Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby ShonHam » Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:58 am

Taking into account the massive change in Shinji's mental state upon desiring to open up to others and what that signifies, it brought something else to my attention that no one seems to discuss all too much.

The series/movie cuts off before we get any true insight into the "new" Shinji who desires to live, and what his character has become through the experience of the Human Instrumentality Project (the closest we get is Episode 26's conclusion). So with that in mind, what do you all believe Shinji as a person became upon the end of the series, if you believe he changed at all?
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Re: Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby CaesarMagnus » Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:31 pm

I think Anno does a nice job ending the film right there, just after having shown us how broken people like Shinji and Asuka have returned to life. There was really no need, in my opinion, for him to add any extra scene, for his message of hope (a harsh, cynical hope) was already clear.

As for Shinji post-EoE, I would say he's like someone who has exitted from a depressive cycle, and who is finally ready to face reality. Anno himself experienced several emotional collapses and defined himself as a "broken person", so I think he did it greatly designing the tribulations of characters such as Shinji, Misato and Asuka in the sense that their emotions are presented rawly and, somehow, realistically (without taking into consideration the apocalyptic background of the series, or the extreme traumas they all have, of course). Thus, when we see Shinji deciding to say farewell to his mother and willing to face the world as it is, he's simply becoming a person like you and me: someone who wants to be happy, but might get hurt in the process, facing new emotional downfalls, or heartwarming happiness. He's now alive, so all paths are open for him, and as we usually say in Spanish, life is like a lottery, so you can't know what you'll get.

Anno himself, despite his hopeful message, relapsed and fell into new depressions after EoE, so who knows what Shinji will have to experience after Instrumentality...
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Re: Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby StrokeMeGoat » Mon Oct 08, 2018 9:32 am

Despite the cast's, and indeed, Shinji's traumas all being specific to them as individuals, their traumas are unique only in the minutia of their particular lives. On a more broad, human scale, they were all more or less just people trying to cope and live with the harsh reality of the human condition. Shinji is made the focal point of the Human Instrumentality Project and as one of the more main protagonists in the narrative (if not to be considered as the main character), but in the broader scale of the series and what all Third Impact and HIP are supposed to represent and mean in relation to the viewers and humanity as a whole, Shinji does just fine as a stand-in for the viewer.

So, what does Shinji do post 3I? The easiest answer is to recognize that the storied stopped there because Shinji, post 3I, is supposed to be you. In a world that's as filled with awful stuff, confusion, loneliness, hatred, love, misunderstandings, etc. as the one we human beings inhabit and have to live and survive through every day, how do you cope with it all and deal with other people? After undergoing the kind of breakthrough Shinji did during HIP, he even states himself that he knows he will continue to suffer, be hurt and betrayed by others, be lonely, etc., and anybody with real life experience dealing with these kinds of issues (which inevitably becomes everybody sooner or later) would say as much is true after they came to a similar breakthrough themselves. The cycle of everything bad never goes away; what changes is how you react to it and deal with it.

That said, continued improvement depends entirely on the individual. Becoming aware of one's own responsibility for one's happiness or lack thereof is indeed an extremely important and useful first step, but without acting in accordance with that knowledge in a healthy manner, knowing that fact in itself won't help you at all(...because only you can ultimately help yourself, which is a conscious choice you have to make everyday). How Shinji does from hereon out is as unpredictable as how you will do for the rest of your own life. Assuming he takes the lessons he's learned to heart, he will be better off for it, but ultimately whether or not things improve for him depends on him.

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Re: Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby ShonHam » Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:19 am

Anno's mindset becoming a part of Evangelion's central narrative and message is incredibly interesting, and Shinji's development leading into our own lives was something oddly beautiful. Characters free of flaws are usually quite boring to me, so I'm happy that it was left open ended as to what they became, and that they assured the viewer that this wouldn't be the end to their troubles. It's pretty hopeful from a watcher's perspective, to know that as people we can never fully escape hardship - but it's okay to experience these things.
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Re: Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby eldomtom2 » Wed Oct 10, 2018 11:37 am

View Original PostCaesarMagnus wrote:Anno himself, despite his hopeful message, relapsed and fell into new depressions after EoE, so who knows what Shinji will have to experience after Instrumentality...

That was after the TV series, not EoE, and it shows. Instrumentality becomes negative, and Shinji's final conclusion is much vaguer and points to him changing much less. He remains, like Anno after the TV series, unconvinced that happiness is real or that things will turn out well, only that life is on the whole preferable to death/a return to the womb.

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Re: Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby Kendrix » Wed Oct 10, 2018 2:01 pm

Well, Shinji himself basically concludes that he'll probably continue to ask himself the same questions and encounter hardship, that so I don't assume he'd be all that different except somewhat more mature and with something of a resolution to stick it out to the end, perhaps a certain Amor Fati in thee nietzschean sense, a tad more honesty about his inner motvations, but fundamentally the same person, just a year older and with a different attitude as to how to deal with it. .

I think he'd still be a fairly low key individual all that - the most substantial change being what we've sufficiently seen in either version of the ending monologue.
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Re: Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby The Cruel » Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:10 pm

I think Shinji 'll still be broken for a while, having it hard to accept that 3I happened and how he should take care for Asuka.

And what's more concerning, is how he reacts when he realises, that even what Yui said about people coming back, that the ultimate sacrifice to save both humanity and him and Asuka, is that they live the rest of their days as the last humans on earth and being already dead, when it 'll take eons for all of life to evolve back to a stable state.
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Re: Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby CaesarMagnus » Sun Oct 14, 2018 1:28 pm

View Original Posteldomtom2 wrote:That was after the TV series, not EoE, and it shows.

Yes, according to an interview, he was "a broken person" during 4 years, which served as a basis for Evangelion. However, as far as I know, he also experienced other emotional breakdowns in more recent years. Not sure how much time it passed from the time he made EoE, though.

If anyone could confirm this information, I would be very grateful.

View Original Posteldomtom2 wrote:Instrumentality becomes negative, and Shinji's final conclusion is much vaguer and points to him changing much less. He remains, like Anno after the TV series, unconvinced that happiness is real or that things will turn out well, only that life is on the whole preferable to death/a return to the womb.


Indeed. Couldn't have said it better.
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Re: Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby The_Pedro_the_the » Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:07 pm

I think the end does an incredible job at closing the story. The two of the main protagonists (with Rei "desappearing", beacuse I have no better words) showing that they have learned something (demostrating some character development), yet they still are the same characters that we have watched throw the series. Asuka will remain somewhat bitter towards Shinji (the last line form her is that), but she can pardon some of his guilts and also be a bit nicer to him (in "Hell train" Shinji says at the end of Asuka's speech, Shinji: Then try being nice to me). And Shinji having learned how to live (more accurately, being alive is better than), he will react the same way to some situations (like an actual human) crying and retracting into a ball.

The point I wanted to made here is to illustrate how people can change, but will always retain some flaws or aspects of their personality.

As an aside, Anno has been through various episodes of depression, the best example I know is when he worked on Rebuild 3.0, but he recovered (although slowly) by making other stuff, like Shin Godzilla. I could say that Hideaki Anno needs to stop working on Evangelion, and start doing other stuff, for example, his live action movies (specially the ones from the early 2000's) have a lot of camera work on them, the way he composes each shot is really experimental (just watch some scenes from "Love & Pop" and you will get the idea), but in some way cohesive.
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Re: Shinji Post-Third Impact

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Postby The_Pedro_the_the » Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:28 pm

That reply was really rushed, and ended up being flawed. I just want to excuse some of the errors that it had.

To answer the original question or the thread, I think that Shinji is (to put a comparison) like someone who has ended their first session to the office of a psychotherapist (all of Third Impact), he feels a little bit better, but there's a lot of time (and a big endaevour) needed to solve the mental problems, which have been accumulated during during the entirety of Shinji's life.
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