Reviews Anime / Rebuild Of Evangelion

Gotta say I agree with this. If they had taken 10 minutes to explain the situation to him they may have averted what happened at the end.

I also agree. I'll also add that the actions made by Asuka and Misato, imo, seemed to me like a desperate attempt to make the viewers root for and like Kaworu at the cost of the other characters.

Asuka has a better excuse: not only did she have issues as it was before the apocalypse happened and made them worse for her, but Shinji (from her POV) caused her injury in the Unit-04 incident of 2.0. So resentment is understandable. Misato, though? She cheered Shinji on and encouraged him to do the thing that caused 3rd Impact, no matter what the risk. For her to turn and act the way she does to Shinji here is beyond nonsensical and Out Of Character, in my opinion.

To be fair, Asuka hasn't actually changed at all in 14 years, thanks to the "Curse of EVA" - she still has the same body before Third Impact, and due to the nature of EV As powered by Freudian issues, the audience can assume she has the same mindset. Conversely, Misato doesn't have a clean bill of health herself - often compared to "Borderline-personality disorder" with her previous actions, it is likely she can hold a grudge against Shinji, even after she displays remorse for her actions. Note that this is the same crap she put Kanji through, pre-mortem and post-mortem, and pushed her issues as projections on other characters. The moment where Misato refrains from using the explosive collar expresses her benefit of the doubt, where she can't even trust herself while still in a very high position.

That said, other members probably wouldn't have such a loaded history with Shinji, but Shinji has neglected them to the point where they are nothing but innocent bystanders, influenced by co-workers Asuka and Misato. Therefore, most of his history (and the only one that can clear his name) is Rei, which has been reduced to an Empty Shell by the 14 years he's been gone. Thus, he is baited into Kaworu's grip by Rei, and Shinji is manipulated by everyone under Kaworu's grip to use whatever innocent intent Shinji has left to perform yet another genocide against humanity out of the delusion to escape from his problems.

tl;dr This Troper may think that this scenario is likely improbable (and very rushed, when explaining what causes the fight scenes), it is by no means impossible.

"Misato and Asuka really couldn't let go of enough of their irrational anger in 14 years to swallow their pride for 10 minutes and explain things to Shinji?" Did they even have 10 minutes? From Shinji woke up to he left they where either busy battling angels, busy battling Rei or, you know, actually trying to explaining things to him. Unlike what some other anime may want you to believe talking is not a free action.

And what could they have said that could change anything? "Shinji, you killed everyone and Rei is a clone"? He would still probably go with the Rei clone when she comes for him and by the climax he already knows both of these things.

Late reply to anyone disagreeing: All Misato had to do was tell Shinji that his fight somehow resulted in the third impact, they didn't know and she's sorry, and that he shouldn't pilot an Eva for the time being because that might make things worse. If you show Shinji a little kindness he'll do whatever you want, Misato of all people knows that, and she might be bad at relationships but she was good at her job (being in charge and saving the world and all). It's OOC because otherwise we would have had no movie. As for Asuka, well, that's Asuka.

The thing is that, as you said, 14 years have passed, all of them were times of battle and hardship for the members of WILLE, it's quite probable that many of them never got to resolve any of their personal problems as well that they may have developed even more on their own.

An important element of the original series is how some of the characters had to deal with their own doubts and angst, as well as coming to terms with their need to trust on others. After what happened, it'll be logical that some characters might not be able to grow up as a person in the middle of a war.

In the case of Misato, her vengeance against the angels is a vital part of her persona, the 14 years of fighting has effectively made her vendetta eclipse all of her previous personality, in fact, Shinji's existance is a reminder of what she had given up and her own hell; it might not be fair for him, but it can be understood.

Asuka's case is another thing entirely, she appears to not have aged, both physically and mentally, in the 14 years of war, she has only grown bitter, more than before and perhaps even more than EOE Asuka, her conflict with Shinji comes around his importance in her life: she knew him, she lived with him, he unknowingly broke the world they both lived in and made her suffer for 14 years, her actions show that she doesn't have the same level of animosity that the rest of WILLE, however, she does remember what he had done; in short, she's torn between hating him or forgiving him, something that I hope 4.0 adresses.

Hypernova: Again, that probably wouldn't have changed anything. Shinji would likely still have gone with Rei Q and after that (judging by how he have been characterized in Rebuild so far) the temptation of fixing everything/saving Rei would probably be so big that he would have thrown cation to the winds. Hell, when he do pilot Unit-13 in the film he already knows everything WILLE could have told him.

Also there is an implication running throughout the film that you guys seem to overlook: The three characters most important to Misato; Kaji, Pen-Pen and Ritsuko, does not appear at all after the time-skip. It is fully possible that all them where killed in Third Impact. Meaning that Shinji may have caused the death of everyone Misato have been shown to care about.

Not only did they not bother to tell Shinji anything, but he also ignores Kaworu’s warnings during the climax. Also, there’s Kaworu inexplicably wearing the collar himself instead of just throwing it away somewhere. 3.33 was an insult to the franchise.