OLD TEACHER:“The number of children has
been decreasing yearly...”
Dr. Nick: Another line that was fodder for early fan theories. Why is the number of children decreasing, as it would be too soon for a post-disaster baby boom to be tapering off just yet? Some fanciful theories took advantage of the very vague nature of Guf in the series and posited that humanity is running out of new souls altogether, and hence the Instrumentality Project is a method of staving off an inevitable apocalypse. But if a plotline like that was ever considered by the creators, it isn't there in the finished product. Or in other words, there's no [Spiral Nemesis] in Evangelion.
So yeah, even taking into account things that are intentionally misleading, this one of the more wobblier episodes lore-wise.
