I know this topic has been brought up countless times, but...
The whole scene in general has so much too say. First off we see Shinji choking Asuka at the end, where as in the beginning he jerked off to her.
But what Asuka does is totally not something Asuka would do or say. She caresses his face and later calmly says "How disgusting." it reminds me of what Rie would say. She may look like Asuka but maybe she's some what different?
I'm ranting on, so feel free to do so as well. :3

Yes, Asuka is different. She got her own ride in the 'human' god that we didn't get to see, where she presumably had to deal with all of her flaws, same as Shinji did.

later calmly says "How disgusting."

Supposed to be in the "coldest voice possible" but same thing I guess. :P

You're probably talking about the Misato/Rei/Asuka theory, which is the belief that the "Asuka" in the last scene is actually the combined persons of Misato, Rei and Asuka. Unfortunately, I'm failing to find any threads on this because BoardTracker fails. I know they're here somewhere.

Asuka was part of instrumentality proper, thus she wasn't in a position to actually have an experiences at all. She came out psychologically the same way she went in, if not worse for having died.

So this thread is discussing Asuka's side of the EoE ending?

konfunoodle wrote:calmly says "How disgusting."

That didn't sound calm to me. Especially with the look she gave Shinji right before she said that.

Joseph the PRPD wrote:So this thread is discussing Asuka's side of the EoE ending?

konfunoodle wrote:calmly says "How disgusting."

That didn't sound calm to me. Especially with the look she gave Shinji right before she said that.

well she's not yelling at him and ending it with "baka" like she usually would

konfunoodle wrote:well she's not yelling at him and ending it with "baka" like she usually would

She pretty much stopped saying that altogether after her mindfuck with Areal. So there's nothing unusual about it.

konfunoodle wrote:well she's not yelling at him and ending it with "baka" like she usually would

Y'think anyone would act like their usual selves after what they've been through?

Joseph the PRPD wrote:

konfunoodle wrote:well she's not yelling at him and ending it with "baka" like she usually would

Y'think anyone would act like their usual selves with what they've been through?

word. I just feel that there is more to it than when i first watched it. that is how Anno ended the Evangelion chapter before plans for Rebuild were being thought up

Her very soul was raped by the enemy, and she became unable to pilot. She then attempted suicide, failed, went into a coma, got wanked over, then she got eaten by Harpies, then her soul was raped again and shoved into the holes of every human on the entire fucking planet like a slutty jigsaw piece. Then she wakes up and as far as she knows, Shinji, of all people, is the only person that's apparently alive in a wrecked, ruined world with nothing notable but a menstrual ocean and a giant Rei face.

I'm surprised she came out as well as she did.

...only because ~Fin cut off the scene before she began screaming and never stopped.

Some previous threads discussing this topic:

http://forum.evageeks.org/viewtopic.php?t=66
http://forum.evageeks.org/viewtopic.php?t=96
http://forum.evageeks.org/viewtopic.php?t=1457
http://forum.evageeks.org/viewtopic.php?t=3311
http://forum.evageeks.org/viewtopic.php?t=7776

NemZ wrote:...only because ~Fin cut off the scene before she began screaming and never stopped.

Or she jumped Shinji bones and fucked him for what it's worth, after all surviving an apocalypse is the best aphrodisiac there is.

The answer is simple: both Shinji and Asuka confronted their innermost thoughts during Instrumentality (this is incredibly obvious from eps 25 and 26) and realized how fake and pathetic their lives are. At the end of EoE, both of them were stunned at the ugliness lying within themselves, which prompted Asuka to acknowledge what a despicable creature she really was at heart, and will continue to be unless she changes.

J_Faulkner wrote:The answer is simple: both Shinji and Asuka confronted their innermost thoughts during Instrumentality (this is incredibly obvious from eps 25 and 26) and realized how fake and pathetic their lives are. At the end of EoE, both of them were stunned at the ugliness lying within themselves, which prompted Asuka to acknowledge what a despicable creature she really was at heart, and will continue to be unless she changes.

Are you saying that "How disgusting" was a reference to herself, and not to either the situation in general or to Shinji?

It may have very well been all three.

thewayneiac wrote:Are you saying that "How disgusting" was a reference to herself, and not to either the situation in general or to Shinji?

What situation are you referring to?

Why would she be referring to Shinji while caressing him?

Do my eyes deceive me, or has J Faulkner actually descended on the EvaGeeks forum? God have mercy on us all...

Also: +1 to what Aurora said. I've never been sure if the connection was intentional (probably not since Anno changed the line in the studio) but there's some sweet synchronicity in the fact that the first words uttered when we first see a character enter LCL is the first we hear after exiting the giant LCL pool.

People are entitled to join the and take part in the debates here as long as things are kept civil. From both ends.

Getting back to the topic—My own feeling is that Asuka's line and indeed the entire final scene can only be understood, if it can be understood at all, by evaluating the Shinji/Asuka relationship over the course of the entire series. The motivations of the characters are opaque here and I don't believe a simple explanation will suffice for just about anything said or done here.