Humanizing Gendou

[Glor]

I was born and raised in America, but I'm really a Japanese boy trapped in a baka gaijin's body.

Evageeks is a fun place.

Oh, I guess I should say something on topic-ish. Um... I've always imagined Gendo as an avid coffee drinker. He also hates playing Shogi, but consents only because of old man Fuyutsuki pestering him.

[Dream]

FWIW i can kinda understand Reichu's angle on remaining culturally loyal so to say, specially as i like Japanese culture as well. Learning about other cultures is not only enriching but fun, and i think it is noted and appreciated by people of said cultures, specially in these days of rampant cultural destruction (globalization). I don't know if i'd cringe at someone getting it wrong but it's always a plus to get things right i think.

[Kendrix]

Gendo's implied to have a background in economics, so maybe he keeps a finger on the world's economic pulse and reads the Japanese equivalent of the Wall Street Journal.

That seems like the one thing I can see him doing; I don't think he has a bunch of off-time hobbies, he's kind of supposed to be this all-work, single-mindedly possesed madman - maybe he did like fishing before Yui vanished; I agree with Bagheera in the sense that it would be best to work with what however warped humanity is already there; There's not just one cooie-cutter brand of humans, and there's situations in which it is quite "human" to fall into depraved things. He does seem to sort of on-the-side indulge classy stuff (See the wine & steak in Rebuild).

He's essentially the sort of person who's working toward an ideal future that will justify all means and completely lost sight of the present, it would probably be a massive jump in character developement if he got to a point where he took any amount of interests in or joy out of the present even if it was just in a "sure, why not" manner - We nearly saw that happening in Rebuild (and to a much lesser extent the early original series from ep 12 up to Bardiel, where he would at least exchange the occasional conversation with Shinji & try to ) - In any case, it blew up, and he just went back to bringing his plans to completion... so the progress here would be fragile, he's spent so long working on this plan, and already discarded so much of what little ethics and treasured things/people he might've had, and its quite likely that if he felt he had to get rid of Rei, Shinji or Fuyutsuki for his plans, he probably would; He'd do it with regret that it must be so, and, if it was either of the kids, a certain amount of pain involved, but he might.


Also seen a pretty good fic where the author archieved a good effect by having a brief moment where he was shown rubbing his temples over a minor stress headache, or going to EVA 01's cage to "talk" with the wife in a moment where things were not quite going according to plan. Or you could show him spending time with Rei or Fuyutsuki, though it would likely only have faint, depressing resemblance to normal father daugher outings/ friend/co-worker hangouts.

I don't really see the Ritsuko thing as a good starting point because it's really one of his more twisted/warped acts; He's basically giving her his body to keep her docile & obedient & manipulate her. ("You wanted nothing from me!" )

[Davizaum2810]

I created a humanized version of Gendo for my story. In it, he truly loves his son and every time Shinji goes to battle, the Commander gets worried and finds himself in a crossroads between the well-being of Shinji that keeps his life on Earth from being worthless and his duty as the Commander of NERV and his responsabilty on the fight against the angels. My version of Gendo is moved by guilt, because the loss of his wife, the act of abandoning his kid so he could focus on the creating of the Evas and his percentage of guilt for causing Second Impact, while also having Rei as the only one close to him, seeing her as his daughter, which means that in my story Shinji and Ayanami are brother and sister and they both have him worried in every battle. In it, Gendo also sees his kids as his last hopes of being able to the planet restored, not only because them being Eva pilots, but also as the only ones in his life for imagining that it possible end all the suffering generated from the cataclysm caused by Adam, being the Evaneglions one his attempts to save humanity and try to redeem himself for what he has done. On the other hand, SEELE keeps trying to convince him to engage the Human Instrumentality Project, using the fact that the remaining people are dying due to the lack of aid since the planet wasn't able to get totally fixed from Second Impact, being hard to gather resources to help those in need and saying that the only way for humanity's salvation is to merge everyone's material projection of their minds, in other words, their souls, in one god-like being where they would be able to enjoy paradise forever, being a short term solution for mankind. Also, Fuyutsuki also tries to convince Gendo to do it it because they are friends and due to the Vice Commander's age and health condition, he feels that he's dying and use himself as an example to a situation that many more are going through and saying that it is selfish for him to keep them waiting in their time for the greatest of needs, the need of being saved from death, but Gendo responds to that by saying that this isn't right, that is not what Yui would want and it would ignore the agency of those who don't have to be saved, with Fuyutsuki's final response being:

"At some point, everyone will need help and will be too late. Gendo, let me tell you one thing. A guilty consciousness is a small price to pay for the safety of all humanity. You have the chance to save us all and make up for everything that happened. You can be mankind's savior. You have your chance make things right, but be aware that time is of the essence".

So? What do you guys think of my version of Commander Ikari?

[philopoemen]

I don't want to go into too much detail here, since I really want to explore how Gendo works in my own story. For me, though, I think the key thing is that Gendo's actions need to have some kind of internal logic to them. This is tough for us as writers, because he as a character plays things so close to his chest. All the same, I think it's important that there be *some* kind of rationale behind his actions -- that he be the sort of character that does everything for a reason. It may not be a good reason, morally speaking, but it's a reason.

At the same time, though, one needs to remember that Gendo is not a pleasant man. Mind you, I think he's fully aware of this himself. He's a bit like the Operative from "Serenity" in that way; he sees himself as a sort of necessary monster. Much like Shinji and Rei, he doesn't particularly hold himself in high esteem, and most likely never has. As far as he's concerned, the only person who ever made him feel like he was -- or even could be -- an actual human being was Yui, and she's lost to him now. At least, that's my sense of his character.