Fate/stay night/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• For a long time I simply thought Rider (who is really Medusa) from Fate/stay night being The Woobie was just a common case of mythological monster being treated more sympathetically in an adaptation. Then I remembered something: in certain versions of the story, Medusa was a priestess turned into a monster by Athena for being raped by Poseidon in her temple. They really didn't drastically change the story, they simply took the basic concept of it and let the sheer Values Dissonance change how sympathetically she is perceived. --User:thatother 1 dude
  • This gets even better if you've played through Heaven's Feel and keep in mind how the Servants are supposed to usually have similar traits to their Masters...
    • The sequel, Hollow Ataraxia, makes this explicit, by showing that Rider originally accepted the summoning in order that she could protect Sakura and help prevent her from turning into a monster like she had.
  • Another thing regarding Rider. One might chalk up Medusa riding Pegasus as well as her summoning technique to Artistic License. Then this troper read that Pegasus was originally born from Medusa. When her head was decapitated. You know, the whole part where she slits her throat to summon him?
• Many people wonder why Archer was summoned as an Archer, instead of Saber, since he uses swords, and barely ever uses his bow. If you think about it, and play the game, though, it makes perfect sense for at least three reasons. 1. His favoured martial art in life was archery, and he was most skilled with a bow. 2. Archer treats his weapons as totally disposable, and is a total Combat Pragmatist. This win-at-any-cost attitude is reflective of the Archer class, not the honorable fighters represented by the Saber class. 3. Archer's entire backstory and mindset, and abilities, are reflective of the ancient Japanese philosophy of archery as a martial art. The perfect archer is one who has learnt to suppress the self, and give over one's life entirely to attaining a goal. The self becomes the bow, and as long as one imagines hitting the target, the target can be hit. Archer embodies precisely a dark version of this ideal. This is even set up in a Chekhov's Gun near the beginning of UBW.
  • When Archer is first summoned and Tohsaka asks him what he desires from the Holy Grail, Archer offhandedly replies with "Lets see...World Peace?". This was the wish Emiya Kiritsugu had going into the 4th Holy Grail War, and is early evidence that Archer hasn't forgotten everything that drives him.
• In Unlimited Blade Works, how was it that Lancer, after stabbing himself through the heart under the power of the Command Spell, was still able to kill Kotomine, stab Shinji, free Tohsaka, say a few last words, and still manage to self-destruct? The skill screen has the answer. Lancer has "Battle Continuation, A-Rank", which lets him continue fighting no matter how badly he is wounded so long as it isn't immediately fatal. Having the heart destroyed is not immediately fatal for Servants as they are spiritual beings, so Lancer was able to kick ass well past what seems feasible.
• Some may wonder why the holy grail was arbitrarily named such when its nature and ostensible function had absolutely nothing to do with the actual holy grail of legend. The entire reason for the grail's creation was to access use of the Third Sorcery, materialization of the soul. AKA, true immortality. Doesn't seem so arbitrary now, does it.
  • Also, in Heaven's Feel it is revealed that the grail was created for the purpose of opening a gate to the root of the universe, which is stated to be the ultimate goal of anyone who calls himself a magus. Given that Holy Grail has also become a term meaning an ultimate aspiration or goal, it also earns its name by being created to facilitating the accomplishment of the ultimate goal of all magi.
• Why is Saber such a notorious Big Eater? she's King Arthur! she's probably used to eating at the head of large feasts, not modern-sized meals.
• The infamous "Mind Of Steel" Bad End from Heaven's Feel has both Ilya and Kotomine state that what Shirou does is become Kiritsugu. It makes sense for Ilya to say that, considering her connection to him-- but the true extent of the parallel is revealed after reading Fate/Zero. Both Shirou and Kiritsugu fell in love with a woman who is a vessel of the Holy Grail (Sakura, Irisviel), who wasn't expected to really live long at all because of that. Kiritsugu sacrificed her for the sake of winning the war and saving other people, in accordance to his idealism and his "kill one to save ten, ten to save a hundred, a hundred to save a thousand" philosophy. In this Bad End, Shirou does the exact same thing, and if he kills Ilya and Rin, the other Masters, too, then he'll be following in his father's footsteps even further, killing off as many Masters as possible. While Shirou's other choice, to protect Sakura against all odds is basically the exact opposite of Kiritsugu's actions in every sense possible, as he sacrifices other people for his love instead. In a metaphorical sense, one could see this as Shirou fixing his father's mistake, and just goes to show how much Shirou changes.
• It recently came to me that Saber not aging for ten years due to Avalon makes a surprising amount of symbolic sense. When she took out the sword, she willingly became a King and abandoned everything for the sake of her country, at a young age when she was still an idealistic little girl, to fulfill the ideal that she had at that age. To do that, she completely repressed that part of herself, and continued acting for that purpose ten years later. In other words, ten years later she never outgrew her idealism, and never aged naturally on an emotional and mental level either, meaning she remained that fifteen year old girl deep down because that part of her never aged.

Fridge Horror

• Cu Chulainn (Lancer) summoned as The Berserker, he admits that he can become the role is BAD ENOUGH. What is one notable Noble Phantasm gained by BEING ONE? Warp Spasm.
• How did Gilgamesh know that Saber, at that point in her route, had lost her virginity? She's definitely a virgin when the story starts, since it's brought up elsewhere a few times. Since it happened in such a remote and isolated place, he would have to have inferred that that's what must have happened based on other information, or Lancer was watching and reported back, or he himself was watching.
  • I saw it in another way, for Gilgamesh it's impossible that a king is a virgin, as s/he can take whoever s/he wishes for himself. So it might be a case of Fridge Brilliance.
• In the Unlimited Blade Works anime, there are a few points where Shirou and Taiga ask Sakura to spend the night at Shirou's place. Most people would simply hand-wave this as insignificant or just think it's sweet for her, but if you've seen Fate/Zero or actually know the truth about her past, you'll know that for her, even spending a few days or nights away from the Matou house is like a trip to Disney World for her. No exaggeration. The things she goes through in the Matou house is close to Hell on a daily basis. To sum it up: "The Bug Room's Training".