Thread by @HaitamHbt

The Ending of Evangelion explanation thread;

When Rei choose “betray” Ikari Gendo and choose for Shinji instead Instrumentality began. Did you hear the song that was playing trough out the climax, well that was instrumentality.

When she merged with Shinji and so Eva 01. He became God himself. It’s what SEELE wanted, for humanity to become one so that there would be no hatred, no pain and no jealousy. And Shinji would be the vessel for that. He had to choice if he wanted this or to return to reality.

While instrumentality was in the process Shinji got to see all people’s emotions, and thoughts and so he saw the sides of people that were close to him he didn’t know of. And likewise the rest of the world got to see Shinji’s memories and emotions.

First we saw who Misato was.

She uses her body for sexual contact to confirm her own existence. Shinji was kinda upset when he saw that Misato did this kinda stuff and he stated; “So this is also part of Misato”.

which where she replied with;

Misato; “The me that Shinji doesn’t know “

Than we saw Asuka.
Which led to this scene

Shinji was opening up to Asuka by letting all of his thoughts out, but she simply replied with no which led to him choking Asuka. This sequence forces Shinji to examine the darkest and most problematic aspects of his personality. All for answering that certain question...

What does he wish for?

Shinji was merging with Rei and here we essentially see Shinji deciding what to do with humanity.

This sequence basically tells shinji’s mixed relationship with humanity.

His hatred, his anger. All the reasons why would want to destroy it and run away from reality.

He states; “No one needs me, so they all should die”.

And we hear Rei’s voice say;

And Shinji replies with; “Wether I exist or not makes no difference to anyone”.

He’s basically thinking about what he should do with humanity, And why he should want to do so.

And we hear Rei’s voice once again asking;

Where Shinji replies with; “It’s more like it’s better if I didn’t exist”, “Is it ok for me to be here”.

And he screams

And then we briefly return to reality where all the souls on earth return to the black moon

As Lilith anti AT field expands to cover the world.

(An AT field is something every human being on earth has. “The divine boundary that humans cannot violate, the light of ones soul it’s the AT field everyone possesses in their heart”.)

And so Lilith was uniting humanity with her anti AT field so that humanity can become one.

In that moment Shinji could hear everyone’s thoughts and feel everyone.

Noises and voices of people who would get rejected, the negative aspects of their relationships.

And so we end in a sequence where we see Shinji being comforted by Misato and Rei.

As in “if you can’t bear it anymore, Unite as one”.

And from this we got to the most bizarre moment of the film.

We got to see reality, the real world, no drawings, the world we live in.

The world we were seeing in the movie was the live action version of Tokyo 3.

But the question on everyone’s mind was

“Why is this live action?”. Well that’s simple, it’s to make Shinji’s reality feel more like it ever has. It’s the difference what we saw earlier in the movie.

What the “dreamworld” was like (Uniting as one) and now its reality. This is Shinji’s reality. The reality he came from, the reality that’s calling back to him, the reality he needs to return to.

The live action form also allows Hideaki Anno to make a larger, more meta point about the audience itself. As we could see in this shot of people in the theatre

Anno is comparing Shinji’s desire to escape reality, and live within this fake dreamworld with the audience relationship with this show, anime, entertainment in general.

He’s telling us that we too at some point need to return to reality. We can’t keep running away to these fantasy world’s.

This is why this sequence ends with an empty theatre. Telling us that the audience has left. They all have gone home. Back to reality.

And so Shinji chooses to return to reality. All of this is conceived through the voice over. The onscreen text asks

And Shinji replies;

And we hear Rei;

Shinji;

Rei;

And he replies with; “Then this isn’t reality, this world where no one exists”.
And Rei tells him that he’s right it’s a dream. And so Shinji tells her; “So I’m not here either”.

Shinji realized that this world where no one really exists is a dream. It’s not reality and it will never be.

Meaning that Shinji has escaped this place. Accepted those terrible things we saw in the previous section.

All the hatred that lies within his heart.

And he asks;

Rei;

Shinji;

Rei;

And as we hear those faithful lines.
Shinji asks;

Rei;

And Shinji asks; “Where is my reality?”.
And Rei replies;

First of all we this sounded like it was from a museum, but now we really understand what it means.

All of this is a wake up.
Not just for Shinji.
But for us too.

And so Shinji decided to wake up from this dream and return to reality.

This is the important decision I told you about. This is the decision the entire story has been built up towards. Shinji has finally found that pull, that attraction for running away from his issues. And that he finally understands that he must confront reality.

You cannot live in a dream.

And so Rei warns him;

They ask him if he really wants to return to reality. But Shinji answered; “It’s Allright”. He comes to terms with the fact that he will be betrayed, he will be deserted, rejected. But he wants to see those people again because at-least those feelings were real.

And so Unit 01 escapes from the egg and the egg is destroyed.

All the souls returned to earth.
Then we saw images on screen why Shinji hates humanity, why he should run away from it. But we also saw reasons why he shouldn’t.

Then comes this scene;

When Shinji returned to reality he seemed to be happy with his decision. But then we saw this scene;

At first we see Asuka and Shinji laying next to each other. In closed in negative space.

But the next shot changes that meaning entirely. They’re hands are as far apart as possible.

They’re close yet distanced.

You now wonder why Shinji choked Asuka and why exactly her first words are “how disgusting”.

And the answer to that is quite simple. These two characters have just emerged from the mindfuck as I’m going to call it.
So they’re both confused. They both just have been birthed back into reality.

The last time we saw these 2 characters was here;

So naturally not knowing what to do and you’re slowly re experiencing reality Shinji simply returns to what he was doing before. He basically just been in heaven and now you’re back to reality.

and you see this person who caused you so much emotional suffering and you don’t know what to do.

So you just follow your intellectual impulses. But you’re crying... you have no idea what you are doing.

It’s the only way Shinji knew how to communicate with Asuka at this point.
And this brings another message. Human communication is violent and messy. But it can also be loving. And so Shinji stops choking her when she puts her hand on his face.

And than she said “how disgusting”. But why those words? Well that’s simple. Remember that mindfuck I was talking about? Asuka had acces to Shinji’s memories and so she could see his darkest thoughts and moments.

She saw this moment and Hideaki Anno told the voice actor of Asuka to say what she would say in that moment. Just what came up in her mind. No script.

The Ending of Evangelion was a happy ending. Yes there is brutality, violence, sorrow and tears. But this is the reality and not a dream. We need to feel other people, we need to feel hatred or love. This is life, you can’t run away from it cause of the bad parts.

You have to embrace life even though it’s it’s beauty, despair, sadness and brutality.

It’s better to feel something rather than nothing. Because that isn’t really

#Evangelion