Evangelion Series Synopses
Episodes 25-26
Episodes 1-8 | Episodes 9-16 | Episodes 17-24 | Episodes 25-26 | Death/Rebirth and End of Evangelion
Episode 25: Ending World | Do You Love Me?
Shinji seems to be engaged in some sort of psychological interrogation, starting with why he killed Kaworu. He responds with various reasons, but it boils down to his own fear, which stemmed from the worthlessness he felt since his father's desertion. Shinji can't deal with others hating him like his father did, so he pilots Evangelion to feel needed and give him a reason to live. Asuka appears to tell him that he pilots for praise from others, and it's for his own edification. But Rei encounters her, telling her she does the same. With her self-confidence gone, she finds that she places her own value in her ability to pilot EVA when others depend on her. When Rei tells Asuka she feels that she'd lose her identity without EVA, Asuka turns the tables on her, calling her a mindless doll.
Rei confronts her own being; discovering that, despite being who she is, she is constituted of a "fake body and a false soul" for the use of Gendo Ikari. But more than this, she's composed of something that may not be human, and that she suppresses it for fear that she'll cease to be. She says she's happy with her existance, always having known that Gendo will discard her when he's done, knowing she'll return to nothingness, but now she fears that time. It is here that Gendo arrives to collect Rei, as today "is the day for which you were created." It is here that the Human Instrumentality project occurs, and it takes place.
Shinji feels as if his body is disappearing and his consciousness spreading over all existance; but he says it feels nice. This is the beginning of Instrumentality, where all human minds rush together to fill the voids in each others' souls. However, instead of disappearing into nothingness, it is revealed by Gendo as a return to the initial state of beginning, with all minds and souls in one form. Ritsuko and Misato discuss Instrumentality, with Ritsuko saying that mankind has always known the incompleteness in his own soul, and that all his accomplishments were to try to fill it. When Misato condemns Ritsuko's motivation for coordinating Instrumentality as being false as their friendship, Ritsuko tells her that's just how she herself wanted it.
Misato comes under the scrutiny of her own mind, with the personalities of those she knew presiding (infamous "this is the me which exists in your mind" lines go here). She realizes how she desired to be a good child so her father wouldn't hate her and so as not to burden her mother, and also to keep others from hating her. However, she figures out how this was all a front, when she wanted to really be bad to spite her father. But when Kaji was brought up, she denied using him for her own satisfaction, saying she loved him because he took her for what she was. But, when Shinji was seeing a memory of her and Kaji making love, she didn't want him to see her like that. She realizes that she used Kaji as a conduit to receive love from her father, but upon realizing their similarities ran away. But Kaji appears to tell her that just because she hates herself that she needn't torture herself for it. Her whole psychology is based on her father abandoning her and her mother as a child, and that she is a miserable person because she can't face the reality of her situation. But while she wants to be alone after the abandonment of her father and alienation/suicide of her mother, she still longs for that closeness with her mother. The root of her insecurity being her mother's death, she doesn't want to die and disappear, and because she never perceived anyone staying or caring for her she hates everyone. While she wants to be independent, she hates having to be that way.
In the final analysis, Shinji says, "don't leave me," Misato says, "don't ignore me," and Asuka says, "don't kill me." From here on, it is learned that the world Shinji now is in is defined by him, and that the only people allowed in there are the impressions of people he brought in with his mind. In his own world, Shinji wished for the total destruction and no one else saved with him, and that this closed world he desired to protect him has now become his reality. More to come in the following episode.
Episode 26: The Beast that Shouted "I" At the World | Take Care of Yourself.
In the year 2016, Instrumentality is taking place. However, for the sake of time considerations the emphasis is placed on Shinji's complementation process. Due to his fears of failure, hatred of others, and acknowledgement of his own weaknesses; he feels worthy of disappearing. But everyone has these problems as well, which is why the complementation process is even taking place. Despite being individuals, humans can't exist in loneliness, and this is why life is difficult and why this desire to become one again manifests. We all must exist with others in some fashion.
Why do we exist? One's fear of pain drives them to run away in search of happiness, but this may result in a more painful situation, and since we already know the first pain we can better endure it. The one who runs away from pain loses the respect of others because of this, but while he runs away from others Shinji low self esteem drives him to seek the help of others although they have their own issues to deal with. He finds self worth through the praise of others by piloting EVA, and his whole identity and purpose becomes wrapped up with his EVA since he still finds no self worth outside being a pilot. His self-hatred is what fuels his assumption that everyone else hates him as well, and he believes that people are nice to and like him only because he is an EVA pilot. Asuka reminds him that losing his EVA, as she did, will cause him to lose all the worth he places on himself and the rest of what makes him Shinji will fade away into nothingness.
Shinji, Rei, and Asuka comment on things which they hate but shouldn't, and basically show how they all yearn for closeness while at the same time fearing the hatred of others and the loss of their identity. Wanting a dissolution of anxiety and erasure of loneliness, their insecurities all stem from their lack of perceived self-value and worth for attention, but Shinji is told that he must find his own value from and for his own Self. When EVA is taken away, the shape, name and belongings/surroundings of a person all point toward that person, and while they do not make up himself they do describe himself. One's own interpretation of Self isn't so different as that of others, as everything around the person helps compose the Self. Since nobody can truly understand others, they have to take care of themselves. But if one can't understand himself, how can he love himself? Since all that surrounds a person and helps make them what he is is unstable, temporary, and ever-changing ("with time comes change" -- revisit homeostatis vs. transiostasis dialog of ep. 15); the core of oneself is what actually constitutes the Self.
Shinji's consciousness is introduced to a completely free world with no obstacles or other people; but with no self image, no others, and no boundaries to orient himself, he is confused since there is no obvious path to take. However, when given a constraint (gravity and a floor), while he loses a measure of freedom he is more at ease when all he has to do is walk about. Anything is possible in his own world, within the walls he erected to separate himself from others. Now that he has the option to view himself from all perspectives, he learns how he can reinvent his Self by changing his viewpoints and that which composes his world, thus shaping his reality. But his reality presently has no one to interact with, which will eventually throw ambiguity on his own presence and fade himself away. Without others he can not see his own individuality or anything to distinguish himself, since his self image is formed by his observations of the barrier set before other people.
It is here that Shinji is shown a possible reality he can craft: living in his old room, Asuka comes into the scene as his "oldest childhood friend," Yui and Gendo Ikari are shown in a stereotypical 50's morning in the kitchen, Rei is the new girl in school, and Misato is their teacher (BTW, these are also some of the most fun scenes to watch in the whole series). After seeing how his Self can be seen without EVA, he realizes that he can change his Self to whatever he wants, and that his world isn't so bad even if he still hates himself. However, it's his mind which separates that which is bad and hateful, reality and truth, and his viewpoints on these things can change. Everyone will see their own valid truth based on how they choose to look at it. Reality is judged through the perceptions of the truths of others, and despite some common truths they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive (sunny days make you happy; rainy days make you sad; but you can still have fun on a rainy day).
Since truths are fragile, they can change based on how they are observed (Schroedinger's cat experiment comes to mind). Many who ignore the simple truths in favor of searching out deeper ones, as Shinji does when he, unused to being liked, avoids dealing with his fears of others hating him. His notion that everyone hates him is all his own perception. It is here that he decided that regardless of his opinions of himself, he can still take care of himself, and thus learn to love himself, find his own value in life, and live in this world of Complementation. Following this breakthrough, the entire cast appears before him, offering their congratulations.
The End...or so we once thought....
NOTE TO THE READER: the final two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion chronicle the psychological effects of the Human Instrumentality Project. There is very little story advancement, and what occurs instead is the writer/director's personal views on what the series' plotline worked toward. The predominant point of the last two episodes is how Instrumentality affected the psychology of humanity, using Shinji as an example. Here, we see how all the experiences of the cast hinge on their personal self-worth and how well they learn to take care of themselves. However, given that the whole point of complementation was to eliminate these problems, the process had to convince each person how they can live in the world where all are merged into one for it to ever work. This is why so much time was spent on the mental process in the end rather than the actual events which led up to the Third Impact and the resulting complementation of humanity.
These episodes have proven difficult to summarize without the interjection of personal opinion and interpretation. There is a section of my FAQ which deals with the series' ending that may help those having difficulty understanding what exactly happened here (this is a direct link, so the formatting won't be uniform). It's not going to be an easy read, but I believe everything in there to be accurate as the rest of this set of synopses. What that really means is that you shouldn't take it as Gospel truth...any errors you happen to find in there will result in an appropriate recension and dispensation of credit.
Episodes 1-8 | Episodes 9-16 | Episodes 17-24 | Episodes 25-26 | Death/Rebirth and End of Evangelion
~ Shwiggie