Characters / Fate/stay night: Gilgamesh

Fate/stay night Main Character Index | Humans (Shirou Emiya, Rin Tohsaka, Sakura Matou, Kirei Kotomine) | Servants (Saber, Archer, Archer 2)

Gilgamesh

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (JP), Grant George (EN 2006 Anime, 2010 Unlimited Blade Works Movie), David Vincent (EN Fate/Zero, 2015 Unlimited Blade Works Anime, 2018 Heaven's Feel Movie)

"All the evils in the world'? Pffhhh, bring at least thrice as much if you want to stain me!"

"Hero of Justice? A world where no one is hurt? Don't be absurd. "Humanity" is the name for an animal that cannot find joy in life without sacrifice. The pretty lie that is "equality" is nonsense spouted by weaklings who cannot look upon the darkness. Nothing but an excuse to cover up life's ugliness."

An Archer-class Servant from the previous Holy Grail War who immediately reveals himself as Gilgamesh, the famous Sumerian/Babylonian King said to possess all of the treasures of the world. Overconfident and full of himself, he believes the world rests in the palm of his hand and is his to rule as he pleases. At the conclusion of the Fourth Holy Grail War he was drenched by the pollution within the Holy Grail, which is supposed to give a Servant a true flesh-and-bone body at the cost of their mind and sanity. However, his ego was too strong to be corrupted, and with a physical body he could continue existing in the world. He has a strong desire to dominate and possess Saber, seeing her as just another treasure to be taken at his whim.

His Noble Phantasm is the Gate of Babylon, a key-shaped sword that opens the way to the treasury containing the thousands upon thousands of Noble Phantasms he collected during his lifetime. As Noble Phantasms are the armaments of Heroes, and Gilgamesh is said to be the Original Hero, therefore the originals of all Noble Phantasms must have belonged to him at some point even if it would create a temporal paradox. Lacking the proficiency or will to actually wield most of them, he mainly just shoots them at people, hence his Archer class. However, he has a few personal favourites such as the Anti-World drill-sword Ea, a quite literal star-mortar in the tool sense of the word once used to put Planet Earth into shape in the first place, and Enkidu, the name of his Only Friend bestowed upon the Chains of Heaven that he once tied up the Bull of Heaven Gugalanna with said friend.

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A-E

• Abhorrent Admirer: Towards Saber, though there's less emphasis on the "Admirer" part, as he is more interested in raping her because he is the king and it's thus his right.
• Abnormal Ammo: Archers are usually expected to use some kind of projectile weapon like a bow, crossbow or even a sling. He uses his infinite treasury of Noble Phantasms as projectiles, all of which are fired with force enough to rip people in half and level buildings.
• The Ace: Both in life and as a Servant, there's really nothing that he can't achieve: the greatest Heroic Spirit with extraordinary richness, charisma, and power to singlehandedly lead his country, collect all the treasures in the world, and fully capable of winning the Grail War alone if he is not hindered by his arrogance. Then there's his surprising intellect, capable of reading spells mages are constructing in their heads, and very functional grasp of human psychology. The title of King of Heroes is richly deserved.
• Adaptational Heroism: Due to Nasu having heavily expanded on his more heroic and wise side since the release of the original visual novel, much of his dialogue for the Ufotable anime has been rewritten, making him come off as much more of a Genius Bruiser and generally a more respecting and respectable person overall, while still keeping some of his characteristic vitriol. While he still has moments of evil antics, those moments are treated as being consistent with his new direction, such as how he talks to Berserker and Illya during his fight with them. This in contrast with the original visual novel where he was a borderline Card-Carrying Villain.
• Admiring the Abomination: He expresses admiration towards Aŋra Mainiiu, wanting to unleash it so that it will purge the world of those unworthy of his reign.
• A God I Am Not: Surprisingly — or unsurprisingly, if you know of his myth — this is actually the case with Gilgamesh, in spite of his superhuman strength and ego. Gilgamesh is 2/3rds god, meaning he should qualify for A+ Rank Divinity, a higher rank than even Heracles... but in practice it remains locked to B Rank, because Gilgamesh famously hates the gods and rejects them for taking away Enkidu from him, so while he's got an ego the size of the world, and will let you know it, he's a bit miffed if you try to suggest he's a God in Human Form.
• All Your Powers Combined: Gate of Babylon is basically this, since the numerous weapons are all Noble Phantasms in their own right, albeit this is more like "ALL Powers combined" due to possessing the prototypes for almost all Noble Phantasms. He also has a fondness for taking out his version of the weapon someone uses when possible and showing that his is even better.
  • Note the slight downplay comes in that Gil has practically all Noble Phantasms in his collection, but doesn't necessarily know how to use all of them as more than his Abnormal Ammo. Not that it matters usually with so many fired so fast, but that distinction has come up.
• Anime Hair: Interestingly, his hair gets spiky and stands up whenever he puts on his armor for no explicable reason and lets itself down when he takes it off.
• Anti-Magic: Although his natural Magic Resistance is only rank E, he possesses so many anti-magic wards, charms, and amulets that he's effectively immune to it anyway. His armor specifically is noted to have Magic Resistance at least equal to that of Saber's.
• Antiquated Linguistics: More evident in Japanese. For a relatively simple example, he refers to himself with the extremely archaic "Ware" in text, but pronounces it with the gruff "Ore". His extremely archaic way of speech makes his lines awkward to read even to native speakers.
• Arch-Enemy: It varies based on the route.
  • In the Fate route, he becomes this to Saber being one of her opponents from the previous Grail War and an Abhorrent Admirer towards her on top of that.
  • In the Unlimited Blade Works route he becomes this to Shirou for various reasons with his fight with Shirou being the climax of the route.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted in the Fate route, where his first fight with Saber has him simply standing there and shrugging off blows with his armor. The anime chooses to go with the Rule of Cool and instead has him summon swords directly from his vault to block incoming strikes without lifting a finger. Failure to equip his armor gets him beaten by Shirou in Unlimited Blade Works.
• Armor of Invincibility: The only thing that visibly damages his armor in the entire game is a point-blank Excalibur, and even that leaves him alive for several minutes. CCC reveals that the armor possesses comparable Magic Resistance to Saber's (who gains hers from being infused with a Dragon and extensive warding by Merlin) and makes him immune to petrification, which the Humbaba he battled in life utilized.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He will let you know directly to your face he's better than you, and clearly enjoys putting any "mongrels" in their place. Indeed, to Gilgamesh, the only thing that could ever be a match for him is his ego — and this is indeed what does him in on all three of the routes. However, unlike most examples of this trope, he actually has way more than enough power to back up his claims of superiority.
• Assimilation Backfire: Subverted in Heaven's Feel. He almost succeeds at taking over The Shadow from the inside out after it devours him, but he is broken down into mana a few seconds before he succeeds.
• Attack Reflector: Character Materials reveal that he has a mirror-shaped Noble Phantasm in the Gate of Babylon that causes magic to bounce off of him like jello. Ilya did not see that coming.
• Attempted Rape: Even if he never actually succeeds, it's made very, very clear that he intends to have his way with Saber. One of the verbs he uses in Japanese even means both "to trap" and "to rape", and his description of what he's going to do with Saber once he beats her is pretty sickening.
• Ax-Crazy: A matter of perspective. He is entirely sane, but he treats humans of the modern era as more worthless than dirt and enjoys violence a great deal.
• Awesome, but Impractical: As a Servant, no one surpasses him in strength and only his best friend Enkidu can match him blow-for-blow. His ego makes him borderline uncontrollable though, which is not helped by his high ranking Independent Action skill allowing him to run off and do whatever he wants even if his Master cuts off his mana supply. Every Master who has contracted with him that isn't the player characters from the video games has had to deal with headaches stemming from his inability to work with others and follow orders. The only Master who was able to handle Gil's personality was Tine Chelc from Fate/Strange Fake and even then it was because she lets him do as he pleases and doesn't try to explicitly demand things of him. It also helps that she's younger compared to the other Masters he's contracted with, seeing her as Just a Kid and allowing her to follow him around to bask in his glory.
• Badass Boast:
  • Delivers a surprisingly direct one, considering his ego, when Saber and Shirou figure out his name.
    Archer: Indeed. I am the strongest Heroic Spirit. You shall be no match.
  • Delivers an even more badass one late in the route while discussing the Holy Grail.
    Archer: All the evils of the world? Heh, bring at least thrice as much if you want to stain me. See, Saber. A hero is someone who carries with them everything they see. I am already carrying everything in this world.
• Badass Cape: His golden armor incorporates a fabulous red half-cape that reaches from his hips to just above the ground.
• Badass Finger Snap: Abused to copious effect in Unlimited Blade Works, where every barrage of weapons from him is signaled with one of these.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He's always on the lookout for challenges in any of the routes. Shirou ultimately gives him a "fair" one at the end of Unlimited Blade Works and Gilgamesh spends the whole fight thoroughly miserable.
• Berserk Button: He gets extremely angry when he believes anyone has taken something that belongs to him. Fourth Berserker's use of items from Gate of Babylon, Archer and Shirou's copying his weapons and Shirou daring to try to 'take' Saber from him. Slights to his pride also appear to upset him, though this does not come up as much.
• Beyond the Impossible. His Gate of Babylon does not merely hold a Hyperspace Arsenal of weapons, it holds all the treasures of the ancient world that Gilgamesh collected. But since he is "the original hero" and Babylon was one of the first civilizations, anything that was ever conceived by human imagination is based on something in Gilgamesh's treasury, and therefore that item exists in it. This is applicable even to modern technologies that can be traced back to the ancient world, meaning it contains airplanes and submarines for instance. In short, the Gate of Babylon should hypothetically contain everything that has ever been created in recorded history, to the point it can be said to hold the abstract concepts of human wisdom and ingenuity themselves.
• BFS: Considering it's a one-handed sword, Ea is absolutely huge. He later uses a sword the size of Rider trying to kill a Shadow-possessed Sakura.
• Big Bad: In Unlimited Blade Works, Gilgamesh assumes a much more active role in the plot early on as he seeks to make the Grail a Doomsday Device that will kill all those "unworthy" of his reign. Upon establishing himself as the greatest threat to the protagonists after decisively defeating Berserker midway through the plot, he is officially confirmed to be the main antagonist when his Master, Kirei Kotomine, dies well before the route's climax.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Kirei in the Fate route. While Kirei takes care of things behind the scenes, Gilgamesh directly faces both Shirou and Saber. In the final battle, Shirou and Saber fight and defeat Kirei and Gilgamesh.
• Bling of War: His golden armor, which includes giant circular shoulder pads, ornate blue details, giant golden earrings and a beautiful red cape.
• Blood Knight: He greatly enjoys combat, but because everyone else is far weaker than him, he often ends up either angry or disappointed that his opponent doesn't prove more of a challenge. In addition, he doesn't like being beaten by trickery. Contrast him grinning like a madman when he's leaping around and firing at Berserker with him just being annoyed with Shirou.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: A horrific and selfish example. His views of right and wrong are based around how things affect him and the things he owns. As far as he's concerned, the entire world belongs to him, and his will is absolute law. If things entertain him, he will allow them to come to pass no matter how atrocious a normal person might see them. If you try to claim something that belongs to him as your own, you will be deemed a mongrel that needs to be put in their place (read: killed).
• Boom, Headshot!: He doesn't die because of it, but in the Unlimited Blade Works Route he dies when Archer puts an arrow through his head to distract him long enough to be consumed by the Grail as he tried to pull himself out of it using Shirou as a counterweight.
• Born Winner: He's the richest king and the strongest Heroic Spirit, leaving everyone else, human or Servant, really far below him. Played straight in Fate/Zero but subverted in all routes of Fate/Stay Night.
• Breakout Character: Having first featured in Fate/stay night as an antagonist with a rather minor role in two of the routes, he has since appeared as a major antagonist in Fate/Zero, as one of the four playable Servants in Fate/Extra CCC, and as one of the Servants in Fate/strange Fake, as well as other minor features.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Or rather, brilliant but arrogant. He has the potential to win any Holy Grail War he's summoned into in a blink of an eye (not to mention crush any individual opponent, or combination of them, for that matter), but is just so absurdly proud and lazy that he always ends up dooming himself by not using as much power as he could, or as efficiently, when he needs to.
• Bystander Syndrome: He knew about the depraved things that Zouken was doing to Sakura, but despite being disgusted by Zouken, he did nothing about it in the ten years between the Grail Wars. In Heaven's Feel, he reveals this was because he was also disgusted with Sakura for never trying to escape or even ask for help.
• The Caligula: Violent, arrogant and greedy, he isn't exactly the ideal King to live under. The status screen mentions that people even prayed to the Gods to mend his ways because they suffered under him.
• Catchphrase Insult:
  • Zasshu. ("Mongrels!"). Always said with a slow and emphasized enunciation.
  • He's also fond of saying onore (bastard) when backed into a corner, most notably when Shirou starts to stalemate him in Unlimited Blade Works.
• Chain Pain: Enkidu, a chain that restrains the target the more divine they are. Not even a Command Spell or True Magic can undo their grasp on something.
• Chaotic Good: In-universe alignment. Nasu clarifies that he is the kind of hero who does immeasurable amounts of good, but also does a lesser amount of evil and the good is only exercised on his terms. He explains in CCC that his behavior is influenced by the era he is summoned in, and claims the modern world would frustrate him greatly because of their defilement of his "garden". Furthermore, as the oldest hero in history, he sees himself as a king first and most things as his property, so in his mind, his actions are all justified.
• Characterization Marches On: In the Final Battle of Unlimited Blade Works, he pulls out Ea against Shirou for fun just to show off his greatest treasure. This greatly clashes with later portrayals of him, which show him as being reluctant to do just that against anyone who isn't a Worthy Opponent; indeed, when that scene was shown in the 2014 anime, Gilgamesh instead has to use Ea when an arm of the Holy Grail moves to absorb him. And again, this time out of sheer desperation, when Shirou has a clean swing at him with Kanshou and Bakuya during their final battle but Shirou manages to hack his arm off the second he grabs it.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He shows up in the prologue around Sakura as Rin and Archer are scouting around the city. His next appearance is at the end of Fate, and the reason he was with Sakura is only revealed in Heaven's Feel.
• Combat Pragmatist: He fights fair when it suits him and he's not above ambushing his enemies. Conversely, he has a dim view on those that do the same and Shirou pointing this trait out during their climactic battle causes him to snap.
• Conflict Killer: In the Fate route. Caster has just made her first attack and seemingly has the heroes at her mercy. How are they going to get out of this one? Answer: They're not; Gilgamesh is going to drop by and kill Caster deader than dead.
• Confusion Fu: Due to the myriad weaponry he has in the Gate of Babylon, Saber notes that it's foolish to straight-on block any of them, because she has no idea what effects they have.
• Create Your Own Hero: Both his and Kotomine's role in the fire that killed Shirou's parents and his arrogant displays of power against him with the Gate of Babylon inspired the young man to form the basis of Unlimited Blade Works and the EMIYA persona who would go on to become their most persistent enemy in the franchise.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The Gate of Babylon is an absurdly strong and versatile Noble Phantasm but as his fight against Shirou shows if one can find a way to deal with it Gilgamesh goes from the strongest Servant to a glorified punching bag.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Always on the giving end of it. He dominates Saber and Shirou when they encounter him in Fate and only loses the second time because of Avalon. In Unlimited Blade Works he kills Berserker in a matter of minutes by restraining him with Enkidu. The only reason he doesn't crush every opponent like an insect in every encounter he participates in is because he never goes all-out.
• Death by Irony:
  • Attaining a physical body from Aŋra Mainiiu comes back to bite him when it attempts to use him as a host in Unlimited Blade Works, destroying them both.
  • His main goal is to unleash the Holy Grail upon the world under the rationale that worthy humans will survive. In Unlimited Blade Works, his point is ironically proven when the survivor of the last Grail incident becomes badass enough to contribute to his death.
  • His Badass Boast "'All the evils in the world'? Bring at least thrice as much if you want to stain me!" In Heaven's Feel, he is defeated and consumed by Sakura's Superpowered Evil Side, which is powered by "all the evils in the world", Aŋra Mainiiu, when he attempts to defend his territory from the Shadow. Granted, Sakura quickly dissolved him into mana before he could rampage inside her, exactly because she couldn't darken him.
• Death Glare: If looks could kill, his angry eyes would be a nuclear weapon.
• Determinator: After losing an arm to Shirou and being sucked into a black hole courtesy of the Grail, Gil seems at most mildly fazed before he begins to simply pull himself out with Shirou as an anchor, and even the following knife to the head from Archer did little more than distract him long enough to get consumed entirely.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Gilgamesh is a walking embodiment of this. Due to his immense pride and ego, he’s not exactly willing to listen to just any Master that summons him to a Holy Grail War and is more content on doing his own thing. That being said, should a Master earn his respect, then he’ll willingly bring out his more powerful treasures up to and including Ea without so much as a complaint. Only Ritsuka Fujimaru and Hakuno Kishinami have accomplished this feat so far. His relationship with Kirei is more akin to a partnership, he’s something of a Big Brother Mentor to Tiné Chelc since she’s mostly letting him do what he wants while he’s letting her tag along and the less said about his time as Tokiomi’s servant, the better.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Slightly Downplayed in Fate. As the Grail War's most powerful Servant, he poses far more of a threat than his Master, Kirei Kotomine. Moreover, due to Gilgamesh's ungovernable ego and ability to survive without mana, Kirei's sole means of controlling him is by appealing to his vanity and promising that he'll be sufficiently entertained when All the World's Evil is unleashed on humanity. However, for all his power, Gilgamesh takes a backseat for most of ''Fate'' and doesn't intervene directly until near the end. Conversely, it is Kirei Kotomine (a formidable foe in his own right without Gilgamesh's help) whose machinations set the stage for the entire Grail War and (by extension) serve as the plot's central source of conflict.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Due to the sheer gap in power between him and everyone else, his own ego acts as sort of Power Limiter so that he doesn't go overboard against opponents so far out of his league. He's a Howitzer in a battle of handguns and he knows it, so he dials it back a bit so that he might actually get some entertainment out of the Holy Grail War.
• The Dreaded: Everyone who encounters him, including Shirou and Saber, are scared out of their wits of his incredible power. Even Aŋra Mainiiu in the form of the Shadow is scared shitless of him, and runs away on sight.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: In stark contrast to Fate and Unlimited Blade Works, he's never fought by the protagonists nor does Saber ever realize he's even around in Heaven's Feel - instead he gets eaten alive by Sakura halfway through the route when she manifests the Shadow to protect herself from him.
• Dual Wielding: When he actually fights in melee combat, he always uses two weapons. This may be a Shout-Out to the original myth, where Gilgamesh dual-wielded a sword and an axe. That said, he's nowhere near the level of someone like Saber due to his usual strategy and the fact that even if he trained with a specific weapon from the Gate, the minute he switches to a new one his skill would drop back to its original level, and Shirou is able to put him on the defensive when they actually clash in melee.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • He's seen talking to Sakura by Rin in the prologue of the visual novel.
  • He and Saber fighting in the burning Fuyuki City in the prologue of the first episode of the anime.
• Entitled to Have You: He believes Saber to be his by right, and he won't take no for an answer. All treasures are his, after all.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In Unlimited Blade Works, he very briefly turns somber when Shinji tells him Kirei Kotomine is dead.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Although he's taken a liking to Saber, in Unlimited Codes Gilgamesh is outright hostile to Saber Alter because she's corrupted and abandoned her ideals. He also finds himself somewhat regretting corrupting Saber himself with the Grail in his ending, as he likes her best when she's both idealistic and resisting him.
  • He attempts to kill Sakura as the Shadow in Heaven's Feel because someone else is taking his stuff, namely the townspeople. Not exactly the best reason, but hey, it's Gilgamesh.
  • He was confirmed by Word of God to have killed off Zouken in at least one route, implying this.
• Everything but the Girl: He's supposed to possess literally everything, but Saber keeps refusing him. Since he's a villainous version he doesn't give up his powers to win her over.
• Evil Is Not a Toy
  • In Unlimited Blade Works, he spends a while acting as Shinji's replacement Servant after Rider is killed, but once the War has reached its climax and subtlety is no longer needed, he drops the act in gruesome fashion. Shoving Ilya's heart into Shinji's chest and forcibly converting him into a conduit for the Greater Grail is certainly one way to show the Smug Snake just how out of his league he is.
  • In Heaven's Feel, he in turn gets this trope pulled on him courtesy of Aŋra Mainiiu. Having a less willful and unpredictable Dragon in the form of Sakura in that route, Aŋra Mainiiu decides that Gilgamesh has outlived his usefulness and destroys him via the Shadow.
• Evil Laugh: He likes taunting his opponents with this as he has very little to fear. Especially in Unlimited Blade Works.
• Evil Plan: Revealed in Unlimited Blade Works; Gil wants to use the heart of Illya, the core of the Holy Grail's vessel, and fuse it with another human to complete an incomplete Grail that cannot grant wishes, but can still unleash Aŋra Mainiiu upon the world. He believes that a humanity that would get destroyed by its own sins and evils is worthless, and that those who can overcome them are worthy of becoming his subjects, and he will rule over them as the king of the world, just like he was in the distant past.
• Evil Virtues: Valor: Say what you will about Gil, one thing you can't say is that he's a wimp or coward. It's explicitly for this reason that he's able to resist the Shadow's corruption, and in the Heaven's Feel route, after getting the lower half of his leg torn off by Sakura, not only does he not cry out in agony, he doesn't even flinch, with the main source of his anger being that someone almost made him kneel before them. He also displays a genuine, if warped, sense of Responsibilty as his main reasoning for his plan is to free humanity of the stagnation and complacency that he belives afflicts them. And, although more prominently displayed in the Fourth Holy Grail War, Respect and Wisdom, as he genuinely viewed Iskandar as a Worthy Opponent, and spared Waver after seeing his loyalty to him, and he's shown to be very insightful and perceptive, as he easily recognizes the source of Kirei's angst, and is able to quickly discern the true nature of the Grail.

F-P

• Fallen Hero: Played With. Gilgamesh when summoned as an Archer is based on the man he was before he came to realize the value of life: a horrible vainglorious tyrant. Compare that with the Gilgamesh from Fate/Grand Order, who has returned to Uruk with this realization and was, though still arrogant, a competent, well-meaning king dedicated in creating a future for humanity to decide their own fate, hence why he severed their connections to the gods. The Fuyuki version is the result of that tyrant growing to resent how humanity has become, viewing it as stagnant and is willing to kill off the entire world of to recreate his realm once more and uncaring about the many lives lost, becoming the very thing he eventually came to despise about the gods in life.
• Fatal Flaw: His continental sized ego. If he wasn't so arrogant nothing less than the combined forces of every other servant could hope to beat him, but because he constantly holds back out of pride, the heroes have an actual chance of beating him.
  • To illustrate: his defeat at Shirou's hands is not because he's the weaker of the two, but because when the latter finally breaks through his offence and charges him Gilgamesh still visibly hesitates for a split-second too long after summoning his personal weapon before actually drawing it, which is what allows Shirou to close the distance and target his sword-arm before it can be brought to bear. He loses the fight specifically because he refused to take Shirou seriously until the very last second, making pride his literal fatal flaw. And of course, being Gilgamesh, he instantly attributes it to Shirou's momentary strength rather than his own hubris.
• Fiction 500: His trademark ability is based on the premise that he owned everything in the world at one point. One of his secondary abilities, Golden Rule, specifically measures a character's ability to attract wealth to himself. His is "A"-rank, meaning money basically falls into his lap with little to no effort from him.
• The Fighting Narcissist: He is damn proud of himself, as is pretty evident in the contempt he shows to his opponents.
• Flechette Storm: This is how his primary mode of attack operates... even if the Flechette's involved are in reality 3-foot to 6-foot-long swords and spears...
• Foil: To Archer of the the Fifth Holy Grail War; Gilgamesh is a white skinned man with golden hair, Archer has tan skin with white, almost silvery hair. Whilst Gilgamesh is an Archer because he launches Noble Phantasms from portals, Archer is one because he actually uses a bow to launch Noble Phantasms. Whilst Gilgamesh is the oldest hero from legend, Archer is a Heroic Spirit from the modern era and thus can be considered the youngest ever. Gilgamesh has loads of Noble Phantasms because he originally owned them all, whilst Archer copies them through his own experiences with them. Whilst Gilgamesh falls prey to Crippling Overspecialisation, Archer makes use of all his abilities in combat.
• Fountain of Youth: Gilgamesh has access to an indefinite amount of the Herb of Immortality from his legend, which he sometimes used during the ten-year time-span between the two Grail Wars to stay under the radar by transforming into his absurdly adorable child form◊.
• Genius Bruiser: Shows an extremely high level of intellect when he doesn't feel the need to rub his giant ego all over people's faces. in Fate/EXTRA he demonstrates this by annihilating an inhumanly smart Homunculus in a game of chess, and repeatedly seeing through others' character and flaws with simple observations.
• Glass Cannon: Compared to his utterly overwhelming offense, his defenses are mostly just marked by his golden armor that he doesn't even wear a lot of the time. In both Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel, the fight is essentially over once he takes an actual hit.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: As the world's oldest, and thus strongest, hero, Gilgamesh has a few gold related motifs going for him, such as his armor and his Golden Rule skill.
• The Good King: If he was in life anything like the legend he's based on, he certainly wasn't always that way, but after he met Enkidu, he was a fair and just king who generally ruled over everyone by being more awesome than everyone else. Fits his character, really. Fate/Grand Order eventually expands this side of him greatly through his Caster self who is a haughty yet wise king that is loved by his people.
• Go Out with a Smile: His death at the hands of Saber has him smiling, possibly because she's one of the few people he considers worthy.
  Gilgamesh: King of Knights, it was... truly fun.
• Graceful Loser: Played with in Fate. He tries to act like he doesn't mind losing and maybe to an extent he doesn't, but the narration tells us he sounds rather sulky about it. He also admits defeat to Shiro in Unlimited Blade Works anime adaptation, and prepares to finish him off before being consumed by Aŋra Mainiiu (the visual novel has Aŋra Mainiiu consume him before Shirou can strike a decisive blow).
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He can go from at least tolerable and talkative to extremely angry at the drop of a hat. Word of God is that his time spent living among the humans of the modern age has made him more irritable.
• The Hedonist: He's a big believer in pleasure of whatever kind. He urges Kotomine to give into his desires to see people suffer and that is the very reason they're still partners. He also promised Saber she would have any pleasure if she married him. She wasn't amused.
• Hellish Pupils: In addition to his red irises, his eyes have vertically-slitted pupils that are an immediate clue-in to his inhuman nature and status as an antagonist.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Rebelled against the rule of the gods during his life, due to their arrogance, pettiness and short-sighted rule over humanity. He's become all these things and more by modern times.
• Hidden Depths: He's a lot smarter than he appears, and understands a surprising amount about magic and human nature. The parts where he reveals his intellect are overshadowed by the parts where he's being an arrogant jerk.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Gilgamesh, hero of the oldest surviving epic, is the arrogant, selfish jerk that he started off as in the epic.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In the Unlimited Blade Works Route Gilgamesh's adamant refusal to actually go all out against Shirou is what actually does him in.
• Horrifying the Horror: The Shadow is terrified of him. If he had gone full out he would have stopped it, and when it tried to consume him, was nearly consumed itself.
• Hyper-Awareness: Aside from him generally being a brilliant observant, he also, for some reason, knows after only one look in the Fate route that Saber is no longer a virgin, and in the same route, can also tell when exactly Shirou figures out his identity. Fate/Grand Order suggests it is his Noble Phantasm Sha Nagba Imuru, which grants him top-tier Clairvoyance and allows him to see the future, although normally he keeps inactive unless he has a good reason to use it.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: His Noble Phantasm, Gates of Babylon, is an extra-dimensional storage space. He can use it to fire super-powerful Noble Phantasms like bullets from a machine gun.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Gilgamesh tends to use an overpowering level of force, but still far below what he's capable of doing when going all out. His ordinary firepower is compared to that of five Servants, so whenever this happens not to be enough to utterly decimate anything in his way, he can be caught off guard.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: Ignoring the plethora of weapons in the Gate of Babylon, Ea◊ definitely fits the bill. Gilgamesh's most prized possession (except for maybe the Enkidu chains), Ea is a divine construct of unknown origin that - despite being called a sword - predates the concept of swords. It's an Anti-World weapon that fires a Fantastic Nuke; even the wind generated from its spinning sections is extremely powerful.
• Infinite Supplies:
  • His soul has energy equivalent to several hundred thousand normal magi or three normal Servants, according to Dark Sakura, and he can call his shot Noble Phantasms back into the Gate of Babylon, making sure he always has every one of them at his disposal.
  • He also has a near unlimited supply of mana for his attacks, thanks to Kotomine hooking him up to a bunch of orphans who serve as Living Batteries. The mana was meant to replace the Grail's supply of mana for keeping him anchored to the World after it deactivated since Kotomine can't supply all that by himself, but since Gilgamesh was properly incarnated and doesn't need it anymore, he can use it for his attacks instead.
  • Ilya also notes in HF that after only Saber, Caster, Lancer and Berserker were defeated, Sakura would already have consumed enough souls, despite the fact that Ilya took in Archer and that Rider and Assassin are still around, meaning his soul is worth multiple times the mana of a normal Servant.
• Informed Ability: Gilgamesh is said to be almost as physically strong as Saber when she's Rin's Servant and Fourth Berserker, but this trait goes under the radar, likely due to the fact that while he's as strong as them, he's not as skilled. The anime version of the "Fate" route comes closest to averting this since Gil does actually engage in a number of melee fights there. He is also said to be capable of defeating all Servants and their masters if he so deigned, and while he has more showings that lend credence to this idea he still never actually goes all out and achieve this.
• Insanity Immunity: His arrogance and ego are so great that they make him immune to Aŋra Mainiiu's Hate Plague.
• In-Series Nickname: Ea does not have a true name and the name is simply a pet name that Gilgamesh gave the sword. This comes from the fact that Ea never went on to become a named weapon of legend unlike all the artifacts he collected from across the earth long ago, and was therefore never given a true name by history.
• It's All About Me: His defining trait. The possibility that the world might not be about him escapes him.
• Jerkass: Anytime he appears, he always exhibits a condescending attitude and has no compassion or empathy for even a single person as he thinks all citizens of the modern era as 'mongrels'. He's also capable of cruel acts as shown in Unlimited Blade Works when he slits Illya's eyes and kills her to extract her heart literally as she's the Holy Grail.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He derides his fellow Archer as a "faker", but it soon transpires that EMIYA did take an obscene amount of inspiration from Gilgamesh's fighting style during his youth.
• Karmic Death: In Unlimited Blade Works. After having gone through the whole route Sword Spamming people to death, he's killed when a Not Quite Dead Archer nails him right between the eyes with a duplicate of one of his own swords.
  • Heaven's Feel has him devoured by the Shadow, which is what he planned to do to humanity in the Unlimited Blade Works route. He's then used by Dark Sakura as a power source the same way he fed on all those orphans in the Fate route.
• Kill All Humans: Gilgamesh's plan invokes this. He wants to unleash Aŋra Mainiiu so that it will exterminate all but the strongest humans, who he will reign over. He doesn't have a problem if none survive, since that meant that modern-day humans were simply too weak to conquer their own sins and shortcomings and be worthy of his glorious rule.
• The Killer Becomes the Killed: Due to arrogance, yet again, he finds himself on the losing end of Eviler than Thou in Heaven's Feel when Sakura's Superpowered Evil Side, the embodiment of "All the Evils in the World" Aŋra Mainiiu, eats him.
• Knight of Cerebus: Any time that he appears in a route, it's a sign that things are about to take a turn for the worse.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: According to a Q & A, when he faced Assassin offscreen in the Fate route, he acknowledged that Assassin is skilled enough to kill him if they got into melee combat, so he made sure to stay back and killed him with long range bombardment.
• Lack of Empathy: He takes this trope and runs with it, with everything that comes with it. Shirou even comments that it's more like he's staring through himself rather than Gilgamesh looking at him, as if he's not even recognizing him as a human being.
• Large Ham: In an "always mounted on his big horse" sort of way.
• Leitmotif: Dark Glow, a sinister and foreboding melody with a clear Middle Eastern-ish flavor, in the anime adaptation of UBW.
• Logical Weakness: Gilgamesh is not a Servant who knows how to use the weapons he's owned in life, instead using them as essentially arrows. In Unlimited Blade Works he loses to Shirou because while Shirou is not even remotely able to fight a Servant, his ability to use the knowledge of the weapons combined with his speed thanks to Unlimited Blade Works, cancels out Gilgamesh's Storm of Blades by countering it.
• Magic Knight: Fate Grand Order revealed that he has the qualifications for the Caster Class, perhaps finally explaining how he knows such an enormous amount about magic.
• Manipulative Bastard: Around Shinji, Gilgamesh easily manipulates him into acting how he wishes while still maintaining the facade of being his Servant. Granted, this is more a testament to Shinji's gullibility than Gilgamesh's skill.
• Master of None: Despite his insane power, he is this in relation to his weapons: he may have the originals, but having something isn't the same as knowing how to use it, so his mastery of individual Noble Phantasms is nowhere near that of the Servants who have been wielding them their whole lives. He still has sufficient working knowledge and skill to wield them, but there is only a handful that he can really be called a master of. When he and Shirou fight at the end of of UBW, Shirou is able to pressure and overpower him by using Unlimited Blade Works and his Trace magecraft to give himself that edge in a direct fight Gilgamesh lacks. Shirou even points this out, calling Gilgamesh an owner, not a wielder.
• Mesopotamian Monstrosity: He's the hero of a Mesopotamian epic, almost unbeatably powerful, and the Big Bad of two of the three routes.
• Mundane Utility: In addition to all the weapons and other Noble Phantasms in the Gate of Babylon, Gilgamesh also has several other items from his former life: wine brewed by the gods, the Herb of Immortality that he uses to make a youth potion, and an item of unknown description that can detect poison that he used for all his food and drink.
• Narcissist: Gilgamesh's ego is so great that he passes up on killing the protagonists in Unlimited Blade Works because the ashes from the fire in the Einzbern castle were dirtying his clothes.
• Nerves of Steel: He shows emotions frequently and without reserve, but he's never actually controlled by them. As shown in Fate, when he immediately curbs his anger when it begins to hamper his judgment. In the novel version of Unlimited Blade Works, he continues to think clearly even while being melted by the Holy Grail, to the point that Shirou comments that he still sounds as arrogant as ever.
• No-Sell: Rin tries to blast him to smithereens with one of her special-prepared gems, each of which contain spells powerful enough to heavily damage a Servant, for attacking Archer while he's reconciling with Shirou. It doesn't even dirty his clothes.
• Oddly Shaped Sword: Ea looks less like a sword and more like a rotating cylinder or a drill. This is because it predates the concept of a sword.
• Older Is Better: No weapon is older than Ea, and the very concept of a "Hero" was born with Gilgamesh. Even his "lesser" treasures are the oldest and most powerful form of every other wonder from every single Hero's adventures.
• Older Than Dirt: Gilgamesh is the hero of the oldest surviving piece of literature. Ea is Older Than LIFE and implied to have been used in the shaping of planet Earth to begin with in Fate/strange fake.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Gilgamesh, King of Heroes, narcissist supreme, the most powerful Servant who can possibly be summoned, practically shat himself when he realized just how badly he underestimated Sakura. For whatever it's worth, he didn't have to feel unbridled, pure terror for very long before he was eaten alive.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He does this with all of humanity. He states quite plainly in the Heaven's Feel route that he does not like it when people are killed by someone besides him.
• Person of Mass Destruction: The weapons from the Gate of Babylon are shot with enough force to level buildings or split a man cleanly in half. On top of that he is in possession of Ea which can pop the surface of the earth like a zit if he's not careful in how he uses it, which he luckily is.
• Pet the Dog: He has a lot of sympathy and respect for Sella and Leysritt in the Unlimited Blade Works anime because they're more or less machinery made to serve Illya who couldn't know better than to try and defend Illya from him only to die in a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle. For anyone familiar with the Epic of Gilgamesh, this is obviously due to his Only Friend relationship with Enkidu, who was more or less a god-made artificial intelligence made from clay to be an unbeatable monstrous weapon with no will before a wooing by the hermit divine prostitute Shamhat that last seven days and seven nights made him into the form Gilgamesh came to know, which is uncomfortably familiar to him to how Einzbern homunculi act and he takes no pleasure in killing them.
• Possession Implies Mastery: Averted. He owns all the world's treasures, but he isn't particularly skilled with using any of them in melee, so he just uses them in a storm of blades. This backfires when he fights Shirou, as Shirou can quickly use any weapon in Unlimited Blade Works with skill and finesse that Gilgamesh lacks.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Gilgamesh stockpiles mana drawn from the consumed souls of the orphans of the Fuyuki fire that Kirei rounded up afterwards and sacrificed to him. It's far more than he actually needs and is mainly just there to let him spam Ea.
• Powers Do the Fighting: While not physically weak by any means, he fights almost entirely by firing weapons from the Gate of Babylon. It's rare to see him even touch somebody else when fighting. Word of God states this would give him an advantage in combat against Arcueid Brunestud as her power level automatically adjusts to her opponent's capabilities, whereas Gilgamesh's power comes from his infinite arsenal.
• Power Tattoo: When he accesses his full power, his top explodes off of him◊, seemingly by sheer awesomeness, and several tattoos similar in appearance to the writing on Ea appear on his body.
• Pretty Boy: Sakura notes that he "looks like a model".
• Pride: His Fatal Flaw. He could easily defeat anyone in the series if he wasn't too busy considering them unworthy mongrels.
• Psychotic Smirk: Only on a very few occasions does Gilgamesh change his expression from this, usually to a Slasher Smile.
• Pure Is Not Good: Let us reiterate: Gilgamesh got the concentrated form of all humanity's evils and sins combined poured onto him. He didn't even flinch.

R-Y

• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: This is actually part of his backstory. Before meeting Enkidu, he apparently liked to abuse his "right" as a king to a bride's virginity; which was not cool with anyone and earned him a good deal of ire from his people. During the Grail War, it's extremely clear that he wants Saber and only seems to be more drawn to her as she continues to refuse him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to Saber in Fate, explaining that her country had turned on her because she lacked the power to control and protect it.
• Red Baron: He's known as the "King of Heroes" due to his status as the oldest and most powerful hero in existence.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes are the first sign he is in fact bad news.
• Semi-Divine: Gilgamesh has Divinity Rank B, which was originally Rank A+ since he's two-thirds god but suffered a rank-down since he himself hates the gods.
• Simple, yet Awesome: One of his greatest strengths is his lack of need for mana. Most top tier Servants like Herakles, Karna, Saber and Achilles require a ridiculous amount of mana just to fight, let alone activate their special abilities and Noble Phantasms, so they're more likely to kill their own Masters before the enemy. This guy? Not a problem. The only notable mana expenditure is activating Gate of Babylon. After that, he can go buck wild firing off his treasures with incredible force at the cost of little mana, making him extremely efficient. This means anyone can serve as his Master regardless of their Magic Circuit quality, from an excellent master like Tokiomi to a mediocre Magus like Kotomine and even an outright garbage-tier one like Shinji.
• Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke: Ea is classified as an "Anti-World" Noble Phantasm, but due to Gilgamesh's immense pride, he does not use it at its full potential. Even during the Beam-O-War he has with Saber's Excalibur, he only uses a fraction of Ea's strength, which is still enough to overpower Excalibur. Additionally, when he uses it on Shirou, he only receives some bruises. Full power usage breaks reality to the point a rift is created that shows the world before it was even created, and is only seen in specific instances where Gilgamesh feels he faces a foe worthy of seeing the full power of the weapon.
• Slasher Smile: At the end of the original anime, which is mainly based off the "Fate" route, when he duels Saber he has a maniacal grin, accentuated by Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises.
• Smarter Than You Look: His ego may make it seem like he is an idiot armed with a machinegun that shoots Noble Phantasms but as his Hidden Depths reveal he is actually really intelligent, which usually is overshadowed by his extreme self-confidence.
• Smug Super: His colossal strength and power could transform him into a much more successful villain. However, his ego manages to be even more powerful and domineering than either of those combined, leading to his downfall in all three routes.
• The Social Darwinist: Gilgamesh is contemptuous towards humanity of the modern day, griping that in his age even the life of a slave was too precious to take. To this end, he plans to unleash Aŋra Mainiiu, stating that only the humans who survive it are worthy of his rule.
  • This is further solidified when Rin points out that there is a chance that there could be no survivors. Gilgamesh just shrugs this off stating that if none survive then humanity as a whole is simply unworthy.
• Staring Down Cthulhu: Gilgamesh's willpower and ego is so great that he could resist having all of the Grail's contents, containing all evils of the world, poured onto him without going insane or dying on the spot, something that would be impossible for anyone else.
  Gilgamesh: See, Saber, a hero is something who carries with them everything they see. I am already carrying everything in this world.
• Storm of Blades: "Gate of Babylon" is his personal treasury and he can supposedly have any Noble Phantasm rain on his opponents.
• Story-Breaker Power: No matter who he's fighting, Gilgamesh is almost guaranteed to have at least a dozen weapons specifically designed to exploit their weaknesses. As a fallback he always has Ea, which is so unstoppably powerful that even Excalibur is completely overpowered by it even when Gilgamesh is simply playing around. Were it not for his colossal ego ensuring that he never takes advantage of this, there is really no reason he should ever be defeated by anyone.
• Superpower Lottery: For an Archer, he has surprisingly high stats and his mana reserves and the power of his Noble Phantasms are off the charts, in the latter case literally. The first Noble Phantasm contains a prototype of all Noble Phantasms and items that have been comprehended by mankind and the latter has a power ranking attached to it indicating it literally cannot be defined. Word of God indicates he is as strong as five normal Servants when he's kidding around.
• Super Prototype: His Gate of Babylon holds the "perfect prototype" of almost every Heroic Spirit's Noble Phantasm. By Nasuverse rules (i.e. Older Is Better), this makes all of them better than their later models due to their greater mystery and thus magical power. Gilgamesh himself is also the "original hero" and therefore the prototype for all other Servants.
• Sword Beam: Ea, "The Star of Creation that Splits Apart Heaven and Earth", charges and fires a vortex of red wind-like energy from Gilgamesh's drill-shaped sword. Even at a partial charge it's powerful enough to counter Saber's Excalibur, and at maximum charge it's said to be able to destroy worlds. Enuma Elish is in fact the activation phrase, but many people get it confused because of the way most Noble Phantasms are activated. Also, let's face it: Enuma Elish just sounds cooler.
• Telepathy: Hinted at. When Shirou deciphers his identity in his thoughts, Gilgamesh instantly turns to him and says aloud that Shirou knows of his identity. He can also tell Saber is no longer a virgin despite her being fully clothed and that Heracles is a demigod and therefore able to be restrained by Enkidu.
• This Is a Drill: Ea, a drill-sword. Complete with spinning segments.
• This Is Unforgivable!: His last words in the anime movie adaption of Unlimited Blade Works, announcing that Archer must pay for killing him before being sucked into the vortex completely.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: In the "Heaven's Feel" route the Shadow is terrified of Gilgamesh — who had already proved immune to Aŋra Mainiiu's corruption — to the point that after devouring him it immediately breaks him down into his component mana as quickly as possible for fear of him taking it over from the inside.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: During the time of Fate/Zero, Gilgamesh could be a cruel person but he was also a Warrior Poet who showed himself to be a learned philosopher and displayed both Villain Respect and even mercy towards those who were his enemies. By the time of the Fifth Holy Grail War, he's become much more cruel and merciless, displaying much less of the depth and noble qualities he had in the previous war. While his positive qualities don't totally disappear in more modern times (as he's more than capable of handing out cathartic Kick The Son Of A Bitch moments to people like Caster and Shinji), he's much more notable for his cruelty and self-centeredness than his compassionate and philosophical qualities once the Fifth Holy Grail War begins.
• Tranquil Fury: Briefly at the end of Fate when Saber refuses his last offer of mercy after having already been thoroughly trounced in their battle and then kicking him in the face as he's dangling her by an ankle. It is arguably where he is the most terrifying.
• Übermensch: For starters, he is well aware of his status as the one of the most powerful Servants, rejects all authority and laws save his own, considers himself to be infinitely superior to everyone else, and is a Social Darwinist whose end goal is to purge the earth of those he deems unworthy so that he can rule over it again. His ego is even such that he is immune to Aŋra Mainiiu's mental corruption.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Due to his powerful armor, possessing infinite weapons he can launch like missiles, a chain that can bind gods, and a sword that can literally turn the world into a scorched rock, Gilgamesh is the most powerful person in the Fourth and Fifth Grail Wars by a considerable margin. He could easily defeat anything he encounters during the Fifth War just by blasting it into oblivion with his full strength right off the bat. But of course, nobody he meets is worthy of seeing his full power, and inevitably he gets killed by underestimating his opponent. His actual parameters are on-par with Saber's and he does have some skill in swordplay and a high knowledge of magecraft, but not enough to really match up to specialists. As such, Gilgamesh is defeated with relative ease when Shirou finds a way around Gate of Babylon in the "Unlimited Blade Works" route.^note "Relative" due to Shirou eating through most of Rin's mana supply to keep up with Gilgamesh's inherent superhuman strength and speed, and repeatedly spam his Spontaneous Weapon Creation ability to counter Gate of Babylon.
• Ur-Example: In the Nasuverse, Older Is Better, and Gilgamesh is the first hero ever, who possessed all the treasures of the world—meaning that, not only is he older than every other hero, he possessed the archetypes from which every of Servant's Noble Phantasms originate. There's a reason he's called the King of Heroes.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Gilgamesh as a child was the embodiment of The Good King, loved by both gods and mortals in his time who ruled over all of the world, and was adorably cute◊. Then things went to shit...
• Variable-Length Chain: Enkidu is as long as he needs it to be, basically. In side material he takes out the full chain and it's only a few meters long, yet he can restrain Berserker with it from dozens of angles at once and in life he used it to restrain The Bull of Heaven, which was absolutely huge.
• Villainous Breakdown: In Unlimited Blade Works. Over the course of his final fight with Shirou, he gradually loses his temper, repeatedly screaming at Shirou to die, up to the point of losing an arm and suddenly getting sucked into a black hole to his own surprise. He then tries to pull himself out with Enkidu using Shirou as leverage and would've succeeded if it weren't for Archer killing him with one last attack and causing him to suffer his Karmic Death. Most tellingly, Gilgamesh actually gets so angry he pulls out Ea, and gets an arm hacked off before he can use it. This is only in the animated version. In the Visual Novel, he's quite a bit calmer (though still angry at the situation).
• Villainous Friendship: Is implied to have with Kotomine. The two of them get along surprisingly well, contrasting with how Gilgamesh acts with everyone else, and he's visibly hurt by Kotomine's death in Unlimited Blade Works.
• Villain Respect:
  • In Unlimited Blade Works after he kills Sella and Leysritt he briefly eulogizes them because they insisted on defending their master even though they didn't stand a chance against him.
  • Later in the route: he very, very grudgingly admits defeat against Shirou. It's clear he still hates Shirou with everything he has, but nonetheless says "I will give you this much: in this moment, you are strong. Victory is yours."
  • In the Unlimited Blade Works anime, he is fully aware of Berserker's strength and admonishes Shinji in about the politest way Gilgamesh is able to to get the hell out of the way and not celebrate early, acknowledging Heracles as a truly worthy opponent even in circumstances that aren't in Heracles' favor.
  "If you value your life stand back, you clown. It is far too early for laughter. I tire of heroes who never fall when cut or burned, but I've never fought a man who can truly return from the dead."
• Walking Spoiler: While the Fate/Zero, Unlimited Blade Works and Carnival Phantasm animes and various video-game adaptations make no secret of his true identity at all, and the names of his Noble Phantasms are dead giveaways to who he is, the original visual novel doesn't reveal his identity until late in the Fate route, and his existence ends up leading to most of the important revelations in that route.
• Warrior Poet: He can both talk the talk in the most archaic and royal way imaginable, and walk the walk with his incredible powers and tools.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Leaning really far on the extreme part of the trope, but if looked at Metaphorically True, he can be seen as this; Gilgamesh loves humanity as a whole, but he hates individuals. He is disgusted by how lazy and weak humans have become since the age where he ruled and how they escape reality through ignorance. To create a new kingdom worthy of him in the modern age, Gil wants to subject humanity to Aŋra Mainiiu, the embodiment of all human sins in the form of six billion curses, and will then rule over the survivors, as they are "worthy" of his kingship.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Gilgamesh never lies simply because he has no need to lie.
• World's Strongest Man: He's stated by Word of God to be the most powerful Heroic Spirit that can possibly be summoned and it shows. Were he actually to fight at full force, every other combatant in the war combined wouldn't even be a match for him. Very few Servants ever would stand a chance of facing him head on and for him to be defeated in two of the three paths the heroes have to really pull out all the stops to win.
• The Worf Effect: In Heavens Feel he gets eaten by the Shadow, if only because he dropped his guard.
• Worf Had the Flu: All his defeats across all routes are examples since Gilgamesh would easily defeat any opponent if he fought them seriously, but other than that his defeat against Shirou in Unlimited Blade Works really sticks out. Not only did Shirou literally have the one power that successfully canceled out the Gate of Babylon, but the battle still ends with Shirou running out of mana before he can lay the killing blow and Gil admitting Shirou "won" out of shame of how far he was pushed. Then Gilgamesh conjures up another Gate of Babylon and is about to kill Shirou, only for both the Grail itself and Archer to bail Shirou out.
• Yandere: His obsessive infatuation with Saber is carried over from the Fourth Grail War, and while it's secondary to his primary goal he still makes it clear he intends to have his way with her regardless of her hatred for him.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: With Sakura as a viable and more easily corruptible host, Aŋra Mainiiu decides to dissolve his already flaky alliance with Gilgamesh. First, by trying to assimilate him, and when that doesn't work, just killing him.

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