no need to "fix" rei: aplatonic and loveless interpretation of her character
I have been reading about aplatonism and lovelessness and I think it's cute to interpret rei not only as aromantic, which I have seen more often, but also as aplatonic and loveless. in her specific case, I think she cares and appreciates others and it's plato neutral about how others view or treat her. she just doesn't feel platonic attraction nor love.
like yeah she doesn't feel platonic attraction but she doesn't mind if people is nice to her and want to talk a little bit, like shinji. she also doesn't mind helping someone, as when she tried to advice asuka about connecting with the eva in the elevator scene. in the original series, she doesn't express the desire to have friendships nor to feel love. I mean, she doesn't say "I love you" to anyone and I think that's awesome. and, most importantly, she doesn't express desire to change this and accept it just as a part of her. and none of this things I mentioned are mutually exclusive. she can look after others and have feeling but she doesn't need to nor is she required to call that "love" or "friendship". she is nice just because she is. she is empathetic because that's her way to understand the world. she comprehends others and human relationships in general because she has a lot of emotional intelligence. she cares about others because it's just kind of her thing. she can feel lonely (as she says in her conversation with armisael) and connect with others in alterous ways, through her own ways, to feel more accompanied. she can feel a connection with humanity as a whole (as bounds) and don't call it "love".
I think in the fandom we interpret rei's unwillingness to form typical/expected relationships with others and her not showing emotions as a trauma response, as her childhood was pretty isolating and abusive. and that can be truth and it's still fine that she is interpreted as loveless and aplatonic. everyone is the way they are because of their live experiences anyways. and if rei's well being, as she definitizes it, doesn't relay in love or platonic relationships, that's fully okay. that doesn't mean no one has to care about her or that people should leave her alone because she doesn't want to be alone. but others shouldn't pressure her to form friendships or feel love if she doesn't want to. she doesn't own it to anyone.
I think interpretations of evangelion imply that's the way for her to being "more human" (as if she already wasn't, even taking lilith's soul into account) or to be actually happy are ableist, sanist, amatonormative and platonormative, even if that isn't the intention. because they hold the belief that there's a "right way" to be human or to feel and that other ways are incorrect or ill. at the end of the day, that's oppressive because it leads to force people to change, adapt, conform and surrender their autonomy.
yeah, I know anno has said that he wanted to create a character that has traits taken from the definition of schizoid personality disorders. but personality disorders are just the psychiatrist way to pathologize certain ways of being, feel and responses to life and trauma. yeah maybe rei is like she is because she was abused all her life, but if the way she is now doesn't cause her trouble and it protects her, then why try to "heal" her as if something is wrong with her? because she makes others uncomfortable and it's "not normal"? if it works with her, then it's fine. her arc is literally about how she doesn't exist to please others. she is not a doll that others are allowed to control. she has the right to take her own decisions guided by her own values and priorities. she feels and thinks on her own. and she has the right to label or not label her own feelings as she wants to, even if others don't like it. after all, she is her own person.
