YMMV / Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] Abridged

• Awesome Music:
  • ufotable's already made the fight scenes in the UBW anime amazing with their slick animations and beautiful visuals. So naturally, the only way to up the ante of Saber vs Berserker in the Abridged Series is to score it with Led Zeppelin's fucking "Immigrant Song".
  • Same can be said for using "Red Sun" from Metal Gear Rising for the little remaining bit of fight between Shirou and Kuzuki after Shirou projects Kanshou and Bakuya.
  • Saber's fight with Lancer in Episode 1 makes excellent use of Caster Cú Chulainn's Leitmotif from the First Order ova.
  • The ending credits of Episode 7 just like in the original anime is This Illusion. Except the production team went the extra mile to make an english cover for it, with the full version coming out on the last day of 2020.
  • The battle between Berserker and Gilgamesh in the Einzbern Castle (atleast after a majorly tearjerking flashback from Illya) is backed by the ever-awesome "Red Like Roses Part 2".
  • The concurrent moments of Archer invoking Rho Aias to deflect the thrown Gae Bolg and Rin fighting Caster head-on are set to A Stranger I Remain from Metal Gear Rising.
• Awesome Ego: Gilgamesh, just like in canon. He constantly boasts about himself, mocks others, treats himself as a dominant party, and can back it up.
• Character Rerailment: Archer being an Adaptational Wimp puts him closer to his original VN counterpart: a Weak, but Skilled Servant who excels when he can fight on his own terms and capitalize on his suspiciously accurate knowledge, but who has basically no chance in a fair fight.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The creators are very aware of the absolute hurricane of shit Sakura is going through while the plot happens, as revealed in Fate/zero and the Heaven's Feel route of the original visual novel, and of the fact that Shirou, her Living Emotional Crutch, is pursuing... multiple different women, none of whom are her, while this is occurring. They mine it for as much Black Comedy as humanly possible.
• Evil Is Cool: Gilgamesh is beloved by fans, with him being generally considered a badass. Many have noted that he barely needed alteration for the more comedic style, and every scene with him is gold since he's paired off with the incompetent and far more despicable Shinji. Episode 9 absolutely solidified his status as a fan-favorite thanks to a kinetic adaptation of his invasion of the Einzbern Mansion, remaining as smug as ever until Berserker finally puts a crack in his mask.
• Fridge Brilliance: Souchirou considers Saber, a literal embodiment of everything beautiful and ideal in the human subconscious, only an "8" ^note in sexual slang, ranking people from 1 to 10...but then, he's comparing Saber to his wife (Medea), so it makes perfect sense. Anybody would be inferior to her.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Saber briefly going all Mama Bear on Rider/Caster when they meet in Episode 5.
  Saber: You hurt my boy, Rider! Can't let you go around hurtin' people's boys! (stab)
  • Shirou sweetly admitting his feelings to Rin, who tearfully reciprocates.
  • Illya is spying on Shirou and Rin as they approach the Einzbern Castle. At first she was going to take care of Shinji herself and then go to the forest to deal with Shirou and Rin, but sends Sella and Leysritt when she hears Shirou talking about Kiritsugu. Despite everything, it seems that Illya still holds a small sliver of love for her father.
  • The fact that Illya refers to Berserker as her Dad in her flashback monologue.
  • Lancer being happy to actually hang with Shirou and Rin and banter for a bit before they assault the church. Despite everything that's happened between them, he genuinely likes them.
    Lancer: This is fun. I like this more better now, you guys are chill.
  • Rin finally getting Saber as her Servant at the end of Episode 10. Her Big "YES!" squeal of utter glee after forming the contract is absolutely adorable.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Shirou's reaction to any of the Heroic Spirit's abilities is an excited "I want that!", including Archer's many weapons. Fate/Grand Order's English translation gives us EMIYA's reaction to EMIYA Alter's sword-guns, a very reluctant "I want thaaat..." Hard to know if it was intentional, but the creative team surely seem to think so, as the credits for the Season 1 finale has them thanking the localization team, saying they know what the team has been allegedly doing by referencing the abridged series.
  • The "Actually Satan" Running Gag with Archer becomes much funnier in two ways:
    • One is that Angra Mainyu (who effectively is "actually Satan") takes Shirou Emiya's form in Fate/hollow ataraxia.
    • Another is Rin's appearance in The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II, where she's referred to as the "Red Devil" for all the problems she gives Waver.
  • Rin stating that people can't just be Archer servants by just throwing things turns out very ironic when in Fate/Grand Order, Sei Shonagon and Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova (within her summer form) became Archer servants by doing just that.
• Memetic Mutation: Actually Satan (the actually is important). ^Explanation Rin constantly insisting that Archer is Actually Satan is so hilarious, it's become a running gag in any given Fate-related forum.
• Tear Jerker:
  • For those who know how Shirou is Sakura's Living Emotional Crutch, her reaction to him forgetting he was in a conversation with her is especially cruel:
    Sakura: Please don't tell me you instantly forgot I was in front of you...
  • After Archer uses Caladbolg to drive off Berserker, Shirou declares that he wants that. Archer's response? A bitter "No...you don't."
  • While Kiritsugu's "marble" rant is funny, it also showcases just how much the events of Zero have affected him.
    Shirou: Dad...did marbles hurt you.
    Kiritsugu: No, kiddo. I hurt me. I also hurt marbles. I feel worse about the marbles.
  • Taiga talking to Kiritsugu's grave and lamenting about how he would leave for days and never tell her where he went.
  • The tragic callback to Saber’s earlier joke about “Avoid the King’s hammer” when she is forced to stab Shirou and is struggling not to kill him and Rin.
  • Just like in Canon Archer’s betrayal of Rin is very saddening. First he hits her, before coldly joking that his hand slipped. This time, however, Archer sticks another knife in by goading Rin, daring her to use her last command seal to make him kill himself before Caster takes control of him. She can’t do it. Archer THEN cruelly declares he’s not going to wait around for her to make tough choices anymore. Even if he was stealthily attempting to aid her, as suggested in canon, it was still extremely callous of him. Rin herself is very clearly struggling not to cry, as she offers these sad words to him:
    Rin: I’m Disappointed in You, Archer. I finally realized that you aren’t Lucifer, only to find out that you really are the devil...
  • Just... the entirety of Illya's flashback. Illya goes out when she believes that Kiritsugu had returned to the castle, only to find no one there. Her grandfather then proceeds to tell her that Kiritsugu is never coming back, which clearly hurts the young lady. And then she proceeds to get tormented by Angra Mainyu, taking the form of her mother Irisviel as it goads her towards viewing Kiritsugu (and Shirou, solely for being his adopted son) in contempt. It comes to the point where she, at first, believes Sella and Leysritt to be hallucinations. As twisted as she may be, you just can't help but feel sorry for the tiny murder machine.
  • Archer's reaction when Saber refuses to stand by and let him kill Shirou, despite him basically offering her the Holy Grail on a silver platter. It implies a lot about Archer's original timeline, and while it's not necessarily anything we didn't already know, his feelings on the matter were never elaborated on in canon:
    Archer: Really? This is the world where you come into your humanity? This one where it's the biggest pain in the ass for me! Where was this when— oh, never mind.