I can relate to that loser in many ways, but I think the biggest hurdle that prevented me from fully taking the show seriously or it having any impact on me was the scale of the larger problem.
Like yeah, he was depressed, lonely, and abused, but at the same time… there are also literal demons about to the end the world. Yes, yes I know they’re metaphors for whatever. But come on. You cannot make the problem so grand, so earth shattering, and expect me to care about his depression. It’s the equivalent of feeling sorry for Jesus because he got nailed to a cross - suck it up, or else we all suffer.
Unironically, get in the fucking robot.
Though I guess this circles back to the problem of Omelas. Hmm . I looked this up to see if anyone had made more coherent analysis comparing the show and story, but surprisingly, not many.
“I would like to end the world because my father is a dick”
Get in the robot Shinji. This is literally the fate of all mankind, including yourself. Your options are to let everyone die and then you die 3 minutes later or get in the robot, be scared, and possibly live.
if we have to conscript child soldiers and we choose to conscript child soldiers maybe all mankind should fuck off
I don’t care if the Nazis razed their homes, killed their families, and will literally kill them tomorrow unless this position holds, I will not have a 14 year old boy join the Red Army. - robot_dog_with_gun
Child soldiers suck but if the only other option is literally just them being killed it’s a moot point.
So people making the objectively wrong choice and putting everyone and themselves at risk is too unrealistic too you?
No, it’s not unrealistic. But I feel like something high stakes like this would resort in extreme measures. Mr. Robot is basically Hacker Evangelion, and I think it shows a tad bit more realistic situation - the protagonist and his colleagues are constantly tortured, harassed, manipulated, etc. to do something because the stakes are high. Similar things happen in Evangelion but I don’t know, maybe i expected humanity to treat their teenage saviors like Jesus.
I think that’s part of it? Like I haven’t seen it but Shinji’s choices are objectively wrong but also make sense because he’s a flawed human. So you’re supposed to disagree with him but also sympathize but also disagree with him.
I definitely agree. I can understand why people relate with him now that I think about other morally gray characters I can empathize with. For example, Joel from the TLOU. He basically doomed mankind, but if I was in his situation I would’ve done the same exact thing, even if I had the knowledge of what the consequences would be.
