I guess it's just a difference in priorities then. For me HF!Shirou explores who he is, rather then what he follows. I don't have a strong desire for Shirou to be the hero, because I feel he's probably a more positive influence if he lives longer, because he is very good at supporting people. His compulsive need to sacrifice himself for the greater good is noble, but will end with him destroying himself.
Realta Nua objects to that. And Shirou is not alone in UBW too, there are people who supports him.
I mean I'm someone who values those who support the people around them since they're a bit rarer then the hero who can fight good to make things better. I always picture HF!Shirou managing the house while Sakura performs her duties as Guardian of Fuyuki and Rin goes and becomes an awesome mage of doom. He provides the space they need to not break.
Her endurance is also fueled by hope, which is not just in Shirou, but Rin as well. She hopes those people around her will save her, because she doesn't feel capable of doing it herself. That doesn't mean she doesn't do anything to fix her situation or make her own situation known. One of the big things she's doing to improve her situation is just hanging out at Shirou's, because it gives her a safe space. It isn't much but from her perspective that's all she can manage.
She has hope... that is that other people will fix her situation for her. Okay, I have hope that my teacher will give me nice score, but surprisingly, I need to actually take actions to realize that hope. It's just pointless self-pity and begging for sympathy when you say you have hope but not prove it with actions.
She could also get a safe space if she had tried to socialize better with others, or try to develop herself more as a person. Rather than cultivating the safe space by herself, it feels more like she's latching like a parasite into Shirou really.
Sakura is all about the right choices that hurt her though. Sakura's biggest problem is her feeling of powerlessness over her situation, her sense of self-worth is so absurdly low, and as you said that drives a lot of her decisions. The problem is that whole thought process warps her, so she see's herself as helpless to do anything. Yet despite that, she manages resistance. She refuses to take the role of Master because she doesn't want to harm her family (Non-blood actually care about her family), she ultimately makes a level of effort to make Rin and Shirou kill her(though Rider puts a stop to any attempt except Mind of Steel).
So she belief that there's nothing she could do nothing so she decides to do nothing and accept the situation, just waiting others' help or for the hopelessness to end. Right, I definitely admire her. I should just keep to myself and not try to rebel against my fate, even when it's better to just go big or go home with my situation.
You know what that reminds me? The Glass Prison which I quoted above. A major part of the second part of the song is that it has to be the person himself that takes the first and the last step, others can only support behind him. The next part in the Twelve-Step Suite even acknowledge that the narrator had a shitty life yet it still blames the immaturity and self-centeredness of the narrator.
...my god, Sakura's story really could fit the
Twelve-Step Suite. No, seriously, look at it. It's just missing the part where the character tries to piece back their life by themselves though not without the help others. It really should have focused more on her than Shirou, the focus on Shirou instead of her just didn't do it justice.
HF is more human in that it forces Shirou to come to terms with what his ideals actually mean, and what he needs to be able to do to live up to them. The answer for him is no, it doesn't mean that that is the universal answer, hell, Saber already did.
My definition of 'being humane' isn't giving up, instead it would be that we are not perfect, but we can definitely do better. Humans are weak, but they can also become strong. Humans are flawed, but they have the potential to grow. Humans are selfish, but they can still do goods in spite of it. To me, humanity is best represented by potential, and the struggle to reach a better future. It's neutral, there are both good and bad, it's just a matter of perspective. And we definitely didn't get this far by wallowing in our weakness.
Perhaps it's because of this difference in view that HF doesn't feel great to me. I mean, compared to the previous routes this one just feels... pathetic? It
would have been great if Shirou was actually shown the result of him choosing to save Sakura, but that plot thread aren't touched anymore after the Playground scene. We never even get to see any real consequence of his choice.
At least we could see how Shirou's belief puts him at odds with those important to him even if it is what draws them close to him at first in the other routes, but in HF that was done with in the Playground scene, so there should have been a replacement for it.
I think it's also important to note that overall the story doesn't really seem to believe it's own Ally of Justice thing, because the plots progressively dismiss it. It's a nice ideal, but to be able to live up to it, you need to become something like Kiritsugu or Archer, always doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. It is a ideal that can very easily slide towards self-destructive and inhumane behaviour. That doesn't mean it's not an ideal to strive towards, but that not everyone is capable of being Saber.
Something which I definitely
do not agree, because from what I see, there are a lot of people who are Ally of Justice, who are trying to do good. The series portrayed it in a very narrow manner, like "Save one person you love or save 100 person you don't know," when in reality the situation are
never that simple.
Taken in the context of the real world, it's definitely possible to pursue it. It just that you probably won't be able to do it if you are alone. As they said, an uncoordinated good will lose to a complex/coordinated evil; both Kiritsugu and Archer had always been alone, that's why they keep on failing. UBW Shirou was definitely not alone though, and Fate Shirou has the memories of Saber that supports him at the very least. It'll still be hard, sure, but there is no such thing as an excellent result without great effort.
Basically yeah, I agree that the story didn't believe that ideology, but it does so by giving us a narrow perspective, thus making it feels like the story is trying to force its believe to us by making up lies. So I rejected its reality, and takes it in my context of what I understand about the world.
I won't try and say Sakura is a perfectly written character, but I think you're applying the wrong lens to her. She is a interesting and deep character, but she is quieter then Illya and has less screen-time then Rin and Saber. Despite this we actually know quite a lot about her.
We know she values Shirou, she adores him because she see's him as this bright spot which can give her solace from what's bothering her. She hates how she feels like she isn't worthy of his kindness, she loves that he gives it anyway. She makes effort to make him happy. Her relationship with Rin is interesting as well, both loving her for the family she is desperate for and hating her for the abandonment she feels, frustrated that Rin never made the effort to actually reach out, yet aware that Rin does in fact care enough to stalk her. Or her relationship with Rider, who see in one another kindred spirits, Rider desperate to protect her from the worst of it.
I think even if she isn't an ideal to strive for, she is still an interesting person who is doing well in the situation she's in.
Sorry, but I think it's hard to change my lens for her. It's just a fundamental difference in how we both see and evaluate a person and a character. For me it's always how much I can relate to the character and how admirable they are, and I very much value actions and growth. Sakura didn't really fight in her condition, and she didn't really have much growth as a person and as a character, so I'm very meh about her.
At least with how she is used as a character in the story, anyway.
For me Heaven's Feel is the best route, because Sakura ties everything together. Without her the things I love about Rin don't exist, the stuff that makes me look at Shirou as something more then shonnen fight-man doesn't happen. Hell, without Sakura, we never get the Mind of Steel ending, AKA Rin kills everyone (that ending goes on like Shirou's going to kill everyone, but Rin's always been far more capable then him, I can't see him coming out on top with no Servant.)
The thing I love about Rin the most is how contradictory she is, how she's always vulnerable and weak when it counts. Her characterization prior to HF barely has a tie to Sakura, it's more tied to her father and how alone she is more than anything.
And I still don't understand this thing about 'shounen' stuff. Shirou's character is very much reliant on his determination and willpower, true, but a lot of character outside of shounen genre have heavy focus on their determination and willpower. His issues (survivor guilt and confirmation bias) aren't exactly something out of shounen. His way of fighting is basically exploiting the rules and using his power with some creativity/imagination, something that is more seinen than shounen. He never really has any Nakama and Power of Love thing, though the story
does seem to point out that he needs other people to function, but that's basic human nature. What's exactly shounen about him???
I never liked Mind of Steel. It's basically Shirou
regressing into Kiritsugu and Archer, which the story has previously warned not to become.
Also, Heaven's Feel is the only Route where Shirou actually takes his goal of limiting casualties seriously in the beginning.
Heaven's Feel is also the only route where Shirou gave up his ideals.[/QUOTE]
