Cruel Angel Theses

Contrary to popular belief, Archer wasn’t GAR at all in this route–’gar’ being that neologism we’ve all come to know as the masculine ideal that certain hot-blooded male characters are partial to. You could say that his expression of this ideal of manhood is momentous, perhaps best seen in the previous route. In UBW he’s more of the character you love to hate, someone you understand perfectly well due to character development yet wish you didn’t. Apparently the origins of the word came about from episode 14 of the anime.

Have voiced over a thousand songs.

Oh, and there’s all matter of time-travelling that the hard sci-fi junkies will love, and a Good End that’s better than the True End, but more on those later.

The only quibble I had with this route was being forced to listen to all the magic and technical jargon that I already knew. If “Fate” was about accepting what’s happened and moving on from there instead of dwelling on the past, then “Unlimited Blade Works” is about rejecting the reality of what could potentially happen; this contrast is especially clear if the routes are played back to back, in addition to being a fitting metaphor for both the hardship that Archer’s experienced and the desolation that Shirou could potentially face.

I didn’t find Archer to be as gar as I thought he would be, for his actions came off as incredibly selfish to me; instead of sticking to the path he’d chosen, he chose instead to indirectly acknowledge the failings of his beliefs. It made sense in a twisted way, though: In wanting to killing Shirou, he tries to redeem that ideal of saving everyone by going back to the source, for as Shirou recalls, he can only save the people that he sides with–going against his past self would result in his siding with the numerous people he’d killed or was forced to kill, therefore saving even more people as a result.

Then there’s the matter of Rin. If Saber’s role in Fate was to shed light on Shirou’s origins and driving force in life, Rin’s role in UBW is to show exactly how stupid this ideal of Shirou’s is, while acting as the redemptive figure in a manner not unlike Saber before her. Despite that, however, they could not be more different–while Saber’s much in need of saving herself and ends up complementing Shirou in their co-redemptive nature, Rin is the check and balance to Shirou, the white to his black.

Did the romance work? I’m proud to say that while Nasu certainly fails at writing erotica of any sort (unforgettable gems in UBW include “female symbol” and gelatin as an analogy for the female breast), I found myself feeling a fondness for her in that fuzzy way that people develop emotional attachments to 2D characters, but only because her role wasn’t just Trophy Girlfriend or Twintailed Tsundere–she contributed to the route by bringing out Shirou/Archer’s development and backstory in a natural manner, and won me over on virtue of that alone, if nothing else.

Her presence along with Archer as the devil’s advocate to the much-repeated ‘hero’ ideal allowed for fluid back-and-forth arguments between the characters, and it was nice to see the well-worn creed of superheroes, i.e. People Before Self, being turned on its head by means of the convincing argument that it’s so flawed, your future self would have no qualms about ending your life in an attempt to make you reconsider it. While heroes and superheroes have traditionally emphasised sacrifice for the greater good on the part of the hero before anything else, it’s given a twist this time around: Is such an ideal ultimately worth it, and/or humanly possible?

My body is made of underpants.

I appreciated the effective symbolism by means of Shirou’s swords which gradually improve in tandem with his development as a character, right up to the point where he gains control over his Reality Marble. “Projection” and “Strengthening” are no more than subtle analogies at his state of mind with regards to his ideal; he’s fashioning something out of nothing in the same way that he fashions a life built around an abstract ideal rather than a concrete one, and once he gets around this self-destructive lifestyle, so does he his previously stilted abilities, tapping into hitherto unknown sources to kick butt.

In fact, there’s a whole lot to be said in the way in which his battles are parallel to that of his life pre-UBW, for the way in which he recklessly abandons his own safety for the sake of others is damaging to himself, very much like his previous attempts at strengthening and projecting swords that damage his body through consecutive use. It’s only when he’s shown the error of his ways by both Rin and Archer lifestyle- and battle-wise does he achieve peace within and without himself, coming full circle to his true self.

I found the way in which Rin and Archer interacted in the True End to be particularly significant towards enhancing my understanding of the route–it occurred to me that inasmuch as UBW was about Shirou coming to terms with the failings of his ideal, it was also about Archer seeking salvation for what he’d turned into. It’s only apparent in the True End as it’s then that Archer, with his hair down, smiles in a manner not unlike Shirou, and why’s that so?

Archer’s staying behind for the coup de grace, as deus ex machina-y as it was, served to cement a point in place: That despite his actions in the route, he was as good as his beliefs and Status Menu’s “True Neutral” alignment made him out to be. Despite a desire for suicide-after-a-fashion, Rin’s act of seeing him off acknowledged that, for all his immortality and other-wordliness, he was still human. His final act wasn’t so much about saving himself as it was earning that bit of forgiveness which Rin duly gives to him, and this scene’s place as the True End is fitting in that regard.

Even if Kagamin cosplay is moe, Lucky Star before Fate/stay night has its perception repercussions.

One part still puzzles me, though. Would I be mistaken in saying that Fate and UBW are connected by virtue of the Holy Grail? Archer makes an impassioned plea towards Saber during their confrontation in the church below, and in that scene he clearly states the possibility of her wish being granted–that “Someone will eventually appear to release you. It does not seem like it is this time, and I will probably have a connection with you again next time,” and “I will not hold back against you even in this world”.

As it’s been established that Saber’s not subject to the Copy-Paste-Delete programming that Servants face, wouldn’t this imply that there’s two different timelines taking place within the three routes, assuming they were parallel worlds? If Fate’s True End ends both the Holy Grail and her recursive existence permanently, wouldn’t that mean that while F/sn’s story progresses chronologically in terms of Shirou’s development, Saber herself goes through the worlds of the same routes in a different (reverse) order, with Fate being her last, so to speak?

Last but not least, I found the disparity between UBW’s Good End and True End to be quite amusing, all things considered–in the True End, you’re rewarded with a one-way trip to London and hilarious tsundere osmosis, but all of that pales in comparison when you look at what the Good End has in store–in addition to Rin’s apprenticeship, Shirou obtains swordplay classes with the best swordswoman of all time, is granted said swordswoman’s continued presence, and a guaranteed schedule of sex with Rin. I still maintain that the two Ends should have been swapped based on that technicality alone, and not because I have a soft spot for Saber. S-s-silly Nasu! It’s not like I really appreciate her or anything, alright!? It’s just an aftereffect of the F-f-fate route!