Eheheheh...if enjoying h/c makes one bad then I am damned. But you can find so much out about a character when they're pushed past their limits.

Yeah, I have the impression myself that Gintoki would just as soon Shinpachi and Kagura never find out much about his history - that he considers the war past and done and Shiroyasha's just a ghost, and we know how Gin-san feels about spirits. But it is a big gap. (I actually felt really sorry for Shinpachi here - he was far out of his depth but it's not his fault; he's just a kid, after all. It's...ironic? that Gintoki was probably around the same age himself during the war...)

Heh, yeah, my knowledge of the Bakumatsu is spotty at best and most of it is Shinsengumi-focused, which doesn't help - how did Goryoukaku go down without Hijikata? Though in the Gintama verse, sea battles might've been space battles anyway...