Eva and the subject of the "Other"

[GAP]

In my scifi class, we explore the theme of the other where we view anyone outside ourselves as the "other" and usually something to be feared. I had a thought on this and how this connects to Eva since I had seen it in the works I read for the class especially the short story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, Jr. which the movie "The Thing" was based off of. I believe it relates to the Eva character as well as the Angels themselves who at first appear to us as monsters but when we get further into the show, we find that the Angels are not really all that different from us. In most scifi works (or any other genre), it explores the theme of the "Other" how we view anyone that is not "us" as strangers or even monsters. That is what I felt when I think of Rei, the blue haired female who appears to me as a stranger but when I got to know Rei, she was less threatening and more friendly.

Another example would be the Angel that attempted to fuse with Rei, in Rei's mind we find that the Angels are not really all that different from us and they were even possible routes that humanity could have taken. In Episode 25 and 26, I kind of get the feeling that everyone basically viewed themselves as strangers and it wasn't until that episode that I find what they were trying to convey. While true we are individuals, we need to find ourselves in them but there are barriers via the AT Fields that separate us from them. Rei says, "You are you but you have your own region and border" and Kaji mentions how we can not know the other person completely, how the only perosn who knows you best is well "you" but then who is the "other"? I suppose anyone who is not "you".

I got these from my notes in class, "Crushing of self by a system, denial of individuality, isolation, impotence –-goes against importance especially in American culture of individuality", "The threat to identity appears implicitly in the figures of androids, robots and zombies, in the visions of totalitarian computers, in the celebration of supermen and superwomen as the only rebels in a world of drones, the themes of invasion and possession, the visions of apocalypse." and "Huntington writes, “The ambiguity of the ‘we’ leaves it open whether his comment would be restricted to just Tweel and himself or would include Harrison, to whom he has just responded, or the rest of the crew, or perhaps larger generalizations (we men, we humans, we communicators, we explorers). By breaking where it does, the sentence emphasizes the problem of the constitution of the group, the "we"'.

This may or may not relevant to the subject but these are my thoughts and I could have used more examples. I wonder if anyone else has any input or corrections.

[BobBQ]

Tweel

I wrote a term paper about that story once.

Also, I hope the "Other" in nationalist propaganda came up somewhere.

[NemZ]

Interesting.

Eva definately plays with that concept, though 'we' and 'other' are defined differently by each character in different situations... and in the more tragic cases 'we' eventually collapses to just 'I'.

By the same token, Instrumentality fails by putting everyone in the 'we' and leaving no 'other' by which to define itself.

[Otakon 08 Ikari]

Nice write up friend, very interesting.

[Chrad]

I think one of the key themes of Eva is the frustration of being separated from other people. There is always a barrier between people, no matter how much we wish it to go away. We fear others for their difference, and yet we desire for them to understand us. As long as this barrier exists, we will continue to be judged and misunderstood, and this is a tremendous source of pain. A.T. fields are a rather blunt metaphor for this concept. With HIP this subtext comes to the foreground of the series. Obviously instrumentality kills these barriers and kills this potential pain. The 'other' ceases to exist.

[Twsa'teotu]

That is what I felt when I think of Rei, the blue haired female who appears to me as a stranger but when I got to know Rei, she was less threatening and more friendly.

You're just projecting your hopes and fears onto Rei: In reality, Rei barely talks and isn't that friendly, though she also isn't mean. She barely interacts even with Shinji. The age-old "Otaku who are shy of girls are drawn to Rei because she's so non-threatening because she's a doll" story

I think the creators actually said "we made the Angels these amorphous things, because due to the recession, the problems people were facing weren't "invading Zeon mechas" but intangible things that were difficult to face....arguably the real "Enemy" of the series is people's inability to overcome the barriers between themselves.

In terms of Angels embodying the "zombies want to take away my individuality" trope, they're anything but that; they're the ultimate individualists, to the point that no two Angels are alike.

[Chrad]

You're just projecting your hopes and fears onto Rei: In reality, Rei barely talks and isn't that friendly, though she also isn't mean. She barely interacts even with Shinji. The age-old "Otaku who are shy of girls are drawn to Rei because she's so non-threatening because she's a doll" story

Rei is still strange and awkward, but she certainly opens up a little after Shinji tries to communicate with her. There's a difference in how she acts at the beginning of the series and then midway through. She even sometimes smiles!

[Twsa'teotu]

You're just projecting your hopes and fears onto Rei: In reality, Rei barely talks and isn't that friendly, though she also isn't mean. She barely interacts even with Shinji. The age-old "Otaku who are shy of girls are drawn to Rei because she's so non-threatening because she's a doll" story

Rei is still strange and awkward, but she certainly opens up a little after Shinji tries to communicate with her. There's a difference in how she acts at the beginning of the series and then midway through. She even sometimes smiles!

oh yes, of course, I'm just saying that she has this slow very subtle storyarc of gradually realizing her person-ness and doing BASIC things like saying "hello" and smiling....the spinoff video games would have us believe that she wants to actively go on dates with people

but Rei isn't "brimming with empathy"...she's learning the value and definition of "empathy"; she's also got no concept of malice, either. But PURE innoccence of good and evil isn't so much a "good" character as a mirror.

[NemZ]

Rei intellectually understands good and evil... she just doesn't give a shit until Shinji convinces her there is more to life than waiting to die.

Oh, the irony.

[Twsa'teotu]

Rei intellectually understands good and evil... she just doesn't give a shit until Shinji convinces her there is more to life than waiting to die.

Oh, the irony.

maybe "good" and "evil" are the wrong words to use, but they state that while Rei experiences lonelienss, happiness, etc., she has no idea what these strange feelings around (initially) and her character arc is gradually realizing what emotions are