WARNING! Archer's true identity and motivations are a major part of how and why his character is the way it is and is heavily related to the plot of Unlimited Blade Works. Thus, this page is Spoilers Off.
Archer (EMIYA)
Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (JP), Liam O' Brien (EN 2006 Anime, 2010 Unlimited Blade Works Movie), Kaiji Tang (EN 2015 Unlimited Blade Works Anime, 2018 Heaven's Feel Movie)
"Atone for my sins?! I have no sins to atone for, nor have I forced such a meaningless concept on anyone."
"Do not think about other things, there is only one thing you can do. So master that one thing. Do not forget. What you must imagine is always that you, yourself, are the strongest. You do not need outside enemies. For you, the one you have to fight is none other than your own image."
Archer is the Servant of Rin. Sarcastic but well intentioned, he tends to look down on Shirou's ideals and usually dispenses either cryptic advice or razor-sharp putdowns. He is obedient to Rin, although to what extent nobody really knows; Though he does as she asks, he seems to enjoy pissing her off to the extent that she wasted one of her three Command Seals giving an order she knew would have little effect.
His summoning was botched and as a result of this he claims not to remember his Noble Phantasm or true name. Instead, he fights primarily with dual short swords known as Kanshou and Bakuya despite supposedly being an Archer.
Archer has a big impact in all three routes, but Unlimited Blade Works is the route in which he takes center stage. Archer's true identity is unknown for a large portion of the story, due to claiming to have amnesia.
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A - I
- Abnormal Ammo: Bows aren't normally supposed to launch swords turned into corkscrews.
- Aloof Archer: He's stoic, analytical and always has a few tricks up his sleeve. Oddly enough, he doesn't think of himself as being an archer and most of the time he uses swords instead of a bow.
- Alternate Character Reading: His twin swords, Kanshou and Bakuya, may not seem to have an obvious origins for the English reader, but this is because the blades use the Japanese reading of the two weapons. The Chinese reading of the two of them are Gan Jiang and Mo Ye
. This is one of few cases where the Japanese reading of Chinese names stays in the English translations. - Alternate Self: His true identity is an alternate future counterpart of Shirou, from a timeline that mostly followed the events of the Fate route.
- Anti-Hero: He generally fits into the Pragmatic Hero niche and it's occasionally noted that in life he did some pretty brutal things. Just like dear old Dad. The UBW route pushes him into Anti-Villain territory.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Delivers a lot of them to both Saber and Shirou in all three routes.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: His "Eye of the Mind" skill compensates for him having the worst Luck rank possible and relatively mediocre physical attributes. During his battle with Lancer in Unlimited Blade Works, Lancer is moving and attacking at speeds so inhumanly fast that even other Servants couldn't keep up with him; Archer manages to hold him off by deliberately making holes in his defense and then parrying every time his foe attacks those holes in order to prevent himself from simply being whittled down.
- BFS: The Overedge forms of Kanshou and Bakuya. They actually originated from the DEEN Anime version of his final fight against Berserker, but Nasu was reportedy impressed by the designs of these swords◊ that he incorporated it into canon.
- Big Damn Heroes: For the finale of Unlimited Blade Works he is thought to have been killed by Gilgamesh in the Einzbern castle, but appears to help Rin escape from within the Grail and to finish Gilgamesh with one last sword in the head.
- The Blacksmith: Also known as "The Blacksmith Heroic Spirit." His version of Unlimited Blade Works has steam and gears in the background, resembling that of a workshop. He likes to make weapons, LOTS and LOTS of weapons; it defines his very existence.
- Born Unlucky: He possesses a low Luck stat of E, likely as a reference to all the hardships that led to him becoming Archer Emiya.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: He can make use of any weapon, so he sometimes uses his bow to fire even swords.
- Breaking Speech: In Unlimited Blade Works he gives a brutal one as he tries to break Shirou's idealism and turn him into a nihilist like him in their final battle. He fails.
- Breakout Character: He's barely touched upon in Fate and Heaven's Feel and is primarily an antagonist in Unlimited Blade Works, but is nevertheless one of the most popular characters of any Type-Moon work, appearing in almost every Fate spin-off to date. He's also a
Fountain of Expies. - Brutal Honesty: He is quite willing to call Rin out on her bad habits and personal shortcomings. This annoys her quite a bit.
- Canon Immigrant: Not Archer himself, but the "overedge" forms of his twin blades Kanshou and Bakuya were originally developed for the DEEN anime before being worked into the wider canon.
- Cast as a Mask: Appears to be a straight example. At one point Shirou calls Rin on the phone without introducing himself and she assumes she's talking to Archer, so in universe they do have similar voices. Granted, considering Archer seemed to undergo a massive growth spurt in comparison to Shirou, it's possible that Archer's voice simply deepened as he got older, as implied he was at least an adult by the time he died as a human.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Archer speaks to everyone with the same bored indifference, even if they are much stronger and on the verge of attacking him. The craziest example was when he, near the end of his route, calmly threatened Gilgamesh with death at 1/10 of his original strength.
- Characterizing Sitting Pose: When he and Rin first meet, he's slouching in the middle of her destroyed room with little regard for the havoc his entrance has wreaked.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Archer was an ordinary person with average physical and subpar magical aptitude but through rigorous training he became able to hold his own against Servants and armies.
- The Chessmaster: In Unlimited Blade Works, he set things up so that Rin would be able to win if his plan succeeded. He sided with Caster to break Rin's Command Seal preventing him from killing Shirou in order to erase himself from existence, but made sure that Rin would be able to contract with Saber and still win the Grail War. It failed thanks to two factors: Lancer getting involved, and failing to kill Shirou before Rin could make a contract with Saber.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: In Unlimited Blade Works, Archer doesn't have allies; he has goals. Even when there's a definite person he wants to have win (Rin), he switches sides just like he switches weapons.
- Cold Sniper: He can be pretty cold sometimes, and he can shoot an arrow from miles away.
- Combat Pragmatist: Due to his stats being low, Archer relies on tactics and plans more then anything.
- One of the best examples is when Saber and him fight Berserker in the Unlimited Blade Works path. When it becomes clear he's going to be in danger, he retreats back, firing a powerful arrow that creates an explosion that's aimed to hit Berserker, Saber and Shirou at the same time.
- Also displayed in Hollow Ataraxia, where he fires shots that put Shirou in danger so as to force Saber into limiting her range of motion to defend her vulnerable Master.
- Combo Platter Powers: Part of the reason he's so tricky to nail down by other characters. He's an Archer, but he has the swordsmanship of a Saber, but his dual knives invoke an Assassin more than anything, but his crafting and creation skills suggest a Caster, but he also sometimes throws out a giant shield or a Reality Marble. Rin reacts with outright sarcastic surprise when he displays an actual Archer skill.
- Consummate Liar: Part of what makes him such a competent chessmaster is his ability to lie with a straight face. In the his prologue fight against Lancer, he admits Lancer would have destroyed him despite his cocky attitude.
- Confusion Fu: Archer depends heavily on the fact that none of the other heroes can identify him, which usually leads to them underestimating his abilities.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: His fight with Shirou has him holding the upper hand the entire fight and the only reason he hadn't killed him was because he trying to break Shirou's idealism. He only loses because, after being defeated in the emotional battle, he essentially gives up and concedes the fight to Shirou's stronger will.
- Dark and Troubled Past: It's revealed that Archer was able to become the hero he wanted and was able to bring peace through destruction but due to his quiet nature, he was thought as the cause of the wars he ended and was executed. While that's bad enough, Archer made a pact with Alaya (the will of the World to protect mankind) to become a Counter Guardian, thinking he could save more lives that way but instead he realizes all he does is kill over and over again. In the end it's the realization that his own ideal made him a hitman for all of time that finally broke him.
- Dark Messiah: In life, Archer brought peace through heavy but controlled destruction, exactly like his father. Kill one to save ten, kill ten for a hundred, a hundred for a thousand and up. Even after death, he follows this way of life.
- Deadpan Snarker: He snarks quite often, even with Rin, who is good at teasing herself.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: His existence is basically a challenge to the idea that trying to save everybody is practical, efficient, or even meaningful when compared to more direct methods.
- Deflector Shields: Rho Aias can block even the attacks of Trojan War heroes. However, it only barely blocks Lancer's Gae Bolg when thrown, and at the cost of his right arm and almost all of his mana.
- Defrosting Ice King: Most prominent in Unlimited Blade Works where he grows past his self-loathing cynicism to again become the optimistic hero he was as present-day Shirou. Even in the other routes, he does seem to still hold onto a small sense of idealism by saving Shirou and Rin when he has opportunities to let them die.
- Driven to Suicide: This is essentially his goal, sick of being used as a tool to prevent humanity's destruction time and time again, he wants to erase his existence.
- Dual Wielding: He wields twin yin-yang swords, Kanshou and Bakuya. They always return to his hands.
- Dying Alone: In his back-story, he died because of the betrayal of an ally, though he was satisfied in the end. Then he had to face the consequences of selling out his existence to the World after death, thereby never having any peace of mind ever again.
- Dub Personality Change: Downplayed. Though Archer’s consistent regardless of who voices him, both his English voice actors highlight different aspects of his personality.
- Liam O’ Brien makes him sound akin to a tired soldier who’s worn down by all the lives he took, more prominent especially when he was fighting Shirou Emiya in a battle of ideals.
- Kaiji Tang voices him in a way which makes Archer sound like a smooth-talking Deadpan Snarker who isn’t afraid to be blunt with his opinions and views.
- Dying as Yourself: In his final moments in Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel, Archer's hairstyle and facial features change and he speaks in a softer tone, even calling Rin by her last name, implying that he has become Shirou Emiya once more instead of the cynical EMIYA.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Taken to its logical extreme in all three routes;
- In the Fate route, he kills Heracles six times over without using his Reality Marble and with a broken arm.
- In the Unlimited Blade Works route, he kills Gilgamesh with one last arrow after having survived multiple impalement wounds and mana starvation for days on end — and he still hangs on just long enough to say one last goodbye to Rin.
- In Heaven's Feel, he saves Rin from the Shadow at the cost of being impaled through the heart, but still manages to last long enough to have Kotomine replace Shirou's missing left arm with his own.
- Effective Knockoff: His Noble Phantasm, Unlimited Blade Works, is about creating copies of other Heroes' Noble Phantasms. While they can not reach the same level as the original, they're a close second when confronting those who don't bring said Noble Phantasms to their fullest potential.
- Enigmatic Minion: In Fate and most of Unlimited Blade Works, he may help the heroes, but his goals, methods and identity are not something he's going to reveal willingly.
- Fallen Hero: He still pursues his ideals and desire to be a hero, but his methods repulse Shirou and to a lesser extent Saber.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: He responds with this to Rin's early attempts at asserting authority over him.
- Field of Blades: Unlimited Blade Works, his Noble Phantasm, summons a Reality Marble filled with swords of his own creation.
- Finishing Move: Triple-Linked Crane Wings, which throws out three pairs of Kanshou and Bakuya to trap the opponent, then finish with a final fourth slash.
- First-Name Basis: With Rin. In Heaven's Feel and the ending of Unlimited Blade Works however, just before he dies, he calls her "Tohsaka" like in the old days.
- Foil: To various characters which become clear in the Unlimited Blade Works route.
- Shirou Emiya: Caster even points this out, they both don't enjoy unnecessary murder and consider themselves pacifists. Shirou is idealistic to a fault, refusing to kill anyone even his enemies compared to Archer who is instead far more pragmatic, even willing to let innocent civilians die for the greater good. As the route goes on, Shirou and Archer's similarities continue to increase leading to the reveal Archer is a future Shirou who continued on his ideals until it broke him.
- Gilgamesh. They are both Archers summoned by a Tohsaka in their respective Grail War that don't fit the usual convention of an Archer, Gilgamesh firing swords from portals while Archer mainly fights up close with twin swords, but that's where their similarities end. Parallels are drawn further when one realizes that their backstories and skillsets are also complete opposites. Archer is very much an underdog Servant who has to play his cards just right to even make the cut compared to Gilgamesh's combination of being a Born Winner and The Ace who spends most of his time holding back and is still leagues stronger than the other Servants in the War. Gilgamesh is an ancient king who collected all of the world's treasures and is the first hero. His very existence proved that heroes exist in the eyes of mankind and celebrated by his people and the future people. Archer or Shirou Emiya in life was a regular person that traveled the world to solve various problems without leaving his name, leaving him unknown to the public and in the end due to his own morally gray actions and public unease about him, he was executed for a crime he didn't commit and only became a Heroic Spirit through a deal he made with Alaya. While Gilgamesh is the oldest Heroic Spirit, EMIYA is one of the youngest ones. While Gilgamesh fights with his treasures that he collected in life, EMIYA fights by copying and imitating the treasures and weapons of others, something that infuriates Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and EMIYA are jerks, but EMIYA is ultimately well-meaning and still heroic despite his cynical and bitter attitude while Gilgamesh is an amoral hedonist who hates modern humanity and desires to cull them and rule over the survivors, even being indifferent to the possibility that there may be no survivors.
- Future Badass: Archer is a version of Shirou from a Bad Future, one where Shirou's idealism and hope were slowly ground out of him over time, but where he became strong enough to forge and project thousands of blades.
- The Gadfly: Archer continually tests Shirou's, Saber's, and Rin's ideals and personalities with jokes and barbs and is at the same time capable of claiming with a straight face that he would use the Grail for "World Peace".
- Game-Breaking Injury: In Fate and Heaven's Feel, Saber nearly tears him in half on the 3rd day of the war, making his plans to kill Shirou impossible. When he recovers, he is killed shortly after by Berserker and The Shadow respectively.
- Generation Xerox: In the end he was just like his adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya. He started out idealistic and trying to save everyone, but in the end realized being a Pragmatic Hero is more effective.
- Go Out with a Smile: In Unlimited Blade Works he finally disappears satisfied that his life wasn't a waste.
- Gratuitous English: The activation speech for his Noble Phantasm is in fairly mangled Engrish. The Japanese version clarifies its meaning.
- Guile Hero: In Unlimited Blade Works, at the very least, he displays profound manipulative skill.
- The Heavy: In Unlimited Blade Works, his conflict with Shirou serves as the plot's primary focus until he and the other Servants are revealed to be pawns in the Kotomine-Gilgamesh duo's plans.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: In Unlimited Blade Works, he works only and only for himself... And Rin's sake, even if she would end up hating his actions.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- In Fate, Rin leaves him to stall Berserker with the expectation that he'll die. Archer kills Berserker six times over and refuses to retreat before falling. What makes this even more amazing is that according to Word of God he didn't use Unlimited Blade Works to do it.
- In Heaven's Feel, realizing that he'd die soon anyway and Shirou had decided to reject his ideals for Sakura's sake, he gives his arm to Shirou.
- In Fate, Rin leaves him to stall Berserker with the expectation that he'll die. Archer kills Berserker six times over and refuses to retreat before falling. What makes this even more amazing is that according to
- Hero with Bad Publicity: In life, his actions didn't make sense to anyone since he didn't seem to have any easily understood reasons for his behavior, which eventually led to his death by betrayal.
- Hunk: While not hulking like Berserker, Archer is still very muscular and broad shouldered, which is especially prominent once his cloak comes off to use Hrunting. Which makes it all the more hilarious when Shirou, despite being fairly muscular himself, complains about how scrawny he is.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: He is able to pull his short swords back out no matter how many times he loses them.
- I Am Not Left-Handed:
- Thanks to Archer's relatively unknown abilities, many of his fights are won because he is able to pull out another badass trick that he'd been holding back until just the right moment. He's a lot stronger than he initially seems, being able to cut Heracles' stock of lives in half while handicapped in the Fate route, but he's aware that playing his hand too early will cause him to draw unwanted attention from the other Servants which could potentially interfere with his plans, so he prefers to keep his abilities unknown and stay under the radar until the right moment.
- In the Prologue, he does figurative (and in the anime a literal) version of the trope during his first clash against Lancer. Initially he starts by wielding only Kanshou in his left hand, but after Lancer's increasing intensity forces him to summon Bakuya alongside it he then switches to a right-handed stance. The entire fight pisses Lancer off because an Archer is engaging him in close-combat.
- Icy Gray Eyes: Strong willed, gray-eyed cold and, if you ask him, with an ideal above peoples' mindset.
- Identity Amnesia: Rin is frustrated when he informs her he can't remember his past or abilities due to her botched summoning. Unlimited Blade Works reveals he was lying about his memory, and is actually a Future Badass Shirou seeking to kill his past self. He did forget Rin though, his memory came back when she gave him her name.
- I Got Bigger: Compared to his present-day self, Shirou, Archer is eight inches taller and far more muscular to boot.
- I Hate Past Me: To say the very least. Shirou's idealism has driven him to despair, to the point he despises him and is trying to kill him to escape his fate. When Saber points out the flaws in his plan, EMIYA admits he already knows how unlikely it is but even if he does fail at least Shirou is dead.
- I Let You Win: In a manner of speaking. The game makes clear that his battle with Shirou in Unlimited Blade Works ended at a point where Archer could still have killed Shirou. But once Archer realizes there's no way he could make Shirou give up his ideal in the process and has 'lost' the battle on the ideological level, he gives up. The anime even shows that as Shirou charges for his last attack, Archer could have easily and quickly murdered Shirou right there and then but stops as he remembers Kiritsugu.
- Image Song: "Rise".
- Ironic Hell:Rin: [narrating] The boy who stated that he just doesn't want to see anyone cry... could only see crying humans forever.
- Irony: Aside from some of the other ironies he finds himself in due to his situation, there's one in particular that can be a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in Heaven's Feel that he himself dryly notes: he's been summoned as a Servant, rather than a Counter Guardian, but he's still facing off against the sort of supernatural horror that the World sometimes manifests Counter Guardians against and which he's apparently had to face before; in this case, the Shadow.
- Archer's plan is ultimately to dissuade Emiya Shirou from following Kiritsugu's ideal or — failing that — kill him. In UBW, the route where Archer gains his greatest advantage and opportunity to execute his plan, all he accomplishes is Shirou openly disavowing his bitterness and pragmatism to his face. However in Heaven's Feel, where things go completely off the rails and Archer feels he has to give up his goals for the greater good, Shirou ultimately makes the choice to abandon his ideals to protect Sakura, fulfilling Archer's wishes.
- It's All About Me: Archer's actions are driven by a need to
prove to himself that he's right; he doesn't care that in all probability killing Shirou won't have any effect on his own existence, but continues to claim I Did What I Had to Do even in the face of Shirou's persistent refusal to back down. - I Was Just Passing Through: When rescuing Shirou from Caster."I just happened to drop by. Don't worry about it."
J - Y
- Jack of All Stats: On the lower end. He has a solid Mana stat of B, average agility and endurance stats of C, but rather low strength (D) and outright atrocious luck (E). He does not have a proper Noble Phantasm rating on account of technically not having a "true" Noble Phantasm, but repeatedly shows the ability to whip out a varied arsenal of at least A-ranked Noble Phantasms using Unlimited Blade Works.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: He's cynical and disillusioned with heroism. He wasn't always like this, but continued failures and betrayal brought him to this point.
- Jerkass: Badassery aside, Archer can be a real dick sometimes. Even before going through the Heel–Face Revolving Door. Unlimited Blade Works shows that he used to be nicer, but he's very bitter, pragmatic and sarcastic now.
- Killing Your Alternate Self: Archer's goal is Ret-Gone himself by killing Shirou Emiya, attempting to set things up for Rin to form a contact with Saber after he's erased from existence. Saber points out that this even if Shirou was Archer's genuine past self (he's not) killing him wouldn't negate Archer's existance since as a Heroic Spirit he exists unbound by the laws of time and space. Archer's hatred for himself and Shirou runs so deep that he tries to do it anyway.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Saber, and to a lesser extent Lancer, recognize him as a knight, but both are rather appalled at his manipulative nature, cynicism and Shoot the Dog attitude.
- Leitmotif:
- "The End of Reminiscence" serves as a de facto leitmotif for Archer, especially in the Fate route.
- In the anime adaptation of UBW, he gets a very distinctive theme simply titled Archer that plays during his first appearance and most of his major scenes. Its low-key similarities with Emiya, Shirou's own theme, did not go unnoticed.
- "The End of Reminiscence"
- The Load: In Rin's route in Unlimited Codes, he refuses to help Rin, forcing her to win the Grail War on her own. He gets his comeuppance when Rin chibifies him as her wish.
- Locked into Strangeness: His dark skin, white hair and gray eyes are the result of his constant overuse of his magic. Justified, since it's a side effect of using Projection beyond his body limits, thus damaging skin and hair cells.
- The Lost Lenore: It is heavily implied that Illya's death weighed heavily on him and was one of the main factors that drove him to become a full time "Hero of Justice".
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Rho Aias, the shield used by Aias/Ajax. The shield is seven-layered and each as strong as a castle wall, making it able to resist even the spear throws of Hector of Troy. That said:
- It cannot hold against the full power of Lancer's Gae Bolg, however, and its collapse nearly tears Archer's arm off.
- The full Wave-Motion Gun fired by The Shadow during lost butterfly, understandably composed by the collective power of all Servants it has absorbed so far (plus the innate powers of the Holy Grail), is just too much for it to handle — collapsing just a few seconds after it fully manifests.
- Mage Marksman/Magic Knight: Technically, Archer's skill is archery but he can also use swords and magecraft.
- Manipulative Bastard: Manipulation is his game. He pretends to join Caster's cause and has her and Kuzuki exhaust their energy against Shirou and Rin. This benefits him in four ways: Caster initiates him in by first using Rule Breaker to remove his tie to Rin's command seal, which means he's no longer weakened when disobeying Rin. He gets an almost effortless shot to bring down Caster whom had been notoriously difficult to actually stop for the entire route. It leaves Shirou defenseless. And Saber is available to make a contract with Rin in his place.
- Master Archer: He's a supremely skilled bowman, able to snipe a man-sized target from kilometers away using an Energy Bow in the Unlimited Blade Works route, and having the ability to create and convert his swords into explosive arrows on par with an A-rank Noble Phantasm — but his favourite weapon is a pair of shortswords and almost all his battles are done at short range. Archer is the Future Badass version of Shirou, and his natural skill with the bow was a reason he was summoned as Archer.
- Master Swordsman: Word of God is that he actually could have qualified as a Saber, had Artoria not been summoned instead. His skill with his twin blades is sufficient to get him through bouts with the likes of Lancer and Assassin. Archer doesn't consider himself to be either a Swordsman or a Bowman, but rather a Magus whose skills happen to be suited for mimicking both.
- Master Forger: Where most Heroic Servants use legendary weapons they were known to carry in life, Archer instead uses projection magecraft to "Trace" near-perfect copies of other heroes' weapons and wield them with similar skill. Gilgamesh, who has the highest claim to every legendary weapon, even those that became more famous in someone else's hands, derisively calls him "Faker" because of this.
- Mathematician's Answer: When asked if he could follow his ideal to the end without regrets he evades the question by saying it's meaningless: he already met his end. The answer is both yes and no. He can meet his end without regrets, but after the end he sees the inevitable conclusion, which leaves him lashing out in ways he doesn't even fully understand.
- Metaphorically True: He often employs this, leaning especially heavily on Exact Words and Mathematician's Answer, to avoid giving straight answers to Rin and others' questions when doing so would be inconvenient for him.
- Mental World: The Reality Marble Unlimited Blade Works is a separate boundary field within Archer's consciousness where he can use his ultimate power.
- Morality Pet:
- Illyasviel. He could have killed Illya during his fight with Berserker, but chose not to. Considering his past life as Shirou, Illya is likely one of the few people he still holds dear. In the 2006 anime, he even addresses her by her nickname in his final moments, much to her confusion.
- Rin as well. Had he been summoned by anyone else, Archer would've abused every skill in his repertoire to ignore his Master and gun for Shirou at the first opportunity, consequences and collateral damage be damned. But because he cares for Rin, he goes out of his way to ensure she has a path to winning the Holy Grail War before trying to destroy his past self.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Zig-Zagged Trope. He is significantly stronger than his past self, to the point he can physically overwhelm Shirou using only a tenth of his actual power, which would make his greater musculature meaningful. But for a Servant his strength rating is rather low, at D, which would make numerous skinnier Servants much stronger than him instead.
- My Greatest Failure:
- As the supplemental materials reveal, Archer's backstory had him saving Illya just like Shirou did in Fate, only to see her waste away and die a year after the end of the Fifth Grail War due to her Homunculus body. It's one of the first real dents in his idealism, and the main reason why Archer never considers attacking Illya directly as an option, even if he could have very easily slain her in Fate to indirectly kill Berserker and survive their fight.
- Another great failure that he blames himself for is not being able to save Saber from her fate in his time.
- Mystical White Hair: Archer's hair is white due to the form of magic he utilizes.
- Narrator All Along: The very first scene in the Visual Novel is actually told specifically from Archer's point of view when he was Shirou. Word of God hinted at that in hollow ataraxia and later stated in his blog that he was surprised how no one figured it out.
- Nerves of Steel: Archer's strongest combat ability, Eye of The Mind (True), allows him to plan out strategies while trading blows and work out the most effective path to victory.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
- He willingly gave both his life and his afterlife for the sake of other people and it never brought him anything but pain and betrayal.
- Occurs in Unlimited Blade Works when he plans to kill Shirou and help Rin at the same time. The latter part of his plan is part of why the former part fails since ignoring Rin and Saber instead of killing them when he had the chance leads to Rin forming a contract with Saber, making her too powerful for him. That was his plan, though, only the order was mixed up.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite being called "Archer" since this is his Servant class, he uses swords far more. He does use a bow from time to time, but he shoots SWORDS with it instead. He can also fire swords Gate of Babylon style when using Unlimited Blade Works.
- Original Generation: He is the only Servant in the original game who doesn't hail from a myth, legend, or from Real Life in at least a small aspect. Later games in the franchise have examples like Arcueid's Berserker appearance in Fate/EXTRA and the Fate/Grand Order playable Servant appearances of Ryougi Shiki, Kiritsugu, Irisviel, (Prisma) Illya and Chloe, and the lot of them are crossover bonus characters who can only Servant-ize for Grand Order's specific circumstances.
- Outside-Context Problem: In the Holy Grail War, knowing the identity of an opposing servant will give you a huge advantage against them by clueing you in to their abilities and weaknesses. Nobody has a clue who this guy is and he shows off a multitude of identifiable Noble Phantasms which are clearly not his. Opponents start off being confused by his fighting style—an Archer who mostly fights close-up with a pair of Chinese daggers—but they only get more confused when he nocks his bow with Northern European swords or defends with the shield of Ajax. As it turns out, this is because he's something utterly unique in the Holy Grail Wars—a Grail War veteran summoned from the future.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Despite being summoned into the class of Archer, across all routes, he only winds up drawing a bow one or two times.
- Pet the Dog: As he lays dying in Heaven's Feel after the Shadow nearly tears him apart in a giant explosion and having given his left arm to Shirou, he pats the unconscious Tohsaka on the head, before Going Out With A Smile.
- The Plan: Depends a lot upon these. The entirety of Unlimited Blade Works is Archer playing a one-man round of Xanatos Speed Chess against everybody at the same time and basically winning. Even if he gives up on his primary objective, he's basically one step ahead of everyone else for the entirety of the route. This is actually one of his skills: Eye of the Mind (True), which means the user can see every possible option for victory and take the best one, turning a near-zero percent chance of winning into a sure-win.
- Possession Implies Mastery: Untwisted, as he is stated to be a maker, not wielder, yet functions as Gilgamesh's natural enemy due to the latter's inability to wield his weapons to their full potential. Somewhat justified, as he copies not only weapons but also experience accumulated in them.
- Pragmatic Hero: A good example of his attitude can be seen with Caster. Shirou wants to kill her immediately for the damage she causes, but Archer says he can kill her at any time but can't beat Berserker, so he'll just let her do that for him. He justifies this by saying that Illya and Caster can't be trusted with the Grail so it's best to get them both.
- Precision-Guided Boomerang: Kanshou and Bakuya, his twin swords. As long as Archer holds one, the other will always return to his hands. This is their special abilities as Noble Phantasms, along with their Anti-Monster powers and Anti-Magic wards.
- Reality Warper: That's what his Noble Phantasm basically does, letting him create weapons from thin air.
- Restraining Bolt: One of the characterizing traits of Archer-Class Servants is "Independent Action", which eliminates the Servant's natural compulsion to follow their Master's orders — unless they're given via Command Seal. Rin, after Archer says to her face that he has no intention of following her orders, wisely invokes this.
- In the prologue during this argument, Rin uses a Command Seal with the simple-but-effective order of "follow my orders". Archer naturally blasts her for expending a Command Seal so casually, but privately admits that it was clever.
- In Unlimited Blade Works, Rin's second Command Seal is used with the order "don't hurt Shirou" after the past and future selves get into an argument. Archer's response to this one was far less kind: Rin didn't know at the time that he has far greater reasons for wanting Shirou dead, and he proceeds to jump through hoops to outright break his contract with her.
- Rules Lawyer: When Rin asks him about his identity after using her first command spell, he tells her that he doesn't know his name and origin. Both of these statements are Metaphorically True. Thanks to the fire at the end of the 4th war, he doesn't remember his name or origins before he took the name Shirou Emiya when he was adopted by Kiritsugu.
- Sarcastic Devotee: To Rin. Eventually subverted in Unlimited Blade Works as he ends up betraying her to fulfill his own objective.
- The Scapegoat: Archer was blamed for a war he had tried to stop, by one of the people he had personally saved no less. This ultimately led to his death.
- Self-Made Man: Unlike the majority of Servants who are mostly Born Winners with tremendous talents and block-destroying magical weaponry, Archer went from a normal human with nearly no magic talent to one of the single most dangerous Servants one could ever summon.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
- Archer's goal turns out to be this, as he desires to kill Shirou in the hopes of erasing himself from existence. However, as Saber points out in Unlimited Blade Works, he is already a Defender-type Heroic Spirit and thus exists outside the boundaries of space-time and causality, so killing Shirou would do nothing. He admits this but he's just that desperate.
- Archer, in some way, receives his salvation from his cynicism in each route. However, he'll never remember any event from his time in the Grail War, so it's only a brief respite. Though later works, such as Fate/Grand Order, go out of their way to subvert this not only is EMIYA shown to remember his role in Stay Night, but his Character Development sticks, thus making this a case of Earn Your Happy Ending.
- Significant White Hair, Dark Skin: His unusual tan skin and white hair cause him to stand out even among the other servants, and help obfuscate his true identity as EMIYA, aka the adult self of Shirou Emiya, a pale redhead. It's revealed that this is caused by the strain on his body from tracing, and overuse of magic and magical tampering in this series is known to cause Disease Bleach and change peoples' appearances in general.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: "Drown in your ideals and die!"
- Small Role, Big Impact: In Heaven's Feel, he dies rather early and without having accomplished much, but without his arm that he gives to Shirou in his final moments, the good guys would've been screwed several times later in the story.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: OH BOY. Archer on a good day is snarky and abrasive but deep down he has major issues due to realizing how his ideals essentially turned him to a hitman that is forced to murder others for all of time. He only gets over it in the UBW route when he realizes that following his ideals were worth it despite his fate.
- Sour Supporter: To Shirou, whenever they're forced to work together. He's not very fond of him, making it difficult to escape Caster's temple.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: In the prologue, Rin is impressed with him seemingly pulling a new pair of swords every time Lancer destroys them, as a Servant's weapon is supposed to be unique. It's easy for him to create weapons out of thin air.
- Stealth Mentor: Whether he means to or not, in all three routes he ends up making Shirou a lot stronger. This is most obvious in UBW, where he helps to fix Shirou's magic circuits.
- Storm of Blades: Can shoot a rain of swords if he so chooses. Taken up to eleven with Unlimited Blade Works, an entire WORLD of swords.
- Taking the Bullet:
- In Heaven's Feel he takes one of the Shadow's tentacles through the midriff in Rin's place, which makes it impossible for him to save both him and Tohsaka in time, opting to protect her instead of himself.
- Does this for Shirou after losing their fight in Unlimited Blade Works, taking several weapons aimed at him by Gilgamesh. For unexplained reasons, he survived.
- Thanatos Gambit: EMIYA's plan is revealed to be to erase himself from existence by killing Shirou, though he only gets to enact it in Unlimited Blade Works. He tries to set things up so that Rin can still win the Holy Grail War by contracting with Saber, but things ultimately don't pan out as he'd intended and it's questioned whether the plan would have worked to begin with — Servants are removed from the time-space continuum, so EMIYA would continue to exist even if he killed his past self. EMIYA himself admits this but he's just that desperate and states if he does fail at least someone like himself won't exist in this timeline.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: He can fire infinite exploding arrows and Kanshou and Bakuya have a magical connection so that when thrown to the sides of an opponent they will loop in and chop them in half.
- Took a Level in Cynic: Archer reveals that he was very much like Shirou in his youth, but his experiences in life and especially as a Counter Guardian caused him to be jaded.
- Tragic Hero: This is a guy whose original desire was to save everyone and is now forced to murder everyone in front of him forever.Archer: Conflicts come into my view as long as I'm alive. It was endless. I didn't dream of a world without conflicts. I just wanted the people I saw to not cry.
- Trick Arrow: He uses various legendary swords (that EXPLODE) as arrows.
- True Neutral: In-Universe alignment, a reflection of his good goals and bad methods and of his nature as a servant of Alaya, whose sole purpose is to keep humanity in a stable state.
- Unusual Eyebrows: Of the kinked type. He and Shirou are the only characters drawn with such eyebrows, which is actually a rather subtle hint of his true identity.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He wasn't always so sarcastic and harsh but instead rather straightforward and honest. And then the Shirou he used to be got into some real shit.
- Villainous Breakdown: Calling him a evil is a stretch, but he's the main antagonist of Unlimited Blade Works route, along with Gilgamesh and Caster. That said, Shirou's refusal to let Archer break him starts to make that that stoic mask shatter.
- Walking Spoiler: His identity and motivations are the central focus of the Unlimited Blade Works route.
- Weak, but Skilled: Archer had none of the superhuman abilities that heroes like Saber or Lancer possessed in-life, and even as a Servant his power lies in his versatility and unpredictability rather than straightforward power. With ratings of C, he has for a Servant average strength and speed, and no outstanding abilities relative to the other Servants. On the other hand, he's quite analytical, well-prepared, and always has a new trick up his sleeve. Across all routes he repeatedly gives Lancer a great fight, manages to kill Berserker six times over, bests Caster and outfights the even more Weak, but Skilled Fake Assassin, outright demolishes the True Assassin, and at least briefly holds off Saber Alter. His lower physical stats compared to other combat-suited Servants means he is more likely to lose a fight if it carries on for too long, but if he can catch his opponent by surprise he usually seals the deal. It's also balanced out by the fact that he was summoned by Rin, buffing him much more than he should have.
- Wham Line:
- To Shirou: "I see. Good thing you don't like me." This is when Archer suddenly lets out his killing intent and attacks Shirou from behind.
- To Shirou: "Farewell. Drown in your ideals and die." In the same scene. This line reveals to the audience how much he actually hates Shirou.
- "Trace on." He's already revealed his identity, and this line confirms it.
- To Illya in the 2006 anime: "You're still so merciless, Illya." Prior to this, Archer only addresses her as Illyasviel. While not touched upon in this route, this sense of familiarity with Illya foreshadows that Archer is actually a future incarnation of Shirou.
- What You Are in the Dark: Archer still can't bring himself to stop protecting people, despite his cold, jaded nature. He could have killed Shirou very easily multiple times through the three routes. Due to the way the Archer class works, his independence would let him easily slip away and kill him and be done. Instead he helps his past self, grudgingly or not saving him multiple times. This is most obvious in Heaven's Feel: Shirou is bleeding out, Rin is alive and well, and all Archer has to do is finish the job. Instead, Archer slices his own arm off, sacrificing his life to give Shirou the power he needs to keep fighting.
- When He Smiles: At the end of Unlimited Blade Works, he gives Rin a genuine smile before fading away, finally coming in terms with Shirou's ideology and confidant that the Shirou of now will not end up like him in the future.
- White Hair, Black Heart: His white hair and cynical Anti-Hero nature qualify him for this trope. Further, his actions and intent, in the Unlimited Blade Works arc grant him Anti-Villain status.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?:
- Specifically why he doesn't just kill Shirou. In order to be completely sure of a plan he doesn't even know will really work (erasing himself via Time Paradox) Archer can't just kill him. He has to break him, make him reject his ideals and never become a hero, and THEN kill him.
- In all the routes, but especially Fate, he could easily end the threat of Berserker by just shooting Illya dead, but he never does even as he's fighting a delaying/losing battle against Berserker on his own, which comes off as quite strange given his usual Combat Pragmatist nature. That's because the fact he failed to save his Illya from dying still haunts him and she's very likely the one person he could never bring himself to directly kill.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Archer switches to Caster's side in Unlimited Blade Works in order to get out from under Rin's Command Seal. The moment Caster's guard against him is down, he impales her.
