LogFAQs > #959304773

Rei's storyline is that she's a quiet, broken doll who exists solely for the mission, and through Shinji humanizing her and exposing her to genuine human compassion, she essentially gains a soul and something to live for. And then she fucking dies, and they make a new Rei with a brand new soul, who lacks everything the last one had which exacerbates the circumstances of her death.

Asuka has a messed up backstory, being made to be an ace for the sake of her mentally ill mother who treated a doll with more humanity than her own daughter before committing murder-suicide with the doll. So she has serious issues stemming from that, sure, but she leverages that by hitting Shinji, yelling at him, mistreating him etc. And Shinji isn't some untouchable saint, especially in End of Evangelion, but Christ - I find her treatment of Shinji to be unbearable.

Sure, she's vulnerable and hurt and the bluster is a front. But it also manifests in objectively toxic ways that actively hurt the people around her. I'm not comfortable with that.

Rei is a more compelling and tragic figure to me. She gains everything she needs to be a person, and it leads her to sacrifice herself for the mission - not just because it's a role she's expected to play, as it would have been at the start of the show, but to protect everything she's come to love about the world.

---

I'm gonna burn it all down today, and sweep all the ashes away
Now Playing: Pokemon HeartGold, Minecraft, Oldschool Runescape