Cú Chulainn's Just Here for the Fun

This is why Children Who Chase Lost Voices isn't as well-received as Your Name. While some people can empathize with the protagonist Hodaka's feelings, most people can hardly understand the loneliness of being the only person in the world through just one movie.

Actually, compared to Children Who Chase Lost Voices You and the Last of Us, the script for HF is slightly more moderate.

Perhaps due to audience acceptance, in Nasu's design, the two options of saving Sakura and saving the world cleverly overlapped at the end of the story, making Shirou Emiya's choice seem less anti-human.

However, in Shinji's view, the focus of this type of work is never on whether the protagonist's choices are right or wrong.

He wasn't trying to praise or condemn any particular decision, but rather to show the audience the kind of people or things that almost everyone possesses—people or things they'd rather let the world burn than give up.

This kind of inner conflict is often incomprehensible to outsiders, but it is precisely what touches the most delicate nerves in people.

People always have principles and ideals that they are unwilling to sacrifice no matter what, which may seem like stubbornness to others.

But whatever outsiders call this state of mind—whether they call it persistence, obsession, or stubbornness—it's all fine.

But this willingness to give up everything for what one truly cares about is both the greatest flaw and the most dazzling beauty in human nature.

If we can't save the world, at least we can protect the people we truly care about.

For Shirou Emiya's Feel route, Matou Sakura is the only person he cares about in this world, someone he would protect even if it meant death.

"That was a very good explanation. But, brother..."

Sakura squinted at Shinji and slowly raised her fist.

"What's wrong, my dear sister, Sakura?"

Sensing something was wrong, Shinji tried to retreat, but Medusa "accidentally" blocked his escape route.

"Even though you've given me a lot of reasons, why did you design me to be like that?"

"What do you mean, 'how so'? I'm using contrast. Your current weakness is to highlight your future strength!"

In his own HF setting, Sakura only suffers physical abuse, so Shinji isn't afraid at all... what a load of rubbish!

Seeing his younger sister's hair turn almost white with anger, Shinji sensed something was wrong.

"From being able to bully anyone to being able to bully anyone, this extreme masochistic to extreme sadistic transformation, is this the kind of extreme tone you like, brother?!"

Sakura's words made the eyes of several girls in the lounge light up; they were very concerned about Shinji's XP system.

Shinji could never admit that. "Don't talk nonsense! This isn't extreme at all, it's just yandere and a dark turn."

"Men can never resist the allure of black, as evidenced by the abundance of erotic fan art featuring the black-clad Artoria across the internet."

As is well known, before the Lancer Artoria, most of the erotic illustrations of Artoria were of the Black Saber.

Fan art of Saber is basically at two extremes: either serious, handsome illustrations or bizarre, funny ones.

For example, cosplaying Aqua, cosplaying Aqua, and cosplaying Aqua.

After the Lancer Artoria, Her Majesty Artoria's eroticism began to shift to another extreme.

It's clear that compared to body shape, people's fondness for black is nothing special.

Shinji would never say this to Sakura, because his little sister has both black hair and a great figure!

Whether Shinji says it or not doesn't really matter, since Sakura has already made up her mind anyway.

"Oh wow~"

Sakura's smile became even sweeter.

"Since you enjoy turning to the dark side so much, brother, I'll reluctantly perform for you."

Smack

Sakura snapped her fingers.

Shinji only saw a flash of purple light, and then he was unable to move.

"Rider ..."

Shinji moved his lips with difficulty.

"I'm sorry, Master." Medusa put her glasses back on smugly. "Sakura is my true Master, isn't she?"

[Are you confusing the story with reality?! Do you believe I'll use Command Spell to make you only able to give me [beep--!] for the rest of your life?]

Unfortunately, under the protection of the great demon Sakura, Shinji really didn't dare to do such a thing to Medusa.

But Shinji wasn't without options.

[Rider, just wait until you're reunited with your sisters!]

"What a... idiot brother."

Seeing Shinji standing there frozen in place, Sakura secretly stuck out her tongue.

[Considering how hard you've worked to portray my character, let's leave it at that this time.]

Unfortunately, Sakura didn't know that Shinji went to such lengths to differentiate her portrayal of [Matou Sakura] from the Restricted rating character in the original work.

Otherwise, Sakura would not have simply petrified Shinji; she would have utterly crushed him.

Chapter 165 Cú Chulainn was just having fun.

The storyline of Heaven's Feel hasn't reached its conclusion yet, and viewers don't know how significant Shirou Emiya's decision to protect Sakura will be.

But viewers at least understand that this version of Shirou Emiya will be very different from the other two versions.

The audience, especially Magecraft, felt more regret for Shirou Emiya's abandonment of his ideals.

"Reality Marble! Reality Marble! Are we just going to throw it away like that?!"

Fujita slammed his fist on the sofa, wailing and crying, "That's why I say! Women are just troublemakers! What's a mere woman compared to the Reality Marble?!"

Azu glared at him. "What did you say?"

Fujita quickly changed his tune. "Nothing, I didn't say anything."

There was nothing he could do; the other female Magecraft were manageable, but this powerful figure was truly no match for him, so he had no choice but to admit defeat.

Fortunately Azu didn't pursue the matter with the guy who made the boastful remark; she herself was also pondering Shinji Matou's intention in designing this plot.

"Shinji Matou doesn't like doing repetitive things, so it's not surprising that he wants Shirou Emiya to take a completely different path."

Azu, stroking her chin, analyzed, "I just wonder what surprises this version of Shirou Emiya will bring us."

"I don't think there will be any surprises."

Fujita retorted with a hint of defiance.

"In the movie, Shirou Emiya teamed up with Saber to kill Heracles and then fought Kirei Kotomine one-on-one."

"In the TV series, Shirou Emiya first fought his future self in a one-on-one battle, and then he defeated Gilgamesh in a one-on-one battle."

"As a Magecraft, he has already reached the pinnacle. Are there any enemies left in this version that would warrant his attention?"

Shibamatsu raised his hand and said, "That's not necessarily true. Have you forgotten about the corrupted Saber? It wouldn't make sense if a corrupted enemy didn't fight the original main characters, would it? Just like Vegeta in Dragon Ball."

"Don't mention Saber, it makes me so angry!" Fujita slammed his hand on the sofa even louder. "Saber! She was supposed to be the main heroine, but she got killed off by some weakling enemy! Doesn't Shinji Matou worry about incurring the wrath of the Knights of the Round Table?!"

"I think the black Saber looks pretty good."

Shibata muttered something, only to be immediately refuted by Fujita.

"What's so beautiful about that! Is that dark thing Saber?! It's just a fake! My King Arthur is not such a glamorous character!"

Well, it seems this person is a true and genuine King Arthur fan.

Azu fiddled with her fingers, wondering whether she should tell him about her online chat with Mr. Matou.

According to Shinji Matou, the character of King Arthur has the potential to become the world's most popular character IP, and there is huge room for development.

Based on the current King Arthur, we can develop characters who are corrupted, wield guns, carry staffs, wear mascot costumes, wear swimsuits, ride horses, ride motorcycles, or even pilot Gundams.

This Saber Alter is just a trial run; there will only be more and more versions of Artoria appearing in the future.

Azu suddenly became curious: when he saw all the different kinds of Artoria that Mr. Matou had mentioned, would he faint with happiness, or would he remain a fundamentalist and curse those subspecies?

[Now it seems more likely to be the latter.]

Azu pursed her lips, suddenly finding it interesting to observe the various reactions of the Magecraft around her.

At this point, the television was broadcasting the second half of the third episode of HF.

Through the dialogue scenes in the first half, the audience learned about Shirou Emiya's choice and gained some understanding of his love with Matou Sakura.

But Fate isn't an art film, and audiences aren't paying for DVDs to see high school romances; they want to see action-packed thrillers.

Shinji, as a commercial Director, also clearly understood what motivated fans to buy Heaven's Feel. Therefore, after explaining everything that needed to be explained, all that was left was for the Heroic Spirit to have a good fight.

While Shirou Emiya is in the throes of romance with Matou Sakura, Tohsaka Rin is blaming herself for the tragedy that befell Matou Sakura, and Matou Zouken is preparing for a swift and decisive victory.

In Zouken's view, his side was no longer just at a significant advantage, but rather Flying Dragon Ride!

Both Assassin and Rider are on their own Heroic Spirit. Of the remaining five Heroic Spirit, Caster, Lancer, and Saber have already been devoured by Black Sakura, leaving only Archer and Berserker.

This situation appears to be 2V1V1, but it is actually 4V1V1, because Black Sakura can pull out the Heroic Spirit she has consumed to fight.

Although Caster is completely unusable now, there's still Lancer and Saber, right?

That's right, it's different from the Heaven's Feel in Shinji's original world.

In that version, due to Type-Moon's weak production capacity at the time, Black Sakura only released Caster and Saber, and later Berserker.

Cú Chulainn disappeared after meeting his end early on.

But no matter how you look at it, according to the setting, he can be spat out to fight for Black Sakura.

Therefore, in the HF version filmed by Shinji, Cú Chulainn, like Saber, joins the battle in this forest war after being corrupted.

The reason for this adjustment was simply that Shinji wanted to lengthen the fight in the forest to make it more exciting for the audience.

In any case, compared to other production teams, the cost of filming action scenes for Shinji's crew wasn't necessarily lower than that for dramatic scenes, but it wasn't much more expensive either.

Preparing a black outfit for Cú Chulainn wouldn't cost much, and it's certainly easier than drawing more character portraits for him by Takeuchi Cú Chulainn.

Furthermore, from a plot perspective, it's not difficult to conjure up a Black Cú Chulainn, so why not add another henchman when starting a fight?

After all, while Cú Chulainn is very strong, he's not as special Gilgamesh, who would kill Sakura if eaten by him.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense for Matou Zouken to arrange for Black Saber and Black Sakura to deal with the stronger Berserker, Cursed Arm and Black Cú Chulainn were to deal with the weaker Red A.

Play all the cards you can use!

This makes it logical that Red A was corrupted when he fought Cú Chulainn and Cursed Arm.

In Shinji's opinion, the Cursed Arm was like a cheat code in the early stages of the Heaven's Feel route, a protagonist in a fantasy novel.

Even though their strength is significantly weaker than other Heroic Spirit, either the opponent is overconfident, or their abilities happen to counter the enemy.

Lancer and Saber can do that, but Red A can't.

Although Archer (Red A) is not a traditional Heroic Spirit and his stats are not great, he is definitely not a careless or unreliable warrior.

Having the corrupted Cú Chulainn and the Cursed Arm restrain Red A together makes the logic more coherent.

In short, as Zouken Matou, hoping to seize the Einzbern family's Lesser Grail, launched an attack on the castle with his Heroic Spirit henchmen, the battlefield was clearly divided into three groups.

Saber. Alter clashes head-on with Heracles, engaging in fierce battles in the castle and forest;

Cursed Arm and Cú Chulainn went to cause trouble for Red A, trying to give the Shadow a chance to devour him.

Shirou and Rin, on the other hand, need to find a way to get Illya away from this chaotic battlefield to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

"■■■--!"

Facing the shadowy figure that could devour him and Saber Alter at her peak, Uncle Hai showed no fear, displaying the same spirit as Lu Bu taking on three heroes at Hulao Pass.

Of course, it's also possible that the Mad Enhancement Uncle Hai has given up thinking, and his brain, now dominated by muscles, can do nothing but "recklessly".

Don't let Saber Uncle Hai's crazy demeanor fool you; she's an S-class, not a B-class. Despite her dark side, she still has her brains.

Faced with the charging, aggressive Uncle Hai, Saber Alter merely lured him into the shadowy area with a slight seduction.

Suddenly, black, ribbon-like tentacles shot out from the black water, attempting to pull Uncle Hai into their interior.

"■■■--!"

However, this time the shadowy Uncle Hai wanted to devour Heracles, the great hero of Greek mythology!

Even Gilgamesh's Chains of Heaven couldn't control him. While a mere shadow might have a restraining effect on Servants, Heracles, like Gilgamesh, is a Servant with a very special rank.

"■■■--!"