Cruel Angel Theses

The feelings that you’ll experience while reading this route can be generally divided into two kinds:

1. Stupefaction
2. Misery

For that’s the sum of this explosive finale–matters of importance are revealed, the plot progresses, you feel a paralysing sort of abject sadness for fictional characters in a way you never thought hitherto possible. It was an excellent, if depressing way to end a work never more deserving of the term “epic”–and I doubt I’ll ever read a more harrowing account of the fate of the world, the fate of a girl, and how sometimes, the necessary sacrifices are also the most painful ones.

Unless your head gets bitten off.

The seemingly enigmatic “Heaven’s Feel”, of course, is symbolic as a title of the Third Sorcery, or the Einzbern’s tradition of creating Servants–souls that should no longer exist in the world made corporeal–this is obviously wrong, as nothing can be born out of nothing, and magic operates on an equivalent exchange basis. Therefore, it can be said that HF as a title is about Sakura and her sacrifice, for it’s through Matou Zouken’s usage of her body and mind that Avenger/Angra Mainyu is created.

This has parallels with Shirou’s ideals; in HF, he’s confronted with the harsh reality that his beliefs operate on shaky ground, with his desire to become a superhero conflicting with the impossibility of such a task. In trying to save everyone, he saves no one; it’s paradoxical in that even if he does manage to save someone, he’s only managed to save those that he’s taken sides with. With that in mind, HF is also about Shirou’s stepping away from the ideals he’s grown up with, and adopting a new ideal as a result.

It relates back to Strengthening as an analogy for the ideal Shirou holds in both Fate and UBW, and, like UBW, the symbolism here is revisited, with slight differences. As a magic, it’s demonstrated by means of the Prologue and his weak attempts at defending himself from Lancer to be an ineffective one, inevitably mirroring his idealistic stance of wanting to save everyone. This contrasts greatly with his successful use of Projection–only when he finally sets his mind on saving both Sakura and Ilya does he gain control over his powers.

While Projection in UBW could be said to be Shirou adapting to Archer’s principles while rejecting certain parts of it and replacing it with his own (as per the UBW chants that differ slightly), Projection in HF is an entirely different thing altogether–his past self/Archer literally conflicts within him to the point of severe injury, and the act of transplanting his arm is more than just a matter of an upgrade–it’s Shirou confronting his past while steadfastly holding on to the present.

He’s also forced to acknowledge the bleak future that awaits him should be continue on such a path. To paraphrase:

“What good does it do a man to gain the world, but lose his soul in the process?”

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It’s the age-old adage of whether the ends justify the means, and what was brought up in both Fate and UBW raise is finally answered here. If Fate and UBW are to F/sn what the “Question Arcs”  are to Higurashi, then HF is the “Answer Arc” that ties up the loose ends in a manner best described as equal parts satisfying and emotionally draining. While I’d give anything to be able to experience F/sn backwards for the sake of closure and symmetrical purposes, I found HF to be more than adequate for what it did.

And it does a lot. While Fate and UBW illustrated by means of their respective antagonists that “wanting to save everyone” was at best a Sisyphean task and at worst, warranting a  murder attempt from your future self, HF drives the point home by presenting a very sympathetic lamb for sacrifice at the altar of Plot; turning a blind eye to it, or choosing to let events unfold while emulating Shirou’s choices from the previous routes culminates in all manner of Bad Ends and Dead Ends.

Have defeated over a thousand rivals/Yet this girl will never know happiness

Seemingly pedantic manner aside, I found HF to be not so much lacking in choice as it was a matter of taking things through to its natural end–you could, of course, mistreat Ilya and neglect Sakura if you so wished, but at the price of ending the game rather abruptly. Never had a game illustrated the importance of placating the person of your affections, I thought, and why not? Each Bad End that I consciously sought out after completing HF felt right, almost natural in its inevitability, for this wasn’t a matter of missing a flag or two–it was the act of treating characters like real people, albeit ones with the ability to snuff out your existence if not handled with care.

It’s concepts like these that endeared me to HF, for in doing so it exhibited a maturity, depth, and clarity of such quality that made me regret not having played it sooner. I’d like to highlight three main concepts in particular, for it’s in this route that they’re finally brought to light:

“Everything comes at a price.” As mentioned above, the Third Sorcery/Heaven’s Feel/Holy Grail war isn’t merely the act of making something out of nothing through great magic; Matou Zouken’s last moments are indicative of this, as they reveal that even at the beginning, a sacrifice was needed–and Heaven’s Feel 5 is brought about at the cost of Sakura’s childhood. Even when our beleaguered heroine finally finds happiness, it’s at the expense of Ilya’s sacrifice, or Shirou’s, assuming the events in HF’s Normal End.

“Living for others.” It’s the characters that live for themselves that encounter the worst possible fates. Take Kotomine’s finding happiness in people’s despair, or Matou Zouken’s prolonging his life at the cost of other people’s in his quest for immortality–it’s not that these two are wrong by way of wanting such things; it’s just that such an existence is portrayed as meaningless, for the amount of destruction that they cause in order to satisfy their desires outweigh any possible good that could come out of it.

Then there’s the Servants. Lancer-as-cannon-fodder jokes aside, I found their development in HF to be directly proportionate to the role that they played–Assassin and True Assassin die meaningless deaths, with the latter contrasting greatly with the way in which the other Servants live for their Masters; compare this to the roles in which Berserker, Archer, and even Saber play, dying in a manner that serves to add to the story rather than detract from it.

Finally, “To care is to live.” Not only is showing affection towards Sakura and Ilya mandatory if you’re going to survive for the entirety of the route, it also drove home a point rather succinctly–that Sakura would have broken long ago were it not for Shirou’s care and presence in her life. It’s a particularly powerful moment in which Shirou’s presented with the possibility that he could have done something about her predicament were it not for his taking her for granted, and who hasn’t found themselves in that kind of a situation at one point or another?

Death became her.

To summarise the above: When left to our own devices, we usually fall back on caring for ourselves, our ideals, and what makes us who we are, as opposed to caring for others at the expense of our ideals and selves. The Servant/Master system in particular establishes this seemingly unnatural relationship between characters, and by doing so fleshes out HF’s themes and motifs to the best of their ability, giving new meaning to the previous routes in the process.

If I had to mention one thing that I admired about HF in particular, it would have to be how Western superheroes–the more established ones at any rate–will continue to sidestep such issues time and again, or have them presented on a silver platter. Never will most of them ever come close to an iota of suffering that Shirou experiences throughout the 14 days of the Holy Grail war, and it’s mostly due to this question that most of them never have the privilege of answering with such finality.

I quote from The Place Promised In Our Early Days:

“Do you want to save the world, or save the girl?”
“I want to do both.”

Is such a thing possible? I’m sure it is, but only if great sacrifices are made. Looking back on HF as a whole, I can’t help but feel that contemporary superheroes are spoiled brats in the sense that they don’t have to deal with such issues; their powers and predicaments are marriages of convenience more than anything, and they usually escape having to pay the price as a result. Were it that one’s sacrifices were proportionate to one’s heroics, HF’s Shirou must inevitably stand tall among the rest, for isn’t it said that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger? Or that Shirou was never one for dying when he was killed?