New Interpretation of "Evangelion": Desire and Tragedy Created by "Metaphysics"

Neon Genesis Evangelion

In the more than 20 years since the birth of "Evangelion (EVA)", Chinese film reviews alone have been awash. Readers may ask: Why do you need a new interpretation-why do you label yourself as "new"? The original intention of the author is to be dissatisfied with some of the existing analysis on the market. As the iconic element of "EVA", "Human Completion Project", Three Impacts, EVA body, Apostle, etc. run through the film, as a set of background settings that string together the choices and fate of all characters-however, perhaps because These elements have crossed the boundaries of science fiction and are not worthy of being taken seriously. Many quiz-style film reviews (such as this one ) downgraded "EVA" to a collage composed of quotations and interpretations of philosophy and religion, but they did not see it alone. The inner philosophical thinking of this film and television work: a metaphor for technological engineering trying to change the fundamental condition of mankind . Other interpretations focus on the characters in front of the stage (several drivers and Misato Katsuragi) and the most superficial plot, which has a strong impact on the forces behind the development of the plot-Ikado Gendo, SEELE, and Ikari and them. The respective supplementary plans are too fragmentary and sparse, and the presentation is too obscure to tell. It is impossible to see the meaning and connection of the fate and choice of many characters on the level of the world view.

This article is to face these challenges head-on. I will start from a little-known concept, "metaphysics", and integrate the "EVA" universe setting with the three impacts and the "Human Completion Project" as the core, and clarify the background, differences and contention of the three completion plans. , To present the tragedies that two generations of characters have created for themselves and each other, driven by the desire for doomsday technology.

"Metaphysics": "EVA" Cosmology

The "Human Completion Project" is a core link in the universe setting of "EVA", and it is better to start from here if you want to revisit "EVA". When it comes to the "Human Completion Plan", people almost always avoid the details of its setting. After all, this word almost always appears in broad and profound philosophical dialogues, as follows:

Katsushiro Misato thought to himself: The use of artificial evolution to make humans, a group of incomplete groups that have gone to desperation, turn them into complete single organisms, this is the completion plan. It's really an ideal world ("Air/True Heart For You")

Dialogue within the SEELE Committee: I am not waiting to get on the Ark named eva, but willing to give up the human form

It’s just a passing ritual to regenerate the occluded human beings

The destiny of destruction also contains the joy of new life

In order for God, human beings and all lives to become one through death union (Ibid.)

It can be seen that the completion of the SEELE committee, the primary promoter, is quite suffering from the most fundamental living situation of mankind-the relationship between self and others, and even regards it as the sole source of human suffering and predicament. Not only at the level of the "Human Completion Project", it is also the core theme of the relationship between the characters in the film, "Porcupine Dilemma" (Katsuri Misato: "The distance between the porcupine? The closer you get, the more you will hurt each other", Chapter 4).

In fact, in reality, don't we often attribute the difficulties of life to the separation between people in an abstract way? But this is not the only source of all problems. Even if it is, we do not hope to solve all problems once and for all from the root. After all, interpersonal relationships are temporarily hopeless and substantively improved, and therefore need to be accepted. This is exactly the essential difference between the universe and the real world in "EVA": there, with the help of the supernatural power of technology, the fundamental human situation is perfect ("completed"), and it is possible for humans to abandon their individual forms and merge into single organisms. ,God. It is against perfect hope that the status quo of mankind appears so abominable that SEELE's appalling artificial evolution plan was born. The premise and key of this plan is "metaphysics."

The entire film of "Metaphysical Biology" has only appeared once, that is, on the doorplate of the Farming Research Office in the winter of 1999 in Chapter 21 "Nerv, Birth". The reason why this concept is brought to such an important position is because it just reminds the two cores of the universe setting of "EVA": first, idealism and theistic laws of physical biology ("metaphysical"); second, human beings not only understand This idealistic and divine universe has mastered the technology ("biology") that allows it to be used by itself to a certain extent. This section focuses on the first point.

"EVA" The universe is divided into body and mind. The human body carries the soul, and the maintenance of the individual form relies on the combination of individual consciousness and ATField (Nagisa Kaoru: "The sacred realm inviolable by anyone... the wall of the heart that anyone has", Chapter 24), Among them, individual consciousness plays a decisive role, and it lies in the wall of the heart. The soul can be separated from one body and attached to another body. To do so requires breaking the wall of the heart, breaking the wall of the heart requires stimulating the destructive instinct and weakening the individual's consciousness. The separation of the body and the soul and their fusion into the same matrix is ​​the complement of what SEELE said "God, human beings and all beings...come into one". The completion of "Air/True For You" was opened with the enhancement of Shinji's destruction instinct and the weakening of individual consciousness; in the process, everyone's body transformed into LCL and merged into Lilith, and at the same time represented the soul of Xiaohong The light spot separated from the body and returned to Lilith through the Black Moon.

The manufacture and manipulation of EVA are based on the idealism of dichotomy between body and mind. For EVA to become a complete combat equipment, it must have the soul of the first-generation test pilot. [Endnote 1] That is, Ikari and Asuka’s mother who went crazy after the test of the first aircraft and the second aircraft (except: For machine zero, see note 2). Shinji and Asuka can synchronize with the two planes, and to a large extent they are the exclusive drivers of the two planes, precisely based on a certain kind of special tuning between the souls of mothers and children. [Endnote 2]

It couldn't be more obvious that the runaway originated from the maternal love inspired by the soul dissolved in the body. When the lives of the driver’s children are threatened by the outside world, the mother’s soul in the body prefers to abandon the self and open the heart out of the desire to protect. It can be seen that even if they dissolve in EVA, the souls of the two mothers are not always in a passive and dormant state. At least in a critical moment, their will can be activated by EVA running away and affecting the will of the driver's children. In particular, Wei, who is hiding behind the No. 1 machine, plays an important role in secret in several key positions of the whole film of "EVA". This is why runaway is often referred to as EVA or the "awakening" of those who live in it.

The soul is open to each other and not to the parent-child. The launch ceremony completed in "Air/True For You" is the voluntary fusion of Lilith, the mother of life, and the selected offspring. On the personal level, it is the voluntary fusion of Li and the selected fetters. , Their will will also fill the direction of the left and right. [Endnote 3] Rei betrayed Ikogendo, took the Adam embryo from him and returned to Lilith, becoming the de facto mother of life. Out of the fetters of Shinji, she stayed behind the scenes and gave Shinji the right to make up the decision. At the beginning of the completion, the representative of Rei-Lilith asked Shinji: "What do you want to pray for?" Midway through the completion, she also told Shinji: "If you expect others to exist, the wall of the heart will separate everyone again." In the end, the wish of Guozhen to comply with Shinji was reversed.

Survival crisis/opportunity and "Human Completion Plan"

Although "metaphysics" appeared before the second impact, humans did not have so much understanding and control of this ideal and godly universe at that time, nor did they have the crazy idea of ​​artificial evolution from the beginning. Proposing the "Human Completion Plan" and building EVA are both things at the beginning of the 21st century. The technological leap and the breeding of desire can be attributed to the discovery of White Moon and Giant Adam in Antarctica in 2000, and the subsequent salvage of the "Dead Sea Document" and the Longinus Gun in the Dead Sea shortly thereafter. This is an extremely contradictory set of events for mankind. On the one hand, "people are overjoyed when they find God, and want to take God as their own" (Rutko, Chapter 23). On the other hand, the discovery of the Apostles and the "Dead Sea Document" also sounded an urgent alarm for mankind. According to Prophecy, other apostles born from Adam will awaken in more than ten years and follow the trail of the ancestor. If the two come into contact, all lives will return to Adam together.

What kind of existence does the apostle exist, and why should he return to Adam?

[Misato carried Shinji on the way to the apron of the first plane]

Misato: Shinji-kun, we humans, like Adam, are the 18th apostle bred from the source of life called Lilith. Other apostles have other development possibilities because they abandon human beings. form. However, it is the sad existence that can only refuse each other. Same human beings too ("Air/True Heart for You")

Except for Misato's passage in the whole film, there is almost no direct discussion of the identity of the apostle. Considering that even if Miri is in the high position of Nerv, there are still many things that are kept in the dark, we have to doubt this statement. Although the apostles and human beings have obtained the fruits of life and fruits of wisdom and have embarked on completely different development trajectories, Miri regards them as sister species with the same disease. Apostles are immortal independent giants, while humans have developed complex and fragile social civilizations. However, in the universe of "EVA", the two have a common "flaw": they both exist in limited individual forms and must endure mutual rejection. The fate of rebuke. This is the gap between them and God, perfection, and true eternity. It is precisely because this gap is likely to be eliminated that their way of existence becomes a "defect", hatred of themselves, and desire to evolve into a higher level single life through fusion with gods. Contacting Misato's speculation on the SEELE completion plan quoted at the beginning of the previous section, she must have projected a considerable amount of understanding of the human situation onto the apostle.

Regardless of the complete facts, it is known that because of the encounter in Antarctica in 2000, humans and the apostles entered into a life-and-death evolutionary battle. Although the third impact caused by the apostle would cause all life to become one, in the eyes of humans, this does not mean a ride in evolution, but death. This is because Adam is the ancestor of the apostle, and the ancestor of mankind is Lilith. Only the orthodox successor can return and evolve without fail, and other lives can only serve as sacrifices. Another possibility is that the nature of the impact depends on the will of its initiator, and other lives are just being brought in. Losing one's form against will is death. (As we will see in the next section, this is the main difference between Ikogendo and SEELE.) In order to avoid the doom of becoming a victim of apostolic evolution, humans are forced to preemptively and do everything possible to prevent the third impact of the prophecy. . This is the original intention of the series of actions such as the establishment of SEELE and Nerv, the construction of the third new Tokyo city and EVA. According to Miri, even the man-made purpose of the second impact in Antarctica in 2000 was at this point. [Endnote 4]

The apostle’s discovery, on the one hand, threatened the survival of mankind, on the other hand, it contributed to a leap in "metabiology" and opened up the possibility of artificial evolution-this is the ambiguous background in which the "Human Completion Project" was born. Whether the third impact is crisis or opportunity depends largely on the action of human beings to turn crisis into opportunity. But in the final analysis, is there really a clear picture of which is at stake? Behind the "Human Completion Project" is a self-contradictory motive, which is dominated by the survival instinct inspired by external threats. The underlying reason is that arrogant scientific rationality and expansive desire overwhelm the prudence of risks and costs. The consequences of the second impact are enough to make people confused: in the struggle for survival with the apostles, "taking the gods as one's own", is it to avoid the catastrophe of extinction, or is it itself a catastrophe of extinction? The "Human Completion Project" project that determines the destiny of all mankind is even more unlikely to be uncontroversial: What is life and survival? Is the individual form a sad situation that needs to be resolved and is expected to be resolved, or is it a prerequisite for human existence? The conspiracy to fuse all mankind into a single life, is it "evolution" that sounds beautiful, or suicide or even murder? If the way the problem is solved causes almost or even more trouble and harm than the problem itself, is the effort worth it? The ambiguity and contradictions of the human situation in the early 21st century in "EVA" gave birth to a "replenishment" plan based on different understandings of life and human destiny. The collusion and contention between these several plans has brought together the intricate lives of the protagonists.

Three "make-up" plans

The "Human Completion Project" is far more than one. The TV version of the open line is the SEELE plan, and the commander of the executive agency Nerv, Ikage Gendo, is secretly pushing forward his plan. It wasn't until the different ending of the old theater version of "Air/True For You" that [endnote 5] the contest between the two plans surfaced. Ikari's plan is the easiest to ignore, because she almost always appears indirectly, and it is difficult to see what she has done and what she wants to do. To restore the full picture of these three plans and sort out the relationship between them, the key is to find out the understanding and differences of the three parties on the "replenishment". Similar to the relationship between the evolutionary path of the apostle and the "Human Completion Project", human plans are also mutually exclusive speeds of life and death, and must obstruct each other, because the success of another plan also means the failure of this plan, and Between the success or failure of the plan is the life/death of all mankind.

Among the three plans, SEELE's plan has many literal clues but the operation details are relatively vague, and the reconstruction of Ikune's plan requires too many scattered paving. For the convenience of explanation, we use the Ikogendo project as a clue to talk about the other two projects.

Ikuji + Ikujigendo

What is the plan of Ikogendo? If you are lazy, you can just accept all his own statement: He wants to reunite with Ikunai through the completion. That's it? Ikura Gendo, who failed in the plan in "Air/True For You", still "saw" Ikura at the beginning of the completion. So why take risks and implement an independent plan behind SEELE? In addition, the motive of Ikogen Gendo is really so simple—an infatuation for Ikyu? We must know that when we met at the beginning of the year, Dongyue suspected that Sextant Yuantang (who took his wife's surname after marriage) was "in order to get the only talent and get close to a certain organization behind her, that organization is called SEELE." Fuyuki, who threatened to expose the secret for the second time, also joined Nerv and became his deputy under the temptation of Ikogendo "to create a new history of mankind with me" (Episode 21).

The details throughout the film show that Ikura and his wife are actually not at heart. The dominant impulse in their personality is misplaced. An implicit theme of EVA is the disputes between the various parts of the personality and between the fetters . For example, Naoko Akagi implanted the three parts of the personality as a woman, a mother, and a scientist into three MAGI supercomputers. The lovers finally chose the lover. Ikari Yui is different from Naoko. Her most basic impulse for being a person is maternal love, which far outweighs her feelings for her husband and the impulse of scientists. Her non-interventional, but protective desire to burst ("runaway") of maternal love in times of crisis is generalized, and it becomes a non-interventional care for the destiny of mankind, which will define her "complementary" plan. . In contrast, it is a selfish and narrow attachment to his wife that dominates Ikoji Gendo. He seldom showed care for people other than Weiwei, and he even had no scruples about sending his son to realize the plan. It can even be said that just as Ritsuko felt betrayed because her mother chose a man instead of her daughter, Ikura Gentang also regarded Shinji as a competitor, jealous of his son because of his defeat in the competition against Ikura. That being said, he was not going to meet Wei because of some kind of pure and selfless love.

Perhaps we can find out his intentions from the opportunity presented by the Ikoji Gendo plan. In 2004, Ikyui disappeared for a week after the pilot test of the first aircraft, and when he reappeared, he had already proposed the "Human Completion Plan" to SEELE (Episode 21). It can be seen that Ikura Gentang’s plan is an unexpected response to Ikari’s experiment . The so-called "accident" is actually part of Ikuji's plan. The core clues of Ikari’s project are hidden in a 2003 dialogue with Mr. Fuyuetsu. Unfortunately, this dialogue was cut into two paragraphs and presented in Chapter 21 and at the end of "Air/True Heart". Both paragraphs must Only by looking at it together can it become clear.

[Subtitle: 2003 Hakone]

Fuyutsuki: The Dead Sea Scroll in SEELE's hand, if you follow the above, there will be a third impact in more than ten years.

Wei: The organization that prevented the last tragedy from happening was SEELE and Gehirn

Fuyuki: I agree with your idea, but not from SEELE

Wei: Teacher Dongyue, it is very dangerous to break that seal in the world

Fuyuki: I have given all the information to Ikura, because this is not something that an individual can do. We will not repeat what happened last time. I also received a tactful warning. It seems easy for those people to make me disappear.

Wei: The same is true for the remaining human beings. It is very simple to destroy human beings.

Winter Moon Farming: Even so, you don’t have to be the subject

Yui picks up Shinji: Everything is arranged according to destiny, and I am here in SEELE because of this, and this is also for Shinji (Episode 21)

Fuyutsuki: Let humans create eva in the way of gods. Is that your real goal?

Wei: Yes, humans can only survive on this planet, but EVA can survive indefinitely. Together with the hearts of the people who live in it, even after five billion years, the earth, moon, and even the sun will disappear. EVA will continue to exist, that is, only one person will survive. Although it will be very lonely, as long as you continue to live...

Fuyuki: Then the evidence that humans have existed will last forever ("Air/True Heart for You")

From this conversation, it can be seen that from the beginning, Ikari, Ikuregendō, and Fuyuki had fundamental differences with SEELE. In their view, the biggest flaw in human beings is not the separation between people, but that people are mortal. They can either die from external disasters or be destroyed by themselves and each other—for example, SEELE allows all humans to unite. And for one's artificial evolution plan. According to this, even if it is really necessary to "make up", it should be to allow humanity to survive forever. Although SEELE's "Human Completion Plan" can also achieve some form of perpetual existence, it cancels the basis of individual life existence, so it has been excluded first. As one of the pioneers of "metaphysics", Ikari's choice is to voluntarily melt into EVA physically and mentally, and use EVA as a replica of the gods as the ark to save mankind from the destiny of ultimate destruction. Ikari’s "Complete Completion Plan" and SEELE's "Human Completion Plan" can be said to be at the two ends of the spectrum. One is the ultimate representation and interference. A small elite group plots to determine the fate of all mankind; the other is based on Minimize interference with others to achieve the minimum "make up" (as long as one person lives forever, the human "kind" is considered to be forever), and silently bear the torture of eternal life alone. But the integration into the No.1 machine is only the first step of Ikuji's plan. For the No.1 machine to gain the ability to carry humans to eternal life, the S2 mechanism will finally be realized in Chapter 19. [Endnote 6]

Judging from the calm before the experimental accident and the intense reaction of Ikogentang and Fuyuki after the accident, she must have not informed her husband and teacher of the plan in advance. Although Fuyuki suggested that the three of them work together ("All the information is handed over to Ikura, because this is not something that can be done by an individual"), Ikura only took the initiative to leave Ikogentang and Fuyuetsu on his own, and took the initiative to "make up for it." "The mission is gone . She may have been inspired by the optimal plan of "realizing human complementation at the least cost of self-sacrifice", and at the same time has a foreboding that her husband and teacher will never agree with her to take this path (Fujitsu: "Even so, you don't have to go. When the subject is tested"), this is the best move.

If the "Human Completion Plan" that Ikogentang put forward in a hurry a week after the accident was a response to Ikurei's actions, then his most likely purpose of "going to see Wei" is to catch up with Wei on the road to completion, and her Together they have become proof that human beings have existed-whether it is from the vanity of "going into a god", the self-esteem hurt by being left behind by the wife, or the strong desire for exclusive possession of his wife. How does Ikujigendō catch up with Ikujiu? He wanted to lead the completion process, become a god himself, and join the ranks of Ikuji.

Ikogendo VS. SEELE

How does it work? In fact, the Ikakugentang plan and the SEELE plan basically overlapped before the last step. This is why the two sides have been able to conspire for so long despite the constant small movements. But the direction of the last step determines the nature of the entire plan, and the fundamental differences on this point will inevitably lead to the ultimate rupture of the alliance.

Both plans are competing with the apostles for the opportunity to merge with their ancestors and evolve into gods. Whoever does it first, the apostles or the humans, will be the victim of completion on the other side. Therefore, the premise of the two plans is to eliminate all the apostles, and to completely control the right of completion within human beings. To this end, SEELE relies on Nerv and EVA, the executive agencies led by Ikogentang, and Nerv and Ikogentang also rely on the support of SEELE, a supranational group of resources deployed. After the premise of destroying the apostle was fulfilled, the divergence of the two plans surfaced-the break between Ikogendo and SEELE was after the elimination of the last apostle Nagisa Kaoru (Episode 24). It can be seen from the breakup at the beginning of "Air/Sincere For You" that the biggest difference between the two sides is that SEELE regards the completion of all human beings as a new life through "death", but this is between Ikogendo and Winter Yue seems to be just giving up the meaning of survival, that is, death in the literal sense. Ikogentang fundamentally rejects the complete vision of abandoning individual forms. Dongyue also added that mankind's only desire to survive is to survive.

After the break, SEELE sent the Fighting Self-Defense Forces to invade Nerv. At this time, Ikage Gendo began to implement the final step of the plan. In the final dogma district he said to Rei:

Adam is already with me, so I can only reunite with Wei, and let Adam and Lilith carry on the taboo fusion. [Ayanami's left arm broke and fell off] There is no time, ATField can no longer maintain your shape. It’s about to begin, Li, open the wall of the heart, fill up the defective mind, abandon unnecessary bodies, let all the souls become one at this moment, and then go to Wei’s side together ("Air/True Heart for You 》)

Just like what happened to Shinji later, "Adam and Lilith's taboo fusion" is also based on "metaphysical biology." Rei Lilith and the offspring who are expected to be selected-Ikogendo-Adam-took the initiative to open their hearts to each other, forcing everyone to lose their individual form and become one. Ikogentang will take the position of a god who can determine the fate of all lives by will. Unfortunately, everything fell short, and Rei-Lilith chose Shinji. But doesn't "all souls...come into one" violate the consensus of Ikumi, Ikogentang and Dongyue that "the loss of individual form means death"? Although it is impossible to see the completion of the version of Ikujigentang, it does not prevent us from guessing: if Ikujigentang is faithful to this consensus, after becoming a god, he will restore Ikuji's individual form by his own will, and the two will eventually be able to Reunion in individual form. This may be the complete meaning of "meeting" with Diaowei. In this way, the Ikoji Gendo Project is actually an addition to the Ikuji Project. Although he firmly believes that the individual form is the foundation of human existence, Ikura is willing to give up the integration of individual form and EVA in order to achieve the minimum "human complement" in his own concept. It is also a last resort. Ikari Gendo followed Ikari to join the ranks of gods one step later, and with this, he reversed the sacrifice of Ikari's principles for the sake of his mission, and finally made Ikari's plan complete. 【Endnote 7】

This is the most fundamental difference between the SEELE project and the Ikujigendo (and Ikuji) plan.

[The Longinus gun flew back from the moon's orbit, and landed on the silent No. 1 throat]

All SEELE: Let the EVA mass production machine return to its original appearance, and bring the true appearance of the gospel to human beings such as me. Through equal death and prayer, people will return to their true appearance.

Speaker Keir: This is also the rest of the soul. So, let’s start the ceremony ("Air/Sincere For You")

SEELE's "Human Completion Project" has a strong religious atonement. The individual form of human beings with the fruit of wisdom and the subsequent differences, barriers, injuries, etc., seem to them to be original sins and divine condemnation. Humans must atone for their sins at the cost of the death of their cherished individual lives in order to be reborn. SEELE's evolutionary vision is that all human beings can evolve by abandoning the sin/defect of individual form equally. It is forbidden for anyone to obtain an extraordinary status. For this reason, they plan to use the mass-produced machine driven by the puppet system to start the replenishment, so that it can directly control the replenishment, and avoid the human driver to start the replenishment and become a god. In the same way, they resolutely opposed Ikari's use of the first machine to devour the S2 mechanism to become a concretized god, and they also opposed Ikogentang's leadership and supplement to obtain the power of the gods.

"The tragedy of the EVA-ridden person"

If it is purely to achieve a few supplementary plans, the human parties in the play do not actually have to create such a deep tragedy on each other. But in the era of crisis between destruction/evolution, everyone indulges in their dominant emotions due to the apostles and EVA, as if this is the only basis for their existence in the floating world, they have lost the ability to empathize with others, and blindly hurt each other. . So we can often feel a huge contrast: at the moment when success or failure is tied to survival and the most need for careful planning, the character relies on inner impulse and almost hand over fate to chance. Perhaps this is how great hope and uncertainty bring people back to their original form, whether they are teenagers or leaders of supranational institutions.

The story of "EVA" is also progressing in two opposite and mutually complementary directions: as the plot deepens, the huge plan that determines the destiny of mankind-the plan to eliminate interpersonal barriers-is gradually unfolding, while the contradictions and gaps between the main characters are increasing day by day. , More and more self-enclosed. Whether it is the TV version or the old theater version, the climax of the film is the inner stream of consciousness drama. The audience is forced to adopt Shinji's perspective. As he sinks into the entanglement of interpersonal relationships and confusion of self-consciousness, it seems that the entire external world has retreated. It was Shinji's wish of "all people to die" that opened up the completion of the unity of all human beings. In the process of collapse, Shinji’s blow in the partnership with four peers became the last straws of the bend camel, and the adults with big plans behind them, under the influence of their own impulses, rely on manipulating and influencing these few. The situation of the teenagers competed, hurt, and betrayed each other, and the impact was transmitted to Shinji. The collapse of Shinji and the opening of the complement are the result of all these behaviors and motives being superimposed and entangled with each other, beyond the expectation and control of any party. Next, I will follow the process of Shinji's collapse and talk about the tragedies that these EVA-ridden people personally caused to others and themselves.

Akagi Ritsuko

What directly caused Shinji's self-consciousness in "Air/Sincere For You" was that SEELE controlled nine mass-production machines to assimilate with Rei-Lilith, and countless Aya Poli's heads were born from the cracks of the mass-produced machines. This unintentionally restores the horror scene of Shinji witnessing Ritsuko destroying the shell of Ayanami in the puppet system at the end of Chapter 23 of the TV version.

Rei II was replaced by Rei III to save Shinji and the uterus angel. In order to cover up the secret of Rei's avatar, Ikugendō asked Ritsuko to accept the SEELE interrogation on behalf of Rei. Ritsuko, who feels sincerely wronged, is determined to strike against Ikogendo and destroy the core of the puppet system that Rei depends on. [Endnote 8] At the same time, he will vent his jealousy towards Rei and Yui by hurting Shinji. When Misato threatened to reveal the secrets of Nerv headquarters, Ritsuko had already brought Shinji with him, and then not only uncovered the mystery of Rei's life experience, she even personally destroyed countless spare shells in the presence of Shinji. Just imagine how much impact this will have on Shinji, who has ambiguous feelings for Rei and his life-saving grace: Is the object of his fetters human? Does it make sense to the emotions it produces? Which one is the real Li? Or is there no real Li? What about the others? What about yourself? ...All these questions struck Shinji in an instant, impacting his existing knowledge and beliefs about himself, others, and the world. That's why Shinji at the beginning of "Air/For You" confided in Asuka's bed that "Ayanami is terrible". Ritsuko listened to the malice in her heart, and pushed Shinji to make up for the wish that "everyone die" eventually.

Ayanami

Such a breakthrough in common sense is not a torment to Li? The purpose of her birth and existence is only to complement the tools and the only substitutes. Not only that, because she can resurrect only by changing her body, she is even just a substitute for herself. Like any involuntary experimenter, she was thrown into an extremely isolated and unknown situation, and she had to try to understand a way of existence beyond normal people's imagination. "Although we have a lot of people, we can only be alone. It's uncomfortable, isn't it? Isn't that called... loneliness?" (Episode 23).

Ikogentang's way of cultivating Li is not only useless, but also the culprit. He may extend Li's feelings to Wei, but as analyzed above, that kind of emotion is not so much love as it is a possessive desire mixed with hurting self-esteem. Li is only satisfied with his ambition and this possessive desire. means. If he hadn't shown much affection for Rei, Rei would not cherish the pair of glasses that broke and melted when he rescued himself from the plug despite the high temperature (Episode 5), nor would he care about herself when Shinji was equally eager to open the plug. Smile and awaken self-consciousness in times of safety (Episode 6). Li has always had the potential for self-consciousness to awaken. At the moment Li was born, Ikogentang planted a seed that would eventually penetrate him and make up for the plan. It was not until the betrayal by Rei and the start of the completion that he was finally able to confess the same debt he owed to Shinji.

Nagisa Kaoru

Just as Rei's life experience caused Shinji's worldview and interpersonal relationship to begin to fall apart, and Asuka, whose dignity was wiped out in battle, lost the will to survive, SEELE sent Nerv the fifth qualified person, the last apostle Nagisa Kaoru. Kaoru arrived at this moment, not only to replace Asuka as the pilot of the No. 2 plane, but also to fill the gap in Shinji's heart-he was torn even more as soon as he was filled in. The committee can't wait to eliminate the last apostle, and put the completion in the hands of mankind. The coincidence of this time cannot help but arouse Misato’s suspicion. She has been blessed with the intelligence to prove it: The Marduk agency that selects the driver is nothing but the white gloves of SEELE and Nerv, and the fate of several young drivers is playing tricks. The hands of these two organizations.

Nagisa Kaoru's short story line is the most difficult part of "EVA". In order to make the fall of Shinji and the completion of the advancement interlocked, the film deliberately designed a segment where Shinji and the last apostle fell in love and killed each other. But the theme is consistent: all of Nagisa Kaoru's encounters in Nerv are in the calculations of SEELE and Ikogendo. SEELE displayed the image of a group of devout believers in front of Zhuxun. They expressed their deep feeling that human beings (especially the opponent Ikogendo) had sins in creating blasphemy and took the initiative to take the evolutionary path back to the legitimate heirs of God for atonement. Even if only. To this end, they have to send Kaoru directly to Nerv to contact the "Adam" in the final dogma (actually Lilith—SEELE and Ikogendo have teamed up to deceive the apostle), triggering the third impact. [Endnote 9] Nagisa Kaoru was too gullible about this pious, selfless and pathetic disguise, so he sighed, "Humanity's hope is dotted with sorrow" (Episode 24), and accepted SEELE's arrangement. In fact, SEELE's desire to cut off Ikogendo's plan to create a god and wash away human sins is true, but she does not want to rely on Kaoru at all, but wants to realize her own "human completion plan." 【Endnote 10】

Even if he comes to Nerv, Kaoru does not have to contact Shinji at all, and his relationship does not heat up quickly. If there is no bondage, Kaoru, who realizes that he has been deceived, may not be willing to die at Shinji's hands, giving the chance of survival and evolution to the race of people he likes. Instead of killing Kaoru who just fell in love with his own hands, Shinji may not be tired of the world and start to make up. Regardless of whether the development of the plot is natural or not, considering that Ikari Gendo has learned and acquiesced to the contact with Kaoru and Rei, he may also have mastered the relationship between Kaoru and Shinji. If so, after Kaoru was judged as an apostle, he chose Shinji to intercept Kaoru and Unit 2 after he was judged to be an apostle. It was obviously intentional. This is not the first time such a thing has happened. Episode 18 Shinji refuses to fight back because he doesn’t want to hurt the pilot on the third plane. Ikogen Gendo cuts off Shinji’s connection, switches to the puppet system, and allows the first plane carrying Shinji to dismember the third plane until it’s pinched. Suzubara Fuyuji's insertion bolts were loaded without stopping. It can be suspected that the victory of the puppet system made Shinji lose its usefulness (Shinji did decide to leave Nerv afterwards), and Ikugendō was finally able to torture Shinji and vent his jealousy without hesitation. Unexpectedly, this triumphant act of self-confidence, angered the only angel in the first machine, refused to connect with the puppet system when the angel attacked, and almost killed Ikogentang's plan (Episode 19).

Katsuragi Misato

After being forced to kill Kaoru personally by the survival of mankind, Shinji opened his heart to Misato like never before-after losing Rei and Kaoru one after another, and Asuka became the living dead, only Misato could confess. But Misato denied Shinji's feelings: "No, the one who should live should be someone with the will to survive... Shinji, you are not wrong." Throughout the entire film of Misato's actions and introspection, the impulse that dominates her is nothing more than that of the apostle. The revenge of killing her father and the will to survive (she is the only survivor of the second attack on the Central Antarctic Katsuragi scientific expedition). Since the second impact that killed her father was a premeditated fusion event, all the completion of the unity of all lives in her view only meant death, as was the completion of the apostle’s contact with Adam. SEELE's artificially initiated replenishment is even more an absurd drama in which human beings take the initiative to give up the will to survive. When Nagisa took control of the EVA2 plane to break into the final dogma, she had already made up her mind to detonate the base and burn the jade and stone (unsuccessful). Now the rest of her life, the greatly aroused feud and desire to live have completely occupied her heart, and it is no longer possible for her to empathize with Shinji. After this encounter, Shinji, the opening scene of "Air/I'm For You", desperately fled to the unconscious Asuka, confided that "Ms. Misato and Ayanami are terrible", and couldn't help but vent to Asuka's naked masturbation. , Self-abuse reached its peak, and lost all the will to act.

But it was also Misato. At the moment when the No. 2 machine was tortured by the mass-produced machine but still could not arouse Shinji's fighting spirit, she used all means to emotionally intimidate Shinji.

Out of her private vengeance against the "Human Replenishment Project", she pushed Shinji on the path of no return to launching the replenishment. It has to be said that it was an irony of fate. In her own words, this is "the tragedy of the EVA-ridden person."

Ikari

Shinji, who came to the apron of the first aircraft, did not immediately board. It was the first machine-it's better to say that the indisputable Ikyuu's short runaway shook Shinji and gave him the spur to fight. The only time it appears, it is always the image of a loving mother, even the Virgin, who protects the child. But isn't she responsible for Shinji's fate? She was absent for most of her son's life, which is very much like Asuka's mother. [Endnote 11]

She is adept at implementing the plan alone, which aroused her husband’s competitive mentality, and directly gave birth to the "Human Completion Project" with Shinji as a key tool; in the first machine, she exposed her son to perennial domestic violence. Only come forward when his life is dying. But I don't want to criticize the mother of personal heroism. In this world where even human survival is at stake, she still has a more important mission to accomplish, and the accomplishment of this mission also affects her son’s personal fate: “Everything is arranged in accordance with fate, and I am here in SEELE for this reason. Ah, this is also for Shinji" (Episode 21). Moreover, in the face of a supranational spy agency like SEELE, her personal power is too small to defiant face to face, she can only dissolve in the first aircraft and lurking for more than ten years, waiting for the critical opportunity to subvert SEELE’s "human complement plan" and save mankind. Also rescued his son from the dead.

Why, after experiencing all the indifferent refusal, manipulation, venting attacks, and cruel choices up to Chapter 24, Shinji will choose reality in the third impact and terminate it? What role did it play in this? These questions are left to the next answer.

Endnote

【1】

Ritsuko: "[EVA] is not the same as a simple copy of [Adam], in which human will is also instilled." (Episode 20)

Ritsuko: "The soulless EVA hosts the souls of human beings and is the product of soul salvation." (Episode 23)

[2] Machine Zero and Li seem to be an exception. The zero machine does not have a soul melted in advance, the artificial Rei has no mother, and Shinji and Rei can exchange units (Episode 14). Chapter 14 actually implies the answer. Just as Li is the only physical copy, the zero machine also copied the individual model of the first machine. Because it is a copy, Shinji can synchronize with the zero machine, but the synchronization rate is not as high as that of the first machine. That is to say, Lihe No. 0 machine itself is the core of the Dummy (generally translated as "puppet", meaning "fake") System which was later loaded on the No. 1 machine. The synchronization between Li Neng and Unit Zero and Unit One may be due to some kind of tune between Wei's soul (or individual mode duplication) and body. Unit 2 did not participate in the body swap because it has no ontology-replication relationship with the other two units (see Miri’s mental activities in the body swap experiment).

The harmony between the body and the replica also plays another very key role in the whole film of "EVA": it explains why the first unit and not the other EVA units are "human beings" whose purpose is to return to Lilith. The key to making up the plan. The sporadic details in the film suggest that the EVA units are manufactured in different ways. Unit 0, Unit 2 and later units are all Adam replicas, while Unit 1 is a copy of Lilith (the ancestor of humans). Therefore, it makes sense that only the first issue function can be started and completed.

Akagi Naoko: Yes, this is something made by humans using Adam, called EVA

Winter Moon: EVA...

Ikogendo: Our Adam Rebirth Project, the prototype machine EVA zero machine commonly known as Project E (Episode 21)

Nagisa Kaoru said to Unit 2: Let’s go, come, Adam’s clone, Lilin’s servant (Episode 24)

Speaker SEELE Kiel: The agreed time has come. At the moment of losing the gun of Longinus, it is no longer possible to make up through Lilith. The only way to fulfill the wish ("Air /Sincerely for you")

【3】

[At the beginning of the completion] Winter Moon: "The origin of human life, Lilith’s egg-Black Moon. Now that we can no longer hope to return to its shell. But it also depends on Lilith’s choice. "("Air/Sincere For You").

Fuyuki: "The future has been handed over to Ikura's son." (Ibid.)

【4】

[Misato carried Shinji on the way to the apron of the first plane]

Misato: The second shock 15 years ago was also planned by humans, but it was a means of reducing damage to a minimum by reducing Adam to an egg before the other apostles awakened ("Air/True Heart" you")

Soon after the discovery of Adam in Antarctica in 2000, the human scientific expedition team secretly tried to fuse human DNA with Adam. Unexpectedly, Adam was accidentally awakened and the catastrophe of the second impact was triggered (Episode 21). If, as Miri said, the Adam human contact test was only to control Adam himself and prevent the third impact ten years later, then the vast majority of people would sacrifice their lives without knowing it. This is a secret plan. Compared with the third impact, which is closer to a natural disaster, it’s hard to say which one is more cruel. Judging from the incident, we have every reason to believe that the Adam human contact experiment is also the initial exploration of artificial evolution into a god, and is the precursor of a more complex and longer-term "human completion project." Similar to the third shock in "Air/True Heart For You", the second shock is also based on "metaphysical biology". Both shocks broke through the separation between man and god—that is, the wall of individual consciousness and heart—and resulted in fusion. The difference is that on the physical level, the former uses the Langinus gun with the ability to repel the heart to forcefully open the wall of Adam's heart and inject human DNA into it, while the activation condition of the latter is the voluntary fusion of man and god. Therefore, the second shock is exactly the "wonder" (chapter 23) that humans "want to approve of God" in the words of Ritsuzi-more appropriately, a man-made disaster.

[5] The TV version released in 1995 has its own ending, that is, the 25th and 26th chapters of the stream of consciousness are used extensively. Two old theatrical versions were released two years later, "Dead and Newborn" and "Air/True For You". The former is a re-editing of the first 24 episodes of the TV version, and the latter is based on the new episode 25 ("Air"), Chapter 26 ("True For You") presents another ending of "EVA". The online legend is that the TV version's ending caused dissatisfaction with the audience, and the director Hideaki Anno rewrote the ending under pressure. The sequel to this article will focus on analyzing the two endings of "EVA".

【6】

Ritsuko: She... really wakes up (Episode 19)

[The roaring roar of the first machine running away]

Fuyutsuki: It's started

Ikogendo: Ah, everything starts now (Episode 19)

[Subtitle: Back to 2015]

SEELE internal dialogue: self-carrying S2 mechanism

Become absolute

Evangelion first machine

We don't need to be embodied gods

Can't Create God (Episode 21)

[7] But it was at this point that the Ikogentang plan exposed a big loophole. Doesn't it violate the will to live as an individual by "abandoning unnecessary bodies and let all souls...come into one" to see Wei? It is not impossible to insist that this loophole be rounded up. We can guess that the completion of the integration of all souls is just a means to make Ikogentang a god. As mentioned in the first section, the completion process is determined by the will of the person who is in the key position of the completion, and there is no limit to this person's will (Shinji even reversed the completion). Once Ikujigendo becomes a god, Ikyui can restore his individual form, just like Shinji in "Air/True Heart For You", and delegate the power to decide whether to merge or not to everyone else. After all, Ikogentang’s care is extremely self and narrow. Apart from being the only proof of human existence, he is not obsessed with determining the fate of other people like SEELE. As mentioned above, as long as one or two human individuals bear the burden of eternity, the human group will be eternal to a certain extent. Other lives grow and die as usual, without affecting the fact that human beings have been made up.

[8] In order to force Iakigentang to implement the plan as soon as possible. Li's body in "Air/True For You" has begun to collapse.

【9】

SEELE: But our hope has already materialized

That is the successor of the forgery, we humans from the Black Moon, whose ancestor is Lilith

There is also the orthodox heir, the apostle from the Lost White Moon, whose ancestor was Adam

Only in you is the saved soul

However, the regenerated body is already in Ikura’s body

Nagisa Kaoru: Shinji's father, he is the same as me, right?

SEELE: That’s why we pin our wish on you

Nagisa Kaoru: I see...for this I am here. Everything is as Lilin planned (Episode 24)

【10】

SEELE internal dialogue: human beings forget their own stupidity and make the same mistakes repeatedly

If you don’t take the initiative to atone for your sins, mankind will not change

We do not rely on the power of Adam or the apostles

Change the future with only our own hands

We look forward to using the first phone to carry out the plan to the end (Episode 24)

【11】

[Xiao Asuka looks at her mother holding a doll on the hospital bed through the window]

Female voice: It’s like that every day, talking with a doll as a daughter

Male voice (Daddy Asuka?): Maybe she feels responsible, right? I usually only do research every day, and I don’t have time to pay attention to my daughter.

Female voice: I can appreciate your feelings as a husband (Episode 22)

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