Kara was John's mentor in many ways, and fandom has assumed that their relationship is borderline abusive (though that part is slightly hazy canonically). Really Kara brought out the darkness in John and made him the ruthless killer he is. While for Shaw, although John's not her mentor since they're on the same level (cont.)
John was the one who showed Shaw that saving people had its perks. I do wonder though, both Kara and Shaw aren't bothered by loss of life or killing, but it seems to be that Kara might be more in touch with her feelings than Shaw? Or maybe they're the same... I really wish we had more backstory on Kara
I also kind of read Kara and John's partnership as unhealthy, mostly because her job as his senior (I'm guessing) was to break down his mental barriers to make him do his job better.
I liked that part when John told Shaw about they didn't need to work in darkness alone.
I'm really fascinated with contrasting Kara and John's partnership to Shaw and John's current partnership which is a lot more easy going, maybe a large part because of Harold, but maybe because of who Shaw is too.
Looking into Shaw's partnership with Cole, it seems a lot more relaxed than John and Kara's which I felt was really tense.
hagar-972 and I had a long discussion about Kara and Shaw a few days ago (but this being tumblr its a bit difficult to look for now!) but the conclusion was Kara took to the darkness and embraced it, and meanwhile despite or because of Shaw being Neuroatypical, Shaw has the capability of walking in and out of the job without carrying anything from it.
The same thing that got her kicked out of a medical career serves her well as a government assassin.
John took his job too seriously and tried to take all of Kara's lessons to heart but John isn't about the dark at all and he wore his guilt like a heavy cloak.
I think it helps that Shaw's relationship with John is casual camaraderie, even sibling like. They both know they're highly capable and they can call each other when the other person is being pig headed or rash (There is no dead in team).
