Shinji Character Analysis (2.0/3.0)

[ElMariachi]

Oh yes, I think that's almost indisputable. To me, she's saying Misato is too hung up on Shinji to make the best decisions. Which seems confirmed soon after.

Maybe Asuka wanted Misato to immediately tell Shinji what did he did wrong and why they put the DSS Choker on him, and Misato refused, wanting to go step by step by fear that it will completely destroy him mentally if they tell him the truth all at once.
Looks like Asuka was right, as even Kaworu opted for blunt honestly in showing to Shinji how much he screwed up, and besides there is no "gentle" to tell to someone "your actions led to the anihilation of almost all the remaining biosphere, mankind included"!

I come back on what I said about Asuka's subtle glare to Misato in the scene where she broke security glass.
I have a new theory : what if WILLE actually did salvaged Rei from EVA-01, but are keeping this secret to Shinji?
Think about it : Shinji asks about Rei, Asuka respond that she doesn't know and that "the world doesn't have time to cater to his ego". But what is the meaning behind this phrase? How knowing is Rei is alive relates to the world? Shinji didn't asked to dismantle EVA-01 and sacrifice their power source to look for Rei, just "is she fine?".
More importantly, just after that Asuka supposedly glared at Misato and gives her the "Isn't that right, Captain Katsuragi?" line, and if the theory that she has an hidden meaning behind it, that could be a caution to "play along" with her.

And now why didn't they say him that they rescued Rei? Simple : if it's like in NGE and she still have the soul of Lilith(I don't remember if it was said or hinted in NTE), then she's as much of a potential Trigger for an Impact/Instrumentality than Shinji and as to be kept in custody, and due to her special nature will surely be bound to have a lot of experimentations done on her!
An seeing as how Shinji and Rei tends and are capable to do completely crazy and reckless stuff to protect or save one each other and that they don't have any idea of the extent of their powers(or even if Shinji is fully human), WILLE must have though that the best way to keep them under control would be that they believe that the other is dead. Maybe they told Rei the same thing, that Shinji wasn't found in the entry plug and sacrificed his life to save her.

Of course in Shinji's case WILLE probably didn't count that Gendo would sent so quickly his own Rei clone to fetch him away...

[Dima]

In 2.0 Asuka calls Shinji an idiot or Idiot Shinji.In 3.0 Asuka says that Shinji isn't an idiot but a brat(from UTW translation).Usually we are calling someone a brat when this person creates problems.While we know that Shinji doesn't want to create problems in the end he does and Asuka seems to think that he does it wittingly(she realised it when he left with Rei?).I can't find any other reason why Asuka would call him like that.

So what do you think.Is Shinji an idiot or a brat in 3.0?General speaking i think he is an idiot but in the opening where he was hearing Rei's voice and answered to her i could easily call him a brat or a spoiled kid.He acted like a child when he doesn't get the attention he wants.

[pwhodges]

in the opening where he was hearing Rei's voice and answered to her i could easily call him a brat or a spoiled kid.

Sorry, but are you really saying that you think that replying to a call makes you a childish brat? I think you need to explain that more.

[Stillborn]

I think Dima means that he was brat for answering to a call of a dear friend who sadly happens to be clone of his mother.

And because Eva apparently is also known as Freud The Animation, you can guess how fanbase will percieve Shinji calling back to her...

[Brutalman]

So what do you think.Is Shinji an idiot or a brat in 3.0?

Eva is a story of flawed people who don't understand each other. Why should we give Asuka's evaluation of Shinji any particular weight?

[Na7e]

Sorry, but are you really saying that you think that replying to a call makes you a childish brat? I think you need to explain that more.

Shinji is yelling and slamming on an opaque window to get Misato and Ritsuko to notice him. He then says he's had enough and calls out for Ayanami. It isn't exactly hard to see him come off as a brat who's mad that no one is paying attention to him.

[Stillborn]

Sooo... A prisioner who calls for guard because something he doesn't understand is happening and when ignored, calls for someone else who might be nearby, should also be considered childish and a brat?

[KingXanaduu]

Sooo... A prisioner who calls for guard because something he doesn't understand is happening and when ignored, calls for someone else who might be nearby, should also be considered childish and a brat?

Apparently so, yep. Best thing he can do is just sit quietly in his cell, and do nothing until he is called, and deal with it, no complaining whatsoever.

[one-eyed]

Shinji's reaction is perfectly logical. Did you expect him to sit like a zombie and passively accept being ignored? Supposedly he should try to evolve beyond that.
Wille's action is that it is irrational. If they consider guilty of everything, why not just accuse, judge, condemn and kill he quickly? The game of pushing responsibility between Misato and Asuka to make the decision to kill Shinji is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. They no longer need it, do not want him and blame him for everything that happened. They cannot use Shinji to blackmail or even reaching Gendo, so why keep him there, eating their food and consuming their resources? Get rid of him! It would be a favor to the unfortunate.
They could even make their revenge on Shinji, since Gendo is unreachable, invincible, omnipotent and omniscient. It would be the only thing they could do because in 14 years they have not obtained significant victories against their enemies.
Wille already lost. Misato knows. Neither had she believed in victory against Unit 09.
I'm not a Shinji Hater. I like the character and many times I identify with him, but I believe that it is useless continue insisting on being alive. Simply give up. Would be the best thing he can do. For Shinji, hope is the mother of despair.

[Stillborn]

^

I guess we share the sentiment.

[Rei IV]

Shinji is yelling and slamming on an opaque window to get Misato and Ritsuko to notice him. He then says he's had enough and calls out for Ayanami. It isn't exactly hard to see him come off as a brat who's mad that no one is paying attention to him.

Don't forget Asuka having to play the role of babysitter/nanny to the kid towards the end of the film in which, for the most part, we do see Shinji exhibiting characteristics that can been seen as (and are) bratty. Add that with his equally infantile, reactionary behavior when deciding to pull the spears AFTER being told not to do so. That's pretty bratty.

Really guys, there's reason why "gaki-Shinji" has replaced "baka-Shinji".

[one-eyed]

Don't forget Asuka having to play the role of babysitter/nanny to the kid towards the end of the film in which, for the most part, we do see Shinji exhibiting characteristics that can been seen as (and are) bratty. Add that with his equally infantile, reactionary behavior when deciding to pull the spears AFTER being told not to do so. That's pretty bratty.

I would prefer that she simply killed him. Be taken to be executed by Wille as an animal, perhaps even stoned, do not seem right. At least give him a quick death and a shallow grave. It would be a good deed before Gendo destroy Wille and kill all mankind to realize his depraved and sick plans.

[Na7e]

I would prefer that she simply killed him.

There's evidence that Asuka is just as conflicted about Shinji as Misato is. You know like letting a Baka-Shinji slip when she first sees him in Eva-13, or the sigh right before she comes back to get him out of Eva-13's entry plug.

Be taken to be executed by Wille as an animal, perhaps even stoned, do not seem right.

Shit if we're going to get biblical with the stonings up in here it doesn't really matter because Shinji gets a narrative second chance when Kaworu dies for his sins. Second, Shinji might have a better chance of getting people back on his side if he didn't call people who just happen to disagree with him some variation of stupid.

[Stillborn]

Shinji might have a better chance of getting people back on his side if he didn't call people who just happen to disagree with some variation of stupid.

He was silent for fourteen years. Still not enough for people to even bother to listen him out, when he actually tries to talk. They had fourteen years to cope. He had few minutes to deal with accustations he had no idea what actually were.

[Dima]

Why did he choosed to go with Rei in the first place?They told him that she is dead.Why he didn't stay more days with Misato and the others.They would definitely explain him what happened all these years if Rei hadn't showed up.Also they told him NOT to get in an EVA unit.Which part he didn't understand?Also he had an anger/selfish expression when he replied to Rei's voice ''Rei i am right here!''

What did he expect flowers and a welcome party after causing an Impact?

I didn't say he is a brat but if someone who doesn't know him too well like Toji's sister i can 100% completely understand to call him a brat.

For me Shinji in 3.33 acts like an idiot.Baka Shinji.....

[Fireball]

He didn't even know that he caused the Third Impact. No one told him shit. Everybody was extremely hostile towards him, told him Rei is dead and..., woopsy there Rei pops up out of the nowhere.....mmmm...well, I guess that's it folks, I'll go with the only one I can still remotely recognize. Maybe she will tell me what the fuck is going on here. See ya later assholes!

Of course that doesn't work out either (you must not run away) but it's easy to understand his decision in that instant. No one likes to stick around in an environment that puts death collars around your neck.

[Sachi]

Sure, Shinji is particularly bratty in this film, but many of his actions aren't too unjustified. In one moment Shinji is doing the impossible (in a Gurren Lagann sort of way) and saving the girl; in the next moment he wakes up in a coffin in a world completely foreign to him. Fourteen years have passed, and apparently everybody hates him, even people he used to know personally (and with a bitter passion at that)! Worst of all, no one is telling him why! Can you imagine being at the climax of what seems like a great victory, only to wake up and find out you didn't actually save the girl and you are now public enemy number one? I would want some goddamn answers. Instead, everybody just remains bitter and hostile with him.

Then suddenly you hear the girl's voice calling out to you, the girl that you were certain you saved yet everybody had said died years ago. Obviously you're not going to stick around, prisoner to these people; you're going to escape with your girl, at least the person you thought was your girl.

If you know that someone is the trigger to some apocalyptic event, and the most useful thing he can do is pilot the Eva (which is the last thing you want him to do) it's probably a really smart idea to explain to him the circumstances of his predicament, rather than to simply tell him not to do it. If he feels that the most useful thing he can offer is piloting Eva (which in his eyes, means changing the world back to normal), he's going to pilot the Eva no matter what. Especially with support coming from the right direction, ie, Kaworu.

Really, every action Shinji made up until the very end, with the exception of not listening to Kaworu when told to abort the mission, was relatively rational. The problem is when he finally made that irrational decision, he was in a worked up state of anger fueled by those trying to stop his good intentions, and we all know what the road to hell is paved with. By the time he realized what he'd done, it was too late, he'd already damned himself, and his only friend.

I look forward to seeing Shinji in a particular state of despair and angst come Final over what he's done, and the mind fuck he'll have to endure to overcome it.

[pwhodges]

Why did he choosed to go with Rei in the first place?They told him that she is dead.

They told him she was dead; she (apparently) turns up. Why would he choose to stay with the liars (as it seems), rather than go with the person he saved (as it seems)? His behaviour in taking the opportunity to escape from what must have seemed to him a madhouse is entirely understandable.

[ElMariachi]

The problem is also that had they told him that he kinda destroyed the world, they would had to see him going completely nuts on the spot, and while it seems the rest of the crew would love to see that, Misato seems to be reluctant, that why they didn't flat out told him that his little stunt to save Rei obliterated the biosphere while showing him the typical post-N3I landscape.

My personal interpretation is that at best Misato wanted to go little by by little to the less possible damage to his sanity, at worst she just couldn't decide how to deal with him.

No for me the biggest problem is that WILLE didn't even gave Shinji a clue about why they acted the way they did : Ritsuko said that the DSS Choker was a "symbol of his punished"(the UTW goes even further making her add "... and a of our mistrust in you." that's harsh!), but didn't even said from where this punishment(and mistrust) come from : is it be cause he did something bad, because he didn't did something, because of who he is, of what they think he could have become after spending 14 years inside that core?

And when Shinji finally asks Misato for explanations about this madness(when he asked why did they put an explosive collar that would detonate if he gets into an EVA), Ritsuko diverts the subject by making Sakura present herself, thus revealing that 14 years have passed.
Just answering something like "your past actions brought grave consequences Shinji, and we're taking precautions so that it never happens again" would have been nice and gave Shinji an hint about why people are reacting this way against him, without actually dropping the bomb that he obliterated Hitler's bodycount.
Maybe that wouldn't have been enough to not make him flee with ReiQ, but at least WILLE wouldn't pass as a bunch of passive-aggressive assholes.


EDIT : mmmh... now that a think about it, maybe Anno didn't had any other choice, because that wouldn't send the message he wanted : had Shinji already got some clues that he did something wrong and still chosen to flee with ReiQ, that have mean that he was running away from his problems, again. But that's precisely something he was resolute to not do ever again : he proved it when he came back to fight Zeruel and threw his own safety away to try to save Rei, and even after that when he volunteered to help Asuka with the Wunder igniter.
So "I mustn't run away" don't seem to be the message Anno wants to convey, but the question then is what the hell the author want to tell us?

[Yokai]

I'm pretty sure Asuka repeatedly calling Shinji a brat is actually supposed to reflect that Asuka is being the brat, not Shinji. When you think about it, it's pretty bratty to not be considerate of someone else's state of mind or confusion. There's nothing mature about anything any of the characters did in 3.0, and in some ways all of Shinji's responses are pretty natural. Given Asuka's first encounter with Shinji is her punching the glass just for kicks, I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to think that Asuka is acting at all mature.

In other words, this whole movie is just justifying the inevitable Shinji choking Asuka scene that may happen in 4.0. I don't understand how anybody could agree with her perspective on any of the matters.

I think the irony of the movie is that what Shinji wasn't just doing "what he wanted to do", it was what everyone wanted him to do at the time. The minute that plan goes to shit and destroys what's left of civilization, however, Shinji is the first one to be blamed even though what he did was seemingly right at the time. If Shinji hadn't done what he did, the Impact would have happened anyway.