AngelNo13Bardiel wrote:On the one hand, this is being kinda greedy...but on the other, I say it sounds hawt
and very acceptable.
Someone who might not want to be named once wrote and showed me privately a mini-lemon involving all of Asuka, Rei, and Mari. It was NGE-based, and Mari was a pure rogue element, truly unbelonging, appearing with no explanation and unrecognized by anyone. In it, Mari served as something of a fluffer or otherwise facilitated the, uh... scene, in the locker room at Nerv.
That (and, okay, arkiel's Wake Up, Ikari) was the only time Mari ever worked for me. By contrast, the thought of a Rebuild Shinji x Mari x Asuka just doesn't appeal to me. The story and relationships for it just aren't there. Asuka isn't the right Asuka, and, hell, Mari wouldn't be the right Mari; she doesn't have the right role given what she is. Mari ironically
feels more out of place to me in Rebuild than she does as a completely out-of-universe character showing up without explanation in an NGE story. Of all things.
As far as pairing shenanigans go, there really isn't anything available that wouldn't feel off. Whatever relationship Asuka and Mari have developed completely off-screen, and after everything that's happened, Shinji really does have no one. The only thing that I think would be even remotely feasible (in terms my emotional willingness to accept it, I mean) is if he gets to go back in time to the life he once had, to the Asuka and Misato he had back then, leaving the post-timeskip Asuka et al to continue on with their lives without him as they were already doing. And even
that would still be off. Like
really off.