Drabant wrote:Asuka's treatment at the hand of NERV is very easy to criticize, as is it for the other children in perhaps more obvious ways. However, the character of Asuka does not at all seem to fight it, and it's not as much her limited power but the character's delusional mindset that actually makes her insist on staying.
She is engrossed in the fantasy world where she's the greatest ace pilot with a near divine right to be so, and anything that would betray that fantasy is quickly rejected, and that includes fighting NERV.
When Shinji casts doubt on their role as pilots and their righteousness in the fight against the Angels, is promptly dismissed by Asuka as nonsense, she counters a good point with anti-intellectualism. Likewise, when Rei's proposed view in the elevator challenges the comfortable idea Asuka has of things, she responds by lashing out and making insults and accusations.
If anything, she continues to fight for her continued mistreatment rather than against it, and in the end she is unable to free herself from her strings.
This; Ovsly child soldiers are always inherently problematic and obviously Asuka was a relentless example of how the organization works their tools until they break, but ultimately the emphasis is somewhere else, mostly her own complex of tying self-worth to archievement and image and ultimately, the inner division that sometimes comes from your parents splitting up - Even more, her plot with the organization is ultimately subsidiary to that insignificance comples , the narrative has her crushed in the cogwheels of the uncaring system because that's a nightmare for someone like her.
(What Gob said is obviously also true)
But that aside, I think that this Anno transcript
has been widely misunderstood. It's not, "Oh, that character is BS and you shouldn't like her", but, it's all artist speak and more among the lines of, "That character comes from a weird subcionscious, disconnected place and my relationship with writing her is weird", (He does cal it the "purest, most core" part of himself and in EoE proper she's identified with hope, so there's way more ambiguity there than "obvious schmuck bait" ) he further elaborated on this in one of the rebuild interviews saying that "When it comes to Rei I'm unconscious"/ That she practically writes herself ("Poka Poka" was supposedly her own idea ^^°)
So that his reaction to the reaction to this character would be influenced by his weird relationship with the part of himself she comes from, well, that's not necessarily indicative of ingratitude. If he started relating to his creations like an outsider does it wouldn't be genuine anymore.
Rei is just a slightly stilyzed good metaphor for certain personality types and issues & ways one can feel, it's not common for a silent, neglected, not socially gifted teen to feel like they're false and empty, or "different" from anyone else/ out of place, and obsly a metaphorical representation of that is making her a literal artificial space alien. It's not any more or less metaphorical or relatable as the over the top gruesome death of Asuka's mother as a standing for an experience of "You have no value on your own", and Shinji and Gendo as different parts of the creator's ego with a charge of real or perceived rejection between them.
Also, as for Rebuild, it's the same story told in different ways with different emphases/methods, while exploring things Anno was interested in at the time (Like the whole food thing (and Shinji's experience with field work, too) standing in for a person very disconnected from their body instincts and physicality appreciating some physical things/ sensoric pleasures) I don't think Q invalidates her at all because the difference between genuinely devoted, well-read, dreaming, thinking Rei and someone who's devoid of all that but still has all the "clone" attributes is
much stressed. ReiQ is, at first, all like "I will read the books if I'm ordered to"/ "do everything you say & fake interest" and Shinji's reaction is, "Well fuck, the person I made friends with is not here."
Obsly then ReiQ goes the way of developement very late in the movie because it's more interesting than keeping her the way she was.
As for Rei's appeal, I concurr with her Va more or less, the beauty is that she still has humanity, in all its forms (caring, search for meaning etc) despite all that's been done to her also that, however briefly, she and Shinji were able to exchange some genuine warmth despite both their limitations. She and Kaworu weren't there for long, but, they played large roles in convincing Shinji - just barely - that good things are possible in thissometimes difficult world.
UrsusArctos wrote:That apartment always makes me wonder...was it her choice to live there, or had Gendo sent her there? What would they get by letting Rei stay in a place like that?
I'd say it was likely a mixture of both - Gendo left her to her own devices once he deemed her self-suficient, and Rei tried to replicate her lab of origin (As Ritsuko theorized)
