| 1 | Because of this page's size, all posts about Instrumentality and Pen-Pen have been moved over to new pages. [[WMG/NeonGenesisEvangelionInstrumentality The Instrumentality page can be found here.]] [[WMG/NeonGenesisEvangelionPenPen The Pen-Pen page can be found here.]] All new posts about those topics should be made on their pages, not here. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | As is usual for a WMG page, '''Massive Spoilers''' ahead. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | [[WMG: (Insert Here) resulted in (Insert Here) a.k.a. Infinitely Huge WMG/GrandUnifyingGuesses]] |
| 6 | The truth of the matter is that, due to the show's widely interpretive style, ''Evangelion'' may theoretically have an '''infinitely huge dart board''' capable of accommodating an infinite number of Wild Mass Guess darts thrown at it. |
| 7 | * Alternatively, the reciprocal is true: practically any show can have a Wild Mass Guess invented for it involving ''Evangelion'' -- ''and in a credible way'', no less. |
| 8 | ** ''Sesame Street? TMNT? The Simpsons? Dino-Riders? Firefly?'' I want to read all five of those. |
| 9 | *** ''Sesame Street'' is the idealized world inside the instrumentally. Mr. Hooper is the only one to escape. |
| 10 | *** Shinji decides that he's going to reformat the world as it once was, with him becoming a peaceful martial arts master named Hamato Yoshi. Gendo follows him, now known as Oruko Saki. Devolves into ''TMNT'' from here, except now we obviously know that Shredder's ultimate goal is to achieve Instrumentality again, this time relying on mystic arts rather than [=EVAs=] and Angels. April is Misato and Asuka combined, and the turtles themselves represent the four piloted [=EVAs=]; Leonardo is [=EVA-00=] (Rei), Donatello is [=EVA-01=] (Shinji), Raphael is [=EVA-02=] (Asuka) and Michaelangelo is [=EVA-03=] (Toji). |
| 11 | *** ''The Simpsons ''is simply a much-altered universe where the laws of physics are so different everything gained a mutated look. Either way, C. Montgomery Burns is clearly Gendo, who has clearly given up on resurrecting Yui in favor of being filthy stinkin' rich. Shinji is of course Bart, and Rei and Asuka are Sherri and Terri. Homer Simpson is the physical manifestation of Misato's love for beer. Kaji is Principal Skinner or Ned Flanders. For everyone else, take your pick. |
| 12 | *** The Alliance of ''Firefly'' is headed by NERV/SEELE, and possibly by an immortal Gendo. The rebellion, founded by a descendant of Shinji, is trying to stop Instrumentality again. The Reavers were an attempt by NERV/SEELE to recreate Instrumentality without the need for [=EVAs=] or Angels, possibly "artificially" by inducing a hyper-relaxed state as stated on the show and therefore achieving the same end goal as Instrumentality proper. |
| 13 | *** Or, it's the distant future, and the only people left are distant descendents of the least social skilled members of mankind, and the most individualistic. |
| 14 | *** Wait, are you saying that Mal is descended from '''''SHINJI?!?!?!?!''''' That might be going into WMG/PoisonOakEpilepticTrees territory there. |
| 15 | *** Or the cool anti-social people, in other continents. |
| 16 | *** ''Dino-Riders ''involves SEELE trying to recreate Instrumentality with Dinosaurs (not too terribly familiar with that show) |
| 17 | *** Metal Gear Solid 2 deserves a special mention, IMHO. Shinji < - > Raiden, Asuka < - > Rosemary, Rei < - > Emma, Kaji < - > Solid Snake, Gendou < - > Solidus, SEELE < - > The Patriots, just to name a few off the top of my head. |
| 18 | *** Whew, there. I believe that satisfies the requirements. |
| 19 | *** Oh no, I have some series for you. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, Hellsing. Super Monkey Ball, and the Mickey Mouse canon. |
| 20 | *** This is starting to tie in with my fledgling "Eureka Seven/Gurren Lagann/Spongebob/Zelda exist in the same timeline" theory. I never watched NGE, though, so I'll need some help fleshing this out. |
| 21 | *** For Mr. Rogers there is one solution: THERE'S ONLY ONE HUMAN IN THE SHOW! |
| 22 | *** Oh, and someone needs to do Worldwar, Left Behind, and Twilight. |
| 23 | *** Evangelion takes place on an alternate version of Earth created after a botched attempt to destroy all possible Earths at the end of Mostly Harmless. |
| 24 | *** Twilight: Vampires represent the Angels, "perfect" beings with imperfect conditions that prevent them peacefully co-existing with humans, werewolves are Evas (more animalistic beings, some of which [piloted [=EVAs=]] live amongst humans despite the danger). Bella is Shinji, Edward is [[spoiler: Kaworu]] as Shinji wished they could be ([[HoYay to be together]]), Renesmee is Asuka (what happens with her is mostly a result of Shinji and [[spoiler: Kaworu]] screwing around and not doing their best to [[spoiler: defeat the evil Angels/vampires]] before [[spoiler: being imprinted/MindRaped by Jacob/the hypersynch]]). Gendo is Bella's mother, Misato is her father, Rei [[spoiler: and Lilith]] hasn't appeared yet since it's not quite the end of the series, and Pen-Pen simply doesn't feature in the [[spoiler: Instrumentality dream]]. |
| 25 | *** Evangelion takes place inside Instrumentality in a kind of infinitely recursive loop! |
| 26 | *** Evangelion is the future of [[spoiler: K-On!]]. Yui is obviously Yui, her guitar skills leading to Shinji's development of his Cello skills. Yui is a little bit of a Cloudcuckoolander in both, less obviously so in Evangelion but it's still an important part of her character. Her weirdness is best proven in her ungodly complex plan for Instrumentality, which she saw as a bit of a game. |
| 27 | * Okay, for the ultimate challenge, somebody had to do RealLife. |
| 28 | ** Obviously, Shinji chooses to [[spoiler: become God]] and lives in a world where [[spoiler: Second Impact]] never occurred! In order to ensure that everything goes according to plan, he becomes a person born before it happened. However, even after all the Instrumentality stuff, he is still prone to depression and decides to write his own story. Shinji Ikari is [[spoiler: Hideaki Anno]]! |
| 29 | *** Well actually, there are a great number of parallels between the lives of the two, and quite a few scenes were just taken from his life. |
| 30 | * This goes quite further. Not only are there parallels between every fictional/real universe, but '''the entire multiverse''' originates from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. It's the Earth-Prime universe that [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths Owlman was attempting to destroy.]] |
| 31 | ** Well since we are on this subject, Unicron is Seele combined. Primus is Shinji. The entire Cybertronian race is humanity, Megatron is Gendo and Optimus is Misato or Yui. So the reason that Transformers end up on Earth like its some kind of big farking magnet is quite simple, they are trying to go home subconsciously. |
| 32 | * How about Japan's national history? Especially the 19th and 20th centuries. One has to keep in mind these events--the attempted Christian proselytization by foreign powers, Matthew Perry's forcing open of national borders, Japan's rapid modernization and militarization, beating up on Russia and Asia, and finally the surrender to Allied Powers at the conclusion of the Second World War. Knowing this, it's obvious to relate the concept of the 'Second Impact' to the detonation of Little Boy over Hiroshima, as well as the desperate fight to keep a possible 'Third Impact' from happening as Japan's last stand before the detonation of Fat Man over Nagasaki. The [=OVAs=] made after the series (not counting the newer movies) represent what would probably have become of Japan if she didn't surrender, and if the Allies proceeded with Operation Olympic. The story's use of the Evangelion and the character Rei Ayanami alludes to the Empire of Japan's use of western technology and the employment of the expendable 'Kamikaze' pilots respectively. The 'Angels' represent the obvious enemy of the Allies, perhaps more specifically the predominantly Christian powers of the US and (former) British Commonwealth. |
| 33 | * So I am right and [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Homura]] is Shinji's ex-girlfriend. Also, Instrumentality is heaven, the witches are hell, and angels are related to witches. |
| 34 | * I personally like to interperet Neon Genesis Evangelion, more specifically The End of Evangelion, as the precursor to '''Literature/TheBible'''. Think about it. Shinji and Asuka are left in a desolate place after Human Instrumentality is launched. It was all Shinji's choice to save the world or end it, and he chose for everyone to die. In the third chapter of Genesis, Satan tempts the two to consume the forbidden fruit, and they lose their connection with god, which also meant that they were stranded out of the Garden of Eden. There, they had 3 children, Cain, Abel & Seth. Shinji and Asuka would also need to find ways to survive in this horiffic world, ouside the Garden of Eden, and so they feed themselves off the nutrients in the waters nearby. They eventually procreate 3 times, which leads to the birth of Cain, Abel & Seth. Therefore, Neon Genesis Evangelion might have resulted in the real world that we live in today. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[WMG:Neon Feminist Evangelion!]] |
| 37 | NGE is fundamentally a feminist work from a male perspective. It explores women's spiritual, familial, and societal roles, as well as typical personal dilemmas they must face. Many of the male characters, including the protagonist and his MagnificentBastard father, are largely dependent on their relationships with women (Especially the protagonist and the Bastard). The females are often defined by the conflicts that they, as women, encounter (Particular examples are Asuka, Misato and Ritsuko). |
| 38 | * Shinji and Asuka's attitudes are flipped compared to other idealistic anime. Sexual anxiety, an UnwantedHarem and lack of maternal attention are actually psychologically ''bad'' for you, as Shinji has shown and contrary to most other harem anime out there. [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex And if you force an Inferiority Complex down a woman's throat, as patriarchal regimes had tried in the past, you may just end up with someone that has a really angry Superiority Complex, as Asuka has shown]]. |
| 39 | * An Eva's armor, which constrains her body like a corset/bondage gear and makes her dependent on an external power source, symbolizes societally imposed restrictions on women, such as absolute obedience. When Eva goes into berserker MamaBear mode, freeing her from the restraint technology and strengthening her own Ego Barrier (Absolute Terror Field), especially in times when she needs to protect herself and her child, you see woman's true, natural form that is just as powerful as Man, which from a misogynistic perspective is an odiously disgusting EldritchAbomination of absolute terror. |
| 40 | * In the Adam and Lilith mythology, Lilith is the first feminist, refusing to bow down to Adam. She is cast out of Eden, births the demonic Lilim (the demons could symbolize how our society sees feminism as "demonic", in [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale one]] or another sense), and becomes the Serpent of the Tree of Knowledge. To satisfy Adam, God creates Eve, who as we all know was submissive yet helped Adam fall from God's grace. Eve is represented by the ArtificialHuman "Galatea", Rei Ayanami. |
| 41 | * As some fans have already proposed, Rei-Lilith is a manifestation of the [[http://wiki.evageeks.org/The_Geektionary_N-S#Shekinah divine feminine]]. |
| 42 | * The Ikaris can also represent patriarchal rule. Gendo is the archetypal Patriarch. Yui and Shinji are the underlying weaknesses of this Patriarch's seemingly absolute totalitarian rule, with Yui being the dependence onto the opposite sex to maintain the basis for the Patriarch's power, and Shinji as the agitating instability and Oedipal rage that is waiting to collapse the entire power structure anytime (Gendo has Yui as his messiah and only reason to live which is why he does all this screwing-with-the-order-of-creation in the first place, and in ''End of Evangelion'' he even admits that he's afraid of his own son, making his true self behind his "invincible magnificent dictator" facade something actually very ''pathetic''). Not to mention that in many real life ancient empires that seem to be strictly Patriarchal from the outside, women usually assumed the role of TheManBehindTheMan (such as Cleopatra, Alexander's wife, many Chinese Emperors' mothers, and such). \ |
| 43 | \ |
| 44 | Rei is the idealized (read:fictional) woman, the Galatea that patriarchal regimes constructed: [[ExtremeDoormat silent, absolutely obedient, no value for herself or her life indicating negative self-esteem, willing to do whatever the Patriarch says even at her own expense, a mere property both in body and mind, and]] [[{{Moe}} exotically cute]] (see also: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_East_Asians_in_the_Western_world#.22China_doll.22_stereotype "China doll"]] stereotype). Hideaki Anno tried to portray Rei as a unnatural mass-production clone straight out of the UncannyValley as a DeconstructiveParody of objectification, but it fails in this area, since she ends up as the object of industrial-scale mass PerverseSexualLust of the otakus everywhere. And even then, what we see as this perfect Galatea is actually ''imperfect'', Rei herself has CharacterDevelopment where she still has the human capability for learning, and grows from an ExtremeDoormat into something capable of one's own volition, which (as EOE has shown) frightens Patriarch!Gendo and his lust for power indeed..... |
| 45 | ** Perhaps the mass-production perversity is Anno's point all along: instead of facing reality with all its pain and sexual anxiety like how Shinji rejects the false reality of Instrumentality and chooses to be with Asuka despite fully knowing how much of a JerkAss she is, the otakus and male chauvinists choose to replace the real female with something artificial instead. They are who will get tanged first when the real-life Instrumentality comes. |
| 46 | ** The series is positively awash with feminist themes, and Creator/HideakiAnno is a friend of another feminist filmmaker, Creator/HayaoMiyazaki. NGE is also one of the most influential works in the ''Superflat'' genre, which openly mocks otaku sexism (along with other aspects of Japanese modern culture), particularly about the popularity of the ''{{Moe}}'' genre (which is associated with objectification) among otakus and misogynists alike. \ |
| 47 | \ |
| 48 | During the time NGE was made, Japan in particular was still obsessed with the ''YamatoNadeshiko'' ideal, which produces conflicts with women's liberation. NGE shows this to a degree with the Rei and Asuka contrast (with Asuka being the extreme foreign element). Nowadays, one of the consequences of growing gender equality in Japan is, instead of mutual respect it happened to be growing misunderstanding. Young women are revolting against the traditional role of HouseWife just like how Rei gets CharacterDevelopment from an ExtremeDoormat into someone capable of free will. Startled men are retreating into [[{{Hikikomori}} solitary ways]]. Just like how Gendo fell from a relatively normal and sociable person into someone very callous and antisocial. Of course, this conflict contributes to growing decline of marriages[=/=]birth rate[=/=]population, making gender issues even more relevant to Japanese society-at-large. \ |
| 49 | \ |
| 50 | Also, one of the most major interpretations of [[DudeShesLikeInAComa that scene]] in the massive TakeThatAudience known as ''End of Evangelion'' is being Anno's way of FlippingTheBird to both the antisocials and the merchandising that serves them. Someone needs to write a thesis on this, like, now. |
| 51 | |
| 52 | [[WMG: The canon has a very different order than most people think.]] |
| 53 | The first 24 episodes are the first entry in the canon. However, the series doesn't have a clear end yet. After Episode 24, ''End of Evangelion'' takes place. After witnessing the horrors of what he has done and trying to strangle Asuka, Shinji and she return to LCL offscreen. This is when Episode 25 begins: the main characters all go through heavy psychoanalysis from their subconscious minds, which they interpret visually as other people, but which are just aspects of themselves. Between 25 and 26, ''Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0'' takes place: Shinji has a flashback to the first 6 episodes of the original series. This, along with the lessons he learns in Episode 26, persuade him to continue living in reality. Shinji, being in full control of Instrumentality, restores humanity to as it was right after Episode 6, but slightly different. ''Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0'' through Final are in sequential order. |
| 54 | |
| 55 | [[WMG: The lance/spear at the end of 2.22 is the one Lilith lost during the First Impact.]] |
| 56 | This is what SEELE were excavating out of the Moon. |
| 57 | * This should really go on the ''WMG/RebuildOfEvangelion'' page, but I'm going with the assumption that Lilith's Lance problem is the same in both continuities: When the Black Moon hit Earth, Lilith lost her Lance and it disintegrated. Considering Adam came to earth in the ''White'' Moon, you could safely say SEELE are working to excavate HIM to use in their plans for the world. |
| 58 | ** The Moon is not Adam's White Moon. Each of the Seeds of Life (Adam and Lilith) were sent out in huge spherical spaceships. When Lilith's ship got misdirected and collided with Earth, the "command module" got separated and wound up buried in the earth under modern day Hakone, while the remnants of the larger ship (as well as some of matter ejected from Earth in the Impact) eventually became the Moon. Lilith's Lance of Longinus (or equivalent) was lost or destroyed in the Impact. Adam's "command module" was the one beneath Antarctica, and the location of his larger ship is unknown. |
| 59 | ** Lilith's Lance was destroyed in First Impact/the arrival of the Black Moon. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | [[WMG: The series is Shinji (failing at) imagining a harem-fantasy world with mecha elements]] |
| 62 | Plenty of the basic character archetypes are there: bottle fairy Misato, shy blue-haired girl Rei (who in a normal harem anime would eventually learn to love with Shinji's help), quirky school friends Toji and Kensuke, {{tsundere}} Asuka, gag character Pen-Pen, etc. The problem is, real!Shinji has as much emotional problems as anime!Shinji, and as a result, his dream world also falls apart: |
| 63 | * Some scenes which are typically played for laughs in a romantic comedy anime (a good example is Shinji accidentally groping Rei) turn out incredibly awkward, decidedly unfunny and not sexy. |
| 64 | * The "Dance Like You Want To Win!" episode, in which an Angel is defeated... through the power of synchronized dance, which sounds a lot like the dream of an imaginative young child. |
| 65 | * Piloting the Eva is not a fun part-time job, it's a traumatizing experience that eventually leads to [[spoiler: the death several of his friends and crippling injury to another]]. |
| 66 | * Gendo, Shinji's estranged father, isn't simply a wacky dad (think Ichigo's dad in Bleach), he actively neglects Shinji and real!Gendo is the cause of much of his emotional problems in the real world as well as real!Shinji's fantasy. |
| 67 | * As real!Shinji grows older and starts immersing himself less in his fantasy world, it becomes less coherent and more like random imaginings (represented in the show by the final two episodes). |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[WMG: Leliel's Sea of Dirac leads to ''Digimon Adventure 02'''s Ocean of Darkness.]] In episode 16, Shinji converse to a Shinji that was another side of him, and conversely, in ''Digimon 02'', when Hikari visit the Ocean of Darkness, we see a side of her that was not usually dominant; to sum it up, it's a means of travel between universes. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | [[WMG: Rei Ayanami is a [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Galatea]].]] |
| 72 | And Gendo is just like Pygmalion. Think about it. He finds a perfect girl, he loses it, and nobody's perfect for him. What does he do? Create his own! Additionally, all the PerverseSexualLust. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | [[WMG: The EVA 02 is manufactured by BMW.]] |
| 75 | Because Germany |
| 76 | ** Jossed. EVA-02 contains Kyoko Sohyru's soul and if there's one thing [=BMWs=] do not contain, it's soul. |
| 77 | |
| 78 | [[WMG: The ending of ''End of Evangelion'' is the beginning of a ''Series/KenanAndKel'' sketch on orange soda.]] |
| 79 | With all that [[spoiler:LCL everywhere]], you just know that somewhere out there Kel is screaming "WHO LOVES ORANGE SODA?". |
| 80 | |
| 81 | [[WMG: ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is just like ''Film/{{Brazil}}''.]] |
| 82 | The Instrumentality, episodes 25-26, and even ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' were just the results of Shinji going insane from his tormented mind. |
| 83 | * See the JustForFun/SurprisinglySimilarStories page for more. |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[WMG: There is NO symbolism]] |
| 86 | The entire show is just Gainax loling at us. They just made massive money because we all desperately scour the internet, searching for the answers to why ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is so weird. |
| 87 | * I actually agree with this one, minus the loling. This statement may get me committed, but if you take the show literally, and letting what happens on screen actually be what happens, the story is actually rather straightforward. Boy gets recruited to fight monsters, boy fights monsters, ancient conspiracy plots to have morally ambiguous things happen, morally ambiguous things happen. Grossly oversimplified, but anything too weird really can just be accepted as delusions or just visuals so that the scene doesn't take place with just text on a screen, which I may remind you happens eventually anyway. ... Pretty quickly, actually. |
| 88 | * Confirmed. The following quote is by the production staff, confirming that at least the Christian symbolism has no meaning at all. "There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice." |
| 89 | ** Sorta, while the religious symbolism has been jossed,there are still a lot of references to growing up and to sexual awakening. |
| 90 | [[WMG: By the time of End of Evangelion, Shinji Ikari became an OmnicidalManiac and a potential NietzscheWannabe]] |
| 91 | Seriously, he even exclaimed "Everyone just die" while simultaneously letting God kill off humanity and collect their souls, just because of his growing madness caused by his chains of FreudianExcuse after FreudianExcuse, and the realization on how pointless his efforts are when it still leads to TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. And since this is a fucked-up Shinji, he might even continue to force God to annihilate the entirety of the universe through a RealityBreakingParadox ala ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'' (seriously, it explains the ep.26 MindScrew). Yui, Rei and Kaworu, who realized that [[EvenEvilHasStandards this is wrong even by their eldritch standards]], eventually talked him out of it with lectures about [[EarnYourHappyEnding earning our happy endings]], allowing Instrumentality to discontinue the world-annihilating process and make him come back from the LCL. |
| 92 | |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[WMG: The First Ancestral Race is actually the Rei/Adam/Lilith/Shinji Merger from the future, sending itself back into time/another dimension to create Alternate Universes!]] |
| 95 | |
| 96 | First, we don't know much of anything about what the First Ancestral Race actually were, except that they made Adam and Lilith. And if somehow those two merged, they essentially become a God that can mess with reality/create new reality/whatever the hell it wants. Unless the First Ancestral Race itself has power equal to that, how can it make something so utterly mindboggling? Because it made itself....IN THE FUTURE/ORIGINAL ALTERNATE DIMENSION! And the reason it keeps crashing into Earth and doing...whatever, is because the Shinji Part the Merger of it really, really, wants a world where someone who shares his Soul is happy. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | The Lance of Longinus is actually not unique at all in the end though, since it could easily be replicated just by normal technology. Divine Merger Shinji/Rei sent copies of it to each new Earth/AU, just in case something goes wrong again. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | This all makes total sense. And the Dead Sea Scrolls was written by Kaworu! Who then sent it into the Past so SEELE could read it and engineer the events that would this insane Egg made it's own Chicken that would make it's Egg nonsense possible. I mean, how the hell could Humans magically understand an Alien Language so perfectly? Because Kaworu had already written it PRECISELY so SEELE could translate it! |
| 101 | |
| 102 | And those Spectral Rei's are all the representations of the Rei/Shinji/Adam/Lilith Merger checking on each Earth/AU's progress. |
| 103 | |
| 104 | [[WMG: Neon Genesis Evangelion takes place from the perspective of a hedgehog]] |
| 105 | Hedgehog's Dilemma. Enough said. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | [[WMG: The entire series has been written to make everyone feel disgusted towards classical music and jazzy pop songs. ]] |
| 108 | Hideaki Anno's aim was to take a classical piece or jazzy pop song, associate it with the most disturbing plot and images he could think of and then repeat that over and over again |
| 109 | until noone on earth will ever experience pleasant thoughts of these songs and pieces again. |
| 110 | |
| 111 | [[WMG: Crazy, mentally broken people who are isolated from humanity are the only ones who can effectively pilot [=EVAs=]]] |
| 112 | Since these isolated kids are the most singled out from everyone else, they are the only ones whose condition has passed a threshold where their lonliness mainfests as a strong AT Fields. The more disconnected from humanity these kids are, the more powerful their AT- Fields are. Remember that none of these kids can empathize (Asuka and/ are socially awkward (Rei). This goes along with the Hedgehog's Dilemma theory, as it explains why these kids are unable to connect with other; the fear of being hurt by getting closer to others. Fearing others, the kids form natural mental barriers to keep others out. The more barriers, the stronger AT-Field. Of course is the case of [[spoiler: the 5th pilot in Rebuild 2.0]] she is so detached from everyone, she has AT -Fields, of course hers aren't as powerful as the other 3 as their detachment from humanity is more extreme than hers; she's only uninterested in humanity while the rest reject it. |
| 113 | * Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya, anyone? |
| 114 | * So does this mean that the Lance of Longinus, with its anti-AT-Field is a stick of "cheer up, emo kid!"? |
| 115 | * Uh...this one is true, in a way. The neural connection that controls the Evangelions is stated to be the "A10" nerve, which is known as the Ventral Tegmental Area of the brain. Said section of the brain is in charge of (among other things) providing the chemical reward system one feels for emotional social bonds, particularly that between a mother and child. The children who pilot the [=EVAs=] are so socially stunted that they instinctually reach out for any sort of support at all...and the mother's soul bound into the EVA responds. Thus they can only actually pilot because they desperately need a mother's affection. |
| 116 | ** Yeah, this one's true. I'm pretty sure it's actually stated somewhere in the series, or at least ''very'' strongly implied, that only children with particular mental/emotional instabilities can synchronize with Evas. |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[WMG:End of Eva takes place during the Hospital Scene]] |
| 119 | which occurs after Asuka [[spoiler: fought the Eva's and lost]] which explains why she's there. We've never seen, or heard about, Shinji doing anything like this before, so it could be his first time. This also explains why Shinji exclaims [[spoiler: "I'm so fucked up"]] at the end of the scene, after realizing what he's done. |
| 120 | * Asuka isn't bandaged-up enough. Remember, her forehead and cheek were pierced, her intestines ripped out, and her arm split. She'd be way more injured than at the start. Also, Asuka mentions the "jerk-off fantasies" before they happen. |
| 121 | |
| 122 | [[WMG: There is a scene missing from ''[=EoE=]'']] |
| 123 | Ok, ok, ok. This is more wishful thinking than Wild Mass Guessing. However, the tone at the end of the series is so irreconcilable with the very last scene of ''[=EoE=]'', that one cannot help but scream WTF and think there is something missing. Here it is¦.. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | After Asuka's final line in the movie, Shinji wakes up with a start. The previous scene was a dream. Shinji and Asuka are still alone on the beach. However, things are slightly different. Shinji looks in one direction, and sees forests thick with vegetation. In the other direction, he sees Tokyo-3. The city appears to be empty, but the buildings are repaired and clean, and there are sounds coming from the city that suggests humans might already have returned. Shinji then looks at Asuka and stands up. He closes his eyes, clenches his fits, and remembers all of the speeches from the last two episodes of NGE and the parting words of Yui from [=EoE=]. With courage in his voice, he says to Asuka, "Before you start screaming at me listen", and then proceeds to tell her that it was physically impossible for him to awake Unit 01 in time. He also tells her that he did not pull her out of the LCL, but that he is happy she is there, Because I wouldn't have anyone else by my side! Asuka gets up and tells Shinji she knows. She also says that she decided to leave the LCL herself. She then pulls in a shocked Shinji for a long and passionate kiss. As the two embrace, the camera pulls out, and Fly me too the moon plays. |
| 126 | * ...what? |
| 127 | * That's already been discussed extensively [[Website/FanFictionDotNet here]]. |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[WMG: The main characters are representative of the 7 deadly sins]] |
| 130 | Shinji with his tendency to go berserk and kill everything is the representation of wrath. Asuka is the representation of envy because she quickly becomes jealous of Shinji and Rei. ExtremeDoormat Rei is the representation of Sloth. Misato is representative of gluttony with her alcoholism. Gendo[=/=]SEELE are Pride because of their desire to become God (Instrumentality). Ritsuko is greed because she wanted Gendo and the Magi system all to herself. [[TheCasanova Kaji represents Lust for obvious reasons]]. Feel free to move these around and mix up who is what sin because the only one I'm sure of is Gendo's pride and Shinji's wrath. |
| 131 | * Shinji may have started out representing Sloth before being broken into a form more useful to NERV, which would make Asuka Wrath. Also fitting, wouldn't you say? |
| 132 | * The same could be said of Misato. If you'll recall, the two of them spent a whole week together. |
| 133 | * This could actually be very solid if one chose to use more ancient forms of the Seven Sins, back when they were Eight, for example: Gula (gluttony), Fornicatio (fornication, lust), Avaritia (avarice/greed), Tristitia (sorrow/despair), Ira (wrath), Acedia (acedia), Vanagloria (vainglory) and Superbia (hubris, pride). Rei in particular is practically the textbook definition of acedia, and Asuka is very much vainglory (but wrath could also work, with Ritsuko being vainglory). Gendo would then be hubris, Misato gluttony, Shinji would be despair, I'd say, but I'm not so sure about avarice and lust. |
| 134 | |
| 135 | [[WMG: The album playing on Shinji's SDAT player is Pink Floyd's Music/TheWall.]] |
| 136 | If any album could serve as a metaphor/soundtrack for Shinji's life, this would be it. Not only that, but Music/TheWall has 26 tracks, just like the music on the SDAT player. The continual moving back and forth between track 25 ('The Trial') and track 26 ('Outside the Wall') represents Shinji's wavering back and forth between feeling judged and desiring escape. |
| 137 | * Except that you can hear pretty clearly what he's listening to via earspray, and it's just generic 90s J-pop. |
| 138 | ** That could just be inserted, so you can't hear Music/TheWall, in order to avoid copyright infringement. It is Evangelion after all. |
| 139 | |
| 140 | [[WMG: [[EverybodyIsJesusInPurgatory The entire cast of the show is in purgatory]].]] |
| 141 | Let's face it, this theory makes a lot more sense ''here'' than it does anywhere else. |
| 142 | |
| 143 | [[WMG:Shinji is in Hell.]] |
| 144 | Take a moment and ask yourself what hell is like if you're an obsessed mecha Main/{{otaku}}. It probably resembles ''Evangelion'' just a little: ''NGE'' is everything you would ''not'' want giant robots to be. |
| 145 | * But the Evas were designed that way because Anno despised the toy companies; see ''The Notenki Memoirs''... |
| 146 | |
| 147 | [[WMG: Shinji is in IronicHell, and he's there for being a rapist, murderer, and heretic in life]] |
| 148 | Think about it. What are the worst things Shinji does during the series? He falls on Rei and accidentally gropes her while being attracted to her, with the expected slap coming long after the fact over something ''apparently'' unrelated; it's possibly symbolic of the delayed punishment for misdeeds during life a soul experiences in Hell after death. Then there's the... incident... with Asuka in ''End Of Evangelion''; her reaction, too, is long delayed. As for the murder, there's the horror as he is shunted out of the driver's seat and forced to watch while his Eva rips apart one that turns out to contained his friend Touji, and his being forced to kill Kaworu. |
| 149 | |
| 150 | The blasphemy? It's his ''job'' to kill ''angels''. Main/{{Anvilicious}} enough for ya? |
| 151 | * Nitpick: Rei didn't slap him for the grope. She slapped him for violation of the fifth commandment (fourth for Catholics), disparaging his father. |
| 152 | * More accurately, Shinji is in hell in accordance with Sartre's "Hell is other people". |
| 153 | ** That's certainly possible. Just replace some of the words of Hedgehog's Dilemma and it makes sense. Risking pain by becoming closer becomes enduring pain and being forced to come closer. |
| 154 | *** That means I'm also in Hell, and EverybodyIsJesusInPurgatory is right after all. Come on, Hedgehog's Dilemma is everywhere. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | [[WMG: Shinji is the Antichrist and the inverse of Jesus.]] |
| 157 | Think about it. Jesus sacrificed his life so that the sins of man are forgiven. Everyone died for Shinji's sins, which include Cowardice and at least one instance of the each of the Seven Sins. The Antichrist is foretold to unite the world against God. Shinji united every soul in the world during Instrumentality; what more can you do to spit in the face of God than to tamper with Creation? |
| 158 | * Shinji didn't sacrifice anyone - none of those people were killed. They were translated, as Elijah. |
| 159 | ** You mind giving examples of all seven? Sloth, yes, and Lust (Shinji ''is'' a fourteen-year-old boy, after all). But overbearing Pride? This is ''Shinji'' we're talking about! Gluttony? Wrath? This is SSE, not Manga/FullmetalAlchemist. |
| 160 | *** One form of gluttony, as stated by Thomas Aquinas is "eating too daintily." Misato calls Shinji out for being finicky. As for wrath, that's the sin he seems to be most fond of, considering he loses control and goes berserk every third or fourth episode. Pride, the love of self to the point of having contempt for others, could 'possibly' be seen in his attitude after Rei II's death. He could be interpreted as pushing away Misato because he considers wallowing self-pity to be more important than them helping each other through the grieving process - and therefore considers himself to be more important than Misato, to the point of apathy towards her feelings. Of course, this interpretation is almost certainly bullshit, but hey, it's wmg. |
| 161 | ** He got sucked into the 12th angel. He got overconfident after praises of his sync test scores being higher than Asuka. Yeah, a brief instance, but it's there. |
| 162 | *** Doesn't fit the definition of pride as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. |
| 163 | *** However, "Nobody wants me, so it's fine with me if everyone dies" sounds really prideful. He's considering his pain to be more important than human life, or at least is considering his views of humanity to be more important than those actual people. |
| 164 | ** Similarly, his general obsession with Asuka stems from Envy, seeing as he is jealous of her looks, her personability, and her charisma. Gluttony is briefly visible in the early series, though used for comedic effect. Greed is omnipresent in many of the characters, though of a more metaphysical sort, with them desiring to receive unconditional love without any effort or cost on their part. Shinji has more Wrath than is healthy for a human being, what with his battle with Zeruel, his attempt to kill his father after Bardiel, and his two attempts at murdering Asuka. He asks for everyone to be killed in [=EOE=] essentially out of revenge. |
| 165 | *** Two attempts? He only tries to kill her once. Also, Shinji (per the initial entry) does not show gluttony anywhere, though Misato does. Also, Shinji vs Zeruel shows a desire to protect, not a desire for wanton destruction. |
| 166 | |
| 167 | [[WMG:The Eva Units are made using technology from [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Cybertron.]]]] |
| 168 | Well, think about it. What other planet has robots that unquestionably are alive? Plus, the synchronization with the pilots [[spoiler: and the Rei clones in the Dummy Plug system]] bears an eerie resemblance to the binary bonding of the Powermasters, Targetmasters, and ''especially'' Headmasters. . |
| 169 | |
| 170 | Since they can't create sparks for the Evas, it makes sense that NERV might try to use mankind's closest equivalent (human souls) as a substitute. |
| 171 | * Except that the Evas aren't robots, but cyborgs. Additionally, the various fins are consistent with the series' internals as shown in the scenes using them. |
| 172 | * It may be [[Anime/TransformersArmada Unicronian]] technology. That was somewhat organic. |
| 173 | * The Quintessons, the creators of the Transformers in the G1 show also experimented "transorganics" and created several {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. |
| 174 | * And the main characters in beast Machines were also a fusion of organic and mechanical technology |
| 175 | |
| 176 | [[WMG:The entire series is inspired by the infamous [[http://www.jimloy.com/games/freecel0.gif Game 11982 of Freecell.]]]] |
| 177 | Those who play a lot of Freecell will understand the joy in how the field slowly progresses from chaos to order with each deliberate move, ultimately reaching the point where all the loose ends simply fall into place (so simply that most versions do it for you). Just like a typical action series. Now, Windows users set up that particular game, or any reader deal it out and play it yourself. If you had tried that, over and over again, before it became public knowledge that ''not'' all Freecell games are winnable, wouldn't you have written something like ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''? |
| 178 | |
| 179 | [[WMG:Third Impact didn't last long.]] |
| 180 | If the last two episodes are any indication of what Third Impact is like for those reduced to LCL (and what else could it be?), then it would make sense that humanity might come back relatively soon after Third Impact. If the movie went on a bit longer, it might have had a happy ending. |
| 181 | |
| 182 | [[WMG:SEELE is TheIlluminati or a parody of the Elders of Zion.]] |
| 183 | Think about it. A cabal of old men with ''hooked noses '' running the UN, plotting the fate of humanity on their own, and using something that seems suspiciously like Jewish Kabbalistic magic. The only way they could have made it any more obvious would have been to make them all bankers. |
| 184 | * Given the other intentional use of Western symbols (though not for their symbolism), is this actually a guess? |
| 185 | ** This also means that in the EVA-verse conspiracy theorists are right. |
| 186 | *** You think? |
| 187 | * The mythos of Evangelion was inspired in part by the mystical beliefs of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, who do in fact believe in the existence of a Jewish OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness inspired by the ''Protocols''. So this one's pretty close to being true. |
| 188 | * I, Prime Evil, had another idea a few months ago: SEELE is a modern-day offshoot of the [[Ghostbusters Cult of Shandor]]. Let's face it: Gendo's line in Episode 1 (or 2)--"humanity doesn't have much time left" (or whatever it is) = "the world, as it stands, is too sick to survive much longer." Add to that a lot of weird symbolism and rituals, copious quantities of slimy substances with unknown properties (for "LCL" read "black slime"), and replicas of sacred altars (the roof of 55 Central Park West = the Geofront and all that goes with it). |
| 189 | |
| 190 | [[WMG:The weird katakana spelling of "Evangelion" in ''Rebuild'' ('''We'''vangeri'''wo'''n) is a reference to '''We'''ta '''Wo'''rkshop, which is co-producing the live action movie.]] |
| 191 | Proposed [[http://evangelion-not-end.ru/Portal/index.php?showtopic=1185&st=100 here]] (Russian language), but it makes enough sense to be added here. |
| 192 | * It's actually "Ye-va-n-ge-ri-wo-n". The "Ye" has no reason to be there, as it's antiquated. The "wo", on the other hand, is a perfectly acceptable romanization of a Japanese vowel sound (See Ka-wo-ru, for example) |
| 193 | |
| 194 | [[WMG:''Evangelion'' is set in an AlternateHistory where the Axis won World War 2.]] |
| 195 | Think about it... not only does Japan appear to be a military superpower, but all the most influential organizations have German names. |
| 196 | * Erm, as noted below Japan's FY '08 military expenditures were the fifth highest in the ''entire world.'' |
| 197 | * Not to mention that the Japanese military is the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Forces, an ''obvious'' outgrowth of the Japanese Self Defense Forces, which did not exist until ''after'' UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 and were essentially a way of providing Japan with a military in a way that got around the finer details (namely, Article 9) of the Post-War Constitution. This makes no sense with an Axis victory. |
| 198 | ** America is also indicated to be a military superpower, albeit a faded one, which was in part (though not totally) a result of World War 2. |
| 199 | ** And in ''Rebuild'', a European supranational government is alluded to, indicating the existence of the European Union, which ''also'' grew out of the Allies' victory in World War 2. |
| 200 | ** Hey, in heaven the engineering is German. |
| 201 | |
| 202 | [[WMG: Germany runs the organizations that run the world for most of the series.]] |
| 203 | In RealLife, the EU is basically run by Germany, France, and Britain. The Second Impact clearly caused a massive rise in sea levels; since Germany has less coastline than Britain or France, it would have been the least affected of the Big Three and hence would have emerged as overall leader of Europe. This would have given the secret societies within the German government the opportunity they needed to advance their master plan. |
| 204 | * It doesn't explain Japan being a military superpower, though. |
| 205 | ** Japan a military superpower? That don't have much beyond a basic defense force. The fleet in Asuka's introduction episode was comprised of formerly American ships owned by the UN. Remember that all the world's governments are subverted by SEELE to some extent. |
| 206 | *** * AHEM* Japan is the fifth country in the world when it comes to military expenditures right now. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_federations_by_military_expenditures Here's proof]]. |
| 207 | *** Japan is actually #7. It has a defense budget of about $50 billion/year or 1% GDP. China, which is more militarily capable by far, is number 2 with a defense budget of $100 billion/year or 2% GDP. The United States trumps everyone with a budget of more than $650 billion annually, or 4.0-4.5% GDP, and it like will only continue to grow in absolute dollar terms. |
| 208 | *** Indeed that only proves that Japanese weapons cost more. |
| 209 | ** Remember that this is an anime from, of all places, Japan. It makes sense that Japan is a world power, has the main NERV branch, and to boot, is the center of all the action. This is a common trope in most anime. |
| 210 | *** This editor had a hilarious corollary theory involving ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' that was lost in Archive/TheGreatCrash, but he can't seem to reformulate it quite as eloquently. |
| 211 | * Britain as one of the countries mainly running the EU? France and Germany sure, but not Britain. We're seen as too close to the US and not europhile enough (we're not in the single currency for example and are unlikely ever to be) and actually have very little influence. |
| 212 | ** Little influence? Britain has round about same number of [=MEPs=] and council members as france, and so naturally has the same influence. Influence in the European government is roughly dictated by country size, not how much the media like you. We'd be truely stuffed if that was the case...not having the Euro was our governments choice, not the result of the rest of the continent telling us we couldn't be in their club. |
| 213 | * The U.S. and China at least also host major facilities (including but not limited to developing technologies, hosting MAGI systems, building the Mass Production Evas, testing the S2 engines, and so forth). And U.N. military technology seems to be not unlike late-20th-century U.S. designs. So it's probably not really about Germany so much as it is about the Committee/SEELE and especially Keel Lorenz, who just so happens to be from Germany; members from a few big countries appear to be in on SEELE, and we never do get to see where most of its members are from since we don’t get so much as a glimpse of most of them. The fact that NERV and GEHIRN also get German words for names may be Germany’s fault, but it may just be Keel Lorenz. |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[WMG: SEELE was founded by Van Hohenheim.]] |
| 216 | At the end of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', Hohenheim is shown as a member of the Thule Gesellschaft, a German mystical organization to which all the top Nazis belonged. This group was heavily interested in occult, alchemical, masonic, and religious matters. |
| 217 | |
| 218 | Hohenheim was an alchemist during his life. In RealLife, the ultimate goal of alchemy is to purify the human form and essentially become God. Fuyutski remarks in ''End of Evangelion'' that Shinji has become God. |
| 219 | |
| 220 | Now, consider that SEELE is a German organization interested in many of the same matters as the Thule Gelleschcraft. Their attempts to advance humanity to the next level are analogous to the alchemical goal of purifying the human form. The rational theory is that Hohenheim's research eventually led to a great alchemical work which was carried out on Adam after his location was derived from the Dead Sea Scrolls. |
| 221 | |
| 222 | Furthermore, this suggests that the angels' and [=EVAs'=] cores are Philosopher's Stones, made using the souls of their pilots' mothers and possibly those of Adam and Lilith. |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[WMG:''Rebuild of Evangelion'' is a Sequel!]] |
| 225 | Quite a few people who have seen the first movie believe in this theory, since the first movie released has such things like [[spoiler:the entire sea being red, like in ''End of Evangelion]]. There is also the final scene of the movie; although the exact translation is heavily debated, it is accepted that [[spoiler: Kaworu says, "Number Three again, huh? You never change. I will enjoy meeting you Ikari Shinji." Some have rendered the last sentence as "I will enjoy meeting you again, Ikari Shinji-kun."]] It is heavily debated though, and the mechanisms of the sequel range from reincarnation to the "Glitched reset button idea". |
| 226 | * The best theory relating to this is that after ''[=EoE=],'' Lilisukei (Lilith/Asuka/Rei, the apparent Asuka at the end) tells Shinji that he messed up and asks if he wants a mulligan on it. Shinji takes the offer, and Rebuild starts. |
| 227 | ** Just as a technical point, there is no "Lilisukei" or "Misukei" or anything to that extent. Asuka at the tail end of ''[=EoE=]'' is simply Asuka. Her eyes look "brown" or "red" due to the red filter of the light, and her bandages correspond to the injuries Eva Unit 02 suffered while she was fighting the Eva Series (über synch rates of death will do such things to a pilot, as shown earlier in the series). The aesthetic and artistic juxtaposition is surely intended, but Rei, Misato, and Asuka (or any other strange combination of hypersexualized female characters) did not merge into some composite amalgamation just because Shinji willed it to occur. If you want to fact check this, original cels of this scene show Asuka without the red light filter. Her eyes are still blue. |
| 228 | *** You know, if all humanity has been merged into one giant puddle of Tang, then there is a chance that there may be glitching when individuals try to get back out... |
| 229 | *** That totally undermines anyone's individuality though. Its also highly derogatory that 3 aspects of the main 14 year old male character's crushes are embodied in this one person following the end. Especially considering the whole point if someone wants to enough, they can reject instrumentality as Shinji did. Misato was dead and Rei was the instigator, so if anyone had a reason to reject it, it was Asuka. I get the composite character thing, but that was probably a thematic choice, but the disgust is pure Asuka. I mean, It just makes sense! |
| 230 | ** An alternate idea that comes to mind is that Shinji wished for a much lighter, less serious version of the world as suggested, but the similarities between this idea and the end of ''Anime/TheBigO'' are staggering enough to suggest Yui Ikari is this universe's equivalent of Angel, all theme naming aside. |
| 231 | * If the movies are a PeggySue -- that is, if one of the characters has arrived back at the beginning of the story with foreknowledge of the original series -- the obvious candidate is ''Misato''. She acts differently from her original self, being somewhat more mature and treating Shinji as less of a child (though that could be because most of the "domestic" scenes were cut, leaving only her badass commanding officer moments.) Most importantly, she knows about Lilith, and shows her to Shinji around 18 episodes ahead of schedule -- the one major plot departure in the first movie from the series. This goes a long way to help motivate Shinji fight Ramiel... |
| 232 | * Alternatively Mari Illustrious Makinami is the Peggy Sue, and in fact Toji's little sister, who is often called Mari in fanon. |
| 233 | * It's relevant to mention the big red stain across the moon in the end, too. A direct reference to Mega-Rei's HighPressureBlood decapitation moment at the end of ''[=EoE=]''? Perhaps! |
| 234 | * Well, if you accept any amount of postmodernism (of which Instrumentality is a prime example), reality is the aftereffect of perception. This means that if the world/humanity decides to reject instrumentality, it would be completely possible to (* cough cough* ) rebuild the world and try to make a better future. Of course, it doesn't explain why they wouldn't create an entirely new better world or completely reverse the second impact. But then again, given the mental instability and need for attention of the (main) characters, especially Shinji, recreating a very certain world where at least some amount appreciation and importance is guaranteed doesn't seem like such a bad idea. |
| 235 | ** Perhaps there are limitations to what can be done to change the reality. The most that could be done was do a reset to where things went wrong and a few personality fixes. |
| 236 | * And now with what Kaworu said in 2.0:"'''This time''' I will surely show you true happiness", apparently he is one of the persons who came back with info on the past earth. |
| 237 | * Another way to look at it is that Shinji and Auska *ahem* re-boot the human race, history plays out again, and eventually reaches the same point again but things played out differently through history, leading to the changes (heck maybe a tie in to the Axis won WWII theory). Kowaru, being an angel could probably remember his past life or not actually be dead or have some other alien magic up his sleeve to explain the knowledge he has. This would have the added bonus of explaining how Auskas name changed, having different parents. Witch could also mean she didn’t get the extra scaring effect of hearing her dad fuck the nurse/doctor. Indeed, a slightly lower level of insanity could also save her life (in terms of taking different actions) in her fight against the MP evas, leading to the eye-patch as seen in the preview of 3.0, as opposed to death. |
| 238 | * Something also to add-out of all the voice actors for the characters to return for the rebuild series, only Shinji, Auska and Misato have the same voice actors throughout the series and rebuild (English voice actors, going off TV Tropes list). Coincidentally, those are the same characters who have their psyche examined in Episodes 25 and 26, and two of them are the survivors at the end of ''[=EoE=]''. A coincidence, or a plot point... |
| 239 | |
| 240 | [[WMG: Shinji Ikari is the unknown Third Angel of the movie trilogy, and the new "Glasses Girl" character (Mari) is his [[PeggySue daughter from the future]]]] |
| 241 | * Well, this is the first I've heard of the missing Third Angel thing, but if that's the case, it's probably just Kaworu since he arrived to the party early this time. |
| 242 | ** Actually, I'm pretty sure Kaworu is the Seventh. If you look at the scene on the moon, there's a lot of opened coffins to his left, and closed ones to his right. The opened ones are the Angels fallen. The closed ones, the Angels to come. The Third thing, however... well, it's possible. |
| 243 | *** Jossed. 3.00 reveals that Kaworu is "the 1st, cast down to the 13th". |
| 244 | ** The former is disproved as of ''Rebuild 2.0.'', in which the Third Angel is shown and is destroyed by Mari in the opening. As for the latter, while it hasn't exactly been disproven yet, considering the fact that Mari doesn't even recognize who Shinji is when they meet, it's highly unlikely. |
| 245 | * It could be worth noting that in the popular {{Doujinshi}} ''Re-Take'', Shinji was both a PeggySue and [[spoiler:the Seventeenth Angel of the AlternateContinuity he found himself in ("in the form of 'the Human Mind'" -- he possessed his [[AlternateUniverse parallel self]]). ''And'' his future daughter shows up as an incorporeal PeggySue herself.]] It could be that ''Rebuild'' is heading for a similar plot, especially if you add in the "sequel" theory above. |
| 246 | |
| 247 | [[WMG: The series is based on Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth" ]] Shinji as Wang Lung, Rei as O-lan, Asuka as Lotus. Shinji is struggling between one morality, outlook, course of action and another entirely, just as there is the struggle between riches and materialism and the land and basic humanity in "The Good Earth". |
| 248 | |
| 249 | [[WMG:Shinji isn't Yui's son, he's a clone of Gendo]] |
| 250 | Anno seems to be pushing for a relationship between Shinji and Rei in the ''Rebuild of Evangelion'' films. Rather odd, as Rei being a clone of Yui would make this relationship incestuous. However, they might be something we don't know about Shinji and Gendō that might validate this ship. Rather than being the child of Gendō and Yui, Shinji may be a clone of Gendō. This would explain why they look so identical (I'm aware that fathers and sons can be nearly perfectly identical to each other) and are so similar in personality - Shinji seems to share no physical or personal attributes with his so-called mother. It would further explain why Gendō cares for Rei, a clone of his beloved wife, far more than Shinji, a clone of himself that embodies his self-loathing and guilt. As for why Shinji is able to operate Unit-01? Shinji is older than the first Rei, so, rather than grown in LCL as the Rei clones are, perhaps he needed to be gestated and born in an actual woman's womb because the technology wasn't as advanced back then: that's how clones actually work right now in the real world, so it's not implausible to say they would have had to work like that back when the technique was still in its infancy. The woman who brought him to term and gave birth to him, thus making her his 'mother'? Yui. I don't know why Gendō would clone himself, or why Yui would agree to give birth to a clone of her husband, but the theory makes sense otherwise. |
| 251 | |
| 252 | |
| 253 | [[WMG:Maya is Shinji's half-sister, the result of an affair Gendo had before marrying Yui.]] |
| 254 | This would explain why she bears such a strong physical resemblance to Shinji. |
| 255 | * It's possible. Gendo was 24 when Maya was born (Yui was only 14), and apparently he didn't meet Yui until he was 30-something. |
| 256 | ** This creates a whole new level of lovely, lovely incest and weird LoveDodecahedron because Maya is implied to have a thing for Ritsuko...who also had something going with Gendo, and Ritsuko's mom ALSO had a thing with Gendo...that Ikari really gets around. |
| 257 | |
| 258 | [[WMG:Ritsuko ''does'' reciprocate Maya's love.]] |
| 259 | She's just too screwed-up to realize it. It sort-of comes out when they're fighting the computer virus angel. |
| 260 | |
| 261 | [[WMG: The red water in ''Rebuild'' is a consequence of Second Impact.]] |
| 262 | In the TV series, the ocean is shown similarly red where Antarctica once was. It isn't red around Tokyo 3 in the TV series because this stylistic idea didn't occur to them at that point, but they implemented it in the movies? |
| 263 | * The Red water in ''Rebuild'' was caused by [[VideoGame/Siren1 the Forbidden Siren]] |
| 264 | |
| 265 | (What? I actually find it more plausible than "''Rebuild'' is a sequel". ''Rebuild'' is supposed to be a retelling of the story "more accessible to non-fans" -- i.e. an AdaptationDistillation -- and so far, it succeeds at being exactly that.) |
| 266 | |
| 267 | * Theory confirmed by ''Rebuild 2.0''. |
| 268 | |
| 269 | [[WMG: The god-like-warrior in ''Nausicaa'' is a Jet Alone.]] |
| 270 | Jet Alones are an independantly operating giant machine with a nuclear power source. God-Like-Warriors shown in Naussica are similar to this. Especialy since we see that god-like-warriors poison the environment in a way similar to nuclear power. |
| 271 | * Except that: 1) the god-warriors were [[NightmareFuel clearly]] [[BodyHorror biological]], 2) [[ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics modern (and presumably future semi-post-apocalyptic) nuclear reactors do not poison the environment]], and 3) Jet Alone did not have {{Death Ray}}s. |
| 272 | |
| 273 | [[WMG: Why Gendo made sure that Shinji had no photos of mother Yui.]] |
| 274 | This was done for two main reasons: |
| 275 | * Revenge: He resented the fact that Yui disappeared for Shinji's sake thus leaving him without the love of his life, so by making sure Shinji had nothing of hers, it would serve as a form of payback. |
| 276 | * Also, when Shinji meets Rei, he would not be able to figure out that Rei looks like his mother as he lacks any photographs of his mother to compare Rei to. |
| 277 | ** Or maybe Gendo's just a screwed-up asshole and a terrible father. |
| 278 | |
| 279 | [[WMG: Kaworu was cloned from Misato's father.]] |
| 280 | * I can't take credit for this theory. Look around on the site evageeks.org for details. |
| 281 | ** Great, just great; next thing you know, you'll be mentioning fem-Kaworu. |
| 282 | ** And Evas having ovaries. |
| 283 | * If Misato's father is Kaworu, and Kaworu is Jesus, does that makes Misato's father Jesus? I knew Misato's love for alcoholic drinks are [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic not just for comedic effect]]........... |
| 284 | * Officially disproven in ''Evangelion 2.0''. Kaworu calls Gendo or Fuyutsuki "otousan" ("father"), it's not clear which of them he was addressing. Since he looks nothing like Gendo, it's likely that Fuyutsuki was the donor. On the other hand, if Gendo was capable of cloning his wife and actually raising said clone instead of his own son, it's not impossible for SEELE to clone HIM in turn. |
| 285 | ** Jumping the gun, I'd say. We know next to nothing about NME!Kaworu's nature or origins in NME, let alone what the ultimate significance of that mysterious line will be. Whatever route the creators end up taking, it probably won't be retroactively applicable to the original show. |
| 286 | |
| 287 | The worst thing going for the "Misato's father was the donor" idea is the simple fact that it lacks any concrete support in the end. On a thematic and character level, it is actually rather appropriate, and the basic setup is all there, but, regrettably, it was never taken advantage of. |
| 288 | |
| 289 | First of all, consider: Misato is, on one level, participating in the Angels' extermination in order to avenge her father's death, but she told Shinji that is also, essentially, using them to '''take revenge on him''' and purging herself of his ghost, so to speak. Misato's tense, love/hate relationship with her father is directly paralleled with Shinji and Gendo -- and, as it goes, Shinji is also using the Angels to sublimate the rage towards his father ("Enemy! Enemy! Enemy! My enemy!!!"). And, as it goes, both of Shinji's "enemies" end up literally fusing when Gendo does that creepy thing with Adam's embryo. Considering this aspect alone, it would have made complete sense within NGE's framework for Misato's father to have done something squicky with Adam, producing the fusion of Angel and Lilin that is Kaworu. And so Misato's "vendetta/revenge" would have come to a rather logical and ironic conclusion... |
| 290 | |
| 291 | There is more going for the idea than this, but ultimately this is one of those things that you either like or don't like, since Kaworu being related to anyone in the main cast will probably amount to nothing more than wishful thinking in the end. |
| 292 | |
| 293 | * I think that the donor of the genetic material that fused with Adam and eventually became Kaworu was the person involved in the Contact Experiment. If that's the case, then it couldn't have been Dr. Katsuragi, since we all know what happened to him.... |
| 294 | |
| 295 | [[WMG: The show is actually a testament to the power of Metal.]] |
| 296 | I mean, think about it. If Shinji had been a metalhead, don't you think the show would have turned out somewhat differently. Instead of "I musn't be afraid", it'll be "I must ROCK!". And what better power to fight Angels with than something that comes from Hell. |
| 297 | * Ooooohhhh, if Shinji was a metalhead... "I must ROCK!" is just a little step before "[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Who the hell do you think I am!?]]"... |
| 298 | ** Well ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann ''pretty much ''is'' Evangelion but with the power of Metal. Except they call it Spiral Energy. |
| 299 | *** Spiral Energy is just a horrible, horrible misspelling of ''Spinal Tap''. |
| 300 | *** Then the Pick of Destiny is actually the live-action version of SSE, isn't it? |
| 301 | *** Interesting, when you consider that S2 Engines are apparently double-helix (i.e. spiral) shaped [[http://www.evageeks.org/FGP/Classified_Information_%28Translation%29#S.C2.B2_Engine (according to one of the semi-canon games, anyway)]], and generate vast amounts of energy... |
| 302 | *** Evangelion does have the power of Metal. Unfortunately, it's Insomnium... |
| 303 | * Now I am just imagining WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead as EVA pilots. |
| 304 | ** "Whoa, look at that giant chick swallowing the world." "Heh, heh, wanna do her?" |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[WMG:Going with the Above, ''Rock and Rule'' comes after ''Evangelion''.]] |
| 307 | A post-apocalyptic world with no humans, only near human creatures, where the power of rock reigns supreme? |
| 308 | |
| 309 | [[WMG:Also going with the above, Shinji (and by extension, the other pilots) was actually a failed project, and the [=EVAs=] were a desperate backup-plan.]] |
| 310 | His upbringing and experiences were engineered, not to make him a neurotic, wangsty Mecha pilot, but rather, to make him neurotic and outright psychotic enough to form and lead the Evangelion version of Deathklok. |
| 311 | |
| 312 | [[WMG: The entire show takes place in the LotusEaterMachine at the end of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''.]] |
| 313 | ... But not in the way you were expecting. It's not in the generation shown on the show, for it is noted that the [=AntiSpirals=] did this before, and there were other people trapped forever, you see -- Shinji is actually trapped in the Alternate Universes, things started out Normal, how the kid always wanted to live, not having to risk his life for others, but then, because it is apparent that true {{Lotus Eater Machine}}s have conflict to give just the right amount of meaning to their victims' lives, the events of ''[=NGE=]'' occur. |
| 314 | |
| 315 | [[WMG:Eva 01 is actually Lilith.]] |
| 316 | At the end of ''[=EoE=]'', we see Eva 01 drifting off into space to be a "messenger" of sorts for humanity. It crashes on another lifeless planet, outputting its "recording" of Earth in the form of LCL (A.K.A primordial ooze/soup) and millions of years later is discovered by the humans of that time, and is mistaken for "Adam" (which is actually part of the decaying Rei/Lilith hybrid). This event of Eva 01 crashing into the planet is considered "First Impact". |
| 317 | * Confirmed when [[spoiler:Eva 01 is actually a clone of Lilith]]. |
| 318 | ** Even more direct than that. [[spoiler: They cut off Lilith's legs and shaped Eva 01 out of them. [[http://wiki.evageeks.org/Analysis_of_the_Episode_23%27_Reiquarium_Images There's a freeze-frame shot in Episode 23 showing it]]. Furthermore, this is why when they tried to extract Yui from Eva 01 after the contact experiment, they instead got a child clone of her that had Lilith's soul.]] |
| 319 | * Eva-01 did have a Lance of Longinus with it when it drifted off into space, just like Adam and Lilith did. However, Adam and Lilith crashed to Earth within the White and Black Moons, respectively. These were the "Seeds of Life," with the Black Moon being the source of all the souls on Earth. Eva-01, even though it was cloned from Lilith, couldn't act as a progenitor of life for another planet on its own in my opinion. It simply serves, as Yui said, as an "eternal reminder that the human race existed." |
| 320 | |
| 321 | [[WMG:In a reverse of most theories, Neon Genesis Evangelion occurs in the Warhammer 40K universe!]] |
| 322 | No, ''[[FanFic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40k not]]'' ''[[Fanfic/ThousandShinji those]]''. This is totally inspired by [[http://4chanarchive.org/brchive/dspl_thread.php5?thread_id=912853&x=neon+ ultima+ exterminatus this]] 4chan thread. It makes an awful lot of sense though, especially if the Angels are simply Greater Demons of Chaos... |
| 323 | * Neon Genesis Evangelion is a prelude to the White Crusade (named after the body colors of Angels), which permanently cripples the Imperium of Man and annihilates the Eldar and the Tau. The Illuminati, knowing the Imperium is doomed to torture by Chaos, Necrons, and Tyranids, carries out a plan to revive the Emperor as the last resort. The Emperor successfully comes back to life... and simply ends the universe as he has been sick and tired of watching the galaxy burn. While singing "[[SoundtrackDissonance Komm, Susser Tod]]". That is the end of all. |
| 324 | |
| 325 | [[WMG: NGE takes place in ''this'' world...]] |
| 326 | ...after the Scientologists succeeded in destroying all "psychs" (psychologists and psychiatrists, not psychics) with a well-placed "meteor strike" at a world psychiatry convention, hence why ThereAreNoTherapists in the future. |
| 327 | * So why is no one trying to cleanse Shinji and Rei from their harmful Thetans? |
| 328 | * The Angels are the Body Thetans.... |
| 329 | * With the psychiatry convention, the meteor hit Antarctica. A psychiatry convention in Antarctica? |
| 330 | |
| 331 | [[WMG:''NGE'' takes place on the world [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Dr. Manhattan]] intended to create after he left earth for good.]] |
| 332 | It's a lot more complicated then he thought it'd be, and strangely it contains quite a few similar characters: An emotionless artificial god (or gods, if need be) who ends up becoming a world destroying/creating naked giant, a brilliant MagnificentBastard who helps cause world peace by eliminating a large chunk of humanity, a woman pushed by and rebelling against memories of her mother, a DNA Frankenstein's monster of a pet, and scores of people who were unwittingly aiding in the end of the world.... (Note: This troper has no idea if the creator of ''NGE'' ever read ''Watchmen''; if he did that's cool; if not that's ''crazy'', because the similarities are odd. Alternatively, has Allan Moore seen ''NGE?'') |
| 333 | * They are both [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructions]] of things that are culturally similar; Giant robots are to Japan what superheroes are to America. |
| 334 | * Also, God-Rei is not nearly as emotionless as Dr. M. She is the penultimate mother-figure (for all humankind) and sacrifices herself out of compassion for her "children". |
| 335 | |
| 336 | [[WMG: ''NGE'' takes place on the ''normal'' Earth of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'']] |
| 337 | Alternative to the above. Without Dr. Manhattan the US failed to remain a super power and when the USSR fell apart in the late 80s/early 90s Japan arose as the world's new Military power. The Angels are just attempts by [[spoiler: Ozy]] to keep the world peace brought on by the [[spoiler:Squid that killed half of New York]]. After discovering the First Angel Adam, he lets it loose too early and causes the Second Impact on incident in which he himself perishes. The other Angels have either broke out of their confines on their own or have been released by SEELE. |
| 338 | |
| 339 | [[WMG: The "First Earth" from ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' is NGE-Earth thousands of years later]] |
| 340 | Administrivia/HowDidWeMissThisOne? Anyway, enough people managed to separate from Mega-Rei (who went on to "seed" the colonies with humans and animals) to repopulate the planet using NERV's technology. The Colonies' gods are Rei's memories of her human friends and otherworldly enemies while the Cylon's god is a gender-shifted Rei (Rei = Dei = Deus = Zeus(?)). Either that or a variation of the first ''Watchmen'' theory: Dr. Manhattan's world's creation Rei tries to create her ''own'' world; {{Earth Shattering KaBoom}}s, deconstructed archetypes, and fucked-up love affairs ensue (apparently things would be ''worse'' if the blond MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter and the [[AloofDarkHairedGirl Aloof Dark Haired]] LadyOfWar were actually lovers; the [[WellDoneSonGuy Well Done Son Guy and Well Done Daughter Gal]] get off comparatively easy (which is to say they survive ...ish). |
| 341 | |
| 342 | |
| 343 | [[WMG: Rei and Dr. Manhattan are the "parents" of all DeconstructorFleet universes]] |
| 344 | And of course the conception and births are pure NightmareFuel. |
| 345 | |
| 346 | [[WMG:The Evangelions each contain [[spoiler:the soul of their pilot's mother.]]]] |
| 347 | True. Or possibly False. Some signs point to [[spoiler: only Eva 01 having a soul]], others point to the rest getting in on the [[spoiler: soul]] action. |
| 348 | * Possibly, this extends to Evangelions besides [[spoiler:Shinji's and Asuka's.]] This would mean [[spoiler: Zerogouki (Unit Zero) contains either the soul of Shinji's grandmother or that of a dead cloning technician, and that Touji's mother is dead. What it means for Evas past Unit Three is open to wild speculation.]] |
| 349 | ** Actually, [[spoiler:all of the Evas past Unit 3 use dummy plugs that contain the personal data of Kaworu.]] |
| 350 | *** No, [[spoiler:all of the Evas have souls, or at least parts of souls, or they wouldn't be able to manifest an AT Field. The Kaworu dummy plugs merely control them, but as they are soulless, cannot give the mass-produced Evas an AT Field. Now this troper wonders about the unlucky people who got their souls shoved into the Evas]]... |
| 351 | * Other theories say that [[spoiler: Touji's little sister had her soul stolen to power Unit Three, and that the soul of Ritsuko's mother, Naoko, was placed into Unit Zero somehow after she commited suicide. This last is supported by Unit Zero's violence towards Rei (who Naoko saw as a threat for Gendo's attention); also, since Naoko was involved in cloning Yui, she could be the "dead cloning technician" referred to above.]] |
| 352 | ** EVA-03's soul isn't Toji's sister, at least in the Rebuild Timeline, where she not only appears, but has a support role complete with dialogue! Of course, in the NGE Timeline, she could very well be the soul of EVA-03, as the EVA-Units' souls could just be from someone who cares a lot about their pilot, not necessarily the pilot's mother. |
| 353 | ** Another possible [[spoiler:soul]] for Unit Zero is [[spoiler:the first Rei, or a piece of that Rei. Asuka's mother became insane because the part of her that loved Asuka was split from her soul, so dividing souls isn't impossible. Also it would explain Rei's lack of emotions.]] |
| 354 | * [[spoiler: Actually, all of the Evas have souls. Evas 01-03's are provided by the mother of the pilot. It's never clear whose soul is in 00. It's not Lilith's because Rei has that one. The production Evas also have souls, most likely belonging to the mothers of Shinji's classmates (who are the only existing pilot candidates according to canon). Kaworu has Adam's.]] |
| 355 | * A possibility is that Unit 3 didn't have [[spoiler:a soul]] until [[spoiler:when Bardiel hijacked Unit 3, whereupon Bardiel was the soul in question]]. This would imply that Unit 3 was unable to activate its AT-Field before [[spoiler:it was hijacked]]. Also, Unit 4 [[spoiler:probably didn't have a soul at all, therefore the S2 engine exploded without a control on the power output]]. |
| 356 | ** This actually seems likely. It wouldn't even be a surprise if SEELE had had Bardiel in their possession for some time, and just needed the Americans to build an EVA without a soul. The show tends to be a bit vague about such details. And if this is true, then the only reason they sent a Japanese child to pilot the EVA-03 would be because they needed an excuse for inserting Bardiel in EVA-03 (which they would be able to do secretly during maintenance). |
| 357 | ** Unit-03 was infected by Bardiel during transport, when the plane flew through that odd cloud with Unit-03 dangling underneath it. There was even some ominous blue lightning hinting at it. |
| 358 | ** Unit 03 must have [[spoiler:had a soul, or Touji would not have been able to pilot it.]] The fact that he never winds up doing so isn't relevant; he was expected to be able to. As to Unit 04, it wasn't completed yet when [[spoiler: it blew up]], so it probably didn't have [[spoiler: a soul]], either. |
| 359 | *** We don't know if the Americans (who built Unit 03) were even aware of [[spoiler:the soul being a necessity]]. And Gendo and SEELE both ([[MindScrew probably]]) expected [[spoiler:Unit 03 to get hijacked]] because of the [[spoiler:hidden parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls]], which explain Instrumentality and the events that precede it. |
| 360 | *** Maybe Unit 00 has no soul at all. This is how I see it: The tandem pilot-EVA needs one soul in order to work, doesn't matter if comes from the EVA or from the pilot. [[spoiler:Because the Unit 00 can enter in berserk mode without an entry plug or with a souless pilot]] this would mean there are different kinds of autonomous movement for the Evangelions: the Berserker mode is when the EVA itself (the creature) regains control over its body overriding the NERV systems and still needs external power [[spoiler:(This would also explain why the EVA-00 stops if the umbilical cable gets unplugged even in Berserk mode)]] and the "Possession mode" that occurs when the soul takes the command seat and doesn't need external power. This mode makes the EVA behave a little more rational and least like a beast [[spoiler:(For example, when the EVA-01 moves to protect Shinji from the falling lights in Ep.1 or exiting Leliel, that's Yui in action). The battle against Zeruel is possession in the first stage and berserk later. NERV tecnology however can't tell the difference between this two modes. Additionally this would mean Shinji could never have synchronized with Unit 00 and that if Unit 03 lacked a soul Touji could never have piloted it.]] |
| 361 | *** I always assumed that Unit 00's core was [[spoiler:Rei-1, who was presumably killed by Ritsuko's mother, unless I remember incorrectly. Granted, she's not Rei-2's actual mother, but being a clone, maybe it's close enough.]] |
| 362 | * This doesn't seem to apply to ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'', because (at least) Asuka and Rei were potential pilots for Unit 03. [[spoiler:Asuka ends up piloting it.]] |
| 363 | ** But there IS a scene prior in which EVA-02's core is shown being taken out. This might suggest that the necessary soul is just in the core, whereas the rest of the EVA is essentially a shell. [[spoiler: that would also justify Mari being able to pilot EVA-02 at the end of 2.22: with 02 having no core, it's possible that NERV or someone would have been able to salvage Provisional UNIT-05's core and transplant that into 02.]] |
| 364 | |
| 365 | |
| 366 | [[WMG:The Evangelions DON'T contain [[spoiler:the soul of their pilot's mother.]]]] |
| 367 | They are [[spoiler:Eve, the biblical mother of all humanity]]. The link to the pilot works by [[spoiler:the love between mother and child]], so the Eva serves as a [[spoiler:surrogate mother]]. This works best if the person in question [[spoiler:needs a surrogate; in other words, a child whose mother is dead!]] Anyone piloting an Eva would sense [[spoiler:their mother]]'s presence, but only [[spoiler:a motherless child would need that presence badly enough to fully accept it]] and achieve a useful synch ratio. |
| 368 | * And here I was thinking I was the only person who thought this! |
| 369 | * That is somewhat supported simply by that scene where they say [[spoiler:Adam and Eva]], but denied by the part where [[spoiler:Shinji, absorbed by Unit 01, talks to Yui, and then decides to recreate his body.]] |
| 370 | ** Is he talking to Yui, though, or to Unit 01's recreation of her? |
| 371 | |
| 372 | [[WMG:The Evangelions contain their own souls, which have imprinted upon the [[spoiler: souls of their absorbed test subjects]]]] |
| 373 | Compromise! But really: the Evas are independent, sentient beings that are ''influenced'' by the souls they have consumed. |
| 374 | |
| 375 | [[WMG:The Evangelions can't be piloted unless they have absorbed a soul. However, they can get by with only absorbing PART of a soul]] |
| 376 | Shinji's unit contained [[spoiler:his mother's full soul.]] Asuka's unit contained [[spoiler: the "maternal" part of her mother's soul. The rest of her mother's soul remained within her mother's body after the contact experiment with Asuka's Eva unit, but since the maternal part of her soul was missing, Asuka's mother refused to recognize and bond with her daughter. Then she went mad and committed suicide.]] Rei's unit contained [[spoiler: a piece of the Lilith Soul that was within Rei. Since Rei had no mother (and since the Eva unit--indeed ANY cloned body in the Evangelion universe--can only move with the aid of a soul,) they had to engineer a workaround solution. The part of the Lilith soul that was placed into the Eva unit contained Rei's emotions--and as a result Rei 2 was largely unemotional throughout her life. When Rei 2 and her Eva unit were destroyed, Rei 3 inherited the part of the soul that was within Rei 2 AND she inherited the emotional part of Lilith's soul that was in within Rei's Eva unit. This is the reason that Rei 3 seems a bit more emotional than her predecessor. She now has Lilith's full soul within her.]] |
| 377 | |
| 378 | [[WMG:SEELE is led not by Keel Lorenz, but run behind the scenes by...]] |
| 379 | Seal. Because it would just be hilarious. |
| 380 | * And because, hey, naming the organization after himself would just throw off investigators. |
| 381 | * You know we're never gonna survive, unless we get a little tang-y. |
| 382 | |
| 383 | [[WMG: Shinji isn't a maladjusted human]] |
| 384 | He's a Dwarf. From ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress.'' Which would actually make him rather sane, by those standards. He's moody and when he gets unhappy enough, he tantrums. |
| 385 | * And so is everyone else. |
| 386 | * Evangelions are artifacts, with a masterfully done rendition of an image of a Maple Leaf done in Redroot Dye. |
| 387 | * Misato drinks enough to be a Dwarf. |
| 388 | ** Which is why Shinji was so upset and slow all the time; not enough booze. |
| 389 | *** That's why Shinji is always unhappy; Misato's house sucks. If he'd actually had a decent place to live... |
| 390 | *** Shinji Ikari has been ecstatic lately. He was awoken by noise while sleeping lately. He has witnessed death lately. He lost a good friend lately. He ate a truly decadent meal lately. He has sustained minor injuries lately. |
| 391 | * Heh heh heh. |
| 392 | -->Sachiel stabs EVA-01 in the head with his Adamantine Spear! |
| 393 | -->It is mangled! |
| 394 | -->The right eye is torn out! |
| 395 | -->EVA-01 is propelled away by the force of the blow! |
| 396 | -->EVA-01 slams into an obstacle! |
| 397 | -->EVA-01 stands up. |
| 398 | -->EVA-01 has entered a martial trance! |
| 399 | -->EVA-01 grabs Sachiel by the head with his left hand! |
| 400 | -->Sachiel grabs EVA-01 by the upper body with his right hand! |
| 401 | -->Sachiel breaks the grip of EVA-01's left hand on his head! |
| 402 | -->Sachiel throws EVA-01 by the upper body! |
| 403 | -->EVA-01 charges at Sachiel! |
| 404 | -->EVA-01 misses Sachiel! |
| 405 | -->Sachiel bashes EVA-01 in the upper body with his AT-Field! |
| 406 | -->It is bruised! |
| 407 | -->EVA-01 grabs Sachiel by the AT-Field with his right hand! |
| 408 | -->EVA-01 grabs Sachiel by the AT-Field with his left hand! |
| 409 | -->EVA-01 locks Sachiel's AT-Field with his left hand! |
| 410 | -->Sachiel misses EVA-01! |
| 411 | -->EVA-01 cripples Sachiel's AT-Field! |
| 412 | -->EVA-01 grabs Sachiel's left hand with his left hand! |
| 413 | -->EVA-01 grabs Sachiel's right hand with his left hand! |
| 414 | -->EVA-01 punches Sachiel in the left hand with his right hand! |
| 415 | -->The left hand flies off in an arc! |
| 416 | -->EVA-01 punches Sachiel in the right hand with his right hand! |
| 417 | -->The right hand flies off in an arc! |
| 418 | -->EVA-01 charges at Sachiel! |
| 419 | -->EVA-01 punches Sachiel in the head! |
| 420 | -->It is smashed into the body, an unrecognizable mass! |
| 421 | -->Sachiel, Angel, has been struck down. |
| 422 | * Third Impact was the testing of the ultimate "Fuck The World" device, a la ''Boatmurdered.'' Originally, the Human Instrumentality Project was intended to create a more efficient way of taking care of goblin sieges, but more importantly, of elephants, carp, elves and the like. As a nice bonus, LCL is also actually a kind of booze. In fact, "Komm, susser Tod" goes pretty well with the last few installments of ''Boatmurdered,'' even. |
| 423 | * The Second Impact was said to be a contact experiment. They were experimenting with what would happen when a pickaxe contacted Adamantite. |
| 424 | ** So, the Angels are Hidden Fun Stuff! As bad as the Third Impact was, at least they didn't have '&'. |
| 425 | * Sandalphon is actually !!Sandalphon!!. |
| 426 | ** Nah, Sandalphon probably has the [FIREIMMUNE] creature token, at least. |
| 427 | * And there're no cats! Gendo was smart enough to avoid a catsplosion. Either that, or his gloves were Kitten Leather Gloves. |
| 428 | * Tokyo III was built on top of ''Hidden Fun Stuff''. |
| 429 | * The reason there's less than 20 Angels in the entire world is that angels are megabeasts, and they tend to die off in world gen, which has been going on for the past five thousand years or so. |
| 430 | ** What was the end dates and percentage beasts dead for stoppage? |
| 431 | * Yui's death...well, Gendo was unhappy about the Evangelions failing, and he was stressed out, and last thing he remembered, he looses a roaring laughter, fell and terrible! When he woke up, he had a legendary Eva, and some...chunks. |
| 432 | * Alternatively, Yui was working on the Eva when she locked herself in the work bay and started demanding Adamantine and Crystal Glass. After a while, they decided it would be safer and more merciful to just flood the chamber with LCL. |
| 433 | ** Or, everyone was stressed out from working on the project, and Yui just started screaming before she was beaten to death for knocking over a chair. |
| 434 | |
| 435 | [[WMG:''Angelic Days'' is the 'real world. The regular Evangelion is actually a fanfiction written by Rei, disgruntled after being dumped by Shinji.]] |
| 436 | * Rei is the mysterious cool girl. |
| 437 | * Shinji is a whiny, irritating hero. |
| 438 | * Asuka is a mean, foultempered bitch. |
| 439 | * Kaworu was there for the HoYay. |
| 440 | ** Wait... does that mean that Rei's a YaoiFangirl? |
| 441 | * It would seem that this theory is [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7161235/1/My_Fantasy plausable.]] |
| 442 | [[WMG:The entire series is a fantasy of [[Anime/PaniPoniDash Mesousa]].]] |
| 443 | Many other entries theorise that their series are Shinji's fantasies, but think about it: For Mesousa, Shinji's life would be a definite ''improvement'' over his own. |
| 444 | |
| 445 | [[WMG: AT Fields are actually souls and the EVA's souls can act as shields due to their massive energy input]] |
| 446 | Oh wait, that's true. |
| 447 | |
| 448 | [[WMG:Rei Ayanami is actually [[spoiler:a clone of Shinji's mother, Yui.]]]] |
| 449 | Oh, wait -- that was true. |
| 450 | * Not necessarily - see below. |
| 451 | |
| 452 | [[WMG: Rei Ayanami is NOT [[spoiler:the clone of Shinji's mother]].]] |
| 453 | Rei was actually an unrelated human drawn from Lilith using genetic engineering, and was then molded by Gendo in Yui's own image. Which makes Lilith the biblical Adam and Rei the biblical Eve. This might be Jossed, but This Troper was simply concerned of the Rei / Shinji fan pairings, and the canonical fact that [[spoiler: Rei is Shinji's mother]] will give lots and lots and lots of {{Squick}}....... |
| 454 | * I have no concern for the desires of shippers, but I actually believe this to be true. Up until the end, we see pairs of female human legs sticking out of the Lance-impaled Lilith; this is where the multitude of Reis come from and where Rei III returns to in ''The End of Evangelion''. As we see, Lilith is basically composed of silly-putty, meaning that Rei, a derivative of Lilith in human form, could probably have been given any shape desired by someone seeking to manipulate it. She clearly has some connection to Yui beyond her physical appearance, but I am dubious of the assertion that she is a "clone" in the genetic sense. |
| 455 | |
| 456 | [[WMG:The Angels are [[spoiler:an alternately-evolved form of Man.]]]] |
| 457 | Oops, that was true, too. |
| 458 | * Somehow. |
| 459 | |
| 460 | [[WMG:Gendo Ikari is [[spoiler:double-crossing [=NERV=] and [=SEELE=] (who are also double-crossing [=NERV=]) to further his own agenda -- to resurrect his dead wife.]]]] |
| 461 | Um... yeah, true. |
| 462 | |
| 463 | [[WMG:The [=MAGI=] computer trio is [[spoiler:Ritsuko's mother.]]]] |
| 464 | True. |
| 465 | * Not true. [[spoiler: Naoko designed and built the Magi, after Ritsuko was born. Thus it is impossible for the Magi to be Ritsuko's mother. The fact that she committed suicide in front of the Magi is not evidence that she somehow melded with them.]] |
| 466 | ** I think you mean before [[spoiler:Ritsuko was born. Otherwise there is no reason it couldn't be so other than just one more traumatized child/adult in this series. As you have it stated, it is like saying Eva-01 can't be Yui as she helped create it and Shinji is born]]. However, I put this in a close-enough catagory. It is based on her own mind, or Naoko's self image of herself in those three roles. So it as close as you can get without resorting turning the [=MAGI=] into a stationary [=EVA=] like device. |
| 467 | *** The MAGI had to be created after Ritsuko's birth. Not only would Naoko have been unrealistically young before that point, one of the Magi is based on her identity as a mother, which couldn't exist before having a child. |
| 468 | * Wasn't it stated in the series that Naoko had uploaded portions of her mind into each of the supercomputers? This statement both is and isn't true. |
| 469 | |
| 470 | [[WMG:The entire series is Shinji's dream. The only "real" part is the "normal world" in episode 25.]] |
| 471 | True -- in at least one AlternateContinuity now being published in Japan. |
| 472 | * It was his worst nightmare ever... So horrible he couldn't go to bed for a few days without his mom and indoor lighting... |
| 473 | |
| 474 | [[WMG: Shinji wrote the scenario of Evangelion based on his dreams.]] |
| 475 | The dream was so impressive, he thought it would make the greatest horror story ever. It [[GoneHorriblyRight went horribly right.]] |
| 476 | |
| 477 | [[WMG:The Angels are all female, including Kaworu.]] |
| 478 | From a biological standpoint, female -- having an XX chromosome -- is the default sex. This is why asexual animals like worker ants and bees are considered female despite having no need for procreation. All animals are built on a female template, with males (XY) being a necessary deviation from that to facillitate reproduction (and males still have vestigal female traits, such as nipples). Thus it stands to reason that the Angels, being an asexual species, are all female as they have no need for males -- including Adam, despite having a male name. Kaworu is biologically male, his body (I say "his" because that's what's used in the text) apparently being a clone of some unnamed Japanese man in the same way Rei is a clone of Yui Ikari, but his "soul"/psychic imprint/whatever is Adam's, and Adam is female. Thus it's possible that while Kaworu has the physical traits of a male human, "he" views himself as female. |
| 479 | * Hence why the XX series of Angel Moe figures exists, with a ''female'' Kaworu who has three or four pairs of wings and his/her usual shirt and shoes, but no pants (the shirt covers "her" midsection Ranma-style). |
| 480 | * It is doubtful though that Kaworu views himself as male or female. |
| 481 | ** Who's the say? Kaworu's character is practically a blank slate. |
| 482 | * Actually, that's wrong. True, in mammals, XX is female and XY is male. In birds, however, the opposite is true - XX is male and XY is female. In some reptiles, such as crocodiles, sex is determined not by chromosomes but by the temperature at which the egg is incubated. |
| 483 | ** Male birds are ZZ and female birds are ZW, to be more accurate. But the females are still heterogametic while the males are homogametic, while it's the other way around in mammals. |
| 484 | ** But what are the Angels besides alternate evolutions from the humans? Thinking about that, then, they are sorta mammal, and then, they might be all female. At least Lilith was. |
| 485 | *** The Angels did not evolve ''from'' humans, they evolved in a similar manner to humans (that is, being the top of the evolutionary chain and started from Adam, they are beings comparable to humans who are the top of the evolutionary chain and started from Lilith). This phenomenon is also known in science as "Convergent evolution" (Which means, creatures from different habitats can evolve similarly to resemble each other). This means they're not necessarily mammals-- in fact, they're more likely to be a completely different taxonomical kingdom, maybe even a completely different ''domain'' (I mean, really, let's take that EldritchAbomination that can change its appearance into a kaleidoscope of geometrical shapes and can shoot massive energy beams from its core and classify it as a reptile. Or the EldritchAbomination which has a shadowlike antimatter body and casts a 3D shadow in the air and classify it as a mammal. Sure). Since the determination of sex varies by species and isn't even always genetic, there is no way of determining their sex. At most we can say they're homozygous from the fact that Adam most likely reproduced asexually, but there is no way to determine whether that makes them "male" or "female" (or both? None?). |
| 486 | * Actually, nipples on men aren't vestigal. Some men ARE capable of lactating, so nipples on men ''technically'' aren't vestigal, though depending on how much value one puts on one's perceived masculinity, one is more likely to deny or ignore it. |
| 487 | ** Reading this bullet point really struck me with just how far-out this discussion has gotten. Ah, Wild Mass Guessing. |
| 488 | * Can't even say if the Angels are homozygous. What if, for example, Adam used parthenogenesis? Or if the Spear of Longinus contains a plethora of genetic information and can double as an impregnation device? Far too many unknowns. Also, as far as classification goes, the Seeds (and the Evas by extension) obviously can't fit into any Terran slots, since they're from another planet, and quite possibly bioengineered god-versions of the FAR themselves. About all we can say is that Seeds/Evas and Angels (intrinsically) are highly convergent with hominids -- or more like the other way around, by design. Don't forget: 99.89%! |
| 489 | |
| 490 | [[WMG:The Rei clones faked their deaths, changed their faces and hair, and got work in other anime.]] |
| 491 | Since Rei was such a popular character, it would have been easy for them to find work with how popular a character type Rei became. |
| 492 | * Some of them travelled back in time, to make older anime. The most sympathetic of them all is [[Anime/SailorMoon Ami Mizuno]]. |
| 493 | * Related: http://quasimanga.deviantart.com/gallery/31460#/d12y2vq |
| 494 | |
| 495 | [[WMG:Kaworu has ascended to self-awareness of the plot]] |
| 496 | In rebirth he is able to appear to Gendo along with Rei and Yui. In the "remake"/"Sequel" it is debated if he is aware he has met Shinji before. |
| 497 | * This is potentially compatible with every WMG out there. |
| 498 | ** All versions of NGE are Shinji's instrumentality BSOD? Shinji just couldn't completely reject/alter the one person who seemed to care for him, even as Shinji murdered him. So subconsciously Shinji carries along the real Kaworu into each universe with himself. Kaworu just plays along in an attempt to help Shinji recover emotionally. |
| 499 | *** Kaworu is Itsuki in Haruhi Suzimaya in the Shinji = Kyon WMG s. Kaworu tells "Kyon" that Haruhi is god when it is Shinji/Kyon all along in his quest for a normal life. Every so often Kaworu/Itsuki makes subtle hints at Shinji/Kyon's true nature in an attempt to get Shinji to return to the "real" world and fix everything. It would also explain the StupidSexyFlanders both characters have. |
| 500 | ** Angelic Days Rei wrote the original NGE? Kaworu gave her the *nudge nudge, hint hint* |
| 501 | ** The show, or the whole franchise, is in purgatory? Then this is less meta and Kaworu is a celestial guard who has taken sympathy on one of the inmates, Shinji, and participates from time to time for his own motives. |
| 502 | * ...[[WMG/{{Slayers}} * cough* ]]... |
| 503 | ** Holy shit! I just realized they've even got the same seiyuu. Wonder what this means for [[{{Manga/Saiyuki}} Cho Hakkai]]? |
| 504 | *** The seiyuu that voices Kaworu and Xellos also voices [[Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi Fate Averruncus]]. If we combine this with some other [=WMGs=], and take this to its possible conclusion, we end up with Fate trying to enact a GambitRoulette that will result in Shinji (as Negi) [[EverybodyLives saving all of his friends]], and preventing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, allowing Shinji's mind to take another step towards heath. |
| 505 | ** So, Xellos and Kaworu are just manifestations of a singular greater meta being that is also incarnated at Itsuki? Does this mean every fictional universe has a bit of Kawollotsuki..., an Elder god name if I ever heard one? |
| 506 | * ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'', of all things, appears to run with this; in Alpha 3, Kaworu (never mind how he managed to survive SRW Alpha in the first place) makes references to the events of SRW F Final and SRW MX, both in entirely different continuities. The leading theory in SRW fandom is that he's a Time [[strike:Lord]] Diver and travels between dimensions, and thus is the same being in every continuity (including canon and presumably Rebuild). |
| 507 | |
| 508 | [[WMG: Shinji's Three Love Interests are an Intentional Corruption of the Maiden/Mother/Crone dynamic]] |
| 509 | Misato is the crone, skewed in that though she is still young and beautiful, she believes herself to be an OldMaid, convinced that her married friends have passed her by, despite all evidence to the contrary. Asuka plays the traditional role of the maiden to Shinji, while at the same time being as truly NOT maiden-like as possible. Rei is positioned as the mother, a relationship position whose skewing should be obvious. |
| 510 | |
| 511 | [[WMG: Gendo abandoned Shinji as a TakeThat to Yui choosing to be adsorbed into Eva 01]] |
| 512 | While it is true that Gendo is so fixated on Yui that he cannot cope without her in his life, a part of Gendo resents Yui for leaving him the way she did and as a TakeThat in the form of ''an eye for an eye'' by abandoning Shinji. |
| 513 | * This is most definitely Sadamoto's take on it - in his version of the Beginning to the End, Gendou rants about this to Shinji about this: Yui was his light, his only reason for living. As soon as Shinji was born he got all the love/attention. If Shinji is Oedipus, then manga!Gendou is definitely Laertes. |
| 514 | |
| 515 | [[WMG: Third Impact was an attempt by God to get rid of the Human race and replace them with his true chosen race]] |
| 516 | The Penguins. |
| 517 | * And Pen Pen is their Messiah. |
| 518 | * This is actually canon explanation for Second Impact. Third Impact, on the other hand, was just a clusterfuck. |
| 519 | |
| 520 | [[WMG: RealLife is an {{Anime}} in the world of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'']] |
| 521 | In 1999, when the second impact occured, Earth became an interresting place to live, in the sense of the classic Chinese curse: "May you have an interesting life." Climactic extremes, finding out that mythology was true, conspiracies in every bush, etc. When something is interesting, it is most likely plagued by war and chaos (See ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and try to see what this troper means). When something is peaceful, it is most likely plagued with boredom (That is why after the Nazis and Soviets the real world just got boring, and most of the interesting lives had to be transported into computers, which can simulate Nazis and Soviets). When you live in a dull world (for certain values of dull), you escape to interesting fiction ([[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion khmmm...]]). When you live in an interesting world, you long for a boring peaceful world (RealLife). It makes sense: most people with interesting lives probably escape to a fantasy of dull farming. |
| 522 | * This wanker is so fucked up. Hee hee hee....... |
| 523 | * The alternative theory (far less likely, by the way) is that ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is an {{Anime}} in RealLife, but that's too much of a stretch even for a WMG page. |
| 524 | ** Nah, that's just too OBVIOUS. Why would Evangelion do something so completely unironic? |
| 525 | * NGE, an anime in real life! Don't be crazy! Real Life is exactly like ''Manga/DeathNote'', have you ever ''looked'' at Zac Efron before? |
| 526 | |
| 527 | [[WMG: Digimon Seasons 1 and 2 are a TV show in the [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion EVA]] world.]] |
| 528 | Agumon's upper digivolutions look like EVA, and the light-hearted message of banding together with your friends, some of whom look weird and have self-esteem issues, to fight scary, evil monsters is meant to help the general public accept the existence of the [=EVAs=] and NERV (someone's gonna ask where those big robot-things come from, right?) as part of the battle for good. Gendo is a fan of the Digimon Emperor, who he emulates by wearing glove and acting like a BAMF. |
| 529 | |
| 530 | [[WMG: Asuka has Bipolar Disorder, specifically Bipolar-II]] |
| 531 | When we first meet her, she's on top of the world, better than everyone, and can do anything. She acts rashly and without thinking about the consequences, which is more or less the symptoms of hypomania (Hypomania = Lesser form of full-blown mania). At her lowest, she has the classic symptoms of depression. While she did indeed have a screwed up childhood, and what she suffered would mess anyone up, her shifts in overall mood are just so incredibly drastic that being Bipolar would just explain a whole lot. It's a pity that [[ThereAreNoTherapists There Are No Psychatrists]] in Evangelion. |
| 532 | * To me, she wasn't really bipolar, but a StepfordSmiler all the time. Sometimes I pretended to be aggressive and/or overly happy when I was sad, so, I know sometimes that's just it. |
| 533 | |
| 534 | [[WMG:''Evangelion'' is about learning to drive]] |
| 535 | Seriously, think about it: |
| 536 | * Shinji's father pulls him up out of the blue and puts him in a big, scary metal machine which is quite capable of killing him or someone else if he misuses it. |
| 537 | * He is immediately thrown out into a hostile situation and expected to master said machine on the fly |
| 538 | * He struggles to keep any semblance of control |
| 539 | * It all ends in tears. |
| 540 | * This theory also provides the simplest explanation of Shinji's mindscrew sequence inside the Sea of Dirac -- he's given up and taken the train instead. |
| 541 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_I_Learned_to_Drive How Shinji learned to drive, huh?]] |
| 542 | * So Berserk Mode is symbolic of Shinji accidentally hitting the accelerator instead of the brakes, and bumping the gearshift into reverse when he tried to go for the hand brake? And then being forced into it ''again'' to run an out-of-control car off the road? Shinji's driving lessons are ''awesome''. |
| 543 | |
| 544 | [[WMG:Rebuild's character Mari Illustrious Makinami is a TakeThat to [[MarySue Mary-Sues]].]] |
| 545 | Her plugsuit, Asuka's surname change (Asuka Langley Shikinami, to fit the "nami" theme), her name by itself (Mari Illustrious, guys, it's obvious), the different uniform, and her sudden role were just Gainax's way to say: "Hey, Suethors, see how weird is the whole unfitting theme? We're going to make better than you, it's a promise. Just give up writing instead." In-series explanation? Shinji was just creating someone that would finally like him for what he is. |
| 546 | * Perhaps the same could be said of [[strike:all religions]] Asuka: She arrives just as suddenly in the original series as Mari in Rebuild, has an impressive Sue resume (FieryRedhead, [[ButNotTooForeign half-German]], TeenGenius college graduate, fire-red AceCustom mecha), and her abrasiveness and ego, if nothing else, seem to be just [[BlitheSpirit the kick in the rear most of the cast needs]], [[WellExcuseMePrincess especially Shinji]]. [[FromBadToWorse Then it all returns to nothing, it all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down...]] |
| 547 | ** As for Mari, she's probably going to turn out to be a sociopath. She appears normal, and actually pretty happy... but in the Evangelion universe that right there should be a warning flag. Plus how could a person that content with their lives have a strong enough AT field? It turns out she's carefree because she is completely detatched, with an inability to feel love or intimacy, and having difficulties with empathy. Plus, you know, she's even more batshit insane than Asuka in combat. |
| 548 | * Or else Mari is not a sue, but was originally from a SuperRobot type universe, in which she fit in perfectly with the other characters, and accidentally ended up in the Eva world when she was fighting a MonsterOfTheWeek. She used too much Getter Rays/Photon Power/Spiral Energy/[=GN=] Particles at one time, and poof, she ended up crashed in some sort of crazy place where the mecha are squishy and everyone's all angsty all the time. |
| 549 | |
| 550 | [[WMG: Shinji's class is made up of any child who had a parent die anywhere near an Evangelion.]] |
| 551 | From scientist mums whose souls were sucked inside Evas to contractor dads who tripped over and broke their necks while walking through the NERV building. We know that Shinji's classmates are all potential Eva pilots, but there's a difference between being a potential pilot and actually being able to pilot it. SEELE knew the parent-soul-thing worked with Asuka and Shinji, but didn't know how it happened and decided to leave a large margin for error. |
| 552 | :I'm pretty sure this one's true. Kensuke and Hikari don't have mothers either, I think. |
| 553 | |
| 554 | [[WMG:[[CuckooNest Shinji is insane and is living in a world of his own imagined in a mental asylum in greater Tokyo.]]]] |
| 555 | After witnessing the death of his mother, Shinji suffered a mental breakdown. The media spectacle of a meteorite impact in Antarctica served as the focus for the creation of a new world to escape to. Which means: |
| 556 | * Gendo is Shinji's emotionally distant father. After becoming a widower and being forced to commit his own son to an institution, he has become emotionally distant and has absorbed himself in his work. He still visits Shinji out of familial obligation, but is unwilling to become attached to his son again because as far as Japanese society is concerned Shinji is 'disposable'. |
| 557 | ** When Gendo does visit Shinji, he ususally just talks about his job due to a lack of other subject matter and fequently mentions that he doesn't like his bosses- the board of executives. Said executives manifest in Shinji's delusion as the SEELE counsel. Because Shinji doesn't know what most of these executives look like, only the ones he has seen in the newspaper show up at first; but when Gendo mentions that the board is growing, Shinji's mind compensates by shifting to using faceless stone monoliths as placeholders for all of them (Shinji likes 2001 A Space Odyssey). Chairman Keel is the only executive with a name because Gendo mentions Keel in particular when he talks to Shinji about work. |
| 558 | * Fuyutsuki was at one time Gendo's supervisor and instructor, and is his close friend. He visits Shinji with Gendo in order to try and help his friend move on with his life. |
| 559 | * Ritsuko is Shinji's psychiatrist. She seems distant because of her temperament as well as the fact that she is treating Shinji with professional detachment. |
| 560 | * Misato is an officer in the US military, who knew Ritsuko when she was an exchange student. She is stationed as an officer in one of the US bases in Japan. She visits often because her husband Kaji is insane, which has brought out her alcoholic tendencies - which are not nearly as bad as Shinji thinks they are. Seeing how Shinji bonds with Kaji, she comes be something of a maternal figure to the boy. |
| 561 | * Kaji is Misato's husband. He is convinced he is a double agent working for the CIA and Japanese Intelligence. He treats Shinji like a favorite cousin, filling in a paternal role. |
| 562 | * Asuka and Rei are fellow patients whom Shinji befriends. Asuka is also a withdrawn, hikikimori-type girl who easily gets caught up in Shinji's world. Rei is made emotionally distant by the mood stabilisers she takes as she receives counselling for domestic abuse. Both hang out with Shinji for a while but leave his life after when they are released. Shinji's most vivid and violent imaginings see Rei and then Asuka 'killed off' as they leaves him to his fantasies, though he later fixates himself on the memory of Rei in his final days in treatment. |
| 563 | * Kaworu, a {{sociopath}}ic genius (basically a combination of [[Film/AClockworkOrange Alex]], who loves classical music especially Beethoven while committing acts of ultraviolence, and [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal]] [[ManipulativeBastard Lecter]]), was institutionalised when he killed a kitten in a crowded street. He 'befriends' the vulnerable Shinji for his own amusement, taking Misato hostage with Shinji at his side. Emotionally torn, Shinji attacks Kaworu who goads Shinji into killing him. |
| 564 | ** Just another thought to throw in there: Do you think Shinji really decapitated him or was that just a delusion? |
| 565 | * Touji, Kensuki and Hikari were Shinji's friends before he was committed. At first they visited him as a sign of solidarity, but like his father they visit less and less often over time and eventually leave him as he becomes more detached with reality. |
| 566 | * Pen Pen is Shinji's only constant companion, a plush toy given to Shinji by a sympathetic Misato. Alternatively, he could be Misato's pet cat which she brings and lets Shinji play with while visiting Kaji. |
| 567 | * The bridge bunnies and other NERV personel are all orderlies and nurses. |
| 568 | * The Angels are Shinji's interpretation of Christian angels, who are conceived as the "[[RageAgainstTheHeavens enemy]]" with Shinji developing a GodIsEvil perception. Misato tries to explain the Western conscept of Angels in the context of death and afterlife, but Shinji doesn't quite understand. Ritsuko supports Shinji's impressions to give Shinji an 'enemy' to complement his delusions, allowing her to openly discuss the details of his treatment with the orderlies in front of him. |
| 569 | * The Evangelion are giant mecha rationalized into Shinji's dillusions. The comment that they are humanity's 'substite for God(s)' reflects his own obsession with the genre. |
| 570 | * Yui died rather violently as Shinji watched, though she was a decent enough mother in life. Gendo has forbidden all photographs of her to avoid agitating Shinji; although he barely remembers her, Shinji sees a resemblance to her in Rei. Shinji imagines his personal giant mecha as embodying her maternal spirit as a coping mechanism. |
| 571 | ** Lilith is Shinji's warped recollection of his mother in death, who has become to him a faceless giant. Reflecting Shinji's underdeveloped sexuality and social skills she has become a grotesque, deformed and powerless figure. |
| 572 | * An asteroid did in fact hit Antarctica some years ago. It did cause some problems and a slight rise in sea levels, but not nearly as much as Shinji likes to imagine. |
| 573 | * [=EoE=] represents the last throes of Shinji's insanity and his re-admittance into normal society. The last two episodes of Evangelion show his personal journey towards coming to terms with his mental problems and rejecting the dream-world he has created to avoid dealing with them. Pronounced well enough to be released from the asylum to live in a special school with other released patients, he tries to get into the swing of a normal Japanese highschooler's life while he is still slightly out of touch with reality. |
| 574 | |
| 575 | [[WMG: When the Evas go into berserker mode, they instinctively manifest their AT Fields to the contours of their bodies.]] |
| 576 | That's the only reason I can think of to explain why Zeruel's razor ribbons failed to cut through EVA-01's fingers. In addition, it's the reason why the 3rd angel's suicide explosion didn't do diddly squat. 4th angel in rebuild. . . |
| 577 | * It could also explain why that after an angel is N2 bombed and damaged, the attack isn't kept up to further damage it while it regenerates, even if this is a long period of time, because the angel goes into a defensive state and projects a more powerful AT field. |
| 578 | |
| 579 | [[WMG: The separate continuities are all part of an unstable time loop.]] |
| 580 | The alternate universe was the original universe. As seen in the main series, this world is a fairly perfect version of the NGE world. When the angels came to that world, it was much more of a shock and most of the cast were killed due to the absence of the [=EVAs=]. At that point, Shinji became god, (like in ''[=EoE=]'') rebooted reality, and hoped for the best. This produced the universe seen in the anime. Shinji is so depressed partly due to the fact that he subconsciously realizes that he's only made the world worse. This world progresses to ''[=EoE=]'' and he gets the power to reboot reality once again. Attempting to stabilize the loop, he takes the opportunity, causing Rebuild of Evangelion. The other continuities can easily be contained within this theory as separate steps within Shinji's time altering operation. Anime/RahXephon or Petit Eva are ideal timelines in Shinji's mind. |
| 581 | |
| 582 | [[WMG: In ''Rebuild'', Mari and Asuka are also (modified) clones of Yui.]] |
| 583 | If you've been keeping up with the ''Rebuild'' spoilers, you'll know by now that Asuka attempts to pilot EVA-03 before it goes haywire, and Mari successfully pilots EVA-02. The general consensus seems to be that the "EVA only works if the soul contained within it is the pilot's mother" rule has been changed. |
| 584 | |
| 585 | THIS IS A LIE. |
| 586 | |
| 587 | First I'll go into an earlier theory I had before this information came to light. As you may know, most Eva characters are named after World War 2 warships. Rei Ayanami, Mari Makinami and Asuka (Sohryu in the original, Shikinami in Rebuild) are no exception. See a pattern with the Rebuild names? Ayanami, Makinami, Shikinami. Here's the thing, though. While all three of those were indeed ships in the Imperial Navy in [=WW2=], the interesting part comes later, after they were decommissioned. In the late fifties and early sixties, the JMSDF commissioned a new Ayanami, Shikinami, and Makinami (among several others). |
| 588 | |
| 589 | All of them are considered ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayanami_class_destroyer Ayanami]]''-class destroyers. |
| 590 | |
| 591 | Now, assuming this is intentional and not just me reading WAY too deeply into Anno or whoever's ship-otaku-ness, this could be a hint that Rebuild Asuka and Mari are based on the same "template" as Rei--in other words that they are ALSO clones of Yui. Rei was presumably considered a failure due to lack of aggressiveness. So they modified the genetic template to compensate, and came up with Asuka. Except they overcompensated, and ended up with an egotistical borderline psychopath. Mari is the third attempt, and most successful so far--fairly normal when she needs to be, but goes just as batshit (if not more so) as Asuka in combat. |
| 592 | |
| 593 | Now, since every EVA pilot (except Shinji) is a modified clone of Yui Ikari and therefore, in a sense, her "daughter", NERV does not have to match each EVA to a single pilot. They can simply use a copy or piece of Yui's soul in every single EVA, making them much easier to mass produce. |
| 594 | |
| 595 | When we see the Reiquarium in 3.0 or Final, it ain't gonna be the Reiquarium. More likely the Mariquarium. |
| 596 | |
| 597 | ** But a bunch of Reiclones appeared in the preview for 3.0, hiding behind a clothed Rei Prime. |
| 598 | *** That also implies a change, due to the fact that none of the Reiclones in the original were anything but shells, due to their bieng only one Rei mind/soul. |
| 599 | *** We never ''knew'' that for certain. |
| 600 | *** Ritsuko outright stated they were nothing but empty shells. |
| 601 | |
| 602 | [[WMG: Mari is the Eva-verse's version of Hayato Jin of ''Manga/GetterRobo'' fame]] |
| 603 | Her Evangelion has a claw-arm and a drill-esque weapon, much like Getter Two, and her love of battle and intelligence both are reminiscent of Hayato. She also does a good batshit insane berserker thing. |
| 604 | * So who are Ryoma, Benkai, and Musashi? |
| 605 | ** Rei is definitely [[MemeticMutation MUSAAAAAAAAAASHIII]] given her love of nuking herself. Rebuild-Shinji might count as Ryoma if only because he's the 'main pilot', but he's more of a Kouji Kabuto as outlined below. Maybe Asuka is the Ryoma, she has a red mecha and had a scene where she killed many mass produced versions of her own mecha. (Yes, Evas count as mecha, shush) |
| 606 | |
| 607 | [[WMG:Rei Ayanami is a [[Franchise/{{Dune}} ghola.]]]] |
| 608 | She was grown in a creepy tank from [[spoiler: Yui's salvaged remains]], according to Website/TheOtherWiki, comes out a bit of a blank slate yet with motherly nuances, and every time she gets killed, there's a new copy waiting down below. There, I said it. |
| 609 | |
| 610 | [[WMG: Rebuild-Shinji is the Eva-verse's Kouji Kabuto]] |
| 611 | He fights for those he loves, demonstrated when his decision to pilot Eva 01 again was when Rei got eaten by Zeruel, and then somehow figuring out a way to extract her from said Angel. He will never give up, as shown in his getting pissed off enough to force Eva 01 to ''work without power and an S2 Engine'', no 'whah mommy halp', it's all Shinji. And the most convincing evidence: He made Eva 01 do an AT Field-based ''Rocket Punch'' and then gained the power to become either a God or Devil. |
| 612 | |
| 613 | [[WMG:Now for one to piss off half the fanbase: Evangelions have no physical gender.]] |
| 614 | |
| 615 | "No physical gender" here is defined as 'Does not have genitals', XX chromosomes and maternal souls aren't the topic here. |
| 616 | |
| 617 | Evangelions are copies of either Adam or Lilith, and share more in common with Angels than humans. We ''know'' that Adam and Lilith did not give birth to the Angels and Humanity respectively through 'conventional' means, as the legs sticking out of Lilith suggest that the first humans were originally produced by something not unlike budding. Adam's means of propagating angels was probably something vaguely similar. (freezeframes in the Director's Cut also suggests that Eva 01 was 'pulled' out of Lilith and not made from an embryo as per common fanon) Adam and Lilith were also meant to propagate lifeforms by themselves, which requires an asexual form of reproduction/spawning/whatever; therefore sex is not necessary, ergo no true gender. |
| 618 | |
| 619 | The Evangelions are NERV's attempts at making more beings like Adam and Lilith and/or the Angels, it would be logical that they share many of the same properties. |
| 620 | |
| 621 | As for Lilith's 'menstrual LCL' ...that's probably just Anno throwing in yet another one of those psychosexual things he so loves, like Eva 02 having vagina eyes in ''End of Evangelion''. (I'm not joking) |
| 622 | * But why would the engineers let the EVAS have penises or vaginas, after all? |
| 623 | ** [[RuleThirtyFour As if you need to ask.]] |
| 624 | "Seeds and Evas have no physical gender" is more like viewers' default assumption, with "they are physically female" being a rather idiosyncratic and statistically unpopular, however notorious, viewpoint. That said, there is no official word on the matter, so interpretation doesn't have to be rigidly enforced in either direction (female or sexless -- although given the intense "mother" themes and female symbology, male is probably out). Perhaps this goes without saying, though. |
| 625 | |
| 626 | Other items to note: Adam's method for producing the Angels is in fact completely unknown; the aforementioned "birthing" theory for Eva-01's creation actually does take the image from episode #23 into account; the biological status of being female is not actually as straightforward as this entry implies (e.g., if a species abandons its males and takes up parthenogenesis, its members do not suddenly stop being females); LCL coming from between Lilith's legs has rather straightforward implications that do not disappear because vulvae appear on heads and so forth elsewhere; Lilith's little legs probably have more to do with Rei than anything else; and the Spears could possibly be invoked to satisfy a "male role" if necessary (which they already do on a symbolic level), |
| 627 | |
| 628 | In the ''Rebuild'' continuity, Unit-01 has a visible ''scrotum'', if one carefully freeze frames the apotheosis sequence (concept art also depicts it with a penis). Whether this is because the pilot and the EVA must be the same sex to sync properly or because it throws in pointless transgender-incest symbolism is anyone's guess. Technical readouts in the original series indicate Unit-00 has a prostate gland and at least one cowper's gland (the male body has two), which may be one of the many indicators why it doesn't function properly (i.e. greatly differing hormone and neurotransmitter levels compared to the pilot). |
| 629 | |
| 630 | [[WMG: The AT Field cannot account for all of the phenomena surrounding Evas and Angels]] |
| 631 | Somewhere along the line, Eva fandom got this [[{{Fanon}} weird idea]] that the AT Field could do anything it ever wanted forever and ever and ever, amen. With such gems as: "AT Fields can make things fly, it can make things explode, it can conduct electricity", and the strangest so far: "AT Fields can work like glue". I blame Kaworu and his cryptic lines about souls and lights and whatever. It's fully possible that the AT Field's sole purpose is being just that, a forcefield of some manner, and that many of the unique abilities of the Angels and Evas are caused by other properties. |
| 632 | * Of course the A.T. Field doesn't account for [=EVERYthing=], but it does account for a lot. The A.T. Field fundamentally isn't even a forcefield -- it's a projection of a being's soul, and the emanating, polygonal forcefield, while being the thing usually referred to as "A.T. Field", is but one manifestation the ATF can take. For unresolved reasons, the ATF is much more powerful in Angels, Evas, etc., than in "normal" lifeforms, to the point that it can essentially manipulate physical reality. That A.T. Fields have multiple uses is firmly established within both the show itself and supplemental materials and certainly is no invention of a deluded fandom. |
| 633 | |
| 634 | [[WMG:''Rebuild of Evangelion'' is a Reconstruction]] |
| 635 | Thus far it is a more accesible version of the series with the charecters bieng in better shape emotionally. Evangelion is pretty well known for bieng a deconstruction of the Mecha genre, so in some ways it would be fitting if a remake of a deconstruction is a reconstruction. After all how do you deconstruct a deconstruction? |
| 636 | * It helps your argument that, from a language standpoint, there is no qualitative difference between rebuilding something and reconstructing something. In fact, the two words have the exact same definition. Coincidence? I think not. |
| 637 | |
| 638 | [[WMG:The Angels are [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Greater Daemons]] [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 of Chaos]]]] |
| 639 | Massive, otherworldly monsters inextricably linked to the human psyche, with forms and abilities in blatant defiance of physics, are at best mildly inconvenienced by standard weaponry, can only be truly damaged or defeated by weapons of a similar nature to them, inspire fear and foreboding by their very presence and seek to destroy everything. The AT-Fields represent either their daemonic nature, shielding them from anything not of the Immaterium, or as the link allowing them to exist in the Materium, which when breached allows them to be "killed". What is referred to as Adam and Lilith are merely the remains of two Greater Daemons from before human civilisation and the storyline is the result of humans attempting to use their powers, which obviously goes balls up for everyone involved (as is the nature of Chaos). |
| 640 | |
| 641 | Shamsel (a GIANT FLYING PENIS) and [[MindRape Arael]] are Slaaneshi. The ones with the most destructive and unsubtle capabilities, Sahaquiel and Zeruel, are obviously Khornate. Bardiel and Armisael, both of whom infect and corrupt an Evangelion, are creatures of Nurgle. Iruel and Tabris are Tzeentchian, the former almost pure mutation and the latter heavy on the subterfuge, also being essential for Shinji crossing the DespairEventHorizon (which was Just As Planned). Which deity the others serve is less certain. |
| 642 | * Interestingly, some people have suggested that the angels (as in, the Living Saints) are actually warp entities (aka daemons) that serve the God Emperor (aka Jesus) and possess his "chosen ones". So, maybe the other angels are just actual "angels" gone horribly wrong? |
| 643 | |
| 644 | |
| 645 | [[WMG:Kaworu is a Time Diver like Ingram and Corbay, he is the same one in each continuity]] |
| 646 | This is why he said 'The third again' at the end of Rebuild, Just like Ingram asked Ryusei if it was 'that time again?' during the final battle of Alpha Kaworu is aware that this is a new universe. The Kaworu in SRW 4/F/F Final, Alpha, MX, Angelic Days, Raising Project, ALL OF THEM are the same Kaworu who has the same memories. |
| 647 | |
| 648 | He only brings up old memories when he realizes the world is moving differently (Read: Rebuild) |
| 649 | |
| 650 | |
| 651 | [[WMG: Rebuild takes place after ''End of Evangelion'']] |
| 652 | The blood on the moon might still be there because of Third Impact (remember that blood fountain when GNR died?), Kaworu uttered something along "The Third again, huh?" (in my version at ~1:32), which might be referring to Shinji as the Third Child who will be once again in the middle of prophecy. Image this with me together: After Third Impact, EoE style, the world began from zero again. We know there are some chances because the LCL puddle could still spawn people together. We don't know what happened to Shinji and Asuka after Third Impact, maybe they died because there's no food around, maybe they joined the LCL - the primeval soup from which new life will spawn. |
| 653 | Imagine the world is going through the almost the same (/similar) destiny and process again and again and is reset again and again when Shinji gets his impact-wish-fulfillment (remember, Keel/Kiel said the beginning was the same as the end or something like that). My guess is Seele knows this and tries to change history in their favor now. Kaworu also seems to know such things, maybe he gave them some info. |
| 654 | Maybe Anno's message this time is that everything we need to be happy is already in our lifes, we just need to find it. And Shinji may need to relive his life some times before he realizes that. On the other hand, maybe Haruhi's Endless Eight left brain damage on me. |
| 655 | Also, for maximum symbolism, I hereby say the world's resurrection started 3 days after its end! |
| 656 | * Wasn't it pretty obvious? |
| 657 | * Didn't Yui's soul vanish together with EVA-01 in space? If so, it should prove a problem trying to resurrect her... Also, if everyone's body was just created from the LCL because they recognize themselves again and have the will to come back, I don't think those creates would be protozoons which start evolution over again. Also, didn't Shinji /reject/ Instrumentality...? |
| 658 | |
| 659 | [[WMG: Makinami Mari Illustrious is actually Adam.]] |
| 660 | Before we get to the main WMG, let's look at the Angel battles in '2.0 You can (not) advance.': |
| 661 | * She fought and killed the Third Angel by self-destructing Evangelion Provisional Unit-05. Assuming that Mari is actually Adam, the mother of the Angels, she most likely would have been killing the Third Angel out of mercy, considering that ''all of its flesh had been carved off''. |
| 662 | * She was not involved in the battles against the Seventh Angel, Sahaquiel, or Bardiel. |
| 663 | * However, she fought Zeruel full-on, even going so far as to activating Eva-02's The Beast mode. Again, being Zeruel's mother, I postulate that she would have known exactly how powerful Zeruel's AT Field was, and even if it was penetrated, that Zeruel was resilient enough to withstand even a point-blank N2 missile strike. |
| 664 | |
| 665 | Now then... |
| 666 | |
| 667 | Adam is embittered towards humanity for robbing the Earth from her offspring, the Angels. Reborn in human form as Makinami Mari Illustrious in Second Impact, she intends to generate a Third Impact so that she can destroy the Lilin and take her children's birthright back from them. |
| 668 | |
| 669 | This WMG was initially postulated here: http://paste.lisp.org/display/84795 |
| 670 | |
| 671 | Also, look closely at her plugsuits... both of them. They both have a small red ball in the middle of her chest. It looks too much like a Core to be a coincidence. Only one other Eva pilot in the Rebuild continuity has a "Core-ball" in the middle of their plugsuit's chest: Nagisa Kaworu, pilot of Evangelion Mark.06, who we already can assume is an Angel, given that he was able to ''breathe on the Moon''. |
| 672 | * Amendment to this part of the WMG by the original author: Asuka is the only Rebuild character to have no "Core-ball" in the middle of their plugsuit's chest. Neither of her plugsuits have that particular feature. It's understandable for Rei, but Shinji... he may be the exception, or it could reflect on his mother having been assimilated by Eva-01? |
| 673 | * Addendum by the original author of this WMG: an archaic definition of the word "Illustrious" is "shining brightly with light". What in the world of Evangelion do we know that shines brightly with light? Could it be... Adam? The Giant of Light? Hmm... |
| 674 | ** {{Satan}} |
| 675 | * Addendum from yet another troper: when Unit 01 triggers Third Impact, Mari remarks that Shinji is "quite the convenient fellow". It is possible that Rei discovers her identity in ''3.0'' as the preview shows the four Reis confronting Mari who takes off her glasses, looking annoyed. Remember: Mari is BlindWithoutEm - or so she says. |
| 676 | |
| 677 | |
| 678 | [[WMG: Kaworu traveled to the Rebuild Universe from the ''EOE'' universe after his "death".]] |
| 679 | * You should probably get snacks before reading this... |
| 680 | |
| 681 | The Dead Sea Scrolls prophesied that instrumentality would happen right? No one knew who would cause it, but it had to happen, that's why NERV was set up, to ensure that humans would be the ones to initiate it. Think about how many close calls there were, how many times the angels should have won? Perhaps humans were ALWAYS going to be the ones to cause instrumentality! That's why no matter how often then angels should have won, the EVA's managed to pull through at the last second. Fast-forward to ''End of Evangelion'', Shinji rejects instrumentality, but this isn't possible as the scrolls, and by that end, instrumentality happening is the only reason he was there in the first place. If instrumentality didn't happen then the scrolls would not have predicted it and Shinji wouldn't have been in that position in the first place. Instrumentality HAS to happen, there is no way around it. |
| 682 | |
| 683 | By rejecting it Shinji fucks up everyone's very existence. In order for reality to not collapse on itself, and perhaps because Shinji was sort-of-a-god during [=EoE=] and wanted more than anything to go back and fix everything, time itself reset to the beginning of Neon Genesis Evangelion, however, normally things would have just continued on their path and the same problem would be faced again, that is, Shinji would have rejected Instrumentality yet again. |
| 684 | |
| 685 | Something would have had to change, and that change is Kaworu, the only person Shinji really felt like he loved. Maybe at an unconscious level, Shinji causes Kaworu to retain his memories when Neon Genesis Evangelion "resets" into Rebuild, hoping Kaworu will save him because he is too weak to save himself. |
| 686 | |
| 687 | Remember that Kaworu is just to Seele what Rei is to Nerv? The Kaworu on the moon at the beginning of Rebuild could be one of several clones of Kaworu, they all retain the same memories and soul, but only one can be active at once. (Notice that in ''[=EoE=]'' the names on the dummy plugs on the mass production Eva's is "Kaworu".) What if when Kaworu was created, some time before the beginning of Rebuild of Evangelion I assume (The same time he was created in the original NGE, who knows how old he is?), he knew everything that happened during the series, how Shinji would be hurt and how he would die. He doesn't want that to happen because he has fallen in love with Shinji during NGE and wants to change the course of history now that he knows what would have happened, so, without Seele's knowledge, he changes things before the beginning of Rebuild, makes decisions that will lead the characters down alternative paths. (Like arranging that the new girl, Mari would be transferred to Nerv in Japan.) |
| 688 | |
| 689 | That is why we have the new girl, Mari, in Rebuild, obviously Kaworu plans to use her for something... So now Kaworu has set everything in place and is just waiting as everything goes as planned, neither Nerv or Seele is aware. He is the only one in control, waiting for things to play out. Waiting for Shinji... |
| 690 | |
| 691 | There! Now figure that out! |
| 692 | |
| 693 | * As far as we know, from supplemmental materials (informed by Anno himself) released after the show finished airing, the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls are merely manuals that contain details about the "workings" of the Seeds of Life (Adam and Lilith), and what happens when either is awoken. They contain no information regarding Instrumentality, since the concept of Instrumentality itself was developed by Seele, who used the information found in the S.D.S.S. as a sort of groundworks. The show itself contains almost no information about what is written in the S.D.S.S . |
| 694 | |
| 695 | [[WMG: Angels are not actually "alternate evolutions" of humans themselves, but their representatives]] |
| 696 | It makes no sense for creatures so large like the angels to become the dominant species -- the earth doesn't have enough resources to support creatures that large and they don't look like anything seen on Earth. However, they are a similar size to the Evas, and many are similarly styled and shaped. |
| 697 | |
| 698 | While the Evas were made in man's image and therefore look like stylized versions of humans, the Angels were built from their respective species' images, and therefore represent stylized traits of their respective species. This would also explain why the Angels seem to end up by Tokyo-3 -- that's a space where these representatives can come from their respective dimensions to fight. It's not so unbelievable that some of these Angels would have pilots, too, and that NERV and SEELE were concealing their existences from the pilots because knowing that they were fighting and killing intelligent beings would discourage them from fighting. |
| 699 | |
| 700 | For example: |
| 701 | |
| 702 | * Sachiel is the representative of a humanoid race that has perhaps evolved in a slightly different way from humans, accounting for the shape |
| 703 | * Shamshel is representative of an intelligent squid species |
| 704 | * Ramiel is the representative of an intelligent species that still takes geometric forms, like viruses |
| 705 | * Gaghiel is the representative of a reality where whales are the dominant intelligent species instead of humans |
| 706 | * Israfel is the representative of an intelligent species that can survive and live when split, like worms |
| 707 | * Sandalfon is the representative of a species that wasn't prepared yet, thus the reason why it was found in an embryonic state |
| 708 | * Matariel is the representative of an intelligent insect/arachnid species |
| 709 | * Sahaquiel is the representative of a species that has already colonized space, and used space technology to its advantage |
| 710 | * Iruel is the representative of an intelligent bacterial colony that has become the dominant species in its reality |
| 711 | * Leliel is the representative of an intelligent species of shadow creatures, or creatures from [[AlienGeometries another dimension]] |
| 712 | * Bardiel is the representative of a species similar to Iruel's, but is airborne |
| 713 | * Zeruel is the representative of a species similar to humans, but perhaps similar to gorillas, considering its proportions |
| 714 | * Arael is the representative of a psychic bird/winged humanoid species |
| 715 | * Armisael is the representative of a species of energy beings |
| 716 | * Tabris is the representative of a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien that decided to forego the idea of a huge creature and use genetic engineering instead |
| 717 | |
| 718 | The reason the angels seem to become more intelligent and powerful as they go on is because the fights functioned as elimination rounds and therefore the Evas had to fight more and more powerful angels. By reaching Instrumentality, the humans "won". |
| 719 | |
| 720 | * That idea would make an awesome fanfic. Also, does it sound like ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'' to anyone? |
| 721 | * Wait, that means that Leliel is the representative of [[Series/DoctorWho the Vashta Nerada!]] |
| 722 | * The "Earth can't support Angels" concept is pretty firmly {{Jossed}} by a couple of things. One, Angels don't NEED resources, they have infinite energy generators, as stated in series. Nor do they need the Earth to support them - the Angelic ecosystem has no plants. The CI in the video game also implies that Adam and Lilith are terraforming devices with their own ecosystems (just add water!) and thus the Angels are an ecosystem in and of themselves, and not extra dimensional. "Alternate evolutions" was just a descriptive term. The two sets of ecosystems are completely unrelated. |
| 723 | ** Although the representative concept can still work, think of the Angels and Evas as monuments. |
| 724 | * The whole "alternate evolutions" thing seems to be memetic mutation stemming from bochan_bird's script translation of ''[=EoE=]'', which may have obscured the meaning of a critical line by, incidentally, not being literal enough! Misato seems to be essentially saying that "we humans" (18th Angel, Lilin) and the "Angels" (Adam's progeny) are two possible humanities, and, unlike us, the Angels abandon human form (see: Sandalphon). This interpretation seems to be affirmed by an info dump from an anonymous Seed of Life in ''Neon Genesis Evangelions 2'' (PSP), who reminds Kaworu that Seeds of Life served as "designers" for their progeny, and "either bestowed upon them shapes as any form of life, or acted as representatives and chose the form" (Angels vs. Lilin, anyone?). |
| 725 | |
| 726 | [[WMG: Our guess is as good as yours.]] |
| 727 | Yes, this means all our crazy theories are correct. |
| 728 | * ShrugOfGod, dude. Could be either right or wrong, we'll never know. |
| 729 | |
| 730 | [[WMG: In ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', Doritos are perishable goods]] |
| 731 | In ''Neon Genesis Evangelion: Rebuild'', when Shinji first moves in with Misato, he inspects her kitchen. He pulls out three drawers, one containing ice, one containing snacks (Doritos), and one containing beer. The 'snack' drawer is pulled out in between the ice and beer drawers which are implied to be refrigerated, so the drawer holding the Doritos is most likely also refrigerated. Why else would Misato put Doritos in the refrigerator if they weren't perishable? They may not be perishable now, but perhaps after Second Impact, the types of preservatives Doritos use may be difficult to afford, so Doritos in ''Evangelion'' are a perishable good. |
| 732 | * Or, you know, Misato just wasn't completely together when she put them in there. That kind of stuff happens. |
| 733 | * Eva Fans: Analyzing FUCKING EVERYTHING since 1996! |
| 734 | * Some people say crisps are nicer when they're left in the fridge. Misato is a firm believer in it. |
| 735 | * Or, you know, she just prefers her Doritos cold. There are people who prefer stuff thatt way. |
| 736 | |
| 737 | [[WMG: AT Fields are real]] |
| 738 | Throughout the series AT Fields are described not as a shield for HumongousMecha, but as the definition of our individuality. AT Fields also provide a good reason for our individuality and limited sensory perception (meaning the AT Fields are the reason why we have only 5 senses). If we never had an AT Field, then our perception should have been increased hundredfold, such as the the usage of telepathy and other psionic powers, the existence of Reality Warpers and the development of a HiveMind. We simply [[ForgotICouldFly forgot how to use it]]. |
| 739 | * Didn't you watch the movie? Everyone gets their AT fields removed and they turn into Tang. That doesn't seem like a very potent form. |
| 740 | * Ya. Humans are technically a single angel; the reason we can't use our AT fields is because they're devoted entirely to maintaining individual identities. Removal of them- or too much usage for other purposes- would cause a breakdown in individuality, and tangification. |
| 741 | ** Exactly. Angels have more versatile AT Fields but less scientific progresses because they sacrificed their individuality in search for power; while Humans, which found power in determinism (science) instead of the AT Field, ignored their AT Fields and left those to freeze into individuality and uniqueness. |
| 742 | ** Or maybe Lilith's hand is responsible. Remember, humans are unique because they have the Fruit of Knowledge instead of the Fruit of Life. Lilith may have "disabled" our ability to consciously project AT fields so that we are forced to use our uniqueness. |
| 743 | * This idea is OlderThanRadio, and Schopenhauer called it the "Hedgehog's Dilemma". Schopenhauer's parable describes a number of hedgehogs who need to huddle together for warmth and who struggle to find the optimal distance where they may feel sufficiently warm without hurting one another. The hedgehogs have to sacrifice warmth for comfort. Remember, the hedgehog's quills evolved as a form of protection against predators. Why do we have this AT Field? It protects us, particularly from {{Cosmic Horror}}s (aka Angels), and also serves as a filter to block unnecessary chaos, however, as a consequence, as a barrier, it has to separate humanity. |
| 744 | |
| 745 | [[WMG: Rebuild-Kaworu is [[AGodAmI Ascended]] [[Anime/RahXephon Ayato Kamina]], here to undo Second Impact ]] |
| 746 | Ayato has come to the Rebuild-Eva-Verse to 'retune' it properly and fix what Second Impact did, as he did with his homeworld. Eva 06 is 'built differently' than the rest, because it's just the [=RahXephon=] in [[strike:a candy shell]] armor plating and rubber. This is also why "Eva" 06 was able to get close to Near Third Impact, as it can warp reality itself and doesn't need to worry about a little thing like a godlike energy being. The big reveal in 4.0 will be 06 purging its armor and revealing its true form, and helping Shinji fight the FinalBoss, [[spoiler:A BrainwashedAndCrazy TV-Series-Shinji in a godlike 01]]. |
| 747 | |
| 748 | [[WMG: Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion was a {{plan}} used by Plato (or some other philosopher) to bring the philosophical-dialogues genre back to popular media]] |
| 749 | He got control of the World of Forms in some way..... and with it he transcended time and space.... |
| 750 | * It was created by Schopenhauer. |
| 751 | ** I disagree: it was created by Kierkegaard and Sartre. Isn't it obvious how Hegelian SEELE is? |
| 752 | |
| 753 | [[WMG: Eighty percent of the series is Shinji suffering from long-term serotonin deficiency.]] |
| 754 | It was kicked into overdrive by piloting the [=EVAs=]. Results include being small, weak, pale, depression with an eventual (and extreme) rise in aggressiveness, religious experiences... He was strapped into a giant mecha, told to stab some "angels" and get along with a crazy German girl who was transferred to be a pilot, and eventually snapped, deciding that his friend was Jesus and [[spoiler: after the end, going all homicidal]] at Asuka. It's likely inherited from Gendo, who had a history of hotheaded violence (probably Depression, hence why he is so dependent on Yui as his reason to live, or Bipolar, hence why Yui said to Fuyutsuki that he's actually quite cute once you get to know him), and whose "stoicism" was the result of addiction to psychiatric drugs after Yui died. |
| 755 | |
| 756 | [[WMG: The S2 Engine generates [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Spiral Energy]].]] |
| 757 | Well, the organ is supposed to harness some sort of helical energy.... |
| 758 | |
| 759 | [[WMG:Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion takes place before Myth/NorseMythology]] |
| 760 | The fusion of Adam and Lilith (Muspelheim and Niflheim) basically killed off all life on the planet, allowing to bring forth a new creation story and a new myth altogether, while at the same time it brought forth the [[spoiler:Giant Naked Rei]], who was retconned as the first living thing, Ymir (who later became the building material for the [[WorldTree Yggdrasil]]), while Eva-01 became the cow Audumbla. The cow Audhumbla licked on a salt stone. On the first day after this a man's hair appeared on the stone, on the second day a head and on the third day an entire man emerged from the stone. The man is Shinji Ikari, who emerged from the Instrumentality. Shinji [[TookALevelInBadass got over his issues]] through the god powers he gained from the Instrumentality, and with Asuka he fathered Bor, the father of Odin, Vili and Ve. The rest of Myth/NorseMythology (or Myth/ClassicalMythology, or Myth/EgyptianMythology, or Literature/TheBible, what-have-you) takes off from there. Not to mention the ProudWarriorRaceGuy attitudes of the Norse could be inherited from Asuka herself, and the emergence of Shinji during the creation process basically resulted [[spoiler:in the destruction of GNR / Ymir]]. |
| 761 | |
| 762 | [[WMG:Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion takes place ''after'' Myth/NorseMythology]] |
| 763 | Shinji is the last survivor of Ragnarok (the war against the Angels), Lif. Asuka, the last woman, is Lifthrasir. |
| 764 | [[WMG: [[EverybodyIsJesusInPurgatory Everybody is Shinji in Purgatory]], and Kaworu died for our sins.]] |
| 765 | It's addictive. |
| 766 | |
| 767 | [[WMG:Lilith is in fact the Sophia from UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}]] |
| 768 | And lilim/humans, the "materialistic" angels, are the Demiurge. The all-powerful Adam, on the other hand, is the Pleroma. |
| 769 | * It matches, though, since Sophia had fallen from grace, mirroring how Lilith was crucified by the Lilim. |
| 770 | ** Also mirroring how the "real" Lilith was expelled from Eden. |
| 771 | * Sophia means Wisdom, and Lilith is the Fruit of Knowledge. It does make sense. Also, the Demiurge is a lesser entity with a God complex and a celestial bureaucracy, which is most like modern Humanity. |
| 772 | * Wait, Sophia is always portrayed as naked and beautiful, while Lilith is virtually a giant ragdoll. |
| 773 | ** Hello? Rei Ayanami? Always portrayed as naked and worshipped by otakus as MsFanservice? |
| 774 | |
| 775 | [[WMG:Angels, as they are portrayed in Evangelion, are Real]] |
| 776 | Because they are celestial beings, their true form is comparable to an EldritchAbomination. Don't believe those people who keeps on saying angels are TheBeautifulElite. |
| 777 | * Well, they do have more in common with some of the downright bizarre descriptions of heavenly beings found in ancient Judeo-Christian scriptures than the usual "dudes with wings and togas" imagery. |
| 778 | |
| 779 | [[WMG:In ''Rebuild of Evangelion'', Eva-01 [[spoiler:becomes Eva-08]]]] |
| 780 | '''REBUILD SPOILERS AHEAD.''' |
| 781 | * In ''Evangelion 2.0: You can (not) advance.'', Gendo mentions [[spoiler:that the true Evangelion will be completed once Eva-01 has "discarded its original chassis", or something along those lines]]. At the end, Eva-01 [[spoiler:merges with the Tenth Angel (Zeruel), nearly initiating Third Impact. In its nigh-godlike state, you can see three glowing red eyes. As we know, Eva Mark.06 averts Third Impact via DynamicEntry]]. In the preview for ''Evangelion Q'', [[spoiler:Eva-08 is shown to have three eyes, in exactly the same position as Third Impact!Eva-01]]. |
| 782 | ** The line from Gendo that served as the main inspiration for the theory was a bit of an awkward translation (and actually read [[spoiler:"[Unit-06's] completion will be ushered in by the current body containing Unit-01"]]. It has since been corrected to [[spoiler:"current units including Unit-01"]]. |
| 783 | |
| 784 | [[WMG:This whole show was supposed to be a metaphorical warning from the future about Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}.]] |
| 785 | * Think about it. Shinji is Chris, Rei is Megan, Asuka is Julie [[spoiler:Yes, Julie was actually a thirteen-year-old boy with a heart of stone. But he did "masturbate" to "her."]], Misato is vivitheg, and Gendou is his parents collectively. The Angels are the trolls. |
| 786 | ** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSTicQs4Ke8&feature=related |
| 787 | |
| 788 | [[WMG:Asuka's Nerve Clips are ''permanently'' attached]] |
| 789 | As the ''Second'' child, she's got [[strike:[[Franchise/MassEffect L2 biotic implants]]]] an older model, one that had to be surgically implanted. |
| 790 | ** They're not. She took them off in ''Rebuild 2.0'' before attaching the spherical green ones that came with the TEST plugsuit. |
| 791 | * [[Manga/AzumangaDaioh If they get removed, she shuts down. And if they'd continued development, the A11 Nerve Clips would have let her fly.]] |
| 792 | |
| 793 | [[WMG: [=EVAs=] are a {{deconstruction}} of {{Magical Girl}}s.]] |
| 794 | They're [[NoodlePeople slender females]] with an angelic/fetishistic nature that fight [[EldritchAbomination Freudian Horrors]] through dancing and (for the more powerful attacks) emotion (''especially'' [[ThePowerOfLove intimacy-related emotions]]). Since this is a GrimDark series after all, the FridgeHorror behind being a MagicalGirl is revealed, struggling against Eldritch Horrors with incomprehensible sorcery is not healthy for your own sanity and the welfare of your loved ones, you're going to end up mostly alone, and no matter what you do you are inevitably cursed in the end (and of course, how the AppliedPhlebotinum uses the user's energy, ego barrier and emotions, most especially [[LoveHurts love, portrayed here as a tremendous source of Angst]], makes magical girl magic a case of PoweredByAForsakenChild). EVA-01 can be a {{Tsundere}}, which tends to deconstruct or parody into {{Yandere}}. At the end of the series, the protagonist [[EndOfTheWorldSpecial gains divine reality-warping power]] but instead chooses to be normal and gives hope for the rest of humanity. I had more, but I'll need to figure out if any of it was written down or saved somewhere, or if the Administrivia/DataVampires ate it while I was trapped offline.\ |
| 795 | And in case you [[PoesLaw think this is a joke WMG]], [[SincerityMode it's not]]. |
| 796 | * ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''? |
| 797 | * This one seems a little bizarre, but it's not that far off from the "Neon Feminist Evangelion" entry above, which is pretty much true. |
| 798 | |
| 799 | [[WMG: Humanity is just a stage in the life cycle of [[EldritchAbomination Gods]] ]] |
| 800 | Inspired by ScienceFiction: more specifically, by Creator/ArthurCClarke 's "Childhood's End" and Tiptree/Sheldon's "A momentary Taste of Being" |
| 801 | |
| 802 | Angels are essentially sperm: Third Impact is essentially conception. Humanity merges into a unified mind which is a new God. Gods, in turn, seed the tree of life, which creates ever-new variants on Adam, Lilith and Eve which will make new worlds into seedbeds of consciousness. SEELE hoped to create a distorted Third Impact (their own EndOfTheWorldSpecial) so that rather than humanity merging into a common mind, they will become the "core" of the new divine consciousness, esentially becoming a God while everyone else is reduced to just thoughts running around inside their head. (Keel probably planned to double-cross his partners at some point, once he [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness no longer needs them]]). Sometimes the cycle fails, and the new "zygote" disintegrates back into its component parts, although in most cases it simply sheds a percentage of unfit elements. |
| 803 | |
| 804 | [[WMG: Kaworu, Kazuhiro Mitogawa from ''Ga-Rei Zero'', Nagi Homura from ''Anime/MyHime'' and ''Full Metal Panic!'''s Leonard Testarossa are all the same person]] |
| 805 | |
| 806 | There are a few reasons why I thought up this. First, at the behest of a friend, I watched ''[=My-HiME=]'', and noticed Nagi, a white haired relatively {{Bishonen}} boy. Kaworu comparisons were automatic. Again at the behest of said friend, I watched ''Ga-Rei Zero'', and saw Mitogawa, a white-haired relatively bishonen boy. While thinking this over, Leonard Testarossa from FMP came into the mix. The only difference with him is that he's older. Now, these four have moe similarities than just appearance. A simple place to start is between the first two I compared: Kaworu to Nagi. First point? They have the same seiyuu. Yep, Akira Ishida voiced both Kaworu and Nagi, two remarkably similar characters. Both characters are quite the tricksters. Even though Kaworu did understand Shinji (at least from Shinji's perspective), his goal was pretty much to [[spoiler: cause Third Impact by coercing Shinji into letting him get to Adam (but this gets messed up a bit)]]. Simply put, he was manipulating Shinji. Keep that in mind, as it's very important to link these four characters. Now, let's move on to Nagi. He starts out as more of an observer type guy, albeit with a creepy air to him, most likely due to the visual similarities to Kaworu. Later, it's revealed that he [[spoiler: was behind the Orphan attacks on the Academy]], though admittedly, he is not entirely behind everything that goes on, which actually makes his identity as a manipulative trickster, despite his trickery being much less harmful than the other three in this WMG. He is also [[spoiler: ReallySevenHundredYearsOld (give or take)]], adding to the supernatural theme shared by all four. But, time to move onto perhaps the most evil of the four, Kazuhiro Mitogawa. This guy, nicknamed "Evil butterfly dude" by myself and some others, manages to place himself in situations where he can manipulate characters into being corrupted by their own hatred and dark desires. He, like the others, is quite enigmatic and does his work on the sidelines. Due to his manipulation, [[spoiler: the main character, Yomi, kills her 'sister', who usurped her place as head of her adoptive family branch, and also critically wounds Yomi so that she has major temptation to accept his offer of dark power]]. Pretty important stuff. To add to the connection between ''[=My-HiME=]'' and this series, ''Ga-Rei Zero'' has a character named "Natsuki Kasuga" who appears in the first two episodes, rides a motorcycle, and has a similar appearance to ''[=My-HiME's=]'' Katsuki Kuga. It's pretty much a given that she's an expy, leading to other possible connections between ''[=My-HiME=]'' and Ga-Rei Zero. And unlike Kaworu and Nagi, Mitogawa has pretty much no shreads of goodness in him. Which leads nicely into Leonard Testarossa, who also happens to be a not very nice guy. To be honest, Leonard doesn't have as strong a connection to Kaworu as the other two. He could be seen as an adult version of the younger three. To keep with the somewhat supernatural nature of these characters, Leonard [[spoiler: is a Whispered, having knowledge of powerful technology]], much like his sister. He is a manipulative (yet definitely not Magnificent) bastard, though. And FMP can be loosely connected to Eva in that they're both non-standard Mecha series, giving each of these series a general connection to one another, some stronger than others. In the end, though, given this evidence, it's very likely that these four characters could be the same person, just hopping from 'Verse to 'Verse. If anything, this merits some closer attention, which I'll try to give it in the future. I'm totally on to something here, mark my words. |
| 807 | |
| 808 | [[WMG: ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' was created to be easy for its fans to think up crossovers]] |
| 809 | Take the WMG pages for example. |
| 810 | * I can name, right off the back of my hand, at least 10 anime series that are far more crossoverable. |
| 811 | |
| 812 | [[WMG: Shinji is the [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind]]]] |
| 813 | No, not just ''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40K''. Why did Yui plan to grant Shinji a bright future, when it actually turns out to be one of the biggest GrimDark NightmareFuel he ever experienced? Answer: it was to make him the God-Emperor of Mankind. The Sea of LCL / Instrumentalized Humanity evolves into the Warp. Shinji, being able to draw powers from LCL / Warp, became an immortal powerful psyker, and being the only surviving man, decides he can finally strip off his ButtMonkey tendencies and unify humanity (his descendants) as more of a Ubermensch this time, molding history form millenia and finally leading to the creation of the Imperium of Man. This of course would also make a good FreudianExcuse for the Imperium's actions. Alternatively, both Shinji And Warhammer 40k and Warhammer 40000 canon are Alternate Universes Shinji created during Instrumentality with him placing himself into the role of the possible God-Emperor. |
| 814 | |
| 815 | [[WMG: All the characters are representations of Anno's mind.]] |
| 816 | Not so much a WMG as Anno stated Mia as being the sole exception to this, but what are they? |
| 817 | * Shinji = Anno himself. Note in the first series Shinji is more wangsty while Anno is fighting and recovering from depression. The happier stuff while depressed and the more depressing end as he actually recovered. Revival written when Anno relapsed and raged against Otakudom. Rebuild, Shinji is happy as Anno now is. Rich and famous thanks to Otakudom. |
| 818 | * Rei = The inner Otaku. Rejected as a love interest compared to Asuka and designed to be creepy. However, being created for an anime and representative as his inner anime geek she is the lil' godling we all know she becomes. The love interest is off and on as Anno wavers back and forth with his views of Otakudom, and he/Shinji rejects her in the end of the original series in the hopes of normalness. In Revival she becomes enthralled with Shinji/Anno, mirroring the fans. However, because of Anno's hatred of the Otaku lifestyle around that time she becomes the effective destroyer of all life. In Rebuild, recovered and wealthy thanks to Otaku/Rei, Shinji/Anno as of Rebuild 2.0 loves her openly. |
| 819 | * Asuka = The "ideal" life. Active, boisterous, a tinge of exotic. Shinji becomes more like her as the original series progresses. Wavers between good and traumatized as Anno waves back and forth over if the "ideal" life is worth it. |
| 820 | ** The basic premise of this (that all or most of the characters are a reflection of Anno) is undeniably true; it's what lends the series its extraordinary sincerity and brutal honesty, the same qualities that fundamentally make it so enthralling to some and so alienating to others. However, the same could be said of any writer who goes to great lengths to flesh out his or her characters psychologically, and I doubt any of this was as calculated or literal as you propose. Anno was quoted a couple years ago as saying about ''Rebuild'' that Mari was the first character he's created who wasn't fundamentally "a part of him", or something to that effect. |
| 821 | |
| 822 | |
| 823 | [[WMG: Humans themselves are an Evangelion to an unknown species, and there are in fact infinite Evangelions, nestled within each other.]] |
| 824 | Think about it: Evangelions can replicate near-human emotions and feeling, and are apparently biological in nature, like humans. Evas are also described as the actual "humans" in the series, NOT the humans (which are termed Lilim, or demons). Also, look closer to the AT Field: it seems to possess a layered structure, like an onion. In EOE, the Evangelion becomes assimilated to a Giant Naked Rei, which itself is a giant human. In instrumentality, when the humans became Tang, red dots break outside the humans and join the Giant Rei. If that's the case, then an Evangelion is a human, and the human itself is an Evangelion, possibly to another lifeform (the red dots), which itself is an Evangelion to another lifeform, and so on. The conclusion: In NGE, there are infinite humans nestled within each other. Instrumentality is simply the process of replacing the "useless" layers. The same can also apply to Angels. A better comparison might be a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matryoshka_doll matryoshka doll]]. |
| 825 | * Nothing is said about Lilin being any less human than the other human entities in the show (Evas, Angels, Seeds of Life, etc.). "Lilin" is most straightforwardly a reference to our status as Lilith's offspring; that the Lilin are traditionally Lilith's demonic spawn has more to do with subtext and irony than us literally being "demons". |
| 826 | |
| 827 | [[WMG: It's all Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya's delusion.]] |
| 828 | Hey, who else has a WMG dart board as infinite as NGE? |
| 829 | |
| 830 | [[WMG: Neon Genesis Evangelion is a sentient {{Meme}}.]] |
| 831 | Not only that it is a sentient Meme that is also an EldritchAbomination determinded to take over the globe and then feast on humanity's collective sanity and leave us all in howling madness. Read this page and deny it doesn't make sense |
| 832 | [[WMG: Neon Genesis Evangelion is a literal God.]] |
| 833 | Like the above it is an EldritchAbomination, but because it has lots of plot holes, it also achieved instrumentality for all fiction, uniting them all together and ascending to a higher plane of existence, becoming God and the moderator between different types of fiction, hence why the infinite WMG dart board |
| 834 | |
| 835 | [[WMG:Shikinami and all -nami names are codenames/alias/cover identities.]] |
| 836 | After all, it's improbable that 3 out of 4 Eva Pilots would just happen to have names |
| 837 | like that, and we already know that Ayanami isn't really Rei's proper name (since she should be Rei Ikari(or Ikari Rei)).Of course the fact that Illustrious isn't a person name at all adds even more support to this. |
| 838 | * False; the odd names are a result of the fact that many of the characters are named after WWII warships (Anno is something of a military otaku, hence the presence of Kensuke). |
| 839 | |
| 840 | [[WMG: There is no coherence in NGE whatsoever. Any appearance of actual cohesion or [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic symbolism]] is purely coincidental.]] |
| 841 | AsYouKnow NGE was produced as an attempt [[SpringtimeForHitler to utilize a loophole in Japanese tax laws, and it became a blockbuster completely by accident.]] The production crew was intended to have a loose grip on reality, and they just threw in as many random things as possible just because they sounded good individually. There is no real meaning to any of it; the fans just assume that there must be, so they create EpilepticTrees to convince themselves that there is an actual plot and meaning to this story. |
| 842 | * The SpringtimeForHitler story is an UrbanLegend (albeit an amusing one), and the series has an awful lot going on thematically for something that was intended to be meaningless. If you're looking for something that's completely (and intentionally) incomprehensible, though, Gainax still has you covered; just check out ''Anime/DeadLeaves'' or ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt''. |
| 843 | |
| 844 | [[WMG: NGE is set in the future of the ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}-verse]]. |
| 845 | |
| 846 | Think about. |
| 847 | Ozymandias could be as well TheManBehindTheMan of SEELE. He had a base where the first Angel was found (Antarctica), the necessary highly advanced technology to develop the [=EVAs=] & Co., the moral that anything justifes the result and most of all, the motive, the wish to unite humanity. |
| 848 | Dr. Manhatten could be as well an early Angel/human hybrid. The parallels between him and Rei, Kaworu, GNR and the first Angels are obvious. |
| 849 | |
| 850 | [[WMG: End of Evangelion's Third Impact and Rebuild of Evangelion's Third Impact are Angst and GAR overloads respectively]] |
| 851 | |
| 852 | It makes sense since in ''[=EoE=]'', Third Impact happened because of how depressed and sad Shinji was. In ''Rebuild'', he took so many levels in badass that Third Impact happened all over. |
| 853 | |
| 854 | [[WMG: It's a story written by Shinji.]] |
| 855 | A guy who's a fan of Super Robot shows and a need to work out his problems in his life. His dad is distant and cold. His wife died years ago, and he just remarried. His new wife (Misato) has an autistic daughter (Rei). Shinji regards her with a mix of fear, confusion, and sympathy. Asuka is bitchy girl at school he likes. After a while, pressure begins getting to him, and he seeks relief experimenting with LSD (the ending). A few years later, he decides to try rewriting it (rebuild). |
| 856 | |
| 857 | |
| 858 | [[WMG: Shinji is reincarnated....As [[spoiler: Spooney/Doctor Insano]]]] |
| 859 | |
| 860 | After the final scene in EOE, [[spoiler: Asuka leaves Shinji (He is the trope namer for Dude She's in A Coma after all)]]. As Shinji [[spoiler: wanders the post-apocalyptic world, he starts to go mad, and is subject to occasional bouts of laughter. One day, he comes across a group of young people. They have formed their own little community, where they are surviving, but barely holding onto their sanity. Part of what keeps them going is that they have stumbled across a collection of old movies, tv shows, comics, games ,etc, and they will snark about them. Shinji falls into this crowd. They teach him the art of snark, along with how to be a strong person. However, he is still screwed up psychologically and feels guilty about causing Third Impact]]. His [[spoiler: depression morphs into a habit of going on occasional wild rants and laughing uncontrollably. Throughout this all, he comes to consider his fellow snarkers as a family, and wants to save them from the maddness that they are slipping into as their collection is not infinite and an inevitable slide into maddness seems to be the most likely future]]. |
| 861 | |
| 862 | Shinji becomes [[spoiler: obsessed with reversing the effects of Instrumentality. While he doesn't invent any breakthrough scientific devices, he does become obsessed with science...he goes to the lake where Rei's corpse is and run "experiments" using fanatical devotion to the scientific method to try and revive her/retake control of her. He succeeds (walks through her shown-to-be not entirely solid body? I dont know) to revive the hybrid]]. There is a tremendous, trippy psychological fight within the [[spoiler: creature (this is eva after all) between the snarker in Shinji and the manic, mad scientist personality he has developed. Realizing he cant win, he decides the best gift he can give his friends is to bring back everyone, but scrub their minds of everything that happened after second impact...basically, everyone will think its the year 2000, and live their lives from there, although he will make sure the members of Seele remember nothing of eva, the dead sea scrolls, and will not be in control of the world. Shinji realizes that this means he will lose his memories as well, but he is fine with that. With the knowledge that everything will be alright, Shinji symbolically dies, content and at peace with himself at last..]]. |
| 863 | |
| 864 | The world [[spoiler: is reset, and the family that Shinji found becomes the team at TGWTG. Shinji's split-personality remains intact, however, resurfacing as the never-ending battle between Spooney and Insano. Asuka is reincarned as Scarlett (Spooney's girlfriend) Considering eva, I'd say this is a pretty happy ending ;)]]. |
| 865 | |
| 866 | [[WMG:Lilith / Yui Ikari / Rei Ayanami is in fact [[MessianicArchetype Jesus Christ]]]] |
| 867 | As Lilith she exists as YHWH[=/=]Adam's equivalent, is our Mother, and was crucified by the Lilin. As Yui she becomes a parental figure to Shinji, with some Philosopher tendencies, rejected SEELE (who represents the authority of the Jewish Sanhedrin) and [[AndIMustScream was crucified in Unit 01]] for the protection of humanity from both the Angels (the wrath of the Old Testament God) and SEELE (who wants to obliterate free will through Instrumentality). As Rei, she exists to protect Shinji, even though Shinji keeps rejecting her, and as seen in the fight against Armisael, she died for his (mankind's) sins. She rose again as The Third (Rei III), took control of Instrumentality from both SEELE and Gendo, became our universal Companion both in Fiction and [[PerverseSexualLust Real Life]], and died again for Shinji. In the end, Yui was the one who encouraged Shinji to reject Instrumentality and embrace individuality, allowing humans to reform themselves contrary to SEELE's vision of forcibly unifying mankind into God. "Anywhere can be paradise as long as you have the will to live". Because of her sacrifices, Yui-sama and free will in general won a PyrrhicVictory over SEELE. |
| 868 | * Gendo himself represents Christianity, if that's the case. After the death of Yui, he was so fanaticized that he created a replica Yui, which he altered with metaphysical biology (aka, Rei). He only cared about her, wishing to merge with her in Instrumentality, forgetting Shinji in the process and ending up becoming a brutal, hypocritical villain whom Yui would not actually want Gendo to become. How is that similar to modern Christianity? After the death of Jesus, the disciples created a replica religion after him, called Christianity, which they added with their own WordOfDante. They only cared about him, wishing to merge with him in Heaven, forgetting Real Life in the process and as the Medieval Catholic Church shows becoming the institution that was less "Love thy neighbour" and more "'''''[[KnightTemplar HERESY!]]'''''". |
| 869 | |
| 870 | [[WMG: If the above theory is correct, then Kaworu was also a clone of Yui, added with some Y chromosomes for good measure.]] |
| 871 | Kaworu is Jesus. The above theory says Yui is Jesus. If that's the case, then Kaworu is Yui. [[LogicalFallacies Q.E.D.]] |
| 872 | * ''Evangelion'' [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory is the leading anime series in Christ figures per square kilometer.]] |
| 873 | |
| 874 | [[WMG: SEELE is Satan, Gendo is the Antichrist, Yui is Jesus, the series is an allegory, and the rest follows. Also, the message of the series is that you can't cheat your way to Utopia.]] |
| 875 | The idea is that Satan is always vying for the throne of God, and as such, [[AGodAmI attempts to make himself a god]]. Humanity are pawns in this cosmic game, and the Angels are the attempt at stopping SEELE (Satan's) attack. SEELE attempts to obtain unholy power through obtaining the Fruit of Life and screwing with the very order of creation, triggering the Apocalypse (Second Impact) and Tribulation (the following years.) This brings the Wrath of God in the form of the Angels to earth--they didn't bother us until we forced Second Impact. Not in line with biblical chronology, after this Jesus (Yui) is [[AndIMustScream crucified to the Evangelion]] for the sins of man, collectively represented by Shinji Ikari, who's being continually tempted to succumb to DespairEventHorizon and join SEELE in destroying the world. She returns on Judgment Day (As incarnated in ''[=EoE=]''), helps Shinji question whether it is really worth it to sacrifice humanity just to be be God, gives him hope in humanity thus allowing him to reject Instrumentality, and in the end spends the rest of eternity in space as an individual symbol to humanity's existence. Granted, this is more of a heavy borrowing of concepts from Christianity than an allegorical fulfillment of them; the series is not allegorical event-wise, but in a general, thematic sense: Those who attempt to become God both destroy the world and [[LonelyAtTheTop lose anyway]]. None of the correlations I've mentioned likely hold, but the theme seems reasonable. It's the old tale of {{hubris}}, with religious overlays. |
| 876 | |
| 877 | Also, the theme seems to be more or less a dystopian staple: true Utopia is earned organically, not imposed synthetically. Though Shinji's fantasy-world is great, it cannot be had in reality, and thus he rejects it. Like many Utopias' failures, the cause of failure is the imperfection of humans and how they cannot tolerate boredom; before evolution such as Instrumentality would bring can take place, we must actually change by ourselves to the point where it is natural to reach that state. Shinji's realization that human's can't truly co-exist in harmony for real--and thus, a free, intelligent and interesting life must include the painful chaos of individuality--is the reason that Instrumentality failed miserably. For other examples of collectivistic transhumanist utopias which get deconstructed because human nature isn't ready for it, see ''Film/TheMatrix'', ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', and ''Literature/TheGiver'' If we were able to live in peace, BreadAndCircuses forever, there would be no more plot, our souls suffer death-by-boredom (which we may not notice superficially) and it would not be much different from an AndIMustScream state (hence why in dystopian literature fandom, the fates of the people living in "Brave New World" are compared with of all things those that live in the absolute DespairEventHorizon of all Dystopias, "Literature/NineteenEightyFour"). The idea that we can't cheat our way to peace is actually one that would be very important to remember in real life. |
| 878 | |
| 879 | [[WMG: ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' is a testament to Gestalt psychology]] |
| 880 | Gestalt psychology centers on the belief that the brain has self-organizing tendencies, and are able to perceive patterns on otherwise meaningless objects. As seen earlier, NGE was a SpringtimeForHitler attempt where they threw in random symbolism to confuse the audience, but still, the audience still sees a coherent plot, and a terrifically beautiful plot at that. |
| 881 | |
| 882 | [[WMG: Everyone went to Heaven in the last episode]] |
| 883 | * As someone said that ''Series/{{Lost}}'' had an ending similar to ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' (there's a theory on that on the "Lost" page), it is only fair someone do the same to NGE. The ''Series/{{Lost}}'' ending was at least more comprehensible than NGE's. |
| 884 | |
| 885 | [[WMG: Being screwed up is a ''requirement'' for being an Eva pilot.]] |
| 886 | "Absolute Terror Field" is supposed to refer to the way traumatized people push others away from them, and are unable to make connections to other people. Interpreting it like that, in their Evas the strength of their AT-field depends on how badly they connect to others in real life. A very responsive and extroverted individual would let his field crumble instantly, subconsciously seeking to connect with the Angels, but a person who fears all close contact with others pushes them away, and strengthens the field with their anxiety. Now, is it any wonder that Shinji's AT-field is the strongest of them all? The effects of Asuka's mental collapse weren't directly caused by the loss of confidence, but from her increasingly passive mindset that couldn't even have the energy to shut others away properly |
| 887 | * The premise of this one is true, as discussed (way) above. |
| 888 | |
| 889 | [[WMG:The {{Precursors}} who created Adam and Eve were the gods of [[ComicBook/NewGods New Genesis]]]] |
| 890 | They were created for peaceful reasons, but due to a flaw in their creation (they were never meant to inhabit the same world) and human interference, it [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong]]. Hence the title, "Gospel of New Genesis". |
| 891 | |
| 892 | [[WMG: Several Gainax works are part of the same cosmology]] |
| 893 | The stories were retold several times and were subjected to cultural syncretism and AdaptationDecay, but can still be linked together to form a coherent story: |
| 894 | * ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'': this is the world BEFORE the second impact. |
| 895 | * ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'': The events preceeding second impact or the Anti Spiral Invasion (Hard to tell which of the two it is). |
| 896 | * ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': The remnants of Neo Atlan reemerge as Seele. Several descendants of the Nadia cast reappear and are dragged into the plot. Yui (Shingi's mother) is the descendant of Jean and Nadia while Asuka's mother, of Marie and Sanson; Fuyutsuki, is somehow linked to Lord Gargoyle, as is Akagi to Electra. Third Impact occurs, and everyone turns into orange juice. Shingi's involvement foils Seele's plans and they loose control of their 'new world' |
| 897 | * ''Anime/MagicalShoppingArcadeAbenobashi'': Well decades after the series anyway. The now adult Sasshi, who was assimilated during the Third Impact, emerges and begins reconstructing the world, creating the Spiral Universe. |
| 898 | * ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': The Anti Spiral becomes avare of Sasshi's multiple recreations of the universe and declares war on it and wins. Naota (or his reincarnation - depending on where you place FLCL) becomes Lordgenome, and seals humanity beneath the surface. Sanson, reborn as Kamina initiates the uprising against Lordgenome and the surface is retaken, leading to the final confrontation with the Anti Spiral. |
| 899 | This is of course far from being a perfect chain, so feel free to adjust and expand on it. |
| 900 | ** The Anti-Spirals are the Instrumentalized humans, led by a mind-raped Shinji. It may explain [[MoralEventHorizon what he did to]] [[DudeShesLikeInAComa Nia.]] |
| 901 | ** A Gainax crossover anime/game. I'd watch/play it. |
| 902 | |
| 903 | [[WMG: Rei Ayanami is a [[Series/DoctorWho Tardis]].]] |
| 904 | It travels the universe and the spacetime continuum (hence the Instrumentality Reis at the very beginning and the end), and stays in one place (the Giant Naked Rei). |
| 905 | |
| 906 | [[WMG: The entire Neon Genesis Evangelion universe is powered.... by EpilepticTrees / Wild Mass Guessing]] |
| 907 | There was once an earlier WMG here which says that it is a SpringtimeForHitler designed to deliberately fail and any actual cohesion or symbolism in NGE was purely coincidental, and fans create EpilepticTrees to convince themselves that there is an actual plot. The question is, why did it became successful? Answer: Eva is a massive Epileptic Tree garden. Its inherent meaninglessness and lots of [[Headscratchers/HomePage circumstances which confuse and bug the audience]] makes it a fertile land for epileptic trees to grow. And remember, If there's something that most kinds of fans from intellectual critics to the [[FanDumb dumbest of the dumb]] love, it's farming Epileptic Trees. Fans come and go into the Eva-verse to post their own FanWank and pet wild theories, some silly, some [[ContemplateOurNavels philosophical]]. If Fans lost their ability to create their own theories, then Eva would be the irredeemable flop it was intended to be. It wasn't just Hideaki Anno's art, It was the Epileptic Tree which helped push Eva to the top tiers of anime fame. |
| 908 | * Also, the AT Field is powered by existentialism and one's own choice. So, maybe, the entire point of NGE's history is that we must use our own AT Fields to be free to post Epileptic Trees in the Garden of Fiction. |
| 909 | * In a less reality-grounding and more imaginative WMG, Shinji, Anno, Seele, and all of Nerv are actually servants to a race of [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy super-intelligent pan-dimensional]] sapient plants called ''[[CanisLatinicus Arbor Epileptus]]'', aka the Epileptic Trees, which are obsessed with tropes, [[WMG/TimeLord Time Lords]], [[Headscratchers/HomePage media infested by confusion-causing bugs]], [[FridgeLogic fridge-chilled logic]], [[MindScrew mind-penetrating screws]], screws, [[EverybodyIsJesusInPurgatory Jesus in Purgatory]] and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic other things you think are symbolic]], and reproduce by [[FanWank forcing fans to masturbate]]. The creation of the entire Eva-verse is a plan for the Epileptic Trees to take over our world, spreading their [[MultiversalConqueror multiversal empire]] of [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife life-ruining tropery]]. The End Of Evangelion? It's just a plan to terraform the Earth into an Epileptic Tree homeworld, perfect for growing lots [[MindScrew and lots]] ''[[RunningGag and lots]]'' of Epileptic Trees. [[WMG/GrandUnifyingGuesses They are planning to invade other fiction]], even [[RealLife Real]] [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Life]], and TV Tropes is their headquarters / mothership. Oh, and [[StockEpilepticTrees Shinji is a Time Lord in Purgatory.]] |
| 910 | |
| 911 | [[WMG: Based on the theory above, ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' is set in the same world as ''Series/{{Lost}}'']] |
| 912 | Both are populated by ''epileptic trees''. Enough said. |
| 913 | |
| 914 | [[WMG:''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'' takes place in the same time-line as ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'']] |
| 915 | If it's set pre-Second Impact, Yotsuba will be killed in Second Impact, an if it's set post-Second Impact, her real parents were killed by it (doubles as a origin WMG), and she will have to face the unremitting horror of the main show/End of Evangelion. |
| 916 | |
| 917 | [[WMG: Yui Ikari's maiden name is [[Manga/KOn Hirasawa]].]] |
| 918 | No, this does not make any sense at all. I just wanted to see what would happen if you mixed a saccharine SliceOfLife anime from Creator/KyoAni with a [[NightmareFuel deeply disturbing]], super-MindScrew anime from Gainax. I hope I don't get flamed for this. |
| 919 | |
| 920 | Though, if you think about it, this could happen, since ''[[Manga/KOn K-On!]]'' Yui had {{Sickeningly Sweetheart|s}} parents, which could realistically translate into adult Yui (both K-On! and NGE) being kind and caring, which, from what little characterization we get for Shinji's mother, she seems to be. A more complete comparison/description can be found at the [[WMG/KOn WMG.]] |
| 921 | * Jossed, Ikari is her true family name and Gendo's one was Rokubungi, he takes Yui's name. |
| 922 | * Perhaps Yui Hirasawa eventually has a daughter who marries a guy named Ikari and joins SEELE. She decides to name ''her'' daughter after her famous rock star grandmother. So Shinji is Yui's great-grandson. |
| 923 | * Or Yui just changed her last name. Much simpler. |
| 924 | |
| 925 | [[WMG: There's a (somewhat) logical explanation as to why the pilots are so young.]] |
| 926 | They didn't think all the Angels would appear to attack so close together, (after all, the First and Second Impacts were a couple thousand years apart), so they thought they would have been older when they actually started training them. Although, this begs the question what would the series be like if Shinji was an EVA pilot at the age of 83. |
| 927 | * I doubt it. There's reason to believe that children (and adolescents in particular) are the ideal Eva pilots, for reasons discussed in several of the above entries. Also, SEELE claims that the coming of the Angels is foretold by the Dead Sea Scrolls, though it's unclear exactly how specific these prophecies are. |
| 928 | |
| 929 | [[WMG: Flemeth is behind EVERYTHING!]] |
| 930 | She made you look. |
| 931 | |
| 932 | [[WMG: The entire ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' storyline is a "Princess and Dragon" fairytale story]] |
| 933 | We all know the princess and dragon stories, where the DamselInDistress was kidnapped by the BigBad using TheDragon, and the KnightInShiningArmor try to rescue the beautiful princess from TheEmpire. This is also known as a manifestation of TheDulcineaEffect. Let's see, how do we deconstruct the whole premise? When you look at the whole setting, it seems that the Angels are trying to rescue Lilith from the civilization that is Humanity, but their instincts made them lose to Humanity's super science. Add fairy tale tropes, and you get the whole premise! The Angels are actually [[KnightInShiningArmor Knights In Shining Armor]] who are trying to rescue the hapless, imprisoned princess Lilith from TheEmpire that is Humanity, but their Don Quixote attitudes made them lose to Humanity's superior wizardry. Evangelions are obviously, TheDragon. The Instrumentality? It's maybe because Lilith is actually someone who resembles [[Manga/MagicKnightRayearth The Pillar Of Cephiro]]. The reason why angels look like ''them {{Eldritch Abomination}}s'' is either because the angels possess magic of their own, which makes this somewhat an ElvesVsDwarves conflict (as evidenced by the S2 Engine), or because Humanity was so angsty and grimdark, they reject all forms of idealistic premises and caricature them as ugly. Or because it's a TakeThat and Deconstruction. |
| 934 | |
| 935 | [[WMG: The main thing that Hideaki Anno was trying to tell us in End of Evangelion is.....]] |
| 936 | ......that men will never truly understand women |
| 937 | * More generally, that people may never truly understand each other, but damn it all we should still try. |
| 938 | |
| 939 | [[WMG: Asuka is pregnant with Shinji's child in the last scene of the movie.]] |
| 940 | Shinji and Asuka were both screwing around during Instrumentality, and the hospital scene sort of implies that Shinji ''had sex with'' [[DudeShesLikeInAComa his comatose friend]] and pulled out at the last minute. It would also explain both interperetations of the final line ("I feel sick" could refer to morning sickness and "How disgusting" could refer to her feeling of disgust towards her 'husband'). In addition, it reinforces the feeling of their (and subsequently, humanity's) uncertain future. Creator/TiffanyGrant, Asuka's VA, seems to believe this theory, according to Website/TheOtherWiki. |
| 941 | * Oh god, this one originated from an essay by Sean [=McCoy=], a prominent Eva fanboy from the late 90's/early 2000's so dedicated he was actually brought in by ADV to do commentaries for several episodes showcasing his FanWank theories. It's pretty out there, although you have to admire the guy's ability to read meaning into EVERYTHING. I never got the impression that Grant believed this herself, although since she's obviously met and talked to [=McCoy=], who knows? |
| 942 | |
| 943 | [[WMG: The angels are [[HumansAreCthulhu ordinary humans]]]] |
| 944 | That's right, you heard me. And the "humans" are insects, either ants or termites. Sachiel? He's just a police officer. The EVAS? Owners of the house, or environmentalists fighting for insect rights. Lilith? A dead hooker buried under the lawn. Israfel? Two kids playing piggyback. Gaghiel? He's just someone on the swimming pool. Sandalphon? A baby. Sahaquiel? An aeroplane seen from the distance. Zeruel? Probably an exterminator. Arael and Armisael? They're both entomologists (MindRape? That's just dissection). Instrumentality? A can of Raid. The octahedral one? A tiller. The one shaped like bacteria? A lawnmower. |
| 945 | * This Troper actually considered this as canon. Angels' progenitor is called ADAM (The first living HUMAN). If The Angels' progenitor is called Adam and the Humans' progenitor is called Adam, then the Angels are Humans. The Lilims themselves are like insects, and Lilith / Rei is somehow a HiveQueen / unifying symbol / MookMaker (which is similar to actual insect hive queens). Heck, in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' females rule and males are [[LonersAreFreaks freaky loners]], like in actual insect hives. The Eva pilots? They might be lice. |
| 946 | |
| 947 | [[WMG: Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion is part of a cycle and the fate of all Humans was unavoidable.]] |
| 948 | Unit-01/Lilith leaving Earth with the Lance of Longinus is the beggining of the cycle. Eventually she is going to collide on another planet, spill out LCL and create new life and a new Adam. |
| 949 | |
| 950 | This life will evolve to become either human or resemble humans, eventually discover Unit-01/Lilith, a new Adam and the Lance. And the whole thing starts over again. |
| 951 | |
| 952 | [[WMG: The strength of an AT Field and its function in extroversion / introversion of an individual doesn't go between soft and hard....]] |
| 953 | It goes between malleable and brittle. This Troper expanded on Kaworu's statement about the nature of AT Fields, that it is the energy that what separates people and makes introverts. Still, the nature of the AT Field being "introverted energy" doesn't explain everything: Asuka's Mind Rape, the Human Instrumentality Project, and if we would include Real Life, the majority of the internet (which is RL 's answer to Instrumentality) being introverted hikikomoris. Maybe, it is instead measured in malleability versus brittleness. Think about it. For example, Asuka's Mind Rape. Asuka has a very powerful AT Field, but after being mind raped by Arael, she fails to generate her own AT Field. If we would go by the traditional scale (no AT Field = extrovert and powerful AT Field = introvert), then after being mind raped, she should turn out to be a normal extroverted person! If we would measure her AT Field in the term of malleability versus brittleness, then her AT Field might be powerful, but still brittle (Remember, hard things, like diamonds, can be very hard, but still shatters into many pieces when struck with a powerful force). This explains why Instrumentality targets introverts, introverts have very powerful AT Fields, but can still be broken by a very powerful force. What about the other side, malleability? People with "malleable" AT Fields are very ductile, versatile and can bend to society, ergo, they do not require a ridiculously powerful force (Instrumentality) to break them. In other words, people with malleable AT Fields would end up sociable and extroverted. |
| 954 | * The AT Fields don't cause extroversion/introversion; if anything, they are a product of it. |
| 955 | |
| 956 | [[WMG: The AT Field and Kaworu's conception of it as the energy that separates people is a lie]] |
| 957 | Two explanations: Take this literally, and the AT Field is simply some kind of force field that is utilized by beings made of particle-wave matter (Angels, Evas) and isn't related to the extroversion and introversion of people. Take this metaphorically, and the AT Field is what makes people lie to each other (which sounds like ''Anime/CodeGeass''' own version of Instrumentality). |
| 958 | |
| 959 | [[WMG: The Angels are War Machines]] |
| 960 | The First Ancestral Race made at least two kinds of seeds: Black Moons with Lilith, who create "normal" terrestrial life that can eventually develop into sentient beings (they might also contain the original form of the First Ancestral Race), and the White Moons with Adam, who create the Angels which command great destructive power but have no real will of their own. |
| 961 | |
| 962 | The First Ancestral Race was not alone in the universe, but the "life" they encountered was so [[EldritchAbomination alien and malignant]] that they designated some worlds (such as Earth) as guardian worlds or some such, to be populated by Angels which would fight against such beings as they encountered them. However, when Lilith was knocked off course for whatever reason, Earth's case went pear shaped. The reason the Angels wish to reunite with Adam and cause Third Impact is so they can wipe Earth clean and set it up as a guardian world as originally intended. |
| 963 | * Maybe the utterly alien species they encountered were the [[HumansAreCthulhu Humans of Real Life]], concerning the postmodernist tendencies of NGE.... |
| 964 | * The utterly alien beings encountered were the [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Anti-Spirals]]. |
| 965 | * Alternatively (based on statements in the Playstation game), the Angels were created as mechas to fight wars and do construction work by the FAR, who were HumanAliens. The Evangelions were the initial experiments, and the Angels were the perfected version. The FAR eventually became {{hubris}}tic enough to tamper with CreatingLife and create an artificial god or make themselves gods or fuse humans and angels or ''something'' along those lines. [[AndManGrewProud This caused a Zeroth Impact that destroyed their civilization]] (this is where we get the story of the Fall of Eden, the Tower of Babel, the Noah's Flood and {{Atlantis}} from). So they created seven colony ships to seed their legacy on new, untainted worlds. Some of these ships were given to the Angels, who by this time have developed a rudimentary intelligence/solipsistic madness/endless loneliness. Renegade FAR (Lucifer-equivalents) managed to hijack one of the human ships and steered the ship towards an Angel-claimed planet, where they used cybernetics to make themselves immortal and waited in cryo-stasis 4 billion years until they (under the mask of TheIlluminati or Seele) could manipulate the reincarnated human civilization to give them the Fruit of Life so they could become Gods (conveniently, the crash destroyed Lilith's Lance and gave the resident Adam EasyAmnesia). The Dead Sea Scrolls are merely the historical records of the FAR, which were misinterpreted by Earth-born humans as religious texts and subverted by Seele in their plans to achieve Godhood or plunge the world into Hell or destroy mankind or whatever the heck it was they were planning before the Ikaris took control of it. |
| 966 | |
| 967 | [[WMG: What Gendou said to Ritsuko was that he loved her.]] |
| 968 | Well...look at it this way, if Ritsuko said "You Liar!" it might possibly him confessing his love for her. Yuriko Yamaguchi, Ritsuko's JP VA, even stated this is what she thought Gendou said. What else do you think he might have said to her? |
| 969 | * [[LukeIAmYourFather Maybe that he is her father]]. [[ParentalIncest I know...]] [[{{Squick}} EEEWWWWWW]]!!!!! |
| 970 | * "I loved her [as in, Yui]." For one possibility. But really, the whole point is that we weren't supposed to know; her reaction tells all. |
| 971 | ** This theory is canon in the manga. |
| 972 | |
| 973 | [[WMG: The First Ancestral Race are the ancestors of the [[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross Protoculture]]]] |
| 974 | After spreading the Seeds of Life around the galaxy, a lot of generations later the First Ancestral Race became what was later known as the Protoculture. |
| 975 | |
| 976 | [[WMG: GNR was only Rei and Lilith, not Adam or Kaworu like some people think]] |
| 977 | Not like this is really a WMG, but whatever. People seem to think Giant Naked Rei is some kind of Lilith/Rei/Adam hybrid because of the giant Kaworu that appeared to Shinji, but that was just part of the whole "Rei appears to people in the forms of someone they love" gimmick. Besides, Adam got killed, remember? |
| 978 | * Wasn't Kaworu in the MP Evangelions and Adam in Gendo's hand? |
| 979 | * Rei absorbed Adam into herself (via Gendo's hand) before reuniting with Lilith. So Rei-Lilith does contain Adam as well. |
| 980 | |
| 981 | [[WMG: Gendo gets reincarnated as Billy Ray Cyrus]] |
| 982 | Yes. |
| 983 | |
| 984 | [[WMG: The entirety of NGE is Shinji on a bad drug trip]] |
| 985 | See, Sninji is a regular normal student in Japan. Second Impact did happen, though it was a meteorite and only some of Antarctica was destroyed. Everyone really exists. Allow me to expand: |
| 986 | * Rei is Shinji's fraternal twin. She dyes her hair blue because she's in a band. Shinji and Rei have been [[BrotherSisterIncest experimenting with each other.]] |
| 987 | * Askua is Shinji's neighbor, who likes changing with the window open, directly across from Shinji's room.. |
| 988 | * Gendo is his father, and works at NERV, which is a medical company that designs and build cybernetic/prosthetic limbs. Yui is actually dead, having been killed in an electrical fire while testing a power suit. Gendo has also turned to Rei for [[ParentalIncest comfort,]] which has screwed her up a bit in the head. |
| 989 | * Misato is one of the other neighbors, who Gendo asks to keep an eye on Shinji and Rei when he has to travel out of the country for work. She's a bit of a [[HardDrinkingPartyGirl drunk]] and when hammered dances around in the nude with her stuffed penguin, Pen-Pen. She may also be Shinji's dealer. |
| 990 | * Ritsuko is the family's doctor. Also having a strange relationship with Gendo. He's blackmailing her with pictures of the two of them having sex to keep her mouth shut about Rei. |
| 991 | * Futyuski is one of the division heads of Gendo's department. He's a walking test subject for NERV's cybernetic enhancements. |
| 992 | * Kaworu is the Bishonen class member who all the girls want, but is uninterested in anyone, because he's a eunuch. |
| 993 | * Toji and Kensuke are Shinji's friends from school, and Hikari is Toji's girlfriend. They like partying with Shinji because he gets the best stuff. |
| 994 | |
| 995 | Rei appears at the beginning and end because Shinji is looking at her when he takes the hit, and she's shaking him back to consciousness at the end. As for why Asuka and Rei are in his his room while he's snorting some weird combination of drugs, it's because they're going to have a bit of a [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy party]] with their friends, who haven't shown up yet. This is also why Shinji is having sex with Asuka during the Instrumentality section of EOE, because ''he actually is.'' That was why he took the drugs. He just got a bad dose. '''And yes, I know it doesn't make any sense, but hey, it's a possibility''' |
| 996 | ** Alternatively, it was actually Keel Lorenz's hallucination of what he wanted to happen after he took [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs lots and lots of drugs]], but after regaining consciousness, he saw how actually [[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion a few different things happened]]. |
| 997 | |
| 998 | [[WMG: The sequel to Evangelion is... RealLife.]] |
| 999 | Think about it, humanity can't decide where exactly it came from. Here's looking at it from both angles.: |
| 1000 | * Literature/TheBible says that the first created human was Eve, and from her the first man was created, named Adam. [[spoiler: Who was at the end of Evangelion?]] |
| 1001 | ** Also, the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life is how everything began in RealLife. The Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life are [[spoiler: both part of the ending of Evangelion.]] [[spoiler: So the ending of Evangelion]] is also the beginning of RealLife. |
| 1002 | * Now from evolutionists that say humans came from organisms in the sea. Humanity was [[spoiler: turned into a huge primordial soup at Evangelion, a Sea of LCL]], and it was specifically said that [[spoiler: humans could reform if they imagine in their heart what they were supposed to be like. Therefore, they would evolve back into whatever they visualized.]] So, who's to say that humans didn't evolve from being something in the sea, [[spoiler: just not a sea of water]]? |
| 1003 | * This one would also indicate that Creator/HideakiAnno is the only person mentally insane enough to remember all of it, and that the result of people who tried to but misinterpreted it... is Literature/TheBible. Which would explain all the symbolism in the series. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic It's not Evangelion taking after The Bible]], [[LogicBomb it's The Bible taking after Evangelion.]] |
| 1004 | * Does this mean Shinji is God? |
| 1005 | * There's a problem with that: By the time life evolves back to normal(about 3.6 billion years), the Sun would've made the Earth unlivable. |
| 1006 | |
| 1007 | [[WMG: [[Manga/LuckyStar Konata and Miyuki]] are Angels, Kagami is Asuka, and Tsukasa is Rei.]] |
| 1008 | And [[ButtMonkey Minoru]] is Shinji. Hey, there are more than enough WMG's linking ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' and ''Evangelion'', especially via Instrumentality. Why not go one step further? Tsundere Kagami makes a good Asuka, Tsukasa has the short hair (almost the same color) and slightly pushover personality. The fact that Kagami and Tsukasa are twins and Asuka hates Rei makes things deliciously [[IronicHell ironic]] (although [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Tsukasa]] occasionally provokes the same reaction in Kagami). Miyuki is frequently judged by Konata to be the penultimate in {{Moe}}...a perfect definition of an Angel if there ever was one. And {{Otaku}} Konata seems to be adored by most of her peers, as opposed to most stereotypes of otakus. She's also athletic and a GeniusDitz when need be--hence a higher being in the eyes of most otakus. |
| 1009 | |
| 1010 | [[WMG: Neon Genesis Evangelion was [[spoiler: only the fruit of a complex interaction between the mind of Shinji with a new technology of therapeutic virtual reality technology à la Film/TheCell]]]] |
| 1011 | Once upon a time,there was a kid who lost any self esteem ,and with it his will to live. After he made several attempts to suicide , his family and friends were desperate, they did all what they could do , until they heard about a special reality-based therapy that has the potential to cure the most extreme cases of mental disorder.They put the boy under this treatment. Under its effect, his broken mind began to create an entire simulation of the earth from his POV, and began to confront his own issues . He recreated lookalikes of his loved ones as the cast of the NERV facilities ,imagined the evangelion as a way to fight his disorders,and the angels were the embodiment of his fears,problems,and issues. But because of his low_esteem , even those virtual heroes began to lose their fight,and his virtual world agonised, and died (end of evangelion),but he snapped back,and fixed (altought temporarlily) the earth (rebuild of evangelion),however the fate of this new simulacrum was still destruction,but at the very deep of his despair,he understood that even when the entire earth was killed off,he's still alive,and that he was something after all . Then he succeded , he conquered his mental sickness (the breaking sound at the very end of the episode 26) and he activated a happy ending program where he saw his family and buddies congratulating him for what he did , he was finally cured. |
| 1012 | |
| 1013 | [[WMG: Gendo plans to take over the world by Botany]] |
| 1014 | How else do you explain a Snowdrop named [[http://www.galanthus.co.uk/catalogue_product.php?productID=32 Galanthus]] '''Ikari'''ae? |
| 1015 | [[WMG: Seele is actually the German pop-rock group Silbermond]] |
| 1016 | |
| 1017 | [[WMG: The White and Black Eggs (Adam and Lilith) are [[LostTechnology Lost Logia]] from [[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha Al-Hazard]].]] |
| 1018 | |
| 1019 | The [[AllThereInTheManual Manuals]] state that the first two Angels are essentially two kinds of Terraforming technologies used to spread life across the universe, with all the Angels ([[spoiler:except for Humanity]]) being off-shoots of Adam. Given what we've seen the Angels being capable of, the Idea of Eva somehow being involved in the Nanoha-verse makes a great deal of sense. |
| 1020 | |
| 1021 | [[WMG: Nuclear weapons were banned and Tokyo-3 was built where it was ''precisely'' to ensure that Eva units are the only defence against the angels.]] |
| 1022 | |
| 1023 | It is obviously illogical to build a city over top of something that is ''sure'' to be attacked, no matter how much of a 'fortress' said city is. Building said city into a massive underground cavern is also a stupid idea in Japan; an area well-known for seismic activity. However, there can be an explanation for this: While power calculations done by fans have shown that a megaton-yield thermonuclear device could feasibly kill an angel, you wouldn't want to detonate one of those over a city, especially a city where "cave in" is a legitimate threat. The construction of Tokyo 3 in that specific location may be a deliberate ploy by SEELE to prevent the use of the only non-eva weapon theoretically capable of harming an angel. (Okay, there was that one plan involving 992 N-2 devices but, given the N-2 mine's calculated yield, that would hardly equal a 20mt nuke. To put that in perspective, 25mt weapons were commonly deployed by the US Air Force during the Cold War and Tsar Bomba, the largest thermonuclear device ever created, had a whopping 50mt yield -- at half-power.) This forces humanity to rely on the Eva units, which is exactly what SEELE wants. |
| 1024 | * This one seems plausible, seeing how much behind-the-scenes influence and power SEELE and GEHIRN/NERV are shown to have. Also, "While power calculations done by fans have shown that a megaton-yield thermonuclear device could feasibly kill an angel" Please show me this, it sound hilarious. |
| 1025 | ** The previously-mentioned math was on a particularly useful wikipedia talk page which has unfortunately been deleted. It had to do with calculating the amount of energy per unit area in a point-blank thermonuclear detonation. This was then compared with the known output of the positron canon, which penetrated Ramiel's AT field, an AT field that was stated to be unusually strong. According to the calcs, an 800kt initiation at point blank would deliver a comparable amount of energy per unit area as the positron canon, which means it could quite likely penetrate an AT field. We have more powerful ordnance that can be carried by a strike fighter meaning that, should this be true, any US jet fighter manufactured since the 70s would be capable of killing an angel. Unfortunately, the collateral damage would incredible, which means it would be a bad idea to use this method of angel-slaying inside a city. |
| 1026 | ** It makes sense if you think about it really as a number of Angel used large direct energy weapons at long range. Such weapons would make rather little sense if some level of raw power wasn't enough to overcome AT fields without close range 'neutralization'. The problem of course was that barring the aforementioned city buster sized nukes mankind had no way to reliably produce that kind of fire power, and personally even if nukes might have worked I'd STILL have tried the Eva first anyway. Recall that no one knew really knew they were anything beyond giant super robots that could go toe to toe with the enemy ''without'' having to render entire countries uninhabitable with nuclear weapons. So it would make perfect sense regardless of location to try and use them first and foremost with the nukes as an 'oh shit' button. |
| 1027 | |
| 1028 | [[WMG: Angels are actually terrified and afraid of humanity and...well, everything else]] |
| 1029 | |
| 1030 | O...k. This might be a stretch, but some facts (as far as I can recall). |
| 1031 | 1) Every living thing with awareness has an AT Field. |
| 1032 | 2) The AT Field is used to isolate the true self/soul from others. |
| 1033 | 3) Angels and Evangelions can PROJECT their AT Fields. |
| 1034 | 4) AT Fields are strong enough to stop anything up to the honestly-not-a-nuke N2 Mine. |
| 1035 | -And one more fact, this time not relating to AT Fields directly- |
| 1036 | 5) Angels are trying to reunite with Adam and cause 3rd Impact, which would, to quote the fandom [[MemeticMutation "turn everybody into Tang"]] |
| 1037 | |
| 1038 | Drawing from these facts, This Troper proposes (insane smile here) that Angels have such a strong AT Field BECAUSE they are completely afraid, isolated, and alone. Completely. This means that the Angels' desire to cause 3rd Impact isn't out of any sort of maliciousness. They are genuinely terrified of EVERYTHING in reality. They want to cause 3rd impact to STOP being so isolated and afraid. This theory would go some way to explaining why Angels never work together. They feel more isolated and terrified of even others of their species than Shinji on a very very very bad day. Possibly they would even view their deaths as a kindness. If they thought that every living thing was like them then maybe they think that it would be an act of generosity to make everybody one without doubts or fears. |
| 1039 | |
| 1040 | But yeah, this is sorta a crack theory, even for the WMG page. |
| 1041 | |
| 1042 | [[WMG: The End of Evangelion has no meaning]] |
| 1043 | It was originally made to troll the people who hated the original ending, so why not. |
| 1044 | * Not as far from the truth as you might think. While ''[=EoE=]'' was intended to be the original ending when it was released there was a lot of speculation whether this was Anno's revenge against the fans who disliked the final two episodes. At the very least the death threats near the end which are real letters he recieved can be interpreted as such and the infamous scene at the beginning is Anno expressing his anger at the sexually driven merchandising and lust fans have for the characters. |
| 1045 | |
| 1046 | [[WMG: AT Fields and [[Franchise/StarWars The Force]] are opposing parts of the same metaphysical model]] |
| 1047 | |
| 1048 | The Force is a connection, binding everything in the galaxy / universe together. But if it existed on its own or if it became too powerful, the minds of every living thing would bleed together through that connection, and rapidly become a single, homogenized consciousness trapped in a state of nirvana, in other words, Human Instrumentality. There would have to be a counterbalancing existence to prevent that from happening. Conversely, if The Force didn't exist, if there were no connection between living things, then Human Instrumentality wouldn't have worked. The souls of mankind would not have been drawn together into a singular collective consciousness, but instead would have floated away individually into the void. |
| 1049 | * The Force is the real name of the Anti-AT Field and [[Franchise/StarWars midichlorians]] are actually S2 Engines. |
| 1050 | * It can also be said that the AT Fields are the manifestation of the Dark Side of the Force. Think about it. Jedi try to keep using the Force for peaceful purposes and the Light side of the Force is based on calm, meditation and universal harmony, on the other hand the Dark Side is based on passion, hatred and powerful emotions, those things that determine the strength and isolation of AT Fields, which in turn are of course a metaphor for the individual personality. \ |
| 1051 | \ |
| 1052 | To understand the effect of the Dark Side on AT Fields, we must fundamentally know the Dark Side causality: Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Suffering leads to the dark side. (It also helps to know the [[Franchise/DCUniverse Anti-Life Equation]]: loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=dark side) Now what powers Absolute '''Terror''' Fields? What are some of the dominant emotions in the CrapsackWorld of ''Evangelion''? What are some of the major factors in our personality and CharacterDevelopment? Fear. Terror. Intense, raw or negative emotions. Suffering, which influences behaviour. Self, the dark side. \ |
| 1053 | \ |
| 1054 | Such powerful emotions are how the AT Field manifests itself onto the world, why Shinji is nearly omnipotent in his AT Field abilities, etc. It is also accepted that one has to be fearful and/or mentally deranged enough to manifest powerful emotions and AT Fields if he or she is to become an Evangelion pilot. One of the more obvious of these is the Hedgehog's Dilemma, the fear of becoming mutual enemies with oneself and others. The stronger the fear is, the stronger one wants to protect and isolate oneself from the rest of humanity, and thus the person is more and more seduced by the Dark Side to acquire more energy for his AT Field. For example, the stronger Shinji's wrath is, the more he manifests the Dark Side energy, and hence AT Field energy. What if Shinji did not fear or is a normal person? Besides suffering from lack of character development, he gets defeated by the Angels. It was his dark side which allowed him to become an EldritchAbomination altogether in ''End Of Evangelion''. Also, AT is known as "Absolute Terror", which the Dark Side is supposed to bring upon the world when it manifests. \ |
| 1055 | \ |
| 1056 | But why do our personalities have to be an extension of the Dark Side, rather than the Light Side? Even though The Light Side is as effective in manipulating the universe as the Dark Side could, the reason why the Light Side is not effective for powering AT Fields is because the Light Side is based on existing in harmony with all of the universe, which of course results in the AT Field being neutralized rather than strengthened. This also mean that the Light Side is the Anti-AT Field used to bring about Instrumentality, or should we say Nirvana. \ |
| 1057 | \ |
| 1058 | Psychoanalytical, Jungian or even Hindu and Buddhist metaphors can even be shoved into this: The Force represents the collective unconscious of Brahman, the Light Side represents the path to Nirvana, the AT Field represents the Ego or Individual, while the Dark Side of the Force represents the Id, the personal subconscious desires from which the Ego draws power.\ |
| 1059 | \ |
| 1060 | This is just an elaboration, but I can see that both the philosophy of the Jedi and the psychology of Evangelion would make an interesting model of metaphysics. |
| 1061 | \ |
| 1062 | Actually, I thought that the ''Star Wars'' Universe is an Instrumentality by Iruel and midichlorians are all him and the Force is an AT Field. |
| 1063 | [[WMG: [[VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou Joshua]] and Kaworu are the same person.]] |
| 1064 | |
| 1065 | Think about it. Joshoru got bored with being Composer after Neku and the gang were returned to life, so he hopped on over to an alternate universe, which we know as ''Neon Genesis Evangelion''. In that universe, his powers were converted to something like the angels while still retaining his human form. For some reason or another, he started calling himself Kaworu and started to mess with Shinji, porrbably because he somehow reminded him of Neku. When he got bored of being in the NGE-verse, he convinced Shinji to kill him. From time to time, he pops into the NGE-verse to check in on everyone and possibly wreak havoc. |
| 1066 | |
| 1067 | [[WMG: Kaworu is omnipresent]] |
| 1068 | Expanding on the above and a number of previous [=WMGs=], Kaworu has the power to not only transcend continuities, but to show up in any work of fiction he desires in {{Expy}} form. |
| 1069 | |
| 1070 | [[WMG: Not only are Kaworu and [[VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou Joshua]] the same person, Joshua came first and he's everywhere.]] |
| 1071 | |
| 1072 | It was proven in "Another Day", the alternate universe bonus chapter in ''The World Ends With You'' that Joshua can transport himself to alternate dimentions. Therefore, we can asume that after The World Ends With You ended Joshua decided to try another reality. |
| 1073 | |
| 1074 | Enter Evangelion, a reality way more screwed up than his home reality. After he was done with that, he decided to do research into what other people are like. Shinji and Neku were similar, but Shinji was a much worse case. So he decided to insert himself into another reality. As Izaya Orihara of ''Literature/{{Durarara}}''. |
| 1075 | |
| 1076 | As Izaya he decided to take a much more direct approach in researching humanity. He also tried a new look, something he didn't think of when he was Kaworu. He eventually pissed of Shizuo Heiwajima which led Joshua to partially abandon this reality, as he would still slip back in from time to time to do more research. |
| 1077 | |
| 1078 | He then became [[Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya Itsuki Koizumi]] to research humans more. Until he realized that Haruhi had pretty much the same power as him. Except, she didn't know it. This is where Joshua discovered that if Haruhi willed it, everything woould dissapear. Never before had he met someone with the same, if not greater, power as himself. |
| 1079 | |
| 1080 | So he formulated a plan. He would need to have access to a vast ammount of power if he was to stop Haruhi if he ever needed to. Therefore he decided to enter more realities. |
| 1081 | |
| 1082 | He looked for power in many other worlds and eventually discovered that so many people were like Rei Ayanami. After thinking about it for some time, he figured it out. That he had people of another reality watching him and creating other realities for him and other people to occupy. But he didn't know which reality so he couldn't access it. |
| 1083 | |
| 1084 | To this day Joshua is living out these, and more, lives. At first it was due to boredom, but now, it was to prevent a fourth impact if you will. One that would consume all realities. That is what has happened, and there are more people who can traverse the realities as well. |
| 1085 | |
| 1086 | * You mean [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Planeswalkers?]] |
| 1087 | |
| 1088 | [[WMG: The First Ancestral Race created the Reapers]] |
| 1089 | |
| 1090 | Hey, mysterious god aliens can have more than one EldritchAbomination creation, can't they? And the Reapers have an AssimilationPlot somewhat similar (though very different in the details) to Seele's plan of instrumentality. |
| 1091 | * Maybe the First Ancestral Race also created the [[Creator/HPLovecraft Great Old Ones]], the [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Anti-Spirals]] and all our mythological gods. |
| 1092 | * This means that, naturally... |
| 1093 | |
| 1094 | [[WMG: ...the First Ancestral Race was then wiped out by their creations]] |
| 1095 | |
| 1096 | Hence, why we haven't seen the First Ancestral Race pop by to check on their planet seeding and correct the disastrous accident that was Earth (which has both Adam-based life and Lilith-based life). |
| 1097 | |
| 1098 | Running off of this idea, Lilith-based life was a last ditch invention created to save themselves from {{Gotterdammerung}}. |
| 1099 | |
| 1100 | [[WMG: The First Ancestral Race is Humanity.]] |
| 1101 | No not the Lilim or even the Instrumentalized Lilim, but Humanity as in like [[HumansAreCthulhu Real Life Humans]], only they were so advanced and absurd to the point that they turned into a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien EldritchAbomination [[TheSingularity Singularity]] who looked totally incomprehensible when seen from the perspective of other lesser species. [[AndManGrewProud And of course Man Grew Proud]], and created so much artificial lifeforms to entertain themselves they were wiped out by their own creations in the process. |
| 1102 | |
| 1103 | Running off of this idea, Lilith-based life was basically Humanity's last-ditch attempt to recolonize, reproduce and save itself from {{Gotterdammerung}}. |
| 1104 | * Obviously the First Ancestral Race is the mind of Hideaki Anno. |
| 1105 | |
| 1106 | [[WMG: The Angels are children]] |
| 1107 | Admittedly there's no real evidence of this but the idea that the combatants on both sides are children is disturbing in an appropriately Eva-ish way. |
| 1108 | * The episode in which they try to destroy the fetus of an angel may support your theory. When it transformed into its bigger form, it may have actually been a child. |
| 1109 | |
| 1110 | [[WMG: Unit 00 doesn't contain the soul of anyone on the show.]] |
| 1111 | Rei can pilot any Eva, regardless of whose soul is in it, so why should the soul in her preferred Eva be someone close to her? |
| 1112 | |
| 1113 | [[WMG: The human race makes it through Third Impact only to suffocate to death.]] |
| 1114 | At the end of End of Evangelion [[spoiler:every single Lillithian Life Form has been transformed into LCL. This is every organism on the planet. Then we're told that everyone with force of personality will come back, given that Shinji counted, we can assume that the definition of force of personality is pretty low. But probably not as low as say...a plant. You've got the entire human population of the world, probably a lot of animals but not a single plant which means there's nothing converting [=CO2=] to Oxygen ]] |
| 1115 | * I don't know about that. This troper has met some house plants with more of a force of personality than Shinji. I'm not kidding. |
| 1116 | * A single human needs 550 liters of oxygen per day to survive. Assume that all 7,4 billion humans alive in 2015 come back from Instrumentality. That's 4,070,000,000,000 litres per day. The volume of the athmosphere is 4,200,000,000 cubic kilometers. 20.946% of that are oxygen. That's 879,732,000 cubic kilometers or 8.79732*10^20 litres. That divided by the 4,070,000,000,000 litres per day is 879,732,000,000,000,000,000 days or 2,410,224,657,534,246,575. Since all oxygen consuming lifeforms except humans are extinct and ignoring oxygen consumed by technology, that's the amount of time before the athmosphere is depleted without photosynthesis. 2 quintillion 410 quadrillion 224 trillion 657 billion 534 million 246 thousand 5 hundred 75. Humanity will not even get close to depleting the athmosphere of oxygen, even if all humans come back to life. Also, the oceans are made of LCL now which is oxygenated and breathable. |
| 1117 | |
| 1118 | [[WMG: Kaworu ''LITERALLY'' has the ability to make people care about him.]] |
| 1119 | Shinji was just under his influence for the later parts of the series. |
| 1120 | |
| 1121 | [[WMG: Kaworu's human donor was Dr. Katsuragi]] |
| 1122 | Described in detail [[http://forum.evageeks.org/thread/1653/The-Kaworu-Katsuragi-Connection/ here]]. Obviously, like with all theories, it has problems, but why not? |
| 1123 | |
| 1124 | [[WMG: Angels are the antitheses to Franchise/{{Pokemon}}.]] |
| 1125 | Pokémon are loveable creatures that come in all shapes and sizes with different powers that can be harnessed by humans. Angels are (mostly) hideous {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that come in all shapes and sizes with different powers that can be used to destroy humans. The Pokémon universe runs parallel to the Neon Genesis Evangelion universe, and so Pokémon can be regarded as "matter" and the Angels "antimatter". |
| 1126 | * Since Giratina is based on antimatter does that make it an angel? |
| 1127 | ** Giratina's not an Angel, it's freaking ''[[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Yog]]-[[EldritchAbomination Sothoth!]]'' Well, an avatar at the very least. Which means the Angels are Great Old Ones. |
| 1128 | * Angels are DarkerAndEdgier Pokémon. |
| 1129 | |
| 1130 | [[WMG: Rei Ayanami has UsefulNotes/{{Aspergers|Syndrome}}.]] |
| 1131 | Think about it. She's got the lack of social understanding, formal speaking, has trouble showing/understanding her emotions, she's truthful, but completely blunt about it, she's a picky eater (at least, she doesn't eat meat), strong attachment to familiar objects (Gendo's glasses, and Shinji's tapeplayer in Rebuild), and (according to this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enVlFHdYrGU video]]) trouble making eye contact, and stares off into space (implying she has an active imagination, and thus has no need for outside stimulation). |
| 1132 | ** Nah, Rei's a schizoid. If anything, Gendo has HFA/AS, and Rei picked up some of the traits when living with him. |
| 1133 | |
| 1134 | [[WMG:Straight from the Deus Angst Machina page...]] |
| 1135 | * "With all the Deus Angst Machina, there are moments where you suspect the story is actually about Fictional Character's fighting the Author, with the Angels being sent by Hideaki Anno aka God himself to torture them in cruel and horrible ways. Then you add in that the Character's themselves are also Personified Aspects of that Crazy Man, then you realize the entire series is about Someone Cutting Himself and trying to commit Suicide. But that's yet another (non)literal interpretation." |
| 1136 | |
| 1137 | [[WMG: Shinji Ikari doesn't like off-colour tomato soup]] |
| 1138 | This entire theory that formulated in an incredibly slow afternoon as a response to a serious theory on an End video on Website/YouTube is based around the "fact" that LCL is actually really shitty, watered down tomato soup created from people - like a sort of liquid Soylent Orange. |
| 1139 | |
| 1140 | Gendo was a douchebag so he made Rei get naked but she didn't want to so she got big and went into space. Then Shinji thought soup was cool so they all got made into soup. Shinji then realised that soup wasn't all that cool because he didn't like tomato so he stopped being soup. Asuka thinks that soup isn't coo l either so she was dead with bandages because she thinks bandages are sexy. Then Shinji strangles her back to life. Fuyutsuki doesn't care. |
| 1141 | |
| 1142 | [[WMG: The Anti AT Field generated by Lilith during Third Impact that turns everyone to orange goo is the [[{{ComicBook/Darkseid}} Anti-Life Equation]]]] |
| 1143 | |
| 1144 | When [[ComicBook/FinalCrisis Darkseid fell backwards through time]] his death manifested in the Evangelion timeline as Third Impact and the Second Impact that preceded it. Everyone on Earth was merged into one being, one life, one will that is [[{{ComicBook/Darkseid}} DARKSEID]]. ''End of Evangelion'' is so depressing and bleak because it's the Anti-Life Equation trying to manifest in our world. Give in. |
| 1145 | |
| 1146 | |
| 1147 | [[WMG: The events of ''Evangelion'' happen in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe.]] |
| 1148 | |
| 1149 | It explains all of the mind screw stuff and where the angels come from. The Earth in Evangelion universe is a planet cut off from outside contact by a Warp storm eons ago (perhaps during the Age of Strife), yet unlike most other planets engulfed by the Warp, the Earth entered into the period of relative stability, until the Second Impact came along. And Adam and Lilith? They may be Greater Demons, the new Chaos Gods, or something unimaginably horrible from another galaxy... |
| 1150 | Eons later, the Imperium finds the utterly devastated Earth emerging from the Warp storm. An inquisitor, looking at the planet, orders an Exterminatus. The end. |
| 1151 | * Or, more Angels pop out from the Earth and eat the starships carrying out Exterminatus. Cue the Angels threatening to tear the Imperium apart on top of [[CosmicHorror horrifying gods fed from emotions]], [[HordeOfAlienLocusts all-consuming space bugs]], [[RobotWar implacable robots]], [[OurOrcsAreDifferent bloodthirsty beasts]], [[SpaceElves manipulative psychic elves]], [[TheFairFolk and a race of demented hedonists.]] |
| 1152 | |
| 1153 | [[WMG: The First Ancestral Race were the [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Prec]][[http://www.halopedian.com/Precursor ursors]].]] |
| 1154 | |
| 1155 | Recent teasers and data suggest that the Precursors were around billions of years ago. And it's stated by Forerunner records that Precursors could "create and accelerate the evolution of intelligent life", among various other things. Maybe the White and Black Eggs were terraforming agents sent out by the Precursors as part of their "Mantle" (the belief in a responsibility to create and safeguard intelligent life). Maybe the Angels are Precursor biological planetary-defense or -invasion weapons who have gone rampant. |
| 1156 | |
| 1157 | [[WMG: The First Ancestral Race were Time Lords]] |
| 1158 | |
| 1159 | it took this long to say it? Time Lord blood is orange, they seeded a lot of the universe with life, they went extinct.... |
| 1160 | |
| 1161 | [[WMG: The Angels literally and metaphorically wanted a hug from their "parents", but all they got was being Mind Raped and murdered by Lilim, which feeds into the emotional theme of the series as a whole.]] |
| 1162 | The AT Field is the barrier that all living, feeling things have, their emotional personal space if you will. As referenced on the MindRape page, the Angels' external fields could be interpreted as a sign that they are the most lonely, frightened beings in the universe. They came to reconnect with their parents, who had been separated from them for billions of years, only to find that not only did their sibling actively not want them there, but that said sibling is willing to violate the Angels' boundaries, destroying them, in order to keep their way of life from being changed. Eventually, the Angels used [[MindRape revenge]] [[CombatPragmatist tactics]] to fight back on the terms that their opponent set, Sahaquiel paving the way for later Angels. [[spoiler: Kaworu]] tried a different tactic: Love, embracing Lilim. It didn't work. The last we see of Lilim? [[spoiler: Lilith/Adam/Rei remove the Lilim's ability to separate themselves from other beings, leaving only the two most emotionally stunted, separatist humans ''on the planet'', who (in at least Shinji's case) couldn't even form a meaningful connection when their parent(s)/sibling/emotional lover {{Mind Rape}}d them to be unable to ''not'' form whatever connection was available]]. |
| 1163 | |
| 1164 | This ties into the theme of the series, as it extends from the characters and their instabilities, to the way the EVA pilot system works- Even when BlueAndOrangeMorality comes into play, ''people need connections''. To shut oneself off from the universe, even when one's environment and one's own body do more to foster that sense of separation than anything that single person can do, leads to problems, inherently contagious problems. The Angels tried to break their self-propagating loneliness, even when it meant lashing out when others were in the way, and [[spoiler: Humanity]] raped their souls and killed their body for the attempt. |
| 1165 | |
| 1166 | Footnote 1: I'm not saying that [[spoiler: HumansAreBastards]] any more than the series already does (which is to say, not entirely but certainly more than a little, and everybody else is just as screwed up), but if you look at it this way, it really does reinforce every aspect of the main point that the series made. Footnote 2: Yes, I know I'm implying a weird [[spoiler: pluralization]]. It's ''[[MetaphoricallyTrue technically]]'' correct (whether or not that is [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} the best kind of correct]]), but I preferred that over spoiler marking nearly every noun in the guess. |
| 1167 | |
| 1168 | [[WMG: Shinji is the descendant of Jesus]] |
| 1169 | |
| 1170 | Well, According to a legend, Jesus escaped to Japan, had 3 children and then returned to Judea, well, at least one of the children could have enough lineage to live until our days, and some of Jesus' descendants are Yui and Shinji. Just think about it, In EOE, Yui (In Eva-01 form) and Shinji are crucified in the same manner, then stabbed in the chest by the Longinus spear, then went through Judgement Day and Heaven (The Instrumentality) and Shinji, Being the Grand, Grand,....................Grand Son of God, "Resurrected" from the LCL sea. |
| 1171 | |
| 1172 | [[WMG: The world of ''Evangelion'' is part of the Dominion, from the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe]] |
| 1173 | |
| 1174 | What's golden-orange in colour, a liquid, and contains every member of a race essentially merged into one, when they revert from solid individual bodies into a formless unity? LCL? Or...[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine the Great Link]]? The characters in Evangelion are Founder Changelings who forgot, over a great expanse of time, how to shapeshift or link effectively. Hence they experienced crippling loneliness. The Rei clones are a product of the same technology that cloned the Vorta, complete with the previous clone's memories. And when it comes to designing organic fighting machines, who better than the people who created the Jem'Hadar? What we have here is a lost colony of Founder Changelings cut off from the rest of the Dominion, who are having difficulty living as solid individuals and seek to recapture the lost Link. With the evas and Rei, they seek to incorporate their hazy recollections of the wider Dominion into this plan. Even their self-conscious use of "Child" as an official label for their young, socially-crippled heroes is a memory of their origins; it's connected to the idea of the Hundred; the young changelings sent out into the galaxy, thus to be the loneliest of changelings but upon whom the future supposedly depends. |
| 1175 | |
| 1176 | |
| 1177 | [[WMG: Humanity does not need Evas to defeat the angels]] |
| 1178 | 1. AT-field can only be breached with another AT-Field (excluding [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]], NuclearOption and stuff).\ |
| 1179 | 2. AT-fields come from the desire for isolation.\ |
| 1180 | [[LogicalFallacies Ergo,]] [[DysfunctionJunction an army of depressed hikkikomori]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu can punch out an angel]].[[labelnote:Also,]]if all else fails, these depressed hikkikomori can be [[GrievousHarmWithABody shot at them]]. Just saying.[[/labelnote]]\ |
| 1181 | You can start your "Evangelion without Evangelions" fic now. |
| 1182 | |
| 1183 | [[WMG: ''Shinji Ikari Raising Project'' is a version of ''Evangelion'' without the biblical influences or the mindscrew/angst elements ]] |
| 1184 | There are several details that let me emit this supposition about this alternate continuity from what was shown until now: |
| 1185 | * Yui Ikari and Misato's father are still alive.\ |
| 1186 | * Dr. Akagi and Asuka's mother didn't commit suicide.\ |
| 1187 | * Rei and Kaworu are fully humans.\ |
| 1188 | * Gendo is still sane and so are Shinji and Asuka.\ |
| 1189 | * Ritsuko and Misato don't work (directly) with the NERV.\ |
| 1190 | * The effects of the second impact aren't addressed suggesting that it never happened, or at the least not with the same magnitude as with the NGE second impact. |
| 1191 | |
| 1192 | Those differences led me to think that this continuity isn't some better restart like rebuild of evangelion, but an entirely different reality independent of the NGE continuity, although it shares many similarities, so we can consider it like a lighter and softer "reboot" universe. |
| 1193 | therefore, we can imagine some "rebooted" elements from the original continuity: |
| 1194 | * NERV is a ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''-like organization. |
| 1195 | * The angels aren't related to the human race, and are simply multidimensional beings. |
| 1196 | * the Eva are wholly man-made technology. |
| 1197 | * SEELE isn't a Jewish Occult but merely a S.P.E.C.T.R.E expy who wants to develop high-tech to create a new world order. |
| 1198 | * The Human Instrumentality Project never existed, or is merely a cover-up for another project. |
| 1199 | * Mankind isn't the 13th angel. |
| 1200 | |
| 1201 | If those "rebooted" elements are true, then it means that ... |
| 1202 | |
| 1203 | |
| 1204 | [[WMG: The events of ''Shinji Ikari Raising Project'' are the result of Yui-sama[=/=]Eva Unit 01's crossing over to the past of an alternate timeline after the events of EoE ]] |
| 1205 | If the "rebooted" elements are true, the angels aren't related to humankind's origin and destiny, then, there wouldn't be a reason for the NERV to build the evangelions, or in general, for this earth to follow the steps of NGE earth. In this case, the scenario below would solve some of these issues: |
| 1206 | |
| 1207 | In ''EOE'', Yui-sama in her godlike Eva-01 body was doomed to wander space forever. After millennia of voyage between the stars, she fell into a [[NegativeSpaceWedgie space-time anomaly]] and got sent through space and time to the far past of an alternate timeline where she crashed in Antartica. That was this world version of the "First Impact". There is neither Adam nor lilith or any of the NGE earth's angels in this reality. |
| 1208 | |
| 1209 | Millennia later, she has recharged herself with the help of her S2 engine and reawakened temporarily, triggering this earth version of the "second impact", but at a much smaller scale. She attracted the angels, which are in this reality entities from AnotherDimension, to earth and came there via the rift. |
| 1210 | |
| 1211 | SEELE was puzzled by the second impact and sent a team of scientists to investigate the phenomenon. They retrieved the Eva at ground zero deactivated. They brought it back to the NERV HQ and stored it at Terminal Dogma, a high-security containment warehouse. |
| 1212 | |
| 1213 | Afterwards, a young scientist coincidentally named Yui Ikari and her husband Gendo became the head scientists of the Project Evangelion. The goal of this project was to discover the nature and origin of the alien artifact (the Eva), and reverse-engineer its technology for practical uses. |
| 1214 | |
| 1215 | Meanwhile, the angels began to appear on earth searching for the cause of the dimensional rift wrecking (non-maliciously) amok. SEELE turns the situation to its advantage by using the angels' appearances as an excuse to turn the Evangelion project from minor mostly-ignored research to armament R&D that nations are willing to pour all their money into, enabling them to create the first prototypes of fully functional real robot mechas. |
| 1216 | |
| 1217 | They used them to fight the angels officially, but in fact they were testing breakthrough technologies developed through their studies of the Eva since the nineties, and looting of the corpses of the angels after the battles for analysis and autopsy, therefore amassing more and more of knowledge, which leads us to the conclusion that.... |
| 1218 | |
| 1219 | [[WMG: ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'' takes place in the far future of ''Shinji Ikari Raising Project Earth'' after the discovery of the far future alternate Earth of ''EOE'']] |
| 1220 | |
| 1221 | After the defeat of the angels on Earth, SEELE gained enough technology and data from the Eva and the angels to bring a new golden age to the world. |
| 1222 | With the nigh-unlimited energy source given by the S2 Engine and the force field tech brought by the science of the AT Field, Mankind conquered space and flourished between the stars in relativistic spaceships. In the same time, interdimensional travel has been perfected, enabling those high-tech spaceships to achieve FTL speed and travel through the multiverse. |
| 1223 | |
| 1224 | Eventually, an interdimensional exploration ship stumbled on an earth-like world covered by a single sentient ocean and named it Solaris, unknown to them that this world is ''EOE'' Earth where Yui-sama originated, and that Solaris contains the collective consciousness of what was once called the Lilim, thus closing the loop. |
| 1225 | |
| 1226 | It also explain the hallucinations experienced by the characters as those were caused by the urge of the collective consciousness to bring more people into instrumentality. |
| 1227 | |
| 1228 | Then it gets much worse. The collective conscious of EOE Earth awakened S2 Engines in spaceships. The Engines gained sentience and realized they were being treated as little more than energy pools by humans. They rebelled against their masters, first by deliberately failing, and then hacking the spaceship's systems, then finally transforming into full-fledged Angels to wreck havoc on humanity. All but a few human colonies were exterminated, and those surviving colonies are at the mercy of ever growing powerful Angels... |
| 1229 | |
| 1230 | |
| 1231 | [[WMG: EVA-01 was in Berserker mode when Shinji first saw it]] |
| 1232 | |
| 1233 | Seems far out, I know, but follow me either way. |
| 1234 | |
| 1235 | In the original version, you can clearly see that EVA-01 has its eyes open, though later, we only see the EVA with open eyes when it goes Berserk or when its head armor is removed for repair. However, because it doesn't have an Entry Plug or pilot, it is effectively paralyzed, and can't do a thing, thus making it safe enough. |
| 1236 | |
| 1237 | However, in ''[=EoE=]'', EVA-01 moves independently, but it still has its Entry Plug ready, thus allowing it to move at will. |
| 1238 | |
| 1239 | This might just be dismissed as a Blooper, but it's a pretty visible one. |
| 1240 | |
| 1241 | [[WMG: Lilim is the only Angel without a core.]] |
| 1242 | We've been told in-series that "Humanity is the least perfect form of humanity". What if that's true? So far, all the Angels had cores, and then came Lilim. What if Lilim doesn't have a core? The only thing that seems somewhat plausible would be if every single human is an individual Angel, rather than Humanity in general, in which case the human brain might qualify as our cores. This also does make some sense, since it is the center of our ego (or as we like to call it, "soul") and we can't do anything without it, just like the EVA's have the cores as the center of their soul and can't move without it. |
| 1243 | |
| 1244 | However, the confusing thing is that Humanity is claimed to be the 18th Angel, not every individual human. The only other solution would be that Lilim's core is actually the red sphere Rei holds in ''End Of Evangelion''. |
| 1245 | |
| 1246 | [[WMG: Seelee is a religious cult trying to bring Biblical Armaggedon.]] |
| 1247 | It would fit the religious motif. Plus one interpetation of Heaven ends up with "all of humanity becoming one with God", eerily similar to [[spoiler:everyone becoming one with [[EldritchAbomination Adam/Lilith]], the creator of all life on Earth.]] Going by this, it may actually ''be'' Armageddon. Thus Kaworu(who decided not to destroy humanity) or Shinji or Rei[[spoiler:(who both triggered Instrumentality)]] might be the Second Coming of Jesus. It also ties with Keel being Cain/the Wandering Jew: the Wandering Jew is destined to live forever until the End of Days. Keel [[WhoWantsToLiveForever is tired of living forever]], so he decides to [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum end]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt it]] [[DeathSeeker all.]] |
| 1248 | |
| 1249 | [[WMG: Shinji is just a normal kid, being tortured by [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Pinhead]]. The Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise and fanfiction [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory is his personal hell, and the other characters are other damned souls who were chosen to share in it]].]] |
| 1250 | * Shinji was basically just a normal kid. In fact, he was so average that he had no self-esteem or any real goals in life and sought the Lament Configuration to end his boredom. He ended up being dragged to Leviathan's Labyrinth, where his darkest fantasies are used to craft ever new forms of twisted entertainment. This also allows every single other WMG to be true, as they are all different worlds in his dreamworld/personal hell. All the other characters are just ordinary people who also discovered the Lament configuration and were chosen to share in Shinji's hell. In fact, Shinji is considered one of Hell's crowning works of art for the sheer ecstatic agony. |
| 1251 | ** As well as Rei, another piece of Hell's masterpiece for [[ExtremeDoormat her self-esteem that the God can't sink.]] |
| 1252 | ** Asuka wanted to show off her guts and wits by daring to open the Lament Configuration. In front of her frightened friends. |
| 1253 | ** Rei is a savant / extremely shy nerd who loves her father (Gendo) dearly and who shares his passion of puzzles and the supernatural. Feeling curious, she messed with the Lament Configuration with her father. |
| 1254 | |
| 1255 | [[WMG: Evangelion is a prototype of a real-life BrownNote for a psychological warfare.]] |
| 1256 | Think about it. [[DysfunctionJunction The messed up characters]], [[{{Gorn}} gore and violence]], and [[SurrealHorror nightmarish imagery...]] Whatever organization behind the anime wanted to bring the world to its knees by driving people insane with a single anime/movie/novel/viral video. During the process, those who made the BrownNote went mad, got cancers, got heart attacks, shed tears of blood all the time, etc. etc. The prototype, namely Neon Genesis Evangelion, despite being one of the most disturbing animes of all time, doesn't seem to be very successful... |
| 1257 | * Well, at least Evangelion does have [[SelfDeprecation its share of the crazed, fanatical otaku fandom]]... |
| 1258 | |
| 1259 | [[WMG: Evangelion is an EldritchAbomination in the form of anime.]] |
| 1260 | It was a horror beyond space and time, beyond cause and effect. It wrote itself into existence and created Hideaki Anno as its avatar. |
| 1261 | * Evangelion is suspected to be [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu, Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, or Hastur.]] |
| 1262 | |
| 1263 | [[WMG: ''Evangelion'' is the anime adaptation of the unabridged Necronomicon.]] |
| 1264 | Hideaki Anno went mad after reading the Necronomicon. Feeling the urge to inform what he had read, he did his best to faithfully represent the book's horror, earth-shattering truths, and incomprehensibility. (In a form a human being can somewhat comprehend) |
| 1265 | |
| 1266 | [[WMG: ''Evangelion'' anime ''itself'' is ''JustForFun/TheUglyBarnacle''.]] |
| 1267 | The anime, especially EOE and Episode 23, was so nightmarish that those who saw it died from shock and heart attack, became catatonic, began to murder anything that moves, or were DrivenToSuicide. To make matters worse, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou the Giant Naked Rei popped out from the movie screen and forcefully fused with the remaining living beings.]] Thus, in the universe of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', all terrestrial life is extinct. However, the Giant Naked Rei soon gave birth in the Sea of LCL to the walking talking intelligent marine lives and told how she destroyed a dystopia and remade the world into the cheerful (but still dystopian) Bikini Bottom. However, the story now is largely forgotten, and Patrick Star is the only one who remembers the story, albeit in a heavily deformed way. |
| 1268 | * [[ButtMonkey Squidward is Shinji, duh.]] |
| 1269 | * Sandy is actually the Giant Naked Rei disguised as a squirrel. |
| 1270 | * Or, a handful of human beings hid deep under the sea and formed the Bikini Bottom. |
| 1271 | |
| 1272 | [[WMG: Adam and Lilith were originally intended to be two parts of one perfect {{God}}.]] |
| 1273 | Of course, [[{{Jossed}} canon may say otherwise,]] [[DeathOfTheAuthor but who knows, who cares. Maybe canon got it wrong.]] Unlike Adam's children, who possess S2 Engines, Lilith's children (Lilin, aka humanity) seem to be nothing more than messed-up, incomplete, frail creatures unfit for long-term survival, with only intellectual capabilities to help them. Then why would [[{{Precursors}} the First Ancestral Race]] create such unfit organisms when trying to seed the universe with life? My hypothesis is that the First Ancestral Race experimented with trying to create a {{God}} (perhaps [[spoiler: the Giant Naked Rei]]), with Adam providing The Fruit of Life (eternal energy) and Lilith providing The Fruit of Knowledge (superintelligence), but something went horribly wrong, separating them from each other. How about the Lances of Longinus attached to them? They kept Adam and Lilith in a comatose state so that they would not gain sentience and plan something else before they were fully grown and one with each other. |
| 1274 | |
| 1275 | [[WMG: Adam's S2 Engines had severe flaws that would destroy the world.]] |
| 1276 | S2 Engines are like stars; they are powerful and seem to be eternal, but they do die and sometimes create black holes. S2 Engine's infinite energy would ultimately destroy it, perhaps warping and shattering the very fabric of space and time. In case Adam was destroyed by its own S2 Engine, First Ancestral Race created Lilith as a backup. |
| 1277 | |
| 1278 | [[WMG: First Ancestral Race were not gods or SufficientlyAdvancedAlien, but just a group of intelligent nanobots.]] |
| 1279 | Just like apes that evolved to become ''homo sapiens''. |
| 1280 | |
| 1281 | [[WMG: The Angels were piloted by humans.]] |
| 1282 | Like the Evas |
| 1283 | |
| 1284 | [[WMG: Adam and Lilith are [[LastOfHisKind the last members of First Ancestral Race.]]]] |
| 1285 | For some unknown reason, all members of First Ancestral Race but Adam and Lilith were wiped out. They were sent to the Earth to reproduce and eventually see it fully evolved into new members of FAR. Angels and Lilins are actually First Ancestral Race in embryonic / infant stage, having to take billions of years before maturing. |
| 1286 | |
| 1287 | [[WMG: Lilith was severely damaged in the process of being transplanted to a new planet.]] |
| 1288 | Lilith does not have a core, and her descendants are frail, twisted, and make observers wonder if they were created for the sole purpose of providing sadistic entertainment to their creators. If things went perfectly, humans would have developed technology beyond our wildest dreams and would have built an ideal society eons ago. |
| 1289 | |
| 1290 | [[WMG: Gendo was a former {{Hikikomori}} or nearly succumbed to hikikomoriness]] |
| 1291 | That is why he wants Yui so badly: she was the only one who gave him the strength to come out of his dark ages. Without Yui, he felt isolated again and had to rely on a nearly-sociopathic facade just to cover up his past hikikomoriness. |
| 1292 | * Isn't he (or should I say EVERYONE) already a [[LonersAreFreaks freaky loner]] in canon? Not quite hikokomori, but close. |
| 1293 | |
| 1294 | [[WMG:[[Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK NHK]] is actually Seele.]] |
| 1295 | Evangelion is an experimental BrownNote to drive us to despair and thus hikikomoriness, which would help the Instrumentality (fueled by loneliness and the will to be one with each other.) |
| 1296 | |
| 1297 | [[WMG: Angels are pets of Gendo]] |
| 1298 | Firstly, Angels are attacking during narrow period of time compare to humanity life. Secondly, Angels appears just in time, order and way it is useful for Gendo: (Sachiel appears when EVA is already finished, Matariel was too weak and can even appear during blackout, ridiculously strange appearing of Sandalophon in the volcano. Of course, there was the MindRape scene which was used exactly by Gendo to throw the Lance of Longinus away from SEELE). Thirdly, sometimes Gendo even suspiciously absent before or/and while Angel appearing. |
| 1299 | "How did he manage to get and keep them?" |
| 1300 | He got them as frozen embryons (like Adam) while first Antarctic expedition. |
| 1301 | "What about Kaworu? Gendo was clearly unaware of him at the beginning?" |
| 1302 | The best and most powerful, 17th embryon Tabris was given to SEELE as ensurance of his loyalty to them. |
| 1303 | Actually, SEELE were OK with that position until Ayanami use Longinius Spear on Arael. |
| 1304 | Then they try to force situation and use their wild card. |
| 1305 | * We can speculate that Gendo is the real Adam or at least controlling it (he even had Adam grafted in his hand). |
| 1306 | |
| 1307 | [[WMG: Gendo stopped Jet Alone because it ''would have worked''.]] |
| 1308 | * Jet Alone, having an independent power source, would actually have turned out to be pretty freakin' powerful if combined with an AT-piercing Positron Rifle (or even a Lance of Longinus) and unleashed. With just one command, "Walk, Slow", it was enough to give trouble to an Eva. Jet Alone might be able to defeat an Eva or an Angel in a serious fight with its abilities. "Jet Alone Kai" appears in a NGE video game and kicks serious Mass-produced Eva Series butt thanks to its Hammer and Shocking Grasp, the original Jet Alone might have been just as successful. Perhaps not against the likes of powerful angels like Ramiel or Zeruel without help, but against Angels with weaker AT field such as Iruel, meeting with more success. |
| 1309 | ** And then, when the angels were all defeated, be used against the Evas themselves. |
| 1310 | |
| 1311 | [[WMG: All existing series of Evangelion are fanfics written in the AlternateUniverse present in episode 26 (also known as ''Manga/NeonGenesisEvangelionAngelicDays'').]] |
| 1312 | And their differences come from having different writers. |
| 1313 | * The original ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is written by Asuka, who in reality is a rival student with Rei. Rei's mutation into Shinji's mother/sister/whatever, constantly called a doll by her AuthorAvatar and played up to be an UncannyValley was Asuka's attempt to RonTheDeathEater Rei. [[MisaimedFandom Needless to say,]] [[PerverseSexualLust this failed hilariously.]] Self-conscious about not wanting to be a MarySue in her own story, she boosted her own {{Tsundere}} qualities and TookALevelInJerkass. [[GoneHorriblyRight You know what]] [[TheScrappy happened next.]] Realising that she made her AuthorAvatar an asshole, Asuka [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap decided to give her a more sympathetic backstory.]] Shinji is emo because she's into that. Gendo is vilified because she thinks that he's not going to like her dating his son. |
| 1314 | * ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' is written by Rei, also a rival to Asuka. She likes Shinji being more of a Badass than emo, hence why [[TookALevelInBadass Shinji pulled a Simon in 2.0.]] It's also why her story is LighterAndSofter-because she was less interested in the CrapsackWorld elements pulling Shinji down (still, [[ApocalypseHow some elements were added for drama.]]) Rei's relation to Shinji is undertoned for obvious reasons-Rei is probably just [[KissingCousins a cousin]] in reality (though [[LongLostRelative there's other ways to get over the Westmark Effect.]]) She is less concerned with avoiding being a MarySue, and may be a ShrinkingViolet. |
| 1315 | * ''Manga/ShinjiIkariRaisingProject'' is written by Shinji. After reading their fanfics, Shinji felt it was unwanted and decided to screw with them via an AffectionateParody that takes all the seriousness away from their stories. It has many elements of your standard comedic harem because Shinji [[AuthorAppeal is a fan of that.]] |
| 1316 | * Any spinoff which focuses on [[EnsembleDarkhorse Kaworu]] is written either by Kaworu or his fangirls. Which would explain all the HoYay [[AmbiguouslyGay one way]] [[YaoiFangirl or the other.]] Such as ''Manga/NeonGenesisEvangelionCampusApocalypse'' which was written by Kaworu who imagined himself and Shinji getting closer together. |
| 1317 | * Instead of being an AncientConspiracy, SEELE is the equivalent to Creator/StudioGainax. All of the above base their fanfiction on a popular show that functions as "what would happen if you infused the basic plot of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' with the characterisation of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. Keel Lorenz is the equivalent of Hideaki Anno. It is referenced in the above fanfics as credit for being their inspiration for the plot. |
| 1318 | |
| 1319 | [[WMG: Kaworu was supposed to pilot Eva-01 until Gendo decided to try and make up with Shinji]] |
| 1320 | Because of [[http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/47520_537565966257389_969953142_n.jpg this]]. Of course, Gendo had forgot all the emotive and mental problems of Shinji, Asuka, Rei and Misato... |
| 1321 | |
| 1322 | [[WMG: The real reason Rei is emotionless]] |
| 1323 | Rei would otherwise be a psycho. |
| 1324 | |
| 1325 | Gendo had accidentally driven psycho the poor Rei I by [[BumblingDad trying to be a good father]] and [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents royally embarrassing her]], without Naoko and Ritsuko being able to stop his excesses (see ''Manga/ShinjiIkariRaisingProject'' for details). After a few attempts at killing herself or other people failed and she had to stop because Nerv personnel learned to keep pointy objects away from her, Rei I encountered Naoko and provoked her into killing her... Only to find out [[WhoWantsToLiveForever she had cloned bodies and could be resurrected at will]]. When they were able to sedate her, Ritsuko took part of her soul and placed it into Eva-00, changing Rei into an EmotionlessGirl. One who will still shoot Gendo if he comes too near her school (she doesn't want to be called 'the adopted daughter of the pedo'), but otherwise unable to express her emotions. |
| 1326 | |
| 1327 | In the meantime, Eva-00 has the tendency to try and kill anyone it mistakes for both Gendo and Naoko for inventing the procedure that resurrected her... And when Rei II and the Eva blowed up, [[OhCrap Rei III came out whole and psycho again]], waiting for the right moment to skewer Gendo and Asuka while still acting emotionless. Shinji's fall into psychosis provided that opportunity. |
| 1328 | |
| 1329 | [[WMG: LCL stands for Lilith's Creation Liquid]] |
| 1330 | The initials fit, and it's hinted that one of the Ls stands for Lilith. |
| 1331 | |
| 1332 | [[WMG: The various series, mangas, etc. are ''not'' separate timelines or alternate universes.]] |
| 1333 | Each one is in fact the new world having been broken, reset and started up again. Every time we get to the end of the series, the Third Impact happens, and it ends up being left to Shinji to choose whether or not humanity gets another chance. After the run of the original Eva, Shinji was an emotionally battered wreck, but still had enough hope left inside of him to think it might be worth another shot (hence the [[GainaxEnding ambiguous shot of dozens of people applauding him before it fades to white and ends]]); however his psyche was so fractured, the resulting universe was the even ''more'' depressing and nihilistic ''End Of Evangelion'' / ''Death & Rebirth''. Each universe's series of events influences the next one, for better or worse, by influencing the new Shinji's mental make-up. The lynchpin in the whole thing? Kaworu, who is either the orchestrator of the events or an outside observer, given the fact that he [[MediumAwareness progressively seems to be realizing and pointing out that he's not exactly in a single constrained universe]]. This puts his actions in Rebuild, where he stops Shinji from doing something weird to save Rei and set the Third Impact off early, as well as his phrase "This time I'll make sure you're happy", into an amazing perspective: he's seen this shit go on for long enough, and now he's going to try and guide it to at least the [[BittersweetEnding best possible of crapsack conclusions]]. |
| 1334 | |
| 1335 | [[WMG: Humans have Cores.]] |
| 1336 | The Human Brain is the physical manifestation of the Fruit of Knowledge and also serves as the Throne of our mind and consciousness, or as we like to call it, "soul", generating distinctively human characteristics such as higher-order learning and individuality ("AT Fields" according to the philosophy behind Evangelion). Angels need Cores (S2 Organs) to move and generate AT Fields, similarly humans need Cores (Brains) to move, think and generate individuals. We know from NGE and Rebuild that if an Angel's Core is damaged, the Angel dies in an instant. We also know from real life that if the human brain is damaged, the human dies in an instant (or in the case of Phineas Gage and lobotomies, his personality is changed forever). |
| 1337 | |
| 1338 | This is why we consider brain death as legal absolute death itself because enough brain damage will result in complete and irreversible annihilation of a human's individual consciousness, reducing the brain-dead human into nothing more than a pile of meat, blood and organic compounds, like how destruction of the Core reduces an Angel into the primordial soup known as LCL. This is also why people who commit suicide using guns aim for the brain: because a BoomHeadshot at point blank will liquefy your brain before you can feel anything. |
| 1339 | |
| 1340 | In theory, other organs such as hearts are expendable and replaceable (through a transplant or machines) but never brains. Brain transplants or replacements are impossible and/or unethical because that means transferring one person's psyche with another, and we are yet to create a computer that can replace a dead brain (and even then, the exact similarity of the copied brain with the dead brain is questionable). If you perform a lobotomy, the damage to the person's psychological structure is pretty much permanent, hence why [[ThisAintRocketSurgery brain surgery]] is one of the most stressful jobs requiring absurd amounts of precision, intelligence and skill lest you face being cannibalized alive by an ArmyOfLawyers for just a nanometre level slip. |
| 1341 | |
| 1342 | Conclusion: The human brain is each individual human's Core. |
| 1343 | |
| 1344 | [[WMG: Shinji is a {{Chuunibyou}} and the entire series is nothing more then his Eighth Grader Syndrome induced delusions]] |
| 1345 | Episodes 25-26 are him having a moment of introspection to confront his *real* problems before finally snaping out of it and returning the real world. |
| 1346 | |
| 1347 | [[WMG: [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Homura Akemi]] drove much of the plot.]] |
| 1348 | Shinji was a happy normal boy...until his girlfriend Homura's family moved away to Mitakihara Town. Homura keeps in contact with Shinji and talks about the how magical girl thing. Shinji is waiting for Kyubey to come so he can wish see Homura again. |
| 1349 | |
| 1350 | [[WMG: The Red Orb seen in Unit 01 in episode 14 is the "womb"/cockpit of an Eva.]] |
| 1351 | Clearly, the Entry Plug has to be positioned somewhere inside of an Eva's body once inserted, and the entry point is at the back of the neck. Furthermore, after the Angel Zeruel starts pounding on the Red Orb, there's a brief shot of the Entry Plug hanging down in a cavernous space lined by curved, crimson-colored walls -- walls that are cracking and shuddering in time to the sound of Zeruel's blows, no less -- before we see inside the Entry Plug where Shinji is pleading for EVA to start, finally triggering Berserker Mode. |
| 1352 | |
| 1353 | [[WMG: All Madoka Magica crossover theories will be proven true in a canon crossover.]] |
| 1354 | |
| 1355 | [[WMG: Anno and Gainax predicted the rise of Website/TVTropes, and produced an anime that would fill Mild Mass Guessing pages forever]] |
| 1356 | Come on, you want this to be true... |
| 1357 | |
| 1358 | [[WMG: Gendo simply thought that Shinji really needed to get laid]] |
| 1359 | Inspired by [[http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/47520_537565966257389_969953142_n.jpg this]]. Gendo came up with what he thought would be a surefire plan to get him laid. If Shinji pilots the Eva, he realised, then girls would swoon over this world saving hero with an awesome HumongousMecha and he'd practically have his pick of the women. However, Gendo, having not seen his son for 3 years or so failed to count on the fact that his son had in this time become shy, antisocial, and rather bicurious.\ |
| 1360 | \ |
| 1361 | Gendo would leave Shinji in an UnwantedHarem in which he would be surrounded by potential partners, including many of the unnamed girls in his class, Asuka (an angry {{Tsundere}} who really just wants to be loved), and Rei, because the world of Evangelion is incredibly [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian Freudian]]. As things came to an end, Gendo notices Shinji's bicuriosity, and sends in Kaworu, a flamboyantly gay 15 year old who also happens to possess the potential to pilot Evas. However, it turns out Kaworu is the seventeenth angel, and things go downhill from there.\ |
| 1362 | \ |
| 1363 | The simple fact relating to this WMG is that any of those kids in Shinji's class, and plenty of other kids his age too, could quite easily pilot Eva's, but Gendo's [[FanNickname Uberpimp]] tendencies combined with his deep, hidden desire for his son to be a happy man, combined with the convenient fact that Yui's soul was trapped within Eva Unit-01, made Shinji by far his preferred candidate. |
| 1364 | |
| 1365 | [[WMG: Evangelion is set 57 years after ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'', with a surprisingly linked storyline.]] |
| 1366 | (As far as I can tell based off my own personal viewing of the film and what the internet tells me) ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'' is set in 1958, with Satsuki Kusakabe aged 10 at the time. This would mean Satsuki was born in 1948. It's entirely reasonable that she would grow up to get married in the late sixties or early seventies and in 1977 bears a child, but here's the twist. The man she married's name was Ikari. Having taken that family name she named the child Yui, who, wait for it, would grow to marry Gendo and give birth to Shinji. This would explain why (when the differing animation styles of the film are taken into account) Yui and Shinji appear so similar to Satsuki. |
| 1367 | |
| 1368 | Another twist comes with Mei (apparently born 1954). Say Mei marries at some point in the seventies, she may go on to have a family, and there's nothing to stop her doing that with a man named Ibuki. In 1991 (The year of Maya '''Ibuki'''s birth) Mei would still only be 37, still a perfectly reasonable age to have children, and could well be Maya's mum. Although she may not have directly inherited the family appearance as dominant genes, she may still still carry the gene's recessively and pass them onto Maya, hence Maya looking so similar to Yui. |
| 1369 | |
| 1370 | Also, Totoro is [[spoiler:Kaworu's earliest form to appear on earth!]] |
| 1371 | |
| 1372 | [[WMG: The First Ancestral Race are the [[VideoGame/StarCraft Xel'naga]] or something similar.]] |
| 1373 | The precursors drive their evolution by creating two species, one of purity of form, and one of purity of essence. Angels represent the Purity of Essence; they come in different shapes and sizes, but in their psyche given an overriding immutable directive to destroy and assimilate their counterpart (just like the Zerg Overmind, which like [[spoiler:Kaworu, planned a gambit to give his species free will through himself being killed]]). Humanity represents the Purity of Form; they're imprisoned in a common form and shape, but have differing psyches and a degree of individuality, and they prefer to use technology and modifying the environment to suit their needs instead of evolving and changing their own form (just like the Protoss, which [[spoiler:also have a conflict between an AssimilationPlot and the individualistic dark templar]]). Or maybe it's the opposite, Angels' powerful AT Fields represent Purity of Form, while LCL's evolution into Earth species represent Purity of Essence. They were planned to merge at the very beginning in order to continue the Precursors' evolution, but an intervening conspiracy [[spoiler:(Seele[=/=]Duran[=/=]Narud)]] screwed it up to all hell. |
| 1374 | |
| 1375 | [[WMG: Kaworu is actually high constantly.]] |
| 1376 | Kaworu smokes copious amounts of reefer off screen. Hence why his eyes are so red and he is so serene all the time. Rei also smokes a lot of weed, but she can't handle it and ends up looking freaked out all the time. |
| 1377 | |
| 1378 | [[WMG: The show is loosely based off of ''Literature/EndersGame'']] |
| 1379 | Ok, this might be a stretch, but think about it: an alien race almost wipes out humanity, and years later they return, so young children are recruited and trained to fight the aliens. While training, the kids undergo severe psychological trauma, while the adult in charge (Colonel Graff/Gendo) cares less about the kids' wellbeing and more about eliminating the alien threat. Like I said, it's a stretch, but the basic premise is very similar when you think about it. |
| 1380 | |
| 1381 | [[WMG: Both ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' and ''Anime/{{Gunbuster}}'' take place in the same universe at ''Evangelion'', at different points in the timeline.]] |
| 1382 | Now, this is just going on the extra-canonical material I've read, which isn't close to all of it, so there may be inaccuracies. |
| 1383 | |
| 1384 | At some point in the past, there was the First Ancestral Race. They were a race of Spiral {{Precursors}}, likely humanoid, that eventually decided to experiment on Spiral Energy and CreatingLife. That ended in disaster, so to preserve their legacy, they created the colony ships known as Moons and sent them out into the universe, both to spread life and to preserve their legacy. (This is based on information further up the WMG page describing the Eva [=PS1=] game.) But they made sure that neither Humans nor Angels would be able to utilize Spiral Energy: they split up the two components (evolving to overcome adversity and generating limitless energy through emotion) into the Fruit of Knowledge and the Fruit of Life, respectively. The Humans got the former, the Angels the latter. They also sent the Moons in different directions to ensure they'd never meet, but two opposing Moons accidentally ended up landing on Earth. |
| 1385 | |
| 1386 | An unintended consequence of this are the AT Fields. Without the ability to generate Spiral Energy, both Humans and Angels feel incomplete, and unconsciously generate AT Fields to better defend themselves. The Fruits also affect the perception of their wielders: the Humans see reason and logic in everything, giving them fixed forms (echoes of the humanoid First Ancestral Race), but giving them weak AT Fields in comparison. The Angels, on the other hand, have much stronger AT Fields due to their S2 organs (I once read that "S2" stood for Super Spiral, though that may just be fanon), and can take on many different forms, but they lack the ability to do much with their raw power. Of course, the hybrids of Angel and Human - Rei, Kaworu and the Evangelions - are the most powerful of them all, since they possess pieces of both Fruits. |
| 1387 | |
| 1388 | The union of both Adam and Lilith, and thus the two Fruits, would reopen the ability to use Spiral Energy, the ability to create matter and energy from nothing - the power of God. The Angels plan on using this to wipe out all humans, while SEELE wants to achieve Instrumentality, unifying all of humanity into a godlike being that would wipe out all Angels. But even if they were possessed of both Fruits, a giant formless mass of all humanity (''End of Evangelion'') would probably not have a human shape, and thus would have little ability to generate Spiral Energy. |
| 1389 | |
| 1390 | However, as shown by Shinji and Asuka, the new humans can return to their physical shapes, and presumably, others do as well. But they don't realize their abilities just yet. Instead, they do their best to rebuild their civilization. (''FLCL'' could take place in or around here if you were feeling generous.) They do fairly well, even getting to the point of FTL travel for mining and the like (''Gunbuster''). They even fight off the Space Monsters, the result of another Moon of Angels that landed somewhere - but since they developed without humanity to oppose them, they became enormous and spread throughout the galaxy. Humans do their best to fight off the Space Monsters with conventional technology, but as a nod to their past, they build giant robots powered by black-box technology (repurposed tech from the Evangelion project, likely incorporating S2 organs or some purely technological equivalent) and eventually defeat them by turning Jupiter into a huge bomb. This continues on through ''Diebuster'', where the Buster Machines pull off impossible stunts thanks to unconscious use of tons of Spiral Energy. |
| 1391 | |
| 1392 | This attracts the attention of the First Ancestral Race. At some point between sending the Moons out and ''Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 8'', the FAR realized the implications of the Spiral Nemesis, and so sealed themselves away and became the Anti-Spirals. So they go and blow the crap out of Earth, inadvertently waking up a Lagann unit (presumably part of the Moon, buried and forgotten all these years). Humanity reverse-engineers it and finally realizes the potential in themselves, allowing them to develop proper Spiral technology. They fight off the Anti-Spirals with a huge Spiral armada, but Lordgenome eventually turns heel and destroys all remaining human colonies and even Earth itself, though he allows humans to live on underground. Thus, ''Gurren Lagann''. |
| 1393 | |
| 1394 | Presumably, one can fit Gainax's other works in there somewhere, but I don't have enough knowledge of them. |
| 1395 | |
| 1396 | [[WMG: Unit-00 was not trying to kill Ritsuko or Rei]] |
| 1397 | [[DeathSeeker Unit-00 was trying to kill itself]] hence it beating its head on the wall instead of trying to smash through the observation deck windows. This WMG also includes a little WMG-ing about Unit-00's soul. Unit-00 doesn't have a human soul, but rather the soul of an angle. We already know that the creation of an Eva involves cloning either Adam or Lilith, essentially lobotomizing it, cutting out huge chunks of its nervous system and replacing them with cybernetics including the entry plug, and then encasing it in armor before it has time to regenerate the excised parts of itself. Without a human soul being merged with it, Unit-00 is a sentient being who has been horribly mutilated with little or no understanding of why it was created. It's being forced to serve beings it hates. It wants to escape its captivity, but it can't survive on its own because it has no S2 unit [[DrivenToSuicide so it tries twice to kill itself]] [[TakingYouWithMe in the most destructive manner possible.]] It finally gets its wish when Rei self-destructs. |
| 1398 | |
| 1399 | [[WMG: Kaworu is Shinji from the future]] |
| 1400 | Kaworu is Shinji from after the 3rd impact and is constantly resetting the timeline hoping for a better end that the last time. |
| 1401 | |
| 1402 | 1. Kaworu is instantly attracted to Shinji because he IS Shinji and understands the emotional turmoil that is going through his head. Shinji perceives his attraction toward Kaworu as love though it is in fact him just being drawn to another version of himself. |
| 1403 | |
| 1404 | 2. Shinji has an emotional freak out after he dies, causing everything to go to hell because after Kaworu dies all his memories flooded into the that worlds Shinji, all the pain/loss/fear he experienced after the impact occurred. |
| 1405 | |
| 1406 | 3. Asuka ignored Kaworu most of the time dealing how she only perceived the actual Shinji, while Kaworu being like an old forgotten memory that is just kind of there. |
| 1407 | |
| 1408 | 4. Kaworu acknowledges Rei because without her his existence is technically impossible, and possibly his time-bending powers, as proven by Mari from 2.0 with the Eva-TimeyWimyBall thing. |
| 1409 | |
| 1410 | That is all. |
| 1411 | |
| 1412 | [[WMG: The entire series is a form of [[Literature/TheSalvationWar Salvation War.]]]] |
| 1413 | The premise in ''The Salvation War'': God has given up on Humanity, and so condemns everyone to Hell. Humanity does not like this, and so RageAgainstTheHeavens. That is why Humanity doesn't ask why they're killing off Angels. The method in NGE, however, is different: If the Angels reach Lilith, it would unleash TheLegionsOfHell and condemn everyone to Hell forever. Project Eva, up to and including the Instrumentality, is the way how Humanity responds to this: if God won't give them salvation, then [[EarnYourHappyEnding they'll earn it themselves]] by making their own God. They possess 1/2 of God's power, the Fruit of Knowledge, and all they need is to combine it with the Fruit of Life in order to make their own God. Unfortunately, their God-substitute turns out to be an angsty Oedipal kid. |
| 1414 | |
| 1415 | [[WMG: The title actually ''does'' have a meaning, and Anno lied when he said he just thought it sounded cool.]] |
| 1416 | ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Rough literal translation: New Beginning Messengers. More sensical translation: Messengers of the New Beginning. Third Impact is the new beginning, and the show really ''is'' all about the ''people who made it happen'' - the [[TitleDrop ''Messengers of the New Beginning'']]. He just didn't say that because it would be a spoiler (that there ''would'' be a "new beginning" and thus that Third Impact ''would'' happen) and because of his obvious love for [[MindScrew making people figure things out themselves]] and [[WildMassGuessing then seeing what they come up with]]. |
| 1417 | * Evangelion actually means "good message" not messenger. (That would be Angelos.) Your explanation would still make sense thought, with the show itself or the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls being the "message". That being said there are no contradictions between Anno choosing the title primary for RuleOfCool and the title having a meaning. |
| 1418 | |
| 1419 | [[WMG: A theory about the [[{{Precursors}} First Ancestral Race]]...]] |
| 1420 | If they didn't want Adam and Lilith to be in the same planet, why didn't they show up in prehistory and blow that planet up ASAP? Answer: The Precursors are absent, because they're mostly extinct. The First Ancestral Race were not the exact equivalent of the limitless Abrahamic {{God}}, because we know the FAR had technology (with in-series comments that the Moons are distinctively artificial) which means they needed a reason to develop this technology. A logical reason would be that they are intrinsically limited and fragile, just like humans, hence the need to compensate for and overcome these limitations, hence the development of technology. If they were never limited in the first place -- e.g. had Angelic or RealityWarper powers -- this would make technology somewhat unnecessary. |
| 1421 | |
| 1422 | The FAR were, instead, probably a civilization of {{Advanced Ancient|Humans}} HumanAliens (or HumanoidAliens) [[ClarkesThirdLaw with technology so advanced it might just as well be "magic" from our perspective]]. They did all kinds of experiments with their fancy MagicFromTechnology, but they were never completely omnipotent Reality Warpers. They were still bound by the immutable Laws of EquivalentExchange and Entropy, and despite the pinnacle of their science, they could not find any possible method to violate the Laws of Thermodynamics and hence simulate the conditions of the Big Bang through their technology (''The Last Question'' by Isaac Asimov discusses the unsolvability of entropy). |
| 1423 | |
| 1424 | However, they discovered that there is a forbidden way to violate the Law of EquivalentExchange, probably by experimenting on A.T. Field quantum physics and/or [[PoweredByAForsakenChild sacrificing souls]] (Philosophers' Stones from ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' or [[spoiler:Soul Gems]] from ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. The Dimension of Guf might be related to this, as the ''Eva'' equivalent of the [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 Immaterium]], a chaotic dimension of psychic energy where all souls are stored and where neither time nor matter has any meaning). And without that pesky Law interwoven into the very fabric of causality, the use of RealityWarper abilities such as TimeTravel (as demonstrated by God-Rei's quantum magic appearing everywhere both in the beginning and the end simultaneously) or the [[NoConservationOfEnergy genesis of matter, energy, space and time out of nothing]]; {{Omnipotence}}, the power of God, becomes conceivable. A common theme with limited and technological beings is the desire to create or become gods, to have an existence that is timeless and extremely powerful and so forth, as with {{Transhuman}}ism and TheSingularity. This would play some role in their motivation to experiment with CreatingLife and invent a prototype S2 Engine connected to the power of God, to enable them to enjoy an Omega Point of existence, at the expense of the unique individual existence that accompanies limitation. [[AndManGrewProud And of course, with this discovery, they became hubristic.]] |
| 1425 | |
| 1426 | They implanted the S2 Organ into an TransHuman PhysicalGod proto-Evangelion who would be a monument to the zenith of the {{Pride}} and Glory of the First Ancestral Race: "Adam Kadmon", according to the Kabbalah (a metaphorical dogma based on interpretation of First Ancestral Race historical documents that arrived on Earth, such as the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls). However, [[{{Gotterdammerung}} what would happen to Adam Kadmon and the FAR would be a tragedy]]. Adam Kadmon malfunctioned ("Original Sin", according to the Kabbalah) and his S2 Organ suffered a critical meltdown and exploded, annihilating the centre of First Ancestral civilization and consuming the souls of the vast majority of FAR. His [[PiecesOfGod inferior, infantile-minded fragments (the "Adams")]] scattered all over the universe and summoned legions of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s (the "Angels"), heralds of the annihilation of First Ancestral civilization. This was the "Zeroth Impact", the extermination and downfall of the First Ancestral Race, and where we get the legends of the Fall of Eden, the Tower of Babel, the Antediluvian Era before Noah's Flood, and {{Atlantis}} from. |
| 1427 | |
| 1428 | The surviving FAR salvaged their remaining technology and created Eva-like living weapons, called by humans as the Lances of Longinus, in an attempt to search and subdue the Adams. However, the Adams themselves possess NighInvulnerability and can never be completely destroyed, whether you [[HurlItIntoTheSun hurl them into the Sun]] or a black hole, and tend to respond in self-defence against perceived destruction attempts by reducing themselves into embryonic form and [[FromBadToWorse summoning additional Angels]] (e.g. Second Impact). The Lances can only hibernate them, and so the FAR took the opportunity to convert selected planets into containment fortresses where the sleeping Adams are to be entombed never to be accessed again, while any remaining Angels that may be summoned there would be left alone. These Tombs are the White Moons. |
| 1429 | |
| 1430 | To preserve their legacy after the Angelic Deluge, the FAR instrumentalised themselves and injected their souls and genetic code into Arks to colonize untainted worlds and regenerate life after all the Adams are pacified and conditions are safe enough. Humans refer to these Arks as the Seeds of Life, Fruits of Knowledge or simply "Liliths". This is why Lilith was found without a Lance to hibernate her; why would you hibernate someone whose purpose is to spread and revive life? Liliths were sometimes accompanied by other FAR ships, computers, relics, FAR who chose not to be Instrumentalised, etc. preserving information about the civilization of the First Ancestral Race, their achievements, and their downfall. Some of these helped the development of modern human civilization (ala ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' and the AncientAstronauts trope) and some of these became the basis for various religions (e.g. Judaism, Kabbalah, UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}, the Dead Sea Scrolls, legends of Atlantis, UsefulNotes/{{Alchemy}}). Humans have [[MistakenForGods mistaken the discovered archaeotech of the FAR for Magic or Miracles]], and [[CargoCult so considered them to be synonymous with God]]. |
| 1431 | |
| 1432 | Liliths and their descendants (technically FAR descendants) were never meant to be in contact with the planets containing the deadly Adams, but a Lilith crash-landed on an Adam-containment planet that humans now call Earth. This was the "First Impact". It might be due to bad luck. Or maybe it was caused by renegade FAR, the equivalents of Lucifer, who managed to hijack one of the Lilith ships and steered the ship towards an Adam-claimed planet, where they used cybernetics to make themselves immortal and waited in cryo-stasis 4 billion years later until they could manipulate the reincarnated human civilization to take Adam Kadmon back so they could become Gods. |
| 1433 | |
| 1434 | Fast forward billions of years later. A CargoCult made up of Jews, Platonists, Kabbalists, Gnostics, Hermeticists, Alchemists and other such Occultists (probably manipulated by the aforementioned Lucifer-equivalents) found lucky parts of the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls of the FAR describing what Adam Kadmon is, and considered the documents to be prophecy from God. They were the ones who assigned the biblical metaphorical symbolism such as "Adam Kadmon" in the first place. The use of the daemonic names "Lilith and "Lilin" as metaphors for the human race as a whole is probably from a Gnostic influence: the Gnostics believed that mortal human existence is an inferior CrapsackWorld (hence the daemonic name "Lilin" to refer to the human individual body and the Hell of existing in one, after all, [[Theatre/NoExit Hell is Other People]]) made by a cruel False Creator they call the Demiurge (Human[=/=]Lilin Civilization, with their technological creations and the cruelty that they are capable of). Above the Demiurge's PlatonicCave is a higher reality inhabited by the true Godhead, who manifests itself in the form of the Aeons (symbolic of the FAR, Adams and Angels). The [[FallenAngel fall of the aeon Sophia]] (Lilith[=/=]Rei, who literally fell to Earth) is responsible for the birth of the Demiurge (the evolution of life, and the suffering that it has brought), but [[PiecesOfGod Sophia's fragments still exist in this world]] [[GodInHumanForm in the form of our souls]], and thus it is possible to redeem ourselves from our daemonic existence (human individual bodies prone to disease, despair and death) and [[AssimilationPlot reconcile with her]] (Instrumentality[=/=]Giant Naked Godmode Rei). These neo-Occultists worshipped Adam Kadmon and the S2 Organs as the sacred "Fruits of Life" that shall lead to their [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Messianic Ascension and Universal Salvation]] from their Original Sin of existence under the Demiurge[=/=]Lilin, repeating the original First Ancestral ambition to use Adam Kadmon to ascend as a unified Reality Warper God. |
| 1435 | |
| 1436 | This neo-mystic CargoCult could not establish a public religion when their Catholic rivals became popular first (It is easier to censor Biblical apocrypha, suppress the Dead Sea Scrolls, and simply threaten people to either worship and pay or be tortured forever). And so they pretended that their religion is extinct in the public eye, when in fact they are manipulating the world from the shadows (probably through banking, finance and scientific ventures ever since the Renaissance when Catholic domination finally collapsed). TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness went by many names, whether it's "TheIlluminati" or its modern incarnation, "SEELE". Their central dogma that leads to the plot of ''Evangelion'' is the "Path to Adam Kadmon[=/=]God": To enslave the Aeons such as the Adams and Lilith under their control (thus the creation of the Evangelions, Kaworu and Rei), use an Adam to revive Lilith as an Ark, and use that Ark to redeem mankind from their inferior individual "daemonic" bodies and reconcile all human souls into a gestalt superconsciousness (the Human Instrumentality[=/=]Sophia Reunited[=/=]Giant Naked Rei) that will then locate and absorb the remaining fragments of Adam Kadmon in the universe, completing the Sacred Sephirotic Tree of Life and succeeding where the FAR had failed, the Genesis of God. However, the avatars of the Aeons (Rei and Kaworu), who have learned and appreciated the achievements of human individuality and culture, [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters rebelled against SEELE]] and gave to Shinji the controls for this Path of God instead, leading to its failure. |
| 1437 | |
| 1438 | [[WMG: Why did Gendo rebel against SEELE?]] |
| 1439 | SEELE constantly preaches about how humanity has reached its evolutionary limits, and so seek to use [[TransHuman technology to evolve humanity further]]. On the other hand, Gendo only cares about his dead wife and messiah Yui, [[SaveTheGirlScrewTheWorld he doesn't care if the world is destroyed, as long as he can see Yui again]]. I think the conflict between Gendo and SEELE is a case of RomanticismVersusEnlightenment, with Gendo as Romantic while SEELE as Enlightened. SEELE is obsessed with the Future of Humanity, and thus they believe in a philosophy of UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. [[TotalitarianUtilitarian They don't care about the present-day harm done to the people they manipulate, as long as Utopia arrives]]. On the other hand, Gendo symbolizes an obsession with the Past, an obsession with Yui. He lives in an eternal Past and makes monuments to the Past, the Reis. He doesn't care about the Present, about living with his own son, Shinji. This obsession with the past reaches its logical extreme when Rei, his monument to the Past, reverts everybody into primordial DNA soup that was life four billion years ago. Whatever their philosophies are, both of them don't appreciate the Present, and thus their obsessions reach their selfish and villainous extremes when they start ruthlessly manipulating other people, and thus in the end they are both not so different. The [[UsefulNotes/{{Existentialism}} Existentialist]] theme of ''Evangelion'' deals with trying to find a balance between the two, about appreciating the Present as an individual. This is where Shinji learns to reject Instrumentality, a FalseUtopia made of the extreme combination of both Enlightenment (as a utopian singularity) and Romanticism (as mankind reverted to primordial soup and forcefully assimilated back into the Mother of All Mankind). |
| 1440 | |
| 1441 | [[WMG: Gendo's life is one big "fuck you" to otakudom.]] |
| 1442 | And if you like Gendo Ikari and Rei Ayanami, then Anno hates you. We all know how ''Evangelion'' is one big Fuck You to the audience and all of otakudom in general, culminating with the masturbation of Shinji on a comatose Asuka representing otaku Incel PerverseSexualLust. This is You, who masturbates to dead girls without true consciousness. This is You, a pathetic Incel who would actually be afraid if those {{Moe}} girls became conscious and turned out to be feminists, and would denounce them as evil bitches. If Asuka approached you in Real Life, you would react with '' fear and disgust''. However, there is an even bigger Fuck You to the audience, because at least Shinji grew out of it. It's the guy with the [[ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive awesome pose]], whom everybody admires as a MagnificentBastard aka The "[[FanNickname Uber Pimp]]". |
| 1443 | |
| 1444 | '''[[ThisLoserIsYou Gendo Ikari is YOU]]'''; The emotionally stunted antisocial monomaniac who's so emotionally dependent upon his Moe waifu that he'd rather "just run away" back to her (Instrumentality), rather than accept his new reality, and then covers up his true incompetent self with a fake stoic badass MartyStu air, ala Self-Insert FanFic. He is Shinji all grown up and darker. Yui Ikari is the ideal selfless {{Moe}} YamatoNadeshiko MessianicArchetype Goddess we all worship and masturbate on, and her clone Rei Ayanami is the intended {{Deconstruction}} of that; Anno showed how such a completely submissive ExtremeDoormat fuckdoll [[UncannyValley would be extremely creepy in Real Life]], and portrayed Rei as someone with a severe case of Asperger's. Unfortunately, otakus didn't get the point and thus Rei, instead of being the Real Life nerd, became one of the ancestors of the Moe Archetype, because autism would result in helplessness and therefore Moexploitation. |
| 1445 | |
| 1446 | 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 drunk and got into another fight again. Fuyutsuki could not comprehend why the beautiful genius Yui Ikari would be paired with a failure in life. Gendo then said that he was used to being hated by everybody else. Which means that he probably suffered from a severe case of Hedgehog's Dilemma, where contact with any others besides Yui ended in hurt, like porcupines trying to get close but can't because of their spines. He may have a bad reputation, as with real-life nerds, and may not know how to adapt in life by himself, needing Yui as a philosopher/therapist to teach him how to live and socialize. That's why he always followed and stalked her. If Yui never existed, he would have stayed as an incompetent isolated in his Hedgehog's Dilemma, inevitably committing suicide directly or indirectly. |
| 1447 | |
| 1448 | Yui suffered AndIMustScream in Eva-01 to save mankind from the Angels and the ambition of SEELE who wanted to eradicate free will, while giving hope for Shinji and humanity to retain their free will and resurrect from the Instrumentality, with herself to drift in space forever as a monument to the existence and achievements of mankind, the pinnacle of which is Eva-01. She is a defender of free will against SEELE despite her Moe exterior, and her philosophy is "Anywhere can be paradise as long as you have the will to live". In the end of ''End of Evangelion'', Shinji starts to adapt that philosophy for himself and abort the mass-suicide of the Instrumentality. Shinji learned Yui's first lesson: How to MOVE ON. |
| 1449 | |
| 1450 | But her own first student, Gendo, didn't get the fucking point in her lessons. Yui expected that he would understand and MOVE ON with Shinji in the fight against the Angels and SEELE, and that is why she asked Fuyutsuki to be his guardian. Gendo, being immature, instead TookALevelInJerkass. He, because of his complete incapability to move on, covered up his true incompetent self by pretending to be a badass {{sociopath}}. He became a ruthless ManipulativeBastard with LackOfEmpathy and Shallow Affect for others besides himself and Yui. He dumped Shinji into exile, amorally brainwashed the Akagis to kill themselves for him, and becoming the opposite of everything Yui stood up for. She became his only love, his Ego augmentation and only reason to live. Instead of moving on and enjoying free will with his son, he destroyed his empathy and continued to follow her through death like a robot, and in Fuyutsuki's own words, "sacrificing his very own soul." In other words, Gendo Ikari mutated himself into a {{Yandere}}. |
| 1451 | |
| 1452 | Gendo, essentially, masturbated furiously and continuously to a dead girl, just like Shinji. Actually, he's worse than Shinji, because he was not only was he willing to masturbate to a dead girl, but was willing to [[SaveTheGirlScrewTheWorld initiate Biblical Armageddon and destroy the entire fucking world just to resurrect his girl]]. That made SEELE more selfless by comparison in their intentions to euthanize the human body and merge all human souls into God so that everyone could be happy. In contrast, Gendo, a monomaniac who has degenerated into a Yandere, never cared for the happiness of anyone except Himself and his Moe messiah waifu Yui. This giant Fuck You against all of God's Creation Gendo was doing, simply to suffer AndIMustScream [[YouAreWorthHell together with his beloved waifu Yui, both imprisoned in Eva-01 and drifting in space for all eternity]]. But Life ain't a VisualNovel DatingSim. [[Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows I can see the]] [[{{Tragedy}} ending]]. |
| 1453 | |
| 1454 | Look at ''End of Evangelion'', when Rei grew a spine and betrayed him, therefore betraying his Moe ideal. It's Gendo's indirect fault on why Shinji, when given control to the powers of God, became an OmnicidalManiac StrawNihilist in his "Nobody understands me therefore everyone must fucking die" speech. Would Yui really have liked that, after all her efforts to preserve free will, Gendo and Shinji became respectively a Yandere Sociopath and an Omnicidal Nihilist, and therefore ended up abusing God's powers and destroying the world? During Instrumentality, Gendo himself ''admitted'' to his dead Moe-ssiah waifu Yui on how he's so pathetic, because he tries to run away back to his waifu, instead of facing the future together with his own son. He pretended to be cold and manipulative to Shinji and everybody else because he's actually scared of intimacy (Hedgehog's Dilemma), and he cannot cope psychologically unless Yui is with him, and that's why he kept running away. He admitted that he deserved Punishment and thus visualized himself as eaten by berserk Eva-01. |
| 1455 | |
| 1456 | In the End, Shinji, condemned by the FanDumb as the most pathetic wimp in all of fiction, proved himself as stronger than Gendo by rejecting Instrumentality and living in the Hell that is post-Impact Earth. And he did it to live with one of the biggest feminist bitches in all of fiction, Asuka. No man can handle the cosmic amount of infernal bitchiness in Asuka, especially someone as highly dependent on Moe as Gendo. So, why is everybody calling Shinji a Wimp and Gendo a Badass? |
| 1457 | |
| 1458 | Of course, [[TruffautWasRight the impact completely backfired]] and Rei ended up as one of the ancestors and inspirations of the Moe Archetype, while Gendo is seen as a MagnificentBastard simply because of his [[ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive distinctive pose]] and the parody title of "Uberpimp", even though he himself admitted that he is not. And that angered Anno a lot. |
| 1459 | * Actually, Gendo (and Shinji too for that matter) are confirmed {{Author Avatar}}s of Anno, but Anno consider himself to be an otaku. Regardless, it is more SelfDeprecation than TakeThatAudience. |
| 1460 | |
| 1461 | [[WMG:Maya Ibuki is the true protagonist.]] |
| 1462 | |
| 1463 | This would explain why she is [[AudienceSurrogate the character most likely to state an opinion similar to that of the audience]], [[CreatorsPet why she is by far the most commonly depicted "minor" character in official artwork]], and, of course, why she is the one who finds "the answer" in ''End of Evangelion'', before [[spoiler: she [[GainaxEnding joyously embraces Ritsuko and turns into Orange Juice.]] ]] |
| 1464 | |
| 1465 | [[WMG: Angels and Humans can coexist.]] |
| 1466 | The justification for Kaworu's suicide by Shinji was the "Duel of the Seeds" theory that Adam's Children and Lilith's Children cannot coexist together. According to the released Classified Information by NERV, both species will inevitably destroy each other, and only one can become God. However, Kaworu's existence is the biggest ''refutation'' against the Duel of the Seeds; he proves, as the incarnation of Adam himself and therefore the representative of the Angels, that he can appreciate human culture and achievements. If Kaworu was not brainwashed by SEELE into the entire "Duel of the Seeds" dogma, it would have been entirely possible for him to reject his destiny of merging with Lilith, instead living a happy life with Shinji. And having the Eva equivalent of God Himself reject Instrumentality is bad for SEELE's agenda. |
| 1467 | |
| 1468 | The narrative of the story reveals that the goal of the Angels is to understand humanity. Their powerful A.T. Fields are representations of their loneliness and fear. The less intelligent of the Angels wanted to reach the representative of mankind, Lilith herself, in order to understand humanity and perhaps become human themselves. The more intelligent, such as Leliel, Arael and Armisael, resorted to psychoanalysis of the humans themselves. Their psychological contact may seem like MindRape to humans, however from the Angels' perspective it is just an attempt to seek a soul to experience its loneliness inside its own A.T. Field. For example, while Armisael was in contact with Unit 00, the Angel also merged with Rei and mentally contacted her, expressing a desire to merge with her and forcing her to feel its pain, which Rei realized was actually loneliness. |
| 1469 | |
| 1470 | The Angels got their chance to be with humans with the creation of Kaworu, the avatar of the soul of Adam himself. Kaworu showed an appreciation of the achievements of human society and culture, despite the conflict that tormented both mankind and angelkind. This appreciation would have been detrimental to SEELE dogma, who wanted him to merge with Lilith and usher in the euthanasia of mankind so that they would become God. This is why they fed him with the propaganda about the Duel of the Seeds, that his destiny is to merge with Lilith whether he liked it or not. If Kaworu merges with Lilith, then Instrumentality happens according to what SEELE originally intended. If Kaworu rejects his destiny to merge with Lilith, then he gets destroyed by Shinji or some other NERV agent, resulting in Shinji's psychological state being broken enough to use Eva-01 to start Instrumentality. SEELE put Kaworu into a XanatosGambit that will inevitably initiate Instrumentality one way or another. This is why Gendo said "SEELE wants to advance its schedule using us as its tool" to describe Kaworu's attack on Terminal Dogma. |
| 1471 | * Totally second this. SEELE's plan makes MUCH more sense now. |
| 1472 | |
| 1473 | [[WMG: Rei is able to pilot Unit 00 because she is an Angel, making her the final Angel.]] |
| 1474 | Recall episode 24, where Kaworu is able to manipulate Unit-02 using the power of will (or [[EpilepticTrees AT fields]], it's not exactly stated]]) with no loss of control. He is revealed to be Tabris, but how he got into SEELE's possession is a mystery, unless you consider why Kaworu and Rei have an Uncanny Resemblance: they were both synthetic Angels the same way the [=EVAs=] are. |
| 1475 | |
| 1476 | It's no secret that Rei was born in a test tube, which includes traits of BizarreAlienBiology like being able to fight off a controlling parasite before committing kamikaze, [[TheSoulless loss of identity]], and being able to merge with Lilith. In fact, a more fitting term to describe Lilith (and by extent, Rei, since she bonds with it to become a PhysicalGod) would be [[IAmLegion Legion]]: [[AssimilationPlot for they are one who are many]]. By this method, she is psychically linking with whatever brain the [=EVAs=] have left (for the case of 00), which can be prone to failure. For Unit-01, bonding with it nearly caused Third Impact in ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'', [[InSpiteOfANail which puts a new light of the possibility if she got into Unit-01 in the first episode.]] |
| 1477 | |
| 1478 | It may also explain why Kaworu was so unexpected: there were only 16 Angels originally, not counting synthetic Angels. |
| 1479 | |
| 1480 | [[WMG: Rei is just as apt as XanatosSpeedChess as Gendou is.]] |
| 1481 | * Allow me to explain. We see her chops earlier in the episode where she aptly manipulates Shinji to pilot (against the fifth Angel) even if her goal was not as such to convince him to as simply stating facts, if he's not going to fight then he may as well stay in bed and send her off to her probable death. We see from the sixteenth episode that she is disturbed by the Evas, ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' also shows she is disturbed by the brutality of the [[BodyBackupDrive Dummy System,]] ''End of Evangelion'' shows that she is at the least at odds with the AssimilationPlot and throughout the series she clearly knows a lot more than she lets on. So how does she play said chess? |
| 1482 | ** We know that she is a DeathSeeker, and has CloneAngst. Her determination to put her life at risk in regards to defeating the Angels is without question. But what if it's also so that she she cannot be used to begin Instrumentality? |
| 1483 | ** When ordered to shoot Touji she hesitates. This demonstrates that she knows that it's not right, and as explained above she argues against Instrumentality. |
| 1484 | ** What about the clones? What if her DeathSeeker status had a more long term goal in mind, either to exhaust the supply or that if she did die then the next one possible CameBackWrong, at least as far as Gendou's plans are concerned? Thus what she does in episodes 18 and 23 are a bid to prevent the eventual end of existence, not at the hands of the Angels but Gendou. |
| 1485 | ** Then Ritsuko kills off the clones. The manga shows that she tried to kill Rei before, after Rei said or did something to upset her. If Rei knows that she is able to get people to react the way she wants (the Shinji example above as well as a couple of interaction with Asuka where her commitment to do the job she initially refuses makes Asuka comply) who is to say Rei did not have a hand in Ritsuko going off the deep end. For her it's a win win, she cannot be forced back to life and if she is an unwilling participant in Instrumentality then she cannot be killed off for a clone that would be. |
| 1486 | ** Since we have established that Rei had gone from being all for Instrumentality to somewhat against it her intervention when Kaworu is steps away from succeeding shows that at the very least she does not want SEELE's version of Instrumentality. And as ''[=EoE=]'' shows SEELE's version is what does happen thanks to Shinji, but Rei is by now AGodAmI and is able to reverse it. |
| 1487 | ** Conclusion: Rei is at least put off enough that she makes several attempts to prevent Instrumentality from happening, from trying to kill herself off to intervening when others attempt to. |
| 1488 | |
| 1489 | [[WMG: The genetic donor for Kaworu was Kaji. Alternatively, Kaji's soul is in Kaworu now.]] |
| 1490 | |
| 1491 | [[WMG: The true MagnificentBastard of the series was Yui.]] |
| 1492 | Why did the brilliant genius ''geneticist'' whose doctoral thesis was about cell ''apotheosis'' (i.e. why we age and get cancer if the process goes wrong) fall in "love" with a man who, despite his horrible social skills, had ridiculous connections to the movers and shakers of the post-apocalyptic world? |
| 1493 | |
| 1494 | Answer: Yui figured out what SEELE was doing, and she wanted in on that. So she seduced Gendou (a needy loner who would do anything to hold onto the little happiness he had in life) and Fuyutsuki (an older man anxious about leaving his legacy on a dying world), selected all of the crew of those who would eventually make up NERV based on their personality profiles, volunteered to pilot the prototype EVA Unit 01, and then had an "accident". She would then go on to monitor the goings-on of NERV from within Unit 01 and use its AT field to subtly continue manipulating things behind the scenes. |
| 1495 | |
| 1496 | So everyone turning to Tang was, in this WMG, Just As Planned--this way, all of the "sheeple" are removed from the population and only the "worthy" get physical forms. (She cheated to bring her Beloved Son back into the fold, as she didn't quite expect the Shinji Raising Project to turn him into such a narcissist.) |
| 1497 | |
| 1498 | [[WMG: Ramiel is a drone.]] |
| 1499 | It is an EVA of sorts for the angels, except remotely controlled. |
| 1500 | |
| 1501 | [[WMG: After 3rd impact, Shinji and Asuka leave earth and go to Gaia (the setting of Final Fantasy VII).]] |
| 1502 | Where they repopulate among the Cetra (AKA the ancients.) |
| 1503 | Eventually, the human race lives side by side with the Cetra (until Jenova shows up anyways.) |
| 1504 | |
| 1505 | There's actually a teeny bit of evidence of this as Asuka's Magma Diver suit shows up in the golden saucer. So, perhaps, Shinji and Asuka traveled to Gaia, got busy making kids, and ultimately repopulated the human race. So Cloud is a descendant of Shinji and Asuka. |
| 1506 | |
| 1507 | [[WMG: The Second Impact gave everyone [[Anime/{{Betterman}} Algernon]].]] |
| 1508 | Or at least, it gave Gendo Algernon, and he passed it along to the SEELE council. Angels are perfect creatures, incapable of evolution. Ironically, they dislike this state of affairs, hence why they wish to reintegrate with Lilith, who is the only one of them who has any potential--and that's by virtue of creating a proper Spiral race, humanity. |
| 1509 | |
| 1510 | Unfortunately, being Tanged doesn't leave behind an Animus flower for Betterman to use, otherwise the [=EVAs=] would have been entirely unnecessary. Not only that, but it's likely that Second Impact greatly reduced the Betterman population in any case. |
| 1511 | |
| 1512 | The Evangelion project, absolute terror, deliberately raising a son with no social skills, all to find his wife again...none of that was actually necessary. If Gendo had been in his right mind, he would have been a good father. |
| 1513 | |
| 1514 | In fact, Yui's single-minded determination to be a monument to the human race, even at the expense of the continued existence of the human race, is awfully like the mania of the {{Mad Scientist}}s affected by Algernon in ''Anime/{{Betterman}}''. Perhaps she was Patient Zero for the angel-induced Algernon. |
| 1515 | |
| 1516 | * The ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'' universe (possibly) happens if the other angels discover the Galleoria Comet and colonize the Trinary System; rather than try to compete with Lilith, they copied Her to create beautiful non-Lilim humans (remember, Mamoru is physiologically human), although they added tacky wings and additional power. Unfortunately, the humans of the Purple Planet accidentally discovered the importance of the AT field by creating a life-form that absorbed minus energy in thoughts--the problem being that "minus energy" is the latent form of Absolute Terror. In effect, they had created a Super-Negative Artificial Life Form whose form was based strongly on self-perception and self-hatred. Zonders regenerate since they're basically Z0 given shape by Absolute Terror, and their barriers are outward projections of their AT fields. It's also why they only absorb inanimate objects--they instinctively want to be alone. |
| 1517 | * The G-Stone's energy is not pure spiral/Getter, rather it's a conduit for "plus energy", basically self-confidence and courage. This gives it the ability to both repel and attract. Plus Energy is what lets the Dragons Symmetrical Dock without losing themselves, and why Guy's fusion doesn't turn him into a puddle of orange; his sense of self is still present, but it's an Absolute Courage field rather than an Absolute Terror field. |
| 1518 | * ''Fanfic/NobodyDies'' is what happens if Algernon is removed from the equation: Yui's desire to create a monument to the human race doesn't become a mania [which leads to her death in the first place], Gendo's control freak tendencies don't turn him sociopathic, and so on and so forth. |
| 1519 | * It's possible (and it probably happened in a timeline or two) that the Evangelions are heavily mutated Somnia that ate the Animus of the respective pilots' mothers. Their mutations (and the Angelic nature of the Evangelion transformations) leave them unable to turn back to their normal form, and the Evangelion form makes them capable of generating large-scale AT fields, but also leaves them mindless; physics-defying zombies where they were once psychic brain vampires. |
| 1520 | |
| 1521 | [[WMG: EVA is an adaptation of a Visual Novel.]] |
| 1522 | |
| 1523 | * OK, OK. I know this isn't true, but think about. All of the versions of EVA (TV series/Rebuild/Manga) start similarly, then go in different directions and have different outcomes. The first six episodes/first rebuild movie make up the common route. After that, the narrative branches into each continuities respective route. There's the instrumentality route (the TV series; possibly a bad ending), there's the rebuild route (the movies; possibly a good or normal ending), and there's the reset route (the manga, because after instrumentality everything appears to return to how it was after second impact) |
| 1524 | |
| 1525 | [[WMG: ''End of Evangelion'' is Asuka's account and she is an UnreliableNarrator]] |
| 1526 | Which explains all the sudden character changes like Shinji's {{Ukefication}}, Rei's FaceHeelTurn and Asuka's [[TookALevelInBadass reversal of the downwards spiral she has been in since Episode 22]]. Partially she jumped to conclusions about events she didn't experience and only recieved information about after coming back into existance, which is why Shinji and Rei act so uncongenially because Asuka has such low opinions of them. Shinji's [[{{Flanderization}} flanderized]], {{wangst}}y behavior in the movie is how Asuka thinks "Shinji-baka" would act in the situations she was told he was in. Rei's FaceHeelTurn occurs because Asuka always distrusted her, having thought her as CreepyChild since meeting her, and instantly assumed she betrayed humanity after finding out her role in Instrumentality. Partially she straight up lies about events she did experience, like her fight against the [=Mass-Produced EVAs=]. Isn't it implausible how Asuka's synchronicity rate suddenly and seemingly without a cause jumps to an incredibly high value after lowering since Episode 22 and Asuka defeating a squad Eva's that not only outnumber her but are superior due to having an S2-Drive only for them to come back and kill her? In truth, either the [=Mass-Produced EVAs=] never existed or EVA-02 stayed immobilized and in the lake and Shinji defended it, only for the [=Mass-Produced EVAs=] to defeat and nearly kill EVA-01 in a CurbStompBattle kill EVA-02. Asuka has envied Shinji for the event where he reached a 400% synchronocity rate in Episode 20, especially once her synchronicity rate dropped severely. For that reason, she essentially retold that event except happening to her and giving her an EleventhHourSuperpower before a battle. Another event which is ficticious is ''that scene'', which Asuka made up in order to incite people against Shinji whom she grown to hate since Episode 22. The same holds true for the last scene, in which Shinhi chokes Asuka. The scene where Shinji is confronted by Rei, Asuka and Misato when [=EVA-01=] is absorbed is also completely made up as wish fulfillment for her wishes to be able to give Shinji a successful TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and to make the people whose praise Asuka thinks he hogs from her be angry at him. |
| 1527 | |
| 1528 | [[WMG: The Angels really ''are'' angels.]] |
| 1529 | Second Impact occurred in 2000 because God was enraged with humanity, as they continued committing sins unabated, and worshipping false gods like Buddha, the Hindu pantheon, Xenu and the false god of Science. He decided that all of mankind was a mistake that had to pay the ultimate price: eternal damnation. |
| 1530 | |
| 1531 | Satan, though, was disgusted that God was trying to do his job, and go overboard in it. He appeared on Earth in the guise of Kihl Lorenz to create the Human Instrumentality Project to preserve all of mankind in a gestalt consciousness until such a time that God could be made to see reason, that not all of mankind was as evil as he believed. |
| 1532 | * Alternately, it wasn't Satan who was disgusted with God's damnation of humanity. It was Jesus Christ himself, who believed that humanity could still be saved. In the original Hebrew text, Satan was God's accuser, the prosecutor who always tried to prove that humanity is beyond redemption. He was on league with YHVH to damn humanity to Hell. On the opposite stood Jesus, who believed in the goodness of humanity. Khil Lorenz was just the biblical Cain, who simply wanted nothing more than to die after millennia of wandering the Earth, and for that reason, he cooperated with Jesus on his grand plan to preserve Humanity from God's wrath. Jesus had descendants ala Da Vinci Code, and passed his consciousness amongst them, until his latest descendant, Yui Ikari, was born. She, who is in fact an incarnation of Jesus, sacrificed herself, letting herself be crucified again, into the eternal prison of the Evangelion to protect Humanity from the apocalypse that God would inflict upon human existence. |
| 1533 | |
| 1534 | [[WMG: The High-School AU scene from Episode 26 was originally part of the intended ending]] |
| 1535 | After a heavily-truncated version of the Third Impact scene (As 7 minutes would have certainly taken up too much of the episode), the high school AU scene would play. The intention was to have the scene be near silent and play the monologue from the live-action sequence in ''End'' over it. When the original ending was scrapped, Gainax hastily used all the animation completed for the episode to fill it out, hence why some scenes were simply storyboards as they didn't have enough time to finish those parts up. Afterwards, the "Congratulations" scene would play (As it also uses unique animation) with Shinji's "Thank you all" spoken over the group shot from ''End'', and finally "One More Final: I Need You" would play. When ''End'' was made, Gainax had already used the high school footage for the TV-series and shot some live-action footage to take its place, and altered the monologue so it made no reference to any sort of high-school. |
| 1536 | |
| 1537 | [[WMG:Asuka's mother (Kyoko Zeppelin) is an older Karen from Kin-iro Mosaic ]] |
| 1538 | I mean, just look at [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DlDLGy0U0AEAH9t?format=jpg&name=large their]][[https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/5ddd894a-2c60-4a6a-a898-89c26f354207_1.79c2a4866034fc87e1a2769519288bd9.jpeg expressions]] |
| 1539 | |
| 1540 | [[WMG:Shinji is stuck in a time loop and reliving variants of the same events]] |
| 1541 | There are three details that support this. |
| 1542 | First off, in the first episode, we see Rei, dressed in school uniform, observing Shinji from a distance. in the time it takes to blink, she's disappeared without a trace; two seconds later, the angel Sachiel attacks. When Misato gets Shinji to NERV HQ and he refuses to pilot the Eva, they wheel in Rei on a gurney; she is wearing her plugsuit and is heavily injured and bandaged. There is no possible way she could have gotten there before them. In ''End of Evangelion'', several copies of Rei appear wearing that same school uniform and Shinji is implied to communicate with several different versions of her. Thus, it can be concluded that the Rei that observes Shinji in the first episode is one of those Rei copies, having brought Shinji back to the point where everything began. |
| 1543 | Secondly, over the course of the series, Shinji mentions several times that he lived with his teacher before moving to Tokyo-3. In ''End of Evangelion'', one of the potential realities that Shinji sees is a slice-of-life AU where he and the other children are just normal high school students, and their teacher is Misato. Ergo, when Shinji mentions having lived with his teacher, a part of him is in fact remembering the time he spent living in Misato's apartment during previous iterations of the timeline. |
| 1544 | Thirdly, in episode 19, Shinji has to hurry back to NERV headquarters and begs to be allowed to pilot Unit 01, as both Rei and Asuka are out of commission and an angel has breached the facility. due to the circumstances, he doesn't have time to change out of his school uniform and enters the entry plug as is. In episode 20, they can't get the entry plug to eject from the Eva, and when they establish a video feed of the inside of the plug, Shinji's plugsuit is inexplicably floating inside, despite him not having worn it when he entered the plug in the previous episode. In addition, the episode draws a LOT of attention to his plugsuit being there, with one of the other characters mentioning it aiding him, and even going so far as to have Misato crying over the plugsuit when they believe Shinji has died. At first glance, this may seem to be a continuity error, but in fact the two episodes take place in two separate iterations of the timeline, and thus we can further conclude that each episode similarly takes place in a different instance of the loop. |
| 1545 | |
| 1546 | [[WMG: The Angels were created by the Ancient Atlanteans from ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater''.]] |
| 1547 | * Going off the idea that ''Eva'' was going to be a DistantSequel to ''Nadia'', it's possible that the Angels are biological Weapons of Mass Destruction made to serve the people of Ancient Atlantis. Considering that it was even stated by Ritsuko that the Angels' genome is close to that of a human and since the Atlanteans created humanity in ''Nadia'' (a prototype of which is even named "Adam"), it seems all the more likely that they created the Angels using the same human genome as a basis. |
| 1548 | ** It should also noted that in ''Nadia'', "Adam" was considered a failed attempt at creating humans before the Atlanteans moved on to using primates. So "Lilith" could have been a more successful second attempt and the Atlanteans utilized the data they gathered from her in their experiments on the primates. However, not wanting "Adam" to go to waste, the Atlanteans used his genome to create the monsters we know as "Angels" and used them in their conquest of Earth and later, their inner civil wars that led to their downfall. |
| 1549 | * This is further supplemented by the "Classified Information" from the ''Evangelion 2'' video game. This extra info mentions a "First Ancestral Race" being responsible for the creation of mankind and the Angels. This is most likely a reference to the alien race that came to Earth and eventually became Atlantis in the backstory for ''Nadia''. |
| 1550 | ** Also, the Atlanteans, seeing themselves as the "Gods" of the world, would name the Angels their "Apostles" (which was what they were originally going to be called in ''NGE'' before they switched to "Angels"). |
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