Rei Ayanami

[child of Lilith]

Another good thing about Rei is I think she would be a really good listener. Rei never says much but I sure if you talked to her about your problems shed give you some really good advice, not just respond with some standard bs to get you out of her face.

[Starasp]

Rei is really the most intriguing character of all. She was an Eva pilot, a friend of Shinji's, or probably more if she didn't blow herself up. Shinji liked her and probably she wanted him also. A mysterious girl who in her heart adored the Ikari father and son. She seemed to be a very sacrificing person in the series. But on the other hand she was one of the keys to destruction who should be blamed for. But watching the scene which Rei used her life to save Shinji from the attack by the 16th Angel is really very touching and from that moment I seemed to like Rei more than Asuka.

/thread

[Ja Ayanami]

I think Rei is appealing because she reminds us of that sense of hopelessness and depression that everyone experiences in life at one point or another. For those that are fans of Rei they typically invision a scenario where she somehow opens up and makes an emotional breakthrough, this could relate to the idea that people strive to fight against those depressing tendencies.

Rei is everyone's imagination personified. You want to think of her life completely differently than it exists in her reality becuase you want the same thing for yourself. Rei is an 'everyman' when it comes to people's subconscious fear of the dark things in life.

In a phrase, "bad things happen to good people" this is Rei, in a nutshell.

[Halicat]

I always interpreted Rei as being deliberately 2-D, not in the sense she is the otaku-dream or anything, but in the sense that, because she isn't human in our sense of the term, she can't possibly be fleshed out in the same way like Shinji or Asuka can.

I believe her true depth probably lies in something else, she is otherworldly, her understanding [or lack thereof] is different from ours' and her inability to express that makes for a very flat character in human eyes.

I find her interesting because pondering over how her human aspect, which I think is probably only biological, interacts and affects her 'godly' aspect, which is her very essence of being, and makes for an unpredictable character who could grow in any number of ways.

That and she seems to take the 'mysterious loner with a secret and no past' archetype and turn it into something completely different.

[child of Lilith]

I agree with most of what you’ve said.

That and she seems to take the 'mysterious loner with a secret and no past' archetype and turn it into something completely different.

Exactly. This is why most characters that try to copy the Rei type fail. They can’t seem to understand that simply being mysterious and quite is not enough. There has to be more to a character then that.

[NemZ]

What makes you think Lilith even had a personality to begin with? I rather suspect that until Rei1 was created Lilith had no basis in social interaction with which to form any sort of concept of self in the first place.

I also think Rei absolutely is human, though she's generally unaware of her own emotional reactions. Her subtle expressions are a mystery even to herself in most cases.

[EvaRaver]

I agree, Rei is human, but she is slowly learning through out the series what it means to be human. She doesn't understand being human until the end, and even then maybe not completely. I think one of the most interesting aspects of the series is watching Rei grow and develop an understanding of herself.

[NemZ]

Nobody knows what it means to be human; we all just make it up as we go along, playing off others like a freeform jazz session.

[ZapX]

What does Rei like?

[NemZ]

Gendo, Shinji, feeling she has a purpose in life, reading an interesting book without annoying Germans blocking her light, and swimming.

[Lucretius]

What does Rei like?

Horse heads.

[Bomby von Bombsville]

I still insist that Rei is the most superficially intriguing and ultimately the most two dimensional of all the characters in Evangelion. But I've already made that opinion clear enough already.

... because she's ultimately left up to the imagination?

Also, at Asuka being a "real woman": If "real women" were as immature as Asuka, I'd never talk to them.

[Grimmjow]

If Asuka is a real woman, then the human race would die out.

Rei is the most innocent of all the characters. Nothing has corrupted her but at the same time, she knows nothing about basic human emotions because she has never had the opportunity to develop them. Also, let's face it, if you all you did your whole life was hang around Gendo, you wouldn't be the most emotional person either.

[EvaRaver]

What does Rei like?

Furthering her knowledge of quantum-physics through studying. I know its not too far off from what NemZ wrote, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

[DevRei17]

Yesterday (3/30/10) was Megumi Hayashibara's 43rd Birthday.
(As well as Rei's, who was given Megumi-chan's B-day.)
Happy B-day!^-^

[Reichu]

Yesterday (3/30/10) was Megumi Hayashibara's 43rd Birthday.
(As well as Rei's, who was given Megumi-chan's B-day.)

That's a bit of an inconsistency (lie) done for the sake of 円円円, far as I'm aware. An album called "The Birthday of Yui Ikari" wouldn't sell as well.

[BattleMonkey]

Rei is not a person, she is a plot device.

[GasmaskAvenger]

Rei is a person, but is all too dictated by plot devices.

fix'd for teh justice

[DevRei17]

fix'd for teh justice

Your awesome Gasmask.

[tomrule123]

One thing I like to say about Rei:

You can't resist it... nor can you run away from it....