/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>41828265
>She's a static character that was only envisioned at a single point in time.
Absolute nonsense. Rin undergoes an amazingly well-written arc in UBW that centers around her relationship with Shirou and there contrasts between them revealed therein. Rin and Shirou are both defined by the burden of the legacy of their fathers whose ambitions they have chosen to fulfill but clash with their own personal happiness, a conflict which is ultimately resolved when both of them remember that each of them chose the path of a magus and superhero of their own volition; it was not imposed upon by their fathers, it was something that they chose to do due to their finding it fun and fulfilling. Ultimately, Rin's arc in UBW centered around her choosing to abandon the rigid notions of what a magus ought to be as envisioned by many, including her father; she instead, much like Shirou himself, chooses to pursue magecraft inasmuch as it brings her personal happiness. Rin at the start of FSN is constantly killing her human and kind side in order to live up to the ideal of a cold, ruthless magus with no emotions; at the end of UBW, she chooses to shed all that, embracing her feelings in general and for Shirou in particular. Just as Shirou learns to be more selfish and value his life thanks to the hedonistic Rin, which is the key and major difference between them in both UBW and HF, as while they suffer from many of the same issues, Rin's are nowhere near as severe as Shirou's, so she only ever requires indirect help from Shirou, unlike Shirou, who needs Rin's assistance in overcoming his self-loathing; so too does she, thanks to her love for Shirou, embrace human side over the magus persona that her father would have wanted her to be and chooses to support Shirou in his quest to realize his dream, manifested in the story as her choosing to save Shinji. The core of Rin Tohsaka is the inner struggle between Rin, the kind and hedonistic girl who is an unbridled idealist who admires Shirou Emiya for his own stubborness and naive and childish yet nonetheless admirable idealism, and Tohsaka, the ruthless and pragmatic magus; and at the end of both UBW and HF, the kind girl wins over the ruthless magus.

Really, your entire argument is just utterly ridiculous because at the same time it reduces character development to but shifts in superficial personal idiosyncracies; Rin is a snarky wisecrack and tease at both the beginning and the end, so the actual substantive changes in her outlook on life are irrelevant. I mean, who really gives a shit that over the course of the story Rin comes to embrace her feelings for Shirou and her own inner idealist who felt drawn to Shirou precisely for the very reason, when she has the same outward personality, amirite!? This really exposes just how much of a shallow view of art you really have. And no; characters do NOT have to go through an arc in order to be compelling and have incredibly amounts of depth. There is an incredibly large amount of characters who are static throughout the story but nonetheless are wonderfully and brilliantly written. Hell, the stories often focus on their inability to change; said inability to improve upon their flaws is the thematic point of the story, the tragedy being the point. See for instace Rorschach from Watchmen. Your own criterion that a character must undergo some profound change over the course of a story in order to be great is subjective, arbitrary and narrow-minded. "Rin serves as Shirou's foil, therefore her own characterization isn't equally deep and nuanced." What a fucking joke.

And your defence of Aoko is quite pathetic too. Aoko undergoes a character arc. So. Fucking. What? MOST characters undergo some kind of character arc. That does not fucking mean they are well-written in any way whatsoever. What makes Aoko's arc good? What's so unique and well-structured about it? Why is her relationship with the other characters compelling? How does the contrasts and parallels between them elevate their characters into ever greater heights they otherwise would not be able to reach on their own? You explain none of this, while I have done lengthy and in-depth analyses of how Rin's character is explored throughout UBW via her romance with Shirou: >>40827823. The way UBW subverts the heretofore established dynamic between the two in Bloodfort and thereby unveils that side of themselves both of them are trying to bury, both to the other and the audience, is nothing short of brilliant. You've done no analysis of the sort.

>She's the third most important character in her own route (maybe fourth since you can argue Gilgamesh).
lol of course the retarded anti-Rinfag is an Aokofag. Sorry faggot, that was debunked. Numerous times. Like so: >>41808761. And so: >>40840505. Of course, each and every single time you've done nothing but shove your fingers in your ears and completely ignore any arguments or supporting evidence that goes contrary to your narrative.