She's more than happy to get Saber too when she stays (and who does she jumps to willingly and eagerly sex up in Fate route? Yeah, Saber). Nothing really big or remotely seemly lasting. Rin's relationship with Shirou is basically girlfriend/boyfriend stuff of teenagers. It's a beautiful ideal love, but they don't really have a relationship at all. Something that isn't as much as romance but the validation of their paths that give them peace of mind. His love for Saber was always portrayed as a bittersweet departure (aside of the Realta Nua ending, which is not really included in the original version: aka they are throwing a bone to the fanboys). We see how they are in an adult relationship later on after two years. She's the only girl with who Shirou seems to have an adult relationship with and risks everything for in the ending. I don't think Sakura is the 'underdog' by a mile in the terms of Shirou romance in the Visual Novel, in fact it seems the opposite to me. However circumstances made her the heroine of HF and thus because of the setup of the routes the most 'canon' perhaps only in appearance. In terms of which couple is generally prefered I assume it will be the latter 2 instead of Sakura who is not liked as much as the other 2. The focus on sympathy made her less likable compared to Rin and Saber who are, by far more popular as female characters in the Nasu verse. If Sakura was the prefered heroine IMO she would not have been protrayed in such a way that was focused on building sympathy in readers especially through the absence of closure within the first 2 routes, as shown by many people's previous posts. I would not say the Sakura is Nasu's prefered heroine more likely the only one who could fit the story that he wanted to tell in HF which was a about a boy who could only protect the people he wants to protect compared to the idealistic view he had in the Fate route. While the setup was there moving from route to route till the 'grand finale', all routes are equally canon hence why its a visual novel, the brilliance of Nasu as a writer I supposed. However it should be nice to note that the sequel, F/HA did not follow any specific ending which implies that all endings are indeed equal and has importance based on the players own preference be it for the route or for the main heroine of the particular route. therefore Sakura is the best pairing unless of course you are biased for another character. Naturally people assume that HF is the most canon. The Irony of F/SN is the idea that a Visual Novel is meant to have seperate routes because well all are equal and not one route is more important the the other, but with the way things were set up, it made the reader go through route after route systematically, and made the last route being HF where the love interest was Sakura sort of like the underdog of F/SN. I like Saber a lot more than Sakura as character, but the Shirou/Saber pairing less than Sakura/Shirou).Ītaraxia feels like the Epilogue (resolving the story of the great force behind Fate, not Shirou, but Angra Mainyu). Pretty sure Nasu prefers Sakura as Shirou's love interest, Saber's just stamped as 'main heroine' because she's the most popular (although, not sure if she's popular with Shirou or just with herself. I felt like Fate was the First chapter where it builds suspense, UBW the second one that exposes the conflict further. But from a narrative POV, HF is the 'grand finale' of the story. Aren't they all supposed to be parallel worlds (Ataraxia being the fourth one?).

Fate hollow ataraxia caren h scene