The fact that sthg defends this proves they do not understand Shadow.

Meaningful? VERSATILITY?! Is she dense? Is she that creatively bankrupt? That isn't a display of skill, you absolute hack, that's something a drooling, edgelord teenager thinks is cool! Shadow is a professional. He's the pinnacle of tactical combat. He pursues his goals with ruthless efficiency. Why in the world would he assault some random carny just to get a weapon? He IS the weapon! That's the entire point of his character! He doesn't need to stoop to such messy, inefficient, and frankly, pathetic tactics.

He does whatever is efficient and necessary assaulting a carny is anything BUT that! So Stanley's brilliant idea was for Shadow to brutally assault a confused, possibly helpless, non-binary kid suffering from a serious mental disorder (because of course that's a thing now) to look "cool"?

The worst part is the excuse. "SoJ flagged it as being too great of an escalation." NO KIDDING! You needed the Japanese office, the very people who don't understand these characters on a fundamental level, to tell you that having your anti-hero mutilate a circus performer was a bad look? That's how far gone you are? It's pathetic! It proves that these people have no vision, no understanding, and are just throwing slop at the wall to see what sticks for the Twitter crowd.