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Dreamscape

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.

Rei—Lilith's vessel, the "virgin mother" and creator (and also destroyer) of humanity—is this impassive, emotionless girl at first glance. Disconnected from reality to the point that she gives the impression of being a robot, programmed to follow orders. A somewhat cynical person who doesn't give room for emotional issues, but gets straight to the point, thinking about what needs to be done even at the cost of self-sacrifice.

Kaworu—Adam's vessel, the first angel, the embodiment of "male authority"—is this altruistic and empathetic boy, always smiling and putting everyone else before himself. A boy who would sacrifice himself without batting an eyelid to save someone else and would always be there to comfort them, someone that represents unconditional love.

I think it's interesting because, in a way, Kaworu is everything society would expect from a traumatized woman, while Rei is everything society would expect from a traumatized man.

As a woman, society expects her to smile, to put everyone first, and to be ready to love unconditionally and always forgive.

As a man, however, society expects him to be impassive and show no emotion, to be practical and not burden others, but rather to be 'strong.'

Each is what the other "should be," ultimately.

and the show doesn't treat that lightly. it shows how exhausting it is for her to hold herself together, how fragile that confidence really is, and how devastating it is when she starts to lose her place as "the best." you watch her spiral not because she's weak, but because she's human desperately trying to live up to an impossible image she built to protect herself.

asuka's anger, pride, and cruelty are just as real as her loneliness, vulnerability, and need for love. she's not easy to love, but that's what makes her so painfully real. eva doesn't give you the comfort of one-dimensional archetypes; it gives you a girl who's fifteen, traumatized, brilliant, and self-destructive, all at once.

yes, she grooms shinji. yes, it's messed up. eva wants you to feel disturbed by that. but flattening her entire character into "pedophile" misses what's actually going on with her writing.

misato is written as hypersexual, but not in a way that's empowering. it's survival. it's her crutch. she uses sex and flirtation as coping mechanisms, the only way she knows how to build intimacy after a life defined by abandonment, second impact trauma, and the death of her father. her relationships (with kaji, with shinji, even her casual joking) show how she's stuck in this loop where she equates intimacy with sex, because genuine vulnerability feels impossible.

her "hypersexuality" isn't meant to be titillating, it's meant to be tragic. it's messy, it's inappropriate, it's self-destructive. eva keeps showing us how she drinks too much, pushes boundaries too far, hides behind seduction instead of honesty. and when she offers herself to shinji, it's not some secret truth of "oh she’s a pedophile," it's a breakdown of everything she's been holding in. her fear of dying, her terror of being alone, her inability to connect in any way that isn't sexual.

that's why her character is important. she embodies adulthood in eva's world. not wise or put-together, but broken people dragging their baggage into every relationship. misato hurts shinji, but not because she's only predatory, it's because she's caught in the same cycles of trauma he is.