History Characters / NeonGenesisEvangelionGEHIRNStaff

[[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionTheChildren The Children]] ([[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionShinjiIkari Shinji Ikari]], [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionAsukaLangleySoryu Asuka Langley Soryu]], [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionKaworuNagisa Kaworu Nagisa]]) | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionNERVStaff NERV Staff]] ([[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionGendoIkari Gendō Ikari]]) | '''GEHIRN Staff''' | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionExtracanonicalCharacters Extracanonical Characters]]]]-]]]

A somewhat enigmatic character in pretty much all versions of the story, the only adaptation so far that expands upon his character is the somewhat obscure UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 {{Elseworld}} AdventureGame ''Detective Evangelion'', which both gives him an active part in the plot and even the amusing first name "Hideaki".

* MumLooksLikeASister: [[https://file-comic-4.anyacg.co/images/a3/7e/a37e9896d68cc4586cb7503dd9fcdbd7561ac1af_91996_728_1034.jpg In the year 2008, 7 years before the series]], Naoko [[AbsurdlyYouthfulMother barely looked any older]] than her then-23 years old daughter Ritsuko. This implies that either Naoko had Ritsuko [[TeenPregnancy at a young age]], or she was just OlderThanSheLooks.

* TheLostLenore: Everything Gendō does is to try to bring her back to him through Instrumentality. Also eventually subverted. One of the major reveals of the latter part of the series is that Yui is not truly dead, but have continued to be an active player in the plot all along.

* TheLostLenore: Everything Gendō does is to try to bring her back to him through Instrumentality.

* MinorMajorCharacter: Having been "dead" (well, sort of) for ten years, Yui doesn't play much of direct role for a large part of the series -- or at least not in a way that is immediately obvious. In the first half of series, she is only acknowledged through a few oblique references here and there, but her absence is still noticeable from the fact that is heavily implied that it plays a large role in the rift that exists between Shinji and Gendo. While she slowly gets more prominent in the latter half of the series, she doesn't yet fully appear in the flesh before Episode 21, which is a WholeEpisodeFlashback. Yet by that point, it also becomes increasingly clear that she not only casts a long and heavy shadow both over the backstory and the current day events, and she actually was around all along, and even in very pain view, seeing how she is the resident soul of Unit-01.

[[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionTheChildren The Children]] ([[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionShinjiIkari Shinji Ikari]], [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionAsukaLangleySoryu Asuka Langley Soryu]], [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionKaworuNagisa Kaworu Nagisa]]) | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionNERVStaff NERV Staff]] ([[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionGendoIkari Gendō Ikari]], [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionMisatoKatsuragi Misato Katsuragi]]) | '''GEHIRN Staff''' | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionExtracanonicalCharacters Extracanonical Characters]]]]-]]]

[[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionTheChildren The Children]] ([[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionShinjiIkari Shinji Ikari]], [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionAsukaLangleySoryu Asuka Langley Soryu]], [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionKaworuNagisa Kaworu Nagisa]]) | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionNERVStaff NERV Staff]] ([[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionGendoIkari Gendō Ikari]]) | '''GEHIRN Staff''' | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/NeonGenesisEvangelionExtracanonicalCharacters Extracanonical Characters]]]]-]]]

* BigGood: ''End of Evangelion'' presents the entire series as part of an elaborate plot by her to subvert the goals of both SEELE and Gendo while also resolving Instrumentality. Certain interpretations throw the "good" part of the title into question, but she's the closest thing the MindScrew series has to one.
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: In the flashbacks describing the Birth of Nerv, Gendo was introduced as a {{Jerkass}} failure in life who kept getting into trouble. For example, when Fuyutsuki first met him, it was to bail him out of jail, as Gendo was a recluse and habitual drunk with a penchant for getting into bar fights. Fuyutsuki could not comprehend why such a beautiful genius as Yui would be paired with a failure in life. Gendo then said that he was used to being hated by everybody else. He needed Yui as a philosopher to teach him how to live and socialize like every other human being. As a result, after Yui sacrificed herself to be absorbed in Eva-01, Gendo became TheStoic whose only purpose is to bring her back from the dead.

* OffingTheOffspring: Rather brutally kills the HumanoidAbomination formed from Rei, who is created from her genetic material and therefore technically her daughter. This is thankfully not that big of a deal because she barely reacts and Rei[=/=]Lilith is able to manifest outside of her physical form and has her memories, idea of self and care for Shinji intact, which is demonstrated by her manifesting on the beach at the end of ''End OF Evangelion''.

* PosthumousCharacter: Ssssorta. Like Yui, she still survives as the soul inside Unit-02, but it's only a fragment of her as opposed to the entirety of Yui's soul inside Unit-01.
** The crazy half of Kyoko's soul appears to be inside Unit-02 as well. Her voice in the Eva chanting that Asuka must live during End of Evangelion is occasionally mixed in with an insane voice demanding that Asuka die with her. Given that Asuka was chosen as the pilot candidate on the same day Kyoko died implies that either the rest of her soul was salvaged to 'complete' 02's control system for Asuka, or that the two halves of her soul re-united when her physical body died.

* SlasherSmile: [[TheReveal When her face is revealed for the first time in the manga]], she wears a pretty unsettling one of these...right before she tries to kill Asuka.

A somewhat enigmatic character in pretty much all versions of the story, the only adaptation so far that expands upon his character is the somewhat obscure UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 {{Elseworld}} AdventureGame ''Detective Evangelion'', which both gives him an active part in the plot and even the first name "Hideaki".

* BerserkButton: Harm Shinji and she will ''[[ExtremeMeleeRevenge annihilate]]'' you, as Leliel and Zeruel discover.

* BerserkButton: Rei I revealing that Gendo was just using her caused her to snap.

* AbusiveParents: She deliberately fakes her death, traumatizing her son and making her husband grow emotionally distant from him, and subjects him to numerous traumas. Thing is, she did it [[WellIntentionedExtremist all in an effort to protect his life.]]

* AdaptationalHeroism: The manga alters several details surrounding her that serves to make her more sympathetic. For one, she intended to inform both Shinji and Gendo of her plan, but Fuyutsuki deliberately refused to tell them after she did so, and she doesn't lock the EVA's controls when Asuka is going to be ripped to shreds.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Heated debate often stems from why Yui thought it was absolutely necessary to both initiate the "ill fated" Contact Experiment, and have Shinji, at four years old, not only present but watching, knowing full well that she'd get absorbed into Unit-01. While it's often suggested that the Contact Experiment came about as a direct threat to her life by SEELE, the fact that she thought it necessary for ThePlan to deliberately inflict a serious trauma on her own child puts her morality into question. There's also her behavior in ''The End of Evangelion'', where she by all indications made a point of waiting to intervene in the situation until ''after'' Asuka had died a brutal death at the hands of the MP Evas, and she later abandons her son ''once again'' to pursue another higher purpose.

* AndIMustScream: Her ultimate fate, being stuck in a petrified Unit 01 for eternity. This is actually a self-inflicted example, as she deliberately did so in order to have the EVA serve as a monument to the triumph of humanity.

* BadassBookworm: A geneticist at the absolute top of her field who creates the EVA units and the ultimate victor of the series.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: In an '''extremely''' odd and roundabout way. In the pre-Contact Experiment flashbacks, Yui is shown to be kind and pleasant. However, if everything the overall story hints and implies about her true motivations is completely on-point, then she is willing to go to lengths that most would consider completely insane to protect Shinji, and is willing to cause him significant harm if it means that in the long term he will survive the fate of the world she sees as inevitable. This also ties into the times when Unit-01 has fits of [[AxCrazy madness]] and UnstoppableRage, as the purest expression of her intent to keep Shinji from harm is to cause the Eva to act like a raging animal.
* BigGood: ''End of Evangelion'' presents the entire series as part of an elaborate plot by her to subvert the goals of both SEELE and Gendo while also resolving Instrumentality. The "good" part of the title is heavily debated by the fandom, however, as the implication that her plans involved emotionally manipulating both her husband and son and causing a (potentially recoverable) apocalypse make her character ''far'' more disturbing than she is initially presented as. The fact she's the closest thing this series has to this shows how absolutely [[CrapsackWorld fucked up]] the setting is.

* TheChessmaster: One alternate interpretation of her character is that she intentionally set up the entire ending to happen, which is all but stated in ''End of Evangelion''. The implication that she was acting on her own accord throughout the whole series is disturbing.
* TheChooserOfTheOne: It is all thanks to her that Shinji is the pilot of Unit-01 and eventually ends up in the position of having to decide the fate of all mankind.

* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Intends to cause this to happen to Shinji, which seems to work as he barely reacts to seeing the nightmarish result of the blast impact of Third Impact.
* CruelToBeKind: No matter how one looks at her ambiguous moral compass, she is this at the very least, seeing how she did very deliberately inflict a serious emotional trauma on her son by [[FakingTheDead faking her own death]] right in front of him, which decisively shaped his life and psyche in a very negative direction. However, she did so to enact her plan of allowing him and the rest of humanity to get the right to choose their own fate during Instrumentality, something SEELE would have denied all of them.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the MissingMom and TheLostLenore. She fills the role of an emotional void in her son and husband's life, but it's revealed that she did so deliberately for the former's benefit. While initially presented as a NiceGirl and ideal parent, it becomes clear by the end of the series that she is just as ruthless as Gendo, if not more so.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: She all but directly says a pre-emptive version of this during her heart-to-heart talk with Fuyutsuki in Episode 21. The point of the conversation is to make sure that Fuyutsuki understands that Third Impact is inevitable and that she feels that she must do whatever she can to prevent SEELE's plans for it from coming into fruition, both for the sake of humanity and for the sake of her son. Of course, what happens shortly thereafter is that she essentially abandons her husband and said son, while making sure the latter believes her to be dead, greatly traumatizing both of them in the process, all in pursuit of her own plans.
* IronLady: It is not remotely ambiguous that Yui held the primary role in GEHIRN, and is implied to be far more willful and ruthless than she appears.
* LastPlanStanding: In the end, her plan to foil SEELE's plans for Instrumentality won out. It is not entirely clear whether or not Gendo's plan would have actually interfered with hers, but the question effectively became academic the moment Rei turned against him as it rendered it a failure.
* LesserOfTwoEvils: Ultimately has to invoke this. SEELE is immensely powerful and immensely dedicated to putting an end to the world via their percieved "ascension" through Instrumentality. Even if their initial assualt on NERV failed, they would be able to cover it up and start their attempts again. Yui's version of Instrumentality, in contrast, would be reversible, but would still certainly result in societal collapse as people take months to leave its state. However, by doing so, SEELE will be out of the picture because they are so dedicated to the vision they wouldn't reform a corporeal form.

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: In ''The End of Evangelion'', it is made clear that she was a much more shrewd and accomplished schemer than Gendo could ever hope to be, having managed to outmanouvre SEELE even though her physical presence in the world had been severely limited for more than a decade and she only had one unambiguous ally (Fuyutsuki) on her side.

* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: It's been hinted by conversations in certain flashbacks that she had planned both her "accident" and Shinji's presence during it in advance, for an as-of-yet not explicitly explained purpose; it seems implied that she "was running out of time" (i.e. someone was targeting her for assassination, and she was rushing to finish her work beforehand).

* NiceGirl: Initial appearance seem to depict Yui as incredibly soft-spoken, empathetic and polite. She is, [[SubvertedTrope just not in the way she first appears.]]
* NotSoSimilar: Despite the horrific mental toll it wreathed on her son, Yui ultimately did it for his benefit, whereas Gendo, while still having some attachment to him, used him purely as a tool. Finally, [[StrawNihilist Gendo]] [[HopeIsScary is so depressed and broken]] [[DespairEventHorizon that he's willing to turn humanity]] into a stagnant HiveMind in order to reunite with her, whereas Yui is a HopeBringer who uses Instrumentality for the purpose of humans being able to deeply understand each other before re-manifesting themselves.

* ParentalAbandonment: Deliberately left her son when he was a 4-year old to fuse with Unit-01. Subverted, however, as it's revealed that [[WellIntentionedExtremist she did so for a good reason.]]

* ProfessorGuineaPig: She offered herself up as a test subject for the contact experiment for Unit-01; ostensibly this went wrong when she was absorbed by the Eva, but this was actually all a part of her plan.

* SatanicArchetype: If the claim made in the Evangelion game that she was a daughter of a member of SEELE is canon, this fully makes her an [[UnscrupulousHero extremely anti-heroic]] version of this trope. Born into the light (AKA a sociopathic AncientConspiracy bent on turning humanity into a HiveMind soup incapable of possessing individual will or truly meaningful emotions), she forsakes her creators and hatches a plot against them (Preventing them from doing so by engineering an accident) and overthrows them (Reverses their plans for Instrumentality by allowing humans to re-manifest if they will themselves to do so, while allowing them to fully understand each other by having them temporarily fuse). She is generally depicted in scenes that show her basking in light, and carries an extremely polite demeanor that undercuts her ruthless plans, as Satan is depicted as being an angel of light as well.

* SealedGoodInACan: Although "good" is debatable.
* ShootTheDog: She seems to have deliberately locked Unit-01's controls so that Shinji will see Asuka die and fulfil her plan.
* SilkHidingSteel: Yui is by all appearances a very pleasant, polite and gentle woman, but her actions and the lengths she goes to in pursuit of her plans paints her as an even greater and more calculating and uncompromising {{Determinator}} than even Gendo.

* SoftSpokenSadist: She is not sadistic by any measure, but she is willfully cruel to the point of being on the borderline of an AntiHero and an AntiVillain and has a profoundly soft, soothing voice.

* TheUnfettered: Feasts on the corpses of Angels, emotionally manipulates her husband and son for years, and allows Asuka to die in pursuit of foiling SEELE and Gendo's plans.
* UnscrupulousHero: Intends to stop the plans of Gendo, SEELE and the Angels, but has no qualms about [[CruelToBeKind doing so in a way that can easily be interpreted as callous or even cruel to Shinji]].

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Her goal is to counter SEELE and The Angels and protect Shinji's life. To do this, she'll emotionally torment both her husband and son by faking her death, make said son's friend die horribly in front of his eyes by refusing to save her and temporarily glass humanity to take down SEELE's potential for regaining power.

* AffablyEvil: While it's not quite certain if [[AmbiguouslyEvil Yui can be called ''evil'']], she regardless did incredibly horrible things, and in both flashbacks and during her motivational speech to Shinji, she is incredibly calm, polite and well-spoken.

* AntiHero: Strongly suggested to be the closest thing that the narrative has to a BigGood and an [[AbusiveParents absolutely horrific]] [[ShootTheDog human]] [[MadScientist being]].

* AntiVillain: Qualifies as a WellIntentionedExtremist if you don't view her as an UnscrupulousHero.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: She's presented as a generally perfect and nurturing mother and wife during flashbacks, but it's gradually revealed that she did absolutely horrific things to both her husband and son to accomplish her goals, arguably making her more of a BitchInSheepsClothing [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold with a heart of gold]].

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Betrays SEELE despite being a part of it and her own husband despite him spending years attempting to get her back. Subverted, as she ultimately did out of loyalty for Shinji.

* {{Foil}}: Ends up serving for this for her own husband. Both are [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] [[TheChessmaster chessmasters]] who are willing to go to [[TheUnfettered pretty much any means to achieve their goals]], but Gendo represents the absolute pit of [[StrawNihilist despair]] and [[AbusiveParents control]], whereas Yui represents the most persevering though [[AntiHero profoundly cruel]] [[HopeBringer ideal of hope and]] [[AntiNihilist free will]].

* {{Hypocrite}}: Intends to maintain the free will of humanity by secretly controlling the life of her own son.

* KarmaHoudini: Played with. She completely beats out everyone else in ensuring her plan and gets away scot-free, with even Shinji still having a positive opinion of her, but she deliberately invokes an AndIMustScream fate on herself, possibly due to recognizing the horrific lines she had to cross to save humanity.

* NiceGirl: Initial appearance seem to depict Yui as incredibly soft-spoken, empathetic and polite. [[AffablyEvil she is,]] [[SubvertedTrope just not in the way she first appears.]]

* SatanicArchetype: If the claim made in the Evangelion game that she was a daughter of a member of SEELE is canon, this fully makes her an [[UnscrupulousHero extremely anti-heroic]] version of this trope. Born into the light (AKA a sociopathic AncientConspiracy bent on turning humanity into a HiveMind soup incapable of possessing individual will or truly meaningful emotions), she forsakes her creators and hatches a plot against them (Preventing them from doing so by engineering an accident) and overthrows them (Reverses their plans for Instrumentality by allowing humans to re-manifest if they will themselves to do so, while allowing them to fully understand each other by having them temporarily fuse). She is generally depicted in scenes that show her basking in light, and carries an extremely [[AffablyEvil polite demeanor that undercuts her ruthless plans]], as Satan is depicted as being an angel of light as well.

* TranquilFury: Her implied reaction to Gendo when she kills him. She doesn't go into a BerserkerRage as the EVA unit was common to do, but instead lets him come to terms, picks him up, and bites his head off.

* WhatIfGodWasOneOfUs: Ultimately an example of the Shepherd, though an incredibly brutal one.
* WouldHurtAChild: Deliberately lets 14-year old Asuka die to drive Shinji to his breaking point so she build him back up later and counter SEELE and Gendo's agenda. While Asuka ultimately resurrects herself, this still leaves a pretty bad impression of Yui for doing this in the first place.