REI:“Anyone who hates himself can't come to love and trust others.”
midoriyoh: There is a tendency in the fandom to excuse Shinji or justify his actions, but what Rei says is true - Shinji's self-hate causes him to have a warped attitude towards others, and we see this warped attitude make him to do genuine harm to other people (in this respect, Gendo is similar to him). EoE delves much deeper into this, especially in the coffee table conversation with Asuka. That emphasis also makes it understandable why EoE starts the way it does - whatever else you can say about that scene, it really drives home the point that Shinji harms those around him, in a way that can't be dismissed or excused by the viewer.
