Writing for Shinji and Asuka's Relationship

[Gob Hobblin]

Chuckman just raised an excellent question on the Ideas thread: is there a thread for how to write Shinji and Asuka's relationship? Just started it for now.

Basically, how does one approach their relationship in fanfics, whether in a platonic sense, romantic sense, antagonistic, etc.?

[Chuckman]

The most important thing is that it isn't Shinji's job to fix Asuka.

[Gob Hobblin]

Heartily agreed. There's the idea that a relationship will just make the characters better, and that's a serious misunderstanding of both the characters and how relationships in general work.

If you wanted to assume that the relationship would be healthy for the characters, there has to be a two way street: if Shinji is going to be good for Asuka, then it can be him 'focusing' on her. Is he becoming a better person in the process? Is he becoming worse for it (all give and no take)?

And that ignores one half of the relationship. What does Asuka do for Shinji? Are they BOTH improving each other, or are they simply toxic for each other? Either/or could work, but you have to show WHY it works for both characters. They aren't simply going to be better because they're holding hands. Relationships don't 'fix' things. They can help people to figure out HOW to fix things, but that's a two way street from both people involved.

[ElMariachi]

Well, the core of Shinj's and Asuka's problems is their unwillingness to really got to trust someone with their feelings, by fear of getting hurt.
Unwillingness finding their roots in their traumatic childhood : Yui's death followed by Gendo's abandonment for Shinji, Kyoko's insanity and later suicide coupled with Mr Langley's dickery for Asuka.

The big difference is the nature of their defensive mechanism, which are completely opposite : Shinji defends himself with his very passive behavior and emotional distance, while Asuka's defense consist of an extremely outgoing and proud personality(in appearance) and putting herself above everyone else thanks to her University degree and status as an Eva pilot, so people won't try to look at what's beneath this exterior.

To have a relationship that works, first they must acknowledge their similarity(without including the tangification of the world this time that would be nice!) and use that as a gage of trust to have an heart to heart conversation about who they really are and why they are acting the way they did, in short take the opportunity to release all these pent-up feelings, trusting the other to listen and not use it to harm him/her later, since he/she is releasing his/her feelings too.

An excellent example of this kind of revelation is the phone conversation between Shikinami and Misato in Rebuild, where Asuka(thanks to being saner in Rebuild) has an heartfelt conversation with the Colonel, and even acknowledge after that she never had that kind of conversation before and that it feel unexpectedly nice. (on an interesting side note, it's the kind of conversation we never got from Rebuild!Shinji, except tidbits during the hell train scenes, but it was introspecting, unless the Rei in these scenes is revealed to be the real Rei telepathically communicating, maybe that's why he never can bring himself to truly trust anyone, with the paroxysm coming in 3.0)

And from here, they can begin a relationship where they could help each other, for example Asuka could make Shinji realize that he's not the worthless human being he think he is, that he has talents(cello, piloting even if it irks her ego) and good qualities(good natured, ready to put his life in danger for others) to boost his self-confidence, while Shinji could show her that being nice to others and listening to them is not a weakness(for example, getting to really know Rei) to make her willing to let down her emotional shield.(do you see the irony with Rebuild!Shinji who have a very hard time listening to others, especially when upset?)


But without this kind of heartfelt interaction and later two-way relationship, it's doomed to failure and to make things even worse for both, which can also be interesting to see.

[NemZ]

Personally I just can't see it working. Even if you take all their issues and fix them you're still left with the fact that what they want for themselves and from a partner are very different things than the other can offer. With all their issues in place it might happen, but it's likely only to end in some twisted codependency situation where they're stuck together because neither can related to anyone else or function on their own, but they're also constantly abusing each other in various ways so that staying together by necessity is still hell.

Well, unless you go with ReTake's solution and just give Asuka amnesia and brain damage so Shinji can treat her like a daughter/wife in as creepy a fashion as possible.

[ElMariachi]

And for you, what is it that they want for themselves and from a partner that the other can't offer?

As for Re-Take... let's not talk about this passage, thank you! (thank god the author still had enough sense to make it all a dream!)

[NemZ]

My sense is that Asuka is looking for a much more exiting and adventurous life than Shinji would ever be comfortable with. She wants to be the center of attention, famous, constantly heaped with praise... and Shinji is not ever going to want to be in that spotlight with her, even if it's just standing there silently and looking supportive. I honestly don't think he could ever even understand that drive to constantly be the best, the one all eyes are drawn to, because to Shinji that's almost the definition of hell. This sort of success is centrally important to her, enough to make personal sacrifices for and demand accommodations from him to make it happen that will be a constant drain and a reason for growing resentments that he's likely to keep buried until throwing them all in her face at once, or maybe through passive-aggressive shit to sabotage all her efforts with a few choice slips. In this situation Shinji would want her to fail, because that brings her down to his level and lets him play the roll of the comforter, something he's much more suited to then being arm candy. Either she'll have to ditch him before he pulls her under, or she'll find out he did this after it's too late to fix and you get a murder/suicide ending.

On the other hand Shinji would greatly prefer a quiet life away from much attention, just in the company of a few close companions who really get him on a deep emotional level and whom he is comfortable and open with as well. That sure as hell isn't Asuka, who sees that kind of openness as weakness. She'd be bored out of her mind living life on Shinji's terms, on top of feeling constantly harrassed by his need to know and understand everything she's thinking. He doesn't deal well with uncertainty afterall, and isn't satisfied by vague answers... but doesn't have the balls to ask direct questions unless it's in the midst of an emotional meltdown. Really it's only a matter of time in this case before she leaves him for someone more engaging and less needy, and/or he finds out (or just suspects) and they both end up, again, in a murder/suicide story.

[Bagheera]

Guess I should weigh in here, given my rep for pontificating on the subject.

The biggest mistake people make when writing about these two is to treat them like normal teenagers. This doesn't work for two reasons: first, they're very young. Asuka's 13, Shinji 14, and that's a world of difference from the 16, 17, 18-year-olds we're used to as young adults in most Western stories. A couple of years is a really big deal at that age. Second, both teens are heavily damaged, even before Eva gets its hooks into them. That damage is rarely addressed in adequate fashion in fanfic.

So, a quick rundown of exactly why this is so with each:

Asuka: Here is your mantra when writing Asuka: she is not a bitch. That is to say, she is not mean for the sake of being mean, she is not petty, she is not vengeful, she is not capricious. Instead she is a hystrionic girl with deep-seated abandonment issues, and these two factors drive every aspect of her personality. Some examples:

• Asuka is very lonely. Between her abandonment by her mother and her isolated upbringing she’s never been able to connect with anyone, and that’s left her feeling isolated and alone. She hates that more than anything because she equates it with being abandoned and thrown away like trash.
  
  
• She is fixated on being an adult because her mother "abandoned" her as a child. She was raised with adults, in what Tines likes to call a “hothouse environment”, and that’s the only world that matters to her. In her experience children are ignored at best and thrown away at worst, so she is determined not to be a child. It is her only hope for survival.
  
  
• As a result of her abandonment Asuka has a crippling lack of self-worth. She hates herself because she wasn’t good enough to keep her mother around, and as a result she’s desperate to prove herself in Eva. If she’s the best at piloting Eva that means she’s important, and if she’s important she has to be accepted and kept around.
  
  
• Asuka exhibits many instances of black and white thinking, particularly when it comes to gender roles. Despite her precociousness she believes men should ride in and save the day on their white horses, and women should swoon at their feet. But not just any men – worthy men. Her father obviously doesn’t qualify, but Kaji does. Shinji might if he would act like he did when he saved her from the volcano, but he never does so . . . yeah.

So, how do these traits interact? The tension between these aspects of her personality is what makes Asuka an interesting character. Her most basic drives demand that she pursue success to whatever extent necessary, since that’s critical for her survival. But, at the same time, she wants to be “saved” by a worthy, manly man. She struggles as hard as she does because most of the men around her aren’t worthy – she can’t depend on them, and she saw what happens to weak women when her father abandoned her mother. So, her most basic drives (her id, if we’re using Freud, silly as the notion may be) demand she survive at any cost, and this drives her to excel. If she can prove herself the adult world will have to accept her. But at the same time she doesn’t want to work like that; her emotional side (her ego, to continue with the Freud analogy) wants to be saved by a manly man who will make a place for her in adult society by default. She hasn’t yet learned to balance the two, and thus acts in a very confusing manner.

Shinji: Here is your mantra with Shinji: He is not a spineless wimp. Instead he is an avoidant boy with a crippling lack of self-worth, coupled with a truly remarkable streak of obstinance. He has decided he is a worthless individual whose sense of self is so poorly developed that he can’t even be bothered to commit suicide. In his eyes he is worthless, and as such he firmly believes that he is unable to help others. He has very good reason to believe this is the case, and it has influenced him in various ways:

• His father abandoned him as a child, with no explanation given. The implication is obvious: he’s a bad child and his father doesn’t want him. Gendo does absolutely nothing to disabuse him of this notion when he arrives in Tokyo-3.
  
  
• His mother seemed fond of him, but then she went away. No one ever explained why, and his father sent him away soon after, so in his eyes it’s obviously his fault. The two events are correlated so to his child’s mind they’re linked in cause as well.
  
  
• Like Asuka Shinji is very lonely, and for many of the same reasons. He was abandoned by both of his parents, raised in isolation, and given little in the way of role models to show him the love and affection a child needs to grow up properly.
  
  
• Shinji’s obstinance is not just a personality quirk. Instead it is a defense mechanism, and a very useful one. It means that he can identify what little is positive about his circumstances and milk it for all it’s worth, which in turn will give him the wherewithal he needs to get through another day. So, when he receives praise for something (such as playing the cello) he continues to do it; it’s a good thing, so he should keep doing it since that will make him an acceptable person. It also keeps him from running away from pain, which allows him to receive praise and acceptance from adults. In like fashion this is also the root of his apologetic reflex.

So, how do these traits interact in Shinji? Well, continuing with the analogy for Asuka his root instinct (his “id”) is to run away, to isolate, to avoid. He is afraid of pain and so he has walled himself away from the world. However, this only invites criticism, which leads to more pain, so he had developed a stubborn streak (his “ego”) to manage his fear and drive him forward in hopes of finding praise from others. As in Asuka’s case he still hasn’t figured out how to balance these traits effectively.

Which brings us to writing about these characters. With the above in mind, here are some basic rules of thumb:

• There will be no romance. Seriously, these are emotionally stunted children. Even if they were healthy they would only be beginning to explore their sexuality at this age, and they are not healthy. Even though Asuka fantasizes about the idea it is, for her, a means to an end – she doesn’t want a relationship for its own sake, she wants it because, for her, it’s a ticket to securing her status as an adult and gaining acceptance thereby. But she doesn’t even really want to date other boys, and she certainly doesn’t want to kiss them (witness her near-disgust at the prospect with Shinji; she was willing to endure it because it might lead to her being held, but that’s as far as her interest went). Anything beyond that is a farce.
  
  
• They have serious intimacy issues. They have been denied affection all their lives, they have had little physical contact with others, and they don’t know how to handle it when it does happen. Shinji’s reaction to Asuka’s kiss is a good example: he just stands there, arms locked at his sides, unable to comprehend what to do. He doesn’t want to be touched.
  
  
• They have different ways of managing the same basic problem. Both kids have been abandoned by adults who have no place for them in their world, and they are very lonely as a result. Asuka is driven to survive but very much wants to be rescued, while Shinji wants to run away and hide but is determined to press forward in a desperate bid for acceptance. In the end they are two sides of the same coin, which is no surprise given that they’re both facets of Anno’s own personality.
  
  
• They don’t understand one another. Despite their similarities their different coping strategies leave the kids feeling very confused by one another. Their thinking processes and self-awareness aren’t developed enough to catch on to their similarities or the reasoning behind the other’s actions, and so the spines come out.

So that’s a bunch of lists, but what does it all mean? Simply put, the kids interact in a number of different ways:

As Co-workers: Asuka is driven to succeed, and she doesn’t understand why Shinji isn’t. Moreover, his natural talent is a threat to her, since it suggests she’ll be thrown away as soon as she is no longer useful (which does in fact prove to be the case). Shinji, for his part, considers her something like a sempai despite their ages, since she obviously has more training and more familiarity with Eva than he does. But his talent is such a threat to her that they can’t productively nurture this aspect of their working relationship.

As Friends: Because of the threat Shinji represents to her, and the fact that he refuses to be the big hero she wants him to be (in which case the threat would be moot), it would be very difficult for Asuka to accept Shinji as any sort of friend. She hides behind the claim that he’s boring, but that’s not quite it – it’s more that he’s useless to her, and on top of that a threat. But Shinji doesn’t understand the whys and wherefores of any of this, so even though he wants to be her friend he doesn’t know how to do it.

As Lovers: Hahahahahahaha no.

But this begets another question: What if I’m doing something different? It’s a good question. So, let’s look at some possibilities:

Post-3I: The heavy lifting route. By this point the kids have been horribly victimized by Eva, which means their conditions might easily worsen to catatonia and madness respectively. Thrown in some PTSD and they are both tangled messes of neuroses that will take years to sort out. And yet, we also have Instrumentality. It’s not a fix by any means, but it does mean they’ll have a better understanding of their own issues, and some idea of the other’s. If they reconnect after they’ve had some time to get their heads in order they might easily become fast friends, each relying on the other because of similarity of origins and shared experiences. In short, they’d understand one another in ways no one else could, and that insight would be very helpful for people who are recovering from trauma. But it’s a lot of work to develop this properly; you’d need a flowchart to figure out what happened to each kid individually, and then you’d have to figure out how they’d interact with one another at each stage of recovery, and you'd have to situate all of this in the context of post-3I recovery. Even in an optimistic setup (of which there are several plausible possibilities, Tines and NemZ be damned) it would take an awful lot of heavy lifting to develop the setting and the kids’ place in it to make it all ring true. It’s possible, I firmly believe that, but it hasn’t yet been done. Some have come close, though; Orchestrating the Silence, Throne of Bayonets, a few others. But these works are deeply flawed and ultimately unsatisfying for various reasons once you start delving beneath the surface.

Alternate Realities: Things are a bit easier here, but the primary question is: What did you change, and why did you change it? Your decisions in this regard can alter or negate any or all of the above. Make the kids a couple of years older? That matters, a lot. Change their background? Again, a big deal. Remove Eva? Holy shit man, that’s a game-changer. Eva is extremely vulnerable to the law of unintended consequences, and changes made to allow AUs to flourish will usually have more far-reaching effects than most authors seem to expect.

Peggy Sues: Just don’t do it unless you’re being ironic.

The Future: The thing to remember about proclamations about how Shinji and Asuka would/would not work together is the fact that they are children. What they want now, and why, is something that changes dramatically with Eva, and will change more dramatically after Instrumentality. Claims for or against compatibility are thus nonsensical. If the Shinji and Asuka we see in the show, prior to the descent arc, were magically advanced to adulthood with their basic drives intact then yes, it’s safe to say they’d be incompatible. But that’s not how maturation works generally, and particularly not when Eva and Instrumentality are added into the mix. For example, Asuka’s drive to be the best hinges on her being an Eva pilot. When that’s no longer an option she’s faced with a rather immediate change-or-die situation: she must find a new way to define herself, because she simply won’t function otherwise. This applies to the kids’ interaction as well: if Shinji can no longer pilot Eva he’s no longer a threat to Asuka (all the more true if Eva’s no longer an option for her either) and that changes the dynamic of their relationship considerably.

In short, one cannot view these characters in isolation and expect them to ring true. They are defined by their interaction with Eva, and their future is dramatically altered by Instrumentality. These factors absolutely must be taken into account when writing the characters and speculating about their futures.

Alright, that’s enough from me. If people have questions I’ll answer them, but I won’t beat anyone over the head with how I think things ought to be done any longer.

[UrsusArctos]

Bagheera, that's an impressive post if I ever saw one. Excellent explanations all around!

As Lovers: Hahahahahahaha no.

Poor SSD!

Of course, none of the above really applies to someone writing a parody...

[amitakartok]

So, Bagheera... the gist of it is that this pairing is impossible and pointless? If so, what is everyone doing in this thread?

[NemZ]

Fantastic post, Bags. Full agreement.

optimistic setup (of which there are several plausible possibilities, Tines and NemZ be damned)

...well, let's call it 95% agreement.

[Chuckman]

As soon as I'm done moving into my new office, and therefore have the time, I'm writing a peggy sue. :p

I'm going to make it work, too. The answer to the thorny problem of time-traveling Shinji manipulating Asuka in a predatory way is simple; everybody who writes the time loop story wants Shinji to do what they would do: Save her.

What if Shinji decided the only way to do that was to keep as much distance from her as he could?

So, Bagheera... the gist of it is that this pairing is impossible and pointless? If so, what is everyone doing in this thread?

I don't agree with every point but he's mostly correct (I think assigning real world personality disorders to fictional characters is a mistake) about the two characters and their relationships in canon, but we're not dealing with canon. We're making shit up. (Of course, it's all made up...)

To really write them you have to whittle away at them. Under their coping behaviors, who are they? The irony of their relationship in canon, and the reason it's so compelling to so many people, is that underneath his many problems Shinji is the person she wants him to be. He is selfless and noble and brave, but the world he lives in is cruel and beats him down until he loses himself in despair.

Asuka has strong positives that are obscured by her emotional problems, too. She does care about Shinji, and sees something in him. The guy that leapt into the volcano to save her, who risked his own life and suffered greatly to do so, is hiding inside that shy exterior somewhere and up until the total collapse begins, she's seeing teasing flashes of him all the time- just like Shinji sees flashes of the real Asuka, right up until the very end.

She's sure not normal and I'm not aguing that she's just a regular teenage girl on the inside, but it's important to understand that Asuka's normal behavior is an act, and she has to consciously keep it up or she slips and does things like openly talk to Shinji about her stepmother or slip into his bed.

She sends a lot of mixed signals because she doesn't want to be a bitch. She imposes it on herself as a punishment for her failure. She's constantly seeking ways to make herself suffer for the crime of not being good enough to stop her mother's suicide, and Shinji unfortunately catches the brunt of a lot of that.

[Bagheera]

Poor SSD!

But note I'm talking specifically about the series timeframe there; all bets are off after 3I, assuming the author's willing to invest heavily enough.

Of course, none of the above really applies to someone writing a parody...

Yes, parodies have their own set of rules. They're still hard to do well, but for other reasons.

So, Bagheera... the gist of it is that this pairing is impossible and pointless? If so, what is everyone doing in this thread?

Two reasons:

First, if you're going to do it you need to change the setting and/or the characters, so it's important to know why things are as they are so you know what you need to change to get the desired effect.

Second, it's not impossible or pointless, you just need the right circumstances to make it happen. If you're doing a minor variation of series canon you're SOL, but if you're doing an AU or a post-3I story there are ways to make it happen. You just need to work hard to make it so.

...well, let's call it 95% agreement.

I still find it delightfully amusing that you're willing to buy into giant cyborgs, LCL, AT Fields, souls, Angels, organic superweapons, rape beams, unlimited energy, telescoping cities, antimatter weapons, an organization like Nerv (run by the UN no less!), the Illuminati, and all the other frankly idiotic stuff in NGE but can't conceive of any way whatsoever that humanity might rebound quickly from 3I. It's like, with all the crazy shit we have to deal wtih in this show, that's the point you get hung up on? Really?

And this after 2I blew up Antarctica and not only said we recovered, but that did so in a couple of years and managed to divert all of the world's resources to building giant super cyborgs in the process.That's all fine and dandy, but crawling out of the sea and getting on with our lives is totally bogus? Riiiiiiiight.

[ElMariachi]

So, Bagheera... the gist of it is that this pairing is impossible and pointless? If so, what is everyone doing in this thread?

No, what he's saying is that for that pairing to have any chance to work, it needs Instrumentality to make the first step, that's an heavy price, but hey, the price for shipping is never too high, just ask the guys from WILLE!

More seriously, IMHO the point is that it could eventually work between them, but without the Evas getting between them, and with much time to let them heal their mental wounds from after 3I.


Still Bagheera, really awesome and detailed post, I tip my hat to you!
After reading your reason why a normal friendship would be very complicated for them, and a romantic relationship outright impossible during the series and extremely complicated after it, I got the feeling that it could hypothetically works far better with Shikinami, due to her far more stable personality and willingness to accept Shinji as a worthy pilot and question herself(shown during her conversation with Misato where she said that even though she prefers being alone, being with friends is not so bad)
Of course, I'm talking about the pre-3.0 Asuka, since we don't know that much about the post-3.0 Asuka, except that she's very angry!

[Gob Hobblin]

I agree with a lot of what Bagheera says, especially in terms of romance: children do not view or experience 'romance' in the same vein as teenagers and adults do. It's only the first round of feelings that lead to such things, and they are messy, powerful, and frightening emotions (especially terrifying when paired up with the neuroses these two individuals have). It's certainly up to the writer what they want to do with it, but make of that what you will.

Allowing them to grow and develop, and exploring such feelings at a later point in time is a much more natural and (possibly) better way to write that sort of topic. A lot of my favorite stories deal with Shinji and Asuka as adults, and they feel a lot less forced than other stories I've read. I think there's a valid reason for that.

Post 3I writing, I guess, depends largely on how you view Instrumentality: was it Armageddon, or Apocalypse? If it was the first, the world is over and anything that happens in the end is moot: it's simply characters making the best of their lives as they become a footnote to a history no one will be left to read.

If it's the latter, however, that's not the end of the world, but the transition from one phase to the next. In which case, Instrumentality is catharsis: not therapy, but a new understanding or new phase for humanity. Exploring Shinji and Asuka's relationship in light of something like that becomes a much more fascinating prospect: how do their personalities conflict or merge after that? Are they more 'whole' or more 'broken?' Do their pieces 'fit' together more, or are they simply grating on one another to a more severe degree?

I do have to disagree with Chuckman on the idea of assigning real world disorders to fictional characters: a lot of these disorders are ones that Anno himself assigned, as he was trying to cope with his own dysfunctions. I think using these characters as a template for trying to understand how those dysfunctions work (and possibly how one copes with such things) makes for intriguing story material. That's just my opinion, however, so make of that what you will.

Still, Chuckman has a valid point: I think a better way of putting it would be refusing to see things where they aren't, or assigning attributes, virtues, vices, and all that to 'canon' characters that weren't there. The result can be a story that has a forced and uncomfortable falseness to it: you begin to doubt the framework of why the character's are as they are, and the whole thing begins to fall apart.

In the end, though, it is all fanfiction: they are no real 'rules' to writing it, I think, so long as it's an enjoyable read. As for 'adjusting' the characters, I think everybody does that, to an extent (technically, Anno himself has done that: writing his characters now versus then results in different characters. It's how the creative process works). We are all human, so we are:

A) Just figuring out the characters and will make mistakes in their characterization as we try to get a handle on them.

B) Applying our own preconceived notions onto what we write, which is virtually impossible to do away with.

C) Just saying to hell with it, it's being written the way it's written.

None of these, I feel, are wrong answers: they become wrong answers when the willing suspension of disbelief is abused. Can Shinji and Asuka work together? Maybe, maybe not. Have you invested time in showing why they can, or at least explaining why YOUR Shinji and Asuka are different and how this defines their relationship? If you have, and it works, then it works.

[ElMariachi]

By the way Hob, you wouldn't have created this topic to get some ideas about Shinji's and Asuka's relationship in You can (never) trust, won't you?

[Chuckman]

You're changing something, otherwise you'd just be writing a novelization of the television show.

[Gob Hobblin]

That sounds like a fishing question, ElMariachi. Are you fishing for info?

I completely agree with you, Chuckman, don't get me wrong: you have to change stuff. A fanfic is YOUR work, just with other peoples IP. It's your take on what you see, so to say this is how one thing has to be or not kind of ignores the idea of fanfiction. In that vein, if you see fanfic writing as a tool for constructively building creative writing skills, you use the other IP as a handrail for practicing your own originality.

As it applies to Shinji and Asuka's relationship, to me, it's a matter of organics: does this relationship grow in a natural way, whether closer together or farther apart? And if it grows together, in the categories that Bagheera listed, does it make sense? Changes are inevitable, and more to the point, welcome, but only if they have a rationale behind them (not necessarily a logical rationale, but something where the reader can go 'I buy that').

[amitakartok]

I have half a mind to write a story (I need my weekly dose of WAFF) where Asuka is going at Shinji like crazy right from the beginning. Why would she do such an out-of-character thing? Because she's aware that she's not entirely right in the head this time. You know, "admitting you have a problem is the first step to the solution" and all that.

As Bagheera pointed out above, like it or not but Shinji is the only person who knows exactly what she's going through and is the only person who can help her. Thing is, Asuka recognizes that he doesn't have the balls to do so, therefore she forces the issue. However, I know from experience that wanting help is one thing but forcing that help onto someone against their wishes only makes them resentful and angry. And it's not a situation where a single kiss can solve anything; at one point, an exasperated and frustrated Shinji would ask her what does she want from him... and Asuka realizes she doesn't know either.

The moral of the story? How would you know the answer if you don't know the question either?


Or... gaaaah, it's pretty much impossible to write this pairing without OOC!

[Bagheera]

As it applies to Shinji and Asuka's relationship, to me, it's a matter of organics: does this relationship grow in a natural way, whether closer together or farther apart? And if it grows together, in the categories that Bagheera listed, does it make sense? Changes are inevitable, and more to the point, welcome, but only if they have a rationale behind them (not necessarily a logical rationale, but something where the reader can go 'I buy that').

Which explains why I'm a fan of Rommel's work.

Or... gaaaah, it's pretty much impossible to write this pairing without OOC!

Post-3I. Heavy lifting. Just sayin' . . .