>>3231248>>3231243In the original, you can like Rei for being Rei. Rei on her own is a plenty fine character whose actions validate her, the story validates her and she's like Shinji puts it: strong. Despite having nothing.
But you can't like Asuka for being Asuka. Neither can you like Kaworu for being Kaworu. Asuka is a doll with the bitch setting always on, and Kaworu is a psychopath whose best effort at love was mortal betrayal and suicide. Their actions alone don't validate them, nor does the story. It condemns them as agents of escapism.
Both Kaworu and Asuka can ONLY have value through interpretational frameworks, i.e it's not the character that is glorified as much as it's the concept of the character with another character, Shinji being that unlucky fellow. Outside winning some imaginary "championship" colloquiallly known as the Shinjibow, neither Kaworu or Asuka has value.
That's why Rei is by far the most popular character in Japan, but still isn't close to the other two in terms of having a fanbase that ships. It's also why the otaku part of the audience in Japan always preferred Asuka - not that the Rei otaku weren't elated about Rei, but demographically, they were inferior.
