Well, I'm kinda leaning towards ShinjiXAsuka. Although cannonicaly, these two probably weren't meant to be a couple due to their circumstances, and Asuka seems to hate him entirely. And rebuild seems to make it more apparently so, so I guess that ship was hopeless to begin with, as disappointing as it is.

And also, I could go with ReiXKaworu.

In the original I ship AsukaXShinji, pretty much for the same reasons you do. Like the OP I can see the mutual attraction there and I do believe they care deeply for one another but their circumstances and inner demons make it hard/if not impossible over the course of the series to act on that but I do believe that post EoE they can work on that and help one another and develop that romance.

In Rebuild, again I ship AsukaXShinji, 2.0 makes it clear Asuka is interested in Shinji. Her actions after they fight their first Angel together, her trying to do the dinner for them and her all but admitting it to Rei makes that clear. In 3.0 you can see she has some feelings for him, they manifest themselves as anger because she is Asuka but if she didn't have them she wouldn't have called out for him to help her at the start, would have ignored his presence in the cell and wouldn't have saved him at the end.

Basically i'm AsuShin trash as people would say

My answer to this might be strange as I'm a muti shipper and I like the idea that all of the pairings could exists between the kids in parallel universes though my favourite pairing is Asuka/Rei. In the Manga/anime/rebuild though I ship Asuka/Shinji while in rebuild I also ship the idea of Rei/Mari.

Relevant, and having recent(-ish) activity:

thread/18926/Best-Pair/
thread/16737/Crack-Pairing-Appreciation-Thread/

I feel like I just wrote a post about this the other day, but I guess that was on reddit after all. Well, whatever. My favored ships over my time as a fan:

• Dr. Katsuragi & Kyoko: I developed this as a riff on the Shinji/Asuka dynamic tailored toward my own uniquely demanding sensibilities, and quickly became addicted. THIS IS MY CRACK PAIRING AND NO ONE CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME. Since I know someone will say something -- I was shipping Kyoko and Akira back in 2009 at the latest, before Bagheera even joined the forum, so one guess as to where he got the idea. :p
• Dr. Katsuragi & Adam: ...Why, yes, that Crying Man thing I've been procrastinating over will eventually cover this. Don't worry about the logistics. Size and species are no barrier to ... whatever exactly is going on here. (I can't say, because spoiler alert and all.)
• Eva!Yui & Zeruel: Since they're gods, she can eat him again and again and again...
• Eva!Kyoko & Sachiel: This one is especially context-specific...
• Eva-00 & Eva-03: This one is even MORE context-specific... (Perhaps you've seen the statue, though.)

The latter three pairings were played with in an ambitious and experimental spin-off fanfic focused entirely on the "gods" of the Evangelion universe -- seriously, not a single Lilin ANYWHERE. As one might expect, this quickly ended up having only superficial resemblances to the source material, and it's currently on the back burner waiting to be developed the rest of the way into an original setting. But naturally, there will be plot points somewhere in there about two of the Eva-equivalents becoming lesbian lovers, and another two of the Eva-equivalents eventually fucking the very entities they're supposed to be destroying (the Angel-equivalents) and ushering in the next generation.

Obviously the canon Asuka x Shinji and Kaji x Misato are the ship I'm in, but I'm starting to develop a liking for a possible Mari x Shinji ship. She would be perfect for our sad boy, but Mari is on the Asuka x Shinji ship too so I guess it will never work.

Joseki wrote:Obviously the canon Asuka x Shinji and Kaji x Misato are the ship I'm in, but I'm starting to develop a liking for a possible Mari x Shinji ship. She would be perfect for our sad boy, but Mari is on the Asuka x Shinji ship too so I guess it will never work.

There are Mari/Shinji good fan fictions out there that are AU so they can work as a couple .

Fate https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11294683/1/Fate and Taming Of The Beast https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8193494/7/Taming-the-Beast

Oh and I also kinda ship Kaworu X Shinji X Asuka as well. No interaction seen between Kaworu X Asuka in series/canon I know but I kinda feel that he would have a similar effect on her that he would with Shinji and that by his nature he'd want to see her happy as well, so I kinda figure the three of them would be a fun triad.

jcmoorehead wrote:Oh and I also kinda ship Kaworu X Shinji X Asuka as well. No interaction seen between Kaworu X Asuka in series/canon I know but I kinda feel that he would have a similar effect on her that he would with Shinji and that by his nature he'd want to see her happy as well, so I kinda figure the three of them would be a fun triad.

I could see that working as well. Of course, the story would have to be called Evangelion 3.0+0.5: You Can (Not) Paint Your Wagon.

It's interesting that Asuka never meets Gendo or Kaworu, despite each of them being vital to the story. I wonder what Asuka would make of Gendo?

Cybermat47 wrote:I wonder what Asuka would make of Gendo?

I think she would proberbly do what Shinji did to him in the manga and try and punch him in the face if he called her out on any wrong doing and end up being dragged away by Kaji or his body guards.

silvermoonlight wrote:I think she would proberbly do what Shinji did to him in the manga and try and punch him in the face if he called her out on any wrong doing and end up being dragged away by Kaji or his body guards.

Roughly around the Israphael demeanor the Manga has a scene where she tries 'to suck up to the boss' by inviting him to dinner; She then basically calls Shinji emo for being visibly upset when he refused.

As for the canon & Rebuild timelines she seems to think he plays favorites so her opinion of him probably isn't that great, they don't really interact tho.

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@ topic:

I always was & always will be a total sucker for LRS but I'd enjoy most of his canonial or semicanonical suitors paired with Shin-chan (including Kaworu) tbh I'm not that anal about this.Well, except Asushin but that aversion has more to do with biographical & personal taste reasons on my side & my being overly touchy about the whole "bullying is not funny" thing, than me going "how dare this author write something other than LRS" it's not like I can't stomach it in an otherwise good fanfic.

Grrr. Speaking of quality fanworks, Kaworu/Shinji has all the good fanart and Asuka/Shinji has all the good amvs.
These days I'm glad if I can get an oekaki or a generic fluff fic these days though I'm told there was tons of quality LRS stuff in the fandom's olden days, they tend to be mostly the casual fans. I guess since Rei got such a big hype in the beginning, writing Rei fanfic (shippy or otherwise) was old hat my the time I was old enough to find out about the show.

Otherwise most of the canonical stuff (Misato/Kaji, Touji/Kensuke, Gendo/Yui etc.) not rly much of a crack pairing person if there's not much material to draw from.

NGE: Shinsuka, Rebuild: Asuka and Mari dom Shinji together. Bend over, puppy boy.

My reputation is as an anti-shipper. But I think that Shinji/Megane-chan is probably the best for something that doesn't end in violence -- unlike my other, more favoured pairing.

Chuckman wrote:Rebuild: Asuka and Mari dom Shinji together. Bend over, puppy boy.

Please, Shinji would unleash ALL of his frustration and domineering in a sexual situation to compensate for the Lack of control in every other area of his life.

^doubtful. Shinji is a sub if there ever was one. He'd be too awkward to know what to do, and too scared to get rough. Rebuild Asuka and Mari would definitely be the doms, Mari especially.

Can't you people give the kid a little more credit than that?

Ray wrote:Can't you people give the kid a little more credit than that?

I'm sorry best boy isn't a sadist. What you suggest actually sounds very unhealthy, IMO. A healthy BDSM relationship isn't based on insecurities, and it shouldn't be about releasing pent up frustration on your partner.

Besides, what's wrong with him being a sub? I have a feeling he'd enjoy it. I expect him to be a tender, emotional lover, rather than a lustful, aggressive one.

Yeesh, can we get back to shipping instead of discussing this awful stuff.

Ray wrote:Please, Shinji would unleash ALL of his frustration and domineering in a sexual situation to compensate for the Lack of control in every other area of his life.

That's not how BDSM works.

I'm sure he'd enjoy letting someone else take control for a while.

Just had to get a word in, won't post more on this.

Shipping is fucking pointless in this godforsaken franchise.

That said, Shinji/PostQSakura or bust.

Sachi wrote:I'm sorry best boy isn't a sadist. What you suggest actually sounds very unhealthy, IMO. A healthy BDSM relationship isn't based on insecurities, and it shouldn't be about releasing pent up frustration on your partner.

Besides, what's wrong with him being a sub? I have a feeling he'd enjoy it. I expect him to be a tender, emotional lover, rather than a lustful, aggressive one.

I agree plus from what I've heard the sub has all of the control they say how much and when to stop and safe words and aftercare are really important.