INFO POST

[steelminded]

( CHARACTER ★ INFORMATION )

NAME & AGE: Shirou Emiya, 16-17
CANON & CANON POINT: Fate/Stay Night, post-UBW
CANON INFORMATION:
Canon Info
Character Info


PERSONALITY:
"Yes, well, as long as you understand… but it's strange. You lose your temper easily, but you're tolerant of Matou."
"Yeah, that's just his style. You get used to it if you hang around him for a long time." -- Issei Ryudo and Shirou Emiya (Prologue)

Shirou is generally seen as an admirable person who can befriend and tolerate practically anyone he meets, which is displayed by his... strained friendship with Shinji Matou. Anyone within a mile range can already tell that Shinji is not the best person in the world thanks to how he treated his own sister, Sakura. Shirou, being friends with Sakura, still manages to befriend Shinji through some stroke of miracle and patience, and reprimands him occassionally whenever Shinji does something stupid. While a lot of people seems to hate that douche or admire him, Shirou's the only one who treats him like an equal most of the time. While this does make him admirable as it is, there is exactly one other quality of him that makes people view him as such: His selflessness.

"…Geez, I guess it is a problem to be too good a person. It's helpful to have you around, but I can't stand it when other people use you to their liking. Helping others is a good thing, but you should be more picky with who you help. You just help anyone who comes to ask you." -- Issei Ryudo (Prologue)

Shirou will always attempt to do something to be of help to his friends, be it something as mundane as fixing things, to even more elaborate things such as setting up a neighboring class' stall during a school festival of some sort. Naturally accusations of being too exploitable are abundant which is not surprising considering his habits. Some of his friends often told him that this selflessness can get kind of dangerous. While there were times where all he does to help is to repair some small machineries, there are times when others berate him for being all too willing to get himself killed from dumb decisions.


“...If you can’t fulfill it anymore, then let me fulfill it (Kiritsugu's dream of being a hero) for you.”
“Dad is an adult already, so maybe you can’t do anything anymore. But I’m alright. So entrust it to me, entrust Dad’s dream –” --Shirou Emiya (Fate/Zero epilogue)

The reason for his complete selflessness was simple: The Great Fuyuki Fire. Being one of the survivors of the incident, Shirou's child self was broken by the sight of dead bodies around him, so in a sense, you could say that the fire killed the person Shirou used to be. It was not until a man saved him that his old self was reborn into Shirou Emiya, a male who wished to be a hero, to emulate and walk through the same path that the man walked on, saving everyone he meets along the way. So when Kiritsugu told Shirou about his dream, without nary a thought, he agreed to take on his adoptive father's old dreams, and become a hero for his sake. After all, the existence of Shirou Emiya at that point could be considered a void. He had no name, no family, and most of all, he has no sense of self. This was so bad that his general action to anything that makes him happy is to think that he really doesn't deserve this kindness at all.


"That's why I frantically chased after Kiritsugu. For those I couldn't save and for the things I couldn't do, I admired a superhero who could save someone. What was me crumbled away as I ignored the pleas for help. I kept moving forward with an empty mind." -- Shirou Emiya (Fate Route)

In addition to that Shirou is suffering from what is called a survivor's guilt, which stemmed from the fact that he actually survived a disaster that claimed thousands of lives. The sight of people dying around him without being saved pushed him to find a way to atone for his inability to help them while he was still a kid. In that way, he wanted to move on from the people that died from that fateful day, and try to absolve his sins by saving everyone in hopes to overturn the immense guilt he retained from the fire. The heroic sense he had was just a hand-me-down from a man who was practically dead. Of course, at this point, he had not realized the disaster that this will cause just yet.

"No matter what may fall upon us in the future…
I'm convinced that I will be able to match even a fierce god if I have Saber with me." -- Shirou Emiya

And then during one fateful (ha ha fateful) night, a chance encounter with Saber pulled him into a war in a scene that will be forever etched in his mind no matter what. While he develops a good rapport with Saber eventually in all routes, it's important to note that in this route, Shirou and Saber's relationship could be described as 'mutual platonic partners'. This is in contrast to his views of Saber in the Fate route, as thanks to a certain encounter playing out differently, the circumstances of which Shirou's protectiveness over her arose never happened. Thus, his partnership with her stayed at that same level, with both of them respecting each other as opposed to trying to protect each other. Shirou trusts Saber with his life, and to him, she is the best partner anyone could ever have.

"Shirou, that does not make sense. Do you not have the will to obtain the Holy Grail as a Master?" "I do. But that's only because I don't want anyone evil obtaining it. I have no reason to want the Holy Grail for myself." -- Saber and Shirou

When thrust into the war, at first, Shirou's reaction was to run away from the war. At least, until Kotomine's explanations spurred him into action. The moment he learned of how the previous war caused the fire, Shirou immediately jumped into the war in order to prevent it from killing off more lives ever again. Unlike anyone else who sought their grail for personal reasons, Shirou sought to destroy it in order to prevent more needless violence from ever happening again. Of course, being an empty person driven by his survivor guilt, he still mostly does it in order to atone for his sins, even if he didn't really realize it at that point. Therefore, the Grail isn't something he wants, but rather a concept to be destroyed.

…I see. Everyone protected their reality by ignoring what happened.
There's no way that the perfect, beautiful honor student, the school idol, Tohsaka Rin, would scream out the word "idiot" in the hallway.
Therefore, what happened in the past minute was completely erased from their memory. -- Shirou Emiya

Speaking of the war, one of the first Masters Shirou encoutered was Rin Tohsaka. To him, Rin Tohsaka was someone he admired: the perfect student of the school, boasting good looks, grades and everything else. Keyword: WAS. The moment they met as Masters rather than mere schoolmates, Shirou rapidly learned that this girl- no, magus is someone to be feared. Her ruthlessness and cheerfulness rolled together put Shirou through a lot of tense moments as he can't really figure out how she really feels about certain subject. For Shirou Emiya, who was not a complete magus, Rin Tohsaka is an interesting subject of interest, as he tries to piece who Rin Tohsaka really is beneath her perfect mask. Fortunately, his effort was rewarded as slowly but surely, he can see that the perfect magus he knew was part of a facade. Her contradictions as someone who seems cold and indifferent as a logical magus, and yet still having a strange innocence charmed Shirou by quite a bit. In fact, their banters and that one impromptu 'date' they had with each other served as one of the few moments Shirou caught himself feeling actually happy rather than the emptiness he should feel. By the end of it all, Shirou's certain that Rin's not only a stalwart ally, but someone he can trust his empty self to.

"You said you do not want to involve innocent people, right?
Then accept it. Nobody can be saved if you try to save everybody.
As Caster said, we are similar, unfortunately. We would have to cooperate if we do not want any victims."
"No…! I won't cooperate with you. I will never accept you…!" -- Archer and Shirou

And then. There's Archer. Of all the people he met and connects with in this route, Archer is the one he's least compatible with. Valuing the needs of many over the few, Archer's way of doing things clashed with Shirou's pristine ideals of saving everyone. Ironically, at the same time, Shirou admired everything about Archer's technique. To him, Archer's technique was perfect, fitting for a hero to have. Unconsciously, Shirou wished that he can reach Archer's space, viewing him as a goal at around this time. Of course, thanks to some revelation later on, Shirou's hatred of Archer is completely justified, and the conflict between them got even worse. Though at this stage, their relationship hasn't been volatile enough to come up as a primary conflict.

Did he go around and tell everyone such a story?
Mitsuzuri is a girl. Everyone thinks she's strong, but she's still a girl.
So no matter how strong she is, it'll destroy her if such a rumor is spreading.

And he still spread the rumor in spite of that?
He took a secret and spread it irresponsibly!? -- Shirou Emiya

As the war went on, more traits of Shirou surfaced. For one, he really hated underhanded tricks, as well as people who harms others for no good reason. When Shinji talked about Ayako in an off-handed manner, despite with her being in a bad condition, Shirou starts to get mad. However, the peak of his anger came when Shinji just spread a really harmful rumor that was supposed to be a secret just for the sake of it. The fact that Shinji broke his word over keeping something a secret really pisses Shirou off. However, nothing pissed Shirou off than betrayals that are made later on, such as when Archer betrayed Rin in order to fulfill his secret goal. To him, people that betrays others are the lowest of the low due to the clash such people has with his selfless image.

"There is no value in such a life.
I'm sure of it. There is no value in Emiya Shirou's life.
…It is wrong to save just because you want to save. You are a fake that should have never existed as you are broken as a human being."
-- Archer

However, the crux of Shirou's development of this route comes from his confrontation with Archer within the Einzbern mansion. Faced with the fact that Archer is his own self turned hero, Shirou was completely shaken by the fact that the man he could possibly become was strangled by his own ideal. No, not Shirou or Archer's own. But rather, Kiritsugu's. Despite taking over Kiritsugu's dream, Shirou's ideals remained one that was borrowed and not his own. That, and the only reason Shirou took that dream was because he was mesmerized by the smile on Kiritsugu's face when the older man found him. In addition to the borrowed ideal, this confrontation also dragged to light how 'saving everyone' as a concept is a hypocrisy in the first place. While it's true 'saving everyone' for the sake of the people that couldn't be saved back then is a noble goal, Shirou knows that 'saving everyone' in the first place is impossible and buried it deep within his subconscious.

"…This is just a dream.
But I kept on believing in it because I thought it was right.
Kiritsugu pursued it because he knew it was an unattainable dream, an impossible ideal.

Even if it may be unattainable…
He believed that he would reach his destination if he kept running." -- Shirou Emiya

Having it slapped on his face didn't cause Shirou to back down, rather, it made him reject Archer all the more. If there's something that Shirou has in excess, it's his own stubbornness. Despite Archer being a prime example on how his ideal will lead him astray, being another version of himself, he kept on denying it. Rather, Archer's admission on how his borrowed ideals broke him served to further differentiate both of them within Shirou's own mind. Shirou's determination to prove Archer's words wrong made him arrive at the realization on how he's been using his ideals wrongly. Rather than using it to atone for his survivor, he should uphold these ideals because they were and still are beautiful even now.

It seems like it happened so long ago.
The memory of it is fading day by day, and I can't even remember what the person I was fighting looked like.
But that is to be expected.
That was something that was impossible from the start.
We did not believe that the fight would change anything.
We just tried to beat each other to ascertain ourselves. -- Shirou Emiya

By the end of it all, Shirou Emiya has grown through the war. From an empty being who upholds a contradictory ideal as a means of atonement, to someone who upholds the ideal not of guilt and emptiness, but rather appreciating the life it had given him. Ultimately Shirou's resolution only strengthened through this event, forged in fire. With the knowledge of his own fallacy, it's certain that the path Shirou will take won't ever cross with the wrought-iron hero that opened his eyes ever again.

COURT ALLIANCE & REASONING: Unseelie. While Shirou is a man who wishes to do good, his desire to save everyone no matter what means that he's willing to go against order if pushed enough. His desire to break the laws of the Grail War in order to prevent it from happening again signified that laws are something to be discarded if it harms other lives.

ABILITIES:
Magecraft
An act of magic, to say the least. Magecraft refers to what a Magus is capable of. Most of the times, all of them are unique techniques locked to a certain person, like Rin's jewels for one. Shirou Emiya is unique in the sense that he's not a true magus, only being taught the mere basics of it by Kiritsugu Emiya. Within this route, Shirou has access to both Reinforcement and Projection at this point.

Reinforcement, as mentioned before, is an act of taking a completed object, and adding in different properties into it. It doesn't sound much, but that's probably due to the fact that it was one of the most basic thing a Magus can do. The way Shirou Emiya did it before Archer taught him the way to use it was also disastrous.

See, Magic Circuit are like secondary nerves an individual could have, the more you have, naturally means the more powerful you are in Magic. And while Shirou has an average amount of them, he tends to create Magic Circuit before performing his spells rather than just tapping into the preformed one, risking his life with every acts he performed.

Related to that is structural analysis, the capability to analyze the structure of an item. An important component to Reinforcement, as it allows Shirou to visualize the structure of an item in order to find which point to strengthen, though, like the other, it's pretty basic and self-explanatory. It is part of the same process that leads to two of his most frequently used magic.

A spell-type that Shirou excels in; Projection, just like its name implied, involves realizing the concept of an image and summoning it into the real world. The strength of a projection depends on the wielder itself; if the wielder is not completely sure of the image's strength, then the object would just shatter, as the world continously tries to erase artificial items created using this method. Of all the three basic magic types, Projection is the most difficult to master, in addition to its application being entirely useless due to the fact that the objects disappearing easily after being created.

At this point of time, Shirou could be considered to have mastered Projection, the act of it no longer tires him, and he is able to project multiple swords at the same time as opposed to struggling with just one. This is due to a 'cheat' that Shirou Emiya has thanks to his own existence. However, the limit still stands, any weapons Shirou Emiya produce by this technique has their grade degraded by a fair bit.

While it's possible for him to create something other than weapons, Shirou is specialized in Projecting items that are classified as Swords due to his affinity. Therefore Shirou chose to Project them as weapons to either defend himself with or to save others.

Another thing of note would be his aria, or to be exact, his activation phrase. While it's unnecessary for him to say it, an aria helps in focusing his mind and therefore focus on the processes that made his magecraft possible. For Shirou, this aria is "Trace, on."

Reality Marble: Unlimited Blade Works
An expansive field of blades, Unlimited Blade Works is the definition of Shirou Emiya, a blade who fights for other's sake. Storing the immense amounts of weapon he has seen over his lifetime, this mindscape of Shirou could be called useless, were it not for the fact that he can weaponize it. Shirou Emiya could access this world and 'Trace' a weapon from within it, manifesting it in the real world in a manner akin to projection, with the traced weapon having the same drawback as a normal projected weapon. Or, he can just manifest it in the current plane of reality, dragging his enemies or allies into this mindscape. Within this mindscape, Shirou can use the weapons scattered around as his own and overwhelm the enemy with an unending trove of weaponry. Of course, invoking this mindscape takes a lot out of him, and therefore, this is always used as a last resort technique when he's completely backed into a corner.