Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby El Squibbonator » Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:12 pm

Most of the analysis I've seen of Asuka's character seems to focus on her relationship with either her mother or the other pilots, and for understandable reasons: those are the people in the series who she is shaped by the most in terms of her interactions with them. But while I was on Tumblr today, I found a post (sorry, I forget the exact page) that made me wonder if there might be another side to the story that hasn't been explored yet. I'm talking, of course, about the possibility that Asuka was set up as a "mirror image" or "echo" of Ritsuko. Here are the similarities they mentioned:

1. Both had mothers who were emotionally distant and eventually became consumed by one of NERV's projects (the MAGI supercomputer for Ritsuko's mother, EVA 02 for Asuka's mother).
2. Both were forced to watch as their mothers "died".
3. Both have a living mother figure who is distant and unresponsive. For Ritsuko it is her grandmother, and for Asuka it is her stepmother.
4. Both grow to hate Rei, and for much the same reason. They see her as not fully human and unworthy of attention and praise.
5. Both have explicitly stated that they do not want to have children.
6. Both were once obsessed with an older man who never reciprocated their love (Gendo for Ritsuko, Kaji for Asuka)
7. Both have some association with cats (Ritsuko in the original TV series, Asuka in the Rebuild movies)
8. Their entrance and exit scenes in EoE are mirrored. Both emerge from water and then die at their mother's betrayal.
9. Also in EoE, there is a scene where Ritsuko washes her face that Asuka later repeats.
10. Both are told "I need you" during Instrumentality, Ritsuko by Gendo and Asuka by Shinji. They both respond identically-- by saying "Liar."

So, coincidence? You decide!
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby Arcadia's legacy » Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:40 pm

This does seem like quite the interesting parallel if true. It's rather ironic actually, Asuka wishes herself to be seen and treated as an adult, yet the actual adult proves to just be as messed up as she is
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby barnett » Thu Jan 25, 2018 6:51 am

I think it is a well thought comparison, Ritsuko is one of my favourite characters in the show.

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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby C.T.1290 » Thu Jan 25, 2018 9:33 am

If Asuka is the mirror image of Ritsuko for the reasons you stated above, wouldn't that make her just as bad and a bit twisted as she is?
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby AdamMalkovitch » Thu Jan 25, 2018 2:45 pm

View Original PostEl Squibbonator wrote:2. Both were forced to watch as their mothers "died".
3. Both have a living mother figure who is distant and unresponsive. For Ritsuko it is her grandmother, and for Asuka it is her stepmother.
4. Both grow to hate Rei, and for much the same reason. They see her as not fully human and unworthy of attention and praise.
7. Both have some association with cats (Ritsuko in the original TV series, Asuka in the Rebuild movies)
8. Their entrance and exit scenes in EoE are mirrored. Both emerge from water and then die at their mother's betrayal.

2. Asuka may or may not have watched Kyoko's Contact Experiment, but Risuko just left before the whole "oops lol I murdered a child off this ledge I go" incident
3. Ritsuko's grandmother is clearly someone she's close to, as Ritsuko trusts her to watch her cats, and after one dies, consoles her over the phone. Asuka doesn't hate her stepmother, she just wants nothing to do with her because no one can replace the bond Kyoko had with her before the Contact Experiment, and she represents Asuka's status as a child.
4. Asuka does hate Rei, but that's because she represents everything she hates- a dependent, emotionless doll who will do anything Gendo says (at least during the first half of the series). Ritsuko doesn't hate Rei at all, if anything, she seems to be a mother figure to her, administering her with her meds and helping to accustom her to human society. Ritsuko hates the Dummy Plugs, and how easily her, essentially surrogate daughter, can be replaced. By murdering the Rei bodies in the tank, she actually makes Rei infinitely more precious.
7. The Rebuilds are irrelevant to Neon Genesis, and weren't even a scrap of an idea at the back of Anno's mind during Neon Genesis' creation and release.
8. Ritsuko IS betrayed by her mother, but Asuka has Kyoko's full support and love during the entire battle, that's why Unit 02 was so easily able to go Berserk while Asuka remained in control after being speared through the damn face. The only reason that happened though, is because Asuka got cocky, and didn't notice a gigantic sword rocketing toward her, using her AT field to hold it back instead of dodging.

Your theory would sound, but these points make it very unstable, and the few remaining, working similarities feel like coincidence.
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby El Squibbonator » Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:44 pm

It's not my theory. It's something I found on some random Tumblr blog that I don't even remember the name of. I did NOT come up with this (OK, maybe I paraphrased it a bit).
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby Asuka'sBigBrother » Sun Jan 28, 2018 9:09 pm

Good catch.

There are some key differences though:

-> Kaji did not take advantage of Asuka's desperation and exploit her, Gendo presumably exploited Ritsuko
-> Ritsuko didn't have an equivalent to Shinji to connect with
-> Asuka ends up together with Shinji, someone with the will to live
-> Ritsako ends up following Gendo, someone who evidently didn't have the will to live and wanted death as atonement

The end result:
-> Asuka rejected her mother and moved on to live without her
-> Ritsuko? We don't really know for sure, but her dependency on Gendo would likely result in her staying with Gendo, ded.

Morale of the story?
-> Don't let your mom's whims/desires define your own
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby FelipeFritschF » Tue Feb 13, 2018 7:22 pm

I feel this also works both Ritsuko and Misato. They also share some other similarities with Asuka, which I'm too lazy to point out right now. However, Misato is generally healthier, happier and more well-adjusted than Ritsuko (which admittedly isn't all that hard), yet she still keeps her own demons. Which is why I tend to think of Misato as a relatively positive adult version of Asuka, with Ritsuko being more negative, having done all the wrong choices and remained living a lie. This dynamic is also present, even more so, with Kaji being a positive adult Shinji, and Gendo, paralleled directly with him many times, being negative.

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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby Asuka'sBigBrother » Tue Feb 13, 2018 9:00 pm

Asuka's better off then either Misato or Ritsuko by "i need you" tbh
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby Settie » Tue Feb 13, 2018 9:46 pm

At the peril of coming off as an a-hole, i thought this was pretty obvious, a lot of the major characters in NGE share the same building blocks.

Shinji has dad and mom issues
Asuka has mom issues
Misato has dad issues
Ritsuko has mom issues
Gendo has dead wife issues

Said issues manifested in different ways but the end outcome was the same inability to properly connect with others, so it's not that surprising that there would be a lot of similarities when comparing characters that share the same building blocks.

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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby BernardoCairo » Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:12 am

I recently thought about this in a dream of mine. In it, during a fraction of second, I went: "yeah, Ritsuko and Asuka share many similarities." Afterwards, I went here to see if there was a thread about it already and I wasn't surprised.
As said by Sattie, these characters all share some characteristics with each other. They are all raw spectrums of people who face the Hedgehog's Dilema, in a way. That's why finding parallels between them is so easy. Shinji and Asuka are the greatest example of this. Both suffer from a lot of the same problems, differing only in the way they deal with them.
About Ritsuko and Asuka, they were both entangled with "partners" that wanted to use them as a simple means to achive something. Gendo used Ritsuko throughout the whole series so that his plans could succeed. Shinji (during The End of Evangelion) wanted Asuka to love him unconditionally, in a very unrealist fashion, so that he could feel better about himself.
The big difference between thes two situations (besides the fact that Gendo is 100% more toxic than Shinji, who is still developing as a person and actually cares about Asuka in a way) is how the female figure reacted to them. While Asuka cut Shinji off quickly (not because she didn't like him, but because she didn't want to be used as a mere "emotional crutch"), Ritsuko spent years with Gendo. There is a panel, in volume eleven of the manga, in which Ritsuko said something on the lines of: "I didn't mind being used or humiliated, if I knew he still wanted me somehow." This is something I can't see Asuka saying at all.
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby silvermoonlight » Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:21 am

I always wondered if this was why Ritsuko does not like Asuka in the series and has no time for her, as she's seeing a mirror of her younger self and does not like it. They're is also the sad thing that Asuka could grow up to be as jaded and miserable as Ritsuko in the post EOE setting, if she does not get therapy.
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby BernardoCairo » Wed Jan 06, 2021 1:54 pm

Yeah, but I think that (by the last scene of Evangelion) Asuka was in a much better position than Ritsuko ever was. As far as the viewer is concerned, she and Shinji are the only characters from the main cast that had enough willpower to break free from the LCL sea. She also seems to be way more willing to accept herself and is finally in terms with her mother's "death". That's all way more meaningful than anything Ritsuko was able to accomplish in this regard.
I mean, Asuka still has a lot of "work" to do. Her problems won't disappear out of thin air. But I think that, at least, she is in the right path to find moments of happines (not only with Shinji, but also by herself)
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby C.T.1290 » Fri Jan 08, 2021 9:05 am

View Original Postsilvermoonlight wrote:They're is also the sad thing that Asuka could grow up to be as jaded and miserable as Ritsuko in the post EOE setting, if she does not get therapy.


In that case, Asuka is going to need therapy big time.

I mean, at least now she and Shinji might be more willing to accept themselves, and each other, after everything they’ve been through. I think Asuka is just tired of being angry at everything.
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby silvermoonlight » Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:16 pm

View Original PostC.T.1290 wrote:I mean, at least now she and Shinji might be more willing to accept themselves, and each other, after everything they’ve been through. I think Asuka is just tired of being angry at everything.


I just feel both have a lot of healing ahead which could take months even years and won't happen overnight.

View Original PostBernardoCairo wrote:Yeah, but I think that (by the last scene of Evangelion) Asuka was in a much better position than Ritsuko ever was.


That's a very good point mine was purely if at end Shinji had not been there then I could see her going down a darker path.
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby Jäeger » Sun Jan 10, 2021 5:46 am

The series and EOE never hide the parallelisms between Misato/Kaji & Asuka/Shinji relationships (Even whith a visual gag in ep 11 !!!!)

So no, the mirror here is broken from the start
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby Berserk EVA-02 » Fri Jan 15, 2021 10:14 pm

View Original PostJäeger wrote:The series and EOE never hide the parallelisms between Misato/Kaji & Asuka/Shinji relationships (Even whith a visual gag in ep 11 !!!!)

So no, the mirror here is broken from the start

How so? The dynamic between Misato and Kaji is what is paralleled by the dynamic between Asuka and Shinji, not the characters themselves. However with the parallels of the characters themselves, Ritsuko certainly does appear to parallel Asuka. The two even die during the same musical sequence for God's sake.

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Postby Jäeger » Sun Jan 17, 2021 4:04 am

View Original PostBerserk EVA-02 wrote:
View Original PostJäeger#906031 wrote:The series and EOE never hide the parallelisms between Misato/Kaji & Asuka/Shinji relationships (Even whith a visual gag in ep 11 !!!!)

So no, the mirror here is broken from the start

How so? The dynamic between Misato and Kaji is what is paralleled by the dynamic between Asuka and Shinji, not the characters themselves. However with the parallels of the characters themselves, Ritsuko certainly does appear to parallel Asuka. The two even die during the same musical sequence for God's sake.


You really don't see the contradiction of your words? And in the same movie, right in the beginning of instrumentality, another parallelism. No, Asuka and Ritsuko never shared the same issues. Neither the interaction with their love interests are remotely close.

And both Misato and Asuka have an elektra complex as big as the Eiffel tower.
Last edited by Jäeger on Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby BernardoCairo » Sun Jan 17, 2021 7:33 am

Well, for me, it's just like Sattie said. These are all characters who share the same "building blocks". So, it's easy to find parallelisms between them. I mean, look at the list that started this thread. It has some objective points in it (some of it is also questionable, I know).
In the end, I don't think that this is a case of "Asuka and Ritsuko were written to be similar". But rather something on the lines of "everyone from the cast share some characteristics".
Look at Shinji, for example. I can easily relate him to not only Asuka, but also Misato and Gendo. Some may even point to Kaji, in a way.
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Re: Ritsuko and Asuka as Mirror Images

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Postby C.T.1290 » Sun Jan 17, 2021 6:50 pm

View Original PostJäeger wrote:
View Original PostBerserk EVA-02#906984 wrote:How so? The dynamic between Misato and Kaji is what is paralleled by the dynamic between Asuka and Shinji, not the characters themselves. However with the parallels of the characters themselves, Ritsuko certainly does appear to parallel Asuka. The two even die during the same musical sequence for God's sake.


You really don't see the contradiction of your words? And in the same movie, right in the beginning of instrumentality, another parallelism. No, Asuka and Ritsuko never shared the same issues. Neither the interaction with their love interests are remotely close.

And both Misato and Asuka have an elektra complex as big as the Eiffel tower.

Well, I can probably name a couple of examples; Ritsuko appears to have a love/hate relationship with Gendo, kind of like how Asuka does with Shinji in some cases. Another one, I believe that both of them said they wanted kids. Those are just of the ones I can think of.
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