Theory and Analysis:Kaworu in Eva 3.0
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"Making something... Nurturing something is really great. You can see and learn so many things from the process." |
Kaworu Nagisa is very prominent in Evangelion 3.0. He has a crucial role in the movie, serving as the main catalyst for Shinji's own actions in the movie, as he provides explanations for the state of the world to Shinji, provides him a new hope in the form of his plan to pull the Spears, and his death also drives Shinji to a state of despondency similar to the one he was in at the beginning of End of Evangelion after Kaworu's own death in Episode 24 in the original series.
Despite Kaworu being presented as seemingly an all-good character whose only preoccupation, as he states, is Shinji's happiness, further examination of the story as well as relating it to grander thematic motifs elsewhere in the movies brings into question: What Kaworu means by that? Several pieces of evidence, references, and plot points suggest that Kaworu's version of events is purposely limited (or even biased). Notably, there is no evidence that Shinji is the only person responsible for Third Impact, and the movie never clarifies the difference between this event and the called "Near Third Impact", which creates even more confusion for the audience about the behavior of the characters, especially Kaworu. It is important to see that Kaworu, in pursuit of Shinji's supposed happiness (however, he doesn't ever ask for his opinion!), has goals that seem to be more aligned with Seele than just an act of kindness of his own.
Contents
Contradictions
During the fight in the climax of the movie, we see a conflict between Shinji and Asuka, as he tries to argue with her about his reasons, and there we see contradictions between what Asuka says and what Shinji understands he's doing following Kaworu's words.
Basically, during that battle Shinji wanted Asuka to know that he didn't want to destroy the world with the spears, but to actually save it, and her answers were interesting:
01:09:15 {Asuka} If that's how it is, don't pilot!
Secondly, when Asuka asks if Shinji wants to cause the Third Impact again, Shinji responds that no, he doesn't want to finish the world, but to save it with the spears, then Asuka leans back, scowls at him and delivers that line: 01:10:16 {Asuka} You really *are* a little brat.
The way these two lines are said, it looks like Asuka doesn't see Shinji as an enemy, but as someone who said something really wrong and/or stupid, and can't believe he actually said that. It looks like Asuka knows, or thinks she knows what will happen if Shinji pulls out the spears.
Now let's go back in time, to when Kaworu explained his plan to Shinji in his room:
01:02:34 {Kaworu} Ikari Shinji-kun, your only hope lies with the two Spears left at the Impact epicenter in Dogma.
01:02:41 {Kaworu} They are the keys to invoking the Instrumentality Project.
01:02:45 {Kaworu} We should take those Spears for ourselves.
01:02:48 {Kaworu} That way, Nerv can no longer trigger the Fourth Impact,
01:02:52 {Kaworu} And if we use them together with Eva-13, we can even repair the world.
By Nerv, Kaworu was probably designing Seele, as he thought that Gendo, and thus neo-Nerv, came back to following Seele's scenario, if not he wouldn't have been so surprised by Gendo's little trick with the spears. Anyway, what's important is that apparently, the two spears are essential to trigger Instrumentality.
Now back to Wille and the fight in Lilith's chamber: Wille seems to have learned a lot of things about Seele's plans, and indeed when the DSS Choker detected an unknown until then pattern blue(Kaworu's), Mari looked very surprised:
01:16:13 {Mari} Blood type blue from the DSS Choker?
01:16:15 {Mari} But there shouldn't *be* a Thirteenth!
The number and order of apparition of the Angel are consigned in the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls. The fact that Mari, a member of WILLE, knows at least that there should be only twelve Angel is a sign that she must know about the SDSS, indeed if someone wants to fight Seele knowing about these scrolls is of vital importance since all of Seele's scenario is based on them. Added to Asuka's behavior toward Shinji, that could imply that WILLE knows how Seele wants to launch Instrumentality, by using the two spears and a awakened Evangelion.
So the logical conclusion is that Asuka and Mari didn't see Shinji as an enemy willingly working for neo-Nerv and Seele, but as a "neutral party" being manipulated by the bad guys, who made him think that he can be a hero and save the world if he retrieves the two magical spears.
Except that Shinji already knows what Nerv intends to do with the spears, and he's actually trying with Kaworu to double-cross them... so then, why did Kaworu say nothing? Why didn't he at least try to corroborate Shinji's claims that they aren't trying to finish Third Impact's job? Instead of that, he kept talking only to Shinji via the internal communication system, as if he absolutely wanted to make Shinji stop without having to interact with anyone else.
Half Truths
First, when he told Shinji his responsibility in triggering Near-Third Impact, his words were at the very least fairly ambiguous:
00:51:48 {Kaworu} Ikari Shinji-kun,
00:51:50 {Kaworu} once Awakened, Eva-01 opened the Door of Guf
00:51:55 {Kaworu} and became the trigger for Third Impact.
00:51:58 {Kaworu} Lilin call it Near Third Impact.
00:52:02 {Kaworu} It was all initiated by you.
Many people noted that Kaworu's explanations could have two meanings, even the 3.33 FAQ acknowledged this:
* Is there a difference between "Near Third Impact" and "Third Impact"? Did a separate thing called "Third Impact" ever happen?
Kaworu's expositional dialogue to Shinji superficially seems to treat the two terms as synonyms: "Ikari Shinji-kun, once Awakened, Eva-01 opened the Door of Guf and became the trigger for Third Impact. Lilin call it Near Third Impact."[2] In other words: "Something called Third Impact happened, and the Lilin decide to put a 'Near' in front for some reason."
However, the film visually establishes innumerable developments that could only have occurred after Eva-01 was frozen by the Spear of Cassius at the end of 2.0, very heavily suggesting that Third Impact eventually did continue. Kaworu's words, therefore, might indicate that Eva-01's Near Third Impact was the initial trigger for the Third Impact that followed.
He never specifies what exactly he meant, although that meant a big difference for Shinji: is Kaworu saying that trying to save Rei immediately brought this hellish landscape, or did he mean that what happened was the first event in a chain that led to an actual Third Impact, and so that indirectly it could be considered his fault? When Shinji responds that he never wished any of this to happen, that he was just saving Rei, nothing else(confirming that he wasn't even conscious of what was happening since the moment he tried to reach Rei, when the light turned blue), Kaworu responds were still as ambiguous:
00:52:09 {Shinji} You're wrong!
00:52:10 {Shinji} All I wanted to do was save Ayanami!
00:52:16 {Kaworu} True, but that was the catalyst.
The catalyst, not the cause, according to a dictionary (Wiktionary in this case), a catalyst is "A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process." If we follow this definition, the EVA-01, and Shinji, didn't cause Third Impact, but "enhanced it", meaning that someone or something triggered the Impact and that by the presence in the vicinity of an awakened Evangelion, "boosted" it. That would be an explanation of how Third Impact could have caused such cataclysmic damage to the whole planet, while 4 ADAMs at it "only" could affect the South Pole and the oceans.
And again:
00:52:52 {Shinji} I had nothing to do with it!
00:52:54 {Kaworu} You may deny it, but humanity thinks otherwise.
Humanity thinks what: that Shinji is the direct trigger of Third Impact that destroyed the world, or that he was the potential first piece of an apocalyptic domino fall, which could explain why Wille tried to "protect him" from neo-Nerv, instead of just killing him.
And that's not the only thing he's been ambiguous about when he convinces Shinji to pilot EVA-13 with him:
01:01:26 {Shinji} You showed me it yourself, Nagisa-kun.
01:01:29 {Shinji} The blood-red world I can't do anything about...
01:01:32 {Kaworu} That which was changed by Eva can be restored by Eva in turn.''
01:02:45 {Kaworu} We should take those Spears for ourselves.
01:02:48 {Kaworu} That way, Nerv can no longer trigger the Fourth Impact,
01:02:52 {Kaworu} And if we use them together with Eva-13, we can even repair the world.
Here, after some clarifications by user Reichu, what was literally said was "世界の修復も可能だ = sekai no shuufuku mo kanou da = even the repairing/mending of the world is possible".
Kaworu never said "you and me together, we're going to repair the world", but that "if we retrieve the spears, with the spears a lot of things can be done, repairing the world being one of them, he said that line on a "neutral tone", stating that it's one of the things the two spears can do, but he never said that's what he intended to do with Shinji.
Omissions
Now let's jump back in time again to when Kaworu explained to Shinji what happened to the world:
00:50:55 {Kaworu} Mass extinctions are not unusual on this planet.
00:50:58 {Kaworu} In fact, they help drive evolution.
00:51:02 {Kaworu} Life has always changed itself to adapt to the world around it.
00:51:08 {Kaworu} However, Lilin change not themselves, but the world.
00:51:15 {Kaworu} So they brought the rite of artificial evolution unto themselves.
00:51:21 {Kaworu} Old life is offered in sacrifice,
00:51:23 {Kaworu} so that new beings blessed with the Fruit of Life may be created.
00:51:29 {Kaworu} All this is an act of extinction that has been programmed since time immemorial.
00:51:33 {Kaworu} Nerv call it the Human Instrumentality Project.
And back to his conversation in Shinji's room:
01:02:34 {Kaworu} Ikari Shinji-kun, your only hope lies with the two Spears left at the Impact epicenter in Dogma.
01:02:41 {Kaworu} They are the keys to invoking the Instrumentality Project.
01:02:45 {Kaworu} We should take those Spears for ourselves.
01:02:48 {Kaworu} That way, Nerv can no longer trigger the Fourth Impact,
01:02:52 {Kaworu} And if we use them together with Eva-13, we can even repair the world.
Kaworu actually never mentions Seele to Shinji at all. Why? Saying to Shinji that Gendo is working for a secret organization wouldn't have changed Shinji's resolve to stop his father. Instead of that, by always citing Nerv when talking about who is trying to bring Instrumentality and who Kaworu is trying to thwart by keeping the spears for themselves, and since by that point Nerv = Gendo (and Fuyutsuki), Kaworu is turning Shinji against Gendo, but not Seele, as Shinji didn't even know they exist.
Kaworu's motives
In the original series, Kaworu's reason to betray Seele was that after learning more about the Lilin, he fell in love with them, their culture, their achievements, and thought that Seele was on the wrong path in trying to erase all of this under the unification of Instrumentality.
Here, what would be Kaworu's sole motivation? Shinji's happiness? Why is he betraying Seele? For Shinji's happiness? but is he really betraying Seele, after all? Not once did he say that Seele's "rite of artificial evolution"(i.e. Instrumentality) was wrong, unlike in the original series, he only talked about Nerv.
Under that light, the fact that Kaworu never tried to contact Asuka to confirm Shinji's claim and defuse a critical situation, and Asuka's insistence to try to stop EVA-13 by force could be explained by the fact that Wille know that Kaworu is loyal to Seele and that even if they manage to make Shinji see reason, Kaworu would continue with the plan.
Future involvement
Lastly, we see this coming from Seele, which suggests that the plan was successful:
01:17:21 {Seele 01} Our wishes have come to fruition.
01:17:25 {Seele 01} Good.
01:17:26 {Seele 01} All is well now.
01:17:29 {Seele 01} We wish for Human Instrumentality, the peaceful purification of all souls.
Contradictions with 3.0+1.0
To be constructed
Complementary Readings
For more, please consider reading:
Theory and Analysis:Identities of the Adams
Adams, Children and the Nature of the Cycle
Theory about Kaworu's intentions
Other questions regarding Eva 3.0 are addressed here: Guides:Evangelion 3.33 FAQ
This article bears the unpleasant designation of "Stub." This is a Bad Thing. Provide a great service to NGE fan-geeks everywhere by making it awesomer!
