Overall: I'd think, going into this analysis, that Fate is going to be one of the more balanced VNs in terms of the color wheel. Since about half the characters are legendary historical or mythical figures summoned to do battle rather than individuals involved in the story of their own volition, the color themes of the main plot should influence the color skew of the characters less. That said, a good chunk of material deals with corruption and death, and one of the major backgrounds for characters is a society that exalts the ruthless pursuit of goals and excellence so I expect a fair amount of to show up.

I will hide the true names of Servants, but other than that I'm going to go ahead and spoil everything I feel like I need to spoil with no further warning. Also, last time I restricted myself to calling monocolors even if I talked about other colors in the writeup. This time, I will try to reduce colors as far as I can buy will not REQUIRE myself to declare a monocolor for all characters, the reason for which should be apparent in the first entry.

Shirou Emiya
Like Takeru Shirogane in Muv Luv, Shirou exists in the border space of white and red. He's a very different character, but apparently there's something protagonistic about the overlap state. For Shirou, he has a very strong conviction to be the hero, helping others and not letting people die. The question is, where does this conviction come from? If it's an emotional passion, that's more red. If it's a desire to be of service, that's more white. Shirou's actions tend to toe the line as well. He's self-sacrificing, a trait not usually seen in red characters. But he's also willing (perhaps overly so) to face his trials alone, a trait not usually seen in white characters. He believes in his path, but there also exists a thread of obligation since his life was saved in the past. Ultimately, I placed him as dual color because I think which way he leans depends on the route. On Fate and Unlimited Blade Works, Shirou is more , being dedicated and devoted to his cause to the end. I think UBW is more balanced, but if I had to call a monocolor, it would be white both times. On Heaven's Feel, though, Shirou gives up the prospect of becoming his true ideal hero for the sake of his beloved (of the route), an action that in my mind aligns him more with his aspect; if he were , he'd be uncompromising and not act out of passion, which would put him on one of the other routes. As such, Shirou before the player comes along and starts making choices is a character undecided between strong red and white pulls

Saber Artoria/King Arthur
Saber is the Fate franchise's take on one of the most iconically characters imaginable. And, the obvious bits aside, she's not a bad take. She hits a lot of the proper beats, especially in how she relates to ideals and how her existence led her to interface with them. She ultimately adheres to concepts, responds in ways and takes quintessentially stands on most scenarios. Honorable, strict, traditional... Saber is pure

Rin Tohsaka
Rin is a classic Tsundere -- Tsundere characters, being defined by the intensity and volatility of their emotions, are almost always going to be shoe-ins for at least having a red component. For Rin, I think the most interesting color discussion is her interface with . You see, Rin would probably see herself as and aspire to and be dang proud of it. She's "supposed" to be ruthless, even cruel when it's necessary, and not have much empathy for normals. That's how she was raised, that's how she talks a lot of the time, that's how she builds herself up... but she just doesn't hack it. She's not an amoral ruthless magician like she thinks is the right way of doing things. She's moved most strongly by affection and pity, her bonds with her classmate and potential love interest and her estranged sister. Time and again she does things she knows she shouldn't do if she's following the "win at all costs" mentality she's meant to because she can't conscience handling the people she cares about any other way. That makes her a pure character.

Sakura Matou
Oh boy Sakura. I feel sorry for her, I really do. Most of what she becomes on the route that really explores her, Heaven's Feel, isn't exactly her fault. She tries to be the good little schoolgirl. But... the darkness isn't entirely external, either. There is fertile soil in which the magical corruption (linking her to an entity that is pretty much pure, concentrated in a way that would make Yawgmoth's final death cloud form blush) can take root. There's a part of her, the whole way along, that *is* selfish. Envy and resentment run deep in her, and while on a normal day in a normal scenario not involving awful magical stuff she can usually pack that away and function as an ordinary and ordinarily decent person, it's still there. It's seen a lot in her alters, both her super-powered psycho side and other incarnations from elsewhere in the franchise that are based on her, that (at least after all her suffering) this is her true nature. Dark Sakura is at least partially corrupted from an "external" source, but at least part of how Dark Sakura lashes out is founded in what Sakura would be without any of her normal restraint. In a sense, when viewed through a color wheel lens, there's an interesting contrast between Sakura and Rin. Rin is a non-:b: character trying to pretend and force herself to be , Sakura is a character trying to pretend and force herself to be non-:b:.

Archer EMIYA
A being driven most strongly by his own wishes. His willingness to backstab and betray to reach his goal can come off as , but his goals and motivations are so personal (arguably even petty) that it doesn't really feel like backstabbery. I'm reminded that one of Magic's most noted backstabbers, Starke of Rath has a card, and honestly Archer is the same sort of that Starke does going on. His conflict with Shirou is particularly pointed, where there are a number of scenes, particularly in UBW, where Archer not only wants to kill the kid, but really, really wants to kill the part of him, like maybe if Shirou was as well they wouldn't be at odds like this.

Shinji Matou
Screw this guy. He's an awful human being who pretty perfectly fits the archetype of an opportunistic, abusive worm.

Rider Medusa
The key words for Rider here are logic and loyalty. She's outright said in companion material to never act out of emotion or instinct, always thinking logically. She is, however, extremely devoted to her master and will place her charge's happiness above her own life if she has to. She's silent, sullen, and fairly laconic so she can be hard to get a read on some times. If she were to be represented in Magic she'd probably be made given her power and legend, but I personally think that mono-blue works just fine for her.

Caster Medea
A vastly different character than Sakura, Caster could make a solid argument for and/or as well, but I think it's most honest to place her in . Her motivation is very simple and ish -- she just wants to go back home, even though that's normally impossible. Her methods are ruthless, but perhaps not amoral: she offs her first Master and it's strongly implied that objection to his means of harvesting power is a solid grounding for that. However, she's not above using "dark" methods herself. And, while she has very strong emotions that play into her decision-making, she's also an intellectual. I hate giving out broad swaths of color but would really make sense for Caster to embody her persona, behavior, and nature in one. Barring that, I've erred on the side of given some of the nonsense she gets up to.

Souichirou Kuzuki
A character with little in the way of emotions or desires of his own. He finds no meaning in any side of his existence and expresses himself very little. These traits are typically on living things

Assassin
Assassin (Fake Assassin) is the ephemeral illusion of a guy who trained really, really hard. Not logically, not with passion or conviction or for some higher purpose, but because he wanted to achieve something and eventually through sheer effort got the universe to give up and give it to him. He's in the sense of someone like Isao, Enlightened Bushi, where he's absolutely a warrior and to some degree that distilled down to its essence, without too much ego or any real higher purpose except becoming a great swordsman and perfecting his technique, which is about as close as a human gets to "it's just the biggest gorilla in the forest"

Kirei Kotomine
Most of what I said about Shinji Matou could also apply to Kirei Kotomine. He's ruthless, destructive, amoral, and sometimes perhaps even a little sadistic. Seems an easy call to me.

Lancer Cu Chulainn
An argument could be made for Lancer being the same as caster being . In Lancer's case, like a lot of green characters he tends to go with the flow and act on instinct and personal whim, traits shared with . He doesn't have quite the tempestuous or burning passion in a lot of these things that characters usually do, but he'd certainly be comfortable with that. In terms of he values some bonds very highly... but he doesn't seem to get too hung up on all of them. There are the ones that matter to his ethos and others are eeh, maybe not such a big deal.

Illyasviel von Einzbern
Though she has trouble showing it, deep down Illya is a good girl who would really, really like to have friends and a family that don't leave her lonely. What she is weighs towards other colors, and she's certainly capable of some things that a normal little girl wouldn't be, but her core concerns are family bonds -- a motivation that is firmly in nature, with no real ability to tease the two apart when we're not in a scenario that deals with nature as a big thing we have to worry about.

Berserker Heracles
The nature of the Berserker class is that spirits summoned in this form are consumed by rage and insanity, essentially forcing their color to nothing but in most cases. The big guy can't even talk like a human, though he does seem capable of feeling and devotion, there's nothing to really put in a color other than

Gilgamesh
Gil is a character with a core who has been stained beyond recovery. As the hero-king of Uruk, Gilgamesh has an imperious pride typical of and rulers alike, but I think one particular sequence, related to his motivations in stories, really shows how he's evolved into his present state: as he tells it, in his mortal life he once selected a hundred slaves and had them for a year, intending to, at year's end, kill one who was truly worthless. Except, he couldn't find a person like that. In Uruk, even his lowliest slave was someone with value, who would be missed if they were gone, who their king needed and found valuable. But, soured both by external corruption and time in modernity, he thinks humanity has gone down the wrong path, such that he could now kill just about anyone by the same criteria. In Gilgamesh's mind the world is overflowing with surplus humans, and it would be better if most of them were to die off so that the survivors (if any) might have a chance to exist in a world where, like his era, they would have dignity as people and not be stuck as unvalued, dead-end NPC masses. He also thinks that an indiscriminate apocalyptic catastrophe is a great way to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Try to kill 'em all, and let the humans sort themselves out, the ones of quality will make it. There's still a aspect to his mania, but there's also so much fundamental cruelty and myopia that I feel comfortable adding black to his identity


Color Pips!
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