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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Burying memories is man’s way of surviving. But there are some things a man should never forget. Yui taught me that one irreplaceable thing, Shinji. That is the reason I come here, to confirm that commitment. | „ |
| ~ Gendo Ikari. |
Gendo Ikari is the main antagonist of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise.
Gendo acts as the leader of NERV, working to undermine SEELE while pretending to be operating on their side. Willing to go to any lengths to re-unite with his wife Yui Ikari and fulfill her dreams, Gendo is an ingenious and ruthless manipulator, even enlisting children if he deems it necessary to his goals.
In the series itself, Gendo is defined by his adverse relationship to his son and main protagonist Shinji. Gendo also implants the soul of the seed of life Lilith into a clone of his wife and names the girl Rei Ayanami, who he creates numerous clones of and raises as an adoptive daughter who will one day be used to initiate instrumentality.
He is played by Fumihiko Tachiki in the original Japanese version of the series, Tristan MacAvery in the original english dub of the series, John Swasey in the Director's Cut and Ray Chase in the Netflix dub.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- His design, from his eye-obscuring glasses to his longcoat to his hand tenting gesture, all scream the role of a scheming, manipulative genius.
- Spends over a decade scheming against SEELE and working to counter their agenda while advancing his own, keeping them in his debt despite their suspicions against them.
- Pursues his fulfillment of his wife's goal with ruthless abandon, being willing to go to any lengths to do so.
- Plays the emotions of the Akagis like a fiddle, exploiting their romantic affection for him in order to assist in the fulfillment of his goals.
- Creates Rei out of a combination of Yui's DNA and Lilith's soul to assist in his end goal of enacting Instrumentality, making numerous back-up clones of her to transmit her soul into in case she's ever mortally wounded in combat, while genuinely loving her as if she was his own daughter.
- When he calls back upon Shinji and Shinji initially refuses to pilot the EVA, he preys upon his sense of empathy into doing so by showing an injured Rei being cartwheeled in front of him, knowing full well that any injury Rei sustained would be unable to stick.
- Turns the schools of Tokyo-3 into a recruitment zone for the piloting of EVAs, granting a free field of contestants for the units.
- When Toji's unit is possessed by an angel, endangering the world. Gendo forces Shinji to destroy the unit with Toji stuck inside due to the ejection port not functioning due to the possession. When Shinji refuses, Gendo activates the "Dummy Plug" system on the EVA unit and has Shinji destroy Toji regardless, injuring him but with him narrowly surviving.
- When Kaji discovers the secrets behind NERV, it’s implied Gendo captures and kills him before he can leak the true intentions of SEELE and NERV to other people, with Misato being the only one to know that he's been deliberately killed.
- After Kaworu/Adam manages to infiltrate the NERV base, it's revealed that Gendo built in a fail-safe by claiming that the creature housed at the Central Dogma is Adam when it is in reality Lilith, and that he in fact had been keeping Adam's physical body in an infantile form that he used his own right hand to house.
- With Kaworu dead, he quickly retreats to Central Dogma to fulfill his goal, only failing due to Rei having a change of heart after being disgusted by his cruelty and deciding to allow Shinji the choice of instrumentality instead.
- While him groping Rei’s breasts may come off as predatory, he believed this was needed to initiate the Third Impact, showing absolutely zero pleasure in doing so and otherwise acting more like a caring parent toward Rei.
- Even as faced with death, he quickly collects himself. In a scene that questionable in its literalness, Gendo either has Yui encounter him in the EVA Unit and reject him for his cruelty to his son and kill him, or imagines a version of her in the device. If the former is true, he accepts Yui's rage towards him and allows her to kill him without hestitation, and if the latter he allows himself to die. Reflecting upon his unnecessary cruelty, he realizes that he pushed Shinji away because he believed that he would have just harmed him either way, and that he was a pathetic person without Yui that didn't deserve to be loved. He pleads for Shinji to forgive him and to be better to him before accepting his death calmly, satisfied that he had been able to play the vital role in fulfilling Yui's vision.
- Despite his death, he ultimately succeeds in realizing Yui's plans, with a reversible version of Instrumentality that removes SEELE from the picture for good being realized.
What Makes Him A Baddie?[]
- Was partially responsible for the meddling with the unknown that would lead to the Second Impact and its resultant destruction of the earth's habitat and much of the population that also put humanity and angelkind into a race to destroy each other due to their existence being mutually contradictory. While he didn't understand the true extent of SEELE's plans, he still overreached boundaries to a point that put numerous lives in danger, even if his wife was directing the entire operation and therefore shares more blame.
- Has an intensely cold, cruel relationship with his own son, being willing to use and emotionally manipulate Shinji and risk his life without remorse if he believes it will assist in his goal. Even if Yui was also did horrible things towards Shinji, her actions was done under genuine love, whereas Gendo’s just his own delusions of not deserving to be loved by their son.
- His ultimate plan still involves the inciting of the Third Impact and the resultant process of all lifeforms turning into orange goo, even if it is temporary. This would certainly lead to widespread societal disruption or collapse due to people essentially disappearing and then re-emerging.
- While he genuinely demonstrates care for Rei multiple times, he emotionally manipulates her nearly as much as Shinji, keeping her true purpose as a maiden for the apocalypse and her true nature as the soul of Lilith from her to the extent that she outright betrays him as a result of disgust with his actions at the end of the series.
- Recruits numerous teenage children to fight as child soldiers against giant horrific monsters that risk killing them, and shows little hesitance in sacrificing their lives in pursuit of his goals.
Trivia[]
- Gendo Ikari is the only Magnificent Baddie in the Neon Genesis Evangelion, though others are likely to qualify.
External Links[]
- Gendo Ikari at the Evangelion wiki
- Gendo Ikari at the Villains wiki
- Gendo Ikari at the Inconsistently Heinous wiki