"Richard Qunt" <r.c.qunt@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bg21fr$1p8$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
> I have been watching Evangelion recently and asking myself this question.
> What point is there to Asuka even being in the series at all, except as a
> love interest for Shinji and a foil for Rei?

I've always thought of Shinji, Asuka, and Rei as three points on a spectrum
of dealing with emotional trouble. Asuka and Rei are on opposite ends, with
Shinji somewhere in the middle.

Asuka is entirely, extremely human. She's a broken individual. Her mother
hung herself (with Asuka walking in and finding it while she was very
young), her father and stepmother didn't have time for her or didn't really
care. No, she's not the nicest person. You expect her to be normal with her
past? However, she does manage to focus her life enough to be a damn good
pilot.

She's not a perfect person. She's not even average. She can be a real bitch.
(I've always found Asuka's physical abuse to be wildly exaggerrated in
fanfiction.) However, there's not a lack of explanation as to her behavior.
Is this an excuse? No, of course not. Asuka, like everyone else in the
series, needs some serious therapy and has some definite issues. But she
wasn't made a bitch for the sake of having a character to verbally abuse
Shinji or to give some humor to the series. There are definite, realistic
reasons she acts the way she does. She's a disturbed, problematic girl who
has spent a good chunk of her life training to be the best. I'd guess she
didn't get much of a childhood because of this. She's a desperate person
hanging on to some ounce of pride. And we know what happens when she loses
this. She breaks. She's human.

I'll always jump to defend Asuka, as she's one of my favorite characters
ever just because she's so human and I can recognize exactly why she acts
the way she does and can see some of her defensive problems in myself. She's
too often just blown off as a bitch without people even bothering to wonder
why she acts the way she does. Jeez, sorry if she's more offensive than the
ever-stoic Rei.

--Taryn