Fate/Zero:Act 2 Part 3
222:24:48
Uryuu Ryuunosuke disliked splatter movies. He did understand the necessity for that kind of amusement in itself, though.
Not just horror, but war movies, panic movies, and all the way to adventure movies and dramas; why does fiction keep painting man's death tirelessly?
That may be, because the spectators can minimize their fear of death by observing a fictitious imitation of "death".
Humans find pride in "wisdom" and dread "ignorance". Hence if they can "experience" and "comprehend" a given fear, then it is a victory that resembles the conquest of that fear.
However, "death" is merely... something that you can't experience while you live. Therefore it is impossible to understand its true meaning. That's why humans can only guess the essence of death by observing other people's death, and make up a virtual experience.
Indeed, for the civilized society to respect human life, this virtual experience cannot but rely on fiction. Yet, where war makes your neighbor minced meat with bombing and land mines, nobody watches horror movies.
Similarly, it is important to be entertained by fictional physical pain, mental stress or any kind of sorrow. When experiencing bodily sensations by yourself becomes too risky, you can overcome and remove uneasiness by observing those who do taste those sensations. ―That's why a silver screen or a cathode-ray tube bring tears of screams, grief and anguish.
That is good. That's understandable. Once, Ryuunosuke feared "death" like any ordinary person. Viewing the special make-ups of slaughtered bodies, the red ink of blood splashes and the realist acting reproducing a "stale death" with screams, death was minimized and fear was overcame; Ryuunosuke was an amateur of horror movies.
Depiction of cruelty in fiction has a bad influence on young people, that much can be said; but to Uryuu Ryuunosuke, this is highly ridiculous nonsense. Because if blood and screams in splatter horror had been at least a little more realistic, he wouldn't have become a homicidal maniac.
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