Is Shadow a Raging Hypocrite?

GunSniperN7 said:
So I'm not looking for spoilers so please be as light as possible.
Now throughout season 1 and 2 we have seen Cid/Shadow fighting various enemies and those enemies have needed help, the cult members who chew on their little red pills to boost their magic power, and Iris who used that artifact sword.
But every time this has occurred Shadow has uttered the phrase "I cannot be defeated with borrowed power" or something to that effect.
Now here lies my problem, in the last episode of the first season it is revealed that Cid had defeated an ancient mist dragon, and in doing so was bathed in the dragon's breath, it suggested that this gave him power.
So back to the title, is Shadow just a hypocrite or am I missing something?

Moppit said:
A lot of stuff he does is because it sounds or looks cool. I mean, while in the tournament, he fought in he wanted to be the weak person that no one expected to win. When he was debrief by Beta at a mission, he made the room look as cool as possible.

drinfantom said:
Idk if the story really even suggests that he gained power from that. I don’t really recall the conversation exactly. But wasn’t it more like he got bathed by the dragons breath as in like anointed with “keys” so to speak to the dragons domain? More of a we don’t need to worry about the dragon because cid beat it and was granted this land as a reward sort of thing. Like being knighted or some such nonsense, dragon style.

Also as previously stated, even if he did gain power from the dragon he had to beat the dragon first to get it meaning any boon/buff etc was earned by himself. It also likely didn’t provide much of a buff if any because he beat what sounded like a legendary dragon by himself so he was already strong AF.

Which is totally different from a pill made and developed by someone else to boost some meager strength. Now they just have boosted stats with no clue how to really use the boost, as cid keeps telling them. Like boosting your level in a game after only having completed the basic intro and being totally lost with all the new abilities and passive skills that become unlocked. “Let me give you a lesson on proper use of magic” or something along those lines as he says time and again. Like a veteran who spent time and effort getting to the same level that sees the boosted player and thrashes them without taking a single hit.

Which is just as bad as an artifact where the entirety of the power comes from external factors. Like for example if you use this super powerful item your friend gave you in a game so you’re stomping low level monsters. But you’re still way to low level to fight the main boss and get instakilled. So it doesn’t help at all on its own. Versus if you beat the boss and got the super powerful item as a drop to make you a little more powerful since you can already beat the boss single-handedly. Like imagine if that artifact the princess used was a catalyst for magic, if shadow used it he could wipe the whole town off the map with one swing. But in the hands of someone as “weak” as iris it just does a long range sweep of fire. Nowhere does it say that’s how the artifact works but you get the idea. It’s just some item made and developed in another time that is considered strong on its own separate from the user.

Don’t get hung up on a practically trivial detail with no concrete meaning and let that somehow ruin your view of the show as a whole. I mean it’s been referenced one time in the anime and that’s it. You’re digging way to deep into this. Anything (until confirmed) is purely speculation and in your own head.

GunSniperN7 said:
So I'm not looking for spoilers so please be as light as possible.
Now throughout season 1 and 2 we have seen Cid/Shadow fighting various enemies and those enemies have needed help, the cult members who chew on their little red pills to boost their magic power, and Iris who used that artifact sword.
But every time this has occurred Shadow has uttered the phrase "I cannot be defeated with borrowed power" or something to that effect.
Now here lies my problem, in the last episode of the first season it is revealed that Cid had defeated an ancient mist dragon, and in doing so was bathed in the dragon's breath, it suggested that this gave him power.
So back to the title, is Shadow just a hypocrite or am I missing something?