ASUKA:“How pathetic. Nothing's more useless
than a housebroken male.”
SHINJI:“Please don't talk about me like that.”
MISATO (OFF):“I know how you must feel,”
Mr. Tines: Exchanges like this establish that Asuka has little respect for Shinji. Just because he's the MC it doesn't mean he has to get the girl.
UrsusArctos: Agreed, and it makes Evangelion very refreshing next to the vast number of titles where the MC "gets the girl". Of course, there are many obsessive fans who interpret Asuka's lack of respect for Shinji as being part of a tsundere personality and insist that she's in love with him. Whatever one's personal shipping preferences may be, Asuka packs an ocean of tsun tsun and absolutely none of the dere dere, making her utterly incompatible with Shinji by any objective analysis.
Zusuchan: Asuka's dislike of Shinji tends to be genuine, but she also does like certain aspects of his personality and is definitely at least somewhat romantically interested in him.
dzzthink: Nice positioning of the beer can in this shot to separate the characters as Misato tries to play peacemaker. Shinji is also seated and in a lower position - the power dynamics are way off!
UrsusArctos: The power dynamics are never in Shinji's favor, whether he's with Gendo, Misato, or Asuka. The one possible exception is with Kaworu, but that's a whole different conversation.
