Hey, Illya finally gets a great scene with character development after what seems like forever! Granted, it involves her dying, but we’ll take what we can get. Also: Archer commits even more betrayal.

Opening music: “THIS ILLUSION ~Fate Version~” from Fate/Stay Night Original OST
Closing music: “Lorelei” from Fate/Stay Night [Realta Nua] OST

On this episode, we discuss the mixed bag of events featured in Days 6 - 8. On the one hand, Caster is a pretty cool villain, Archer makes a great foil for Shirou, and Rin and Shirou’s conversation on the roof is one of the most genuinely sweet things in the entire VN so far. On the other hand, Nasu makes Shinji even worse than in the Fate route, seemingly just to give Shirou additional motivation.

CW for sexual assault

Opening music: “THIS ILLUSION ~Fate Version~” from Fate/Stay Night Original OST
Closing music: “Spirits Collide” from Fate/Stay Night [Realta Nua] OST

With the Fate route now behind us, we can finally move onto what is perhaps the most well-known of the F/SN routes: Unlimited Blade Works. This is the first route that Sierra and I ever saw (and the only one we were familiar with from start to finish), and we’re excited to see if the new context of the Fate route will change our previous impressions of UBW. I’m getting a little ahead of myself though. On this episode, we cover days 3 - 5, which establishes how the split occurs and what the new status quo will be. We’re also relieved to find that UBW Shirou is so, so much better Fate Shirou…even if he is still a big dummy.