Oh hey I forgot I never posted this during my last FSN replay.

[kiraya]

Things I like about Heaven's Feel, in no particular order:

• Einzbern-Tohsaka-Makiri background infostuff aww ye
• SIBLING INTERACTIONS. RIN TRIES SO HARD TO BE A GOOD NEESAN IN THAT ROUNDABOUT AND SOMETIMES BACKFIRING-BECAUSE-SHE'S-TOO-BLUNT WAY OF HERS, GOD WHAT A CUTIE, AND THE WAY SHE AND SAKURA DANCE AROUND EACH OTHER? UTTERLY PRECIOUS. and Shirou and Ilya d'awwww adorable babies
• mapo tofu. "--Do you want some?" "NO."
• Shirou continues to be a poorly disguised foodie
• Shirou continues to be borderline gladiosexual (makin' up words aww ye), which is only understandable, all things considered, but still amuses me
• wow I am so glad I'm replaying this with the voice patch; the differences between Saber's and Saber Alter's speech patterns are something the text translation alone doesn't make clear at all
• while I concede what people say about this game's pacing, the domestic slice of life scenes are still my favorite parts oops
• yessssssss women (especially Rin and Rider here) continue to be a driving force in the plot with reasons beyond the dudes they wanna bang, excellent
• Rider is actually kind of a cutie when you get to know her
• hnnnnngh Rin being badass with the Jewel Sword more of this yes plz
• Saber and Sakura are really cute together
• Rin giving Shirou a geas makes me think AU Femlouch crossover possibilities with "Code Geass" as a rather unusual two-part sorcery of immortal life only attainable through being granted a special sort of Mystic Eyes (that break many of the rules, like they can even be granted to possessors of Magic Circuits who have never practiced magecraft of any sort) by someone who has already achieved immortality in this fashion, and Ragnarok as a means to reach the Root, and the brutal Britannia method of training all potential successors to the lineage and making them fight each other so only the strongest inherits the family's Thaumaturgical Crest and oh god stop me actually don't, the crossover RPs bard_linn and I have been doing with ideas along this line are so much fun
• Linn has proposed the idea that Tiger Dojo 30 (the superhero/mind of steel bad end) is where Archer comes from and oh ow it hurts but I like it. I'm just not sure what's worse, the infinite regress created by Archer playing a part in his own creation or the alternate possibility that he was created in one of those rare few realities where Rin somehow summoned another heroic spirit as her Servant and so it is impossible for him to ever create a paradox in which he erases himself from existence by killing the correct Shirou before he becomes Archer.
• god all the Archer stuff here is adorable (sad looks at Ilya, tenderly running his fingers through Rin's hair alkahdfjs) and makes me think that even if he's driven to attempt murder by despair at his situation sometimes he's overall just trying to stop Shirou from being as much of a colossal fuckup as he thinks of himself as having been

Things I dislike about Heaven's Feel, in even less order:

• I feel like the "I think about my own happiness for the first time since before the fire" thing in the scene on the 13th day where they're talking about Sakura's wish is kind of shoved in there for contrast with Fate, where Shirou doesn't think about that at all, and UBW, where Shirou feels guilty having fun/thinking about his own happiness. I honestly didn't really see anything leading up to that kind of a revelation about himself.
• it would've been nice to get a little more Tohsaka family background (as far as the Grail War, I mean, not the separated siblingstuff) since Rin's route was really more about Archer than it was about her... yeah really Shirou why did you not even twitch when Kotomine mentioned the Tohsaka being involved from the beginning and instead focused just on the other two families, I know you're dense but you're not that bad
• wow Taiga you are unsubtle here about matchmaking Sakura and Shirou in a way that makes me really uncomfortable (for the first time in the whole game too), like seriously you don't tell a girl's cup size to a guy you know she's into and go all "so you've noticed how sexy she is huh I bet you wanna hold her and do naughty things" that's fucking creepy and weird
• why is Tohsaka "I blush and get flustered and am really indirect when talking about sexual things involving me (see Sunny Day)" Rin suddenly able to casually deliver a line like "you're the type who masturbates to the girl you like, huh?" to a guy in response to his getting flustered over her? Is it because the focus is on his actions rather than his inspiration for them or what? It's not like him being one of her weak points because she's into him suddenly went away or anything. And then telling him to get naked???
• The entire crest transfer scene and a lot of how Sakura acted after Rin and Ilya moved in and how Ilya acted towards Sakura was just all the crap I hate most about canonical harem anything.
• "W-we, um… made love, right!? . . . Then it’s strange for you to lose your composure with Neesan!" sorry Sakura but physical attraction don't work that way and who can blame him really
• "having three girls under the same roof might be a really stressful thing" and yet it's not enough so to make you even think anything like that when it's Saber, Rin, and Ilya in Fate. HMMMMMMMM.
• honestly though, Sakura, the possessive jealousy thing is not attractive at ALL
• no seriously why does Shirou go to bed thinking lewd things about Sakura and then have a sex "dream" about Rin idgi? Rider water you doing
• ...Saber never calls Rin by her name; until she's chomped she always calls her "Archer's Master." T_T My babies......
• LANCER NO
• NO SABER NOOOOOOOO LET ME FUCKING SAVE HER YOU ASSHOLES
• Archer......... ;_; why can't I save him too while I'm at it, poor baby
• fandom secret I don't like yanderes and Sakura's leanings in that direction are a big turnoff. "You won't get in any more danger if you're hurt so badly you can't even walk" WHY THIS, EVEN IF YOU REGRET IT LATER, CHRIST
• "Would you be able to forgive me if I became a bad person?” “No. I’d get mad if you did something bad. I’d get more mad than anybody else.” and then he goes whoops I uh changed my mind
• ILYA SWEETIE GOD I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE............
• Assassin is just never a Servant I give a fuck about, whether false or true
• suddenly Gil is demoted even below Disc 1 Final Boss whut??
• oh and since it needed to be said: fuck you Matou Zouken fuck you fuck you FUCK YOOOOOOOU
• seriously though "lust worms"? what kind of sick fucker thinks that's a good idea
• why does Shirou favoring Sakura more suddenly make the conditions better for Zouken to get involved in the Grail War anyway when it's straight-up said he wasn't planning on using her in this war
• Even though Rin's not sympathetic at all in the interlude with her and Sakura on the 12th day, and the whole "Shirou is my Servant" thing is a weird and kind of creepy way to look at it that really makes me side-eye her, I can't side with Sakura at all in that argument. Rin's at least trying to deal with their problems and minimize casualties overall, and Sakura only cares about Shirou and his safety. She's being more selfish than Rin is, which is really saying something, honestly...
• because I need to say it again: wow Shinji as if I didn't dislike you enough already finding out you regularly rape your adopted sister has put me off you forever. I know you're supposed to be shown with redeeming qualities in side materials or something but there are some things that are just plain unforgivable
• Kotomine why did your BAMFness not show up in at least your fight with Shirou in Fate
• Shirou just man up and admit that cooking is your hobby, it doesn't ~emasculate~ you in any way to do so, honest
• why is this the route where the "true" ending that you the player don't have to do any fucking work for is the happy-for-(almost-)all unrealistic one (pfft expecting realism out of Nasuverse, where a dude can shoot up from 5'6" to 6'2" AFTER adolescence and not even the creator can say why). Fandom secret I like the normal ending better
• why does Rider get to stay around instead of any of the Servants I give more fucks about, like Saber or Archer or Lancer (don't you dare give me an obvious answer like "well they're all dead already") -- oh right whoops I forgot Saber needs to be taken out of the picture for at least a little while for the other love interests to have a chance, sigh
• WHY CAN'T I HAVE A SHIROU/RIN/SAKURA ENDING, SOBS lol like partially incestuous poly will ever be a commonly canon thing
• actually why can't I hold all these Shirou/Rin feels in general, this is the wrong route for that, stupid. But I guess her sticking around a lot more than Saber does might contribute (and, well, she is my favorite so...)
• at least let me work through more with the ideal shit before throwing away everything Shirou's clung to in the first 2 routes, or have it happen a little more gradually over the course of a couple days and a little less like fucking whiplash. But I've written about this already.
• there's even more bad porn than usual......... sigh. But the long rant I've written on that and the overall canon's failings wrt sexism will have to wait for another post.

Well that sure was a thing.