Neon Genesis Evangelion

IMHO, the best part about GOS 2 is how nicely it develops Touji & Hikari's relationship. They make such a cute couple!

Do you think Anno actually gave a proper reason for why SEELE does the stuff it does? They always came off as the Generic Doomsday Villain who exists just to justify the plot

I loved how when Brexit's outcome became clear everyone was using NGE to paint the apocalyptic picture. I know I linked to Komm Susser Tod on a few forums and Gigguk made a Brexit anime OP using Cruel Angel's Thesis. At least we can all still smile. Right?

I'm pretty sure it's made clear that SEELE believes that Instrumentality will advance the human race to a higher stage of "evolution" or existence or somesuch.

Most fans' interpretation of Instrumentality is that it's really more of a step backward in the developmental process, but the point is SEELE thinks it's a step forward.

There might be some heavy Shinto and/or Buddhist leanings however this is only speculation on my part.

So they're Totalitarian Utilitarians?

Basically, yeah. They think they're doing a good thing for humanity, and they don't give a damn if anyone disagrees with them, and they're willing to go to any lengths to accomplish it.

That or they just watched a lot of Stargate, and want to evolve into pure-energy beings like the Ancients or something.

Anno just isn't interested on developing SEELE themselves— I suspect it's a combination of factors like them not being appealing/relatable enough to the intended audience (and let's not kid ourselves, any character who gets any actual amount of focus in EVA is suitably good looking and easy to market— even Gendo has some rough physical appeal), it taking too potentially long away from the core characters and themes, and it probably needing its own spinoff just to develop organically.

Or they work better as unknowns in the story than they would if everything about them was explained.

Sometimes things in stories are better left unexplained.

If Kaworu really is a clone of Keel Lorenz I wouldn't mind seeing a prequel Start-of-Darkness-esque story about how he became who he is and gained the position and outlook he has plus on the founding of SEELE.

Keel is quite the mystery. Some people think he may be immortal, but a younger version of him is seen in a photo which makes that seem unlikely to me. He brands himself a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but at least to me he seems to be enjoying himself a bit too much (watch his Psychotic Smirk as the MP Evas eat Asuka).

SEELE are the shady guys in the background doing shady stuff. What more do you need?

I'm gonna go with "they're batshit insane." Although, in-universe, being inspired by the Ancients would explain a lot (and by definition qualify for "batshit insane").

edited 26th Jun '16 6:16:38 PM by TheAirman

A lot of the backstory in this show seems like a ripoff of 2001: A Space Odyssey to me.

Really? How so? I've watched that movie twice & I don't remember any similarities.

The whole "Seed of Life" thing is veeeeeeeeery similar to the purpose of the monoliths in 2001.

They even use Monoliths to speak to Gendo.

edited 26th Jun '16 6:25:59 PM by Demongodofchaos2

2001 is a huge influence on this series after all.

Regarding SEELE's motives, the Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 game portrays them as quite a bit more villainous in both the Classified Information and the SEELE ending than the series proper. They plan to use Instrumentality to achieve Godhood, but it is only meant for their members and no one else. Their plan is to merge their souls with an Evangelion (or possibly several, the implication seems to be they are planning on using the Mass Produced Evas for this purpose) unit with its own S2 engine to become a being that represent the pinnacle of humanity's evolution. The rest of mankind is apparently just meant to remain soup forever.

edited 10th Jul '16 3:01:36 AM by TheAmazingBlachman

I thought it was supposed to be that Seele wanted to be the sole pantheon of gods over the rest of "soupified" humanity.

On a different note... I'm actually become confused regarding the applicability of the tropes Cowardly Lion and The So-Called Coward to to Shinji. I know at least one of them applies, but which one is it? Or do they both apply (if so, how)?

I wonder if there is an abusive precursor like Chakravartin who, similar to chakravartin and the gohma of the game, sent the angels to earth to test humanity, so that when one of them achieves god hood, it would appear so that the one who won could become its heir.

Bonus points for looking like a Hindu Deity instead of a christain themed angel.

I could see that as a variation on the official Panspermia backstory of the First Ancestral Race. And why not have the entity be both Hinduesque and Biblical in appearance? Jubileus did it, after all.

I think Shinji fits Cowardly Lion a bit more in general but might be perceived by other characters as The So-Called Coward...kinda hard to say, but if I had to go with one I'd say it's the former as he ticks the description more closely.

Hmm, you have a point. The So-Called Coward is noted on Not So Weak as being about avoiding any and all fights except the ones with the highest stakes (saving the entire town/community from certain doom would be a good example of the rough minimum boundary), which would make it inapplicable to Shinji since... well, he doesn't exactly have much of a choice, does he? He's fighting as much for self-preservation as he is for protecting everyone else — in fact, if we could take the first Rebuild movie's Adaptation Expansion on the second half of the Ramiel battle, Shinji probably isn't so much fighting to protect humanity, but rather to protect the few people he personally knows that actually bothered forming positive bonds with him (e.g. Touji and Kensuke, whose voices we hear as he's pulling himself together to attempt a second shot at the Angel).

On a different note, would you say that Shinji bears Strong Family Resemblance to both of his parents? Because his face at least seems to me to be basically what you could get by smoothing over Gendou's facial features with the softer curves of Yui's own.