#presidentposts

lucas is a very emotional kid, and despite the absolute trauma and horror he went through, he never focuses on his own pain but instead will always, always try to help others.

the day after the drago kills hinawa in front of his eyes, the same day claus dies to the same monster, lucas goes to the forest and befriends the remaining dragos. the same animals who kills two of his closest family, killed his mom in front of his own eyes, but he knows the other dragos are hurting just as much as he is, so he comforts them

he does still spend the next 3 years crying, but even still, he never harbors ill will towards flint or any of the other townsfolk who shit on him for grieving. he even pulls himself from his depression once he knows there’s a chance he can help find duster, because again, he knows exactly what it’s like to lose a family member, so he’ll pick himself up and help others.

at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how awful people are towards him, whether they’ll praise/accept him, or even if they deserve it; lucas knows it’s the right thing to do

he’s an easy character to understand in terms of his plight, but an incredibly difficult character to understand himself, which is why i really do understand when people interpret lucas with a little more snark, a little more self-deprecating sarcasm, a lot of apathy, but whenever i do, i just see claus staring back at me.

because lucas feels, cries, and understands so desperately the pain of others, and he never distances himself from that trait that makes him himself. he’s tired, and he wants to cry, but he’ll feel it if it means that others won’t suffer as much anymore. he will always, ALWAYS put other people above his own emotions, and i think he’d even feel guilty if he were to even consider distancing himself from the pain of others

it’s what separates him from flint and claus, what makes him the absolute ideal candidate to pass his heart onto the dragon. compared to the individualistic, angry, single-mindedness of his dad and brother, lucas is an emotional, deeply feeling child who finds strength in sharing your love and alleviating on the burdens of others

she is aware she’s sexualized without her control, seen as lesser when she is fetishized and objectified, so she acts and dresses promiscuously so she can lie—to others but mostly herself—that she is the one in control of how others perceive her.

she knows from her mother’s insanity and her father’s infidelity that failure to judge someone—god forbid a man who gets close—means that despite anything she’s sacrificed or worked to attain, she can be just as easily discarded. at just 14, asuka understands that she is perceived by others as inherently inferior, and this is entirely out of her control

i see people understand that asuka is a child trying to play the role of an adult. but what’s key to understanding her is that she has more pressure to succeed and more barriers to her success because she will always, always be objectified in some way by the men who, consciously or not, hold social power over her.

i don’t think either of these statements are correct. for the first, i think it’s important to note that shinji does undergo a very significant character change with kaworu: he opens up and thinks about his feelings and thoughts honestly, to another person no less. it’s subtle, even insignificant, but it’s an incredible point of growth for someone who we’ve otherwise seen paralyzed at the mere concept of burdening others with his own existence. and here he’s opening up to someone he views as higher, better than him; someone he genuinely loves and respects.

kaworu does inspire change in shinji (as well as rei) but does so though his own blinding yet ever patient and gentle honesty. the rebuilds themselves focus even more heavily on this aspect of kaworu, where he teaches shinji piano and instills in him a desire to improve at this new skill and pulls shinji a little out of his depressive funk. he’s gentle, encouraging, but forward and confident enough to push shinji out of his comfort zone yet change at a pace he’s comfortable.

and kaworu is never 100% supportive of shinji’s actions either: he literally criticizes shinji’s hedgehog dilemma in the bath scene (though shinji seems to be too dumbstruck to know what’s going on). in any case the reason why kawoshin isn’t healthy is moreso because qworu needs to quit being shinjipilled and learn self-worth/self-preservation.

in terms of the second statement, evangelion does make the argument that in order to receive the love, affection, and attention we need to survive, we must change ourselves by putting our walls down and working to build those connections even at the cost of feeling pain.

but i think it’s a mistake to say “unconditional love causes stagnation.” what i think evangelion’s argument actually is is “shielding yourself from any pain causes stagnation.”

gendo is stagnant, lost in yui’s past and afraid of the pain he’ll receive from shinji. ritsuko is stagnant, afraid of not being enough for her mother/gendo. asuka stagnates, unable to process her trauma. shinji stagnates when he chooses options that he believes wont burden him with the judgement of others. unconditional love only stagnates a person if it’s used as escapism from pain

in fact, i think one of evangelion’s primary theses is that love—yes even unconditional love—is supremely important for existing because it drives us to improve ourselves by helping others, by proving ourselves to others.

when asuka realizes her mother is in eva02, she immediately comes alight and we see her at her most asuka, at her most powerful. rei defies gendo because she loves shinji. misato dies saving shinji because she loves him and kaji. hyuga hacks into seele because he loves misato, fuyutsuki socializes and grows to be a leader thanks to yui, maya becomes a better programmer because she wants to help ritsuko—love drives people to improve themselves

kaworu is the words “i love you” and perfection. he’s introspective, blindly honest, but kind, gentle, nurturing, and he inspires change and improvement. despite seele hoping he literally evolves humanity, kaworu evolves humanity by reveling in what makes us human and cherishing it.

so basically meeting shinji was like meeting and becoming besties w beyonce for him. he got the opportunity to be a human, see the ways we act and push each other away, and be a part of a world he had only seen from the outside looking in. the information he wanted to know, to give him the reason to go against his divine purpose and choose humanity

the archetypical harem protagonist (harem guy) is often a blatantly empty, self-insert husk. he often has dark hair and eyes, unremarkable features, and little to no discerns personality beyond being a nice guy sometimes. sometimes he’s a salaryman who dies to a truck. sometimes he’s a lowlife, epic gamer who wakes up in his favorite mmo. sometimes he’s called on by the lord God and Jesus himself. pick your poison—you know Harem Guy: he’s the most important, specialist guy ever.

while many characters elicit the feeling “he/she is like me!”, Harem Guy is intentionally designed to seamlessly communicate “i am him.” it’s the difference between, “i relate to this character” vs “this character’s experiences are my own.”

shinji is Harem Guy.

but, how can that be? how can a character with such defined character traits (his anxiety, loneliness, misogyny), backstory (parental abandonment), and often reprehensible/embarrassing actions constitute the epic glory of Harem Guy? it’s easy to agree that shinji is a harem protagonist (he has a harem), but how is he Harem Guy?

because shinji is someone who’d identify with Harem Guy. he’s the salaryman who dies to a truck, the lowlife gamer who’d dream of waking up in an mmo—shinji represents the exact kind of miserable person who slots himself in a Harem Guy escapist fantasy. however, rather than breezing by on plot armor and Being A Nice Guy, shinji must actually live out the experience and trauma of suddenly being thrust into the role of a hero.

this fact is used to draw a connection between the viewer and shinji, particularly that his experiences as a result of his fear of rejection are that of the viewer’s because (on a surface level without exploring his inner turmoil) shinji is just as blank, vapid, and devoid of personality as any typical Harem Guy.

he’s nice, maybe a bit mousey, but beyond physical traits, shinji’s classmates likely don’t have much else to say about him. he’s not good or bad, he has one or two hobbies, but like any good Harem Guy, nothing about him really rouses any conflict with others.

so, why is Harem Guy (shinji) like that? this question is rarely answered in archetypical harem settings, but evangelion explores how this type of person—someone who is ultimately unwilling to take up space and exert their existence unless called upon—is a result of child abandonment and neglect. rather than assuming Harem Guy just spawns into the world as a blank slate, evangelion explores through shinji that a fear of rejection and being burdensome learned by experience is why Harem Guy is so vapid a person.

then, what’re the consequences of being like Harem Guy? in the archetypical harem, this is yet again rarely explored as plot armor leaves Harem Guy free of major consequences. but in evangelion, the consequence of Harem Guy’s personality traits cause shinji to act in cowardly or contradictory ways.

for example, though shinji continually receives a the call to action—pilot the eva!—he doesn’t overcome his fear of the angels nor of death. he never gets the Courage Juice that instantly grants protagonist the resolve to charge into danger for the sake of justice, and this trait of shinji’s is consistent with Harem Guy. how could a person who’s so afraid to even take up space have the courage to choose to risk his life?

this is also reflected in Harem Guy’s role as a Nice Guy as well, where the Harem Guy performs basic acts of kindness. typical harem settings rely on the fact that Harem Guy’s niceness comes from common sense notions of niceness, but evangelion explores the contradiction between Harem Guy’s blankness and niceness by asking: what if being “nice” doesn’t get you what you want?

niceness can also be conflated with “doing the right thing” or “doing as you’re told,” and for shinji, they’re all kind of the same thing. shinji does nice things to earn the praise, attention, and most importantly, right to exist by other people. when misato reveals to him that he’s not “needed” by nerv to pilot the eva—that he can be replaced if they so choose to—shinji is left with the horrible realization that his “niceness” and sacrifices are moot in the eyes of nerv, resulting in part of his resignation

this question is most fully explored in the End of Evangelion, where shinji’s niceness throughout the series is cemented as not stemming from altruistic but rather a shield (shinji’s superego) hiding a selfish, cowardly, and self-flagellating mentality.

evangelion posits that a blank, empty person would not have the ability to discern “what is good/right” from “what is nice” because they fear the consequences of being hurt by the judgement of others, preferring to be wholly neutral rather than rouse any dissent. a vapid person has not experienced the reasons why something is good/right beyond being told to do so, being insinuated that doing admits being ingrated. nice acts often incur a personal loss to the performer, and particularly for a blank person like shinji, being nice is merely an act of self-flagellation for the sake of social gain.

this all serves to criticize the archetype of the Harem Guy as someone as pathetic, lonely, cowardly, and selfish. evangelion deconstructs the vapid persona of a Harem Guy as deriving from a fear of social rejection and reveals that that fear cannot exist in tandem with courage and identifying “what is good.” additionally, shinji’s role as someone who would escape into a Harem Guy fantasy serves criticize YOU (the viewer, or a viewer who fantasizes through Harem Guy) in possessing those traits. the deconstruction of the harem protagonist through shinji serves as harsh criticism against those who use harem settings as escapism from their fear of rejection

like, asuka is a very polarizing character, and she creates a strong knee-jerk reaction in the viewer through her frustration/treatment of shinji, and her reaction by the fanbase has her cast aside or focus on either extremes of her character. either, asuka is all toxic and abusive towards shinji or her role as an “eve” at the end of evangelion/love interest is the focus.

the problem with asuka analyses is that many never dwell into the inherent misogyny of the viewer (or in this case, the analyst), or sometimes even of shinji. like the whole point of end of evangelion overlapping her, rei, and misato is that all of them are objectified and seen as lesser to shinji (and by proxy the viewer), never as legitimate people.

asuka’s interpretations still delegate her character into a secondary, objectified status because even though she makes it pretty clear what she wants, that want is never analyzed past the men in the series. it’s always about how she needs to change herself for others, become something else, but not how others could change to help her better.

another egregious example is kaworu, who is intentionally written to be charming, mystifying, and gay, but who many youtubers will claim to be Actually Super Evil, manipulative, and creepy. they feel these uncomfortable when watching ep24, and then retroactively try to justify these feelings by providing supplemental lore reasonings (he’s an angel, he’s giving shinji mental trauma, etc).

kaworu in canon is deeply in love with humanity as a whole, but he’s always been an outsider/experiment of it as tabris. his primary “evil” motive is just to merge with adam, which he believes isn’t necessarily good because he loves humanity. in other words, kaworu is literally jsut some angel kid he’s not an evil twink

i think being mystified or creeped out by kaworu are intentional to his design, but if you don’t question “why did i feel this way abt this character” before you decide to analyze asuka/kaworu/evangelion, then you’re leaving yourself open to very strong bias.