REPOST - Controversial Neon Genesis: Evangelion Theories - posted by -<>-ShipPagan-<>-

This has been reposted, since I know there are many anime and Eva fans here at USM, and this just slipped away in the flood of tiny posts.

(From the IJC Anime List, sent by [email protected])

Warning, several Controversial Theories & Spoilers - this is NOT intended as Troll-bait or Flame-war material, but just some observations & musings...

As to taking 'Official Information' on NGE at face value...

Scene inside the HQ of a certain Animation Studio.. An EB (Evil B*****D) with a 'Honest Abe Lincoln' beard is telling a certain AD (Anime Director) exactly what the AD can & CANNOT state in explicit terms about a certain show the Animation Studio is working on...

The EB is sitting in a plush office chair... The AD is hanging upside down by his ankles (courtesy of two of the EB's Private Guards) out of an open window twenty stories above the street...

The EB suddenly spoke with slightly embarrassed & apologetic tones in his voice, "I regret the course of action you have forced me to take... But, I think it best if we don't tell the fans... every... little detail about the show... The semi-mystery will only help sales. To start with, if anyone should ask, yes, I *AM* an unbelievably well-endowed Chick Magnet... Although I only go for Women with Brilliant Minds & Major Hooters..."

S P O I L E R

S P A C E !

T H E

F I N A L

W A R N I N G !

Theory#1 Rei's Real Age/Creation Date?

In the ORIGINAL TV series, Gendo advised Fuyutsuki that Gendo had married Yui & had a son with her, & gives Professor F a card - on which is the image of a small blue haired cherub... Blue-Haired... Winged-Angel-Type-Cherub? O_O; Significant or what? Especially since Rei's 'Official Birthday', at least according to Gainax, is months before Shinji's!

Theory#2 What about the Official comment that 'Gendo created Rei'?

Well, remember when Gendo interrogated Ritsuko about why she destroyed the 'Dummy Plug Project'? Ritsuko answered with, 'It wasn't the Dummy Plug I destroyed - It was REI!' This tends to indicate that Gendo does not see the Tank Clones as 'Rei', but only sees 'Rei' as being the Clone that's NOT in the tank, but is running around 'being' Rei.

So, could 'Gendo creating Rei', mean the creation of the fictitious female CHARACTER known as 'Ayanami Rei', a character that a series of Clones would impersonate, & NOT the creation of the actual Clones themselves?

Theory#3 What about the 'remains' used by Gendo in the creation of 'Rei'?

Hm... If Yui was absorbed & reduced to soup like Shinji was, then there was NO body to speak of, & only a chemical soup that could NOT be identified as belonging to any specific terrestrial species, let alone DNA capable of being indexed to a particular person. Remember, it was 'Primordial Soup', & had no more discernible relation to a person, than a tree in a forest has to a modern timber-framed home... Actually, even less than that... The trees & the timber in the house are at least identifiable as wood of a particular species...

However! Could the comment refer to Yui's genetic material already contained in the Clones, or some sort of 'Mental' or other 'Personality Booster' derived from RNA encoded pieces of memory in the soup Yui became, or even reverse-downloads of data from the Core of Unit 1? Tip the vat of Yui-Goop into the Clone Tank, let everything simmer for as the Clones absorb Yui's Humanity via electronic osmosis, & Hey Presto! Instant Personality!

Remember, that in Japanese, 'Gendo created Rei', can also mean that Gendo created ONE Rei, or that Gendo created MANY Rei... There is a subtle cultural difference when it comes to plurals of a thing...

Theory#4 So who DID create the Rei Clones? Long theory... Please bear with me...

Well... Naoko & Ritsuko are both Genius scientists with multiple College Degrees, or 'Polymath's... Asuka is an intellectual child prodigy, having graduated College at age 14... Since it is canon that there are already 3 Geniuses in the show, could it be that Yui was ALSO a genius of the same calibre? A genius eagerly recruited by SEELE for her latent talents?

Remember, Yui was employed by SEELE before she met Gendo... If so, & IF Yui was another 'child genius', then she could have created the Rei Clones sometime in her teenage years as part of her VITAL research into how to create an Evangelion!

It would also make more sense from a 'Bio Ethics' point of view - if Yui used her own DNA in making the Clones, she wouldn't need permission from the DNA donor, & there would be less chance of things boiling over when the subject of 'destructive testing' came up...

And if you think researchers wouldn't use living/conscious genetic constructs based on their own DNA... Certain 'Super-powers' used new born human babies & the Mentally Disabled in A-Bomb tests... And yes, some of the 'test animals' were still alive when the tests began...

Theory#5 But why create the Rei Clones?

Well, to put it mildly, Guinea Pigs!

Remember the size of all those 'Dead' EVA's in the graveyard? Why go to the trouble of building a 1:1 large scale model when a small scale model will do the job just as well, with a FRACTION of the cost & handling hassles? Hey! Engineers do it ALL THE TIME for wind tunnel tests & Natural Disaster resistance tests on skyscrapers & bridges!

Theory#6 Who or what is really inside Unit 0? Warning! LONG piece follows...

Well... When Shinji tried to pilot Unit 0, it rejected him & went berserk, but just before it did, something tried to get into Shinji's mind from Unit 0...

Remember? It was Rei...

But what does that mean?

The Cores of the EVA's can hold data derived from a specific person - witness the comments about 'rewriting the data' in the series. But what exactly does that mean, & does the data storage mechanism have a similar 'ghosting effect' to that of a Hard Disk? That is, can it still retain 'info' from earlier data sets, unless it's been 'written over'? Presumably, Unit 0 was 'rewritten' for Shinji, so the vision of 'Rei' was something that COULDN'T be rewritten, like the soul?

We know that Unit 1 'absorbed' Yui, & that Unit 2 'partially absorbed' Asuka's mother... but... the absorption ratio's were different... Unit 1 'totally' absorbed Yui, & evidently thinks of Shinji as her/its child - that's why it goes berserk protecting him, & moves of its OWN volition to protect him. Presumably that's why it was also able to rebuild Shinji when he was absorbed, because Unit 1 absorbed Yui's subconscious memories of being pregnant with Shinji, & of 'building' him during pregnancy/gestation.

Asuka finds her mother in Unit 1 in EOE, & it appears that Unit 2 starts to act as Unit 1 could, beginning to move after power had run out, etc. That's just before the White EVA's do an Evangelion sized bit of 'Ultra-Violence'. A scene I suspect may be a subtle homage to 'A Clockwork Orange', a book that had Classical music as a central plot device, & was also a movie done by Stanley Kubrick, the man who did '2001: A Space Odyssey'.

But Unit 0... Unit 0 was a prototype... And it had Rei's memories in it...

Here's a question... How far removed is Rei from the Evangelions? Especially since Rei, like Kaworu, is composed of the same unearthly material? Could the EVA's just be 'deliberately retarded' versions of what Rei & Kaworu are/could be? That is, Rei & Kaworu are the true 'production models', with the EVA's just being rough sketches, or models that have 'incomplete' options for testing & safety purposes?

Think about this! How far removed is Rei as a person, from the encoded personality in the Dummy Plug?

As Gendo once said, if the Evangelion thinks it has a pilot it will move... Admittedly, this was true of Unit 1, but ONLY when Shinji was inside. Even then it could be argued that the 'Yui Essence' was ONLY TOO HAPPY to let an ersatz Rei essence tell it to trash the thing attacking Shinji.

If you don't NEED a living pilot, do you still need any sort of 'Living Soul' to animate an EVA? What of the seeming consciousness in the 'Soul-less' Clones in the Dummy Plug Lab, the scene where Shinji speaks Rei's name, & all of the Clones 'wake up' & smile at Shinji? Does 'Rei' move because her subconscious mind thinks she has a 'soul' inside of her? Even if the soul is not her own? Could the 'soul' she have, be just another type of 'Dummy Plug'? One that's designed for a Human sized body?

Here's the actual theory, sorry it took so long to lay the groundwork...

The system of Dummy plug based on Rei's digitised personality, is a refined version of the situation between an EVA & its pilot... BUT! Rei herself is just another form of Dummy Plug, one that has the memory of an artificial soul loaded into her living body, rather than the data of a living body loaded into the Hard Disk drives of the Dummy Plug unit.

Proof? Only theory I'm afraid, but please consider...

Kaworu was able to commandeer Unit 2 at a moment's notice, because the 'soul' (subconscious mind ?) in Unit 2 was 'hiding'... But what if there was NO 'soul' to begin with in the EVA? Could he still have 'commandeered' Unit 2? Or, would HE have been absorbed on attempting to synchronmise with it?

For that matter, since the 'soul' in Unit 2 was hiding, can we presume that Kaworu had NO help whatsoever from it? Or, can we assume that he DID have some help, in that everything needed to animate Unit 2 didn't HAVE to come from him? That is, when a pilot synchronises with an EVA, they partially merge their own consciousness with it. The initial pilots of units 1 & 2 did more than merge their consciousness, they 'merged' themselves with the EVA to 'jump-start' it, using their OWN souls, & were absorbed.

Remember, Yui was totally absorbed, while Asuka's mom was only PARTLY absorbed... Asuka's mother was driven mad by the process of 'sharing her soul' with the EVA... But Rei was DESIGNED to 'share her soul', to just what extent we do not know for sure, but certainly with her sister Clones at any rate, just as she 'shared' her memories with them on a regular basis via Memory Download in the Dummy Plug Lab... And the Tank Clones DID respond ON THEIR OWN TO SHINJI! Indicating that the Tank Clones had some sort, or some PART of a soul in them...

So, IF a soul can be shared between different beings, as it was with Unit 2 & Asuka's mom - could that also explain the reaction of the Tank Clones, Unit 0 & Rei's personality? Rei didn't go insane from sharing her soul, but her mind, her 'willpower' was sort of 'fragmented' by it? As the number of beings that 'shared' Rei's artificial soul were reduced, the concentration in each 'vessel' increased, until the last Rei Clone became totally coherent, & a real person...

Is that why Shinji saw 'Rei' inside Unit 0? Because Rei had 'jump-started' an empty husk with her own memories & artificial soul, & in doing so, had HAD to leave 'parts' of herself in the EVA, like Yui & Asuka's mother had done with their EVAs? That is, 'echoes' or some other sort of psychic residue were left inside Unit 0 as a 'primer mixture' for the next synchronisation attempt?

Could that be why Unit 0 had such low ratios, & why it took Rei so many months to learn to control it? THERE WAS NO-ONE INSIDE UNIT 0 TO START WITH, SO REI HAD TO START FROM SCRATCH!

Theory#7 So why would Unit 0 go berserk?

From the above, Unit 0 has a void, a vacuum within that needs to be filled with the fullness of experience that a Human soul holds... It WANTS more soul... BUT! Rei won't relinquish any more soul to it... And there's enough of 'Rei' in Unit 0, enough of her "You won't die... I will protect you..." mentality towards Shinji to prevent Unit 0 from trying to absorb Shinji!

Both times Unit 0 went berserk, it was in a fit of frustration. Unit 0 went berserk, because Rei WOULDN'T let it have any more of her soul, & because the 'part' of Rei inside Unit 0 WOULDN'T try to harm Shinji by attempting to take his soul...

This might explain why the 'pattern' between Unit 0 & 1 are similar enough for Shinji to try & pilot Unit 0, & why Rei can pilot Unit 1. If the Clone that became 'Rei' had originally been 'programmed' or otherwise had her 'personality' jump-started by a download of data held in Unit 1's core, then she could pass a similar looking 'download' onto Unit 0.

This could also explain why they wouldn't let Asuka pilot Unit 0...

Unit 0: "Wha-Hey! I've got a Pilot & it's NOT Rei or Shinji! Yummo! Dinnertime!"

Unrelated question... If an EVA falls over in the forest & there's no Pilot synchronising with it, does it still feel pain?

Well, that's about all from me... If anyone wants to know how I'd see some of the above things being incorporated into the background of NGE as unseen 'behind the scenes' stories, I'll be happy to abuse you with a poorly written Parody Fan Fiction I've done...

Warning, it's got Changed names, OOC, AU, ACC, SI, Character-bashing, Poor Grammar, & EVEN WORSE in the Omakes...

Show all stories by   Author:  19382 ( Click here )