Fate/Zero Must be one of the best anime epics of the last decade. What more would an action and fantasy fan want than a seven way battle to the death between mystical heroes and magi, all for the true prize: the Holy Grail. Well, making good characters is a place to start, so today, I will be taking a look at (arguably) the main character of Fate/Zero, Kiritsugu Emiya. Keep in mind I never finished the original FSN Deen adaptation, and started the Fate franchise with Fate/Zero.
Unlike most series, Fate/Zero doesn't name any single character as the most important; at least not at first. As the series goes on, the focus moves more and more to two certain individuals as their final duel for the Holy Grail approaches: Kirei Kotomine, a nihilistic priest, and Kiritsugu Emiya, a former contractor and assassin. Of these two, Kiritsugu is portrayed more as the person who should be rooted for, partly due to his servant being the series' mascot: Saber. Kirei tosses away his first servant, only to later team with Gilgamesh, the series' main antagonist. This sets up an implicit rivalry between the two of them despite the fact they never meet until the final battle, at which their competing goals bring them to the best fight scene in the show.
Speaking of goals, this is where Kiritsugu is given the most development. As a child, he worked as a junior mage, helping his father with research into plants and immortality. When one of his friends tries helping with the research, she starts spreading an epidemic, prompting members of the church to come and wipe out their entire village. This tragedy showed Kiritsugu that the world was not a truly peaceful place. He then worked under the mentorship of the mage Natalia hunting down rogue mages who caused trouble. He faced a major issue once, when Natalia was on a plane to defeat a user of magic bees. Natalia successfully defeated the man, but the bees started spreading the same (or similar) epidemic that destroyed Kiritsugu's hometown to everyone on the plane. Kiritsugu was torn because he wanted all the innocent to survive and the evil to perish, but he didn't see that as an option. He opted to shoot down the plane to keep everyone else safe, even if his mentor was on board.
Kiritsugu decided to continue with this philosophy that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. He was willing to accept some deaths if it means removing a source of greater evil. This is how countries justify their own soldiers dying in war: Their deaths are an unfortunate side effect, with the main effect being the defeat of a hostile power. Kiritsugu is the type of person who would personally kill every person in Germany if it meant that World War II never happens. In his hunt for the grail, he never makes any tactics off-limits. He argues against Saber when she wants her fights to be fair, and murders one of the competitors in the grail war, even after rendering him harmless. This part is extremely brutal to watch because the servant of the man he murdered had shown Kiritsugu mercy due to his respect of saber.
Kiritsugu passes through the final arc of his story when he finally reaches the Holy Grail. His wish was that humans would stop suffering, and be at peace with one another. However, the grail itself speaks to him and explains how his wish would work. It states that it can only grant wishes through a process the wisher understands, which to Kiritsugu means that it can only save certain people by sacrificing certain others. The grail speaks to Kiritsugu with a series of flashing scenes, explaining how his own sense of justice works. It poses a dilemma of saving 300 people on a damaged boat at the cost of killing 200 on another damaged boat. Kiritsugu initially agrees that it is the correct course of action until the rest of the dilemma is explained. The surviving 300 split up into boats again at a 200:100 ratio. Tasked with the same situation, the 100 would have to be killed for the 200, and this is where Kiritsugu starts to object.
After realizing the error of his original thinking, he starts seeing the grail as evil, which is why he orders Saber to destroy it, ending Fate/Zero. Kiritsugu goes on to adopt Shirou, who he raises to have a unyielding sense of justice. By trying to correct for his mistake, Kiritsugu gives Shirou the optimism he needs to make it through the 5th Holy Grail war, and emerge as the only true moral victor.
