[OOC] Profile
PLAYER
Name: Nyx
Journal:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
badgal
Contact: gilded chrysanth [AIM]; missbiondetta [Plurk]
CHARACTER
Name: Shinji Matou
Canon: Fate/EXTRA
Age: Eight
Gender: Male
Background: Here
Canon Point: Post-death
Personality:
A note to start: When the player first meets Shinji during the prologue, he has been given a fake set of memories just like every other participant in the Moon Cell's Holy Grail War. In his case, he assumes the role of the Shinji Matou seen in the original Fate/stay night. This seems to affect his behavior as least somewhat. For example, his behavior toward Rin is way, way more intense during the prologue than when they're seen interacting afterward. Undoubtedly, he still thinks she's a total bitch, but he's not trying to hit her for talking back to him anymore. So, uh, there's that. The fact that he's stated to actually be a good person as opposed to the original supports this assumption.
Of course, altered state of mind or not, Shinji is still a total jackass. (FUN FACT: He is literally called a "total social retard" in the game.) His dialogue is pretty much a constant stream of how much better he is than everyone else, how it's laughable that the protagonist thinks s/he can beat him, and how pathetically boring everyone is as compared to his genius. Even when he repeatedly screws up over the course of the first round, he goes into the elimination battle confident that he is going to wreck his opponent, going so far as to tell the protagonist to just forfeit so he doesn't have to waste his energy without a hint of irony. Dude has a really, really inflated sense of his own ability.
Of course, it doesn't help that he thinks of the Holy Grail War as nothing more than a video game, going so far as to make references to cutscenes and the like. He's the reigning gaming champion of Japan, so that might make his confidence...kind of understandable? In any case, he doesn't understand the stakes involved in the competition, entering just for the fame, and it comes back to bite him in the ass hard. He got into a situation way over his head because of his own lack of foresight and understanding of the consequences, and in the end he wound up paying for it with his life, the poor kid.
Because that's what he is. A kid. The Holy Grail War of Fate/EXTRA takes place in a digital environment, and the teenage body we see him with is ultimately nothing more than an online avatar. In real life, Shinji is only eight years old. Some of his behavior makes more sense when viewed through this lens; he's an obnoxious little brat, but his immaturity is totally normal for someone his age. His personality is pretty much the perfect storm of "tiny aggressive yappy dog" and "reasons why you should not let your child have unsupervised access to the internet": precocious, desperate for recognition from others, and with a vocabulary full of insults that really shouldn't come out of any eight-year-old's mouth.
Though, in fairness, he is bright for his age, which probably contributes to the aforementioned sense of superiority he has. In between more internet-influenced vernacular like "weaksauce" and "mouthbreather," he throws around words like "plebian" and "proletariat" and speaks more or less like an adult. And that's not even mentioning his hacking ability, which is apparently good enough that he can crack into top-level security files without leaving evidence behind, as well as do things like bar the protagonist from entering certain parts of the Moon Cell. Whether he is or not, he thinks himself on the level of an adult.
Another consequence of his arrogance and precocious ability is the fact that he really, really hates accepting help from other people. He seems to be of the opinion that only people who are weak and incompetent need to rely on others, and when combined with his disdain for those he sees as lesser than him, this probably means no one is going to get help from him, either. (If it benefits him, maybe, but expect him to act like he's being altruistic or something.) Overall, he's the kind of person that wants to take all the credit for things he has accomplished--and if there's no one who can even argue that they deserve some recognition as well, all the better.
Of course, despite his resistance to letting other people take credit for things, he's incredibly quick to blame them when something don't go as planned. His Servant, Rider, gets this a lot, and when she bites back, he's quick to take offense at the mere implication that his inadequacies might have contributed to their failure somehow. The fact that he's so quick to jump to the conclusion that other people are telling him he's at fault might say something about how genuine his confidence is, too, as Rider herself notes. As is often the case, his superiority complex hides a more fragile ego.
Probably not unrelated to the above is that he does seem to be driven by the desire for recognition, praise, and respect. He fumes when someone older than him does what he perceives as looking down on him, and he does state that he has no interest in the actual prize of the Holy Grail War, only wanting the title. Because of his motivations, he's actually pretty easily manipulated by both praise and insults, and he can be made to drop information without much resistance if you push his buttons the right way. Basically, his need to brag and show off doesn't mix well with the Grail War's need for secrecy.
And while Shinji isn't exactly stupid, he doesn't do well under stress. When he realizes he's at a disadvantage, he becomes easily flustered, meaning that his attempts to lie around or cover up his mistakes are obvious as what they are (desperate flailing and pathetic attempts at misdirection). As the in-game week progresses, his attempts to stymie the protagonist become increasingly desperate, and considering he has all the subtly of a bullet to the face, his tricks aren't as hard to see through as he seems to think they are. Basically, he's just really bad at keeping a cool head.
Abilities:
magic circuits- Shinji possesses magic circuits, which should allow him to perform magecraft. However, this is only hypothetical, because it has been stated that within the universe of Fate/EXTRA, magecraft has died out due to the planet's mana having dried up. So, while he has potential, he would require one of the other Fate characters to teach him to make use of it. If one assumes that talent for spirit hacking (see below) corresponds to talent for magecraft, he'd actually have a lot of talent.
spirit hacking- The ability to hack into electronic devices by digitizing one's soul and filtering the data inside directly through one's mind, or to otherwise harmonize one's magic circuits with an electronic device to manipulate it. Shinji is noted to be very talented in this regard, able to hack into extremely high-security areas without leaving enough incriminating evidence behind to be caught.
Name: Nyx
Journal:
badgalContact: gilded chrysanth [AIM]; missbiondetta [Plurk]
CHARACTER
Name: Shinji Matou
Canon: Fate/EXTRA
Age: Eight
Gender: Male
Background: Here
Canon Point: Post-death
Personality:
A note to start: When the player first meets Shinji during the prologue, he has been given a fake set of memories just like every other participant in the Moon Cell's Holy Grail War. In his case, he assumes the role of the Shinji Matou seen in the original Fate/stay night. This seems to affect his behavior as least somewhat. For example, his behavior toward Rin is way, way more intense during the prologue than when they're seen interacting afterward. Undoubtedly, he still thinks she's a total bitch, but he's not trying to hit her for talking back to him anymore. So, uh, there's that. The fact that he's stated to actually be a good person as opposed to the original supports this assumption.
Of course, altered state of mind or not, Shinji is still a total jackass. (FUN FACT: He is literally called a "total social retard" in the game.) His dialogue is pretty much a constant stream of how much better he is than everyone else, how it's laughable that the protagonist thinks s/he can beat him, and how pathetically boring everyone is as compared to his genius. Even when he repeatedly screws up over the course of the first round, he goes into the elimination battle confident that he is going to wreck his opponent, going so far as to tell the protagonist to just forfeit so he doesn't have to waste his energy without a hint of irony. Dude has a really, really inflated sense of his own ability.
Of course, it doesn't help that he thinks of the Holy Grail War as nothing more than a video game, going so far as to make references to cutscenes and the like. He's the reigning gaming champion of Japan, so that might make his confidence...kind of understandable? In any case, he doesn't understand the stakes involved in the competition, entering just for the fame, and it comes back to bite him in the ass hard. He got into a situation way over his head because of his own lack of foresight and understanding of the consequences, and in the end he wound up paying for it with his life, the poor kid.
Because that's what he is. A kid. The Holy Grail War of Fate/EXTRA takes place in a digital environment, and the teenage body we see him with is ultimately nothing more than an online avatar. In real life, Shinji is only eight years old. Some of his behavior makes more sense when viewed through this lens; he's an obnoxious little brat, but his immaturity is totally normal for someone his age. His personality is pretty much the perfect storm of "tiny aggressive yappy dog" and "reasons why you should not let your child have unsupervised access to the internet": precocious, desperate for recognition from others, and with a vocabulary full of insults that really shouldn't come out of any eight-year-old's mouth.
Though, in fairness, he is bright for his age, which probably contributes to the aforementioned sense of superiority he has. In between more internet-influenced vernacular like "weaksauce" and "mouthbreather," he throws around words like "plebian" and "proletariat" and speaks more or less like an adult. And that's not even mentioning his hacking ability, which is apparently good enough that he can crack into top-level security files without leaving evidence behind, as well as do things like bar the protagonist from entering certain parts of the Moon Cell. Whether he is or not, he thinks himself on the level of an adult.
Another consequence of his arrogance and precocious ability is the fact that he really, really hates accepting help from other people. He seems to be of the opinion that only people who are weak and incompetent need to rely on others, and when combined with his disdain for those he sees as lesser than him, this probably means no one is going to get help from him, either. (If it benefits him, maybe, but expect him to act like he's being altruistic or something.) Overall, he's the kind of person that wants to take all the credit for things he has accomplished--and if there's no one who can even argue that they deserve some recognition as well, all the better.
Of course, despite his resistance to letting other people take credit for things, he's incredibly quick to blame them when something don't go as planned. His Servant, Rider, gets this a lot, and when she bites back, he's quick to take offense at the mere implication that his inadequacies might have contributed to their failure somehow. The fact that he's so quick to jump to the conclusion that other people are telling him he's at fault might say something about how genuine his confidence is, too, as Rider herself notes. As is often the case, his superiority complex hides a more fragile ego.
Probably not unrelated to the above is that he does seem to be driven by the desire for recognition, praise, and respect. He fumes when someone older than him does what he perceives as looking down on him, and he does state that he has no interest in the actual prize of the Holy Grail War, only wanting the title. Because of his motivations, he's actually pretty easily manipulated by both praise and insults, and he can be made to drop information without much resistance if you push his buttons the right way. Basically, his need to brag and show off doesn't mix well with the Grail War's need for secrecy.
And while Shinji isn't exactly stupid, he doesn't do well under stress. When he realizes he's at a disadvantage, he becomes easily flustered, meaning that his attempts to lie around or cover up his mistakes are obvious as what they are (desperate flailing and pathetic attempts at misdirection). As the in-game week progresses, his attempts to stymie the protagonist become increasingly desperate, and considering he has all the subtly of a bullet to the face, his tricks aren't as hard to see through as he seems to think they are. Basically, he's just really bad at keeping a cool head.
Abilities:
magic circuits- Shinji possesses magic circuits, which should allow him to perform magecraft. However, this is only hypothetical, because it has been stated that within the universe of Fate/EXTRA, magecraft has died out due to the planet's mana having dried up. So, while he has potential, he would require one of the other Fate characters to teach him to make use of it. If one assumes that talent for spirit hacking (see below) corresponds to talent for magecraft, he'd actually have a lot of talent.
spirit hacking- The ability to hack into electronic devices by digitizing one's soul and filtering the data inside directly through one's mind, or to otherwise harmonize one's magic circuits with an electronic device to manipulate it. Shinji is noted to be very talented in this regard, able to hack into extremely high-security areas without leaving enough incriminating evidence behind to be caught.