Different elemental affinities, so you'd probably see less fireblasts and more weird dimensional shit from TohSakura.
Yeah, definitely, although she'd still have Gandr since that's part of the crest.
MakiRin... yeah, she'd fall later but harder. Assuming that some things stay the same, though, she'd project some kind of image to hide how broken she is on the inside, which might manifest itself as delinquent behavior a la Mitsuko Souma. That might actually lead to an interesting school situation, where super-nice school idol Sakura and bitch queen Rin constantly butt heads.
I don't see Rin being a "delinquent", simply because Zouken would not allow it. It reflects badly on the family and could get him in trouble. I definitely see her trying to hide her brokeness, but honestly I think she'd mostly just be Zouken's puppet, and wouldn't
dare disobey him.
Oh god. Evil dominatrix Rin sounds really fucking scary. She'd definitely be the type to set BFA on the school if she gets Rider... but a better match for this interpretation of Rin may actually be Medea. Which is, arguably, even worse.
I dunno, Rin is still fundamentally a good person. I can see her targetting those she hates, but not making an active
decision to attack innocents. I think she might do it under Zouken's orders, though, if necessary.
Well yeah, elemental affinity actually means a lot.
With that the changes would be even more major than what you described.
- First off, as an Average One, Rin already has the attribute of water. So whatever alteration is done to her would be less severe. For example she might preserve her original eye and hair color which was said to be the result of this. Albeit knowing Zouken he might still do that just to make Rin look more like the member of the Matou house.
Second, Sakura's "shadow" element is fairly unique. Which means the Tohsaka family's knowledge and magic crest is going to be of little use. Sakura's magic would be mostly self-taught which has considerable effects on her skill in magecraft.
- Third, like its name implies, the "Shadow" in Heavens Feel was heavily based on Sakura's unique element. Same way her elemental affinity may have allowed Sakura to merge with Angra Mainyu better. With Rin's elemental mix the result would be much different. And I'm unsure if she can withstand Angra Mainyu's corruption for as long as Sakura did. Zouken in HF actually expected Sakura to turn into a mindless puppet from the corruption. And that might exactly be what happen if Sakura didn't have the element of "shadow".
Well, yeah, this is definitely one big difference.
Although, you're wrong about Rin not needing as much "training". She might be more attuned to the Matou's "water" element than Sakura is, but her family
trait is still transfer of energy, and the Matou magic is specifically binding magic. Zouken would need to do just as much to her to make her a Matou magus as he did to Sakura, although once he
had trained her she might be OK.
You're
also wrong about Sakura using Tohsaka magic, at least as far as I can tell. It seems not at all uncommon for the children of a magus to have differing affinities from them (Tokiomi is fire, Rin and Sakura are different), and I can't believe that they would have designed their crest system in such a way that most of the magic in it would be useless in such a case.
The way I read the whole "affinity" thing is that, on a fundamental level, your affinity determines
how you perform a particular spell rather than whether you can do it at all. A water magus and a wind magus can perform the same spells, but a water magus will do it in a "watery" way and a wind magus will do it in a "windy" way.
So yeah. That's why when I wrote about "Tohsaka Sakura", I also exchanged their elemental affinity. This and I remember that part of Tokiomi's reasoning was that Sakura's shadow element is too unique and thus Rin is more fit to become the heir. So switching that is probably the most obvious way to change their roles.
Well, exchanging them definitely makes it make a lot more sense, because I can't see Tokiomi picking Sakura over Rin otherwise. Rin's elemental affinity is just too amazing, plus she's older.
Anyways, as for the differences between Rin and Sakura, I can only really address it in a dualist way.
- Rin puts up a strong front while being quite vulnerable inside. Sakura appeals to weakness while having a quite tough interior.
- Rin is upfront with her emotions albeit she isn't always aware of them. Sakura is clear of her emotions but she'd rather hide them.
- Rin's smile is scary because she's hiding her anger with it. Sakura's faked smile is frightening because it's filled with malicious intents.
- Rin is controlled by her rationale. Sakura follows her emotions.
- Rin is highly competitive. Sakura doesn't care about them (unless it's about something which is important to her).
The thing is, most of this comes from their upbringings.
Firstly, Rin is clearly
very emotional, despite her best efforts to avoid it. That's why she finds it so hard to do what she thinks she "should" do, and also where her Tsundere nature comes from. The reason she follows her "rationale" rather than her emotions is because that's the way of a magus. To be a true magus you
have to do that, so a Tohsaka Sakura would necessarily do the same.
In terms of the "faked smile" thing, again, that's more a matter of upbringing. Both of them hide their intentions with that sort of grin, but Rin has more anger than Sakura does, whereas Sakura
needs to be less sincere to survive under Zouken's control.
The competitiveness is the same, actually. The impression I get of Sakura is that she
can be extremely competitive, but being under Zouken kills that somewhat because she really has nothing to compete
for.
Tohsaka Sakura would have none of Rin's tomboyish tendencies. Neither her tsundere persona.
In turn Sakura would be closer to the "rich girl" anime stereotype.
Sakura would be proud and even somewhat vain, which motivates her to be the best in everything.
She'd be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Soft spoken and appearing innocent, yet witty and rather manipulative.
Yeah, this possibly makes sense, although I doubt she'd be anything
like as shy as she is in canon. Also, in so far as Rin is a "tomboy", I think that's almost
required of her to be a magus. Magi have to be physically fit etc. in order to fight.
I think she would probably be somewhat more conservative in how she dresses etc., though.
Getting on her bad side can produce scary results. And she rarely forgets grudges.
Honestly, not forgetting grudges sounds more like Rin's sort of thing than Sakura's. Sakura is a
very forgiving person.
Despite that Sakura is generally have good intentions. She just rarely holds back her punches.
Sakura would also be very protective of those close to her, and would plot behind the scenes to ensure their safety.
That includes her older sister Rin, albeit unfortunately Sakura's hands are mostly tied.
Still, she'd threaten Shinji and make sure he wouldn't dare to bully or mistreat Rin in school.
Yeah, this possibly makes sense. I see her being less inclined to hide behind the whole "I'm not allowed to speak to her" thing than Rin is. She also does seem a bit more secretive in her actions than Rin, so plotting stuff might perhaps make sense. Although, like you say, her intentions would always be good.
She'd be a rather intense character.
And of course this would be merely a mask.
Deep down she only wishes to live a normal and peaceful life.
After associating with a certain protagonist, Melting the Ice Queen cliches would ensure.
Well, I'm not sure Sakura's true wish would be to "live a normal and peaceful life". I think that comes entirely from being abused for most of her childhood. She would definitely want a family and friends, much like Rin does, but I don't think she'd be eager to just give up magecraft.
That's roughly my idea how I envison this alternate Sakura.
A stark contrast to Matou Sakura yet in essence very similar.
Naturally, other authors can try and use a whole different interpretation of her.
That's just how creative writing works.
Well, yeah, of course, it is ultimately personal opinion.
