#and by that one EMIYA fanart (you know the one)

[frostywisp]

black. gray. red.

the world was shades of gray. and red. black, gray, and oh, so much red.

they stand in the rain, the downpour drenching their coat, the patter drowning out the world.

the red pools around them, spreading out in a puddle, slowly, surely, inching to consume the rest of the world.

they grasp and regrasp the umbrella in their hand, turning the thing around and around, the handle the only indication of this loop with no end in sight.

the red does not easily wash out of the red of their coat, and the red does not easily wash off off the rest of their hands either.

they tilt their head up, closing their eyes, opening their mouth, and sticks out their tongue, the pink just sticking out of the yawning chasm.

the red simply sinks deeper, further, slipping and sliding slowly down their throat.

"they lied. the rain really doesn't taste like wine all that much. or at least... i think it doesn't. i'll have to find some wine to compare now." their body slowly eases back into motion, like a cannon wheeled back around to point in it's destined line of fire.

their boots continue to track the red through the bloody streets.

[infrared135-36]

HSR is particularly shit with this but all people have to do is tap that friendly TRANSLATE button under the post they can’t understand to read this is fanart Pako did and not official for the collab. no one had a gun to his head telling him how to make this drawing, I have no idea why people are making excuses for him as if they know him. this is his work and his fan art. sorry he flopped hard with this but that’s not on HSR for once. on the other hand the Fate IP itself created Emiya Alter which is one of the most racist designs I’ve ever seen in a gacha game, so if you want to actually be mad about something related to this character why not start with that. there are still people arguing on the subreddit and beyond to “uncensor” him, using the nickname Demiya which was also changed for the NA server as it was short for “Detroit Emiya” in the original JP server.

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

Canon Polycule Showdown

(vote for your favorite! check the description if you don't know them)

wings of fire fanart by @xaeyrnofnbe

[ID: 1. Picture of Rin, Emiya and Saber from Fate/Stay Night. 2. Fanart of the dragons Moon, Winter and Qibli, from Wings of Fire. /end ID]

Meet the contestants!

Emiya/Saber/Rin

Status: Canon in one of the endings.

Description: They're only a canon polycule in the Sunny Day ending, which is not one of the main endings, but Fate has canon multiverses so every ending is canon. Also, even outside of that ending it's very clear that all 3 of them are into each other. They even all go on a date together at one point!

Winter/Moon/Qibli

Status: Implied

Description: Moon and Qibli are dating, and Winter canonically has a thing for Moon. Winter and Qibli flirt a lot, as well as both of them being canonically bi.

[madillhethen]

No way 😂 someone posted this on Twitter.

I don’t know but this is hilarious. So did Ishtar finally cave because I just got spamming her summoning like an annoying telemarketer.

Well, then I thank my favorites for coming home easily (Emiya, Jeanne, Merlin). Someone told me Merlin repaid my love by coming home 😂. (Merlin is the reason I actually started FGO. I was convinced FGO was another spinoff with no relevance to FSN so no character I knew was in there but I saw Merlin fanart and was surprised this was Saber’s master.)

Alright, now I’m curious, mutuals, who answered your summons easily (I’m not talking free tutorial roll but you can include that).

For me it’s: Emiya, Jeanne, Summer Jeanne, Merlin, Sitonai, void Shiki, Diarmuid, Medusa, Saber Artoria, Astolfo (Rider), Quetzalcoatl, Mandricardo, Waver, Mordred, Asclepius, Miyu, Emiya (assassin), Bedivere, Dante, Da Vinci, Calamity Jane, Li Shuwen, Mephistopheles, Izo, Oda (Avenger), Angra Mainyu, Ana (Medusa Lily), Gorgon and Salieri. (This is not all gold stars. I’m counting FP 1-3 stars who pop up no matter what. Also including spooks, not just intended rolls because I never rolled for half of these servants lol).

On that note, the one servant who just loves my Chaldea is Salieri. For some dam reason, he comes in WAVES. I already NP5 him and I still had 15 copies at one point, and he still pops up from time to time. I think in total I probably burned over 20+ copies of this man.

[teatitty]

saw a cute piece of fanart earlier and had the disproportionately terrible revelation that the true reason we couldn't have romani on full time in pt. II isn't because of the grim morality of the lostbelts or the conclusion of pt. I or even the beef he most definitely has with beryl but actually because he and oberon would be trying to occupy the same niche of "dad pretending to be one whimsical guy while is actually another op edgy guy even tho BOTH guys are genuine facets of themselves and who THINKS he's evil and unloveable bc of the will of the forces who made him but is actually painfully noble even after years of suffering and having to lie to survive, and who despite all that and heaps of self loathing and the fate of the literal world on the line just really loves his daughter and wants sillyboy hours." it'd be emiya vs. shirou volume 2., otherwise known as "fate stay DOWN YOU B-"

also there's a limited supply of sugar in chaldea so you do the math on how that'd go

"It'd be Emiya vs Shirou volume 2" this is absolutely taking me out anon because now I desperately need to know which one of them is Emiya

[deathvsthemaiden]

Anime Tag Game

Tagged by: @bluyuki (thank you! 🤗✨)

1. Last anime you watched?

BNA (Brand New Animal) still in the middle of it! 🐺

2. Last anime you binged watched? 

Beastars! (last one I binged in full anyway) 🐰

3. Recommend an anime and state your reason? 

Noragami! A lot of fun, pretty animation, and I’ve been feeling nostalgic for it recently I might... ignore the tons of anime I’m in the middle of and rewatch it soon🤭😐

4. Anime you have not finished watching yet? 

BNA, Mushishi, Steins Gate 0, Bungou Stray Dogs (s3), Kimi ni todoke, Vinland saga, BNA, Gekkan Shouko Nozaki Kun, Keep your hands off Eizouken, March comes in like a lion, Fate extra last encore— definitely more I’m just not able to remember everything ahxjsndn 😐

5. An anime you do NOT recommend and state your reason? 

Shoukoku no Altair BECAUSE it was massively dissastifying I love love love the manga and honestly most of the time I like to pretend it was never adapted that’s how not good it was :/

6. List your top 5 favourite anime?

1. Death Parade

2. Megalobox

3. Emiya San Chi no Kyou no gohan

4. Vinland Saga (OK I haven’t finished it yet but I’m a die hard fan of the manga and from what I have seen of the anime, it’s very faithful!)

5. Houseki no Kuni

7. Of your top 5 anime, list 2 of your favourite ships from each show?

I rlly don’t ship much, but Medea/Kuzuki from Emiya San is sweet. And so is Thorfinn/Gudrid from Vinland Saga. I have more manga ships tbh

8. Of your top 5 anime, list 1 ship that you do not like? 

Joe/Yuuri from Meglaobox ig. Oof or Achaea/Cairngorm from HNK but that’s part of the manga hasn’t been adapted yet (s2 when....💎)

9. Of your top 5 anime, list 1 crack ship? 

Ventricosus/Adamant from HNK 🤭

10. Of your top 5 anime, list your favourite character from each show?

1. Onna 💟⛸

2. Megalo Joe 🥊❤️

3. Shirou probably. That episode of him as a little kid watching cooking shows and taking meticulous notes is one of my favoritesss 🥺🤧💛 but also. Every scene with Kojirou was excellent I got a major kick out of him 💜

4. Thorfinn Son of Thors 💝🗡

5. Adamant 🥺👉��👈🏽

11. List 3 of your husbando/waifu and what anime they are from?

A Certain Ruler class character 🐝 from the Fate franchise and umm. I can’t think of anyone else rn. One track mind antics 😐 I’ll play fast and loose with the definition of “husbando” and say Adamant and Oda (Bungou Stray Dogs) v_v

12. Favourite anime genre? 

Action/adventure/slice of life? I can’t decide tbh

13. Weirdest anime you have seen? 

Shinsekai Yori

14. Subbed or dubbed? 

Dubbed so I can multitask/look away as I watch but both are good

15. Fanart or Fanfic? 

I really like both but I’ve “consumed” way more fanart over time, I’m pickier about fanfic

16. Protagonist or antagonist?

Usually I’d say antagonist but most of my favorite animes are my favorites because I love the protagonists a lot so!

17. Funniest anime you have seen? 

Nichijou or Daily Lives of High School Boys probably

18. Saddest anime you have seen? 

Code Geass left me feeling empty but I was in middle school so I don’t know if it would have the same effect on me now. Your Lie in April was heavy at times too🎻

19. Anime character you dislike the most? 

The dad from Michiko to Hatchin.... Hatchin’s dad, the one Michiko and Hatchin are searching for for a majority of the show.... Him..... 😑 Astolfo’s master from Fate/Apocrypha too 🥴

20. Recommend an anime movie?

A Silent Voice 🥖 but even more than that, the manga 📖

Tagging: @pinkafropuffs @howaboutswords @adorakeys @makruh @iwaizuml @natalya-romanova @sestet @snuflowr @holmesianhive @hotgirlswehaveproblemstoo @fruit6at @ayuumaku @oudh @kashilascorner @k-amui @sjouno @kandraswithhats @elfenana

[cantillat-moved]

I just recalled something: how Guda and Gudao were based on Shirou’s and Rin’s designs, but with inverted genders. I’ve seen a bunch of fanarts having the 4 of them as a family, and do you know what? If I find a Ritsuka willing to do it, I’m all for it. Either with Shirou or Archer.  It would be hilarious having one of Rin’s and Shirou’s kid being EMIYA’s master

[the-grand-order]

Regarding about Agartha from JP side.

For those wondering where this JP speakers loathe Agartha comes from, I make a post that might be help and give you an insight of how the controversial has happened on JP side back in the day. Keep in mind, this post is an unfinished thesis, there are more details I want to show to you but for time being, I have covered about chapter’s popularity and reputation in this post only.

On 3rd Dec 2017, Tukikagerou’s tweet shows the result of “Which EOR chapter do you like the most” fan-made poll, Agartha gets the most least total vote about 3%. The final result shows there are over 40,000 votes. There’s more though.

On 26 Oct 2018, APPBANK provides the survey result of main singularity popularity, this is where the poll catches everyone’s attention. According to シナリオ人気の分布 ( “Main Quest" scenarios' popularity), Agartha got the most least favorable, JUST 1 VOTE ONLY. The full result can be viewed from here.

The reason why the chapter gets awful reputation due to JP speakers outrage about the way how the chapter’s content presents to general audience especially underage fans. This doesn’t help the official rating for the game has target age rating for above 4 to 12+ years old, which causes JP veteran and casual fans worry about the chapter might be soiled TYPE-MOON’s name and fanbase’s reputation.

Image comparison of official rating. It should be noted that App Store JP page is the only one has official target age rating for 4+. While other three pages have same target age rating for 12+.

Google Play JP

Google Play NA

App Store JP

App Store NA

Another important information is the fact FGO is not done or rated by CERO, which mobile games are not to be included on CERO’s game list. This explains why Google Play and App Store lack content description and reason, so general audiences aren’t able to tell in-game’s content but age rating, until they have to find it by themselves. Despite FGO has fanservice graphic and darker tone content, it’s not a big issue as long as there’s no heavy sexual suggestive and explicit content. Of course, Agartha happens.

Prior to Agartha, on 26 Dec 2016, Nakata Jouji have posted the wholesome tweet about he saw a young boy playing FGO and using playable story support King Hassan.

Of all seiyuus, Jouji is the first person who have openly acknowledged on Twitter that under-age players are also play FGO. It also helps Jouji’s family members play FGO too.  Syatey the illustrator artist, had drawn the fanart depicted Jouji as King Hassan watching a boy playing FGO. That fanart is a wake-up call to all JP speakers when they finished Agartha chapter and find it crossing the line due to inappropriate story writing, not to mention poorly and questionable writing too. Even porn artists and otaku fans call out the Agartha’s scenario writer for violating “otaku moral codes” because they did not aware or acknowledge about existence of underage players. This controversial spawns a meme called “ 譲治は正しかった” (Jouji was right) whenever they see Agartha’s popularity and story content.

Haga Keita, Sugita Tomokazu, Nakamura Yuuichi (Who know about Jouji as a gamer very well) and even Nasu himself are also aware about this too (The full interview can be read here). From FGO Winter Festival, there was an official survey result of age and gender, can be viewed here. Prior to Winter Festival, Humanity6 have posted the info of gender demographic on his Twitter. This doesn’t help that FGO has large male demographic than female demographic, which is one reasonable excuse when they see that chapter refers as “male fantasy” but done poorly, so to speak.

---------------------------

By the way, for those wondering about Fergus’ popularity: Unfortunately, by that time, Fergus Mac Roich had already became a scrappy / black sheep character after pos-release of Agartha on JP side. The character has received a derogatory nickname by JP community, “どすけべ“ (Dosukebe), translates to “Sex Fiend”. Which is commonly known for loathe his behavior whenever he shows up especially his prominent role in Agartha. I’m really want to to explain why Fergus gets that nickname in this post but that’s another post for another day.

If you’re familiar with my Reddit topics from /r/grandorder, I have covered many trivia posts such as Caster of Kykeon,  Emiya Alter's "黒弓", Hoshizora Meteo, Keikenchi, Prisma Illya Collab (This is very important, please read), Bond Zero, Fujino’s first ascension and so on. I want to make a post about Hazuki Minase and how the controversial influences to JP playerbase on /r/grandoder someday. I haven’t finished the article yet until I say so. I will post it eventually but can’t promise when though.

[xenodile]

What’s your opinions on Carmilla?

Okay this is gonna be the last one, all this writing is tiring me!

favorite thing about them - I adore her sheer stubborn insistence on perpetuating her bad reputation.  She’s the polar opposite of Liz, she’s so burdened with guilt that she refuses to improve or change her image.

least favorite thing about them - I wish she got more screentime.  She’s a two bit minor antagonist in every appearance and never gets a chance to shine, and it sucks.

favorite line - “...You aren’t going to touch me?” Her bond 5 line, where after repeatedly telling Guda to fuck off and stop poking her, finally relents and allows herself to be vulnerable

brOTP - Hijikata.  She knows he’s into her, and she humors him, but she doesn’t consider him a suitable partner.

OTP - None

nOTP - None

random headcanon - She’s an unmitigated disaster in a kitchen.  Unlike Liz, who heard that “housewife skills” are highly desirable for idols and learned at least some basic cooking skills, Carmilla is fully playing into the spoiled nobility role except oh wait it’s not a role she actually is, she has no fucking idea what a cheese grater is, someone please call Emiya, she’s spent the past 30 minutes just staring at the pantry and looks like she’s about to burst a blood vessel because she doesn’t want to admit she can’t identify anything here.

unpopular opinion - I don’t think any of my opinions about her could be considered unpopular, but her outfit is ridiculous and I’m so glad she gets better looks in CEs and fanart.

song i associate with them - None

favorite picture of them - Fue draws top tier Carmilla.  Honorable mentions to Regura’s Carmilla, and any drawing of her looking bashful in one of Liz’s ridiculous outfits.

[avicebro]

Hello Pollux! Can you explain your OTP tags?

This is something people want? Lol okay:

This includes League of Legends and Fate.

Fate:

otp: be my queen | richard/ayaka

reference to the fact that richard is continuously trying to get ayaka to be his master. since they are master/servant and i like them romantically it turns from “be my master” to “be my queen”. a good otp 10/10 narita when will you ever.

otp: avenger and ruler | edmond dantes/amakusa shirou 

i hope this is obvious. it’s an avenger and a ruler. demonstrates the fact that they’re polar opposites but still good as a ship.

otp: dragon slayers | siegfried/saint george

reference to how they work really well together in defeating wyverns in fate/grand order. may include kojiro if i find some siegfried/kojiro art i like.

otp: thief and executioner | robin hood/charles henri sanson

i like these two, especially in the salem chapter. the ship name is reference to their roles: one is a thief, one is an executioner. i was also thinking of giving them a title like “the new fruk” cause that’s basically what they are lol.

otp: im a self insert | guda/fgo character

any art of a guda and a fate grand order character. mainly avicebron and dantes because that’s who i ship myself with. more characters may join eventually but im very gay.

otp: casters of opposing factions | avicebron/william shakespeare

in apocrypha they’re the casters for the opposing factions. in fate grand order they seem to keep this dislike for each other.

otp: a new isolde | tristan/melt

ok i haven’t seen the full ccc event yet but basically tristan compares melt to isolde so yeah she’s a new isolde for him. i don’t like how fate writes her name (isseult?) so we’re going with this spelling.

otp: i’ll make you tsar | kadoc/anastasia

this is kadoc’s plan in lostbelt, to make her tsar of the lostbelt. that doesn’t really happen though but they’re in love okay?????

otp: hate at first sight | kirei/kiritsugu

i was tempted to call them “beautiful ties” as a pun on their names but decided against it. hate at first sight because that’s what happened. get along you two.

otp: president and princess | rin/issei

their roles at school. proud captain of the rissei ship. i will love this ship by myself if i have to.

otp: like cats and dogs | gilgamesh/cu chulainn

this is because of ip. go through her gilcu tag. i swear you’ll come out a different person. gilcu is a good ship. they’re a cat and a dog.

otp: i hate everything you stand for | hansa/jester

hansa and jester both hate each other because of who they are. jester despises those from the church, hansa hates dead apostles. they’re fun.

otp: l’auteur malfaisant | edmond dantes/dumas

this is just what dantes calls him, “the wicked author” but in french. love these two so fucking much. if you want me to be happy just mention eddumas.

otp: beast like me | caren/angra mainyu

in hollow ataraxia, it’s stated that they are both beasts: caren for being born “out of wedlock” and angra mainyu because he’s all the evils of the world. they are both beasts by birth, and must deal with the sins from being called a beast. also a big otp.

otp: sad a lot | tristan/lancelot

i was originally calling this ship “tristalot” which sounds like “triste a lot” which is french for “sad a lot”.

otp: up until this moment my wish was being granted | medea/souichirou

OTP TO RULE ALL OTPS. god i love these two. it’s a reference to what medea says in UBW when she dies. man i love these two so much.

otp: the jewel resting near my heart | rin/shirou

reference to the pendent rin gives shirou. may include rin/archer i’m not sure yet.

otp: let’s destroy the world! | kirei/gilgamesh

wow this is late on the list lol. the ship name is what they wanna do. kirei route when nasu.

otp: on the defense | hector/alter cu chulainn

both of them are known for being defensive characters, both in playstyle and in personality. they’re old, tired men let them nap.

otp: i may not always be by your side | issei/shirou

this is a line issei tells shirou in prillya. love these guys a lot. especially with rin.

otp: sword and sheath | saber/shirou

that’s what they are. saber is the sword and shirou is the sheath. no sexual jokes please. like them romantically and as friends.

otp: my wish is for her to live | medusa/sakura

purple girlfriends. love them. love heaven’s feel. reference to a line medusa tells shirou.

otp: my superman | sakura/shirou

OTP TO RULE ALL OTPS. the best ship in stay night with kuzucaster. i love heaven’s feel so much. they were what got me into drawing. i love them so much. reference to the superman scene in HF.

otp: two too pretty boys | diarmuid/gilgamesh

this is 100% because they are attractive guys. that is it. the ship name shows this.

otp: you cursed me | emiya alter/kiara

don’t @ me i like these two. emiya alter an alter because of kiara, hence the ship name.

otp: you were literally made for me | gilgamesh/enkidu

I DON’T HATE THIS SHIP WHY WOULD I TAG AND REBLOG IT SO MUCH IF I HATED THIS SHIP? I simply stated that I am tired of seeing it so much in the f/sf tags. I do like these two shhh. name is a reference to the fact that kidu was made for gil.

otp: lance to the heart and you’re to blame | kirei/cu chulainn

hello i love kotoyari. reference to the UBW ending. feb 14 isn’t valentines day it’s kotoyari day.

otp: your dream is mine | kiritsugu/irisviel

i can’t talk about this ship without crying just know i love them. iri wishes for his dream to come true.

otp: i wanted a saber anyways | rin/saber

just gals being pals you know . and originally rin wanted a saber.

otp: the woman was a saint | kirei/claudia

im not crying you’re crying. a line in the VN.

otp: you remind me of someone | paracelsus/phantom

no this isn’t just because they’re pretty boys lol. like the idea of them being good friends who help each other when the other goes berserk. 

otp: dancing with the devil | mephistopheles/paracelsus

there’s a lot of cool/interesting ship art between these two that’s really cool and i love. love the idea of them adopting jack. 

otp: fist of the north star to the heart | saint martha/sasaki kojiro

just wait until the summer event. love how koji has joined the dragon slayer’s group. hope he enjoys his new friends. you have to fight her at one point for koji’s development. it’s a joke about how her np is a fist of the north star joke.

otp: calm desert nights | nitocris/scheherazade 

reference to lalalack’s ‘desert beauty’ piece. they spend those nights in the desert exchanging stories, calming each other down. 

otp: how about we put it to the test? | li shuwen/beowulf

what beowulf says to li shuwen before they start their fight. they like to beat each other up and it’s great. 

otp: beat up a pretty face | beowulf/fionn mac cumhaill

who has the pretty face is up to you. reference to how fionn looks ephemeral in the beofionn art.

otp: a king and his knight | diarmuid/fionn

it’s their roles. yeah i know fionn “killed” him it’s fun. 

my chivalrous knight | diarmuid/saber

who is the knight and who is chivalrous? up to you!

otp: blue knights | cu chulainn/saber

only two people ship this there’s only two posts i wanna die

a queen and her knight | saber/irisviel

based on when saber acts as her knight (aka all of fate/zero) in f/z. doesn’t have otp cause i’m lazy. 

ot3: church trio | gilgamesh/kirei/cu chulainn

they live in the church lol.

ot3: we could have had it alllllll | sieg/jeanne d’arc/astolfo

based on the fact that apocrypha could have easily juggled the three of these into an ot3 but nope.

ot3: my two friends | gilgamesh/enkidu/kirei

there is only 1 piece of fanart in this tag but it’s a very good piece of fanart

ot3: this could have worked really well tbqh | kirei/gilgamesh/tokiomi

team archer could have been good if kirei didn’t get his dick sucked by gilgamesh.

ot3: princess president and prince | rin/issei/shirou

their roles - i think shirou should be a prince. i just really love rissei and shissei so why not combine them into an ot3 y/y?

group tag: aesthetic of death | gilles de rais, uryuu ryuunosuke, jeanne alter, prelati

i love these guys a lot okay? a lot of gilles/ryu because canon otp. was supposed to be art of death because of ryuunosuke's CE but it was mistranslated and i'm too lazy to change it!

group tag: equipe francaise | d’eon, marie, mozart, sanson 

they are cute but this tag is pushed by my thirst for mozart. the tag means “french team” which is basically what they are right?

brotp: my retainer | waver velvet/alexander the great

im sorry i can’t ship this romantically but they are cute together!

brotp: troy's defense | penthesilea, hektor

these two are good bros who break pots together and will rip achilles' open

League of Legends:

otp: spin to win | katarina/garen

this is about gameplay. garen is known for his e, which is a spin. the joke “spin to win” comes from that ability. since katarina also has a spin, spin to win works for these two.

otp: drasona | draven/sona

it’s just their ship name lol.

otp: takes two to tango | evelynn/twisted fate

reference to the twisted fate and evelynn shared tango skins. such a good ship. i love them and twisted fate/graves. league of legends please do something with these two i stg.

otp: partners in crime | twisted fate/graves

man this is the best lol ship man i wish lol would do anything with this ship that would be great i love my gay men. and they’re working together again! nice!

otp: the sun shines for you | leona/pantheon

i don’t know what lol is doing with these two if if they’re actually gonna be together and i love diana/leona too but i’ve always had a soft spot for these two. also? a great bot lane if you can stomp early. 

otp: it’s called art | jinx/jhin

to be honest i just think these two would be hilarious. let them just do whatever they want in piltover. 

otp: collecting souls | thresh/kalista

aesthetic and also a great botlane. i just love kalista tbh. ghost wife. 

otp: trying to keep the balance | shen/zed

wow the first otp for league of legends. good shit guys hope you guys get more content soon. 

If a ship you know I like is not on this list it’s probably just tagged as the ship name! I’m probably going to go through and create tags for each ship like these as I think of them. If you have suggestions for ship names let me know! 

[kurozu501]

hello!! first off, i wanna say thank you for your awesome meta posts and tags! theyre always a delight to read!! so with that in mind, would it be alright if you told me what made you like shiro kotomine?? ive only read summaries and abstracts for what he did in apocrypha, and i find myself a little indifferent about him, but knowing you, you prolly have a good reason!! what makes him so interesting? :O

well i was actually kind of tricked into liking him ha ha. I fell for the shirouface gambit they pulled ala Nero and the saberfaces. 

See, i kept up with apocrypha basically since the beginning, out of curiosity and vested interest as a fate fan. The first novel came out in December 2012 (according to wikipedia), and it was probably shortly before that that we got the character designs, including one Shirou Kotomine, with tan skin like archer’s, a red cloak like archers, and white hair like archers. +the name Shirou.

So naturally we all thought this was an AU version of Emiya Shirou. There was already lots of fanart and ideas of what a Shirou raised by Kotomine instead of Kiritsugu would be like, and it seemed like type moon was about to make that a real thing. So a lot of my early interest in him came from the fact that i was tricked into thinking he was a priest au version of my fave fate boy lmao. i’ve always loved Nasu’s priest characters and their stupidly cool Black Keys, so this seemed tailored to appeal to me.

(the rest under a cut since this got long)

The second novel, which revealed Amakusa’s true identity, didn’t come out until August 2013, so there was a good 8 months and change in there before we found out type moon had played us. After it was revealed, i lost a lot of interest in him, and in Apocrypha as a whole. I didn’t come back to the series until wayyy later, at the point where volumes 1 and two had been fully translated. (and i’ll be honest, it was mainly Astolfo who grabbed my attention when i came back and got me to stick with it.)

Coming back to Apocrypha knowing the twist this time meant i was less bitter and more open to viewing the character on his own merits. I have to give type moon credit for putting more effort into this deception then the Nero one, as they actually went out of their way to dig up a real historical figure named Shirou, to use for this twist. Plus him being a Ruler who goes against the standards of his class (since Rulers aren’t supposed to have a wish they want granted so they can be impartial) is interesting. I always enjoy characters who are exceptions to the rules. 

I ended up liking how he isn’t really a Kotomine, he takes no pleasure in hurting others. He really thinks he’s doing whats best for everyone. Amakusa genuinely wants to make the world a better place and thinks he has the method to do so, its just that his method is likely wrong. That makes him a pretty intriguing antagonist imo, since its a more interesting conflict if the battle is between two sides that both believe they know whats right, rather then a boring good vs evil battle. 

Plus, as this new episode showed, and as we find out later in the novels, in Apocrypha verse, the Einzberns summoned Ruler Amakusa Shirou instead of Avenger Angra Mainyu. I find that a fascinating idea, that he is the other side of the coin to Angra. That Stay Night shows what happens when you try to summon ultimate evil, and Apocrypha shows what happens if you try to summon ultimate good. It turns out that “Ultimate Evil” is just a normal guy who was forced into being a scapegoat for humanity’s need to blame someone, and it turns out that “Ultimate Good” is a guy who so completely thinks his way is right that he will force it on the world no matter who tries to stop him. Both are flawed, both end up creating fucked up scenarios. It shows that there isn’t really such thing as perfect good or evil. I love that. 

Plus his partnership with Semiramis is interesting, as she is hedonistic, selfish, and cruel, seemingly all things he wouldn’t associate with as a saint. And yet they get along well, and make a good team. It’s an interesting dynamic, and i always enjoy seeing more of them interacting and making out i mean what

So yeah, he’s not my all time fave like he would be if he’d actually been AU priest Shirou, but i’ve come to enjoy his character.