Emiya Shirou

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Character
Name: Emiya Shirou
Occupation: High school student, mage, Master in the Fuyuki Grail War
Relationships: Emiya Kiritsugu (adoptive father), Illyasviel von Einzbern (adoptive sister), Fujimura Taiga (legal guardian), Artoria Pendragon (Servant), Archer Emiya (alternate self)
Fandom: Fate/, Fate/stay night
Other:
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Spoiler Warning: This article or section may contain spoilers. If this bothers you, proceed with caution.

Emiya Shirou is the protagonist of the 2004 visual novel Fate/stay night and a recurring character in the Fate/ franchise.

Canon

Emiya Shirou is a high school student and amateur mage who participates in the Fifth Holy Grail War as the master of Artoria Pendragon (Saber). Shirou is a hard-working and self-sacrificing person who is willing to endure anything at all in order to attain his dream of becoming a hero of justice. He is an amateur mage who uses material transformation magic. His hobbies include archery, cooking, and doing repairs.

His adoptive father, Kiritsugu, was a mage who participated in the Fourth Holy Grail War as Artoria's Master. Shirou's parents were killed in a massive blaze that resulted from the end of the war, and Kiritsugu was only able to save Shirou by implanting the sheath of Excalibur in his body. His trauma from the fire and the views Kiritsugu expressed on heroism prior to his death both contributed to Shirou's obsessive dedication to saving people, while the existence of Excalibur within his body allowed him to summon Artoria without meaning to do so.

In the original visual novel, Shirou has canonical romance routes with his Servant, Artoria, as well as with his classmates and fellow mages Tohsaka Rin and Matou Sakura. Depending on the route, his motivations for participating in the war, relationships with other characters, and ultimate fate vary.

Fandom

Shirou is a somewhat polarizing character in the Fate/ fandom, with both strident defenders and people who avidly dislike him.

I like his personality and I do think he’s a really complex person. As I said earlier it’s very interesting how he’s acting as a Hero of Justice not out of pure kindness, but for his own happiness to cope with living. He’s a broken person and he knows it and even Rin is disturbed by it once she sees it. That’s why his dynamic with Kirei is one of the best parts of HF, how they parallel each other with how broken they are, Kirei can only find joy in the suffering of others while Shirou can only find happiness in others joys. - Raidriar[1]

Its not even like I dislike how his character is written, I think Nasu did a good job of writing him and making me hate the little shit for being so god damn stupid 90% of the time. I understand why the character is like that and its for a good reason, but that doesnt stop me from wanting the punch him anytime he pretty much puts himself and possibly other people in harms way just to help 1 insignificant or even significant person. He's constantly thinking that can and has to save EVERYONE and thats what I hate about him so much. - BP_Ray[2]

I kinda get the feeling that Shirou was pretty much given the outer layer of what a generic shounen protagonist should be, and then he was given a web of complexity under that outer layer, something to explore and study. It's kinda subversion of the whole generic hero trope in that sense. Point is that the end result was an highly interesting and likable character. - Fenhafare[3]

I find his ideal something worthy of praise in so long as he actually tries to save everyone, but once he starts making judgements about the value of someone's life (as MoS Shirou does with Sakura), he loses all respect from me. - CherryLoverMike[4]

VN reader here. I also hated Shirou at the beginning and throughout Fate route, not because there is something particularly bad in that route, but because that's the first exposure. He has a lot of annoying personality traits, gets introduced as incapable as a master, as a fighter, and as a mage and still acts dumb. The introduction of his powers (projecting Caliburn) was too jarring and felt like an asspull at first, you know, someone who did pretty much nothing projecting a NP now lmao. But the more you go on, he gets better on you. He still has these annoying traits but later you see a lot of good ones that makes up for it. The more you learn about his backstory and how much he is fucked up, the more you tolerate why he is acting suicidal sometimes. When you learn how his abilities work exactly work it feels way less intimating and actually you feel hyped. - Beautiful-Actuator[5]

In particular, several fans have noted that Shirou's interactions with Saber in her route have undertones of sexism:

Much of his unpopularity comes from the Fate route's version where he initially acts misogynistic towards Saber (his Heroic Spirit, a special kind of servant used to battle in the Holy Grail War and usually against other Spirits, most consisting of heroic figures of myth from every possible time), coming close to telling her where women should be. What some do not acknowledge is Saber's near-death at the hands of Berserker (another Heroic Spirit) which hits rather close to home as another person would die for his own survival once more and stereotype-based perceptions on his part. - CerberusGate[6]

Shirou is the only one I can say I actually like as a character, but it took a long time for me to be able to see past the sexism ingrained in his original writing in F/SN and Hollow Ataraxia. - @dabiden[7]

Pairings

As the protagonist of a visual novel with harem elements, Shirou is frequently involved in shipping. The majority of the shipping involving Shirou is het featuring the three romantic interests who have their own routes in the visual novel (Saber, Sakura, and Rin), but he can be considered something of a fandom bicycle and features heavily in slash and poly ships as well. Fanworks that feature Shirou with a polyamorous harem are common, as are fics featuring slash pairings with various supporting male characters from the series. The Fate/kaleid liner prisma Illya spinoff encouraged the popularity of the incest ship between Shirou and his adoptive sister Illyasviel. Some fans also ship Shirou with his alternate self, Archer Emiya.

Fanon and Common Tropes

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

Fanart

Fanvids

Meta

Cosplay

Links & Resources

References

  1. ^ Spacebattles: Raidriar's Reply to What are your opinions about Shirou Emiya (Fate)?
  2. ^ r/CharacterRants: I dislike Shirou Emiya
  3. ^ Reply to r/fatestaynight: What is your opinion of Shirou Emiya as a whole? by Fenhafare
  4. ^ r/fatestaynight: Reply to What did you think of emiya shirou's ideal by CherryLoverMike
  5. ^ r/fatestaynight: Reply to Why is Emiya Shirou so hated? by Beautiful-Actuator
  6. ^ subjectivelybiasedrants: An Opinion on Shirou Emiya
  7. ^ Reply to: [fire emoji] Any Emiya by @dabiden
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