[Character Discussion] Matou Shinji - characterization, role and parallels.

Lets get an actual discussion going here for once. Particulary, lets see what people here have to say about Shinji who's widely recognized as probably the most hated character of the series - still has a large fanbase though - and someone who's role in the story and characterization is never discussed.

Wanna know if people actually believe that Shinji isn't a good character and that he's not written as an unsympathetic character on purpose. Because he is very much a pretty realistic character who does have his part in the story and it's thematical message. Anyways, going to break his character down as simple as I can.

This review of Shinji's character WILL contain spoilers for all the routes of the VN.

Shinji's characterization.

Like I said, I believe Shinji is an extremely realistic character. Someone who tries to prove that he isn't as pathetic as everyone makes him up to be and that he can live up to their expectation. Shinji has two faces or rather ''identities to him''. The first one is Matou Shinji, a normal person. Your typical arrogant guy in class who technically isn't a bad person in a normal life setting. He's not a bad person. He values his friendship with Shirou, hates rule breaking, would stand up for his friends, has fears and emotions of inferiority towards others.

The other one is Magus Shinji, a person that everyone in his life expected him to become, but was unfortunately born with no talent for Magic and non-functioning Magic Circuits which leaves him only with knowledge of Magecraft and the fact that he was a disappointment to the household which he suffered from. This Shinji is the ''ideal Shinji'' that everyone wants Shinji to become to the point that Shinji's fear of Zouken and everyone as well as his inferiority complex push him into believing that he is better than everyone else in order to meet everyone's expectations of him. A fake superiority complex born from his actual inferiority complex.

And there's always been a clear mid-point for both personalities; as in they both affect Shinji's actions and out-look on life. For an example, Shinji hates rule breaking because he's a good person at heart, but he breaks them himself despite that because his ideal personality tells him he's superior to everyone else and said rules. He rapes, attacks and kills people because his fake superiority complex tells him it's okay to do that since he's superior to everyone, but in reality, he's actually afraid of accepting his situation that he is not superior to anyone. Same case applies in his hate for injustice as long as it doesn't apply to himself. He concludes that he has the absolute right to be the heir to the Matous as his father and grandfather expected him to be, but he knows the fact that he is powerless and that isn't true and so he denies that fact. He likes and accepts Sakura as a good person, but refuses to show it due to his other personality's arrogant nature believing he is special. Like Sakura says, the person Shinji ends up hating is the result of him actually truthfully admiring said person (ex. Shirou, Sakura).

As Shirou says, Shinji is an ironic yet honest person.

Is Shinji a bad person?

In the events of the Grail War where his fear of Zouken pushes him into insanity in every route? Yes. The mental break-down he has in the events of all three routes have made Shinji into a bad person who's actions are his fault and I'm not gonna justify that, but they aren't only his own actions. Shinji's whole mentality is the result of Zouken manipulating him in order to correspond to his plans and Sakura creating some kind of an inferiority complex in him towars herself that drives Shinji to act in violent manners on her to prove to himself that he can live up to everyone's expectations of him.

However, is he a bad person at heart? Absolutely not. Shinji is warped, but a good person at heart. He appreciates Shirou, Sakura, friendship, etc. and dislikes injustice, rule breaking, etc. even if he refuses to show it. Shinji would stand up for his friends and socially kill everyone who makes fun of them - Shirou notes that Shinji is a good person who's never been that warped or violent before the Grail War and Sakura notes that Shinji has been nice to her prior to the Grail War and after the events of UBW.

Shinji is the reason Sakura gets her salvation in UBW, as she isn't saved by Shirou, it ends up with Shinji going back to how he used to be and becoming nice to Sakura so they start getting along again. Another heavy point that Rider makes in Fate/Hollow Ataraxia is that even if Shinji managed to fulfill his dream and successfully become a powerful Magus, the result on society wouldn't be bad as Shinji's actions would be heroic. Rider says that Perseus is Shinji who succeeded, which means that even if Shinji acquired power, he would have used it for heroic acts.

Shinji's role in the story.

How an ordinary person - that has no Magic training or anything else that puts him above the status of a normal person aside from knowledge on magic's existence - would react in such an extra-ordinary setting and how would his status as an ordinary person, being put in a comparison with extra-ordinary people, would shape his mentality and actions in order to correspond to the extra-ordinary setting is the point of Shinji's character.

Prologue and Fate do this by setting him as your average arrogant, popular kid at school who thinks he's better than everyone and is popular due to it - an ordinary person. UBW does that as well, and points out how he's the only one he thinks he's special despite being an ordinary person which is then a lead on in HF where his mentality is fully explained and it expands upon how his status as an ordinary person shaped itself in order to fit the ''extra-ordinary setting and expectations'' that his grandfather and the war ''expected'' from him.

He isn't meant to be sympathetic. While it was pointed out that he was a victim, it was never really pointed out how ''tragic'' he was like it was done with Lio's character - from Kara no Kyoukai, both are written by the same author and are a part of Nasuverse. He just had his role to give us a perspective of a normal person in the Grail War and that was done well.

Basically, Shinji's role in the story is more so to high-light Shirou's characterization and actions as some kind of a rival-like character, but at the same time, not exactly a rival-like character. Both Shinji and Shirou were raised as normal people - aside from magic knowledge and their own personal inner conflicts - so ultimately, they could - to a point - be viewed as normal people. However, as Shinji is some with no power who is constantly put in an extra-ordinary setting where he could die at any moment, we see how this brings out the worst of him and makes him more frantic and cowardly than he usually is.

This contrasts well with Shirou since unlike Shinji - another ''normal'' person - Shirou doesn't become cowardly and frantic, but instead becomes more suicidal in his heroic acts, showing us how far removed Shirou is from the sense of normal human function despite being raised in essentially the same way as Shinji. Unlike Shinji who becomes worse as a person to the point where he is afraid of his own life like a person would be afraid in a war, Shirou becomes more violent and suicidal just like a sword would in a war. It shows us how Shirou functions as a weapon more than a human.

Parallel with Shirou, the main character, that fits the story-telling of the series.

Also, I like how Shinji and Shirou are very similiar in a sense. They both have a dual personality - with one personality being an ugly, dirty one that tries to become the ''ideal'' personality they have in mind.

In Shirou's case, he is a broken, violent person far removed from the sense of social norms and doesn't know what a Hero should be. That ''ugly'' personality of his tries to become the ''ideal'' personality that is the Hero Emiya Shirou, a person who acts under command of his ideals and is more machine-like than his actual personality. His ideal personality is that of Fate Shirou.

In Shinji's case, he is the arrogant, weak and talentless person who tries to become the ''ideal Shinji'' that everyone wants him to become by deluding himself that he is a Master who is capable of winning the war and bringing victory to the Matou family.

But neither of them can ever become their ideal personality. They can just try to replicate what their ideal personality is and the result is the personality that is neither their ideal personality, but still has habits of their ideal personality. Shirou actually has three personalities - or rather sides or perspectives to his character -, but that's irrelevant to the topic.

Their denial is the same. Shirou understands reality and that the wish of saving everyone can never become anything more than a dream, but denies it because that is the only path he can walk. Shinji knows that he is powerless and weak, but denies and deludes himself into believing that he is someone superior to others because his fear and upbringing push him into insanity.

Another big parallel with Shirou is their fate in UBW - they both accept failure. They realize that they cannot become their ideal identity and that killing their own real personality in order to fit into the ideal personality is wrong and something that cannot be done. Shirou accepts that he cannot save everyone and Shinji accepts that he cannot become the Magus everyone wanted him to be, and they both learn how to enjoy life with their real personality in their own ways.

 

Ironical sense of Servant-Master pairs including Shinji

Rider's case; This is ironical because it's noted that Shinji is just like Perseus who ends up killing Medusa (Rider's real identity) so technically, this is literally a team up between Perseus and Medusa. In Gil's case; Shinji, someone with a fake superiority complex that was born from his inferiority complex and wish, is paired with Gilgamesh, someone who's superiority complex has been born from his desire.

Shinji's ending in all three routes

As he is a pretty fucked up person during FSN events who does a lot of horrible things, it is only natural that he suffers the consequences in all three of them. And unlike people believing that he suffers from these consequences only in the Fate and HF routes where he is murdered by Illya and Sakura, the routes in which he suffers the most consequences is UBW. Yes. UBW. He is forced to realize how much of a horrible person he was and what he did during the Grail War events that lead to traumatic flashbacks to his actions. He is forced to accept his actions and feel the guilt over them. So yes, he has consequences in all three routes.

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And I am finished here. I would appreciate if you take the time to read this as I put a lot of effort into writting down my view-point on Shinji's characterization and his role in the series. I think he is a rather good and nice character who perfectly does his role and parallels.

 

Alright little fag boy. I think it's time you stop looking into poor pieces of shit smeared over paper, and look into actual literature.

 

Like the GoT TV show? Pls.

 

>Says Literature
>Suggests a television series.

 

I thought we already established you're st00pid enough to think real literature is the GoT TV shows.

 

Go back to swallowing semen, pal. I think Kaito's forum is too much for you.

 

you need to get off anime dick and get a life

 

Only if that semen is yours, Billy.

You really need to stop wasting like... thrice as much as time on Dota and steam games as I wasted on this break down and get an actual life.

Actually wait. Didn't you do exactly this SAME thing with Madara and his character as well as references in Naruto? ******* lol. Typical Suna.

 

Lmao. Akasuna when he first joined pretending to be Varrah or another try hard.

 

hush, that was beautiful
i had dreams of becoming top nardo debater