John D. Pliskin

I love this. Bless you, Koto

Originally Posted by Kotonoha

Shitty summary of the Epilogue script draft (I forget how the episode actually went, so sorry if I glossed over anything completely new or went into excess detail over stuff that didn't change)

Spoiler:

EDIT: HELLO FRIENDS FROM OTHER SITES, THIS ISN'T A TRANSLATION! PLEASE TAKE IT WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

Shirou dreams about being in a wasteland wondering whether to keep going or take a different path. Wakes up in his apartment, goes over to Rin's place and starts makes her breakfast. He opens the curtains revealing it's London. They have breakfast, talk about what they're going to do that day etc etc. Shirou starts to tell her about how he got the invite from the association but stops, Rin notices that he's worried about something but doesn't say anything

They go out and head to the clock tower. Shirou stares at a nondescript random student while wondering if he's out of place being there. There's a conversation about how Shirou has to protect himself from people who don't like him and might gandr him or something and he's like "like you?" and Rin gets flustered and causes a scene.

Rin mentions her first class is self-defense, cut to the Luvia fight. It ends in a tie, they set aside their differences and shake hands honourably until they both reveal that they thought they were the winner.

Then they have lunch and Luvia insists on coming along since she was the one who got them the apartments anyway. Luvia reminisces about how she first met Shirou (he saved her from assassins with kanshou in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other). She wonders if he's worried about something but he brushes it off and goes to put away the dishes. When he leaves Luvia pesters Rin about overworking him but she says she's not (also mentions he does butler stuff for Luvia twice a week), it's because he got a letter from the Association telling him what his colour is, basically meaning he can enroll. Luvia's happy (bc they can get closer) and thinks Rin should be too, Rin's not so sure

Shirou dreams about wasteland again. Next day Rin gets out of class and goes to the cafeteria but Shirou's not there, she goes to the library and he's there reading and looking troubled. She greets him and notices he's reading a book in Italian, conversation about how he could just learn to use magecraft to communicate but he thinks there's things you can't convey to people except in their own language or w/e. She stops him and asks him to take a break (bc he's working so hard) and go somewhere tomorrow.

Next day about 8 AM, Shirou's waiting in the lobby, Rin comes down and she has her twintails again, Shirou's really happy about that lol

They get on a bus and arrive in Glastonbery. They get to the grave and Rin announces she's going to wander off for a while so Shirou can say goodbye. Shirou gives thanks to Saber and sits there for a while

Later Shirou and Rin are sitting together, they talk about stuff like how the grail war seemed like a big deal but he realized how small it was relatively and how he doesn't feel like it improved him but it was still a big deal. Rin disagrees that it was particularly significant, has a whole monologue about how nobody accomplishes everything by themselves but rather with the help of those who came before them, and "someday someone will use what you left behind you" etc (there's a note saying "you can cut this bc it's long" lol). Then they get on the bus and Shirou falls asleep.

Timeskip to 2 years earlier, Issei wakes Shirou up in the classroom, Shirou goes to fix some stuff for him. He asks how the mountain is doing, they're fixing the temple up. Shirou says he'll go help after visiting Shinji in the hospital, Issei mentions he's almost recovered.

Flashback to Shirou at the hospital talking to Sakura in the hallway, Shinji doesn't want to see him so she's apologizing. Shirou's like "dont worry about it lol" and leaves. Shinji watches from the window as he leaves, his face is obscured by the curtains so you can't see his expression but he looks like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

Back to Shirou and Issei at school, they talk about how Sakura is visiting Shinji everyday and getting through to him. Taiga shows up and sees Issei. In the staff room there's a box of Kuzuki's stuff, it's been a month since they lost contact with him so Issei takes the stuff, he's sad but Kuzuki showed up out of the blue anyway so it fits that he'd leave the same way. Taiga's sad too cause they were friends. also she wanted to fight him

As they leave they run into Rin, she gets Issei all flustered, tells Shirou to go home with her when he's done helping Issei and skips off

He goes to the classroom and says he's done, Rin's surprised it was so fast and he's like "uhhh yeah". Flashback to earlier with Shirou and Issei, Mitsuzuri jumps out and yells at Issei for cutting the club's funding or some shit. Shirou leaves Issei to deal with her, he waves at her and she waves back though

Back to the classroom, Rin's watching the students running around and asks Shirou if he was ever in the track and field club bc she remembered something from seeing the sunset. anyway then they talk about what they're going to do after graduating or w/e and how she's going to London, he agrees to be her student etc etc (there's a note saying they could cut to the wasteland image after Rin's smile to show contrast/unease)

Back in the bus in London. Shirou wakes up, Rin's sleeping next to him. He remembers how she said she'd make him a first rate magus and he's thinking about what he can do/what he should do or whatever

Few days later. Shirou's in the halls, he just turned down the association's offer. He passes by El-Melloi II, who stops and talks to him without turning around, asks him why he's bothering to learn magecraft and all that. Shirou says wants to believe in what he believed in etc etc. As he answers he's visibly losing the doubts he's had this whole time. And then there's the whole "I want to be a hero" line. El-Melloi's like "I see, so we have another eccentric", he thinks it's foolish. But he goes on to say that magi follow their own path so nobody there can laugh at Shirou's. He walks off.

Rin's room in the evening, Shirou shows up. Rin was waiting while fiddling with her pendant, she stows it in her pocket. She asks about the invite, he smiles and says he turned it down. Rin nods like she knew it all along. Shirou's surprised that she knew he got an invite, she says obeviously they contacted her since he's her apprentice. Shirou realizes that she left it all up to his judgement even though she didn't have to. He thanks her and says her kindness is still hard to understand (in a way kinda reminiscent of one of Archer's lines), she has a "cute tsundere" (actual quote) reaction. Then she says that he should be apologizing, not thanking her, since she has to leave in 2 more years now. He's confused because that should only apply to him, but she says her top priority is making him first rate so she has to keep her eye on him, Shirou blushes. Then he looks down and worries that since he's not changing his path and knows he's wrong he might end up like Archer. Rin agrees that he's full of mistakes but "in the end you just have to win, right?" He looks up and she's looking at him with an affectionate expression. She tells him that even if he's aiming for the wasteland and taking the same path, the difference is in how far he'll go and where he ends up. If he goes farther than Archer, then he's "right". Shirou smiles in a way that resembled Kiritsugu's smile before he died. He "carves Rin's words into his heart" and holds out a hand to her, she takes it. He asks if she's okay with leaving the clock tower but she says it's fine, she'll end up there anyway, there's the whole "let's see the world and live happily ever after" thing. Then she says Luvia invited her to a party and they should go together to show Luvia whose student Shirou is. As they leave Rin takes out the pendant and puts it in a box, shutting it like she's saying goodbye and then goes after Shirou. The camera lingers on the box in the empty room and fades out (note saying this is to emphasize that Shirou will not become Archer because he doesn't have the pendant).

The final wasteland shot, mostly the same as what Nasu posted on his blog. Shirou is walking, he falters and sees traces that someone was there (the place Archer stopped). He looks up filled with hope and keeps walking. The camera stops on the traces of Archer's presence and watches Shirou go. (There's a note saying they could show Archer here if they wanted, but show him seeing Shirou off without any malice/grudge, just watching as if he's seeing something dazzling)

THE END!!!!!!!!