"Maybe it means I can't be fooled. No matter how beautiful the flowers are, people will just wipe them out again."
Profile goes here.
Background Information[]
Though he became a pilot for the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, Shinn Asuka was originally born in Orb, some sixteen years ago. Despite being a second-generation Coordinator - both his parents were themselves Coordinators - Shinn grew up for the most part a pretty normal young man, playing video games and neglecting his studies, and making his younger sister's life difficult. It seemed like he was going to live a relatively average life, safe in the peaceful confines of the neutral Orb Union, one of the few places where his Coordinator heritage was generally a non-issue.
Until, that is, the EFA attacked the Orb islands proper.
Though there had been many skirmishes between the Orb and EFA forces on the home islands, full evacuations were seldom ordered. But when the Titans led an attack on Ongoro Island during the summer of NCA 118, the battle overflowed to the nearest islands, including the city the Asuka family lived in. When the order to evacuate came, Shinn and his family fled with the others, forced to run unprotected through the island's forests towards the evacuation point; it was inevitable that some would get caught in the collateral damage, and only coincidence - or maybe fate - rescued Shinn when the rest of his family were killed. His sister, Mayu, dropped her cellphone, and rather than listen to his mother's pleas to just forget it, Shinn went to retrieve the fallen phone; because of this, he was out of range when an explosion rocked the hilltop his family were on, though the force threw him off of it, cellular in hand. When Shinn looked up, the hill was mostly gone, his family reduced to bloody shreds before his very eyes.
He probably would've stayed there until another shot got him, too, had it not been for the intervention of Orb forces Captain Todaka, who pulled the catatonic Shinn away and put him on a shuttle headed for space, towards the PLANTs along with a number of other Coordinator evacuees.
Though Shinn never previously demonstrated any interest in or aptitude for mobile suit combat - outside of a video game, anyway - he managed to draw the attention of Gilbert Durandal, an influential figure in PLANT politics, after the standard genetic testing was administered. Whatever Durandal found there caused him to sponsor Shinn for enrolment in ZAFT's academy, where much to everyone's surprise, he managed to distinguish himself. In the same class as Rey Za Burrel and Lunamaria Hawke, it was Shinn's interplay with these two other students, and in particular his (mostly) friendly rivalry with Rey, that spurred him to show his true abilities: As Rey said of him on one occasion, when Shinn managed to beat him on an exam, Shinn is 'unbelievably strong, when he actually tries.'
In the end, Shinn managed to graduate - along with Rey and Lunamaria - at the top of their class in the academy, giving them the right to wear red ZAFT uniforms, and netting a plum assignment to the brand-new Minerva. To the surprise of many in the know, Shinn and not Rey was selected to pilot the centerpiece of the Minerva's combat systems, the ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam.
As an agent of the Divine Crusaders, Shinn participated in numerous missions to further the goals of the Crusade, though his loyalty remained exclusively towards ZAFT itself; as events came to a head in early NCA 120, Shinn participated in several unusual, and possibly questionable events. Asked by Athrun Zala to help in the arrest of Lacus Clyne as the Clyne Faction was being pushed out of power in the PLANTs, Shinn instead allowed Lacus to escape, though neither he nor Athrun willingly discussed this incident with each other, or anyone else. Subsequently, however, Shinn's conflicted feelings over his role in Lacus Clyne's escape would lead to his destroying a transport carrying several key members of the Clyne Faction, including Siegel Clyne himself, during Katharon's theft of the Eternal.
Shinn was among the ZAFT personnel to participate in the Battle of Jachin Due in February of NCA 120, fighting against the EFA assault on the PLANTs; he was also among those to turn on Rau Le Creuset when the ZAFT commander revealed his genocidal goals, and after that participated in the defense of the PLANTs against the Divine Crusader forces, when Axel Almer tried to institute a military dictatorship. Much of Shinn's activities during Jachin Due were prompted by Dr. Gilbert Durandal, who subsequently took charge of the PLANT Supreme Council.
With ZAFT's alliance with the EFA creating the multilateral task force A-LAWS, Shinn has joined the new forces. As the second in command of the Minerva's Lance team, 'Lance-2', Shinn finds himself surrounded by new faces, people he can't quite bring himself to trust, though in the familiar environs of the battleship Minerva. Though uncertain of this new organisation, Shinn trusts Durandal completely... And there's no way that could go wrong, now could it?
Personality Traits[]
At heart, Shinn is a basically good - if deeply flawed - person, whose flaws have been exploited by individuals with rather nefarious interests, to twist him into an agent of said interests. The person chiefly responsible for this is PLANT scientist and politician Chairman Gilbert Durandal, who saw Shinn's potential when he was at the Academy, and primarily via the assistance of Rey Za Burrel, nudged Shinn by slight increments into being the person he wanted... To use Shinn's strength and conviction to destroy any threats to Durandal's plans, and then to make Shinn the main 'protector' of his legacy, the Destiny Plan.
When Shinn is convinced he's right, there's almost nothing that can turn him aside. He's stubborn, it's true - extremely so, even - but simple mule-headedness isn't really the source of it. For Shinn, his beliefs are often all he has, and being right is the only way he can make the death of his family not be in vain; he simply cannot let himself falter. As such, Shinn can be a dedicated ally, or he can be an implacable foe, depending on where you stand respective to his ideals and beliefs. However, this doesn't make Shinn immune to manipulation... His dedication to his goals makes him like a raging river, and while stopping him, and forcing him to turn about entirely can be almost impossible, nudging him in another direction subtly, carefully, can be extremely effective.
Deep down, beneath all the anger and suspicion and emotional damage that's accumulated since the death of his family, Shinn is a caring, gentle boy who actually gives a very big damn, howevermuch it might seem like he doesn't give one at all, about the people around him. Every cruel act, every person he hurts, every person he is unable to prevent from being hurt, hurts Shinn as well... And eventually it all starts to catch up with him. It's been stated that Shinn's kindness is a weakness, but in a very real way it's his greatest strength, even though he's tried to hide himself from it over the years.
Shinn takes risks, even entirely unnecessary ones, as a matter of course. He's the sort of person who will impulsively do something as dangerously as possible without even really thinking about it, and as such tends to be unorthodox and extremely unpredictable when in action. Even when he has the opportunity to /realise/ the danger, Shinn isn't really one to shy away from it. It stems from a certain amount of confidence, a fair bit of courage, his stubborn conviction, and also being perhaps a little crazy.
Shinn is, as a result of many things that've happened to him, an insular sort of person. His trust is not easily gained, and he tends to be suspicious of 'new' people, but once his trust /is/ gained, it's almost impossible to lose. Shinn, deep down, desperately wants to trust people, but at the same time he doesn't want to allow himself to be easily hurt by letting people 'in'. Naturally, the list of people Shinn trusts is a very short one, keeping him rather aloof and distant from most of the people around him.
Like many teenagers, Shinn is given to pretty impressive, and sudden, changes in mood. He's by nature an extremely emotional person, but he suffers from a lack of ability to /control/ his emotions, and with the addition of some pretty substantial psychological trauma, Shinn can be a definite 'timebomb'. He can quickly range from depression to happiness to absolute fury and back again, and while it's not exactly 'at the drop of a hat', it can come awfully close. Shinn also gets frustrated very easily; little things irritate him, and he generally doesn't have the tact to hide his displeasure. Keeping Shinn happy can, at times, be a Herculean task.
Shinn holds grudges like you would not believe; of course, he himself wouldn't put it that way. Generally speaking, Shinn's vindictiveness is limited to his verbally venting his anger, and he's quick to assign blame for slights real or imagined onto his 'enemies'. However, properly fostered, Shinn's grudges can manifest with him actively working against whoever he feels is responsible, even to the point of direct, physical violence. Shinn's vindictiveness is, unfortunately, often not directed at the 'proper' targets; he lashes out at who or whatever he can convince himself deserves it... Which is why he assigns the blame for his family's death to the Athha family, the hereditary heads of state of his homeland.
Above all else, above any other defining aspect of Shinn's personality, he needs to be needed. It's tied to, but at the same time even more essential than, his need to not be 'weak', that he wants more than anything to be someone that other people depend on and look up to, whose strength and ability shelters weaker individuals from the harsh realities of the world. Shinn derives validation from this, from being able to protect others where he wasn't able to protect his family in the past. In the waking world, this caused him to make the Minerva crew sort of a surrogate family. It also gives Shinn a powerfully soft spot for innocents, children and damsels in distress; he might complain the whole time, he might berate them if he thinks they got themselves into trouble, but he will take enormous risks to 'save' someone.
It's also important to note that Shinn doesn't really care whether someone else is a Coordinator or not. Raised in Orb, he knew more Naturals than anything else, and ultimately he cares less about whether someone is a Coordinator or a Natural, a Newtype or an Oldtype, a Spacenoid or an Earthnoid than he does whether they represent a threat to him or those he's chosen to defend.
Talents & Abilities[]
- Shinn is a Coordinator, genetically modified in utero to minimise unwanted genetic traits and maximise wanted ones; he is also a second generation Coordinator, both his parents being similarly post-human. As such, he is faster, stronger and tougher than a normal human, more resistant to disease and with superior senses. Shinn is also highly intelligent, he just rarely bothers to actually think.
- Shinn also possesses the Superior Evolutionary Element Destined Factor, one of the many possible paths of human evolution. Like other individuals who possess the SEED Factor, Shinn is capable of entering a state of consciousness where his physical and mental abilities are further heightened, allowing him to process and react to information and stimuli on an unparalleled level. Unlike most other SEEDs, Shinn's almost always manifests as a berserk fury; currently, he cannot enter SEED Mode intentionally.
Relations[]
| Friendship | Lunamaria Hawke, Yolan Kent, Vino Dupre |
| Trust | Talia Gladys, Rey Za Burrel, Gilbert Durandal |
| Affinity | Athrun Zala, Lacus Clyne |
| Ambivalence | Rei Ayanami |
| Caution | Athrun Zala, Lacus Clyne, most other people |
| Distrust | The Divine Crusaders |
| Contempt | Cagalli Yula Athha, Axel Almer, most of Katharon generally |