Quote:
Originally Posted by EssTEss
I thought the whole point of the "you've returned to your old self" scene was to show that Kiritsugu is now one again the cold bad ass he was before he met iri.
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Yes... right up until Iri was kidnapped and Maiya was killed, hence the latter speaking in the past tense at the end: "This morning, you finally
looked like your old self."
Knowing how dangerous this final phase of the war will probably turn out to be, he did indeed return to the cold machine-like Kiritsugu of old, which is why he was so emotionally unresponsive at the beginning of the episode, even when faced with Iri's heartfelt words of farewell. But in the end, when those closest to him were threatened and harmed, his feelings crept up once again and made him waver, hence the tears he couldn't hold back when faced with Maiya's death. In the end, no matter how hard Kiritsugu tries, no return to his "cold bad ass" self will be an assuredly permanent one and he will always be prone to letting his repressed humanity get the better of him. That's been his main source of inner turmoil since the start of the war. He knows that those feelings will only make him weaker and less effective on the battlefield, yet he can't bring himself to completely discard them. It's why Maiya kissed him in episode 3, in order to get his mind out of Illya during a time of war, why he resorted to arson before blowing up Kayneth's building in episode 6, why he considered abandoning the war and living simply for the sake of his family in episode 7, etc etc etc.
And now, even though he'd just resolved himself into fully embracing the Magus Killer side of him, Maiya's death quickly dispelled that self-imposed facade. No matter how hard he tries, Kiritsugu just can't run away from dealing with his emotions. The question is how much that is going to cost him in the upcoming final stage of the conflict.