>>4097857Yeah, but none of that is ever reciprocated. No matter what she does nothing ever comes back to her. Even when it’s in the interest of another character, like when she takes on the unit 03 test so Rei could have her party, she only ended up having her life ruined as thanks. Which I guess the takeaway here is that love isn’t necessarily transactional. She doesn’t do anything to ‘earn’ Kensuke’s care, he just does it. And there’s a theme there in the movie about accepting love being just as important as giving it, so I suppose that’s the positive way to read it. She finally ‘relents’ and allows herself to be cared for (whether you see it as parental, platonic, or otherwise).
But again, the problem is the movie seems actively dismissive of her, whether they intended it to be seen that way or not. It just feels like the ultimate destiny for Asuka’s character, not just for the new movies but the franchise as a whole, was to act as something for Shinji to shed off in order to move forward and be free. In other words, she was emotional dead weight keeping Shinji down, and had to be set aside. Which is an incredible disservice to a long standing character like Asuka, and in no way appropriate for a final sendnoff movie.
