Final Crisis is basically over now, I believe. As you are probably aware, I wasn't buying it for a variety of reasons, but I have been following it online, because the discussion can be entertaining. I don't mean the discussions that boil down to people calling Morrison overrated, or describing the book as incomprehensible, arguing with the people that chide their reading comprehension skills. Those don't go anywhere useful. I'm thinking more when people actually describe what they didn't understand, or what they think they understand, and then other people either agree, disagree, clarify, or whatever. It's made the series sound as though it would make more sense to me if I read it some time in the future, to the point I might even do that when the collections come out.
No guarantees, mind you, but I find that if all I hear about a work of fiction is how deep/complex/multi-layered it is, the more, intimidated I am by it. Papafred used to try and convince me how great Neon Genesis Evangelion was, discussing how there are all these clues scattered about related to major developments that occur later, plus all the Judeo-Christian symbolism in the series, without going into detail to avoid spoiling it. I didn't show any interest in watching it, so eventually he did start going into more depth, giving examples which made it sound more interesting to me. When one of his other friends asked to see the series a year or two later, I decided I did want to watch after all.
Maybe it's as simple as me not wanting to feel stupid, or wanting a more relaxed viewing. If someone lets you in on the hints before you begin, you don't have sit there poring over every sequence, every bit of dialogue searching for the hidden meaning. Now that search can be fun. I've done it here on the blog periodically, Patsy Walker: Hellcat is the current most frequent subject, I've taken film classes that were all about deciding what you thought the meaning of the film was, then searching for things in the film that might support that reading. Fun though it may be, it's more taxing (to me, anyway) than simply sitting there and reading or watching it strictly for enjoyment, screw symbolism or deeper meaning, because I do sit there and debate with myself over whether such and such actually means anything, and that's not something I'm always up for.
Maybe it's reading a mystery where you read the answer first. It takes the suspense out of it, but you can still appreciate how the creator helps or hinders your reaching the solution, and whether they did so intentionally.
Showing posts with label evangelion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label evangelion. Show all posts
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Looking Into Deserving Happiness
This is related to that tangent I went on in Thursday's post about whether Martin "deserved" to get the happy ending or not, given his past actions. It's not a serious investigation of that, because I don't know what I could say about it. Is happiness something that's deserved, or that could be denied on the basis of what you do or don't do? I guess it is, in fiction at least, since stories often end with the antagonist not getting what they wanted, and the audience is OK with it because that character was bad, so to heck with them. Or we're sad when the protagonist meets a poor end because they deserved better, and so on. It goes on in real life as well, when people talk about how so and so doesn't deserve that, whether it's something positive or negative. I'm not sure what that's related to though. Empathy and jealousy? Belief that there might be someone out there that pulls the strings, and really they ought to know better than to {insert whatever series of events one might find fair or unfair}.
There's one fictional discussion of this that I think of frequently, and it floated up to the front of my mind on Thursday, so I figured now's a good time to get it out here. Some of you may be familiar with a manga/anime called Neon Genesis Evangelion. I watched it with Papafred (who was probably on his 20th viewing of the series or so by then) about five years ago, and that's where my mind's at today. On the surface, it's a show about some kids piloting giant monster-things (called Evas) to fight and kill other monster-things (called Angels). There's a lot more to it, but any other relevant points will come out as I go along. At one point in the series one of the supporting cast (Suzuhara) is tapped to become a pilot. In his first test run, his Eva goes berserk, with him trapped inside. The main character, Shinji, refuses to fight, because he might hurt his friend. Shinji's dad, who's the man in charge and an utter bastard, locks Shinji out of the controls, enagages a sort of autopilot for the Eva, which succeeds in killing the berserk one. In the anime, Suzuhara loses an arm and leg. In the manga, he winds up dead.
Shinji loses it and threatens to destroy the base, his dad short-circuits that plan, and Shinji is discharged from the service. There's another attack, and a recurring character by the name of Kaji grabs Shinji and gets him to a shelter. They start conversing and Shinji talks about how sick he is of the fighting and how he just wants to be happy, and Kaji's response is Shinji doesn't deserve to be happy. He is alive at the cost of Suzuhara's life. He could have fought, maybe defeated the Angel and saved Suzuhara, but wouldn't accept the responsibility, and now his friend is dead. Thus, he forfeited the right to happiness. It's harsh*, but Kaji's speaking from experience. There was a cataclysm 15 years previously, and in the aftermath Kaji ran with a group of orphans, living in the remains of an abandoned building, stealing food from a nearby military post. Except Kaji was caught one day, and presented with the "they die or you die" question, and he chose Option A. He did escape and try to warn his friends, but by the time he arrived, the soldiers were leaving, and his friends were dead. Their lives for his, and so to his mind, he's in the same boat as Shinji. Their lives are no longer there own, and they need to be spent doing things to atone, thus Shinji needs to go back to fighting and protect the world. It's very Spider-Man in that way, presented more bluntly, since I don't recall say, Matt Murdock, flat out deciding Peter can no longer be happy because Uncle Ben was killed by The Burglar Spidey didn't stop.
Well, OK, if Kaji feels that way, I guess that's his call, but he does like Misato, Shinji's commanding officer and the closest thing the kid has to an actual parent**, and she likes Kaji, so what about that? If someone could have happiness by being happy with Kaji, shouldn't he help them acheive that, and just be grateful he attains happiness by proximity?
This is where I think Kaji gets too broad with his view on things for me. See, Misato was at the origin of the cataclysm, because her father was part of the crew studying it and she was visiting. As things go awry, she's injured and knocked unconscious. Her dad puts her in the remaining escape pod (single-seater, naturally), and sends her on her way. He dies for her, and to Kaji's way of thinking, she doesn't deserve any happiness either. Which is kind of asinine really. Unlike Shinji, who chose not to fight, or Kaji, who chose to tell the soldiers where his friends were, Misato made no decision. She didn't get the chance. Now, she didn't like her father much, he was one of those "my work is too important for silly crap like my family!" scientist types, so maybe Misato would have chosen to save herself. Smacked him with a pipe, jumped in the pod, and given Daddy the finger as floated away. We don't know. I always find that to be the hole in Kaji's train of thought, that if a friend throws him/herself on a grenade for you, it counts the same as if you threw them on the grenade to save yourself.
Although, that ties back into how I perceive the characters, and the attachment (or lack thereof) I form with them. Misato's one of the few characters in the series I acutally liked. She plays at being the party girl, as a defense mechanism, but she's also one of the only adults in the series that actually seems to care about the well-being of the pilots, while I get the feeling everyone else views them as expendable weapons to save their own hides. So I root for her, and the idea that this guy, who vaguely reminds me of Gambit - with his stubble and rougish style - doesn't think they should try and be happy together because neither of them deserve it, well that annoys me. Shinji's whining and constant indecision over whether he will be a pilot or not, whether he wants his father's approval or not, well indecision over damn near everything really***, prevents me from really feeling too bad for him. I don't wish ill upon him, but he wasn't even trying to find a way to save his friend during the fight, he simply refused to do anything.
I'm not sure why that particular scene resonates with me. It's a depressing way of viewing life****, and maybe I was surprised to see a character damning themselves along with the person they were trying to give a kick in the pants to. Or it could be I just found his logic dumbfounding and I didn't like him lumping a character I root for with himself. I'm curious what the creator's intent was with that scene, because the more I think on it, the more I think Kaji hasn't thought this through enough, is probably using it as an excuse to keep his distance from others*****, and it starts to hurt his argument from my perspective. Perhaps Shinji shouldn't be listening to this guy, and should just continue on as he was. That wouldn't have worked well for the story as it wound up proceeding, though.
* Though to be fair, Shinji needs a periodic kick in the pants. He has self-esteem issues, and positive reinforcement is good, but sometimes they don't have time to build him up, and just have to push him forward.
** Shinji hadn't seen his dad in a decade when the story begins, and his mother's dead. When Shinji initially refused to pilot an Eva, Gendo sent him away, disgusted. Shinji is only useful to Gendo as an obedient weapon, and beyond that means zilch.
*** Which is something I haven't sussed out. Shinji quits and rejoins, and quits again, and I'm annoyed with him. Spider-Man periodically swears Spider-Man no more, only to start web-slinging again, and I like him. I haven't figured out what the difference is to me between the two.
**** Is it Objectivist? You lived because they died, that's wrong, regardless of circumstance, end of story.
***** That's true of practically everyone in the series. They're all emotionally-damaged goods, and none of them seem capable of sustaining close, serious friendships for any extended period of time. Supposedly (going by stuff I've read on the Internet) the creator of the series was dealing with serious depression issues while making it, which might explain a lot, if true. Not saying it is or isn't, just saying it's a possible explanation I've heard.
There's one fictional discussion of this that I think of frequently, and it floated up to the front of my mind on Thursday, so I figured now's a good time to get it out here. Some of you may be familiar with a manga/anime called Neon Genesis Evangelion. I watched it with Papafred (who was probably on his 20th viewing of the series or so by then) about five years ago, and that's where my mind's at today. On the surface, it's a show about some kids piloting giant monster-things (called Evas) to fight and kill other monster-things (called Angels). There's a lot more to it, but any other relevant points will come out as I go along. At one point in the series one of the supporting cast (Suzuhara) is tapped to become a pilot. In his first test run, his Eva goes berserk, with him trapped inside. The main character, Shinji, refuses to fight, because he might hurt his friend. Shinji's dad, who's the man in charge and an utter bastard, locks Shinji out of the controls, enagages a sort of autopilot for the Eva, which succeeds in killing the berserk one. In the anime, Suzuhara loses an arm and leg. In the manga, he winds up dead.
Shinji loses it and threatens to destroy the base, his dad short-circuits that plan, and Shinji is discharged from the service. There's another attack, and a recurring character by the name of Kaji grabs Shinji and gets him to a shelter. They start conversing and Shinji talks about how sick he is of the fighting and how he just wants to be happy, and Kaji's response is Shinji doesn't deserve to be happy. He is alive at the cost of Suzuhara's life. He could have fought, maybe defeated the Angel and saved Suzuhara, but wouldn't accept the responsibility, and now his friend is dead. Thus, he forfeited the right to happiness. It's harsh*, but Kaji's speaking from experience. There was a cataclysm 15 years previously, and in the aftermath Kaji ran with a group of orphans, living in the remains of an abandoned building, stealing food from a nearby military post. Except Kaji was caught one day, and presented with the "they die or you die" question, and he chose Option A. He did escape and try to warn his friends, but by the time he arrived, the soldiers were leaving, and his friends were dead. Their lives for his, and so to his mind, he's in the same boat as Shinji. Their lives are no longer there own, and they need to be spent doing things to atone, thus Shinji needs to go back to fighting and protect the world. It's very Spider-Man in that way, presented more bluntly, since I don't recall say, Matt Murdock, flat out deciding Peter can no longer be happy because Uncle Ben was killed by The Burglar Spidey didn't stop.
Well, OK, if Kaji feels that way, I guess that's his call, but he does like Misato, Shinji's commanding officer and the closest thing the kid has to an actual parent**, and she likes Kaji, so what about that? If someone could have happiness by being happy with Kaji, shouldn't he help them acheive that, and just be grateful he attains happiness by proximity?
This is where I think Kaji gets too broad with his view on things for me. See, Misato was at the origin of the cataclysm, because her father was part of the crew studying it and she was visiting. As things go awry, she's injured and knocked unconscious. Her dad puts her in the remaining escape pod (single-seater, naturally), and sends her on her way. He dies for her, and to Kaji's way of thinking, she doesn't deserve any happiness either. Which is kind of asinine really. Unlike Shinji, who chose not to fight, or Kaji, who chose to tell the soldiers where his friends were, Misato made no decision. She didn't get the chance. Now, she didn't like her father much, he was one of those "my work is too important for silly crap like my family!" scientist types, so maybe Misato would have chosen to save herself. Smacked him with a pipe, jumped in the pod, and given Daddy the finger as floated away. We don't know. I always find that to be the hole in Kaji's train of thought, that if a friend throws him/herself on a grenade for you, it counts the same as if you threw them on the grenade to save yourself.
Although, that ties back into how I perceive the characters, and the attachment (or lack thereof) I form with them. Misato's one of the few characters in the series I acutally liked. She plays at being the party girl, as a defense mechanism, but she's also one of the only adults in the series that actually seems to care about the well-being of the pilots, while I get the feeling everyone else views them as expendable weapons to save their own hides. So I root for her, and the idea that this guy, who vaguely reminds me of Gambit - with his stubble and rougish style - doesn't think they should try and be happy together because neither of them deserve it, well that annoys me. Shinji's whining and constant indecision over whether he will be a pilot or not, whether he wants his father's approval or not, well indecision over damn near everything really***, prevents me from really feeling too bad for him. I don't wish ill upon him, but he wasn't even trying to find a way to save his friend during the fight, he simply refused to do anything.
I'm not sure why that particular scene resonates with me. It's a depressing way of viewing life****, and maybe I was surprised to see a character damning themselves along with the person they were trying to give a kick in the pants to. Or it could be I just found his logic dumbfounding and I didn't like him lumping a character I root for with himself. I'm curious what the creator's intent was with that scene, because the more I think on it, the more I think Kaji hasn't thought this through enough, is probably using it as an excuse to keep his distance from others*****, and it starts to hurt his argument from my perspective. Perhaps Shinji shouldn't be listening to this guy, and should just continue on as he was. That wouldn't have worked well for the story as it wound up proceeding, though.
* Though to be fair, Shinji needs a periodic kick in the pants. He has self-esteem issues, and positive reinforcement is good, but sometimes they don't have time to build him up, and just have to push him forward.
** Shinji hadn't seen his dad in a decade when the story begins, and his mother's dead. When Shinji initially refused to pilot an Eva, Gendo sent him away, disgusted. Shinji is only useful to Gendo as an obedient weapon, and beyond that means zilch.
*** Which is something I haven't sussed out. Shinji quits and rejoins, and quits again, and I'm annoyed with him. Spider-Man periodically swears Spider-Man no more, only to start web-slinging again, and I like him. I haven't figured out what the difference is to me between the two.
**** Is it Objectivist? You lived because they died, that's wrong, regardless of circumstance, end of story.
***** That's true of practically everyone in the series. They're all emotionally-damaged goods, and none of them seem capable of sustaining close, serious friendships for any extended period of time. Supposedly (going by stuff I've read on the Internet) the creator of the series was dealing with serious depression issues while making it, which might explain a lot, if true. Not saying it is or isn't, just saying it's a possible explanation I've heard.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)