This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Shay Guy: Ever since she pulled a Haruhi on the principal, I've found my reaction to Rei's antics falling into Dude, Not Funny! more often than not. I mean, yes, cheerful, extroverted, often funny...but here's the thing. She is a bad person. She is an amoral psychopath. She does things that should not be done. Whenever the story makes reference to how terrified everyone is of Rei, or how she always gets what she wants because everybody's too scared of her to try and rein her in, I can't help but think: This shouldn't be happening. And maybe I am taking things too seriously, but the one thing I want to see more than anything else in Nobody Dies is something forcing Rei to change, to learn some morals, or even just to regret something, anything. Or maybe even just someone she can't intimidate, to act as a Kyon to her Haruhi.
Just the emotional reaction of one very silly reader.
- Willbyr: You're right up to a point. Rei isn't completely out of control; she minds instructions from Yui and from her classmates (otherwise Kyoko would've been chunky salsa after the dance). Also, I think the reveals about Mana mean that Rei has, at the very least, some competition in certain levels. Also, given her nature, I suspect that Blue-and-Orange Morality may creep in where she's concerned.
- Shockz: I think it's worth noting that, after the whole mess with the marks on the back of Asuka's neck, Rei didn't spare Kyoko from horrible, horrible something because Yui told her not to; she spared her because Yui corrected a misunderstanding. So there are lines she won't cross. Also, note that her blackmail of the principal was not to benefit herself; she had altruistic ends in mind...that puts her at least a couple rungs below Haruhi on the "amoral sociopath" scale, IMO. On that note, she pretty much has the same personality as Gendo and Yui (they did raise her, after all); she just has superpowers, a love of explosives, and a tendency to do anatomically impossible things to people who piss her off to go along with it.
- GreggHL: Well, yes. Rei is a sociopath. SEELE keeps a file on her with a very large block of text that reads: "Sociopathic tendencies" and then lists the things she does to people. It's not that she's a bad person per se, it's just that she doesn't view things like we do. She has limits to what she will do to people, but at the same time those limits may not be ones the law agrees with. Shockz is right about Kyoko. Rei didn't stop from maiming Kyoko because Yui told her not to, she spared Kyoko because Kyoko was innocent of harming Asuka in that way.
Comartemis: Whoever put the Stealth Hi/Bye quote at the end of the page deserves... well, maybe not a Made Of Win award, but maybe an e-cookie.
- Troper Who Will Remain Anonymous: *takes cookie* Thanks!
Willbyr: Now that this article has a character page, there's a lot of redundancy between the two pages. Should the character-specific tropes be removed from the main article in favor of the character page?
Willbyr: Asuka needs a Split Personality entry. Just wanna make sure that I've got this correct before I post it:
- Split Personality: Asuka. So far, we've seen:
- Woobie!Asuka - The default; shy, insecure, self-hating.
- Spark!Asuka - Not a split, but what happens when Woobie! hyperfocuses.
- Doll!Asuka - Manifests through her doll; acts as a voice of reason to counter her self-doubt and keep her semi-level emotionally, especially when she's angsting over Shinji.
- Ironically, while it's normally a sign of her deep mental problems, this actually saves her from Sandalphon's mind control; she doesn't recognize its voice in her head and dismisses it.
- Woobie!Asuka - The default; shy, insecure, self-hating.
