Why writers think Rei is made from multiple people?

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Why writers think Rei is made from multiple people?

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Postby Seoul Gamer » Sat Jul 11, 2015 5:27 pm

I've seen this peculiar idea show up time and time again in many stories that pair Shinji and Rei; this notion that Rei's DNA is spliced together from multiple people, only one of whom is Yui Ikari.

The obvious purpose of this fanwanking is to prevent Shinji and Rei's relationship from being incest, but what surprises me is just how common this specific excuse is. Aside from the infamous Oedipus Ikari, there's hardly a single Shinji/Rei story out there that doesn't use this half-hearted explanation to dismiss the creepy side of Shinji and Rei's relationship.

What I'm wondering is, why is this particular hand-wave so common? Why does everyone come up with this particular idea about Rei, that she's only a little bit of Yui and a lot of bits from other random people? It's almost as though one popular fanfic came up with this idea and everyone else copied them.

Does anyone have any idea as to where this popular meme came from?
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Postby NemZ » Sat Jul 11, 2015 6:42 pm

Really? I've never heard this before. What I usually see is people saying Rei is half Yui and half Lilith, making her Shinji's genetic half sister.
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Postby Seoul Gamer » Sat Jul 11, 2015 7:11 pm

View Original PostNemZ wrote:Really? I've never heard this before. What I usually see is people saying Rei is half Yui and half Lilith, making her Shinji's genetic half sister.


Oh, I've seen this one before too. It's just that I've seen the "spliced together from loads of people" idea far more often, to the point where I began to wonder did it come from something popular.
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Postby NemZ » Sat Jul 11, 2015 8:29 pm

Has anyone else noticed this before? If so, where?
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Postby Sicarius VI » Sat Jul 11, 2015 9:11 pm

Nope, haven't seen this around. I know people question who Kaworu is based off of, but not Rei. :huh:

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Postby SEELE-01 » Sun Jul 12, 2015 12:02 am

I have heard the sister theory (but as Rei is literally Shinji's sister)...

It's so fun to listen to guys that brag when they know nothing :lol:
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Postby Cosmo11 » Sun Jul 12, 2015 12:28 am

The closest thing I've seen to this is writers saying that Yui only makes up a small part of Rei's DNA and the rest of her being made up of Lilith.

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Postby amitakartok » Sun Jul 12, 2015 3:13 am

View Original PostNemZ wrote:Has anyone else noticed this before? If so, where?


I've seen this in multiple fanfics before. Can't mention any by name off the top of my head, however.

I don't use this excuse myself, though. Way I look at it, Lilith's involvement means Rei cannot be considered fully human and there's no sense in talking about incest when the parties involved aren't even of the same species.

And if they honestly, truly care about and like each other, they won't care about the incest anyway. A relationship that can be broken up by external (read: social/moral) influence was on shaky foundations to begin with.
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Postby Reichu » Sun Jul 12, 2015 3:36 am

View Original Postamitakartok wrote:Way I look at it, Lilith's involvement means Rei cannot be considered fully human and there's no sense in talking about incest when the parties involved aren't even of the same species.

If you put the soul of an alien into Dolly the sheep, Dolly the sheep is no less a cloned sheep. She just happens to also have an alien's soul. Making Dolly the sheep fuck her (genetic) mom's son would still be incest (or, excuse me, "inbreeding"...).

Honestly, folks just need to get over themselves. If you don't like incest, don't ship somebody with a clone of his mom who also happens to be the vessel for the mom of all life on earth. If you like the pairing so much you can't live without it, don't try to make it something it isn't. It's incest. Deal with it. Embrace it. What's the worst that could happen -- people think you're weird or gross? It's fantasy; who gives a shit?
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Postby Seoul Gamer » Sun Jul 12, 2015 5:48 am

It seems I should have given some examples. My apologies.

Fanfiction where I've seen this trope employed include "Life Goes On" by funvince, "Going another Way" by Tribun and "Gravity" by Airwtw. Although, quibbling over the exact percentage of Lilith DNA that Rei is composed of counts as well for the purposes of this discussion.

It seems people have a really strong aversion to incest, and either don't want to deal with the concept when shipping or try to water it down as much as possible. I'm just puzzled as to how so many people use the same excuses to dodge out of the whole topic. There really doesn't seem to be any particular source for either the "Rei took her DNA from loads of people" idea or the "Rei is 50% Lilith so it doesn't count" idea. Apparently, everyone comes up with the same workarounds independently of one another.

There just aren't many stories that take Oedipus Ikari's approach, it seems. As SerialRavist said, "Rei becomes a much less meaningful character if you take the Yui out of here."

And if they honestly, truly care about and like each other, they won't care about the incest anyway. A relationship that can be broken up by external (read: social/moral) influence was on shaky foundations to begin with.


The tricky part is that their relationship is indeed on shaky foundations. Neither of them are good at opening up towards other people. The relevation that Rei is related to Shinji would be such a devastating blow to the relationship that it should really dominate the narrative from the point at which it is introduced. At the very least, it should become a constant part of their struggle for the rest of the story. Instead, we get something a little like what happens in "Going Another Way" where Shinji gets to say something along the lines of "Whew, guess I'm not related to Rei after all! That could have gotten creepy".
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Postby Mr. Tines » Sun Jul 12, 2015 1:45 pm

In real life, this is typical of of what happens to cases like this that actually reach the public sphere : pair bonding is stronger than subsequent revelation -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1311238/Brother-sister-didnt-know-related-marry--despite-knowing-union-illegal.html

And given Rei's blatantly bogus birthdate in NERV's records, and Gendo's "a colleague's daughter", her official paperwork couldn't place her any more closely related than a cousin, so it's not like there'd be any legal impediment (Japan not having fallen to the eugenicists like the US and China have).

The real question is whether Rei would count as imouto or nee-san. This is Important! :devil:
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Postby amitakartok » Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:46 pm

Definitely imouto.
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Postby Seoul Gamer » Sun Jul 12, 2015 3:46 pm

View Original PostMr. Tines wrote:In real life, this is typical of of what happens to cases like this that actually reach the public sphere : pair bonding is stronger than subsequent revelation -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1311238/Brother-sister-didnt-know-related-marry--despite-knowing-union-illegal.html

And given Rei's blatantly bogus birthdate in NERV's records, and Gendo's "a colleague's daughter", her official paperwork couldn't place her any more closely related than a cousin, so it's not like there'd be any legal impediment (Japan not having fallen to the eugenicists like the US and China have).

The real question is whether Rei would count as imouto or nee-san. This is Important! :devil:


Not disagreeing with you by any means, but it would be an uphill battle for the two of them that authors seem keen to avoid.

Amazing how people find the same justifications independently of one another, though. I guess we all see what we want to see in Evangelion and its characters. Otherwise we wouldn't still be talking about it!

As to the "real question", I imagine Shinji would refer to her as Ayanami, as he always has. Curiously enough, he still refers to her on by surname even in Rebuild, when their relationship is supposed to be a lot closer.
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Postby Bagheera » Sun Jul 12, 2015 7:42 pm

View Original Postamitakartok wrote:I don't use this excuse myself, though. Way I look at it, Lilith's involvement means Rei cannot be considered fully human and there's no sense in talking about incest when the parties involved aren't even of the same species.


Adam and Lilith are explicitly human, so I'm afraid this doesn't work.

I have not seen the multiple people theory myself; first I've heard of it.
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Postby Seoul Gamer » Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:37 am

I have not seen the multiple people theory myself; first I've heard of it.


Not a lot of people have, it seems. I'm guessing it's because no one here reads Rei/Shinji shipping fics. It's a common trope in those sorts of stories.

As to its origins, that would appear to be the rear ends of those who use it in their stories.
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