Yui did not use Gendo as a sperm bank.. what the fuck? She loved him, and he went insane and let the power go to his head. She knew his plans would fail, so she sacrificed herself in order to protect her son, and possibly humanity by merging with eva 01, and losing her life as human.
I am still think that Gendo murder Ritsuko's mother because she strangled to death Baby Rei the child clone of his wife Yui, it's obvious, it's not a suicide for me, when Gendo said " Ritsuko Akagi the truth is ....." and Ritsuko said " you're a liar" he actually said " i killed your mother" i am 100 % sure , anyway this man has tragic ending because he loved more this crazy bitch than she loved him, she eating him like a hot dog xD.
Yui isn't a manipulative sociopath though.. I think you guys are all missing the point of the story. She is not evil. She knew that her husband would fail, NERV, and SEELE, would all fail. She took a big risk trying to do the right thing, and it worked.
Damn. For a character that we rarely see throughout the show, unless you count EVA 01’s screentime, she’s pretty important. In fact Yui’s probably the most important character in the story.
Exactly. I am only just now realizing this after reading about the story after finishing the movie.. If it wasn't for Yui.. none of this would have happened. She secretly set everything into motion with her bravery and sacrifice. She saw above SEELE, and the humans fault, knowing that the prophecy would happen with or without them. Amazing woman, amazing story.
The irony... Gendo first contacted Yui to use her for his own ends but in the end she used him.. and like every good mother choses her son over her husband.
Yui certainly seemed to have the best of intentions in trying to preserve humanity, but making Shinji watch her disappear into the Eva and setting him down a path of depression and loneliness is kinda abusive. It must have pained her to see him suffer throughout the series. In the end Shinji understands her actions and makes the right decision, but the journey there was pretty emotionally destructive. I guess it was a necessary evil for humanity to survive and Shinji to learn to become a better person. Definitely makes Yui an interesting and complicated character
a bit late but I think she might have been insane so while she did have good intentions she wasn't stable or all there in the head shinji just lucky his mom while nuts did love him im scared to think what she would do to him if she didn't love him
"Nuts" nails it, "abusive" even better: We know Yui was pretty much born into Seele, and we know their "methods", in this case I'm thinking of Rit. Both aspects together would mean: Yui would be like Mayu from Elfenlied, who is meant to be like Lucy Kaede (therefore both wearing a woolly hat). Ep5 is pretty much the Arael-Armisael ep there. Lucy more and more recovers from her amnesia and learns how to "switch" between beast mode and "nyuu". Eventually she admits her true feels to her childhood friend Kota: "Kota you were my only dream, but only a short dream..." I consider Yui a grown Lucy also with such a dream. However: Is really Shinji her dream, or is he also a means to an end? Is even the TI a means to an end? "Loveless World", a song made by Muse, however "offscreen", Love Live School Idol Project. Yui also wanna confront all humans with this. And sacrifies her son for it. It only seems to work on one individual: Asuka of all people, who eventually wanna give Shinji a hug, but her body is still too weak. (Mayu also meets a little dog. Most recently happened too in Love Live Sunshine, ep5 as well, to Yoshiko Tsushima.... She is involved in the song "Strawberry Trapper" by the subunit "Guilty Kiss")
While it may seem abusive at face value, the reason she did this was to improve Shinjis sync with the Eva. In his subconscious, he knew his mother was in the Eva from the start, hence his incredible sync values from the get go.
So, Yui wished to be forever confined in the Eva, beyond the Milky Way's existance, so that she'll be forever proof of humanity. Dude. I think I need to go stare at the ceiling.
It’s not really “good” or “bad”. Humanity lives on in a space-ark and people on Earth *can* reform from LCL.. Whoop-de-doo. Shinji still killed them all initially, and Seele brutalized and forever traumatized them all with savage violence.
Like the last line is Asuka calling Shinji disgusting, which yes it’s good that humans can be around to misunderstand eachother instead of becoming a Tang Singularity.. But it’s still an ode to our harsh reality and the “conclusions we’ll just come to over and over”.
It’s, really, amazing how the fate Yui chose for herself is so innocuously foreshadowed by the ED so beloved - ‘Fly Me to the Moon’: Fly me to the Moon And let me play among the stars; Let me see what spring is like On Jupiter and Mars ... Fill my heart with song And let me sing forevermore
Amazing vid! You say Yui loves/loved Gendo. She probably did love him in the past. Though I'm more of the view that she, together with Shinji (and basically everyone lol), utterly hated Gendo by the end of EoE. The strongest point for me in this view is that Gendo is eaten/killed by Unit 01 during Instrumentality. Everyone else are turned into LCL (even the corpses at NERV HQ), except for him. His lower body is still left in physical form, unable to be reborn and/or unite with Yui. The conversation (before that scene) between Gendo, Yui, Kaworu and Rei kind of acts as an explanation for Gendo, in a rather passive-aggressive manner by Yui. In a way she's saying: "My dear Gendo, you screwed up. I can't tolerate your selfishness and actions towards our son. This is why I won't accept your wish/Instrumentality." This is why I think Gendo says: "This is my retribution. Forgive me, Shinji.", before he's eaten. He realizes (albeit too late) that the mistreatment of Shinji was the completely wrong scenario in reuniting with Yui. As you say: "They [Gendo and Yui] are not on the same page." His "retribution" is to die (be denied his wish), which he sees as a good enough of an apology for the torment he caused to his son. It's probably the kind of apology you would hear from an egomaniacal person like Gendo. There are also other things in the series that makes me think that Yui came to hate Gendo by the end. E.g. the dummy plug rejection. However, I may be completely wrong. Admittedly, I came up with other explanations while writing this xD
onakaru onakaru Unit 01 was up in space at the moment of Gendo's death though, that was most likely a projection / illusion by Rei. It may have been the Actual Souls™ of Yui and Kaworu judging him, since they're not necessarily bound to one physical place. But even then.... this scene in the manga is a little more developed and she didn't hate Gendō. She didn't approve neither was happy with the things he did, but she didn't hate him at all. The rejection of Rei and the dummyplug doesn't necessarily mean she hates him, either. Just that she rejected the plan- if they were in a crisis and something went wrong she wanted Shinji to be inside Unit 01, which wouldn't happen if she accepted other pilots.
onakaru so... that scene in which the Eva eats Gendo is like a reverse 'Saturn devouring his son' painting by Francisco Goya. : -P en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son
@@TiinkerBells He was consistently abusive to Shinji. She was in EVA 01 to witness it all. Then...she bit his head off at the crucial moment. I think there might be a connection.
To think that a mother character is so deep... It's amazing. The depth this series has, it's themes, plot, execution... Truly masterful. This anime is a true masterpiece.
Wait wait wait so the whole of humanity actually manages to get their bodies back from the LCL at the end?!! Oh god I thought that shinji and asuka were just left alone to restart things, holy shit i really misinterpreted everything hahaha
@@jesusramirezromo2037 yeah, and I think if Asuka and Shinji can accept the pain and suffering of individuality, I am sure a lot of people will be able to come back :-)
Well, she's responsible for half. Seele's responsible for the original plan of human instrumentality. As a matter of fact, they're responsible for influencing & manipulating modern civilization. They're sort of like the 'Illuminati" or "Freemasons" of the world of Evangelion. Yui came along and was able to undermine Seele's plans.
Losing Misato kinda hit hard, but I didn't even realize that Yui planned to be an Eva adrift in space forever after everything was said and done. Kinda wish she and Shinji had had a little more time together, but still. Yui best girl.
+Rhaenys I can give her a pass for abandoning Shinji by fusing with Unit 1 to secure the 3rd impact for him (and unknowingly psychologically scaring him along the way). However after that she better materalises herself out of LCL and be a proper mother to Shinji. Of course after giving herself a hard slap for that dramatic idea of using herself as a memento, instead be content with humanity's memento like radiowave or space capsule.
Luka.K.tutturu Does he need a parent at that point though ? Ideally I would love to think she came back to Earth and lived with Shinji, she would've loved that too seeing how close the two were when he was little. But that would miss the point of the story.
Great stuff as always. It's yet another way Eva shows children becoming like their parents in spite of themselves-Yui went against Seele's plans yet she herself became a shadowy, unseen force manipulating everything and everyone for her own ends. I always figured with the berserk moments she also wasn't entirely lucid, or that she was kind of "hulking out" as a side effect of being in the same emotionally heightened state that allows her control, and the Eva body was influencing her the same way the human body influences Lilith as Rei, and that's why she seems so feral and bitey on top of simply aggressive.
Excellent. Evangelion is so dense. I'm sick of all the fans that believe that all of the Christian iconography is just there for looks. It's obvious that Anno has a vast grasp on the mythology. People are frightened by just how much Evangelion packs intellectually and spiritually.
I actually wrote a whole reflection on this on another video, I put some effort on it, but it's still not a complete and detailed explanation of my thoughts. Anyways I think it's appropriate to what both of you are saying :) If you're interested the whole text is on the coments from this video: /watch?v=ppNt6cpNkBU The conclusion I wrote there was this one: "It seems Anno is USING elements, characters, etc. from the Book of Enoch, The Old Testament (especially the Genesis), Kabbalah and other extra-canonical books/Jewish folklore (so actually not much of actual Christian symbols) to inspire details in his argument and build cultural connections through his personal story. So these references don't necessarily hold a direct meaning to the spectator, but just a building intention of the argument, the aesthetic and the series' world to then further expose other meanings and messages that have nothing to do with Christianity or Abrahamic religions/spirituality/folklore."
Yui Ikari was the mean to depict the simple allegory of Oedipus. From the viewpoint inside the story, Yui started everything and thing went the way Yui planned. But from the metafictional viewpoint, Yui is just a mean to show mental problems of Shinji/Gnedo. It's very ironic that Yui, the very original individual, is the most inhuman character, but Rei is a very human character. At last, Rei and Kaworu became almost the same as Yui and became the metaphor for NGE itself. Asuka, only one main character that maintained her humanity, was the last person with Shinji. Only Asuka's motivation was irrelevant to Yui.
1.) There are some references to Oedipus… but not through Yui. The Oedipus complex comes from Shinji wanting to kill his dad and be with REI, a clone of his mother. The only element of Freudian psychology that applies to Yui is the fact that Shinji’s psychological hangups are partly the product of being “Orally Fixated” due to his Mother leaving him at such an early age. 2.) Kaworu and Rei aren’t the personification of NGE. Shinji and Asuka are (Adam and Eve). This is why Neon Genesis Evangelion roughly means “New Telling Of the Gospel, Genesis”. Shinji and Asuka are left alone in a cleansed world, without sin (Garden of Eden). ✌️
Mothafuckin' Yui Ikari. Manipulating events, friends and family members as much as she could till they gave her the best powers available on a silver platter. Ok, also saving all life as individual beings, but goddamn if she didn't profit immensely in the process after all was said and done. I wonder what the Yui of the rebuild is doing? The rules and greater scheme of things seems to be skewed a bit in that run of the setting.
In the end she wanted to save mankind( by fucking mentally crippling her so beloved son. Good job Yui best Mom ) and by being a godlike creature herself by making a sign humanity existed. Great job there it isnt like that one satelite called Voyager-1 wich left our solar system by the time third impact occurs. Some say but Voyager one isnt stable and can break. I dont think an evas AT Fiels can protect you from black holes quasars, pulsars, stars, a supernova, a black hole jet, alien life who think its trash, annos trolling. Good Job there so called Bioengineer lady learn first astrophysics and how to be a good mom for dummies. I mean she could easily just send out normal radiowaves for indicating our existence. And for who is she doing this crap the first ancestral race, the irken empire, galactic milky way museum, as a symbol or to feed the next black hole? If the FAR finds this out... Well humans are fucked....
Thank you. Evangelion has changed my life, and it still continues to do so, with people like you who don't stop at the "it's just christian bullshit you guys, it's just hype duh" typical stuff. Thank you again. Long live your channel. edit: could you do something about Asuka and her eva unit? i've been searching about the relationship between those two and can't find anything. Maybe i didn't search well enough, or maybe is it because i didn't get it, but i think that would be a great way to explore asuka personality. Again, thank you for your dedicated work. Cheers from France.
illium492 I think Asuka’s mother is in Unit 02. I believe she survived the contact experiment, but only her motherly side of her soul was absorbed into Unit 02 leaving her insane side of her soul in her body. This caused her to commit suicide and then they salvaged the rest of her souls and put it into Unit 02. I think you can see this in 25 and 26 when it’s Asuka’s little character bit where a voice asks her to keep going but also asking if she wants to die with her, showing the two sides of Asuka’s mom’s soul.
I just realized that Gendo prioritized his feelings over logic and reason while Yui vice versa which are opposite behaviors of their respective gender roles as perceived by society.
I always interpreted Unit 1's violent behaviour as Yui protecting her child in exceptionally dangerous situations. She intervenes at the points where Shinji is in danger, or extreme pain and distress. The only point that deviates from that is when she absorbs the fruit of life, but that too was a harrowing fight for Shinji. Maybe because I have kids I see it that way, but I understand the fierce and intense protective feelings which can be aroused if our own children were in such danger.
Yui is such a brilliantly complex character. It's a real shame that she's pretty much completely absent from the Rebuild films. Maybe in 3.0+1.0 we'll find out what her 4D chess game was all along...or maybe not.
hey! Second time watching this and I wish you would come back for another analysis at some point. It has been a long time, and I'm sure you have other things to worry about, but I love these videos, and they are awesome :) Good luck wherever you are and whatever you're doing tho!
I just recently rewatched Eva and was thinking about Yui's intentions in the series and her treatment towards Shinji. Your video cleared up a lot of the questions I had. Thank you for this
I've always been a little confused about what was going on with Yui and her plans vs Gendo's vs SEELE but now it makes so much more sense. Thanks! This was a great analysis
It certainly is very interesting to see the actions of Eva 01 unit as the ones from not only a loving mother but also as those you would expect from a determined woman and scientist, willing to place all bets on what she, in regards to her morality and wishes, thinks is best for humanity. But I indeed couldn't remember Yui being the daughter of a Seele member, I have to rewatch this series again and the rebuild movies, I mean, someday we will get Rebuild 4.0, I hope... Anyway, another great video, I can't believe the struggle it might have been for you to put all of this together, to plan, write and edit this. For that, I'm grateful, thanks for the nice video and I hope there'll be more of this analysis series.
Great episode, I never thought to look at Evangelion from Yui point of view and this episode has really open my eyes to her motivations and intentions. Keep it up.
She made first contact through EVA-01-- to Lilith, to set up the plan for Third Impact. That first contact, would result in everything else. The bright future was meant to be the contact with Lilith and how it would change everything, hopefully then and there, but it didn't. Or it did, but it wasn't immediate, because no matter how smart and intentioned Yui was, Lilith wasn't on the same level as humans. But like Kaworu with Shiniji, Lilith would find humanity fascinating but through Yui. Hence why such a powerful being would allow itself to be incarnated as Rei. Where when it came to Adam, they had to reduce Adam and forcefully reborn it as Kaworu. But Yui would remain trapped in EVA-01, irrevocably changed through contact with an "angel" (though in Lilith's case, the angel of humanity). And just how all first-contact pilots' fates went--its undeniable that there was likely some irrepairable damage to Yui's soul--not maliciously and possibly not intentionally, but that's what happens when you interact wiht something far bigger than you are, especially in a body and space that's still far bigger than you anyway. Pieces of Yui remain, of course, but she'll never be Yui Ikari again. It would be impossible for anyone to know what would have happened. Yui was the first contact pilot after all, and though she designed the Eva system--the one thing that the Eva system proved to be, unspoken by anyone else, is the ability to meet something like the Angels as an equal, for both communication and inevitably conflict. The whole series is about seeing other people beyond one's self. What better lesson to take with you when you try to talk to a very alien, and very lonely god. And that's the secret. Yui talked to Lilith.
I know I'm late to the party, but I got something to say. Yui in her own way may as well be the most evil person out there because despite the so-called plan she had, she was ready to abandon her child to the newly made wasteland that was Earth after Third Impact and CHOSE to be within Eva-Unit 01 to be the sole reminder that humanity existed when everything else died. She chose to be an eternal being at the expense of all other things, even her son who resided in a world that may or may not heal from. And it only gets worse when Third Impact was so powerful that it created a never ending cycle of Death and Rebirth -- the Rebuild series are movies that repeat as said by the creator -- and it was a never ending cycle until 3.0 + 1.0 in which Shinji created a world without Evas. Thereby destroying both the plans of Yui and Selee. Yui was responsible for NGE, EoE, and Rebuild until Shinji stopped it.
I think that yui ikari is a pretty good mother to shinji for example , when she was human she was pleasant, soft spoken and caring mother and when she take control over eva unit 01 she can be turned overprotective when fighting angels
Whoa. This is really good. Bummed you didn't keep going, hope you come back! I learned a ton and honestly, the whole show makes about 10x more sense after this video
Thank you for your insight and hard work with this series. I think you are the only person that can make an analysis video on the symbolism and role of the Kabbalah and Tree of Life in Evangelion's plot and characters. I believe this is one of the most unspoken, core themes to all Evangelion, please consider making that video. Thanks again!
Everyone in Evangelion is twisted. When I first saw the series, I thought Yui was the only one with near pure intentions. She was pulling the strings more than Gendo. In a sense she is the extreme of each emotion. Great analysis!
Wow. I never would've put all that together. To know that Yui orchestrated so much in preparation of an inevitable Third Impact makes so many scenes thay were once puzzling clear as day!
Incredible! I watched Eva when it came out in the 90's but I was a young teen. It was my favorite anime even back then, but I understood so little of the story. Recently I decided to revisit the series and I'm being blown away by the depth of the story! It's incredible!
