u/Inner-Common9073

Or, at least, I thought he was relatable to most people.

The first time I was introduced to Fate/stay night was from the UBW anime adaptation. When I watched it for the first time, I found that my favourite character was undeniably Shirou Emiya. He was very easy to root for, and I found myself thinking that none of his decisions or actions were stupid - even thinking that I'd think/do the same thing in his place. His goal to be a Hero of Justice was something I found very admirable and even aspire to be to this day.

And yes, I do love swords, but that's universal. Come on.

I expected to see the hate on him be mostly composed of being a bland self insert because of how relatable he was, and that would make him flat..but most people were talking about how stupid and reckless he was. Even though anime-onlies and VN readers see a different Shirou, they both agree that he acts pretty stupidly. I was confused by that.

Then I played Fate/stay night. It's been a while since I've completed every route, and while I do agree that his sense of self is warped - I don't see any issues in his actions. For example, when he took the blow for Saber versus Berserker on Day 3, I found this to be a very 'relatable' decision. The only choice I might see as a little reckless is when he runs to confront Gilgamesh after he kills Illya in UBW, but even then, it's a decision I feel like I and a lot of people would make. I had to deliberately make the wrong choice to push myself into a Bad End, because the right choices are what Shirou would do, and every time I picked the choice I would've done in that situation, the story continued.

Obviously, relatability aside - he's one of my favourite protagonists of all time. But I'm curious about what most people think.

Is Shirou Emiya relatable, and is he meant to be relatable?

Of course, not everyone's thinking patterns and ideologies are the same, but to a general degree when it comes to the ordinary highschool student protagonist trope.

The young boy, a victim of chance and coincidence.

Not objectively, and not in terms of pure writing depth, obviously - but in terms of being someone placed in the position of 'protagonist', especially in such an anime trope filled story such as UNIB, I would say that nobody comes close to fulfilling the role better than Hyde.

His design just screams anime. I mean, come on. What's more anime than a guy in a school uniform with a bunch of belts for no reason and two-toned hair holding a giant-ass sword?

But beyond his design alone, his mixture of traits make him practically the perfect 'audience surrogate' - the viewpoint character meant to introduce players to the world of UNIB, both in game and in story telling.

Firstly, there's his status as the ordinary high-school student.

Hyde is ordinary. And in terms of light-novel and anime tropes, he IS extremely ordinary. He doesn't have any kind of tragic past, no secret family bloodline, no miracle surrounding his circumstances, nothing. He is literally just an ordinary highschooler, as ordinary as ordinary can be. So, for an ordinary high school student like him to become involved with the Hollow Night and Linne, what is the justifying reason that brings him into the world of the Night?

To help someone, obviously.

This already establishes two things - one, that despite his brash way of talking and his design, Hyde is not an edgy protagonist. He's not an anti-hero like Sol. Even though he might be thick-headed and a terrible liar, he's still a good guy. A really good guy, even. It's pretty funny reading Linne's Chronicle storyline when he appears and watching him fail. I can't help but think the gap between his speech manner and edgy appearance and his total naive softie personality is somewhat endearing. It helps you connect to the character more.

There's a reason why nobody criticizes Hyde of being generic and a self-insert protagonist, unlike, say, Kirito or anything else, because he's not meant to be deep or nuanced. His character traits are simple yet shine through in story. And that's enough to latch onto him.

His inexperience, his inability to lie, his flaws of being reckless and cocky - they all come off as endearing, since they're treated more in a light-hearted lens when it matters instead of something you're meant to care too much about - and tie into his status as the audience surrogate and protagonist. He has good reason to involve himself in the Night. His reluctancy to fight tethers him to reality and adds a sense of relatability. I mean, if I was in his place, I'd also wanna go back to attending school with Orie than training till I'm half dead!

You just can't help but like Hyde. He's the most tropey anime protagonist in the best way possible.
His character traits all come together to make him easy to like, easy to play, and give him an easy reason to get himself involved in things beyond his comprehension.
In terms of how fitting the protagonist role is for anybody - Hyde Kido is the quintessential protagonist, and nobody even comes close to his level.

Also, the Insulator is just badass.