real thinking about fate/extra hours dan blackmore is introduced as the noble old knight clashing with robin the young vigilante thief but servants on the moon are chosen solely based on compatibility and while dan never hides it he still kinda tries to make you forget that he got his knightly distinction as a sniper. he conducts himself as knight of eld but the game takes place in the near future and he served in the fate/extra equivalent of like, the iraq war or something. he was knighted for his service but he never held a sword in his life, never once looked his opponent in the eye let alone duelled them on fair and equal grounds the way a true knight should. whole decades of his life down the drain for queen and country with the title to prove it and his only solace of getting to retire at the end of it being taken too now that queen and country decided he was to fight yet another war for them.
he’s perfectly familiar with robin’s tactics and their effectiveness, no doubt he used similar tactics countless times himself and he may berate robin but he doesn’t look down on him for using whatever underhanded methods will get them through. because robin is just like him when he was younger, full of ideals grimly set aside in order to get a job that needs doing done. in last encore at the end of his rope dan goes right back to those very same tactics because they’re just what works and if he’s berating anyone at all it’s his own younger self. he insists on fighting fairly and facing his opponents head-on because this is quite literally his, their, last ever chance to fight in a way they can be proud of. even if it doesn’t get the job done because what’s the point of a job well done if it destroys your self in the process. or put another way, if at the end of a life of wrong turns you reach your last chance to truly act in your own name that means you still have a chance. so he’s going to fight this war as a knight and not as a sniper and he’s going to prove that the nameless criminal under his command could’ve done the same if given the chance.
