Bagheera wrote:What things? Even in the anime she doesn't get to do much until EoE. Heck, in some ways that's the entire point of her arc. She's superfluous, and NERV and SEELE make sure she's aware of that fact, and they hammer it home repeatedly.
Well the way I always saw it is that there's two stories going on in Evangelion; the character story and the story, uh, story. The anime and even EoE seemed more concerned with the character story in the end. There's things about moons, secret societies, and cosmic stuff, but none of that ever seemed to matter much to the main character. Hell, Shinji doesn't even learn much about any of it beyond the fact that his dad has something to do with it. So when you look at Shinji's personal journey as being the main story, then the rest of that is mostly just the frame work for the universe. None of it seems to concern Shinji in particular other than it being his circumstance. When Kawrou was going on about AT Fields and Lillim and such, Shinji's reaction was only "I don't know what you're even talking about!" To him, all he knew was his friend was betraying him.
So what does Asuka have to do with the character side of the story? Plenty! In both manga and anime she's a key element that openly confronts him. Not just providing him an immediate obstacle to overcome, but she's someone who is actively changing his environment. In both continuities, she is a somewhat unwelcomed change that barges into his life and starts rearranging everything. And not only that, but she's there to stay. It's not enough to have Shinji get lectures from people older than him and it's certainly not enough for him to hold Rei by the hand and lead her around. No, now there's someone who pushes back. She's the confusing element that propels him ahead one moment then puts him in the back row the next. She's a tangled mess that he's not even sure if he's supposed to unravel. Point is, she's as much an obstacle for him in terms of his personal growth as the angels are. And that to me is the role of Asuka in the story. And while they arguably make for a terrible couple, to me, that's what makes them so much fun. In fiction, I'd rather see a ship go through a horrible storm than make it to port without incident.
So in that sense, she's not only important to the story, she's
crucial.
And while it's in a somewhat diluted form in the manga, it still follows the same basic formula. She still barges into his life and is still confronting him throughout. It still functions. And that's where I draw the line with Rebuild. Because in 2.0 Asuka barges into his life and then...where'd she go? Oh, there she is in the corner, playing tetris while shooting jealous eyes at Rei. Hm.
No, it just doesn't ring the same.
Now she's unimportant. Because without the entanglement she really is an unnecessary element. Now she's just the "red one" who needs a sort of self sacrifice arc to turn relevant again. The Israphel fight was important not just because it looked fancy. It's because it established both characters and how they react to one another. And that to me was
always more relevant than what was going on with the moon and Seele.
Why do they even want the Loc-Nar? All it does is melt you.
