Na7e wrote:That emotionless thing about Rei is getting pretty old to be honest.
For once, I find myself agreeing with you. Don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.
driftking18594 wrote:.I'm guessing they're some sort of drugs which suppress emotions.
That would be a far leap, she's been implied to just be physically frail (hence Dr. akagi's frequent examinations) which makes sense given that a) cloning isn't perfect b) she's essentially a mule. Angel and Human don't go well together.
Remember Occam's razor: If a person who was raised in a laboratory with a rather stone-faced person (Gendo) as her only parental figure with the constant knowledge that she's utterly expendable, which is, in itself, pretty much enough to leave someone emotionally stunted, don't assume that other factors are necessary.
Note that her behavior grew progressively closer to that of a normal teenagede girl (smiling, blushing and getting embarassed after compliment from attractive male, worrying about ppl, hesitating to shoot something with a classmate in it, trying to give advice to people, beginning an actual argument that Midsato had to break up, expressing gratitude, marching off without waiting for oders, questioning an order to retreat... etc) over the progress of the story/movies (untill episode 23, that is) with *no* indication that she has taken significantly less pills.
All suggest that she was that way from lack of emotional input/human interaction and *maybe* due to being alien-ish.
Also, she's not emotionless, she's a kuudere (somewhat icy on first glance, but actually quite nice) as early as ep 5, we see her smile *thrice* (to Gendo/his glasses), show a need for support (taking the glasses into the entry plug) relief (breathing out those bubbles with a sigh) annoyance/irritation (explicitly called such by the script) and get angry (*slap*)
Let me brandish my lovely little image that I specifically prepared for situations like these:
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/232/25essentialexpressionsb.jpg/]
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I had a better image with a close-up of that "bereft" expression, but I wanted to use as little rebuild as possible lest ppl accuse me that she's "all different" there.
To remove the last doubts, Anno himself has told her voice actress that she *has* emotions, but just has trouble realizing/expressing them for various reasons, one of his initial characterizations of her discribes her as "above everything else, a bitterly unhappy young girl..." unhappyness is an emotional state.