#something something rin is distorted in everyones perception

[r3dlif3]

Obito's 'after life' just being a hallucination formed in his mind, created so he can finally have peace in the hellscape he's been trapped in for the past 15 years is bittersweet yet fitting. In the series it's confirmed that no shinobi gets an angelic, utopian life after death, it's a grey area that is nothing but darkness. Neither good nor bad it lies in between because of a shinobi's ever-present moral and internal conflicts about their being. So, why would obito of all people get a good one? it's because he doesn't. He killed thousands, participated in his clan massacre, and planned on putting the world into an infinite dreamscape land; even if his ideals were in good faith and an analysis on the shinobi system.

It's his mind trying to achieve some sort of finality before he dies as. Rin leads him to his death like the guardian angel Obito thinks she is during his last scene. She's leading him to a no mans land and he can't escape it so the last thing he can do is relish this last few moments and believe it's tranquility.

[cantillat-moved]

During the first encounter with Caster, there is so much going underneath the surface. Early on, in a throwaway commentary, Archer lets Shirou know that Saber is nearby and is merely unable to join them because of Assassin. Sure, Archer could never said a thing about it – it was a conscious decision, like much of his interactions with his past self and with others during the Grail War.

When Caster made her offer, of course Shirou immediately rejected the idea but Archer paused to height his options – that was also something calculated. Back during the prologue, Archer voiced his disgust towards the idea of using the mana of innocents to feed himself.  For one, Caster declared that she knows exactly how much energy she can gather from people, meaning that it would be likely she won’t go and kill people needlessly if unprovoked – yet, if she so much suspected that getting people killed would rile him up then she would certainly do that. In any case, getting worked up and wanting to wrap things up quickly and carelessly would only increase the causalities.

The idea that Caster would also go and attack Berserker was also a logical thought: even if Archer couldn’t discern her identity and her connection with Heracles, Caster claimed to know how to attain the Grail and share the contents with everyone who sides her. For that, she would likely need the Lesser Grail --- Berserker’s Master. Securing the Lesser Grail would make sense, of course… Except that Caster likely didn’t know that at that point, that was why she attacked Kotomine at the Church. Either way, securing the Lesser Grail or removing the biggest threat as quickly and swiftly as possible in a surprise attack was the best course of action for Caster and it would also benefit Rin, that couldn’t possibly hope to deal with Berserker and Illya at that point, so it made sense for Archer to allow Caster to keep on amassing as much mana as she wanted.

Lastly, killing Caster at the temple would be impossible. She turned the entire temple into her territory, so she would have safeguards on top of safeguards. It would be easy for her to create illusions that distorted the perception of reality, even with his class’ resistance to magic it would be relatively easy for her to trick him. Unless he could find a way to surefire kill Caster, without a single shadow of doubt, he shouldn’t attempt to do so; Archer would be showing his hand, probably showing some vulnerability that she could exploit. She could also get angry and turn violent and unpredictable, something he wouldn’t want at the time. There would also be the possibility that she would fake her death and go underground, becoming harder to find and strike during a moment of distraction. Moreover, she could use a lot of mana to heal herself – causing more collateral damage. Once Shirou confronts him about not killing Caster, Archer does explains, rather curtly, that she would be escaping regardless -- confirming this reasoning. If he wanted to kill Caster, the best opportunity would be outside her territory...Probably when she goes off to attack Berserker, unless she manages to bait him which was unlikely.

Even after she made her escape, it would be foolish to think that she wasn’t watching Archer’s and Shirou’s interaction, so it was for the best if the bowman kept his nonchalant behavior – oh, bonus points for pissing the boy off. Despite the excitement and adrenaline of the battle, it was likely very stressful for Archer too but useful to gauge Caster and the threat level. He knows that Rin is going after Caster no matter what happens, and it is very likely that Illya goes after Shirou and Rider’s Master was clearly impatient (if  he recalled Shinji or not at that point wasn’t too clear, but the pattern so far was ), so Archer was getting a clearer picture to plan the best course to guarantee Rin’s victory – or, at very least, survival. Archer was also aware that he needed Saber alive, as her Noble Phantasm could destroy the Grail. Keeping Shirou alive was an inconvenient (and irritating), but necessary at that point. Only during Episode 12 when he learned about Caster’s Noble Phantasm that he came up with a better plan...