so i have been rereading the type moon wiki especially on Origins and how ryougi shiki is some what connected to "the root" while some say she is connected to [ ] which was before the root existed but thats not the point i want to discuss but Origins that are similar or even stronger than shiki "Nothingness" such as:

• Everything
• Origin
• Root
• Magic
• Existence
• Miracle
• Anything
• Concept
• Truth
• Infinity/endless
• Omni/All
• Reality
• Singularity
• God

I was also wondering if these origins are even in the nasuverse but it seems no one talks about Origin or any that can be overpower they only explain the surface of it. Also if you have a interesting origin write it down

From what I can recall in fsn , they only act after disaster has struck , people have died ( a large quantity of them ) and counter force would step in and kill the threat

But they won’t act before the disaster has struck , that’s what made archer so cynical , he’s always cleaning up the mess after it happened and the killing made him cynical too I guess

Is what I recall correct and if it is then why does counter force boost enkidu in fsf when fighting against thia , people haven’t died yet but enkidu got boosted anyway

I remember reading flat would get killed by cf if he didn’t join wavers class but then does that mean , flat is killed before he became thia or thia destroyed good chunk of humanity and got killed by cf ?

Please do provide sources if possible

Yes, you read that correctly. This is an appreciation post about arguably Fate's most hated character. I felt that despite how much people talk about Shinji's disgusting actions, there is a severe lack of a serious discussion about his character and role in the story. So, I'm here to change that. Let's talk about the infamous Shinji Matou.

Shinji as a rival to Shirou

Now, there are many characters in stay night that serve as a paralel to Shirou, most notably Kirei. However, I never see people mention that Shinji is probably the closest Shirou has to a rival character, at least in the Fate and Heaven's Feel routes.

While it's not talked about much in stay night, we do know that Shirou and Shinji used to be the best of friends, and Shirou still seems to have an overal positive impression of him at the start of the story. Shinji does have a very tsundere personality, but from what we know, there used to be a good person in there somewhere. But while their relationship took a turn for the worse after the Sakura incident, it's really the start of the war where it completely breaks down.

I don't think it's controversial to say that Shinji has a massive case of an inferiority complex. And I feel that a part of the problem is the fact that he can't geniuenly hate Shirou because of it. From Shinji's view, Shirou succeeds at everything he fails at. He's a genius at archery, great at manual labour, and is widely respected at the school. It would be hard for anyone to not be jealous of that. And then Shinji learns that not only is Shirou a mage, but he also gets to work alongside his crush, Rin Tohsaka. That's not even mentioning Rin herself doesn't acknowledge Shinji at all while clearly being into Shirou.

Yet despite this, Shinji at one point still suggests cooperation to Shirou. Yes, it's possible he's lying, but in my opinion, I think at least some part of him wanted to work alongside Shirou. I mean, most other people only suck up to him because he's rich, while Shirou was geniuenly friendly with him. But after Rin shoots him down in the Fate route, he goes absolutely insane. Shinji had no rational reason to attack the school when he did, and especialy no reason to hurt Taiga. He only did it to proove to Rin and even more importantly, himself, that he's better than Shirou. There is no way Shirou would agree to a fight unless he purposefully pissed him off. He obviously looses. But even after all he's done, Shirou considered sparing him for a monent, before honestly one of my favourite Shirou moments ("Okay. Goodbye, Shinji.")

So, Shinji lost. And at this point, he truly has nothing. He made a fool of himself to Rin, his family never cared about him in the first place, and now even his one friend is dead set on putting him down. His last stand with best girl Rider in the Fate route is an action of a desperate man with nothing to lose. And to top it all of, he doesn't even go down against Shirou. He is killed by Illya, and is forgoten for the rest of the story, as he's nothing compared to Gil and Kirei. He remains a lesser to Shirou to the very end.

Shinji as a sibling to Sakura

I don't think I have to mention this, but what Shinji does to Sakura in Heaven's Feel is absolutely disgusting and possibly the worst thing he does in the entire franchise. You have to wonder how things ended up this way, because before the worm pit, Shinji and Sakura were both in the same situation.

Both Shinji and Sakura have been utterly rejected by their own families. While their circumstances somewhat differ, both were done dirty by their shitty mage parents. It makes you wish for a timeline where instead of the abuse, Shinji bonded with Sakura over their common misfortune. But, obviously, that's not what happened.

While it would be easy to just throw all of this on Zouken, there is no denying that Shinji became an absolute monster after learning about the wormpit. With no empathy, he caused Sakura pain again and again, hurting her to make himself feel special, taking advantage of her submissive behaviour, stealing her right as a master for himself, just so he can play at being a mage.

It again opens the lid on the question if Shinji and Sakura could've got along. While being a definite possibility, it's hard to imagine Shinji doing so after all the shit he's done.

now, you might have noticed that all of Shinji's problems stem from a single source:

Magecraft

Shinji is not a mage. His family practiced magecraft, but he is not a mage. He can study all he wants, but he can never be a mage. His crush and his best friend get to bond over being mages while he's left in the dust. The girl which was thrown into his family gets to be a master, something some mages could only dream of while he gets nothing. But the ironic thing is, Shinji doesn't need to be a mage to be happy.

Think about it. He's considered attractive, has many admirers and is fairly good at archery. He's rich, smart and popular. None of that is related to magecraft in any way. He didn't become friends with Shirou because of magcraft, and while it's never stated (I think), I think he would still like Rin even without her being a mage. Shinji could have lived a fairly decent and even happy life. But he didn't do that.

Shinji instead focused on the slightest possibility that he could be "special". He pushed everything else out of his life in a chase of something he would never achieve. Much like Shirou made himself believe that he can only be happy by self sacrifice and Kirei by hurting others, Shinji has deluded himself into geniuenly thinking he can only be happy if he's a mage. While Zouken definitely didn't help, Shinji has ruined his life himself, because the alure of being a mage was just too great for him.

And he failed. In every single route, he failed miserably He threw away everything for this one wish and he failed. It's almost tragic. People wonder if Shinji could have been saved, but the thing is, he wouldn't want to be saved. He'd rather destroy everything he has left so he can play at being great than just stop it and live the life of a normal, boring, but happy human.

Shinji might not be as imposing as the other villains, but that doesn't make him any lesser than them. Shinji's whole story is a car wreck you really can't stand to look at, but have no other choice to watch as it gets worse and worse, A disaster of his own making.

Also yes genderbent Shinji is hot.

I found a post on Reddit where it was written that Arturia without the dragon core is weaker than Rin and Shirou. But shouldn't her training during life have made her strong at least at the level of a knight of the round table?

I was wondering how other people would make shirou stronger if they could.

Me personally I'd make him run across a mysterious and powerful sword that has somehow come from outside Akasha. It for some reason took a liking to him and him alone and after hypeing it up I'd have shirou never use it. Could he use to beat Some like ORT or Zeus mabey no one will ever know. Mabey it's not strong all shirou knows is that it scared the hell out of Zelretch and that was enough for him to never use it out of fear for accidentally hurting someone.

If you can't tell I like mysterious weapons. But I'm interested in knowing how y'all would do it if you could.

Now that both have official releases, are there any differences between the two since they are a little bit apart? If so, what is the preferred way to read it?

Is it possible to acquire a copy of any of the drama cds in english or with an english transcription of the content?

I see that it's supposedly Illya's command seals but I don't remember this in the vn or her having one that wasn't her whole body.