Was It Really Important for Everything to Be Explained?

[kboyrulez12345]

Now, this is coming from the guy who didn't watch the original TV series, but has watched the first two Rebuild Movies.

I notice some criticism for Evangelion for not explaining some plot details, such as not explaining what exactly Angels or Eva's are. But I have to ask, is it really important?

I guess it depends from person to person, but there are some people who like open ended things not to be explained, for the sake of wanting to think about certain things, and so the series to really not leave them. Me personally, I wouldn't mind both. But now that I think about it, open ended, unanswered questions sounds better than everything being wrapped up for me.

I mean, to me, the characters of Evangelion were more important than the actual structures of of the world. After all, the series was dealing with, (at least for the second half of the series) with the characters psychological issues and how the characters must go through hell in order to find that one piece of hope.

[Anonymous_Evafan]

Important? No, not to the actual point of the story. Fun to waste time on? Depends on my mood.

[The Killer of Heroes]

What the Evangelions are is explained in the series. The Angels are explained enough, to me at least.

To be honest I'm sort of on the same page as you OP, in that I don't really care what the specific answers to the mythological elements of the series are, and instead what they represent to the story (Like I care more about Angels as a representation of the "Other" rather than whatever planet they come from).

[kboyrulez12345]

What the Evangelions are is explained in the series. The Angels are explained enough, to me at least.

To be honest I'm sort of on the same page as you OP, in that I don't really care what the specific answers to the mythological elements of the series are, and instead what they represent to the story (Like I care more about Angels as a representation of the "Other" rather than whatever planet they come from).

Actually, now that I think about it, your right. I don't actually know why people keep saying what EVA's are not being explained. To me there is enough detail for the EVA's and the Angels as is.

I guess people or more focused on the 'how' of the matter, but if that's the case I think people are forgetting this is a fictional world.

[Darkwing]

In response to topic question- Yes.

Keep in mind it's a matter of opinion. But for some people finding the answer is important, since how else will you know if you were right? And if the writers don't even know, then it just feels like they were pulling it out their asses and bieng lazy. Just an opinion though.

[Bread]

Nothing needs to be explained per se, but it should be presented in a way that lends itself to evoking a logical, self-consistent analysis. Ideally speaking. Evangelion meets this test, and if you've not seen the whole series, rest assured that things will make more sense in hindsight when the last movie is released.

[kboyrulez12345]

In response to topic question- Yes.

Keep in mind it's a matter of opinion. But for some people finding the answer is important, since how else will you know if you were right? And if the writers don't even know, then it just feels like they were pulling it out their asses and bieng lazy. Just an opinion though.

True, I can see where other people are coming from with knowing if what they say is right. I can especially see how the writers can use this as an excuse to get lazy.

However, those two you mentioned are the only ways that I won't like when things are not explained. I will, however, accept it as long as it's NOT IMPORTANT TO THE FOCUS OF THE STORY.

I read a lot of Stephen King's books, and being a fan of him he never explains where his evil monsters come from or how they conjured up. Some people can see this is as lazy, but, really, do we NEED an explanation for those things if they are not the main focus of the story?

Now, you may ask, "then what are the point of the EVA's or the Angel's?" Simply put, I believe they are just there to move the character's along the story, to give them a sense of moving on. In other words, I see them as gimmicks, (not in a bad way.)

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

Part of the delight of Eva is the process of answering all of the unanswered questions in the show. It's one of the things that made me stick with it for so long. Yes, I understand that we could just take everything at face value, but then where would we be now? This is certainly more fun.

[kboyrulez12345]

Part of the delight of Eva is the process of answering all of the unanswered questions in the show. It's one of the things that made me stick with it for so long. Yes, I understand that we could just take everything at face value, but then where would we be now? This is certainly more fun.

Yeah. To tell you the truth, if Evangelion was all about the mecha battles and explaining how they work all the time, I would definitely not be interested in this series. As a matter of fact, I never even LIKED the mecha genre, at all, even when I was a little kid, I didn't like Gundam.

What got me interested in EVA are the characters, mostly Shinji, and that's why I like EVA so much.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

What got me interested in EVA are the characters, mostly Shinji, and that's why I like EVA so much.

Don't tell me that the fanservice didn't draw you in a little...

[kboyrulez12345]

Don't tell me that the fanservice didn't draw you in a little...

lol. :P Well yeah, there's that too, though just a little..bit.

But anyway, from what I gather, it seems that most people, like I said earlier, are considered of the 'how' of the matter of things. Which I can understand, but still, it's a fictional world and all, Anno makes the rules. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to the viewer.

[Dream]

I think that if you consider it for a bit, you're soon going to see that this wasn't the best or most informative forum to have posted this on.

[kboyrulez12345]

I think that if you consider it for a bit, you're soon going to see that this wasn't the best or most informative forum to have posted this on.

Okay, let me think about this...

Well, is it the fact that no one actually did care about the explanation on the EVA's, or...

That's my only thought to it. I guess I'm still somewhat of a newbie to Evangelion, though even though I didn't watch the original TV series I did spoil them with the EVA wiki, and have been a lurker on this forum for quite some time, so I know a few things.

To me, I thought this topic was good enough for a discussion, because recently I see people talking about how the last movie is going to explain everything with a limited time frame, thought not specifically in this forum.

[Dream]

It has nothing to do with Evangelion per se. I meant more on the fact you made this topic on a forum full of people who feel about NGE strongly enought one way or the other as to make an account in EGF. It's more likely than not going to attract the sort people who are into NGE or ambiguous narratives, so even if there are many nay-sayers and counter-arguments to the question you're proposing, i don't think it's likely you will find them here.

[Anonymous_Evafan]

Well there is enough of a market for the stuff that they made the CI and Chronicle.

[kboyrulez12345]

It has nothing to do with Evangelion per se. I meant more on the fact you made this topic on a forum full of people who feel about NGE strongly enought one way or the other as to make an account in EGF. It's more likely than not going to attract the sort people who are into NGE or ambiguous narratives, so even if there are many nay-sayers and counter-arguments to the question you're proposing, i don't think it's likely you will find them here.

I see, that makes sense enough. I was curious as to whether or not if it really mattered is all. Hopefully to the one's that are still interested will still invest some time to this discussion.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Everything you need to know about the Evangelion TV show is explained in the still frames that flash right after the dream scene and right before Rei's neck snaps in EoE.

[Reichu]

Stories that explain everything are usually ones that could have used a good editor.

[Dream]

Stories that explain everything are usually ones that could have used a good editor.

I'm afraid i don't understand what you mean? Or at the very least, i don't understand why that depends on the editor's skill.

[EvaBrothers]

I'm afraid i don't understand what you mean? Or at the very least, i don't understand why that depends on the editor's skill.

I'll try to explain this from the freelance & creative writer's (which I am) perspective.

When you tell a story, you want to engage your readers/watchers by activating both their rational skills and their imagination. If you get every detail explained, what happens is that your readers/watchers will switch to passive fruition of your work: they won't activate their mind, they won't get their emotions involved, thus they will not develop any sort of permanent attachment to your work (they'll forget it pretty quickly or become bored).

When you submit a creative work to a literary agent (that's how it works in creative writing if you're not self-publishing or submitting your work to a publisher yourself), the agent will review it and help you edit it if they think the overall work is promising but not engaging as of yet. An over-detailed or over-explanatory work is sure to get major edits to help you engage the readers and not make them sleep.

If that's not very clear, I'll edit this post with some better wording. ^^