Ray wrote:What does "Lilith watching over humanity" even mean? I'm serious, explain this to me. She's not Omnipresent, she's Rei.
No, she's Lilith, and the argument is that she
is omnipresent. Rei II just didn't know this since she was missing a part of her soul, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen on a subconscious level. There are many things in the show that point to this: Rei's comments on her bond with humanity, the quantum imagery in her room (which doesn't make sense if she can only go quantum with Adam's help; it works far better if it's an ability she already has), the scene with Shinji and Touji following the Bardiel battle, and the apparitions themselves. We know Lilith's power is not connected to her body (because Rei III makes use of it in 24), so there's no reason to think Rei II couldn't have tapped into it. And of course, if Lilith always had that power we don't have to deal with the rather awkward question of why she would magically acquire it after merging with Adam.
"noone understands me. . . so they can all just die."
So what? He still didn't do anything.
Okay. . . HOW exactly is it at odds?
How is it not? The show is
not about people facing a force beyond their ability to fight, it's about them wrestling with the hedgehog's dilemma. That's it. That's the whole damn point. Shinji getting a tragic ending shits all over that and makes the whole story a waste of time. It also ignores the fact that Anno has
never done a downer ending like you describe. EoTV was an unambiguous, ridiculously positive ending. EoE was ambiguous, but unquestionably full of hope. Sadamoto's manga was a cheat, but certainly a happy ending. Far from inevitable, your scenario doesn't fit Anno's track record at all, and your assessment of what the show is about is waaaaaaaaay off base.
But how can you say Eva is in anyway an optimistic work? It's about an attempt to prevent the end of the world that ultimately fails because the person piloting is unable to handle his responsibility and succumbs to the pressure and the madness.
Uh, no it isn't. It had nothing to do with him, it was all about Lilith and what she was able/willing to do. If Shinji hadn't succumbed Seele would have had the MPEs do the job instead, with the same end result. Shinji was only important in the sense that Rei was listening to him, but what he wanted didn't really matter. And, in fact, he's the reason Instrumentality was undone, meaning that without him we would have gotten a real downer ending. Instead literally
everyone gets a do over. How can I call it an optimistic work? How the hell could anyone
not? We watch the whole damn cast die and then learn "it's fine, they'll get better." If that's not optimistic I really don't know what is.
A few token words of hope at the end don't undo the apocalyptic levels of damage and the fact that they don't actually show anyone aside from Asuka coming back . Really, Eva always seems to undermine itself in that respect. It says 'hope', the characters say hope, even the fans say 'hope' and then shoves so much despair in our faces, shows so much death and nihilism in our faces that it just seems to undermine the message people say the show, the franchise as a whole has.
Given that most of the fandom hasn't taken it that way I think that's more an issue with your perspective than with the work.
If you view the whole thing as a Greek Tragedy,
But it's so obviously not, on so many levels. The only tragic character in that show (going by the actual meaning of the term) is Asuka. Shinji's more pathos than tragedy, and even that's iffy.
Why hope for Shinji, or anyone if I'm just going to have more despair shoved in my face? Why hope for Oedipus when you know he's going to blind himself at the end?
Because Shinji didn't.
