I know there is an immense amount of dislike for his character growth throughout the series culminating in his defeat with Shin which receives lots of criticism. I'd like to share a way I see his character though

Houken was the threshold signaling Shin's departure from looking towards Ouki and Duke Hyou to now looking to his side and starting to see their same "view of a great general". After Houken's defeat we see Shin's capabilities greatly expand with his instinctual type way of warfare, like when he fought bun head and very quickly located and charged after Ou hon when he first saw the massacre, very remincent of Duke Hyou. During the siege afterwards his response to the cavalry charge was very mature and surprised but also greatly pleased everyone. Now during his recent moves with Mouten's left wing spearheading out of the encirclement was nothing but instinct, beggining with his war talks with Kan ki and the rest where he said they needed to procced with caution, then before the battle started he was saying how bad everything looked, no places to start a fire etc...

It now show's Shin taking lead with his army's movements like a real general and I'm super keen for everything to come with the HSU expansion.

This post isn't anything great, it's just my way of seeing Houken that lessens my overall annoyance at his whole character. I do miss him though, no one holds a candle to his intensity on the fields and personally I don't mind his Path seeker narrative or Kyou Kai's breathing technique, however the whole revival stuff was pretty on the nose.