Eye of the Mind v2

"Eye of the Mind—or, an essay on why the "suicidal style" is bullshit"

It has been fashionable in the recent years to describe the combat style of Emiya and his various derivatives as 'suicidal', especially in regards when his favored swords Kanshou and Bakuya are used.



This is wrong.



This can be true. His willingness to sacrifice himself and suffer great pains to accomplish a goal are a stand out characteristics of the man, regardless of his age or ideal inclinations, as we all know. But it is not true that it his main mode of combat, his ace in the hole against monsters that surpass humanity, his secret style that allows him to match those his superiors in melee combat by the skin of his teeth.



But the way it is utilized and described, is wrong.



Thus this essay is an attempt to elucidate and illuminate the subject of how Emiya fights, for any and all who might have an interest in such things. My conclusion are drawn primarily from the visual novel, but I will reference many other parts of the Type Moon franchise to highlight and prove these points. All quotes are taken from an English translation, unless otherwise disclaimed. I personally am something of a fan of the Type Moon people and their worlds and creations, one hero of justice especially. That said, this essay is also something of an in-depth rebuttal to those who consider Emiya—or more commonly, some variation of a living Emiya Shirou—to employ a style of suicidal openings to battle.



If you wish for sources, query in the review and I shall endeavor to further along the specific and relevant parts.



Now, getting on with it; the "suicidal style of leaving deliberate openings, to control where the opponent attacks" idea that has gained so much traction in fanfiction.



This idea is not entirely unfounded in the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel, but exploded in popularity after it was quite excitingly employed by a fanfiction author who commonly goes by the name "Gabriel Blessing", in the Fate/Stay Night fanfiction crossover with the "Sekirei"-franchise. Here, the more caustic and brutal take on the protagonist Emiya Shirou is often faced with superhuman enemies in the form of the eponymous Sekirei—aliens who have arrived on Earth in search of mates among humans(in the most general of terms).



Due to the massive popularity of "In Flight", this misconception of a "suicidal style" has spread far and wide, like several other ideas Gabriel Blessing used in his stories. That said, it is wrong and as such I wish for new authors to be made aware of this. Not because Emiya does not or can not do such a thing—using false openings and high risk analysis of the opponents attack patterns to buy time—but because it is merely a single tactic among a wide array of methods and means in the unsung hero's arsenal.



Firstly, it must be made clear that this "suicidal style" is not something Gabriel Blessing invented. Rather it did see use in a single fight in Fate/Stay Night. In the second encounter between the Servants Archer and Lancer—Heroic Spirits Emiya and Cu Chulainn respectively—in the Unlimited Blade Works route(henceforth UBW route), Archer did specifically use this method to defend against attacks he would not have been able to otherwise.



That said, that fight will be discussed in better detail later in this essay, so let us move on.



To begin explaining what is wrong with the "suicidal style", I will first attempt to explain what Emiya's style of combat truly is. For this, we have to analyze all of his appearances and draw conclusions from the numerous fights he has been in. For this, I also must somewhat discount several examples and fights of the younger Emiya Shirou, whose lack of experience and desperation in most of the situations warp the methodology a more mature version would possess.



Having done so, I pose a supposition.



"When Emiya fights with only Kanshou and/or Bakuya against an equal, he is not taking the fight seriously."



Now, this might seem strange. Are Kanshou and Bakuya—his iconic black and white Chinese twin blades—not his favored weapons? Does he not always pull them out of thin air at the first sign of trouble?



Yes, that is true.



But we must also consider what is said about his swordsmanship itself. According to Emiya Shirou in the Fate route, when discussing Archer with Saber—Artoria Pendragon, King of Knights—he poses that the bowman's quick defeat at her hands was a fluke, brought about by Archer lowering his guard to create an opening that "shouldn't have been". While at this point Emiya Shirou as a youth is extremely inexperienced in combat, he does describe Archer's defenses as "being out of this world". One its own, it might not be worth noting but in the UBW route's tenth day Tohsaka Rin notes that Archer is "good at defending". Finally, a third note of Emiya's defense being quite high is brought about at the end of the UBW route when Emiya Shirou faces off against Gilgamesh. Struggling to defend himself from the onslaught of the King of Heroes, the at-this-point-quite-competent Shirou notes that "Kanshou and Bakuya cannot block [Gilgamesh's] Noble Phantasms. Archer should be able to with his technique, but I don't have that much skill". And finally, in Fate/Extella Lancer notes that he and Archer are opposite in that regard, considering the bowman to be good at defense while he himself is best at offense.



Thus, with four independent observations in story by essentially different characters it can be concluded that it can to be taken as fact.



Armed with Kanshou and Bakuya, Emiya's defense is quite stalwart. And why not? The two weapons when held together boost the wielder's physical and magical resistance, possibly as a result of refinements and improvements conferred on the blades by Emiya himself. The result of decades of hard work is crystallized in those blades, both in the skill with which he wields them and the blades themselves.



But why would he specialize in defense?



Well that should be perfectly obvious. As Emiya himself says; "I only use my sword at perfect opportunities, and only when I can swear a sure kill. I don't like killing meaninglessly".



Or to put it more bluntly, he is a bleeding-heart pacifist. As long as he can defend himself and occupy an enemy, they are not hurting someone else, and he can play the long game to wait for the chance to take his enemy down without any casualties. If he can weather a storm of violence until his opponent tires himself out, dealing a clean kill or performing a non-lethal takedown becomes a much simpler matter.



Though, that does not mean that he is "toothless" and lacking utterly in offense when wielding only his twin blades. As seen with the True Assassin Hassan in the Heaven's Feel route and against lesser opponents such as Kuzuki Souichirou, he is a very skilled swordsman capable of taking them out without much difficulty. For example, Saber praises his skills in the UBW route following their first encounter with Caster. Lancer himself considers Archer to be "strong", even when he is dominating the fight and forcing Emiya to remain on the defensive later in the same route, during their second fight. Finally, in the Fate-route the Mad Berserker Heracles is momentarily knocked out of his rage to lament the missed chance to compete against Archer in sword techniques, speaking of his mysterious opponent in the highest terms.



So, how does Emiya fight then? How does he fight when he wishes to slay his opponent and win?



The answer is quite simple.



It depends.



Here is a fun little word—the favorite of any martial artist, soldier, tactician and strategist of more than passing competence:



Context.



How someone should be taken on depends on a great variety of factors. One of his win-quotes in the fighting game Fate/Unlimited Codes even suggest that to win, one must tailor his methods as he queries his defeated foe whether they have considered "fighting a sword with a sword, and a bow with a bow?". Additionally, the author Kinoko Nasu even notes in a Q&A that Emiya is someone who is not fixated on his methods for winning. So whatever it takes, if ya ain't cheating ya ain't trying etc.!



For example in his first encounter with Lancer, he simply did the bare minimum he thought necessary to push back the Celtic spearman. Rather than seek to push forward and overextend himself, he simply used his simplest trick of quickly replacing lost swords to negate Lancer's advantage, completely negating the disarming sweeping technique Cu Chulainn was employing.



Against Caster who kept him at a distance, raining destruction on him from above and using a powerful defensive shield spell he brought out Caladbolg II and defeated her in a single move.



Against Saber Alter—in a fashion, as a lone arm grafted to a dead man walking—he used the aerodynamic properties and homing features of Kanshou and Bakuya along with quick, successive projections to pressure and corner her to deliver a single devastating blow. Or he uses Rho Aias.



Under the right circumstances—in the right context—even something as innocuous as a shield can be the right tool for the job. Sometimes projection is not however the answer, as seen with the UBW route, where Emiya will with a handful of carefully chosen words change sides, betray allies, make truces, barter new deals and bluff his way out of pinches.



Consider this; Emiya without a master, low on magical energy, just having been stabbed through the chest and then ambushed by the King of Heroes after having had his entire reason for existence shaken up, practically defeats Gilgamesh with just three half-whispered words to Shirou.



"You defeat him."



Of course, that is not to say that he can't brute force his way through with simpler methods as long as the odds are right. For this, the various video games and side-manga's are a rather handy reference.



For example in Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya Dr3i, one Emiya Shirou who came into contact with the Archer Class Card and gained much of Heroic Spirit Emiya's skills fought in a desperately struggle against six other Servants in one night and won. Few of the fights are depicted in full detail in the manga but in the movie some of the received extended attention which fit in with the methods seen in the manga.



Firstly; defend with Kanshou and Bakuya, attack as possible. If necessary to further pressure enemy to gain an advantage, project additional pairs of swords and throw them. Layering multiple attacks from multiple angles due to the various attractive properties of the projected blades usually allows one to overcome simple foes.



If the target is too tough (as for example Shinji/Hassan combination in Dr3i) or too mobile (Atrum/Medea combination in Dr3i) to be pinned down by these measures, then pinning them down long enough to be able to fire a more devastating arrow may be necessary. This method was also used against Caster in the UBW route, if one looks back at the encounter.



It is a simple and effective tactic, requiring little fine-tuning but allowing for necessary freedom in the manner with which the final blow can be executed.



Of course, if the opponent is at a distance where melee combat cannot be initiated, it becomes possible to switch to the bow outright. At range astoundingly enough, "Archer" seems to excel.



As seen in the UBW route, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia; a fan-disc sequel to the original visual novel, and the various adaptations of Fate/Grand Order's Singularity F, when Emiya is given a suitable location to snipe from he becomes an incredibly difficult foe to handle. With his extreme range, high mobility, wide selection of arrows to use and his ability to analyze and plan, he is a very difficult enemy to handle. Generally speaking, he will prefer to set up at a location where he has eyes on the target and can remain undetected; a high vantage point where can make use of his Clairvoyance; a hidden corner or crook of buildings; the edge of a forest.


Despite lacking any skills such as "Presence Concealment", his predilection for stealth and ambush is notable. Every time he assaults Caster in the 5th Holy Grail War, he did so despite her having set up a base or bounded field, getting the drop on her and having a shot to overwhelm her before he is detected. Similarly, he also manages to get the drop on Gilgamesh at the conclusion of UBW, and Hassan of the Cursed Arm in Heaven's Feel, quite notable given that the former nominally possesses EX-rank Clairvoyance and the latter being a master of stealth and ambush tactics himself.


When he has set up such a location, he will have the time and space necessary for his more potent projections. As noted in Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Grand order, and stated in one of the Anime Visual Guides, the higher the rank of a projection is the more difficult and time-consuming it is to project. While Archer is capable of using Caladbolg nearly instantly, the difference in power between a hasty use and one where he has time to aim is considerable, as Heracles can well attest. Similarly, it is rare for Archer to use volleys of swords in the manner reminiscent of the King of Heroes' vault, but he has made use of it when the opportunity to prepare the attack presented itself, such as against Medea.


As such, his settling on a style of sniping and using his bow at range begins to grow ever more understandable. Why approach a target, when he can safely and precisely take out a target from afar? As seen in the occasions when he does decide to use his bow, his output is considerable and places him in little harm. Against ranged attacks, he will have plenty of time to either prepare his ultimate defense or to avoid the attack altogether. The biggest notable weakness Archer has in super-long range fights to date, is immediate melee-range counters as seen when Saber cuts him down in Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, or how Mash Kyrielight defeats him in the Fate/Grand Order one-shot manga.



Then, why did Emiya use a "suicidal style" against Lancer, and why does he not use it more regularly then?



Well, it is quite simple.



Cu Chulainn is a blockhead.



Let me elaborate on that for a moment, and then also make it known that he is one of my favorite characters and that that statement is not made in slight.



First, let us break down the "suicidal style" down to its basics. I assume everyone reading this knows what a "feint" is? Simply put, it is the technique of throwing a false attack to create an opening to exploit with another real attack. Think throwing a wide punch with your right hand and then kicking your opponent in the balls while they're blocking their vision with their hands.



That is the offensive technique. Is there a defensive version of that? Of making the opponent make a false move that will give you an advantage?



Yes, yes there is.



In his 1950's boxing book "Championship Fighting", Jack Dempsey—of the Dempsey Roll fame, look it up, you won't be disappointed—wrote an entire chapter on these two concepts. He called them feinting and drawing. He is not the only one to have discovered this concept, nor is he anywhere near the first to have done so. But he explains the concept very well in the framework of boxing, showing that it is a common fighting technique even today. Oldest variations of this technique could arguably be dated back to the Roman times in the form of Spanish bullfighting; the matador taunting the mighty bull with a red cloth, allowing it to the much more fragile human to remain unharmed by the furious horn-tilt.



So if it is a working technique and one that a boxing champion felt necessary to write about, why wouldn't Emiya build an entire style around using it? If one such simple trick allowed him to match and fight against much stronger and faster opponents, why wouldn't he use it?



It's simple.



A feint will break a draw. Utterly and completely.



If you know he is trying to draw you to make a bad punch, feint a punch at him and he'll react, but because you didn't actually react he's the one who made a mistake and is now open to an actual punch, see? Just as you cannot built an entire style of rock-paper-scissors around only throwing rock, so too you cannot built and entire style of swordsmanship around always using draws.



So why did Emiya use such an easily counterable technique?



Because Cu is a big dumb, fight-happy maniac who doesn't give a damn about such things. In his own ponderings in the scene in question, Cu Chulainn confirms that every attack he has thrown at Emiya was aimed to kill. That is to say, Cu happily will take each and every draw because he does not care about the details.



To illustrate what was going on in the fight outside the church in UBW, picture this in your mind.



Emiya is standing on a verdant, grassy field. In his hand is a tennis ball. At his feet is an excited blue dog.



He raises his hand, drawing it back. The dog jumps up and down, barking loudly, its eyes focused on the ball and nothing but the ball.



Emiya looses, flinging forward his hand in a mighty toss. The ball would be sent flying for dozens of meters, if only he let go. Instead, he palms the ball and hides it. The blue dog sees nothing, jumping and turning to run for the ball, absolutely certain that it must have been thrown. A minute later when the blue dog returns to Emiya, he pulls out the ball again and repeats the trick.



Again.



And again.



And again.



Why does the dog not realize it is being fooled? Why does not Cu care that the fight is dragging on, when he should have been able to easily overpower Emiya? Well, simply put the hound is having far too much fun to care about such things.


Now, why wouldn't this work with other Servants?



Well, for starters most of them have personal skills which negate such tricks. Instinct and Eye of the Mind(Fake) make it difficult to pull such easily countered tricks consistently without being seen through. To draw a parallel to another Eye of the Mind(True) user, Diarmuid in Fate/Zero had to carefully set up his trick against Saber. And even then it very nearly failed. Most of the legendary warriors among the ranks of the Heroic Spirits also do not also get so lost in the battlelust as Cu does.



Thus, nowhere else in any of Type Moon is such a technique or method described again. Emiya is never described using it. Shirou is never described using it.


But since it has not been refuted and since he is detailed as excelling in defense, wouldn't it make sense to assume he might be doing so anyhow? That as he does not intend to cut down his opponent while only using Kanshou and Bakuya, wouldn't he thus utilize the method of revealing openings to draw in specific blows?



No.



Because it would not work.



What if some tiny detail is changed in the equation? What if instead of a highly skilled fighter like Lancer who can and will go for such openings instantly, it's just someone who wildly swings in the general direction of the opponent, but is too fast and strong to be dealt with normally like Heracles? Something like a draw is too minute to be utilized against someone who swings a sword the size of a car. Or someone who can clad their strikes in so much magical energy that any weapon will simply shatter on impact? Or with a simple swing send a wave of focused holy sword blasts at him? Saber can do that easily. Or simply perform an overhead strike and force Emiya to block overhead, getting stuck between the heavy sword blow and the ground, as for example when he is forced to kneel in UBW.



What then? Is he not stuck?



If Shirou is certain that Archer is capable of defending against Gilgamesh's onslaught of unending noble phantasms with but two blades, then how would the style of revealing openings work? What does it matter that there is an opening to be exploited, when Gate of Babylon can attack every opening and every guard at the same time with absolutely lethal force?



The conditions for the "suicidal style" to work are too precise for it to be the basis for an entire methodology. What meaning is there in building an elaborate series of traps in wait for an opponent, when they can just blow up the basement and collapse the entire building on you? Keep it simple, stupid.



Thus, it all comes down to context. When to use it and when to spurn it.



When it was used, Archer was simply biding his time for Shirou and Rin to pressure Caster inside the church's basement. Once Archer felt things had gotten heated enough, that Caster was no longer paying attention and he needed to reset hostilities with the bloodlusted Lancer, he taunted Cu. One failed attempt at killing Archer with his most prized and prided technique later, Cu is backed into a corner where he is too confused and pissed about being proved wrong to continue fighting.



Archer lost the battle and got his ass kicked, but he won the war and got everything he wanted. Well, except for Rin yuri-lusting after Saber so quickly and Saber servant-lusting after Shirou so hard as to ignore the whole holy grail and master business. But well, that's what Eye of the Mind is for; not being so rigid as to stick to just one method of winning, always remaining fluid enough to switch strategies on the fly and be able to take a bitch hostage.



So Cu is an idiot. And so are you if you want to write about the suicidal style after reading this.

(That said, Cu is best bro. Gonna grail him to 100 along with my Emiya in FGO :V )