We knew that she admires her mother as a scientist, hoping to surpass her and hated her as a woman. But was Naoko a good mother overall?

I don't like Ritsuko because she showed too much of humans' weakness and darkness while she is quite sympathetic, part of it was her mother's fault and part of it was her own doing.

Naoko herself admits in ep.21 she wasn't a good mother and despite Ritsuko not being quick to agree with it, her reaction and Naoko's characteristics indicate to me she wasn't a good mother indeed-she was probably very distant from Ritsuko and focused much more on her work. Ritsuko probably bears a small grudge toward her due to that, but her feelings in general are more complicated. She still loves Naoko and seems to put some sort of trust in her (as evidenced by being shocked over the "mother" part of the Magi refusing to blow up Nerv HQ). I can't really say more than that, as I should rewatch NGE and EoE to have a better understanding of that situation; besides from that, I think there's also a legitimate possibility the relationship between the two simply isn't examined in a deeper way.

So that's why she had common language with Misato, who also once hated her father for that. But Misato's father showed such strong love to save his daughter both physically and mentally. Then Shinji truly let her walk out from her shadow.

If Misato ever stopped hating his father, it would have been in EoTV during Instrumentality-it seems to me that before that, her emotions for him were still a complex mixture of various feelings.

By the way, quoting the entirety of another post is generally discouraged. You can simply edit the quote, so what is left is all that's most relevant to what you're going to say. And if you're responding to the last post, it might not even always be necessary to quote.

K.

I'm not saying Misato stop hating her dad, she surely got some feelings, which is understandable.

But she walked out from her 'little girl ask for love" and to protect Shinji, who was just like her as a child. Especially in the beginning she intended to use him against the angels.

Besides Naoko herself admitting that she was kinda distant, Ritsuko never really has any warmth in her voice when she speaks about Naoko, it's mentioned that she hardly visits her grave etc.

It's more or less implied that Ritsuko was an 'accident' - The father was nowhere to be found and Naoko was probably relatively young when she got pregnant (Ritsuko's grandma is still alive and fit enough to be looking after her cats.)

I've always headcanoned that the one of the Magi which Naoko hits when she jumps off the platform is the one that represented her as a mother.

It's the middle one, lower on the platform than the other two (as if to symbolize that it was a lower priority) - but that's probably the part of her that would feel the most guilty over killing little Rei.

Given how irascible Naoko comes off, one wonders if Ritsuko got smacked once or twice as a kid or at least yelled at a lot. Victims of that generally turn out one of two ways - a) rebellious & self sabotaging b) submissive people pleasers. (Bingo!)
Ritsuko has enough self-awareness that she doesn't want to be like that & acts tough & cynical on the outside & repressess anything sensual or passionate about herself, but when you get obsessed with NOT doing something it can still end up controlling you - enantiodromia and all that.
And then she ends up all yandere over a distant, work-obsessed guy.
"i can excuse being your purely physicalfucktoy that you have no emotions for but I draw the line at you having not even physical interest in me and basically prostituting yourself to me so i do mad science for you"

Ultimately though she's just not that tough & we can sympathize with her for that. On the surface she looks all put together & Misato is silly & a mess, but ultimately Misato is the one that's a natural leader.

Yeah, strangely Ritsuko never had issue with Shinji, the son of Yui.

I agree that Misato is the strong one and was able to overcome her shadow much better, where Ritsuko fell into it and caused her destruction.

Slowpokeking wrote:Yeah, strangely Ritsuko never had issue with Shinji, the son of Yui.

She looked really gleeful for a moment there while showing him the place where Yui died & going out of her way to stir up unpleasant memories.
Maybe at first she didn't see him as much of a threat since Gendo didn't act all that attached towards him.

Who knows what would've gone down there if Misato hadn#t come along.

However it should be noted that this is where she was at her worst at the point where everything had gone down the drain when her worst impulses had overtaken her & its not fair to judge anyone by their worst day only (Else we'd be judging Asuka only by how callous she was in ep 16 or Shinji by the hospital incident); Most of the time she's civil enough even with Rei.