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Rei Ayanami is one of the main characters of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. Introduced as a mysterious, aloof girl that is one of the pilots of the EVAs, she is gradually revealed to be a clone of Shinji's mother Yui Ikari that Gendo created for the purpose of putting the soul of Llith into, the progenitor of humanity into after defeating all of the Angels, so that he could one day use her power to initiate Third Impact and cause a reversible version of human instrumentality in order to re-unite with his wife and fulfill her dream and counter SEELE's plans for a permanent version of instrumentality. Rei is revealed to also have multiple clones for back-up in case her body is destroyed or she is killed, which happens twice in the series, which are later destroyed by Ritsuko in a fit of rage.
In End of Evangelion, she rejects Gendo's offer and fuses with the body of Lilith and allows Shinji to choose what to do. Shinji, in grief and despair from the loss of Kaworu, Asuka and Misato, chooses to annihilate humanity for failing to understand him, which the creature that Rei has fused into agrees to, before Shinji rejects instrumentality, with Rei allowing her physical body to be killed and allowing lifeform to physically re-manifest themselves. She is last seen at the end, having her consciousness intact despite her body being destroyed staring at Shinji.
She was voiced by Megumi Hayashibara in Japanese. In English, she was dubbed by Amanda Winn-Lee, outside of the Funimation dub of Rebuild of Evangelion and the Netflix dub. She was also voiced by Brina Palencia in the former while Ryan Bartley voiced her in the latter.
Her Evil Rankings[]
What Makes Her Heinous?[]
- She can sometimes be cold and aloof to the point of being rude to people, demonstrated when she slaps Shinji across the face for making a very fair insult of Gendo, or insulting Shinji for not understanding Gendo even though he had almost caused Toji's death. This is partially a result of her being raised by Gendo and not having many social skills, so this is minor.
- She caused Instrumentality after Shinji told her to, although she tried to convince Shinji not to, and turned every human on the planet into LCL and merged their minds into one being. There is no indication she had no control over her actions, and while she does reverse it, it still caused an enormous amount of damage to the world to the point that it will not be the same for a long time. Due to this, she is central for allowing Shinji's worst action to happen.
What Makes Her Inconsistent?[]
- She is a heroic character for the vast majority of the series, and otherwise likely the most morally pure of the three main protagonists.
- She allowed Shinji to commence Instrumentality out of a genuine devotion and appreciation towards him, and attempts to convince him out before realizing she would be unable to do so.
- Even while committing instrumentality, she attempts to make the situation as non-traumatic as possible for people, appearing as their lost loved ones before them so that they are liquidated while in relative peace.
- Despite causing instrumentality, she allows her physical body to be killed without putting up any resistance, and reverses it to allow lifeforms to return to their physical forms if they will themselves to do so.
- Meets Shinji upon the beach, staring silently at him while floating atop the water to demonstrate she still remembers and cares about him.
Trivia[]
- Rei is one of two only character in Neon Genesis Evangelion to qualify as both Inconsistently Admirable and Inconsistently Heinous, along with Shinji Ikari.
- While Rei committed no heinous deeds in the show, and she likely would have ended up as Near Pure Good otherwise, the big reason for her ending up as one is because of the events of End of Evangelion, where she was tasked with the most important climatic decision in the series and allows Shinji to destroy the world while explicitly being the only thing that can do so and being able to relent at any time.
External Links[]
- Rei Ayanami on the Heroes Wiki
- Rei Ayanami on the Evangelion Wiki
- Rei Ayanami on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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