Will Shinji Ever Find Love In The End?

[Shakabutt]

Except you know she's not. Because she has the brain of a 14 year old girl.

Nah, i think shes mentally 28 but i don't see how this is a strong argument aganst a posible ShinjixAsuka romance.

People are quite fond at this stage in the franchise about Kaworu and Shinji, and nobody even mentions Kaworu's age ? What about his mental maturity eh ? He seems pretty mature no ? Probably because the guy has acumulated knowledge for who knows how many milenia (if the looping is true).

The "she's older than him bla bla" has no weight at all and whoever brings it up has double standards.

A stronger argument against ShinjixAsuka is that Shinji never showed any interest in her, sexual or romantic.

So i think people should get over the "28 year old" argument.

Ultimately i don't think Anno gives a rats ass about the age difference between 2 chars, if he wants it to happen it will, but like i said, if he wanted a pairing that involved Shinji, he would have set the stage for one.

Well in 2.0 there was a stage, but it got nuked from orbit in 3.0 lol

[Na7e]

People are quite fond at this stage in the franchise about Kaworu and Shinji, and nobody even mentions Kaworu's age ? What about his mental maturity eh ? He seems pretty mature no ? Probably because the guy has acumulated knowledge for who knows how many milenia (if the looping is true).

Asuka's the opposite of Kaworu.

[Shinoyami65]

I resolutely remain an AsukaxShinji shipper. But it's difficult to form any sort of bond between them because the subtle cues and development from the original aren't there, like Darkwing said. Rebuild doesn't really have time to shove in many of the "No Angels attacking" scenes like the TV series, so we don't see the pilots much outside their plugsuits and character development suffers somewhat compared to the original series. Really, Shinji's relationships seem a lot more tenuous than in the original series. Rei Q isn't really interested in him romantically, Poka Poka Rei and Kaworu have gone to the Great Beyond, Asuka kind-of liked him in 2.0 but may have grown out of it and Mari's... Mari. Seriously. I cannot see MarixShinji happening.

Shinji x 28-year-old Asuka isn't that weird compared to Shinji x Rei or Shinji x Kaworu... Considering that Rei and Kaworu are technically the oldest beings on Earth. As well as being aliens made of particle wave matter and all that.

[UBERGEEKZILLA]

I resolutely remain an AsukaxShinji shipper. But it's difficult to form any sort of bond between them because the subtle cues and development from the original aren't there, like Darkwing said. Rebuild doesn't really have time to shove in many of the "No Angels attacking" scenes like the TV series, so we don't see the pilots much outside their plugsuits and character development suffers somewhat compared to the original series. Really, Shinji's relationships seem a lot more tenuous than in the original series. Rei Q isn't really interested in him romantically, Poka Poka Rei and Kaworu have gone to the Great Beyond, Asuka kind-of liked him in 2.0 but may have grown out of it and Mari's... Mari. Seriously. I cannot see MarixShinji happening.

Shinji x 28-year-old Asuka isn't that weird compared to Shinji x Rei or Shinji x Kaworu... Considering that Rei and Kaworu are technically the oldest beings on Earth. As well as being aliens made of particle wave matter and all that.

you pretty much nailed it

[Hyper Shinchan]

I love this thread, all these delicious tears and they're not mine for a change.

So i think people should get over the "28 year old" argument.

It is very important instead. Kaworu is completely selfless, he can die at any time for Shinji and he never asked anything in return for his feelings. Asuka is a regular girl who seems to be obsessed with the fact that Shinji didn't save her twice, I suppose that she would expect something in return for her feelings and Shinji could hardly give her anything now that he's become an Urashima Taro in despair.

And if you can argue that masturbating over her comatose body OR strangling the same catatonic girl on a beach, crying all over her face and then having her call you 'disgusting' is true love than more power to you.

Amen, I also agree with pretty much everything else you pointed out in your post.

[CJD]

Oh dear god it's naturally turned into a full on shipping thread. Time to put on my hazmat suit, this is likely to get ugly.

Anyways the big problem for it is having it not feel like a last minute asspull hookup for the sake of just hooking them up. A lot of the things that made it work in the original just aren't there for rebuild.

Wait, what? Did I get a bad copy of 2.0 or something? We must have watched different movies...

By the way, I'm quite certain the emotional focus of Final is either going to be Shinji & Rei (most likely when he gets back in Unit 01 & encounters HIS Rei) or Shinji & Misato. None of the three films so far have put any real importance on the relationship between Shinji & Asuka. Film 1 was primarily about Shinji & his relations to Misato & Rei. Film 2 was really about Shinji & his connections (or desire for connections) to Misato, Rei & Gendo. Asuka was just that roommate he had that one really deep conversation with. 3.0 as we know is all about Shinji & Kaworu with a little bit of Rei & Misato thrown in.

The fact that Asuka hasn't got focus is all the more reason to think she'll get more focus in 4.0 though, isn't it?

--------

Look, I think anyone expecting a full on lovefest for 4.0 is going to be disappointed. There (likely) won't be any confessions, there won't be any kisses, there won't be any holding hands and staring into the sunset. Not for Shinji at least, that ain't Eva. But to say the groundwork for the seeds of a ship isn't there... I disagree. If you're a Rei shipper you have Rei 2 who we're told very clearly is not dead. Not physical, yes, but not dead. I still think writing her off is a little premature given that 4.0 is likely to be CUHRAYZEE. If you're a Kaworu shipper you still got time loops or Kaworu in Unit 13 or quantum Kaworu or god I don't know he's fucking Jesus he works miracles for fuck's sake. Hell, if you're a Kaworu shipper you can answer the OP already depending on how you interpret 3.0: Maybe Shinji already found love? And if you're an Asuka shipper you have the first half of 2.0, which basically ships Asuka x Shinji harder than a yaoi fangirl ships Light Yagami x L.

The groundwork is there, the dirt has been ploughed and the seeds have been planted. Now it's just a matter of waiting to see which plant grows and which ones don't.

[Hyper Shinchan]

The fact that Asuka hasn't got focus is all the more reason to think she'll get more focus in 4.0 though, isn't it?

Didn't we say the same thing about 3.0?

And if you're an Asuka shipper you have the first half of 2.0, which basically ships Asuka x Shinji harder than a yaoi fangirl ships Light Yagami x L.

Alas, I also don't know if we watched the same film. It could be because of incompatible shipping goggles.

[CJD]

Didn't we say the same thing about 3.0?

I knew someone would say that. 3.0 was always going to be Kaworu's movie because Kaworu always had to die, and you can't kill Kaworu off in 4.0 because it leaves no room for Shinji to rebound. For Kaworu it was either he gets the focus in 3.0 and dies in 3.0 or he gets the focus in 4.0 and dies a heroic death at the end of 4.0 that causes Shinji no emotional distress.

Anyway, yea it's possible Asuka will get jack in 4.0 and I'm just being hopeful about it but I think writing her off to such an extent is premature. The end of 3.0 sets us up for some quality Asuka time quite nicely. Then again the end of 2.0 set us up for some quality Rei time so lolwhoknows.

Alas, I also don't know if we watched the same film. It could be because of incompatible shipping goggles.

Your model isn't compatible with tsunderes. I bought the standard edition. It doesn't have any special features like the yaoi enhancements yours have but I figured it's worth the loss.

[Hyper Shinchan]

I knew someone would say that. 3.0 was always going to be Kaworu's movie because Kaworu always had to die, and you can't kill Kaworu off in 4.0 because it leaves no room for Shinji to rebound. For Kaworu it was either he gets the focus in 3.0 and dies in 3.0 or he gets the focus in 4.0 and dies a heroic death at the end of 4.0 that causes Shinji no emotional distress.

Personally I'm always careful with previsions based simply on past events, anyway there was also the option of Kaworu dying in the middle of 4.0 leaving enough time to have a more or less devastated Shinji.

Your model isn't compatible with tsunderes. I bought the standard edition. It doesn't have any special features like the yaoi enhancements yours have but I figured it's worth the loss.

You don't even know what you're losing, if you could feel what I'm feeling...
Jokes aside, it was more about Rei's poka-poka than anything related to yaoi, Ha looks to me like the natural prosecution of the first six episodes' development, Asuka never got enough focus to make me think that they were going for anything beyond some silly harem drama.

[CJD]

Jokes aside, it was more about Rei's poka-poka

Meh, 2.0 screams both, it's full of shipper fuel. (The state of 3.0 only heightens 2.0's nature as a giant mass of fan service designed to get the viewers hopes up so that the crush in 3.0 would be more potent in my opinion.) I just, on a personal level, didn't put much weight in RxS, similar to how you didn't in AxS. Reasons were different though, obviously.

[Hyper Shinchan]

The state of Shinji in 3.0, "Ayanami this, Ayanami that", screams to me that it was decisively more about Rei than Asuka, if there was any AxS it was all on Asuka's side. During the whole film Shinji seems to pay more attention to Misato's words than Asuka's ones, he kept thinking about Misato when he saw Lilith and he also directly mentioned her when he was going to grab the spears, honestly I'd put my money more on MisatoxShinji than AsukaxShinji, so to speak (I really don't see any pairing in the ending but you never know).

[CJD]

Huh? No I wasn't talking about 3.0 from a shipping angle I was talking about it from tone. 3.0 is undoubtedly much darker and depressing than 2.0, but it's the contrast between the two that really heightens the difference.

[Kendrix]

S/A NEVER had big official couple status comparable to Clarl/Lois or Squall/Rinoa - ISIK was about the only time they got together and numerous spinoffs like Sadamoto's Manga, Gakuen Datenroku and, at least from Shinji's side, Rebuild, had no content there at all.

EoTV didn't resolve any romance subplot (or treats it as already sufficiently resolved) and while you could consider EoE a S/A-ending (Stretching the definition - Yes, Asuka is/represents something he has to learn to deal with and he does, but tolerate =/= love or even like) but the original series always had more of a harem/triangle setup rather than clear focus on one potential couple more than others.

And the resulotion the triangle got was 'Death of the Hypothenuse', by heroic sacrifice no less, which is what writers generally do when they want one chick/guy to 'win' for thematic reasons or because they're the protagonist, but want to cement both relationships as at least equally valid/ true on the parts of both contenders. It's the way out you take when having the undecided party pick one over the other or the un-chosen party taking someone else wouldn't be true to the characters; Essentially, if Rei hadn't died, Shinji would never have 'picked' one.

[Darkwing]

With death of the Hypotinuse the "winner" only wins by default (De Fault! the two sweetest words in the english language!). Hence the aurgement can always be thrown out that it's not the better relationship that won out in the end and just settling for whats left. And the specter of the dead person can haunt over the relationship.

[Hyper Shinchan]

ISIK was about the only time they got together

Ahem, someone else already said this before, but this is plainly wrong, even more so if you look at the funny series of LRS ecchi scenes of the last chapters. Are you referring to Angelic Days/Iron Maiden 2nd by any chance?

[Shakabutt]

Saw the movie now and i think he needs to find some meds before he finds any kind of love lol

[Kendrix]

Ahem, someone else already said this before, but this is plainly wrong, even more so if you look at the funny series of LRS ecchi scenes of the last chapters. Are you referring to Angelic Days/Iron Maiden 2nd by any chance?

Maybe I confused the two, they're not exactly high on my favorite spinoff list, one of the reasons being the lack of both plot and Canon!Rei.

[Hyper Shinchan]

ISIK is nice, there's no plot but at least there's no sufferance either, it's a refreshing change from "Rei is doomed to die/disappear because the plot required it". I say: fuck the plot.

[Seele00TextOnly]

Movie ends with song saying 'Everyone finds love in the end' several times, in English even.
Thread should be retitled: Is Shinji An "Everyone"?

[CJD]

To support that I'd also point out that the world of 1.0 and 2.0 is, in fact, beautiful when compared to 3.0.