Fate/Characters/hollow ataraxia
This is a page about the characters appearing in Fate/hollow ataraxia. Beware of spoilers.
While the cast is almost identical to that of Fate/stay night, they tend to play different roles. Please do not add tropes from Fate/stay night to this page unless they also appear here. For the normal Fate/stay night character page, please go here instead for the disambiguation page.
Shirou Emiya
Voiced by: Noriaki Sugiyama (JP), Sam Riegel (EN)
The protagonist of the series, Shirou is a rather untalented magus whose only skill is basic Tracing and Reinforcement magic, which allows him to analyze the physical make-up of an object and then strengthen it. His dream is to become a "Hero of Justice", someone who can selflessly protect the lives of everyone from disaster. He inherited this dream from his adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya (who had given up on it) and is extremely naive on what it takes to reach that ideal.
After the Grail War ended Shirou, oddly enough, seems to have mostly retired into a casual day to day existence that is only interrupted by the sudden restarting of the Grail War, which he feels he needs to investigate as well as his confusion as to how the Servants are all still around.
Shirou is an accomplished archer (having been a member of the school's archery club without ever missing the bull’s-eye except the one time he felt like doing so) and, following some training from Saber and watching Archer becomes fairly proficient in swordplay.
- Badass
- Bully Hunter: He was this as a child.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome
- Deadpan Snarker: He tends to snark a lot in his internal monologues, even more than he did in Fate/stay night.
Saber: These are the catalysts[1] that Rin left behind. I was testing them all one by one just in case they absorbed prana, transformed and can now exert some evil influence!
Shirou's inner monologue: I try to imagine being attacked by a pull-up bar. ...Definitely not something you'd get out of alive, that.
- In order to pass the Night Quiz, you actually have to give snarky answers to the 'mysterious Quiz Ogre's' questions.
- Determinator:
- Dual-Wielding: He picked up Archer's dual wielding style.
- Expy: Shirou shares a character model with Tomoe Enjou; the two have similar issues regarding what is fake and what is real, as well. Also, Shirou becomes an Artificial Human like Tomoe in the True End of Heaven’s Feel in '"Fate/stay night.
- Eyes of Gold: Rather unusual for a protagonist.
- The Fettered: Shirou's ideal of wanting to save everybody is a large source of his strength. His abilities appear to have arisen specifically because of this, as explored in the final two routes of Fate/stay night.
- First-Person Smartass: Not very obvious. Then the realization hits that his narration is just as sarcastic as Rin's and boggling occurs. He is more of a snarker than people give him credit for, especially around Rin. Archer is basically what he would be like if he wasn't so polite all the time, is it any wonder why he and Rin have such great chemistry?
- Grand Theft Me: Via Avenger
- Happily Adopted
- Honor Before Reason: For better or worse.
- Image Song: "Kogane no Hikari"
- Invocation: Trace... ON!
Shirou: Touei, Kaishi!
- Mega Manning: The whole point of Projection magic is that it lets Shirou use any weapon he has seen the original of. Also, Saber gets pissed off when she realizes that he's not only been learning directly from her and copying Archer's technique[2] but also picked up a move from Rider and copies a bit of what he's seen Lancer and Assassin do.
- Nice Guy: Being a bit... er, overprotective doesn't hide the fact that he's considerate, thoughtful, and industrious.
- Normally I Would Be Dead Now: Shirou is apparently not allowed to do anything awesome without first being reduced to a near-dead cripple. Ever.
- Parental Abandonment: Twice yet. Once when he was orphaned in the Fuyuki Fire, and a second time when Kiritsugu passed away.
- Possession Implies Mastery: When he duplicates weapons, Shirou also duplicates the skill of the weapon's wielder. Like with the weapon itself, it's not as good as the original, but it works.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Shirou loves and is quite skilled at cooking, and owns a cute pink apron.
- Redheaded Hero
- Unwanted Harem: He started out with Taiga and Sakura... And then got Rin. And then Saber. And then Ilya. And Rider, Ayako and the track team in hollow ataraxia. Amusingly, when people at his school start mentioning the girls in his harem, they mention Saber, Tohsaka and Sakura followed by Issei. That being said, they tend not to interfere with each other too much apart from Sakura always killing the mood when Rider and Shirou are together. Bazett is... a special case.
Bazett Fraga McRemitz
Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (JP)
Bazett is the Master of the mysterious new Servant, Avenger. While the Grail War appears to be going on and she is fighting other Masters and Servants who seem completely unrelated to the main cast, she is also working to both destroy the black wolf monster familiars and discover the identity of the magus who she feels is attempting to disrupt the Grail War. That said, Bazett appears confused as to why Avenger is her Servant and does not remember summoning him, though as a properly qualified Master she knows he is her Servant.
Later, it is revealed that from within the Grail, Avenger reached out to her and tried to grant her a wish, enabling her to stay alive but in a coma. When Caren Ortensia found her and began to nurse her back to health, Avenger created the four-day time loop as an internal world to keep Bazett's mind occupied.
Bazett hails from Ireland and is heir to a very special kind of magic that makes her the only living human with a Noble Phantasm. She's had a huge crush on Lancer since she was a child. Not that we blame her.
- Ascended Fangirl: The whole reason she wanted to participate in the Grail War in the first place was to summon Lancer. And most of her life was spent gearing her for the Grail War, even though she probably wouldn't have a chance to participate.
- Badass: So very, very badass... when she's actually given the chance to be.
- She does defeat or kill all Servants during the loops, with Avenger's help. Although she has to fight all over again, even when she doesn't die.
- Bifauxnen: The suit is supposedly to make her appear more like a man to aid in her duties, but men aren't often so cute.
- Bodyguard Crush: Inverted with Lancer.
- Boobs of Steel: Speaking of things that hurt the Bifauxnen image, she's quite well endowed (and true to the trope, she's also a master fighter). Avenger jokes that she "must be very strong to be able to carry that chest".
- Convenient Coma: Hey, it kept her alive -- don't knock it.
- Demoted to Extra / Out of Focus: She starts out figuring quite importantly but her presence gradually dwindles and Caren becomes more prominent towards the end. Also, she's the only heroine in the story who doesn't get an H-scene.
- Handicapped Badass: Now has only her right arm, after Kotomine cut off the left one. She gets a new magic arm from somewhere or another soon after she wakes up though, if a strange bonus scene at the end counts as canon.
- that's supposed to be canon. Artificial/magical arm always appears in other side material.
- Expy: Like Sion from Melty Blood, she is a socially awkward, purple haired young woman from a fallen noble family in the magic association who has half-requited feelings for the protagonist and uses relics to make up for her relative lack of magical ability.
- Fan Nickname: Baguette McFraggleRock, along with others.
- Groundhog Day Loop: This is more of a setting trope, but it's worth mentioning here since the four day loop is being maintained by Avenger to keep her alive, after all.
- Hot Chick in a Badass Suit: Of course.
- Infinite Supplies: Averted, she only has a finite amount of Fragarachs in her possession, so she has to plan how to efficiently use them in battle. Of course, because of the loop, she gets a new supply with each new life.
- Until she learns to control it, then she'll be on par of Ciel from Tsukihime.
- Love Before First Sight: Bazett's had a big crush on Lancer since her childhood. She hadn't actually met him or anything - she was just a big fan of the Ulster Cycle.
- Memento MacGuffin: Her earrings are a trademark of the Red Branch Knights. I wonder if those earrings Lancer wears are related at all...
- The Stoic: She gives off this aura, but as Avenger discovers, she's really quite timid and emotional.
- Spell My Name with an "S": So is it "Bazett" or "Bazette"?
- Sugar and Ice Personality: She acts more like this as time goes on. Unlike Caren she doesn't get an H-scene though.
Caren Ortensia
Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (JP)
Caren is an impassive young woman who seems to have taken Kotomine's place at the church (and as Lancer and Gilgamesh's master) in the four-day time loop. She enjoys teasing and embarrassing others, but is very forgiving of others' wrongdoings—she goes so far as to actually blame herself for them. Avenger eventually falls in love with her, making her the main heroine of hollow ataraxia.
It turns out that she is present in the time loop because she's the one who discovered Bazett in the real world and has been nursing her back to health.
She fights with a unique kind of cloth spear, and is Kotomine's long-lost daughter.
- Bandage Babe: Due to the Blessed with Suck / Body Horror below.
- Blessed with Suck: Caren's body reacts to the presence of evil spirits, so the Church likes using her as their radar.
- Body Horror: This involves spikes erupting from under her skin.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Eventually.
- Emotionless Girl: She remains calm and nearly expressionless even while pinching Avenger's cheeks.
- Eyes of Gold
- Leitmotif: Funnily enough, "Caren's theme" in hollow ataraxia.
- Meaningful Name: Ortensia refers to the hydrangea, and karen means "pretty" in Japanese which is a hint at her relationship with Kotomine, since "Kirei" is a homophone for a word that also means "pretty".
- Nice Hat
- Nom De Mom: She uses her mother's surname of Ortensia, rather than her father's, Kotomine because he essentially abandoned her.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Caren or Karen.
- The Tease: She enjoys picking on others to the point of sexually harassing them, and her revealing battle costume is stated to be both for mobility and to invoke Distracted by the Sexy in her male opponents.
Caren: Stop? Or what, you'll violently rape me? That's a bit out of character for you, isn't it Shirou?
Rin Tohsaka
Voiced by: Kana Ueda (JP), Mela Lee (EN)
One of the main Magi of the series, known in the Fandom for her Tsundere traits and her Grade-"S" Zettai Ryouiki. While Tohsaka until recently attended Shirou's school, she moved to the clock tower in London, center of the Mage's Association following a disastrous experiment before the story began and thus is not present for the first half of the story. Before doing so, however, she officially took Shirou as her apprentice to teach him more magecraft. It is hinted early on that she caused the weird continuity issues that occur during the story, based on a failed attempt to replicate Zelretch's True Magic.
Tohsaka is the Master of Archer and was temporarily the Master of Saber, but appears to have passed that Command Seal back to Shirou.
- Action Girl
- Alternate Universe: The Kaleid stick works by temporarily pulling a version of Rin from another universe that can fulfill whatever wish she has at the time, and forcibly costuming her in the process. Rin may also be responsible for the mish-mash continuity, as a month before the game starts she almost merges all possibilities into one, with some notable side effects.
- Aloof Big Sister: Averted. Whatever weird continuity is going on, Tohsaka and Sakura now acknowledge each other as sisters and care for each other accordingly.
- Badass
- Badass Adorable: More relaxed than the stern and stoic Saber, but still more beautiful than cute... that is, until you meet her Magical Girl counterpart Kaleido Ruby... so darned cute she's beyond Moe.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Rin, like most Magi, barely knows what a VCR is, let alone DVD or Blu-Ray. She hates technology with a passion since she can't understand it, although she is learning from Shirou.
- In the Type-Moon April's Fool’s joke (with various Nasuverse characters setting up their own Twitter accounts), Rin has Archer set up her account, and starts using that as her secret diary. Hilarity ensues (scroll down to reply # 172).
- Cheshire Cat Grin: If she's smiling at you, something bad is going to happen.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: Rin definitely looks like one when Ayako and Issei walk in right after the Magical Girl Transformation Sequence.
- Creepy Cool Crosses: One is displayed on her shirt when she's in her casual attire.
- Equivalent Exchange: Supposedly a strong advocate of this, but it's a very poor cover for the good natured aid she gives at almost any opportunity.
- Expy: It's very hard not to see similarities between Rin and Akiha. They're both the young female heads of prestigious families involved in the occult with long black hair, blue eyes and essentially the same face. They even have the same Tsundere "humph!" pose, except that Akiha's lacks the flying hair that Rin has whenever she does it. Both characters are in turn partly based on Azaka—young Rin and young Azaka look exactly alike. The resemblance to Akiha is even lampshaded where numerous traits they share are mentioned while speaking of Tohsaka, but the character is referred to as Tohno by a Sakura who is trying to hide her jealousy. Note: Both go to a faraway special academy, have flattish chests, act like perfect students at school, are domineering and more are all mentioned outright.
- Face Palm: Rin does this a lot, often because of Shirou. Though one of her multiple trollfaces also looks like one.
- Future Me Scares Me: Not quite in the literal sense. Rin talks with a possible future version of herself on the phone and finds that she apparently becomes a completely different person that's shamelessly smitten with Shirou. Being Rin, she doesn't accept this and bickers with her future self for a good while about the kind of woman Shirou needs, before destroying the phone in frustration.
- The Gadfly: Mixed with The Tease. Tohsaka doesn't limit herself here. Equal opportunity harassment. Even when she's not in the story, half the time she's mentioned it's because she's trolling someone.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Good People Have Good Sex: Her adorable cat-pajamas love-scene with Shirou.
- Gratuitous German
- Image Song: "Kirari" (Sparkling)
- Ill Girl: Guest stars as one when she first comes back from London as she is having issues with her Magic Crest acting up and draining her energy.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Kung Fu Wizard: She is a Nasuverse magus after all, so don't expect her to be useless in close combat.
- Leitmotif: "Gentle Everyday", which often plays during light-hearted moments.
- Magical Girl: Her Alternate Universe self, "Kaleido Ruby". Really.
- Magic Skirt: Despite that S-rank Zettai Ryouiki and micro-mini skirt, she only loses the magic once, very slightly, in exactly one scene in the entire franchise, when she and Shirou are having a heart to heart in a graveyard.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the beginning it's strongly implied that it's her fault that all the different continuities seem to be impossibly mingled.
- Not a Morning Person: Rin tends to be decidedly grumpy in the mornings... It clashes with her perfect schoolgirl image so badly that even after knowing her for awhile, people are outright shocked to see her dragging about in the morning, completely at a loss for words and unsure if what they've just seen was real.
- Out of Focus: After being a major character all throughout all routes of the original, she is in London for the first half of hollow ataraxia due to a near disastrous experiment where she almost turned Fuyuki City into a place where all possibilities come true at once. She comes back and features prominently after a certain event, though.
- The Ojou: Complete with a Big Fancy House. Despite this, she's mocked as a bumpkin by Luviagelita, since she's from a country the Magic Association considers a backwater. As it turns out, she actually isn't very rich. Jewel sorcery is expensive.
- Parental Abandonment: Her father died in the previous Grail War. Her mother apparently died sometime before the Fifth War due to illness, but was presumably in a mental home before that.
- The Rival: To Luviagelita.
- Smoking Is Cool: Her Super-Deformed version which appears in the Tiger Dojos. Said chibi Tohsaka tends to abuse the hell out of everyone else's chibi figures.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Sort of. Different Romanizations have spelled her surname Tohsaka, Tousaka, Tosaka, Toosaka, Tôsaka, or Tōsaka. The first three seem the most popular in that order, but it still hasn't really been standardized in any way yet.
- The Tease
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: It tends to get lost because of comparisons to Sakura, but Rin is actually very feminine as well. It's just that she's also an Action Girl, who puts away any "feminine" traits when it's time to fight. The Tomboy in question here is Saber, who at some points adamantly refuses to even be considered a woman.
- Tsundere: A textbook case. She is Tsundere even in bed. Even more so in the scene where she argues with Shirou at length about him ruining the romantic mood, her pajamas and a variety of other things while they're in the act. She goes fully Dere for the last bit, though.
- Zettai Ryouiki: GRADE "S"! She actually helped really popularize the popular combination of twin tails, tsundere and zettai ryouiki.
Sakura Matou
Voiced by: Noriko Shitaya (JP), Sherry Lynn (EN)
Shirou's formerly timid neighbor, now a true Yamato Nadeshiko. Following the Grail War, she appears to have moved into the Emiya household where she continues doing as much of the domestic work and cookinga round the house as she can. Unlike her older sister, Sakura is quite straightforward in attempts to win over Shirou. Like said sister, she's a talented magus with almost limitless potential and has been learning magecraft from Rider to make up for what she wasn't able to do before.
Following '"Fate/stay night she has become much bolder and more aggressive, though still domestic. Shirou is horrified at the thought that she may be becoming another Tohsaka. Apart from that, she also appears to have taken over the archery club and the Matou household. She continues to serve as Rider's Master.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She gets a reputation for being a bit scary after she takes over the archery club captaincy. She manages to exceed even Rin at exuding invisible pressure with a smile on.
- Big Eater: Although she tries to reserve herself out of fear of looking unladylike.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: Having apparently studied Rin's technique, she has become a master of this, if a bit more indirect.
- Curtains Match the Window: Sakura has unusual, purple-colored eyes and hair.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Again, she tries to reserve herself. It's often Played for Laughs with Rider's conscious attempts not to get too close to Shirou for fear of setting off this mode.
- Expy: She is similar in appearance, and shares some aspects of her back-story, with Fujino Asagami (from the earlier Nasu work Kara no Kyoukai). There's also considerable overlap (especially the backstory) with Kohaku from Tsukihime, also of the Nasuverse.
- Image Song: "Egao Hitotsu de" ("With One Smile")
- Lighter and Softer: It's almost certain that her horrible backstory both occurred and is known to at least Shirou and Tohsaka if we take into account the literal "throw everything in" continuity, but they are barely ever mentioned or referred to at all except obliquely. In fact Shinji and Zouken are both alive and on relatively good terms with Sakura.
- In the event where Shinji gets Shirou to come with him to find Sakura's revenge diary, these good terms are revealed to be because Sakura has essentially assumed control of the Matou household, and both Shinji and Zouken are terrified of her. There is something incredibly satisfying about this.
- Moment Killer: Sakura turns this into an art whenever Rider and Shirou are alone together, likely to the bane of those who wanted more time with Rider. Probably justified, the few times she doesn't interrupt Shirou takes Rider on what's basically a date, and takes a bath with her, among other things.
- Nice Girl: Though Shirou is comedically terrified to realize that she's turning into Tohsaka!
- She Cleans Up Nicely: The castle dinner scene.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Matou, Matô or Matō depending on the source/transliteration paradigm used.
- Underwater Kiss
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Lives with Shirou and does the cooking and house work. Somewhere between the end of the last story and the start of this one, she took over Matou household without abandoning her Nice Girl personality.
Ilyasviel "Ilya" von Einzbern
Voiced by: Mai Kadowaki (JP), Stephanie Sheh (EN)
The little noble girl, usually called Ilya for short. She is in fact a living vessel of the Holy Grail, and her body has Magic Circuits splattered all over, which provides her great supply of magic. She is Berserker's Mistress, and lives in a mansion in the middle of a forest, with her Servant and two maids. In general, Ilya appears to be capable of great cruelty and is a bid of a mood swinger, but is rather attached to Shirou despite all that and is rarely taken too seriously anymore. Her identity as Kiritsugu's daughter is now known amongst the cast.
Unlike most of the cast, she appears to know exactly what's going on, but doesn't seem inclined to do anything about it. Her abilities as a homunculus appear to make her something of a Reality Warper: If she wants something and has enough mana for it, it just happens. And she has an awful lot of mana. Her massive mana reserves allow her to control the mighty Servant Berserker.
- Artificial Human
- Badass Adorable
- But Not Too Foreign - Illya's biological father is Emiya Kiritsugu and mother is a German homonculus.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: She really seems to be dead set on having Shirou, though she's much better about it than in the original.
- Cheerful Child / Creepy Child: Yes, she's both. It's not contradictory.
- Creepy Cool Crosses: The cuffs of her shirt prominently display a row of them.
- Cute and Psycho: But even without that she's a bit bipolar.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You: She seems to have come to terms with this somewhat. Taiga suggests that Shirou take her to Kiritsugu's grave and Shirou tells Issei that Ilya is his daughter, meaning she's probably okay with it now.
- Enfante Terrible
- Expy: Quite possibly of Arcueid Brunestud: Both have childish, selfish, catlike personalities, are associated with the color white, are referred to as "princesses", and to top it all off, Ilya's hairstyle is very similar to Arc's prior to the latter's Important Haircut.
- Backstory-wise, she's also similar to Akiha from Tsukihime, since they're both the biological daughters of the main character's adoptive fathers.
- Fille Fatale: Hasn't given up yet, though she's doomed to failure. Partially subverted by the fact that she's actually older than he is, although her mental age seems to match her appearance pretty accurately.
- First-Name Basis: She generally prefers being called by her nickname of "Ilya".
- Freudian Excuse: Let's see... Parental Abandonment? Check. Isolated from the outside world and basically raised to be a sociopath by her mother's family? Check. Put through agonizing Training from Hell by said family so she could control Berserker and be their representative in the Grail War, despite the fact that she was mentally pretty much still a child? Check and check.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: She just barely reaches her servant's knee.
- Hypnotic Eyes
- I Am Your Sister: She's Shirou's adoptive sister by virtue of her being Kiritsugu's biological daughter.
- Image Song: "Tsuki no Namida"; also shares a more "fun" version with Taiga below.
- The Glomp: Much to Rider's chagrin since it reminds her of how her older sister would jump on her neck to suck her blood as punishment.
- Legal Jailbait: Shirou appears quite afraid of being mistaken for a lolicon.
- Leitmotif: "Die Lorelei" by Phillipp Friedrich Silcher. Notable in being an actual German folk song.
- Younger Sibling Fetishization: Now that her relation to Kiritsugu is known to the cast, she really plays it up. However, there is still no sex involved, much to her (probable) dismay.
- Magical Girl: Prisma Ilya. Seriously.
- Older Than They Look: She's actually around 20: Homunculi have strange growth patterns, but hers is nonexistent as she wasn't made to be able to live as a human.
- Reality Warper: Ilya is not, technically speaking, a magus. She doesn't have Magic Circuits and instead her body itself is built to do magic as a natural extension of her being. So with this, she just has immense amount of prana to draw upon and can shape the world around her using it with nothing but a thought.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Some of the time, anyway. Generally, if the narration starts focusing on her eyes, bad things are about to happen.
- Sociopathic Hero: Played for laughs and she doesn't get to do anything too evil anymore.
- Spell My Name with an "S": "Ilyasviel" or "Illyasviel".
- Token Loli
- White-Haired Pretty Girl
- Winter Royal Lady: Not literally, but certainly she is characterized both by her princess-like looks and character and her affinity with winter.
Souichirou Kuzuki
Voiced by: Kazuhiro Nakata (JP), Patrick Seitz (EN)
Rin's former homeroom teacher at school and apparently the only other teacher at the school. He lives in the Ryuudouji Temple and is Issei's older-brother figure. A tall, stern man who rarely expresses any emotion at all, he appears physically intimidating, but is really a gentle soul who does his best to give each student a fair and proper education.
After '"Fate/stay night he and his Servant Caster married, meaning that both are now perfectly satisfied and unlikely to cause any problems.
- Badass Teacher
- Confusion Fu: Kuzuki uses a very unusual martial arts style to pierce the defenses of skilled opponents. Once they're used to his movements, he loses a fair bit of effectiveness.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: His eyes never have light on them.
- Happily Married: To Caster
- Not So Stoic: It may be hard at times to see whether he really cares about Caster, but he has a heartfelt conversation with Fujimura about whether or not he's good enough to please Caster.
- Perpetual Frowner
- Spell My Name with an "S": As there are two long vowels in his name, there's quite a lot of possible permutations to it. It's usually spelled Souichirou, Soichirou or Sōichirō in Fate/stay night media.
- Stern Teacher
- The Stoic
Shinji Matou
Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya (JP), Doug Erholtz (EN)
"If you want me to drop the barrier, you'll have to get on your knees and beg."
Sakura's brother and Shirou's friend from middle school. At school, he's a popular ladies' man, and appears to have calmed down from his incredibly unsympathetic start in Fate/stay night.
Contrary to his previous presentation, he now seems more inclined to sulking rather than rage. Shirou appears to know about everything he did, but as he carries the Unlimited Blade Works ending character development he is primarily used for comedy relief.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Shinji has an odd scene where he laments to Shirou that even though Sakura gets X0 scenes, he only appears three times in the entire game.
- Casanova: Character Material reveals that he is much less of a jerk if you aren't Sakura, though the only male he could actually get along with was Shirou, before their estrangement. Never managed to get Tohsaka to recognize him, though.
- Chick Magnet: The main cast of girls don't like Shinji much, but he's very popular with girls at school.
- Demoted to Extra: He is depressed to realize that he only gets three scenes in the whole story while Sakura has so many he can't count them.
- Jerkass: Though not nearly to the extent as in Fate/stay night.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Zouken Matou
Voiced by: Masane Tsukayama (JP)
The head of the Matou family and the cause of a great deal of misery for many characters. While he is still alive and apparently unpunished for his treatment of Sakura, it turns out he's been terrified into submission by her. Thus, he makes no real appearances. For the time being as the senior magus of the region he has grudgingly taken on Tohsaka's responsibilities.
- Demoted to Extra: Even more so than Shinji.
- The Ghost
Kirei Kotomine
Voiced by: Joji Nakata (JP), Jamieson Price (EN)
The former big bad of Fate/stay night, Kotomine is now very dead. He is occasionally mentioned, though it is bluntly stated that he has no connection to the current happenings of Fuyuki. Because he's dead.
Because he is dead, his position as the local agent of the Church means he needs to be replaced. There is currently a temporary stand in, but Sakura, Shirou and Lancer appear to be waiting for the permanent replacement to show up.
- Posthumous Character: It's stated more than once that Kotomine is very, very dead and that he's the only one that's dead.
Servants
Avenger
Originally summoned in the Third Grail War, the Avenger class is considered forbidden because it specifically summons either an Anti-Hero or Villain Protagonist-type Servant. The original Avenger—the only one summoned so far—was Angra Mainyu, The Devil of Zoroastrianism. At least, that's what the Einzbern family thought.
During the Third Holy Grail War, the Einzbern family summoned him to give themselves an edge, but it turned out that Angra Mainyu himself was nothing more than an ordinary villager who was chosen as a scapegoat to be the source of all the world's evils. He was castigated and ritualistically butchered. This calmed down his confused people, which ironically qualified him as a Heroic Spirit. His actual capabilities as a Servant were very low, meaning that he was killed early on in the Third Holy Grail War. When his soul was absorbed by the Grail, it granted the wish of his people, and both he and the Grail began to become the ultimate evil.
In hollow ataraxia, Avenger is one of the lead characters. He reached out to Bazett as she was dying because he wanted to actually grant someone's wish, and made a contract with her to keep her alive. When Caren found her and started to help her heal, he created the time loop to keep her mind busy; he took Shirou's role during the daytime and acted as himself at night.
Avenger seems to be a good-for-nothing whiner and a lazy slacker at first glance. He hates humanity for what they did to him, but still loves the world and wants to help people. His Noble Phantasm, Verg Avesta, reflects all the pain from an attack back on the attacker, but because it has to be consciously activated (and thus, Avenger has to remain conscious and alive through the triggering attack) it is next to useless in high-level combat.
- Ambiguously Evil: He's ax crazy, but seems to have a sense of justice and tries helping Bazett in regards to her emotional state. Considers himself one of the top murderers ever, but loves the world. It's hard to really pin down his character early on even when he is narrating because his thoughts do not really seem to flow like a normal person's would. Considering Shirou's presence hurts Karen Ortensia, evil is what does that and that Avenger is hitchhiking (or something) on Shirou, you can say that his instory alignment would be one of the evil ones but...
- Awesome but Impractical: His knives look like beast claws and fangs. That's all well and good, but it happens to make them terrible weapons.
- Ax Crazy: One of his very first scenes is him walking into a house with a family of five in order to kill everyone there, though everyone is already dead apart from one old man. There's no reason for it. Bazett does her best to keep him from doing such things.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Both Angra Manyu and the Avenger class were mentioned in Unlimited Blade Works, fleshed out in Heaven's Feel, and then basically forgotten. And now here he is!
- Demonic Possession: One of the possible explanations for The relationship between Shirou and Avenger.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His name is not actually Angra Mainyu. He says he has no name anymore because it was taken from him. Rather, Angra Mainyu is a title and a way of projecting the villager's 'evil' onto an appropriate source. The logic is that they make him into the devil of their religion and then treat him as the container of all the evils in the world. Because the evil is contained within him, it is therefore impossible that the villagers themselves could contain any evil, and it is justifiable to torture him in order to punish the source of all evil.
- The Faceless: You don't actually get to see more than his outline for a large portion of the story and even that is rare.
- Fragile Speedster: As shown in his fight with Saber Avenger is actually pretty fast. He just has terrible offense and horribly designed weapons.
- Heroic Sacrifice
- Humans Are the Real Monsters
- I Just Want to Be Normal
- I Love the Dead: A strange example. Early on, he considers raping Bazett's corpse (not a spoiler) out of boredom and, seemingly, because it's an 'evil' thing to do. This is actually more about him being weird than him being disturbing... though he's that too.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: His knife is referred to as looking like a beast's claw. Bazett thinks it looks nearly useless due to the shape. Well, it's not like Avenger is any good at combat anyway.
- Knife Nut
- Leitmotif: Funnily enough, the song "Avenger".
- Lemony Narrator: Narrates the portion of Ataraxia focusing on Bazett's side of things. His style is... unique. It switches between lust, hatred, childlike innocence, trolling and questioning of his own narration at points.
- The Load: He is a very, very pathetic excuse for a Servant. Kicks ass at keeping Bazett alive, though.
- Palette Swap: Take a look at him. Now take a look at Shirou. See the similarities? This is one of the clues as to his relation to Shirou.
- Poisonous Friend
- Sarcastic Devotee
- Satan Is Good: Well, technically the Zoroastrian equivalent of Satan, who is actually a random villager scapegoated into the role, but regardless he does some very heroic things despite having a quite justified hatred of humanity for what they did to him.
- Stone Wall: He dies very easily if caught unaware, but when fighting the black wolf things Bazett notes that his defense is absolutely impenetrable, though he launches no attacks at all.
- Tsundere: Tsun for Caren, very Dere for Bazett. Even more Dere for Caren towards the end.
- Weak but Skilled: He's terrible at fighting, but Bazett notes he's absolutely amazing at defensive combat. And by defensive combat we mean holding back as many opponents as he wants with neither side gaining an advantage. Ever.
- What Is This Thing You Call Love?: He regularly makes an idiot of himself around Caren—this entails flailing when she picks on him, trying to pick on her back (she just pinches his face to retaliate!), and raping her. Initially, he even mistakes this for hate. After much fail and consternation, he eventually gets it right.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: His Noble Phantasm. The ability to project all the pain of an attack back at the attacker? Great. The fact that he has to take that attack AND stay conscious through the agony of getting the crap kicked out of him in order to do so? Less great. It works in certain situations though, like taking an attack at full force and then reflecting the injury on the attacker to let Bazett finish them off. It may count as a Death or Glory Attack depending on how you look at it.
- Wisdom from the Gutter: When he's serious, he can say some pretty insightful things to Bazett.
Saber
Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (JP), Kate Higgins (EN)
Following the Grail War, Saber appears to have stablished permanent residence at the Emiya household where she continues to teach Shirou swordsmanship. She is the Servant summoned by Shirou. Being of the Saber class, she excels in many areas of fighting and has a very high magic resistance.
- Action Girl
- Anti-Magic: An innate ability of the Saber class is practical immunity to magic.
- Badass
- Badass Adorable: While more beautiful and dignified than actually cute, Saber's sincere and honest personality is very endearing.
- Bad Liar: She's not used to being embarrassed, so when she lies about something embarrassing it's really obvious. Like claiming that she was testing exercise equipment for demonic possession.
- Battle Ballgown
- Berserk Button: Played for Laughs: do not deny Saber lunch or feed her bad food. It does not end well. Also, she's rather touchy regarding the fact that she's young looking, as Lancer and an entire water park discovered.
- Big Eater: It becomes very clear that she happens to like food a lot. Well-cooked food mind you. At one point, remembering the highly inadequate skills of the chefs of her era has her briefly let off a killing aura. However, except for in the anime, the volume of food she eats is not that great. Food is simply very important to her.
- Blatant Lies: When caught playing with Tohsaka's exercise equipment, she insists that she was checking it for demonic possession. Shirou's inner monologue snarks about the horrors a possessed high bar could unleash.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: Not nearly as often as Rin or Sakura, but she does occasionally hide her anger behind a seemingly innocent smile. When this happens, bad things are in store for Shirou.
- Cuteness Proximity: Mild, but she has a notable soft spot for stuffed animals, especially lions.
- Does Not Like Spam: Not a big octopus fan, but only after learning what they look like. She calls them demon fish and is horrified to learn that she has eaten them before. She appears to think they are the monstrosities that Caster summoned in the Fourth War.
- Truth in Television as some people in Real Life refer to octopus as the Demon/Devil Fish.
- Failed a Spot Check: Saber comes home while Caster is learning how to cook from Shirou, and Shirou tries to hide Caster. Saber somehow fails to notice that the strange purple "trash bag" (Caster's hood) in the kitchen has a Servant inside of it.
- Foregone Conclusion: It's impossible to save Saber from dying because it happened about 1500 years ago from Shirou's perspective. However, this doesn't mean she can't live out a full life here and then simply return on the verge of death back to the battlefield and then die there. Thus, she's hanging about to enjoy life for a change now.
- Gender Flip: King Arthur as a girl.
- Hair of Gold
- Idiot Hair: Memetic mutation turns it into such things as a third hand, an oven timer, and the infamous Ahogecopter. Plus, if by poor luck you pull it off, out comes Saber Alter...
- Image Song: "Tooi Yume" ("Distant Dream")
- Jeanne D'Archetype: She's unexpectedly a very straight example. She is an expert swordswoman, was born humble but became the leader of her people, pretended to be male, and was eventually betrayed by her people. It's often the first guess as to her true identity, including in-story.
- Lady of War
- Lawful Good: In-universe alignment.
- Leitmotif: Sword of Promised Victory.
- Mundane Utility: After having pulled the sword from the stone, Saber stopped aging, or more precisely she stopped physically changing. She also stopped needing to eat. She never grows, gains weight or loses weight anymore. Thus, she can eat as much as she likes without having to worry about weight like Sakura does, much to the latter's despair.
- Older Than They Look: Saber was around 25 when she died, but due to the fact that she stopped aging once she obtained Avalon, she looks around 14/15.
- One-Handed Zweihander: You can unlock a wallpaper of her dual wielding Excalibur and Caliburn. While the swords are of a fairly realistic size and not the hugely exaggerated sort that is often seen for this, you also have to take into account that Saber barely hits five feet tall and has a rather waifish build. But it sure looks cool.
- Pimped-Out Dress
- She Is the King: The Once and Future King, yet.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Fate/complete material gives the official romanization for her name as Altria, while mirror-moon's translation gives Arturia.
- Sugar and Ice Personality
- Super Drowning Skills: This is rather hilarious, because she can actually Walking on Water, since she's got the blessing of the Lady of the Lake.
- Super-Powered Evil Side: Saber Alter seems to be back. Sort of.
- Big Eater: Unlike Saber, Saber Alter genuinely qualifies, but manages to destroy Shirou's pride in his cooking with her attitude about it.
Saber Alter: Lunch. NOW! <munch> Like always, your food is terrible.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Her new casual outfit.
- Evil Costume Switch
- Eyes of Gold
- Lawful Evil: In-universe alignment.
- Marked Change
- Paint It Black: Her armor.
- Perpetual Frowner: A super-powered evil version of her usual Poker Face.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Even though Saber likes everything, here it's shown that Saber Alter has a Trademark Favorite Food: Burgers. Burgers by the truckload.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Although Saber does have Lady of War elegance, she still acts very tomboyish. She apparently doesn't have the slightest idea of how to go about being girly. Tohsaka suggests she ask Shirou for advice on things such as what underwear to buy.
- Tranquil Fury: Played for laughs. You know that Shirou has managed to piss her off if she shows up to their daily sparring sessions smiling, happy... and wearing her armor. Cue ass-kicking.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Rider.
- Waif Fu: Either justified or an aversion depending on how you look at it. Without buffing herself with magic, she's actually pretty weak.
- Walking on Water: Saber was given this ability by the Lady of the Lake, but as a result she can't swim. Her trip to the water park with Shirou to learn is both hilarious and heartwarming.
- Wave Motion Sword: "Excalibur, The Sword of Promised Victory". She also once possessed Caliburn, which had a similar but lesser effect. However, that sword was broken.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She seems absolutely horrified by a simple octopus in Shirou's fridge. Her statements of the matter imply she thinks that they're the same abominations summoned by Caster in the Fourth War. Upon seeing what she has been eating up until this point she refuses to eat them anymore, marking the first well cooked food item that she won't touch.
Archer
Voiced by: Junichi Suwabe (JP), Liam O' Brien (EN)
Servant of Tohsaka and likewise missing from the first half of the story, Archer is only mentioned in passing and is positioned as a sniper if Shirou ever tries crossing the bridge at night.
Archer is a master swordsman and archer, though he does not really consider himself to be either due to being a magus.
- The Archer: Subverted in that he himself states that he isn't one. It's just something he's good at.
- Badass: The man the word "GAR" was invented for, folks.
- Badass Longcoat: Of sorts.
- The Blacksmith: Also known as "The Blacksmith Heroic Spirit." His version of "Unlimited Blade Works" has steam and gears in the background, resembling that of a workshop. He likes to make weapons, LOTS and LOTS of weapons; it defines his very existence.
- Charles Atlas Superpower
- Dark-Skinned Blond: Though it's not natural.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Deflector Shields: Rho Aias. Ilya's castle makes him look like a hippy when he uses it. Remember, it's shaped like a flower with seven pink petals.
- Dual-Wielding: Kanshou and Bakuya.
- Field of Blades: So, as I pray... Unlimited Blade Works.
- Future Badass
- The Gadfly
- Hyperspace Arsenal: His Reality Marble.
- I Hate Past Me: He and Shirou still really hate each other.
- Image Song: "Rise"
- Jerkass: Badassery aside, Archer can be a real dick sometimes.
- Knight in Sour Armor
- My Greatest Failure: As the supplemental materials reveal, Archer's back story had him saving Ilya just like Shirou did in "Fate", only to see her waste away and die a year after the end of the fifth grail war due to her Homunculus body. It's one of the first real dents in his idealism, and the main reason why Archer never considers attacking Ilya directly as an option.
- Nerves of Steel: Archer's strongest combat ability allows him to plan out strategies while trading blows and work out the most effective path to victory.
- Sarcastic Devotee
- Serious Business: After saving a kitten, he goes on to lecture the track members about why he should not be called a hero of justice for it and that it's a meaningless title anyway in massive walls of text.
- Tall, Dark and Snarky
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Completely and thoroughly justified. He can make his sword-arrows explode and can create an essentially unlimited amount of them to mind-bullet at you.
- Tragic Hero
- Trick Arrow: He uses various legendary swords (that EXPLODE) as arrows.
- True Neutral: In-universe alignment.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid
- Weak but Skilled: Archer is the worst of the Servants statistically, and depends on several lifetimes' worth of hard work and experience to make up for it.
Lancer
Voiced by: Nobutoshi Canna (JP), Tony Oliver (EN)
Formerly the Servant of Bazett Fraga McRemitz, she was abruptly killed by Kotomine, who in turn took her Command Spell to control Lancer. Lancer is a carefree, laid back Servant always eager to get into a good fight, and will never back down unless commanded. When not being an enemy, he shows a playful attitude and loves to tease. Actually, he does that when an enemy too.
Lancer is The Ace of Celtic Mythology and is thus good at pretty much everything. Throughout the story you can see him at numerous odd jobs including working as a surprisingly competent florist and enjoying himself fishing. He knows it's weird that he's still around, but doesn't feel like pushing the issue, though he suggest Shirou think about it a bit more.
- The Ace: Cu Chulainn was supposed to be good at everything. That's all well and good, but we mostly just see him fighting in the original story. In hollow ataraxia however he appears to be a master fisher, an excellent florist, a gardener and more.
- Badass
- Blade on a Stick
- Blood Knight: Though he does love fighting, he doesn't care enough to go out and start fighting once the Grail War appears to restart.
- Boisterous Bruiser
- Casanova/The Charmer: He has a way with the ladies. Since his values are a couple millenia out of date, he consistently fails to understand why anyone would be troubled by this. Worth noting is that he manages to get Ayako to act girly, something Shirou has never seen before.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Friendly Enemy: He actually prefers this kind of relationship and finds it odd when people feel they have to be antagonistic towards people they might end up killing. On the flipside is the fact that this does not get in the way of the fact that anyone who is an enemy is to be killed.
- Geas: There's a subtle reference to the geas that got Cuchulainn killed in his original life. Namely, he is forbidden from eating dog meat, but must accept any food give to him by a woman. Thus, Shirou tells Himuro that if he starts getting too attentive she should offer him a hot dog without telling him what it is until he eats it.
- Lawful Neutral: In-Universe alignment. He has promised himself to obey all the orders of anyone he has sworn loyalty to.
- Mundane Utility: Uses Gae Bolg to cut a bouquet for Ayako.
- Offing the Offspring: Killed his son without knowing his identity until after the fact.
- One-Hit Kill: The entire point of Gae Bolg's activated ability.
- One-Man Army: Literally. As told in the story of his life he tells to Shirou, he was the only person able to fight for Ulster due to a Geas on the male populace that he escaped via loophole. And he won the war, killing thousands of people per day or winning every duel he came upon.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Sobriquet: "Cú Chulainn" means "Culann's hound". In-game, he's also referred to as "Ireland's Man of Light" on top of this. Caren amuses herself by referring to him as "dog".
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: A number of people (the artist behind the Fate manga in particular), have declared him "The sexiest man in the game". Just look at his super tight outfit. It feels like he's wearing nothing at all! Nothing at all! Nothing at all!
- Tall, Dark and Snarky
- Taking You with Me: The final result of him unleashing Gae Bolg on Bazette, who has used Fragarach. Anyone else going against her would die via Fragarach upon unleashing his Noble Phantasm.
- Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: You can see him doing any number of jobs about the town as well as fishing. He's still good at everything, even being a florist.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Rider
Voiced by: Yuu Asakawa (JP), Karen Strassman (EN)
The tall, dark, silent, gorgeous Servant of Sakura, Rider seems to have relaxed greatly after the Grail War. While a very nice person, Rider's first priority is still Sakura and would absorb the entire town using Bloodfort Andromeda to keep her safe if necessary. Her identity and backstory as Medusa is expanded on as compared to Fate/stay night.
Rider is physically the strongest of the female Servant and has something of a complex about both it and her height. She's also incredibly agile and Shirou is attempting to pick up some of her fighting style, which does not go over well with Saber.
- Anti-Magic: Rider has innate magic resistance as part of her class, although it's not quite Saber's level.
- The Atoner: Although she forgets this until reminded after a freak-out near the end, she originally decided to become Sakura's Servant in order to prevent Sakura from becoming a man-eating monster like she did when she was alive.
- Badass Bookworm: The only thing preventing her from showing how Badass she is was Shinji's uselessness as a master.
- The Beast Master: As a nature spirit she has the ability to summon some types of beasts to aid her and is capable of riding them. In Fate she summoned a massive Pegasus that is nearly as powerful as a dragon like it was nothing. Shirou decides he should probably avoid serving horse meat in consideration of the Pegasus.
- Blindfolded Vision
- Bi the Way: She's definitely hot for Shirou and has a crush on Mitsuzuri, which appears to make her very nervous.
- Boobs of Steel: She has the largest bust of any female servant and is the physically strongest female servant, even if she can't match Saber in close combat.
- Chain of Command: Wears a leather collar on her neck as part of her standard battle costume.
- Chaotic Good: In-universe alignment.
- Dark Action Girl
- Dark Is Not Evil: Everything about her from the eyes of petrification, a summoning technique that requires her to cut her own throat, a boundary field that turns everyone inside into tasty soul and her vampiric abilities to her very identity just screams DARK CREATURE, but once you get to know her, she's really not. Really... a good Medusa, anyone?
- Detached Sleeves: Another part of her standard battle costume. Her sleeves are tight.
- Does Not Like Spam: Like Saber she'll eat mostly anything (but it's not really a notable character trait like Saber), but as one might imagine from her class and true identity she refuses to eat either snakes or horses. Of course, right after Shirou finds this out and comments that they would never eat snake, Saber tells him that Taiga brought home snake wine the other day...[3] Since she's from the Western part of the world, she also does not care for traditional Japanese dishes such as umeboshi or natto and can't understand how Saber manages to eat them.
- Evil Eye
- Facial Markings
- Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Other than her fetish-loaded appearance, she also tends to make suggestive poses.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Mystic Eyes: Cybele, which will leave you Taken for Granite.
- Gorgeous Gorgon: She seems to be widely considered as the most people person anyone instory has ever seen. However, she implies that this is not actually what she looked like in her original life, though she may instead have been referring to her temperament.
- Hellish Pupils: Rider has unusual, square-shaped pupils that are used to identify her Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- Homoerotic Subtext: With Ayako, much to the latter's unease.
- Huge Schoolgirl: In Heaven's Feel route in the original she was revealed as being conscious of her height. She also appears self conscious about her sheer strength here.
- I Am a Monster: Gets a scene about it. The gist of it is that A. she actually really isn't human, she's a nature spirit and B. if it comes down to it, she's prepared to be really vicious in defending Sakura.
- Image Song: "Shunji no Uzu" ("Instant Vortex")
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: As revealed in her Eclipse scene by... a copy of Sakura's soul or something? she actually loves Shirou and deeply cares for Sakura, but she wants them to forget about her romantically and just be busy with each other. Sakura thinks it would be best if all three of them could be happy together, since she insists that she wouldn't be happy unless Rider's happy.
- Meganekko: In her casual clothes.
- Mundane Utility: Shirou has a brief imagine spot of her cheerfully using her Mystic Eyes of Petrification to evade some police. Wisely, he does not mention this.
- Naughty Tentacles: Sort of. In one scene, Shirou's entire lower body becomes rock hard after seeing Rider's eyes by mistake. Rider then washes Shirou in his bathroom with her tentacle-like hair, after he massages Rin's magical shampoo into it.
- Poisonous Friend: While more or less a good person, Sakura is by far her top priority. She states flat out that should the Grail War repeat she doesn't care if the whole town is destroyed so long as Sakura is safe. In general she's quite willing to do essentially anything for Sakura whether she wants her to or not. Drink blood, kill Shirou, put up with Shinji...
- Power Limiter: Breaker Gorgon, which prevents her from using her Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- The Quiet One
- Rapunzel Hair
- Start of Darkness: She remembers her older sisters as obscenely abusive harpies for their constant teasing, but they did still love her. The constant mockery and belief that she would only ever have her sisters causes her to ruthlessly kill any men who approach the island to protect them, and the malice eventually warps her into the monster Medusa. Her sisters voluntarily sacrifice themselves to her to try and stop her from becoming a monster, but she's too far gone at that point.
- Statuesque Stunner: By far the tallest female in the game. Just look at her.
- Stripperiffic: A very short strapless vest. Although, due to her Detached Sleeves and Zettai Ryouiki, the actual raw amount of flesh exposed is less than usual, it exposes exactly enough. Interestingly, this outfit actually kind of scares Shirou.
- Sugar and Ice Personality: She's actually an incredibly loyal and kind person... but she does not look it. Plus, the first impression Shirou has of her is that she reeks of blood.
- Super Strength: She typically doesn't use it, though, favoring her agility. Reason being that if she overdoes it she might revert into a monster.
- Sweater Girl: For most of the time nowadays. All it does is make her beauty more classy though.
- Taken for Granite: Medusa. Shirou has an imagine spot of her using it to to evade the police.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: And she even has the Pigeonholed Voice Actor best known for Tall, Dark and Bishoujo characters (see above)!
- The Tease: Rider loves teasing Shirou... provided Sakura isn't around. With hollow ataraxia following more Unwanted Harem tropes than Fate/stay night, you can bet Sakura walks in just about every single time.
- Victim Falls For Rapist: Rider tries to rape Shirou in his dreams again to get him to more aggressively go after Sakura. Shirou Projects Rider's Noble Phantasm and reverses it on her, while a copy of Sakura's soul that was in the dream beforehand tells Shirou about how Rider really feels about him. She eventually admits it and enjoys herself, but wipes Shirou's memory of the whole thing afterwards.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Apparently, they're really fascinating. There is the whole problem of them being eyes of petrification, but the effects can be lowered.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
- Zettai Ryouiki: Not as high-level as Rin's, but...
Berserker
Voiced by: Tadahisa Saizen (JP), Michael McConnohie (EN)
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"
A very huge and very un-Gentle Giant, Berserker is the Servant of Ilyasviel von Einzbern, and being a Berserker class, he is stripped of his sanity and ability to coherently speak in exchange for extreme boosts in all other stats. Despite his bouts of insanity and the Berserker class' reputation of killing their own Masters, Berserker is pretty dedicated to his Master, to the point it's almost heart-wrenching. For the majority of the story, he does not appear much as there's not much you can do with a character incapable of speech or high level reasoning in a character driven work.
He would normally be a very versatile Servant capable of filling any role but Caster, but as a Berserker his fighting style revolves more around the age old strategy of RAWR SMASH STUFF!
- The Berserker: Well, obviously.
- BFS: Referred to in-game as an axe-sword, and for good reason.
- Character Alignment: In-universe alignment is chaotic insane, which probably pegs him under Chaotic Neutral. He lacks the rationality to make moral judgments, but apparently under normal circumstances he would be Chaotic Good.
- Gonk: Somewhat. The whole "Berserker" thing has some effect on his physique, notable after things like his head explodes, re-grows, and looks somewhat normal for a moment.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Extreme height difference between him and his Master, Ilya. He's around nine feet tall, and she's roughly four. And due to scaling up with size, he's a lot wider as well.
- Protectorate: DO. NOT. mess with Ilya.
- Restraining Bolt: Ilya herself acts as this for him, which says a lot about how powerful she must be in order to keep freaking Heracles on a short leash.
- Screaming Warrior: To the point that he punctuates practically every other blow with a roar.
- The Voiceless: While insane, he only roars—and the visual novel makes a point of emphasizing the wordlessness of his roars by always denoting them with "▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!". No "GRAAHH", no "RRAAARR", no any of the usual "stock" SFX for screaming/yelling/roaring. Just blank rectangles.
- Unskilled but Strong: Being incapable of any strategy more complicated than Attack! Attack! Attack! usually doesn't matter when you can shatter buildings with a single blow and move faster than the human eye can follow. In theory, anyway.
Caster
Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka (JP), Tara Platt (EN)
Currently both Servant and newly wed wife of Kuzuki Souichirou, Caster appears to have calmed down a great deal in hollow ataraxia though she still comes across as being slightly evil. Though she is the Servant most inclined towards plots and grand schemes, Shirou knows that she has everything she wanted in the first place and thus has no cause to start trouble. Since she is much less troublesome than she was in Fate/stay night she's somewhat more friendly with the cast in general, viewing Sakura as something of a little sister and treating Shirou like a complete annoyance in her daily life while appearing to actually respect him.
Caster is the physically weakest Servant except maybe for Avenger and relies mostly on her powerful anti-Army magic, her boosted master and skeletal Mooks to fight for her; she does less well in single combat. She also has a Noble Phantasm called Rule Breaker, a dagger which can dispel any sorceries on anything it pierces, including contracts between Servants and Masters.
- Beautiful All Along: She looks very mysterious with that hood. But if you see beyond that, she's... gorgeous. Shirou agrees as well.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl/Otaku Surrogate: Has an interest in dressing people up in interesting clothing. There's even a subtle reference to the Go-Go Enslavement scene from Unlimited Blade Works where she sends clothing to her former victim that horribly embarrasses her, but it goes undescribed. Mid conversation, she thinks it might be fun to dress up Issei instead. It's very... frilly.
- Date Peepers: She follows Kuzuki (dragging Shirou and later, Lancer along) to where he has lunch with Fujimura, suspecting him of cheating. She's wrong about it, although Fuji-nee of course does some things to make Caster angry enough to destroy a table.
- Does Not Like Men: Hates them. However, she's highly devoted to Kuzuki Souichirou and is a something of a non romantic tsundere for Shirou.
- Familiar: She herself is a familiar, technically, but this is referring to the dragon tooth golems she uses and Assassin. Assassin is unlikely to do as commanded, however.
- Happily Married: Meaning she's way less antagonistic, though still slightly evil.
- Image Song: "Sasoi" ("Temptation")
- Instant Runes: She can make 'em, easy.
- Lady of Black Magic: She is, according to Tiger Dojo 28.
- Love Makes You Evil: All the atrocities she committed were just a desperate attempt to prolong her time with her Master. With that out of the way...
- Neutral Evil: In-Universe alignment.
- Pointed Ears
- Power Floats
- Retired Monster: Since she has the only thing she wanted in the first place, Kuzuki and the ability to live with him. She's not doing anything evil and can in fact be both helpful and amusing, but she feels no remorse and would do such things again if it was necessary. Also, she still scares Shirou and she likes him more than most.
- Squishy Wizard: Shirou notes in his head at one point that apart from being an immensely powerful magus, she's basically just a normal woman. No awesome martial arts or super strength for her.
- Tsundere: It's not romantic, but she seems oddly approving of Shirou. Just remember that it's Caster's idea of approval.
- Villains Out Shopping: Shirou meets her a lot of times when he goes out shopping for groceries. She's not a villain anymore and wants to just live peacefully, but her status as ex-villain qualifies her to this.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Assassin
Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki (JP), David Vincent (EN)
A Servant summoned by Caster to guard the gate of the Ryuudouji Temple. Assassin is a solemn character who delights nothing more than having a good fight and hitting on pretty girls. He is, however, an incomplete Servant, thus he is still linked with the gate and cannot travel further than the areas in the vicinity of the gate.
The Command Spell to guard the gate against all unwelcome intruders is still in place, but apart from this he appears very little except to troll Caster.
- Badass Normal
- BFS: His Monohoshizao, which is 170 cm long.
- Bishonen
- Blood Knight: Now that there's no fighting going on, he's extremely bored. He's still stuck at the gate of the temple, so unlike the other blood knights like Lancer he can't even pick up any hobbies.
- Casanova: To the point of flirting while battling, even though he does admit that he isn't very lucky with the ladies. When Shirou promises to bring a present to him, he asks for him to bring two flowers, and Shirou right away understands that he is asking him to bring Saber and Rider next time he visits.
- Demoted to Extra: Barely gets to do anything.
- Every Japanese Sword Is a Katana: Averted: Assassin uses a nodachi just like his historical rival did.
- The Gadfly: Only around Caster, and it really pisses her off because he knows how magi think too well.
- Neutral Evil: In-universe alignment.
- Samurai
- Sarcastic Devotee: Assassin doesn't particularly like his master and makes no attempt at hiding this.
- Simultaneous Blade Spam
- Weak but Skilled: Possibly an even better example than Archer.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Gilgamesh
Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (JP - adult), Aya Endo (JP - child), Grant George (EN)
Most likely the strongest character in the series as well as the biggest jerk, Gilgamesh got tired of all the nonsense going on and drank a youth potion. Thus, he has reverted to how he was as a child, meaning he's a natural leader, talented and all around a wonderful child. He appears rather regretful of how his adult self acted.
- Affably Evil: Shirou wonders how the hell such a nice kid could grow up to be such a Jerkass.
- Bare Your Midriff: One of his outfits reveals his abs a little too well.
- Bishonen: Sakura notes that he "looks like a model".
- Blond Guys Are Evil
- Born Winner
- Cat Smile: His child form does this quite alot.
- Chaotic Good: In-universe alignment... and let's just leave it at that.
- Curb Stomp Battle: Once Gil reverts back to adult mode, get serious and brings out Ea, half a town's worth of monster familiars simply vanishes.
- Fan Nickname: "Kin-Pika/Goldie", thanks to an In-Series Nickname by Rin.
- Fiction 500: His trademark ability is based on the premise that he owned everything in the world at one point. Also, he owns a water park that he closes for Shirou and his friends to have a private day out.
- Friend to All Children: His child form. Even his adult form seems to be well liked by the other kids.
- Fur and Loathing: His pimp-tastic civilian dress.
- Jerkass: Yeah, Gilgamesh is sort of a douche bag. Kid Gilgamesh? Sweet, adorable, perfect and kind of ashamed at how he turned out.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Uruk lay somewhere in what is Iraq today; needless to say, the mythological Gilgamesh was probably neither blonde nor fair-skinned. But you can probably attribute at least the eyes to his divinity.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Screw Yourself: The hanafuda game has a hilarious conversation between Gilgamesh, Caren and Ko-Gil.
Ko-Gil: Aaah.....I see, nurture over nature....You have my condolences.
Ko-Gil: You must have had some boss and some coworker for you to turn out into such a straight ma.... (Talking to Lancer)
Gilgamesh: What are you doing? Why don't we hurry this up and take a, break....., oh, ooooooh ooooooooooh!!!!??
Gilgamesh: I'm in the Brilliant Blind Date Zone of Absolute Destiny! Lancer, what is that adorable little thing!? Is it God!?
Ko-Gil: ......
Caren: I wouldn't have expected any less of you, King of Heroes. As long as it's blonde and has the body of a child, anything's fine right. But, that's a boy you know?
Gilgamesh: Mrph. Fool, don't underestimate me peon! As long as it's cute, it's A-O-K. The true hero is not concerned with the likes of male and female!
Caren: Oh my. Not only are you self-righteous, exclusionistic, self-centered, and imperialistic, but to think that you're also narcissistic....
Ko-Gil: Ahahahaha. Everyone, let's finish this guy off first.
Gilgamesh: Mrm, I messed up the flag-raising again. No options even appeared either. Just where did I did go wrong, Lancer?
- Sleep Mode Size: Gilgamesh ingested an elixir of youth, which reverts him to a child.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: To the point where after reverting himself to that age, even he is appalled at what a jerk he turned out to be. Though he still does have a bit of an edge to him.
Others
Taiga Fujimura
Voiced by: Miki Ito (JP), Julie Ann Taylor (EN)
Shirou's English teacher and older sister figure. Her grandfather is a Yakuza boss who Kiritsugu was acquainted with, and thus, she and Shirou have known each other since he was a child. Although she's ostensibly his caretaker, she has no domestic skills, relying on Shirou to cook for her. Taiga was the star of the kendo club when she was in school, and might have become famous across Japan were she not disqualified from official tournaments for having a tiger strap.
Taiga's life and connections are more expanded upon than in Fate/stay night but is otherwise basically the same as can be seen in her entry here being almost exactly the same.
- Adult Child
- Almighty Janitor: Taiga, since she's a third dan who should've progressed much higher if she wasn't banned from so many tournaments because of her tiger strap. Not that this has any impact on the story.
- Animal Motifs: Although she hates being called one, Taiga's mannerisms, style of dress, and penchant for (comedic) violence are all highly evocative of Tigers.
- Badass Normal: Word of God states that her mastery of Kenjutsu (Japanese Swordsmanship) is equal to that of Ryougi Shiki, the most fearsome warrior the Kara no Kyoukai sub: Nasuverse. Too bad she's definitely a normal.
- Berserk Button: Do not call her "Tiger".
- Big Eater
- Cool Big Sis
- Christmas Cake: Famed as the "woman least likely to be married in the whole west of Japan". She herself doesn't seem overly concerned.
- Dojikko: Due to rushing around everywhere the has a tendency to crash into stuff.
- Fun Personified
- Girl Next Door: Was something of a Tomboy in her younger years, but now is slightly more ladylike. Slightly.
- Genki Girl: Adult version.
- Harem Nanny: She seems to have largely given up on policing everyone and just trusts to their own sense now.
- Image Song: Shared with Ilya "We Are Tora Buru". Fun Personified indeed!
- Nice Girl: How she can be so upbeat and good natured with a crime boss grandfather is anybody's guess.
- Precocious Crush: Had a crush on Kiritsugu when she was younger. The time frame indicates this probably started around middle school at the latest.
- Replacement Goldfish: Of sorts, to Kiritsugu; she reminded him of his deceased childhood friend, Shirley.
- Sensei-chan
- Shipper on Deck: Taiga seems to be actively trying to hook Shirou up with Sakura, which may explain her prior disapproval of allowing other females into the Kiritsugu household. Unfortunately, since Sakura doesn't approve of her more blunt attempts and teasing and has grown bolder, this has started to backfire on her.
- Team Mom: Subverted. The eldest member of Shirou's household and his teacher, Taiga is The Ditz, admittedly domestically unfit, and, outside Tiger Dojo, completely in the dark about magic and the Grail War.
- Weapon of Choice: A shinai with a cutesy tiger trinket strapped to it. She calls it "Tora-Shinai".
- Yakuza Princess: Completely subverted, in that despite being the granddaughter of a yakuza boss, she has none of the arrogant, cruel and/or hateful traits that come along with being this trope.
Issei Ryudo
Voiced by: Mitsuaki Madono (JP), Lex Lang (EN)
"What’s so good...? What’s with you doing all this for nothing?!"
The Student Council President, and one of Shirou's classmates. Issei is often asking Shirou to help out the student council by fixing broken equipment, and they have lunch together in the student council room. Due to the fact that they went to middle school together and frequently clashed, Issei hates Rin and is convinced that she's pure evil. In fact, he isn't very fond of most women due to his celibate nature, which stems from his upbringing as a Buddhist monk-in-training. His relations with his new sister in law are fairly chilly, though not outright hostile. He likes Saber, though, and appears to approve of Ilya to some extent. Somehow.
He has the dubious honor of being the only male character with blushing sprites. Oh, does he blush.
- Ambiguously Gay: He's noted as not liking girls much, tends to blush around Shirou, is rather possessive of him, somewhat jealous of Tohsaka and seems to be thought of as part of Shirou's harem by the school. However, with Issei's character it's entirely possibly that this means nothing.
- Bishonen: Popular with the girls due to his looks despite the story stating outright that he has a boring personality.
- Crossdresser: Caster mentions being disappointed at having no one to dress up in pretty clothes and Shirou mentions that she could always use Issei, leading to a brief imagine spot as she considers the idea. Granted, we only see Shirou's imagination of what he might be wearing... But it's awfully frilly.
- First-Name Basis: With Shirou
- Gay Option: Toyed with. He is one of the only men Shirou talks to, and the only one that isn't an enemy at some point. And he blushes a lot, especially while he's worrying over Shirou. And he grabs Shirou's arm and drags him away from Rin several times. When people are discussing Shirou's harem, Tohsaka, Sakura, Saber, Rider... and then Issei are all mentioned.
- He-Man Woman Hater: His relationship with Caster appears slightly strained and he gets along better with her than most. He does seem to like Saber though and Shirou seems to think he has Foe Yay with Tohsaka.
- Megane
- Not What It Looks Like: At one point he and Ayako are discussing things related to the cultural festival when Shirou comes in and sees both of them close to each other with their shoulders nearly touching. They manage to explain it in the end. And then Issei and Shirou appear to go on what seems suspiciously like a date.
- Scary Shiny Glasses
- Shy Blue Haired Guy: He's supposed to be really shy. Of course, all his scenes are with his best friend.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Issei is fairly standard, but Ryuudou can and has also be transliterated as Ryuudou, Ryudou, Ryūdō, or Ryûdô depending on source.
- Student Council President: Won't give it up until he finds an adequate successor. Not that he'd be allowed to.
- The Stoic
- That One Guy
- Unknown Rival: To Rin.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Luviagelita Edelfelt
Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (JP) in Realta Nua, Shizuka Ito (JP) in Unlimited Codes
Luvia is the head of the Finnish Edelfelt family and in good standing in the Clock Tower Academy. She's currently in the running for Student Council President. Although we almost always see her acting like a Rich Bitch since she's usually around Rin, she's actually a very proper, generous person. Rin just sets off her Berserk Button as a rival partly since her family was defeated in the Third War in Tohsaka territory, and she's looking to avenge the loss. Besides knowing almost exactly the same kind of magic Rin does, she's also a celebrated pro-wrestler.
- Alpha Bitch: After she finds out who Rin is in the boarding house of the Clock Tower, she acts just like this. Her target being Rin though, the end result was furniture being destroyed in the ensuing clash.
- Ascended Extra: She goes from a very brief mention at the end of one route of Fate/stay night, to a minor character in hollow ataraxia, to a featured character in Unlimited Codes (after an April Fool's hoax about a Fate wrestling game) and a main character in Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Ilya. Seems she just gets more popular with time.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Luviagelita? Really?
- Berserk Button: Anything involving Rin, the Tohsakas, or the Third War.
- Boobs of Steel: Following the trend in this series, Luvia has quite large tracts of land and gives Rin an embarrassing beatdown with her pro-wrestling skills. In Unlimited Codes, she can Giant Toss Berserker. Granted, considering the proliferation of large breast implants among female wrestlers in Real Life, this might be justified.
- Fiction 500: When she is kicked out of the boarding house following her epic fight with Rin in the lobby, she simply buys her own mansion near the school since "boarding houses are too small anyway".
- Future Badass: Apparently in one future (according to an admittedly weird scene during a phone call held while Rin and Shirou were trapped in a magical treasure box) she teams up with Shirou to hunt down one of the 27 Dead Apostles.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Mostly in Unlimited Codes.
- The Ojou
- Princess Curls: And as you might expect, they fit quite well.
- Professional Wrestling: I bet you didn't see that coming with her character type, but then, neither did Rin. Technically the "Lancashire-style of martial combat", but just play Unlimited Codes and you'll see the truth.
- Rich Bitch: She does treat "commoners" well, but she doesn't hesitate to rub her pedigree and wealth in Rin's face, while putting down Rin as a rube from the "backwater" of Japan.
- Sobriquet: Known as the "Hunting Dog of the Ring" and "Forklift Lady" for her pro-wrestling skills.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Some people call her Luvia Zeritta instead of Luviagelita.
- The Rival: To Rin, oh so very much.
- Student Council President: Running for this position at the Clock Tower, anyway.
Sella and Leysritt
Ilya's maids, both of whom wear nurse uniforms which Shirou refers to as Florence Nightingale outfits, and make them look almost identical. When they're not wearing the hats, however, they're pretty distinctive.
Despite both looking like they are in their twenties, they are in fact homunculi that Ilya made about two years ago. She considers them to be failures. Despite this however, they're still homunculi, and are considered strong enough to threaten Magic Association enforcers in one-on-one combat.
- Artificial Human: Both, though Leysritt wasn't actually intended to be. She was just supposed to be the Heaven's Feel itself, meaning the dress. Ilya is just too talented, though.
- Boobs of Steel: Leysritt is as strong as a Servant, and her Weapon of Choice is a huge halberd. As Archer points out in an amusing rant in the Tohsaka shrine, the weapon would be far too large to be practical for her size unless she also had insane strength. Sella, on the other hand, is either normal or fairly flat and similarly possesses merely human strength.
- Can't Live Without You: Leysritt has a very strong connection to Ilya and when Ilya eventually dies Leysritt is almost sure to follow her. The analogy made is that Leysritt is like Ilya's arm.
- Emotionless Girl: Leysritt has difficult with language and emotional display, coming across as rather robotic. However, she's quite close to Ilya and appears to enjoy making fun of Sella. Sella, on the other hand, clearly has emotions and is quite quick to show her displeasure with Shirou in many scenes.
- The Gadfly: Leysritt, oddly enough. One of her few pleasures seems to be picking on Sella at every opportunity.
- Ice Queen: Sella is rather cold to anyone not named Ilya.
- Immortality: According to Sella, standard homunculi like herself are essentially immortal, though she implies that she does not have a soul and that her life is less meaningful than a human's.
- Non-Standard Character Design: As noted in the Tiger Dojo they're drawn somewhat differently than the main cast.
- Ninja Maid: Not actual ninjas, but Leysritt at least has Super Strength.
- Squishy Wizard: Sella has excellent magical ability, but she's rather frail.
- Super Strength: Leysitt's physical strength is on par with Rider's, the most physically powerful female Servant.
- Younger Than They Look: Very mature looking, for two year olds.
Yukika Saegusa, Kane Himuro, and Kaede Makidera
Voiced by: Eri Nakao (JP), Michiru Yuimoto (JP), and Rie Nakagawa (JP), respectively
Those three girls of the track team of Homurabara High School, they have one brief appearance in the Fate/stay night proloque as Rin's friends. After establishing that, they disappear for the rest of the game. In hollow ataraxia their roles have been expanded upon greatly: Yukika is the manager, Kane is the star jumper, and Kaede is the star sprinter. Tohsaka shrine revealed that the creators quite liked Yukika, but had to be restrained from stuffing her into many more scenes.
- Alpha Bitch / Jerk Jock: After Kaede finds out that Rin and Shirou are an item, she turns into this out of jealousy (as she apparently likes the status being Rin's friend gives, and doesn't want Shirou stealing that). She also protests a bit too much when her friends jokingly tease her about liking Shirou, though...
- Ascended Extra: They make two appearances throughout Fate/stay night: one in the actual game, one in Tiger Dojo. They have quite a few scenes in hollow ataraxia, though.
- Boobs of Steel: Kane is rather uh, generously proportioned, and she is probably the most athletic normal human female in the series.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Kaede is definitely one of these towards the Track team she's training for regional’s, commanding one freshman to knock another over since he was lagging behind while running laps.
- Locked Out of the Loop: So much it's the plot of the sidestory "Love Detective Himuro", in which the three of them try to figure out the complicated relationship among all main characters.
- Odd Friendship: Yukika gets along oddly well with Assassin of all people.
- Sobriquet: Kaede likes to be called the "Black Panther of Homurabara".
- Those Three Girls: They do make a few appearances individually, but for the most part they are together when they show up.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: All three of them have a very obvious attraction to Archer as soon as they see him. They also apparently have crushes on Shirou, but not quite to the "smitten" extent.
Ayako Mitsuzuri
Voiced by: Fumie Mizusawa (JP), Minx Lee (EN)
The former captain of the archery club, she handed the mantle down to Sakura before the story began. She's a friend of both Shirou and Tohsaka, though there's also a feeling of rivalry in both relationships. Her role has been expanded upon, though she still doesn't show up very much.
- Ascended Extra: Barely more important than the three girls above in Fate/stay night, she becomes a more recurring part of the cast in Ataraxia and even gains a little brother.
- Club President: Archery club captain in Fate/stay night, she handed down the position to Sakura, who turns out to be surprisingly good at it. This leads to a power dynamic that is compared to rock paper scissors: Sakura scolds Taiga, Taiga uses her kendo credentials for sympathy from Ayako and Ayako uses her experience to shut Sakura down on the basis of not being able to control Taiga.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Rider seems to have something of a crush on her. Ayako appears to be rather uneasy about the development.
- Tomboy: The first time Shirou has ever seen her act girly was after an extended conversation with Lancer.
- Unknown Rival: To Shirou in regards to archery.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Tohsaka.
Minori Mitsuzuri
Ayako's little brother, he appears just about as much as Shinji ie. basically never. He has a crush on Sakura that everyone but her seems to know about, even Shirou. Apart from that he seems like a bit sulky.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Obviously jealous of Shirou, though he also seems to respect him and is not above asking him for help about a good gift for Sakura.
- Hopeless Suitor: Has a crush on Sakura. Yeah, I'm sure that's going to work out well.
- ↑ It's exercise equipment and she's playing with it
- ↑ As seen in Fate/stay night proper
- ↑ As an explanation, snake wine is an actual thing. In Japan, it is most commonly found in Okinawa.