YMMV / Advice and Trust

• Awesome Music: The author provides links songs for the reader to listen two during certain fights, including:
  • The battle against Zeruel is accompanied by three songs from Two Steps from Hell:
    • Rei's original fight plays Protectors of the Earth.
    • During Shinji and Asuka's Big Damn Heroes moment, To Glory plays.
    • Finally during the last part United We Stand which is the same name of the chapter.
  • The battle against Arael has two more songs: Libera me from Hell and an epic rock cover of the Pacific Rim theme.
• Catharsis Factor: Reading this story is very satisfactory to people who thought Shinji and Asuka deserved a better ending or hated they spent the second half of the show hurting each other because they were unable to connect or have a civil talk.
• Fanon:
  • Nobody knows what kind of pills Rei was taking in the show. It is possible they were emotion-dampeners and suppressors, but it is not canon fact, and Strypgia is aware of it.
    Powerful benzodiazepines, mostly, with a touch of some neuroleptics.
  • For the fic itself, it's commonly accepted that Kaworu is a masochist due to him finding Rei attractive when she's angry at him.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Many commenters on Sufficient Velocity have taken to calling the fic's version of Kaworu "Rainbow Trout," due to Strypgia's description of what Rei sees when she looks at him.
  • Advice and Trust Rei has been called TsundeRei with the resulting Portmanteau Couple Name TsundeReinbowTrout.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Lots of jokes have been made about the fic causing diabetes through sheer W.A.F.F.. Strypgia would develop diabetes while writing the fic.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Someone commented on the SpaceBattles.com thread that, if we compare the pilots with the religious mythos, then Shinji is Adam, Asuka is Lilith, and Rei is Eve, Rei having Lilith's soul be damned. In the Evangelion -ANIMA-, Kaworu reveals that Shinji is a part of Adam, namely Adam's humanity.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: This story came up with the "Israfel Special" nickname to refer to the Shinji/Asuka/Rei relationship. Rei/Kaworu has been called Impact Shipping, TsundeReinbowTrout, and (very rarely) The Forbidden Union. Shinji/Asuka/Rei/Kaworu is called PilOT4.
• Jerkass Woobie: In the second chapter Asuka explains to Shinji that she is rude and overbearing because she lost her mother when she was a child, her father ditched her, and she grew up without friends or people she could trust.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Israfel Special^ExplanationAfter Leliel, Ritsuko has Shinji, Asuka and Rei spend time together so Rei's synch rate would receive a similar boost to the one Shinji and Asuka's Relationship Upgrade gave them. When Shinji proposes to Asuka to "do the same thing [they] did", (he was thinking about getting Rei to open up), Asuka's answer to it is: "Pervert. I could hear you thinking it. You are not getting an 'Israfel Special' with me and her!" Since then, the "Israfel Special" became a Running Gag, with the fanbase using it to refer to the Asuka/Shinji/Rei polyship. The term is even used for fanfics that has the polyship, such as Doing It Right This Time.
  • Rainbow Trout/Calling Kaworu a fish^ExplanationWhen Kaworu makes his debut, Asuka refers to him as "the new fish". Rei, who considered Asuka's behavior "normal", started calling Kaworu a fish all the time, which becomes an Insult of Endearment over time. Strypgia then said in a post that, if Rei's Aura Vision allows her to see a number to quantify the strength of someone's light, then the strength of Kaworu's light is "Rainbow Trout". This caused almost everyone who read the fic call Kaworu "Rainbow Trout".
    • Rei being a Tsundere is this on itself.
  • This is all Strypgia's fault!^ExplanationThe sheer amount of fanfics that Advice and Trust inspired led to people jokingly say that, whenever a new W.A.F.F. Eva fic is posted, it's all because of Strypgia. They even turned it into a tag on Sufficient Velocity. Strypgia is himself on the joke, having tagged the threads where his fics are posted with the tag.
• One True Threesome:
  • The author also said that was his favorite Eva three-ways relationship, but it would not happen in this story.
  • Played straight with Kensuke and his two girlfriends Kyouko and Sayaka, who lately had been revealed to be lovers in secret. Their boyfriend is aware of this and approves their relationship.
    Asuka: “Huh… I… guess that explains why they don’t mind sharing Kensuke.”
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Impact Shipping (Rei/Kaworu) vs Israfel Special (Asuka/Shinji/Rei).^note Of course, compared to canon, where every romantic possibility suffered a gruesome fate, there isn't really a bad option.
• The Woobie:
  • Rei. She lives in near constant pain due to only having part of a soul, she spent most of her life devoid of emotions due to being drugged to the gills, Shinji and Asuka don't return her affection despite being close to her, the one person that has shown romantic attraction to her is a threat to the entire human race just by existing, and she has to keep secrets from her loved ones because they'd die if she told them anything. That's not even factoring in the fact that she gets Mind Raped by Arael. No wonder she's constantly asking for hugs, because she really needs them.
  • Kaworu also applies for similar reasons. He also has to live with the knowledge that the only way that the world can be safe for sure is if he dies. And like Rei, he's subject to the Mind Rape from Arael.

---