I still fail to see why he was even chosen for the mech, yes I haven't seen the series but everyone says I shouldn't.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Thread starter The Wooster
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"I am also going to constantly shun and ignore you, send you out to risk your life in battle with monsters of unfathomable power, force you to almost kill your best friend and generally treat you like an expendable resource".
But with that said, yeah Shinji is kind of a whiner. I mean I can see where he's coming from to a point but even then there are still plenty of times when I just want to yell "Oh for God's sake grow up! Even 14 year olds aren't this whiny." It's no wonder that almost every piece of media featuring Evangelion since the original series has tried it's best to fix Shinji's major character issues and (at least in my opinion) usually pulls it off well enough.
But with that said, yeah Shinji is kind of a whiner. I mean I can see where he's coming from to a point but even then there are still plenty of times when I just want to yell "Oh for God's sake grow up! Even 14 year olds aren't this whiny." It's no wonder that almost every piece of media featuring Evangelion since the original series has tried it's best to fix Shinji's major character issues and (at least in my opinion) usually pulls it off well enough.
They only killed the currently active Shinji's mom/Lillith hybrid clone what, three or four times over the course of the series? At least until they purged the entire assembly line.WouldYouKindly said:
I still think on the "Ikari is a dick" side you cannot underestimate the value of both the robot Shinji pilots and the submissive chick being partially Shinji's mom.
I've watched the entire series and, yes, this is still hilarious.
Personally, I love Shinji's perfectly-drawn running-away spaghetti arms.
Personally, I love Shinji's perfectly-drawn running-away spaghetti arms.
Hey son, I want you (an untrained civilian teenager) to enter into combat with creatures beyond human comprehension with the power to level cities. Oh, and you're going to have to breath liquid oxygen. Don't worry, it only FEELS like you're drowning!
Hey son, here's a sexy older woman who's SUPPOSED to be kind of like a legal guardian, but she's sexually attractive! Have fun sorting that one out with your crazy hormones!
Oh, and here's a mentally traumatized German red head that hates you and is hitting on an older man. She saw her mom hang herself when she was like 5 or something! Oh, and I think she hates you, did I say that already? Good luck with those damaged goods!
Oh, and here's this kind of anemic looking cute chick that never expresses any emotion whatsoever! She's totally blank, can't feel anything, and is colder than Vanilla Ice on a glacier! Good luck getting warmth out of this!
Oh and, btw, I'm still not going to treat you with any kind of warmth even though I'm literally your only parent. It's almost like I don't see you as a son at all! Boy, won't you be surprised...
Hey son, here's a sexy older woman who's SUPPOSED to be kind of like a legal guardian, but she's sexually attractive! Have fun sorting that one out with your crazy hormones!
Oh, and here's a mentally traumatized German red head that hates you and is hitting on an older man. She saw her mom hang herself when she was like 5 or something! Oh, and I think she hates you, did I say that already? Good luck with those damaged goods!
Oh, and here's this kind of anemic looking cute chick that never expresses any emotion whatsoever! She's totally blank, can't feel anything, and is colder than Vanilla Ice on a glacier! Good luck getting warmth out of this!
Oh and, btw, I'm still not going to treat you with any kind of warmth even though I'm literally your only parent. It's almost like I don't see you as a son at all! Boy, won't you be surprised...
EDIT: I suppose it's best to say this before my rant. I laughed heartily at this one, without context Shinji is hilariously whiny.
Original Post: Shinji is a ludicrously flawed character. Self-centred, nihilistic and whimpy... he is not meant to be a hero.
MASSIVE SPOILERS FROM HERE ON:
He's also only 14, has incredibly poor social skills (possibly due to not having parents for most of his life) cripplingly low self-confidence, is bunked up with an Egotistical Narcissist (Auska) and a stoic human doll (Rei, who also turns out to be a [mass produced] clone of his long dead mother and more loved by his father then himself), is forced to pilot a living machine that translates physical damage to real pain on the part of the pilot and randomly transforms in a terrifying monster that, in turn, drives him crazy.
He refuses to kill a close friend (who mid series is revealed to be a new pilot) who's EVA had become infected by a new type of Angel and his father, the soulless bastard, switches Shinjis EVA to a dummy plug (kind of like an auto-pilot) and forces him to watch as his own EVA rips the other EVA into pieces and proceeds to crush the pilots capsule with his friend inside.
Towards the end, he is forced to kill another friend, one who he really felt a connection to, as it turned out he was an angel. This causes him to snap. The betrayal and simultaneous loss just pushes him over the edge and this is what leads up to his fucked up comma wanking scene (the implied sexual frustration, the end of days fast approaching, the complete distortion of what life is worth... yeah he's a little fucked up). No one mentions, though, that Auska ended up in a comma due to starving herself in a bout of insanity (mostly self-inflicted due to aforementioned narcissism)... Shinji outlasts Auska to the breaking point despite having a far worse lot in life and far more pressure to perform.
In the original series rebooted finale (I don't know if this is revised in the later films), shinji actually initiates the apocalypse and ends the world, though I'm kind of confused at how he got to that point (haven't watched it in a while). He didn't initially intend to do it, but after some trippy montages the world ends and shinji seems happier.
This is not meant to be a typical mecha series.
What's funny is that taking all that occurs throughout the series into account, shinji is ultimately the least fucked up and jaded person there. His Dad is a complete nutjob wrapped in megalomania and sprinkled with dogmatism, Auska is an appendage short of fucking herself, Rei (in the begining of the series) is the 2nd of what amounts to a line of emotionless clones and is also somehow significant to the end of the world (forgot her role in it), Misato attempts at "helping" shinji do more damage then they do good (she at one point offers herself physically to him to save the world... at which point shinji ends it).
I can keep going but I start running short of names to associate with the descriptions... even small part characters like his friends in school are fucking mad. They treat these apocalyptic monsters like something from an anime (I know, meta ain't it).
I don't know about others, but I actually found his character more believable then virtually any other mecha series protagonist ever made.
Original Post: Shinji is a ludicrously flawed character. Self-centred, nihilistic and whimpy... he is not meant to be a hero.
MASSIVE SPOILERS FROM HERE ON:
He's also only 14, has incredibly poor social skills (possibly due to not having parents for most of his life) cripplingly low self-confidence, is bunked up with an Egotistical Narcissist (Auska) and a stoic human doll (Rei, who also turns out to be a [mass produced] clone of his long dead mother and more loved by his father then himself), is forced to pilot a living machine that translates physical damage to real pain on the part of the pilot and randomly transforms in a terrifying monster that, in turn, drives him crazy.
He refuses to kill a close friend (who mid series is revealed to be a new pilot) who's EVA had become infected by a new type of Angel and his father, the soulless bastard, switches Shinjis EVA to a dummy plug (kind of like an auto-pilot) and forces him to watch as his own EVA rips the other EVA into pieces and proceeds to crush the pilots capsule with his friend inside.
Towards the end, he is forced to kill another friend, one who he really felt a connection to, as it turned out he was an angel. This causes him to snap. The betrayal and simultaneous loss just pushes him over the edge and this is what leads up to his fucked up comma wanking scene (the implied sexual frustration, the end of days fast approaching, the complete distortion of what life is worth... yeah he's a little fucked up). No one mentions, though, that Auska ended up in a comma due to starving herself in a bout of insanity (mostly self-inflicted due to aforementioned narcissism)... Shinji outlasts Auska to the breaking point despite having a far worse lot in life and far more pressure to perform.
In the original series rebooted finale (I don't know if this is revised in the later films), shinji actually initiates the apocalypse and ends the world, though I'm kind of confused at how he got to that point (haven't watched it in a while). He didn't initially intend to do it, but after some trippy montages the world ends and shinji seems happier.
This is not meant to be a typical mecha series.
What's funny is that taking all that occurs throughout the series into account, shinji is ultimately the least fucked up and jaded person there. His Dad is a complete nutjob wrapped in megalomania and sprinkled with dogmatism, Auska is an appendage short of fucking herself, Rei (in the begining of the series) is the 2nd of what amounts to a line of emotionless clones and is also somehow significant to the end of the world (forgot her role in it), Misato attempts at "helping" shinji do more damage then they do good (she at one point offers herself physically to him to save the world... at which point shinji ends it).
I can keep going but I start running short of names to associate with the descriptions... even small part characters like his friends in school are fucking mad. They treat these apocalyptic monsters like something from an anime (I know, meta ain't it).
I don't know about others, but I actually found his character more believable then virtually any other mecha series protagonist ever made.
Does this sane metric take into account Gendo's odd ability to stick his hand through Rei's boob and tickle her babymaker?
Okay you know admittedly I had never thought of it that way before and I'll admit this did make me laugh. Being a fan of the show I had always thought of it as being a realistic look at how being thrown into that particular situation would look like. As for the downsides to your point just so they are noted, "The giant mech causes you physical pain in sometimes large quantities when it is damaged, it will also potentially drive you mentally insane while piloting it in certain situations if you are not careful, the first attractive woman is too old for you and has no sort of sexual attraction toward you, the second girl is suffering though her own set of emotional issues that could potentially be more pain to go through than it's worth to get with her in either a dating or sexual situation, the second girl is also exceptionally violent and condescending which is bound to get on your nerves, and the third girl while once again being attractive is almost disturbingly submissive, a clone of your mother, and it's unknown as to weather or not she is sexually interested in you or if the emotional interest in you is purely paternal." That all being said you still could be said to having a valid point. On a side note knowing that you messing up could "literally" end the world is a lot of pressure for a fourteen year old boy. Just noting that.
You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.Capitano Segnaposto said:
Anime is not a "genre".
Yup, that sums up NGE quite nicely actually.
EDIT: Okay guys, it's just making fun of the anime's outer most details. NGE is so goddamn straight faced with its jacked up story telling that anyone can lampoon it. Relax, it's just a matter of friendly mocking for the sake of comedic value!
EDIT: Okay guys, it's just making fun of the anime's outer most details. NGE is so goddamn straight faced with its jacked up story telling that anyone can lampoon it. Relax, it's just a matter of friendly mocking for the sake of comedic value!
you forgot "oh son, did I forgot to mansion, that giant robot just so happens to be (fragment of) your mom?"
From what I got (and having seen just the first page of the thread I know its been said already) then...
Shinji was left as orphan - his father never picking him again after his mother died. That's like, about as dick move as it gets
second, then daddy only really wants to use sonny boy by having him risk his life repeatedly - and doesn't ever really express any gratitude or respect for the kid for doing so
and the whole 'your mother was made into a giant mecha - and we also probably cloned her to pilot other giant mecha' deal just... no
Shinji was left as orphan - his father never picking him again after his mother died. That's like, about as dick move as it gets
second, then daddy only really wants to use sonny boy by having him risk his life repeatedly - and doesn't ever really express any gratitude or respect for the kid for doing so
and the whole 'your mother was made into a giant mecha - and we also probably cloned her to pilot other giant mecha' deal just... no