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• 1 2019-11-18T12:00:17-08:00 Heaven's Feel 9 plain 2019-11-18T18:59:34-08:00 Heaven's Feel relies on how Shirou's ideal is destroyed. After Saber is defeated early in the war, Shirou finds out that the Grail is corrupted, much earlier than in the other routes. He also finds out that his lover, Sakura, is the vessel for the corrupted Grail, which, once it does appear, will essentially create Armageddon. Shirou, in order to protect her, gives up his ideals, which would force him to kill her to protect the world, forcing Shirou to acknowledge that his ideal is incongruous with his situation. As the story goes on, Shirou's left arm is blown off, and Archer, who has been fatally wounded in the same fight, decides to graft his arm onto Shirou before they both die, being the same person. This arm grants Shirou many of Archer's abilities, but at a cost. Shirou, having thrown away his ideals, now has his body being invaded by Archer's own inner world, and his own lack of spiritual weight in comparison to Archer is causing immense damage to Shirou's mind whenever he uses the arm. However, he is forced to use the arm multiple times in order to protect those he loves, from his adoptive little sister Illyasviel to Sakura herself. Eventually, swords erupting from his arm, he makes his final stand in order to destroy the Grail, and, depending on which ending by the choices made, either dies there and leaves Sakura alone for the remainder of her life, or is saved by Illyasviel sacrificing herself to save him, and lives happily following the War.
  
  Heaven's Feel highlights "the friction between real and ideal"(ComiPress), describing how it is fine to have ideals, but to be prepared when the world makes it exceedingly difficult to keep those ideals. Shirou starts out the same as in the other two routes, the same, idealistic fool, but as he continues through this route, he is forced to give up his ideals to protect those he loves and who are in front of him, Sakura and his little sister Illya. Their world is dark, Sakura becoming more and more sadistic as the game progresses and the Grail's corruption continues to influence her, and Shirou is forced to cast aside his long term goal of being a hero in order to save those he loves that are in front of him. The struggle never ends, and real life and one's ideals will constantly disagree, but that is how it should be. This is how humans learn, and is what makes life a struggle worth having.