Shirou=Archer (part 2)

At the end of the day, Shirou won NOT because of Archer throwing the fight. Its down to he himself realizing that even if it's nothing but a lie, such an ideal has never been anything more than the truth he has never forsaken. The truth called "my only way of life". In a very pathetic sense, Archer could only prove his worth via the very naivety that has condemned him for good. Perhaps its down this very show of humane paradox that he ended up being the asshole we all are seeing in FSN. He tried to save humanity. He succeeded. Yet he ended up being betrayed NOT by those whom he had saved, but rather what made him chose that very path.

But still as we can see in Shirou's boss fight with Gilgamesh, Archer has already lost the fight before he even tried pulling off the whole time-existence paradox stunt. (Read: Despite what others might think, Archer was the one tracing Rho Aias. At least before Shirou managed to trace the whole thing en-route.)

Emiya Shirou=Archer. The meaning behind EMIYA as a Counter Guardian=The ideals that Shirou has chosen for himself. Yet there's no way Shirou would ever become Archer by the end of UBW. (Or in Nasu's own words:"near zero") Why? To me, its very simple. He knew that if he kept on going without pulling the brakes, he would end up losing far more than he will gain. Yet he's not about to give up the ghost. Because this was the path he has chosen. There's no turning back.

If the difference between Fate and Heaven's Feel lies in the polarity of extremes, then perhaps UBW will be the best testimony towards what we will term as outright nihilism. The Shirou within Fate could never find a self-fulfillment in his ideals if there's anything to go by from his near 100% chances of turning Archer in-character. HF constitutes to living a selfish life at the cost of what had made him truly alive in the first place. The former is an outright self denial. The latter is all about basing his own life around a person rather than something with an eternal value.

Perhaps UBW is just this: Fate+HF. The self denial is there, but yet the selfish aspect will never force him unto Archer's tragedy.

Source Materials

Rho Aias

Existential Nihilism