>>282222687
UBW unveils the selfish in the selfless Shirou, and the selfless in the selfish Rin. Yin and Yang. They complete each other. The central theme of FSN is that love can heal and save anyone, and no route explores this better than UBW.
HF on the other hand features a romance that repeats some of the beats of UBW, but executed in an inferior fashion. The point is that the events of the route force Shirou to contemplate the way that he enjoyed Sakura's presence due to her providing the minimal amount of human interaction he needed for him to maintain the illusion that he *doesn't* need it, that he doesn't want to be happy, and that becoming an inhuman machine is something he truly desires. But in recapitulating and consequently further elaborating on this theme, the narrative just provides an inferior iteration of the dynamic already explored with Rin, because Shirou's interactions with Rin make him realize how uncomfortable he is at finding Rin so much fun to be around *immediately*. Rin and Shirou have excellent chemistry, and their interactions are a joy to observe, while Sakura and Shirou have no real dynamic whatsoever -- it's a relationship defined by plot contrivances and the circumstances the characters find themselves in. In UBW, Rin and Shirou proactively attempt to help the other -- plot contrivances may provide fertile soil for their interactions, but fundamentally the essence of the narrative is found in their intrinsic clash of personalities, the narrative and its contrivances merely accentuating and catalyzing the interactions; in HF, the romance is driven entirely by the plot. Shirou's conundrum in HF is not prompted by an inner conflict spilling over into a conflict with Rin (and Archer), but by Zouken's posing threat to Sakura.
