I want to make a post to clarify the question “When Shuichi said that broke up with Jodie was a sacrifice?”.
In the case of the bank robbery, when Jodie was walking after being run off from Camel and James and was thinking about the moment when Shu left her, she reminded all the words he said. And he clearly said “It’s an Organisation I must crush, even if it requires sacrificing you”. So it’s proved that when he left her he still loved her (and he loved her truly), because if you don’t love someone anymore you don’t feel the break up as a sacrifice. Then he fell for Akemi (or maybe when he left her he was already developing some feelings for her, not as love but more than a friend). If he broke up with her because he loved Akemi and he didn’t love her anymore, why didn’t he just say “I’m sorry, I fell for another woman?”. Because at the time he wasn’t already in love with Akemi, he began to love her after.
Hope it’s more clear now.
And for the question “If Shu loves Jodie why didn’t he come back with her after being returned to the failed mission?” I want to spend some words too. Shu fell for Akemi, and even Redstarling shipper admitted it. That doesn’t mean (in our opinion) that he had forget Jodie completely. Maybe at the moment his feelings for her aren’t the same of 5 years ago before the break up, because Akemi’s ghost is still there. But we can say that he still cares a lot for Jodie, she’s important for him.
Shu spend a lot of time with Akemi, and he really loved her. When he return after the mission, he saw again Jodie after 3 years of distance. Even if he felt some emotions when he saw her again, he had just left Akemi who he loved, so it wasn’t fair to throw himself into Jodie’s harms after having left Akemi two hours before. And of course, even Jodie didn’t try to make up with him, because she respected his decision to broke up with her, and she didn’t want to make pressures on him. Also, Shu had to take is time to return to his real life after having lived for 3 years like another person. In a few words: you can’t left a woman and two seconds after throw yourself into another woman’s harms. It’s not fair for both. Shu maybe continued to have feelings for Akemi for the two years, but in the meantime he approached again to Jodie and maybe he could have discovered again why 5 years ago he felt good to be with her. But then the tragedy happened: Akemi died. And all his feelings and his certainties collapsed in a second. He lost someone he really cares and it’s all his fault. The sense of guilty started to consume him, and he become colder and distant (even with Jodie). So, I promised himself to defeat the BO in order to revenge Akemi, and from that moment he dedicated all his life to this, sacrificing everything.
Does Shu still love Akemi? Probably, but it can be also the sense of guilty that moves him, we can’t deny that.
Does Shu love Jodie? We can’t say that, but it’s clear he cares deeply for her, more than he does for his other colleagues. It is proved in many scenes. When he keep her out from the plans he makes (for example the one of the Ospital with Rena) it’s not because he doesn’t have faith in her or consider her a good-for-nothing, but because he cares a lot for her and he doens’t want to lose again someone he cares. He made that mistake once, so now he tries with all himself to not do it again.
If at the moment Shu doesn’t love Jodie but only cares deeply for her, does it means he can’t develop his feelings in time and love her again like 5 years ago? No, absolutely.
Before there were still a possibility to stay with Akemi (and maybe this can be the reason why he didn’t return to Jodie during the 2 years), but now there isn’t anymore. Life must go on, even if the persons we love die. So Shu will take is time to move on (as I always say without forgetting Akemi) and then he can love again. And the only woman, at the moment, to whom he can fall in love again is definitely Jodie. He knows she’s there for him, he understood that when he saw her doing her best to find out the truth about his death.
Lastly, if he now doesn’t love Jodie, that doesn’t mean he can’t love her again in the future. Jodie is the perfect person to love when he will be ready again to do it. He firstly need to move on and then he can develop his feelings for Jodie into love.
I want to make an example that reminds me of Shu/Jodie.
We all know the beloved couple Sato/Takagi. And we know that Sato before fell in love with Takagi was in love with Jimpei Matsuda. When he died, Sato treasured his last message on her phone, just like Shu did with Akemi. Then she took her time to heal from the pain and one day she met Takagi, that took her out the pain. Slowly, she started to let Takagi insinuate in her heart, since the day she
managed to put behind the haunt of her past, promising herself to not forget Matsuda.
If Sato did it, why Shu can’t?
That’s what makes me hope in a Shu/Jodie ending.
This goes sooo deep, i truly wanna believe that Gosho`s up to to this so.
I really hope it so much.
Even it´s just fiction, that Story got me so hard. That Pairing. The Sufferering, the pain both have to go through.
