Gender Flip stories, by and large, don't interest me, mainly because I tend to dislike the cause(s) for the flipping. For this reason, I avoided AiTDW for a while, but once I started it, I found it to be a lot better than I was expecting. The forced cooperation between the Russian military and NERV is handled skillfully, as are Azazel's agents' interactions with the Children. The Angels are proving to be better foes than the start of the story would lead you to believe, and their reasons for what they're doing are being explored in more and more detail as the story progresses. The most interesting aspect, by far, is the change to Shinji and Misato that forms the foundation of the story. While Misako is fairly close to canon, Shinju is such a departure from canon!Shinji that she's almost not the same character, and one of the key points that keeps me reading is to see how much of Shinji still exists in her, and whether or not she will change as the story progresses. And then there's the changes to Asuka...
Now, for the downsides. Some of the more openly militaristic and propaganda-ish parts have me going cross-eyed...they make sense in-story but can be a chore to read. The Angels' characterizations may grind your gears. Asuka's father, despite being a key character, doesn't feel right for this story, and tends to stick out like a sore thumb for me. The most potentially damaging thing about the fic is that it hinges on whether or not you can accept Shinju as a character instead of Shinji; if you can't, you will probably hate it.
Overall, I would definitely recommend AiTDW if you're looking for a novel take on NGE.
Worth a look, especially if you like Gender Flip
Gender Flip stories, by and large, don't interest me, mainly because I tend to dislike the cause(s) for the flipping. For this reason, I avoided AiTDW for a while, but once I started it, I found it to be a lot better than I was expecting. The forced cooperation between the Russian military and NERV is handled skillfully, as are Azazel's agents' interactions with the Children. The Angels are proving to be better foes than the start of the story would lead you to believe, and their reasons for what they're doing are being explored in more and more detail as the story progresses. The most interesting aspect, by far, is the change to Shinji and Misato that forms the foundation of the story. While Misako is fairly close to canon, Shinju is such a departure from canon!Shinji that she's almost not the same character, and one of the key points that keeps me reading is to see how much of Shinji still exists in her, and whether or not she will change as the story progresses. And then there's the changes to Asuka...
Now, for the downsides. Some of the more openly militaristic and propaganda-ish parts have me going cross-eyed...they make sense in-story but can be a chore to read. The Angels' characterizations may grind your gears. Asuka's father, despite being a key character, doesn't feel right for this story, and tends to stick out like a sore thumb for me. The most potentially damaging thing about the fic is that it hinges on whether or not you can accept Shinju as a character instead of Shinji; if you can't, you will probably hate it.
Overall, I would definitely recommend AiTDW if you're looking for a novel take on NGE.