Oh dear god…I thought you were joking.
Comment on Buddy baka
AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months agoI believe it’s a recreation of a scene from one of the endings of Evangelion. My hazy guess is the movie “End of Evangelion.” Asuka (on the GPU) lies unconscious in a hospital bed. Shinji (incel protagonist) stands over her. He shuts the door to the hall and breathes heavily for a few seconds, then this shot with white instead of gray.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 2 months ago
Don’t do this to me
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Lol wtf
loaExMachina@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
If you’re wondering what narrative purpose this scene serves, you have to consider the whole series. It’s a mirror of a scene in episode one where Shinji also stands on top of a female character with a bodily fluid on his hand, but for a whole other reason: Shinji was told to pilote a giant robot he’d never seen before to fight a giant monster. He refused. The injured girl was brought on a strainer and he was told if he didn’t pilote the robot, she’d have to. The ground shook because of the robot, the girl (named Rei) fell from the strainer and Shinji rushed to see if she was okay. He looked at his hand and saw that he had her blood on it (obvious symbolism), then he accepts to pilote the robot.
That scene is what asserts Shinji as a protagonist. It’s the first showing him doing something for someone else, and he’s putting his life on the line to do so.
So mirroring this scene but having him do something cowardly and shameful, opposite of the bravery and kindness he showed in episode 1 makes him exit this role as a protagonist. And I don’t even think it’s necessary to understand it for it to work: For most of the movie after that, Shinji isn’t the protagonist, you follow other characters as they conclude their respective narrative arcs and without the hospital scene, I think many would feel frustrated and wait for Shinji to do something. Instead, we’re more prone to watch the other characters because we don’t really want to see Shinji anymore.
Another thing is, there characters have all been through a lot and been repeatedly traumatised. Not that it’s an excuse, but the series is also a bit original in the way it rejects the trope that hardship builds character and makes one better, without going in the reverse cliche of it making them a villain either. Trauma makes them mentally ill. Mental illness sometimes cause them to do bad things to other, which they then regret.
MantisTobogganMD@lemmy.world 2 months ago
well, that is some much needed context, otherwise I would’ve had a much different perspective on the narrative and the characters going on as i’ve never seen the show. I actually find it charming, oddly, that the writers worked this way. thanks!
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 months ago
Don’t worry, the author went on to create the most hated ending for a popular series in modern history. So it balances out.
nialv7@lemmy.world 2 months ago
oh wow thanks, i never made the connection to ep1. it’s so obvious in hindsight!
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
God I don’t understand why people love this anime.
I know it’s a deconstruction of the super robot. I know that shinji has a plausibly realistic reaction to his situation, especially as an unwilling Eva pilot. That doesn’t make me wanna watch the psychological unravelling of a child until he becomes completely insufferable and wanks it over his comatose friend. Why does anyone wanna watch that, no matter how powerful?
Schmoo@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
Why do people engage with anything that makes them uncomfortable? Horror? Tragedy? It’s just morbid curiosity. It’s not a bad thing, really. Any exploration of the human condition is incomplete without a look at the darker side. Some need more light in their entertainment to help the medicine go down, and that’s OK too.
Fontasia@feddit.nl 2 months ago
It’s got deep-ish themes about identity, 6 frames of boobs and a memorable theme, everything the Otaku needs while saving up for that Fedora they have their eye on
hitagi@ani.social 2 months ago
Good explanation. I think many people miss out the point of Shinji. Too many people assume that protagonists are always people that you should aspire to be, but Shinji’s messed up self and traumatic past is something that still resonates with many youth today.
Jordan117@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Thomas Manga: “No, I just wanted to make him jerk it.”
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Thanks for the explanation. Makes more sense that way
AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
The whole movie, even the whole series was pretty fucked up like this.
Hexarei@programming.dev 2 months ago
I would like to return one mental image please
Acinonyx@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
incel protagonist
god I hate you twitter zoomers
PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I mean… It’s not wrong. The main character is a fucking creep.
AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
Whatever. I collected and watched Evangelion on VHS back in the 90s. Maybe “incel” isn’t quite accurate, but Shinji really was quite a pathetic wimp of a protagonist.
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
It’s probably the most accurate description I’ve ever heard of shinji
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 months ago
I don’t think you’re an incel as a teenager, dude is just horny
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
No, he is an insufferable whiney little shitfart. 100% incel energy.
Stamau123@lemmy.world 2 months ago
wtf I never saw evangelion, what the hell is going on in there? you said that’s the ending?
Fontasia@feddit.nl 2 months ago
Evangelion is one of those anime where the author starts shitting on the fans towards the end because the 15 year old males in the audience see themselves in Shinichi. Those same fans started sending him death threats when the end of the main show points out he is not a good person, and the harem that wants to sleep with him actually don’t want to sleep with him because he’s going to save the world but because they require therapy.
AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
It’s been a long, long time, but I don’t recall having the impression that any of the so-called harem actually desired him at all. Rei was apathy toward everything, I don’t recall Asuka showing anything but competitiveness, disdain, and occasional grudging respect, and Misato treated him like a kid brother. And yeah everyone needed therapy!
AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
During one of the ending episodes (there were two or three different ones) but not the final scene in any of them
peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 2 months ago
Wait
That’s What the fuck man what
Moops@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Chicken dinner right here boys. Gotta be it.
okwhateverdude@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Hello? Yes, I’d like to have unread what I just read. Yes, I’ll hold.
AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
I sort of regret watching it myself and never rewatched
ryan213@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Now I’m curious!!
AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
Btw she was hospitalized after a savage defeat while piloting a mech where the pilot feels all the damage as if it’s happening to them. Her mech was ripped apart and devoured by a pack of hostile umanned mechs.
ghen@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
The overall story about why the author did it is interesting, because it is part of his ongoing hatred of how the fans treat the property.
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 months ago
Yeah, I read that and… the author is still a piece of shit.