All Purpose Evangelion Fanfiction Thread

Not an ND-type Rei. And she's supposed to say that line in that quiet, calm voice of hers, not in an overly emotional one. Rei is still Rei, not a completely different character wearing her face.

But if you really insist, I can scrap that line.

"I. Will. Protect you."

I think that something like that works a bit better, coming from Rei.

Really, a plain simple "I'll do this for you, Shinji" declaration like the one she did before facing Diamond Angel is good enough on its own. Shinji can get the point just fine like that, assuming he's the target of the declaration.

She's declaring it to/about Kaworu, IIRC. amita's super-huge AU fic.

edited 9th Mar '15 2:41:02 PM by EvaUnit01

Did I say anything about that being the case? She might as well be saying it to Shinji, for all we know.

....point.

You were right, actually. But I was looking for a line that fits Rei in general, not just that particular version of Rei.

If Rei is still as much The Quiet One as her canon self, then to be in-character you should have her be brief yet concise in her statement. She's not one for "decorating" what she says with big, poetic allegories — notwithstanding the few philosophical moments where she seems to be more paraphrasing stuff that she read, watched or heard on the topic than saying things that she had come up purely through personal introspection. She's punctual and to the point, with an emphasis on consciseness. Yuki Nagato is simply what happens when you take that to the Logical Extreme... as along as she's not asked to talk about something involving super-advanced scientific knowledge, in which she goes into Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness for purposes of precision.

The one way I could see a non-hammy/over-the-top Rei being... well, over-the-top by her standards, is if someone had upset her so much that her emotions get the better of her and she feels an unfamiliar need to express herself in more detail than she usually deems necessary, just to get her point across, and thus is an easily noticeable cue to other characters that something very wrong had happened.

Oh, and if nothing else, an upset Rei would almost certainly not beat around the bush; she'd be brutally honest in expressing her disapproval/anger/upsetness.

edited 9th Mar '15 3:16:06 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

She is indeed in an emotionally heightened state at the time and will only show that side of her towards the person she's pledging to protect. And she means the 'protect' part: during the scene, she outright says that she will kill anyone who lays a hand on her Protectorate, no matter who the offender is. And yes, I do plan on her making good on that promise.

Regarding Rei's unusual ways of expressing herself, I'm going with the idea that she knows how to express herself but lacks experience doing so, hence she sometimes fails to find the proper words to describe her own emotional state. She knows what she's feeling but doesn't quite know how to put it in a way others will understand, hence her odd choice of words.

edited 9th Mar '15 3:32:00 PM by amitakartok

But is it a sufficiently overwhelming one? You have to remember that apart from physical injury, it's not exactly easy to make Rei express any particular emotion. Even when she got upset at Asuka badmouthing Shinji after getting swallowed by Leliel, the only sign of her anger was a slighly scowling expression and suddenly stepping up to Asuka's side, almost right in the German redhead's face (any faster and it would've been a candidate for the first half of Stealth Hi/Bye). Her voice was pretty much at the same emotionally even/controlled tone that is so iconic of her.

That is actually canon. Recall what she says to Shinji in Episode 6's finale, after he tearfully berates her for talking like she's a Death Seeker (boy, if he knew how spot-on he was). She expresses puzzlement over him crying for no apparent reason to her (seems like she doesn't know that normal people tend to cry when overwhelmed with joy or relief), and then averts her gaze from him and admits that she has no idea what she's supposed to do in a situation like this. The rest is WAFF-ily glorious history.

edited 9th Mar '15 3:37:06 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Sufficiently emotional to seek out physical contact with the target of her emotions.

By physical contact, I mean intertwining her fingers with the other person's. Without being asked or prompted, all on her own. With the narration deliberately lampshading that Rei isn't a cuddlebug - and in fact, showed signs of Hates Being Touched before. For Rei, this is pretty much equivalent to doing The Glomp, unleashing years of bottled-up emotions in a simple act that speaks more than a thousand words.

Oh, I know. It's one of my favorite scenes.

edited 9th Mar '15 4:00:51 PM by amitakartok

Okay, yeah, if your Rei is anything like her canon counterpart, a longwinded, over-the-top declaration would come across as really hammy and out of character. (Not that hammy is necessarily a bad thing! It just doesn't sound like what you're going for.)

Honestly, it'd be enough for her to say something like "I will protect you" or "I won't let anything hurt you". From what we see in canon, Rei is quiet and reserved, but also very honest and straightforward in her words when she does speak up. Someone like that doesn't need to use flowery language to make her seriousness clear.

(Plus, dialogue isn't your only tool — you can communicate more with a good description of body language than with a fancy speech.)

edited 9th Mar '15 8:20:57 PM by Enthryn

Of course, if she wants to visit major pain on somebody and is pissed off enough, I can see her giving a disturbingly detailed explanation of just what she is going to do, all in a clinically factual and precise manner devoid of metaphors and allegories, just to quietly revel in her target's nervousness/fear before moving on to the actual pain-dealing.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Nah, she's not sadistic. When a defenseless target is to be killed, Rei goes straight for a Neck Snap.

Of course, psyching her victims out via Mook Horror Show isn't out of the question either, especially if said victims are armed and psyching them out would decrease their ability to fight back, shock and awe style.

Ah, but there are times when a person would decide that swift, painless death is too merciful for the object of their hatred. I doubt Rei is somehow an exception to the rule; she may be normally nice, but nothing that we've seen of her solidly characterizes her as someone who absolutely and uncompromisingly abhors prolonging the suffering of someone or something if they managed to piss her off sufficiently. It's just a matter of determining what counts as "sufficient" in this case.

I mean, say that an human-form Angel decided to torture canon!Shinji to death for days, both physically and psychically, either to get his/her jollies off or to experiment with what reactions such a thing would induce in the humans that Shinji calls his friends. Do you really think canon!Rei would settle for swiftly killing the bastard?

edited 10th Mar '15 6:39:55 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Oh, I do have a good idea in that regard.

It involves Flaying Alive, Mushroom Samba, And I Must Scream, Throw It Into The Sun and Murder by Cremation. Lorenz Keel (aka SEELE visor guy) is the victim.

edited 10th Mar '15 6:55:03 AM by amitakartok

Yes.

She'd do it because Shinji just wants the experience over, and because the fact that they're dead and will not hurt him anymore will give Shinji peace, but the fact they suffered won't.

Rei will always put the interests of others over her own.

Nous restons ici.

1. The idea is that Rei catches them after the Angel is well done and over with the torturing, Shinji is pretty much in a permanent state of catatonia-like brokenness, and it's obvious that a swift kill won't just end Shinji's torment. If it can ever do, in the first place. Really, the trauma of torture isn't something that goes away just because you interrupted the torture process and quickly killed off the perpetrator.

2. Simply killing the Angel would only give Shinji peace if and only if the torture didn't progress far enough that Shinji's mind has utterly broken down. At that point, and barring a most probably very long period of intensive psychotherapy that is not guaranteed to succeed, there is no real way of giving Shinji true peace of mind or existence except a Mercy Kill.

3. "Rei will always put the interests of others over her own" is Rei as Gendou has raised her: A tool who is to always serve his agenda, and never seek anything else, not even any form of personal entertainment or relationships. Interaction with Shinji is what ends up breaking her out of this static state, question her upbringing, and ultimately opens to her the door of seeking what she wants. You are partially right, in that she would not put her personal desires over Shinji's own (unless they jeopardize his own well-being, that is). But before you even think of using the "Shinji would never condone her torturing someone for his own sake, no matter what" argument, consider this: What would Shinji have done if he and Rei were in each other's shoes? I believe that Rei will consider this scenario, and conclude that Shinji would likely have felt similar rage and vengefulness to what she's feeling, and would've acted upon it if he could have. Therefore, she'd consider it unfair if she didn't do the same. (Yes, it's not a healthy logic, but it's logic all the same, and she is in great emotional turmoil. People usually don't operate under healthy forms of logic in such situations, if they can even operate under any sort of logic at all.)

Bottomline is that post-Character Development Rei has Shinji's happiness as one of her top priorities (if not the top priority), above her own personal well-being and desires. In a situation such as the one I outlined, she would've been permanently deprived of any chance to fulfill that priority, and technically failed in her self-appointed duty to protect him by not being there when his well-being was violated. As Rei evidently has little experience with the extremes of emotion, it's perfectly understandable that she'd be overwhelmed by her rage- and guilt-driven desire to deal retribution proportional to the amount of harm dealt to Shinji, against whoever is responsible for that.

Now, if she had been prevented from immediately dealing with the Angel (say that he had the wisdom to leave before she could do anything), and enough time passed for her boiling rage to cool down to a less overwhelming level, then she might end up deciding that an eye for an eye is not really going to accomplish much other than statisfying a personal desire for revenge. "Might" being the keyword.

edited 11th Mar '15 4:58:52 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Irrelevant. Rei isn't going to base her choice on the fact Shinji is incapable of choosing. She would make the choice that she knows Shinji would want, if he were capable of expressing his wishes. (Or the choice that Gendo would want, depending on where in the series we are.)

Ah, this is why you're all wrong.

Rei is what Gendo wants her to be; then she is what Shinji wants her to be. She transferred her allegiance, but her fundamental personality didn't change. Rei is still defining herself by what someone else's vision of an ideal her is.

Rei never broke out of the state Gendo left her in. She simply applied that state to someone else. Before, she did what made Gendo happy and always put his wants above her own. Later, she transferred that same attitude to Shinji. The "changes" you are citing are due to the fact that Shinji's ideal vision of Rei does not revolve entirely around Shinji because he's not nearly self-assured enough to be that much of a narcissist, and because he's not socially skilled enough to realize that he actually has power at a level that fundamental over her. They would be discarded in an instant if Shinji's vision of what Rei "should be" changed.

Nous restons ici.

Steel Saga: thoughts about T-RIDEN-T:

The T-RIDEN-Ts that Musashi pilots periodically get demolished, so they usually get replaced with a newer, more powerful model, funded by SEELE in an attempt to create the ultimate anti-EVA countermeasure.

There are no even-numbered T-RIDEN-T models because I think it's cooler that way. In-Universe, chalk it up to a neurosis of the design guy.

Mk I: pretty much what we saw in the VN, which I basically interpret as Metal Gear REX, but with high-speed hover capability.

Mk III: a glorified Valkyrie (Gerwalk mode only) knockoff, with sufficient power output to drag Evangelions around by a cable against their will. High speed, high agility, hardly more durable than the average fighter jet. Has a linear cannon used specifically to deploy the prototype Super N2 Mine, a weapon so unimaginably powerful that it can breach multiple layers of an AT Field and grievously wound even the sturdiest of Angels. (successfully used to One-Hit Kill Leliel, nearly dropped on Zeruel in an aborted Heroic Sacrifice)

Mk V: the first model that can beat Evangelions and Angels in a fair fight. The Mighty Glacier to Mk III's Fragile Speedster. Uses a prototype Super N2 Reactor as a power source. Big enough to dwarf Evangelions in both height and build. Arguably the bastard child of Great Mazinger and Giant Robo. Has a Wave-Motion Gun built into its chest as the Finishing Move, a la Guyver.

Mk VII: the Mazinkaiser to Mk V's Great Mazinger. Kept super top-secret until EOE. Not even Musashi knows about it. Piloted by Musashi and Mana's other JSDF child soldier friend (Kenta IIRC), who was rebuilt into a brainwashed Cyborg as SEELE's contingency plan against Musashi in the event he refused to deploy against NERV come EOE.

Y'all's thoughts?

edited 13th Mar '15 12:12:38 AM by EvaUnit01

Poor Keita. Does he get saved or will you kill him off?

---

A question involving SCE. I'm thinking of having Rei address Yui as hahaue (母上), the Keigo version of 'mother'. I feel kaasan or okaasan just isn't formal and distant enough for the estrangement they have at the start of the story. Of course, Rei still refers to Yui as 'mother' when talking to someone else, only addressing her with a Japanese term when directly speaking to her - which would imply that Rei chose to use this particular expression on purpose, to nonverbally let Yui know just what Rei thinks of her (which the non-Japanese members of the cast naturally don't pick up on).

Does this make sense or is this just unnecessary Gratuitous Japanese?

---

A more minor question. Would it make narrative sense to make a small retcon that Kaworu, instead of being unaware of and incapable of using his Psychic Powers at all, he's unaware of and incapable of using them directly, but can still passively feel when he's Being Watched? It's repeatedly stated in the new early chapters that Kaworu feels uncomfortable when he's the center of attention for many people (and has a Newtype Flash-esque reaction when Rei is the one watching him) - it just occurred to me that this is a possible explanation why.

edited 14th Mar '15 7:02:36 PM by amitakartok

Definitely one, maybe the other.

Keita: "Mana is dead, Musashi, and NERV killed her! So why the HELL are you backing them up?!"

Musashi: "She's not dead, you dipshit, she's goddamned dating the EVA-01 pilot! If NERV had really hurt or killed Mana, do you really think there's anything on Earth that'd stop me from getting even?!"

Keita: "! ! !"

For the record, there're no romantic feelings between Mana, Keita, and Musashi; they're simply True Companions that will always have each other's back.

As to your own questions, amita?

First: makes sense when you explain it here, but you should be careful if you're betting that Viewers Are Geniuses, because most readers probably wouldn't have any clue what's going on unless they looked it up. ...which may not be a bad thing, if that's what you're going on.

Second: makes total sense to me, go for it.

edited 14th Mar '15 9:19:10 PM by EvaUnit01

It's explained in the author's notes. Not why she's using it, just what it means and that she's using it deliberately.

Okay, I'm satisfied with that.

Hey. In an SRW fic, what would you guys think about an omake where, after Shinji gets a Relationship Upgrade (be it Asuka, Rei, Mana, whoever), Yui-as-EVA-01 breaks into a celebretory musical number - specifically, she starts singing "My Pilot Is A Boyfriend"?

Sounds good, but... how could Yui sing from inside the Eva?

You know... I'm kinda in the mood for writing another Shinji/Mana WAFF oneshot. Thing is, I don't know what to write about. Any ideas?