Though he was labeled as a vicious criminal by the aristocracy and as an honorable thief by the common folk, recent research has led many scholars to theorize that Shion was actually an extreme hedonist. Both his crimes and virtuous acts were carried out to exacerbate conflicts between the aristocracy and common folk, and numerous accounts of his words and deeds tell us that he enjoyed observing this conflict. Had Shion not contented himself with the band's crimes, he might have desired war on a national scale. In seeking such a war, he likely would have manipulated both the empire and the federation in order to plunge the world into ever-greater chaos.