Shinji Matou is My Favorite Character in Stay Night

[Wakame]

Honestly, I'm just bored which is why I'm doing this. But I'm also dead serious. In my opinion, Shinji gets too much hate. Sure, what he's done is not something that can be defended, but the fandom treats him like he's the devil incarnate even when Zouken is living in the same house. Anyways, all I wanna say is that he's brilliantly written in all routes despite being a minor obstacle to the main cast, especially the Heaven's Feel route, and that's why he's my favorite. I could type an essay to prove why, but I'm not typing this to prove a point. I wanna get people talking because that'd be real interesting. Whether that be hate or praise for the character. So the reason I'm withholding said essay is because I don't wanna take all the good points. Who knows? Maybe someone might surprise me and bring up some new kind of perspective I haven't known of yet.

Anyways, go wild. Hate on the character, love the character, defend him, chastise him, I just wanna see everyone's interpretations of Shinji Matou.

[allknowingeel]

Honestly I don't see him as much of a character, more like a plot device so far. It feels like he was written to be hated. But i'm someone who likes Sakura which naturally makes me hate Shinji.

[Wakame]

Originally posted by allknowingeel:

Honestly I don't see him as much of a character, more like a plot device so far. It feels like he was written to be hated. But i'm someone who likes Sakura which naturally makes me hate Shinji.

I can see where you're coming from on that. Though I think the reason people tend to overlook what makes him a character is because those instances are not pointed out. As we're always seeing things from the perspective of Shirou Emiya, he's usually only shown in a light of hostility and nothing more. What made me appreciate Shinji as a character is when I took everything I learned about him and pieced everything together to understand who exactly is Shinji Matou. I can go into detail about that if asked to. I'd still try to abridge it if that's what you want too.

[shiro]

shinji is weird, like i saw someone posting hes basically a plot device everywhere,made to be hated, and he does that extremely well so that makes him a good character.
also storywise he wasnt bad to sakura until 2 years before the main story(about when she starts to visit shirou) since she would be the heirs of the family and not him, also zouken manipulated him ALOT until that point, even shirou says that he knows shinji for basically his whole life yet he only started to be weird 2 years before the main story

[Wakame]

Originally posted by medusa:

shinji is weird, like i saw someone posting hes basically a plot device everywhere,made to be hated, and he does that extremely well so that makes him a good character.
also storywise he wasnt bad to sakura until 2 years before the main story(about when she starts to visit shirou) since she would be the heirs of the family and not him, also zouken manipulated him ALOT until that point, even shirou says that he knows shinji for basically his whole life yet he only started to be weird 2 years before the main story

That's true, though more than his actions, I'd say he felt threatened by Sakura since the very beginning. He learned he was born to a prestigious mage family at a very young age, and even though he learned that the Makiri/Matou magic circuits have been declining from heir to heir, Shinji still prided himself on being the heir to the Matou magecraft. He learned alchemy and became quite talented at all sorts of stuff. So when Sakura was adopted, all he saw was an outsider intruding on his territory. Of course, he accepted her eventually, but right after that, he finds out about the worm pit which causes his father, Byakuya Matou, to cut all ties with him. It's only then that he realizes that his proud identity as the heir to the Matou family is ripped away from him and his source of confidence is constantly being stomped on and scraped on the sidewalk.

Maybe on the surface, he is a walking plot device, but I think it's when you realize what he's thinking, that shows he has a real character beneath that arrogant and provoking surface that needs to be understood.