[EVA] Re: Should Ritsuko Akagi be forgiven?

[Kasugano]

> >     Probably been hurt so much that they couldn't feel. Much like Rei,
> > perhaps. So was I. As, I'd imagine, were you.
>
> Er. No. But not because I'm insensible.

    That's fair enough. A lot of the time after the assault that left me
with only one eye, I was like that too.
>
> >     Oh man, you know how I'm something of a psychologist? I'd have a
field
> > day with her.
>
> With anbody in Eva, I'd say. Except perhaps Yui.

    Heh.
>
> >     Sexually frustrated. Nah, that's cold, I clearly saw this in episode
21.
> > You're right, she was unstable. At least Ritsuko didn't use the B word
at
> > Rei, or ever far as I know.
>
> I doubt the b word was there in Japanese, anyway, it's not mere sexual
> frustration, I'm talking about this recurrent trend in Anno's works about
how
> men and women relate with difficulty and pain to each other.

    Sexual frustration was more or less tounge in cheek, but yeah, we can
see how hard it is for her to relate with other people. Believe it or not, I
had that problem when I was younger, though I don't believe I ever had it to
the extent that Naoko did.
>
> >     Didn't someone atsome time imply that SEELE forced her to do it? I
think
> > it was along the lines of her being pushed to do it. Does that mean she
was
> > pushed over the edge by what...Keel I think it was said, or did they
> > actually force her or threaten her? Did SEELE intend for Akagi to snap,
so
> > that she'd pull some stunt like that? SEELE has a lot of questions to
answer
> > to.
>
> I think Seele might have suggested she did it, or at least that Ritsuko
wasn't
> against the idea when they told her to do so.

    That would be typical SEELE, typical Keel and typical Nazis. They are
Germam based, arn't they? They are at least as cruel as Nazis.

     But when Archer said she was
> "pushed" to do it I believe he was referring to the fact that she didn't
really
> have much of a choice, she had just been showed that she was nothing but a
tool
> for Gendo, and one of secondary importance.

    Oh yeah, that reminds me, I have Small Soldiers at the moment. Getting
back to Akagi, it's understandable that she would hurt from what happened,
definetly. I sympathise with her because something like that happened with
me in high school. I'm autistic, you see, and high school wasn't working
out. At all. Dare say, it was my personnal hell. Well, that didn't matter as
I was used to show how well the school was working, even though it wasn't.
Was I angry when I found out? I wanted to detonate a nuclear device there, I
hoped that the whole neighbourhood would burn down in fires up there (the
whole area was similar to the worst parts of New York or, think the schools
in the Substitute movies) and I partied when the school disbanded a couple
of years back. So most definetly, it's okay, well not okay, but it'd be
normal for her to be upset and angry.

 Considering that she had devoted all
> of her life to his goals, that revelation just *demanded* for some kind of
> retaliation, and destroying the dummy was it.

    Nice work, Keel.
>
>
> >     What, you mean having lunch with Gendou in EoE wasn't vengence?
>
> That was not Rei doing it to Gendou, it was Gendou doing it to himself.

    (facefault) Whoops, that was Eva 01.

 It was,
> if you want, his Instrumentality, what he thought he deserved, now that
his goal
> had escaped him.

    That's an interesting way of looking at it.

 Not that it means that he didn't get to face himself later like
> Shinji and probably everyone else did.

    I hope someday we get to see that. He did, in a manner of speaking, with
Yui. Right before he was torn in half.
>
> > That's
> > how I'd do it. Well, probably not, but it was nice poetic justice. I was
led
> > to believe that she could be quite vengeful at times (look at episode
five).
>
> <Ebj looks at episode five>
> So...where is she behaving vengeful? The slap? I wouldn't call that
"vengeful".
> That's what she would've logically done considering her dependence on
Gendou,
> and it was the right thing to do for Shinji's sake too.

    I was also thinking that chokeslam, what Rei tried to do to Shinji,
although from what you've said here, that too could be seen as what she
would have likely done. A chokeslam, though. Chokeslam? Interesting choice
for a 14 year old, 4 ' 10, maybe something like seventy pound, Japanese
schoolgirl.
>
> > This was furthered by some of the things people would say, such as how
Rei
> > would kill you if you had a go at Gendou, how she can be vindictive at
times
> > and the like. It would seem pretty accurate, judging by a few of her
actions
> > in the series and movies.
>
> I don't think so, I do not see any of her actions as hinting of
vindicative
> attitude, what are you referring to specifically?

    Pretty much what I said, plus her actions in EoE. But as you've pointed
out, they were probably her logical reactions to those situations. Episode
16 is one that also sticks out, where she confronts Asuka as if she's going
to fight her, but again, that may have been a logical reaction.
>
> > As to Rei finding her independance, yeah, I'd
> > agree with you there. She had the attitude of 'if I want to do this and
that
> > with the world, who's going to stop me?' type of attitude, uh, that's
> > probably going a bit far. She had learned to act of her own free will.
>
> Yes, that's going a bit too far. She did what she was supposed to do but
of her
> own will, is all.

    Remember what I said about Rei being like The Undertaker? Well, here's
another example. In one storyline, his brother was going to set himself on
fire, but Undertaker stopped it. When asked about it later, he simply stated
that he did what he had to do. That song Control by Poe, does that fit Rei
at all you think? Or Akagi for that matter? On that train of thought, do you
think Rei and Alyssa Gillipsi from Silent Hill know each other? I'll see all
you guys later.