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To clarify, I essentially want to propose the removal of Emiya Shirou's base key. The 9-C one, to be clear.
Shirou's entire justification for being 9-C is due to his Reinforcement buffing himself and mundane objects to a level where he can somewhat defend himself against a non-serious Cu Chulainn. The problem with this is, a huge factor in Shirou's reinforcement spell early on is the sheer impracticality of it.
His utter lack of skill makes the spell effectively chance-based, and the success rate is abysmal. For an example, on Day 9 of the Fate route, Shirou was given forty lamps to reinforce. After an hour, he managed twenty, half of them having broken, and the other half showing no change at all. We also learnt from Shirou's thoughts that he only expected to succeed in reinforcing two at most out of the forty he was given. His success in his encounter with Lancer was purely luck working out for him. Without Reinforcement, Shirou is 10-A.
Not to mention that in his base key, he has no standard equipment, no reliable "special abilities", and no skill in any forms of combat except maybe archery. Everything he has that can be used in combat reliably is from his other keys, attained after he's gotten training from Saber and Rin in Fate, bled-over experience from Archer in UBW, or flat-out having Archer's skills to draw upon via the GARm in HF.
I see little reason to keep his Base key at all. Other 9-Cs, or even 10-As have some form of ability or weaponry and/or skill. Shirou has none of that, being effectively a physically fit high-schooler that relies on his abysmal luck to even stand a chance against most others in his tier.
Shirou's entire justification for being 9-C is due to his Reinforcement buffing himself and mundane objects to a level where he can somewhat defend himself against a non-serious Cu Chulainn. The problem with this is, a huge factor in Shirou's reinforcement spell early on is the sheer impracticality of it.
His utter lack of skill makes the spell effectively chance-based, and the success rate is abysmal. For an example, on Day 9 of the Fate route, Shirou was given forty lamps to reinforce. After an hour, he managed twenty, half of them having broken, and the other half showing no change at all. We also learnt from Shirou's thoughts that he only expected to succeed in reinforcing two at most out of the forty he was given. His success in his encounter with Lancer was purely luck working out for him. Without Reinforcement, Shirou is 10-A.
Not to mention that in his base key, he has no standard equipment, no reliable "special abilities", and no skill in any forms of combat except maybe archery. Everything he has that can be used in combat reliably is from his other keys, attained after he's gotten training from Saber and Rin in Fate, bled-over experience from Archer in UBW, or flat-out having Archer's skills to draw upon via the GARm in HF.
I see little reason to keep his Base key at all. Other 9-Cs, or even 10-As have some form of ability or weaponry and/or skill. Shirou has none of that, being effectively a physically fit high-schooler that relies on his abysmal luck to even stand a chance against most others in his tier.
