[Nei]

Originally Posted by oneplusme

Spoiler for episodes 25 and 26:

On a slightly less waffly note, there's one other thing I only recently noticed that I thought was interesting: from the moment that Aaeru finally confesses to Neviril we never see the two of them touch one another in the "real" world. We'd expect a first (romantic) kiss after that confession, but if there is one, we don't see it. When they're thrown into the brig, their only contact is with a wall between them. When they walk into the garden, they aren't holding hands. They don't need to kiss one another to activate their Simoun for their final journey. Aaeru even says "I want to touch you", but she doesn't. Somehow this seems quite striking and very much intentional to me, but I'm not entirely sure what its meaning is. A symbolic chastity required for their final ceremony? A way to presage their unearthliness, to indicate their transcendence of their physical world? An acceptence that they must, after all, be "eternal maidens"?

Spoiler for some thoughts:

I already noted the same thing down in post #1946, and it is without doubt intentional.
It has much more emotional depth than a lesbo sex0ring scene would have ever had. Neville and Aaeru dancing on board of the Arcus Prima is just so sensual, it's incredible.
I was also thinking of linking this with the quote from AS website

Originally Posted by atosaki

The eternal love which neither get touched nor fade away.

- although this refers more to the eternal love in general as being untouchable, this very idea could be well expressed by Neville and Aaeru not touching each other in a sexual way, thus cementing their eternal love.
Or to put it another way, their love is so great that anything like you suggested simply isn't necessary.