The Order of the Fate Series: Which Should You Watch First?

If there is one thing that is constant about the Fate series (besides being awesome) is that there has been some confusion as to how exactly does one watch it, that is, which order should you watch between Fate/Stay Night (2006), Fate/Zero, and Fate/Stay Night:  Unlimited Blade Works (2014).

Well, thank the heavens that I’m here to enlighten people as to which you should watch first, and how to go from there.  To do that, however, I have to explore each option, as to give you guys a quick summary as to what I think of each, and hopefully, by the end, you would have decided on the best option for you to start your glorious trek through the Fate universe.

My name is Ken, and today I present to you my thoughts on which order to watch the Fate series.

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ORDER #1:  

Fate/Stay Night (2006) –> Fate/Zero –> Fate/Stay Night:  Unlimited Blade Works (2014)

This the order that I personally recommend the most.  You watch the 2006 version, which is not that great of an adaptation in and of itself, but it does provide enough context about the concept of the Holy Grail War and the Servants while also being an enjoyable series.

After that, you can watch Fate/Zero, which totally blows the 2006 version out of the water and makes all the BS that you had to go through totally worth it.

And then you can watch Unlimited Blade Works 2014 as a decent sequel to Fate/Zero.  Subjectively, you’re starting with the worst out of the three, and then you go onto better shows right after.  Objectively, however, there’s no question:  start with 2006, and you’ll only end up having to watch newer and higher-quality stuff afterwards.

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ORDER #2:

Fate/Stay Night (2006) –> Fate/Stay Night:  Unlimited Blade Works (2014) –> Fate/Zero

I’m not quite sure what to think of this one.

Watching UBW right after FSN 2006 doesn’t make much sense, as it is essentially just a rehashed version of FSN with a better (subjective) story and 1000x more budget.

Really, not much to say here.  This order doesn’t make sense because you would essentially be watching half the same story twice, soooo yeah.

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ORDER #3:

Fate/Zero –> Either Fate/Stay Night (2006) or Unlimited Blade Works (2014)

This one is a bit of an odd one.

On one side, if you’re introducing the world of Fate to people, Fate/Zero is essentially the end all and be all.  The dark and gritty action-packed world of Fate/Zero is an amazing precursor to the Fate franchise, and you would be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t enjoyed this show.

On the other hand, the sequels are nothing like it, even more so in FSN 2006’s case.  I can understand going straight for UBW 2014 after F/Z, but even so you’d be leaving FSN 2006 to the wolves, and that’s a bit unfair in my opinion.  There are some details in UBW that aren’t necessarily explained, and some things are actually done better in FSN 2006, so if you skip that, you’d be leaving out some stuff, not a lot of them sure, but you would be missing out on something.

So I’m not against this order.  It’s just not my preferred one.

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ORDER #4:

Fate/Stay Night:  Unlimited Blade Works (2014) –> Either Fate/Zero or Fate/Stay Night (2006)

Now this one makes the least sense.

As good of a series as UBW 2014 is, it leaves a lot of plot points behind under the assumption that viewer have already seen either the original FSN or Fate/Zero.

Sure, it’s a great spectacle from a production standpoint, but, looking at the long-term effect, I don’t think that this would work as well as starting from the subjectively inferior FSN 2006.

Sooo, yeah.  I’m not one to tell the readers what to do, but please don’t use this order if you can help it.

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Hopefully, if you are starting the show or wondering how you should introduce this wonderful series to a friend, that this little thingy would help you guys understand your options.  Ultimately, it’s up to you guys to decide, and I can only hope that you and everyone around you would end up loving the show as well.

As per usual, leave a comment down below pertaining to your thoughts on this list, on the show s themselves, or if you would like me to review/make a list of anything.  And, speaking of liking, give the review a thumbs-up if you enjoyed it and follow me on twitter @tbs_ken for updates and general shitposting, if you feel like doing so.

Aaaaaaand, with that, I bid you all adieu.  This has been Ken for thebuttonsmashers.com Anime Reviews, and I’ll see you guys in the future!

3 Comments

    1. personally, i think 2006 does a better introduction, setting wise. ubw was more of a character study for certain characters.