Headscratchers / Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]

New entries on the bottom. All Headscratchers pages are Spoilers Off.

Shirou and Shinji's bounded field

• Why does Shirou not tell Rin or Saber that Shinji is the master setting up the bounded field at school?
  • The answer is that Shirou was friends with Shinji and didn't think he was ruthless enough to go through with it for no reason plus Shinji had already implied that he would activate it if Shirou told Rin and he knows Saber would stop him from going to school if she knew.
  • That doesn't really seem consistent with Shiro's personality. He threatened to kill his teacher for doing the same thing Shinji was doing, but doesn't do anything to try to stop Shinji. There really isn't enough 'friendship' there to change the situation.
  • I just chalk it up as Shirou getting more intergrated into the Holy Grail War. He originally believed that Shinji wouldn't do something horrendous as sacrificing an entire school of innocents, then he starts to realize the stakes are much higher (plus, in episode 7 he knows Caster is reaping souls from the city), so he starts getting serious right now.
  • Note also, that Shinji doesn't realize the significance of everything until...well, his talk with Rin on the rooftop. It didn't click that 'bounded field=HOLY SHIT DANGER'...until that very instant. Note that even RIN dismisses Shinji as a mage until that very conversation. Poor Communication Kills.

Interrogating Shinji

• In episode 9, Rin and the others realize that Rider must have been killed by Caster's master, and that Shinji must know who he is. So they start interrogating him at Gandr-point. Shinji basically admits to knowing who it is, insults them, and then just runs out the door. Why do Rin, Saber and Shirou not even try to stop him?
  • Because the students are still alive but they need help. For Rin, Saber and Shirou, that is the priority.
  • But they didn't show them doing much to help the students, and even then it would have only taken half a second to knock out Shinji for questioning later.
  • More specifically, the situation was that Shirou and Saber were already in the process of helping the students (carrying them out of the classroom, finding out that they were still breathing — they're not clairvoyant). Rin was holding Shinji at Gandr-point, but when he ran, she stopped... because of her concern about the students. She could have chased after him, but the students were more important to her and Shirou did need her to advise on what to do (i.e., call the hospital, call Kirei, etc.). Now, tactically speaking, you can consider it a mistake. Yes, I agree there is probably some way they could have knocked out Shinji and helped the students just as much, but that's not how it went down. The fact is that their actions were not based on cold rationality but on emotional/empathic reactions. YMMW on whether or not this was "bad," "good," "stupid," etc. I'm only explaining the reason for their choices. It reflects their values, and the consequence is that they had to find another way to learn about Caster's master.
  • Also...Rin doesn't really have the 'heart' to go all out, despite all her boasting. When Shinji ran, she either could have blasted him, risking injuring someone who she finds completely and utterly pathetic...or let him go. She probably coulda tied him up, but, again...care for the students. Basically? They made a tactically unsound choice because of lack of ideals.

Rin vs Illya

• In Episode 4 'First Fight' While Saber is busy fighting Berserker, why doesn't Rin gang up on Illya with Archer? She is quite clearly in this for the win, and Illya is by far the weak point in the team. At the very least, an attack on Illya would force Berserker to defend.
  • That would be because it was a Filler scene added by the anime that was not present in the original VN (Illya never fights in canon as the Einzbern magic isn't suited for combat) and thus would have completely altered the story - basically, it's just an Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole. As for Archer and his sniping even in the VN he always could have taken out Illya whenever he wanted, but because in his timeline he had to see Illya waste away and die despite saving her from the Grail War he could never bring himself to hurt her directly. As for Rin, she is not nearly as ruthless as she thinks she is and can't bring herself to murder a child even if she is a Master.

Illya waiting

• At the beginning of episode 5, Illya states that it will take Berserker three days to recover from his fight with Saber and Archer. So she decides to wait to attack again until he's at full strength. But it's been at least seven days since that scene. What is she still waiting for?
  • In all likelihood, she's turtling. She's in a castle out in the middle of a huge forest with magical defenses and a formidable servant who won't die unless he's killed several times. After the initial recon, it's a good position to be in. It's also safe to assume that some encounters take place off-screen — there is at least one with Berserker mentioned in the source material. So, he's not necessarily at full strength after those three days.
  • Plus, you have to remember that she, like her mother, will die if too many servants are killed transforming into a golden cup. So, I doubt she is in a hurry to essentially commit suicide anytime soon.
  • That might make sense for the anime. However, it would seem to go against her plans in the other VN routes for no reason.
  • In the UBW route of the VN she's also absent for a long time. In the other routes in the VN we see that during the day she goes by herself to the park hoping to run into Shirou. I guess you could say that is what she's waiting for... although for that it doesn't matter whether Berserker is at full strength or not. That event happens in the other two routes, but not in UBW. So, we don't know for sure because we don't see her. There is also not necessarily much reason for her to go on the attack given that she doesn't seem to care about winning the Grail War; it wasn't really her choice to join.
  • In the Fate route, Archer wasn't there to provide backup, forcing Saber to take on Berserker by herself. When Saber was about to be killed by Berserker, Shirou took the killing blow for her which was completely unexpected from Illya's point of view because she assumed that he was cold hearted and selfish like Kiritsugu so she was startled and confused by Shirou's selfless act, wanting to know more about him as a result. In the UBW route, Archer managed to steal a couple lives from Berserker with one attack, overriding Illya's interest in Shirou as a result.
  • Regarding Ilya's interest in Shirou, the reason why she followed him around in Fate and Heaven's Feel is not just to know him better but also presumably to make sure he doesn't die, or at least not too early. In the other routes, Saber gets thrashed around by Berserker without Archer's support, so maybe Ilya was concerned about Shirou making it through the war with a seemingly weak Servant. Here in UBW, Saber is not only able to hold her own against Berserker, but manages to take one of his lives. That and the fact that Shirou is seemingly allied with Rin, whose Servant is able to fire off the equivalent of a tactical nuke, makes Ilya confident that Shirou will make it through the Grail War.
  • After the fight, Ilya mentions to her maids about how when hunting it's better to let the rabbit run itself ragged before killing it. Perhaps she wanted to be cruel by letting Shirou and his Servant exhaust themselves fighting the other Masters, then come in to curbstomp them when it seems victory is near.

Command Seals vs Caster

• In episode 14, Caster's Master uses his last two Command Seals to order her to kill herself. After each so issued order, a Seal vanishes as they normally do, but they fail to affect Caster because she used Rule Breaker on herself to sever her pact with him. Now, why didn't the Command Seals disappear the very moment she used Rule Breaker just like it happened with Shirou and Saber in episode 12 and later with Rin and Archer in episode 13? That's it, if their contract was nulled by Rule Breaker, then the Command Seals should have disappeared from the guy's hand, meaning he couldn't have tried to use them. But if the Master still had his Command Seals, it follows that the contract was still valid and Caster should have had to obey the order.
  • The only alternative that I can think of to circumvent the problem: Medea used Rule Breaker on herself and cast an illusion to make her ex-Master think he still had his Command Seals just to mess with him the moment he tried to use them. However, that creates another problem: a Servant like her without a skill like Independent Action can't remain in the world for long, so how come she had enough prana to maintain the illusion, burning stuff up, and of course to keep herself alive until she arrived to the Ryuudo temple and was found by Kuzuki?
  • That is actually easy, really. Castor just has THAT much mana capacity. Her Mana levels are A+. The only Servant to have higher than that is Saber Alter and she's connected to an infinite mana supply.
  • It could be because when she uses Rule Breaker on Saber and Archer she actually gives the Command Seals to someone else (namely herself) whereas she simply made her Master's Command Seals void, or at least made her obligation to obey them void. It would be kind of weird if she had Command Seals for herself.
  • Some logic has to be put into effect here. Unless I'm mistaken, Rule Breaker's effect is to completely nullify any contract. It doesn't actually mention it's ability to steal command seals or command servants. Just that it nullifies any contact. We even see it do something else other than steal a servant in Heaven's Feel. Therefore my personal guess as to what's happening is that whenever she uses Rule Breaker on Saber, Archer etc, it nullifies their contract and thus severing the link between the two. The master gets to keep their command seals as if the servant dies and the servant has no mana supply. Caster then immediately uses her own magic to steal the command seals, we know doing so is possible, people threaten to do so all the time, and makes a contract with the servant. This assumes command seals with no servant to command are easier to take, and that Caster has some way of forcing a contract. Presumably if someone attacked Caster as she was using Rule Breaker the contract could be nullified and if Caster is distracted, safely recontracted. At least that's the way I view things. Rule Breaker makes little sense if the steal of the servants is a property of it.
  • This is actually an Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole; in the original VN Caster states that she feigned total loyalty for her Master to convince him that she was docile and easily controlled and then manipulated him into using all 3 Command Seals on trivial things. She never gave him a reason to use Command Seals to get her to kill herself because he had used them all up before she turned on him. She even tells Shirou that she killed him with an ordinary knife rather than use Rule Breaker on him.

Shirou saving Illya

• In episode 15, Shirou tries his hardest to go save Illya, before being tackled to the ground by Rin. At this point Shirou is known for being a martyr without a cause, but why throw his life away for a character he barely knows and has been an enemy/opponent for the entire series?
  • Because he doesn't really think of his own life, and he's watching/listening to a grown man butcher what he sees as a little girl.
  • That is just how bad Shirou's Chronic Hero Syndrome is. He quite literally doesn't give any thought to his own life or his own well-being: he'd throw it all away in a heartbeat if it could save someone else, even a complete stranger. While that could be lauded as a heroic attitude, it's also supposed to be very disturbing, and a look at how broken a person Shirou really is.
  • There shouldn't be anything wrong with going to save someone, but this is the Nasuverse, where the cost of heroism/power is far too high for heroes/villains. In any case, Fate and UBW specifically showcases how idealistically foolish and impractical Shirou can be, which reflects in his practical but brutally cynical future self Archer.

Archer in episode 18

• In episode 18, Archer has all the cards in his favor. He's just used Caster's mana stockpile to heal, Caster and Kuzuki are both dead, Saber's been on life support for a day, and Shirou and Rin both just wasted all their strength fighting Kuzuki. Why does he not use any of his Servant-tier abilities to kill Shirou before Rin and Saber make a contract? Furthermore, after he activated UBW, Shirou rushes out front to block his attacks and passes out. Why would he grab Rin when he could just kill Shirou there?
  • Shock value: he was gonna kill Shirou, but was surprised a bit about Rin making a contract with Saber. This split-second hesitation was enough to allow the contract between Saber and Rin to complete. As for why he didn't kill Shirou when he passed out, it's because a fully-powered Saber was too close to him, and he lost his trump card when UBW faded away.
  • It's not about just killing Shirou. Archer wants to create a strong paradox, and for that, Shirou must give up his ideals as well.
  • Episode 19 seems to confirm the above, as he states that not only does he need to kill Shirou, he also needs to destroy his spirit (probably not literally, more of a case of making him cross the Despair Event Horizon).
  • Even if the above is true, he still would have been much smarter to kidnap Shirou and run like he did with Rin.

Grail's core

• In episode 23, when mentioning Gil's plan to create an incomplete Grail so as to wipe most of humanity, Rin mentions that Gil would need to put the Grail's core into a vessel and brings up Shinji as the only candidate, noting that as the descendent of a former mage family he still has magic circuits even if they are latent. What about the other person (Sakura) in Fuyuki City with actual functional magic circuits? Given that Rin and Sakura are sisters and Rin remembers and knows about her father giving Sakura away to the Matou family so as for her to receive a Magic Crest and be trained to her full potential, she'd be aware of Sakura being a magus. Furthermore, she saw Gil talking to Sakura earlier in the first episode and Gil acted as Shinji's servant for a while, which means that he'd be aware of her (she doesn't know about Zouken modifying Sakura to be a Grail vessel, which means Gil's plan wouldn't work with her and he knows it). Despite acting aloof and denying any familial connection to Sakura, Rin does care about her sister (the main reason she revived Shiro despite not knowing him that much is because she knows how Sakura would be devastated if he died), so it seems strange that she wouldn't be that concerned about the possibility of Sakura being in danger given that after herself, Sakura would seem like the most viable candidate for a vessel.
  • Unfortunately, this is Unlimited Blade Works, so she's mostly Demoted to Extra with anything having to do with her falling in the wayside.
  • That's because Sakura doesn't have magic. At least, as far as the reader knew during the Visual Novel. Rin would have known about Sakura's magic and should have mentioned her, but that would have spoiled The Reveal in the next route.

Magic Crest

• I read in some places that Rin gives Shirou a piece of her Magic Crest, but others she just establishes a contract with him that lets him use her mana. Which is the right one? Or is it both?
  • The visual novel does the latter, the anime does the former.

Archer in the end

• If Archer gets killed by Gilgamesh, which is why it's up to Shirou to stop him, how is he there at the end to help both Rin and Shirou?
  • Archer didn't die in the first place. He left it up to Shirou because he was in no shape to stop Gilgamesh. (Not enough mana to use UBW and his body was wrecked.) As for how he survived, its a combination of the "Independent Action" skill letting him survive for three days without a master as well as persisting as long as his spiritual core is not damaged and the fact that Shirou and by extension Archer are like cockroaches. They are very hard to kill and to keep down.
  • None of that really makes sense. First, all of the discussion about Archer's independent action states he has two days, not three. Second, he is shot way too many times for him not to have damaged. Third, Gilgamesh would have been able to see him entering spirit mode.
  • Independent Action lasts for three days. VN outright states it. Two days is a mistranslation. Second, he WAS damaged... he never took on Gilgamesh or the grail himself because he was in no condition because of it. Also servants can heal. Saber does it after Lancer's attack and even Assassin does it after Caster ripped his ribcage open. Third... Gilgamesh is a quasi servant now. He has a real body and he can't dematerialize because of it. Either he didn't see or he didn't care. Both are in character for him.
  • Archer is a Counter Guardian, who are Heroic Spirits that are summoned into various times to prevent mankind's extinction and ensure the survival of the world. What Gil was trying to do would do at least one of those things, if not both, if it wasn't stopped. Perhaps the Counter Force gave Archer some mana instead of sending another Guardian?
  • This is the most likely answer given the VN and supplemental materials. It's shown a few times that as a Counter Guardian, Archer differs a bit from normal Servants and while the entire source of Archer's problems is that the Counter Force doesn't summon Guardians until after situations go straight to Hell it's also known that Gaia's and Alaya's Counter Force does intervene to ensure the World's and Humanity's survival respectively in subtle ways to avert disaster, so given Gil's actions it's highly probably that Alaya passed out a little extra mana to keep to situation from going critical.

Archer and Saber's sword

• Archer claims that he could replicate Saber's holy sword in a suicide attack, but Excalibur is a divine construct and UBW isn't supposed to be able to create divine constructs. So was he lying or could really make a copy of Excalibur?
  • Shirou in HF Normal is implied to have projected Excalibur to destroy the Grail but it killed him in the end. The author then nerfed him with the quote you used. The current answer seems to be that while he can't project Excalibur like he can everything else he can make a bastardized version with similar results. After all, even a pathetic shade of Excalibur is still based on the strongest sword in the world. (Note Ea isn't a sword as it was made before swords were a concept hence the drill. Also Saber's spear is implied to be on par if not stronger then the Sword of Promised Victory.)
  • Heaven's Feel Shirou is established to be very different from Archer in terms of how their Reality Marble work, and is mentioned to be better at projection than him. Which could explain how he was capable of circumventing UBW's rule of "no Divine Constructs". Note that Archer never specified which sword he could replicate, and Saber has another holy sword we know of, and we know he can replicate it. Caliburn has a similar effect to Excalibur, but is weaker, it would still do the job though.
  • Might wanna read again buddy, HF Shirou works by drawing on Archer's skills and memories by use of his arm. He is on par NOT better at projection due to it. His RM use is minimal since Archer's RM interferes with his own so he can't really use it. The rule of no divine weapons is because he can't comprehend what it's made of. Can't make a divine sword if you have no divine material. Archer DOES in fact state he could replicate Excalibur. He flat out told Saber he would do it if she stepped in. He said he would die but he could do it. That's the problem. My theory is that he can work around the material issue by substituting with others. The result is still degraded more then usual. Like trying to make a racecar out of junk parts.
  • You know, Shirou in Heaven's Feel does things with Projection that Archer never does despite them being extremely useful. Like copying Berserker's strength and speed.
  • When? Shirou in all three routes gets the skills and stats of the weapon's wielder. (Vs. Berserker in Fate or Shirou Vs. Archer in UBW). Its why Archer is able to keep up with other servants even using a weapon that he had never used against Servants before (Caladbolg and Rho Aius for example). Archer made a point of never tracing a servant's weapon in front of them since if anyone found out that he could Mega Man them, then they would take him out first. Teaming up if they had too. Archer's MO is to hold back until absolutely needed so no one knows who he is and they underestimate him. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Also the only things Shirou projects in HF are things that Archer has seen and are in his RM. Since Shirou cannot properly control UBW since Archer's soul is bleeding into his own through the arm and trying (with some success) to override him, body and soul. It's why he has the arm sealed in the first place.
  • Under the church is the biggest omission of Archer's supposed ability to increase his physical abilities. He finally is in a position to kill Shirou, the sole reason for him competing in the war, with only one obstacle. Saber is in his way and Archer claims he can't defeat her in melee. That doesn't make any sense if he is able to become as strong as Berserker, who he's seen can overpower Saber. Since killing Shirou is all he wants, he shouldn't care if the other remaining servants gang up on him afterwards, even if there were any around to observe. That he has ample motivation and no real reason not to yet doesn't is a strong indicator that Archer doesn't have that ability. The likely answer is that projection magic's ability to boost its wielder's physical prowess caps out somewhere. Archer abides this limit, HF Shirou does not, which is part of the reason his mind breaks down when he uses it.
  • It should be noted that Shirou failed to copy Berserker's strength; in the Nine Bullet Revolver scene it's stated that Shirou can only access Archer's abilities and not his own as he turned away from his ideal to protect only Sakura earlier and is thus no longer qualified to use his own abilities. Also, he could only try to copy Berserker's strength while projecting Berserker's own weapon, so it can be inferred that Archer would be unable to copy Saber's strength unless he copied her weapon. This puts Archer at a severe disadvantage against Saber (and any other holy or demonic sword user really) as he cannot create perfect replicas of their weapon, which means he probably cannot perfectly replicate their strength or skills as he normally could because the copies are degraded much more that usual. As for why Archer didn't use this before - it's very likely that he did but the Shirou's and Rin's POV simply didn't know. Pretty much all of Shirou using Archer's arm is just showing off how awesome Archer (and Shirou by extension) could be if he wasn't nerfed constantly. A Doylist view could also be that showing off the full extent of Archer's capabilities in UBW would reduce the dramatic tension in Heaven's Feel.
  • However the other problem would be mana usage. Since even Saber would feel strained from using full Excalibur, Archer probably wouldn't even be able to generate nothing more than a small light even if he could construct it.
  • Mana usage would be what kills him but the Excaliblast would still happen. Considering he can break and use Calidbolg which has the effect of a mini nuke, it would still be substantial. It wouldn't kill Cthulhu but it would still be a top tier threat, especially since they are literally within talking distance of each other.
  • It was a threat to dissuade Saber from using Excalibur as she would never gamble with Rin and Shirou's lives.
  • It's actually implied that Excalibur is an exception to the "no divine constructs" rule because Excalibur's sheath, Avalon, is actually inside of Shirou thanks to Kiritsugu.
  • Archer is unable to create divine constructs which were made using divine materials. Excalibur was made by the faeries for king Arthur, using earthly materials, while EA was made using divine materials for the supreme king of the world. Both Shirou and EMIYA are perfectly able to make a (degraded but functional) projection of Excalibur, as long as they have the mana to pull it off, as shown in HF.

"Two potential Servants left"

• During Caster's origin story, Kotomine tells her master there are still two potential servants left? That doesn't make sense to me. At that point Saber, Archer and Assassin should all have been available. Unless Caster summoned her Assassin before killing her master which seems unlikely, not only because it would make little sense for her to do so before then and because we would have seen him helping, or not helping her, when she was collapsing near the temple. Another potential is that this all takes place just after Tosaka summoned Archer but before Shirou summoned Saber, though I don't think that makes sense either since I'm pretty sure Issei says Caster has been staying at the temple for some time.
  • Shirou is already counted as Saber's master by the grail before he actually summoned due to Avalon. King Arthur only qualifies for the Saber Class unlike Lancer who can be a Caster or even Berserker. This is why Shirou had dreams of Excalibur before the war. Kirei can check on the grail to an extent. Of course it is still possible for someone to kill Shirou and take his slot. But the reason this isn't spelled out in the show is because it has no purpose for the story. If it was the Fate route maybe but here, it's not.
  • Not really well written then since this is something exclusive to the anime. You shouldn't really have to depend on sources from other works to make sense of a story. Especially since it would have been an easy fix by just stating there are still potential servants.
  • Two things. One, they did say there were potential servants left. The question was about the number. Read. Two, the explanation for the number had nothing to do with advancing the story and so was cut. Plain and simple. Do we need to know how a Star Destroyer works to enjoy Star Wars, no. Same reasoning.
  • I'm saying the number didn't have to be mentioned. The scene would have been identical if it was just left at there are potential servants left or said there were three left which would have made sense since either way you look at it as Rider's summoning time was uncertain. Saying two servants was a plot hole, it was a gap in the story that required explanation to be filled. If the explanation is too wordy and unnecessary than the single line enticing it shouldn't have been used in that way. Why does Saber have dibs anyway? I believe you when you say she does because it's something I've heard before but looking at it makes little sense to me. Avalon still existed during the first three wars as a potential summoning relic and we know she wasn't present for them. Is it just he proximity of a master and a relic? Was it completely impossible for Shirou to summon anyone other than Shirou even if he went through all the proper rituals? What if he added the line to call a Berserker like Kariya did in Fate/Zero (and assuming Berserker hadn't been summoned years before hand)? Would the same effect have happened for any potential master significantly close to a relic, for example Rin who treasured the jewel she inadvertently used as a relic. Was Archer mandatory for her too? Or is it a result of Saber's semi counter guardian contract state? And how does this even look like to Kotomine? Saber is confirmed but not summoned? Even though someone could potentially kill her master and summon a different Saber (or allow someone else to summon a saber). Does that not look strange to him and worth investigating? I don't think he has any way of knowing of Saber's contract if that is what's causing the whole thing.
  • Saber's contract states that she is given the opportunity to get the grail for her wish. This is why she shows up in the 4th and 5th wars despite not being dead yet. As for the previous wars, Avalon was still in Cornwall and nowhere near a summoning circle for use as a catalyst. Of the two wars Saber showed up in, 4th.. Kiritsugu summoned her deliberately, 5th.. Shirou had no other catalyst but Avalon and didn't even know about the war in the first place. As for Archer, Rin didn't know or didn't care about the the catalysts. She was trying to bruteforce the summoning to get a Saber. But while she didn't have a catalyst for a servant, Archer had a catalyst for her. That is why he was summoned. So in a way the contracts were fated. Kirei for the most part doesn't care who has what servant and finding out is Lancer's sole job. Though all of this is pointless. Who knows, the mention of two servants could be a mistranslation or a bit of trivia. Ultimately its pointless because its one line and doesn't matter to the story. It could just be fanservice for fans who read the novel.
  • This has nothing to do with Shirou, and the various summonings weren't "fated" at all. As OP says, there were three unsummoned servants left at the time. The reason Kirei says there are only two isn't that he knows Shirou is guaranteed to summon Saber, Rin had a decent chance of summoning her own. He was just lying (he does that) about how many spots were left. As he says later, he's spent a lot of time raising Rin as a game piece for the Grail War, and it's be really boring if she didn't even compete.

Dub Recasting

• This is meta, this has nothing to do with the series' contents save for the English Dub cast. I know that several of the original voice actors in this franchise except for the Illya spinoff have been recast into other roles and cannot play another character in this sequel like Grant George was once Gilgamesh but was then playing Lancer in Fate/Zero, unless their characters survive. Similarly, Patrick Seitz voiced Assassin in the prequel and cannot play his role as Shouichiro and must be replaced if we are to give the VA-role ratio of 1:1. Now I am wondering, why didn't they bring back Tara Platt who wasn't present by Fate/Zero in any way possible? If we check the cast in Fate Zero on Myanimelist, she is not found in any of them. I mean, if they recalled Mela Lee, Tony Oliver, Stephanie Sheh, and Julie Ann Taylor into their respective roles, why not her?
  • Different strokes for different folks. Different companies with different ideas. She wasn't the only one recast. The VA's for Shirou and Archer were recast as well despite both original actors being available. This could be good. Gil's original English VA didn't fit the character well and was replaced in Zero and was received well. Might be the same idea.
  • Your mileage will vary on whether or not Grant George was well-suited as Gilgamesh. I, for one, though he got Gil's Awesome Ego down perfectly, though David Vincent was also no slouch in the role.

Lancer under the first Command Seal

• If Lancer was under a command spell during the first night of the Grail War not to kill anyone, how could he use his Noble Phantasm which kills instantly? Saber only survived by chance and he was about to use it on Archer until Shirou stumbled by, he shouldn't have been able to activate it at all under the binding of a command spell.
  • He was summarizing the command when he explained it, there was more to it than that. He was allowed to go all-out if he absolutely had to. That's why he tries to get Saber to let him leave first, because he was commanded to avoid a lethal encounter if at all possible.
  • The Command Spell on Lancer was to fight all Servants, but don't defeat them, just get information them and survive. However there is going to be a slight paradox if the the enemy servant doesn't back down. Lancer actually asks Saber if he can retreat but Saber wants to kill him then and there. The Command was "Don't kill them", but he needs to harm Saber so he can live. So he went "To hell with it" and used his lance. Remember, Command Spells are not all-powerful. Unless the order is extremely specific, it won't do much more than weaken them a bit. Lancer decided to used the lance on Saber because she wouldn't back down.

Archer giving Rin back her pendant

• Was there any explanation for this continuity error? Archer goes back to the school and picks up the Mana Pendant, returning it to Rin after Shirou is healed. The next episode Shirou pockets it after reviving and then later sticks it in a drawer at his house after the fight with Lancer, with Archer apparently never having found it. Did the creators just miss something?
  • Archer is Emiya. The pendant Archer has isn't the one Rin used on Shirou earlier. He had it on him when he arrived. This is a plot point later when Rin finds it in Shirou's place - it's what brings her to realize Archer's identity. Basically, the pendant Rin had was the aspect of Emiya that allowed Archer to be summoned, even though it was before it was given to Shirou.
  • It's actually a bit wackier than that. The pendant Rin used can't be used as a catalyst for EMIYA because that pendant wasn't the one used to save his life. The one used to save Archer's life was actually carried by him all his life and is in his possession even as a Counter Guardian. Rin didn't have a catalyst for a specific Servant; Archer had a "reverse" catalyst linking him to a specific summoner. Because Rin was unable to find a catalyst, Archer's catalyst allowed him to answer her summons even though summoning a Counter Guardian is supposed to be impossible - that's also why the other Servant's don't get any knowledge of Archer from the Throne of Heroes like they're supposed to. Since Archer never found out who saved his life in his own timeline, he figured out that night that Rin had saved his life too and was finally able to return the pendant to the one that saved him which he was never able to do when he was alive.

Gil and Shinji

• What was the point of Gilgamesh pretending to be Shinji's Servant?
  • Most likely Kirei getting a good laugh out of trolling Shinji who OBVIOUSLY did not understand the first thing about how summoning Servants worked, since he did NOT do the job himself.
  • Then, on top of that, and indirectly, a golden opportunity to troll the heck out of Zouken, whom Kirei just wants dead on principle. This is confirmed with the scene in the Matou basement where Gilgamesh just crushes one of Zouken's bugs under his heel. It is unknown if Gilgamesh actually managed to kill him (probably not, or at least severely damage him), but at the very least, he would be forced to lay low and be very, VERY annoyed at this development and invasion of his workshop.
  • And finally, lulling Shinji in a false sense of security AND having him available readily, should they need a spare host for the Grail, the part of the plan which Gilgamesh ended up executing on his own once Kirei died at Lancer's hands.

Caster and Kirei

• How did Caster think Kirei was dead? Rin's dialogue made it clear that she Never Found the Body so what did Caster think? That her golems completely obliterated him... and she wasn't watching him despite the fact her surveillance is second-to-none in the series? That's some impressive Bond Villain Stupidity.

Counter Force and time

• I have questions about this whole Counter Force business: Can Archer travel through time? I get the he shot up modern guerilla soldiers in what is presumably Africa and the Middle East but he also shot guys in medieval armor carrying swords. Who were those guys?
  • I think those were from the Trojan War, that would explain how did he got to see and trace Rho Aias.
  • The Throne of Heroes is beyond time and space. All the Counter Guardians go from there to various disasters in past, present, and future to stop whatever might be happening. EMIYA went back and forth across time, potentially to the far future. WMG, but perhaps this was part of what lead to his Despair Event Horizon; he saw that even hundreds of years in the future, humanity hadn't changed and was still causing its own devastation.

Saber's memories

• Admittedly it might be me misremembering things, but wasn't Saber supposed to have been summoned straight from right before her death (which is revealed in Fate route I think...), rather than from the Throne of Heroes? And if it's so, how is it possible that she remembers being in modern era before (which obviously is there to set up things for Fate/Zero where Kiritsugu was also Saber's master), considering that she should only have memories of her own life, and basic information of the era provided by the grail? Not to mention that Fuyuki grail was supposedly erasing memories of servants who took part in the wars there... Is it somehow explained why Saber remembers all of that? Or is it just a plothole created for the sake of setting up Fate/Zero?
  • Actually, the fact that she was summoned from right before her death is the reason she can remember things. She's not really a normal Servant; this is also why she can't go into spirit form. Normal Heroic Spirits are copies summoned from the Throne of Heroes, and each one is an entirely different copy (until it got retconned in Fate/Grand Order, but the point is that normal Heroic Spirits don't remember the different times they were summoned). The Saber in the Fifth War is the same Saber as the one in the Fourth War, not a new copy. So she still remembers everything.