Why It's So Hard to Comprehend the Whole Story

Because it's built not in a way you could find in the most of the other stories. Usually you already have the most of causal connections when you have comprehended an ordinary story, and you may relatively easily find remaining connections, facts or conclusions by using the motivations and facts you already have. But the most of pivotal causal connections of the underlying plot left blank in NGE, and they are still missing after you had watched the show. So, it's necessary to build a correct network of causal connections between the facts to get all the truth and find the correct motivations you could then use at the other layers of the narration. And it's relatively tricky to accomplish this, because there are enough of other traps: facts which could be treated more than one way, so chains of connections will branch and you may get an incorrect variant of the base plot if you will follow an incorrect branch, you may get some facts only from connections (for example the dissolution of Yui in LCL), you can get some facts only from visual hints (for example the pillars of salt at the South Pole and the Terminal Dogma), you may also introduce some additional entities to connect existing facts if you don't see an easy way to do this and this may lead you to a trap, so it's necessary to pay extra attention to such entities. But there is only one way to get the base plot without contradictions at the several essential points, and only in this case it's possible to find the actual message which author had put into the story (which is discussed at the last section). It's actually not so hard as it looks at the first glance if you know that NGE is not an ordinary story and you need to get the correct underlying plot before you can use motivations to analyze its other layers.

The Layers of Narration

There are several layers of narration, such as the complementation conspiracy, the world of NGE, everyday life, character relations and interactions, angel battles, symbolism and so on. This reconstruction covers primarily only the layer of the complementation conspiracy which incorporates the most of the underlying plot and also the analysis of some personalities (which should be considered as perfunctory). It's possible to reconstruct the underlying plot with a very high level of accuracy because the story beneath is worked out in a very detailed manner, although it's very hard to get all the details and thus get an absolutely precise underlying story. It's very important to get the correct underlying story because you may obtain a correct analysis of personalities or other layers of the narration only if you have correct motivations from the underlying plot. The absence of correct causal connections and motivations causes many variants of interpretation of the show, and diversity between them makes to believe that NGE does not make any sense at all.

The Layers of Truth and Lie

There is one layer of truth which is hardly possible to obtain without the classified information from the NGE2 video game: the fact about the extraterrestial origin of the progenitors of the humanity and the angels, although there are some indications about this in the series (for example, the galaxy map at the ceiling of the Terminal Dogma). This layer is hidden beneath the layer of the Judaist esotericism which actually is alien science in the world of NGE, and all facts related to it could be interpreted literally, but this makes the notion of God not conventional (this may be the creators of Adam and Lilith). It's possible to reconstruct an unambiguous large-scale base plot without this layer (but it's hard to get some motivations without it) and I will not put emphasis on it in the reconstruction below. It's not possible to interpret absolutely literally all the references to the New Testament in NGE (except the reference to a messiah), which indicates that they are most likely needed only to make other references and for decorative purposes, which in turn makes NGE a peculiar new testament.
NGE's version of the Dead Sea scrolls may be a message of the creators of Adam and Lilith to the humanity, and only practical value is important here, because according to the classified information, the scrolls may contain a manual for the Longinus lance which is necessary to reunite the separated descendants of Lilith. The scrolls also should have the religious value which imposes "God's" prohibition to not to create a being which is equal to itself, this value allows to explain Seele's fear of blasphemy, although this may be a common religious fear. Metaphysical biology may be an empirical science which does not put a prohibition on the creation of a god-like being as opposed to the scrolls.


There is a very complex conspiracy exists which introduces several informational barriers (and this is the reason for the existence of a triple agent), it's possible to reveal these barriers by some strange or unnecessary actions which could not be explained in other ways. There are actually three major information barriers and four layers of conspiracy (three of Seele who intend to transform the humanity through death into a true Lilith's descendant according to their religious dogma and one of Nerv's secret plan which implies direct transformation of the humanity into a being which is equal to the creators of Adam and Lilith i.e. blasphemy). There is also Yui's conspiracy against Seele (Yui's conspiracy is aimed to ruin Seele's conspiracy). The neglection of the information barriers usually results in the introduction of unnecessary entities and this produces an imprecise plot solution.

The layer which contains the actual sense of NGE is the emphasis on the theme of solitude. Yui uses solitude as an instrument which is necessary to achieve the final goal of her intricate agenda: to prevent the complementation and leave the humanity and the world as-is, because she believes that the humanity would not have a meaning of life being left in eternal solitude. She can not achieve this goal only by herself because she can't fight Seele alone, so she manipulates her husband who probably was specially chosen for this purpose because of his psychical problems. Yui forces Gendo to accomplish Nerv's secret plan which implies transformation of the humanity into a god-like being, but she hopes that this plan will be ruined because of Gendo's rough personality, who also manipulates other people and brings pain or solitude to them. Gendo will "teach" Shinji to fear and hate solitude through the "hedgehog's dilemma", this fear along with the taste of absence of a meaning of life will force Shinji to reject the complementation, because Yui makes him the only person who could do this by transferring herself into Unit 01. Gendo also inflicts pain to Ayanami and she chooses Shinji instead of Gendo as a controller of the complementation. As the result, Yui's dream becomes reality, but she and Gendo get their punishment through eternal solitude and death. Solitude and pain, a chain of manipulations and hypocrisy in the absence of true love is the only way to achieve Yui's true final goal and this is the tragedy of the people possessed by Eva.

The Story Major Points

This section lists the story major points necessary to reassemble the core story in a chronological order. It's an ultimate spoiler, so please watch NGE at least once before reading this. The topmost layer of the story which is discussed here is a story about how two groups of people tried to create a "messiah" for their own needs by using the Dead Sea scrolls and the metaphysical biology. Thus why the story is called "Neon Genesis Evangelion" ("evangelion" means "gospel" in Greek). But there is a little bit more than that. My intentions are: to show that NGE is a story about solitude and the people who are trying to make their dreams real at the conditions of a dying world and also reveal what these specific dreams are.

When watching the series, it's worthy to consider how much information is available to one or the other character; this allows to reconstruct his or her feelings and intentions much more precise.

- The first progenitor entity (Adam, the progenitor of the angels contained inside the White Moon) had landed at the Earth [classified information].

- The second progenitor entity (Lilith, the mother of the humanity and all other life) had been captured by the Sun System gravity and landed near the South Pole of the Earth [the first impact], but later the seed was moved to the location of Japan by tectonic shifts [classified information].

- The species were intentionally separated by "God" to not to allow the creation of a being equal to itself and should not coexist at the same planet, so they are destined to hate and confront each other. Each progenitor entity is paired with a helix-shaped spear [the Longinus lance] - a form of life close to the creator of the entities ["God"], it could behave by itself, and it's necessary to put an entity to a hibernated state if it awakens (it's very hard to say are the lances a weapon or just multifunction devices, the latter is more probable because the entities are stationary by nature). Lilith's spear had been lost must likely at the location of the Dead Sea during the landing [classified information]. There is a strong connection between impacts, the fact that the Longinus lance along with the scrolls was found at the Dead Sea, the lance itself (it takes part in every impact) and eventually the Dead Sea (the South Pole littered with pillars of salt was compared with the Dead Sea during the retrieval of the lance in the ep. 12), this indicates that the Dead Sea [the biblical place of God's punishment] may be a result of the landing of the spear (or some experiments with it) and the resulting anti AT-field emission. Thus, the presence of pillars of salt allows to determine a fact of anti AT-field exposure [AT fields are probably connected to the subparticle structures as it was shown in the UN video]. It was predicted in the Dead Sea scrolls that the confrontation of the species may happen (according to the classified information the scrolls contain the list of the angels and the times of their appearance), this indicates that the scrolls may be a message of the creators of Adam and Lilith to the humanity.

- It's known that Adam and his offsprings possess the fruit of life in his DNA which results in a S^2 energy source, the weakest part of angels. Lilith and her offsprings possess the fruit of wisdom in her DNA which results in science. The combination of these fruits produces a being which has power equivalent to the power of God. The power of God allows to create something out of nothing (humans are always obliged to begin with something). [UN video/Seele/Fuyutsuki,ep. 21, 24, EoE]. The species use different ways to live: beings of the first use an infinite energy source, fully complete and don't need society; beings of the second are separated and need science and society to live.

- The analysis of the second impact allows to conclude that an another security mechanism [the forbidden reunion] is embedded by the "God" into the species: Adam has an anti AT-field explosive system or generator linked to his S^2 source, this system probably have microscopical nature and bound to DNA or the elements of the energy core. The system may produce strong anti AT-field impact [metaphorically a symbol of God's punishment, Fuyutsuki, ep. 12] which may erase or seriously harm all Lilith-based life. Lilith along with her descendants may possess a key to this system in her DNA which is necessary to actuate the system [UN video, ep. 21]. This mechanism is probably necessary only to protect Adam from various manipulations by the beings with the fruit of wisdom and to prevent the creation of a being equal to the "God". It's actually possible to create a god-like being (a messiah) through the forbidden reunion when the chamber of Guf (the source of human souls) is empty as it's required by Kabbalah, but such a being will exist only for a short time and then it will decay. This could be indirectly confirmed by the following facts: the implantation of the embryo by Gendo wasn't producing an impact while the chamber of Guf was empty, and the being made from Ayanami had decayed in EoE. Seele also probably had a tight schedule because of this reason. The mechanism may actually have another nature or absent at all, but as the second impact suggests, an impact should involve a contact of Adam with a human or Lilith herself. Angels most likely can not emit anti AT-field, because this opens a possibility of an impact from a contact with Unit 01, so there are no reasons to put a Lilith-based unit into the fight. It's very hard to understand what actually happens during the second impact, and the events at the South Pole may be necessary only to show that the world of NGE is governed not by magic but by science, so the mechanism of the impact would have the same principles regardless of circumstances.

- Sometimes a powerful secret organization - Seele (according to the classified information this may be an ancient esoteric secret society) had revealed all the truth about angels through the Dead Sea scrolls (a relic of their religious doctrine). The scrolls should contain the information about the origin of the angels and the humanity and also that offsprings of Adam and Lilith destined to fight each other (the information about angels who are seeking a way to reunite with Adam and this will produce the third impact is a lie needed to cover the complementation conspiracy which is explained below). Some angels most likely are trying to access Lilith to exterminate the source of Lilith-based life, this could be derived from the classified information and Misato's phrase in EoE: "We were destined to hate each other even though we both are "human" [the part of the phrase where Misato compares angels with people should mean the genetic affinity because Ritsuko said in the ep. 5 that the DNAs of humans and angels are similar to 99.89%]. Only the statement about the confrontation (which makes Lilith a target for angels) is not necessary to unravel the conspiracy, it's also necessary to show that Adam isn't a target to make an impact. According to the classified information, Adam may be a target for some angels who intend to recover it, but the mechanism of the forbidden reunion denies a possibility of the third impact from angels in principle (as opposed to the information from Seele, a contact of a human with Adam is necessary for an impact).

- Seele finds that the Dead Sea scrolls do not lie; they discover Adam and Lilith at the huge underground cavities in Japan and the South Pole. To achieve their religious dogma Seele starts a global conspiracy which implies the transformation of the humanity into a true descendant of Lilith - a complete angel-like being. According to the classified information, Seele's religious doctrine is the path to Adam Kadmon, and here is probably a connection with the Terminal Dogma which along with the Central Dogma and the Heaven's Door may designate a path to divinity (it is symbolized by the reference to Christ in the Terminal Dogma). Because the confrontation with angels is predicted in the scrolls, Seele uses the war against angels as a convenient cover for the true final goal of the conspiracy.

- Seele's first move was an attempt to place Adam into a hibernated embryonic state and to separate his soul with anti AT-field generated by Adam himself (this should ease the creation of a "messiah" and Kaworu-based dummy plug system for the mass production Evangelions). They had achieved this using Dr. Katsuragi (Misato's father), who intended to test his super-solenoid (S^2) theory (probably an allusion to tokamaks or stellarators, although the engine may obtain energy from the Dirac Ocean as it suggested by the explosion of the engine in the ep. 18), which explains the nature of Adam's energy source. The test or the contact experiment is a controlled injection of human DNA (or even a person) into Adam [according to the classified information, the S^2 source is based on helical biotechnology and the test may be related to it]. But Adam awakes (an attempt to hibernate him with a lance was failed), and this triggers the Second Impact which results in the global devastation (Misato is the only survivor from Katsuragi's team). Adam's soul was separated from his body with anti AT-field and continued its existence as Kaworu [UN video/Seele, ep. 21, 24]. Gendo, a Seele agent, knows the true meaning of the experiment and leaves the South Pole a day before it [UN video/Fuyutsuki, ep. 21], this indicates that the Second Impact probably wasn't an accident but a necessary measure to not to disclose the conspiracy. The impact itself most likely was triggered by the actuation of the link between Adam's S^2 engine and Adam's self-desctruction or anti AT-field explosive system, so human DNA may contain a key to it. Replicas of Adam's generator of anti AT-field was used in the mass production Evangelions to generate the field for the artificial third impact.

- The final goal of Seele's religious doctrine is the transformation of the humanity into a complete angel-like being (the true descendant of Lilith) which the humanity should actually supposed to be (although they may not know about this). To unify the humanity Seele needs to produce a global anti AT-field impact which is necessary to neutralize human AT-field (a boundary of soul) and extract souls of all humans into the egg of Lilith (the Black Moon), from which an angelic being (with a complete soul) then should evolve. The egg should be ascended into the space by the ritual which requires at least: the creation of the Tree of Life from the Longinus lance and a "messiah" (a being which contains the both fruits), Eva series equipped with a S^2 engine and anti AT-field generator to mark the "messiah" with holy stigmata and to generate anti AT-field, the emptiness of the chamber of Guf (i.e. all remaining souls should be available) [Seele/Kaworu/Misato, ep. 21, 24, EoE]. Seele's intentions at the NGE symbolical layer are probably derived from the kabbalistic myth about Adam Kadmon and his fall, but actually only the idea about a singular complete being is important here because it may be used as a contrary to Yui's point of view. Yui believes that people could be happy even at the devastated world because they live not only for themselves but also for other people, and therefore such a complete being would not have a meaning of life. Seele may think that the divinity may be a heaven for the humanity; Yui and Seele treat the final goal from the scientific and religious points of view, and here is the difference.

- The cover story for the conspiracy is that the angels are seeking a way to return into Adam placed inside the geofront, and this will cause an impact which will erase the humanity. This information is known only from Kaworu (the part about that angels should return into their mother being is only known from Kaworu, who could not know this intrinsically, which is explained below) and Kaji, and thus Seele is the only possible source of it, let's see how credible is it. The statement about that angels should return into Adam placed in the geofront is definitely a lie, because there is indeed Lilith [this could not be Adam because it was embryonized and possessed by Gendo, moreover, one half of Lilith was used to build Lilith-based Unit 01 which is confirmed by authors in the design materials]. The more general statement: "angels should return into Adam" is also most likely a lie, because there are no reliable facts to confirm that Adam's embryo was a target for angels (it's not possible to use any facts to confirm this after the ep. 8 because there was also Lilith, who definitely was a target, and only Ramiel from the ep. 6 is necessary to confirm this). The sea angel's appearance in the ep. 8 is the sole possibility [Gendo most likely was talking about the embryo extraction at the plane in the ep. 7, and this indicates that the embryo wasn't excavated prior to this moment, so they probably were delivering it directly from the pole; Kaji speaks about smuggling at the ep. 21, so this may be also Germany], but it was definitely not supposed, as Kaji noticed during the phone talk with Gendo. This indicates that Adam most likely was not considered as a target for angels by Seele, although the classified information states that he may be a target for some angels who wish to recover their progenitor, so it's possible that the sea angel actually intended to recover it. The statement about that Adam to an angel contact will cause an impact could not be proved without knowledge of the mechanism of impact, and it looks quite irrational, because such a mechanism may harm the ecosystem. Because the species are not supposed to coexist at the same planet there should be a mechanism which requires the interaction of the confronting species [a mechanism with DNA-marker described above denies a possibility of an impact from angels in principle]. Many are trying to prove or disprove the statement about impact from angels by using Kaworu's "deceive", although it absolutely not connected to it, because Kaworu tries to contact Lilith and speaks about the artificial third impact. Actually, it's only necessary to show that Adam's embryo was not a target (or not considered as a target) for angels to unravel the conspiracy, because in this case there is no explanation of the fact why Lilith was disguised as Adam. There is another reason for this; such a cover may be necessary to motivate the humanity to defend Lilith by any means (who will defend Lilith if the complementation through death is the final goal?) So there is a three-layer conspiracy: Seele disguised the second impact as an astronomical catastrophe and closed all the information about angels and EVAs to hide all from UN. UN and the government saw only the fight of EVAs against angels, and only the threat from angels was necessary to get budgets from UN because their weapon doesn't work against angels. They also didn't know that mass production Evangelions were intended not for this fight but only for the complementation ritual (thus Gendo may protect Tokyo-3 only with his prototype, test and production units powered through the umbilical cord). At the second layer Lilith was disguised as Adam to hide the final goal from the performers and to make them think that they are preventing the third impact (there was no information about Lilith before Kaworu's revelation, and only Gendo, Fuyutsuki and Ritsuko knew that the actual goal is the artificial third impact which involves a messiah created from Adam and Lilith; this is the topmost layer of the conspiracy). Such wide use of the pattern of deconstruction suggests that most likely everything what you see may be actually the opposite (the lance or the "armor" or Evas is a yet another good example).

- Gendo meets and marries Yui, a student of the biotechnology dept. and member of Seele (she treats Gendo as a not so terrible guy), to get closer to Seele's conspiracy, money and resources [ep. 21]. Gendo probably is just an appropriate candidate for Nerv's secret plan and Yui's true agenda because of his psychical problems. Most likely there is no true love from Yui to Gendo (but not vice versa) since latter she says that all she's doing is only for Shinji's sake and she doesn't care about Gendo's life at the end.

- Fuyutsuki participates in Seele's second impact investigation as a UN inspector and finds out that Yui and Gendo have a child. The second impact is explained as a meteorite explosion to the general public, and Fuyutsuki conducts his own investigation on Seele's business treating to blackmail Gendo with the information about his enormous estate and the true cause of the second impact. But Gendo tells him about the "Project E", and Fuyutsuki accepts the invitation to join the Gehirn organization (lit. brain). Gendo becomes the head of the artificial evolution laboratory [ep. 21].

- The goal of "Project E" is to create a clone of Adam - Eva [ep. 21]. This is the only weapon capable to generate strong AT-field and overcome angels (only the use of the fruit of wisdom or science could help it, because the AT-field of humans is not strong enough to confront angels directly). According to Seele, only the children born just after the second impact could pilot Evas, but actually only the children who have a personality or a soul of a relative in a Eva could do this. The Marduk institute was founded to "select" the children all over the world, but actually it's a dummy organization ruled by Nerv, and it's needed only to delude UN because Seele could not disclose the information about the origin of Evas (and thus Adam and the real cause of the second impact) to UN and the general public. All Evas except 01 were the clones of Adam. Unit 01 was "the only true child of Lilith" [Seele, EoE] probably made from the lower part of Lilith's body (there are no direct facts to confirm this except the design materials, but it was possible to transform the humanity into Adam Kadmon by using Unit 01 advanced to a "messiah" as a replacement for Lilith in Seele's complementation scenario [Seele, EoE] or to create a god-like being to use it as an ark in Fuyutsuki's complementation scenario [Fuyutsuki, EoE], this requires the both fruits, so the unit should be Lilith-based). The true final goal of the project is to build mass production Evas for the complementation ritual, and anti-angel capabilities is just a useful side effect [Seele considered Gendo's units as a possible waste in the ep. 2, and there was other anti-angel weapon such as the positron cannon].

- Naoko Akagi (Ritsuko's mother) invents a personality transfer (actually copy) technology which is central for the whole series and copies her personality into the MAGI supercomputer (which actually is an AI based on biotechnology). The personality transfer technology is also used to control Evas, to transfer human personalities into Evas (as stated by Ritsuko, every Eva should have a human personality in it to synchronize with a pilot), to transfer and maintain personalities between the Rei clones and also dummy plugs [ep. 21]. As it stated by Ritsuko, a human soul and a personality are not equivalent, and the former could not be digitized and copied (it could only be completely transferred). The presence of a full-fledged soul inside a unit results in a "berserk mode" in which the unit could surpass its abilities.

- Fuyutsuki and Yui have a talk at the lake during which Yui says her motto: "the heaven could be anywhere (you could be happy anywhere), if you have the will to live", so she probably wishes to save this dying world and the humanity as-is, and says that she wants to provide the future for Shinji (the key to Yui's motivation). [Fuyutsuki/Yui, ep. 21, EoE]. There are also statements about the "final tragedy" which must be the extermination of the humanity from the aggression of angels and about some data Fuyutsuki had passed to Gendo. This may be the data from the second impact which is necessary to generate anti AT-field needed to create Ayanami. Yui most likely knew about Ayanami; Fuyutsuki tells that they will not repeat again what happened last time, and this may mean that they intend to use this data wisely to not to produce an impact. This also could be confirmed by the statement about that Ayanami is a product of Fuyutsuki's despair and Gendo's hope [ep. 23] which actually means their love to Yui and directly connects Aynanami to her. Other statements are needed to base Yui's conspiracy against Seele (the accident during the second contact experiment was arranged by Yui and it's necessary to motivate Gendo to accomplish Nerv's secret scenario by the all means). The impact predicted in Seele's secret Dead Sea scrolls is most likely the artificial impact initiated by Seele, and it may be perceived as a prophecy by them, but actually it may be just an instruction described in the manual for the lance.

- Yui's soul is completely absorbed into Unit 01 during the second contact experiment (this makes Shinji the only person who could pilot the unit during the complementation); her body is dissolved in LCL [link connection liquid, an oxygenated synchronization mediator which actually is the primordial soup produced by Lilith's body]. Yui takes Shinji to the lab at the day of the experiment to show him the "promising future" and to seed despair and the dilemma in his mind. After the accident Fuyutsuki and Gendo create a series of engineered Yui clones to use as a stuffing for the dummy plug system, although Yui along with Fuyutsuki actually intend to advance Rei to a messiah and then pass control of the complementation to Shinji, because Yui hopes that Gendo will inflict pain to Rei (in the Rebuild Gendo talks about some contract with Lilith). It's interesting that Rei's room in the geofront is inscribed with quark names (a connection with the first contact experiment at the South Pole, which is necessary to show that Rei and Kaworu have the same origins), and Rei eats primarily condensed food in pills (this is highlighted in the Rebuild, but as opposed to Shinji, Rei never cooks food in NGE) which may be a sign of alien or artificial biochemistry of her body. One of the clones (Rei) always bears the soul of Lilith which is split from her original body [Rei calls it "home", EoE] with anti AT-field as the place appearance suggests [the Terminal Dogma resembles the South Pole and therefore the Dead Sea littered with pillars of salt, ep. 24]. Eventually Gendo deserts Shinji because he believes that he can only inflict pain to him (but this actually may be necessary to form Ayanami's personality as he wishes), and Rei becomes his only "beloved" "daughter". [Ritsuko/Naoko/Gendo/Fuyutsuki/Kaworu, ep. 16, 21, 23,24, EoE]

- A portion of Asuka's mother's soul has been absorbed into Unit 02 during the third contact experiment. This leads to her mental disorder and suicide. Thus Asuka has been chosen as an Eva pilot, but she believes that she had been chosen because of her talents, and this puts the beginning of her enormous pride. Misato (now a member of Gehirn) has been transferred to Germany as an Asuka's supervisor. Just before this she had met Kaji, but soon she breaks up with him, and Kaji becomes the only Asuka's supervisor (later a triple agent who works on Seele, Nerv and Japanese government) [ep. 20, 21, 22]

- Naoko finishes the MAGI system and commits suicide because she feels herself useless and betrayed. Naoko's suicide has been provoked by Rei's unpleasant confessions, which revealed Gendo's true attitude towards her (Rei probably was intentionally left alone at the control center maze). Naoko had strangled Rei I before she threw herself down and said that this would change nothing, because substitutes are available [ep. 21]. This may be necessary to accomplish Nerv's secret plan, because only science is important for Naoko, and she has no motives to step back from Seele's plan. Moreover, Naoko would prevent Gendo's reunion with Yui, so Gendo needs a more loyal person (Ritsuko) for his plan.

- Yui's accident makes Gendo to fall into depression. He proposes to start the Human Instrumentality Project to the Seele chairman (Keel Lorenz) as an act of his despair, and this is the most contradictory part of Evangelion's plot because this makes to believe that there is only one variant of the instrumentality. It is required for the plot consistency that Seele's version of the project should be prescribed in the Dead Sea scrolls, as it was stated by Fuyutsuki during his talk with Yui in the ep. 21. The project also should be accomplished under the cover of a war with angels as it was presented to the government and UN. To not to produce paradoxes it's required to state that Gendo was tolerable to Seele's instrumentality scenario before Yui's accident (he spoke along with Naoko about the "new era" for the humanity [ep. 21]) or he and the other team members were under Seele's pressure: Fuyutsuki stated in the ep. 21 that he had get warning that he could be murdered, moreover Gendo was the only man able (probably as a head of the unique lab.) to accomplish Seele's plan [Seele, ep. 20]. Thus, actually he had agreed to accomplish Seele's scenario (it's interesting that he speaks about this directly at the meeting with Seele in the first Rebuild movie), but secretly he hoped to carry out another plan because of his love to Yui, so Yui's accident was most likely intentionally set up to force Gendo to do this. The secret Nerv's (actually Fuyutsuki's) project proposes to complement (unify) souls of all the humanity in an ark (confirmed by Fuyutsuki just after the formation of the Tree of Life [EoE]) created from a god-like being (Unit 01 with a S^2 engine), so the humanity will ascend to a new degree of evolution and survive the artificial third impact (becoming equal to the creators of Adam and Lilith; a "messiah" obtained from the forbidden reunion will obligatory decay as it was shown in EoE, so there will be no blasphemy in Seele's case). After the defeat of the angels, Gendo says [the last meeting with Seele, EoE] that the humanity should evolve and "shape" this world (so the final goal may be the recreation or restoration of the Earth using God's creative power), but Seele proceed with their own plan. Their goal was not a promoted evolution of the humanity into a god-like being because they have considered it a blasphemy [ep. 21], which indicates that Seele strictly follows the Dead Sea Scrolls (this in turn puts the emphasis on the religious value of the scrolls). Instead of this Seele intends to return the humanity into its original pure (as opposed to Lilim) angel-like form [Misato, EoE] by purification through death from the third impact. Seele fully disclose their religious nature during the complementation ritual and at their last meeting with Gendo [EoE], where Fuyutsuki cites Yui's motto, Gendo states that death creates nothing, but Seele answers that they will not allow people to evolve into a being which is equal to the "God" and that all they deserve death. So, Seele's plan includes the death phase as a purification step and the following resurrection phase.

- Gehirn is disbanded and Nerv (lit. nerve, per se a military organization) is founded to fight angels and to perform the instrumentality project. There is an obvious connection between the Seele, Gehirn and Nerv organization names at the NGE symbolical layer; the names probably could be interpreted as "intention", "research" and "action" respectively, this may be a projection of the will of the humanity as a separated angelic being or of the will of its creators through their message. Nerv's slogan: "God's in his heaven|All's right with the world!" obviously designates Seele's intentions to not to allow a blasphemy and thus creation of a being which is equal to the creators of the humanity [Nerv's logo also contains an apple (the fruit of wisdom) besides the fig leaf in the Rebuild]. To accomplish Fuhutsuki's secret scenario Gendo must defeat all the angels and become a controller of the complementation process. He hopes to do this by manipulating Rei (actually a being born after the "forbidden reunion of Adam and Lilith") with the emotional "ties" he intends to make in her. He makes the ties by always being cheerful to her, and Shinji always envies this because Gendo is always cold to him. Actually Gendo is the only person who is able to freely interact with Ayanami (she was raised by him in solitude as a pet, and this probably was the reason to desert Shinji) and thus he is able to form her personality as he wishes [Ayanami, ep. 25]. So, she is actually his doll, as Asuka states during their encounter in the elevator [ep. 22].

- Ten years has passed. Ritsuko conducts a scheduled Unit 00 synchronization test, but it's out of control because Rei's personality contained in the unit tries to kill Ritsuko. After the plug ejection Gendo saves Ayanami by opening the overheated entry plug hatch with bare hands, and this firmly imprints him in Ayanami's mind [ep. 5]. The prototype (00) unit probably contains Ayanami's mental image or personality (Rei talks with her own image during the contact with the angel in the ep. 23). It's clear because during such an accident with Shinji [ep. 14] Ritsuko claims that she's sure, that only she was the target of 00 (only Rei has motivation to compete for Gendo's love, and Ritsuko is the other [alive] woman who loves Gendo, although Gendo doesn't love but just manipulates her). Main storyline begins several days after the accident. Shinji returns to Tokyo-3 and fights angels. Although angel battles are important part of the character development, I'll discuss them only if they're tightly connected to the story.

- Gendo forces Shinji to pilot Eva by asking Ayanami who was injured during the synchronization accident to also do this. Unit 01 spontaneously moves its hand to protect Shinji from the falling debris; it's the first indication of Shinji's mother's soul presence inside the unit [ep. 1].

- Jet Alone nuclear powered unit is out of control. The control system of the unit was actually hacked by Ritsuko to sustain Nerv leadership under Gendo's order; Misato knew nothing about that [ep. 7].
Kaji delivers Adam's embryo to Gendo using Unit 02 as a cover [ep. 8]. Gendo starts his plan to seize Nerv and perform his scenario of the complementation.

- Gendo delivers Adam's lance from Antarctica using an aircraft carrier [ep. 12, classified information] and inserts it into Lilith [direct symbolical reference to Christ and therefore a "messiah", ep. 14], this is necessary to hibernate Lilith's growth and her transition to the active state. Misato and Kaji find Lilith at the Terminal Dogma which they identify as Adam [ep.15].

- After being overpraised, Shinji falls into the Dirac Ocean and encounters the first mental contact with an angel. Each contact with an angel is followed by a "psychoanalysis" session for the contacted person (so, angels are psychoanalysts for the pilots, they were exploring humans, and this indicates that they probably weren't an absolute evil, as it was presented by Seele, but just the confronting species). During this session Shinji sees that he always runs away from hardships instead of trying to solve them at first, understands his reasons for the piloting of Eva (to be useful and to compensate the lack of care) and meets his mother's soul [ep. 16].

- A mysterious explosion has occurred at the US Nerv base during the installation of a new S^2 engine. As the result, the facility has disappeared (probably in the Dirac Ocean) along with Unit 04 and the S^2 engine itself. Gendo states that this accident wasn't prescribed in the Dead Sea scrolls and this may mean that the scrolls have no absolute prophetic value, but Seele thinks differently and this makes them an orthodox religious sect. Unit 03 (it had been transferred to Japan after the accident) turns to be an angel, which has been eventually destroyed by the dummy plug in Unit 01. The pilot (Toji) has been seriously injured. Probably Toji's sister mental image was on the other side of the synchronization system, because Ritsuko mentioned that Toji's sister was transferred to the HQ medical facilities and there are no indications of Toji's sisеter death (which Nerv simply could not admit easily), so the soul most likely wasn't transferred. This could not be Toji's mother because she wasn't alive by the moment and the unit transportation to Japan wasn't planned, although according to the classified information pilot only could synchronize with the soul of his own mother. Being heavily depressed, Shinj resigns the Nerv service the second time; he already did this because he felt himself useless in the ep. 4 (the key to Shinji's motivation) [ep. 18].

- Extremely powerful angel attacks the Nerv HQ and incapacitates Unit 02. Rei tries to stop the angel with an N^2 bomb but fails, although stays alive. She doesn't care about her life because she knows about the substitutes (other clones). The angel also destroys Shinji's shelter and almost kills him. After a short talk with Kaji at the melon line (Kaji tells him about Adam and the third impact because he still doesn't know the truth) Shinji understands that he is the "last hope" of the world and defeats the angel, reaching the 400% synchronization rate (Unit 01 also had devoured angel's S^2 engine during this battle and became a god-like creature, this forced Gendo to put it on a hibernation) [ep. 19]. The unprecedented synchronization rate leads Shinji to be dissolved in LCL. For a month Ritsuko works on Shinji's extraction plan using MAGI. Being dissolved, Shinji understands that he (metaphorically) had run away from his father after the disappearance of the mother, and not only Gendo but also he himself is the source of his pain (so, here is also a hedgehog's dilemma between Gendo and Shinji). Eventually Shinji appears from LCL because he feels that he is actually needed by someone (Misato) [ep. 20].

- The instrumentality project management is transferred to the direct Seele supervision from the instrumentality committee. Fuyutsuki is kidnapped by Seele for an interrogation under the cover of Kaji. After the interrogation during which Nerv's past is revealed, Kaji frees Fuyutsuki (this actually was planned by Seele who wished to dismiss Gendo and to use Fuyutsuki in place of him [ep. 23]). But eventually Kaji has been murdered by an unknown person which could not be reliably found (although, there is Anno's statement, that this wasn't any of the main characters) [ep. 21].

- Asuka experiences a psychoanalysis session from the angel orbiting the Earth at the height not accessible with regular weapon. During the session she reveals that she tries to compensate absence of the mother by acting as an "adult" and through her enormous pride (the key to Asuka's motivation). Ayanami destroys the angel with the Longinus lance, but the lance is captured by the lunar gravity and thus becomes lost, "ruining" Seele plans. Asuka finds that she's not such an ideal person as she wishes to see herself and she couldn't account only to herself. Eventually she falls into depression losing the ability to synchronize with Eva [ep. 22].

- A helix-shaped angel fuses Unit 00 and invades Ayanami's mind through the (herself) mental image contained in the unit (her mind also fuses with angel's mind). With the help of the angel Ayanami finds that she's full of grief and solitude. But the angel doesn't know what solitude is [here is a yet another emphasis on the theme of solitude; angels couldn't know what it is because they haven't an idea of society, and they don't need it because they're already complete being as it's opposed to the humanity which is separated], and Ayanami explains this to him. Asuka's attempt to attack the angel is failed due to lack of synchronization. Manipulating by Rei's solitude the angel almost forces her to fuse with Shinji's unit (although this may be not a manipulation but a mutual psychoanalysis which gives the angel the understanding of a connection between solitude and pain and a motivation to overcome solitude), but Rei understands that she has no choice but to fuse completely (they actually did this just before the blast) and makes her Eva to absorb the angel with AT-field to trigger the self-destruction; the resulting blast destroys Tokyo-3 almost entirely. All proofs of Ayanami's death are secretly removed, and Rei's archived personality is transferred into Rei III. After that, Ritsuko reveals almost all secrets of Nerv to Shinji and destroys the remaining Rei clones, because she thinks that she has lost to Rei in the fight for Gendo. As the result Ritsuko is put under arrest. [ep. 23] This is a yet another Seele's attempt to ruin Gendo's plan using Ritsuko [they made her realize that she is a "replacement" for Rei]. During the talk by the dummy plug system core Ritsuko acknowledges that Gendo just used and manipulated her and her mother to accomplish his plan [there was no true love from Gendo to Naoko and Ritsuko because Gendo loves only Yui], and the tragedy of the people possessed by Eva is actually this chain of mutual manipulations which brings only pain but no actual true love.

- Shinji suspects that Ayanami is somehow related to his mother (Gendo threw out all things related to Yui) and fears her. Asuka is put out of service due to her inability to synchronize and ends up in a hospital; Kaworu is assigned as her replacement. Kaworu meets Rei and tells her that she's also an angel disguised as a human (there is an absolute symmetry between Rei and Kaworu expressed in the facts that it's possible to produce a forbidden reunion between their original bodies and human incarnations, and they both were used for the dummy plug system). This revelation probably makes her to visit the Terminal Dogma during the final fight where she understands that the giant is her original body (her appearance there was accompanied by an AT-field emission, and she probably flied there as Kaworu did). This eventually makes her to break the "ties" with Gendo. There is also probably a connection with her appearance at the very beginning of the series and at the very end (when she was collecting the souls); her appearance at the beginning is probably a way to point her "supernatural" origin and base her ability to "teleport". At the bath Kaworu speaks Shinji about solitude and mentions that it's not possible to overcome solitude by always running away. Kaworu meets Seele at the fractured concrete winged statue (which actually is the remnant of Unit 00 fused with Armisael) where he gets information about his origin and the origin of humans (he could not have it intrinsically because he has the same origin as Ayanami and she hasn't it). Kaworu also was asked to help Seele to not to lose their hope to complement into Adam Kadmon, but to the end of the battle at the Terminal Dogma Kaworu had understood that Seele's hope contradicts to Shinji's hope (Shinji's hope is to not to be alone). Because Adams's soul is contained inside Kaworu, he easily could synchronize with Adam-based Evas, so he descends to the Terminal Dogma using Unit 02 and tries to reunite with the "Adam" placed there, but "finds" that this actually is Lilith's body and doesn't join it. He knows from the briefing with Seele that Adam's body is implanted by Gendo, so he just plays a fool here (in a very expressive manner) to find out Shinji's hope. His reunion with Lilith will actually create a messiah which is possible because the chamber of Guf is empty [Ritsuko, ep. 23] and earlier Kaworu stated that he is equivalent to Gendo with the implanted embryo, this indicates that his body should also have alien biochemistry. Seele most likely needs this to intercept the control over the second messiah from Gendo, but there are also other possibilities. Kaworu speaks about death of the humanity just to impress Shinji and probably means Seele's artificial impact, because he doesn't mention that it would be the consequence of his actions. Kaworu allows Shinji to define his fate because "angels have no will to live" and there are not so many differences between death and life for them. But humans have the will and they probably need life more than angels (he thinks just as Yui, and Shinji confirms this by killing Kaworu). Eventually Kaworu dies, and Adam's soul had been collected by Ayanami or returned to his embryo (only this implication could explain Kaworu's appearance during the complementation in EoE). During the battle Shinji learns that people also have AT-field which separates their souls. [ep. 24].

- Seele finally understands that Gendo has seized Nerv and tries to hack MAGI to resolve the problem peacefully, but Ritsuko (freed of arrest) deals with this attack, and Seele sends Eva series to return Unit 01. Along with that, the government starts a military operation to exterminate Nerv as the enemy of the whole humanity, because they have information about Seele's conspiracy from Kaji [this is suggested by the behavior of the military, there are no reasons to keep interest in the MAGI system, to bury Unit 01 in bakelite (it would be extracted if the military was in affiliation with Seele because the unit is necessary for the ritual), moreover the military concluded a fail after the beginning of the ritual], and most likely Kaji was killed by Seele exactly because of this reason but too late. Ritsuko tries to revenge Gendo, but no luck, she is betrayed again and killed. After being placed at the bottom of the lake, Asuka reveals that her unit contains a portion of her mother's soul, and this gives her the will to fight. She fights JSSDF back, but Seele deploys Eva series controlled by Kaworu-based dummy plugs, powered by S^2 engines and armed with the Longinus lance replicas against her. Eventually they demolish her unit, injure her arm and eye and kill her, but Lilith in a form of Ayanami collects all the souls of killed Nerv staff into herself. Depressed by the fact that he will never overcome solitude by killing his friends and other people (so it's easier to die himself) Shinji gets to the Unit 01 by the price of Misato's death (which deepens his depression). It turns out that the unit is buried in bakelite by the military and Shinji can't get into it. Suddenly the unit spontaneously moves its hand again, allowing Shinji to get in, and Eva finally awakes. [EoE: "Air"].

- Gendo asks Aanami to unite the humanity and transfer them to Yui, but she says that she is not his doll anymore and will fulfill Shinji's wishes (Shinji eventually becomes the controller of the complementation). She had broken Gendo's glasses the previous night, which indicates a broken imprint, which in turn may be the result of the revelation of her true origin (she has found that she is an angel and (later) the containment vessel with the remains of the substitutes). Eva series start the ritual of the Lilith's egg ascension, which flings the geofront (the Black Moon) along with the survived Nerv staff to the space. Rei severs Gendo's hand and joins the Lilith's body which also eventually grows to the dimensions comparable with Earth's size. The Longinus lance returns, and Sinji gets a yet another psychoanalysis session. The point of the session is that both Shinji and Asuka have a hedgehog in them: Shinji seeks for care and perceives himself miserable because he had the lack of care being deserted, Asuka shows her pride, because she thinks that she was chosen as a pilot for her talents and perceivs herself perfect. In addition, she thinks that she can only account to herself to compensate the lack of the mother, although she was chosen just because only she can synchronize with Unit 02. Need for care hurts Asuka (she thinks that it's miserable), Asuka's ambition hurts Shinji, and here is the dilemma. During the session Shinji realizes that he is unneeded and useless [his motivation is to be needed and useful because only being useful he may get care from his father], that the dilemma brings only pain to him, and there is no sense in society, so he allows the complementation to proceed by Seele's scenario. Earth-wide anti AT-field destroys AT-fields of the entire humanity, except Gendo's who has been killed by Unit 01. Finally Shinji appears in the ocean of LCL fused with Ayanami. He decides that this world of eternal solitude (where society is absent) is not what he wished for, that he has escaped again and rejects the complementation. After that, the Black Moon releases all the collected souls back into the ocean, although Rei says that only those people who have dreams which shape their future could form AT-field again in their hearts and materialize (this was shown as a possibility in Shinji's dreams at the ocean). Yui orbits the Earth in Unit 01 along with the Longinus lance as the eternal memorial to the humanity (this is only the consequence and the punishment which she has chosen by herself) [EoE: "True heart for you"].

- Shinji finds himself lying at the shore along with Asuka and starts to strangle her; the same act from his last psychoanalysis session may be a clue for this. In his dreams Shinji tries to strangle Asuka because she doesn't want to care about him and thus he considers himself betrayed and unneeded (i.e. being hurt and thus he wants to hurt her in despair [as Naoko] because his psychological defense mechanisms are broken by the analysis which shows that there are no reasons to run from hedgehogs, or he will not have a meaning of life). But Asuka accepts (i.e. cares about) him breaking the hedgehog's dilemma, probably because she has understood what Shinji needs (care) and that she can't account only to herself (so, she has understood Shinji). Although Misato's soul had been collected by Lilith, she has not materialized, probably because she has completed her revenge and found herself completely useless for this world lacking the will to live (her pendant hasn't helped to resurrect her as Shinji's suit did in the ep. 20). This part of the story probably has primarily symbolical purpose, but there is a reasonable explanation for the facts that Asuka has a eyepatch along with the bandaged but functioning right arm, and Misato's cross (covered with stains of rust) is nailed to the pole (as a sort of a tombstone): Asuka and Shinji are not alone in this world and just walking ashore at night. [EoE: "I need you"].

The Purpose of the Complementation

It's only possible to say that the original motivation of the Gehirn core team was to create a series of Adam's clones controlled by the dummy plug system to perform the complementation ritual by using Adam's replica of anti AT-field generator (Gendo was looking especially ominous when he was talking about the new era for the humanity, and it was definitely not a salvation plan, because they had only Adam-based Eva then) [ep. 21]. The dummy plug system uses soulless clones, and it is needed only because all souls of the humanity are necessary to create the true descendant of Lilith [Adam Kadmon in Seele's religious doctrine]. There is strong evidence that the salvation plan was invented later, or it was derived from Seele's plans.

An intention to free himself and other people from interpersonal sufferings is just Shinji's view of the complementation. Intentions to save people from Seele's complementation could be reliably found in the ep. 21 and EoE.

Fuyutsuki (a professor of metaphysical biology) is probably the true author of the Nerv's secret artificial evolution project which was used in the salvation plan; when Fuyutsuki speaks with Yui at the lake he mentions that he gave some data to Gendo because it's hard to accomplish this alone (this most likely is the information about the Second Impact which is necessary to create Ayanami, who in turn could be advanced to a "messiah" to transfer the humanity into Unit 01), but he supports Yui's intentions and not Seele's (he probably supports her beliefs about the world and doesn't want the third impact or complementation at all). Yui definitely also knew about the project (this may be concluded from her rebuke: "this will be terribly dangerous to break this seal onto the world") [ep. 21]. The fact that Fuyutsuki already knows about the project when Gendo mentions it the first time indicates that Fuyutsuki is the true author or at least is tightly connected to the development of the ark plan [it will advance the humanity to the level of its creators]. Fuyutsuki invents the complementation inside an ark most likely as the last resort in the case of the complete world devastation by the third impact (thus it reminds Noah's ark, although people probably could not step back to the Earth in this case), moreover Seele's plan implies death and resurrection of the humanity. Yui definitely doesn't want this to happen, but she along with the rest of the humanity simply has no choice (it's hard to fight with such an organization) but to abandon the world and to evolve into a god-like being before Seele will initiate the third impact. Actually she hopes to ruin Fuyutsuki's plan by using Shinji and Ayanami injured by Gendo as the performers of the complementation.

Gendo's view of the complementation is different. At the last meeting with Seele he states that the humanity should evolve and shape this world asking Seele to stop their plan (which is indeed possible because the angels are defeated and nothing prevents to recreate the world), but Seele denies this because they fear a blasphemy. Actually Gendo just wants to join Yui inside Unit 01.

Seele's only goal is to achieve their religious dogma - to reach the divinity and become a true Lilith's descendant [Adam Kadmon]. This may look like a heaven for them because Seele treated the scrolls in a purely religious way.

The Motivations and Dreams

- Ritsuko: it's hard to say something particular in this case, but she definitely wishes to keep her mother's legacy. She is lonely because she was raised without a father and fears men but likes cats instead. Gendo is the only person she loves, and she fights for him against Ayanami, but actually Gendo just uses her and her mother to accomplish Nerv's secret plan.

- Misato: she is obsessed by revenge towards the angels which probably makes her such a brilliant officer. She also seeks her father in other men because her father ignored her. But because she fears her father, she can't support continuous relationship with men. She knows nothing about the true purpose of Evas, and Gendo uses her as a pawn.

- Fuyutsuki: he has problems in communication with other people and hates the world after the second impact. But he probably hopes that the world could be saved as it is because he loves Yui and supports her beliefs, so his motivation is to support Yui and her true agenda.

- Yui: the talk with Fuyutsuki at the lake shown in the ep. 21 and EoE is the key to Yui's motivation. Yui was probably an ultimate fatalist, but it's known that she loves the world as it is, and all what she does is for the sake of Shinji's future. So, she hopes to leave a chance for Shinji to live in the world as it is and to not to abandon his human form. She thinks that the humanity will lack the will to live being left in eternal solitude, because people live not just for themselves but also for other people. Her dream eventually becomes real, but she ends up in eternal solitude herself. It's not possible to reliable conclude from the series whether her accident was planned or not (either point of view could be explained by many ways), there is a high probability that it was her intention to make Shinji the only person who could reject the complementation, because Gendo would never reject it. Moreover, it was absolutely necessary for the ark scenario to have someone in Eva, because Gendo's test Evas were not capable to bear an S^2 engine by design [Seele, ep. 20], and it was necessary to forcefully obtain it by using the "berserk mode". Other evidences in EoE indicate that the accident was definitely planned, and Yui was agreed with that (this was her choice). Her fatalism implies that she had only hope that Nerv's secret scenario will be ruined by Gendo's rough personality who will inflict pain and solitude to its performers, and this will open a way for her true agenda. This makes her accident a conspiracy against Seele (Gendo was surprised by the accident) which is necessary to force Gendo to accomplish the secret scenario by any means.

- Gendo: his only wish is to unite with Yui inside Unit 01 through the direct complementation. He has the same psychical problems as Shinji: he always runs away, and the instrumentality project is such an escape at the global scale (he probably was agreed with Seele from the beginning because of his psychical problems and he would never reject Fuyutsuki's plan at the end because of his wish to meet Yui). At the end he probably understands that he have no meaning of life anyway, because he closed his heart, injured and manipulated anyone he knew and believed that no one would love him. So, he accepted his retribution.

- Shinji (why he pilots Eva?): he wants to be praised and useful (probably he fears to be disliked and useless and therefore alone). He tries to make people to care about him (primarily his father by piloting Eva) to compensate the lack of care after he was deserted. He hates this world and has no other reasons to pilot Eva, he does this only because others tell him to do this (until he meets Kaji at the melon line, and Mari puts emphasis on this in the Rebuild because there is no three-layer conspiracy). But sometimes he becomes useless (and thus disliked and alone) either he pilots Eva or not. To kill a friend and stay alone, to allow other to do this and to stay alone or to not pilot Eva and to stay alone (or just die), this is a hard choice, and it will firmly imprint Yui's beliefs about the absence of a meaning of life into Shinji's mind. When he chooses to not pilot Eva, he disconnects from the world which he hates or tries to force Asuka to care about him, but she inflicts pain to him instead because she considers him retarded. Probably he also attempts to show himself and others that he is not so miserable guy how he perceives himself (as opposed to Asuka, who is an absolute egoist and perceives herself perfect, Ayanami is somewhere in between), he needs an another person for this.

- Asuka (why she pilots Eva?): she wants to show her excellence and that she's not a child to compensate the absence of the mother (probably she fears to be treated as a child and to fail). Her enormous pride makes her believe that she could account only to herself. It's possible to force her to do anything by asking Ayanami to do the same because she considers Ayanami inferior and can't allow an inferior to surpass her. When she is outperformed by someone or has no choice, she falls into depression and hurts herself and others (thus becoming alone).

- Ayanami (why she pilots Eva?): she will do anything for Gendo because he made her his own doll, but probably she does this for the sake of all the humanity or the people she know (because of the "ties" she have with everyone). She is truly self-sufficient [probably because she bears the soul of a complete being] as opposed to Asuka who needs a person to show her superiority (who of course is "retarded" Shinji, this makes them an "ideal" couple). She also seeks her origin, and the truth moves her away from Gendo. She eventually turns to Shinji because his intentions are honest.

It turns out that the majority of the main characters experience solitude.