Fate Shirou Emiya

Shirou Emiya - Fate

Profile

Shirou Emiya is the protagonist of Fate/stay night and Saber’s Master during the Fifth Holy Grail War. His adoptive father is Kiritsugu Emiya, who found him and saved his life after the fire that resulted at the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War that killed hundreds of people. He is kind and caring, and has a strong sense of justice. His goal is to become a protector of justice, a promise that he made to Kiritsugu before he died. Shirou has lofty ideals and wants to protect everyone from the tragedy he survived by bringing the Holy Grail War to an end. He is selfless in protecting those he cares about, often putting himself in harm’s way to keep them safe.

Appearance

In Fate/stay night, Shirou is a high school boy with short, spiky golden brown hair. He often wears either his school uniform or a casual outfit consisting of jeans and a baseball tee. In the “Heaven’s Feel” route, his soul is put into a puppet body that looks close to his original body.

Abilities

Shirou was trained informally by Kiritsugu in magecraft. Though his magic circuits are at first dormant, Kiritsugu teaches his basic Reinforcement and Projection magic, which would become his speciality. However, even with Kiritsugu’s training he is fairly inept and has a low level of success. His skills begin to improve with the help of Rin, who unlocks his magic circuits and teaches him how to harness his power.

Reinforcement magic allows him to analyze the internal structure of an object and change it in ways that make it stronger or more efficient. He also has a high skill in understanding the structure of objects, which is useful in manifesting objects using Projection magic. He is later able to learn the ability Tracing, which allows him to create near perfect replicas by imagining them. He is able to use this ability to create replicas of Noble Phantasms to use in battle, including Caliburn, Kanshou and Bakuya, and Avalon.

He is also able to regenerate injuries due to having Saber’s Noble Phantasm Avalon inside of him. This allows him to survive numerous lethal blows during the war that would have killed him otherwise.

In the “Unlimited Blade Works” route, he learns Projection magic but is unable to use it in battle until, with the help of Rin, he forms his Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works.

In the “Heaven’s Feel” route, Shirou’s skills develop differently than the other routes. Instead of learning to master Projection magic, he loses his arm in an early fight and is given Archer’s arm, which gives him some of Archer’s abilities as a Heroic Spirit that are beyond his limits as an ordinary human, increasing his physical abilities and allowing him to utilize Archer’s battle experience. In order to counter the effects of the arm, he is given the Shroud of Martin by Kotomine, which keeps Archer’s magic circuits separate from Shirou’s.

Role

In the “Fate” route, Shirou battles with his ideals of becoming a protector of justice and wanting to save everyone, while being conflicted over his feelings for Saber and wanting to keep her in the world after the war is over. Unlike other Masters who treat their Servants like tools, he treats Saber as an equal and is always respectful of her. He is extremely protective of Saber and wants to fight on her behalf to keep her safe, which confuses her. He fights through the war with help from Rin and is ultimately able to stop Kotomine before he can fully manifest the Holy Grail through Illya. After the war, he continues striving to accomplish his goal of being a protector of justice and hops to one day reunite with Saber.

In the “Unlimited Blade Works” route, Shirou explores his connection to Archer and learns that Archer’s Heroic Spirit is him from the future. The contradiction of them being together in the same time allows Shirou to glean Archer’s knowledge and techniques the more he is around him. However, their ideals begin to clash. In this route, his love interest is Rin Tohsaka, and the two form an alliance early on. In the end, Shirou and Archer face off in battle, but Archer ultimately sacrifices himself to save Shirou, who goes on to defeat Gilgamesh and destroy the Holy Grail.

In the “Heaven’s Feel” route, Shirou’s love interest is Sakura Matou. However, due to the influence of Zouken Matou, who uses Sakura as a vessel for Angra Mainyu, Sakura becomes corrupted and turns into Dark Sakura. Shirou is able to save Sakura from the curse by destroying Avenger but loses his life in the process. In the True Ending, Illya sacrifices herself to close the gate to the Holy Grail and implant Shirou’s soul into a puppet body. He goes on to live a normal life with Sakura and Rider.

Other Appearances

Aside from Fate/stay night, Shirou has appeared in a number of other works in the Fate universe including Fate/hollow ataraxia, Carnival Phantasm, Fate/unlimited codes, Fate/tiger colosseum, Today's Menu for Emiya Family, Capsule Servant, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, and Fate/Grand Order.