I love how Gil normally has a LOT to say when he considers his opponents pitiful in any way but when Shinji appeared he simply laughed, absolutely nothing else to add.
I like Shinji a lot actually because he's a huge fucking loser. This guy fails at literally everything he tries to do. As a mage he's laughable as a master he's terribly mediocre even as an abuser he's not good enough to be worth remembering- when Sakura goes off in Heaven's Feel she specifically mentions her hatred for Rin, for her father, for Zouken, but not for Shinji. Everything Shinji has ever done was in a desperate attempt to feel important for once, but he never actually manages that be it in a positive or a negative way.
It really becomes clear why she hid the bruise from Shirou when you know her situation.
Shinji clearly takes out his frustrations by abusing her, so I’m assuming that every time that Shirou hits Shinji, it just makes things all the worse for Sakura. So she learned to hide it.
And as much as him commenting on how “Shinji isn’t tired of getting hit yet” could bring a smile to my face, the fact remains that Shirou punching Shinji doesn’t solve anything.
Which might be a way to show how Shirou’s ideals don’t work in the real world. He can’t fight his problems away, he can’t save someone as a sword or a weapon.
The only way to save someone in a situation like this is to emotionally save them and actually help them get away from that situation.
Question brought up in stream yesterday: does Shinji, uh. Know. Where Sakura is from. Like he knows she's adopted but does he know where she's adopted from. Cuz the way he acts in the prologue lowkey implies he doesn't and that's hilarious to me. This guy was really kept in the dark at every possible opportunity huh.