Hands down one of the best stories I’ve ever read on this site, or any other fanfiction site for that matter. Professional authors wish they could be as profound as you. Well done!

pretty good, got a strong start, gets a little too goofy around 16-17, but ends with a bang, I enjoyed it overall, dmitri was, eh, but i warmed up to him a little, overall 9/10 I recommend

Ahh hell naw they turned unit 2 to a jeager

can't decide whether to love or hate demetri or whatever his name is

I'm just gonna call him fuckhands mcgee

leave my fuckin children alone m8

seriously tho, I already hate child zero. Granted, his whole family died, it kinda feels like he just doesn't care. Just wants to watch everything burn.

kinda like joker, but in his cringy emo kid faze.

At least joker was excited well. This just feels sloppy, like you needed a random ass extra character to be the big bad, so you took some poor kindergartners drawing of a robot, and make that the bad guy.

Worst part? If you didn't even have child zero in the story, I feel as through it would have been better.

Other than that? Good fic so far.

This was an incredible story thank you so much for writing it! I feel Asuka and Shinji's relationship is much more realistic then most Eva fanfics on this site and certainly more realistic than any Eva fanfics I have read. Many fics like to have Asuka and Shinji confess an then their issues go away, sometimes with another fight or two but that is it. But, their issues go incredibly deep even before the events of 3rd impact, and you show that well here. I think my favorite part of the way you had them resolve is the fact you show at the end that both Asuka and Shinji still have a long way to go to get better and they both know it. But, they are both confident they will get there, no matter the bumps and road blocks are a long the way. Thank you again for an amazing story!

All the fanfics after Third Impact have made me ship less and less Asushin and this is no exception. Even if they manage to have a normal relationship, the phantom pain will always remain in their minds, like a mutilated limb, and they will rekindle the pain even in a positive a nice interaction.

And may God have mercy on their children, for even if they have a "stable and normal" upbringing they are going to feel the pain and trauma radiating from their parents like a leaking reactor.
I shudder to think how they would react to learning about their parents' past or how guilty they would feel to feel happy and carefree while their parents radiate ghostly misery from their childhood.

Does Shinji really have to become a punching bag, domestic servant and doormat to a bitch unable to take responsibility for her own misery?
He's a wimp, a sissy and a coward, right, and I think that bothers everyone.
But he will not stop being that next to an abusive bitch with whom he feels that he owes her something and feels some Stockholm syndrome. He needs to put limits on her, don't apologize and please her like a battered puppy.

Doesn't he have the right to beat the shit out of that bitch and spit his bile at her and the whole list of wrongs she has done to him? Because he was not the one who showed up with a degrading insult at the aircraft carrier, nor was he who was belittling her and scratching his crotch while she did the housework.
He even threw himself into a volcano to save her without following orders when anyone else working with her could have looked away and let her burn in the lava without feeling any remorse.

Yes, Shinji wasn't there for her in her low moments and he masturbated when she was in a coma, but did she really deserve better or did she make it easy for him to be there for her?
Noo, she pushed him away with insults, contempt and considered any gesture of help or intimacy towards her as insulting compassion by a nether worm.
She brought her own solipsistic misery so who has more to blame than herself?
Of course Shiji would go with Kaworu in that context and think of her as a last resort, who would instead want to go with a cesspool of misery and bitterness like Asuka Langley Soryu?

And shit, she needs to learn to repent, apologize and forgive, because I don't think anyone but Shinji would ever forgive her for all of this. How about spending the rest of your life alone, Soryu? Because no one else is going to want to get close to you, you know!

Who the hell can you call a friend? Misato? You disrespected her and didn't thank or apologize for being a waste of space and bitching in her own apartment. True, she abandoned you when you descended into depression, but you didn't create any closeness for her to want to waste time with you. Besides, you preferred to run away from her house so that your stupid pride wouldn't be hurt by showing weakness before her, preferring to annoy Hikari by hiding as a hikikomori in her house. Hikari? With her the most you have is a cordial relationship, but intimacy and trust is non-existent. Did you tell him about your mind rape? No, the class representative might as well have spoken to a concrete wall. It would have been a much more pleasant conversation for her.
The other colleagues from school and NERV? Between ignored and belittled by the kaiserin of Fucksvile.

Even someone as lonely as Shinji has more friends than you, what the fuck has being the alpha bitch queen bee done for your social life?
You have closed yourself in a hell of loneliness and misery of your own creation that only Darth Vader himself surpasses. Congratulations.

I'll be honest, the Shinji's birthday scene is so fucking petty and such a repulsive act on Asuka's part that it makes it hard for the reader to empathize with her regret afterwards.

However, it somehow feels like something OG Asuka would do. Asuka and her relationship with Shinji are quite complex and not everything is rosy, and this fic represents it quite well. Good job.

I honestly enjoyed this story soooooooo much!
#AsuShin forever

I've lost count of the number of times I've read this fic, it's just great. The climb from the darkness is incredibly satisfying and the sweetness between Shinji and Asuka is just heart melting.

Read it. Now. Or else, imma come for your life.

I kinda find myself checking out, DB, though not due to the intensity of the darkness in here. maybe it's out of my approach to writing but there's a lot of words in these paragraphs that just aren't grabbing me. I'm more of a succinct writer and reader.

it's coming off too dramatic for me too, big swings of emotion that just aren't engaging to me and kinda feel a little silly. I can appreciate some of the strategic swings of the story- like showing us another extent of Asuka's abuse- but the execution isn't bringing me in.

I don't know why this and Relapse are considered almost TOO dark cause they're really not unless you've never encountered drug abuse or domestic abuse irl. My only complaint is that when reading this story I felt like there was a constant war between the two Eva stories you wanted to tell with this. If the character growth of Shinji and Asuka becoming an unhealthy than healthy couple was split up then followed up by Seele's revenge. you'd have two amazing Eva fics that have room to breathe. It's a classic for a reason though, the dialogue is fantastic and the story is compelling, but just to be a contrarian I'm gonna say it's not DARK ENOUGH.

I gotta admit I thought from its reputation Scar Tissue was gonna be darker and heavier. Parts like these are so lighter and I daresay, melodramatic, that it's a little too unbelievable. So far the psyche work you do at the beginning of Redemption Song is more impressive than what I read here.

but I also have to remember this is and early 2000s fic, and I can't say i was writing anything as good as this at the time.

Hmm. Shinji's self flagillation isn't surprising, but I hope Shinji's inner demon doesn't become an antagonist Shinji must defeat. Shinji has his burdens, but I feel it would be more powerful if it was conversations with himself to claim tgis victory. this character feels like an intrusive Angel.

knowing how Asuka felt sidelined in the series with Misato's favoritism for Shinji makes the confrontation in the bathroom a little odd. That Misato claims Asuka is the daughter she never had sounds hypocritical.

my biggest wonder at this point is how Asuka heel turned so quickly from indulgently abusive to remorseful. I feel like that transition would have been more of a journey.

Hmm. off to a suitably violent start, Asuka putting herself in a really deep hole indulging in her anger. And Shinji's depression has been nearly maxed out, probably realistically following EoE. Deep feelings set in to get us rolling. My question now is not over how Asuka can redeem herself, but whether she'd relapse in her journey to do better. she needs to beat that dragon.

most of my criticisms are purely technical; Asuka's thinking is verbose. lots of words and thoughts when a descriptive flashback would do just as well. then again this is one of your earliest works.

somehow I expected things to be darker. if this is it, I'll have no problems pressing on.