FGC:Episode 26 Scene 10

Good, or Don't Be

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Screenshots	Cut #	Description/Dialogue	Commentary
	312	SHINJI:“I'm a gutless, hypocritical, wimpy coward.”
	313	MISATO:“See? lf you understand yourself, you can be kind.”
	314	SHINJI:“I hate myself.”
	315	SHINJI & ASUKA & MISATO:“But maybe I can learn to love myself.”	Dr. Nick: It's not an instant process, or even guaranteed to succeed, but the potential is there.
	316		Dr. Nick: In the real world, it's the Giant Nude Rei that's cracking apart.
	317	SHINJI:“Maybe it's okay for me to be here!”
	318		UrsusArctos: This looks like a bank of microphones for recording dialogue and on-set sound effects. There's movie production equipment in every scene that "shatters", suggesting that Shinji is an actor on a stage. Given Anno's love of tokusatsu movies, it seems appropriate that he's putting one of his surrogates on such a stage. }}
	319	SHINJI:“That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less!”
	320
	321	SHINJI:“I'm me. I want to be me!”
	322
	323	SHINJI:“I want to be here!”
	324		dzzthink: We are sort of breaking down the fourth wall here, as these images of lighting equipment suggest we are perceiving the the show itself to be within a studio whilst Shinji, the main character, is tearing down the metaphorical barriers to emerge outside the confines of how people view him (symbolized by us as an audience) and emerge as a new person.
	325	SHINJI:“And it's okay for me to be here!”
	326		Mr. Tines: The butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. midoriyoh: This episode was an impressive journey. (Continued in additional comments below) Additional Commentary   midoriyoh: The first scene sets the stage by presenting the idea of Instrumentality - humans cannot be satisfied, because our happiness depends on being wanted and needed by others, which is never secure, because we are independent of each other. That's why we need to lose our individual existences and become a unity, so that the insecurity that comes with being separate beings may disappear. We then take a closer look at the precise way Shinji seeks happiness, and from this angle we reach the topic of running away - we find out that it's something that Shinji refuses to do because it makes others hate him, which is what he fears the most. This is analyzed deeper in Scene 03 - this desperate fear of being hated by others stems from his lack of self-acceptance. This is why Shinji seeks others' approval so hard - since he has none to give himself, he can only get self-worth by having it given to him by others. This is the natural outcome of a self-hating personality. The most effective way to make others praise him is by piloting the Eva, and that's why he ties his whole identity to this. Seeing others praise and accept him soothes the self-hate and is the thing that makes him most happy. But this happiness is very fleeting and uncertain - hence, anxiety. This is the conclusion that we reach in the beginning of Scene 05. We have descended to the source of his troubles - now is the time to resolve them and for Shinji to create a new self-image. Shinji wants a more permanent source of worth, and Yui tells him openly - "Only you can find your own worth". This makes Shinji wonder about who he is, and he reaches the realization that the way he is seen by others, accepted or not, is something separate from his own self. It's only a representation in another person's mind - something independent from him, and not accessible to him. It's foolish to base your self-worth on it. Shinji's actual self is not accessible to others either, only to himself, and for this reason it's foolish to "outsource" the job of making himself understood and accepted to others. Shinji accepts that he is the only person that can truly give Shinji worth, but a new problem appears - he is a very imperfect person, so why should he value himself and be good to himself? The answer is that reality of himself at the moment isn't permanent - it's very malleable, because world itself changes, but more importantly because he has free will, which allows him to shape reality and change it, both inside and outside himself. None of his imperfections are inherent parts of his self - they are merely facts about him at the moment that can change, and he has the power to change them. "So, take care of yourself". One more topic is touched at the end of Scene 07 - while Shinji's free will allows him to define reality, there is a reciprocal relationship - he needs things independent from himself to define him and shape him by being different from him. To put this in other words, the existence of other people allows one to exist more fully than if one were alone. Scene 09 has some more talk about the malleability of reality, and to double down on the theme adds that the perception of this reality is itself malleable. Our understanding of the world is imperfect and shaped by various influences, which makes basing your self-worth on what others think of you even more foolish - in truth, you aren't even basing it on what others think, you are basing it on what you think others think! As irrelevant as it would be if others hated Shinji, that's not even true - it's just Shinji's imperfect perception of the world. At the end of this all, Rei adds one more motivation by reminding Shinji that his lack of self-acceptance is harmful not just to himself, but to other people. The last scene consists of Shinji accepting his independent existence and thus rejecting the whole premise that Instrumentality was based on, at which point the stage around him collapses and congratulations follow.
	327
	328
	329	MISATO:“Congratulations!”
	330	ASUKA:“Congratulations!”
	331	REI:“Congratulations!”	Dr. Nick: Curiously, Kaworu is not part of the congratulations crew. This is much rectified in EoE.
	332	RITSUKO:“Congratulations!”
	333	KAJI:“Congratulations!”
	334	HIKARI:“Congratulations!”
	335	KENSUKE:“Congrats!”
	336	TOJI:“Congratulations!”
	337
	338	HYUGA:“Congratulations!”
	339	AOBA:“Congratulations!”
	340	IBUKI:“Congratulations!”
	341	FUYUTSUKI:“Congratulations!”
	342	IKARI & YUI:“Congratulations!”	Mr. Tines: What Shinji had been waiting to hear all along. As much from his mother (who doesn't reject her husband in this Instrumentality) as from Gendo. UrsusArctos: Yui is in her purple turtleneck, which is associated with her as Eva-01 in EoE. Perhaps she didn't reject her husband but rather brought him into Instrumentality in a more painful way than most others as a punishment for hurting Shinji, and has reconciled with him by this point. }} }}
	343	SHINJI:“Thank you.”	Dr. Nick: As much as I don't want to make a downer comment here, this is something that must be mentioned now at the end, as it relates to the Japanese audience's reaction to this original, first ending of Evangelion. The Aum Shinrikyo saga has been a constant background presence whenever we’ve talked about the show’s messy production, and this story ends with a pretty depressing twist, as originally discussed on the Evangelion Mailing list back in 1999. Many people in Japan supposedly hated the ending because "it smacked of the same kind of brainwashing seen from things like Aum", but there's an even more disturbing dimension to this, as relayed by translator Bochan Bird, a famous name in the early English-speaking Evangelion fandom who had lived in Japan in the late nineties. Although the leader Shoko Asahara was convicted and ultimately executed for his crimes, that was not the end of the cult he had started, and Aum continued its activities under new management - and as part of these activities, it used Evangelion as a recuitment tool: [...] they [Aum recruiters] did show scenes and episodes from Evangelion (introspective scenes, etc.) at recruiting/training seminars. In fact, that was part of the draw for the seminars -- the cult would distribute fliers saying that there would be an airing of Evangelion at a certain place and time (ie: piggy-backing on Eva's popularity), and then when unsuspecting (and mostly younger) victims showed up they would try to equate some of their teachings with the soul-searching in the show and 'recruit' them. As ironic as it would be, could one create an Evangelion-based cult, even a new religion, by exploiting the otaku that have internalized all the wrong messages from it? Well, there was the Church of Nerv in India... And according to an interview segment translated by the Evageeks forum member 1731298478, Anno has considered the possibility: I really hate the fact that animation - or at least "Evangelion," the work I've been doing - has become merely a "place of refuge." Nothing but a place where one escapes from reality - by becoming deeply absorbed in it, [people] simply ran from the pain of reality, and from there was hardly anything that came back to reality. To that extent I feel like [the work] did not arrive [at reality]. Steadily the number of people taking refuge [in the work] increases, and if this keeps up, in the extreme case, it would become a religion. It would become the same [situation as with] the Aum adherents and Shoko Asahara. Perhaps, if I did things correctly, I would have had the potential to become the founder of a new religion, but I hate [that idea]. For clutching at straws [lit. "grasping at a spider's web"], one person is enough. What is Evangelion these days? Reboot-sequels, spin-offs and truly depraved amounts of merchandise, a cynic might answer. But at least Anno has enough integrity that we’ve been spared from an Evangelion-flavored Scientology.
	344	TEXT:“To my father, thank you.”	UrsusArctos: This may well be a complement to Gendo saying "I'm sorry, Shinji" in End of Evangelion.
	345	TEXT:“To my mother, farewell.”	UrsusArctos: While this line doesn't make complete sense for one watching EoTV alone, End of Evangelion makes the context behind this line entirely clear since Shinji really does say farewell to Yui in it. Its appearance in EoTV is yet more confirmation that Yui's departure from Earth was always intended.
	346	TEXT:“And to all the children...”	UrsusArctos: Notice the word "Children" in Katakana over the Kanji. The meaning behind the use of the word "children" here, and for the Eva pilots, is still a matter of some debate.
	347	TEXT:“Congratulations!”	UrsusArctos: Where Ideon: Be Invoked had "Happy Birthday!", Evangelion has "Congratulations!" To all of you who have stuck through the commentary project all these years...thank you, and congratulations!

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