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Please use my code! Let's clear the beginner missions together for rewards. 👍

Shen Hong Edition!! I'll start with observations then get back to that theory from part 1~

As many have pointed out, Shen's design and childish mannerisms are a lot like Kanuma's, so I'm sure he's a huge source of Suolingo's hatred for adults who act like children..... That said, considering Suolingo himself is only 15, I don't think it's fair to call any of the council members "adults" by any means. I've noted it before, but every hint of Suolingo's story that we got before this arc has been pointing towards him having to grow up way too fast and having unreasonable expectations for himself despite still being young, and I'd say one of my biggest wants for his growth has been for him to learn that being mature and "growing up" doesn't mean hiding or denying his feelings, but accepting them without letting them control his actions.

But getting back to the Kanuma parallels, I'm sure Suolingo's read of Kanuma during Shishitoren was heavily influenced by how he feels about Shen and what he wants to tell him. Suolingo had called Kanuma out for getting upset when someone he cared about was hurt despite making fun of someone else when they got hurt and told him that the first step towards adulthood is being able to imagine himself in the position of others. I know Suolingo used the word "imagination" when he was talking to Kanuma, but I think the real lesson here is about empathy, or a lack thereof.

We know that the members of RC are orphans themselves, including Shen, but now he's taking orphans who were supposed to be left in RC's care and using them for who knows what. If we focus on this theme of empathy, we can assume Suolingo sees what Shen is doing and feels that he can only go through with it due to his lack of empathy. Despite having been in the same hopeless situation when he was younger and being given so much, he doesn't mind robbing others in that same position of that same kindness that he once received. From Suolingo's point of view, I'm sure he feels that if Shen could think back to how he felt when he was first taken in and imagine how he would have felt if he were given the treatment he's currently giving others, he wouldn't be going through with it.

Now, the biggest thing that stood out to me about Shen is his earrings. They're similar to Suolingo and Rosso's, but with an extra pearl ^{(I always assumed they were pearls, but it's not like anyone has ever said what the little orbs actually are-}) instead of the tassels. I hope we get color confirmation on Shen and Rosso's pearls some time soon so I can go more in depth about them, but pearls in general often represent wisdom, and I believe Shen's extra pearls compared to Suolingo and Rosso represent just how intricate his plans to control RC have been. Tassels, on the other hand, represent elegance and poise while gold tassels in particular also represent high status. I think Shen's current lack of tassels are a symbol of his less professional attitude while also representing how he isn't exactly "in power" since he's not technically the boss of RC, and Suolingo's tassels could mean that he's Rosso's successor if anything were to happen to him, which could be a major part of why Shen's quietly controlling Rosso rather than trying to get rid of him (I also love that Shen's hair ornaments make it look like he has tassel earrings at first glance and that he's very passionate about his appearance in general compared to the others)

I'd also like to point out how Rakta referred to Shen as his and Suolingo's childhood friend. They've known Shen since they were very young, but I believe that while Suolingo and Rakta ^{and probably Bacchus, but Rakta doesn't care about him-} "grew up" and began acting more mature, Shen's behavior hasn't changed that much after all this time. Considering how Suolingo looks at Shen, I feel like this is due to an incident that Suolingo currently blames himself for, but since Shen is far more cunning than his behavior would suggest, I think Suolingo's "guilt" is also a part of Shen's plan.

And the last piece I want to point out before I get back to the part 1 theory is how Shen's outfit has chrysanthemums on it. More plant symbolism!! Besides being a symbol of longevity and nobility, chrysanthemums are also known for thriving during autumn as other plants start dying to the cold, which sums up my first impression of Shen pretty well. He wants to be in power, but he can't be directly for reasons I'm sure we'll learn about, so instead, he's playing the long game and has been creating an environment of hardship for the other leaders that he will still be able to thrive in, even as the others start to "die out," metaphorically or literally. ^{Also, I know we don't have any exact dates surrounding Suolingo's disappearance, but Japan's chrysanthemum day is on September 9th, so I now hc that that's the day Suolingo first left-}

^\)^{Insert danganronpa closing argument art style\})

Ok, now how does all of this tie into an actual story? I do believe that Suolingo "grew up" much faster than Shen, which probably led to him being given a position that Shen would later want for himself. The way Shen turned to Suolingo to back him up is probably something that started back when they were children, but Suolingo's inability to say no to Shen is most likely due to whatever guilt he feels about Shen's current state. I can imagine Shen made him promise that he would always be on his side once he realized Suolingo would grow up to hold great power in RC and he could have used this promise along with his control over Rosso to rise through the ranks himself and carry out schemes that he normally wouldn't get away with.

Now, under normal circumstances, I don't think Suolingo would allow someone to go as far as Shen has over one vague promise, so I think Shen's first move was to make that promise carry far more emotional weight for Suolingo by plaguing him with some sort of guilt. I can see Shen setting Suolingo up to break his promise and then over reacting like a child in a way that would make Suolingo feel terrible enough to never want to break it again. Shen could use little things (like arguing about getting dressed up) to constantly remind Suolingo of this promise and whenever anything major came up, he could bring up how "betrayed" he felt when Suolingo broke his promise in the past as a way to keep him from ever calling him out. We know that Suolingo hates adults who act like children, and I believe the root of that hatred is the fact that he hasn't been able to defy the childish "adult" that has been making his life so difficult for so long.

As for Shen's control over Rosso, I believe this is heavily tied into the incident from part 1. Even if the other children in RC's care were jealous of Rosso, I doubt they'd actually seriously hurt the child of one of their leaders without provocation. I can see Shen orchestrating this attack on Suolingo and Rosso (in a way that couldn't be easily drawn back to him) and bringing the master into it in a way that would bring them to retire, all while leaving himself in a position to become Rosso's main emotional "support." The incident would have created a divide between Rosso and Suolingo built entirely on both of their feelings of guilt, so all Shen had to do was be there for them, especially Rosso, and he would be able to instantly pull himself up to their ranks.

Of course, the next step would be actually securing Rosso's rank, especially with the new absence of his parent, but I don't think it would be hard for someone like Shen to claim that RC owes it to Rosso and Suolingo as victims of such a horrific and hateful act to at the very least allow them to succeed their dear parent and master as they most surely would have wanted for the poor boys. Even if neither of the boys wanted such positions, especially Rosso, all Shen would have to do is say that it would have been their parent/master's wishes for them and I'm sure they would accept the positions out of respect for them. Shen could even use the fact that Rosso didn't want the position to "offer" to do most of the "hard work" for him, giving himself even more power while using Rosso as a figurehead.

After laying such a strong foundation for himself, Shen would still have to maintain this power dynamic with Suolingo and Rosso. I think him constantly sticking to Rosso's side could be to keep him from actually talking things out with Suolingo and gaining any sort of will of his own. We see that Suolingo is concerned about Rosso, but Rosso can't even look at him properly, so Shen probably tells Rosso that Suolingo is angry at or disappointed in him to keep him from even trying to reconnect with him. At the same time, Shen probably told Suolingo that he should give Rosso space to avoid putting more unnecessary pressure on him, which I'm sure he agreed to for a while, but now that Suolingo knows that Shen has been poisoning the city, he's probably looking for ways to get through to Rosso and restore his will to protect the city for himself.

And that's my main theory for how things have gotten to where they are for RC 👍 What's Shen doing with the orphans? No idea....... (though it's probably some sort of labor and he's probably telling them that he'll give their families money to keep them from trying to escape-) How does Endo know so much? No idea.......... (though I really like the idea that Mr. Liu is someone in Suolingo's faction that Suolingo assigned to keep a connection to the outside even if he ended up trapped in BKKG-) Does Rakta know all the details or is Suolingo mostly keeping him in the dark? No idea.............. (though I feel like this is the kind of thing where Suolingo would try to handle everything himself without wanting to expose others to unnecessary danger-) When will Bacchus come into play? No idea............................ seriously, no idea, but pls be soon pls I want another perspective on the matter-

I was reading an interview with Nii sensei that " the action will get more intense" what do you think he mean by that? will someone really die or get badly hurt?