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We've all heard of Fate/stay night, the much-beloved visual novel by Type-Moon that taught us that people die when they're killed.

But what does the title "Fate/stay night" actually mean? We can assume for the moment that "Fate" is just a designator for the series (hence Fate/Zero, Fate/Extra, etc.), but I'm still somewhat baffled as to what "stay night" could possibly be.

(Nobody on the internet seems to know, and I figure the ultimate answer is probably "it sounds cool", but I thought I'd put this out there anyway.)

senshin
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    Actually, I think the "cool" factor overweighed the "sense making" part. – Hakase May 02 '14 at 04:56
  • "people die when they're killed" lol, nope, still aint true here, the Heaven's Feel Magic can recreate the soul, Saber coming back as Alter-Saber and the fact (almost) very servant died in the past. also outside Fate/Stay Night and in the Nasuverse as a whole, Brunestud of the Crimson Moon can come back to life through Arcueid or Altrouge and The Dark Six will be revived though the Aylesbury Valesti. and there's Rao – Memor-X May 02 '14 at 05:42
  • Just the "Steins;Gate" has no deeper meaning, Nasu probably just felt like using some gratuitous Engrish. Like "Crimson night & Celsion moon, misfiction, not save the Player is Prayer, yes, Dance Romanesque and unfinished Romancia" from Melty Blood ReAct or "blue blue glass moon under the crimson air" from the original Melty Blood. – кяαzєя May 05 '14 at 04:25
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    @кяαzєя Amusingly, a [Steiner Chain](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SteinerChain.html) is a real thing in math - a set of successively tangent circles that returns to its beginning, all mutually tangent to a central and outer circle. If you feel like being poetic, you might imagine the central circle to be a gate - a "Gate of Steiner". – linkhyrule5 Jan 08 '18 at 22:45
  • Also I think "blue blue glass moon" started in Tsukihime, but I may be wrong. – linkhyrule5 Jan 08 '18 at 22:46

3 Answers3

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When Kinoko Nasu first wrote Fate/stay night in college, it was called Old Fate (旧Fate) and Fate Origin and was reimagined later to be Fate/Prototype. Nasu only wrote what would become the game's Fate Route.

There is speculation on what meaning there is behind the name, i.e.

  • "Fate" may refer to the fate of the servants like Saber accepting her fate in her life or the Fate of the magi that battle each other in the war.

  • "Stay" may refer to the desire to keep the servants like with Shirou and Saber, it may refer to making something remain or stay like the reason why Shiro enters the war in both Fate/stay night and Fate/hollow ataraxia was to keep the peace in the town, or in Heaven's Feel Route which is like the ultimate climax to the game how Zouken wanted Heaven's Feel to become Immorality but without his body rotting. In Fate/Extra, Twice H. Pieceman had changed the Moon Cell's selection process to be a war believing humanity requires war to advance and evolve, he wanted Hakuno Kishinami and every other Master who appeared at the Moon Cell's core to wish for the perpetuation of war (stay in war)

  • "Night" could refer to how the battles mainly occurred during the night or the darkness behind the war (In Prototype, the Heaven's Feel system was meant to materialize Beast; or in Fate/stay night, Angra Mainyu's corruption of the grail)

Another theory is that the "Fate" part was taken from his original work, "/stay night" was just added to sound cool like with Kara no Kyoukai (空の境界, lit. Boundary of Emptiness) - The Garden of Sinners or Tsukihime (月姫, lit. Moon Princess).

Ref: Anime News Network Forum - So why is Fate/Stay Night called...Fate/Stay Night?

Aki Tanaka
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Memor-X
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    Have you ever thought that "Night" could also be fancy (Nasu) wordplay on "Knight?" – кяαzєя May 05 '14 at 04:31
  • @Krazer yeh, could be. Arthur either way was the King of Knights and every notable Saber has been in some way related to Arturia (Nero, Mordrid, Gwain) – Memor-X May 05 '14 at 05:30
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It's probably related to the different routes of the game.

Shirou at some point in time asks either Rin or Sakura to stay at his house that night to keep them safe. Hence the "stay night" in the name.

The "Fate" part may mean how Shirou's decision on asking one of them to stay at his house affects his fate/destiny. So it's like, "fate" is decided by whom you ask to "stay night" with. But that's just my theory.

Aki Tanaka
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user48302
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This answer is just mainly based off of speculation.

Although the creators intention aren't actually really know well that much, here are some common theories that were put together as to what the Stay/Night might mean.

Some think that it may be related to some of the light novels because of their hentai-ish side. Which was where the (Stay/Night) might have came from. The theorie thinks that it might mean "Stay the Night" sexually implied. [Unlikely, but maybe]

Another theory is that it just sounded cool and the producers just choose it because it sounded cool. [Unlikely, but maybe]

Theory number three was that the name may be related to the other seasons. [Possible]

Mostly since this is just speculation, this answer is definitely not accurate but I have included some things that may help in answering your question. Hope it helped.

Izumi-reiLuLu
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  • my speculation: it refers to the Fate of the people who were involved in the holy grail battle, Stay Night, means that they are constantly have (always Stay with them) in a dark (like Night) Fate. –  May 02 '14 at 12:22
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    I read the first theory but i kinda discounted that one because Fate/Stay Night to my view isn't nukige and we've seen in Realta Nua that it's just as good without any H Scenes in it – Memor-X May 04 '14 at 22:22
  • Curious, what do you mean by "related to the other seasons"? you mean like Fate/Zero, Fate/Hollow Atarxia and Fate/Extra? – Memor-X May 04 '14 at 22:23
  • @Memor-X- Yeah, kind of in a way. You can edit it if you want. My answer is just mainly based on the most commonly thought about ideas to as to where the Fate/Stay Night came from. – Izumi-reiLuLu May 04 '14 at 22:37