GENDO IKARI
GI
Shinji's father. NERV Commander. Had not spoken to his son in years before using the end of the world as the occasion to call him back to pilot. Everything Gendo does across twenty-six episodes serves a plan the show reveals in careful pieces, and each piece makes the man harder to assess cleanly. Cold is not accurate. Cold implies the absence of feeling. Gendo has feeling. He has aimed it entirely at a singular purpose that does not include his son, and he is aware of the cost to Shinji, and he proceeds anyway. The most comprehensively damaging father in anime. The show earns that completely.
GENDO THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
REI, ADAM, LILITH & KAWORU //
Open page →Rei begins the series defined by obedience and by a bond with Gendo that Shinji does not understand.
Across the middle of the series, her relationship with Shinji becomes increasingly personal. By the time Armisael attacks, her willingness to destroy herself to protect him is not the behavior of a disposable tool.
Across the middle of the series, her relationship with Shinji becomes increasingly personal. By the time Armisael attacks, her willingness to destroy herself to protect him is not the behavior of a disposable tool.
What changed
Rei's choices begin to come from relationships she formed herself rather than from the role NERV assigned her.
After Rei II dies, Rei III returns in a familiar body but does not reproduce the exact emotional relationship Gendo expects.
Gendo has built an entire plan around the assumption that Rei can remain a controllable vessel.
Gendo has built an entire plan around the assumption that Rei can remain a controllable vessel.
Why it matters
The replacement system can reproduce a body. It cannot guarantee the same person will keep making the same choices.
