[EVA] Gendou - man or monster?

[RJN]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rachel K. Clark" <rachel.k.clark at comcast.net>
To: "The english-language evangelion mailing list." 
<evangelion at yuki.onegeek.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 9:02 PM
Subject: Re: [EVA] Gendou - man or monster?


> RJN wrote:
>
>> I think Yui has redeemable aspects & believe her nature was not evil, 
>> just misguided.
>
> There is a lot of ambiguity to her character and her actions, and I think 
> that makes her very intriguing. It's difficult to judge her in a very 
> "decisive" manner, IMO, because of the lack of information and the 
> convoluted nature of the back-story. Certainly, I think the way she is 
> often simplified into a "bitch", or along those lines, is a mistake, and 
> fails to take much into consideration.
>
> If there's any action of hers that I particularly wonder about, it's the 
> decision to have a child. Depending on what her "future plans" looked like 
> at the time, she may have had every intention of being around for Shinji, 
> and the contact experiment was something she was effectively forced into 
> due to being blacklisted by Seele. (Better to be around in the Eva than 
> not at all.) Gendo could not be informed about this, since he was on 
> Seele's good side, etc., and this would complicate the issue of ensuring 
> that Shinji would be taken care of in her "absence"... But, then, it would 
> probably be considered irresponsible for a woman involved in something as 
> dangerous as countermeasures against Seele to ever become a mother in the 
> first place.
>
> Or things may have been even more complicated than this, and she may have 
> had a good, albeit controversial, reason to mother a child. Very hard to 
> say.

@Remembering the Death & DC scenes, with her chat with Fututuski, Yui seems 
to have been drafted, based on a decision made & undisclosed by SEELE.  Yui 
said she was doing it to save Shinji & (IIRC) Gendou.  SEELE killed people 
who disobeyed, and their families.  I believe Yui feared that her family 
would be killed if she resisted, & that the only way she could look after 
them was through Eva 01.  She must have told Gendou some version to have him 
loathe SEELE's "old men" as he did, & know so fervently that Yui's soul was 
alive in 01.
>
> > It is a shame that Gendou's background is not peered into, even briefly.
>
> Quite. I doubt it was anything especially pleasant, whatever the case.
>
>> If there is a single endearing thing about him, its his concern for Rei. 
>> His "rescue" from 00s tube, shows there is warmth deep there.  His 
>> smileof happy relief seeing Rei was OK, & expression talking to her, 
>> shows he has feelings.  Those were not just man & lab rat relations.
>
> The rare moments when he lets his protective barrier down?

@Exposes his core :)
>
>> I believe that Gendou wanted a daughter & not a son. Yui wanted either, 
>> but Gendou hoped for a daughter.  Also probably Rei reminds him of Yui, & 
>> also how Yui might have looked as a child.  Shinji might remind him of 
>> how he was, & Gendou's self-dislike might extend to disliking Shinji for 
>> that reason.
>
> Interesting. I'm not sure that Gendo *dislikes* Shinji per se, even though 
> his superficial behavior isn't very friendly. At the very least, Shinji 
> might create enough discomfort, for the reason you posit, to influence 
> Gendo's 'decision' to physically and emotionally distance himself.

I think Gendou cares more for females than males.  He worships Yui, his 
goddess of science, changed his family name to hers don't forget.  He had 
Naoko & then Ritsuko as lovers.  He was instrumental in keeping Rei, as a 
child, alive & "repaired", rather than switching exclusively to dummy plugs. 
She is also the key to Lilith, but that doesn't require friendship, such as 
it was.  Rei II might have let Gendou follow her into Lilith in EoE.  Rei 
III was a stranger.
>
>> Misato had a similar problem trying not to be like her mother IMO, so her 
>> father would not reject her.  Perhaps a reason she went along on the 
>> Katsuragi expedition that led to 2I.
>
> Given her sour relationship with Daddy, I suspect he's the one who dragged 
> her down to Antarctica. The idea of Misato somehow wanting to be at a 
> miserable place like a shady research base at the butt-bottom of the world 
> where the stuff that has so heavily "distracted" her father (Science^TM) 
> is constantly rubbed into her face sounds a little dubious.

Misato told Shinji that her mother had breakdowns & cried a lot.  Maybe as a 
child she was running away from her mother's situation, so went with her 
father....
>
> Of course, the show and every single source remotely connected to it DO 
> leave the matter frustratingly untouched-upon...
>
>> Of course she's not 100% fooling herself really - I liked the 
>> introspective speech added for Rebuild

@After Shinji had gone for his bath, following her "toothpick" scene tease. 
Misato wondered to herself if she was acting too obviously superficial to 
let Shinji see through her act.
RJN