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In the prologue to _Unlimited Blade Works_ , we see Rin drop her pendant after
saving Shiro's life. She doesn't bother picking it up, and later, Archer
returns it to her.

However, in the first "main" episode, we see that Shiro picks up the pendant
and takes it home after he is revived, and he doesn't encounter Archer until
the next day. So it doesn't seem like Archer could have intercepted him at
some point and retrieved the pendant. Moreover as additional support for this,
when in episode 12, he topples Rin's jewelry chest, he sees her pendant and
notes that it's exactly the same as the one he remembered seeing that night.
So it looks like Shiro believes the pendant he finds at Rin's house is
different from the one he has.

Is there a contradiction or omission here? It doesn't seem like Rin has more
than one pendant, from the narration in the beginning of UBW.


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fate-stay-night
Why did Shiro have Rin's pendant, if Rin's pendant was returned to her by Archer?


I've only just started the second season, but from a combination of the
material here and what I've gleaned from sources like the
[Wikia](http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Archer_%28Fate/stay_night%29), I have
something of an answer.

* * *

**There is no contradiction or omission, in that there isn't only a single
pendant involved in the series.** In the first episode of the second season,
we have this exchange.

> [Shiro shows Rin the pendant.]
>
> **Rin:** Huh? How did you get that?
>
> **Shiro:** Anyway, you can have it back. I have another pendant like it at
> my house. After Lancer nearly killed me at school, it was lying next to me.
> I picked it up, and I've had it ever since.

To this, Rin seems surprised. So barring any weird, supernatural duplication,
there must be more than one pendant.

N.B.: it seems that Rin's pendant is unique. Archer tells Rin that she
shouldn't lose it again back in the beginning, and that it suits her (and not
others). From both my guess and the [Wikipedia episode
list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fate/stay_night:_Unlimited_Blade_Works_episodes),
it looks like Shiro was returning the pendant from Rin's room, although the
English dialogue isn't completely clear on this. (I could not tell if Shiro's
explanation for having one of the pendants was supposed to explain why he had
the one he was returning. But this is more plausible, and perhaps Shiro didn't
realize that the pendant lying next to him after he almost died was
necessarily Rin's, even if he remembers her in the hallway.)

* * *

However, this doesn't explain where Archer got the pendant he returned to Rin.
Now, Archer's true identity is:

> Shiro of an alternate timeline from that of Fate/stay night [...] He is
> summoned because he still has the jewel pendant that Rin used to save his
> life after Lancer stabbed his heart. The jewel he owns is the actual
> catalyst used for his summoning rather than the one that Rin still has at
> the time of his summoning. (Source: Wikia)

So it must simply be that

> Archer gave Rin his own pendant (which he obtained from her in another
> timeline in a similar fashion to this one), and implicitly lied about
> picking it up.

* * *

**Update:** I'm watching the UBW movie now, and Shiro tells Rin when returning
the pendant that

> I didn't realize [it was yours] until I saw one with the same shape in your
> home.

So I'm not sure if the conclusion I gleaned from Wikipedia about which pendant
was being returned was right. The anime series would suggest that he simply
took the pendant out of Rin's chest and is returning that one, but here, it
looks like Shiro is returning the pendant that he'd kept after being revived.

**Update 2:** the visual novel (which I would consider "canon") makes it clear
that Shiro is simply returning the pendant he found at Rin's house (i.e. the
one Archer "returned"), when he explains to Rin where he found the pendant
he's returning:

> I found it in your room. Oh . . . You might get surprised when you get home,
> but I'm sorry. I tipped over your dresser . . . Well, I have the exact same
> pendant at my house.


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> Archer is Shirou!  
>  Basically that's it!  
>  Because Shiro was grateful about being saved, he kept the pendant and even
> as a heroic spirit he kept it. There is only 1 pendant; the other one came
> from another time and space!


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