Is there any solid evidence that Misato feels any sexual attraction to Shinji?

[zlink64]

I meant like first kiss shared between them. Like I meant specifically from Misato pov it doesn't have to be viewed as something exclusively hedonistic. Like I dunno that seems kinda pessimistic to me to look at her wanting to kiss him as something purely hedonistic but just my opinion.

[Reichu]

And I don't think anyone is arguing that Shinji was acting sexually towards Misato here!

No way, man. He was totally asking for it! What with those blue puppy dog eyes and scrawny shota bod and all.

Which I don't find incompatible with what I said.

Which in turn says nothing about your actual position on the matter! We're really getting places here.

[pwhodges]

No way, man. He was totally asking for it! What with those blue puppy dog eyes and scrawny shota bod and all.

Now I know you're just trolling tonight...

The demeanour of someone totally asking for it:


The expression of someone totally asking for it:




And watching the scene again, it is clearly far less sexually charged than the bedroom scene, if at all.

[Reichu]

And watching the scene again, it is clearly far less sexually charged than the bedroom scene, if at all.

We can perhaps deduce from these two incidents that an anguished and pathetic male generates a favorable sexual response in Misato. Most such paraphelia are the result of being inadvertently "trained" at a young age. Perhaps Mommy was only able to get any from Daddy when Daddy was too sad and effete to escape from her lustful feminine maw. Thereafter, Misato interpreted a helplessly sad man as a sexually available one. This might provide some valuable insight into how she and Kaji got together.

[pwhodges]

Is this a trailer for your fic?

[Reichu]

Is this a trailer for your fic?

Naw. If that had been the intent, I would have ended my post Paul W. Hodges style and pointed to a specific chapter or something.

[Bagheera]

Misato knows she's dying; she also knows that things will end badly if Shinji doesn't at least try to do something. Obviously she understands the use of sex as a means of persuasion, or she wouldn't have gone that way. But I do not find it convincing to imagine that she takes this moment to indulge in a purely hedonistic action - she does it for a reason.

Pretty much, yeah. And I think this holds for 23 as well. So, going back to the OP . . . nope. She uses sex, or the promise thereof, or the suggestion of a promise thereof, or something along those lines, to clumsily try to motivate the kid who is the key to saving the world. Is there anything to even talk about past that? I mean, it's all ambiguous, since neither she nor Shinji made anything explicit (and probably never worked that out themselves due to circumstances), so it's not like we need to hop on board any one single motivation/interpretation/whatever. Can't we all just acknowledge that and leave the arguments by the wayside?

[zlink64]

She uses sex, or the promise thereof, or the suggestion of a promise thereof, or something along those lines, to clumsily try to motivate the kid who is the key to saving the world. Is there anything to even talk about past that? I mean, it's all ambiguous

Well you are giving an explanation while saying it's ambiguos so you are already talking "past it". Like I don't like that explanation since it seems out of character for Misato to use sex to manipulate/motivate people; like I don't think she has ever used sex like tha before right? And that explanation comes very close to fan wanking, imo, since it is basically us/people trying to fill in plot holes for that sake of making sense of it while not really having any basis for it other than it makes commonsense within those couple of minutes. But yeah we could put it to wayside...I'm just saying it's an iffy view to have imo.

[Bagheera]

It's not iffy at all since it's the very basis of Misato's character, and is explicitly described as such in ep 25. She uses sex, or perceives herself as a person who uses sex, to get what she wants, so assuming she's doing that (or something like that) to motivate Shinji isn't a stretch at all. It's what the show is actually telling us is happening.

[zlink64]

I was under the impression that she did that stuff because she was lonely and I wouldn't describe that as the same kind of manipulation that people describe in EoE. Like in EoE it would be very direct form of manipulation not based on her loneliness. But if what if you say is true then never mind.

[BC Baron]

It's not iffy at all since it's the very basis of Misato's character, and is explicitly described as such in ep 25. She uses sex, or perceives herself as a person who uses sex, to get what she wants...

Another mild example of this type of behavior one might point to is her interaction with Hyuuga. It is hinted that he has a bit of a crush on her, that she is most likely aware of it, and that she takes advantage of this from time to time, getting him to pick up her dry cleaning and, much later in the series, manipulating him into assisting her in tracking down classified information.

[lily liver]

It is hinted that he has a bit of a crush on her, that she is most likely aware of it

my understanding of her awareness of how much he likes her has always been informed by the way a certain line is delivered. i'm probably reading into this too much, but its how i feel.

in episode 24 in the english dub, when they are preparing for Kaworu to breach terminal dogma, hyuga says "dying beside you wouldn't be a bad way to go", and Misato replies with "thank you". the way she says it sounds like she's flattered and a little bit surprised. to me, it distinctly sounds like she wasn't expecting to hear something like that from him.

in death and rebirth, she says "thank you" in a completely different way, like she expected it, like a regular acknowledgement.

[Reichu]

in death and rebirth, she says "thank you" in a completely different way, like she expected it, like a regular acknowledgement.

This is basically how she comes across in the original Japanese, so going by your description D&R has the right of it here.

[BC Baron]

in episode 24 in the english dub, when they are preparing for Kaworu to breach terminal dogma, hyuga says "dying beside you wouldn't be a bad way to go", and Misato replies with "thank you". the way she says it sounds like she's flattered and a little bit surprised. to me, it distinctly sounds like she wasn't expecting to hear something like that from him.

I remember getting a similar impression from the way Allison Keith delivered that line in the ADV dub. However, (being rather clueless when it comes to women in general) I was never entirely sure if she was tyring to convey that the true source of her surprise was due to not realizing Hyuuga harbored such strong feelings toward her or that she knew all along, but didn't think he would ever come right out and actually admit it (and now that he just did, maybe she wasn't really sure what to say).

Perhaps that's an extra level of analysis that nobody really needs to worry about.