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WINNER OF POLL (Patreon)

Published:
2021-07-03 16:54:03
Edited:
2021-07-03 17:10:12
Imported:
2021-09

Content

🎉FATE 🎉

NOW I know there is a lot of controversy between where to start.  So far from everything I was told the best way was to start with

UBW

From what I heard people also could argue Zero was the way to start. 

*no spoilers please*

I do not just want to do a poll because I need a passionate argument 

because I want the best experience I could possibly have.

Right now I am leaning more towards UBW


OKAY GUYS TIME TO DISCUSS! 

*no spoilers please*


Here is my thoughts on watching a prequel first.

It would be like watching the Star Wars prequels first ruining the twist with the "I AM YOUR FATHER" reveal type of thing.

That is just my thoughts on sometimes just because it is a prequel it might ruin shocking events in a show or movie




Files

Comments

Anonymous

Start with Fate zero

Anonymous

Zero is a prequel to UBW so I'd watch Zero first

Murphdog18

I would go with Zero first because it takes place before UBW and you would have more understanding about stuff happening in UBW if you watch Zero first

Elexis

Fate Zero is the prequel to UBW....therefor start with Fate/Zero!

Shehan

I started with UBW and continued on to the others. Personally for me this worked but check with what others have to say and decide. It’s your choice either way but you would like starting of with UBW though. đŸ”„

Cleven Anthony

Lmao no fate zero takes place before ubw. You’d just be lost if you started ubw first. It has the better animation but you need to watch fate zero first

Anonymous

Fate zero event happens before UBW and UBW is continuation of it

Avaren

The best choice is to start with Zero. :D

Vincent S Deluca

UBW is the base series and Fate Zero is a Prequel to it, so if you wanted to watch chronologically as it happens (Which how I Recommend it), Fate/Zero would be first and then UBW after followed by the Movies, but at the end of the day both series are built as good starting points and either direction you watch them in things will make sense and point to each other which is cool

Tempest1395

I actually just started the series myself recently and am almost done with UBW and yeah I’d say do Zero first, it’s the prequel and there’s a lot of callbacks to the events of Zero throughout UBW so it’ll be easier to understand and what not if you did Zero first I think

Finn Ryan
>>63082885

Not true actually, Zero is a prequel to UBW and is intended to be consumed after UBW

Anonymous

I would follow the order of release

Equinox

It's really not that bad to start with UBW instead of Zero because it's your first fate experience. I also started with UBW in the beginning and it was an experience. Imo UBW is better because of the plot. I know you are going to enjoy it because you love demon slayer and both are made by Ufotable.

Ernesto Martinez

Oh no...here comes the essays... XD

Steven Thomas

Although you can watch UBW first Zero has events that take place before UBW which then references it a lot. Your understanding of events, lore and characters will flow so much better if you watch Zero first and you'll enjoy it much more if you do it that way I'm sure!

Lahtiel

Zero first! UBW is continuation of fate zero.

Eddie or Redd

UBW is the usual way to start and then Zero is a Prequel. I prefer it in this order. If you watch UBW 1st theres small things in Zero that youll understand. Also a big deal is to make sure to PAY ATTENTION to the 1st eps of UBW. Its important if you want to understand how things work in this series and have knowledge of the characters.

Apex Astro

Definitely Zero first. The story/characters in UBW will lose some of their impact without watching Zero first.

Anonymous

I’d watch Fate Zero first considering it’s the prequel to UBW

Xander Phoenix

Zero came out first and is a prequel. Watching UBW afterwards will be nice because it will connect a lot of dots. I haven't seen Heaven's Feel but I know its ok to watch it after UBW. Can't go wrong with release order since the majority of fans watched it that way. Also get ready for some amazing OPs in this series.

Lahtiel

Zero first, ...reason ? if you start with UBW , you will spoil the ending of zero

MorRud

I won't say one is objectively better than the other. It depends on what you like. If you start with "Zero" you will get a more linear experience, some things will be clearer and a couple pay offs will be more satisfying (since you've been watching that character longer), but you also miss out on a lot of twist and misteries. If you watch UBW first you will have a lot of questions, and after watching Zero you'll see UBW in a completely new light (if you like the feeling of "oh, so that's why it was so", than this way is for you). Starting with UBW is harder for reactors in my opinion, because there are a lot of stuff you need to remember from UBW if you want to makes sense of it while watching Zero (basicly you'd need to watch UBW then Zero then UBW again to make sure you got everything). Watching Zero first gives you a solid understanding of the world and the characters. In the end both is good just make sure to catch as much information as you can, it will help a lot later on.

Oliver Segelhorst

I would efinetly go with release order, I think it is nice to know something from a prequel which gives these charactrs more depth and reason. and you remember some parts and say thats why.....

20 16
>>63083216

It makes more sense to start with zero if it her first experience tf r u saying.

20 16
>>63083464

Or start with zero so she doesn't get confused anyway

MishkaTho

You will spoil yourself the whole end of zero if you do that. I get your point, but start with zero. Just my opinion.

20 16

Zero pls god start with zero .

Matthew B
>>63084183

zero spoils fate heaven's feel though, so it doesn't matter, you are spoiling either one or the other. And let's be real, you need to be paying super close attention to even realize the spoiler.

Deathwolf01

Some of the comments don't really help the argument to lean towards Fate Zero. In my opinion that is a good introduction as it goes over more of the lore for the story and UBW talks about it less. I started with Zero and then UBW followed by Apocrypha after.

Taka Ii

I think you should watch Zero first. Both Zero and UBW spoil eachother (no matter which way you go). But Zero does take place first and gives and important context to a lot of things you'll see in Fate UBW while Fate UBW just pretty much tells you how Zero ends since it takes place after- which doesn't happen the other way around obviously. Was this passionate enough? đŸ€Ł

Wallet
>>63082937

Well you can't watch heavens feels until after UBW and zero

Wallet

Watching UBW is like watching Naruto shippuden and then Naruto, that doesn't make any sense

Mr Evol

You should start with UBW. Zero spoils a lot of reveals and UBW spoils less.

Jose silva

Starting with UBW should be the way to start fate was their just give more context to the series that was Fate Stay Nigh the one that sadly most people ignore because the animation is not at the level of anything ufotable made, so UBW is the closes thing to it so i choose it to recommend as starting place.

Eric Seitz

Zero comes before UBW chronologically also I feel like it did a really good job of explaining things where as UBW they just assumed you have seen the other shows and don’t go into as much detail

Jose silva

Side Note Oregairu is really good romance anime definetly give it a try if your looking to watch romance comedy anime

gruntmaster1

First watching Zero and then UBW will make certain things in UBW easier to understand, e.g. who and what are the jedi, what are the clone wars that this crazy old man said you dad thought in etc. As you mentioned yourself, it does also ruin some plot twists along the way, including the heavens feel movies (to some small decree). If you do go with UBW and then Zero, expect some hints/references to go over your head in UBW and a slower introduction to what the story is all about.

Anonymous

Ok so UBW is best way if you want to understand quickly and simply how the fate series works. But you will have important spoilers/twists happening in fate zero. Conversely if you start with zero the context of the series will be more difficult to understand but you will not have any spoil.

Anonymous

I am the only one that prefers original SN rather than UBW?

Anonymous
>>63083534

To add onto this I’ll put it like this. There’s nothing that happens in fate zero that will ruin a twist in UBW however there are plenty of moments in UBW that will ruin a twist in Fate Zero if you watch UBW first

Danny

uhh definitey fate zero just because UBW was produced AFTER Fate zero. so alot of it is based on the knowledge that you already watched zero. There will be alot of things that simply wont make sense if you watched zero after ubw. Altho its not the biggest deal in the world imo it just the way to go.

RJIA

I did not watch UBW series, only the movie. I watched 2006 FSN, Zero and UBW movie. I think Zero or UBW would make sense, but from my understanding it is part of the story that the focus characters of UBW and 2006 FSN are not all aware of the events of Zero, so it depends on if you think it’s good to view the story from a place of having more info than the central characters. The reason I think either works is because, similar to most prequels they are connected, but separate. Zero shapes the future stories and casts motivations in a new light, but it’s also not necessarily required to have a working understanding of those same events. Your Star Wars analogy is somewhat appropriate. There may be things that are unexplained and you will have to accept that there is no explanation (good storytelling when done right, in my opinion) whereas changing the watch order to start with Zero will allow for a more thorough analysis of all events. Some people are not happy with being intentionally left in the dark, so I think the watch order should be based on whether you would find that frustrating, distracting, or if it would detract from the experience for you. I can’t speak on Heaven’s Feel, because movie 3 came out during the pandemic, so I never got to go see it. Movie 1 was my favorite part of Fate, though. Does anyone else have an opinion on this assessment? I’m definitely not an expert, just someone who casually watched a couple times. Edit: I went back over it and no longer recommend 2006 FSN, because it tries to introduce elements from UBW and Heaven’s Feel without actually explaining them. It was a fun anime to watch, but I see why it’s not good when combined with the rest of the franchise.

Ryuuji Gremory

Well Fate/Stay Night with it's different routes, like UBW and Heaven's feel is the intended starting point of the series. The details of the events of Fate Zero are something that the characters in UBW aren't aware of and they are treated as a mystery (which is only natural since Zero was created afterwards).

Unholy

I watched UBW first and imo it explains the world and stuff better for people getting into the series more than Zero does.

Ryuuji Gremory
>>63085982

That's just not true considering majhority of the characters in Zero don't even appear in UBW and that UWB is part of Fate/Stay Night VN which was created before Zero intended to be the entry point to the series.

Ryuuji Gremory
>>63087416

UBW is completely capable of standing on it's own, which is only natural considering it is adapting something that was produced before Zero was even a thing.

SonicKing2004

It's kinda funny how Fate won the regular poll (and overall when you add the votes of both together) but Cautious Hero (the one that I voted for) won the secondary poll. I don't even know how that works, but I find it funny nonetheless.

Thorfinn45

Order to watch 1st Zero 2nd unlimited blade works 3th heavens feel

Quinton Teratino

Zero is the best place to start imo because it's the story before UBW and HF. Zero is basically the prequel. Thats why there's controversy. Think of it as starwars, some people like watching it in order while some say it's better to start with the prequels. In the end it hardly matters.

RJIA
>>63083376

I somewhat disagree with that, unless the UBW series is drastically different from the movie. The story for UBW existed from the VN before Zero was conceptualized, so it’s not really a continuation as much as Zero is an explanation to give deeper context.

Breds5

I say start with zero, a few people in here have been saying it spoils things for UBW but I see more as giving context. You’ll be less confused watching UBW if go with zero first, also UBW and HF will 100% spoil how zero ends. To me personally zero didn’t really feel like a prequel, it felt like the first series and then UBW is a continuation.

RJIA
>>63089136

The secondary poll is only for people who are on the higher tier, right? Maybe the bigger fans of the channel have just seen more anime in general so they have different opinions? Fate is pretty much super mainstream at this point, whereas Cautious Hero won’t be as well known for people who don’t follow anime closely on a seasonal basis.

Anonymous

https://www.reddit.com/r/fatestaynight/comments/df8rvo/rfatestaynights_official_viewing_order_guide_v2/

BerserkerAce

in my honest opinion, i believed the zero must come first cause it actually introduce about master and servant(the process). and it will give more info for UBW.

BerserkerAce

all i can say is that we all know who she going to love in zero and UBW

Assimilater
>>63084110

This is the first actual sound argument I've seen in this thread (Edit: it is in fact the **only** well formed argument in this thread)

Brickland

Fate/Zero was never meant to be the spoiler free story people seem to want it to be. You're SUPPOSED to know the ending of Zero beforehand just as you were SUPPOSED to know Darth Vader was once a Jedi Knight when watching the prequels. All that's left is the how and why it happened. The writers assume you've watched or read UBW, but if you haven't then you can still enjoy Zero I guess. Like others have mentioned, if you want to have this linear spoiler free fantasy, then start with Zero. If you want to watch in the order of release AKA watch it like Star Wars, you start with UBW.

Murphdog18

I watched UBW first and I wish I didn't because Zero was able to explain things I saw in UBW that I didn't understand at first and would have enjoyed better if I watched Zero first then UBW.

Ryuuji Gremory
>>63092449

So does UBW, we simply learn at the same pace as the main character instead of already knowing way more then him, which is how it was intended. It's part of the whole premise, we follow a character that doesn't really know about this world of magic and we learn and solve the mysteries alongside him.

Anonymous

Zero is the best option, as its a prequel and UBW flows nicely after it. UBW doesn't tend to explain a lot of stuff regarding lore and characters you are seeing, so you could be confused. It also has MAJOR spoilers to the plot that happened in Zero.

Adrian Jansen

The issue here is that Fate is divided in 3 different routes, each route has his heroin and different events, the release order is Fate/Stay Night->Fate/Zero->Fate/UBW->Fate/Heaven's Feels. Fate/Zero is a prequel of the other ones but Fate/Stay Night is a pretty bad version of the novel so i would suggest doing Fate/UBW->Fate/Zero->Fate/Heaven's Feel. Regarding your worries about watching a prequel first, you are absolutely correct, if you watch Zero first then you'll spoil some plot twists, but in the other hand is easier to understand what is happening in UBW knowing what happened in Zero. As a conclusion i thing that being kind of lost while watching UBW is ok, then Zero will answer a lot of questions regarding what happened in UBW, and once we got all the information then we proceed to what HF, i think that will make HF more satisfying.

Adrian Jansen
>>63088210

I agree with the star wars example but i would change the order a little bit UBW->Zero->HF My reasoning is that being kind of lost in UBW is ok, we'll be getting the answers in Zero and then, after having all the info, we proceed to whatch HF, everything should make sense at this point.

Jay

No matter what order you do Zero or UBW you will get some reveals spoiled for the other show. Both of them are really good stand alone series. When It was first suggested to me I ended up watching Zero first and UBW second and I have no regrets about that. If I had to recommend an order for somebody who knows nothing about the series, like I did not, I think Zero is a good place to learn first. The Heaven's Feel Movie Trilogy is the only thing you would for sure want to save until you have watched the other two series. But in the end other than that I think whether starting with either Zero or UBW you will have an very enjoyable experience.

Unoder

Lol who said to start with UBW, it's literally a sequel to Zero and you'd be getting massive spoilers for Zero starting there. Anyway, not only is Zero the best starting place but I'd say it has the best story in the series as well.

Anonymous
>>63093691

Plot twists spoiled by UBW in my opinion are more significant, than ones spoiled by watching Zero first. AKA: 1. Person X will survive 2. Person B will kill person C

Kai Hui

This question is not related to the op. But I was wondering if you have watched Demon Slayer Mugen train yet :)?

Tim Kane

You mentioned you don’t want to do a poll but you should know other reactors (Blindwave, Yaboiroshi) have done that exact poll. Zero has consistently won with 75-80% of the votes. There is no real controversy. Zero is the better place to start with because it’s framed as a high stakes battle royale between multiple characters and UBW spoils that ending immediately. On the other hand, Zero doesn’t actually spoil anything major with UBW or HF. The most it does is mention certain details that work more as foreshadowing for certain routes instead of spoilers.

Shehan

Woww people really took this seriously. Kudos to us all đŸ”„

Keegan Uerata

I haven't watched the fate series yet but from the research I've done zero seems to be the best place to start

20 16
>>63086176

Huh ? How does zero spoil more then UBW.

Ryuuji Gremory
>>63093396

You simply aren't supposed to know those things about the lore and characters just like Shirou doesn't know, you are supposed to learn alongside him. On the other hand you are supposed to know the end of Fate/Zero.

Ryuuji Gremory
>>63098852

Well the Fate sub reddits seem to disagree and reference a viewing order that has Fate/Zero last, as it was created last and was always intended to be read last.

Cleven Anthony

This is why it shoulda been a poll lol if it was fate zero woulda been won. There’s no real reason to save fate zero for last since it’s a prequel and animation wise it’s pretty decent in comparison to ubw but in the end if you decide you wanna be lost with ubw first then go for whatever you think is the best decision but it’s obvious most ppl think zero should be first lol

Chris Barnes

For people who know nothing about the fate series zero is the way to start. It introduceds everything you need to know and follows the events in order. It's a much more smooth way to start. Plus UBW is the best of the fate series. Watching that first means you will be downgrading as you go along. Zero is good but UBW is better

Mettzen

Always the debate, of where to start hahaha, personally I played the visual novel first in 2007, so I already knew Fate, Unlimited blades works and Heaven's feel, routes before I watched Zero, I watched fate zero when it aired in 2011 and I still enjoyed it. Hope you have fun and if possible watch it on a nice and big screen, animation quality is really good specially the Heaven's Feels movies, I watched those on the movie theater and it was an awesome experience. I hope you watch the movies after UBW and finish with Zero.

Unoder

George Lucas may forever go down as a man with Gungan level IQ for how he spoiled the twist of Episode V in the prequels, but that's really no concern here with the fate series. Fate Zero beautifully compliments UBW and should really be watched before hand because as others have mentioned there are call backs too it in UBW, and the arc's of a couple characters will have more weight too them if you've seen FZ already. I watched through the fate series about a year ago and I remember having some deliberation as well about where too start, eventually I did end up starting with Zero and I was definitely thankful having done so after finishing UBW.

ProphetX

Cautious hero would have been so good, but the peeps spoke and yeah

Ryuuji Gremory
>>63096717

Your just factually wrong Zero is a Prequel, it was written after Stay/Night as a prequel, it was intended to be read after Stay/Night, which includes UWB.

Frank Rosales

Depends on if you want dip your toes to get an established understanding of the Universe of the show (starting with Zero) to diving straight in yolo blind (starting with UBW) but in the end it's how you want your viewing experience to be. Unfortunately myself didn't have this option when it first came out but I'm impartial to either starting off first.

Matthew Wise

So if this debate hasn't been resolved yet i'd like to put my two cents in. Not sure if it's been suggested as there are 102 comments, but if it's on the card's I would suggest 'Dean Stay/Night' (Fate Stay/Night 2006). Now hear me out because I know a lot of fate fans particularly my fellow visual novel readers may scoff. If your not familiar with the controversy around Dean Stay night it's essentially 2 things: 1) The overall quality is no where near up to par with Ufotable's versions 2) They deviate a lot from the source route and even kind of merge routes. Point 1 is easy to counter, noone really thought the quality was bad until ufotable's versions came out and ufotable did such an amazing job that people even affectionately nicknamed unlimited blade works to unlimitted budget works. There is a gulf in quality because we are talking about stepping up from a Ford mondeo, good but nothing special to a Ford GT, of course the mondeo looks meh by comparison. Addressing the divergence from source material is harder and i am not going to really try and counter it, all I will say is it's currently the only adaption of the Fate route which *is* the introduction route. In my view dean stay night will get you up to speed with what's going on the fate world and will allow you to get the full experience of fate zero (and it will wow you) once you get there. UBW kind of plays on the assumption that you have seen fate zero, so there are moments it creates to trigger your memories of a certain character and the contrast between what shirou sees and what you've seen. TLDR i think it should go: Dean Stay night->Fate/Zero->Unlimitted Blade Works->Heavens Feel It's the best and intended introduction to the fate world, grants maximum pay off for fate zero and unlimitted blade works and gives you more content! Plese forgive spelling mistakes, keyboard on the brink and I am a crap typer anyway.

Brickland
>>63129587

Well, of course if Fate/Stay Night is an option, then your order is the most preferred. It's how some of us have watched it over the years. It's where it all started.

Cleven Anthony
>>63101300

Will majority end up ruling and zero goes first or will her self interest and the few people who say not to watch zero win first ? Find out next week on Patreon decisions ! 😭😭😂

Medaka kurokami

and this is why fate was a bad idea too many where’s on what to start first. The original fate/stay night 2006 is the way was out before any of the other season where out. Y’all want UBW or zero because the animation

Anonymous

I started with zero and my thoughts are that I probably would have started with Ubw. There are concepts in zero that don't get touched on in Ubw. That being said tho there are things in zero that give a better clarity to how things occur and how some characters know each other. With that being said it's more of your own opinion if you prefer watching with better clarity or watching without the thoughts of the other routes.

Mikestrike

Sigh... Maybe next time Code Geass

Anonymous

the quicker we blow through Fate the better the chances of other anime getting through.

SalmonYu

I'm just gonna say that if u don't start with fz, it might be confusing for someone that's new to the fate series. Also fz came out before fsn ubw, so imo it makes sense to start with fz, but I can definitely see why people think starting with ubw would be better for mysteries and stuff.

Joshua W Capute

Don't start with Fate/Zero, it was written YEARS AFTER the Fate/Stay Night Visual Novel was made and yes your analogy is quite relevant as it was specifically written to be a prequel and it spoils the vast majority of what makes the 3 F/SN routes so good, including the identity of a specific character who's identity is kept a secret for the majority of all the routes. Now I know that part of the "controversy" with this series comes from the concept of skipping the ORIGINAL Fate/Stay Night series (2006 Studio DEEN) however it is undeniably the 1st and MAIN ROUTE of the 3 romantic routes (2nd Unlimited Blade Works, 3rd Heaven's Feel movie trilogy), and although it does lack in the quality of animation compared to rest done by UFOtable; regardless most anime's animation can't hold a flame to any of UFOtable's work; it does the story quite well and a lot of scenes have a unique and gorgeous atmospheric feel which is pulled directly from the visual Novel and if Type/Moon had thought that it wasn't up to par, they wouldn't have made UFOtable start with the 2nd Route Unlimited Blade Works. Anyone who genuinely is saying to skip the original Fate/Stay Night is basically disrespecting the franchise as any Japanese fan (and plenty of Japanese sites) will tell you without hesitation that if you're not going to put the 100+ hours of reading into the original Visual Novel which doesn't have an official western PC release (there's maybe an old port or 2 on old consoles, however they are heavily edited and reworked as the original is considered an Eroge even though it has significantly less adult content than "typical" eroge in relation to the amount of reading it contains) you should just watch it in the Visual Novel route order: F/SN, UBW, HF, F/Z; PLEASE PLEASE don't follow what many people tell the majority of reactors I've watched and Skip F/SN or start with F/Z.

Cancer Man

Oregiru was so close!!!

Jose silva

The star Wars analogy you used is on point thats also why i think you should start with UBW instead of Zero.

Medaka kurokami
>>63213363

Bro you noobs keep forgetting fate/stay night 2006 is like episode 4 of Star Wars.

Equinox

I would also start with fate/stay night and than zero or ubw so you can experience the increase in quality since you know how good ufotable is!

Anonymous

Talking about Star Wars analogy, I think starting with UBW will ruin 'I am your father' kind of plotwist. There is a certain event discussed in UBW that will make you know an ending to certain plotpoints that happened in Zero. Compared to this, 'spoilers' in Zero to UBW are miniscule. Also, UBW anime got a bunch of additions, that reference or I would say compliment events from Zero, which are basically will be OMG moments for you, if you Start from Zero. If you watch UBW first, those will mean nothing to you. And btw, There was a 16 year break between return of the jedi and Phantom menace x) Quality is so much different between those. There was only 2 years break between Zero and Fate Stay night, if talking about source material and only 3 if talking about anime. So quality stays pretty consistent even when you start from prequel.

Kyle Smith

Starting with UBW is perfectly fine and then you can go into Zero. It really doesn't matter where you start between those 2. People like to make this a controversial topic and it really isn't. The simple answer really is start where ever you want to start. In the end both shows will spoil things in the other show so its not worth worrying about.

Unoder
>>63275057

No, it really isn't that simple at all IMO. For instance, my favorite character in the entire series is a character from Fate: Zero and I know full well that if I'd started with UBW that that wouldn't be the case. UBW spoils F:Z so significantly, that it can trivialize the arc of a pretty significant character, whereas what F:Z "spoils" for UBW is rather... trivial in comparison.

Jeff

Honestly? I think you’d really enjoy the OG 2006 Fate/Stay Night anime lmao. People like to forget about it because UBW and Heaven’s Feel are so good but I still think it’s worth watching and the best starting point into > UBW > HF movies > Zero. Unpopular opinion, I know, otherwise start at UBW 100%

Mike-

You’ll spoil Zero if you start with UBW

kyle williams12

Please do ubw first I love that route

Merfhew

Honestly, I would recommend watching Fate/Zero first, or at least, before you watch UBW. If you were to watch the original Fate/Stay Night anime or play the original visual novel, I would agree with your Star Wars analogy, but I think UBW is bit more complicated. As other people mentioned, Fate/Zero is a prequel that came out years after the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel. However, the Fate/Zero anime was still produced before the UBW anime. If I were to (poorly) recreate your analogy, Fate/Stay Night is the original Star Wars trilogy, Fate/Zero is the prequel trilogy, and UBW is a hypothetical reboot of the original trilogy with Jar Jar cameos, mentions of the Clone Wars, solid evidence that Darth Vader / Yoda / Obi Wan actually remember R2D2 and C3P0, and an alternate ending. In other words, if you watched this hypothetical reboot before the prequel trilogy, you'd be scratching your head at references specifically added by the Director with the expectation that viewers have already seen the prequel trilogy. I don't want to spoil anything, but from my understanding (I haven't played the visual novel), the UBW anime adaptation added scenes that aren't in the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel. These scenes make direct connections to Fate/Zero, including characters you won't recognize if you watch UBW first. Regardless of which show you watch, you'll be spoiled in some ways, but I think watching Fate/Zero first gives fewer spoilers. My final argument for watching Fate/Zero first would be that the stakes are higher when you don't know the future. When I watched the prequel trilogy of Star Wars, I was never afraid that Anakin or Obi Wan or R2D2 or C3PO or Yoda or Boba Fett or Jabba or The Emperor were going to die because I knew they'd all be in the original trilogy. I'd argue that the last two episodes of Fate/Zero in particular would be very underwhelming if you watch UBW first.

Most Sane Oreimo Fan

Watch any of the FSN routes. Preferably the Fate route which is the 2006 one. Then move over to UBW then HF. After that, you can watch Zero. For those that will use the argument of “But you should watch Zero first because it is the prequel and you won’t understand any context.” That’s the point. All of the routes of FSN was made without having a prequel in mind which means you can watch all three of the routes without context and it’ll still be okay. Watching Zero is not really recommended for it both spoils UBW and especially HF. HF is my favourite route among all of the routes and watching Zero first which spoils majority of HF won’t be any fun to watch cause watching HF without context is like insolvent some mysteries about these characters which you will not get when you watch Zero because you already know their connections with each other. So I don’t really recommend watching Zero first because it just ruin the time of you watching the HF trilogy.

Kamui

If you start with Fate UBW its going to be confusing af. Just start like every other reactor with "Fate Zero"

Zaj

UBW was made expecting people to have seen Zero first. Ufotable chose to do it that way, so the way they present the story is done with that in mind. They made Fate/Zero in 2011, then UBW in 2014 for a reason. If we were talking about the visual novel I would completely agree to start with Fate/Stay Night first, then do Fate/Zero afterwards. That's how I initially experienced the story, reading the visual novel, then watching and reading Fate/Zero afterwards. But for an anime only, it's certainly structured in a way where Fate/Zero should be watched first.

Michael

I believe you should start with UBW. UBW, contrary to what other people are saying here was originally released as a movie prior to zero, and similar to the movie, it is made with the knowledge that you have no idea what is going on. It reveals things to you slowly and a lot of what makes it interesting is these reveals. Zero instead starts with tons of info dump so you will be very confused and overwhelmed the first couple episodes, and watching it first will make UBW far less interesting and engaging since much of it is predicated on the suspense and intrigue of the reveals. Zero is fully a prequel, and should be watched as such, not as an introductory series.