Wooden Guard wrote:In the 30th anniversary, Anno point out the truth through Soryu's account: Kaworu is always making mess of things by telling nonsense and he can't give Shinji happiness at all.
No doubt Soryu perceives that as truth.
What I can see is jealousy - she senses (and she's right) that this perverted mess of things is ready to end up in some "echii" configuration, given that Kaworu will keep studying the Lilim long enough to understand...
ach scheisse, he actually comes to some sort of understanding in 3.33 and immediately gives up on his concept of Shinji's happiness on his own volition. What I can sense between the lines is the bleeding jealousy that HE could reach some cosmic level of sync while MY sync was the perfect zero - why was he even allowed to touch MY Unit without MY permission! Guidance at least!
Not to forget Kaworu has some point: every human is
searching for a place to call home (rephrasing it, but keeping the meaning; I guess angels don't have a concept of home, for whatever reason). Kaworu tells Shinji he needs that and Shinji affirms that thought in TUAT, with surprising calm and resolution. You disagree?
Woodden Guard wrote:the end of the film [TUAT] told us that he's nothing but a self-deceiving false god who only wants to satisfy himself by giving the "happiness" he consider.
What about Rei then? Serves her right?
Fortunately for Rei, Kaji cares to disagree: he (re)declares Kaworu as the 1st angel who became (was degraded to?) the 13th angel and apparently decided to fit in the role for all that. Even more, he tells Kaworu his last name is perfect for that purpose - the shoreline, where the sea meets the land. He is, well... anointing Kaworu as mediator between the two worlds of two different versions of human beings (cause let's not forget: angels are humans who chose different path of development, the mankind is the 18th angel,
und so weiter - I hope that holds in Rebuilds too).
...speaking of false gods, I can't help but bring up this as a side note:
Snow came into the cabin, glanced around, then looked at me again. I went over to the table:
“You wanted me?”
“Haven’t you got anything to do? I could give you some work... calculations. Not a particularly urgent job...”
“Thanks,” I smiled, “you needn’t have bothered.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I was thinking a few things over, and...”
“I wish you’d think a little less.”
“But you don’t know what I was thinking about! Tell me something. Do you believe in God?”
Snow darted an apprehensive glance in my direction:
“What? Who still believes nowadays...”
“It isn’t that simple. I don’t mean the traditional God of Earth religion. I’m no expert in the history of religions, and perhaps this is nothing new — do you happen to know if there was ever a belief in an... imperfect god?”
“What do you mean by imperfect?” Snow frowned. “In a way all the gods of the old religions were imperfect, considering that their attributes were amplified human ones. The God of the Old Testament, for instance, required humble submission and sacrifices, and was jealous of other gods. The Greek gods had fits of sulks and family quarrels, and they were just as imperfect as mortals...”
“No,” I interrupted. “I’m not thinking of a god whose imperfection arises out of the candor of his human creators, but one whose imperfection represents his essential characteristic: a god limited in his omniscience and power, fallible, incapable of foreseeing the consequences of his acts, and creating things that lead to horror. He is a... sick ['defective' suits better - EP] god, whose ambitions exceed his powers and who does not realize it at first. A god who has created clocks, but not the time they measure. He has created systems or mechanisms that served specific ends but have now overstepped and betrayed them. And he has created eternity, which was to have measured his power, and which measures his unending defeat.”
Snow hesitated, but his attitude no longer showed any of the wary reserve of recent weeks:
“There was Manicheanism...”
“Nothing at all to do with the principle of Good and Evil,” I broke in immediately. “This god has no existence outside of matter. He would like to free himself from matter, but he cannot...”
Snow pondered for a while:
“I don’t know of any religion that answers your description. That kind of religion has never been... necessary. If I understand you, and I’m afraid I do, what you have in mind is an evolving god, who develops in the course of time, grows, and keeps increasing in power while remaining aware of his powerlessness. For your god, the divine condition is a situation without a goal. And understanding that, he despairs. But isn’t this despairing god of yours mankind, Kelvin? It is man you are talking about, and that is a fallacy, not just philosophically but also mystically speaking.”
I kept on:
“No, it’s nothing to do with man. Man may correspond to my provisional definition from some points of view, but that is because the definition has a lot of gaps. Man does not create gods, in spite of appearances. The times, the age, impose them on him. Man can serve his age or rebel against it, but the target of his cooperation or rebellion comes to him from outside. If there was only a single human being in existence, he would apparently be able to attempt the experiment of creating his own goals in complete freedom — apparently, because a man not brought up among other human beings cannot become a man. And the being — the being I have in mind — cannot exist in the plural, you see?”
“Oh, then in that case...” He pointed out of the window.
“No, not the ocean either. Somewhere in its development it has probably come close to the divine state, but it turned back into itself too soon. It is more like an anchorite, a hermit of the cosmos, not a god. It repeats itself, Snow, and the being I’m thinking of would never do that. Perhaps he has already been born somewhere, in some corner of the galaxy, and soon he will have some childish enthusiasm that will set him putting out one star and lighting another. We will notice him after a while...”
“We already have,” Snow said sarcastically. “Novas and supernovas. According to you they are the candles on his altar.”
“If you’re going to take what I say literally...”
Solaris by Stanisław Lem
translated from the French by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox
presented here under the clause of fair-use
Quite a long side note.
FelipeFritschF wrote:Anyway, I should probably get around to playing Nier...
Lo, how many times I've been promising myself to spend savings on that...
Wondering do you feel strong in the field of philosophy, in particular the philosophy of Far East Asia.
Signature madness.
