Oh yeah, I'm not even a particularly large fan myself. I've just reflected on my original watch on Adult Swim as a kid compared to how I react now after growing up more I guess?Yeah, not even saying I am a fan of the series in general, just saying that Anno, who is criticized even by his fans for giving an unsatisfying conclusion and refusing to do so over his own issues that he got better with over time, let his issues get more in the way than the story.
I get the frustration of that, but I guess it doesn't really trouble me on 2 counts. First being I have a great deal of patience for the imperfection of children and adolescents, they're still learning/growing/etc? Second being it felt organic to the narrative to me rather than something forced onto him as an unnatural kind of reaction. If that makes sense?Notice I never said him being upset as a teenager is the problem, the whole abandoning character development to go back to square one was my problem. You can have your super realistic teenager reactions to shit like fighting Kaiju, but don't expect me to care much if you're just going to throw away any change and growth he had prior because you want to make a "point" over making a story.
Wasn't even really about the realism for me, his first stint in the robot goes beyond "realism" because the ceiling of reality is fairly low barrier. Its when it feels like it fits with the natural progression of the narrative rather than being a plot point the writer wants to drag the cast across regardless of being earned or not?Once again, notice I said "My problem with Shinji is not that he reacts like a teenager to being a Mecha protag", no shit that would include the first episode and many of the earlier ones, not to mention is common in mecha even before Eva came along, my problem was him growing to the challenge only to fall back. Sure I can say the dude had a pretty garbage support cast that outside of like 1 or two made his life more stressful than it already was, his shitbag father being the worst, and you can point to the "realism" all you want as an excuse for it, but like I already said, don't expect to me to care anymore if you just want to make a point rather than have a protag have character growth.
I think I'm less sympathetic to adults because most of the time they've had time to learn and grow, which I also something I have to work on honestly. And Luke's character arc could have worked in a vacuum, but its a writing fumble based on how he previously acted rather than an issue with the idea of "broken legend ducks consequences out of self pity." I hated how he just says fuck it after he overreacted to a possible future in a universe where visions are not definitive and often murky and completely dropped the ball leaving others to pick up after him. That doesn't even feel organic, even before we understood why he hermited it up in the Force Awakens.I have seen you in the past mention this same logic for why you hate Luke's portrayal in the Sequels, though that is even less "realistic" and more out of character writing, but the same excuse was used and I saw you call that out because you don't like a character like Luke because he is "realistic" you like him because he grows as a person and overcomes the odds. If you are fine with a more nihilistic look at this specific character failing to win in the end than more power to you, I personally do not care for that.
I get it though.