JUST SO YOU KNOW...
I'm going to be including all three routes in my analysis, but his arsenal is typically specific to a certain route minus the basics (That being his Tracing and Reinforcement). There will also be a few nods to Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya.
BACKSTORY
Shirou lived out the first few years of his life in peace, living alongside his parents in Shinto. That is, until the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War shown in Fate/Zero, the aftermath of which caused The Great Fire, a disaster which claimed the lives of all the victims of it- except for one boy. Having been saved (The method of which will be covered later) and adopted by Emiya Kiritsugu, it was here where Shirou officially took on the Emiya surname. As a kid, he wished to learn magic from his adoptive father and pestered him, so Kiritsugu taught him the basics and told Shirou to only practice magic in secret. In addition, during the last few days of Kiritsugu's life, he told Shirou about his dream of becoming a hero of justice who could save everyone. Shirou, enthralled by the beauty of this dream, opted to try to accomplish Kiritsugu's dream. Years passed and during one fateful night at high school, Shirou stumbled upon a battle between two Servants. Heroic Spirits of legend who are summoned to fight in the Holy Grail War. A rule of the Grail War is that there must be no outside witnesses aside from select mediators, so one of the servants, Lancer, went to end Shirou's life right there, and would have succeeded had Shirou not been saved by one Tohsaka Rin, master of the other servant, Archer. Shirou headed back home after this and was almost killed by Lancer again until Shirou inadvertently summoned his own Servant- Saber. From here, Shirou's story diverges into three seperate routes, labelled Fate, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel. In Fate, he goes through the Holy Grail War and fights off the other servants while developing a bond with Saber. In Unlimited Blade Works, his motivations for fighting are explored more as is the identity of Archer, who happens to be an alternate future version of Shirou. In Heaven's Feel, he works on fighting off Angra Mainyu, the corruption set inside the Holy Grail during the third Holy Grail War.
PERSONALITY
Due to the trauma of the Great Fire, Shirou feels an emptiness inside suffers from immense survivor's guilt. He only gains a sense of self-worth from helping others, and will gladly place himself in harm's way to protect someone. Through Kiritsugu speaking of his attempts to save people but being unable to save one person without another dying, Shirou was inspired by Kiritsugu's efforts and took on those ideals as his own. The way his ideals are portrayed varies by route. In the Fate Route, he takes his ideals to the limit, even going as far as to try to prevent Saber from fighting other Servants despite the fact that she's much stronger than he is and his chance of survival, let alone victory, against such foes is hopelessly low. In Unlimited Blade Works, through his interactions with Archer, his alternate future self, Shirou begins to see the problems with his ideals, and instead reaches a middle ground, striving to achieve his ideals even though he knows it's impossible. In Heaven's Feel, he straight-up abandons his ideals to protect what is precious to him. Shirou is very stubborn once he sets out to accomplish something, going above and beyond his limits to do so. He will stubbornly defend his viewpoints, no matter how wrong they seem, which can be the source of much anguish to others.
ABILITIES
Nasuverse Magi and Servants use an energy source called Prana, which is magical energy. Shirou in particular makes usage of Od, Magical Energy which is stored within the user's body and replenished by magical circuits in their soul.
Shirou's abilities vary by route, but he does have some common ground amongst them. Most Nasuverse Magi know Reinforcement magic, which allows them to use prana to enhance their bodies, be it giving them superhuman speed by enhancing their legs, superhuman strength by enhancing their arms, or even improving their sight and hearing by reinforcing their ears/eyes, respectively. Shirou can also reinforce other objects. He also has Projection, which lets him create objects, although this is strictly inferior to the Magecraft he learned later, Tracing. With Tracing, Shirou can not only recreate weapons, but their history, creation and the soul of their wielder, temporarily giving him the skill of the original wielder, although Noble Phantasms will be one rank of strength lower, with one exception. Also of note is that Shirou has three Command Seals on his left hand, which are used to give a servant commands which they may be unable to disobey, depending on the command. Those which are agreed upon by both Master and Servant are the most powerful, with which the servant can do things that are normally impossible to them, such as heading to their Master's side even if they're separated by a powerful bounded field. With these Command Spells, Shirou can call Saber to his side in an instant or empower her with an extreme boost to her magical energy.
In the Unlimited Blade Works route, Shirou gains access to the foundation of his magic. A Reality Marble called... well, Unlimited Blade Works (Pictured above). A Reality Marble is a rare type of magic which can manifest the user's inner world into reality, changing the battlefield. Shirou's Reality Marble is known as the answer come to by one who was saved by a sword, who merged and lived with a sword, and who acted as a sword for all their life. The reality marble contains any and all weapons Shirou has seen and when he traces a weapon, he's not merely creating one, he's taking one already stored in his Reality Marble and taking it out, almost like firing a gun. By reciting a poem about himself, he can manifest Unlimited Blade Works. Inside of Unlimited Blade Works, the cost for Tracing is almost completely eliminated, the time to trace weaponry is reduced and Shirou can also use a form of Pseudo-telekinesis to control the weapons created in Unlimited Blade Works. He unleashes Unlimited Blade Works by reciting a poem about himself:
I am the bone of my sword
Steel is my body and fire is my blood
I have created over a thousand blades
Unaware of loss, Nor aware of gain
Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one’s arrival
I have no regrets. This is the only path
My whole life was unlimited blade works
Steel is my body and fire is my blood
I have created over a thousand blades
Unaware of loss, Nor aware of gain
Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one’s arrival
I have no regrets. This is the only path
My whole life was unlimited blade works
Unlimited Blade Works also has effects on his body passively. Most notably, if Shirou is under intense physical trauma, it will invade his body and begin to knit his wounds with blades, which increases his durability to the point where a kick from Rider which would have normally gouged out his stomach instead merely hurt him normally instead. However, this can also backfire on Shirou, as shown in the 'Rafflesia Umbrella' bad end, where, when he hits the ground, the blades knitting his wounds burst out, killing him. It's also more prominently shown in Heaven's Feel where it begins permanently replacing parts of his body with blades.
EQUIPMENT
Shirou has plenty of equipment thanks to his tracing ability which he can call upon at any time, but a few stand out amongst all routes. Most notably Kanshou and Bakuya, which he uses fairly prominently in both Heaven's Feel and Unlimited Blade Works. They are twin swords typically wielded by Archer. If both are wielded at the same time they increase Shirou's resistance to both physical and magical damage and, if one is thrown, it will return to Shirou if he has the other sword on him. This works well with tracing as he can let an already thrown sword recognize a new partner. This has an ultimate strategy called Triple-Linked Crane Wings, which utilizes three seperate pairs of Kanshou and Bakuya to lock the opponent in an unblockable combo. Shirou has shown the capability to use this in the 'Sparks Liner High' bad end, in which he defeats Saber Alter with it, at the cost of his mind. Shirou also has Avalon, the scabbard of Excalibur, sealed inside him. This is how Kiritsugu saved him all those years ago, and Shirou can perfectly trace it. It grants Shirou a powerful healing factor so long as Saber is nearby, enough to shrug off wounds that would normally be fatal. He has since lost it, however.
Speaking of, in Heaven's Feel, he gets Archer's Arm grafted onto him after losing one of his own. This allows him to tap into Archer's experience and ability with tracing, as well as boosting his power to be close to that of Archer's, but in return, unless kept sealed by the Shroud of Martin, it will destroy his mind. This is why Shirou loses his mind in 'Sparks Liner High'. When using Archer's arm, Shirou CANNOT use Unlimited Blade Works due to the conflicts between his and Archer's inner worlds.
Shirou has traced plenty of weapons in each route, so to keep things simple we'll use weapons traced by Archer too (seeing as they're the same person if Archer can use 'em, so can Shirou). Aside from Kanshou and Bakuya, Shirou has also traced Rule Breaker, a Dagger with anti-magic properties, enough to the point where it can even sever the contract between Master and Servant, Caliburn, Saber's sword before she got Excalibur (For those who didn't guess, Saber is a genderflipped King Arthur), which can deliver devastating blows and shoot out a blast of golden light if Saber wields it, Beserker's Axe-Sword (Pictured above), with which he can use Nine Lives Blade Works- a maneuver so powerful it can take down the blackened Berserker Heracles, and Excalibur in the finale of Heaven's Feel Normal ending, although tracing Excalibur drains too much prana and thus is a suicide attack. He can also perfectly trace Avalon, however, due to having had it sealed inside him for years, thus causing it to not suffer a rank down. He can also trace Rho Aias, a shield which can protect him from attacks. He uses this in Stay/Night to block Gilgamesh's attacks, buffers Rider's Bellephoron with it to break through Saber Alter's Excalibur, and in Hollow Ataraxia, blocks Archer's Hrunting with it. In addition, Archer, the alternate future version of Shirou, has also projected a bow, Caladbolg II, a powerful blade modified for better use as an arrow, which causes a massive explosion and can twist space, Hrunting, an arrow which can change its flight path towards a target as long as the one who fired it is still aiming at them. Multiple can also be fired at once. On top of that, Gae Bolg, Lancer's spear, is also amongst the items Archer has traced. He cannot use either of its curses, but it does make for a powerful Broken Phantasm (Broken Phantasms are noble phantasms overcharged with Prana to increase their performance at the cost of destroying them).
FEATS AND WEAKNESSES
Shirou's got some pretty impressive feats under his belt. In the Fate route he suffers all sorts of wounds that would be fatal and keeps on going. Like Berserker blowing away his stomach or Rider's kick to the gut. In Unlimited Blade Works he takes down Gilgamesh (Albeit because Gilgamesh is stupidly arrogant) and defeats Archer in combat (Albeit because Archer hesitated at the last second). In Heaven's Feel he manages to match and defeat Kotomine Kirei and in the Sparks Liner High bad end, manages to down Saber Alter with Triple-Linked Crane Wings at the cost of his mind. He's chopped of Gilgamesh's Arm in Unlimited Blade Works (seen above) and took off nine of blackened Berserker's lives with Nine Lives Blade Works, as well as seven of regular Berserker's lives with Caliburn (Wielded alongside Saber). He is fast enough to, with a moment of preperation and anticipation, deflect an attack from Lancer, one of the fastest servants of the Fifth Grail War, and keep up with Rider (albeit weakened due to Shinji being her master).
And then there's Shirou in Prisma Illya. Despite not being the same Shirou, it still deserves notice because THAT Emiya Shirou was powerful enough to mop the floor with a serious Gilgamesh.
And then there's Shirou in Prisma Illya. Despite not being the same Shirou, it still deserves notice because THAT Emiya Shirou was powerful enough to mop the floor with a serious Gilgamesh.
However, he's not perfect. Using Archer's Arm will destroy his mind if not flat-out kill him, Tracing Excalibur will kill him, Avalon's regen, as strong as it is, has limits, a powerful enough impact will cause swords to burst out of his body... which will kill him. In case you didn't get the memo, Shirou dies if he's killed. Also, his Prana has limits and without it, he can't use Tracing at all. Unlimited Blade Works is also really taxing on his Prana.
OVERVIEW
+Tracing gives him loads of versatility.
+Doubly so during Unlimited Blade Works.
+Rho Aias and Avalon give Shirou great defensive options.
+Command Spells can call Saber to him or buff her.
+To call him a master chef would be an understatement. There's a reason he always cooks for the Emiya household and that's because he's godly at it.
-Prana has limits. Without any Prana he's basically just a human.
-Tracing Excalibur kills him.
-Archer's arm destroys his mind, which effectively kills him.
-A powerful enough impact with Shirou's wounds being knit into blades will kill him.
Read and review, and point out if I missed anything.
