Fridge Brilliance
- Whenever Rin uses Gandr against serious opponents, she uses her entire hand to fire. Even against Shirou in episode 5 she isn't going easy on him firing with with as much power despite using only one finger. It gets further elaborated in episode 8, when she interrogates Shinji she only points a finger at him, and then in episode 10 when she makes a "finger" gesture and says that's how she fires a relatively harmless Gandr blast that won't do any serious damage to a regular human.
- Saber holds her own against Berserker very well in Episode 3, which is quite a change from the VN. However, after watching Fate/Zero, everything she does makes a lot more sense. In the 4th Grail War, Saber tried to match strength with strength against that Berserker, but was consistently on the defensive and nearly defeated three times.* In this war, she again tries to fight Berserker conventionally, but once she sees that isn't working, she quickly adopts a completely different strategy by utilizing Hit-and-Run Tactics and consequently fares much better than when she fought the Black Knight.
- When Archer has a rare inner monologue about his assessment of Lancer's ultimate attack, the pace of the fight momentarily returns to that of the ones in Fate/Zero, due to the perspective becoming a Servant's again.
- Throughout the series, we see Archer preferring to use Kanshou before dual-wielding; examples are in Episode 0, and similarly Shirou at first focuses on Kanshou as well before taking up Bakuya and clashing it with Kanshou in Episode 19. This could represent Archers initial ruthlessness and hatred of himself, whereas Bakuya represents Shirou's ideal, which he 'clashes' against Archer's Kanshou or 'wish to die'. What else supports this is that in Episode 19, a juxtaposition occurs as Archer and Shirou Trace: Archer Traces Kanshou, whereas Shirou Traces Bakuya, furthering this parallel and opposition between them. Alternately, it symbolizes that them meeting in battle is inevitable. Since the power of Kanshou and Bakuya is that both halves are magically attracted to each other regardless of what's in the way, the fact that both of them always draw the opposing color shows that they will inevitably clash. In fact, if you watch closely, you'll see that Byakuyas only clash with Kanshous whenever Archer and Shirou meet head on, never blades of the same color, this is highlighted in episode 20 when, after recovering the will to fight and his inner balance, Shirou is able to fully project both Kanshou and Bakuya.
- One that stretches to episode 1: When asked by Kiritsugu of his name, Shirou only remembers his first name which further explains the memories seen in Episode 20 after EMIYA admits that he forgot something, he forgot his true self.
- In Episode 21, after Shinji tells Gilgamesh that Kotomine is dead, there is a brief but noticeable pause before he acknowledges the information with a quiet and dead serious "I see." Considering his character, this speaks miles about how much he valued his odd friendship with him.
- During their fight, Archer creates gigantic swords and launches them at Shirou, but he's able to deflect and destroy them with a semi-broken Bakuya. In episode 20, Archer mentions that projection also relies on strength of spirit. If your spirit is weak, then your projections will be hollow and empty. In a turn of events from the last episode, Shirou is steadily breaking Archer's spirit hence why his projections are getting so easily destroyed.
- A highlight of the last minutes of Shirou's and Gilgamesh's fight is that it, under more analysis, acts as a visual "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh can only fire his swords in a straight line while Shirou is able to control their direction and gives him a way to cloud the former's sight long enough to get into melee; Shirou eventually gets into a sword lock, manages to physically push Gilgamesh and disarms him, showing which of the two is the better fighter in strength and dexterity; after Gilgamesh unleashes his Gate of Babylon at full strength, Shirou counters with his limitless blades and surpasses the rate of fire of the Gate, allowing him to gain momentum and charge at Gilgamesh; Shirou being able to advance through the rain of blades with the same blades he's being attacked with marks the difference between an owner and a wielder; Shirou surviving the dome attack of Gilgamesh by using Rho Aias shows that he knows the weapons more than Gilgamesh does, and can do more than just be a faker and blindly copy Gilgamesh's weapons; Shirou managing to cut Gilgamesh arm before he uses Ea with Bakuya is, considering the symbolism used with the sword, a victory of Shirou's ideals over Gilgamesh's and Shirou finally managing to strike him with Kanshou is a way of asserting whose self is stronger. It makes more sense that Gilgamesh admits defeat since he was, from any point of view, bested by Shirou.
- All the recent reveals about Enkidu (the person) adds some depth as to why Gilgamesh is so disdainful of Shirou. It's not so much he's able to make knockoffs of various Noble Phantasms, but rather he seemingly ripped off a major ability of Enkidu (making clay weapons able to match Gil's collection). Shirou was unwittingly ripping off Gil's only friend.
- The fact Enkidu shaped himself after being molded by the gods makes Gilgamesh's praise of how well made Illya's servants are seem more like mocking. His comment how humans will never be able to reciprocate the purity a tool with a human heart has can be rather self-deprecating, and gives the pause after saying that take a whole new meaning as Gilgamesh believed it was it was his selfishness that caused his friend's death.
- More of a case of Heartwarming in Hindsight but it still is brilliant. Beserker, aka, Heracles, was known in his myth to have fits of rage hence why he can be a Berserker. During one such rage moment, he accidentally killed his wife and children. Even when completely raged out in his fight with Gilgamesh, Berserker refuses to leave Illya, and dies trying to protect her. In a sense, Heracles redeemed himself of that horrifying tragedy.
- in Episode 21, Gilgamesh states that he plans to use the Grail to kill most of humanity, reasoning that the survivors are worthy for him to rule. At first, this sounds like stereotypical Stupid Evil blather… until you remember what happened to the only normal person who survived being in ground zero of the previous Grail. He had the potential to beat Servants, and would grow up to be qualified to be a Counter Guardian(The Counter Force doesn't pick anyone willy-nilly, the Last Counter Guardian was Jeanne D'Arc, who was able to become a Full Heroic Spirit, a Ruler, no less). Put that into perspective and Gil's plan makes a macabre sort of logic. He already has the proof of concept that his plan would work.
Fridge Horror
- In Episode 24, Saber tries to step into the Grail's black mud before being pushed back by Rin's command seal. Had Rin (or Saber's reflexes when she back-pedals away from the ooze) been a second slower, Saber would have been turned into Saber Alter and the already horrific situation would have become a great deal worse.
