Misato's relationship with Shinji in 3.0

[Xard]

Because even after reading what you've posted that's what I've been saying all weekend: Misato, ignorant of the risks, egged him on. When she found out the risks she backed down, but hindsight is 20/20.

This is correct and Misato acted foolishly. Luckily her foolishness was of no consequence (apart from conveying inn as unsubtly as possible what Anno is trying to do here for audience) in the story and 3I was not what she wanted under any circumstances.

The difference to Shinji is that Third Impact happens because Shinji wants to escape to the blue world represented by Rei, away from reality. He makes a value choice and 3I happens as a result of that choice.

It's not like EoE Shinji personally thought about killing every individual on planet but he made exactly same choice between aforementioned "blue world" and reality - too bad only way to get to blue world is through joy of destruction that is 3I.

THIS is the spiteful thing Shinji does. You can see him even ignore Rei's own words in 2.0 because he's so hellbent on having "his Ayanami" (on world he had already given up at that point)

[CJD]

Misato was a bystander who had absolutely no control or influence over Shinji's decisions there. She wasn't the one piloting the Eva; she has no responsibility.

No, she was supportive of his decision though. No one's saying she has to take responsibility for 3I, that's absurd, what we're saying is that she's a hypocrite. Unless we find out in 4.0 that Misato's an even bigger self hating mess than she was before 3I because of her words then she's nothing more than a hypocrite who wants to blame Shinji when in the exact same shoes as him she made the exact same call as him.

[Grub]

Still this thing... Did anyone consider that he wasn't sacrificing the world but his own presence in the world? "I don't care about the world" can be read in this way too, he didn't care abou his possibility of remaining human and interacting with others. I see a big difference between this, essentially what Yui did, and saying "I'll kill everyone coz I want Ayanami back" which never looked like Shinji's intent to me.

He was just feeling heroic. That's really what it was. He felt like he'd take on the world to bring her back. Unfortunately that feeling was directly interpreted as "LET'S END THE WORLD TO BRING HER BACK." You know, sort of like those trickster genies who mess up your wishes.

"I want a billion dollars!" and then they crush you with a waterfall of golden bars. The most recently translated dialogue from 3.0 shows that Shinji had no intention of ending the world and didn't really know what he was doing. Learning that his actions had that effect blew him away.

[Ynnead]

I have one question, what on earth is the point of giving Shinji a hard time? Keep him away from piloting, yeah sure that's a very smart move but badgering him over what he did? You don't want him piloting so him fixing it is right out, he feels absolutely terrible guilt over it and if he could go back and change it he would but as we've established he can't, all badgering him over the accident did was push him into going with Q-Rei which made things so much worse. They had fourteen years to deal with what happened, they (well besides Sakura, she was nice to him) should at least try to treat him decently.

[Grub]

Yes, luckily she had the safety to act foolish and not cause destruction. Maybe she should forgive the kid who was wasn't lucky enough to have that get out of jail free card.

Pretty sure Misato didn't really have any effect on that scene anyway. She was basically a sports fan. Shinji was gonna do it regardless of what Misato said.

edit: and yeah this is off-topic. boy, that just happens so quickly here, doesn't it?

[Gendo'sPapa]

Watch in 4.0 we see the backstory of Misato where she spends 10 years fighting to protect Shinji's honor as a good person against what everyone else says and feels. Ultimately though it's after the last straw - the death of Kaji(?) - that she gives up and becomes a bitter shell of herself.

I do find it interesting though to see Shinji's surrogate 'Mother' Misato basically become the New Gendo.

[Seele00TextOnly]

...

[CyberXIII]

/\ That's the precise reason I'm going to try to withhold judgement on anyone until the DVD comes out. We're all grasping at tidbits of information and jumping to conclusions as a result...but still.

SHE STRAPPED A FUCKING BOMB TO HIS THROAT.

[bobbyfischer's ghost]

14 years of trying to contain the Shit storm that was post 3rd impact would take up a lot of they're time, not to mention forming wille and repairing the Eva's with what I would imagine would be very little funding.

[esselfortium]

/\ That's the precise reason I'm going to try to withhold judgement on anyone until the DVD comes out. We're all grasping at tidbits of information and jumping to conclusions as a result...but still.

SHE STRAPPED A FUCKING BOMB TO HIS THROAT.

For good reason -- if Kaworu hadn't given his own life to allow Shinji to cheat Misato's failsafe measure, she would have been completely successful in preventing Shinji from starting another cataclysmic global-death event. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and after 14 years of living in the mess he created I don't find it hard to imagine her not being too interested in subtlety.

[Olmer]

First of all, I don't believe that Misato really hates Shinji. I think she may actually hate herself more and perhaps blame herself for failing as his guardian (again!). She may straight up fear opening up to him, she may unconsciously associate him with all the trauma that she went through during 2I and thus avoiding any kind of contact...lots of things.

It wouldn't be the first time, when Misato has trouble deciding, who between herself and Shinji is to blame.
When they meet in 1.0 after the Shamshel fight, she's really upset with Shinji because of his act of insubordination, but once he leaves, she quickly turns her anger on herself.
After 14 years I can imagine her being even more clueless about how to interact with him, with so many conflicting emotions. No wonder she pulls off a Gendo.

I don't think anybody should seriously blame Shinji for 3I. I think I can see where Xard is coming from, I think that his analysis of Shinji's mindset in the 3I sequence is spot on, but judging him as guilty just because of his selfish motivation is taking it way too far.
There is a reason, why the whole NERV chain of command exists. That reason is to give orders and take responsibility for them. The situation where nobody in a paramilitary organization made to fight Angels can stop 14 years old boy from taking command is absurd! I actually have trouble believing, that the whole world knows that Shinji caused 3I because it's so embarassing for all the organizations involved, that it obviously should've been covered up.
There's no way in hell he can be blamed for this. Not only as a soldier, but also as a child. 14 years old just aren't fully responsible for their actions - their guardians are.

So Misato, as Shinji's guardian AND his commander, is responsible for his actions. In NGE it is Misato who, on multiple occasions, takes responsibility for pilots' failures (ep09), EVA damages (ep12) and, in general, for the results of the operations. I don't know why should we have it any other way this time.

[StratoSakuya...AF]

It still wouldn't have worked, Gendo just had to send ReiQ, kidnap him, tell him that Misato kept him inside a cell under sedatives and here you go, Shinji wouldn't have trusted that bitch any more.

There were two solutions imo:
1. Killing him. But he's the protagonist.
2. Explaining him calmly and nicely, why he shouldn't pilot an Eva any more, instead of just telling him "there's no need for you to pilot an Eva again, I'll kill you if you try to do it". But Eva has never worked in this way, it's because people don't try to talk to each other and explain themselves that shit always happens.

I agree with the second one too. "You screwed up last time, so piloting the Eva is a big no-no, specially because you just came back from confinement, so I don't think it's wise for you to pilot."

[Ornette]

I have one question, what on earth is the point of giving Shinji a hard time? Keep him away from piloting, yeah sure that's a very smart move but badgering him over what he did? You don't want him piloting so him fixing it is right out, he feels absolutely terrible guilt over it and if he could go back and change it he would but as we've established he can't, all badgering him over the accident did was push him into going with Q-Rei which made things so much worse. They had fourteen years to deal with what happened, they (well besides Sakura, she was nice to him) should at least try to treat him decently.

Shinji didn't really know what had happened during his time on the ship, he was clueless, and Fuyutsuki (much later on) filled him in on the details. Also, IIRC, the collar also made it so he couldn't sync. Following the explanation of what the collar does (there's some acronym they used) it followed with a test that resulted in 0% sync rate with Eva-01. Nobody was exactly badgering him about anything, it was mostly looks of quiet disgust, and Misato and Asuka had a few words to say, but he remained clueless over what had happened, he kept asking what happened to Ayanami, then Rei shows up in Mark 9 and breaks him out of the cell he was in.

[BiQ]

Shinji didn't really know what had happened during his time on the ship, he was clueless, and Fuyutsuki (much later on) filled him in on the details.

Somehow, I think that a) even worse and b) absolutely fucking ridiculously stupid on part of Wille folks. Because since Shinji can't understand what the hell is going on, this silent passive-aggressive contempt they show towards him is, as justified as it is, only serving to make him feel shitty for, from Shinji's point of view, no reason at all. "We all hate you now. Just because."

No wonder he jumps the ship as soon as he can.

[Charsi]

Perhaps someone can confirm this but it sounds like Shinji is really only aboard WALLE's cap ship for a very short window of time.

He basically wakes up there, gets told a few things, then gets rescued/abducted. And since nobody really warms up to him in the short span of time he's awake - bomb chokers tend to give that impression - he runs into the arms of his abductors.

So it may not be so much as "run off and find dad" as it is "come with me" and he says "sure", thinking it's gotta be better than this.

Lastly, somewhat offtopic, but wouldn't something as serious as a bomb collar be primed to blow up if remove it?

[Hyper Shinchan]

I don't know if you heard the audio-rip but yeah, it sounds exactly like that, he stays on board for around twenty minutes (of sufferance). Anyway I think that he went away with Rei mainly because:
1) He was looking for her.
2) It looked like Misato was lying to him now that Rei appeared before him just after Misato said "Rei Ayanami doesn't exist any more" without further explanation/elaboration about the Rei clones.

[Darkwing]

I think Misato is projecting a lot of her own self-doubt for her part in things, and her percived faliure as Shinji's guardian, and superieror onto him. Like how Asuka would try to act superior and self confident to others in the original to hide her own doubts and insecurities.

I can totally see Gendo using the chaos of 3rd Impact to dispose of Kaji, and blame in on the event.

I kind of wonder if we might see something like this in 4.0
"Misato... I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too Shinji."

[FluffyBunny]

Lastly, somewhat offtopic, but wouldn't something as serious as a bomb collar be primed to blow up if remove it?

People said it was Kaworu's mad Angel skillz that prevented it from going off.

On topic: I like the "it's gotta be better than this" perspective, and it would make a lot of sense if (well, if) Shinji doesn't spend a lot of time with Misato before he goes to Gendo.

[kaji kun]

It seems that they put the collar on Shinji to make sure he isn't somehow an angel??? if I'm getting that right? To make sure it's him?

I would think of all people Misato wouldn't be a super uber bitch. I can understand the other characters hating him. But...this is Misato...the bond they had, not only in Rebuild 1 but in the original series. Misato was my favorite character besides Kaji, and he doesn't even appear which is just a waste. Why even include some of these characters if they're just going to die off screen?

But back to the point. I hope there's some kind of reconciliation in the next film.

[Azathoth]

It seems that they put the collar on Shinji to make sure he isn't somehow an angel??? if I'm getting that right? To make sure it's him?

More to make sure that he, the guy who blew up the world 14 years ago and the son of the man who currently wants to blow up the world some more, doesn't blow up the world.