"Amani" <amani@charter.net> wrote in message
news:vi9ik1n02g8i3f@corp.supernews.com...
> "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.

Extremely well said, I aplaud you.

cOwMoO