Errol said: Of course I don't think fans will be satisfied with that. I'm also well aware of everything you mentioned. I just believe that if ufotable were to animate any part of F/SN, it would be Heaven's Feel and Heaven's Feel only. And if we're going to a create a good adaptation of that route, fusing major elements of all three routes is NOT the greatest idea. Especially considering that's exactly what DEEN did.
Its not just difficult to pull off, but if you want a cohesive story, its damn near impossible regardless of how complete it may be. That's not to say that having some elements from the other routes isn't a good thing. Hell, I'm all for having servants backgrounds touched upon somehow. I just don't believe having something as massive as Saber's arc from the Fate route covered in its entirety as possible if we want the story flow as smoothly as possible.
Going for a straight, word-for-word adaptation of HF would be making the same mistake as DEEN, if not worse.
F/SN anime was as mediocre as it is because it only adapted one third of the whole story. Sure, they tried to tie up a few loose ends and character arcs by putting some elements from UBW and HF routes, but the effort was very lackluster and they put little thought into how well it integrated with the rest of the story, resulting in that abysmal Caster Arc. The mistake was in the approach and execution, not the underlying intent.
The problem with a possible adaptation of HF is that it doesn't stand on its own. It does ultimately resolve the plot and a number of characters who were brushed aside in the previous two routes get the deserved screentime, but it won't add up on its own, and it most definitely won't work as a proper sequel to F/Z, despite the similarity in tone and themes.
The emotional impact of HF relies a lot on the things that were already established in the previous two routes. Sure, lots of plot elements and the setting has been already covered by F/Z, but there's still plenty of groundwork for both the story and characters in HF that were only covered in Fate and UBW.
HF focuses on Shirou, Sakura, Zouken and Kotomine at the expense of almost everyone else, including some pretty major characters like Saber and Archer. Saber in particular is a tricky problem to solve since she's the face of the franchise and has already been established as one of the main characters by F/Z. The game could afford to relegate her to a plot device with only a handful of scenes in HF route, because she already had her story told in the Fate route. Since we already saw her "real" story, we accepted her diminished and different role in other routes, and it allowed the writer to give the same character different roles and incarnations - hence her name "Saber Alter" in HF.
A sequel to F/Z does not have the luxury of a multi-branch game like F/SN. It can't afford, from a purely narrative perspective, to dump a few major characters for the sake of others and to not conclude their character arcs. I may be focusing on Saber a lot here, but that's primarily because she's the only major character who gets the stick in HF. Everyone's story is solved at the expense of hers and this is a real narrative problem.
And like I said, it's not just her - one of the main reasons why casual fans really loved F/Z and loathed F/SN is because Zero gave equal ( well, proportional ) focus to ALL of the characters. In each route of F/SN, we only get to really know a couple of characters ( with the exception of Shirou and Rin, who are pretty much constantly present ), while Zero managed to balance its large cast of characters brilliantly, and it's a singular, linear story. Servants in particular were a strong point of Zero ( three kings FTW! 'zerker in his awesomness! insane but lovable Caster! ), along with the great rivalry between Kirei and Kiritsugu and several really loveable characters like Iri and Waver.
The point is, a proper sequel for Zero must have that same balance. Kiritsugu was more or less the main character in Zero, but he wasn't as omnipresent as Shirou is in F/SN. SN has an equally large cast, and while none match the awesomeness of Rider, they all deserve proper screentime and the recurring characters from Zero ( primarily Saber and Gilgamesh ) need to have their arcs properly concluded.
All of this requires massive re-writing of the original VN, a creation of a "Super-route".
ALL three routes are equally worthy, and while I agree that HF provides the best "meat" for a sequel, UBW and Fate cannot be ignored, and all routes have something worthwhile to add in regards to both character development, plot and the substance of the story.
Sure, hardcore F/SN fans will piss their pants out of happiness even if ufotable only strictly adapt HF route, but then again, it's not the hardcore fans that the studio will target if they make a sequel. Readers of the VN constitute a minority of the total viewership, especially since F/Z was immensely more popular than F/SN anime by DEEN, and there's a sizable number of people who only ever watched Zero and aren't interested in either the F/SN anime ( since they heard it's crap ) or in the VN.
Hardcore fans will watch ANYTHING ufotable bring to the table ( see what I did there? ), so the studio should focus on satisfying the entirety of the fanbase and even add some more, which can only be achieved with a PROPER sequel that covers F/SN in its entirety.
In the end, ufotable are a company, and while they might not be greedy bastards and actually care about the quality of their products, they still have to take money into account and balance between the money they invest into the budget and the expected profit from the distribution. More profit = more money for future endeavours. And a "super-route" approach promises greater returns than a fan-pandering adaptation of HF only. |