Kaworu Died for Your Sins! Again!

from neon genesis evangelion, vol. 12

The Mysterious Stranger

The Anime, the Manga, and the Mark Twain Novella

"God will provide for this kitten." "What makes y'all recall and so?" Ursula's eyes snapped with acrimony. "Because I know it!" she said. "Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His seeing information technology." "Just it falls, just the same. What good is seeing information technology fall?"

—from The Mysterious Stranger

At that place is a curt novel by Marker Twain, written about the end of his life and published posthumously, entitled The Mysterious Stranger. The tale is set in a modest hamlet in 16th century Austria, where 3 boys 1 twenty-four hour period meet a boyfriend dissimilar from themselves: "he had new and expert clothes on, and was handsome and had a winning confront and a pleasant voice, and was like shooting fish in a barrel and graceful and unembarrassed, not slouchy and awkward and diffident, like other boys."

The mysterious stranger starts to practise pocket-size but astonishing tricks for them—causing water to turn to ice; conjuring grapes and staff of life out of air; even making birds that can fly out of clay. At last 1 boy, the story's narrator, works upward the backbone to enquire the stranger who he is:

"'An angel,' he said, quite simply, and fix another bird gratis and clapped his hands and made it flyaway."

The angel then proceeds to really print them by making an entire toy castle, complete with five hundred miniature soldiers and workmen that movement around past themselves. Naturally the boys get involved with this ultimate playset, making their own knights and cannon and cavalry, and although they go rather nervous once again when the angel reveals his name is Satan, he assures them he is not that Satan, but just named after the fallen 1.

"We others are still ignorant of sin; we are not able to commit it; we are without blemish, and nosotros shall abide in that estate always." Distracted past ii of the miniature workmen, "Satan reached out his paw and crushed the life out of them with his fingers... and went on talking where he had left off: 'We cannot do wrong; neither have we whatever disposition to do information technology, for we practice not know what information technology is." Horrified as the other boys are, "he made united states of america drunk with the joy of being with him and of looking into the heaven of his eyes, and of feeling the ecstasy that thrilled forth our veins from the touch of his hand.'"

Aye, Kaworu Nagisa made quite an impression on the fans of Neon Genesis Evange/ion, despite the fact that, in the original broadcast version of the Goggle box show (before it got all managing director's-cutted, box-setted, special-editioned, and platinum-lined) he shows up for only slightly less than thirteen minutes of full screen time, the climax of which being an unabridged minute where zilch happens at all.

That's what being a beautiful affections will do for y'all, especially when yous brand the most of your thirteen minutes on Earth by having a Whirlwind romance with the chief character that ends in a lover's quarrel with Prog Knives and finally a voluntary martyrdom at the manus of your boy here. Relationships don't come up whatever more tragic than that of Kaworu Nagisa and Shinji Ikari, and when fans (including this i) first saw it on TV, the affair was so brief and shocking the story logic of it didn't click in until much later.

In the anime, Kaworu is acknowledged as the Final Messenger, and, of all the Angels Shinji has to fight, this is the most ruthless boxing, won at the highest possible toll to himself. Information technology took fifty-fifty longer for me to realize that the showdown in episode 24 had also taken us full circle from Shinji'south get-go fight in episodes one and 2, which emphasized his personal helplessness against the looming Affections Sachiel. Against Kaworu, it is the Affections who becomes the small-scale, helpless figure, while Shinji is represented simply by the gargantuan, frightful helm and arm of his Eva Unit-O1. Nosotros never meet Shinji's human confront one time throughout the whole final minute of decision.

And so as Col. Trautman would take said instead of Major Katsuragi, "It'due south over, Shinji! It'S OVER!" Kaworu v. Shinji (or Kaworu x Shinji, in the doujinshi) was the big final showdown between humanity and the Angels. And with the outcome leaving Shinji at his most wretched ever, wouldn't it be nice if everyone merely died—your wish beingness Eva's command, as information technology turns out that fortunately humanity hardly ever needed the Angels to slaughter itself.

"I am perishing already—I am failing—I am passing away. In a footling while you will be lonely in shoreless space, to wander its limitless solitudes without friend or comrade forever...Only I, your poor servant, accept revealed y'all to yourself and set you costless. Dream other dreams, and better!"

—from The Mysterious Stranger

Satan'due south words near the finish of Mark Twain'south story also uncannily prefigure the finish of the earth and the Instrumentality project, both of which follow his expiry in the TV show in such quick order y'all picture Anno as a hairnetted fry cook dinging the counter bell. By now yous see Sadamoto's handling of Kaworu, and maybe null illustrates the dissimilar experiences of the manga and the anime better than his handling of this critical character.

No longer the last Angel to be fought, Kaworu actually becomes an active Eva airplane pilot and fights an Angel—the dude even has the nerve to notice the fight is fixed, based on his cognition of SEELE'due south prophecies. Sadamoto of form introduces him at an earlier point in the narrative—at the equivalent of episode 19's end—then sends him to NERV almost the equivalent of episode 22's showtime—before certain of import events, to put information technology mildly, can occur. When one notes this kind of affair, of grade, it's important to restate that the Evangelion manga has e'er been a split up but equal "official" version of Eva, with no particular obligation to marshal itself with the anime, and indeed it was with Book Five, the starting time released after The Finish of Evangelion, that Sadamoto began to truly seem free to get in his own direction.

Yet, as the "other" official version of the Eva story, it is reasonable for fans to view it as an "alternate history" relative to the anime, and the manner Kaworu has been introduced makes us realize the manga may terminate very differently indeed. Despite the fact we know here that Kaworu is an Affections from the very start, he appears destined to at least hang around long plenty to pick upward a few paychecks. It's non articulate when your health benefits boot in at NERV, although if Ritsuko is your chief caregiver it might exist best to forego them.

Sadamoto's remarks upon visiting the U.S. in 2003 indicated that the Eva manga might (might) be planned equally a twelve-volume serial in all. In that location is withal plenty of room for speculation, as the dull working pace to which the artist himself often refers has of late become almost relativistic—as of this writing, it has been eight months since Sadamoto has drawn a new installment of Eva in Japan, and hence a Book Ten is nowhere in sight. It may be small comfort, but those of yous reading this are pretty much in the same globe-trotting boat as the Japanese fans.

"An angel's love is sublime, ambrosial, divine, beyond the imagination of human being—infinitely beyond it! Just information technology is limited to his ain baronial gild. If it vicious upon one of your race for only an instant, it would consume its object to ashes. No, we cannot love men but we can be harmlessly indifferent to them; we can likewise like them, sometimes."

—from The Mysterious Stranger

And with Book Nine we see the most staggering difference thus far betwixt the manga and the anime; Sadamoto's Shinji doesn't even like Kaworu, much less love him. Of class, you could say the less-ethereal Kaworu of the manga is harder to love. I can't believe Sadamoto had him tell Rei he thought she'd be "heftier." And yet he did.

I don't think any A.T. Fields actually got penetrated in the anime; while I do call back Shinji felt sexually attracted to Kaworu, and that yous the audition are supposed to feel that he felt it, what Kaworu himself idea was a very unlike thing. Like Rei, I believe Kaworu to be innocent—coyly, he appears not to exist so, because while Rei needed to be reached out to, Kaworu has come to reach out; whereas Rei has spent her existence existence observed; Kaworu has come up to observe.

Indeed, in the manga, Shinji'south irritation about Kaworu's invasion of his personal space seems nigh a parody of his attitude in the anime. In the Idiot box prove, when Kaworu put his hand on Shinji's, he flinched simply did not pull abroad; whereas in the manga it's easy to imagine Shinji slugging him. Instead he goes to run afterwards Rei, hoping to get closer to her over again.

I hardly call back the alter reflects whatever phobia on Sadamoto's office (afterward all, we even get to see Shinji'southward "Unit I" in the manga), but the fact the manga Shinji is less emotionally bleak and empty, and hence less vulnerable. Shinji'due south simply as negative in the manga, of course, but it'due south an active variety, rather than the passive negative creep (in the best Nirvana song sense) we know from the anime. We don't have to imagine him slugging Gendo; from the look of surprise on Dad's face up in Book Seven he would have smacked the beard off his face up if Kaji hadn't stopped him.

Neither is Shinji in a positive emotional state of affairs where nosotros exit him here, either; indeed at this betoken in the manga there'south arguably no one he can plow to—the more than savage fate that befell Toji has cut him off from his school friends, Rei has become hesitant, Kaji is dead, and his perennial self-esteem booster Asuka is going to demand to rebuild her internal supply before she can even become dorsum to calling him a loser and idiot.

So, like Misato trying to put her own paw on Shinji's, all I can do for now while we wait for Sadamoto-sensei is to recommend for your winter vacation reading list The Mysterious Stranger, which I tin can most guarantee will give y'all new angles to think about Kaworu, and may even earn you class credit too. A quick look at the novel'south comments on Amazon list a instructor who says fundamentalist students walked out of his class when he taught it; some other compares it to The Matrix; those who dislike information technology phone call it "sick," "bitter," and "twisted." Sounds like skilful former Evangelion to me!

—Carl Gustav Horn

[a drawing of Kaworu holding a kitten]

Although The Mysterious Stranger tin can as well exist found in a number of print editions, including The Portable Marking Twain from Penguin (haw haw), the story, being from the days when mp3s came on shellacked cylinders, is legally bachelor online at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/TwaMyst.html. The same site has a book called The Holy Bible, King James Version, which fans of Evangelion might also enjoy, although it's technically "Editor's Choice."

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remember the "kaworu nagisa died for your sins" bumper sticker

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@mediioxumate said

" we all have sins to pay penance for. " kaji hums. he still isn't certain why the fuck some kid is an amanuensis for seele, just he's never been one to vanquish his curiosity rather than pursue it. carefully, quietly he observes kaworu, eyes searching for whatsoever reaction, anything to delve into.

    to live was to sin. it 'damned' mankind, ruled their worlds, often controlled their lives. yet mankind created sin. self destructive was the easiest style to describe lilin. it was lamentable. they held and then much potential, just were crushed by the weight they put on themselves.

    everyone was paying for their sins?? if then, what were his?? with so many loops, the possibilities seemed endless. greed, perhaps?? many would find this whole quest selfish. just in the end he was the only one who remembered any of information technology, the only one who suffered the consequences of mess-ups. and if wanting to create a world where shinji ikari could feel the happiness he deserved made him greedy, and then and so be it. he'd suffer the punishment for that sin a thousand times over.

    perhaps wrath so. many suffered. many deserved it. his mind briefly flashes back to the seele members deaths, the endless nerv employees and to gendo. he lingers on that one, on the man's unwarranted confidence. on how sickly satisfying it was to watch the life leave his hollow optics--

    sometimes he disgusted himself.

  kaworu knew his forcefulness, but hated using it. information technology fabricated him painfully aware of him inhuman he really was.

    ayanami--

    ayanamiayanamiayanamiayanamiayanamiayanami

    envy. even at present, after and so many loops, his chest still pangs. of course it was envy. stupid to think otherwise. rei ayanami... she was in a like situation to him. but no affair what, shinji e'er cared for her. it didn't affair the timeline, nor the situation. always rei ayanami. shinji put himself in harms fashion countless times for her, died for her a few times, nigh started the third affect for her...

    sometimes asuka and shinji were friends, sometimes they weren't. a few times misato hadn't opted to accept him in and they didn't go close. even toji and kensuke occasionally weren't in the picture. simply always her. she was kaworu's downfall in the outset loop. he had been overcome with jealousy, even so non fully understanding his own feelings. he didn't make a habit of recalling that particular loop, but information technology was overnice to note how far he'd come.

    rei ayanami... he killed her one time, to become to gendo. before he realised exactly what was going on. it was a mistake he didn't plan on making over again. wouldn't wish harm on her anymore, simply more often than not avoided her when it was possible. he hated himself near when he found himself envious of her.

    but maybe that was what fabricated him about human.

    ruby-red eyes glimmer slowly, every bit if but realising he'd really been spoken to. luckily his poker face remained even as he pondered the statement. he allows a short laugh, a sort of apology for zoning out.

    kaji was an interesting man. despite the number of loops, kaworu had never institute himself enemies with kaji. a couple times he'd even helped comprehend up the murder of gendo. the older homo filled him with a sadness though. he usually didn't brand it. sacrificed himself for others, assassinated, a couple times killed by misato, even gendo one time. how deeply unhappy he must exist, how overcome with guilt, how heavy his sins must feel--

    kaworu wanted to assist him. wanted to make sure he lived when this quest was over.

    "i suppose so," he muses, keeping his eyes on kaji. sin was manufactured. living was to sin if no ane could escape information technology. and no one should punish themselves for existence what they were. humans. "and what are your sins, kaji-san??"

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I watched iii.33 over again, later many a year, and it's going to take some more than rewatches to really stick in my brain, just here'southward what stands out to me.

Most of information technology's Kaworu-heavy, as there is a lot going on here.

Likewise please note that this is but me getting my thoughts in order. This is all me trying to figure out what I just watched for the starting time fourth dimension in many years. I will likely come up back to this post and modify some thoughts.

Also besides, if you don't like the Rebuilds, don't carp with this post. Information technology's hard enough to find whatever discussions about these movies without someone sticking their ass in to say how they detest them. I don't intendance if you detest them.

Kaworu is both the first angel and the thirteenth/final angel, which isn't too big a departure from the original NGE, only information technology's yet pregnant to me. He becomes the 'thirteenth' when he and Shinji unknowingly fall into Gendo's plot to wipe out the last traces of SEELE (which includes getting rid of Kaworu). This ways Kaworu is technically the Alpha and the Omega--like Vergil from DMC :3

Kaworu is called "SEELE's boy" by Fuyutsuki and Gendo, which means at some point betwixt ii.22 (when they saw him on the moon) and three.33 (fourteen years after he was given to them), they discovered his origins. They also learned he was intended as part of their Instrumentality Project (which is why Gendo insists Shinji airplane pilot Unit 13 with Kaworu when the time comes).

Just I don't think Kaworu's just a clone of Adam. Or rather, if he is, he'due south the ideal type with a soul intact. When Shinji asks Kaworu why Rei wasn't chosen to be the second pilot of Unit of measurement 13, Kaworu says that a "replica of [a human] won't do; her soul is somewhere else." This suggests that Kaworu, despite being made from Adam, also has a soul.

Kaworu seeing himself equally the start angel--Adam--makes his comments to Shinji about how in that location is no such affair as an unforgivable sin, and that there is ever hope, hitting a lot harder this time around than they did originally. He's speaking from the heart most things he feels about himself. He's telling Shinji things he'southward had to learn solitary. This makes him hangin' out on the moon, always looking up at Earth (which is still heavily damaged from Second Impact--in fact, y'all tin can see the wound of Second Impact on Globe very visibly from space) make a lot more sense. He's looking at the damage he caused. He tin can't not look at it.

This also makes him showing Shinji the damage of Well-nigh Third Impact incredibly painful non just considering it's an awful truth Shinji has to confront, merely because Kaworu is probable thinking of his own past and guilt. Shinji was unknowingly responsible for the near total destruction of the world and humanity--something Kaworu, as Adam, was also responsible for. Just fifty-fifty though Kaworu himself technically didn't do it (nor did Adam willingly crusade Second Impact), he nonetheless harbors the grief and guilt--the sin--of those actions. This is why he's so adamant to make up for the past. This is why he clings then stubbornly to hope.

This is also why he takes the choker off Shinji. He is very blatantly taking on the brunt of Shinji's "sin" every bit an human activity of trust and love to Shinji. The choker was created to prevent an enkindling disaster that was similar to the Impacts. The 2nd Impact only happened because test experiments on Adam woke him up. Kaworu puts the choker on himself, saying that it was created by Lilin considering they feared him. I imagine a lot of this goes completely over Shinji'due south head, and it sure flew over mine until this rewatch. While the choker wasn't created with Kaworu specifically in mind, it was created in response to the type of destruction he did. Ergo, it was created out of fear of him.

The but two people in the world, in all of beingness perhaps, who tin understand the guilt, pain, horror, and desperate hope of existence both responsible for the world's destruction and its merely chance at hope, are Kaworu and Shinji. These are also the two pilots whose hopes and actions are consistently used confronting them by the machinations of others (SEELE and NERV respectively).

This is in no manner an attempt to diminish what Mari, Asuka, and Rei all go through as pilots, by the way. They've all got it pretty rough, and I'm not saying Kaworu and Shinji have information technology worse, only that 3.33 lays information technology on pretty thick that Shinji and Kaworu are the 2 characters who can actually understand how the other one feels every bit they're both consistently used equally pawns. (Rei isn't even a pawn, she's cannon fodder waiting to be deployed, and that'due south fucked up on a whole other level that makes me really lamentable for her.)

One thing I find quite sad nearly the choker scrap is that it's clear Kaworu never for a moment doubts that his orders (airplane pilot Unit 13 with Shinji, remove the Lances, and restore the earth) are in whatsoever way lies. He, similar Rei (who only does anything as long as information technology's an club), trusts his orders implicitly--which makes me wonder what, exactly, SEELE told him. I'thousand gonna estimate they told him he was responsible in some fashion for the Second Impact, and that but he (and Shinji) could work together to gear up information technology. He puts on the choker considering he doesn't remember at that place'south a chance of it activating, doesn't recall there's a chance that what they're doing is wrong, but he still wants to relieve Shinji of his fear and hurting.

The one thing that strikes me as really bizarre--like, to the point where I nevertheless struggle to understand it--is Kaworu'southward concluding speech to Shinji.

Shinji: What should I do?

Kaworu: Even if your soul disappears, your wishes and curses remain in this globe. Your will roams the world as information, and gradually changes. Eventually, fifty-fifty your own self is altered.

I think this is Kaworu saying, in a very... Kaworu way, that even if he dies, part of him will remain hither with Shinji. The hopes he and Shinji shared, and fifty-fifty their pain/sin, will linger on in the earth. That "will" lingers, and creates modify. That'due south why his final words are him directly maxim, "We'll see over again."

I think this is also a very Kaworu way to tell Shinji what he was told at the beginning: don't do anything/there'southward zip y'all tin do. Kaworu is saying that there'due south sadly goose egg Shinji can do in this state of affairs, just like there's nothing whatever living person tin can do to command the fact that who they are--and how they are remembered--volition exist forever out of their control after death. But he too points out that even if you can't deliberately alter things, your impact on the globe (your will) does change, and that in turn changes you.

iii.33 is really not piece of cake for me to digest, so I'g going to have to watch and rewatch it a lot to encounter what sticks out again. I merely wish there was more actual analysis of the Rebuilds going around, because the changes they're doing are super interesting, and 3.33 in particular seems to be both a large step up from EP 25/26′s and Stop of Eva's lessons combined (how the only way you can always hope to modify what you hate virtually yourself and your life is past continuing to live). 3.33′southward final message is about how alter is inevitable even if you can't control it--it continues on fifty-fifty after death.

Just also, Kaworu'due south last message is but 1 more evidence in the "loop zoop reincarnation timeline" theory pile lmao. Because his last words are Nearly Coming together Again AND HOW PARTS OF YOU LINGER IN THE WORLD AND CHANGE EVEN IF YOUR SOUL IS GONE

SO RLY THE Final CONVO IS Like

Shinji: What should I do? Kaworu: Look a little bit, another loop zoop will boot in eventually.

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Got tagged by @ryuzakki :) she needs to stop stripping that i man from fma out of his clothes every time she closes her eyes. But seriously thanks for the tag!

I tag @tallerthanerwin @localobnoxiousbisexual @airheadgirl @dorksloth @mylifewasamazinguntiliwasborn

i. WHERE IS YOUR CELL Telephone? Lying on my stomach  2. YOUR HAIR? Likewise long just freshly dyed  3. YOUR MOM? Probably sleeping 4. YOUR OTHER HALF? I have many halves actually. Like Voldemort. They're all over Finland and Scotland  v. YOUR FAVORITE Nutrient? Pizza. No pineapple 6. YOUR DREAM Terminal NIGHT? I was buying something? I didn't sleep that much considering i was at my crush's b-solar day and there was strange things going on with strangers 7. YOUR FAVORITE Drink? Coke viii. Fearfulness? Losing people i care near because i couldn't be enough 9. YOUR Abode AWAY FROM Domicile? I feel like domicile when i'one thousand in the woods 10. WHERE WERE You Last Nighttime? Celebrating my crush'due south b-day and babysitting her  11. SOMETHING THAT You AREN'T? Dauntless 12. MUFFINS? Yep delight! 13. WISH LIST ITEMS? Plants, a cute t-shirt, a shirt that says "Kaworu died for your sins" 14. WHERE YOU GREW UP? In a small boondocks in Finland 15. LAST Affair Yous DID? Watched oitnb xvi. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING Correct Now? Light-green hoodie and black sweatpants  17. YOUR TV? At home, alone 18. YOUR PETS? Same as my tv 19. FRIENDS? Brand life worth living 20. YOUR LIFE? Awkward, fun and full of demand to go to the toilet 21. MISSING SOMEONE? Friends that are living their lives and which i can't see as oftentimes equally i'd beloved to

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youtube

I fucking beloved crying

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It's 2016 and people withal think Kaworu was tricking Shinji

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My mom's nativity scene finally has its angel.

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Me Welcoming New Neighbours

Me: *knocks door*

Neighbour: *opens the door*

Me: Excuse me exercise you have a moment to talk about Nagisa Kaworu our lord and saviour.

Neighbour: Um.. you sure you don't mean Jes-

Me: Shut upwardly you foolish Lilin, Kaworu died for your sins!

Neighbor: *moves the side by side day*

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nom-de-fools replied to your post:ok i dont know shit almost the bible, merely one thing...

space. why? because in that location is no tumblr in infinite.

you make a good point. just are y'all sure you are not talking about Kaworu Nagisa? it is very easy to become the two confused.

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me flirting: hello there have you accepted kaworu nagisa as your personal lord and saviour

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evangelion is set up in japan and so technically yes kaworu has already turned thirteen

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BB

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im watching nge 2.two and i sAW KAWORU AND I THREW MY PHONE UP IN THE AIR AND SCREAMED

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i lost 3 followers for my kawoshin spam

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Can you people please for the beloved of everything holy end turning this into a gif. It is insane how many gifs of this I saw.

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wardupentold.blogspot.com

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