I really could not disagree more on the idea of Shikinami being intentionally portrayed initially as a "lesser than X" character for subversive reasons, and honestly even when factoring runtime issues (esp. w/2.0) I personally don't believe what we got was much worse off on a characterization level overall.

WunderBah wrote:I really could not disagree more on the idea of Shikinami being intentionally portrayed initially as a "lesser than X" character for subversive reasons, and honestly even when factoring runtime issues (esp. w/2.0) I personally don't believe what we got was much worse off on a characterization level overall.

I can only speak for myself, but when I wrote about "dumbing down" Asuka's arc in 2.0, I meant it as a comparison to Soryu's arc in NGE: as you said, her characterization in 2.0 is not that bad in that it's more of a typical tsundere, except that she gets over the worst of it pretty fast, and her Instrumentality scene in Thrice reveals that it wasn't just your typical tsundere trope at work, but that there was an actual "realistic" reason to her behavior, and in a way, it shows what realistically would make someone act your typical Tsundere: having her deprived of a childhood and normal affection, making her socially withdrawn as she's not used to interact with people who aren't military instructors and NERV handlers (and even less normal people her age), and deep down craving for affection and a normal life, which if you look at it, is similar to how Soryu deconstructed the Tsundere trope by showing how messed up someone has to be to act like your abrasive Tsundere, then ran with the logical conclusion of such a behavior with said emotional baggage: self-destruction. (it is possible that, ironically, her social ineptitude due to her upbringing is what prevented Shikinami to be as self-destructive as Soryu)

So if you take her as an independent character, her characterization is "classical" for animes. But she's not an independent character: she'll inevitably be compared to NGE's Asuka, since she's the counterpart to the retelling/"remake" of Neon Genesis Evangelion. And where Soryu had a very complicated personality born from very traumatic experiences and bad coping mechanisms of pushing herself to be the best to stave of her fear of abandonment while keeping an emotional wall by fear of getting hurt again, and that it took an entire series, a slowly building mental breakdown and the outright apocalypse with a global mind merge to finally start getting out of this mindset, Shikinami seemed to already begin to move on from her personal issues by the mid-point of 2.0, which could feel as a "dumbing down" of her character. (as in the global character of "Asuka" through the franchise)

So yeah, Shikinami will inevitably be compared to Soryu due to the relationship between NGE and NTE, not helping the fact that Thrice then tear down the separation between both with a sledgehammer, among other things by having Shinji (and Gendo) becoming an amalgamate of his selves from NGE and NTE and Asuka's last scene being in the beach at the end of EoE with only GNR's head replaced by the Moon. (and having said Shinji amalgamate talking to her)

Asuka in NTE:
https://youtu.be/U8m-SfHOHSU

I could elaborate a little more, but I've already done it again and again. This video is the only way I've found to describe how I feel about Soryu and Shikinami right now.