The beloved Tragedy of FATE- Emiya | FATE STAY/VERSE (Analysis part 2)

Correction, Archer did fight in the 5th Grail War as Shirou. Nasu said he was from a Fate route where Saber didn't fall in love with Shirou and abandon her quest. In that timeline, Shirou is still attacked by Lancer and saved by Rin with her pendant. That's why he carried it his whole life and was what let Rin summon him.

This video is underrated, great job

The problem with Archer and Kiritsugu is that they not want to become a hero (they kinda already are in fonction of your definition) they want to be at least superhero if not straight up gods. - Kiritsugu : ( Child dream of wanting to be a hero + the tragedy of losing what he love because of the evil of other + guilt of not acting while it could have save his home) = To save EVERYONE from evil by becoming evil => he reach the conclusion that he need God's power for his wish, but even after he found one, the God couldn't grant it to him. - Shirou : ( Being void in the inside from the tragedy of losing everything + survivor's guilt + admiration and envy to his father for finding happiness by saving other and finding beauty in such a live) = to save EVERYONE before his eyes and bring them happiness => he get god's power while still alive and it was still not enough, and then paid the price with his afterlife by being a god's killing machine to save humanity from itself.

The show was more subtle at points but still stated that Archer and shirou were the same at their final conflict. Hints are thrown out such as Medea(Caster) noting that they are similar which pisses off Archer. The issue here is in reference. Each adaption reveals it at different times to include the unlimited bladeworks movie which I highly recommend people watch because it shows some scenes with a lot more direct showing and expressions from the characters. The true root of this confusion though comes from the roots of the series. What many people do in this series is watch Zero and UBW but forget or overlook the original. And while some aspects to the original Dean adaption of Fate Stay/Night have issues there are also many very well written and subtle story notes. The fact Saber is King Arthur is hidden from us and not told till near the end of the anime by Rin. And Archer never says to Shirou who he is. He does connect the characters by three points one of which UBW does as well. And for those fans that watched UBW and Zero you might have missed so let's start with that one. The pendant that Rin uses to Save Shirou's life is one of a kind. Give to Rin by her Father that pendant in UBW is returned by Archer after the ensuing conflict very casually saying "don't lose it again it doesn't suite anyone else but you". This pendant is Archers pendant. Shirou had the other and was in fact shown holding on to it. That being a clear hint that the only way there are two pendants is if they are the same. In the original series of Fate Stay/Night, Shirou is told as clearly as possible by Archer that the only thing that Emiya Shirou is good at is Imagining himself at his strongest and projecting that. That is his only skill. This is actually sound advice because up to then Shirou was trying to understand what his magic was good for and it was unfocused. He also is sharing this information knowing fully who he is which would be odd advice for someone who's main interactions were dismissing Shirous actions as foolish and telling him To essentially give up. Other than that Archer amd shirou have very little dialog together and most of it is far from mentoring. But that last bit he gives is to help him and is used in his fight against Kirei Kotomine to help him project Avalon. Mind you each Shirou has a different rate of progression and realization of their dreams and what their dreams entale. The Third is kinda loaded of 3 major hints but they happen all over 2 min. The final fight for Archer and Berserker Archer is about to be beaten by Illyasviel but calls her Ily or Illya depending on language. Only 3 character uses her name in an endearing or nickname way. Her father, her mother, and her adoptive brother Shirou. While they never met until the war Kiritsugu did adopt Shirou and by Fate the two of them met. The second hint is in the scene of archers coat fading away it reveals the pendant which in the original series was never shown save for when Shirou was saved and only Shirou had it. Archer in this version never returns the pendant but Rin remarks it was priceless and tells Shirou to keep it. And then there is the credits. In the original two very important things need to be known. There are 4 credit songs. 2 are regular ones but 2 happen only once. During both the credits that happen once a death of a main character occurs. Though while Sabers is filled with scenes of her in the series, Archers is filled with scenes of not only his scenes as Archer but scenes with Shirou in it. Remember the subtlety of this is brilliant because you don't realize it until you watch the end and realize that this is a tribute to a specific character. Celebration of that characters moments and memories. So when you watch it the series is pointing a finger showing you it's Archer without you knowing. I didn't realize that Archer was Shirou until I rewatched the original series and this blew my mind when I noticed it. The series as a whole does this alot and it'd one reason why Fate is so amazing is the complex writing and direction for scenes.

Plus Archer (Emiya) is trying to I quote “Erase the self the gave rise to me” and then he says “that will erase the mistake known as me”

You did fantastic in your analysis. I saw both part 1 and 2 and I teared up a little just because someone that isn't a Fate fanatic understood Emiya.

It’s called the Emiya Paradox