FGC:Episode 26 Scene 09

The heady feeling of Freedom

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Screenshots	Cut #	Description/Dialogue	Commentary
	291	MISATO:“When you think of it that way, this world of reality isn't so bad.” SHINJI:“The world of reality might not be so bad. But I hate myself.”	UrsusArctos: The Tokyo-3 model has the scaling of a tokusatsu city set, just about right for performers in monster costumes to trash. Of course, we see a far more explicit take on this 25 years later in Shin Eva, but the idea is right here.
	292	HYUGA:“It's you that perceives reality as bad and unpleasant.”
	293	AOBA:“It's you who's mistaken reality for the truth.”	midoriyoh: Weird and confusing wording. "Reality" seems to mean the state of the world and one's mind at a given moment - or at least, that's how that word was used in the sequence from the end of Scene 06 through the Scene 07, which was about the way "reality" is changed both by one's free will and by the influence of things and people outside of oneself. Going by Cuts 296-299, "truth" seems to mean one's perception of reality. UrsusArctos: My Japanese isn't great, but my understanding is that there's a significant difference between genjitsu - "reality, the state of the world", jijitsu - "objective fact" and shinjitsu - "truth", with the last one being associated with one's personal and internal understanding of truth or existence. Going by what I understand of Japanese, Aoba words are that Shinji has mixed up his personal understanding of existence with the reality of existence, which is indeed what has happened. I suspect that this has to do with the influence of Buddhism on Shintoism and the deeper Buddhist belief that absolute truth is illusory, while English, having evolved for over a millennium in a Christian religious context, uses the term "truth" as something nonnegotiable, absolute and objective, hence creating confusion in translation.
	294	IBUKI:“Your perspective on reality and the importance you place on reality, the slightest difference in these things will greatly change the world inside your mind.”
	295	KAJI:“There are as many truths as there are people.”
	296	KENSUKE:“But there is only one truth for you. One made from your narrow perception of the world and from information that was altered to protect yourself, a warped truth.”
	297	TOJI:“Well, one person's perception of the world's bound to be tiny anyway.”
	298	HIKARI:“But people only have that tiny ruler to measure their surroundings with.”
	299	ASUKA:“And you only try to see things through the truths that other people have given you.”
	300	MISATO:“On sunny days, you feel good.”	UrsusArctos: Apparently not this kid, Misato.
	301	REI:“On rainy days, you feel down.”
	302	ASUKA:“Once you've been taught that, you make yourself believe that's how you should feel.”
	303	RITSUKO:“Even though pleasant things can happen on rainy days too.”
	304	FUYUTSUKI:“It's a delicate thing that can be completely transformed just by how you perceive something. The truth within people, that is.”
	305	KAJI:“That's about how solid the truth is for humans. Though, that's what also makes people seek a deeper truth.”
	306	IKARI:“You are merely not used to being loved by other people.”	UrsusArctos: Gendo may indeed be speaking of himself here, if his "I'm not used to being liked" comment when first introduced to Fuyutsuki was any indication. Like father, like son.
	307	MISATO:“So there's no need for you to constantly care about what other people think of you.”
	308	SHINJI:“But doesn't everybody hate me?”	Mr. Tines: Back where we came in.
	309	ASUKA:“What are you, stupid?! You're just making yourself believe that, that's all!”
	310	SHINJI:“But I hate myself.”
	311	REI:“Anyone who hates himself can't come to love and trust others.”	midoriyoh: There is a tendency in the fandom to excuse Shinji or justify his actions, but what Rei says is true - Shinji's self-hate causes him to have a warped attitude towards others, and we see this warped attitude make him to do genuine harm to other people (in this respect, Gendo is similar to him). EoE delves much deeper into this, especially in the coffee table conversation with Asuka. That emphasis also makes it understandable why EoE starts the way it does - whatever else you can say about that scene, it really drives home the point that Shinji harms those around him, in a way that can't be dismissed or excused by the viewer.

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