SYNCHRONIZE

The year is 2015 in Evangelion, and it has been fifteen years since the global cataclysm known as the “Second Impact,” which drastically altered life on Earth. The story that everyone in this series has been told up to this point is that a meteorite landed at light speed in the polar ice cap causing it to melt almost instantaneously. As sea levels rose and the vapour from the melted ice turned to rain, evacuation orders were put into immediate effect. Earthquakes came next and tsunamis followed, killing two billion people in their wake. The refugee crisis that settled in afterwards gave way to warring nations, food shortages, and nuclear tension becoming nuclear war, where another atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. Nations came together after some time and what was left of human civilization tried to rebuild itself in the blood, ash, and fire that came with the polar ice cap melting. It’s optimistic to see that even in these disastrous circumstances the human race could still push forward, live, and not run away from our problems, but before humanity could stand again half the population would be wiped out, as well as countless mass extinctions of wildlife. This is the only world that fourteen-year-old Shinji Ikari has ever known, and he is the Earth's only hope as an alien species of giant monsters dubbed as “Angels” have come to Earth in hopes of destroying the life that humans have rebuilt.

symbiosis may morph into dependency as with Shinji and Misato. Shinji folds himself into a deferential role to protect himself from pain, and Misato satisfies her critical sense of responsibility through Shinji’s dependence on her. this role-heavy aspect—fragile/strong, emotional/responsible, student/teacher, protected/protector, guarded/guardian—becomes the structure for projection, false dichotomies, and rigid expectations that synthesize into a dangerous base for disappointment and resentment to fester.

what a difference! for both, I like the approaches they each can offer to thinking about Instrumentality. cool to catch.

a series of notes where I study Evangelion characters and their relationships through astrology. for background, I learn about Western astrology, so that’s the tradition I come from. I base birthdays off a version of Evangelion canon where characters' birthdays are based off their seiyuus'. birth places, I get from information I’ve gleaned from others’ analyses about where characters might have been born. the title comes from Makoto, spoken during Instrumentality in Episode 25. stay tuned!