29th October 2020
Describing the second episode of Evangelion, I will stick to real-world chronology and not the order of events shown in the anime.
It seems that after delivering a crucial thesis in the first episode, the series seems to take a step back and develop some secondary themes.
What there is
Shinji takes the burden of humanity's fate on his back and faces the danger. It's to much for him and he barely makes the Eva walk – it's still a great success and an argument for his heroic capacity. He falls like Jesus under the cross and the Angel starts tearing him apart. The wounded Evangelion has gone berserk. It has reacted emotionally, it was a reaction of the Angel inside. It was the reaction of the spiritual part – that's what they have been waiting for. The Eva moves very smoothly in its current state, not like the robot before.
Gendo says – it looks like we've won. He knew that this might happen. The Eva breaks through the AT field – it entered the spiritual realm very easily as it was an integrated human/ angel being.
The Angel, seeing it's about to die, self destructs. The crucifiction is complete. The offer is made. The Eva survived. The beast within the Eva opens its eye and it notices Shinji. Shinji notices it.
Shinji wakes up in a hospital room. Everything's white.
SEELE meeting. We clearly see that the council which controls NERV and the world is not a group of wise, benevolent men. Then want to use Gendo and the situation to achieve their own goal – to become God.
Gendo doesn't even visit his son in the hospital. He also treats him very instrumentally.
Shinji wants to live alone and digest what has happened to him, but Misato takes him to her house. She is stunningly infantile, disorganized, chaotic, sexually confused, aggressive and emotional. She has a very paradoxical approach to Shinji; sometimes she scolds him for not behaving like a man and then she treats him like a little kawaii girl. Instead of a boyfried she lives with a pet penguin.
The penguin scares Shinji and he appears naked in front of Misato. He is very ashamed of himself.
Citizens of New Tokyo seem to want to abandon the city. Misato then takes Shinji to observe the towers rising from the ground.
There seems to have been a problem with unit 00. It appears to have gotten insane. The Eva's seem to be a force which is not easy to control by their creators. The Eva's rage has left Rei wounded.
Misato says something important. She thinks it's not right to use Shinji as a tool to destroy the Angels. She also seems to intuit that the Angels are not really something that humanity should be destroying.
What to do about it
The second episode seems to be focused on the following points. The individual has the capacity to face the calamities of life and overcome them, however in order to do so, he has to integrate the shadow within/ the destructive tendencies of his own souls/ his capacity for evil and chaos. If these are not integrated, the knowledge of one's own diabolical capabilities might leave him scarred. Also it takes a mature human to make another mature human.
Shinji is clearly not integrated. However, during the fight with the Angel, something within the Eva (with whom he's synchronized – but not fully) wakes up and the robot goes postal. It loses the awkward mechanical pace and rushes towards the threat like a real biological being. It obliterates the threat, but as a result it opens its eye – that's the realization of one's own capacity for evil. This realization makes Shinji develop PTSD symptoms, which he will be trying to subsequently integrate.
What's the importance of the SEELE meeting? It's obvious that they're not a good, loving God the Father. They're a manipulative bunch that want to take advantage of Shinji's sacrifice to achieve their own godhood.
Shinji living with Misato means that he is not complete, mature, independent yet. The unsorted individual might choose a chaotic, unstable mate. Also Misato's sexuality is pronounced very clearly – that might show the focus of the immature individual.
A chaotic, unsorted mate is not able to make a man out of a boy. Misato doesn't know how to make Shinji man up. At one point she scolds him for being to feminine, at another point she dumps all the chores on him and calls him „Shinji-chan”, thus emasculating him further.
It's very telling that Shinji is terribly ashamed of his own perceived lack of masculinity. Being naked, he quickly covers his private parts up and blushes. Is masculinity (or femininity for that matter) really manifesting itself through the size of human genitals? Shinji just singlehandedly faced and defeated a monster more powerful than a hydrogen bomb – that seems masculine enough for me. He clearly doesn't believe it though.
Having temporarily defeated the Angels, humans don't learn anything and continue their sole focus on technology and development (purely Yang forces). Misato and Shinji observe phallic towers rise from the ground – citizens of Babel seem not to have learned anything yet.
The realisation of one's own destructive capabilities has left Rei Ayanami wounded as well.
At the end of the episode Misato seems to have an inkling that the coming of Angels must meen something and maybe humans should not destroy them. She also seems to know that an intrumental usage of human evil capabilities is not right.
The second episode introduced us to a few important ideas. An individual might use their evil nature in order to overcome problems, but if these tendencies are not integrated into their psyche, they might be left scarred. The unsorted individual might not choose the best partner for themselves – instead of a mature, coherent woman they might choose a chaotic, confused girl (or pornography, or promiscuity). This type of mate doesn't know how to help the boy become a man, as she doesn't how to turn from a girl into a woman.
New analyses coming soon.
dd
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