Character Analysis: Archer (EMIYA)


(Warning: This blog will contain spoilers. If you do not want to be spoiled in anything about Fate, I recommend not reading this blog.)

Archer (EMIYA)

General Information

  • Known aliases: Archer, Faker, Wrought Iron Hero, EMIYA
  • Species: Heroic Spirit, Human
  • Sex/Gender: Male
  • Age: Unknown (Possibly late twenties-early thirties physically)
  • Weight: 78 kg (392.423 lbs)
  • Height: 187 cm (6'2")
  • Occupation: Counter Guardian, Housewife

Background


Within the infinite number of worlds of the Nasuverse, there was a world where a disaster broke out: a disaster that took the lives of many people as a result of the conclusion of a war for a relic known as the Holy Grail. However, a survivor would emerge from this hell on Earth known as Shirou Emiya. This disaster nonetheless broke the orphan despite surviving, developing a strong case of survivor's guilt as a result. Growing up under the roof of his adoptive father, Kiritsugu Emiya, Shirou would be taught some magic, and when Kiritsugu died, he would end up pursing the dream of his father to become a superhero: a superhero that saves the lives of everyone.


From there on, his tenacity to become a superhero was put to the test firstly in his version of the Fifth Holy Grail War, where he would emerge victorious and later collaborate with others. This wouldn't be the only time that fate would challenge his tenacity, however; he would face many calamities as a freelance magus, but would end up retreating against them as he was unable to do much about them. Realizing that his abilities to stop said calamities weren't enough, he would form a contract with the World itself; a contract that would allow him to perform miracles and become a Heroic Spirit after death. Upon finally becoming what he dreamed for, he would save lives that were destined to be killed, but then betrayed and killed by his peers when another calamity of a bigger scale came about after.

After death, his miracles were enough for him to be reborn as Heroic Spirit and become the Counter Guardian: EMIYA. However, it would become a apparent that much and little has changed from when he was alive: he would gain more abilities, become more powerful and be summoned into many different eras where mankind was close to self-destruction to clean up the mess; but he was still a slave to the World and he would still get betrayed, scorned and hated for his actions. But worst of all, he was betrayed by the very ideal he pursued as he would have to kill people to save the World. Upon this realization, he would begin to hate himself and abandon his ideal.


EMIYA would be summoned as an Archer Class Servant into the Fifth Holy Grail War of another timeline under the command of the head of the Tohsaka family, Rin Tohsaka. Although the summoning appeared to be accidental on Rin's end, it was actually EMIYA that would summon himself to her due to a catalyst he held onto during his life. He did so with the plan to kill the alive Shirou Emiya of the timeline he was summoned into, hoping for a time paradox to occur that would erase himself from the Throne of Heroes and everything he achieved believing it was a mistake. In the end he would fail to do so, but in the best case scenario, he would be defeated by his human self as he strongly believed it wasn't a mistake to chase a beautiful dream. And after the war ended and he disappeared from the timeline, he would accept that everything he had done to get where he is had not been a mistake indeed.

Skills & Abilities

Servant Abilities & Resistances


Due to being a Servant, Archer would innately have the following abilities:
(Back of a Servant Card)

Servants also have plenty of innate Resistances, and as such would also apply to EMIYA (at least the ones that were resisted with weaker Magic Resistances than his). The following are:

Class Skills


Due to being an Archer-class Servant, Archer would get two specific skills that would grant abilities and resistances aside from the innate ones:

Magic Resistance (Rank: D)


This ability is essentially Power Nullification. Due to being a Heroic Spirit of the future where sorceries and True Magics are extremely rare, his affinity with "sorcery" is much worse than those of Heroic Spirits of older times. This is reflected in his very low Magic Resistance Rank of D. This level of Magic Resistance is so weak that a strong magus (like Rin Tohsaka) could deal lethal damage to him. Not only that, but he can only nullify very few abilities due to Magecraft, most notably nullify being in frozen space.

Independent Action (Rank: B)


Normally, when the Master of a Servant dies, the Servant's mana supply is cut off causing them to promptly disappear from the real world. The length of their stay until disappearance will vary, but in Archer's case, he can last up to 2 days without his Master to supply magical energy. It is mainly due to this ability that his survivability is great. In Unlimited Blade Works alone, he was able to use Unlimited Blade Works against Saber after being weakened from his fight against Lancer and having Caster killed, last an entire day contractless, fight Shirou, survive an onslaught from Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon, wait another day 'til Shirou fights Gilgamesh, protect Shirou from Gilgamesh's Ea, save Rin and Shinji from the black mud of the Holy Grail, and finally save Shirou in the nick of time by dealing the killing blow on Gilgamesh.

Personal Skills

Due to his own miracles and his own legend, Archer also gets a total of 4 of his own Personal Skills that reflect them. These four include:

Clairvoyance (Rank: C)


Theoretically, this skill could be proper Clairvoyance which allows for seeing the past and future. However, where one would need Rank A for true Clairvoyance, Archer's is not due to it being Rank C. At Rank C, it is essentially an ability that allows him to see even the smallest details from extremely far away, capable of seeing even the tiles that compose a bridge like a telescope. This ability also grants him the ability to snipe his enemies with deadly precision even if moving at fast speeds. This is a reflection of his gifted ability of being a good archer in life.

Mind's Eye (True) (Rank: B)


This skill is akin to Analytical Prediction attained by the countless training and learning Archer underwent in his adventures. This Analytical Prediction allows him to calmly analyze the situation he's in and his opponent's abilities to decipher all possible favorable actions. Even if the chance of success is as low as 1%, this ability will tip the scales so this happens. We see this in action in his battle against Caster, who's Age of Gods magecraft far exceeds his Magic Resistance where he was put in a tight pinch against her, but he was able get himself in positions where he could've easily killed her 2 times. It is also how he was able to keep up with Lancer despite being weaker and less skilled than him.

Magecraft (Rank: C-)

'Trace, on.' - EMIYA

This is a skill that represents his ability at magecraft when he was alive. The full extent of this skill is unknown, but his ability at magecraft is still nothing to scoff at. Archer when he was alive would mostly practice strengthening/reinforcing which allowed him to strengthen any mundane object like a wooden sword into something that can kill a normal person and block attacks from a held back Lancer. It even allowed him to find flaws in the structure of an object which allowed him to fix it. This would be the beginning to the path of him perfecting his trademark magecraft.

Projection (Rank: C -> A+ Conditionally)

One of the skills Archer is most well known for is Projection. With this, he can essentially make an image of any Noble Phantasm he sees to near perfection for a few minutes, even adapting the skills that come with it as well and the Noble Phantasm as well (more info on the latter down below). This rank is normally C, but when the thing that is being projected is a sword the rank goes up to A+ due to his affinity with swords. Down below are the most notable Noble Phantasms that Archer has either projected or can project:

Archer's Bow


This is an original weapon and not one that he copied off of someone else. A bow that can withstand the force of launching Noble Phantasms over large distances. With this, Archer can do many things such as accurately shooting 13 arrows simultaneously with the destructive capability of destroying many houses, and even using a technique known as Broken Phantasm which involves detonating a Noble Phantasm to cause an explosion.

Kanshou and Bakuya


Archer's main go-to weapons for close-quarters combat: dual swords that are famous in Chinese legend and are based around the Yin-Yang doctrine. These swords are handy in that they boost Archer's low magical resistances to the point where he can swat any of Caster's magic attacks and improve his physical attributes. He can reinforce these blades further into their Overedge variants which are much longer and stronger than the normal versions.

Caladbolg II


It is a sword similar to the demonic sword wielded by Celtic hero, Fergus Mac Róich. It was once a sword destined to kill Cu Chulainn as its natural enemy. This sword was found by Archer at one point in his life, and he decided to store the knowledge and change it to suit him as a projectile, most notably a Broken Phantasm. However, when not used a Broken Phantasm, the projectile is capable of distorting space itself allowing it to negate durability. This Noble Phantasm's ability to distort space is so potent that if Archer had fired it closer to Caster, the spatial distortions would've been more than enough to kill her seeing as it shred through her Magical Defenses even with Caladbolg II being fired far away from her.

Rho Aias


A shield used by the great Trojan Hero, Aias. It is a Conceptual Weapon (basically a weapon that can affect concepts, natural providences and space) capable of blocking any thrown object/projectile. Just like its legend of it containing 7 layers of oxhide, the shield has a Bounded Field (basically magecraft knitted into a network of magical energy over an area) with 7 layers which are represented by petals (presumably to reference the rocket larkspur flower that bloomed from Aias' blood as he died). He can project the shield from afar, as seen when Shirou and Rider fought Gilgamesh and Saber Alter respectively. However, this takes up more energy than average to project.

Hrunting


A magical sword that was used by Beowulf to fight Grendel's mother. However, Archer would modify this Noble Phantasm with strengthening/reinforcement and use it as a projectile Broken Phantasm like Caladbolg II. Archer in Fate/Hollow Ataraxia used it 5 times to try and snipe Shirou and Saber. It functions like a Homing Attack seeing as it will keep chasing its target even after dodging it, deflecting it or parrying it- so long as Archer keeps aiming at them with his bow.

Caliburn


The holy sword drawn from a pedestal by King Arthur -under the guidance of Merlin- to claim kingship of England. This sword broke during one of many King Arthur's battles. This due to it not being a sword meant to be used in combat and more akin to an ornament. As such, this sword is not comparable to neither Excalibur (its superior model) nor Gram (the blueprint for this sword and equal to Excalibur). However, its sword still has its uses, given it not only can fire particles of light in a similar fashion to Excalibur, but it is also somewhat autonomous, helping Shirou Emiya in combat.

Gae Bolg


Lancer's cursed lance. This Noble Phantasm has 2 variants: the thrusted one and the thrown one, with the latter being the lance's true full power. In this variant, it is like an exploding bullet capable of wiping out an army. However, there is a bigger threat to this lance only possessed in the thrusted variant and not the thrown variant: its curse. It is a curse that manipulates causality. Whenever a conventional lance is thrusted at the heart, the cause is usually the action of thrusting, with the effect being the heart is pierced. However, Gae Bolg's curse swaps the order of the 2 with the cause always being that the heart is pierced. Because of this, it should reasonably negate durability and it is virtually undodgeable unless you are extremely lucky or have a high resistance to curses. This lance's thrown variant was capable of piercing Rho Aias up to its 7th layer draining most of Archer's energy. In other words, it took a Conceptual Weapon to stop this powerful lance.

Rule Breaker


Caster's dagger. It is a dagger capable of completely nullifying all magecraft. Magecraft such as enhancements, contracts with familiars, body control, possession by wraiths, and even beings that rely on magecraft to life are all nullified when struck by this dagger. This was canonically used to shatter Saber's contract with Shirou, and Avenger's contract with Sakura. It is not a dagger made for combat as it is more akin to an ornament used for rituals. Therefore, its usages are limited for Archer.

Excalibur


Saber's holy sword. The strongest holy sword. A directed-energy weapon forged by the planet itself. When projected by Archer, it is degraded due to the original's nature as a Divine Construct. This weapon has the area of effect to encompass entire fortresses and large building sized structures such as Bluebeard's Cthulu Mythos monster vaporizing whatever is on its way. This is due to it being an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm.

Noble Phantasm

Unlimited Blade Works


The ability that can be considered Archer's Noble Phantasm. Unlimited Blade Works is a Reality Marble: essentially a pocket dimension created from projecting and materializing the world inside of you into reality using your magical energy. This world functions as a steel manufacturing factory that can forge countless swords without owners. A hill that has all of the materials necessary for forging swords, with countless swords anchored to the ground. The sky is opaque and dark with faint glimmers of sunlight. This is a reflection of his experiences having been betrayed constantly by everything including his ideals, and being left with almost nothing.

It is here where all of the information (history, composition and designs) of all weapons that were seen by Archer go, which allows for near-perfect replication.  In here, he can danmaku the opponent with many flying swords similarly to Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon and spam his Broken Phantasm technique, and he can even modify any of the Noble Phantasms recorded here to his liking with more ease. It should be noted, however, that despite being powerful projections in their own right, they're inferior to the originals as their Ranks drop by 1.

Extra Equipment

Archer's cloak and mantle



Archer's cloak and mantle are a couple of Conceptual Weapons that defend from the world's environment rather than enemies (whatever this means). They can also be used for Sealing powers like with Shirou’s UBW in Heaven’s Feel route.

Most curious of all, during his life, he got these clothes from a certain blue haired girl that loves curry.

Weaknesses


There are certain shortcomings poor Archer has here. For instance, there is a limit to what he can project: he can't project Divine Constructs (weapons made by Gods essentially). The only exceptions to this are Excalibur and Avalon but that's due to exceptional circumstances (such as Archer having Avalon in his body throughout almost his entire life in his Holy Grail War). But even then, if he realistically tries to project them, he runs the risk of killing himself. It takes a lot of energy and requires saying the full incantation to activate Unlimited Blade Works, which means it should be easy to interrupt him. He can also be too cynical due to his experiences as someone who stops humanity from self-destructing constantly.

Feats and Statistics

Overall

  • Won 2 Holy Grail Wars (one when alive and one in Unlimited Blade Works).
  • Fulfilled his own dream by becoming a Counter Guardian.
  • Saved hundreds, potentially thousands of people.
  • Fought calamities like Angra Mainyu and lived from said encounters.
  • Saved the World in many occasions when humanity was on its way to destroy itself.
  • Found countless old weapons from the past, understood their design and integrated them for his needs with strengthening only.
  • Got fucking laid.
  • Is an excellent housewife.

Strength


Speed

Durability/Endurance

Scaling & Calculations

(Cue: 'Shikisai')

Due to him appearing in different entries with varying showings, one can argue a certain range of stats for Archer. Down below are some of the most notable scaling that can be argued to him per entry:

"An ideal is only an ideal after all. As long as you embrace that ideal, the friction with reality will continue to increase. So you will someday face reality and will have to pay the price for your compromises." 

Entries used:

- Fate/Zero LN
- Fate/Zero Anime
- Fate/Stay Night VN
- Fate/Stay Night UBW Anime
- Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel Movies
- Fate/Stay Night Manga
- Fate/Hollow Ataraxia
- Fate/Unlimited Codes
- Fate/Extra
- Fate/Apocrypha LN
- Fate/Apocrypha Anime
- Fate/Extra CCC
- Fate/Grand Order
- Fate/Grand Order First Order Movie
- Fate/Extella
- Carnival Phantasm

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