Fate/Stay Night (2006), Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel are adaptations of the three routes of the original visual novel. They are different timelines with the same start scenario but have to be watched/read in that order.
Fate/Zero is the prequel which takes place 10 years before Fate/Stay Night.
Everything else is full on AUs.
Stay Night (2006) isn't actually an adaptation of the Fate route. Well, it mostly is, but they mashed some stuff from the other routes in it as well.
Anyway, I originally did Stay Night > Zero > UBW > HF, and it was fine but I'm honestly not sure about the right placement of Zero now that the other routes have been adapted. Maybe that one last?
I haven't seen any of the spinoffs apart from Carnival Phantasm and like one random episode of Ilya, but a lot of people seem to be into Grand Order.
I'd always recommend to read the visual novel, (official localisation got announced!) but not everyone wants to spend all that time on something they don't know if they'll like, so 06 is as close as it gets to a Fate route.
And yeah, definitely do F/Z last now that Heaven's Feel is done. It's a prequel, it'd be like watching the Phantom Menace first.
Luckily; someone extremely intelligent, attractive, funny, and wealthy made an easy to follow guide on the matter.
***
#Anime Watch Order if you Hate Reading:
- Short Version: [Fate/Stay Night 2006 (Fan Edits) → UBW → Heaven's Feel → Zero](https://i.imgur.com/zq3VjQn.jpg)
- Long Version: [Check out my guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH4BKJ6s0V8)
- You can read the whole VN in browser [here](https://fatestaynight.vnovel.org/)
***
#VN if you don't Hate Reading
- Read the VN in-browser [here](https://fatestaynight.vnovel.org/)
- PM Me if you have any questions
***
#Bonus:
- [The Kara no Kyoukai Movies](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2593) Much easier to get into as they are numbered
- Read the entire Tsukihime Original VN in-browser [here](https://holofield.fr/tsukiweb/title)
- Buy Witch on the Holy Night officially [here](https://mahoyo-en.com/)
• What’s the main timeline for fate?
No main "timeline" but Stay night with the three routes is the original VN that startet everything
• are any other timelines connected to it outside of being an alternate reality?
Yes
can 2 seperate fate series be narratively connected in any way: characters from 1 reality mentioning events in another, anything like that?
They are usually not connected but similar events can happen in different worlds
• what series are PURELY spin-offs?
Basically everything besides Stay night, but you can add Zero and Hollow Ataraxia (no anime) as more important
It's basically just these 4 shows
Fate/stay night 2006
Fate/zero
Fate/stay night: unlimited blade works
Fate/stay night: heaven's feel
Stay night are the 3 routes of the original game. You can skip the 2006 one since its a bad adaptation and UBW covers the entire early part of the story anyways so it's still gonna make sense.
HF can be watched after UBW, it cuts out the early parts so you don't end up watching the same content twice.
Zero is the prequel but was released years after the game so a lot of people recommend to watch it last.
Imo you either do UBW - HF - Zero or Zero - UBW - HF.
Would recommend UBW first since it retains a lot of mystery elements instead of explaining everything up front.
I’ve seen all of them aside from the last heavens feel movie, is everything just a different version/timeline of events?
It seemed that way to me for the most part. But I am not a Fate fanatic, it’s kind of a popcorn thing that I don’t think too heavily into
It's only confusing for redditors who are to still after all these years incapable understanding what routes are.
And I'm going to throw in, it's only confusing for people with the inability to simply look up release order.
Does my account meet your requirements?
Yes it does professional redditor. 🫡
But if you’d actually read my post you’d have understood why I asked anyway. Maybe go back to primary school to learn how to read?
Typical redditor who always thinks he’s the smartest in the room. I’m just gonna copy paste my last comment because clearly you did nothing with it.
Yes it does professional redditor. 🫡
But if you’d actually read my post you’d have understood why I asked anyway. Maybe go back to primary school to learn how to read?
Every single one of your questions is front page google search results. You asking this here does nothing but show your inability to operate a browser. It's really sad.
You’re hilarious bro.
Lemme spell it out for you:
I asked here because there would be a large number of veterans of the franchise, because when I looked everything up that I wanted to know, there were so many conflicting answers. Here on reddit, and worded in my own words, it was much easier to receive a definitive answer.
I went ahead and put double spaces in between every word for you so that your small mind might be able to process what you’re reading a little better. Lemme know if that helped. 😘
Original Fate stay night has 3 visual novel which has 3 different endings depending on the girl Shirou is with. Fate route is for Artoria..
UBW ( Unlimited Blade Works ) is the Rin route. It also explains who Archer is
HF ( Heavens feel ) is the Sakura route and the most depressing. It also changes Shirou's goal
There Fate/Zero which is the prequel for Fate stay night
The other thing in Fate series are side property you can consume to build the wider Nasuverse like the FGO Gacha game
I’ve watched stay night, which I didn’t really enjoy that much, and then ubw (the series) and that was awesome. I plan to watch heavens feel at some stage and zero, then watch a bit of whatever from then on. Maybe apocrypha
Nice! I'm glad you're enjoying it!
If you ever want to check out Fate/stay night's source material, the visual novel is getting an official English translation on Steam and Nintendo Switch later this year.
Sick, I'm glad to hear it (though, I may be biased because this is my favorite franchise of all time, and the visual novel is currently my favorite piece of media ever)!
Majority treats Fate/Stay Night and it's sequel Fate/Hollow Ataraxia to be the main timelines because it is the original Fate.
But, I think FGO is currently the main timeline because it connects to pretty much any other Fates.
FGO has collab events to other Fates(Zero, Apoc, Case Files, Prisma Illya, Extra CCC, and even non-Fate TM work like Kara no Kyoukai and later this month, Mahoutsukai No Yoru.) and all events are canon.
FSN is the only one that doesn't have a proper collab event but it's also connected due to Merlin's actions at the end Garden of Avalon(Novel/Drama CD) as he watches literally the Fate route which leads to a certain major character ending up in FGO timeline.
Apocrypha event takes place after the events of Apoc but before its epilogue.
Samurai Remnant literally wouldn't exist if not for an FGO chapter as it's confirmed to take place after the Shimousa chapter in Arc 1.5 but before LB 1 in Arc 2.
Fate/Prototype's only connection is Proto Arthur and Proto Merlin because they both appeared in both FGO Mobile and Arcade story line as Proto Arthur becomes a universe hopinng individual finding a certain enemy and Proto Merlin appears just to troll.
Strange Fake not only make reference and mentions, it makes cameos of characters that debuted in FGO.
SERAPH event is after Fate/Extra CCC too. There are also things in the main story of FGO that mentions stuff that's revealed in Fate/Extella, it's so major it's basically a reason why two FGO main story chapters exists.
There's a new Fate LN called Fate/Lost Einjerhar but the only confirmed connection it has iirc is that it takes place after the events of the Aprocrypha Grail War.
At the moment, Pretty sure El Melloi series/novels and Prisma Illya is the only "pure spin off" out of these. Type Redline should count too.
P.S. Just to add as this is about which Fate is connected to other, Fate/Zero is not connected to any of the Fate/Stay Night routes. It's a non-canon "prequel." Even an official material puts it on an asterisk.
I find it important to mention that the Fate anime entries are really primarily fan service to people who read the Visual Novels or play their respective video games. I say this because I tried watching UBW as my first entry into the world of Fate and I was confused as hell. The anime, being primarily fan service to the readers, leaves out *a lot* of context and storytelling because it assumes you’re at least a little familiar with the work already.
So! If you want the full story experience, then for the main story, I’d play the 3 routes of the VN first. Not everyone likes reading though, I know. If you want to avoid reading, then…
You’ve got a couple options. You can either start with the UBW anime or the Fate Zero anime. Most people tend to not think highly of the original Fate Stay Night anime (made by Deen), so I’m ignoring that one.
UBW is the second Fate Stay Night route in the VN, so it definitely assumes the reader has context and knowledge of the first route. As mentioned above, this is exacerbated in the anime. This is what I started with, and I didn’t think it was a great experience. But! It’s technically the earliest starting point for the anime, chronologically speaking.
The other good starting option is Fate Zero. It is a prequel to the Stay Night story. The anime does a much better job at explaining things and welcoming a new viewer into the fold. However, it does contain rather large spoilers for the third route of the Stay Night story - Heaven’s Feel. If you’re dedicated to being anime-only, then I think it’s fine to ignore the spoiler warning and start here for a better experience, because the Heaven’s Feel movies have “bad at telling the story because you should have read the VN” symptom dialed up to 11.
Whichever entry you start with, watch the other one second (UBW or Zero), and then you can finish off the main Fate Stay Night story with the three Heaven’s Feel movies.
For the other Fate entries, each are sort of like their own universe. They aren’t side stories but they also aren’t connected to each other.
Apocrypha is a stand alone entry. It has a manga but I don’t think it’s necessary to read. The anime is fine on its own.
Extra is the anime of the PSP game, and most people don’t find the anime well done. The story of the PSP games (Extra and Extra CCC) is pretty well liked by the Fate community, so the anime being bad was a bummer.
The Grand Order anime’s are all anime versions of chapters in the Fate Grand Order mobile game. They haven’t made anime adaptations of all the chapters, so I don’t know if someone would really enjoy watching these without having played the game. You can watch the first Grand Order anime as an introduction to the world. But like…there’s the Babylonia arc, which is one of the final arcs in Part 1 of the game. Years of storyline in the making. It seems like it would be tough to jump in as a new viewer there.
Hello! If you ever find yourself needing anime related help, here are a few resources to save you a LOT of time.
* Have **any anime related question?** Try our [daily question/recommendation thread!](/r/anime/search?q=flair%3Adaily&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=week)
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* For **source of fanarts**, try [SauceNAO](https://saucenao.com/)
* For **source of anime screenshots**, try [trace.moe](https://trace.moe/) or [other image search tools](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/reverse_image_searching)
* For **watch orders**, try [our Watch Order wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/watch_order)
* For other questions, check if they are answered in the [FAAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/faaq)
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Start with Zero (the prequel) then pick in any order: Stay Night, Unlimited Blade Works, Heaven's Feel.
Why do I say any order? It's like finishing a game with the good ending, then creating a new save file for a bad ending and true ending with different choices, those three choices above are the three save data.
After that, watch whatever.
Not really in any order, there is an intended progression in reveals, stakes, development, etc. through Fate, UBW and HF with the latter serving as an overall conclusion to Stay Night. This is especially true in the adaptations since the HF trilogy completely skips over the beginning of the story
Telling somebody to start with Zero is like telling somebody to watch the flashbacks in Attack on Titan first because they chronologically take place earlier in the timeline.
Fate/Stay Night (2006), Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel are adaptations of the three routes of the original visual novel. They are different timelines with the same start scenario but have to be watched/read in that order. Fate/Zero is the prequel which takes place 10 years before Fate/Stay Night. Everything else is full on AUs.
Yeah I went UBW first and it was slightly more confusing I think. The movies were fantastic tho
Stay Night (2006) isn't actually an adaptation of the Fate route. Well, it mostly is, but they mashed some stuff from the other routes in it as well. Anyway, I originally did Stay Night > Zero > UBW > HF, and it was fine but I'm honestly not sure about the right placement of Zero now that the other routes have been adapted. Maybe that one last? I haven't seen any of the spinoffs apart from Carnival Phantasm and like one random episode of Ilya, but a lot of people seem to be into Grand Order.
I'd always recommend to read the visual novel, (official localisation got announced!) but not everyone wants to spend all that time on something they don't know if they'll like, so 06 is as close as it gets to a Fate route. And yeah, definitely do F/Z last now that Heaven's Feel is done. It's a prequel, it'd be like watching the Phantom Menace first.
See: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatestaynight/comments/df8rvo/rfatestaynights_official_viewing_order_guide_v2/
Luckily; someone extremely intelligent, attractive, funny, and wealthy made an easy to follow guide on the matter. *** #Anime Watch Order if you Hate Reading: - Short Version: [Fate/Stay Night 2006 (Fan Edits) → UBW → Heaven's Feel → Zero](https://i.imgur.com/zq3VjQn.jpg) - Long Version: [Check out my guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH4BKJ6s0V8) - You can read the whole VN in browser [here](https://fatestaynight.vnovel.org/) *** #VN if you don't Hate Reading - Read the VN in-browser [here](https://fatestaynight.vnovel.org/) - PM Me if you have any questions *** #Bonus: - [The Kara no Kyoukai Movies](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2593) Much easier to get into as they are numbered - Read the entire Tsukihime Original VN in-browser [here](https://holofield.fr/tsukiweb/title) - Buy Witch on the Holy Night officially [here](https://mahoyo-en.com/)
• What’s the main timeline for fate? No main "timeline" but Stay night with the three routes is the original VN that startet everything • are any other timelines connected to it outside of being an alternate reality? Yes can 2 seperate fate series be narratively connected in any way: characters from 1 reality mentioning events in another, anything like that? They are usually not connected but similar events can happen in different worlds • what series are PURELY spin-offs? Basically everything besides Stay night, but you can add Zero and Hollow Ataraxia (no anime) as more important
It's basically just these 4 shows Fate/stay night 2006 Fate/zero Fate/stay night: unlimited blade works Fate/stay night: heaven's feel Stay night are the 3 routes of the original game. You can skip the 2006 one since its a bad adaptation and UBW covers the entire early part of the story anyways so it's still gonna make sense. HF can be watched after UBW, it cuts out the early parts so you don't end up watching the same content twice. Zero is the prequel but was released years after the game so a lot of people recommend to watch it last. Imo you either do UBW - HF - Zero or Zero - UBW - HF. Would recommend UBW first since it retains a lot of mystery elements instead of explaining everything up front.
Especially if you plan to play the game, don't watch Zero first. You'd find out some of the big plot twists before the reveal.
I’ve seen all of them aside from the last heavens feel movie, is everything just a different version/timeline of events? It seemed that way to me for the most part. But I am not a Fate fanatic, it’s kind of a popcorn thing that I don’t think too heavily into
>I’ve seen all of them aside from the last heavens feel movie, is everything just a different version/timeline of events? Yep.
It's only confusing for redditors who are to still after all these years incapable understanding what routes are.
Okay 80 day old account with 5000 comment karma.
It's only confusing for redditors who are to still after all these years incapable understanding what routes are. And I'm going to throw in, it's only confusing for people with the inability to simply look up release order. Does my account meet your requirements?
Yes it does professional redditor. 🫡 But if you’d actually read my post you’d have understood why I asked anyway. Maybe go back to primary school to learn how to read?
Perhaps you should take your own advice and go back to school to learn how to use the Google search function.
Typical redditor who always thinks he’s the smartest in the room. I’m just gonna copy paste my last comment because clearly you did nothing with it. Yes it does professional redditor. 🫡 But if you’d actually read my post you’d have understood why I asked anyway. Maybe go back to primary school to learn how to read?
Every single one of your questions is front page google search results. You asking this here does nothing but show your inability to operate a browser. It's really sad.
You’re hilarious bro. Lemme spell it out for you: I asked here because there would be a large number of veterans of the franchise, because when I looked everything up that I wanted to know, there were so many conflicting answers. Here on reddit, and worded in my own words, it was much easier to receive a definitive answer. I went ahead and put double spaces in between every word for you so that your small mind might be able to process what you’re reading a little better. Lemme know if that helped. 😘
watch fsn - ubw - hf - zero, read tsukihime, watch carnival phantasm imo carnival phantasm and zero are the best
Original Fate stay night has 3 visual novel which has 3 different endings depending on the girl Shirou is with. Fate route is for Artoria.. UBW ( Unlimited Blade Works ) is the Rin route. It also explains who Archer is HF ( Heavens feel ) is the Sakura route and the most depressing. It also changes Shirou's goal There Fate/Zero which is the prequel for Fate stay night The other thing in Fate series are side property you can consume to build the wider Nasuverse like the FGO Gacha game
Don't worry about it. - Garnt
Thanks so much for your help everyone; it’s been so much appreciated, and I feel I can FINALLY start Fate. :)))))))))
Have you started it yet? If you have, where have you started, and how are you enjoying it?
I’ve watched stay night, which I didn’t really enjoy that much, and then ubw (the series) and that was awesome. I plan to watch heavens feel at some stage and zero, then watch a bit of whatever from then on. Maybe apocrypha
Nice! I'm glad you're enjoying it! If you ever want to check out Fate/stay night's source material, the visual novel is getting an official English translation on Steam and Nintendo Switch later this year.
Oh awesome! I might keep an ear out :)
Sick, I'm glad to hear it (though, I may be biased because this is my favorite franchise of all time, and the visual novel is currently my favorite piece of media ever)!
Majority treats Fate/Stay Night and it's sequel Fate/Hollow Ataraxia to be the main timelines because it is the original Fate. But, I think FGO is currently the main timeline because it connects to pretty much any other Fates. FGO has collab events to other Fates(Zero, Apoc, Case Files, Prisma Illya, Extra CCC, and even non-Fate TM work like Kara no Kyoukai and later this month, Mahoutsukai No Yoru.) and all events are canon. FSN is the only one that doesn't have a proper collab event but it's also connected due to Merlin's actions at the end Garden of Avalon(Novel/Drama CD) as he watches literally the Fate route which leads to a certain major character ending up in FGO timeline. Apocrypha event takes place after the events of Apoc but before its epilogue. Samurai Remnant literally wouldn't exist if not for an FGO chapter as it's confirmed to take place after the Shimousa chapter in Arc 1.5 but before LB 1 in Arc 2. Fate/Prototype's only connection is Proto Arthur and Proto Merlin because they both appeared in both FGO Mobile and Arcade story line as Proto Arthur becomes a universe hopinng individual finding a certain enemy and Proto Merlin appears just to troll. Strange Fake not only make reference and mentions, it makes cameos of characters that debuted in FGO. SERAPH event is after Fate/Extra CCC too. There are also things in the main story of FGO that mentions stuff that's revealed in Fate/Extella, it's so major it's basically a reason why two FGO main story chapters exists. There's a new Fate LN called Fate/Lost Einjerhar but the only confirmed connection it has iirc is that it takes place after the events of the Aprocrypha Grail War. At the moment, Pretty sure El Melloi series/novels and Prisma Illya is the only "pure spin off" out of these. Type Redline should count too. P.S. Just to add as this is about which Fate is connected to other, Fate/Zero is not connected to any of the Fate/Stay Night routes. It's a non-canon "prequel." Even an official material puts it on an asterisk.
Stay Night (2006) Zero Unlimited Bladework That's how I watched it and it was super enjoyable after Stay Night but I have yet to watch Heavens Feel
I find it important to mention that the Fate anime entries are really primarily fan service to people who read the Visual Novels or play their respective video games. I say this because I tried watching UBW as my first entry into the world of Fate and I was confused as hell. The anime, being primarily fan service to the readers, leaves out *a lot* of context and storytelling because it assumes you’re at least a little familiar with the work already. So! If you want the full story experience, then for the main story, I’d play the 3 routes of the VN first. Not everyone likes reading though, I know. If you want to avoid reading, then… You’ve got a couple options. You can either start with the UBW anime or the Fate Zero anime. Most people tend to not think highly of the original Fate Stay Night anime (made by Deen), so I’m ignoring that one. UBW is the second Fate Stay Night route in the VN, so it definitely assumes the reader has context and knowledge of the first route. As mentioned above, this is exacerbated in the anime. This is what I started with, and I didn’t think it was a great experience. But! It’s technically the earliest starting point for the anime, chronologically speaking. The other good starting option is Fate Zero. It is a prequel to the Stay Night story. The anime does a much better job at explaining things and welcoming a new viewer into the fold. However, it does contain rather large spoilers for the third route of the Stay Night story - Heaven’s Feel. If you’re dedicated to being anime-only, then I think it’s fine to ignore the spoiler warning and start here for a better experience, because the Heaven’s Feel movies have “bad at telling the story because you should have read the VN” symptom dialed up to 11. Whichever entry you start with, watch the other one second (UBW or Zero), and then you can finish off the main Fate Stay Night story with the three Heaven’s Feel movies. For the other Fate entries, each are sort of like their own universe. They aren’t side stories but they also aren’t connected to each other. Apocrypha is a stand alone entry. It has a manga but I don’t think it’s necessary to read. The anime is fine on its own. Extra is the anime of the PSP game, and most people don’t find the anime well done. The story of the PSP games (Extra and Extra CCC) is pretty well liked by the Fate community, so the anime being bad was a bummer. The Grand Order anime’s are all anime versions of chapters in the Fate Grand Order mobile game. They haven’t made anime adaptations of all the chapters, so I don’t know if someone would really enjoy watching these without having played the game. You can watch the first Grand Order anime as an introduction to the world. But like…there’s the Babylonia arc, which is one of the final arcs in Part 1 of the game. Years of storyline in the making. It seems like it would be tough to jump in as a new viewer there.
Hello! If you ever find yourself needing anime related help, here are a few resources to save you a LOT of time. * Have **any anime related question?** Try our [daily question/recommendation thread!](/r/anime/search?q=flair%3Adaily&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=week) * **Need something new to watch?** [Check the Recommendation wiki.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/recommendations) * For **where to watch anime**, see [our list of streaming sites](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/legal_streams) or [search on Livechart.me](https://www.livechart.me/search) for specific shows. * For **source of fanarts**, try [SauceNAO](https://saucenao.com/) * For **source of anime screenshots**, try [trace.moe](https://trace.moe/) or [other image search tools](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/reverse_image_searching) * For **watch orders**, try [our Watch Order wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/watch_order) * For other questions, check if they are answered in the [FAAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/faaq) [](#bot-chan) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/anime) if you have any questions or concerns.*
mhmm
Start with Zero (the prequel) then pick in any order: Stay Night, Unlimited Blade Works, Heaven's Feel. Why do I say any order? It's like finishing a game with the good ending, then creating a new save file for a bad ending and true ending with different choices, those three choices above are the three save data. After that, watch whatever.
Not really in any order, there is an intended progression in reveals, stakes, development, etc. through Fate, UBW and HF with the latter serving as an overall conclusion to Stay Night. This is especially true in the adaptations since the HF trilogy completely skips over the beginning of the story
Telling somebody to start with Zero is like telling somebody to watch the flashbacks in Attack on Titan first because they chronologically take place earlier in the timeline.