Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby imprimatur13 » Sun Oct 01, 2017 1:00 am

AFAIK, we know absolutely nothing about Kaworu's life between his birth, and episode 24. Who raised him? Was he just in a Reiquarium-like structure till now, or has he grown up as normal?

What we DO know:
  1. He can speak Japanese.
  2. He is able to socialize with others.
  3. He's familiar with Ode to Joy.
And... that's about it. We can assume, from the first 2, that he's had some sort of regular human contact with Japanese speakers in some kind of social setting... (maybe some kind of school, somewhere?) The last would also fit some sort of schooling background. Ok. I guess I answered my own question. ^_^

Kaworu went to boarding school. QED.
Last edited by imprimatur13 on Sun Oct 01, 2017 6:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby Sachi » Sun Oct 01, 2017 1:25 am

I don't believe Kaworu has had experience socializing with regular people, otherwise he would not have empathized with Shinji the way he did. It was likely limited to Kiel and/or his handlers.
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby C.T.1290 » Sun Oct 01, 2017 1:56 am

I think Kaworu was just a creation of SEELE, a clone similar to Rei as well as the 17th angel, as I'm sure you already knew. After the 16th angel was defeated, SEELE decided to release him, a vessel of Adam, to carry out their plans for Instrumentality, and I'm sure that him getting close to Shinji was a part of that plan as well.
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby Cybermat47 » Sun Oct 01, 2017 4:15 am

View Original PostSachi wrote:I don't believe Kaworu has had experience socializing with regular people, otherwise he would not have empathized with Shinji the way he did. It was likely limited to Kiel and/or his handlers.


Yep, that's what I was thinking too. I imagine he would have been confined until Episode 24 - Seele wouldn't want an asset wandering off by itself.
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby pwhodges » Sun Oct 01, 2017 5:01 am

View Original Postimprimatur13 wrote:(as Akira's son)

We don't know this.

In NGE his social awkwardness with Shinji implies little or restricted earlier human contact (in NTE, that doesn't seem to apply, though). In NGE his soul has had some kind of processing to copy, clone or divide it for the MPE dummy plugs; who knows what side effects, if any, that might have had.

I also wonder what possibilities they may have for imprinting knowledge; after all, although Rei III doesn't have Rei II's immediate memories, she does have language and so on - so how did a clone acquire those? Such facilities could explain Kaworu's knowledge of some things - though why anyone would implant knowledge of the Ode to Joy would be a puzzle.
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby imprimatur13 » Sun Oct 01, 2017 6:48 am

View Original Postpwhodges wrote:We don't know this.

Indeed we don't... sorry 'bout that. It is fixed.

Hmm... so it seems that the consensus is that Kaworu's been pretty isolated, except whatever contact was necessary, which came from Keel/his handlers. It also seems, according to pwhodges (and this makes sense to me) that his knowledge of different things (like the Japanese language, and Ode to Joy) could have been imprinted on to him through some... artificial means.

I wonder: Maybe the imprinting process worked by transfer of certain, long-term, almost innate parts (like language ability) of an individual Lilin's memories to the recipient. So, that perhaps there may have been some unwanted/unnecessary memories (like the Ode to Joy) that leaked in, because of the interconnectedness of human memories?
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby Sachi » Tue Oct 03, 2017 10:22 am

I like to think Kaworu's education may have been similar to Leeloo in The Fifth Element when she gets on a computer and rapidly processes as much information from the Internet as she can about language, history, and culture. Kaworu may have been put through a rigorous process to learn about those things, or perhaps his curiosity pushed him to learn on his own.
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby Joseki » Tue Oct 03, 2017 11:17 am

What if Kaworu has always been 14 since the day of his birth? :bigeyes:

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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby Lyrical » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:41 pm

I would assume Kaworu was raised, well, not like a normal boy, but raised and taught these things the mundane way. He wouldn't have been allowed to wander around, so I doubt he was placed in a normal classroom in Germany, but he'd have lived in SEELE headquarters and gotten his education there or somewhere closely affliated. Though I don't know that "social awkwardness with Shinji" really points to "never met anyone his own age" — Rei's been going to school for a while before the series starts and that doesn't stop her from being a weirdo.

Kaworu knowing Japanese is really a bit of Fridge Brilliance - he's part of SEELE's design and NERV-Japan is as well, it's not a stretch for them to mandate he learn Japanese since they know that sooner or later he's probably going to be dealing with Japanese people in an important way.

Ode to Joy is not that strange either. Even assuming that he didn't receive any musical education from SEELE and/or his teachers, and even accounting for SEELE keeping him under lock-and-key to an extent, I doubt the old men would have completely restricted his actions. If they piss Kaworu off, he could just use his "most powerful AT Field ever" and run away to do his own thing (because, unlike with Gendou and Rei, SEELE needed Kaworu to be aware of who he was and what he was capable of), so I would imagine they need to keep him somewhat happy and well-adjusted. That includes giving him some leisure time to pursue interests.

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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby LeoXiao » Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:24 pm

Kaworu was probanly raised by some of SEELE's guys similarly to Rei in the sense that he was born--artififcally--not to be human but to serve as an instrument in a sacred mission. As a detail, the fact that that he refers to others as "you Lilin" shows that he is aware of and agrees with this identity.

Kaworu seems to have received exposure to a variety of subjects (like music) and developed an interest in some of them. This, in addition to his smooth articulation, points to SEELE providing him a substantial and refined education that was absent in Rei's upbringing.

Judging from his socially unusual behavior, SEELE caretakers probably didn't afford Kaworu much in the way of normal emotional upbringing; an allegory may be made in the young monarchs of antiquity whom the court would not permit to be raised by their flesh-and-blood mothers lest it affect their ability to rule. Given Kaworu's importance to SEELE and his awesome origins, it would be natural that he be treated accordingly.

In short, Kaworu was raised to think he's a unique being (he is) intended for a purpose of unparalleled importance. Missing (yearning for) a human existence, he abandoned that mission and rejected his probable upbringing in favor of letting Shinji live out the existence that he himself was denied.

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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby whisperwind777 » Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:42 pm

I have a theory.

In Episode 21', we know that the 2nd Impact happened immediately after some sort of human contact experiment.

In Episode 24'. we know that the Adam's soul was inside Kaworu's body, and Kaworu's birthday was exactly the day the 2nd Impact happened.

Kaworu was probably the very product of the human contact experiment. And Adam, the giant of light, was unable to hold his AT-Field due to the loss of soul, and exploded later causing the 2nd Impact.

In Episode 21', we know that Fuyutsuki somehow got the data and file of the experiment. Later Yui's soul was merged with EVA 01.

The experiment must have inspired Fuyutsuki that he tried the exact experiment, hoping to revive Yui. Instead of Yui's soul, part of Lilith's soul was transfered into the new body which was named later as the first Ayanami Rei.

Unlike Rei, Kaworu was born in Sep 13, 2000, thus he had a life of 15 years when he met Shinji.

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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby Chuckman » Tue Oct 31, 2017 5:21 pm

Couldn't he have been kept in a vat/heavily sedated his entire life?
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby Guy Nacks » Tue Oct 31, 2017 5:26 pm

View Original PostChuckman wrote:Couldn't he have been kept in a vat/heavily sedated his entire life?


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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby Chuckman » Tue Oct 31, 2017 5:44 pm

Creepy Child Karowu would make a neat fanfic in the right hands.
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby AdamMalkovitch » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:54 am

This is all entirely speculation, but I see it like this: Kaworu was raised by Keel as his father, and told everything from the start, that he was a human body with the soul of Adam, what Evas really are, and everything else. He likely interacted with all members of SEELE, which helped him to develop his infamously suave, mysterious personality, as well as becoming accustomed to speaking with regular Lilin. The reason Kaworu compares himself to Rei is because he already knows everything, and Rei refutes this because her Lilin body and her soul being Lilith's are at conflict.
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Postby MuscleRobo » Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:46 pm

Why do we think he had a childhood? Is that confirmed? I thought he always just kind of chose that form. Like Ultra Seven coming down and just choosing a human for his disguise.

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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby pwhodges » Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:09 pm

He has a birthday (the date of Second Impact - the only information in the file that Misato sees, as I recall), and I think we know he is a clone (of an unknown donor) with Adam's soul. I suppose he could have been raised as a child, but I find it as hard to picture in his case as as I do Rei's original upbringing. The existence of the Reiquarium suggests the possibility of a "Kaworuquarium" somewhere; and the MPE dummy plugs being based on Kaworu complicates things further.

In NTE, matters are quite different. There is nothing that I am aware of linking him to Second Impact and plenty of hints that he is "something else" (whatever that may be, other than 1st and 13th angel). And in Rei's case, the fact that there is an "Ayanami series" suggests a cloning mechanism that doesn't involve upbringing through a childhood (I expand on that idea in my fic).
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Re: Kaworu's Upbringing?

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Postby Reichu » Sat Jan 27, 2018 12:19 pm

View Original PostMuscleRobo wrote:Why do we think he had a childhood? Is that confirmed? I thought he always just kind of chose that form.

I'm not sure what you mean by "chose that form", but... Episode 24' has Kaworu being told that Adam's "salvaged" soul exists only within him, and he tells Rei that they've "ended up" in the forms of the Lilin, implying a lack of choice. The Classified Information goes into greater detail, explaining that Adam's soul was separated from her body when she exploded, and that Seele recovered it and had it "incarnated" within Kaworu (or, more accurately, within the product of the KatsExp's weird experiment, which I don't imagine anyone would think of as "Kaworu" until a bit later).

With Kaworu physically being a Lilin, I'm not sure how his behavior can be explained if he didn't go through the same growth stages as one. The transition from Adam being ready and willing to reclaim the planet to Kaworu being ready and willing to die for the Lilin that killed Adam and her offspring especially makes far more sense when one considers the highly pliable mind of a child, and how imprisoning Adam's soul in such a body would have made it possible for Seele to reshape Adam's will into something rather more compliant with their plans.
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