there's quite a few to choose from

komaeda would find shin's search to blame someone else for his shortcomings a flaw bc when they saved the students, shin blamed komaeda for killing his own stupid + his other student (even tho shin wasnt gunna do it) so its like... hm! also he has difficulties understanding hope
now. midori, well, (miikun laugh) Ahaha.

yous a shifty mf, shin

sakasaki crying yeah i love shin but he does have that unfortunate tendency to displace blame.... im crying he's so bad at hope class. flunking student. komaeda's like 'see me after class'
i'm crying i'm just picturing midori doing the up and down gesture when asked what shin's flaw is and shin's like 'you just gestured to my all of me'

perpendicular IM CRYING he really is
kills me how it's like 50% trying to keep ppl guessing 50% thinking he's being perfectly lear

*clear

his insecurity. ranger has the same issue but it comes in a different flavor since its all based on what he is rather than who he is but shin has a hard time looking at his own strengths and utilizing those and instead winds up borrowing bits and pieces of other people and not playing any of them correctly, and because he's insecure it's easy for him to

project that onto other (which ranger does the same thing here lmao) so it's like you think others are looking down on you because you look down on you, and that loops back around to leading to more playing roles that you can't fully fit into, and it winds up being a huge mess.

so it's a big flaw but it's like if he looked at what he knows and is good at and just built up on that foundation he could do a lot better

the fact that he's trying to be someone who isnt him, honestly....helena thinks he can manage as himself if he tried. he could be soft if he wanted

she wants to see him come out of the burrow, which he's doing!!

ranger right on the money it really is takes one to know one I'm crying
pfle kills me because shin DOES have strengths and areas he shines... i think in hindsight the escape attempt took a shotgun to this bc it really was him using his talents well and making progress and then.... nothing

yeah... i still think about shin calling reko's looking out for him a 'cutting remark'... he's trying in Yogen but once this idea takes root in your brain it's very hard to clip it out again....

he's making an effort and honestly the fact that he HAS made friends and people DO like him is starting to seep in.... it's hitting his new fear of using others that's developed thanks to the whole kanna thing but it is there...

i think the next layer under that would be like.... kind of overcompensating and throwing himself into the traits of himself people seem to like/look up to a little TOO much but... he's working through i

one thing that's helping is he genuinely likes learning, and learning from people he likes, and i really love how like. that element of his fraught experience of midori is starting to be overwritten with good experiences of that in yogen, and that's also a strength of his

moonjelly :''' ) helena's right on the money... he's starting to be himself more a little around her which is like i still think about him being like 'nice to meet you', with the name reveal a little sort of introduction of himself

he's been nosing out of his burrow and even with like. recent setbacks he's made some solid foundations that are helping support him in that... he's got his twitching nose

that still means so much to her, to be able to call him "shin"

being soft and kind... isn't a flaw or a danger and one day he'll feel comfortable in it
i knowwww it's a lot of trust and also it's like.... the mortifying ordeal but also the rewards of being known....

time and love ... patience waiting for him to emerge

nods
fdgfhg ironically i think messing up with rantaro has made him if not consciously realise how patient people have been with him... that's percolating in there slowly

in the meantime, they're two bunnies chilling

one bunny waiting for another bunny

yisssss he's resetting his bones

YEAH i think its rough bc he never saw the effect that he had in the emotion route since he died during his escape attempt - i would die for an emotion route kanna bc i think his efforts shine there generally, but especially with her since the way he came to care for her is smth that becomes such a strength for her and changes her character

in a major way... i'm so sad bc you know that makes it worth it even if he didn't wreck the whole game he really changed someone's life and broke the cycle there, he just doesn't realize it

YEAH it really kills me that at this point he doesn't know how things actually went, only how bad they could have gone, thanks to sara
i think a lot of what was propping him up early on is that assurance that he actually saved her, but now he can't no for sure bc only midori is from that route

HE REALLY DID.... i keep thinking abt like. the scarf as a metaphor for the cycle itself, and kanna not taking it up

it was a bit late but.... he did what he always wanted the world to be

emotion route kanna would kill me
bc on the one hand yay kanna but on the other hand... if she's in yogen she died

i keep thinking also about his uncertainty about the other thing he did with his death, the joe ai
he'd been wondering if he'd messed up the message and now he knows the sara he knows never got it
it's interesting, in that shin gave two people closure but never... got to see that, and i had fun referencing it in a dreamscape tag

ohhhh my heart, i hate that for him

i knowwwww
it's like. you just want to turn a mirror on him and point out all the things he has done that's helped.... compsci really helped in this area honestly, her thanks is something tangible he can hold onto

his own brain tries to sabotage it but he can be like 'back! back!' with it