Application for entranceway
Name: Kristen
LJ: mouthofbrass
E-Mail: kristen[at]spectrumvoid.net
IM: MadMadPhineas
Character Name: Ayanami Rei (Rei II)
Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Timeline: After she dies in episode 23
Canon Resource Link: Wikipedia article
Character Background: Rei is the First Child: a fourteen-year-old tasked with piloting the giant "robot" Eva. She is, for the most part, totally expressionless, though it is initially hard to tell if she chooses not to express emotion or if she is unable to. She will do anything she is ordered to, from getting out of a hospital bed to pilot despite being almost unable to move due to pain, to making friends (her response to Asuka's suggestion that they be friends is "if I'm ordered to, I will," which really can be understood as her saying "the only way I would ever be friends with you is if I'm forced to").
Her only real emotional connection seems to be with Ikari Gendo, the commander of NERV--she is seen talking to him with a smile (both smiling and carrying on her side of a conversation are rare things for Rei), and she keeps a pair of warped glasses that he lost when he pulled her out her Eva's entry plug, badly burning his hands in the process. She also is visibly aggravated and slaps Shinji in the face when he makes disparaging remarks about Gendo. However, although she is obviously Gendo's favorite of the pilots, even over his own son, she later admits that she doesn't know what kind of person he is.
It is possible that invests herself wholly in Gendo in order to hold off her own despair and because he seems to recognize her as a person rather than a thing, which is how others treat her. Ironically, this situation is the reverse of Shinji's: Shinji is treated as a tool by his father while everyone else is concerned about him as a person--discussion of Shinji's emotional state and personal life can be heard between the other characters, while Rei only ever comes up in conversation in regard to her duties and abilities as a pilot. Rei has therefore attached herself to Gendo because everyone else confirms her own beliefs concerning her self-worth.
Her unusual behavior totally confuses the people around her. Although Shinji's friends Toji and Kensuke find her physically attractive (which she very much is), they have no idea what to think of her as a person. Her lack of concern for the things that go on around her and even for herself is almost humorous at times: the first time Shinji, another pilot, comes to her apartment, he sees her naked and then knocks them both over, landing on top of her with his hand on her breast. All she does it look at him blandly, ask him to move, and then get up, get dressed and leave while he's in the middle of explaining why he's there. She generally doesn't respond to criticism or praise directed at her, though when Asuka refers to her as a doll or a puppet, she calmly replies that she is neither (which is later referenced when she refuses to let Gendo use her in this way and allows Shinji to control the Third Impact through her). In another episode, Rei is invaded by an angel and made to cry at her own loneliness and pain, but she doesn't even understand why she's crying.
Additionally, Rei always uses the word "sayonara" when taking leave, whether she is just leaving the room or going to fight angels. This is notable because "sayonara" as a way of leave-taking is generally only used when one doesn't expect to see the other person again or at least not for a very long time. That Rei uses this term every time she says goodbye to someone indicates that she has accepted that she might not, in fact, ever see that person again.
Over time, as her emotional spectrum and her connections to other characters increase, it becomes clear that rather than choosing not to express emotion, she just doesn'treally feel most emotions. She becomes embarrassed when Shinji tells her she reminds him of a mother and that he thinks she'll make a good one, and is both surprised and embarrassed when he cleans her apartment for her. Afterward, she admits that she has never thanked anyone before that incident, not even Gendo.
She is calm to a fault under normal circumstances. When she does display emotions, it is almost always in response to either Gendo or Shinji. Her concern for Shinji grows obviously over the course of the series (and her connection to Gendo shrinks comparatively), going from total disregard outside of the times when she absolutely has to interact with him to an almost familial sort of protectiveness (though whether this is motherly or sisterly is debatable). For instance, the third or fourth time Shinji is hospitalized after a mission, he wakes up to find Rei sitting beside his bed, waiting for him to regain consciousness. When Asuka taunts Rei, she has no reaction whatsoever, but Asuka criticizing Shinji when he is actually in a very dangerous situation actually gets a rise out of her. She questions Asuka's reasons for piloting her Eva, specifically asking if she does so because she wants to be praised, indicating that she thinks this is a bad or selfish reason to do so. Rei does exhibit instances of caring about people other than Gendo and Shinji, though, such as when she hesitates to destroy Eva unit 04 because she knows Toji, a classmate and Shinji's friend, is inside it.
Her Eva is the proto-type unit 00, and although she is able to synch with it and pilot it without problems throughout most of the series, the first time she enters it, the Eva goes berserk and she's badly injured. Other than this incident, however, she pilots her Eva flawlessly and reacts to danger without hesitation. Though she often plays the backup or defensive role in missions, she does not hesitate to put herself in harms way to help the other pilots. Although her synchro levels aren't as good as Shinji's or Asuka's at any point during the series, she does have a better understanding of the Evas than either of them, stating that one has to open one's heart to the Eva to get it to move and that the Evas have souls.
Rei looks remarkably like Ikari Gendo's wife and Shinji's mother, which would explain why Shinji easily identifies her as a motherly figure despite her stoicism. The only physical difference between the two is that Rei is apparently an alibino, while Ikari Yui was definitely not (so obviously she isn't a clone). Rei is probably not entirely human, but no specific information is ever given about Rei's origin or her heritage. Dr. Ritsuko Akagi states that she was born in a certain room deep in NERV headquarters (a room which Rei's own apartment mirrors), but no other details are given. Kaworu, the final angel, states that she is the same as him and that the two of them are respectively supposed to be human vessels for the souls of Adam and Lilith. It is also implied that Gendo created her from what remained of Ikari Yui after she was absorbed into Eva 01 with the intention of using her during the Third Impact.
However, there are countless, soulless clones of Rei kept in a room within NERV headquarters--they are used as spare vessels for her soul. Rei states early in the series that if she dies, she can be replaced, and this actually happens after she sacrifices herself to defeat an angel near the end of the series. The new Rei says openly that she has no memories of the battle and that she must be the third one.
The first Rei was killed as a child in 2010. The second Rei (the one discussed in this application) may not have appeared until 2014 when she was transferred to the school in Tokyo-3. If this is the case, she would have been "born" as a fourteen-year-old. It is also possible that part of Rei I's soul was used as the soul of unit 00, which would explain the personality differences between Rei I and Rei II (because she is missing parts of soul). Following this theory, if the part of Rei I's soul that was in unit 00 escaped and rejoined the "whole" after unit 00's destruction and Rei II's death, this would explain why Rei III is more emotional and feels stronger loyalty toward Shinji than Gendo.
She will arrive in Wonderland post-mortem, after she is killed in episode 23.
Other interesting notes:
-Rei is a vegetarian.
-She can at least read German fluently.
-She can tell when she is being watched without having to actually see the person watching her.
-Rei apparently doesn't dream.
-While Rei's given name is always written in katakana or the Roman alphabet in the series, it is also notable that the Japanese word "rei" can mean "zero" (零), "spirit/ghost" (霊),"cool/cold" (冷), or "actor", all of which describe Rei well.
Abilites/Special Powers: Rei can activate a sort of psychic shield called an AT Field which is nearly impenetrable under normal circumstances. She can also tell when people are watching her.
Third-Person Sample:
Rei stared silently out the classroom window, seeing but not watching another class play baseball, hearing but not listening to the cicadas in the trees outside. These things felt very far away from her: sensory input that she did not entirely trust and therefore did not take the time to analyze. Piloting Eva had taught her that her senses could lie to her and she had embraced this without questioning it. It helped to insulate her.
The Third Child was watching her again. She didn't look over to acknowledge him. He wasn't looking for acknowledgment. Not from her.
The person he wanted to see him was...
She shifted just slightly in her seat, her ankle bumping against her school bag purposefully. She could feel the lump of her glasses case inside and pictured the cracked, slightly warped pair of glasses inside. She still carried it with her.
Why?
She pulled her ankle back again. It didn't seem as important as it had before. When she looked at them, she had to consciously form the commander's face in her mind.
Maybe there was another face that needed to replace it.
The Third--Ikari-kun--was still watching her. She closed her eyes and listened to the cicadas.
First-Person Sample:
[When the camera comes on, Rei's expression is totally devoid of the normal surprise or aggravation of a new arrival. She is wearing her entry plug suit and if one is looking closely, the remnants of tears are visible on her cheeks, though she doesn't look upset. Behind her, the room has already altered itself to look like a rather dingey, sparsely furnished hospital room.]
I do not know how I am alive. [Her voice is soft and monotone.] I do not know how I came to be here. This is not Tokyo-3. Where is this? Where is the Third Child?
[She pauses for just a moment, then adds] Please respond.