Asuka, The hug that she never received

[ShikinamiBogard]

Ok, this is my first post here, i apologize for my traduction from spanish to english, so maybe i have a lot of grammatical errors.


[EDIT] Sorry i think i post this on the wrong place, can any mod help me?


Well, lets begin

Many times we question the tough character that Asuka has, but being honest it is normal for a girl of her age, who is a conceited and clear, as shown in the series.
when she arrives at the school where the chosen children study, she immediately becomes As an idol of many, Kensuke's photo sales prove it as well as the piles of letters he's receiving in his locker, but with that being said, let's cut to the chase, let's go ahead, to EoE, just before KsT starts playing and everything goes to the # $ @ & +, Shinji approaches her in the table scene asking for her help, he tells her that she is the only one for him, that he only wants to be with her that he also wants to help her, to which Asuka He replies that if he really wants to help her, don't do anything, well, Shinji always hurts her, that she is his last option, she is the third plate on the table after Misato and Ayanami.
Why is this happening?

We have to go back to EP22 to discover something.
In Arael's attack, Asuka desperately seeks for help, she visualizes Kaji , she asks him for help to which Kaji answers that you are just a girl, just at that moment Shinji appears to the Kajis side. She is immediately caught screaming and telling Shinji what the hell is he doing there? That he never did anything for her, he never helped her (while the kiss flashbacks, lost battles against angels and others). But most importantly, he just mentions "You never do anything to help me, you don't even hug me." Well, why does Asuka say that to Shinji at the time? Why do you claim that you never showed him that sign of affection? Something so simple but so valuable?


For this we must go to EP09,precisely in the battle against Israfel they have to fight together and for this they spend 6 days living together day and night.

The night before the battle Asuka asks where is Misato? Shinji tells her that she won't arrive until the next day to which Asuka happily tells Shinji "Well we'll spend the night alone!" He is locked in his room.
But at night she sneaks into Shinji's futon and when he was about to kiss her, Asuka cries, cries for her mother and Shinji reacts by walking away just like he did when Misato cried for Kaji's death. At that point Shinji didn't understand that Asuka later After spending 6 days living with him, I took some confidence in him and hoped that he might hug her and tell him that everything would be fine. That little gesture would have changed history, this is seen in EP 10 magma Driver when Shinji goes down to the magma to rescue Asuka and she looks very happy for this gesture.
Now knowing this, we jump to the EP one more Final, I need you. Asuka Being strangled by Shinji Reacts with a caress, why? In the end after the human complement she understood his emotions and just as she needed a hug, Shinji needed a sincere caress.



Plus, there is a scene where Asuka finds herself in the sink after kissing Shinji in which she says, you didn't even hug me

[glitz2hard]

first off, that was a pretty good dissection. i can agree, that Asuka probably needs a hug. and a lot of other things
second, can the mods please move this to a relevant forum? thank you in advance.

[C.T.1290]

Well, there’s no doubt that things would have been more different if someone gave her a hug or two.

Things could have changed more drastically at that point.

[ShikinamiBogard]

first off, that was a pretty good dissection. i can agree, that Asuka probably needs a hug. and a lot of other things
second, can the mods please move this to a relevant forum? thank you in advance.

Thanks, thats why she is the only one who came with Shinji from LCL , because she finally understand her feelings, both are like a Shadow for the other.

Well, there’s no doubt that things would have been more different if someone gave her a hug or two.

Things could have changed more drastically at that point.

Yup, on the kiss escene if Shinji hug her, that be another history

[A Renegade Deserter]

Thanks, thats why she is the only one who came with Shinji from LCL , because she finally understand her feelings, both are like a Shadow for the other.



Yup, on the kiss escene if Shinji hug her, that be another history

For Asuka and Shinji to realise they wanted and needed each other would've made a difference in how they endure the following events after their kiss, though not in preventing them from happening.

They would suffer similar yet different hardships through them but they would claim hard on each other, while others around them are left to their horrors.

It's about staying true to valuing each others love while there is no escape form consequences.

For Asuka and Shinji to love and stay together matters more than preventing 3I from happening.

For Asuka and Shinji to prevent SEELES Scenario for Instrumentality by killing the Eva Series would still not stop SEELE to have influence over governments around the world to make them hunt down for the rest of their lives while all from NERV are branded as war criminals, even if its only Gendo who wanted his 3I Scenario.

Asuka and Shinji would've been forced to initate 3I themselves because of this and that it happens for their sake alone and knowing they never had to hate each other.

And with all lifeforms being reset to a primordial state, while it's open ended whether Asuka and Shinji 'll still be alive to see humanity return and all sings of life being back to their state before 3I and 2I for the ocean being blue again.

While humanity goes through endless and different forms of realities with time and space working differently than outside the surface of the ocean formed into LCL.

The Extinction Events from Death Stranding (that is somewhat Evangelion if Kojima made it instead of Anno) would work like that.

[Kendrix]

The takeaway here IMHO is not that "Asuka needs a hug" and that if only ppl recognized this everything would be sunshine & rainbows

But that she can't bring herself to admit that the wants hugs much less ask for them;
Her tragedy is that she spends a lot of time & energy convincing herself & everyone around her that she needs nothing.
Since she's still a human being under the facade, that is a crappy lonely place to be in.
The line appear in the context of her being forced to confront repressed thoughts that she herself rejects after all.

Judging by the clothes she's wearing that pic is a flashback to the aftermath of the kiss scene - but she'd just come back from a date with another guy, said explicitly that it was just for curiosity (like the 14 year old equivalent of no strings attached casual sex), basically made a dare out of it or lowkey pressured him into it ("Are you a coward? real men should be horny all the time"), probably knowing on some level that he at least thought she was hot & tended to get dejected when she acted hostile towards her, and even plugged his nose so he wouldn't inconvenience her by breathing never mind that he needs oxygen.

She basically made it as unromantic as possible, & then complained that nothing romantic happened - as much as some part of her might have wanted some warmth and comfort. Comfort isn't love, either. But she spends all this time acting like "she's into real men not little boys" and how she's above the horny teenage boys etc... when actually she's not above being horny or clinging to ppl for comfort.

There's no love there at all. They don't like each other but they cling to each other or make each other lust objects because they're lonely and the other person is there. Asuka is designed to be like the hardest possible person for Shinji to get along with - feeling like he wants her approval is part of what makes her difficult for him; She's sort of an especially salient example of his fears about interacting with others in general. This doesn't mean that they couldn't become a functional couple eventually in some hypothetical scenario or that there was zero genuine care (Shinji at least makes many attempts to be nice & get along... though he also has a people pleasing problem. And Asuka did visit him in the hospital that one time so she's probably not all indifferent either ; I personally don't believe that not having 100% sincere intentions makes your feelings entirely worthless; most ppl have multiple reasons for all they do)

The plot is really more about accepting a world that has her - and those ppl difficulties in general - In it instead of completely rejecting it.

And this is just a microcosm for all her relationships, for example she spends a lot of energy acting like she doesn't need parenting so no one sees her as needing parenting until she's halfway into a breakdown. Misato tries to start up a conversation about their traumatic backstories; She doesn't really respond. Misato only gets that she has a probölem when she's in that bathroom cursing about how much she hates everyone Misato included. She rejected the stepmother 100% but then we see her also expressing that she didn't want her to get detached from her. Of course neither Misato nor the Stepmother were stellar super parents & maybe a more suitable parental figure could have done more. But it would take someone very sensitive & very skilled.

It's not like if someone hugged her everything would be perf - she'd fight them off probably.
Hikari tries to say comforting things to her, even lets her stay in her house way past her welcome, but she couldn't even register it cause she was so deeply inside her self hate bubble.

There isn't really any special power to romantic relationships that friendships don't have. Having a great love relationship CAN be healing but only if you're ready to work on yourself; It does not automatically solve your problems.