Originally Posted by Cherry_Lover
Look, I'm not the one who came up with the story, Nasu did. Further, you have no evidence whatsoever for your assertion that Shirou's "feelings and experiences" were slightly altered depending on route (and, indeed, it totally contradicts the way the story is written, since it's possible to get most of the way onto the Sakura rotue and then stop at the end, and in the case of the Rin route, the choice that gets you onto it has notihng whatsoever to do with liking Rin (since you don't know who it is at that point)).
If you look at HF, it's clear that the point behind it is not that Shirou is developing feelings for Sakura, but that he is discovering them. Of course, you are right that having feelings for someone is not the same as actual romantic intimacy (which does indeed "develop" over the course of HF), but nevertheless the basic feelings that he has for Sakura (both the familial ones and the more erotic ones) are present at the start.
Now, you can argue that he has a sexual attraction to Rin prior to the game, too, but there's no connection between them beyond that. With Sakura, it's clear from how their relationship is portrayed in HF that the basis for a Shirou x Sakura relationship is already fully-formed, it's just that neither of them really have the will to pursue those (Shirou is desperately trying to repress any sexual attraction he has to her because he thinks it's "wrong", and Sakura is not pursuing him because she thinks she's "not worthy" and because she knows that doing so will endanger him). Of course, post-UBW (and possibly post-Fate) any residual feelings he may have for Sakura will be buried beneath the feelings he has for the heroine, but that doesn't change the fact that they were there (and, really, if Shirou getting with Rin post-HF is plausible, then Shirou getting with Sakura post-UBW certainly is).
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