More on Shuuji and Aoi's parallels.
While I did dedicate a section to Aoi's and Shuuji's parallels in my Wrathful meta, there's actually more to expand on: as previously stated, they're the overachievers, Harmony-seekers of the group, and their behavior is underlined by the want to conform to external expectations placed upon them. As a result, they have strong outer personas that look downright jarring when put side to side with their respective partners. Shuuji starts out as the seemingly iron-fisted and downright noxious leader in contrast to Lopmon's innocuous fragility and sensitivity. Aoi's personable, lenient and nurturing behavior contrasts to Labramon's opinionated, prideful and rather waspish demeanor. As we know, their partners represent their most authentic/ideal selves, so it's both reflecting their true natures/interiority as well as either the best of them (in Shuuji's case, his better points are not as apparent as his worst, so Lopmon is a good peek at the potential) or what they value (Aoi often mentions how Reliable Labramon is, and she often talks about wanting to attain that reliability for herself and heavily links to assertiveness).
As such, we have certain toying with appearances going on with both. Shuuji being rigid and logical would be expected of a guy, and he Is Logical, but also very gentle & easily molded by external expectations. Whenever the majority's opinion outnumbers his, he sets his aside and follows them: it happens twice in part 3, first he's opposed to exploring but caves in, then he mistrusts Arukenimon but follows the group to the cable car. In part 5, he's straight up at the verge of a breakdown over his intense fear of exploring the waterways, but he goes Anyway. This is a trait that never goes away— in Truthful, he wants to secure the Southern Shrine first since he deduces that being the least weakened would mean it has the least kenzoku presence, however, he follows the group's decision to tackle the Northern Shrine first. Not to mention his entire sense of self is predicated on fulfilling the narrow idea of what his father considers as success.
Aoi, on the other hand, is the one who ends up having the most set ideas over how things should be and the most rigid thinking out of the group— the extremely controlling and manipulative extents she goes on Wrathful and the fact she's the one kid who never backs down (because she's 'the one who's right') are the most telling examples of this. However, she's also the one who regularly reminds others of what the appropriate conduct is, which is partly the reason the group is so hierarchical early on (and this, of course, earns her the teasing over how nagging she is in that one affinity dialogue in part 9 when Takuma calls her a wizard lol). All of this behavior stems on how deeply inflexible she can be about her values at times, as well as her hidden grievances (She does often get unfairly passive aggressive to Minoru lol).
Both Aoi's and Shuuji's positive character growth is predicated on the idea of them embracing their true selves more, as part of Survive's ever-going preoccupation with a balance between individualism and collectivism. This is best observed with what ends up being their end-game with regards authority: Shuuji thinks that he needs to be in that center position even though it makes him deeply uncomfortable/he's not suited for it. He has to learn to be okay with taking a more supporting role. Whereas Aoi was being wishy washy about it (and straight up shrinks out of the responsibility in part 2) because of her belief she couldn't handle it and her fears over making the wrong decision/not being able to live up to the expectations. However, it's still a position she ends up occupying as she gets more involved with the group, partly because of her strong sense of responsibility but also because of her want to guide others to the Right Behavior. She wants the respect to take care of the group in a way that allows her to enforce certain behaviors & dynamics and set the tone about how they should operate. Even if that how is getting everyone on board, she still wants that authority to get to do things her way.
In a sense, you could say their positive developments go in opposite directions while still informing the same thematic threads.
