lost butterfly found too much candy

Fate is back at its most excessive (visually, dramatically, squickily) in Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel ii lost butterfly. This is the second installment in a film trilogy adapting the longest and most fucked up of the three main arcs of the visual novel that started it all.

While this particular series has been more cogent than the infamous Unlimited Blade Works film—aptly consigned to the dustbin of history by its thorough, two-cour TV replacement—poor pacing and a dearth of expository detail continue to plague Fate's theatrical outings. As someone who deeply enjoys the historical-mythological side of Fate, I'm left wishing that they'd make some blockbusters that don't require guidebooks. Wiki trawling can be fun, but if you don't have intense Fate knowledge going into these films you're probably not going to know what the hell is going on with the Servants.

(Unlike in the TV shows, zero identities are revealed, and key plot points related to those identities—like Archer not being a heroic spirit!—are relegated to one- or two-clause references.)

All of these things are adaptive choices, however, and different viewers will have different reactions. The target demographic is definitely folks who are deep in the fandom, which is a legitimate decision. And since I can't say I haven't been enjoying the over-the-top fight scenes, I should concede that we probably wouldn't get to watch Saber Alter kill Berserker six times if the movie had more exposition.

But let's move away from questions of adaptation and target audience and these somewhat structural qualms for a minute.

What is the point of lost butterfly? Or of Heaven's Feel, ultimately?

The point—rather than telling a compelling story, which would require a different form in my opinion—seems to be to deliver fanservice. Specifically two kinds: snazzy fight scenes and character moe.

And I should clarify: nothing inherently wrong with fanservice!

But the entire narrative centers the character of Matou Sakura, and most of the fanservice is her (her body, her frailty, her trauma, her saying senpai). And holy shit. This is a deeply unpleasant center.

When I watched part one (presage flower), I was wholly unimpressed with Sakura. She was a non-character, worse than flat: there were no motivations or aspirations, there was no exposition of any deeper drama to explain her inhumanity. There was nothing except a quiet girl who inexplicably desires to be the live-in caretaker of her asshole brother's frenemy. Fate fans know there's more going on, of course, but in terms of what's in the text, there's zilch. The result of this nothingness means that her relationship with Main Character Syndrome Emiya feels hollow. His feelings for her are based in what—convenience? I could see a man worrying for her: why is she so devoid of character? But he doesn't really go there. Their relationship is largely a silent one. And like, sure, he's ripped and she's cute but their relationship (at least, in presage flower) is not sexual in nature, nor is there any sexual tension.

I got into a Twitter fight with someone last year because I was shit-talking Sakura and apparently that's a faux-pas. She's traumatized and her character is deep and meaningful. Sure. That's Sakura the database, transcending any particular work. Sakura the wiki page. Sakura the fanart. Sakura the presage flower character has none of that going for her. She's—pardon my dysphemistic word choice—a doll.

 lost butterfly does its best to make me feel like an asshole for using this word, because it's the same word her rapist uses.

Well, one of them.

Where presage flower Sakura was a nobody, lost butterfly seems to pick up the slack but with far too much force. Suddenly her character is full to bursting with a plethora of disparate traumas. Any one of them would make good drama, explain her character motivations, and force audience empathy. The combination just makes me worry about the writers' misogyny and penchant for trauma- and torture-porn.

  1. she's been the subject of ten years of vore in a magical insect pit
  2. her brother's been raping her
  3. she's a Lesser Grail (i.e. vessel) that is constantly having her soul violated by its connection to the corrupted Greater Grail
  4. she was stolen from her birth family when she was six, and denied friends, nurturing family members, or any other positive socialization since
  5. despite not being properly socialized, she has still fully bought into societal ideas around virginity, and is deeply depressed about the fact that she is not a virgin
  6. she turns into a shadow jellyfish at night and kills dozens of randoms in an effort to satiate the Lesser Grail's hunger
  7. multiple failed suicide attempts

I'm probably missing some things.

When I was complaining about Sakura in presage flower, I was certainly asking for something. I don't think I was asking for this. We approach the realm of bathos just as quickly as we leave the realm of the non-character, zipping glibly from one end of the spectrum to the other. This end is no better than the previous.

Let's examine Sakura's feelings for Emiya, in this new light: he's the only person we see her speak to who hasn't tried to rape or kill her. Low bar, and while it's certainly believable that she'd form an attachment to him, I don't think it's compelling or charming when a survivor settles for the first non-abusive person they encounter.

And his feelings for her, in this new light: okay, now he wants to protect her. Again, believable. But also incredibly trite. What about her charms him beside the fact that she's done unpaid labor for him for a year? If it's just that she's a tragic, out-of-control magus who needs vaginal mana injections to stay alive, that's not doing it for me.

"protect with my dick" is very early aughts, and that's exactly when this story was written.

In 2019, dumb feminist anime viewers like myself hope against hope for something better.

That said, if you have a strong stomach and want to see some bangin' fight scenes, this movie is excellent. The theater I was in loved it. (The theater I was in also couldn't stop giggling during the sexual content, which makes me wonder if today's fans are around the same age as the franchise itself...)

One more note: hold out for the BD release and fansubs. The official USA theatrical release had a shockingly lazy translation.

Overall,
🙄🙄🦊