Lord Shinji Upon His Terrible Throne

So I have spent the last few days basically just reading though this fanfic. It's basically what happens when you take the most whiny and pathetic character in anime, and suddenly make him a complete badass who is well on his way to becoming a living god. Much to his own dismay. How? By having him find a suitcase containing miniatures and books for a particular role-playing game. Which gives him drive, gives him a way to connect with his care givers, and indirectly teaches him skills he needs to make his life better. Oh and he gets four imaginary friends that seem to slowly become something more like split personalities, but hey, it's worth a few psychological side effects right?

Personally, I like it mostly because it provides interesting commentary on a few things. At first, it mostly notes how fiction can change people for the better, by causing a new flow of ideas and symbols that people can build on. This theme never really goes away, but after a while mostly concerns leaders who use symbols to inspire, and religious conviction and faith. All of which is both a good AND a bad thing. In the context of the story, the main character uses these symbols to lead a war on alien monsters that want nothing more then to destroy all humanity, but as battles get bloodier and bloodier and the weapons used get more and more horrible, he has to constantly wonder if there is a better way.

I never really watched all of the show or played the game or read it's spin off books, but I know somewhat about them, and I think this fanfic does a better job of explaining the technology and physics involved then at least the anime. In the anime, there is a field called an AT-field that is uses as one of the main science-fiction element. While the what I read about the anime explains this somewhat vaguely as "the barrier between souls", the fanfic explains it more using quantum mechanics and sounds similar to my ghost and soul theory. The original anime also has a lot of symbolism and such, but the fanfic seems to use it differently. Also the fanfic was said to have a more detailed and interesting explanation of the economics and social changes in the world then the fanfic. Apparently some think it's better then the anime it's based on.

Of course, it's not perfect. I often see odd spellings or typos (although I am not one to talk) and some things seem writen as such that your expected to already know all about the show (which to be fair, most people might). It also seems to have a habit of having a event be described semi-indirectly for a few paragraphs before revealing the context on the last line of the section for dramatic effect, which I have grown to dislike. It also seemed to pad on in parts with characters and events that were not really as important to the story, but eh. Despite all this, I quite liked it, although it isn't really finished.