Bagheera wrote:I've always wondered about the truth of this. Does she really like Shinji better, or does she just know how to deal with him because he's a) a guy and b) passive? It's hard for me to tell because the show doesn't make her feelings toward the pilots all that clear; we know she cares, and that she fucked up royally, but past that the info's thin on the ground. Everything else we get about her deals with her thirst for vengeance (that we never really see in practice, curious) and her role as a slut (something we also never see substantiated).
NemZ wrote:What I really have to wonder is how deep does the other side of that equation go? How much does Misato really understand just how fucked in the head Asuka is? Why does she do nothing to console or at least reign her in when she's clearly going off the rails, especially in the "I hate myself most of all" scene? Granted a lot of this didn't exist until the DC episodes, but why does Misato have nothing at all to say during Asuka's portions of EoTV?
I still stand by the assertion that Misato fell for Asuka's fake persona. If that's the case, it's very easy to understand why she spent so much time doting on Shinji and so little on Asuka. Beyond that, at Asuka's breaking point, there's numerous possibilities for why Misato stood back during the bathroom scene. Two that come to mind:
1) Misato has no bloody clue how to deal with it, and doesn't intervene for fear she'll make things worse. Hell, maybe she underestimates how serious Asuka is, thinking it to be a phase or hormones.
2) At this point in the series, Misato has bigger fish to fry. She's trying to figure out what Seele's up to, she's just recently found out Kaji died, and the angels have got tougher and tougher, who knows what the spiel with the next one will be. Meanwhile Asuka's breaking apart at the seams, but she can't deal with that, so she shuts it out. Best parenting? Negativo, but Misato never was the best parent.
Azathoth wrote:From what Asuka tells Kaji about Misato, my guess would be that when they first met, Misato attempted the same kind of false good cheer we see in ep02 on her and Asuka, much less interested than Shinji in a positive environment (and more socially perceptive at least if still incompetent at acting in it) saw right through her and either called her out on it or dismissed any possibility of Misato having a personality beyond that.
That's actually a very good point I hadn't considered. It's quite possible their relationship has progressed past niceties, hence the difference between Misato-Shinji and Misato-Asuka.