Does "at least save the princess" go anywhere in Shin? Is it ever brought up again?

[Joseki]

I'm still catching up to the spoilers and I'm wondering if Mari's words of encouragement/motivation to Shinji at the end of Q were ever brought up again. So far I didn't read anything connected to that.

[Derantor]

Technically, yes. Shinji saves Asuka by pulling her out of Unit 13. IIRC., Mari tells him again to go save her before he dives into Negative Space.

[Kendrix]

The whole "saving" dialogue makes more sense in context now.

The idea that they wanted Shinji do anything heroic in the state he was in, with the far lesser experience he has, did certainly come off as wonky dialogue at the time & possibly weirdly 'gendered' -

In hindsight it's very clear that Asuka was actually talking about the Bardiel incident & how he didn't save her then when she opened Shinji's plug, not expecting him to do something right then right there at the time of fourth impact.
Now that we saw the effect it's had on her, it makes total sense that she would still be salty about it as she'd view it as the one incident that sent her life into a tailspin right when it was starting to not suck for once - this is also why it's brought up again during their reconciliation.

As for Mari, I don't think she meant it as demand that he do something right then, either, but just as a reason why he shouldn't give up completely yet - He has at least one person he used to care about who isn't dead yet.
As Asuka's bestie, she'd know her well enough to guess that he still has a shot at reconciliation.

She certainly tells him that he 'did well' after the reconciliation scene & there's an explicit parallel later, when Mari speculates that Asuka's soul is still inside EVA 13, and asks him to try & get her out if he can.
This time he does get her out.

I presume the next things she did is a) tell Kensuke to just call her by her first name and b) tell him to go ask Hikari for some Big Woman clothes and c) steal his lunch while he's gone now that she can eat proper food again d) Cry tears of joy after nomming his weekly meat ration

[Arcadia's legacy]

I presume the next things she did is a) tell Kensuke to just call her by her first name and b) tell him to go ask Hikari for some Big Woman clothes and c) steal his lunch while he's gone now that she can eat proper food again d) Cry tears of joy after nomming his weekly meat ration

Also e) The food actually tastes disgusting, but Asuka still cries tears of joy since she can taste at all now

[Joseki]

The whole "saving" dialogue makes more sense in context now.

The idea that they wanted Shinji do anything heroic in the state he was in, with the far lesser experience he has, did certainly come off as wonky dialogue at the time & possibly weirdly 'gendered' -

I actually always interpreted it metaphorically, save Asuka from her current state, as in "make a positive change for her".

[Kendrix]

I actually always interpreted it metaphorically,

So did I cause it makes way more sense, but it's nice to have it confirmed.

There were a lot of ppl saying Shinji should've gone look for her or something, like, guys, she's a Major with 20 years of war experience & he was an ordinarymiddle school student a few months ago lets acknowledge that she is not a helpless person in this situation.

That said, it was probably supposed to be confusing, just like Shinji probably didn't know what she was talking about until he saw what the Bardiel incident did to her.

Though one wonders if getting her out earlier would've really made a difference. Still, I always did hold that this was the point where it all went wrong, cause Shinji's absence due to his 10 min retirement caused the delay that caused Rei to get eaten and himself to be unable to fight Zeruel with a power cable.

[ElMariachi]

The funny thing is that the final battle is as almost complete repeat of the 9th Angel battle: "because of the 9th Angel, Asuka is now trapped inside a four-armed Evangelion, and its up to Shinji in EVA-01 do save her and also protect the world", this description fits perfectly both the battle against EVA-03 and EVA-13! Hell, to make the parallel even stronger, Shinji is in a old-style cockpit wearing his Unit 01 plugsuit again, the last time he got to wear it was... during the Bardiel incident!
It's like the universe itself decided to finally throw Shinji a bone and give him a second chance!

And for added hilarity, on the other side of the coin, Asuka joined Shinji in the club of the people who awoke their Eva only to be used by Gendo to start an Impact, I guess she'll never be able to hold that one against him anymore!

That said, it was probably supposed to be confusing, just like Shinji probably didn't know what she was talking about until he saw what the Bardiel incident did to her.

Did he? He never got the confirmation that her eyepatch and curse came from the Bardiel incident (although he probably suspects as much), hell I don't think that he even knows that she still has part of the Angel living inside her!

Though one wonders if getting her out earlier would've really made a difference. Still, I always did hold that this was the point where it all went wrong, cause Shinji's absence due to his 10 min retirement caused the delay that caused Rei to get eaten and himself to be unable to fight Zeruel with a power cable.

That's clearly the point where everything turned wrong, which is also why the final battle being a symbolic "repeat" of that battle is so important: it's Shinji not only setting things right toward Asuka, but also toward the entire world.

[Kendrix]

well, there is some direct paralel in that Gendo remarks he's become more mature (paralleling their similar conversation after the Bardiel thing), he says something like, "Ah so you can accept people's sacrifices now"

Though I'm with the sentiment of Kaworu's VA: "you don't get to say that!"

Especially since unlike Misato, Asuka didn't exactly get a say in whether or not she gets sacrificed.

Though it's not IC that he'd be that impertinent when you think of his convo with Ritsuko in ep 24 for example. When my father tries to say anything parent-like nowadays it just fills me with violent rage like, "20 years too late motherfucker!!" To build a relationship you've first got to admit that you don't have one yet, so yeah...

It's actually a really pretty/sad scene as per Reichu's translation of the audio descriptions, Shinji looks pretty downcast & accepts a tiny spear of Gaius into his hands, folding them in a prayer-like fashion after he grasps it.