Note that as I write this, I haven't yet looked at the snippets.
I have written EVA. I have written a story that tried (and succeeded) in being as mind-bending as the original. I have written a cutesy EVA parody. And I have, in fact, written an EVA self-insertion. So I think I have some perspective.
EVA was conceived and brought to term by a man who was dangerously, even suicidally depressed. The resultant human darkness of the story creeps subtly into everything in the series and the films. Unless you are writing one of the aforementioned cutesy EVA parodies, that darkness must be present in the story.
I offer as an example my SI character. At first glimpse, he seems like a noble soul who will help the Children to overcome their problems and eventually triumph over their adversaries.
This is a false perception. While he is initially interested in Shinji, after realizing that the boy still desperately craves Gendou's approval, he loses any desire to help him. He is contemptuous of Rei, viewing her as Gendou's willing sex toy -- ironically not the case -- and yet he hypocritically looks down on others who view her with that same contempt, such as Ritsuko. He regards Asuka as an annoying brat, and the scene which finally made me give up the series was when I was writing him voyeuristically listening and ahem, engaged in self abuse, to the sounds of Asuka and Hikari's "harmless teenage experimentation".
I felt soiled afterwards, so I deleted the file containing that passage and have never spoken of it until now.
The one seemingly pure element of his character -- and he has one, just as all the others do -- is that he seems to really care about Misato. But even this is part of the story -- does he really care about her, or did he start looking after her as a way to atone for another little girl whom he willingly murdered after the Second Impact?
In Dante's vision of Hell, many of the people there, even though they are being tormented, would not change the deeds they committed in life. And that, more than the deeds themselves, is why they belong in hell. Another religious parallel that suggests itself is the concept of the Rapture -- when the deserving souls of humanity will be taken to Heaven, while the rest of us are left in a world given over to the forces of evil. (The notorious "Left Behind" multimedia phenomenon is about just this subject.) The similarities between this situation and that of EVA should be obvious -- and suggest that, ultimately, nobody in the series can be saved, not even from themselves. You cannot even hope to change them -- because ultimately, they like the way that they are.
Passage from one of my favorite novels, David Drake and Eric Flint's _An Oblique Approach_: "It is all very murky. In my vision itself, no, there was no hope of any kind. ... All was at an end, save duty, and what personal grace might be found."
This is one of the many reasons that EVA has merged so well with the Lovecraftian concepts in "Children of an Elder God"; well, that and the fact that Go Nagai's "Devilman", which was one of EVA's inspirations, shows a pretty clear Lovecraftian influence.
The plotters of SEELE think that they have found a way to escape the destruction that is to come, and emerge with their desires fulfilled. So does Ikari Gendou. So did Ikari Yui ... and of all of them, she comes closest. But they are all ultimately thwarted, because ultimately, none of them are truly as powerful as they would like to believe.
EVA is a story about hopelessness and helplessness. And if those aren't represented in any story about these characters and ideas, then you are, just like the authors themselves did in the final episodes, only offering up a parody of what's gone before.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.![[Image: smile.gif]](http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif)
Chris Davies
I have written EVA. I have written a story that tried (and succeeded) in being as mind-bending as the original. I have written a cutesy EVA parody. And I have, in fact, written an EVA self-insertion. So I think I have some perspective.
EVA was conceived and brought to term by a man who was dangerously, even suicidally depressed. The resultant human darkness of the story creeps subtly into everything in the series and the films. Unless you are writing one of the aforementioned cutesy EVA parodies, that darkness must be present in the story.
I offer as an example my SI character. At first glimpse, he seems like a noble soul who will help the Children to overcome their problems and eventually triumph over their adversaries.
This is a false perception. While he is initially interested in Shinji, after realizing that the boy still desperately craves Gendou's approval, he loses any desire to help him. He is contemptuous of Rei, viewing her as Gendou's willing sex toy -- ironically not the case -- and yet he hypocritically looks down on others who view her with that same contempt, such as Ritsuko. He regards Asuka as an annoying brat, and the scene which finally made me give up the series was when I was writing him voyeuristically listening and ahem, engaged in self abuse, to the sounds of Asuka and Hikari's "harmless teenage experimentation".
I felt soiled afterwards, so I deleted the file containing that passage and have never spoken of it until now.
The one seemingly pure element of his character -- and he has one, just as all the others do -- is that he seems to really care about Misato. But even this is part of the story -- does he really care about her, or did he start looking after her as a way to atone for another little girl whom he willingly murdered after the Second Impact?
In Dante's vision of Hell, many of the people there, even though they are being tormented, would not change the deeds they committed in life. And that, more than the deeds themselves, is why they belong in hell. Another religious parallel that suggests itself is the concept of the Rapture -- when the deserving souls of humanity will be taken to Heaven, while the rest of us are left in a world given over to the forces of evil. (The notorious "Left Behind" multimedia phenomenon is about just this subject.) The similarities between this situation and that of EVA should be obvious -- and suggest that, ultimately, nobody in the series can be saved, not even from themselves. You cannot even hope to change them -- because ultimately, they like the way that they are.
Passage from one of my favorite novels, David Drake and Eric Flint's _An Oblique Approach_: "It is all very murky. In my vision itself, no, there was no hope of any kind. ... All was at an end, save duty, and what personal grace might be found."
This is one of the many reasons that EVA has merged so well with the Lovecraftian concepts in "Children of an Elder God"; well, that and the fact that Go Nagai's "Devilman", which was one of EVA's inspirations, shows a pretty clear Lovecraftian influence.
The plotters of SEELE think that they have found a way to escape the destruction that is to come, and emerge with their desires fulfilled. So does Ikari Gendou. So did Ikari Yui ... and of all of them, she comes closest. But they are all ultimately thwarted, because ultimately, none of them are truly as powerful as they would like to believe.
EVA is a story about hopelessness and helplessness. And if those aren't represented in any story about these characters and ideas, then you are, just like the authors themselves did in the final episodes, only offering up a parody of what's gone before.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Chris Davies