Archer: "No, Rin! I'm not carpet-bombing the city!"
Project Mouthwash's parody series Fate/Stay Night -Unlimited Blade Works- Abridged adapts Ufotable studio's adaption of Fate/Stay Night. In the first part, I talked about the abridged series and why it's appealing, but I avoided spoilers there.
This time I'll talk about my opinion on the characters and plot points. I said in my previous article that the references & characterization of UBW Abridged is on point. Below are some specific examples from the main characters:
Rin Tohsaka
"100% Maximum NO CHILL!"
Rin is the first character we see in the Abridged series, and Episode 0 is dedicated for her and her servant. In Fate/Stay Night series Rin is a proud girl of the Tohsaka family. Talented an rich, she participates in the war because her father lost and she wanted to win for him. Rin is knowledgeable about Magecraft. She's selfish but can compromise with common sense.
Abridged-Rin is insane! She's psycho with little-to-no common sense! Very competitive, hates losing, abuses her power & beauty. Otherwise she's just like herself in the original. Abridged-Rin is so fun to watch! Many of her lines are unique and quotable.
"You won't like Rin Tohsaka when she has something to lose!"
She has tendency to get over her head and she doesn't fathom the possibility of being wrong. She thought that her servant is a Saber-class Satan. She needed three separate sets of evidence to realize she was wrong. Her classmates got used to see her bully people or hear her insane speeches. (Maybe because there are two people worse than her in the school?) Rin's friend Ayako wasn't surprised when she gave her a knife and told her to kill Shirou one day.
The funniest running gag in the abridged series is how Rin gives things nicknames and sticks with them. She falls in love with Saber and calls her Baeber every time! Rin keeps referring to the Holy Grail War as Murder-Death-Kill. (She has a convincing argument to back that up.) The consistency of the characterization is something I love about the writers of this series.
The voice actress is doing a great job in making Rin feel alive and unique. I can feel her having fun with the character. I love that!
Archer
"I'm the Bone of my Sword!"
Archer is probably my favorite character in all of Fate franchise. (Though, I haven't seen every series yet.) In the original Fate/Stay Night series, he's Rin servant in the war. An arrogant, proud and serious guy. He's described in the visual novel as a True Neutral. Archer cares more about his agenda than anything that happens in the war, and while he doesn't want unnecessary victims, he doesn't go out of his way to save people.
He claimed that he's the strongest, despite not remembering his true identity. He has a special ability to create weapons at will. His most used weapons are the Yin-Yang twin swords: Kanshou and Bakuya. Unlike many servants in the war, Archer weapons aren't his Noble Phantasm.
Archer identity is a big mystery of both the Fate route and Unlimited Blade Works'. In the original series, the reveal is a big deal to anyone who didn't know it before watching. The abridged version however foreshadows Archer's identity with every line he says. That's why I recommend anyone who wants to watch UBW Abridged to watch the original first.
Abridged-Archer is mostly an exaggeration of the original one. He is a proud warrior though sometimes he fakes his confidence. Archer knows to not pick a fight he can't win. In Episode 0 of the Abridged, he spent most of his fight with lancer boasting, while telling Rin telepathically they should run. Later when he knew that Berserker was coming, he ran away "choosing life," knowing that he has no chance of defeating him.
Abridged archer has a silly side to him. He's sarcastic. His banters with Rin and Shirou makes you wonder why he puts with the former, and why the later is still alive already. Archer knows things! One of the running gags is how his knowledge is not as up-to-date as he thinks.
Archer: "I'm NOT Satan!"
Rin: "Why do you hate yourself so much?"
Archer: "There are many reasons!"
Being the unfortunate servant of Rin Tohsaka. Archer was accused of being Satan. Nothing he says or do could prove otherwise to her. She even used his knowledge of Reality Marbles to prove her point.
Despite being of the Archer-class he doesn't use Arrows and Bows. Instead he uses Swords and Projectiles. Abridged-Rin thinks that "you can't throw things around and call yourself an Archer." He doesn't need to use his projectiles often enough to convince her.
Most of the fun with the Abridged-Archer is the foreshadowing for his eventual role in Unlimited Blade Works story. I'm writing this to be as spoiler-free as possible. If I was able to, I hope to write a spoiler-heavy article about all the foreshadowing moments I've noticed. (I know I missed some.)
An analysis of Fate/Stay Night, (and especially Archer) isn't complete without mentioning Shirou Emiya. This article is long enough already, so I'm leaving my favorite stupid-dreamer and his Saber Rin's Baeber to the next article. Hope to see you soon~
- All images in this article are taken from Fate/Stay Night UBW Abridged.
- This article is crossposted here on Hive and on Read.cash.
- Click here to read Part 1 of this series.