One of the things I noticed about NGE once was that the biblical concept goes much deeper than just what's on the surface. Now, I'm not religious, by any stretch of the imagination ![[Image: smile.gif]](http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif)
, but it seemed to me that Anno was trying to get across the idea that Gendo Ikari had to perform three sacrifices to end the war with the angels.
Shinji lost his innocence. He'd watched his own Eva kill his best friend (or almost), lost Rei (and if you've ever seen the deleted scene during her death, you'd understand *why* he was so screwed up afterward. Let's just say Rei's suppressed desire came out just before she pulled the plug, and it manifested through the invading Angel), and basically lost Asuka. And that doesn't even count having to kill his newest best friend who turned out to be the last Angel.
Asuka lost her mind. The effect of a Deity smashing its consciousness down on her like a hammer stripped away the thin veneer over her problems that she'd erected, and forced her down into the depths of them all. She wasn't able to deal with them, and in the end, became self-destructive. (I understand she recovers slightly in EoE before dying, but I refuse to watch it. I hated what Anno did to Rei anyway, and after watching him make a dog's breakfast of the series, I refuse to watch the hunk of snot he calls a movie.)
Rei lost her life. I don't count the first time, since she was murdered by Ritsuko's mother (can't remember her name). I also thought it looked kind of like Rei was sleeping with Gendo (icky, icky, icky!), which might explain why Ritsuko's mother went off the deep end when she realized this. But when Rei 2 died (and I hated Anno for that, as I mentioned above), she had been just coming out of her shell and becoming human. She was therefore a proper sacrifice. Rei 3 was *much* less human and much more Lilith, and it showed afterward.
I don't know if that's what Anno was trying to do, but it looked like three sacrifices were necessary for the war to end. Then, once the war was ended, in EoE, Gendo tries to engineer the rebirth of the human race as gods, and screws up massively because he never understood the creature in NERV's basement was in fact Lilith all along, and not Adam.
(Which makes the EVA's all Lilith's children, and thus falls under Gabriel's promise that he would kill her children until she relented and returned to heaven. Since the Pilots were also tainted by Lilith's DNA, they were targets too. The series as a result is a triumph of human stupidity and pride over tremendous achievement. I'm just not sure if it's Gendo's stupidity and pride, or *Anno's*....
, but it seemed to me that Anno was trying to get across the idea that Gendo Ikari had to perform three sacrifices to end the war with the angels.Shinji lost his innocence. He'd watched his own Eva kill his best friend (or almost), lost Rei (and if you've ever seen the deleted scene during her death, you'd understand *why* he was so screwed up afterward. Let's just say Rei's suppressed desire came out just before she pulled the plug, and it manifested through the invading Angel), and basically lost Asuka. And that doesn't even count having to kill his newest best friend who turned out to be the last Angel.
Asuka lost her mind. The effect of a Deity smashing its consciousness down on her like a hammer stripped away the thin veneer over her problems that she'd erected, and forced her down into the depths of them all. She wasn't able to deal with them, and in the end, became self-destructive. (I understand she recovers slightly in EoE before dying, but I refuse to watch it. I hated what Anno did to Rei anyway, and after watching him make a dog's breakfast of the series, I refuse to watch the hunk of snot he calls a movie.)
Rei lost her life. I don't count the first time, since she was murdered by Ritsuko's mother (can't remember her name). I also thought it looked kind of like Rei was sleeping with Gendo (icky, icky, icky!), which might explain why Ritsuko's mother went off the deep end when she realized this. But when Rei 2 died (and I hated Anno for that, as I mentioned above), she had been just coming out of her shell and becoming human. She was therefore a proper sacrifice. Rei 3 was *much* less human and much more Lilith, and it showed afterward.
I don't know if that's what Anno was trying to do, but it looked like three sacrifices were necessary for the war to end. Then, once the war was ended, in EoE, Gendo tries to engineer the rebirth of the human race as gods, and screws up massively because he never understood the creature in NERV's basement was in fact Lilith all along, and not Adam.
(Which makes the EVA's all Lilith's children, and thus falls under Gabriel's promise that he would kill her children until she relented and returned to heaven. Since the Pilots were also tainted by Lilith's DNA, they were targets too. The series as a result is a triumph of human stupidity and pride over tremendous achievement. I'm just not sure if it's Gendo's stupidity and pride, or *Anno's*....