[Anime] Fate/Zero: Emiya Kiritsugu

I had finished this anime a few weeks ago. This is my second time watching this anime, the first during a few years ago. The plot written by Gen Urobuchi, animation animated by Ufotable, the song by Kalafina and composed by Yuki Kajiura, and everything else combined, is what makes this anime so great.

After finishing the anime, I knew that I have to write a blog about the character, Emiya Kiritsugu. He is, in my opinion, the most correct, yet the most flawed character in the anime. He is also one of the most deeply constructed characters in the anime.

Let us take some time out, appreciate how correct, how flaw, and how well constructed this character is.

Beware, spoiler ahead! If you had not watch this anime, continue at your own risk!

Emiya Kiritsugu

Childhood

Imagine yourself, growing up with a family of 2, your father and you. He is a mage, one who perform some experiment every day, which you believe can bring nothing but blessed to humanity. In your eye, he is like a hero.

Your father had just moved to a new village. You make a few new friends. There are one within them, who are the opposite sex of yours and have a special place in your heart. You had a crush on her, and her existence is like a heavenly angel to you.

Seemingly, your future looks super bright. You are going to continue your father research, and the result of the research is going to bring tremendous blessed to humanity. You also had the crush of yours, telling you that, she is going to watch you grew up. Everything seems good, not until the day, the day on which you woke up, being told by your father, not to go to the village.

It wasn’t suppose to be like this

It is this day, which you found your crush, turning into a zombie, after consuming a drug produced by your father research, which supposedly brings nothing but blessed to humanity. Isn’t your father research supposedly bring blessing to humanity? Why is your crush turning into a zombie? Wasn’t she supposed to stay with you until you grew up?

In the midst of confusion, you run to the church and look for the priest. In the meantime, your crush had the zombie virus spread to the other villager. In a matter of seconds, the village is destroyed by the mage association and church executor. Fire burning all around the village.

The ground which had your footstep on it, the coconut tree which you used to climb, the riverside which where your memory of you and your friend comes from, the church which you go to when you have trouble, and the tiny house, a few houses left to the church, right beside the coconut tree, where your crush used to live, had all turn into nothing.

You went to your father, seeking out the truth of his research, realizing the research is nothing close to what it claims to be. Rather, it was just a research seeking for a controllable dead apostle.

It is like a dream, a nightmare. Where are the promises from your father research? Where does the future lies, where you had now realize that the research of your father is nothing close to the promises that had been told to you? You had your father killed because you know that, not having your father killed, such event will repeat sometimes in the future. Contrary to the promises, it brings nothing but misery to humanity.

Good bye, Shirley

You soon adopted by a woman who is like a freelancer to the mage association. She is like a mother to you, and she teaches you all kind of skills that you need to assist her in her job. You also adopted the philosophy of utilitarianism, which is to sacrifice the less to bring blessing to the more.

You work very hard, killing the people who are like your father, uses magic to bring harm to people. You keep doing it, believing that, by following this path, you can avoid all the tragedies that happen to you.

Soon, you realize, that type of people can be seen everywhere. The path that you follow, can only do so little, and not more than that. Following your path, you also end up killing your mother (the freelancer of mage association), knowing that it is the correct thing to do, in order to avoid bringing misery to the people in the airport she is landing.

Fun Fact: The episode where he kills her mother is release during mother’s day

Despite the need to kill the only one who you are emotionally attached to, you continue because you believe that in order to save someone, you must sacrifice someone else.

The omnipotent wish granting machine

Soon, you heard of the Holy Grail, the holy existence that can grant any wishes. You believe that it can achieve your wish, which is world peace, without the need to sacrifice more people. You soon strive to fight towards the holy grail.

You fight hard, doing anything, backstabbing, bombing a building, deception, betrayal, all these, in order to attain Holy Grail.

Shirley, I had made it

Finally, you had attained the holy grail. Inside the holy grail…

Grail: "Three hundred on one ship, two hundred on another…"

Grail: "Five hundred total passengers and crew. Plus Kiritsugu Emiya. Let’s assume that these five hundred and one people are humanity’s last survivors. Giant holes simultaneously open up in the both ships crippling them. Kiritsugu alone has the skills needed to repair a ship. Now then, Which one of the ships would you choose to fix?"

Kiritsugu: "Simple… the one holding three hundred people."

Grail: "As soon as you make that decision, the two hundred passengers on the other ship, kidnap you and take you prisoner. They demand you fix there ship first, what will you do?"

Kiritsugu: "..."

Grail: "You will kill all two hundred passengers… that is correct. That is the Kiritsugu Emiya we know."

Grail: "Next, the surviving three hundred passengers abandon their damaged craft they split themselves between two new ships. They continue their journey This time, there are two hundred on one, and one hundred on the other. But again, holes open the howls of both ships at exactly the same time…"

Kiritsugu: "Wait..."

Grail: "The hundred in the smaller ship take you prisoner. And like the other, demand you to fix their ship first. Now, what will you do?"

Kiritsugu: "You already know… aren’t you?"

Grail: "Yes. You’ve made the right decision."

Kiritsugu: "No! that’s impossible! How can that be the right decision?! Two hundred survived, but three hundred died so they could live! The scales are tipped the wrong way!"

Grail: "No. Your calculations were correct. You made a choice to sacrifice the few to save the many. Isn’t that right? Kiritsugu Emiya? You have consistently chosen to kill those on the lighter side of the scales. Even if it meant to leave a long trail of the bodies behind you in your wake, if it save lives, the lives that you've saved, must have been worth more than you destroyed."

Kiritsugu: "This… this is what you wanted to show me?"

Grail: "Yes. This is your truth. The answer that lies within Kiritsugu Emiya. The course of action that should be taken by the Grail as an all-powerful wish granter."

Kiritsugu: "No! No this is not what I want! I want that there would be another way to save the world! That’s why I believed… the miracle was my only hope."

Grail: "Your wish cannot include a method you yourself don’t already know. If your wish is to save the world, it must be done in a manner that you can fully comprehend."

Kiritsugu: "Like hell! How in the hell… can you call that a miracle?!"

Grail: "The deed you try so hard to accomplish and fail to do on your own, can be accomplished in a scale beyond the power of any man. If that is not a miracle, what is?"

At this moment, you realize the grail is not omnipotent wish granting machine, and it is no miracle. You reject the grail simply because the cost is bigger than the reward. It is also at this moment, you realize, what you had been doing is flawed. The calculation is correct, except it is wrong. To save 200 people, you had sacrifice 300 people.

The man who just want to help other

Imagine if you were him, what would you do? You lost your ideal, for you had realized it is not correct. You too, lost the hope that you had placed upon the omnipotent wish granting machine, for it is no miracle.

In the beginning, you just want to help others. Now, you end up with nothing. As much as you know saving someone require to sacrifice others, the cost that you had paid are simply far greater than the reward that it had given to you.

Fortunately, in the end, you are able to inspire someone to inherit your dream — becoming the ally of justice.

"Well, I want to be ally of justice." — Emiya Kiritsugu

Gen Urobuchi

Gen Urobuchi’s writing is known to be tragedy and nihilistic. These examples can be seen from Psycho Pass, Madoka Magica, Saya no Uta. Part of the reason for his writing is his experience of nearly dying in an epidemic when he is younger. In turn, he generally has a worldview of a crapsack world.

"I have nothing but contempt for the deceitful thing men call 'happiness' and find myself with no choice but to push my characters, whom I pour my heart and soul out to create, into the abyss of tragedy." — Gen Urobuchi

The near death experience of him, is what makes him drive his characters into the abyss of tragedy. Kariya and Kiritsugu from Fate Zero, Sayaka and Homura from Madoka Magica, Fuminori from Saya no Uta, all of these, are born from the contempt of Gen Urobuchi towards ‘happiness’.

Being said, Gen Urobuchi is a cynic. As much as I think Freudian Excuse is not an excuse, he actually wanted to create a happy story. In the midst of pushing his characters into the abyss of tragedy, he too, create hope for his characters.

Alexander charging into the battle with Gilgamesh, despite knowing the fact that he cannot win at all. Kiritsugu continues fighting for his ideal, despite knowing that it probably not going to make any difference. Kyouko working hard to turn Sayaka back to a magical girl, despite knowing that it is almost impossible to do so. It is the struggling against the despair and tragedy, that create the most beautiful moment of that human being can be.

The world can be a crapsack place, full of despair and suffering. There is no inherent meaning at all. Betrayal, deception, murder, genocide, all of these are just another day of human life. However, what keeping one going forward, is the hope that born within himself. It is the hope, the struggle against despair, struggle against nihilism, that brings the greatest strength to humanity.

Imagine living in a totalitarian state, be it fictional (Oceania) or non fictional (Soviet Union), it seems nothing can be worse than that. People around you starving to death every single day. Rebellion seems useless against the armed army. But, to rebellion against the state, knowing the fact that you will never win against the armed army, the tiny hope that created by that action, inspire more rebellion army. For every rebellion army you inspire, they inspire more.

Should the outcome be positive or negative, should the rebellion army able to overthrow the totalitarian state, does it matter anymore? For you, who had done your best, striving against the despair, and create hope for others, had shone for the strongest moment of your life. If you can only live once, why give in to the abyss of despair, instead of shine bright for all you can?

"If anyone ever tells me it’s a mistake to have hope, well then, I’ll just tell them they’re wrong. And I’ll keep telling them till they believe. No matter how many times it takes." — Madoka Kaname

Back to Kiritsugu

Another common theme of Gen Urobuchi is the backlash against utilitarianism. Sibyl System in Psycho Pass, Kyubey in Madoka Magica, and Kiritsugu in Fate Zero, these are the embodiment of utilitarianism.

The goal of Sibyl System is to achieve the greatest happiness in the greatest number of people. Kyubey goal is to ensure the survival of the greatest number of lifeform. Kiritsugu is to save the greatest number of people possible. To achieve the goal, it often sacrifices a small number of people in order to achieve it.

Utilitarianism, made a decision solely based on logic. This often leads to the need of putting aside emotions. Sibyl System, the collection of brain, make a decision without the interference of emotion. Kyubey, the alien lifeform, do not have emotion, to begin with. Kiritsugu, repress his emotion, carry out what he knows is the correct action.

What different, is it from a machine, if human made a decision solely based on logic. Kiritsugu killing his father and mother, without hesitation, knowing that is the correct thing to do. He kills his assistant (in the grail) when given choices of 2 versus 1. He kills his wife and daughter (in the grail too), for it is 6 billion versus 2. What happiness can there be, if one acts like a machine, and repress all the emotion?

"It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up till now has consisted of – namely, the confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious autobiography; and moreover that the moral (or immoral) purpose in every philosophy has constituted the true vital germ out of which the entire plant has always grown." — Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

As much as his work is a backlash against utilitarianism, it is also the confession of his attitude towards utilitarianism. As much as he thinks utilitarianism is inhumane, he too, think utilitarianism is correct. This can be seen from his characters. The protagonist often does not reject utilitarianism, but strive towards a better solution than that.

Akane in Psycho Pass, accepted the Sibyl System, knowing without it, the society will go into chaos. However, she does warn Sibyl System, for they will replace Sibyl System with something even better in the future. Kiritsugu, adopted utilitarianism, but turn to the all-powerful wish granting machine, hoping for a miracle, for it can replace the role of utilitarianism.

Imagine, you are traveling to an island. Upon reaching the island, the island had overtaken by some terrorist. For you are honor guest of the island, the terrorist offer you to shoot one of the hostages. If you do not shoot, they will kill all 20 hostages.

This is a situation of 1 versus 19. If you kill 1, you save 19. However, all 20 will die if you do not shoot. In utilitarianism, your action can lead to saving 19 people, or your inaction will cause death to all 20 people. Inaction, too, is an action, and will dirty your hand, regardless of action or inaction.

In utilitarianism, facing such a situation, the correct answer is obviously to carry out the action. For the world is just a horrible place, if your action can make it a slightly better place, and you choose inaction, that is immoral too. In this horrible world, it is naive to think that you can run away from dirtying your hand. If dirtying your hand is certain, it is better to achieve moral and dirtying your hand than not achieving moral and still dirtying your hand.

With that in mind, can we settle with just utilitarianism? Utilitarianism, not only require dirtying your hand to achieve moral, it also requires repress of emotion to achieve moral. If all 20 hostages are a child, and the only weapon given to you is a 15cm long knife, and with that weapon, it is unavoidable to kill a child without watching them struggling and screaming for life. In that case, will your emotion even allow you to carry out the action?

This is the contradiction appear within Gen Urobuchi. As much as he thinks it is correct, he too, think it is wrong. Accepting utilitarianism, is to accept the good intention of them to do good to the greatest number of people in the first place. Adopting utilitarianism, however, would result in nothing but misery to one who adopts it. Your inaction that causes by your emotion, is nothing but the origin of the good intention of one.

The child, 6 years old, female, long hair, big eyes, sitting anxiously in front of you, waiting for you, who holding a 15cm long knife, to stab the knife into the soft stomach of her, pulling it out, hearing her screaming, and stabbing it again, into the other part of the stomach, again pulling it out, and watching the blood coming out from the eye and mouth of her, soon losing any energy to scream anymore, and struggle on the floor for other minutes before dying.

If anyone who avoid themselves from carrying out such cruel action, despite being able to save another 19 children, even the child is going to die anyway regardless of your action or inaction, is nothing but the pure emotion of one not wanting to do harm to the child. For the emotion is the origin of good intention, can we truly call them immoral?

You may aware, I am taking intention as the benchmark of measuring good in an action. For one might have good intention but carry out bad actions, such as genocide, that is a whole topic for another day. However, if one does not have good intention, how often can the result of the action turn out to be good? Assuming one had bad intention, but turn out as good result, how many times can such happen, until the bad intention finally result in a bad result?

While we accept utilitarianism, it does not mean we need to adopt it. Instead, we should continually strive to look for a better moral framework which can overcome the short of utilitarianism. Meanwhile, you can be satisfied with utilitarianism, you too, should not settle with just utilitarianism, given you had adopted it as your moral of life.

Hopefully, one day in the future, we will be able to find out a better moral framework, while focusing on creating greatest good to the greatest number of people, it too, can take into account of human intention and human emotion, for emotion is what makes humanity beautiful.

Afterthought

There is a Sunday morning before I start writing this article, I started thinking about Emiya Kiritsugu life. His life is nothing but misery, and I am unable to derive any meaning out of it. It makes me depressed by just thinking about it. That morning, I can’t even calm down my mind to read a book after hitting with the depressed emotion.

Truly, I do not expect it to turn out to be so positive. I expect this to turn out to be immense depressing and misery. If someone would be had told me that this would turn out to be positive, I would not believe him. Now, I have more hope than at any time in my life could ever have. Like Madoka, if anyone tells me it’s a mistake to have hope, I too, will tell him that he is wrong, every single time. Shall us wish ourselves to shine brightly in our life.

So, see you in the next post.