/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>18916655
Saber is basically the same breed of heroine as Shiki and Arcueid. I'm sure a lot of people have noticed, but the "main heroine" of Nasu's stories always follow a certain pattern.

In Kara no Kyoukai, Mikiya is mesmerized by Shiki at first sight. He's completely enamored with her from the beginning. The moment he meets her, it pretty much shuts down any potential with the other heroines completely.

In Tsukihime, once again, Shiki is completely taken with Arcueid from the moment he sees her. This has the effect of bleeding into the Ciel route; even though Ciel is supposed to be the main heroine, Shiki can't really stop thinking about Arcueid either. As a result, the "Good End" is basically a Tenchi romcom scenario. Because Arcueid tends to completely take over whenever she has a role, it becomes necessary to keep Shiki from meeting her in the Far Side routes.

Saber is especially bad about this, though. Fate really drives the point home that Shirou and Saber's meeting was "fated", hence the title of the route. Even in Unlimited Blade Works, which focuses more on Shirou, Archer and Rin, Saber still gets a decent chunk of focus, and while the nature of her relationship with Shirou is no longer romantic in nature and isn't even important to the plot, she's still someone that Shirou can't really stop thinking about. Hell, in Heaven's Feel, he has to seek out and erase all of his memories of her so that he can focus on saving Sakura. If he doesn't, he won't be able to live with the fact that he's killed her. In fact, if you notice, in both UBW and HF, there are points where Saber and Shirou are forcibly separated. It's as if the narrative is saying, "The relationship with the actual heroine of the route can't take off as long as she's here."

Ciel, Rin and Touko are effectively the same archetype. A magical superwoman who has all the answers the protagonist needs and can fulfill any role that's required of them at any given time. The story literally would not be able to move forward without these characters.

Fujino, Kohaku and Sakura are obviously similar types, but Sakura also has a bit of Akiha in her as well. Akiha fits the same mold as Fujino and Sakura in that they're the heroines who typically have the lowest chance of getting together with the protagonist. In order for Sakura's route to kick off, the entire Grail War has to take a completely sharp and abrupt turn, catalyzed by something that would normally have a low chance of ever occurring, forcing Shirou to devote all his attention to her. Akiha is similar, albeit not as extreme; in all the other routes, Shiki only sees Akiha as his sister and never develops any feelings for her. He's almost unable. Yet for Akiha's route alone he takes a total U-turn and decides to see Akiha as a woman after all. In that regard, I suppose Azaka's the same.