I Guess That Means He Was A Good Villain

Time for a little schadenfreude discussion. Nice thing about Evangelion is that it has three endings. Not sure this was the way it was originally planned, I've heard there was a lot of fan discontent about the first ending, so they made another, and then another, I guess. What's nice is, they're all kind of widely disparate endings, so you can just pick the one you like best. One is sort of a reset button, another is an end of the world sort of scenario, and then there's Shinji's Wacky Dream World. See {SPOILER!} Shinji is basically allowed to decide the fate of the world by a being that's level of power essentially makes them the Hand of God. Each ending represents a different decision by Shinji, reflecting a different mindset at a different moment in the period of time when he was being asked to decide.

The Wacky Dream World is my favorite. There are no evil monsters, so no need to pilot giant death things to fight them. Shinji's an ordinary school kid, has some friends, has both his parents, has a cool teacher. Plus, in this world Rei Ayanami acts 180 degrees from the way she behaved throughout the series*, which is highly entertaining. So it's a very cheerful sort of place, not to an absurd degree, mind you. The various inanimate objects aren't bouncing and swaying in tune with a jolly melody which fills the air, but comes from nowhere, or anything like that. It's our world, I think, with it's somewhat more mundane problems than "giant monster appears from nowehere tries to destroy entire city" they frequently faced.

It was only a couple of months ago I realized something about the ending that made me like it even more. I mentioned on Saturday that Shinji's father is a terrible parent, in addition to being an evil, manipulative bastard. There aren't many fictional characters I've wanted to see get their comeuppance more than Gendo Ikari. Iron Man, post-Civil War, for example, doesn't even come close**. Well, in Shinji's Dream World, all we see of Gendo is him sitting at the breakfast table, face hidden behind a newspaper he's apparently reading. He does not move during the brief moments we see him. His only response to comments directed to him is a "Hmm", or a grunt***.

It occurred to me, what if Gendo was trapped? The world has changed according to Shinji's whims, into a world he thinks will be better. People that died are alive. People that were in comas are not. People he wouldn't see if they had their original job are now in jobs where he can see them regularly (Misato, who was his commanding officer and guardian, is now his teacher). Still, there appear to be some limits. Asuka is supposedly his best friend in this world, but she can be pretty abusive towards him, and certainly a bit bossy. That's how she was in the world originally, so it seems he can't shake that image of her, even when he's trying for a better world****.

So I think to myself,what a wonderful world. Wait, that's not right. I think to myself, the only side of Shinji's father we've ever seen Shinji exposed to is a cold, distant manipulator, one completely willing to throw his son into battle with no training, and discard him the moment Shinji steps out of line. There is nothing in between, no father-son bonding or connections. Shinji either receives orders from his father and is then dismissed, or is told how disappointing his insubordination or weakness is. So maybe Shinji can't conceive of his father as a warm, loving, supportive human being. The best he can do is see him as not being a manipulator and jerk, and the only way to achieve that is to have him do nothing at all, the way Wally West did to Inertia. I doubt Shinji would have done it consciously. He was undoubtedly more focused on the fact he'd have his mother back, or have a normal life. It might not even occur to him what happened to his dad. After all, when he sees his father in the Dream World, Gendo largely ignores him, and doesn't interact with him. So pretty much what their relationship was before.

I have to say, the idea of Gendo Ikari being forever trapped in that seat, staring at that paper, unable to say or do anything, well, I just really enjoy the thought of that. Even if he has all sorts of brilliant schemes, he can't do a thing with them. He's just stuck. Forever.

* For the majority of the series, Rei behaves less like a human than Commander Data from Next Generation. Which was a big part of the reason I liked the character, actually, because I thought she was sort of learning how to be more human, or at least more expressive with her emotions.

** I like that part of how Marvel (or Matt Fraction) appears to be trying to rehab Tony's image is by putting him in opposition to the guy who stole his job, who is really evil and deranged. See Tony's a good guy, he's trying to resist Norman Osborn! Like him again, won't you? Uh, no. There are a host of people I'd rather see defeat Norman Osborn. Cyclops for example, and you know how I feel about Cyclops.

*** Something along those lines. It's been five years since I've watched it, which is why me thinking of this now was kind of startling.

**** The antagonism takes more of the form of friendly needling though, where before, at least at the beginning, she seemed to truly dislike him, and resent the hullabaloo over his skills as a pilot.