Original Asuka

[Blockio]

Yeah, that. We see that montage in the context of Asuka talking abut her memories; why would it show another Asuka

[TehDonutKing]

It doesn't matter, the point of Shikinami is that her entire existance is being an expendable jobber. Both in-universe and in the narrative.

I like to imagine that her angst over being a copy of “original Asuka” in the narrative is an intentional reflection of her being a copy of “original Asuka” in real life, LOL.

I highly doubt that’s actually the case of course, but it’s funny to think about.

I definitely think this was intentional; Rebuild is filled with metafictional nods to Eva as a franchise.

[dzzthink]

Alright, so I got this question that’s been bugging me a little, who was the original Shikinami really? Was she a normal human girl with actual parents, basically the NTE version of Asuka Soryu? Or was she actually the first bioengineered clone to be created, resulting the mass production of the Shikinami series?

Because if it’s the later, then where would NERV get the genetic material they needed to make clones? It’s not like they can just make someone out of thin air through the use of genetic manipulation.

If it’s the first, then it would make sense that Asuka Langley Shikinami is basically a copy of her original, meaning that she could essentially be biologically related to her original’s birth parents. And that’s something Asuka had wanted her whole life; a real family. She’s got to be from someone’s bloodline, right?

Also, what happened to the original after she absorbed Asuka into Unit-13’s core? Did they both merge together when Shinji freed Asuka from the curse of the EVA, resulting in being the one true Asuka, as the singular being?

There doesn't need to be a first 'person'. Test tube babies can be duplicated from the original embryo. The embryo just needs an egg and sperm donor and then I assume she was born either via a surrogate or even bladerunner style if the technology is there. Artificial wombs are now possible.

[C.T.1290]

There doesn't need to be a first 'person'. Test tube babies can be duplicated from the original embryo. The embryo just needs an egg and sperm donor and then I assume she was born either via a surrogate or even bladerunner style if the technology is there. Artificial wombs are now possible.

If that’s the case that the original Shikinami is just another clone like the rest of her progenies, with no actual birth parents to begin with, and therefore have no bloodlines or any other relatives, that would in the end make her nothing. Just a being created by science living in a cold, unloving existence. I think you can imagine what a sad life that is, but I guess that’s the point of her story.

[Blockio]

CT, you have been asked multiple times to drop the topic of Shikinami being a clone. People are uncomfortable with your obsessive focus on it; I do not wish for it to come to this, but if you keep failing to heed this instruction, we may deem it necessary to remove your access to the Rebuild subforum.

[Cola-09]

I actually enjoy his obsession, it's cringy alright but he's become a sort of meme here. A nice laugh here and there.

[Axx°N N.]

How many people constitutes "people" being uncomfortable? 2? 3?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't read their posts and think for a second that some kind of internet etiquette is being neglected, especially given the thread topic. The content of their posts overall seems varied enough. They're just probing a certain angle of the franchise. Isn't that the point of this place?

[Konja7]

How many people constitutes "people" being uncomfortable? 2? 3?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't read their posts and think for a second that some kind of internet etiquette is being neglected, especially given the thread topic. The content of their posts overall seems varied enough. They're just probing a certain angle of the franchise. Isn't that the point of this place?

It just seems a weird C.T.1290 focus so much on how Asuka being a clone means she isn't a human or a person.

I mean, I've understand people don't like the change. However, the argument than Asuka being a clone makes her less a human or a person seems something the story doesn't support at all.

[Blockio]

It just seems a weird C.T.1290 focus so much on how Asuka being a clone means she isn't a human or a person.

I mean, I've understand people don't like the change. However, the argument than Asuka being a clone makes her less a human or a person seems something the story doesn't support at all.

That particular aspect is indeed the problem, because that's what the topic comes back around to sooner or later every time CT touches it; we're not forbidding anyone from talking about what they think of Shikinami being a clone, but this angle on it in particular is both broadly uncomfortable enough that people have complained, in public as well as in private, and the specific reasonings given for it in an earlier instance of this debate with CT would also exclude some very real people existing in this world from being considered a real human based on some notions of bioessentialism, which is the other big reason that we are shutting this down, because we're not giving a platform to that sort of thing

[Axx°N N.]

But feeling "less than human" is part of the narrative itself and the trajectories of two of its central character's arcs. CT even says at the end there "but I guess that's the point of her story," and indeed that's where much of her internal conflict originates. I don't really get the sense that CT is saying anything discriminatory about what constitutes actual humans, I think they're just conflating the addition of Asuka being a clone to the feeling that her character is "lesser than" Sohryu, which ... why can't someone view those things as overlapping? They totally coincide. Rei as clone is a long established, integral part of the character. But adding in clone-hood post-facto lends itself to being seen as "contrived" and so "contrived" being related to "artificial." But I don't think that in itself constitutes some kind of broader non-Eva-related attitude about IVF, or whatever, if it happens not to mesh for them and they end up seeing the whole clone thing as second-rate. It seems kind of ridiculous to me to attach some kind of chauvinism to it. Why should the discomfort at the last-minute addition of this kind of plot detail be taken with less credibility than people attaching malice to something with little reason, as if attaching malice to something itself lends someone instant credibility?

[kuribo-04]

Context is key here:
https://forum.evageeks.org/post/939208/Are-the-clones-pseudo-Lilins-really-considered-human-beings/#939208
Seems like there is some religiously based, genuine believe that clones are inferior beings or something. If not maybe CT should clarify, but I get why it can make people uncomfortable. Since irl people are 100% conceived in the non-traditional method nowadays as well.

As for Asuka being a clone, people picked up on hints in 2.0 already.

[C.T.1290]

I actually enjoy his obsession, it's cringy alright but he's become a sort of meme here. A nice laugh here and there.

Oh, ha ha. Very funny.