â ď¸Discussion of Grooming, SA, Teen/Child Pregnancy, and Warâ ď¸
Kiritsugu, Maiya, and Grooming
I think people arenât willing enough to acknowledge that Kiritsugu groomed Maiya. Although I am willing to make an argument that when they first met he didnât have any intention of sexually grooming her because the only reason that they eventually had that sort of relationship was because of Kiritsuguâs relationship with Irisviel, he 100% at least somewhat deliberately groomed her in a non-sexual manner. Kiritsugu took in a vulnerable person and raised her to be his assistant, with Kiritsugu ending up being the only thing she finds any meaning in.
Their relationship is extremely unhealthy, but there is a bit of nuance that by no means excuse Kiritsuguâs actions but does make it really interesting from a character writing perspective.
We donât have a canonical age for Maiya but we can do a little guesswork. We know based on her backstory that by the time she has met Kiritsugu she wouldâve been old enough to have both gotten pregnant and given birth. Based on what she says to Irisviel in their scene together in the shed we know she got pregnant almost as soon as she was biologically physically able to. When this would be isnât known, but given that she was almost certainly malnourished, she would most likely be on the older end of the average range of menarche. In regards to Kiritsugu we know he hired by the Einzbernâs at the age of 20 and based on the way that they act like, he and Maiya had worked together during Kiritsuguâs active era for a decent gap of time.
Thus, Iâd estimate their ages when they met is Maiya being in a roughly 14-16 age range and Kiritsugu being in a roughly 16-18 age range. Although their age gap is smaller than one might first assume, their relationship is still grooming because of the power imbalance. I do not intend to in any way defend Kiritsuguâs actions; however I do feel the need to acknowledge that there is something tragic about them. Two young people who have been exposed to the horrors of war, the worst of the worst of humanity, severely damaging their ability to make normal connections and yet they still form a relationship thatâs toxic and canât even be described as a friendship and yet still has an unconventional closeness to it even if Kiritsugu isnât willing to acknowledge that it does.
Kiritsugu and Maiyaâs relationship is supposed to parallel Natalia and Kiritsuguâs relationship, with Kiritsugu taking the way he was raised and applying it to Maiya. The way they raised people wasnât good but did serve the purpose of helping them to survive in a harsh and cruel environment. Again, this doesnât excuse the fact that Kiritsugu groomed Maiya but it does give some slight explanation.
In summary, people in the Fate fandom arenât really willing to acknowledge that Kiritsugu groomed Maiya which I think is a bit of a shame because although it is uncomfortable to discuss (and also people unfortunately kinda ignore Maiya a lot of the time) it is interesting from a narrative standpoint.
One of my favorite scenes in Stay Night is Shirou having a dream remembering Kiritsuguâs death. When I first read through the entire VN I thought the scene differed slightly among routes but itâs the same, itâs just made to work in all of them. The sense of Shirou panicking about his inability to be a hero of justice towards the end of the scene reflecting how he feels he canât live up to his idea of a hero while also working with how UBW Shirou will have to accept that saving everyone is impossible but still striving to and how HF Shirou will end up abandoning being a hero of justice for Sakura.
The way in which Fate Stay Night (and Nasu`s works in general) recontextualizes details is also on display. In this scene, a comment about the lack of the sound of bugs being read as simple set dressing in Fate and UBW, setting the mood. In HF however this small detail is given more weight due to the fact that Zouken was previously associated with insect noises. Rather than the detail about the lack of noise literally being about Zouken not being there, I read it as being more metaphorical. Although Kiritsugu was a very flawed person and Shirouâs idea of being a hero of justice and the issues that comes with that was because of Kiritsuguâs influence (though you canât place the blame entirely onto Kiritsugu since post-fire Shirouâs desperation for purpose was what caused him to attach onto being a hero of justice, with Kiritsuguâs dying words just exacerbating the existing issues), Shirouâs experience being adopted by him was positive. This is in contrast to Sakuraâs experience of being adopted by the Matous. The sound of bugs vs silence serves as a reflection of the sharp contrast between the Matou household and Emiya household. In summary, Shirouâs memory of Kiritsuguâs death is an excellent scene with multiple readings based on the context of the route.
â ď¸Fate Stay Night Spoilers, Discussion of SA and incestâ ď¸
Shinji Matou Observations
Shinji is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of a character that you are made to despise but also appreciate the writing quality of.
Something that isnât really talked about enough is that with most people Shinji is pretty decent to. Heâs pretty popular at school and to a majority of people heâs fairly normal to. However as you probably know there are a couple of people that this is very very much not the case with, and I think thereâs an interesting connection between three of them in particular. The order I am going to list them in might sound weird but just stick with me.
Ayako Mitsuzuri is the captain of the archery team. Shinji, the vice-captain, appears to resent this fact. In Fate route, she is attacked by and has her blood sucked by Rider. Shinji denies his involvement (and if Shinji was active in Rider choosing her as a target canât be stated with 100% certainty) but spreads rumors about what happened that made it seem like Ayako was possibly sexually assaulted to tarnish her reputation.
Rin Tohsaka is current head of the Tohsaka family and also a person who Shinji was attracted to. She rejects him. In Unlimited Bladeworks, he attempts to rape her but is stopped by Lancer
Sakura Matouâs relevance to this discussion of people who Shinji is terrible to is obvious. He resents her because he feels robbed from his position of being the heir by her and he has been physically and sexually abusing her for a while before Fate Stay Night starts, though the extent of this is only truly revealed in Heavenâs Feel.
There is a pattern with these three cases in particular (and a weaker pattern with these three + Shirou which I will discuss in a bit). Essentially, in all of these cases there is a person who he is envious of the position of and/or he feels entitled to and he retaliates with attempts of either violence, particularly sexual violence, or spreading rumors of to exert control over them.In summary, there is this sense of desperation with Shinji, he hates the fact that others have positions that he doesnât so he excerpts power over them with the means he has, primarily sexual violence and harassment.
I feel this applies to a much lesser extent with Shirou. Iâm grouping him separatly because itâs pretty different but itâs still relevant. Shirou for a long time was one of the people who would be in the first category of Shinji interactions (side tangent but so was Sakura before he realized she was the heir). Shinji was very close to Shirou and although he was somewhat rude to him he also did look out for him.
Their relationship started becoming strained after Shinji learnt the truth about Sakura and started acting differently. This is part of the reason that Shirou quit the archery team. The other reason (which was more of a convenient excuse for him) was because he got injured and work and Shinji told him that it would be improper for him to do archery with the burn scar he got. The idea of Shinji wanting Shirou off the archery team is interesting. It is important to remember that Shirou was an incredible archery prodigy. Shinji has a problem with people having a people who have positions that he doesnât. I do wonder then if thatâs part of the reason why he started to get more harsh towards Shirou.
There is a lot of subtlety in their relationship though. In spite of the potential cause of envy from back when they were both on the archery team, as well as the fact that at some point Shinji wouldâve had to put together that Shirou has the magic circuits that he lacks because of the fact that Shirou is the master of Saber without any external objects like Shinji needed, Shinji is still wants to try to convince Shirou to double cross Rin and team up with him instead. Regardless of everything thatâs happened and how strained their relationship is he still places some value in their friendship.
The fact that Shirou and Shinji were childhood friends is obviously a major factor in the fact that Shinjiâs relationship with Shirou is a lot more nuanced than the three girls I previously mentioned. However I do also think there is another factor to ponder. Now obviously men can be sexually assaulted. However in this particular case there is most likely a gendered aspect to this. Shinji uses sexual violence/ attempts of sexual violence towards Rin and Sakura as a way of exerting dominance, his attempt at upholding patriarchal social norms. Sakura plays into this reading especially, with rape attempt that is directly shown being Shinji lashing out at Sakura for talking back towards him, something she hadnât done before.
Shinji is desperate for control and power and this manifests as cruelty towards specific people a way that contrasts his relatively decent behavior with people who he sees as beneath him.This need for control is mainly spurred from him feeling robbed from being the heir to the Matou family. There is an irony to this because although his home life is terrible, being the person who Zouken has his attention on is far worse.
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