SPOILER: Show
So while watching the original show and the Rebuilds with my girlfriend, she came to a startling conclusion.
The character of Oedpius is a tragic hero, forever remembered in Freuds 'Oedipus Complex'. But, before all that he was a hero who did wrong not through wickedness, but through ignorance. People kept secrets to protect him and in doing so caused his downfall and the downfall of his city.
Shinji did wrong not through innate evil (not looking at 2.22 Shinji, of course), but through his ignorance of the wider world.
Oedipus turned up one day, did one good thing and so stuck around because he wanted to help. He met a beautiful girl and fell in love, she turns out to be his mother. He became powerful, more powerful then he should of because no one warned him, and then this power brought plague upon the land. (In that case it was the gods revenge for Laius's murder but I digress). He stayed because he was happy, surrounded by friends, but mainly because he believed he was helping the people, a good king. All the secrets against him are found out and that's how he falls and his city falls.
Shinji turns up one day, does some good things and even though he hates it he sticks around because he wants to help people. He became powerful, too powerful, because no one warned him of what could happen. This power brings suffering upon the land, the third and forth impacts. He fall in love with a girl, Rei, who turns out to be a clone of his mother. He stayed because he liked his friends and wanted to help but all the secrets kept against him and his fathers secret plans cause him to over and over set terrible events in motion. This is how he falls and how the world falls.
