Watching the Asuka 30th anniversary special, it seems pretty obvious that Asuka Sohryu (the original) disliked her End of Evangelion ending, what with the choking and "kimochi warui." She did not really have an ending in the TV series.

After going through all sorts of different scenarios which are happier, including an idealized family life with Shinji, she turns them all down because she's done relying on dreams and wants to create her own happiness with the cards she's been dealt. I interpreted this not as a rejection of Shinji and a family with him per se, but a rejection of using whatever Asuka Shikinami's offering her (I assume instrumentality) as a crutch to avoid dealing with reality. That reality would be "One More Final - I Need You" because...there really is nothing else it could be. She then declares herself a protector of her world and Unit 02's pilot.

I agree with the protector part, but....her Unit 02 was destroyed already, along with its core, before her real ending. How is she going to be a Eva pilot if her Eva no longer exists? Maybe she should have said "my Eva may be gone, but I'm still a warrior and a protector!" I don't know, is this a simple continuity error Anno made? Don't get me wrong, I loved the short WAAAAAY more than I thought I would, this little detail has bothered me.

I find it far-fetched to believe that Anno forgot. The destruction of Unit 02 in EoE is one of its immortal, visceral moments.

I'd tend to take her statement in the same way that veterans are soldiers by temperament forever. I mean, the entire phenomenon of PTSD is the more tragic outcome of permanently assuming a role, but the more 'normal' version is how soldiers upon return experience everything in civilian life different from civilians. They will still case roads as they drive, often finding it hard to settle down from an alert mode, taking mental checks on surroundings, etc.

It wouldn't be abnormal at all, given her character, for her to identify as a role that's no longer possible. Artists still identify as artists even if arthritis removes their ability to mold clay and they never make another mug again.

It's an abstract, meta short.
She is the pilot of Eva-02 cause that's what the character is. We'll always know her as that.
She just accepts what she wanted was right there. Similar to Shinji in Instrumentality. Just needed to value it/herself.

Watching the Asuka 30th anniversary special, it seems pretty obvious that Asuka Sohryu (the original) disliked her End of Evangelion ending, what with the choking and "kimochi warui.

I feel like it's adressing the idea that she feels like she "lost out" (not being the "main character", losing fights, not "getting the boy") but ultimately arrives at the notion that actually she didn't lose out because she ended up the way she is as a result of who she is & she wants to find happiness as who she is, in the world she actually lives in.

In that sense it's very similar to the TV ending. (and also has a lot of callbacls to the monologue after Rebuild!Asuka opt to pilot EVA 03 , "the elite must protect the ignorant masses" - she still voices it "vaingloriously" but there's a honest desire to be a hero in there.
Until the short it didn't occur to me that this scene is actually the beginning of her shift towards genuine heroism (since it immediately ends badly)

But it's actually the first step towards how she says she wants to "protect" the village and also saving Midori in her short (which shows heroic behavior on Asuka before most of the timeskip)

I remember being somewhat impressed with the "protecting" statement because that shows a whole new & mature side to Asuka who was previously concerned with her own glory.
Though you might say that she always had the seeds of that. (as far as series!Asuka goes, she shows genuine kindness with Hikari for example)

In that sense we have the same trajectory as with the other pilots where at first it seems their growth in 2.0 was immediately annihiliated but then in TuaT we see that it actually did matter.

Though it certainly supports the notion that she did not "get with" Shinji in the TV & EoE timelines either as else she wouldn't have to confront & get over the idea that she "lost out". (especially since the imagine spot that shows her as Shinji's wife shows her in Adult!Rei's clothes)

She says she wants to be EVA 02's pilot, but she also says that she wants to find her happiness "after she has protected everyone" so it suggests some hope for after she's done piloting.


Though it shows her & Shinji having different priorities, with him wanting a "peaceful life" & her wanting to be the "protector of other's peaceful lives".
EVA certainly isn't the only way to do that. She can find other ambitious jobs that help ppl (in that way she seems a bit similar to Ritsuko who also in the OG series gets much musings about how her idea of happiness might be more career-based)

I always though the main reason they weren't compatible even if they got over their traumas/toxicity is that Asuka would always be an ambitious person even if she found healthier outlets for that.

Regardless of the specifics and how Shinji features in it (or not), Asuka's statement about "finding happiness after protecting everyone", suggests that she won't remain solely dependent on EVA.