What was his excuse to not use the grail to save all those orphans?

He didn't know it was corrupted but he did know that it was bullshit.

>>153070972
Never mind this, they go through this whole thing in Fate int he basement scene. Fucking read the VN.

>>153071005
>they go through this whole thing in Fate int he basement scene.
That's what I'm talking about. He presents no real reason to not use the grail to avoid the fire or at least not let Kirei gets his hands on the orphans. And at the time he didn't knew the grail was corrupted so he has no reason to decline.

>>153071168
Because as dense as Shirou is, he is not stupid. You don't get to change the past.

>>153071288
But that's precisely what his older self tried to do.

>>153071410
And then he realized that he was wrong to do so.