jcmoorehead wrote:He doesn't necessarily have to become passive again because of it it depends on how WILLE handle things. He can be punished for his actions, I don't know how they would punish him really, put him in a cell for a week perhaps? Yell at him? I think if anything Shinji can be punished but also be given the opportunity to make amends for his actions too.
Have people speak to him, I can see Sakura/Mari doing that if no one else. Have him apologize for what he has done and also express a desire to make amends for it. Have him maybe contribute in small ways to make himself useful, have him slowly regain trust and regularly communicate with him. He might regress for a time and become passive but if they give him the chance to grow and talk to him then he can rise out of that again and learn to love himself.
It's hard for me to see a believable case where Shinji starts to trust himself anytime soon. Realistically he is going to be simply dazed for awhile. Once he comes to his senses he probably will be too afraid to do anything for a while. He'd probably slowly start to open up and interacting with others before trying to gain what trust he can get. He would probably want to genuinely fix his mistakes at some point but he still would not trust himself at all and only listen to others. Its hard to see what can change Shinji's mind in this case when everything he's done so far been disastrous. It would take months for Shinji to get back to the his normal state which I think we all can agree is not where he needs to be by the end. So then the movie has to concluded his arc, all at the same time finishing the plot, developing the rest of the cast, and giving us some basic world building and lore so we get some grounding to whats going on. I just skeptical that all this can be done,
Reichu wrote:We agree that Shinji needs to grow up a bit, yes? Shutting his stupid kid mouth and listening to the grown-ups (who aren't his dad, because fuck that guy) would not be the road to "regression". It's what he needs to do if he's going to actually learn anything. That's how life works. You act like a dumb kid and ignore what more experienced people tell you, then once circumstances bites you in the ass hard enough you're forced to stop, listen, and reflect.
Well, I think your right, Shinji does need to shut and listen, its just that because of the extreme circumstances, and Shinji's personality doing so will totally shatter any sense of self confidence he has. He will just become more dependent on others, and not wanting to make his own choices which he will have to do sooner or later.