circuitbird:

As promised, I am going to try to answer anon’s message regarding my thoughts on the “adult trio” in NGE (meaning Misato, Ritsuko, and Kaji). I struggled with any kind of systematic analysis until I included Gendo in the equation, and I think it’s because his relationship with Ritsuko functions as a symbolic complement to Misato’s relationship with Kaji.

Thinking about it last night made me realize how much I should be delving into Lacan’s concept of desire, which I have only read about in summary thus far and still kind of makes my head spin. But, as usual, the consolidated existentialist-psychoanalytic framework that Ernest Becker develops from Otto Rank suffices just fine. At least for starters.

I could have typed that up to look nice but screw it, you get my scrappy handwriting/my oversimplified layout of Becker’s existential paradox as clumsily navigated by our characters.

Remember that according to Becker, the foundations of human behavior lie in the terror produced by this paradox, and the frantic attempts to ensure ultimate and transcendent meaning in the face of bodily death. If we use the paradox as a lens, it becomes obvious that both Misato and Ritsuko are grappling with this terror in complementary ways, and that the objects of desire upon which they enact their terror (Kaji and Gendo, respectively) are symbolically antipodal.

I think it’s pretty obvious why I feel Gendo symbolizes death denial, or a refusal to be confined to the limits of the human body. His entire M.O. basically involves becoming god, and defying death in order to reunite with Yui. Why Kaji is representative of death acceptance (or perhaps even resignation) is less immediately clear, especially since we know so little about him, but the concept coalesces more on examination. There is not a single character in the series who is more prepared to accept their inevitable fate. Kaji appears to have a good idea of both how and when he is going to die, and when he does, greets it with equanimity. Kaji’s humorous nature seems a hint at the inherent absurdity of the paradox, or the “cruel joke” that it is to be the “God who shits” (as Becker puts it). Yet his serious side, as evidenced by conversations with both Misato and Shinji, suggests a grace, wisdom, and self-awareness that is not shared by anyone else in NGE.

Misato runs from Kaji because he reminds her of her father, and coming to terms with this would mean accepting that she does not have the sole power to design her own symbolic meaning. It is the failure of the personal causa sui to achieve its primary childhood goal — the defiance of the imparted causa sui of the parent — and is thus a form of death confrontation: the death of the “self-generated self.” She seeks refuge in the body component of the paradox while stripping away the potential for her relationships to carry more profound symbolic weight. To confront her true desires, after all, would mean facing up to death anxiety. She must confine whatever meaning she seeks to areas that do not remind her of her own powerlessness. Probably helps to compensate by investing most of your worth into the identity of Skilled Military Captain.

Ritsuko, by contrast, cannot conceive of the body as a refuge (see also: her bafflement at Misato’s sexuality) and clearly desires a more meaningful relationship with Gendo than one confined to sex. Of course, Gendo is incapable of providing Ritsuko with any kind of emotional validation, and she plunges into suicidal despair. Unlike Misato, who copes with existential powerlessness with denial, Ritsuko attempts to transfer power — the power to designate ultimate meaning — into the wrong party: another human being who is as doomed to die as she is. Gendo may want to defy death, but he cannot; ironically, he pursues transcendence the same way she does, which is the misguided investment of ultimate power into a vessel that cannot hold it:

After all, what is it that we want when we elevate the love partner to the position of God? We want redemption — nothing less. We want to be rid of our faults, our feeling of nothingness. We want to be justified, to know that our creation has not been in vain. We turn to the love partner for the experience of the heroic, for perfect validation; we expect them to “make us good” through love. Needless to say, human partners can’t do this. The lover does not dispense cosmic heroism; he cannot give absolution in his own name. The reason is that as a finite being he too is doomed, and we read that doom in his own fallibilities, in his very deterioration. Redemption can only come from outside the individual, from beyond, from our conceptualization of the ultimate source of things, the perfection of creation.

(From The Denial of Death, p. 167.)

feminazguls:

One of my favorite things about Eva is how they addressed bodies and how people use/feel about their bodies in both an abstract sense and how it relates physically to others. So, you have Asuka’s body that is going through pubescence and how she wants to use it vs how she feels comfortable using it; Rei who has no connection to her “human form” and feels very disassociated and disconnected physically; and then you have Misato, who doesn’t really know how to show “love” or “emotion” unless it’s using her body. 

Anno uses Misato as a pivot on which themes of women’s bodies center. The first thing I noticed about NGE was that we have two really amazing lady characters filling traditionally masculine roles—commander and scientist—and that one of these ladies (Misato) is very over the top about her sexuality and body. The show uses really obnoxious, un-subtle fanservicey shots with her (and ffs, at the end of every episode Misato says, ‘And don’t worry! They’ll be plenty of fanservice!)— but then it’s revealed that, well, Misato has no idea how to “connect” with others unless it’s through sex. Like, jeez, the first time we meet her she’s trying to relate to a 14 year old boy by drawing attention to her breasts in a picture. Later on, after Kaji’s death and Shinji’s realisation with Rei (I believe), she sits on his bed and moves to make a pass at him. Shinji throws himself away from her and tells her no, and she walks out, and she curses herself for coming onto him. In EoE, she tries to give Shinji hope— she kisses him and promises him that there’ll be more when he survives (because Misato is always making promises and is always set on challenging fate and MAKING miracles and SURVIVING. always always surviving)— but in this situation, where it’s so dire and she’s going to die, she has no idea how to relate to Shinji, to give him hope, so she falls back on her body, her sexuality, how she views her “essence” as a woman. 

And I think that given what Misato has been through, what with witnessing 2nd Impact, having so much rage for her father for pushing that trauma onto her and putting his family in a secondary position, she just does not know how to love. Misato has repressed these insecurities in a really masterful way. As a child she chose not to speak for a long time, and then out of nowhere it seems, she’s opening up with Ritsuko and is in this relationship with Kaji and getting her life together. (I think of it in terms of Misato doing exactly what Asuka wishes she could do with her trauma.)

Misato is flawed in a way that is subtle, that doesn’t focus on the “tragic” as it does with the children. But on top of that, she’s also very selfish— she uses Shinji as a pawn for closure with her father/her trauma, she disregards Kaji until she needs him, she doesn’t really take care of herself in general, and it’s these little things, these little unhealthy behaviors that peek through and show us how Misato is very damaged in her own way.

And the way society hypersexualises women’s bodies and to then discredit women based on that hypersexualisation is exactly what Misato kind of subverts in the show? Because yeah, we have this really goofy, fun-loving, messy/gross, but seriously sexy woman character who is AMAZING at commanding, who takes risks, and most importantly, needs to be in control. She’s ALL about control. She wants to feel in control of her feelings, of her body, of (her) fate. She doesn’t want to go through what she did as a child. When it came down to standing by and seeing if that big Fake Robot Thing would stop on its own, or possibly sacrificing her life, she chose the latter, so she could be in control of that situation. It’s all about challenging fate and if it’s between feeling powerless/helpless or death, she’ll choose death.

And that’s why Misato is an amazing, seriously underrated character. 

kawoshinreis:

ritsumaya is canon and that’s amazing

ritsumaya:

Buckle up. It’s time to go on a massive analysis of Neon Genesis Evangelion’s unsung secondary protagonist, Misato Katsuragi, presented by GC fiendswithbenefits.

Featuring!

• A look at some of Misato’s most important relationships, such as Ritsuko, Shinji, and Ryouji.
• An explanation of the infamous “kiss” scene from End of Evangelion.
• The three roles Misato wears and conflates.
• Who is Misato, really?
• And more!

She’s not just the attractive older woman, y’know.

Warnings for suicide, thanatophobia, discussion of sex, discussion of parental abuse, mothers and fathers, violence, abuse, profanity, abandonment, nudity, pregnancy, general negativity, and basically any trigger warnings for Evangelion etc.etc. It’s also pretty long, clocking in at ten thousand six-hundred twenty-five words. If I miss anything, let me know.

Read More

ritsumaya:

i am so disgusted by the fact that so many people take ayanami rei’s genuine development, multilayered complexity, struggle with an abusive caretaker, existential conflict, genuine difficulty with expressing emotion and socialising due to an isolated and artificially rigid upbringing, and acceptance of an inhuman origin even whilst validating a very human identity - and transform rei into a generic, childlike moe archetype that does not know or understand anything beyond humbly accepting orders from a master

circuitbird:

It’s time for another Evangelion post, this time to address a question sertraline-queen posed about whether the Angels are attacking NERV in an attempt to stop Gendo and his machinations.

A while back someone asked, “Can you please explain the Human Instrumentality Project like I’m five?” and I hope that post can partially clarify the answer. It will also give you the basic rundown of SEELE’s goals and why they are actually disparate from Gendo Ikari’s.

As far as I can tell, the answer to that question — whether the angels are conscious of Gendo or SEELE’s goals and wish to stop them — is no. Remember, the Angels are Adam-derived beings (that is, borne from a Seed of Life and not a Seed of Knowledge) and their behaviors more or less conceptually echo this. While they are far from totally unconscious creatures, they do behave very much like children or babies. They have a basic survival drive, exhibited by their retaliation against NERV’s attacks, but whether they have a unified or even sensible motive is unclear. Kaji suggests that their reasoning is varied: some of them are looking to recover Adam and wipe out mankind, some are looking to engage or “reunite” with Lilith, and some — according to him — seem to have no motive whatsoever. Now, I’m not sure how accurate his assessment actually is, although the actions of the various angels would corroborate these conclusions. I think the only thing we can safely surmise is that the Angels have this intense, passionate drive to “get at” what is fundamentally their parent, Adam, or what arguably represents an object of sexual unification, Lilith.

In jest and in passing I have suggested that the Angels are “pissed,” but if they feel any rage, I think it is over these figures — parental and sexual objects — being made inaccessible to them, prompting a reaction that is like a kid single-mindedly shrieking for what it wants and ignoring anything unrelated. Whether or not they have some complex reason for their behavior is symbolically unnecessary, and I doubt they do; I think the Angels’ activity is meant to represent the unconscious desire to essentially crawl back into the womb (see: Otto Rank and The Trauma of Birth) or, alternatively, fulfill a sexual inclination (see: Freud). They don’t grasp at Adam or Lilith very elegantly, as is to be expected of a life form that lacks a full grasp of the meaning of its own intent; they seem sort of like naive, scared, and relentless id-machines. Aside from Zeruel, whether they feel a discrete antagonism toward humans specifically is debatable.

When the Angels DO express any sort of discernible reasoning, it is emotional and childlike in nature — and Kaworu, Tabris, displays these characteristics as well (albeit with more awareness and complexity than previous angels, presumably because he contains human DNA). Armisael is capable of expressing pain and a need to merge with the nearest entity to try and resolve that pain, but it lacks the insight to characterize what it is feeling as loneliness without Rei’s “help.” And Armisael communicates strictly through mimicking her image — like a baby, it doesn’t yet have a fully developed sense of self; instead, it just copies what it sees and pushes to do what it desires (at Rei’s obvious expense).

You do have to wonder why the First Ancestral Race, upon the knowledge that it was going to become extinct, would decide that its descendants could not possibly be endowed with both the Fruit of Life AND The Fruit of Knowledge, even though they themselves possessed both; recall that their Lances of Longinus are programmed to prevent this evolution from occurring again. I’m inclined to believe that there is something about this dual nature that originally led to the FAR’s own destruction, hence why they would try to protect their own progeny from inheriting the condition. But we are unlikely to ever get an answer beyond what we feel suits our own personal interpretation of events.

ritsumaya:

real talk time why don’t we talk more about the adults of evangelion like put away your shinjis and your asukas and your hikaris and toujis and kensukes and even your reis and kaworus

talk to me about the adults. talk to me about misato and ritsuko and ryouji and yui and ritsuko and naoko and gendo and fuyutsuki and maya and shigeru and makoto. talk to me about maya battling between hir loyalty to hir akagi-sempai and hir simultaneous deep sense of justice and morality. talk to me about fuyutsuki working as a doctor in the hell of the post-second impact world despite the lack of supplies and the shortage of food—or anything else.

talk to me about yui taking a younger ritsuko out on the town in her effort to meet her friends’ children, and the two of them discussing naoko, with yui cautioning ritsuko to try to make amends with her mother and ritsuko ignoring those in favour of discussing what’s happening with the EVA project because if she can bury her emotions in science she doesn’t have to feel them. talk to me about misato laughing her ass off at the thought of ryouji never having any experience with torrents and setting up a seedbox with ritsuko’s help in university. talk to me about makoto and maya celebrating shigeru’s birthday by dragging him out while they’re on break and making huge nuisances of themselves by window shopping at the mall and ending up at the bar somehow and getting shitfaced, then talking through their issues with their respective crushes, and shigeru’s the only one who remembers the following morning (because he’s the only one who didn’t completely drunk in the course of romantic talk).

talk to me about misato lying awake at night listening to her mother scream over the phone with her father and turning up the music in her earbuds and promising God that she’ll be a good girl, she’ll be the perfect girl, she’ll be the sweetest girl that ever walked the earth if only God would give her a happy family again. talk to me about naoko and fuyutsuki enjoying lunch together as they talk about the logistics of the project and naoko assures fuyutsuki that everything they’re doing is for the good of humanity and fuyutsuki wants to believe her, and she wants to believe herself, too. talk to me about yui growing up as the daughter of a member of SEELE and hiding behind doors and learning to sneak her way through computer databases to find out what lurks beneath the surface.

talk to me about ritsuko meeting maya in college during some completely unrelated comparative history class and the two of them having to work on a project regarding the cold war together and the entire time maya is just thinking about how smart and incredible and talented ritsuko is and ritsuko doesn’t even remember maya but imagine maya’s face upon hir first day at NERV out of nowhere—“my name is akagi and i’m your superior”. talk to me about how the one time misato’s mother comes down to the university to talk misato doesn’t even show up because she’s tried so hard to push that part of her away and ritsuko comes down to meet with her. talk to me about how when misato’s professor calls her in to ask her about the second week of missed classes this semester—“you did this just a few months ago!”—and misato quietly explains that her mother’s funeral was last saturday.

talk to me about makoto and gendo being stuck in the elevator one day for a long time and makoto is terrified of saying anything and gendo asks him what he thinks about the cafeteria food and makoto’s sure that he’s about to get fired and then he realises that gendo is trying to make small talk. talk to me about ritsuko carefully tending a bonsai tree even in the middle of the rush of finals because if she can keep a bonsai tree neat and clipped then she can figure out the rest of her life, at least until the day her cat knocks over the pot and it shatters and she doesn’t have the reserves to start over with a new one. talk to me about yui picking out ryouji’s potential and giving them a helping hand and taking time out of her day to talk to them and always had that gentle smile that ryouji would later adopt for themself in the years to come.

talk to me about fuyutsuki going out new year’s shopping and trying to figure out what to buy ritsuko as a gift and shigeru popping by to suggest that new album from her favourite punk rock band and fuyutsuki’s eyes vanishing into orbit at the thought of ritsuko loving punk rock. talk to me about ritsuko and misato and ryouji trying to quantify whatever the hell their relationship is after ryouji spontaneously moves into ritsuko and misato’s dorm and never being able to figure it out but as long as the college kids see ryouji as “boyfriend” and misato as “girlfriend” and ritsuko as “friend” then it doesn’t make a difference. talk to me.

ok just talk to me about the adults of evangelion. i’m serious and i’m waiting.