Friendly reminder to my Fate friends.

[Kagerou]

YOU WATCH FATE/STAY NIGHT BEFORE FATE/ZERO.

This series doesn't really have a complex hard-to-understand watch order. The reason people think like that is because not only were the anime adaptions released in the wrong order (given that a F/SN anime wasn't planned and the Zero anime was just a bonus for FSN fans) and because various anime only fans haven't really read the VN and so they spread the false watch order because of the fact that Zero came out first in terms of anime adaption.

Both the FSN author and the Zero author intended for you to read Fate/stay night first. There was even a note about in the original Fate/Zero light novel, I believe. It's really that simple. Unfortunately, this series has such a complicated fanbase that the whole watch order got overblown simply because Zero got an anime adaption first.

Fate/Zero was made to serve as a reminder to the Fate route of the Fate/stay night visual novel.

If you plan on going anime-only, this is the order you should be watching Fate in.

Anime-only Order: Fate/stay night UBW anime -> HF movies (Not out yet. You might want to read the VN for this, or you can just skip to F/Z. Whichever works.) -> Fate/Zero.

In general, being an anime only tard is the worst possible option. Fate isn't something that's enjoyable through just the anime. Nasu's type of story telling is really unique and generally interesting in my option. It's along the lines of "open the boxes with the contents and then keep assembling it". The boxes being the stories and the assembly being your experience.

The best method to enjoy the Fate series is through the VNs. The UBW anime can be enjoyed generally for the fights and animation. That's about it. A majority of the UBW anime is filler, except for episode 20 which Nasu himself wrote.

TL;DR Read the visual novel or watch Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works and then Fate/Zero. Please stop ruining the series for other people by giving them the wrong order. Please.

credits: leon-kyun

 

[SIR HERDERP PRESIDERP SDO]

Yes you do indeed watch it this way, it's just the members here are too disabled to tell the difference.

 

[Kamui Sama]

Fate/zero is way better anyway, save the best for last

 

[Kagerou]

Fate/zero is way better anyway, save the best for last

It is. Unlimited Blade Works pretty much had a shitty cast on the job, except for episode 20 which Nasu himself wrote, which was stated in the OP. Gen Urobuchi did an amazing job with F/Z.

 

[Hexuze]

Eh, I watched F/Z first then watched UBW. I don't see the big deal out of it but if that's how the author intended it to be then oh well xD.

 

[Xlad]

I derped.

 

[Kagerou]

Eh, I watched F/Z first then watched UBW. I don't see the big deal out of it but if that's how the author intended it to be then oh well xD.

Totally fine. But this was just to establish to people who were giving the wrong order. The series was almost ruined for me because someone told me to watch Fate/Zero before UBW. Good thing I only watched the first episode of F/Z and then watched the rest after completing UBW.

The F/SN VNs in will always reign supreme to the series though. It's the original work.

 

[Meee]

Understand that but personally im glad I watched Zero first. I thought Stay Night sucked and had i watched it first It would have pretty much ruined Zero which was amazing. Just my opinion.

 

[Hexuze]

Totally fine. But this was just to establish to people who were giving the wrong order. The series was almost ruined for me because someone told me to watch Fate/Zero before UBW. Good thing I only watched the first episode of F/Z and then watched the rest after completing UBW.

The F/SN VNs in will always reign supreme to the series though. It's the original work.

I see. I watch this series quite casually so I can totally see how it may ruin the experience for them. I don't even think people watch F/Z because a majority of the people say so. It seems like they watch F/Z first because it came out before UBW. It is nice that you have this thread. I feel this could be a sticky thread so we won't see anymore pointless threads asking which route to watch first.

 

[Kagerou]

Understand that but personally im glad I watched Zero first. I thought Stay Night sucked and had i watched it first It would have pretty much ruined Zero which was amazing. Just my opinion.

Agreed, but again, the UBW anime had a terrible cast to begin with. The F/SN visual novel is way better than both F/Z and the F/SN UBW TV anime.

A better order would probably be to read the Fate route of the VN and then go to F/Z (because Fate/Zero was created to serve as a reminder to the Fate route of the Fate/stay night VN) > the UBW anime and then Heavens Feel.

 

[Kamui Sama]

It is. Unlimited Blade Works pretty much had a shitty cast on the job, except for episode 20 which Nasu himself wrote, which was stated in the OP. Gen Urobuchi did an amazing job with F/Z.

interesting, didn't know that about UBW. Still, I'm not that interested in reading the VNs, don't really care for them as a form of media and the animation/fights is what makes the fate series for me.

Can't wait for heaven's feel to be adapted, I hear Kirei (my fave character) plays a much bigger role compared to UBW, which also disappointed me in that regard

 

[wanderingcactus]

The reason why people say watch Zero first is because of the chronological placement.

As you stated, it is the leading route to SN.

Why watch SN then watch Zero after as a flashback when the anime didnt intend for viewers to watch it as a flashback?

Any reference from Zero from SN would make the viewers confused rather than feel nostalgic. They might be forced to pause SN and watch Zero before finishin SN.

 

[Mahesvara]

:lol Kaito just started fate recently and is now an expert on the series.

The reason why people say watch Zero first is because of the chronological placement.

As you stated, it is the leading route to SN.

Why watch SN then watch Zero after as a flashback when the anime didnt intend for viewers to watch it as a flashback?

If your never played the VNs(which I haven't), then it really doesn't matter what order you watch it in tbh.

 

[Kagerou]

The reason why people say watch Zero first is because of the chronological placement.

As you stated, it is the leading route to SN.

Why watch SN then watch Zero after as a flashback when the anime didnt intend for viewers to watch it as a flashback?

Please read or re-read what I posted.

Fate/Zero is to serve as a reminder to the Fate route of the Fate/stay night VN. Fate/Zero was also created to serve as a reminder to the people who read the original Fate/stay night visual novel. You watch or read F/SN first because it came first and because even Nasu and Gen Urobuchi (the person who wrote Fate/Zero) stated for it to come first in order to enjoy the experience. NOT because it had events prior to the Holy Grail War of Fate/stay night. You don't enjoy the experience of Fate/stay night just with the UBW anime because it's not that good. More or less, as you said, Fate/Zero can be treated as a data bank (flashback) for the people who read the original F/SN visual novels. You can't enjoy Fate to its fullest extent just with the anime. Unless all you really care about is the animation and the fights. Also, like I said, this is Nasu's style of story telling. Fate is just a structure that you keep assembling. Personally, I enjoyed F/Z a lot more after reading and watching F/SN and the UBW TV anime. Because I had prior knowledge of everything that happened before in the series and it simply made the experience even more enjoyable for me.

It's chronological, sure. But it didn't come first in the series itself.

Both the FSN author and the Zero author intended for you to read Fate/stay night first. There was even a note about in the original Fate/Zero light novel, I believe.

:lol Kaito just started fate recently and is now an expert on the series.

Nah, I started the anime a long time ago but never really had the chance to finish it. I read the visual novels first though.

If your never played the VNs(which I haven't), then it really doesn't matter what order you watch it in tbh.

I mean, you can watch it in any order you want. But this is generally the right order it's supposed to be enjoyable and recommended in. Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night aren't the only contents in the Fateverse.

 

[Gintõki1]

People should just play the VN first and get the full greatness of it.
Watching the adaptions after that is cool since you see the fights in eyegasm quality and the characters in live.
Zero is on a high tier but i still liked UBW. It isn't close to be a petfect adaption, but people should knew from the start that you cant
put everything from the VN in the anime.

 

[Kagerou]

People should just play the VN first and get the full greatness of it.
Watching the adaptions after that is cool since you see the fights in eyegasm quality and the characters in live.
Zero is on a high tier but i still liked UBW. It isn't close to be a petfect adaption, but people should knew from the start that you cant
put everything from the VN in the anime.

Basically this. Adaptions from light novels or visual novels are often not that great because the cast who produce the anime aren't meta enough. Shirou is actually one of the most well written characters in the Nasuverse imo, but it often makes the fans butthurt how the anime adaption doesn't explain Shirou's way of thinking well enough compared to the VNs.

 

[Worm]

Oh, didn't see you made this thread. Nice.

UBW adaption was pretty shit at adapting characterization which is the whole point. Then again, there are literally only two VN adaptions that could be considered good and those are Clannad and Steins; Gate. It's immensely hard to pull off a good VN anime adaption.

Zero was good, but I'll def say F/SN's original source was better. It is, however, better than F/SN's anime adaption. Zero is the only good Fate anime adaption atm.

 

[Kagerou]

I'm going to bump this thread again so the noob Fate watchers read this.