All Purpose Evangelion Fanfiction Thread

One of the 2058-era Angels tries to Make Wrong What Once Went Right by destroying humanity in 2030, a decade before the Evas are rolled out and thus humanity becomes a threat. Except a certain Eva pilot comes back after the Angel and kills it dead to prevent that; not just because humanity would be wiped out otherwise but also to prevent the resulting paradox-induced Time Crash from annihilating the universe itself.

You see, Time Travel is an utter taboo because violating the Novikov self-consistency principle (that is, doing any alteration that's not part of a Stable Time Loop) causes past and future to mutually contradict each other, resulting in the universe basically BSODing. Even the Eva's mere presence at this point in time is threatening to start the collapse when the FAR step in and solve the problem via creating an Alternate Universe, rewinding it to the arrival moment of the time travel and redirecting the time travelers to that one instead while leaving the original timeline as-is. Oh, and they Ret-Gone the Angel responsible for this fuckup, just in case.

Since he has no idea how to go back to his own time, the Eva pilot contacts SEELE and gives them an edited version of what went down in the original timeline to secure their support, while his Eva is turned over to the appropriate people for reverse-engineering. Thus this timeline's humanity get advance warning about the Angels and a massive headstart at Eva development... all the while the time traveler is smirking to himself while making plans for murderizing SEELE in order to prevent Third Impact down the line.

Essentially, this would be a Lighter and Softer Alternate Universe for SCE. Among other things, Kodama is an Eva pilot and the most senior one too (I'm thinking that she ended up working in a bar in the primary timeline due to narrowly failing her university entrance exam; here, as a consequence of Yui never having divorced Gendo, Yui is more personable with her underlings, which results in Mr. Horaki bellyaching to her about Kodama failing the test and Yui suggesting that Kodama should just come to work for the AEL because they're always in need of more manpower, especially since SEELE dropped the future Eva on them for reverse-engineering). Also, teenage Misato is now the main protagonist with a Ryuko Matoi-esque Hot-Blooded personality and Eva-requisite daddy problems.

---

Especially notable would be the different character development for Misato here. In the primary timeline, she never made up with her dad before he died in Third Impact, which is what caused her to become such a hardass of a ship captain, pulling downright suicidal tactics, taking her frustrations out on her subordinates and being unable to maintain a relationship (hooked up with Kaji in her early twenties but when he pointed out her revenge-boner against the Angels, she broke up with him rather than admit it).

In the secondary timeline, she'd get ample amounts of positive influence to mellow her out.

edited 22nd Aug '17 4:50:10 AM by amitakartok

OK, so... How does the Time Travel manage to (coincidentally) eliminate the age gap between Shinji and Misato?

And why not retain Asuka while altering her personality just enough to fit the "Energetic Girl" mold due to a more healthy family situation?

edited 22nd Aug '17 12:55:05 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

It's not the time travel. Misato is already only one year older than Shinji in SCE, born in 2025 (making her sixteen at the point where the story is currently stuck at).

Asuka is still here and her family situation is more healthy due to the time traveler having convinced SEELE that Kyoko is more valuable working for them than dead. And it turned out to be a major boon because Kyoko and Dr. Katsuragi working together have managed to crack the theory behind AT-fields (Kyoko figured out the mental part, Katsuragi the quantum physics part) and unlocked the Evas' ability to use them, making this timeline's Evas finally on par with the canon ones. It's initially only used for defensive purposes and Misato is the one who really goes wild with exploring what she can do with it.

Anyway. I was saying that I initially thought of Shinji/Asuka for irony purposes because Asuka ending up with him would mean that the time traveler never gets born in this timeline - yet he would actually endorse the relationship anyway to show the Character Development he went through.

But the problem is, I don't know how this timeline's Asuka would be anything other than an arrogant brat. I mean, in the primary timeline, she can back her attitude up with competence, which is because of all the training she went through, which is because of her wanting to join the military and track down Kyoko's killers. But since Kyoko didn't die in this timeline and consequently Asuka wasn't raised by a single father who had to leave her alone at home often due to the nature of his job and didn't have to move all over human-settled space and consequently not being able to make lasting friendships... how would Asuka's personality develop?

edited 22nd Aug '17 1:26:23 PM by amitakartok

... OK, I blame not knowing that on both the fact that I never read SCE and that AFAIR, this point never came up in any SCE-related conversation before now. The only age-related retcon I know you did was to make Mana and maybe Mayumi be peers of Asuka and Kaworu's children, i.e. making them be born much later than usual for Eva fics that include them.

Most likely outcome IMHO: She'd be still rather prideful, but not in an arrogant/vainglorious way, and is more sociable, yet still afraid of failing to meet other people's expectations because she's still a perfectionist at heart^note I personally believe that Asuka's pride, attention-loving, and perfectionism are integral traits of her personality that simply got pushed into pathological extremes by her childhood trauma and the lack of proper psychiatric care in its wake, plus all the expectations put on her as an Eva pilot at such a young age and the lack of any healthy and meaningful relationship with a trusted adult (her father, from the few glimpses we saw of him, is implied to be utterly uncaring about his firstborn daughter; her stepmom was similarly not close, though it's implied neither her nor Asuka actually hated the other), which was further exacerbated by the Humiliation Conga Line she eventually went through in Japan.. She could join the military for any of a whole lot of other reasons, such as deciding it's the most fitting path for her to both realize her talents and stroke her ego with attained successes and fame. And she could be quite flustered by the completely unexpected event of her falling in love with Shinji, because he does not fit any of the stereotypical molds of a "manly man" (like Kaji does, at least superficially); it wouldn't be implausible for her to take time to accept that fact, and by that time she'd have a wholly different reason for not immediately voicing her interest, namely that she not only has no idea whether he would reciprocate, but believing (whether or not there may be a grain of truth in that belief) that her behavior towards him so far must've crushed any seed of interest in his heart for her by making him see her as a domineering harpy who only sees him as a friend at best and a personal servant at worst.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

If you want to be revered as a badass, IMO probably the most efficient paths in life to get there are a) join the military, or b) some variety or another of combat sports (be it mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, or whatever).

Yeah but in this case, Asuka literally has no reason to join the military other than being a Military Brat.

On the other hand... Kyoko vetoing the possibility of Asuka becoming an Eva pilot could be met with someone pointing out that she seems to be fine with the possibility of someone else's kid being in the same danger, so why not her own? Is she that unsure about her own work?

Not even the reasons we suggested?

On a side-note, I assume by "being a Military Brat", you mean it in the sense that she wants to do her father proud by following in his footsteps?

Yeah, I think I saw that kind of situation in some other context. It could work.

edited 23rd Aug '17 8:39:44 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I mean, why would Asuka want to strive for more when she has everything?

Define "everything".

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Stable family background where she doesn't need to be extraordinary in order for people to care about her.

No emotional trauma to make her resort to desperate measures in order to be at peace.

Asuka is a completely ordinary girl now.

... None of that would preclude someone from having enough of a prideful/perfectionist streak to seek to achieve superlative excellence by being extraordinary.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

But why would she have said perfectionist streak?

Why wouldn't she? Sometimes a person's personality has one or more trait that are "built-in" from the moment they were conceived (maybe genetics, maybe something metaphysical). I believe the Question in Justice League Unlimited managed to put it best when talking to Lex Luthor, though he takes it to a Logical Extreme that I don't believe is 100% true (if only because some incarnations of Luthor do pull a Heel–Face Turn after some event or the other, or are even good from the beginning of their lives):

And like I previously said in a note, in my headcanon, I perceive the pride, passion, and perfectionism that are exhibited by Asuka in canon as not solely being the result of her way of coping with her childhood trauma, but rather being some of her innate personality traits that unfortunately were magnified to pathological heights (e.g. what would've been a relatively healthy prideful streak became self-absorbed arrogance and occasionally vainglory) when she developed her Inferiority Superiority Complex, thus ultimately doing her more harm than good.

I don't expect you to agree with me on the innateness of those traits, for the record. But it is what drives several of my interpretations of how her personality might develop if she was a well-adjusted person rather than traumatized as a child in such a manner.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I actually agree with much of what you're saying, Marq, though in my case it's more in reference to Shinji, with the "core trait" I see as being what I once explained to someone else as "a kind of emotional or psychological weakness".

When we first meet Shinji, and then for much of the rest of the story, he's passive. Indecisive. Lacks confidence in himself. Given the choice, he'd rather run from his problems than deal with them. Basically.... despite the incredible things he can do in Eva, personality-wise he's kind of a wuss.

Now, I don't have a problem with stories where positive Character Development happens and Shinji steadily manages to grow out of those traits, but I do take strong issue — my "number one cardinal sin", to paraphrase something amita said on another forum, is when those core traits are removed (not even downplayed or implied, just flat-out ignored or overwritten) entirely from the start. And it's not limited to just Shinji, either, but applies to all characters — Rei's quiet and kind of weird (doesn't have to be weird in a "bad" way, though), Asuka's a bit full of herself (though I have no objections to emphasizing a Hidden Heart of Gold), etc.

I see myself as giving a lot of leeway to Alternate Character Interpretation, but I tend to drop stories when I see a character as "not recognizably him/herself".

I mean, if one wants to, say, write Shinji as some kind of unstoppable beer-guzzling manly man of a badass then I'm fine with that for a parody series (in fact, it sounds like something I might try out later), but it's not something I could ever see myself taking seriously.

"....and that's the bottom line, 'cause Stone Cold said so."

edited 26th Aug '17 7:08:26 AM by EvaUnit01

Yeah, see, when it comes to Shinji, it gets somewhat complicated. Anime!Shinji is definitely a very passive most of the time, but during the Action Arc, Asuka manages to rile him up to the point that he reveals an unusually stubborn and semi-aggressive streak, exemplified by their argument over the blame for their initial embarrassing defeat against Israfel, and later when Shinji goes against orders in response to Asuka insulting him when they were preparing to take on Leliel (IIRC she basically implied he'd be a coward for agreeing to take a supporting role after trumping her in the synch rate department so recently, but apparently didn't expect him to actually take the bait).

Then we have the Shinji from Sadamoto's manga, which AFAIK is generally accepted as a "What If? things went a bit differently?" when it comes to the characters' personalities, backstories, etc.; he's somewhat less shy and passive, and more visibly angry and snarky... and more than willing to snap in rage and try to punch the living daylights out of Gendo when he proves unrepentant over his role in Toji's death in the Unit 03/Bardiel incident.

And we also have the High School AU in the final TV episode (which gets expanded in the GOS2 and Shinji Ikari Raising Project video games, and their respective manga adaptations), which depicts one of many possible outcomes of the Evangelion cast living in a much more well-adjusted, seemingly mundane world that is free of the canon one's conspiracies and tragedies. In here, Shinji barely if at all exhibits any trace of shyness (he talks back at Asuka, and overtly joins Toji and Kensuke in lusting over Misato when his anime self was quite uncomfortable with his friends' behavior), though he remains a "wimp" (or whatever term you prefer) when it comes to dealing with an angry Asuka, with lots of Unresolved Sexual Tension; in essence, he's pretty much a fit for your typical male protagonist in a Romantic Comedy anime/manga.

Combine the above points with the fact that 4-year-old Shinji seemed like your typical cheerful kid, and it seems safe to assume that for Shinji, a nonconfrontational nature may very well be an innate part of his personality, but it doesn't necessarily mean he will always become an actual Shrinking Violet as he grows up.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Yes, I haven't forgotten about that, and is usually what I would point to as a justification for some of my AU Shinjis being more decisive/action-y.

Although come to think of it, you could also interpret some of that as a form of malicious compliance ("trying to do what you tell me in a way that'll piss you off or screw you over")...

And I don't have a problem with someone basing their version of Shinji off of one of those Shinjis, but I'd like there to be a note or something about it early on. I tend to assume that one is working primarily based on the TV anime, unless specifically informed otherwise. Not just because the anime is what I am most familiar with, but because the majority of fanfics I've read also appear to be using the anime as their primary source.

....although if we're talking about canon AU Shinji's that are more action-y than the anime version, my personal favorite is the one from Campus Apocalypse.

The AUs embodied by the manga and the sneak-peak in the last TV episode (and, by proxy, the video game/manga adaptations thereof) are all but stated to be actual divergences from the anime setting (or rather, the common template setting that they share with the anime); the latter moreso, but the former still counts given that both it and the anime were made at roughly the same time by the same set of creators, and it's much more similar to the anime than any other AU, only drastically diverging from it when it approaches the finale.

I'm not 100% sure about Campus Apocalypse, but from what I gathered, its circumstances are quite different. Backstories, setting elements, plot... So much was overhauled that it can't be said to be a divergence-type AU anymore, but rather a "contextual reassignment" one. Basically, it's about as relevant a measure of how AU you can get as it is to use Ultimate Marvel or the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a measure of how far you can go with designing a new Earth-616-derived AU instead of, say, House of M or Marvel Zombies (which is to say, little to no relevance).

edited 27th Aug '17 8:17:08 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I never said that CA was a divergence-type AU, nor was I making any kind of distinction between assorted "types" of A Us. .....although I very highly doubt that any of the Angelic Days/Raising Project/Highschool Slice of Life-type A Us are legitimately what you call a divergence-type AU. The tonal dissonance is too severe for me to take that claim seriously.

Campus Apocalypse can be pretty much summed up as "Evangelion meets Persona", and IMHO does a great job of still feeling like Evangelion even when it plays by Persona's more optimistic rules. That is to say, even if the details about how Shinji and Asuka came to be who they are might've changed, they still recognizably feel like the characters they're supposed to be.

Another, and perhaps clearer way of putting it, is that I would describe the manga as an alternate continuity of the same universe as the anime rather than an AU, whereas Rebuild (as of 3.0, if not 2.0), Campus Apocalypse, and the assorted Lighter and Softer highschool romcom series would be designated in my view as truly an entirely different universe.

edited 27th Aug '17 10:56:04 AM by EvaUnit01

I generally agree with that entire assessment, but for me the jury's still out on Rebuild until we finally get 3+1.

edited 28th Aug '17 9:41:39 AM by Willbyr

With me having discovered all the unused music tracks in the S2 Works album today, a thought occurred to me.

Of all the vocal songs across the various Eva OST and solo albums, which one(s) do you guys think would've been good for a second OP song if the show would've had a second season or sequel?

I'unno about a second OP (or even what all songs you're talking about), but I think "If I Can't Be Yours" (though I'm pretty sure it was used in either D&R or EOE) would make a good second season ED.

That was indeed used in EoE.

What I personally consider good possibilities:

• Good ol' Tamashi no Rufuran from D&R
• Shiawase wa Batsu no Nio, from the third OST album
• Tengoku no Kioku, if we want something solemn. Don't know where exactly this one came from, but it's on the 2005 Decade album.
• Doukoku Heno Monorogu from good ol' Yoko Takahashi on her solo album of the same name; can't find it on Youtube, sadly, due to it being recent enough (2010) to be looked for by Content ID.
• Shibashi Sora ni Inorite from the same, also not available on Youtube due to the solo album being too new (2013).

...back a few pages, I've been brainstorming about a possible closer-to-canon-than-SCE rewrite of Eva. You know, the one with Rei having Asuka's obsession with piloting?

I've been wondering today. What if we take the NERV HQ being in Japan and Germany having one branch facility out of many and flip it around to the HQ being in Germany and the Japanese detachment being a branch facility that gets bossed around by the higher-ups halfway across the world?

Then I just had a thought a few minutes ago. What if there's a historical reason for the deviation? Namely, Operation Downfall having taken place in this universe.

One, I think it's implied that Nerv HQ being in Japan is primarily if not entirely due to the fact that the Black Moon (and presumably Lilith) was found there. We do know that Nerv's predecessor Gehirn was based there, and logic dictates that the Nerv's branches must've been originally branches of Gehirn. So the only way you could relocate Nerv HQ without breaking WSOD is to relocate the Black Moon itself to whether that place is... and that would also bring the question of why Gendou would choose/be chosen to head a Nerv branch rather than said HQ, because the impression I had gotten is that Seele doesn't trust anyone other than Gendou to head Nerv HQ because of all the classified shit they don't want the rest of the world to find out (primarily Lilith's existence in Terminal Dogma), and similarly Gendou sought out command of Nerv HQ specifically because it guarantees him access to Lilith, which is crucial to Rei's role as a vessel for Lilith's soul as well his ultimate goal of performing his own controlled version of Human Instrumentality.^note And yes, that probably says something about how paranoid and secretive the Seele leaders are if they prefer to entrust the task to the one man among their cabal's ranks that they know is very likely to have his own agenda that may very well diverge radically from their own once the Angels are all defeated. Then again, they do say to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Two... I don't see how Operation Downfall happening could lead to Nerv HQ not being in Japan. Germany was invaded, and yet AFAIK few to nobody raised a fuss over putting the UN second-largest main office in neighbouring Switzerland ^note The HQ had already been placed in New York long before Germany was invaded. or the EU's de facto capital in neighbouring Belgium.

... On second thought, I have an amendment to my first point: You could have it that Gehirn was founded in some country other than Japan before Seele discovered the Black Moon, at which point they established their first branch at said Moon's site (which happened to be Japan). From there, the two sites would develop a mutual hostility, where HQ clings to its prestige as the foundation of the organization, while the Japanese branch exploits its own status as the branch directly involved in studying/securing the Black Moon to build up its own clout among the organization as a whole, perhaps even trying to supplant/displace HQ outright from its throne. Having Gendou at the helm of the Japanese branch would only further exacerbate this since he has a very strong motive to strengthen his position.

edited 3rd Sep '17 8:29:13 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Something something US keeping Japan under a tighter leash and as a stepping-stone-slash-buffer-zone versus Russia not unlike what the USSR did to the Eastern Bloc (and China to North Korea) something. The HQ was put in Germany by the UN so that the US doesn't have too much influence over the organization by virtue of having a domestic branch and the HQ being in a puppet state of theirs.

Of course, the HQ not being in Japan also means that the Japanese govt (who very much don't like not having 100% independence) regularly give Gendo shit about being a puppet.

---

Unrelated question. What kind of books do you guys think SCE!Asuka would own/read? Would it be too stereotypical for her to have a documentary-style book about Manfred von Richthofen, considering that she took his nickname as her alias for anonymous Mini-Mecha tournaments?