The Problem of Shinji

[lavanya_six]

As I've been writing Taking Sights, I've discovered that Shinji doesn't have a lot to say. It's odd, but whenever I try to write a Shinji scene the story just stops dead. It's the reason why I scrapped the Shinji POV mini-chapter in Chapter 11. There just wasn't meat on the bone.

At first I thought the problem was that Shinji was too introverted as a character, but Rei is even MORE introverted yet she's had (arguably) more screen time. Asuka, who I didn't plan at all to have major screen time in Taking Sights has ended up becoming second to Gendo in terms of plot importance. In fact, Asuka has really replaced Shinji as the protagonist in the non-Gendo plotlines.

I think the reason for Asuka's messing up my outline is that she's the only outsider POV in the whole situation. Gendo sucks in Shinji, Rei, Kozo, Ritsuko, Kaji, and, intentionally in the story, Misato into his maelstrom of Plot. Sure, Shinji has Hikari, but the Shinji/Hikari non-relationship is only a tangent off the greater Shinji/Gendo (non-)relationship. Asuka, though, has her own issues entirely seperate from Gendo's Drama.

To Gendo, in Taking Sights, Asuka's a meat bag. She's the one pilot that's expendable to him. Gendo's protective of Rei, and holds regard for Shinji simply for Yui's sake, but the Second Child holds no innate value for him. Everything from the Mk. II Dummy Plug to his plans (now possibly defunct) to deal with the 15th and 16th Angels relied on using, abusing, and then, if necessary, sacrificing Asuka on the alter of necessity.

Yet even Asuka has developed, entirely without my intention, her own character arc. The destruction of the Over the Rainbow in TS was, at first, pretty much just an attempt to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING new with that damned 6th Angel fight. As time's gone on, it's become impossible to just slip past how badly that incident messed up Asuka and, in turn, messed up Gendo's plans for Asuka. In a way, Asuka's breakdown from canon has been pushed up the timeline, with the cracks starting to show in her ego around the 8th Angel instead of the 14th. 

Heh. I started out talking about Shinji's lack of screen time and then I end gabbing on and on about Asuka.

But anyways, Shinji's a problem to write in Taking Sights because 1) he's anti-social to begin with, 2) he has no real positive relationship with any of the characters aside from maybe Misato, and 3) he and Gendo have decided to mutually estrange themselves. So Shinji is really a lot worse off in TS than in canon, where at least he had friends.

I'm not really sure where Shinji's going in Taking Sights. The characters have begun to mutate the outline. Will he reconcile with his father? Will he snap and throw Rei off the balcony? Will he and Hikari ever hook up? I have no idea, not until I write it.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Well I like what you've done so far. You've turned TS Asuka into a character the reader actually cares about because we know more about her. In canon she breaks later and only rebuilds herself at the very very end. In TS she breaks earlier but hopefully becomes stronger earlier too. In TS Shinji is becoming the more disposable/unlikable character even though we know more about him in TS then in canon. I like this story and how you change stuff around and keep everyone guessing, it's refreshing.

Nemesis_zero checking in

[(Anonymous)]

Your problem doesn't surprise me. Really, not at all. The original show has gone over Shinji with a fine-toothed comb and revealed that at the end of the day there really just isn't much to him. When he isn't being depressed or angry he easily just fades into the background because he has no other drives or quirks to hang anything on.

The 'Shinji grows a spine' thing has been done to death and never ends well. Leaving him an angsty moe blob is canon, but unsatisfying. The only solution is to force him to react to situations he can't run away from, but even then the real focus is on the problem, not him. In a nutshell, the only way to make Shinji truely interesting is to drop character somewhere and break new ground, OOC nazis be damned.