Asuka's face in profile. She wears her most serious expression. She speaks to herself.
ASUKA:“...Asuka, here we go.”
Javi2541997: Despite being ready to fight she looks like a little bit scared.
UrsusArctos: A hint that, under her fiery, domineering behavior, she is apprehensive about this too. After all, who wouldn't?
Kendrix: This, like 096, is another cut that I’d label as super important & very telling, a hint to what she’s really thinking when no one else is in the room.
Though my read is not so much that she’s scared of the fight, but that she’s anxious because the time she’s been waiting for has finally come: The time to prove herself, when she will have to justify the self-image that has sustained her so far.
Additional Commentary
Kendrix: It’s actually very common of ppl who were considered “gifted” to get performance anxiety because once you’ve build your identity around that, every test of your abilities becomes an existential threat. (This is why you should praise a child for their actions & attitude, not passive things out of their control like “youre smart” or “youre pretty”)
Though by this point the confidence still wins over the doubt, she’s telling herself to “stay in character”. “Let’s go” implies some level of forcing herself to go through this.
Indeed the “looping” scene in ep 22’ would later lampshade how she is essentially playing the character of the Second Child(TM) – but “none of this is the real me”
