Is There More to the Boy Who Would be King?

Leonardo B. Harwey is the climactic boss of Fate/Extra. You fight one more Master during the falling action of Fate/Extra but so much of the game is building up to facing Leo in the final round that he is clearly the climactic boss. Through out the game he is built up as naive tyrant. He has grown up his whole life being told that he will rule over a perfect world where there will be a place for everyone and everyone will be in their place. And he will be at the top of that hierarchy like he was the Kwisatz Haderach.

His actions are never malicious. He merely assumes the position of  tyrant because it is the only path he has ever known and does everything in the game without a hint of conscience. At first he seems like a simple character. A character that is so pure being raised in an almost Skinner Box like environment that his evil and sociopathic actions are just as pure. He does evil and heartless things because he has never learned that such actions could ever been construed as anything but the correct choices. But as I played the game I wondered if there was deeper social commentary in his character.

After playing a bit of Fate/Extra I began to wonder if Leo is partially a critique of modern Japanese leadership and society. It seems like a ridiculous idea at first. But consider the world of Fate/Extra that the Harwey controls. It is a stagnant highly hierarchical world where knowing your place and doing what you are told in the most effect manner is strictly enforced. On top of that the parts of the planet under Harwey control have a suffocating lack of innovation and horrifically low birth rate. These can all be seen criticism often levied at modern Japanese society and the leadership that keeps such broken systems in place. I think it would add an interesting dynamic to the game if this were the case.

I will admit that beyond what I mentioned there is not a horrific amount in the game to back up my theory. I can’t really think of any overtly political statements by Kinoko Nasu in any other material he has written. But he is only the scenario writer so it theoretically could be some added sub text by one of the ground level writers. Also Leonardo B. Harwey is pretty darn European when you get right down to it. If they were going for such a statement would they not have made him Japanese. It does make we wonder if such subtext exists is it entirely coincidental. Fate/Extra being a Japanese product means that such concerns might naturally flow into a story through no deliberate effort of the writers to make a statement. In the end I am bringing it up more as a talking point to anyone who has played the game more than a proposal for my graduate thesis. I am curious to here anyone else opinion on the character and if you think he represents anything more than curious foil for the main character.