ritsushinbro

[ritsushinbro]

Happy new year to everybody. Let's hope 2022 is a good one.

[ritsushinbro]

Rei plushie and Ritsuko plushie version.

[ritsushinbro]

My thoughts on Kaworu Nagisa in the Rebuilds (spoilers)

So this will be my final piece on the four pilots that aren't Shinji. Kaworu is a difficult one because not only does he get little screentime but he is one of the few characters that is the same person from NGE. Furthermore, it's not a secret that Kaworu is my favourite character and I (along with many others) feel that he got treated the best in the rebuilds not that is saying much. I will not be discussing Kaworu's sexuality because it's not really relevant.

We begin with NGE's episode 24. Shinji is at his worst mentally speaking. His surrogate mother just tried to have sex with him, he just found out Rei is a clone of his mother, Asuka is catatonic in bed and his friends have left Tokyo, one of whom is permanently crippled because of him. As he is watching the sunrise across the lake, his despondent contemplation is disturbed by the cheerful yet slow humming of a boy sat atop an angel statue. Kaworu is humming "Ode to Joy" by Beethoven, a piece that's not only famous for how happy and uplifting it is, but one that has lyrics regarding cherubs (angels) and the unity of men before God. Quite appropriate for what Evangelion is about. Kaworu's first words to Shinji are regarding how music is mankind's greatest achievement and how it can be used to uplift the soul. This directly contradicts Shinji's approach to music as for him, music via the SDAT represents isolation and also compliance via the cello as the only reason he continued playing is because nobody told him to stop playing. Kaworu then refers to Shinji by name much to his amazement. He then goes on to remind Shinji just how important Shinji is. It's important to notice just how straightforward and comfortable Kaworu is in giving Shinji recognition and acknowledgement. 

Kaworu does not specifically refer to Eva piloting which is a stark contrast to what all the other characters do when they try and get Shinji to pilot. Shinji feels he is only wanted because he is an Eva pilot, Kaworu on the other hand recognises Shinji's importance without mentioning piloting and thus sees him as more than just a pilot but instead a child bound by fate like him. Kaworu is so relaxed and cheerful here that he immediately gets on to a first name basis with Shinji, which in Japan I believe is quite a feat. Shinji's first meeting with Kaworu is my favourite scene in all of NGE. The ambience, the colours of the sunset, the cicadas in the background and the humming of ode to joy are all simply brilliant. Ishida's voice elevates the scene as he can perfectly portray the ethereal tone that gives Kaworu that angelic aura. Kaworu then decides to meet with Rei. He mentions how they are both the same which would go on to spur Rei to discover her true identity. This highlights just how familiar and comfortable Kaworu is with his own identity and fate unlike Rei. 

The next scene is right before the bath scene. Shinji is seen waiting for Kaworu and he is actually listening to Ode to Joy. For the first time it seems that Shinji is listening to music for his own enjoyment and not to shut everyone out and it is because of Kaworu. Kaworu intuitively knows that Shinji was waiting for him and immediately comments on it; he has no problem bringing things up that normal people (especially japanese people) would not. In the bath scene we have Kaworu do his monologue on Shinji and people's "hearts". Once again Kaworu is flexing his intuition and basically reading Shinji like a book. Even though it seems unusual, Kaworu talking like this reveals great insight into Shinji as well as the human psyche. After all, understanding the human ego is one of the best ways of transcending it (according to some Buddhist philosophies). Kaworu also makes physical contact by touching Shinji's hand and also says he "loves" him. I believe that this comes across as a Christ-like love due to the aforementioned characteristics and also because I do not believe Kaworu is even aware of romantic love or sex even is. This also highlights how little awareness or regard Kaworu has for social norms despite his understanding of human beings. Telling someone you love them is pretty out there even if your love is genuine and unconditional. I have read some Buddhist and Christian teachings about Saints and Sages who feel unconditional love for all people, however they recommend not directly telling people you love them because people will naturally think you have designs on them. Kaworu on the other hand doesn't seem to care. Pretty funny. 

Next we have the bed scene where Kaworu and Shinji do their pillow talk. Somehow, without even looking at Shinji, Kaworu knows that Shinji has stuff to get off his chest and subsequently offers to listen. Once again, this is further evidence of Kaworu's intuition and celestial nature. And effortlessly, Shinji opens up about his life, people and his hatred for his father. He even questions why he is so open with Kaworu. Kaworu then gives his famous line "I think I was born to meet you". I originally thought this meant that Kaworu was not in control of his fate and came across Shinji by accident and "fell in love" with him, however with the book of life stuff, I don't know any more. Kaworu's scene where he talks with SEELE is quite confusing though. SEELE tells Kaworu that Adam's resurrected body (the embryo) was inside Gendo, so why was Kaworu so shocked to find Lilith and not Adam in Terminal Dogma? I originally wanted to make the point that Kaworu is a being that has no personal will of his own but rather one that follows the will of something greater than himself (Not SEELE, but something like God or the Universe, etc). And as a result of this he couldn't help but follow his instincts towards reuniting with what he thought was Adam AKA himself. I suppose I can still make this point but it is rather confusing with the whole Lilith mix-up. 

I do not believe he deliberately sought to "betray" Shinji. After all, what realistically would have happened if Kaworu reunited with the original Adam? Second impact was caused by Lilin DNA touching Adam-based matter so what could Kaworu have become since he isn't technically a lilin? Giant Naked Kaworu? It makes my brain hurt to think about. However when Kaworu finds out it's actually Lilith down there he realises that touching her would lead to third impact and death to all humanity. As a result, he states that his wish is to die selflessly so that humanity and Shinji may live. This further reinforces his Christ-like character and a being who is not selfish or manipulative as others may tell you. I really like NGE Kaworu. He is a great character and Ishida really nails the otherworldly, detached yet loving, angelic nature that Kaworu has. 

Let's contrast him with his Rebuild counterpart (who is technically supposed to be the exact same character). I'll just be straight up. I do not like rebuild Kaworu. He seems like a caricature and an imitation of NGE Kaworu. He shows fear, sadness, seriousness, disappointment, regret, anger (slightly). He is not the Kaworu I like. He does not exude the same angelic aura that should make you feel safe when he is on the screen. I know he is supposed to be more "human" with the loops but why does that need to be the case? We first see him wake up in the coffins in 1.0 suggesting the loop theory, which isn't something I have a problem with personally. He does mention Shinji though which makes me feel weird because it makes Kaworu seem like a Shinji-stalker instead of albino Jesus. In 2.0 we see Kaworu twice. The first time he is chilling on the moon making Gendo shit his pants and the second time he is stopping NTI whilst promising to help Shinji find happiness. But why? Why is Kaworu so serious here? Why is he only concerned with Shinji? Just like with Shikinami, it's as if Kaworu's entire character was distilled down to one singular characteristic i.e. his affection towards Shinji. It's so shallow. 

This is further evidenced in 3.0 where he tries to act as Shinji's saviour. He tells Shinji that he caused the damage to the world, however the specific language that is used is quite nuanced and implies that Shinji "initiated" it but wasn't the direct cause. However, just like all the characters in 3.0, it was still too vague and ended up pushing Shinji into the desperate wreck we see pulling the spears in Lilith's chamber. Kaworu in 3.0 is happy to give his sagely monologues to Shinji just as he does in NGE. He talks about change and hope and all that, so you genuinely think this kid knows what he is talking about. But his actions tell a different story. Why? Because he does weird things. Why the hell would you take the choker instead of throwing it away? It didn't even kill you (Headless zombie Kaworu still beat Asuka btw) and it didn't even stop the 4th impact anyway. Using your angelic telepathic powers to eject both pilots from Unit 13 would have been a better plan but no, he had to die for plot reasons. He also said nothing when they were being attacked in Lilith's chamber. If he had spoken up earlier, things might have been different. My favourite character was made to act like a dummy and it's infuriating. I do like the piano scenes though. Seeing Kaworu first play the piano in 3.0 is reminiscent of that carefree Kaworu from NGE which is nice. 

In 3.0+1.0, Kaworu is done even dirtier in my opinion. He gets like 2 minutes of screentime (which isn't necessarily a bad thing for someone like Kaworu), however those few seconds just show him as a ghost-tulpa and a goodbye scene. The tulpa just has him repeat his old words and the goodbye scene has him basically get pushed away by Shinji. Furthermore, it shows Kaworu be shown with Kaji and has Kaji basically be the "non-Shinji" person in Kaworu's life if that makes sense. Not only did the rebuilds portray Kaworu as Shinji-orbiting but it then tries to fallaciously "correct" that character defect by having him be shown with Kaji and then subsequently, Rei. It's the movie equivalent of a strawman argument. Make the character have this flaw despite it not being fully congruent with his previous iteration and then try to make it better in a contrived manner. Also, making Kaworu a simp for Shinji (instead of being a Christ-like figure) by having him write Shinji's name in the book of Life is really weird. I don't care what anyone else says. If there is one silver-lining to this "human" Kaworu, it's that I do like the fact we get to see Kaworu crying tears of happiness and pride over Shinji. I can't really explain why I like that, I just know that I do. The last thing we see of Kaworu is in the train station where we actually get a close-up of his face which is better than what we got from the other characters. To conclude, I will just repeat that Kaworu is my favourite character because his original version is basically a saintly character and seems to inspire a lot of hope and compassion. The rebuild version on the other hand, is just a generic deuteragonist in 3.0 due to the range of human emotions he expresses. I do not get the celestial aura from him I got from the NGE version.   

[ritsushinbro]

My thoughts on Mari in the Rebuilds (spoilers)

I'm dropping my thoughts on Mari. To be honest, everytime I sat down to write about her, my mind just went blank and I actually had what I believe is called "writer's block". It's just that she is such a blank and confusing character that it is extremely hard to talk about her. The fact that she doesn't have an NGE counterpart to compare and contrast with also makes it difficult. As a result, this one is going to be a lot less comprehensive than the ones I did for Asuka and Rei. I'm not gonna talk about her agenda or who she works for because that to me is too complex.

We first see Mari in 1.0's preview with her staring at the sky. She has a concerned and solemn look on her face which suggests she may be an intriguing and empathetic character. However when she is reintroduced as the pilot of Unit 05, we learn she is a bombastic and hyperactive girl that talks a lot (even to Zeruel) and has no qualms with being reckless with her Eva. A pretty stark contrast from the first visual impression from the preview but I imagine at that point they didn't know what sort of character they wanted her to be. Her next scene is when she parachutes from the sky and lands on top of Shinji...where she smothers his face with her breasts and also waves her butt in front of him….After "finding her glasses" she then proceeds to CRAWL towards Shinji and then SMELL him to say how good he smells. Take into account that this boy just met her and she's just rubbed her boobs in his face and basically gave him an upskirt view, it seems a little on the nose. Now that we know she's far older than she looks and actually knew Shinji as a toddler, her "interest" in Shinji is highly inappropriate; I wouldn't go as far as "creepy" because she does display *some* detachment from Shinji (I'll talk about the AA rounds soon) but just inconsiderate of other people's personal space and comfort, but then again this is an anime so funny tropes like this do exist. 

I know Kaji invades Shinji's space too but he at least says that he is kidding afterwards, Mari does not. We also see her use the term "puppy" to describe Shinji. We learn in Shin that she only calls him this because Shinji has refused to "grow up and take responsibility" but that doesn't make sense because Shinji at this point of the story has not displayed any "immaturity". The Bardiel thing hasn't happened yet and Shinji is actually making friends and doing things. He even promised Kaji to look after Misato. Mind we don't see him saying this, but let's just take writer liberties and assume he agreed, after all why would Kaji even ask him if he didn't think he was mature enough to handle it. At this point Shinji is arguably the most mature and confident (even with piloting) he's ever been so to say that Mari calls him "puppy" because he acts like a little boy is just ridiculous (if we are to take it seriously). After we see her job to Zeruel, we see her give a "pep-talk" to Shinji (not really, she actually tells Shinji to run away and escape) but she does show Zeruel consuming Unit 00 which is the thing that spurs Shinji on to pilot again. What's interesting though is how bland her dialogue is. From reading the script again, she actually says to Shinji not for him to be hard on himself as it would stop having fun from piloting. This dialogue shows that Mari really does not understand Shinji, she does not understand the reasons for his hesitation and she simply insists that he "has fun". I don't want to make a false equivalence but a similar analogy would be saying to a depressed person to simply be happy. This is funny because this attitude to what other people are going through is pervasive in Japanese culture. I watched a video of Chris from the Abroad in Japan channel and he actually talked about that exact scenario in which a doctor told a depressed foreigner (not ethnic Japanese) to simply "just be happy". 

It's quite unusual. Another thing that this shows about Mari's character is that she is just shallow. That's the only word I can describe her as: Shallow. "Just have fun" she exclaims. In the world of Eva, this is not so easy, but Mari is supposed to be the hyperactive genki girl right? Just forget about trauma and hurt and just lose yourself to enjoyment and fun-seeking. This message is a stark difference from NGE's message that introspection will lead to self-love. Her next scene is where she is commenting on Shinji saving Rei. She says that Shinji just managed to save everyone and she also commented on his smell again. It's strange how even though NTI was occuring, Mari acknowledged that Shinji just saved everyone's ass from Zeruel (which Misato belatedly does in Shin). So why the hostility from WILLE in 3.0? It's theorised that Mari knew Kaji so why couldn't she use that connection to explain or at least talk some sense into Misato to acknowledge that he saved them instead of being callous. Misato is less likely to brush aside the colleague or friend of her dead lover as she may do someone else. Which brings me to 3.0. Mari is obviously still the genki girl we see in 2.0 (she teases Asuka about Shinji), but she seems so trigger-happy, it's very jarring. I can understand her not holding back against Rei Q but she has no hesitation shooting Shinji either. Remember this is the son of someone she knew and was fond of, someone she knew as a baby. And yet, when Asuka gives the authorisation to employ the potentially lethal AA rounds, Mari celebrates that she finally gets a chance to use them and just straight up shoots at Shinj and Kaworui. Absolutely no hesitation whatsoever. And I have talked about this with Asuka, but Mari doesn't attempt to first talk Shinji down either. She goes full attack mode from the start just like Asuka did but what's Mari's excuse? 

She doesn't have the chip on her shoulder that Asuka does so why did Mari not attempt to talk Shinji down instead when Mark 09 went into hiding? She didn't, she just went "shoot first, talk later" like a good little soldier. My first thought when watching this the first time was "lapdog". That's the only way I can describe Mari working for WILLE. "Lapdog". We are led to believe that Mari cares for Shinji, she knew him as a baby and she also wore her school uniform in the supplementary manga because she wanted Shinji to recognise her and yet she doesn't care at all about potentially killing him because WILLE told her to. My previous point still stands, Mari is shallow but she is also WILLE's lapdog. Not once do we see her attempting to talk to WILLE or Misato to at least let her talk to Shinji or to show leniency so she could talk him down. If they at least showed a 10 second interaction of Mari begging Misato/Asuka to let her try and get through to Shinji then that would have at least justified the ending a little bit. But no. She was such a non-character all she did was blindly follow WILLE's orders. The fact that she was made to "destroy Eva" and yet still listened to WILLE, makes her character even more incoherent. I have seen people try and argue that Mari "saved" Shinji by ejecting him from Unit 13 and this was proof she cared for him. The truth is Mari knew that Shinji was "SEELE's backup" and she needed to eject Shinji to stop the 4th impact. There was no "care" involved. Mari also takes this time to give Shinji another "pep-talk" in which she tells Shinji to "stop being a baby", "save the princess [Asuka]", "you're a man" and "get to know the world". Here's why Mari's comments are nonsensical. Shinji has just found out he "destroyed" the world (still up for debate though, don't let anyone say he DEFINITELY did cause Third Impact because we still don't know how Shinji caused it, if he did at all). 

He also found out the girl he tried to save, not only "died" but was a clone of his dead mother. Oh and let's not forget he just saw the only person who was ever kind to him get his head blown clean off by the bomb collar Shinji's so-called mother-figure placed on HIM to "punish" him over something she would later go on to admit was the right thing to do. Shinji isn't being a "baby". He is understandably traumatised. Mari knew Kaworu had died because the DSS Choker was showing blue-blood and she also knew Shinji was still alive. So Mari must have known Shinji just saw Kaworu die and yet still had the nerve to say that. Secondly, Shinji could not "save the princess" because Shinji had lost control of Unit 13, he could do nothing, but to Mari's defense we don't know if she knew this. Thirdly, Shinji is not "a man". He is a 14 year old boy who's voice hasn't even broke yet. Lastly, what does Mari mean by "learn about the world". All Shinji knows at that point is that he destroyed the world and everyone hates him and even the people who should care about him the most are willing to threaten and try to kill him with a bomb collar. What is there for Shinji to "learn"? In fact, what *does* Shinji "learn" in Shin that gets him back on his feet? Well, apparently it's Rei Q telling him that the people in the village actually like him (I'm paraphrasing). Wait….Are you saying that all Shinji needed was kindness and support? That was all that was needed to make him a helpful human being instead of someone to be afraid of? Well colour me shocked. If only WILLE did that from the start, then maybe he would not have run off with Rei and then go on to cause N4I. As usual Mari is talking rubbish and her comments just make her and WILLE look dumb. 

Mari's first scene in Shin is her fighting in Paris. She's still the same: hyperactive, chatty, out of control almost. However she makes a strange vow to find Shinji wherever she is whilst also still referring to him as "puppy". What? Since when did she care about Shinji? She tried to kill him a short while ago. If anything she should be more concerned about her co-pilot of 14 years. There is a sudden shift in Mari's tone towards Shinji in shin. She's portrayed as someone who's always watched out or cared for Shinji like some guardian angel. But we as the viewer know this is just plain wrong considering how trigger-happy she was in the previous film. The only way one could reconcile her change in attitude towards Shinji with her also trying to harm him, is by subscribing to the belief that Shinji was just being "immature" and needed to be stopped for his own good. I have already explained why that is not the case, but that will not stop people from saying this because not doing so will force them to confront just how unfair the writing and the plot has been to Shinji. Her second scene with Shinji involves her properly introducing herself to him. Oh she also covered his eyes, rubbed her boobs on him and also talked about her large breasts. Keep in mind, this girl is the same generation as his mother and has known him since he was a baby. She also tried to hurt/kill him in Lilith's chamber. This scene was just fan-service. If there was a time for Mari to "drop the genki act" and show her more tender side or even give Shinji some advice or just to tell him to keep his chin up, this was it. But Khara obviously wanted their girl to be a completely 1-dimensional character right to last minute so what can I say. 

Next we have Mari, making another vow to find Shinji (rather that he should wait for her because she will come for him). I can only reiterate what I said about the Paris fight. Why does she suddenly show so much devotion to Shinji now? People say she only showed interest in him after he showed signs of "maturation" but what were these signs? Shinji allowing himself to be imprisoned by WILLE again? He came back to fight his father, but WILLE (Sakura/Midori/Tama) were willing to kill him to stop him piloting so that doesn't make sense. Or maybe it was Shinji allowing himself to be tazed by Asuka? Or maybe it was Shinji "admitting" that he didn't do enough to save Asuka from Bardiel. It's been discussed ad nauseum, but there was really nothing Shinji could do. Asuka was already infected by the time Shinji was sortied and he couldn't kill her because the dummy plug already tried. So what did Shinji admit to? A plot-hole? Is this what Mari is looking for in a partner? Is this what the film is trying to say being a "man" is about? Letting people punish you and lock you up? Letting people try and shoot you and blow your head off with a bomb collar even though you are their last hope? Admitting you were in the wrong when technically you weren't? Shinji's "growth" is contrived and Mari apparently respecting Shinji more because of his "maturation" is hypocritical. 

Don't stand up for yourself. Don't hold people accountable. Just lie down and take everyone's hostility and you will get a gorgeous, large-breasted GF who also happens to be old enough to be your mother. That's what Mari's change in attitude towards Shinji shows. Her saying Shinji "smells like an adult" only reinforces this. I don't care about "Buddha Shinji'' or that he "Just live and let live" like some anons have said. Shinji's treatment and eventual capitulation is a terrible message and it's gaslighting the audience into thinking all of Shinji's problems were caused by him and his “immaturity”. Mari is one of the major characters that partakes in this gaslighting. I'm not gonna talk about her defeating the Mark 09 evas and basically becoming God. The Mari Sue angle has been discussed to death so there's no point in me doing it. This by no means comprehensively discusses the problems I have with Mari as it has been a while since I last watched the films but to summarise, Mari is a shallow, empty character existing purely for fan service and merchandise.

[ritsushinbro]

My Thoughts on Rei Ayanami in the Rebuilds (spoilers)

I thought I would continue my posts on the characterisation within the rebuilds. I have already done Asuka so I thought I would do Rei next. Honestly I was quite reluctant to post my thoughts on Rei (and the other pilots I have saved) because they are quite critical and I worry it may come across as repetitive. So if you guys still want my Mari and Kaworu posts then please say. There’s less I have to say about Rei because although I feel she was neglected by the writers, I do not feel Rei herself was made to act obtuse or as an extreme caricature of her NGE counterpart. 1.0 does not seem to change Rei’s character as the film is a condensed version of the first few episodes of NGE. So I can’t really complain about the first rebuild and Rei as there is not much difference. 2.0 however does deviate a lot and places a lot of character “development” on Rei very quickly. This is another example of 2.0 having to fit too much into one movie so they could get to the rebuild equivalent of episode 19. The two most prominent examples of this is the elevator scene and Rei’s decision to cook for Shinji and Gendo. The former has her prevent Asuka from hitting her, this indicates that Rei has become a lot more human and is now beginning to value herself than her NGE counterpart at this point in the story. However this “humanisation” comes across as a lot more sudden than it does in NGE (as to be expected from a movie) as it seemed not just a few days ago that Rei was lamenting about how isolated she felt when looking at the fish in the aquarium. What caused that sudden shift? The miso soup that Shinji gave her? Was that all it took to make Rei become a lot more sociable (much to Touji’s surprise) and then deciding to enquire about the value of eating in the company of others with Gendo of all people? It just seems extremely weird to have that miso soup be the catalysis for such sudden character development. I cannot complain however, because I do feel this change in Rei’s behaviour is in keeping with her character (despite it being relatively more extroverted by comparison with her NGE counterpart). 

One thing I do seem to have a problem with however is Rei’s principle desire to kill Zeruel in order to keep Shinji from piloting again. The reason I furrow my brow at this, is because Zeruel is not the final angel so killing it wouldn’t exactly mean they would be in the clear and Shinji would be liberated from his piloting responsibilities. Another thing is that Shinji was pissed off at his father for forcing him to hurt Asuka with the dummy plug; it wasn’t piloting that hurt Shinji but his father’s decisions. Even though Shinji never actually spoke to Rei after Bardiel (I think, it has been a while since I saw 2.0), why would Rei assume it was the piloting itself that was causing Shinji pain and not his father? After all, Shinji was actually getting used to piloting (as evidenced by the pilots’ cooperation with sahaquiel and Shinji’s comments that Unit 01 is comforting to be inside. But honestly, I am being pedantic here and this is not as big a plot discrepancy as I am making it out to be. Another thing that I just remembered is why would Rei tell Shinji during his rescue attempt that she is replaceable and that Shinji should just abandon her because that is her life now which shows deep resignation to her own life. But this goes against her previous development in the elevator scene where she stops Asuka from hitting her which shows she values herself. Kinda weird considering Shinji was already past the point of no return but whatever. 

3.0 does mess with her character a lot though. All the character development that Rei had and especially her connection with Shinji was all thrown out the window. The Rei that Shinji knew was long gone and all that was left was a robotic look alike that does nothing but follow orders. The writers messed up a bit with this because at least in NGE we know that the memories of the prior Rei clones carry over which leads Rei III to fuck Gendo over for Shinji in EoE. They could have shown small aspects of this with Rei Q but they don’t. They have Rei Q see a spectre of Rei in a school uniform when she is in her maintenance tank but that doesn’t go anywhere as we learn the original Rei is chilling inside Unit 01. So who the hell was that ghost Rei or was it just a hallucination from the original? If it is the latter, then Rei Q’s connection with Rei 2.0 doesn’t get foreshadowed well enough IMO, they should have shown the ghost Rei in a white plugsuit instead of a school uniform, because the latter just makes it seem like they wanted to do a quantum Rei storyline but copped out. Now that we know she is a completely different person, we have Rei Q constantly questioning her identity as Rei Ayanami as she should so I have no complaints about that. She even resorts to asking Asuka what the original Rei would do to which Asuka replies what she wants to do instead of what Rei would do. This indicates that Rei Q is and will be getting her own development as her own person in the next film which honestly makes sense if what actually happens isn’t so tragic. 

3.0+1.0 is gracious enough to give Rei Q a lot of development in the village. She learns about farming, animals, babies, food (there is a call back to the miso soup) and even wears a school uniform. She even asks Asuka for a name to which I believe she replies with “Lot-chan” (correct me if I’m wrong). She very quickly becomes her own person. However, like 2.0,  I think this development is too quick as it was only a few hours ago she was so obsessed with following orders that she beheaded Mark 06 to release the angel and help doom the world, but this is neither here nor there. It genuinely feels like Rei Q is going to become her own character separate from the other Rei. She even develops her own feelings for Shinji (which is also too quick and sudden IMO) and helps him recover psychologically after Asuka’s loving and tender (sarcasm, obviously) feeding attempt went wrong.

However this is where things go wrong. It is revealed that Rei and all her clones have “programmed” feelings for Shinji which completely remove all authenticity of Shinji’s and Rei’s relationship. Rei states that this doesn’t bother her but it really should because it doesn’t make sense as both iterations of Rei were indifferent to Shinji. Neither of them showed that they were programmed to love him so that is just a mistake from the writers there. Furthermore, Rei Q does not get to see another day, as it turns out she will die without her tank. So she goes to Shinji, gives him back his SDAT, confesses her feelings and then just explodes into LCL. Oh but not before she confesses her feelings for him and her plugsuit changes to the original Rei’s white colour scheme. Like why would the writers do this?! You spend all that time developing another character and reinforcing her individuality only to bloody kill her off and then fuse her with the original Rei. It’s so dumb and achieves nothing narratively wise other than making the original Rei baby-crazy. Furthermore, her death apparently makes Shinji summon the will to fight against Gendo by going to the wunder, where people still want to kill him. How, when Shinji is still grieving from Kaworu, you would think another death would just add to it but no. A contrived death to make a contrived recovery.

And now we have Shinji’s reunion with the original Rei in Unit 01. What can I say about this that hasn’t already been said? It’s done in a studio and is pure meta-commentary. Like why? There is even a cringy title-drop in their meeting. It’s so stupid. Although their talk is more intimate than Asuka’s goodbye, the tenderness is completely ruined by it being in a studio. They could have done it in the aquarium for God’s sake or even in the place where she first smiles at him after ramiel. It is just completely laughable. I am not gonna talk about Rei concealing Shinji’s synch scores because that kinda speaks for itself. Shinji tells Rei to leave because apparently Mari is gonna pick him up. How can this be the case, considering he planned on killing himself but maybe he just didn’t want to scare Rei or he thought Mari could bring him back, who knows? Rei was extremely protective over Shinji (her concealing his synch scores) and this is portrayed as a bad thing as it means Shinji has forced Rei to be self-sacrificial for him. So he lets Rei go, except he has replaced her with Mari who stated she will always be wherever he is or something like that and that he should wait for her. So effectively he has just substituted Rei for Mari in the dutiful roles they play in Shinji’s life and one is portrayed as bad and the latter is portrayed as good?

Finally, Rei is shown in the train scene with Kaworu but her face is not even shown. I don’t care about the Kaworei implications but the fact that Shinji is not even shown to acknowledge the girl he ended the world for (supposedly) is absolutely egregious. Let’s not forget that Rei is Shinji’s only blood relative (which he should be aware of after 3.0 and if not definitely after instrumentality) so you would think that he would keep her close in the new world. But no, he runs off with Mari and refuses to meet with Rei again because of the meta “moving on” motif and because according to some users, he feels “guilt” for Rei apparently sacrificing herself for Shinji. But why should Shinji feel guilt (as evidenced by him still wearing the choker if that is what it symbolises)? Rei was the one that decided to prevent Shinji from piloting out of her own volition, Shinji never asked her to do that, in fact it was a hindrance to him in 3.0. And it is not like Shinji did nothing in return for her, he treated her with kindness, introduced her to food, helped her become human and ultimately saved her from zeruel and gave her a new life. Even for Rei Q, Shinji tried to connect with her and gave her books to read so it’s not like Shinji is someone who does nothing for anybody, so why should he feel guilt for people doing things for him out of their own choice? Because Anno needed to give a reason for Shinji to leave his closest friends including his only blood relative and not even having the decency to see her face in the end. 

[ritsushinbro]

Abuse and Neglect in Rebuild of Evangelion (spoilers)

Edit: Please read my post about WILLE (the first link below) before you read this one. It will provide some much needed context on the severity of their decisions and why it goes beyond the simple neglect we see in NGE. It also discusses why the neglect in NGE is more unintentional and a product of the situation as opposed to the deliberate (and arguably unnecessary) harm that occurs in the rebuilds. Thank you.

One of the major reasons why I dislike the rebuilds is because I can't really shake off the idea that Anno kind of glossed over the extremely negative treatment a lot of the adults exhibited towards the young pilots, in particular towards Shinji. Evangelion has always been a medium that revolves around it's characters and their relationships with each other. As a result, despite being a show about giant humanoid cyborgs and lovecraftian aliens, having realistic interactions between the characters is of the utmost importance and also the lessons that are to be learned from these. And yet, I simply do not believe this was achieved with the rebuilds and because of the poor characterisations, a severely negative message is portrayed.

Why Shinji/Kaworu most likely did not cause 3rd impact.

To begin, we must first establish a case as to why Shinji or Kaworu most likely did not cause 3rd impact as that is one of the major reasons as to why Shinji in particular (as one example of adult on child abuse) is treated negatively. Here is my list of reasons:

We see Kaworu stop NTI with the spear of cassius.

Anno has recently confirmed at an event (I have forgotten which one) that the preview at the end of 2.0 was canon. Edit: Reference below.

The preview showed that the earth was not destroyed by NTI as we see in 3.0.

We do not see any Failures of Infinity.

WILLE never say that Shinji caused 3rd impact, but they do mention "awakenings".

We find out that there is a time gap between NTI and 3rd impact. Considering that Misato was still pregnant before Kaji stopped the 3rd impact, we can estimate the time gap to be around a few months.

We can see Unit 01 still impaled with the spear and was also surrounded by angel-sealing pillars that stop Evas from functioning.

We see Mark 06 descending down into dogma.

Mark 06 is the one that is found in Liliths chamber fused to Lilith.

Mark 06 is the one we see when Kaji stops 3rd impact.

Kaworu states that Mark 06 was made to be completely autonomous.

Gendo states that SEELE were trying to cause 3rd impact by awakening Mark 06.

Midori and Sakura explicitly blame Shinji for NTI, not 3rd impact, when they try to shoot him.

As a result of these factors, I am of the belief that it was SEELE that caused 3rd impact using Mark 06 and the 12th angel. I don't believe that Shinji or Kaworu were responsible for 3rd impact as many other people believe. Further evidence to support this is the fact Unit 01's tesseract in space is protected by SEELE's Mark 4 drones which makes sense considering they would have been the only ones with the resources to put Unit 01 up there to stop Gendo from using it for his own purposes. SEELE removing Gendo as NERV's commander and replacing him with Kaworu also indicates that they were displeased with Gendo awakening Unit 01 and took the necessary precautions to ensure Gendo could not access Unit 01.

NOTE: Despite this, Kaworu's dialogue with Shinji in 3.0 has Shinji be made responsible for the devastation we see in that film. There are multiple subs which have different interpretations of Kaworu's words, however the audio does have Kwworu say "you" in japanese. There are two subs that come to mind here: one in which Kaworu says "You were the cause of all this'' and another where he says "You were the key to all this". I do not know which is the correct interpretation as I do not speak japanese so I will not try to argue that. However I will say regarding both translations is that it doesn't explain *how* Shinji was responsible for 3rd impact if he indeed was considering the above evidence. It just kind of says that he is, which is iffy at best.

We must also consider the fact that Kaworu may not have all the facts and may be being manipulated by Gendo to have him act as Shinji's saviour by telling him Shinji was responsible for 3rd impact *somehow*. We know Kaworu is capable of being tricked by Gendo as he does so in Lilith's chamber with the spears. Another potential theory is (and this one breaks my heart to contemplate considering the fact that Kaworu is my favourite character) that Kaworu was simply manipulating Shinji in order to get Shinji to pilot again. This is unlikely considering that we find out Kaworu was obsessed with Shinji's happiness in instrumentality, however there may be some twisted logic there, to have him pilot so then they can fix the world and live happily ever after. Maybe, who knows?

Another potential idea as to why Kaworu may have said Shinji was responsible was the fact that Shinji left the world completely vulnerable by awakening Unit 01 and then was absorbed by it. Because Shinji was not able to pilot Unit 01 (as he was LCL at the time), no other Evas were present to defend Lilith from the autonomous Mark 6. As a result the blame fell onto Shinji because he wasn't there to protect them (Unit 02 was damaged and Unit 00 was consumed by Zeruel). This is an interesting approach to culpability as it may not make sense to western audiences but may make sense in the eyes of japanese audiences (as they may have different cultural attitudes to blame and culpability). Other theories include the idea that Kaworu himself did not blame Shinji for 3rd impact, however he may have been speaking hypothetically from the perspective of the "lilin". "You may not have been responsible for 3rd impact but that's not what the lilin think". Kaworu could have been speaking hypothetically on the lilin's behalf, telling Shinji what they think he did even if he might not have done it. Just another perspective.

The final explanation may be that 3.0 is simply lying. I have discussed in another post that I believe 3.0 (via WILLE) sought to condemn Shinji and have him be the face of blame and devastation and they sacrificed realism and good writing to achieve that. Having said that, could it be the case that 3.0 simply made out Shinji to be responsible for the 3rd impact (when he most likely wasn't) just so he could spiral further into his depression and have him be at the same state he was in EoE? I say this because 3.0 contradicts 2.0 and 3.0+1.0 which have Shinji be responsible for NTI and not 3rd impact. 3.0 appears to be the odd one out here so I personally believe it cannot be taken at face value. It certainly wouldn't be the first time 3.0 was accused of having forced, contrived and even contradictory writing. This is just my theory and people are free to make their own interpretations.

Edit: Kaworu says to Shinji that he was the "key/cause" to all "this" [what we are led to believe is the aftermath of 3rd impact]. However, Kaworu and Shinji are located at where NERV is during that conversation, which also happens to be where NTI took place. Therefore it is possible that Kaworu is only referring to the immediate, localised destruction that NTI caused when he is having his conversation with Shinji, and not in fact saying Shinji was responsible for 3rd impact.

Why WILLE's treatment of the pilots was excessive.

Now that we have put forth the case why Shinji (or Kaworu) was not responsible for 3rd impact, we now move on to why WILLE's treatment of Shinji and the other pilots were excessive, paranoid and bordering on abuse. I have made a very long post about this very subject here: [https://ritsushinbro.tumblr.com/post/650898276895358976/my-critique-of-rebuild-of-evangelions]. To quote a few reasons:

WILLE placed the choker on Shinji despite the fact they never wanted him to pilot and never anticipated NERV would come after him to make him pilot.

They state the choker is his punishment and Ritsuko states she doesn't blame him for panicking, indicating they knew the effect it would have on him and yet carried on anyway.

They never explain why he needs it on, as Ritsuko mentions "awakenings" but pivots to Sakura when Shinji asks.

Misato stays silent when Shinji asks why the situation has become so dire that he requires a bomb collar.

They intended to put him solitary confinement (that may be rigged to explode like Asuka's and Mari's cells are); solitary confinement has high rates of self-harm and suicide (please see above link for more information).

Misato gave the crew permission to shoot him if he was seen trying to pilot despite the fact Unit 01 was being used as an engine and entering it would have been impossible.

These are just a few reasons why WILLE were over the top against Shinji. We can confirm that even WILLE acknowledge this as the bridge-crew dialogue has them state that Shinji caused NTI accidentally and Misato states that they all would have died had Shinji not awoken Unit 01 against Zeruel. Their reasons for "punishing" Shinji were shaky at best due to their own admissions in the final film. One reason, I have heard from others regarding the choker is that WILLE could not predict the future or that they believed Shinji was an angel and therefore the choker was needed. However if WILLE were that paranoid, why would they bring Shinji to the bridge just tell him not to pilot, why would they leave him to be escorted by Sakura and why would they bring him to the interrogation room instead of keeping him in one place? This is further challenged by the fact they were not aware that Shinji was NERV's target as we can confirm from Ritsuko's surprise. To have them place the choker on Shinji because they don't know what might happen makes no sense. In order to make a decision for something that might happen in the future involves first predicting what might happen. But the problem here is that they didn't know what might happen, so how did they know that the choker is the failsafe that would help with that? What if Gendo tricking Misato into killing Shinji was part of his plan (hypothetically speaking)? The choker therefore is the wrong thing to use is it not? There is also the fact that the DSS choker has a limited range. If Shinji somehow escaped then there is a limited time by which they have to detonate it but then again that would require foresight that Shinji would be given the opportunity to escape and there is no evidence the crew had this for the above reasons. In other words the choker is useless (for this particular purpose) if Shinji has already escaped. This whole reasoning is strange, it comes across like this:

"Look Shinji, we have no idea what your father is after. Actually we do, it's Unit 01. Buuut we can't predict the future. So we're gonna put a bomb on your neck. Just in case you try to leave. Which probably won't happen because as we said, your dad is probably after Unit 01, not you. And even if you do leave, we can't detonate it if you are out of range. But you know...just to be safe. Also we're putting that bomb collar on you as a punishment. What for? Because you awoke Unit 01 of course. What's awakening? Weeeelllll, here's Sakura talk to her instead."

Saying they placed the choker on him because they couldn't predict what may happen makes no sense because of the above. Especially considering the fact one function of the choker was to serve as Shinji's punishment indicating there was a punitive reasoning underlying everything. And therein lies the rub. The fact that WILLE wanted to punish Shinji AT ALL (despite the fact they were aware he was groomed by Gendo, did it by accident and he in fact saved them from a worse fate) with something as bizarre and dehumanising as a bomb collar, is proof of unnecessary abuse. It was not necessary for Ritsuko to tell Shinji he was being punished. She could have just said that Gendo may plan to use him to start 3rd impact and therefore it's needed. They could have not placed it on him in the first place, explained everything and then asked him to wear the choker with HIS OWN CONSENT. We know Shinji is not incapable of this as he himself offers to wear the choker in 3.0+1.0. The fact is, Misato and Ritsuko deliberately threatened and sought to instill fear and dread into Shinji using the choker instead of explaining why it was necessary (even though I have put forth the argument why it isn't in the first place, please see the linked post) when they were given the opportunity to do so, when Shinji was begging for answers, is proof of deliberate psychological abuse on their part especially considering the fact they would later admit they knew Shinji caused NTI by accident and saved their lives from Zeruel.

Add on top the effects of the solitary confinement on a 14 year old boy as well as the permission to shoot given to the crew by Misato, and Misato kind of becomes irredeemable as their own actions (bringing him to the interrogation room instead of keeping him in one place) indicates they were not truly as paranoid of him as originally thought and they were kind of being excessive for the sake of it. WILLE could have treated Shinji as an extra crew member and kept him busy. They could have had him shadow Sakura in the medical bay or even have him working in the kitchen. They could have even just taken him to the village where Gendo couldn't get his hands on him thanks to the angel-sealing pillars surrounding the place. Hell, if the choker was absolutely necessary then they could have explained everything to him first (in a non-hostile and non-antagonising manner) and asked him if he would wear the choker. He may refuse at first but once he understood the gravity of the situation he may accept eventually (as he does in this film). There was so much WILLE/Misato could have done with Shinji and yet because of their desire to punish and basically abuse him, Shinji was so afraid/angry that he just left the first chance he could and became Gendo's puppet. Not only that but had he stayed on the wunder, then the hostile environment may have lead to him commiting suicide or losing his sanity to the point where he would no longer be able to pilot should they need him to (Gendo did use Asuka as a backup to awaken Unit 13, Shinji staying on the wunder would not guarantee Gendo can't proceed with his plans). However it's not like WILLE treat their own pilots any better. After 14 years, WILLE still think it's necessary to rig their rooms with explosives (they even add extra in 3.0+1.0 for… reasons) just to sate their paranoia…. after 14 years. They were aware at that point that the wunder could be hacked by some of NERV's Evas and yet they continued rigging the explosives. What if the Mark 09 hacked into the wunder and triggered the explosives, what would WILLE do then? 3.0+1.0 has another case of a NERV Eva infecting the wunder again so it's not like it was impossible to do multiple times. WILLE placed their own pilots (both of whom are physically children) in incredible danger just so they could feel better about themselves; Asuka even states "they trust us less and less". This was right after the fact that Asuka and Mari actually prevented N4I, so why WILLE would decide on this (and why Misato would allow it) is lost on me.

Why Gendo and NERV were irredeemable.

Let's move on to NERV i.e. Gendo and Fuyutsuki. These two guys have been discussed to death in regards to how they treat the pilots and in particular Rei. They completely dehumanise her and raise her to be nothing more than an expendable clone. Not to mention the fact that she is a result of their desire to be with Yui and therefore the potential rape/sexual abuse implications must not be dismissed despite there not being overt evidence of such things in the rebuilds. However in contrast to their NGE counterparts, 3.0 and 3.0+1.0 do ratchet up the mistreatment of Rei considerably. The advanced Ayanami series are described by Fuyutsuki as having no sexual characteristics and it is followed up by an ominous shot of one of the clones' eyes. They are twitching uncontrollably as if she has been lobotomised. The fact that Gendo and Fuyutsuki removed such significant parts of the human psyche (sexuality, cognition, etc) from the Rei clones is certainly a lot creepier than anything they did to her previously. 2.0 and 3.0+1.0 have both Rei II and Rei Q slowly learn to be human and in both cases, their interest in Shinji serves as the catalyst for that. For this to be removed effectively turns them into brain dead zombies that only exist for NERV's use. It's really quite cruel because they have effectively created mentally handicapped girls for their own nefarious purposes. One interesting thing though is Fuyutsuki confronting Gendo over him trying to make Shinji feel the same pain as Gendo after Rei Q's death. This isn't the first time Fuyutsuki comments on Gendo and Shinji's relationship (Yui's death anniversary comes to mind), however I do not think this is supposed to come across as Fuyutsuki caring about the pilots in particular. Rather it may be more that Fuyutsuki is simply challenging Gendo because he can. After all, despite working for him, it does not appear that he and Gendo are on particularly good terms and they are apparently love rivals. Fuyutsuki taking the opportunity to attack Gendo by using the way he treats the pilots against him, does seem coherent in my book.

The Shikinami series get even worse treatment in my opinion. It turns out that Asuka is a clone from Euro-NERV and she was made to participate in battle-royale type simulations. The clones that lost said simulations were "terminated". Taking into account that this is *before* the timeskip where the war has tossed out all semblance of human rights, this is actually insane. Having multiple Asuka clones effectively fight in a gladiatorial manner in which the losers are killed is the most inhumane thing that I can personally think of in Evangelion. Adding to the fact that Gendo somehow acquired the original Asuka and placed her soul into Unit 13 whilst also using the normal Asuka as a catalyst for awakening Unit 13, it really makes Gendo truly villainous.

Another person who Gendo abused was his own son. Abandoning him, forcing him to pilot, grooming him to cause NTI and letting him take the fall for it and then also manipulating him into causing another impact. Gendo has subjected Shinji to ridiculous levels of psychological abuse and neglect, however Gendo does have *some* plausible deniability as he does not directly harm Shinji as Misato/Ritsuko have, but instead works through intermediaries. He uses Kaworu to "reveal" that Shinji caused the devastation of the planet (this is assuming Gendo has fed Kaworu false information), he supposedly altered Rei Q's calibration so she dies in front of Shinji to break him (this is according to Fuyutsuki) and he also uses Fuyutsuki to drive Shinji over the edge by revealing that Rei is a clone of Yui and that they are both trapped inside Unit 01 (imagine finding out the girl you almost ended the world for is a clone of your mom). It really does not make sense why Shinji could be so forgiving towards Gendo when all these are taken into account (Shinji would be aware of Gendo's games since they were in instrumentality).

Why I believe the film(s) ignore abuse.

This brings me now to the main crux of this post. How does the film treat the adults that are clearly abusing the young pilots? Well we must compare it to how they were treated in NGE and EoE first. For example, Gendo did a lot of the same things he did in the rebuilds, he cloned Rei and treated her as his tool and even sexually assaulted her in EoE. He forced his son to pilot and traumatised him with the dummy plug (he did not set out to traumatise in this scene but he does smirk as Touji is being hurt revealing his callousness). One could argue that Gendo was not as bad as he was in the rebuilds and yet how does his arc end? He gets violently rejected by Yui and he in the end does not get what he sets out to achieve, which was to be with his wife. Ritsuko is similarly callous towards the pilots. She also forced Shinji to pilot in the first episode and in her final interactions with him, she sought to destroy his psyche (not dissimilar to what Fuyutsuki does to Shinji in 3.0) by revealing what Rei is and by also making fun of Yui's death to Shinji. Ritsuko also destroys the dummy plug effectively killing multiple Rei clones (she doesn't even consider them to be human) simply because she was envious of the attention they get from Gendo. What happens to Ritsuko in the end? She gets shot by Gendo, the man she suspended all her morals for, and the very last thing she sees was the thing she hated the most, Rei. Her mother Naoko, is another short and sweet example of how abuse of children usually leads to negative consequences for those that perpetrate it. Naoko strangles the tiny Rei (who can't be older than 8 or 9) out of rage and jealousy to which the plot swiftly punishes Naoko by having her fall to her death in an alleged suicide. Misato is also rebuked for her behaviour towards Shinji as well. Shinji almost violently rejects her preposition in episode 23 causing him to stay with Kaworu in the next episode and there is dialogue where Misato is called out on "cleaning [Shinji's] tonsils with her tongue" in reference to her kissing him in EoE. Firstly it must be noted I am not defending or excusing Misato's actions here, but it should be considered that despite Shinji's negative reaction, Misato did have good albeit misguided intentions. She wasn't intentionally trying to actively intimidate or threaten him as she does in the rebuilds with his "punishment" (the choker).

Having said that, how does the plot rebuke the actions of the adults in the rebuilds despite them arguably being far more abusive than their NGE counterparts? Well, they don't really. Gendo gets to "reconcile" with this son, he even gets to hug him, he also gets to give a massive monologue detailing his tragic backstory and in the end he gets exactly what he wants, which was to see Yui again. Misato as well gets a chance to "reconcile" with Shinji despite putting him through enormous suffering and how exactly does this all come about? Because she decided to take a bullet for him? A bullet that came from the fact Misato had already given the crew authorisation to shoot Shinji if they felt it was necessary. Add to the fact that Misato just stands there completely silent as Sakura and Midori are pointing their weapons when she could have ordered them to stand down. And what happens after Misato gets shot? She tells the crew that everyone would have died had Shinji not piloted against Zeruel. Well why the hell didn't she say that before? It could have prevented a lot of drama. And acknowledging NTI is fine, but what about how Misato actually treated Shinji in 3.0? That does not get addressed at all, even by Shinji who for some reason seems to have forgotten it all. Instead he decides to hug her, instead of being wary and cautious, after all she was the reason Shinji's life was at risk in that moment. The real question is, does Misato taking a bullet for Shinji when he became their final hope make up for everything? I would argue not really, because she was the one that authorised the crew to have such permission in the first place (and all the other measures) and also because she just stood there silently before they did. Had Shinji had submitted to Misato's decisions in 3.0, I have argued that Shinji most likely had become insane from solitary confinement or he would have committed suicide. This really cannot be ignored and when you consider the fact that Asuka and Mari were still treated with explosively rigged cells after 14 years, it does not speak well for Misato's redeemability considering how long she had for her to see sense. Unlike in NGE, nobody actually reprimands her for her actions, the film just ignores them and pretends they never happened. Not even a flashback to 3.0 or even a look of regret. It's not necessary for these characters to meet a bad end but it should at least be addressed and not forgotten, like it is in this film. Even Ritsuko's words and actions are completely ignored. She was the one that mentioned "punishment" and she was the one that urged Misato to kill Shinji in 3.0. Well it turns out they actually needed Shinji in this film, and had Misato listened to Ritsuko back then, then they would have been utterly screwed considering Gendo had a back-up plan to awaken Unit 13 in the form of Asuka. Do we see any flashbacks or similar look of regret or reflection from Ritsuko? Nope. Instead we have her commenting on Shinji's "Infinite sync score". Does the film even have her admit she was wrong about that? Nope. Another thing is that Misato asks Ritsuko to take care of the "children" right before Misato dies. Really? Is Ritsuko of all people, a woman who advocates killing 14 year olds with bomb collars, the best choice to look after children? Very objectionable. In the end Gendo and Misato die having undeservedly reconciled with Shinji and Ritsuko gets to live happily ever after in the village. This is a stark difference from NGE considering how much worse they were in the rebuilds.

The rebuilds never have any of the adult characters' actions be addressed in any way, shape or form. I am not advocating that the characters meet grisly and brutal ends as some sort of petty revenge, but I do believe it is important to address or reflect upon the specific abusive actions they perpetrated. This could be done in multiple ways: flashbacks, moments of contemplation, regretful expressions even apologies. However in this penultimate film, all of their actions kind of get completely brushed under the carpet and never mentioned again. Such extreme measures and decisions that played such a pivotal role in starting Shinji's depression spiral and one of the major figures who initiated that is utterly disregarded. This is, as I said, extremely poor characterisation with highly negative implications and I definitely think that it often goes unnoticed by the casual rebuilds viewer. I have seen people say that they enjoyed the fact that Shinji reconciled with Gendo and Misato and that's their right to have their own opinion. My point however is that the film sends a bad message by having irredeemable (IMO) characters be redeemed or their abusive actions minimised or just completely ignored. That it's better to be close to such people instead of avoiding them for the sake of self-preservation. Oh well, that is one of the reasons why I dislike the rebuilds, everyone's entitled to their own viewpoint I guess.

Reference:

[ritsushinbro]

My thoughts on Asuka Langley Shikinami in the Rebuilds (spoilers):

My analysis of Rebuild Asuka Langley Shikinami's characterisation. This is just my opinion so please, I do not want it to be used for attacking other members of the fandom. I believe Asuka personally got written the dirtiest in the rebuilds. Shikinami is made into such an NPC it's not even funny. She's introduced as an independent pilot that solos a single angel and when she meets Shinji, she sweeps him for no reason other than for accusing him of nepotism. However the way this is done, it comes across as a shallow imitation of Soryu's tsundere tendencies. She's just hostile to him right off the bat for no reason. Her character arc in 2.0 shows her slowly learning to work with Shinji and Rei and putting the needs of others above herself. This is done by having her pilot Unit 3 and "letting" Rei deepen her relationship with Shinji. However this comes off the back of her attempting to pursue Shinji by trying to cook for him. For what reason does she actually like Shinji? Because they had a candid bedside conversation? Because Shinji cooked her bentos? Or is it because apparently she's a clone that has "programmed" affections for Shinji? There's barely any interaction between them two for Asuka to realistically like Shinji and the clone thing is complete BS because she is hostile to him at the start. 2.0 alone makes Asuka's characterisation completely worthless and it guts all of the things that make Soryu a sympathetic character i.e. the issues with her mother. 

The timeskip messes with her character to even higher levels. After 14 years, she finally sees the boy who's bentos she still drools over and what does she do? She tries to punch him. And she constantly brings up "DO YOU KNOW WHY I TRIED TO HIT YOU?!" like an obsessed child. She is supposedly 28 years old mentally and yet does not display any of the maturity that would allow her to try and see things from Shinji's point of view. If she did, she might have figured out that Shinji was stuck between a rock and a hard place but what can you expect when even Anno made Shinji "confess" he wanted to "avoid responsibility" like a battered child. Asuka was upset at Shinji for not saving her from Bardiel but also for him not killing her either and sparing her from the pain. However neither of these make sense as Asuka was already infected by the angel at the point Shinji piloted Unit 01 and it was already too late to stop the infection and save her. But furthermore, Shinji could not kill her either because the dummy plug already attempted to kill her by tearing apart Unit 03 and biting the entry plug in half. It is unlikely that Shinji could have done more damage than that. Her anger towards Shinji makes no sense.

She refuses to explain things to an already confused and frightened Shinji. He saved her life in Operation US and yet she is very ungrateful. He displays happiness at her being alive and she shows nothing but hostility. Shinji asks why she has the eyepatch and she says that's none of his business despite the fact she appears to blame him for needing the eyepatch in the first place. She also refused to explain what the curse of the eva was so Shinji is left even more confused just like when Ritsuko dropped the term "awakening" without explaining what it was. She also goes in completely hostile in Lilith's chamber and immediately starts attacking him and barely stops. When she finds out what Shinji is attempting to do with the spears, instead of explaining that he is being manipulated (Shinji does stop so a conversation could easily have occurred), she instead just calls him a brat and continues to attack him until she runs out of power. After Shinji finally retaliates after acting defensively the entire time, Asuka pulls the gender card. "YOU HIT A GIRL?!" she cried out which is dumb because not only has she been relentlessly attacking Shinji the entire time but she is supposedly a jaded war veteran. Why should she expect respite simply for being a female? It's terrible characterisation.

Afterwards this leads her to authorise Mari to gleefully employ the potentially lethal AA rounds against Shinji which arguably could have killed him had he been in a normal Eva. This clearly demonstrates she has no regard about Shinji's life so her later confession and the headcanons about her secretly "caring" for Shinji are completely destroyed. I really don't care  about "The world was at risk, she had to do it" excuse. She had plenty of opportunity to actually talk to Shinji but instead she rampaged out and kept on attacking him. On the other hand, she is shown to work well in a team with Mari so she has that little bit of development going for her I suppose. She then gives Rei Q sage advice about being their own person which comes across as extremely out of place with how immature and unforgiving this film has set up Asuka's character. In the desert, she opens Shinji's entry plug and the first thing she shouts at him for is for not "helping her". This is also dumb. Not only was Shinji not in control of Unit 13 at that point but she was literally trying to kill him moments ago. This is in combination with the fact that WILLE (and by extension, Asuka) did not want Shinji to "help" in any way at all and they were willing to imprison and kill him to stop him from "helping", makes this comment especially stupid. Afterwards she kicks and manhandles the grieving and catatonic Shinji for being a "brat". This makes her just look completely spiteful, not rightfully "frustrated" as I have seen some people on Evageeks and Reddit  try and argue. She does not show any maturity at all and just comes across as someone who is simply taking her anger out on someone who can't defend themselves. Not the behaviour of a 28 year old war veteran at all. 

3.0+1.0 makes her character even more spiteful. She force feeds Shinji a dry biscuit whilst screaming that she hopes he chokes on it and demanding he figure out why she wanted to hit him when he first woke up. It's so unnecessary writing wise. What did having Asuka do that to Shinji achieve? The kid just saw his friend's head get blown off, so why? Most of the food just got smeared on his face and he just threw up the remainder anyway and it was Rei that ended up getting Shinji to eat some food. Once again, it just comes across as her taking her anger out on someone who can't fight back over an event that she refuses to understand the reasons for Shinji's hesitancy. I have seen users on Evageeks argue that she only did it out of "Tough love" and this was proof that she cared for Shinji by preventing him from starving. How can that be the case when she smeared it all over his face and he ended up throwing it up anyway? It's an excuse that tries to justify abuse. After Shinji recovers mentally, Asuka patronisingly asks Shinji whether he is "done running away?" despite the fact her (and WILLE's) unnecessary hostility is the sole reason Shinji ran away in the first place. When she learns that Shinji is planning to come back to the wunder VOLITIONALLY, she tazes him because of "regulations". He already said he wants to come out of his own choice, how is he still a threat that tasing him is necessary? It's not like the wunder is area 51 or the pentagon where outsiders can't see the insides. Being tazed is a painful experience and it can sometimes be fatal. Obviously this is an anime so it won't be faithful to these factors but it does highlight just how callous Asuka is to Shinji. She could have easily made an exception "just this once" but she had an opportunity to cause harm to Shinji and she gladly took it. Really bad on the writers' part to make her act like that.

After Shinji is brought to the wunder, Asuka learns that Shinji witnessed Kaworu's head get blown off and how does she react? She basically says "lol who cares?" (she doesn't actually say this but she might as well have). You would think that the writers would take this opportunity to have her show some sympathy or regret for how harsh she has been to him especially considering she is about to confess her feelings to him. But nope, she couldn't stop being horrible for 10 seconds. Which brings us to her "confession". Once again she brings up the bardiel incident and basically has Shinji admit that he refused to take responsibility. Even though he obviously couldn't have saved her anyway (she was already contaminated) and the dummy plug already tried to kill her so therefore she has literally spent 14 years being mad over a plot-hole. She then says Shinji has "grown up" which is rich coming from her considering she is the one that has been acting like a child the entire time despite being a war veteran and her hostility is partly why Shinji was even acting "immature" in the first place. She then makes her "confession" regarding the bentos but like the tsundere she is, she makes out she has moved on and has "grown up". Really? Crying over bardiel and Shinji's bentos for 14 years doesn't seem like she has "grown up". It just made her seem like she is lying and bitter instead.

So now finally we have the beach scene. She speaks only two words "Baka-Shinji" and is basically half-naked (her plugsuit is torn which is really nothing but shallow fan-service). When Shinji confesses back to her, she blushes like a schoolgirl. WHY?! You were supposed to have "grown up"! You literally spent two films treating him like complete crap. WHY ARE YOU BLUSHING LIKE YOU STILL WANT HIM?! Christ. The instrumentality scenes with her and Kensuke could have been good if we actually saw flashbacks of them as kids helping each other. But no, instead we get creepy surrogate daddy vibes (I get the need for symbolism but why have a fully grown man wear a doll costume approaching a little girl), which further spits on the "I'm a grown up now Shinji" BS Asuka has been spouting for two films. In my personal opinion, her "relationship" with Kensuke does nothing but highlight how immature she is. To summarise, I believe the rebuilds made Shikinami a shallow, callous, cruel, immature and one-dimensional character.

[ritsushinbro]

[ritsushinbro]

My Critique of Rebuild of Evangelion's Characterization: I originally wrote this post on the Evageeks forum and decided to post it here. It discusses the relationship between Misato, WILLE and the pilots and whether it is realistic and in-character. Warning this post contains spoilers and is very long. Also has references to self-harm and suicide.

With each revelation that comes out regarding the measures WILLE take against Shinji and their own pilots, it becomes more and more unrealistic for me to the point where it's almost comical. Let's go through some of them here:

They wear the explosive DSS chokers 24/7 which will kill the pilots should they risk awakening an Eva.

They are kept in a single room rigged with explosives.

In Shinji's case, he is (intended to be) put in 24/7 solitary confinement with explosives fitted as well.

Shinji is escorted around the wunder whilst restrained on a stretcher. (NOTE: The only time he isn't, is when Sakura takes him to Ritsuko).

It is confirmed in another thread that Misato gave clear permission to the crew for them to shoot Shinji on sight if they suspect he is attempting to get into an Eva. 

Now let me attempt to deconstruct these measures one-by-one:

It is understandable that Asuka and Mari wear DSS chokers because after all they are pilots and there is a risk of awakening. However in Shinji's case, he is forbidden from piloting and so there is no risk of awakening (remember Ritsuko did not think NERV would come after him, so they had no reason to think he would escape). So why place the DSS choker on him? Well we have already established it is simply because they have a resentment against him; there is no special, pragmatic reason. Is this realistic? Well I would say no for reasons I will explain later but I can certainly understand why others may say it is.

I don't think I will understand why they would keep their two main "soldiers" if you will, in an explosively rigged room. I believe others have  stated that from a tactical point, it's an extremely dumb move on WILLE's part. After all, if Asuka and Mari didn't have plot armor, what's to stop Gendo from tricking WILLE into killing their own pilots with these explosives? How would WILLE stop Gendo then? Will they use Shinji? No, for reasons I will state later. And another thing, we know that their rooms were already fitted with explosives so why on Earth would they add extra after the events of Q (when they stopped 4th impact). What do they hope to achieve with more bombs? Make the pilots more "deader" than they already are? In my opinion, this doesn't even come across as paranoid but just plain childish. Is this measure realistic from a story standpoint? No not in my eyes.

We know they intended to put Shinji in a solitary cell as this is what they do in Shin. If it was solitary confinement on it's own, then I believe it would be a realistic measure that would happen in real life. However I believe the writers did not factor in the effects of solitary confinement (especially one that is rigged to explode) on fully grown men; never mind a 14 year old who's just come out of a 14 year coma. Many people think solitary confinement is a walk in the park so I made another post a while ago highlighting why that's not the case:

"I remember when before Shin came out people here theorized that if Shinji stayed on the Wunder, they would eventually softened to him and let him help in ways that wouldn't have involved piloting. However with these revelations it looks like they intended to keep him in an isolated room far from everyone else that is (presumably) rigged with explosives as well as keeping the choker on his neck. Not even allowed to freely leave his cell without WILLE's permission (it is unlikely they would let him out judging from these measures). 

Even though Asuka and Mari were treated like this as well, at least they had each other and were able to leave as they had responsibilities in piloting. But Shinji was forbidden from piloting and was to be kept by himself except maybe being checked up on by Sakura now and again. So judging from these leaks (we will have to wait to properly see the full context) WILLE intended to lock Shinji in solitary confinement.

I have copied and pasted some of the effects of Solitary Confinement from Wikipedia below:

“Psychiatric: Research indicates that the psychological effects of solitary confinement may encompass "anxiety, depression, anger, cognitive disturbances, perceptual distortions, obsessive thoughts, paranoia, and psychosis." The lack of human contact, and the sensory deprivation that often go with solitary confinement, can have a severe negative impact on a prisoner's mental state that may lead to certain mental illnesses such as depression, permanent or semi-permanent changes to brain physiology, an existential crisis, and death.

Self-harm: According to a March 2014 article in American Journal of Public Health, "Inmates in jails and prisons attempt to harm themselves in many ways, resulting in outcomes ranging from trivial to fatal." Self harm was seven times higher among the inmates where seven percent of the jail population was confined in isolation. Fifty-three percent of all acts of self harm took place in jail. "Self-harm" included, but was not limited to, cutting, banging heads, self-amputations of fingers or testicles. These inmates were in bare cells, and were prone to jumping off their beds head first into the floor or even biting through their veins in their wrists. A main issue within the prison system and solitary confinement is the high number of inmates who turn to self-harm. Many of the inmates look to self-harm as a way to "avoid the rigors of solitary confinement."

Physical: Solitary confinement has been reported to cause hypertension, headaches and migraines, profuse sweating, dizziness, and heart palpitations. Many inmates also experience extreme weight loss due to digestion complications and abdominal pain. Many of these symptoms are due to the intense anxiety and sensory deprivation. Inmates can also experience neck and back pain and muscle stiffness due to long periods of little to no physical activity. These symptoms often worsen with repeated visits to solitary confinement.

Social: The effects of isolation unfortunately do not stop once the inmate has been released. After release from segregated housing, psychological effects have the ability to sabotage a prisoner's potential to successfully return to the community and adjust back to ‘normal’ life. The inmates are often startled easily, and avoid crowds and public places. They seek out confined small spaces because the public areas overwhelm their sensory stimulation.”

And this is just for solitary confinement. There are so many other things going on with and happening (or could happen) to Shinji such as the things below:

Shinji being only 14 years old.

Shinji being abandoned and neglected by his father.

Shinji being coerced/emotionally blackmailed to pilot Unit 1.

Shinji seeing girls he cared for "die".

Shinji being in a coma for 14 years.

Shinji being told he has a bomb on his neck.

Being told it is because he is being punished.

Being told he cannot pilot the eva anymore (he is effectively "useless" now).

Have his former co-pilot and friend try and punch him after he thought she was dead.

[Potentially] being told he started NTI and devastated the world.

[Potentially] being told that the girl he tried to save is "gone" and that she was a clone of his mother.

Being imprisoned in a cell (presumably) surrounded by explosives and not being able to freely leave.

Be completely isolated from everyone except when being checked up by a girl who's father he got killed. (NOTE: Mari might want to see him so Shinji at least has her, maybe). 

Have his mother figure (the woman who made him pilot the eva the most) threaten to detonate the choker around his neck and blow his head off when he tries to leave.

With the above list, is it any wonder his head is so messed up? I understand the purpose of these films is all about growing up and taking responsibility but expecting Shinji to willingly allow himself to be subjected to the treatment WILLE had in store for him is pure, unadulterated masochism. Much of what was is written here can safely be considered cruel, inhumane and arguably, torture. 

There is a massive difference between taking responsibility for one's mistakes and just letting the whole world torture you because you did something bad. My main fear and problem with Q and Thrice is that their main theme, which is accepting responsibility, is equated with accepting unreasonably cruel treatment. And I just think that is an EXTREMELY unhealthy message to send to people especially if they are depressed or live in abusive relationships."

When you take all these into account, does it place into perspective how messed up Shinji would have been had he stayed on the wunder? This is assuming that they thought they would never have a need for him, but as we find out in Shin, they needed Shinji in the end to defeat Gendo. If Shinji never left with Mark 09 and Misato successfully kept him "protective" custody, then one of three things would have happened when WILLE actually needed him to save everyone:

A: He would not have been in the mental state to pilot Unit 1 and Gendo would have completely wrecked him due to shit synch ratios. 

B: He would have told Misato and co. to fuck off and die. We've seen this nihilism before from Shinji (after the 5th angel). His incarceration alongside the humiliation and guilt from wearing the choker will have ratcheted up by a million.

C: He wouldn't have piloted because he would have killed himself. There's only so much a 14 year old can take and when subjected to a fate that causes even hardened criminals to resort to self-harm, genital mutilation and suicide, then what chance does Shinji have? 

Now back to my original point, do I think this measure is realistic? I would like to say yes if it was the solitary on it's own, however when combined with the other things, then I think the chances of Shinji commiting suicide is extremely high to the point where it's not believable for him to continue as an anime protagonist. You have to make sure the protagonist goes through difficulty in order to experience growth and change, however if you make it too harsh (to the point of committing suicide) then it seems less believable that they live to continue the story. On a separate note, many people think that Shinji was immature for leaving with Mark 09 the first chance he got and that this is proof that he is, in Asuka's words, a "brat". But let's be realistic, if this story is about Shinji's growth and maturation, then how exactly would WILLE's treatment of him be conducive to that? The truth is WILLE's sheer hostility towards him would have completely stunted any emotional growth and maturation in Shinji and it would have destroyed the point of the film. Also no-one can argue that WILLE would have eventually "come round" or "softened-up" towards Shinji because even after 14 years they still don't trust their own pilots. So yeah, Shinji most likely would have been stuck in solitary with a bomb around his neck until he either killed himself or the war ended (but even this doesn't guarantee his freedom).

Regarding the stretcher business. I don't understand why you have to restrain Shinji on a stretcher when the kid has already surrendered himself and has come voluntarily. Maybe WILLE are just full of bondage fetishists; it would certainly explain the chokers as well. 

If the DSS chokers and the explosive rooms weren't enough, Misato actually gave orders to the crew to shoot Shinji if they thought he was trying to pilot again. At this point, I just think this is just overkill. I mean the kid has a bomb on his neck that prevents him from awakening an Eva, you intended to keep him locked up even though he can't really leave the wunder except with outside help and now you intend to shoot him if you think he'll get into an Eva. The problem with this, is that piloting an Eva requires all the bridge-bunnies to sortie the damn thing. Shinji cannot enter Unit 1 by himself, especially since the thing is being used as an engine so why do they assume that Shinji is capable of being Sam Fisher and sneaking into Unit 1? We see that Sakura and Midori are actually willing to shoot Shinji in 3.0+1.0 and do so when he merely suggests that he pilot Unit 1. But seriously what harm would Shinji have done in Unit 1 considering the fact that Gendo was already going to start another impact anyway? Why actively try and kill (or injure in Sakura's case) the only guy that can save your ass? One cannot argue that they were just being "desperate or panicking" because in Midori's case, she actually takes the time to confirm her orders from Misato. This shows that at least, she was still of lucid mind. This particular altercation just beggars belief in my mind and the fact that Misato actually gave those orders on top of all the other measures is absolutely extraordinary. So as you can imagine, I do not think this was realistically executed.

However, I can already hear some detractors say: "So what? Misato hesitated to detonate the DSS choker and also took a bullet for Shinji. She redeemed herself from putting the DSS choker on him and the kill-order for if they thought he would try and get into an Eva." 

And to those people I say….not really. There is an idiom attributed to Benjamin Franklin and it goes like this: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." How does this apply to Misato and Shinji's relationship? Well Misato wouldn't have had to hesitate to pull the trigger if she didn't put it on him in the first place. Misato wouldn't have had to take a bullet for Shinji, if she didn't give permission for the crew to shoot him in the first place. Let's take this following dialogue for example:

916-929:

Kitakami: "It's a good thing we got Major Shikinami back. But why'd we have to take that disease along with her?"

Aoba: "Just leave it alone. Better than Nerv still being able to use him."

Tama: "If he tries to get into an Evangelion, all hands have permission to shoot on sight. There's nothing to worry about this time."

Kitakami: "Come on, that's all for show. The last time he broke out of here, the Captain couldn't put him down. I've got zero trust about this time either."

Nagara: "He was a kid. I can understand why she'd hesitate."

Kitakami: "That 'kid' caused Near Third Impact and murdered my entire family!"

Hyuga: "Near Third was a consequence of what he did, not his goal. The Captain's doing her best to atone for that too."

Takao: "That's right. She's who Kaji entrusted with Wille, and it's our job to trust the captain."

We learn a few things from this dialogue. Firstly, the older WILLE members are much more understanding to Shinji and Misato's situation: Aoba and Hyuga understand that it's better to keep an eye on Shinji and that he never meant to start NTI, Takao is one who always trusts Misato's judgement and Sumire understands that Misato would have found it difficult to kill a child, especially one that Misato was close with. 

Secondly, it appears that the younger WILLE members (Midori, Sakura and Tama) are the ones that are fearful/hateful towards Shinji (NOTE: Tama is a strange case, he strikes me as the sort of kid that just follows what everyone else is feeling. He might not feel anything towards Shinji beyond what you'd expect). 

Finally it appears that most of WILLE crew members are actually reasonable people and are not the extremely desperate and paranoid individuals some people on the forum believe. Remember this is AFTER Shinji started the 4th impact in Q. The fact that some of the WILLE crew members speak of Shinji in this way, show they are capable of understanding. Most actually trust Misato and respect her judgement except for Midori, who questions Misato's capabilities in following through on her threats. 

Which brings me to my next point. Misato has had no hesitation in pulling rank in the past. In 2.0, she even has an altercation with Ritsuko, her best friend, right before they fight the 8th angel. Misato is a woman that will tell even her best friend to STFU, when it comes to doing what she wants. Having said that, (timeskip shenanigans aside) there's no reason why she couldn't have done the same with the younger WILLE crew members. She could have nipped all of it in the bud by telling Sakura, Midori and the rest of them that Shinji was groomed to cause NTI and it was not his fault.

Instead, despite being the captain that everyone loves and fears, she kowtowed to the crew's paranoia and had the pilots fitted with explosive chokers, put in explosively rigged solitary confinement and gave the order to kill Shinji if they feared the worst. This is the sort of thing that drives fully grown men to suicide, never mind 14 year olds that have just come out of a coma. Imagine if Shinji did commit suicide in his cell. Who would Misato and WILLE have turned to in order to defeat Gendo in the end? What if Gendo tricked WILLE into killing their own pilots with the explosives? They would be properly screwed then. If Misato actually cared, as we are led to believe from her hesitation to kill Shinji, then she would have told the rest of the WILLE crew to fuck off, instead of alienating and putting Shinji and the pilots in that much risk. Are we really expected to believe that Misato placed such extreme countermeasures on Shinji just to appease Midori and Sakura? Not likely. This is why I believe that Misato would not have put the DSS choker on Shinji in the first place, and her doing so in Q was extremely unrealistic and out of character, even with anything that happened during the timeskip.

Some of you will say: "Who cares about realism? It's a show about aliens and growing up." While this is true, Anno has proven that he is able to pull the themes off much better when you look at the NGE series. Disregarding the self-contained narrative, it is obvious that the purpose of Q was to bring Shinji to the same point he was at after episode 24 of the series. If we look at how NGE/EOE handled Shinji's depression, we see that it is quite realistic:

The neglect and coercion by the adults in his life, almost dying to angels multiple times, the sexual tension with Asuka, almost killing Touji, finding out Rei is a clone of his mother, Misato putting the moves on him and having to kill Kaworu all culminate towards Shinji's mental state during EOE. Shinji is passively suicidal but it's due to the *situation* and his own introverted tendencies instead of people actively trying to hurt and isolate him. He finds the will to live again due to his mothers words despite knowing just how difficult living might be. If you remove all the Evas and the Angels from the story, the themes that are touched upon (isolation, neglect, misunderstanding) still apply and the audience can still resonate with them. 

The rebuilds however go about it completely differently. They bring Shinji to that same suicidal state by having all the characters/plot actively harm Shinji's mental health by:

Putting him in a coma for 14 years so he is completely clueless. Imagine how groggy you are when you wake up in the morning and then multiply that by a million. 

Have Misato psychologically castrate Shinji by telling him he won't do anything with a look of disdain on her face.

Have Ritsuko make Shinji feel dread by telling him he has a bomb on his neck and it's because he is being "punished".

Not tell him why he is being punished when he asks Misato.

Have Asuka try to punch Shinji after he thought she was dead.

Tell Shinji the girl he saved is "gone”.

Have his "mother figure" threaten to blow his head off for wanting to leave with the girl you just told him is gone.

Have Asuka and Mari attack Shinji in Lilith's chamber even though Shinji was seemingly willing to listen to them had Asuka not kept attacking. (Watch that scene again and you'll see when Asuka learns what Shinji is trying to do, she stops attacking but instead of explaining that he's being manipulated, she just calls him a brat instead).

Even Mari was willing to potentially kill or cripple Shinji with the Anti-AT rounds. (We don't know what the AA rounds are truly capable of because the only time they are used on screen, they don't work. The round cartridges state that they are armor and AT field piercing and have explicit restrictions on their use. The fact that Mari requires Asuka's explicit authorization to use them imply that they are most likely lethal and would have killed/crippled Shinji had he been in a normal Eva). 

Have Shinji's friend's head explode with the device Shinji's "mother figure" actually meant for him. Imagine seeing someone's head explode and then remember that your "mother figure" actually meant that to be for you. That would certainly mess anyone up.

Have Asuka then kick and manhandle him when he is catatonic.

Have Asuka force feed him to the point where he pukes whilst he is still grieving the death of his friend. 

Have Shinji only be escorted whilst tied to a stretcher despite him coming voluntarily.

Have Misato place Shinji in 24/7 solitary confinement in a cell rigged with explosives.

Have Misato tell the WILLE crew to shoot Shinji on sight if they think he's getting into an EVA.

Have people tell Shinji that he's being a brat the entire time for reacting badly to all this.

By having Misato, Asuka, WILLE reject and "punish" Shinji so harshly so it kicks off his isolation and desperation, it makes Shinji's "recovery" seem less believable. Anno himself didn't even know how to make Shinji recover psychologically in 3.0+1.0 and he actually had to ask the voice actors on how to make that happen. The story made the WILLE crew go full scorched-earth and in doing so made Shinji's "growth" and his reconciliation with Misato seem impossible. 

I have already stated that I believe Q represents "Condemnation" and Shin represents "Compassion" and I think both films pull that off brilliantly. But that doesn't mean I think the characters acted in a realistic manner. I do not believe that Misato would have placed such harsh sanctions on Shinji in the first place for the reasons I have stated above. And if she did, I do not believe that Shinji would have easily forgiven Misato (even IF she took a bullet for him) as we see he does in the film. I do not believe that WILLE were merely "scared and desperate" because as the dialogue above shows, they are surprisingly understanding (but still disapproving) of Shinji's situation despite him literally starting another impact. I do not believe that Misato would have bent over to Sakura and Midori's resentment and taken measures against Shinji, just to ease their minds. 

In summary, my main problem with the post-timeskip rebuilds is that I feel they gaslight the audience in thinking that Shinji was just being a "brat" the entire time by having Asuka and Mari say: "You have grown a little/You smell like an adult now." However, the truth is Shinji's been through so much mental suffering perpetrated by the people he cares about, that it's a miracle he's not killed himself. It would certainly break most of us on this forum. The movies seek to show Shinji "finally" taking responsibility when the truth is, the plot went so above and beyond putting him down in such an extreme manner in the first place.