Im about to start this but confused

No one explained it very clearly, so i'll do it.

Fate/Stay Night is originally a Visual Novel (a type of Novel, officially categorized as Games). Most Visual Novels uses a system of "Routes". Basically, they are divergences in the story, happening because of the choice you makes as a player (for the majority, the "Routes" of Visual Novels focus on different characters (often Waifus), and thus are named after them). So all Routes starts the same, uses the same group of character, but ends up telling a (totally) different story with them.

Fate/Stay Night has 3 "Routes" : Fate (Saber), Unlimited Blade Works (Rin), and Heaven's Feel (Sakura). Unlike the usual Visual Novels, you can't choose the "Route" you play, but are forced to do them in order. the Fate Route was adapted in the 2006 Anime, but is not a completely faithful adaptation, Unlimited Blade Works (UBW) was adapted in a Movie, and later completely re-adapted in a 2 Seasons TV Series, and Heaven's Feel (HF) was adapted in a Trilogy of Movie.

Another Author, fan of the original Visual Novel, got the permission to do a Prequel (a story about the past of a character/universe of a work already existing, made to be experienced after the main work), and did Fate/Zero, the backstory of the father of the protagonist of Fate/Stay Night.

So no, it's not an Alternative Version. Unlimited Blade Works is one of the 2006 Anime, as they are different Routes, but it's still is a separated story.



There is a lot of bad thing about it, especially when compared to all the other adaptations, but it is worth watching. It's the only adaptation that develop Saber, one of the most popular and impactful character (she's also the mascot of the franchise).



You can check the whole list just below. If you don't want to lose your time, just watch the Main Story, and eventually look at the other works of the Author, listed in "You Can Also Watch".

The Visual Novel forces you into playing the Routes in a defined order tho (Fate > UBW > HF). And it's not just randomly done, as each Route and their twists and climax are built on the previous one. The whole Visual Novel is in reality only one story, in a crescendo of mystery and epicness, splitted in 3 Parts.



That's the main mistake(s) most people makes when trying to watch Fate.

First, absolutely no story with a minimum of complexity will be completely chronological. If the Author can't play with the timeline of his own story, how can he introduce mystery and twists ?

Second, Fate/Stay Night is mainly a slow burn psychological/mystery, not a typical action/coming-of-age story. And watching Zero first near completely change that.



That's something that'll never happen. Even if we were to get a Remake of the Fate Route, there'll always be Zero fags.

You are literally removing entire genres and subplots.
If that makes no difference for you, then i don't know what to say... You are simply not experiencing the same story as the ones who watched Zero after.



That's not how it works.

A Prequel is literally "the past" of an already existing work ("the present" ). If you watch the Prequel first, it's not a Prequel anymore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prequel



Stay Night doesn't spoils the ending of Zero, because Zero is a Prequel.

You are supposed to already know how Zero ends before even starting it. It's not a work in which the viewer asks himself "What will happen next ?", but "How did it happened ?". The point of Zero literally is to fill the blanks from the numerous flashbacks and explanations that were thrown in the 3 Routes, ans discover how the tragedy that led to the 5th Holy Grail War happened in the first place.

However, Zero spoils nearly all major point of the 3 Routes (not just "some of the details"), thus annihilating the mystery. That's why Zero should be experienced after the 3 Routes. And that's not just my opinion, but also the one of the 2 Authors.

Yes, because it's extremely important. Everyone misuse such words, nowadays, and it means nothing anymore...



Yes, adaptations. While they attract a lot of new viewers, and thus bring more money to the producers, from the point of view of the Author, they are simply a reward, both for him and his fans. That still doesn't change what the stories are about, and the intentions behind it; it's just that the new viewers are not aware/discard them.

And Zero still came out after the 2006 Anime (which adapted the Fate Route, with also some infos of the other 2 Routes).



That's entriely true.

When a Prequel is well written, it can often be taken as a stand-alone, and still be (highly !) enjoyed. The problem, is that by doing so, you change the meaning of the original work, which also means the intentions of the Authors. You can justify liking the Prequel more, and it's totally understandable, but that's not the case for wrecking what the Author tried to do.







It's indeed 2 different things, which is why i said those who watched Zero first did not experienced the same story as the ones who did so in last.

For instance, everything surrounding Sakura is revealed only in Heaven's Feel, so after (around) 60h of story (for the Visual Novel). That's a big ass twist, that went completely unsuspected all that time... ! Which was casually talked about as if nothing in the few minutes of Zero...

Zero does nothing with the spoilers it gives you for stay night. The "spoilers" for zero given in stay night are used to develop the characters or are the the resolutions of route-long mysteries. It's not even comparable.

In FSN kirei's psyche and backstory is a mystery kept hidden until the last stretch of the story, in zero it gets spoonfed to him by a demigod figure and makes him look like a typical edgelord midwit that just needed to be told "have fun lol!"

Zero does nothing with the spoilers it gives you for stay night. The "spoilers" for zero given in stay night are used to develop the characters or are the the resolutions of route-long mysteries. It's not even comparable.

In FSN kirei's psyche and backstory is a mystery kept hidden until the last stretch of the story, in zero it gets spoonfed to him by a demigod figure and makes him look like a typical edgelord midwit that just needed to be told "have fun lol!"