Illyasviel von Einzbern

I'm not scared anymore even though it's dark. You're strong, Berserker. I'm safe if you're there like that.

## Biographical information

### Age

8 (Fate/Zero)
 18 (Fate/stay night)

### Related to

Irisaviel von Einzbern (mother)
 Kiritsugu Emiya (father)
 Shirou Emiya (adoptive brother)
 Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern (ancestor)
 Jubstacheit von Einzbern (grandfather)

### Born

Unknown
Germany

### Died

Unknown
Japan (Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel Routes)

## Friends and Enemies

### Allies

Berserker
 Shirou Emiya (Fate Route)
 Rin Tohsaka (Fate Route)
 Saber (Fate Route)
 Archer (Fate Route)

### Enemies

Gilgamesh
 Sakura Matou
 Shirou Emiya
 Archer
 Saber
 Rin Tohsaka

**Illyasviel von Einzbern** is a character in the multimedia franchise Fate, which consists of anime, manga, light novels, visual novels, and video games.  She was an extremely minor character in Fate/Zero, the deaughter of Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisaviel von Einzbern, the adoptive sister of Shirou Emiya, and the granddaughter of Jubstacheit von Einzbern, and has a major role in Fate/stay night, as the Master of the Berserker Class Servant during the Fifth Holy Grail War.  In the magical girl spinoff series Fate/kaleid liner prisma Illya she is the main protagonist, who becomes a magical girl due to the actions of Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita Edelfelt.

## Why She Rocks

* Incredibly adorable and appealing character design.
* Excellent voice acting in both sub and dub.
* She has interesting relationships with several characters in the series.
	+ She hates Shirou at first, due to Kiritsugu adopting him; she loved Kiritsugu, her father, and felt that Kiritsugu stayed in Japan and abandoned her for Shirou.  However, in the Fate route and Heaven's Feel route, this slowly changes.  In the former, the two form a sibling-like bond, and in the latter, she sacrifices her life to save his.
	+ She loved Kiritsugu a lot, since they were father and daughter, but she was only 8 years old when they were separated, so her memories of him are quite scant.
	+ She also loved her mother on the same level as her father.
	+ She considered Berserker to be something of a protector.  She loved him tremendously, as if he were actually a part of her family, and is devastated in every route when he finally meets his untimely demise.
	+ She obeys her grandfather without question.  It's unknown if she actually loves him in the same way that she loved her parents, or if their relationship is simply constructed based on obedience, because he's the head of their house.
* Her death in the Unlimited Blade Works route is effectivelye motional, as first Berserker is killed by Gilgamesh, then he forcefully rips Illya's heart out of her chest, and watches her painfully die.
* Her death is even better in the Heaven's Feel route, as Illya willingly sacrifices her own life to save Shirou's.
* There are two fascinating sides to Illya's personality.  On one hand, she's similar to her mother, bubbly, kind, out going, and cheerful, extremely childish.  However, she also bears similarities to her father, as she's shown willingness to murder callously when she's angered too much.
* Illya is a tragic character, whom is extremely lonely inside due to being abandoned by Kiritsugu Emiya for Shirou, (that's not what happened, but that's what her grandfather told her), the death of her mother, and the emotional disregard by her grandfather, who merely saw her as a tool to acquire the Holy Grail during the Fifth Holy Grail War.  She has no friends to play with or family that truly cares about her, and is often times stuck inside of the Einzbern Mansion practicing her magecraft.

## Bad Qualities

* She doesn't have any route in the original Fate/stay night visual novel, even though she was a great character, and her and Shirou had excellent chemistry.
* Her death in the Unlimited Blade Works route is a double edged sword; while it's very effectively emotional, it's also kind of an insult to her character, the way Gilgamesh first killed Berserker, then ripped her heart out of her chest.

## Quotes

* I'm not scared anymore, even though it's dark.  You're strong, Berserker.  I'm safe if you're there like that.
* I'm sure you know the legend Rin, the Greek hero Hercules had to overcome the twelve labors in order to atone for his sins, and the reward he received was a form of immortality. A curse that forces him to live through the deaths he avoided in life.
* You said an older brother protects his younger sister, right? …Yeah. I'm the older sister. So I have to protect my younger brother.
* Then I'll show you a miracle. It's an application of the magic I showed you earlier, but this one's amazing. This is the sorcery everyone wanted to see, after all.
* Berserker can't loose to anyone, because he's the strongest in the world!

## Trivia

* Originally Illya was planned to be one of the heroines, however if that were made then the release date of Fate/Stay Night would be delayed by another half a year.[12] Her route would have been part of Sakura story. Rather than only choosing to become Sakura's hero or fulfill his ideals as an Ally of Justice on the ninth day of Heaven's Feel, Shirou would have also had an option to become Illya's hero instead. However, due to the length, they thought to release Saber and Rin as Fate/stay night and Sakura and Illya in a separate release titled "Fate/other night", but they thought it would have been too expensive. Illya's route was instead combined with Heaven's Feel because they decided to include Sakura's route in Fate/stay night.
* Nasu Kinoko jokingly commented that the Illya route is the "Prisma☆Illya" because Hiroshi Hiroyama was able to finish what he couldn't do.
* Illya is one of the most popular characters in the entire franchise.
	+ In the first Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2004, Illya was ranked 5th.
	+ In the second Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2006, Illya was ranked 8th.
	+ In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Illya was ranked 17th.
* In Japanese, Illya is voiced by Mai Kadowaki, and in English she's voiced by Stephanie Sheh, in all of her anime appearances.