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pepepetos · 2 years
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pepepetos · 2 years
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makima
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pepepetos · 2 years
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Rev it up
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pepepetos · 2 years
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I’ve talked about Kawoshin more than I’ve ever wanted to or needed to in this year alone and I’m frankly burnt-out and exhausted of this whole scenario. I feel like I’ve gone over the exact same points 10 times already so unless something really fucked comes up I won’t be writing about it or anything evangelion related anymore. We deserve good content y’all
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pepepetos · 2 years
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Neon Godinez Evangelion: Please Let Me Pilot A Robot  
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pepepetos · 2 years
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Kawoshin’s handling wasn’t homophobic they just rewrote Shinji to be Kaworu’s undivided purpose in a time loop setting that did not exist in the original TV series, punished Kaworu for it the way Gendo was not (Gendo is finely awarded with the thing he slaughters the earth for) and then is mechanically insinuated to be in a straight relationship with a character he has never spoken a word to in the last four movies. All the while Mr. Corporate continuously squeezes millions of yen capitalizing on vulnerable japanese lgbt folks’ and womens’ emotional investment on the pairing. [FLAGRANT SARCASM] 
I know some of you think the concept of queerbaiting and people caring about lgbt things is some western credo fundamentally unapplicable to jpn media but the truth is that jpn circles do in fact talk in these terms and I invite you all to also care and not sweep people’s concerns and hurt under the rug. This isn’t a conversation about shipping, it’s a manifestation of dishonesty and exploitation that exists in capitalism. Kawoshin wasn’t turned down because it was “unhealthy” it was shot down because it’s gay. If the characters needed the time, why not depict them reuniting after they’ve settled? It’s two men, and they needed to make up a reason to fumigate the relationship (because remember, Khara officially claimed it’s “up to the viewer’s personal interpretation” thus not straightforwardly or canonically romantic in nature, “homosexual”, ect. for the time it lasted) because evangelion is a ginormous franchise that has been a commercial product under Khara and they need to keep it clean for general consumption and any potential investors. Making it gay isn’t in their best interest, that’s it. The money that it generates is great for them, but they weren’t seriously committed on delivering a queer relationship. All those gratuitous titty and ass shots are also attributed to this, as counterintuivive as may seem. It’s all about the business, baby!
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pepepetos · 3 years
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Having watched 4.0 with full subtitles after my trip back in march I can say with full conviction that the movie is straight ass. Anyway
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pepepetos · 3 years
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Gendo “cool motive still child abuse, also I’m really not getting the feeling you actually loved Yui for her own sake, you just wanted her for the way she made you feel without regard for any of her desires or goals” Ikari
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pepepetos · 3 years
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So, Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 is somehow even worse than the leaks could have lead me to believe. The rare things the film does right are dwarfed by everything else it attempts to do. It's a disappointment.
I read the leaks back in March, saw the camrip footage, and I naively thought, hey, maybe the overall film will be better than the few minutes we've seen so far. It isn't. It's frankly quite bad, but not in a "so bad it's good" way. Just plain old bad.
(this sort-of-review-although-it-isn't-really-one contains spoilers)
The Good:
Some parts of this film look nice. The scenes at the Third Village, for the most part, have some nice background art, the water looks especially nice, there are nice sequences in there in which things move nicely or look nice.
I've got many issues with the Third Village, but the film's best scenes take place there. I wish the film had stayed there, just a village at the edge of the apocalypse, the headless Evas wandering in the distance, it's kind of poetic.
It was nice to see Toji and Hikari again.
Hideaki Anno doing some Moyoco Anno product placement. As he should be.
It's obvious they were experimenting with lots of techniques during the making of this film (watch the NHK documentary if you want to see how much of a shitshow the production was) and it's nice that they're trying things I guess.
Farmer Not-Rei is cute. Mortified Shinji sucks at fishing.
Penpen's descendants are many and prosperous.
Part of the flashback-alternate-thingy Asuka sequence looks interesting, it's nothing we didn't already know but I enjoyed that brief moment.
Utada Hikaru.
The money it made will be used for other animation projects, so that's neat.
That's it.
The Bad:
It's something Akihiro Koyama pointed out in their review (translated by the great @ngedaily, which I came across thanks to qmisato , thank god for her), but villages don't work like that. The Third Village is a nice idea and all, but it's very childish and doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. The film makes no mention of organisation outside of "WILLE gives us stuff so that we don't die".
We start with sort-of-creepy Not-Rei discovering the world around her (which, good) and then Poka Poka Rei is back, only she's Born Yesterday this time, also she's programmed to like Shinji for meta reasons I guess? Or maybe not? I am so done with that bullshit. What is that supposed to be? Pandering to shippers or something? Who cares about shipping in Evangelion? I never did.
There was no storyboard for that film. It shows, but not for the best.
The soundtrack is, for the most part, forgettable. Also, the audio mixing is bizarre.
The Ugly:
Some parts of this film look nice. Other parts look awful. A lot of parts. They look like they're unfinished, like the art direction isn't good enough to make a coherent-looking film, or cuts haven't been checked and corrected properly. The character art looks off more often than it should. The animation is very inconsistent, which is concerning for a theatrical release.
It's nice that they tried lots of techniques for that film. Shame the results are very mixed and they tend to be bad. I don't mind GNR Anna Anaconda all that much, but the white headless bodies look like the most default asset ever. In general, the conspicuous CGI doesn't look otherwordly, it looks like garbage. Not “intentionally artistically out of place” but “straight up terrible” and boy oh boy is it terrible. The MOCAP Eva fights are straight out of Ultraman, but it looks incredibly goofy and almost amateurish, it has neither the look or the feel of EVA.
There's that one sequence in the Third Village when Asuka attempts to force-feed Shinji and they're trying to do something with camera angles and so they're 3D models, I think? It looks terrible, it kind of gave me a headache. I get what they were trying to make but it doesn't work.
The characters are barely characters at all. Ritsuko, Misato? Who are they? The characters we spend the most time with aren't made to be that interesting. At all. Nothing interesting is done with any of them. I wish pink-haired WILLE girl whose name I already forgot and Sakura had successfully shot Shinji.
Some really clunky expository dialogue that makes no sense coming out of the characters' mouths within the diegesis of the film. It feels like this was written by children.
All the technobabble and pseudophilosophical bullshit is just so much. I zoned out and stopped caring about any of that. Then it was just regular Instrumentality again but even more, only this time with Gendo, and it added nothing of value to the character and felt extremely out of place considering what the previous films had been about. It was just stupidly written and stupidly put on screen. That's supposed to be the big stake of the film and I couldn't be bothered to care.
There's some Naruto bullshit now because fuck you. What do you mean this was never introduced beforehand and it's coming out of nowhere? Wheeeeee!
All that stupid tasteless gross fanservice that adds absolutely nothing to the story and clashes with the mood of absolutely all the scenes they're in. Some really fucking stupid blocking choices just to shove anime butts and boobs at the viewer's face. All that Asuka and Mari fanservice was so awful. Who is that even for? The answer is “nonces” btw.
Ken-Ken. All of… that. I don't even want to process that. It's just so much. I hated every second of it. Made me want to stop watching altogether.
I like meta. This is called disappearing up your own ass, though. It's incredibly ham-fisted, with the worst namedrop possible. It could have worked, had things been done competently. They weren’t done competently, and so it doesn’t work.
It's a story about hope… The hope that one day you'll become an adult, that is, a salaryman, and meet Moyoco Anno a gorgeous gal with big boobs of your own, also you should be having children. How much money did Abe pay you for that, Hideaki? You hypocrite. You don't even have children of your own and you want to lecture us about that?
It's a bad film. Anno directed a bad, uninteresting film, Khara made a bad film, it's just bad and there isn’t much more to it than that. If you haven’t watched it yet, skip it, it’s not worth your time. Watch Shin Godzilla instead, that’s much better.
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pepepetos · 3 years
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After doing some research, and also malding along some of my theater buddies from japan (lol) I feel like I can talk briefly about this situation. There’s been a lot of screaming about “heterosexual marriage!!” within the eva fandom lately, so what’s all that about?
If you saw my previous posts, 
https://pepepetos.tumblr.com/post/653800585647243264/the-translations-might-be-a-little-vague-because
https://pepepetos.tumblr.com/post/649362961207640064/the-translations-might-be-a-little-vague-because
or were around twitter when any or both of these big fandom events happened (the theatrical release of the movie, and then the extra doujinshi offered with the revised movie version), then you know that things got messy extremely quickly. People harassing fanartists for just existing, calling them insults, homophobic slurs. Especially the fujoshi, who were the first to call out the homophobic implications in the movie’s themes, were the ones who were chewed the hardest (fujoshi have a bad rep in the west but in truth a lot of them are either queer themselves, or straight LGBT allies). June 12 devolved into absolute chaos and all because of one single contribution within the doujin illustrations. 
(They might be already buried but if you search the jpn Kawoshin/Kaworei tags you could probably still find some of the discourse tweets).
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To us it might not seem that bad, but to them it may even feel suffocating. The picture is not canon to the movie? True! But it’s likely that the higher percentile that attended the runs are not involved too deeply with the franchise and will interpret them as a married couple per the ending scene. At first glance, this is a family. That’s the interpretation a LOT (if not most) people are running along with too, shippers of X thing or not. Anyway, this illustration in particular is not the main offender! Kaworu and Rei’s relationship in the Neon Genesis (*coughs*) is canonically unknown to the audience. Are they lovers? Are they relatives? Leaving it up to the viewer’s “interpretation” hasn’t been much favorable in this case, either. That’s probably how we wound up like this to begin with.
What’s wrong with Kaworu being happy, even if it’s with a woman and not a man? Well, Kaworu’s circle of male japanese fans is quite large, and just as large is the Kawoshin circle. To a lot of these men, who happen to be male-attracted males, Kaworu’s openness about his love for Shinji was something that helped them come to terms with their own sexualities growing up in the ever-loving homophobic 90’s. Kaworu was largely recognized as one of the sole and most iconic male-attracted characters in the history of anime. So much that he’s even been featured in LGBT sections of jpn mags. And Evangelion has never been unpopular nor obscure media either, It was so HUGE (it wasn't labeled a social phenomenon for nothin) in fact, that it even became a household series in japan. This is destroying the character for all that it’s worth, and taking away what his character meant to these men who were following and supporting the series up until this point. For the female fans (or fujoshi, if you will) it was something that could’ve made them acknowledge/be accepting of same-sex love, and/or their own attraction to other genders too. To THEM this reads as denial or negation of his sexuality, plain and simple. No “he’s bisexual”, but “he settled down and married a woman to start a family with like an exemplary japanese adult”. You should know that Japan is a very conservative country where folks are still to this day, either largely in the dark about LGBT topics (and the existence of), or simply dismiss it as a “phase of the youth”. You know, one of the reasons the government is holding off on legalizing gay marriage is because they believe it would decrease japan’s birthrate even more, and if they negate gay’s people’s right to get married they will eventually give up on it, marry off to the opposite sex and procreate….yeah. 
And of course this is not only homophobic, but also sexist. Women in japan are pressured to get married almost as soon as they hit their 20’s, they’re pressured to become housewives to men , and to pump out babies. It’s not only about fighting for survival and the preservation of the human species in the post-apocalyptic world, childbirth and marriage (with the opposite sex) are glorified and presented as being part of a ~fulfilled~ and ~happy~ adult life. The presence of Showa era characteristics in the movie also correspond to these ideals.
So Where in The Subtext are we presumably being fisted with these old-timer values? The most obvious cues are:
Both Hikari and Misato have had children, Hikari no longer has any personality beyond being a “domestic wife”.
A random-ass preggo cat.
Baby-crazy Rei.
The rando pregnant lady at the village and a bunch of young children.
Shinji/Mari, Asuka/Kensuke, Kaworu/Rei. There’s no hint of same-sex love anywhere (besides Kaworu’s “I was attracted to you blah blah”). Kawoshin’s relationship was blurred within the audience with the father/son interpretation thanks to Khara’s staff, and AsuMari is purely yuri fanservice so that ain’t count for anything. Maya’s admiration for Ritsuko long forgotten in the 90’s movie.
And of course, Anno gloating about his own marriage via Shinji/Mari because it just so happened that his wife (Moyoco) was his main source of support during his depressive episode.
Tl;dr Shit’s fucked, Kaworu discourse will never end, I’m not looking forward to the western reaction to this movie.
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pepepetos · 3 years
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Here’s another wave of fresh meltdown for the “stop pressing western stances to japanese media/jpn fandoms only care about shipping, actually” crowd. Well
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pepepetos · 3 years
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(The translations might be a little vague because I ended up using DeepL, but I’ve confirmed with other speakers that the sentiments are accurate)
It’s too early to bring this up now but I need to ‘cause westerners love to spread the notion that japanese anime fans (especially minorities and allies/including fujoshi/fundashi) are a monolith and don’t ever get upset at how their characters are portrayed/sidelined in media and milked and used as bait for money; here are a few opinions I came across, by actual native japanese people, complaining about Shin Eva’s treatment of their LGBT-coded characters. I also watched the film in theaters. 
Do have in mind that on social media, negative opinions (by japanese people) are scarce, one of the reasons being that a chunk of the jpn eva fandom is a cult that doesn’t allow for criticism of the movies (even if they’re objectively bad) and fans fear being harassed off if they speak up about the problematic aspects of it. Nobody will ever come forward, publically, **as a minority** and talk about how this movie hurts them. So don’t assume that even those who positively reviewed/enjoyed it it didn’t have their own gripes with it (especially if they’re popular fan artists + women). They might be trying to stay polite or fear being bullied to hell for expressing their negative impressions of it.
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pepepetos · 3 years
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Khara staff alluded to Asuka/Kensuke being more than a prudently platonic guardian/protegee relationship and described them as “an old married couple”. Then they released a discarded dialogue tape where Asuka complains to Shinji about not being able to have s*x due to her curse. Fuck do we do now
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pepepetos · 3 years
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Sad that Kawoshin has gone from “They’re 100% canon” to “Aww hehe they might not be canon but I’ll still ship them!” unironically shippers are the first in line to defend deplorable or downright harmful renderings of mlm/wlw relationships in order to keep enjoying their ships without any guilty baggage. I don’t think most of its fanbase is aware of Kawoshin’s influence (As is the case with NGE in general) on anime/manga/other japanese media, either. 
If anything this is greenlighting to other studios that they can rope in fujoshi/fudanshi/allies/etc with gay subtext, and then pull the rug once it’s good and done because the majority will not give a shit about them getting straightwashed or dismiss it as “it could’ve been worse” or “It was just bait and it’s your fault for falling for it” and keep profiting off merch/collab sales. It’s so frustrating. I’m not saying that ppl shouldn’t like/ship/whatever them anymore, I’m just asking folks to be more conscientious and critical about the media they consume and indulge in
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pepepetos · 3 years
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We can only reason that it’s shitty writing but I don’t think “Kaworu wanted to make Shinji happy” and “Kaworu wanted to be happy” should have been mutually exclusive concepts. It’s the equivalent of saying that Kaworu never really loved Shinji and was only codependent on him which would be...pretty bad. We could argue that Gendo was unhealthily dependent on Yui but it is also validated as being genuine in this movie ,but uhhhh gay not real so let’s chalk it up to angel obsession and have him separate forever from Shinji and immediately throw him into a “real” (het) relationship. How coincidental is it that 4/4 of the het relationships are affirmed as real and/or normal and the only ~ambiguously~ gay one gets hit with the “BAD” hammer 
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pepepetos · 3 years
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I’m kinda over it already but it irritates me seeing people excuse Khara like “you guys just want Kaworu to be miserable!! let him have a life!!” as if the plot wrote itself and they didn’t bait Kawoshin hardcore by shilling out merch and promoting it for 8 entire years, right before and even after the fucking movie’s theatrical release because there’s not enough demand/interest for merch of the endgame pairings. Literally using 4.0′s own bullets, “I was born to meet you” “This time I’ll make you happy” etc. iirc Ogata said that Anno told her Asuka/Rei/Kaworu all moved on from Shinji and he only had Mari left. I don’t think anybody is malding because they didn’t get a “shipping” ending because NGE/EOE didn’t have those either, it’s just a shitty cop-out that these two characters were teased for so long, and after so long they part without even addressing how they felt about one another throughout all those loops (no, Kaworu’s one-sided ひかれた does not count) not even friendship is left and they get paired off to characters whom they had little to zero development with, just like that. Tell me how I’m not allowed to be bitter about it
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pepepetos · 3 years
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My Critique of Rebuild of Evangelion’s Characterization: I originally wrote this post on the Evageeks forum and decided to post it here. It discusses the relationship between Misato, WILLE and the pilots and whether it is realistic and in-character. Warning this post contains spoilers and is very long. Also has references to self-harm and suicide.
With each revelation that comes out regarding the measures WILLE take against Shinji and their own pilots, it becomes more and more unrealistic for me to the point where it’s almost comical. Let’s go through some of them here:
They wear the explosive DSS chokers 24/7 which will kill the pilots should they risk awakening an Eva.
They are kept in a single room rigged with explosives.
In Shinji’s case, he is (intended to be) put in 24/7 solitary confinement with explosives fitted as well.
Shinji is escorted around the wunder whilst restrained on a stretcher. (NOTE: The only time he isn’t, is when Sakura takes him to Ritsuko).
It is confirmed in another thread that Misato gave clear permission to the crew for them to shoot Shinji on sight if they suspect he is attempting to get into an Eva. 
Now let me attempt to deconstruct these measures one-by-one:
It is understandable that Asuka and Mari wear DSS chokers because after all they are pilots and there is a risk of awakening. However in Shinji’s case, he is forbidden from piloting and so there is no risk of awakening (remember Ritsuko did not think NERV would come after him, so they had no reason to think he would escape). So why place the DSS choker on him? Well we have already established it is simply because they have a resentment against him; there is no special, pragmatic reason. Is this realistic? Well I would say no for reasons I will explain later but I can certainly understand why others may say it is.
I don’t think I will understand why they would keep their two main “soldiers” if you will, in an explosively rigged room. I believe others have  stated that from a tactical point, it’s an extremely dumb move on WILLE’s part. After all, if Asuka and Mari didn’t have plot armor, what’s to stop Gendo from tricking WILLE into killing their own pilots with these explosives? How would WILLE stop Gendo then? Will they use Shinji? No, for reasons I will state later. And another thing, we know that their rooms were already fitted with explosives so why on Earth would they add extra after the events of Q (when they stopped 4th impact). What do they hope to achieve with more bombs? Make the pilots more “deader” than they already are? In my opinion, this doesn’t even come across as paranoid but just plain childish. Is this measure realistic from a story standpoint? No not in my eyes.
We know they intended to put Shinji in a solitary cell as this is what they do in Shin. If it was solitary confinement on it’s own, then I believe it would be a realistic measure that would happen in real life. However I believe the writers did not factor in the effects of solitary confinement (especially one that is rigged to explode) on fully grown men; never mind a 14 year old who’s just come out of a 14 year coma. Many people think solitary confinement is a walk in the park so I made another post a while ago highlighting why that’s not the case:
“I remember when before Shin came out people here theorized that if Shinji stayed on the Wunder, they would eventually softened to him and let him help in ways that wouldn’t have involved piloting. However with these revelations it looks like they intended to keep him in an isolated room far from everyone else that is (presumably) rigged with explosives as well as keeping the choker on his neck. Not even allowed to freely leave his cell without WILLE’s permission (it is unlikely they would let him out judging from these measures). 
Even though Asuka and Mari were treated like this as well, at least they had each other and were able to leave as they had responsibilities in piloting. But Shinji was forbidden from piloting and was to be kept by himself except maybe being checked up on by Sakura now and again. So judging from these leaks (we will have to wait to properly see the full context) WILLE intended to lock Shinji in solitary confinement.
I have copied and pasted some of the effects of Solitary Confinement from Wikipedia below:
“Psychiatric: Research indicates that the psychological effects of solitary confinement may encompass "anxiety, depression, anger, cognitive disturbances, perceptual distortions, obsessive thoughts, paranoia, and psychosis.” The lack of human contact, and the sensory deprivation that often go with solitary confinement, can have a severe negative impact on a prisoner’s mental state that may lead to certain mental illnesses such as depression, permanent or semi-permanent changes to brain physiology, an existential crisis, and death.
Self-harm: According to a March 2014 article in American Journal of Public Health, “Inmates in jails and prisons attempt to harm themselves in many ways, resulting in outcomes ranging from trivial to fatal.” Self harm was seven times higher among the inmates where seven percent of the jail population was confined in isolation. Fifty-three percent of all acts of self harm took place in jail. “Self-harm” included, but was not limited to, cutting, banging heads, self-amputations of fingers or testicles. These inmates were in bare cells, and were prone to jumping off their beds head first into the floor or even biting through their veins in their wrists. A main issue within the prison system and solitary confinement is the high number of inmates who turn to self-harm. Many of the inmates look to self-harm as a way to “avoid the rigors of solitary confinement.”
Physical: Solitary confinement has been reported to cause hypertension, headaches and migraines, profuse sweating, dizziness, and heart palpitations. Many inmates also experience extreme weight loss due to digestion complications and abdominal pain. Many of these symptoms are due to the intense anxiety and sensory deprivation. Inmates can also experience neck and back pain and muscle stiffness due to long periods of little to no physical activity. These symptoms often worsen with repeated visits to solitary confinement.
Social: The effects of isolation unfortunately do not stop once the inmate has been released. After release from segregated housing, psychological effects have the ability to sabotage a prisoner’s potential to successfully return to the community and adjust back to ‘normal’ life. The inmates are often startled easily, and avoid crowds and public places. They seek out confined small spaces because the public areas overwhelm their sensory stimulation.”
And this is just for solitary confinement. There are so many other things going on with and happening (or could happen) to Shinji such as the things below:
Shinji being only 14 years old.
Shinji being abandoned and neglected by his father.
Shinji being coerced/emotionally blackmailed to pilot Unit 1.
Shinji seeing girls he cared for “die”.
Shinji being in a coma for 14 years.
Shinji being told he has a bomb on his neck.
Being told it is because he is being punished.
Being told he cannot pilot the eva anymore (he is effectively “useless” now).
Have his former co-pilot and friend try and punch him after he thought she was dead.
[Potentially] being told he started NTI and devastated the world.
[Potentially] being told that the girl he tried to save is “gone” and that she was a clone of his mother.
Being imprisoned in a cell (presumably) surrounded by explosives and not being able to freely leave.
Be completely isolated from everyone except when being checked up by a girl who’s father he got killed. (NOTE: Mari might want to see him so Shinji at least has her, maybe). 
Have his mother figure (the woman who made him pilot the eva the most) threaten to detonate the choker around his neck and blow his head off when he tries to leave.
With the above list, is it any wonder his head is so messed up? I understand the purpose of these films is all about growing up and taking responsibility but expecting Shinji to willingly allow himself to be subjected to the treatment WILLE had in store for him is pure, unadulterated masochism. Much of what was is written here can safely be considered cruel, inhumane and arguably, torture. 
There is a massive difference between taking responsibility for one’s mistakes and just letting the whole world torture you because you did something bad. My main fear and problem with Q and Thrice is that their main theme, which is accepting responsibility, is equated with accepting unreasonably cruel treatment. And I just think that is an EXTREMELY unhealthy message to send to people especially if they are depressed or live in abusive relationships.“
When you take all these into account, does it place into perspective how messed up Shinji would have been had he stayed on the wunder? This is assuming that they thought they would never have a need for him, but as we find out in Shin, they needed Shinji in the end to defeat Gendo. If Shinji never left with Mark 09 and Misato successfully kept him "protective” custody, then one of three things would have happened when WILLE actually needed him to save everyone:
A: He would not have been in the mental state to pilot Unit 1 and Gendo would have completely wrecked him due to shit synch ratios. 
B: He would have told Misato and co. to fuck off and die. We’ve seen this nihilism before from Shinji (after the 5th angel). His incarceration alongside the humiliation and guilt from wearing the choker will have ratcheted up by a million.
C: He wouldn’t have piloted because he would have killed himself. There’s only so much a 14 year old can take and when subjected to a fate that causes even hardened criminals to resort to self-harm, genital mutilation and suicide, then what chance does Shinji have? 
Now back to my original point, do I think this measure is realistic? I would like to say yes if it was the solitary on it’s own, however when combined with the other things, then I think the chances of Shinji commiting suicide is extremely high to the point where it’s not believable for him to continue as an anime protagonist. You have to make sure the protagonist goes through difficulty in order to experience growth and change, however if you make it too harsh (to the point of committing suicide) then it seems less believable that they live to continue the story. On a separate note, many people think that Shinji was immature for leaving with Mark 09 the first chance he got and that this is proof that he is, in Asuka’s words, a “brat”. But let’s be realistic, if this story is about Shinji’s growth and maturation, then how exactly would WILLE’s treatment of him be conducive to that? The truth is WILLE’s sheer hostility towards him would have completely stunted any emotional growth and maturation in Shinji and it would have destroyed the point of the film. Also no-one can argue that WILLE would have eventually “come round” or “softened-up” towards Shinji because even after 14 years they still don’t trust their own pilots. So yeah, Shinji most likely would have been stuck in solitary with a bomb around his neck until he either killed himself or the war ended (but even this doesn’t guarantee his freedom).
Regarding the stretcher business. I don’t understand why you have to restrain Shinji on a stretcher when the kid has already surrendered himself and has come voluntarily. Maybe WILLE are just full of bondage fetishists; it would certainly explain the chokers as well. 
If the DSS chokers and the explosive rooms weren’t enough, Misato actually gave orders to the crew to shoot Shinji if they thought he was trying to pilot again. At this point, I just think this is just overkill. I mean the kid has a bomb on his neck that prevents him from awakening an Eva, you intended to keep him locked up even though he can’t really leave the wunder except with outside help and now you intend to shoot him if you think he’ll get into an Eva. The problem with this, is that piloting an Eva requires all the bridge-bunnies to sortie the damn thing. Shinji cannot enter Unit 1 by himself, especially since the thing is being used as an engine so why do they assume that Shinji is capable of being Sam Fisher and sneaking into Unit 1? We see that Sakura and Midori are actually willing to shoot Shinji in 3.0+1.0 and do so when he merely suggests that he pilot Unit 1. But seriously what harm would Shinji have done in Unit 1 considering the fact that Gendo was already going to start another impact anyway? Why actively try and kill (or injure in Sakura’s case) the only guy that can save your ass? One cannot argue that they were just being “desperate or panicking” because in Midori’s case, she actually takes the time to confirm her orders from Misato. This shows that at least, she was still of lucid mind. This particular altercation just beggars belief in my mind and the fact that Misato actually gave those orders on top of all the other measures is absolutely extraordinary. So as you can imagine, I do not think this was realistically executed.
However, I can already hear some detractors say: “So what? Misato hesitated to detonate the DSS choker and also took a bullet for Shinji. She redeemed herself from putting the DSS choker on him and the kill-order for if they thought he would try and get into an Eva." 
And to those people I say….not really. There is an idiom attributed to Benjamin Franklin and it goes like this: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” How does this apply to Misato and Shinji’s relationship? Well Misato wouldn’t have had to hesitate to pull the trigger if she didn’t put it on him in the first place. Misato wouldn’t have had to take a bullet for Shinji, if she didn’t give permission for the crew to shoot him in the first place. Let’s take this following dialogue for example:
916-929:
Kitakami: “It’s a good thing we got Major Shikinami back. But why’d we have to take that disease along with her?”
Aoba: “Just leave it alone. Better than Nerv still being able to use him.”
Tama: “If he tries to get into an Evangelion, all hands have permission to shoot on sight. There’s nothing to worry about this time.”
Kitakami: “Come on, that’s all for show. The last time he broke out of here, the Captain couldn’t put him down. I’ve got zero trust about this time either.”
Nagara: “He was a kid. I can understand why she’d hesitate.”
Kitakami: “That ‘kid’ caused Near Third Impact and murdered my entire family!”
Hyuga: “Near Third was a consequence of what he did, not his goal. The Captain’s doing her best to atone for that too.”
Takao: “That’s right. She’s who Kaji entrusted with Wille, and it’s our job to trust the captain.”
We learn a few things from this dialogue. Firstly, the older WILLE members are much more understanding to Shinji and Misato’s situation: Aoba and Hyuga understand that it’s better to keep an eye on Shinji and that he never meant to start NTI, Takao is one who always trusts Misato’s judgement and Sumire understands that Misato would have found it difficult to kill a child, especially one that Misato was close with. 
Secondly, it appears that the younger WILLE members (Midori, Sakura and Tama) are the ones that are fearful/hateful towards Shinji (NOTE: Tama is a strange case, he strikes me as the sort of kid that just follows what everyone else is feeling. He might not feel anything towards Shinji beyond what you’d expect). 
Finally it appears that most of WILLE crew members are actually reasonable people and are not the extremely desperate and paranoid individuals some people on the forum believe. Remember this is AFTER Shinji started the 4th impact in Q. The fact that some of the WILLE crew members speak of Shinji in this way, show they are capable of understanding. Most actually trust Misato and respect her judgement except for Midori, who questions Misato’s capabilities in following through on her threats. 
Which brings me to my next point. Misato has had no hesitation in pulling rank in the past. In 2.0, she even has an altercation with Ritsuko, her best friend, right before they fight the 8th angel. Misato is a woman that will tell even her best friend to STFU, when it comes to doing what she wants. Having said that, (timeskip shenanigans aside) there’s no reason why she couldn’t have done the same with the younger WILLE crew members. She could have nipped all of it in the bud by telling Sakura, Midori and the rest of them that Shinji was groomed to cause NTI and it was not his fault.
Instead, despite being the captain that everyone loves and fears, she kowtowed to the crew’s paranoia and had the pilots fitted with explosive chokers, put in explosively rigged solitary confinement and gave the order to kill Shinji if they feared the worst. This is the sort of thing that drives fully grown men to suicide, never mind 14 year olds that have just come out of a coma. Imagine if Shinji did commit suicide in his cell. Who would Misato and WILLE have turned to in order to defeat Gendo in the end? What if Gendo tricked WILLE into killing their own pilots with the explosives? They would be properly screwed then. If Misato actually cared, as we are led to believe from her hesitation to kill Shinji, then she would have told the rest of the WILLE crew to fuck off, instead of alienating and putting Shinji and the pilots in that much risk. Are we really expected to believe that Misato placed such extreme countermeasures on Shinji just to appease Midori and Sakura? Not likely. This is why I believe that Misato would not have put the DSS choker on Shinji in the first place, and her doing so in Q was extremely unrealistic and out of character, even with anything that happened during the timeskip.
Some of you will say: “Who cares about realism? It’s a show about aliens and growing up.” While this is true, Anno has proven that he is able to pull the themes off much better when you look at the NGE series. Disregarding the self-contained narrative, it is obvious that the purpose of Q was to bring Shinji to the same point he was at after episode 24 of the series. If we look at how NGE/EOE handled Shinji’s depression, we see that it is quite realistic:
The neglect and coercion by the adults in his life, almost dying to angels multiple times, the sexual tension with Asuka, almost killing Touji, finding out Rei is a clone of his mother, Misato putting the moves on him and having to kill Kaworu all culminate towards Shinji’s mental state during EOE. Shinji is passively suicidal but it’s due to the *situation* and his own introverted tendencies instead of people actively trying to hurt and isolate him. He finds the will to live again due to his mothers words despite knowing just how difficult living might be. If you remove all the Evas and the Angels from the story, the themes that are touched upon (isolation, neglect, misunderstanding) still apply and the audience can still resonate with them. 
The rebuilds however go about it completely differently. They bring Shinji to that same suicidal state by having all the characters/plot actively harm Shinji’s mental health by:
Putting him in a coma for 14 years so he is completely clueless. Imagine how groggy you are when you wake up in the morning and then multiply that by a million. 
Have Misato psychologically castrate Shinji by telling him he won’t do anything with a look of disdain on her face.
Have Ritsuko make Shinji feel dread by telling him he has a bomb on his neck and it’s because he is being “punished”.
Not tell him why he is being punished when he asks Misato.
Have Asuka try to punch Shinji after he thought she was dead.
Tell Shinji the girl he saved is “gone”.
Have his "mother figure” threaten to blow his head off for wanting to leave with the girl you just told him is gone.
Have Asuka and Mari attack Shinji in Lilith’s chamber even though Shinji was seemingly willing to listen to them had Asuka not kept attacking. (Watch that scene again and you’ll see when Asuka learns what Shinji is trying to do, she stops attacking but instead of explaining that he’s being manipulated, she just calls him a brat instead).
Even Mari was willing to potentially kill or cripple Shinji with the Anti-AT rounds. (We don’t know what the AA rounds are truly capable of because the only time they are used on screen, they don’t work. The round cartridges state that they are armor and AT field piercing and have explicit restrictions on their use. The fact that Mari requires Asuka’s explicit authorization to use them imply that they are most likely lethal and would have killed/crippled Shinji had he been in a normal Eva). 
Have Shinji’s friend’s head explode with the device Shinji’s “mother figure” actually meant for him. Imagine seeing someone’s head explode and then remember that your “mother figure” actually meant that to be for you. That would certainly mess anyone up.
Have Asuka then kick and manhandle him when he is catatonic.
Have Asuka force feed him to the point where he pukes whilst he is still grieving the death of his friend. 
Have Shinji only be escorted whilst tied to a stretcher despite him coming voluntarily.
Have Misato place Shinji in 24/7 solitary confinement in a cell rigged with explosives.
Have Misato tell the WILLE crew to shoot Shinji on sight if they think he’s getting into an EVA.
Have people tell Shinji that he’s being a brat the entire time for reacting badly to all this.
By having Misato, Asuka, WILLE reject and “punish” Shinji so harshly so it kicks off his isolation and desperation, it makes Shinji’s “recovery” seem less believable. Anno himself didn’t even know how to make Shinji recover psychologically in 3.0+1.0 and he actually had to ask the voice actors on how to make that happen. The story made the WILLE crew go full scorched-earth and in doing so made Shinji’s “growth” and his reconciliation with Misato seem impossible. 
I have already stated that I believe Q represents “Condemnation” and Shin represents “Compassion” and I think both films pull that off brilliantly. But that doesn’t mean I think the characters acted in a realistic manner. I do not believe that Misato would have placed such harsh sanctions on Shinji in the first place for the reasons I have stated above. And if she did, I do not believe that Shinji would have easily forgiven Misato (even IF she took a bullet for him) as we see he does in the film. I do not believe that WILLE were merely “scared and desperate” because as the dialogue above shows, they are surprisingly understanding (but still disapproving) of Shinji’s situation despite him literally starting another impact. I do not believe that Misato would have bent over to Sakura and Midori’s resentment and taken measures against Shinji, just to ease their minds. 
In summary, my main problem with the post-timeskip rebuilds is that I feel they gaslight the audience in thinking that Shinji was just being a “brat” the entire time by having Asuka and Mari say: “You have grown a little/You smell like an adult now.” However, the truth is Shinji’s been through so much mental suffering perpetrated by the people he cares about, that it’s a miracle he’s not killed himself. It would certainly break most of us on this forum. The movies seek to show Shinji “finally” taking responsibility when the truth is, the plot went so above and beyond putting him down in such an extreme manner in the first place.
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