visual novel.
* AggressiveSubmissive: She's usually a BrainyBrunette and an assertive {{Tsundere}} and TheTease, but in her sex scene she becomes uncharacteristically shy. An explanation for this is given in ''VideoGame/FateExtra CCC'', and while that Rin is from an alternate universe and has a somewhat different backstory, their personalities and core conditions of personality-formation are still similar enough that it might very well apply to the original too. Basically, precisely because she grew up [[OrphansOrdeal with no other choice]] than to be very independent and hard-working, and because she is normally ThePerfectionist, she secretly craves being able to just relinquish power and control and not having to be the one worrying about whether or not things will be alright for just a little bit when with a partner.
* AloofBigSister: [[spoiler:Rin does not make it very obvious she cares for Sakura, and will retreat to her "we're just strangers" mask when around her. It turns out that Rin had hoped that Sakura, who'd been given up to the Matou family while both were young, was living a peaceful and easy life that Rin couldn't have as a magus, and this admission, combined with Rin nearly dying rather than kill Sakura, helps the sisters reconcile.]]
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Dark-haired, smart, beautiful, and in a bit of an aversion for the trope, [[{{Tsundere}} rather standoffish]] instead of cold and distant. She plays it up in school so others would keep her distance from her.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: She's this to [[spoiler:her younger sister, Sakura]], being the peerless and gifted beauty [[spoiler:Sakura]] feels [[spoiler:she]] can never hope to catch up to.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Rin realizes she is bisexual in the uncensored version of the ''Fate'' route [[spoiler:when taking part in [[SexMagic a mana transfer ritual]] with Saber and Shirou]]. Besides this, Rin is very affectionate towards Saber both in the visual novel and official artwork. However, it should be noted that this applies only to the original ''hentai'' version of the visual novel's ''Fate'' route, [[AdaptationalSexuality not ''Unlimited Blade Works'' or ''Heaven's Feel''. It is also absent from most adaptations, which are derived from the censored version of the visual novel.]]
-->'''Rin:''' I didn't know I was into girls...
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: 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'', [[spoiler:and at the True End of ''Heaven's Feel''.]]
* AngerBornOfWorry: Happens multiple times in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' due to Shirou being, well, [[MartyrWithoutACause Shirou]], as she gains feelings for him over the course of the route.
* BadassAdorable: More relaxed than the stern and stoic Saber, but still more beautiful than cute.
* BadassBoast: Her response when Archer asks her for her wish if she wins the Holy Grail War:
--> '''Archer:''' All right, if you don't have a specific wish, why not wish for something ambiguous? Like ruling the world?
--> '''Rin:''' Why? The world is already mine. Hey now, Archer. The world is just another word for the things you value around you, right? That's something I've had since I was born. If you tell me to rule such a world, I already rule it.
* BadassFamily: [[LightNovel/FateZero Her father was a]] BadassBookworm who almost won the 4th War, and she's very distantly related to Zelretch, who is nearly a PhysicalGod.
* BadassInDistress: [[spoiler:Her Servant Archer]] kidnaps her in order to [[spoiler:force Shirou into a duel]] in ''Unlimited Blade Works''.
* BadassLongcoat: Her signature winter red coat she's usually seen wearing throughout the visual novel and the adaptations. She also dons another red coat as an adult ten years later based on character artwork of her.
* BareFistedMonk: Kotomine taught her Bajiquan, and she makes the most of those teachings.
* BatmanGambit: During a battle against [[spoiler:Servant Caster]] in ''Unlimited Blade Works'', [[spoiler:Rin is hopelessly outmatched in sorcery, but it turns out that in case her original plan to BeamSpam 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.]]
* BeneathTheMask: Two different levels, and she's only aware of the first. Beneath her perfect student facade, she's grouchy, a {{tsundere}} and a [[TheGadfly troll]]. But only halfway acknowledged beneath that is that she's actually pretty kind and strongly values both lives and fair play.
* BerserkButton: Don't call or even imply that she's fat. Shirou learned this the hard way.
* ABirthdayNotABreak: [[AllThereInTheManual Material books]] say her birthday is on February 3. That being the fourth day of the Holy Grail War, where she almost gets killed by Saber and then Berserker before sunrise in every route, it's unsurprising for this to go unmentioned.
* BigSisterInstinct: All those times in the Prologue and the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route where she's suspiciously seen watching over [[spoiler:Sakura]] on separate occasions for seemingly no reason other than a whim? Turns out, those moments foreshadow [[spoiler:her true relationship with Sakura, while hinting that Rin still loves her all this time, before it's eventually revealed in ''Heaven's Feel''.]]
* BloodMagic: 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.
* BornWinner: She was born with a rare Elemental Affinity that lets her master all five Great Elements, and a large number of high-quality Magic Circuits. While she isn't at ridiculously gifted as [[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} Ciel]], she's still has enough potential to become one of the greatest mages in the Mages' Association. [[spoiler:This feeds into Sakura's low self-esteem, as she feels she cannot match her elder sister who is beautiful, intelligent and powerful.]]
* BrainyBrunette: She's very intelligent, an honor student to boot despite school being a secondary concern for her at best, and has dark brown hair.
* BrokenAce: Rin believes she has to be perfect at everything, both in school and in magic, thanks to her father's words and the pressure she feels from her duty to the Tohsaka line. She certainly does it very well though, being smart, gifted in magic, and good-looking. It's when she is away from school that her [[{{Tsundere}} true]] [[AloofBigSister colors]] [[HiddenHeartOfGold are]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold shown]].
* BrutalHonesty: When she's being frank with someone, she doesn't try to mince her words at all.
* BullyingADragon: [[spoiler:The last third of ''Heaven's Feel'', after Sakura has a FaceHeelTurn, can be summed up as Rin doing everything in her power to further piss off her superpowered and already pissed-off sister despite the vast power difference, which doesn't do anything but make everyone's lives so much harder.]]
* ButNotTooForeign: Her father, Tokiomi, has foreign ancestry through his mother, who is heavily implied to be the younger Edelfelt sister who disappeared during the 3rd Holy Grail War, making Rin possibly quarter-Finnish from her father's side.
* ButtMonkey: With a good ol' dose of the Tohsaka family's penchant for usually messing things up at the last second combined with her fun to tease [[{{Tsundere}} personality]], poor Rin ends up bearing the brunt of a lot of physical comedy and other jokes though this is more prominent in her appearances in the spin-offs rather than in the original visual novel itself.
* CheshireCatGrin: Perfected this to an art form. If she's smiling at you, something bad is going to happen, to the point one of the Track Girls treats it like a SlasherSmile.
* ClingyJealousGirl: She will grow into one if in a sufficiently long relationship with Shirou. In the True End epilogue of ''Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks'', she does ''not'' take Luvia being a bit too friendly with him well. It ends with both girls in an over-the-top [[SupernaturalMartialArts sparring match]]. Ironically, she doesn't display much jealousy, if any at all, towards either Saber or Sakura in their respective routes and is even supportive of their relationship with Shirou.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: She plays this role to Shirou, calling him out when he is about to do something reckless because of his ideals. Likewise, Shirou is Rin's own MoralityChain, hearing him out when she is about to do something unethical. This dynamic between the two gets to the point that [[EveryoneCanSeeIt even Lancer teases them about their feelings for each other.]] Even Nasu says that when it comes to the relationship between Shirou and Rin, [[BelligerentSexualTension they spend just as much time fighting each other as working together]].
* CombatPragmatist: She'll use any dirty trick to win. Even [[spoiler:shooting someone in the back. Though it's only for evil characters.]]
* CreepyCoolCrosses: One is displayed on her shirt when she's in her casual attire. More {{Justified|Trope}} than the usual because the Tohsakas are actually a UsefulNotes/JapaneseChristian family. Although, Rin herself nor her Parent actually practice the faith.
* CryCute:
** A great example happens during the scene where Shirou comforts Tohsaka [[spoiler:after Archer betrays her.]]
--->'''Rin:''' ... 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 [[spoiler:Gilgamesh rips Illya's heart out]]. It's not even the story that does it, it's the fact that it twisted him so much.
* CurbStompBattle: Using the Jeweled Sword Zelretch in ''Heaven's Feel'' [[spoiler:she dishes out one to Dark Sakura. Rin deliberately drags out the fight in hopes of Shirou showing up and avoids going for any quick kills, but even then Dark Sakura is still no match for her.]]
* DaddysGirl: She was close to her father as a child when he was still alive and it's very clear that she loved him dearly. Her admiration of him has her striving to follow in his footsteps as the ideal magus.
* DangerouslyShortSkirt: She wears a miniskirt in her casual attire, but not as part of her school uniform. This is lampshaded in Shirou's victory quote over Rin in ''Fate/unlimited codes''.
-->'''Shirou:''' Isn't that mini-skirt a bit too... mini?
* DecoyProtagonist: Subverted. You play the prologue as Rin, and it seems like Saber kills her at the end. When you get to the main story, you play as Shirou, and he saves Rin at the last second. Rin is still an example of DecoyProtagonist, just not a lethal one.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: The closest thing the story has to one; she is the character with the most screentime next to Shirou, narrates both the common prologue of all the visual novel's routes [[spoiler:and the epilogue of the ''Heaven's Feel'' [[MultipleEndings True End]]]], has the most scenes from her point of view in first-person next to him, and is the only one of the heroines who has a major role in every route, even in ''Fate'', where it's the smallest. She is a counterpart and {{Foil}} to Shirou and while he is the central focus and most of the story is his, many parts of it are also about Rin.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu:
** In ''Fate'', [[spoiler:she actually manages to take out one of ''Berserker's'' lives by herself. Given the nature of God Hand though, it doesn't stick for too long, but that doesn't make it any less impressive nonetheless.]]
** In ''Unlimited Blade Works'', [[spoiler:she actually manages to defeat Caster, first by engaging her with magic long enough to get Caster to let her guard down, and then beat her in hand-to-hand combat. Caster is physically the weakest Servant, but a human beating a Servant is said to be impossible. Sadly she fails to capitalize on this because of Shirou being defeated by Souichirou, and they both would have died without Archer's intervention.]]
** In ''Heaven's Feel'', [[spoiler:she defeats everything ''Dark Sakura'' throws at her using the Jeweled Sword Zelretch while Rider and Shirou keep Saber Alter busy.]]
* DudeMagnet: [[DownplayedTrope It's not given too much attention]] like [[ChickMagnet Shirou]], but she has a ton of male admirers in school, with Shirou and Shinji being the only named ones, and Lancer also playfully flirts with her in ''Unlimited Blade Works''.
* DueToTheDead: She's seen visiting her parents' graves as a child in the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' anime's first ending credits sequence. In the same route, [[spoiler:she and Shirou bury Illya in a makeshift grave outside Einzbern Castle after Gilgamesh brutally murders her as a sign of respect despite being enemies with her prior]].
* EquivalentExchange: 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 [[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} 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 [[LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners Azaka]] -- young Rin and young Azaka look exactly alike. Of course, all of them are based on [[VisualNovel/MahouTsukaiNoYoru Aoko]].
** Nasu said that she is also that she's a [[CompositeCharacter composite]] expy of Misaya Reiroukan from ''Anime/FatePrototype'', the original concept for ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', with some elements from Ayaka Sajyou thrown in.
* {{Facepalm}}: She has several dedicated sprites for this, often because of Shirou.
* FaceRealization: She tries to behave like a typical magus, but in each route she realizes she's no good at it. [[spoiler:Most prominent in ''Heaven's Feel'' when she can't bring herself to kill Sakura, and admits she no longer has any right to berate Shirou for his StupidGood tendencies.]]
* FatalFlaw: Her insistence on acting like a stereotypical mage, which leads to dishonesty with others and especially herself. A lot of drama in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' and ''Heaven's Feel'' could have been avoided if Rin was honest with herself about her feelings and admitted she isn't the hardass she tries so hard to pretend she is. When she finally stops antagonizing Shirou and [[spoiler:Sakura]] and admits out loud how she really feels about them, the situation becomes much easier to solve.
* FingerGun: The Gandr spell is fired from the index finger. It should be a curse, but Rin's variant fires ''actual energy bullets'', and at an high rate. In the 2014 anime, she uses the entire hand to fire. She reverts to the index finger in Episode 8 though, possibly for a less powerful attack [[spoiler:(in particular, she uses it to intimidate a recently-defeated Shinji into telling her the identity of the Servant who killed Rider).]]
* FirstLove: Shirou has a crush on her at the start of every route, though he only follows up on his feelings towards her in ''Unlimited Blade Works''.
* FirstNameBasis:
** At first, she addresses Shirou primarily as "Emiya-kun", but at some point in every route, she switches to his first name when they get to know each other better. She still occasionally uses his last name; according to Shirou, it's either when she is about to [[TheGadfly mock him]] or to say something important.
** Interestingly, she refers to certain people by first name in her monologues but addresses them by surname when she says their names out loud. For instance, she addresses Ayako as "Mitsuzuri-san" when she talks to her yet refers to her as Ayako privately in her thoughts.
* FirstPersonSmartass: She's incredibly sarcastic and mercilessly critical of others and sometimes, herself, in the portions where she narrates in the visual novel, particularly during the Prologue.
* {{Foil}}: To Shirou, being a genius magus to Shirou's unorthodox and mediocre practices. She is also a much more balanced person when compared to Shirou's distorted self. They still have similarities, such as being hopelessly obsessed with their goals and being basically the most ethical characters in the series. (Although Rin sees her good side as a weakness.) After they get to know each other better, while he always admired Rin from afar, Shirou starts liking her a lot more when he notices her caring side, and they develop enough respect and admiration for each others' similarities and differences to work together and stop each other when the other one goes too far with their goals.
* ForYourOwnGood: She tries her darndest in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' to keep Shirou from participating in the Grail War in an effort to keep him safe from danger twice during the route. The first was her attempt to attack him at school so she can take his Command Seals from him, thus eliminating him from the War. [[spoiler: If she succeeds, she lets him return to his normal life at the cost of Shirou's memories of the Grail War so far as well as his contract with Saber in a [[NonStandardGameOver Bad End]].]] The second time was when [[spoiler: Shirou loses Saber to Caster]]. Knowing how vulnerable Shirou is [[spoiler: without his Servant]], [[ShooTheDog Rin had to tell him that he'd be nothing but a hindrance to the mission]] so he would try to keep himself out of danger this time. While she nearly succeeds the second time, Shirou's realization that he's in love with Rin and his dogged desire to protect her no matter what happens mean that it naturally wouldn't stick.
* TheGadfly: Mixed with TheTease. Tohsaka doesn't limit herself when it comes to equal-opportunity harassment.
* GemstoneAssault: A practitioner of Jewel Magecraft. Usually, the jewels are just charged up with a bit of magic everyday to supply greater amount of energy when needed, but they also make good explosives.
* GenerationXerox: Her being the extraordinarily talented daughter and superior heir to her otherwise average magus of a father mirrors that of one of her ancestors, Nagato Tohsaka's unnamed daughter, who was also a remarkably gifted magus heir born to an unremarkable and not-so-talented magus of a father.
* GenkiGirl: {{Downplayed}}. When she's not putting on her aloof facade around others, Rin can be rather upbeat and peppy in her private moments whenever something interests her or fires her up.
* GirlishPigtails: Part of her popular {{Tsundere}} image. In ''Heaven's Feel'''s [[MultipleEndings True End]], she has abandoned the tails, making her look somewhat more adult.
* GoGetterGirl: Rin's ambition and drive is very evident, although she still remains a fundamentally decent person underneath.
* GratuitousGerman: Her family's magic was largely stolen from the ''Finnish'' Edelfelts, so the German isn't coming from there. It's likely due to being from one of Zelretch's apprentice lines.
* GravityMaster: She can use her magic to do this to an extent, and in the prologue she uses this to run more than 100 meters in less than seven seconds.
* HarmlessElectrocution: She seems to be the character at who this happened the most in the whole Fate franchise.
** In the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route, she gets electrocuted by Illya at the entrance of her castle. While Shirou just gets a little shock, Rin gets a powerful electrical bolt that knocks her out.
** In the first episode of ''Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya'', she gets again electrocuted by Illya and Ruby's laser, after she calls her a moron. This results in Rin being grilled like a barbecue.
** One may possibly count Ishtar, her Servant counterpart in ''Fate/Grand Order'', who gets electrocuted by Ereshkigal and shrunken after this in the Babylonia singularity.
** Coincidentally, two of the times she gets electrocuted are caused by Illya.
* HartmanHips: She has a rather big bottom, [[ShakingTheRump which is most blatantly seen in episode 2]] of the ''UBW'' TV series.
* HateAtFirstSight: Even as a child, she made her dislike of Kirei pretty clear from day 1.
* HoistByHerOwnPetard: While, Rin's "uncaring magus" persona, which is how she believes a magus is supposed to behave, coupled with her own arrogance and self-righteous personality, tends to causes unnecessary burdens and problems for others, it often works against her more often than not. This is mostly highlighted frequently in the ''Heaven's Feel'' route.
** In ''Heaven's Feel'' her constant assertions that she's willing to [[ShootTheDog kill Sakura if no other solution can be found]] make it a lot easier for [[spoiler:Sakura to succumb to the corrupting influence of Aŋra Mainiiu.]]
** The above gets a lot worse in the last and possibly the most ''horrifying'' BadEnd of them all. [[spoiler:Rin genuinely cares for Sakura but for a variety of reasons she acts exceptionally cold towards her and always retreats to her mask around her. It works ''too'' well in ''Heaven's Feel'', where Sakura becomes so convinced that her older sister sees her as an enemy and doesn't care for her, which is one of the things that push Sakura towards her RoaringRampageOfRevenge. This culminates in Dark Sakura subjecting her to an IronicHell[=/=]LotusEaterMachine where Rin is forced to experience Sakura's horrible life with the Matou in the first person. Rin completely breaks down after the first day of that.]]
** Also in ''Heaven's Feel'', an interlude has Rin [[spoiler:raiding the Matou mansion]], where she runs into Shinji and tries to verbally bully him into leaving the city. It almost works, but she makes the stupid mistake of twisting the metaphorical knife in the wound by praising Shirou for his exceptional "quality as a magus" despite lacking the skill, which prompts [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex Shinji]] to actions to one-up the guy that turn the route FromBadToWorse in a ''big'' way. ''Twice''.
* HopelessWithTech: As a mage, she doesn't get technology at all. The sad thing is that she's actually better than most. Rin 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.
* ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: She expresses a mix of genuine confusion, embarrassment, and surprise when Shirou confesses that he likes her that way during their talk in the cemetery in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' .
* IWasJustPassingThrough: Her behavior around [[spoiler:Sakura]] during the Prologue and at one point in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' is this in spades. She drops by the Archery Club every now and then despite not being a member and not being interested in their activities for seemingly no reason other than a supposed whim, just happens to walk around the same path [[spoiler:Sakura]] uses to go home when she and Archer were patrolling the area, and Shirou later spots her in her route following the same [[ChekhovsGunman blonde foreigner]] she and Archer spotted previously lurking around the Matou Estate just as [[spoiler:Sakura]] was about to enter their home. All this behavior of hers seems really odd during the first read-through until you've reached the ''Heaven's Feel'' route where it's revealed that she [[spoiler:and Sakura are biological sisters]]. [[RewatchBonus Suddenly, everything she did prior to the reveal]] makes a load of sense once you realize this was Rin's way of [[spoiler:checking on her younger sister despite their years of estrangement.]]
* IWasQuiteALooker: Her granddaughter in the ''Heaven's Feel'' Normal Ending says that she looks like a crone. In comparison, Sakura aged more gracefully.
* ImageSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWIA0i3SgD4 "Kirari" (Sparkling)]].
* InAnotherMansShoes: [[spoiler:Rin has this forcibly inflicted on her by Dark Sakura in the ''Heaven's Feel'' bad ending "Femme Fatale." Rin carelessly dismisses everything Sakura suffered as part of her cold mage mask; this absolutely pisses off Dark Sakura, who summons Saber Alter to restrain Rin and then puts her in a simulation of her past to get a firsthand experience of the pain she invalidated. Rin only lasts one day in Sakura's shoes before she's reduced to mindlessly begging for mercy, showing the difference in their mental strength.]]
* InfiniteSupplies: {{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, [[spoiler:she gains an InfinityPlusOneSword]] in ''Heaven's Feel'', [[spoiler:which gives her the ability to pull in mana from '''[[AlternateUniverse alternate realities]]''', theoretically giving her an infinite supply.]]
* InTheBack: [[spoiler:Tries it on Illya during the 2014 anime. Doesn't work.]]
* IronicHell: In "Femme Fatale", which is widely considered to be the most twisted and horrific of all the {{Bad End}}s, [[spoiler:Rin shoots her mouth off to [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Dark Sakura]] about how she doesn't care about the abuse her sister went through. Sakura promptly summons Saber Alter if Shirou hesitates killing the latter for too long, and the two subdue Rin and force her to experience Sakura's memories of her RapeAsBackstory through Sakura's eyes. When Shirou dies, he can hear Rin screaming that she's sorry over and over.]]
* ISurrenderSuckers: [[spoiler:Her plan against Caster involves pretending to surrender.]]
* IUhYouToo: Rin never admits to loving Shirou despite it being very obvious in ''UBW'' and [[spoiler:''Heaven's Feel'']]. In ''UBW'', [[spoiler:she declares that her life's goal is to make him thoroughly happy, which is close enough]]. In ''Fate/Hollow Ataraxia'', in a scenario that takes place post-''UBW'', [[spoiler:she actually manages to tell Shirou she loves him repeatedly while they're in the throes of passion.]]
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: In ''Heaven's Feel'', she gives up on Shirou to let him be with Sakura. [[spoiler:The epilogue hints this is easier said than done.]]
* JerkassFacade:
** Puts up an icy facade around her peers to keep her distance from them and to keep up that "perfect magus" persona of hers, even though she's far from the heartless person she keeps making herself out as. This behavior of hers is more prominent around the people she cares for the most, like Shirou in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' and [[spoiler:her sister, Sakura]] in ''Heaven's Feel''.
** Rin is at her most antagonistic during the final leg of Heaven's Feel. [[spoiler: While Shirou and Rider are in agreement in wanting to save Sakura, Rin is adamant in wanting to kill her and proceeds to repeatedly KickTheDog throughout her fight with Sakura. Though it's eventually revealed that Rin was acting callous to harden her own resolve and yet she still couldn't go through with it.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Being the an angry and temperamental Tsundere, Rin can be grouchy and acerbic, with her two favorite pastimes being, giving Shirou grief in his training and talking smack on about him and others, but she's a good person who cares for her friends.
* KungFuWizard: She was taught some basics of Baji Quan by Kirei which turns out to be a powerful trump card when combined with strengthening magecraft. She continues to train in martial arts even after the war, and later develops and hones a particular discipline in combat that utilizes both magecraft and martial arts in one deadly combo. In fact, character materials in ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'' mention that she eventually opens up a school that trains students in that discipline in that particular timeline. This isn't too surprising given that her ancestor, Nagato Tohsaka, used martial arts as a means to reach the Root according to character materials, so this is likely something instilled in the Tohsaka family itself.
* LackOfEmpathy: Describes herself as this when [[spoiler:Sakura gives Rin her speech about how much her life had sucked. Rin tells Sakura that she never really cared about her situation and doesn't think that Sakura becoming a monster is a bad thing, driving Sakura nuts]]. However, Rin realizes that she is wrong when [[spoiler:she finally realizes that she can't bring herself to kill her sister after all.]]
* LastNameBasis: Shirou addresses her by her family name even when they become close friends and later a romantic couple in the ''UBW'' route. The only person besides Shirou who even calls her that is also [[spoiler:his future self and her Servant, Archer EMIYA, who calls her by her first name to hide his identity and later says her last name as a sign of old affection for her as he becomes his past self before vanishing at the end of the route.]]
* {{Leitmotif}}: "Gentle Everyday", which often plays during light-hearted moments in the visual novel. The [[Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks 2014 adaptation]] of ''Unlimited Blade Works'' gives her "Rin:My Wish" during action scenes, "Rin:Remembrance -Shoukan" as her general theme, and "Rin's Melody" during her more emotional moments.
* LettingHerHairDown: She slowly loses her signature twintails as she grows older. In the True End of ''Heaven's Feel'', she no longer wears them. In the Epilogue of ''[[Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks Unlimited Blade Works]]'' and in her appearance in ''[[LightNovel/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II]]'', she still has one tail up, though as an adult ten years later, she stops wearing them entirely.
* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: The dark to Sakura's light. [[spoiler:Except when Sakura's possessed, in which case it's inverted.]]
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: To [[spoiler:Sakura, her emotionally and sexually abused sister.]]
* LoveInterest: To Shirou in the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route.
* LuminescentBlush: Being a Grade A tsundere herself, she has plenty of moments in both the visual novel and the anime where she blushes whenever she's caught off-guard or embarrassed, usually because of Shirou. The blush even reaches her ''ears'' as shown in the adaptation of ''Unlimited Blade Works''.
* LustObject: She is this to Shinji, although Rin has no interest in him. He doesn't take this well, to the point of trying to rape her in the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route.
* MagicSkirt: Despite that S-rank ZettaiRyouiki 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.
* MementoMacguffin: The Azoth Dagger under her possession that she later gives to Shirou in the ''Fate'' route originally belonged to her deceased father, given to her by Kirei shortly after Tokiomi's funeral. [[spoiler:In a cruel, twisted sense of irony, it was the same weapon Kirei used to literally stab him in the back during the 4th Holy Grail War.]]
* TheMentor: She teaches Shirou whatever he needs to know about magecraft in all three routes. [[spoiler:When they both go to London to study in the Mages Association together in the Epilogue of ''Unlimited Blade Works'', he's officially apprenticed to her as his magic teacher.]]
* MercyKill: In ''Unlimited Blade Works'', [[BadEnd if you accept Caster's proposal]], [[spoiler:Shirou ends up as a limbless body in a jar, [[AndIMustScream but still totally conscious]]. Rin comes to kill him, saying that "the bad dream ends here".]]
* MinorLivingAlone: As both her parents are dead, Rin, who is only in her second year of high school as of the beginning of ''Fate/stay Night'', lives all by herself in her old family mansion with no one else to take care of her. While Kotomine is technically her legal guardian, he only occasionally checks on her and mostly leaves the girl to her own devices. Based on the time in-between the 4th and 5th Grail Wars, she'd been living alone all this time since at least her pre-teen years.
* MoralityChain: In ''Unlimited Blade Works'', she takes it upon herself to be this for Shirou once she learns of his deeper issues so he would learn to love himself better and to ensure that he doesn't go off the deep end in his pursuit of his ideals, [[spoiler:so his life wouldn't end in tragedy the same way Archer's did]].
* MsExposition: Whenever something that the reader is potentially unfamiliar with is brought up and Illya isn't explaining it, it's usually Rin's job to do so, especially in the ''Fate'' and ''Heaven's Feel'' routes.
* MurderMakesYouCrazy: If Shirou doesn't attempt to stop her from [[spoiler:[[ShootTheDog killing Sakura]] in the ''Mind of Steel'' Bad Ending]] out of choice, she'll do the deed and Kirei will confirm that she will go mad from the act of killing [[spoiler:her only sister]] by her own hand.
* NotAMorningPerson: 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. [[WeirdnessCensor And then they choose to forget about it]].
* ObviouslyNotFine: Shortly after [[spoiler:Archer betrays her and Shirou gets hurt again trying to save her from getting killed,]] she puts up her aggressive front and angrily yells at Shirou for recklessly jumping in in that dangerous situation when he's still badly hurt. But Shirou quickly sees through it and flat out tells her that she's hurting inside more than he was right now, prompting Rin to unexpectedly [[CryCute open up the waterworks]] after he tells her that she can let out all her feelings once they get home.
* {{Ojou}}: Complete with a BigFancyHouse. Despite this, she's mocked as a bumpkin by Luviagelita, since she's from a country the Mages' Association considers a backwater. As it turns out, she actually ''isn't'' very rich. Jewel sorcery is expensive and Kotomine managed to lose a majority of the Tohsaka estate's money due to not being very good with it.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Considering all the super-powered entities at play it's easy to forget just how much Rin accomplishes on her own. With little more than a distraction from Saber she manages to [[spoiler:kill Berserker, though it doesn't stick]] and she's even winning against [[spoiler:Caster]] until Shirou's failure allows another enemy to join the fray. It makes you wonder how the war would have gone had she not used her amulet, containing enough mana to win the war, to revive Shirou in the prologue.
* PantyShot: Shirou almost gets one of these in the Deen anime, which distracts Rin enough to make her lose her concentration.
* ParentalAbandonment: Her father died in [[Literature/FateZero 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.
* PeerlessLoveInterest: To the whole school, Rin is an aloof and unobtainable beauty who's perfect in every category, and because of this, she's garnered several male admirers, with Shirou being one of them, who can only look at her from afar. While her true personality doesn't ''quite'' match up to the image she upholds at school, Shirou nevertheless falls for her even more the longer they spend time together during ''Unlimited Blade Works''.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Let's be serious, most magi in the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} are sociopaths in the name of magic. So long as you don't draw too much attention to yourself from the mundanes, it's fine. However, 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. She's also a great believer in fair play.
* PluckyGirl: She's headstrong, tenacious, doesn't easily back down from a challenge, and is in fact, eager to face them head on. In fact, Shirou getting to see this side of her is what made him fall even harder for her in ''Unlimited Blade Works''.
* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Ultimately, it's Rin's love for her sister Sakura and her admitting of such that ended up breaking Aŋra Mainiiu's hold over Sakura, saving her.]]
* ThePromise: At the end of ''Unlimited Blade Works'', she promises Archer [[spoiler:just as he's about to fade away after the Grail is destroyed that she would make sure that to always stay by Shirou's side so he would learn to love himself and be happy as he chases his dream, and to make sure that Shirou doesn't end up like Archer in the future.]]
* RapunzelHair: Curiously combined with GirlishPigtails.
* RedIsHeroic: She typically sports red clothing and is associated with the color red itself. While she may say otherwise, Rin is undoubtedly one of the more heroic characters in the story of ''Fate/stay Night''.
* RedOniBlueOni: Hotheaded Rin is the Red Oni to the more stoic Saber's Blue Oni.
* RelativeButton: When Kirei sadistically confesses to Rin that he was the one who murdered her father years ago in ''Unlimited Blade Works'', she ''flips'' and would've gone ballistic on him had she not been literally tied up at the moment. [[spoiler:When Shinji threatens Sakura, her biological sister's, life]] in ''Heaven's Feel'', she's much calmer...but clearly ''very'' angry at the perpetrator for what they did.
* SchoolIdol: She is the most popular girl in school.
* SelectiveObliviousness: Rin seems to exhibit this in regards to [[spoiler:Sakura]]. For someone who is usually very intelligent and observant, she is remarkably poor at noticing all of the things that have changed [[spoiler:about her sister, including even her hair color]]. When she goes into [[spoiler:the Matou house]] for the first time, she immediately realizes what being [[spoiler:the Matou heir]] means, and yet despite knowing that [[spoiler: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 [[spoiler:figuring out Rider's true Master or her sister's situation until it is explicitly pointed out to her]]. Of course, since working it out would have meant either hand-waving the fact that [[spoiler:her sister is suffering horrific torture]], or breaking from her duty as guardian of Fuyuki [[spoiler:in an effort to save her]], it's perhaps understandable that she decided not to think ''too'' hard about it.
* ShesGotLegs: Her long legs are further accentuated by her Grade S ZettaiRyouiki.
* ShipperOnDeck: She's this to an extent for Shirou and Saber near the end of ''Fate'' [[spoiler:and it's implied that she's also one for Shirou and Sakura since way back in the Prologue since her saving Shirou in the beginning was partly for Sakura's sake]].
* ShooTheDog: To prevent Shirou from putting himself in danger after a near fatal encounter with [[spoiler: Caster after Saber's taken from him]], she tells him straight up that due to his powerlessness, he'd be nothing but a hindrance, [[spoiler: especially since he was no longer a Master in the War]] and leaves him [[spoiler: to rescue Saber]].
* ShootTheDog:
** She attempts this twice with [[spoiler:Sakura]] in ''Heaven's Feel''. The first time, [[WhatTheHellHero Shirou calls her out on it]], then prevents it. The second, [[spoiler: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.]]
** An earlier instance of this occurs in ''Unlimited Blade Works'', as when [[spoiler:she attacks Shirou at school, making the wrong choice or entering the route prematurely results in Shirou getting decimated by her spell and left completely defenseless. Rin then coldly apologizes to him, claiming that what she's about to do next is akin to taking his very life. What does she do? Erase his memories of the war and return him to his normal life.]]
* SiblingYinYang: [[spoiler:With Sakura.]]
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: While she's annoyed by his martyr complex, Rin admits she finds Shirou's noble ideals and kind-hearted nature charming. According to the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' anime, she became attracted to him because of his determination and strong will.
* SitcomArchnemesis: With three people: Issei, Luvia, and in her lighter moments, Illya.
* SituationalSexuality: In the uncensored versions, when fleeing from Illya and Berserker, Rin [[spoiler:has sex with Saber in order to arouse her enough to do the deed with Shirou, thus replenishing her prana supply]], realizing she's bisexual in the process.
* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: One of the most intelligent characters in the cast, though she only wears her glasses part-time when she has to double her focus during expositions.
* SmokingIsCool: Her SuperDeformed version which appears in the [[HaveANiceDeath Tiger Dojos]]. Illya worships her, probably because her father is a prime example of this trope himself.
* SoProudOfYou: [[spoiler:[[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} Zelretch]] tells her this as he saves her from the wrath of the Mages' Association in her hearing, during the [[MultipleEndings True End]] of the ''Heaven's Feel'' route.]]
* SoreLoser: PlayedForLaughs. When Rin discovers that Shirou had summoned Saber, the Servant class she wanted, she gets annoyed at Shirou, but nothing really comes out of it and she quickly gets over it after a brief and funny rant.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: 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.
* SpiritedCompetitor: She is very competitive in everything including cooking.
* SquishyWizard: [[spoiler:Gloriously averted. To Caster's horror, as the latter is a prime example herself.]]
* SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat: She suddenly pulls out [[spoiler:excellent martial arts ability against Caster]] with the only foreshadowing at all her confidence before going into the fight. Considering her teacher, [[spoiler:Kirei, is an expert]] it's not so surprising in retrospect, but at the time, her opponent is understandably shocked.
* SuperiorSuccessor: She outclasses her father as a mage in every aspect. It was to be expected, as that is exactly what her mother's trait was supposed to do.
* SupremeChef: She specializes in Chinese cooking, much to the surprise of Shirou, who doesn't feel confident in his own skills with it. [[ZigZaggedTrope On the other hand, she can't even make miso soup, again to Shirou's surprise]].
* SuperSpeed: Can use her magic to do this to an extent, running more than 100 meters in less than seven seconds in the prologue.
* SweaterGirl: Part of Rin's IconicOutfit is her red turtleneck that clings to her curves and pairs well with her ZettaiRyouiki.
* TheTease: She repeatedly teases Shirou in an overly flirtatious manner after finding out that he is easily embarrassed. It's turned back on her in her route when she starts becoming embarrassed when they're about to have sex.
* TeenGenius: Considering that her family has been known as backwater bumpkins and incredibly mediocre magi compared to [[TheArchmage the "Lord"]] [[BadassFamily Families]] of the Clock Tower, Rin is basically a prodigy in comparison to her ancestors.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: After [[spoiler:Gilgamesh turns Archer into a pincushion and is presumably killed by the former's sudden onslaught]], an angry Rin retaliates by throwing high grade gems with enough power to harm even ''[[AntiMagic Saber]]'' at the attacker in ''Unlimited Blade Works''. Sadly, despite her efforts, her gems weren't able to lay a single scratch on the culprit because they had an item that was [[NoSell fully capable of negating her attack]].
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: While Rin is rather fiery-tempered, she is actually very feminine. The tomboy here would be Saber, who refuses to view herself as a woman. [[spoiler:Their roles switch in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' and ''Heavens Feel'' with Rin becoming more Tomboyish, while Saber acts noticeably more feminine, in both Routes.]]
* TownGirls: The Neither to Sakura's Femme and Saber's Butch. [[spoiler:Their roles switch in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' and ''Heavens Feel'' with Rin taking on a role of The Butch while Saber is The Neither, in both Routes.]]
* TrashTalk: Engages in one against Caster, to goad her into fighting her [[spoiler: as part of her plan to rescue Saber and close the distance between them so Rin can get into a surprise striking range against Caster.]]
* TronLines: Her magic circuits form glowing blue-green circuitry-like markings when activated.
* {{Tsundere}}: A textbook case and widely considered the most famous example (she's also pictured in the trope page). She is [[AggressiveSubmissive even tsundere in bed]]. However, her major tsundere traits are mostly reserved for her route [[spoiler:and Sakura]]. She even popularized the ZettaiRyouiki and twintails look for tsunderes.
* TsurimeEyes: As befitting her rather teasing nature she has matching narrow eyes.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Has this relationship with Ayako. She frequently trades barbs with her whenever they talk and their first meeting, as Rin recalls, has Ayako tell her that they'll probably end up with a 'kill or be killed' relationship", but even with Rin's insistence on keeping an aloof facade around her peers, it's clear she and Ayako appreciate each other's company and friendship no matter what the other says.
* WaifFu: She's fairly short and has quite the thin build, but she's surprisingly strong [[spoiler:and quite good in hand-to-hand combat.]] In ''Unlimited Blade Works'', she embarrassingly admits that she works out fairly often, if not daily, to keep herself in shape all the time. This is supported in ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'', where it's shown that she has fitness equipment stored around her house that she regularly uses for her benefit.
* WaveMotionSword: Her personal use of the [[spoiler:Jeweled Sword of Zelretch.]]
* WeakButSkilled: In contrast to Illya and [[spoiler:Sakura]], who both have massive reserves of mana, Rin has much more basic skills, and magic abilities with a good reserve of mana compared to the typical magus, but still not as potent in raw power as someone like Illya. However her natural ability to manipulate her own mana so well gives her flexibility that no other magus in the story has. Her finesse can be seen in how well she applies her magecraft to various combat strategies, from using Reinforcement on her legs to allow her to move faster, being able to use all of the main elemental forms of magic in the form of her strong gems, and her knowledge of other forms of magecraft, like Gandr, make her more useful than most other mages. That's not including her [[spoiler:knowing martial arts.]]
* WorthyOpponent: Caster is genuinely impressed with Rin and her tenacity when she fights her in ''Unlimited Blade Works'', and even mentions that she would've liked to take her in as an apprentice had she been a little more talented. Or if, you know, they weren't enemies at all.
* YouKilledMyFather: In ''Unlimited Blade Works'', Rin finds out that [[spoiler:Kotomine Kirei]] killed her father. She doesn't take it very well.
* YourHeadAsplode: One of the {{Bad End}}s in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' has her die this way [[spoiler:against Kuzuki.]]
----

[[Characters/FateStayNightShirouEmiya See Shirou Emiya here]].

[[Characters/FateStayNightSakuraMatou See Sakura Matou here]].

!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/NorikoShitaya (JP), Creator/SherryLynn (EN 2006 Anime), Creator/CristinaValenzuela (EN, 2015 Anime, 2018 Movie)
[[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sakura_6.png]]

->''"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."''

Sakura is Shirou's timid underclassman and the third and final heroine of the story. She has been friends with him since the previous summer when he was injured in an accident and she began visiting him with the excuse of taking care of him while he couldn't care for himself. Even after he recovered, she continued to visit him and attempts to do all the chores at his house due to her massive crush on him, which he attempts to ignore. Despite coming from the Matou family, Shinji claims she has been kept in the dark regarding magic as in a traditional magus household only the successor will be taught any magecraft. Though she is respectful of her brother and defends his misconduct, he is in turn an abusive ass towards her. Further, despite her upbeat attitude with Shirou, she is actually nearly silent and much gloomier when away from the Emiya household or Taiga and has no real friends apart from those two.\\

In ''Heaven's Feel'', Sakura becomes the love interest of the story and secrets about her life and the Matou family are slowly revealed.

* AdaptationalHeroism: In the second ''[[Anime/FateStayNightHeavensFeel Heaven's Feel]]'' movie. [[spoiler:Originally, Sakura's transformation into Dark Sakura begins when she accidentally kills Shinji and realizes she feels nothing about it because Aŋra Mainiiu has worn away at her mind, causing her to embrace her dark side now that her inhibitions are gone. In the movie, Sakura's morality is still intact so she's horrified by what she did, and she has to be forcibly taken over by Aŋra Mainiiu to complete her transformation.]]
* AdaptationalJerkass: In ''Anime/CarnivalPhantasm'', the jokes made about Sakura are either mean-spirited or even larger {{flanderization}}s than normal. The result is Sakura's characterization changing from a ShrinkingViolet who struggles to suppress her dark desires to a BitchInSheepsClothing with heavy {{Yandere}} undertones.
* ApocalypseMaiden: [[spoiler:Her body has been modified to be a fake Grail and absorb the souls of Servants.]]
* BeneathTheMask: Portions of ''Heaven's Feel'' are taken from her perspective and provide an alternate look at her personality. For a relatively spoiler free example, she invokes the YamatoNadeshiko image as a way of appealing to Shirou.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Sakura is very calm and gentle, but as ''Heaven's Feel'' shows, [[spoiler:years of abuse make her snap, making her very powerful and dangerous.]]
* BigEater: Shirou notices that she eats quite a lot although she tries to restrain herself out of fear of looking unladylike.
* BigNo: She has two of these after she [[spoiler:accidentally stabs Shirou with a spell she, in a bout of crazy caused by Shinji, shot at Rin]]. She feels extremely guilty about it for the rest of the route.
* BornWinner: [[spoiler:She's just as talented as her sister Rin since she was born with the same amount of Magic Circuits, as well as an extremely rare Elemental Affinity. This comes back to bite her because mage families can train only one successor, so her father gave her to the Matou family as not to waste her potential.]]
* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:First, she's taken from her parents and sister and dumped into an unfamiliar but supposedly allied household, the Matou family. Her parents die soon after as well as the one decent Matou, leaving her with no advocate. She is then 'trained' in Matou magic, which involves infesting her body with man-eating worms and having her brother rape her because he's envious of her status as the Matou heir. Things are looking up when Shirou enters the picture and inspires her to keep trying and gives her a resolve that Zouken cannot break, but then ''Heaven's Feel'' happens and things just keep getting worse until she finally breaks down.]]
* BrokenBird: She has next to no friends or decent family and in front of people not named Taiga and Shirou, she tends to be nearly silent and very submissive.
* ButNotTooForeign: [[spoiler:Like her true sister Rin, she's quarter foreign through their father Tokiomi, as his mother was said to be a foreigner herself.]]
* ButtMonkey: Not in the visual novel at least, but she's mercilessly mocked and made fun of in spin-offs and comedic material for not having as much screentime and exposure as the other two heroines, much to her chagrin.
* CainAndAbel: Shinji resents her for [[spoiler:being the true Matou heir.]]
* CastingAShadow: Her Hollow Element allows her to summon {{Living Shadow}}s.
* CherryBlossomGirl: Named Sakura, has a flower themed ending, is the final love interest and is working hard at being a YamatoNadeshiko. However, things aren't as pleasant as they seem.
* ClingyJealousGirl: She does NOT like the idea of Saber living in Shirou's house even outside of ''Heaven's Feel'' at first, doesn't like having Tohsaka around because Shirou admires her and is generally very possesive of Shirou (including when [[StatuesqueStunner Rider]] is with them). [[spoiler:''lost butterfly'' helps to illustrate this in two instances. First, realizing that Rin shares same memories as her of seeing Shirou the first time (i.e. his attempt at the hurdle) is enough to drive her catatonically afraid she's "taking" him from her. Second, Zouken weaponizes this and her genuine love for both Shirou and her brother to eventually cause her to snap by putting too much pressure on her.]]
* ClubPresident: In the [[MultipleEndings True End]] of ''Heaven's Feel'' it's revealed that she became the head of the archery club [[spoiler:along with the fact that she became the supervisor for Fuyuki in Rin's abscence.]]
* TheCorruptible: Throughout ''Heaven's Feel'', there's a constant fear of Sakura succumbing to the corruption. [[spoiler:She resists more than seems humanly possible, but eventually she does.]]
* CovertPervert: A very rare instance of the trope PlayedForDrama. [[spoiler:Because of the crest worm she gets sexually aroused very easily, and hates herself for that.]]
* CryCute: When Shiro and Rin learn the truth about her, Shiro finds her crying in the rain alone, in a really heartwrenching moment.
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Sakura has unusual, purple-colored eyes and hair. [[spoiler:This is revealed to be because of the "conditioning" imposed upon her by Zouken in order to make her into the successor of the Matou brand of magecraft.]]
* DamselInDistress: In the DEEN anime, Sakura is kidnapped by Caster as part of her plans, baiting Shirou, Saber, and Rin into her trap. [[spoiler:This is how the anime reveals Sakura's relationship with Rin.]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: She had by far the worst life out of the three heroines, but the extent of bad things that have happened to her is only revealed in her route. [[spoiler:Her biological family, the Tohsakas, gave her away to [[BigScrewedUpFamily the Matou family]] who abused her emotionally, physically and sexually for eleven years.]]
* ADateWithRosiePalms: [[spoiler:After treating Shirou's wounds caused by True Assassin, Sakura masturbates thinking about Shirou's rather muscular chest and back. However the circumstances at the time make her feel particularly horrible about it.]]
* DCupDistress: She's quite embarrassed about her bust size (which Taiga takes great delight in revealing to Shirou).
* DealWithTheDevil: Rather involuntarily, [[spoiler:Sakura becomes outrageously powerful by virtue of drawing on the power of [[GodofEvil Aŋra Mainiiu]] due to Zouken having her make a contract with it.]]
* DefiledForever: [[spoiler:Thinks of herself as a woman unworthy of Shirou due to have been repeatedly raped and violated through her life. Essentially she internalized the MadonnaWhoreComplex.]]
* DefusingTheTykeBomb: [[spoiler:The objective of ''Heaven's Feel'' is to stop the Crest Worm from going haywire and subsequently, the destruction of Aŋra Mainiiu without killing Sakura.]]
* DemotedToExtra: Because Sakura's significance is only brought forth in her route, she stays a minor character in the adaptations for ''Fate'' and ''Unlimited Blade Works''. This is finally averted in the film adaptation for ''Heaven's Feel''.
* DespairEventHorizon: An implied offscreen one. [[spoiler:In the main route, Sakura flees the church while Rin and Shirou debate whether they should kill her. But in the Superhero ending, Rin apparently kills Sakura without difficulty after Shirou agrees with her that Sakura should die, the implication being that hearing Shirou wants her dead kept Sakura from resisting.]]
* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler:Her SuperpoweredEvilSide, once fully established, decides that it's not going to put up with her grandfather's abuse anymore...]]
* DoggedNiceGirl: Unlike the rest of Shirou's love interests, Sakura has been on close terms with Shirou since middle school and spends as much time together with him as she can. She has always loved Shirou, but is too shy to make an overt advance at him. They only get together in her route where Shirou reciprocates her feelings early on.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:She never kills herself, but she does consider it. On Day 9 of ''Heaven's Feel'' she mentions several previous attempts at suicide, though she never went through with it. After her MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment, she attempts to kill herself out of remorse, only to be prevented by Aŋra Mainiiu long enough for Shirou to free her with Rule Breaker.]]
* EatingTheEyeCandy: At one point when she has to help treat Shirou's wounds, she sits there for a good 3 minutes blushing and staring at [[HeroicBuild his muscular chest]].
* TheEeyore: She's real gloomy and pessimistic about the future. She hides it well on a surface level, but it doesn't take much prodding before the mask begins to crack.
* EmptyEyes: The first hint that she's not quite happy as she appears. They were even worse [[https://i.imgur.com/sJbhQcX.jpg two years ago when she first met Shirou]].
* EmptyShell: How she was before she met Shirou. Leave her alone, and she'll revert quickly back to this state.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: It's obvious to everyone that she loves Shirou.
* ExposedToTheElements: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. In the first ''Heaven's Feel'' movie, she goes to talk to Shirou in the shed wearing a short-sleeved dress that should be too cold for a chilly February night, with the implication that she did it just to [[FashionHurts look good for him]]. WordOfGod elaborates on this in the Animation Material booklet:
-->'''Takeuchi:''' Yup, that concept is an upgrade from miniskirts in the middle of winter. Was she not cold? Of course, she was cold!\\
'''Nasu:''' A scary thing is... that level of cold, compared to [[spoiler:the torture she routinely goes through]], is merely "cold" for Sakura. It probably isn't "hard" for her.\\
'''Takeuchi:''' SAKURA!
* {{Expy}}: She is similar in appearance and personality [[spoiler:and shares some aspects of her back-story]], with Fujino Asagami from the earlier Nasu work ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners''.
* ExtremeDoormat: Before she fell in love with Shirou, she felt empty and was resigned to her fate. Meeting Shiro made her feel alive again. She's still pretty doormat when she isn't around Shirou.
* FeminineWomenCanCook: A few years back, she was even quieter and more withdrawn, but after noticing Shirou she resolved to make herself more girly and appealing and thus learned to cook from Shirou and kept practicing to the point where she's roughly as good at it as he is.
* FreakOut: [[spoiler:After killing Shinji, she finally succumbs to the corruption and willingly enters the villain camp out of despair and resentment. It takes a lot of work for the good guys to get through to her again thanks in no small part to Tohsaka's distant attitude.]]
* FriendlessBackground: Shirou notes early in the ''Heaven's Feel'' route that she doesn't really have any friends at school and didn't really hang out with anyone but Shirou in the past. [[WordOfGod Nasu]] in ''Presage Flower''[='s=] Animation Material booklet confirms that "Sakura is very gloomy in the classroom, so no matter how pretty and how dangerous a body she has, she is alienated from the boys and slightly avoided by the girls."
* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler:After her breakdown, she becomes a threat to the world itself because she contains All Evils Of This World, which can either enter the world as six billion curses or, at the end of the route, can instead come out as an evil god. She doesn't seem to mind too much - or at least not until Rin snaps her out of her self-depreciation. Good thing for her, too, because even the [[AllThereInTheManual material books]], never mind some of the [[AdaptationExpansion sequels and whatnot]], make it clear that she was otherwise on the verge of becoming a threat of such scope that ''the Earth's world-spirit and its Counter Force'' was going to intervene against her, which would have made the Fuyuki Fire look like a firecracker in comparison.]]
* GirlNextDoor: She plays the role of the "cute and homey girl" for Shirou. She has been his close friend for years, goes to his house every day, is almost like family to him, a good cook, and much easier to talk to than his other love interests. However, her route [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] pretty much all which seemed wholesome about her character.
* GoGoEnslavement: In the 2006 anime, Caster puts Sakura in black leather after she captures her.
* GratuitousGerman: ''Heaven's Feel'' only.
* GrewASpine: The epilogue of ''Unlimited Blade Work'' implies she becomes the dominant one in the Matou household, having successfully browbeaten Shinji into letting her take care of him.
* HatesBeingAlone: [[spoiler:Reveals in her confrontation with Rin that the thing she'd resented the most was how her birth family left her alone to the Matou]]. Even her time with Shirou is less about her crush (which she believes is unattainable) and simply about being in his presence.
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: To say Sakura resents herself is an understatement; she sees herself as a disgusting abomination who doesn't deserve love from anyone, yet paradoxically cannot help but feel resentment at people not showing her any affection - which in turn makes her resent herself even more for said selfish feelings, creating a literal feedback loop of self-depreciation. She even flat-out confesses that the only reason she hasn't killed herself is because she's too scared of death to go through with it.
* HeroicWillpower: Despite her gentle demeanor, she has an insane amount of mental resilience, rivaled by only Shirou himself. [[spoiler:Lesser Grails such as Illya and Sakura are designed to prioritize keeping collected Servants inside them over functioning as a human being, hence why their bodies begin breaking down as Servant casualties begin racking up. Illya claims that she would be able to only four Servants before she ceases to exist as a human and turns into the Lesser Grail full time. By the time she tells Sakura this, Sakura has already taken in a full seven Servants thanks to Gilgamesh's abnormally large soul, yet Sakura is still alive and somewhat lucid, and this is on top of Aŋra Mainiiu constantly bombarding her with his hatred and trying to corrupt her mind over the course of the Grail War. This trope is also the only reason why she's able to function on a day-to-day basis despite her horrible past; when Dark Sakura puts Rin through a simulation of what she endured, the latter manages to take only a single day in Sakura's life before she breaks from the pain.]]
* HiddenBuxom: [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Taiga says she's actually an E-cup]][[note]] DD in the west[[/note]], though her rather large bust isn't visible when she's not wearing her casual clothes or in the H-scenes. ArtEvolution and later animated adaptations make her bust more visible.
* HopeIsScary: Sakura's capacity to repress her trauma hinges on convincing herself that her pain doesn't matter, that she has no right to expect anything better, that she can't do anything about it anyway, etc. Once she is given hope of being freed, her emotions become less easy to control and she knows it.
* HorrorHunger: It turns out that sex with Shirou just ''isn't'' enough to supply the mana to [[spoiler:power TWO servants at the same time]], therefore [[spoiler:The Holy Grail within Sakura]] compels her to go on a [[spoiler:cannibalistic rampage across Fuyuki, ripping human beings apart and feasting upon their corpses.]]
* ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: Pretty much her reaction to Shirou falling for her in ''Heaven's Feel'', having long resigned herself to being the silent admirer. [[spoiler:When he decides to protect her over the world, she's initially in disbelief and [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim tries to drive him off from starting a doomed love]]. When Shirou persists in liking her even after learning about her "condition", she's left at a complete loss on whether she's happy to be with him, terrified of losing him or angry that he'll probably get himself killed because of her. Later on when Gilgamesh tries to kill her, she even comments that the surreality of having Shirou finally notice her feelings makes her even more scared to die, which in turn contributes further to her eventual breakdown.]]
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Unlike Rin and Saber, she has no grand wish to seek, nor any sort of magus pride and traditions to uphold. She only wants to have friends and family to love her, and would rather leave the world of magic and its inhumanity behind her forever. She confesses to Shirou that even though she feels guilty for lying about her true status as a mage, she couldn't end the lie because she enjoyed her time with him and Taiga too much.
* IllGirl: Due to [[spoiler:the stress of the Matou family's crest worms becoming more active]] she's bedridden for a large portion of the route.
* ImageSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi02Un9mkUc "Egao Hitotsu de"]] ("With One Smile").
* ImAHumanitarian: In the ''Heaven's Feel'' route, [[spoiler:she rips people apart and eats them under the influence of Aŋra Mainiiu, even before transforming into Dark Sakura.]]
* IncompletelyTrained: [[spoiler:She was pawned off by her father because he could train only one child and he felt it was a waste if she never reached her full magical potential, so he gave her to the Matou family who lacked an heir with working Magic Circuits. Unfortunately, Zouken isn't interested in training her at all, and spends more time torturing her as part of his schemes.]]
* InsecureLoveInterest: Due to her severe self-esteem issues, she's constantly scared that Shirou will fall for some other, "better" girl and leave her alone.
* IWillWaitForYou: In the [[MultipleEndings Normal End]] of ''Heaven's Feel''. [[spoiler:Sakura promises to wait for Shirou after his HeroicSacrifice, though it eventually becomes clear that he never returns to her and she eventually dies of old age.]]
* {{Keigo}}: In the Japanese dub of the VN or anime, she speaks in a formal language to everyone, even to her close friends, as she's raised in a rich family which turns out to be the BigScrewedUpFamily and she's actually [[spoiler: adopted by them during her childhood for a horrific reason.]]
* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:Her ruthless treatment of [[TheWormThatWalks Zouken]] and [[SmugSnake Shinji]] in ''Heaven's Feel''. She herself is rather stunned at what she did to Shinji, however, since she ''did'' care about him.]]
* LaughingMad: [[spoiler:When she first becomes Dark Sakura, she laughs hysterically.]]
* {{Leitmotif}}: [[spoiler:"All the Evils in this World", a remix of Kirei's "The Church on the Hill".]]
* LighterAndSofter: In the ''Fate'' manga, many of the horrible things from her backstory seem not to have occurred or, at least, are not mentioned.
* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: The light to Rin's dark.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Shirou (and Rin, to a lesser degree). If he goes, so does her sanity, so she does terrible things (to herself and to others) to protect him.
* LivingShadow: [[spoiler:Due to Zouken tampering with her, she can morph into the Shadow, a premature form of Aŋra Mainiiu, but she initially has no control over it.]]
* LockedIntoStrangeness: [[spoiler:Sakura's purple eyes and hair are the result of the parasitic worms Zouken implanted in her body, that feed on her mana and carnal impulses, greatly boosting her magical power and sexual aggression.]]
* LoveInterest: To Shirou in the ''Heaven's Feel'' route.
* MeaningfulName: In the myth of the cherry blossom tree, Sakura, it used to have pure petals, but they were stained pink from the blood of the soldier who died at its roots (short version of the myth). It is used as both a metaphor for life, and for death. Sakura [[spoiler:made her transformation after killing Shinji, and ate people,]] similarly to how the tree roots drank blood.
* MoodSwinger: She instantly switches from happy to depressed and vice versa several times through her route. It gets ever worse when [[spoiler:she becomes Dark Sakura, whose emotions and personality are highly unstable.]]
* TheMourningAfter: [[spoiler:Through the rest of her life in the [[MultipleEndings Normal End]] of the ''Heaven's Feel'', Sakura stays in Shirou's home constantly waiting for Shirou to come home after his HeroicSacrifice at the end of the Grail War.]]
* MyGirlBackHome: Serves as Shirou's during the first two routes, representing his connection to the ordinary world, or so she would have him believe.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** [[spoiler:Subverted when she kills Shinji in ''Heaven's Feel''. She thought she would feel bad, but Aŋra Mainiiu's influence means she's temporarily lost the ability to do so. This starts her transformation into Dark Sakura since she thinks if she can't feel remorse anymore, then there's no reason why she shouldn't lash out at others. In the movie, it's played straight in a case of AdaptationalHeroism.]]
** [[spoiler:Played straighter later on when she stabs her sister Rin and nearly kills her after realizing that Rin has always loved her all this time. [[HeelRealization This turn of events]] is what eventually causes Sakura to snap out of her rampage as Dark Sakura, loosening the hold Aŋra Mainiiu has over her, thus allowing Shirou to finish the rest with Rule Breaker to completely free her.]]
* NecessarilyEvil: While gradually progressing through much of the ''Heaven's Feel'' route with increasing despair, [[spoiler:Sakura kills]] Shinji and Zouken, the former was her brother [[spoiler:who raped the girl to maintain her dark side]], and the latter was her grandfather whose treatment of her [[spoiler:led to her corruption]]. Both incidents actually contributed to her post-Fifth Holy Grail War self being happier, otherwise she would die as a result of her DarkAndTroubledPast.
* NiceGirl: Subverted. While far from a bad person, she's only really friendly and bright around Shirou, while at school, she's moody and silent. [[spoiler:Thanks to Zouken, her mind is heavily fractured, and her mental and emotional instability caused by [[DarkAndTroubledPast everything that had happened to her]] causes her to occasionally behave badly towards the people she cares about, like Rin and Rider, despite her best efforts.]]
* NotQuiteBackToNormal: In ''Heaven's Feel's'' true ending, [[spoiler:she retains her connection to the Holy Grail and possesses a limitless supply of Prana, allowing Rider to remain after the end of the Holy Grail War.]]
* NotSoWeak: A plot point. [[spoiler:Zouken Matou can't break her by himself, and she won't fight back. At all. It takes a great deal of manipulation of outside factors and a good deal of stupidity from the heroes to actually make her snap. Until then, she was far more resilient than you'd expect for someone that's essentially broken inside. Still mostly sane after being raped constantly by Shinji at least, plus violated by worms, plus worms living inside her, plus excruciating pain and who knows what the hell else. But the crack that breaks her is how she tries to settle things herself to keep Shirou safe. And even after she is corrupted, she ''still'' doesn't obey Zouken so much as work alongside him and ultimately leaves him fatally wounded out of spite and whimsy.]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler:Being a Master herself, Sakura knew from the start what Saber really was and why she suddenly disappeared in ''Heaven's Feel'', but acted like she didn't for the sake of Shirou's sanity.]]
* OutOfFocus: Compared to Saber and Rin who are both prominent in all the routes, Sakura doesn't have a significant role in the visual novel aside of her own route despite being one of the three main heroines. In the first two routes, Sakura seems like a side character who represents Shirou's ordinary life similar to Taiga. This is why her very dark backstory and massive importance in ''Heaven's Feel'' come off as a big shock.
%%* PhlebotinumGirl
* PropertyOfLove: In her ImageSong, she refers to someone[[note]]probably Shirou[[/note]] as her "treasure" who gave her hope.
* {{Protectorate}}: In ''Heaven's Feel'', Shirou [[spoiler:and her Servant Rider]] want to keep Sakura alive and safe no matter the cost, even though they know Sakura's existence is a danger to the entire world.
* TheQuietOne: Sakura only really talks when she's with Shirou. Around everyone else, she's very much the silent type.
* RaisedAsAHost: [[spoiler:The whole reason Sakura was adopted was so she could host Zouken's own spirit. Following the Fourth Grail War, Zouken inserted Crest Worms imbued with Aŋra Mainiiu's cursed black mud into her, enabling her to become its avatar in ''Heaven's Feel''.]]
* RapeAndRevenge: In ''Heaven's Feel'', [[spoiler:the moment where Sakura snaps completely is when Shinji boasts about how he will tell Shirou everything about the horrible fact that he has been raping Sakura repeatedly for years. Sakura's shadow slices the despicable bastard's throat. However, Sakura only ends up [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified at seeing she just killed her foster brother]].]]
* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler:Over the past eleven years, she has been raped on a near daily basis by Zouken's worms and Shinji. And maybe by her adoptive father Byakuya, but this is never made clear.]]
* RapunzelHair: In the ''Heaven's Feel'' [[MultipleEndings True End]], she has let her hair grow down to her hips.
* TheResenter: [[spoiler:While she does love her sister Rin, she also resents how Rin has seemingly had a much happier life and never even really bothered to find out her situation. It isn't until the very end that Sakura learns of Rin's own scars [[note]]dead parents, struggling financially, only having the likes of Kotomine to rely on, etc[[/note]] that she realizes how unfairly she'd judged Rin.]]
* SempaiKohai: She is Shirou's kohai. It's notable the fact that she ''always'' refers to Shirou as "Sempai" even when in the presence of other people who are also her sempais, like Rin. In the ''Heaven's Feel'' True epilogue, she still calls him "Sempai" even though they've been in a relationship for several years and he's no longer even her Sempai.
* SheIsAllGrownUp: Shirou begins noticing in the intro of the story that the girl he befriended years ago is now blossoming into a beautiful young woman, which makes him uncomfortable since he wants to keep thinking of her as just his kouhai he needs to take care of and a [[MySisterIsOffLimits friend's little sister]]. In the first two routes he's successful at suppressing his attraction to her; in ''Heaven's Feel'' he gives in, kickstarting the events of that route.
* ShrinkingViolet: She's rather hesitant and shy, though not particularly subtle with how she feels.
* SiblingYinYang: With Shinji [[spoiler:and Rin.]] She's overtly sweet and helpful to Shirou, while Shinji's a jerkass who pawns off his responsibility of cleaning the dojo onto him [[spoiler:and Rin, of course, is tsundere.]] Plus, obviously, they don't look much alike, due to [[spoiler:Sakura not actually being a Matou by birth, and gaining purple hair thanks to Zouken messing with her biology--she's a natural brunette.]]
* SignatureHeadgear: Always wears a ribbon in the left side of her hair. It is a MementoMacGuffin since [[spoiler:it was the first ribbon Rin ever made, and one of the few signs of their ''true'' feelings for each other.]]
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: She loves Shirou because he's honest and hardworking.
* SpaceMaster: She was born with the extremely rare Elemental Affinity called Hollow or Imaginary Numbers, which allows her to access [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds Imaginary Number Space]], which is very dangerous and near impossible to do so normally. She can potentially use this ability to store objects or redirect attacks but unfortunately she was never trained to do so at all. [[spoiler:When the Shadow possesses her, it uses this ability to deflect Caster's fireball and store the Blackened Saber Alter and Berserker.]]
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Matou, Matô or Matō depending on the source/transliteration paradigm used.
* SplitPersonality: [[spoiler:As she becomes more aware of the Shadow, she begins showing signs of this before eventually succumbing to it. One notable example is a scene that occurs should you choose to care for Sakura after Archer transplants his arm onto Shirou; she matter-of-factly points out the inadequacies of Rin's protection magic, and as Shirou leaves the room, she flat-out states that he should remain on guard against her, as if the Shadow's taken over and is warning him about their next meeting. Kotomine later clarifies that it's really a case of ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil, explained in Dark Sakura's section below.]]
* StepfordSmiler: Played with. At school, Sakura is more or less her "true self"; [[ExtremeDoormat quiet, stoic and never smiles in front of people]]. Around Shirou, she's cheerful, happy, lively and always has a smile on her face. The latter is usually not an act, but this trope still applies to some extent because of everything she's hiding under that smile, and her efforts to downplay her problems early on in ''Heaven's Feel''. The only other times she smiles for any other emotion, as is shown in ''Heaven's Feel II: lost butterfly'', [[spoiler:it's [[SlasherSmile her negative]] [[{{Yandere}} possessive and jealous traits]] leaking out in private, a sign of her mental state struggling with the creeping influence of The Shadow/Aŋra Mainiiu.]]
* SuperPoweredEvilSide: [[spoiler:When Sakura accepts her bond with Aŋra Mainiiu, she transforms into Dark Sakura. Unlike the normal Sakura, she has control over the vast mana reserves inside the Grail or at least the inclination to use them. This is more than she could ever possibly use as well as the ability to do such actions as self healing or summoning of massive shadow familiars. Her personality, on the other hand, is highly unstable and switches between near catatonia and violently lashing out at her loved ones.]]
* SuperPowerMeltdown: [[spoiler:Sakura loses the ability to control the Grail's energy, nearly resulting in the rebirth of Aŋra Mainiiu, a potentially world destroying monster. Resolving this first requires the use of Rule Breaker to separate Sakura from the Grail and then either Shirou or Illya's HeroicSacrifice to keep from getting worse.]]
* SupremeChef: Taught by Shirou, which makes him uncomfortable when he notices that she may be becoming better than him (and he flat out considers her to be better than him at Western food).
* TaremeEyes: To emphasize her (usually) soft and kindly personality.
* ThroughHisStomach: She decided that if she wanted Shirou to like her she had to be more appealing, so she started reforming her personality into that of a YamatoNadeshiko. She's especially determined to outdo him at cooking.
* TownGirls: The Femme to Rin's Neither and Saber's Butch.
* {{Tykebomb}}: [[spoiler:For eleven years, Sakura has been forced to act as a host for magical worms that allow Zouken to control her at will.]]
* TheUnfavourite: Considers herself as such [[spoiler:in regards to Rin.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:Big time in ''Heaven's Feel''. Zouken implanted the remnants of the last Holy Grail into her body, enabling her to unknowingly summon a Shadow that kills and maims hundreds of people in the city. Even as she grows increasingly aware of the Shadow's presence, and the fact that it's being fueled by her darker desires, she desperately tries to deny all responsibility right up until Shirou fully commits to protecting her even at the cost of all his prior ideals. After that, her GuiltComplex causes her to sneak away to the Matou household in a desperate bid to resolve the issue herself, and as a result, she plays right into Zouken's hands and fully succumbs to the Shadow's influence.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: While ''Fate/Zero'' [[LateArrivalSpoiler blowing the twist "early" has made this somewhat less of an issue]], [[OutOfFocus the way Sakura's handled]] in the first two routes of the visual novel means that she is ''very very difficult'' to talk about without getting into spoilers for Heaven's Feel.
* WellDoneDaughterGirl: In this case, "Well Done, Sis" Girl. [[spoiler:The only thing Sakura always expected from Rin was for her to show some sororal love.]]
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler:After her breakdown she basically decides "Eh, screw it. If I'm screwed anyway the world going with me is okay." Realizing that everyone she abandoned not only had always cared for her but were still trying to the very end to save her is what ultimately helps her come to her senses and resist the Shadow's influence.]]
* YamatoNadeshiko: {{Invoked}}. When she grew interested in Shirou, she resolved to reform herself to be more appealing.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: One reason she's so vehement that nobody take advantage of Shirou's good nature is that she fears she's doing the same thing herself.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: [[spoiler:She used to have black hair like her biological sister Rin Tohsaka. The purple coloration is a result of receiving the Crest Worm.]]
* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: She allowed Shinji to take her place as a Master on the condition that he wouldn't hurt Shirou. This condition is broken on the ninth day.
----

! Major Characters

[[folder:Illyasviel "Illya" von Einzbern]]
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MaiKadowaki (JP), Creator/StephanieSheh (EN)
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ilya.png]]

->''"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 Illyasviel, usually called Illya for short, was sent by the Einzbern Clan to be their champion the Holy Grail War. She is in fact a homunculus and the Master of Berserker. Due to being a homunculus, her great affinity for magic allows her to effortlessly control the otherwise rampaging Berserker class with ease. She lives in a mansion in the middle of a forest with her Servant and two maids.\\

Though she is indeed very innocent, this is [[AmbiguousInnocence not necessarily a good thing]]. She's cruel and occasionally vindictive in her naivety and has an odd obsession and attachment to Shirou.\\
\\
She's also one half of the comedic duo of the Tiger Dojo alongside Fujimura Taiga, and usually plays the Boke in their BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine.

* AdaptationalBadass: While she was always considered the most powerful master, that was because of her control of Berserker. In the 2014 anime, she also shows off [[spoiler:a more advanced version of her mother's magic, making her dangerous by herself. Even Rin couldn't take her.]]
* AllThereInTheManual: Several notable things, for instance [[spoiler: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!]]
* ArcVillain: In all the routes, she's the first opponent Shirou faces after formally entering the Holy Grail War, since she intercepts him on his way back from the church. [[spoiler:In ''Fate'', it goes on for even longer, as she entraps him after Rider's defeat and abducts him, resulting in Saber, Rin and Archer mounting a rescue effort that results in Archer's death.]]
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Par for the Nasuverse. Sure, "Ilya" is a real (boy's) name and -iel is a real (boy's) name ending, but the way they're combined is gibberish. Her fellow von Einzbern homunculi Sella, Leysritt and Justeaze Lizrich also count.
* BeatStillMyHeart: In ''Unlimited Blade Works'', [[spoiler:Gilgamesh tears her heart out after [[EyeScream slashing her eyes in half]] so that he can use it to create an incomplete Grail with which he can unleash Aŋra Mainiiu upon the world.]]
* BerserkButton: If you [[spoiler:do not stand up when fighting Gilgamesh and get killed for it]], Illya will let you have it, unleashing a 230-hit MegatonPunch on you in the Tiger Dojo before calling you a "fucking chicken grill" and demanding that you get back over there and [[spoiler:take Gilgamesh out to protect Saber.]]
* BigBadWannabe: In all the routes she starts out as the physically most-imposing threat with [[WorldsStrongestMan Berserker]] at her side, but only in ''Fate'' do they actually get a proper confrontation with Shirou after that first battle. In ''Unlimited Blade Works'', [[spoiler:she gets to helplessly watch Berserker be torn to shreds by Gilgamesh before [[KillTheCutie being killed by him for her heart]]]], while in ''Heaven's Feel'' [[spoiler:she gets to watch Berserker be overwhelmed by [[FaceHeelTurn Saber Alter]] before losing him to the Shadow, forcing her to rely on Shirou's kindness for survival.]]
* BigBrotherAttraction: Played pretty darkly, especially since Shirou has no clue why she's calling him ''onii-chan'' [[spoiler:until ''Heaven's Feel.'']]
* BigSisterInstinct: [[spoiler:"You said an older brother protects his younger sister, right?... Yeah. I'm the older sister. So I have to protect my younger brother."]]
* BreakoutCharacter: She becomes the protagonist of her own AlternateUniverse SpinOff series, ''Manga/FateKaleidLinerPrismaIllya''.
* ButNotTooForeign: Illya's [[spoiler:biological father is a Japanese assassin named Kiritsugu Emiya]] and her mother is a German homunculus. In terms of appearance, she takes almost completely after her mother.
* CheerfulChild: She tends to act like this when she isn't acting like a CreepyChild. [[CuteAndPsycho This behaviour isn't contradictory]]. [[spoiler:However, despite her appearance, [[OlderThanTheyLook she's not actually a child]].]]
* ClingyJealousGirl: She wants Shirou to herself, is willing to kidnap him and using magic to control his mind.
* CloneDegeneration: [[spoiler:Even if she survives the war, she still has less than a year to live.]]
* CoolCrown: [[spoiler:Seen donning one along with the Dress of Heaven in ''Heaven's Feel''.]]
* CorruptTheCutie: In the 2014 anime, flashbacks show her transition from the cheerful child seen in ''Fate/Zero'' to the cold antagonist seen in ''Fate/stay night''.
* CreepyCoolCrosses: The cuffs of her shirt prominently display a row of them.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: When she is [[spoiler:sacrificed to summon the Holy Grail.]]
* CuteAndPsycho: In all three routes she starts out as an adorable but incredibly sadistic [[OlderThanTheyLook (seemingly) ten year-old girl]] who wants to enslave, torture, and/or kill Shirou; but eventually undergoes a HeelFaceTurn in the ''Fate'' and ''Heaven's Feel'' routes and was willing to form an EnemyMine with Shirou and Rin in ''Unlimited Blade Works''.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: [[spoiler:After losing in ''Fate'', she's spared by Shirou and taken into the Emiya household. The epilogue shows her still living there and helping with the chores.]]
* DoubleMeaning: [[spoiler:''Onii-chan'' is the equivalent of calling a stranger who is a young man, "mister", but it also means "older brother"...]]
* EnfanteTerrible: She's actually one of the ''oldest'' non-Servant main characters, but she looks and frequently acts like an insanely sadistic pre-adolescent, and her Berserker makes her one of the most dangerous foes.
* EveryProperLadyShouldCurtsy: Her preferred form of greeting is a cute little curtsy because she is a daughter of nobility.
* {{Expy}}: Of SHIKI Tohno from ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}''. The two are sadistic albinos who were isolated from the outside world and have an obsession with a sibling. Illya also feels attached but resents the protagonist. They also become more AffablyEvil in each route.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Suffers a brutal version of this in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' when Gilgamesh cuts her across the face in a manner that leaves anything but her now-cut-on-the-middle eyes unharmed. [[KickTheDog Before he tears her heart out with his bare hands]]..]]
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler: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.]]
* TheFakeCutie: She's genuinely quite innocent and naive, but in contrast to that she's probably the most brutal character in the story. [[spoiler:''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, as she's in fact a young adult who knows she'll die within the next twelve months regardless of what she does.]]
* FictionFiveHundred: A throwaway line in the Visual Novel that was poorly translated reveals the Einzberns are so absurdly wealthy, despite being hermits in the mountains for over a millenium; They found the Rheingold in the distant past. Readers with knowledge of Germanic myths will recognize this as ''Fafnir's DragonHoard''.
* FilleFatale: 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! [[HaveANiceDeath Tiger Dojo]] confirms [[WhatCouldHaveBeen there was originally a hentai scene here]] if you picked the wrong option. [[spoiler:On the other hand, she's actually older than he is.]]
* FirstNameBasis: She generally prefers being called by her nickname of "Illya".
* FreudianExcuse: ParentalAbandonment? Check. Isolated from the outside world and basically ''raised'' to be a sociopath by her mother's family? Check. Put through agonizing TrainingFromHell by said family so she could control Berserker and be their representative in the Grail War, despite the fact that she was mentally still a child? Check and ''check''.
* GodivaHair: In the 2014 ''Unlimited Blade Works'' anime, when taking a bath after her first battle against Saber and Archer her forelocks are just long enough to cover her chest.
* GracefulLadiesLikePurple: She primarily dresses in purple and is a member of a noble family.
* GruesomeGrandparent: Her "grandfather" Jubstacheit stranded her in the woods to create the bond between her and Berserker, among other things. He also [[spoiler:lied to her about Kiritsugu abandoning her in order to motivate her to fight in the Holy Grail War as well as to spite Kiritsugu for losing the previous war, when in truth, Kiritsugu tried his hardest to get Illya back only to fail to get past the Einzbern's defenses as well as his declining health making it difficult for him to do so.]]
* {{Hallucinations}}: In the 2014 ''Unlimited Blade Works'' anime, she has visions of [[spoiler:Aŋra Mainiiu impersonating her mother, which is part of what twists her into the villain she debuted as.]]
* HappilyAdopted: The ending to ''Fate'' features her more or less adopted by Taiga. The two get along more like sisters than parent and child ([[spoiler:which makes sense, given that they're only about six years apart in age]]), but it's hard to dispute that Illya's having a much better time with the Fujimura than the Einzbern family.
* HatesTheirParent: She once resented her father, Kiritsugu Emiya, because he seemingly abandoned her and took it out on Shirou Emiya. Once she learn the truth, that being Kiritsugu didn't know she was alive and that her caretakers kept him from seeing her, Illya softens up and becomes more amicable.
* HeelFaceTurn:
** [[spoiler:In ''Fate'', after Shirou and Saber defeat Berserker.]]
** [[spoiler:She would have had one in ''Unlimited Blade Works'', where she was going to take up Shirou and Rin's offer of an alliance... [[HeelFaceDoorSlam only to be killed by Gilgamesh]].]]
** [[spoiler:In ''Heaven's Feel'', she makes one after Shirou loses Saber.]]
* HehHehYouSaidX: This gem:
-->'''Illya:''' Master, then what's the trump card this time?\\
'''Taiga:''' An ally.\\
'''Illya:''' Anally? That sounds really funny, master!
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:In the [[MultipleEndings True End]] of ''Heaven's Feel'' she sacrifices herself to shut down the ArtifactOfDoom behind the Holy Grail War.]]
* HostileShowTakeover: She cheerfully announces her intent to do this in ''Heaven's Feel'' during a [[HaveANiceDeath Tiger Dojo]] segment in ''Unlimited Blade Works''. When it doesn't work out that way, she tries to take over the Dojo instead with a ''[[TankGoodness tank]]''.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: She just barely reaches her Servant's knee.
* HypnoticEyes: Uses these on Shirou before abducting him in ''Fate''.
* ImageSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghWNo01BpFA "Tsuki no Namida"]]; also shares a more "fun" version with Taiga.
* ImColdSoCold: [[spoiler:When dying in ''Unlimited Blade Works,'' 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.]]
* InSeriesNickname: In the Tiger Dojo, SD-Rin calls her "buruma", since she wears a gym uniform with bloomers in that section.
* JoinOrDie: The first Bad End in the ''Fate'' route basically exists to tell you that whether or not Shirou participates or even knows about the Holy Grail War or not, Illya will still go after him and [[FateWorseThanDeath turn him into her personal torture dummy]], so his chances are better off joining the war since he'd at least have Saber to protect him and Rin to help him. This is because [[spoiler:she wants revenge for Kiritsugu supposedly abandoning her and replacing her with Shirou.]]
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler:In ''Fate'', she's living with Shirou, he doesn't seem to care about what she did in the past if she doesn't hurt anybody. The only retribution she receives for her actions is losing Berserker, a consequence she accepts gracefully after Shirou brings her under his protection. However... she's still going to die in less than a year and [[AllThereInTheManual side materials]] have made clear that ''nothing'' in this ending can prevent that.]]
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Her ruthless murder of [[spoiler:Shinji]] in ''Fate'' is supposed to indicate that she's a little psycho... but honestly, [[spoiler:it's Shinji. Who cares?]]
* KidWithTheLeash: The youngest Master commands the absolute loyalty of a deranged giant. [[spoiler:Except she's not a kid, she's actually older than half the other Masters.]]
* LargeHam: In the Tiger Dojo segments, she is more upbeat and expressive than the main story.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: There is one aspect of her character that the game tries to treat as a big reveal, but these days is going to be spoiled by anyone capable of doing math if they've seen certain other works. [[spoiler:Illya is eight when Kerry & Iri leave for the events of ''LightNovel/FateZero''. So, logically, Illya must be 18 during ''F/sn''.]]
* {{Leitmotif}}: "Die Lorelei" by Phillipp Friedrich Silcher. It's a real German folk song.
* LoopholeAbuse: [[spoiler:Her excuse for becoming Shirou's ally in ''Heaven's Feel'', despite earlier stating she would kill him if they ever met at night. Illya points out that Shirou isn't a Master anymore so she has no reason to fight him.]]
* MetaGuy: She becomes this during the [[HaveANiceDeath Tiger Dojo]] segments accompanying each of the game's 40 {{Bad End}}s.
* MsExposition: She fills this role pretty often, especially in ''Heaven's Feel''.
* MysticalWhiteHair: She's a homunculus created to be the avatar of the Holy Grail, and has an albino appearance.
* NomDeMom: She uses her mother's surname instead of her father's. [[spoiler:Needless to say, Shirou probably would have treated her a ''lot'' different from the outset if she introduced herself as "Illyasviel Emiya-Einzbern" or similar.]]
* NotBloodSiblings: [[spoiler:She's attracted to Shirou, whom she also acknowledges as her long-lost brother. This is mostly one-sided from Illya in all routes except "Heaven's Feel", where Shirou gets much closer to her (platonically) and discovers that she is Kiritsugu's biological daughter (Shirou would've reciprocated her romantic feelings in [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the Illya route]]). Before her HeelFaceTurn, however, it's mostly disturbing in that [[OlderThanSheLooks she's physically a young child]], she's crazy, and she'll turn Shirou into her tortured {{sex slave}} if he ever gets caught vulnerable by her (and [[WhatCouldHaveBeen there was almost a sex scene where she raped Shirou]]).]]
* OlderThanSheLooks: She looks around ten years old, [[spoiler:but, hilariously, is in fact the only one of the "teenage" Masters to be of the age of ''majority'' in most of the world, being 18 years old. Homunculi have strange growth patterns, but hers is nonexistent as the Einzberns never intended her to be able to live as a human, despite having a normal human as a father.]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Not her within the main story, but her normally upbeat Tiger Dojo persona is subjected to that after the infamous "Mind of Steel" ending. Unlike other Dojo segments, she makes no jokes or puns at all. She will just sadly call Shirou "[[YouFool Baka]]".
* OurHomunculiAreDifferent: She was naturally conceived, but she's still a homunculus, since homunculi in this setting resemble DesignerBabies mixed with CloningBlues.
* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:After the previous Grail War, the Einzberns wouldn't even allow Illya and Kiritsugu to meet, and as her mother is 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.]]
* PowerTattoo: Her Magic Circuits and Command Seals are one and the same, and comprise 70% of her body. Because of this, whenever she generates mana her body becomes covered in intricate red TronLines.
* ProperLady: She likes to act like one; curtsying when thanking someone or saying something like "the lady of the mansion has to entertain her guests". [[spoiler:She knows perfectly well how to be one, being eighteen, and it actually ''would'' be her social role in most normal situations. She abandons the concept in "Fate" and "Heaven's Feel", though.]]
* {{Protectorate}}: Berserker is incredibly protective of her and will not hesitate to sacrifice himself to protect her as the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route shows. [[spoiler:Later works in franchise shows this become something of a universal truth that somehow Heracles still remembers and protects Illya.]]
* RaisedAsAHost: [[spoiler:Illya's entire purpose in the War is to eventually host the Grail in her own body, meaning that even if she was the last master standing she still wouldn't technically win since she can't wish on it. Her victory would still return the Third Magic to Einzbern control, though... or so they think.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Some of the time, anyway. Generally, if the narration starts focusing on her eyes, bad things are about to happen.
* TheResenter: [[spoiler:She's got a major grudge against Shirou for being Kiritsugu's adopted son, but for all the wrong reasons. The fact that Kiritsugu told her he would be back and then never returned for no obvious reason is understandably upsetting for her. However, she was never allowed to know he tried to return for her, but was stopped. Making it worse is that 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 it doesn't get rid of her resentment.]]
* {{Sadist}}: As a villain, Illya is very sadistic, and the Bad Ends at her hands (especially the first one if you happen to refuse to become a Master) are ''horrifying''.
* SchoolSportUniform: Illya wears this in her NoFourthWall appearances in the [[HaveANiceDeath Tiger Dojo]].
* ShameIfSomethingHappened: In ''Fate'', when Shirou runs into Illya at the shopping district, he is initially very apprehensive about her offer to hang out with him, and tries to talk his way out of it. Illya then loses her patience and says "So you don't like me then, Onii-chan?" with an unsettling smirk. Shirou interprets her reaction as this trope and promptly acquiesces as a result.
* TheSociopath: Until she [[HeelFaceTurn turns]] and her more sadistic tendencies seem to be put to rest, she intended to enslave or kill Shirou, and in the first ''Heaven's Feel'' movie, she gleefully orders Berserker to kill and rape Saber.
* SoundtrackDissonance: The arrangement of her leitmotif ''Die Lorelei'' in this game sounds like a lullaby played by a music box. The first time you hear it in the very first BadEnd, Berserker is chopping your limbs off, leaving [[AndIMustScream your head kept alive as a toy for Ilya]]. The leitmotif changes to a depressing theme on subsequent appearances, but still keeps the dissonance.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Even the [[InconsistentDub official manga translation]] can't seem to decide if it's "Ilyasviel" or "Illyasviel". 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. This does help fans, however, in that many refer to this one as "Ilya", while the alternate self from ''Manga/FateKaleidLinerPrismaIllya'' is obviously "Illya".
* StepfordSmiler: She's a lot less carefree than she looks [[spoiler:since she knows that she'll probably be dead by the end of the Grail War even if she wins, a year after that if she doesn't and the one thing she actually wants is something she feels she can't get. That one thing is for Shirou to actually care about her.]]
* StrongFamilyResemblance: She's the spitting image of her mother Irisviel, to the point that despite not recognizing her Saber is taken aback when she first sees Illya in the 2014 anime.
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:At the end of the final ''Heaven's Feel'' movie, as she seals away the Holy Grail, she sees Irisviel again and runs into her arms as they both fade away.]]
* TokenMiniMoe: She is the shortest and youngest-looking of the Masters, despite being the third-oldest of them. Lampshaded and providing the page quote.
* TookALevelInKindness: Illya starts out as a CreepyChild with a massive grudge against Shirou for stealing her father from her, but after Berserker's death in the Fate and Heaven's Feel routes, she mellows out considerably, as she begins to realize all her assumptions about Shirou and even Kerry were wrong. [[spoiler:And in ''Heaven's Feel'', she begins to realize that the Avenger from the Third Heaven's Feel went much more wrong than the Einzberns ever realized.]]
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: While there are instances where she does act her apparent age, Illya is introduced trying to enslave and/or kill Shirou, and in the ''Anime/FateStayNightHeavensFeel I. presage flower'' movie tells Berserker to rape and kill Saber... not necessarily in that order. [[spoiler:This is less surprising once it becomes clear she's just flat-out a (young) adult with a [[BlueAndOrangeMorality messed-up sense of right and wrong]].]]
* {{Tykebomb}}: She was raised by the Einzbern family to be the ultimate Master and not to place a great value on human life.
* UnlimitedWardrobe: {{Subverted|Trope}}. One of the [[HaveANiceDeath Tiger Dojos]] reveals that the dev team [[WhatCouldHaveBeen considered giving Illya a different outfit in each of the 40 Tiger Dojos before scrapping the idea as impractical]]. She ended up wearing a SchoolSportUniform instead, hence her InSeriesNickname "buruma" (bloomers).
* TheVonTropeFamily: Due to the Einzberns being German nobility, Illya's name has a "von" between her first and last names.
* WinterRoyalLady: 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 ''really'' seems to be dead set on having Shirou be her servant; [[AndIMustScream or worse, her doll. Heck, she'll settle for his still living head]]. [[spoiler:She just wants to be properly acknowledged and secretly believes that Shirou will reject her, like she thinks Kiritsugu did.]]
* YouAreNumberSix: Her name is "Pupil Number One" in the Tiger Dojo.
* YouLoseAtZeroTrust: From early on in ''Heaven's Feel'' Shirou is getting along with her much better than in the previous two routes. However, thanks to [[spoiler:Zouken dicking around]], she feels she has to ignore her emotions towards him, and opts for pragmatism and kills Saber while away from Shirou ([[FridgeBrilliance Illya knew for a fact he could try to protect his Servant with his life]]) and rather regretfully destroys his body if you don't have a high enough affection score with her by the afternoon of Day 8. [[spoiler:The wording is intentional. She doesn't kill Shirou right away and instead keeps his mind "alive" in a puppet because she needs him as a "trump card against that person".]]
* YourSizeMayVary: Reversed from the normal presentation. The artwork actually exaggerates the size difference between her and Berserker. He's eight feet and three inches tall while she's four feet and three inches, but she doesn't reach much past his knee if the artwork is anything to go by.
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[[/folder]]

[[folder:Shinji Matou]]
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/HiroshiKamiya (JP), Creator/DougErholtz (EN 2006 Anime, 2010 Movie), Creator/KyleMcCarley (EN 2015 Anime, 2018 Movie)
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shinji_2.png]]

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

Sakura's brother and Shirou's friend from middle school, Shinji is abrasive, smug and annoying. While he comes from a family of magi, 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. Questioning his ability is an easy way to get on his bad side and in general he seems largely unstable. At school, he's a popular ladies' man, but it's not quite clear why: He's rude, arrogant and ineptly manipulates the few friends he has.\\
\\
Shinji is shown early on to be the Master of the mysterious Servant Rider, whom he controls using an artifact created from Rider's Command Spells called the ''Book of the False Attendant'', and takes up a fairly prominent role in all three routes.

-----

[[folder:Dark Sakura (SPOILERS)]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dark_sakura_takashi_takeuchi_character_select.png]]

Sakura's corrupted form, the result of her accepting and embracing her bond to [[EldritchAbomination Aŋra Mainiiu]] and becoming its avatar. She possesses effectively limitless mana and seeks to spread destruction and despair by completing her transformation into the Holy Grail and giving birth to Aŋra Mainiiu.\\

While her Servant contract is with Avenger, through it she has control over Saber Alter and Dark Berserker.

* AndIMustScream: Briefly experiences this once Aŋra Mainiiu pulls a VillainOverride and seizes control of her powers. Sakura is effectively left a prisoner of her own body, unable to do more than stand there and scream in horror as she attacks Shirou against her will.
* AttackAttackAttack: Her only strategy in battle is using her absurd mana reserves to conjure as many Shadow Giants as she can before throwing them at her enemy. Once Rin manages to close the gap in power by using the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch, Dark Sakura can't think of any other way to win other than throwing even more Shadow Giants at Rin, which naturally fails.
* AxCrazy: Dark Sakura is the blackened version of Sakura, being extremely unstable and violent.
* BattleAura: She emits wisps of black and red mana.
* BerserkButton: Don't make light of her suffering. Kotomine doing this earns him a crushed heart, and when Rin does it Dark Sakura goes absolute batshit insane with rage and promptly puts Rin through a FateWorseThanDeath should the player spare Saber Alter.
* BigBadWannabe: While she replaces Zouken as the main antagonist for a short while, she was never truly in charge. Everything she did was only because Aŋra Mainiiu allowed her to do so; once she pulls a HeelFaceTurn, it simply hijacks her powers and continues on where she left off.
* BreakoutVillain: Like Saber Alter, she's popular enough to be a playable character in spinoffs like ''Fate/unlimited codes'' and ''Fate/tiger colosseum''.
* CastingAShadow: Her Hollow Element has been greatly augmented, allowing her to summon massive Shadow Giants.
* CombatTentacles: She can extend the hem of her sleeves and dress into tentacles to attack enemies.
* TheCorruption: She can use Aŋra Mainiiu's black mud to corrupt Servants, and can control the corrupted Servants as her own.
* TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: In her arcade mode in ''Fate/unlimited codes'' she undergoes SanitySlippage and completely forgets about Shirou as Aŋra Mainiiu begins to destroy her consciousness. A similar situation happens in Bad End #40, where Saber Alter's intervention allows Sakura to defeat Rin and subject her to a brutal MindRape. When Shirou arrives on the scene, she coolly informs him of what she's done before absorbing him as well.
* DarthVaderClone: She's a formerly good but corruptible person driven to evil thanks to the manipulations of a very unsympathetic and manipulative mastermind. She wears a very dark and eerie dress born out of her Shadow once she's been corrupted. She has a very personal connection to the heroes, and serves as their most active threat and enemy. She's even redeemed at the end by Shirou, though in her case, it's RedemptionEarnsLife rather than the other way around.
* DealWithTheDevil: She is technically still a Master, with her Servant being Avenger, Aŋra Mainiiu.
* DeathSeeker: Turns into this after she regains her sanity and tries to pull a RedemptionEqualsDeath by killing herself and Aŋra Mainiiu, seeing it as the only way to atone for all the lives she took. Shirou changers her mind by saying the only way to properly atone would be to live on so she can take responsiblity for her actions.
* DemonicPossession: She is the result of Sakura accepting her bond with Aŋra Mainiiu and becoming its avatar.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: In every appearance, she is barefoot.
* DragonAscendant: She kills Zouken and becomes TheHeavy for Aŋra Mainiiu.
* DrunkOnPower: After a lifetime of serving as a punching bag for everyone else, Dark Sakura is addicted to being the one in charge and revels in rubbing her newfound power in everyone's faces. Illya easily manipulates her by appealing to her newfound ego, and Dark Sakura willingly goes along because she's too busy indulging herself.
* EvilCounterpart: As an avatar of the Holy Grail, she is Illyasviel's evil counterpart, which is what Zouken intended her to be.
* EvilLaugh: She's prone to letting out [[LaughingMad maniacal cackles]].
* EvilMakeover: Her magic and her outfit turn black and red while her hair turns white.
* FusionDance: With the Shadow. Sakura wears it as her outfit, and can use its powers. In ''lost butterfly'' the actual fusion is shown when Shadow wraps itself around her.
* {{Gainaxing}}: In ''Fate/unlimited codes'', her breasts jiggle conspicuously as she moves.
* GoingCommando: She only wears a dress made of shadow magic and nothing underneath. Once Shirou cuts her connection to the Shadow with Rule Breaker, her dress disappears and leaves her naked.
* HealingFactor: The power of Aŋra Mainiiu gives her regeneration even more powerful than that of Avalon. Showcased when she pulls the Crest Worm attached to a ''third'' of her nerves out of her heart and crushes it without suffering any damage, and when Gilgamesh impales her with several weapons but does no lasting damage.
* HumanoidAbomination: Dark Sakura is essentially the avatar of [[EldritchAbomination Aŋra Mainiiu]], and if left unchecked would become so great a threat that the Counter Force would have to intervene. Later spin-offs, such as ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', would begin to insinuate that there's even more going on here than ''F/SN'' itself lets on.
* IHatePastMe: The person Dark Sakura hates the most is herself, which is why she eagerly looks forward to her MirrorMatch in ''Fate/unlimited codes''.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice:
** In order to break Zouken's hold on her, she rips the Crest Worm out of her own heart and crushes it.
** Gilgamesh impales her with several weapons, to the point of cutting her in half, but she regenerates.
* MarkedChange: Red marks appear on her face.
* MonsterIsAMommy: As the vessel of the Holy Grail, her purpose is to "give birth" to Aŋra Mainiiu.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After Rin (seemingly) dies at her hands in the ''Heaven's Feel'' route, Sakura realizes that not only had she always had people who still loved her, but that she'd destroyed them all with her own hands out of misguided despair.
* MoodSwinger: Even more volatile and unstable than regular Sakura thanks to her regular emotions, her suppressed resentment, and Aŋra Mainiiu's HatePlague all fighting each other in one explosive concoction. She can easily go from catatonic to possessive to violent within seconds.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In a funny ol' way. As the vessel for The Shadow, Sakura was actually more or less unstoppable and could even defeat the likes of Gilgamesh. She wasn't fully ''aware'' of her actions, but this actually worked to her advantage, because it helped make the Shadow so alien it was basically undefeatable. Embracing her connection with Aŋra Mainiiu and forging a true contract with it means Sakura can now engage in more ''outward'' displays of power, and gets the satisfaction of rubbing it in the faces of the people she (thinks) she's come to hate, but it means she can't be The Shadow anymore and can actually ''be communicated with'' - which ultimately proves to be Aŋra Mainiiu's downfall.
* OmnicidalManiac: She desires nothing less than the total annihilation of everyone who stands in her way.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Her direct connection to Aŋra Mainiiu and the Grail gives her more mana than she could use in a thousand lifetimes, which she uses to summon building-sized shadows that melt and absorb anything they come into contact with, and to fuel her blackened Servant, Saber Alter.
* PowerDyesYourHair: Sakura's purple hair turns white as Dark Sakura.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Dark Sakura wears a long dress made of black ribbons that are trimmed in red - or which ''glow at the edges'' with such. In the game's art, it isn't too clear.
* RedBaron: She is referred to as Makiri's Black Holy Grail.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Dark Sakura's eyes are a dull, bloody red.
* SanityHasAdvantages: Zigzagged. Sakura as the Shadow was much deadlier because of how [[ConfusionFu unpredictable]] it was. Dark Sakura possesses the same powers as the Shadow but is not nearly as dangerous because her lack of proper training makes her a very poor and predictable combatant. On the other hand, Dark Sakura is more efficient and goal focused, unlike the Shadow which was driven by hunger and near uncontrollable.
* SlasherSmile: She is frequently shown with an unsettling grin halfway between this and a PsychoticSmirk.
* SuperPoweredEvilSide: She is the result of Sakura fully succumbing to Aŋra Mainiiu's corruption. She claims at first that she's actually a split personality from the normal Sakura formed from her trauma, but Kotomine quickly disabuses the notion and clarifies she's just trying to cope with her actions and dodge responsibility.
* TaintedVeins: Her legs are covered in crimson veins and tendrils, which also creep up her neck. Some ''unlimited codes'' art insinuates that her otherwise-unseen torso is ''entirely covered'' in these.
* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: She is the result of Sakura's suppressed inner resentment boiling over and amplified by Aŋra Mainiiu's hatred. In essence, she's throwing a massive temper tantrum and is stuck in a constant state of rage, blinding her to the good feelings of others that she would normally notice.
* TranshumanTreachery: After accepting Aŋra Mainiiu's rage and hatred, Dark Sakura expresses utter contempt towards humans.
* UnskilledButStrong: Her direct access to the Grail means she has more raw mana then Illya, Rin, and Shirou combined, making her one of the strongest foes in the story as a whole. However, she lacks formal training with Magecraft, which means that while she is incredibly powerful and can easily kill most Servants and humans, she isn't outright stronger than most Servants without her regeneration and ability to devour Servants, and its noted that someone like Gilgamesh could have killed her if she had not devoured him quick enough. Her lack of skill also means when she encounters Rin armed with the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch, which gives Rin enough of an edge to even the playing field, she has no way of defending herself beyond merely throwing her raw power at her. It's thanks to her raw mana though that both Rider and Saber Alter become so powerful and dangerous as well.
* VillainousBreakdown: She's effectively dancing on the strings of her negative emotions, which have completely overridden her personality by thinking all the power it's given her will prevent her from ever being scorned or scarred again and let her punish anyone who does. But then Rin proceeds to cut down everything Dark Sakura sends at her and shatter this sense of superiority, while Rider and Shirou's killing Saber Alter leaves her bereft of her trump card. This sends Dark Sakura into a resentful tantrum at how nothing she did could ever leave an impact on her sister and that everything would get either taken by her or be casually trampled by her. However, the worst of it comes when Rin takes a panicked attack from Sakura and reveals that not only could she not bring herself to kill her sister, but that she'd kept herself so aloof because [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy she thought Sakura was better off without her]] and convinced herself she was doing fine to assuage her own guilt over that. Learning that Rin had suffered all her life as well, combined with the realization that she too had blinded herself to the feelings of those around her and ruined their lives because of what had basically been a despair-induced tantrum, utterly breaks Dark Sakura as her sanity comes back with a vengeance, rejecting her connection to Aŋra Mainiiu and causing the cave to start collapsing from the unstable energy. Sakura's self-conflict manages to let her fight the corruption long enough for Shirou to arrive and free her from Aŋra Mainiiu - which in turn destroys both the Shadow and the Dark Sakura persona.
* VillainTeleportation: She can now open portals to Imaginary Number Space freely. Her most frequent application is to teleport around by diving into Imaginary Number Space and then surfacing in the real world wherever she wants. ''Fate/Grand Order'' shows how impressive this actually is by showing how dangerous and troublesome it would be for someone without the Hollow Element to travel via Imaginary Number Space, especially since unlike the Zero Sail method Dark Sakura doesn't need a connection to her starting point or destination.
* WalkingSpoiler: She is the the corrupted and malevolent form of Sakura who takes center-stage as one of the final major villains in ''Heaven's Feel''.
* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Dark Sakura's hair turns [[MysticalWhiteHair white]] to show her great magic power.
* WhosLaughingNow: She's intent on paying back the world for doing nothing to help her in the past. She's also determined to show her new strength to Rin, since she always resented her sister for being the stronger of the two. When Rin instantly catches up by using the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch, all Dark Sakura can do is whine how unfair it is.
* WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied: In the "Femme Fatale" BadEnd, Sakura informs Shirou that she's defeated and absorbed Rin and is slowly torturing her to death. And she goes into ''plenty'' of detail.
* {{Yandere}}: She wants to MercyKill Shirou as a twisted way to show her love for him, and she's even more possessive of him than ever. She gives him one hell of a DeathGlare in ''spring song'' when Shirou ignores her in favor of checking on Rin, then demands to know why the hell he isn't paying attention to her.
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! Minor Characters

[[folder:Taiga Fujimura]]
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MikiIto (JP), Creator/JulieAnnTaylor (EN)
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/taiga_1.png]]

->''"... wow, that was so stupid that I don't have anything to say."''

Shirou's English teacher and older sister figure. Her grandfather is a {{Yakuza}} boss who Kiritsugu was acquainted with. Thus, she and Shirou have known each other since he was a child. Although she's ostensibly his caretaker, she has no domestic skills, relying on Shirou to cook for her. Taiga was the star of the kendo club when she was in school, and might have become famous across Japan were she not disqualified from official tournaments.\\

Although having a small role in the actual storyline, [[GameOverMan Taiga is the star of "Tiger Dojo"]], a HaveANiceDeath hint corner which appears whenever the player receives a "BadEnd". In this segment, Taiga and Ilya often admonish Shirou for making the poor choices which lead to his demise while dropping hints to help the player complete the game properly.

* AffectionateNickname: Shirou calls her "Fuji-nee", reflecting how he views her as an older sister figure.
* AnimalMotifs: Her given name [[PunnyName sounds a lot like the word "tiger"]]. Although she hates being called one, Taiga's mannerisms, style of dress (namely the yellow shirt with black stripes that she often wears), and penchant for (comedic) violence are all highly evocative of tigers.
* BadassNormal: While she never gets to show it off but Taiga is actually good with a sword. The reason why she never progressed very far in an official capacity is because she has been banned from tournaments for the tiger strap on her shinai (which is considered rude in official tournaments).
* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' call her "Tiger".
%%* BigEater
* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: Most of the Tiger Dojos are manzais where Taiga plays the tsukkomi to Ilya's (and the player's) boke, though sometimes the two switch roles, particularly when Taiga gets slow on the uptake (like when Ilya sasses her).
* BornLucky: She has ''EX'' ranked luck. Her actions during the 4th Holy Grail War in the Outsider's Performance stopped three different disasters including an earthquake and an asteroid crashing into Earth.
* CatSmile: Being the biggest goofball in the cast, she [[https://i.warosu.org/data/jp/img/0127/59/1417673467318.png does this]] frequently.
* CoolBigSis: She's in her mid 20s and she's a very fun-loving and friendly big sister figure to everyone. Shirou even calls her "Fuji-nee", which he's done since childhood.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: She usually hits it off with Saber after they go beat on each other.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: You can basically tell exactly who Taiga is from an early scene. During breakfast, a completely stoic Taiga is silent until Shirou asks her to pass the soy sauce and puts it in his soup, only to find that it's actually oyster sauce: She wanted petty revenge for him teasing her the day before. Laughing loudly at his expense, she ''then'' goes off to do her actual job and grade exams.
* FridgeLogic: A repeated offender in-universe; she actually has a literal case in ''Unlimited Blade Works'', when she greets Rin casually, goes to take food from the fridge, and remembers that she is supposed to be surprised.
* GenkiGirl: She has a tendency to break into loud, energetic hamminess despite being a 24-year-old schoolteacher.
* GirlNextDoor: Was something of a {{Tomboy}} in her younger years, but now is slightly more ladylike. ''Slightly''.
* GuiltyPleasure: She admits in a special video you get after achieving all Routes and Bad Ends in the VN that although she hates being called "Tiger" she actually loves tigers, and to quote her, has "a love-hate relationship with them because of that".
* HiddenDepths: Taiga is very good at [[TabletopGame/{{Shogi}} Japanese chess]]. On the fifth day of the ''Heaven's Feel'' route, Shirou suggests Sakura in an optional scene to go and play shogi with her to cheer her up after she loses her (off-screen) sparring match with Saber. Sakura then comments that "Fujimura-sensei is the master at that" and that she beats even with a handicap.
* ImageSong: Shared with Ilya [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSV8WMc_Yq0 "We Are Tora Buru"]]. FunPersonified indeed!
* LargeHam: Very much in the story, and taken UpToEleven (if possible) in the [[HaveANiceDeath Tiger Dojo]], which she usually opens [[IncomingHam with a ridiculous description of the section]].
* LethalChef: She relies entirely on Shirou to cook for her. When he lets her cook, Saber is so angry at the result that she beats the living daylights out of Shirou during "training" that night.
* MasterSwordsman: She's a five dan who should've progressed much higher if she wasn't banned from so many tournaments because of her tiger strap. Not that this has any impact on the story. Supplemental Material states that her mastery of kenjutsu (Japanese swordsmanship) is almost as good as Shiki Ryougi, the most fearsome warrior of ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners''.
* MuggleBestFriend: Along with Sakura, she may well be the character who's closest to Shirou when the story opens, and there's absolutely nothing (outside of the Tiger Dojo's gag setting) to indicate that she knows about magecraft or the Grail War. [[spoiler:It lands her in trouble during ''UBW''.]]
* NiceGirl: How she can be so upbeat and good natured with a crime boss grandfather is anybody's guess.
* OneOfTheKids: Even ''more so'' in the anime adaptation, if at all possible. It doesn't help that we never see her interact with anyone her age until ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'', where she talks to Neko Hotaruzuka, Shirou's boss at Copenhagen, and Reikan Ryuudou, Issei's older brother, both of whom were her friends in high school.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Not her within the main story, but her normally upbeat Tiger Dojo persona is subjected to this after the infamous "Mind of Steel" ending. Unlike other Dojo segments, she makes no jokes or puns at all. She will just politely say, "I can't say much this time. This is one result. Dojo is cancelled."
* PrecociousCrush: Had a crush on Kiritsugu when she was younger. The time frame indicates this probably started around middle school at the latest. [[spoiler:The 2014 ''[[Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks Unlimited Blade Works]]'' anime suggests that it's still there, considering she calls visiting Kiritsugu's grave a "date".]]
* PunnyName: Like Taiga Aisaka from ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'' (whose given name is written the same way as this Taiga's), her name actually means "great river", but it sounds a lot like the English word "tiger" and she's [[AnimalMotifs associated with tigers]] as a result.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Of sorts, to Kiritsugu; she reminded him of his deceased childhood friend, Shirley.
* SarcasmBlind: Taiga is slow on the uptake when it comes to Illya sassing her.
-->'''Illya:''' I see. You are really a teacher after all, even if a bad one.\\
'''Taiga:''' Oh ho ho ho! Praise me, praise me!
* SenseiChan: Played with; while she acts very much like OneOfTheKids when she's not working, she's noted to be a responsible person when it comes to being a teacher.
* ShipperOnDeck: Taiga seems to be actively trying to hook Shirou up with Sakura, which may explain her immediate disapproval of allowing other females into the Kiritsugu household even when she has no problem with Sakura staying the night.
* ShooOutTheClowns: You can tell that a route is about to become extremely serious whenever it's mentioned that Taiga won't be able to come over to Shirou's house for a while.
* TeamMom: Of a sort for the Emiya household. While she may not be the most ''[[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} responsible]]'' member of the FamilyOfChoice, she's the closest thing to an actual mother Sakura or Shirou have ever had, and as goofy as she may be she clearly cares deeply about both of them.
* TomboyishPonytail: She wore her hair like this [[LightNovel/FateZero when she was young]].
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: What's the [[ForWantOfANail key event]] that triggers the ''[[DarkerAndEdgier Heaven's Feel]]'' route instead of ''Fate'' or ''Unlimited Blade Works''? Taiga doesn't volunteer to take Shirou's place this time around when he proposes to escort Sakura home on the first in-game day. Shirou is worried about Sakura's safety after learning of the recent robbery-turned-murder that happened nearby the road she takes home every night, but he'll back down if [[BadassNormal Taiga]] says she'll accompany her. If Shirou is the one that walks Sakura home instead, [[spoiler:she will tell him about the "unknown foreigner" wandering her neighborhood, leaving Shirou concerned enough to take a look on his own the next day. This results in Shirou's chance encounter with Zouken, which leads to two important divergences. One, this gives Zouken the psychological leverage on Sakura that he was lacking in the other two routes. Two, Zouken lets slip that there's a connection between Emiya and the Einzbern family, something that will alter Shirou's decisions after surviving Illya's attack.]]
* WeaponOfChoice: A shinai with a cutesy tiger trinket strapped to it (though unfortunately, the tiger trinket has gotten her banned from kendo tournaments). She calls it "Tora-Shinai". It's rumored to be cursed and it will [[HungryWeapon never stop until it draws blood]].
* WhiteSheep: Taiga lives a normal life as an English high school teacher despite the fact she's technically a YakuzaPrincess to "one of the richest households around here".
* WrongGenreSavvy: Believes she's a supporting character in a romantic comedy where Shirou ends with Rin. She is dead wrong.
* YakuzaPrincess: Her grandfather runs the local {{yakuza}} and her "family" is one of the richest households around town. {{Subverted|Trope}} in that she doesn't have much to do with the family business, though, and her grandfather never even enters the story because he's partially clued-in about the supernatural and knows better than getting in the way of anyone named Einzbern, Tohsaka, or [[spoiler:Matou]]. Shirou himself says he tends to forget about it because Taiga isn't one to dress up except for New Years.
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[[/folder]]

[[folder:Issei Ryuudou]]
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MitsuakiMadono (JP), Creator/LexLang (EN 2006 Anime, EN 2010 Movie), Creator/RobbieDaymond (EN 2015 Anime, 2018 Movie)
[[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/issei.png]]

->''"What's so good...? What's with you doing all this for nothing?!"''

The Student Council President, and one of Shirou's classmates. Issei is often asking Shirou to help out the student council by fixing broken equipment, and they have lunch together in the student council room. Due to the fact that they went to middle school together and frequently clashed, Issei hates Rin and is convinced that she's pure evil. In fact, he isn't very fond of most women due to his celibate nature, which stems from his upbringing as a Buddhist monk-in-training. However, he does obliquely indicate to Shirou during ''Unlimited Blade Works'' that he has something of a crush on the fiancée of one of the teachers at their school.\\
\\
He gets the dubious honor of being the most minor character to kill Shirou. And the honor of being the only male character with blushing sprites. Oh, does he [[LuminescentBlush blush]].
-----

* PeerlessLoveInterest: To the whole school, Rin is an aloof and unobtainable beauty who's perfect in every category, and because of this, she's garnered several male admirers, with Shirou being one of them, who can only look at her from afar. While her true personality doesn't *quite* match up to the image she upholds at school, Shirou nevertheless falls for her even more the longer they spend time together during ''Unlimited Blade Works''.

* IWasJustPassingThrough: Her behavior around [[spoiler:Sakura]] during the Prologue and at one point in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' is this in spades. She drops by the Archery Club every now and then despite not being a member and not being interested in their activities for seemingly no reason other than a supposed whim, just happens to walk around the same path [[spoiler:Sakura]] uses to go home when she and Archer were patrolling the area, and Shirou later spots her in her route following the same [[ChekhovsGunman blonde foreigner]] she and Archer spotted previously lurking around the Matou Estate just as [[spoiler:Sakura]] was about to enter their home. All this seems behavior of hers seems really odd until you're in the ''Heaven's Feel'' route where it's revealed that she [[spoiler:and Sakura are biological sisters]]. [[RewatchBonus Suddenly, everything she did prior to the reveal]] makes a load of sense once you realize this was Rin's way of [[spoiler:checking on her younger sister despite their years of estrangement.]]

* MementoMcguffin: The Azoth Dagger under her possession that she later gives to Shirou in the ''Fate'' route originally belonged to her deceased father, given to her by Kirei shortly after Tokiomi's funeral. [[spoiler:In a cruel, twisted sense of irony, it was the same weapon Kirei used to literally stab him in the back during the 4th Holy Grail War.]]

Tohsaka is one of the main Magi of the series. She is known in the {{fandom}} for her {{Tsundere}} traits and helping popularize the twin tail tsundere with ZettaiRyouiki look. 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. She tries to summon a Saber-class Servant, which is 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.\\

* {{Leitmotif}}: "Gentle Everyday", which often plays during light-hearted moments.

* MetaGal: She becomes this during the [[HaveANiceDeath Tiger Dojo]] segments accompanying each of the game's 40 {{Bad End}}s.

* Really700YearsOld: 500 years old at the time of the Fifth Holy Grail War[[note]]although as noted right above, it's not exactly the lifespan he was born with[[/note]]. He even knew [[Anime/FatePrototype Paracelsus]] when the latter was ''still alive''.

* TheChewToy: 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, [[spoiler:is bloodily killed in two of the routes, and the sole remaining route spends a good deal of time]] [[BreakTheHaughty 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 [[spoiler:and a sociopathic rapist at worst]], he doesn't get too much sympathy about this.

* CreateYourOwnHero: Both his and Gilgamesh's role in the fire that [[spoiler:killed Shirou's parents]] and his desire to relive his battle against his former archenemy results in him both provoking and inspiring the young man to become their most persistent enemy in the franchise.