Neon Genesis Evangelion/WMG

The series is Shinji (failing at) imagining a harem-fantasy world with mecha elements
Plenty of the basic character archetypes are there: bottle fairy Misato, shy blue-haired girl Rei (who in a normal harem anime would eventually learn to love with Shinji's help), quirky school friends Toji and Kensuke, Tsundere Asuka, gag character Pen-Pen, etc. The problem is, real!Shinji has as much emotional problems as anime!Shinji, and as a result, his dream world also falls apart:
 * Some scenes which are typically played for laughs in a romantic comedy anime (a good example is Shinji accidentally groping Rei) turn out incredibly awkward, decidedly unfunny and not sexy.
 * The "Dance Like You Want To Win!" episode, in which an Angel is defeated... through the power of synchronized dance, which sounds a lot like the dream of an imaginative young child.
 * Piloting the Eva is not a fun part-time job, it's a traumatizing experience that eventually leads to.
 * Gendo, Shinji's estranged father, isn't simply a wacky dad (think Ichigo's dad in Bleach), he actively neglects Shinji and real!Gendo is the cause of much of his emotional problems in the real world as well as real!Shinji's fantasy.
 * As real!Shinji grows older and starts immersing himself less in his fantasy world, it becomes less coherent and more like random imaginings (represented in the show by the final two episodes).

Leliel's Sea of Dirac leads to Digimon Adventure 02's Ocean of Darkness.
In episode 16, Shinji converse to a Shinji that was another side of him, and conversely, in Digimon 02, when Hikari visit the Ocean of Darkness, we see a side of her that was not usually dominant; to sum it up, it's a means of travel between universes.

Rei Ayanami is a Galatea.
And Gendo is just like Pygmalion. Think about it. He finds a perfect girl, he loses it, and nobody's perfect for him. What does he do? Create his own! Additionally, all the Perverse Sexual Lust.

The EVA 02 is manufactured by BMW.
Because Germany

The ending of End of Evangelion is the beginning of a Kenan and Kel sketch on orange soda.
With all that, you just know that somewhere out there Kel is screaming "WHO LOVES ORANGE SODA?".

The Dead Sea Scrolls are really the lyrics to Imagine by John Lennon.
Expelling everything separating people for a perfect, unified peace is what Imagine is trying to say. Take it literally and way too far and that's essentially Instrumentality in a nutshell.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is just like Brazil.
The Instrumentality, episodes 25-26, and even Rebuild of Evangelion were just the results of Shinji going insane from his tormented mind.
 * See the Surprisingly Similar Stories page for more.

There is NO symbolism
The entire show is just Gainax loling at us. They just made massive money because we all despereatly scour the internet, searching for the answers to why Neon Genesis Evangelion is so weird.
 * I actually agree with this one, minus the loling. This statement may get me committed, but if you take the show literally, and letting what happens on screen actually be what happens, the story is actually rather straightforward. Boy gets recruited to fight monsters, boy fights monsters, ancient conspiracy plots to have morally ambiguous things happen, morally ambiguous things happen. Grossly oversimplified, but anything too weird really can just be accepted as delusions or just visuals so that the scene doesn't take place with just text on a screen, which I may remind you happens eventually anyway. ... Pretty quickly, actually.
 * Confirmed. The following quote is by the production staff, confirming that at least the Christian symbolism has no meaning at all. "There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice."

By the time of End of Evangelion, Shinji Ikari became an Omnicidal Maniac and a potential Nietzsche Wannabe
Seriously, he even exclaimed "Everyone just die" while simultaneously letting God kill off humanity and collect their souls, just because of his growing madness caused by his chains of Freudian Excuse after Freudian Excuse, and the realization on how pointless his efforts are when it still leads to The End of the World as We Know It. And since this is a fucked-up Shinji, he might even continue to force God to annihilate the entirety of the universe through a Division By Zero ala Space Runaway Ideon (seriously, it explains the ep.26 Mind Screw). Yui, Rei and Kaworu, who realized that this is wrong even by their eldritch standards, eventually talked him out of it with lectures about earning our happy endings, allowing Instrumentality to discontinue the world-annihilating process and make him come back from the LCL.

== The reason why Seele wanted to get rid of those Angels is because the Angels are going to fuck up Instrumentality in a non-lethal fashion. In other words, the Angels are actually going to prevent the Apocalypse == Well this speculation came into this troper's head when the so-called Assimilation Plot perpetrated by Seele turns out to be nothing more than a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum on drugs. Let's see what the Canon said: 1) If an Angel combines with Adam, everyone dies. 2) If Adam merges with Lilith, supposedly, a god is created. 3) At The End of Evangelion, everybody still dies. What? Also, if the Angels are after Adam, why are they horny for Lilith instead of the real Adams, Gendo, Kaworu, Evas 00/02 and possibly Antarctica? We might as well argue that Seele's entire myth of "the angels desperate to merge with Adam" might as well be that, a myth.

Also, all those ramblings about the Angels trying to understand humanity. Armisael, who complains on how Angels had to live massively lonely lives wandering the stars forever, and Kaworu, who appreciates Human art and culture despite being not Human, are pretty much lampshades on the Angels' plot of not trying to wipe out humanity, but actually trying to become humans.

So, where are we left? We can also say that whether it's Adam or Lilith, both end up in a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum. But, if Seele is just obsessed with a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, why not do it with letting the supposedly "Omnicidal Maniac" angels let it do the majority of the fuckup for them? Why not simply tie up Eva-01 with the Hand of Gendo and a Lance of Longinus up on the Empire State Building and let the angels take care of the business? Or even better, why need Evas at all? Why be such douchebags who screwed-up the mental and emotional life of innocent 14-year-olds? They can just fuse Adam and Lilith, create a god, and pretty much use the god's "omnipotent powers" to Deus Ex Machina the angels out of existence.

Well, besides the fact that if a god was created on the first try and then used against the Angels the plot would end up as either a boring God Mode Sue or a Space Runaway Ideon ripoff if the Angels are at least a challenge with truly Lovecraftian superpowers, we might as well assume that the Angels are going to fuck up Instrumentality so badly it instead prevents Instrumentality and leads to the Angels becoming Kaworu-esque humans. Seele, being the douchebags that they are, instead inverted the whole fact and said that "the Angels are going to annihilate us and the only pathway for humanity's survival is for us to strike first". It can be asked, why go to such lengths? There are like a hundred ways for the destruction of humanity, right? Answer: Human Nature. Sure, Seele might be Omnicidal Maniac Nietzsche Wannabes, but when there's an Omnicidal Maniac there's going to be a bunch of heroes going to stop him in their will to survive. And no matter how convincing an Omnicidal Maniac's Hannibal Lecture may be, the majority will always be in the support of the heroes who "save the day". Asteroid Impact? No problem, we'll just blow it up. The Virus? We'll cure it. Nuclear bombs? Zombie Apocalypse? Nanomachines? Wave Motion Guns? Ordinary waking up Eldritch Abominations from the Great Beyond? No problem with the power of the Human FIST!!!! And a bit of Science. Basically, Seele's plot involved turning the Human Fist against those innocent Cthulhus out there whose only wish is to Become a Real Boy but cannot speak and thus are automatically Acceptable Targets by the Chewbacca Defense, said punching out Cthulhu is merely a distraction designed to further Seele's real goal, which is actually backstabbing humanity to death in the form of a Yog-Sothoth who will eat humanity's souls once and for all. Which is fitting of an Evil Plan. Of course, that didn't prevent Instrumentality from still being fucked-up, since there is another backstabber by the name of Gendo Ikari. You may also ask, didn't Kaworu said something about him annihilating all of humanity? Yes he did, but since this is Kaworu he might as well be speaking parables, and his destroy all humans assumption is simply a metaphor for Shinji's solipsism and impending willingness to commit suicide. Also, since Kaworu is an agent of Seele rather than an actual Angel, he might be as well an actual Adam who simply made the decision of backstabbing Seele, like Gendo.

== The real reason why Seele planned the Instrumentality is solely because they are extremely paranoid and fearful about Death / Hell / Gehenna / Tartarus / Underworld / The Afterlife / something like that == Well this would make more sense, since the alternative would be the Angels being nonlethal beings like the above, while this theory sticks to the more canonical "Angel-controlled Instrumentality will annihilate all life" statement, although this still advocates the idea of Seele being omnicidal maniacs. Seele really wanted all of the sinful bastards that are humanity to die, but death is a very uncertain and Despair Event Horizon-inducing thing on which everybody, including them, are very paranoid and fearful about, with the paranoia being even more fortified by the notions of "Hell" and "Eternal Punishment". An Angel-initiated Instrumentality will simply lead to an uncertain death. Human Instrumentality was a way on which they can provide themselves with a very certain death, a death which annihilates the fear of death and Hell through an Assimilation Plot. Hence, the despair of death is overcome, and people who die hopeful and full of spirit die in the eternal bliss of nirvana, instead of being dragged into the dark agonizing eternal damnation vortex that is Despair Event Horizon. Heck, Religion does the same, but it uses the collective hope and spirit of humanity instead of some Applied Phlebotinum.

The First Ancestral Race is actually the Rei/Adam/Lilith/Shinji Merger from the future, sending itself back into time/another dimension to create Alternate Universes!
First, we don't know much of anything about what the First Ancestral Race actually were, except that they made Adam and Lilith. And if somehow those two merged, they essentially become a God that can mess with reality/create new reality/whatever the hell it wants. Unless the First Ancestral Race itself has power equal to that, how can it make something so utterly mindboggling? Because it made itself....IN THE FUTURE/ORIGINAL ALTERNATE DIMENSION! And the reason it keeps crashing into Earth and doing...whatever, is because the Shinji Part the Merger of it really, really, wants a world where someone who shares his Soul is happy.

The Lance of Longinus is actually not unique at all in the end though, since it could easily be replicated just by normal technology. Divine Merger Shinji/Rei sent copies of it to each new Earth/AU, just in case something goes wrong again.

This all makes total sense. And the Dead Sea Scrolls was written by Kaworu! Who then sent it into the Past so SEELE could read it and engineer the events that would this insane Egg made it's own Chicken that would make it's Egg nonsense possible. I mean, how the hell could Humans magically understand an Alien Language so perfectly? Because Kaworu had already written it PRECISELY so SEELE could translate it!

And those Spectral Rei's are all the representations of the Rei/Shinji/Adam/Lilith Merger checking on each Earth/AU's progress.

Neon Genesis Evangelion takes place from the perspective of a hedgehog
Hedgehog's Dilemma. Enough said.

The Instrumentality is a metaphor for Euthanasia
It's obvious.

The Instrumentality is a metaphor for Nirvana
It's also obvious.
 * It's a metaphor for the general concept of "heaven" held by almost all religions. Yeah, this is about 99.9% confirmed.

The entire series has been written to make everyone feel disgusted towards classical music and jazzy pop songs.
Hideaki Anno's aim was to take a classical piece or jazzy pop song, associate it with the most disturbing plot and images he could think of and then repeat that over and over again until noone on earth will ever experience pleasant thoughts of these songs and pieces again.
 * Actually, This Troper actually liked the Ode To Joy (which he always hated before since it's an Ear Worm) ever since the episode about Kaworu Nagisa.
 * You must have a very sick mind, then.

Crazy, mentally broken people who are isloated from humanity are the only ones who can effectively pilot EV As
Since these isolated kids are the most singled out from everyone else, they are the only ones whose condition has passed a threshold where their lonliness mainfests as a strong AT Fields. The more disconnected from humanity these kids are, the more powerful their AT- Fields are. Remember that none of these kids can empathize (Asuka and/ are socially awkward (Rei). This goes along with the Hedgehog's Dilemma theory, as it explains why these kids are unable to connect with other; the fear of being hurt by getting closer to others. Fearing others, the kids form natural mental barriers to keep others out. The more barriers, the stronger AT-Field. Of course is the case of  she is so detached from everyone, she has AT -Fields, of course hers aren't as powerful as the other 3 as their detachment from humanity is more extreme than her's; she's only uninterested in humanity while the rest reject it. * Haruhi Suzumiya, anyone?
 * So does this mean that the Lance of Longinus, with its anti-AT-Field is a stick of "cheer up, emo kid!"?
 * Uh...this one is true, in a way. The neural connection that controls the Evangelions is stated to be the "A10" nerve, which is known as the Ventral Tegmental Area of the brain. Said section of the brain is in charge of (among other things) providing the chemical reward system one feels for emotional social bonds, particularly that between a mother and child. The children who pilot the EV As are so socially stunted that they instinctually reach out for any sort of support at all...and the mother's soul bound into the EVA responds. Thus they can only actually pilot because they desperately need a mother's affection.
 * Yeah, this one's true. I'm pretty sure it's actually stated somewhere in the series, or at least very strongly implied, that only children with particular mental/emotional instabilities can synchronize with Evas.

End of Eva takes place during the Hospital Scene
which occurs after Asuka  which explains why she's there. We've never seen, or heard about, Shinji doing anything like this before, so it could be his first time. This also explains why Shinji exclaims  at the end of the scene, after realizing what he's done.
 * Asuka isn't bandaged-up enough. Remember, her forehead and cheek were pierced, her intestines ripped out, and her arm split. She'd be way more injured than at the start. Also, Asuka mentions the "jerk-off fantasies" before they happen.

There is a scene missing from EoE
Ok, ok, ok. This is more wishful thinking than Wild Mass Guessing. However, the tone at the end of the series is so irreconcilable with the very last scene of EoE, that one cannot help but scream WTF and think there is something missing. Here it is¦..

After Asuka's final line in the movie, Shinji wakes up with a start. The previous scene was a dream. Shinji and Asuka are still alone on the beach. However, things are slightly different. Shinji looks in one direction, and sees forests thick with vegetation. In the other direction, he sees Tokyo-3. The city appears to be empty, but the buildings are repaired and clean, and there are sounds coming from the city that suggests humans might already have returned. Shinji then looks at Asuka and stands up. He closes his eyes, clenches his fits, and remembers all of the speeches from the last two episodes of NGE and the parting words of Yui from EoE. With courage in his voice, he says to Asuka, "Before you start screaming at me listen", and then proceeds to tell her that it was physically impossible for him to awake Unit 01 in time. He also tells her that he did not pull her out of the LCL, but that he is happy she is there, Because I wouldn't have anyone else by my side! Asuka gets up and tells Shinji she knows. She also says that she decided to leave the LCL herself. She then pulls in a shocked Shinji for a long and passionate kiss. As the two embrace, the camera pulls out, and Fly me too the moon plays.
 * ...what?
 * That's already been discussed extensively here.

The main characters are representative of the 7 deadly sins
Shinji with his tendency to go berserk and kill everything is the representation of wrath. Asuka is the representation of envy because she quickly becomes jealous of Rei. Rei, with her squicky feelings for Gendo, the nudity tendencies and the Fanservice that revolves around her, represents lust. Misato is representative of gluttony with her alcoholism. Gendo is the representation of pride (his Magnificent Bastard reputation among the fandom to the point that merely clasping your hands can give you an aura of magnificence, and his ambition of turning everyone into a single soul and resurrecting his own dead wife is pretty prideful, think of the other widows who have to live without the wives they adore). Ritsuko is greed because she wanted Gendo and the Magi system all to herself. And Ryouji is sloth for obvious reasons. Feel free to move these around and mix up who is what sin because the only one I'm sure of is Gendo's pride and Shinji's wrath.
 * You could make a case for Kaji=Lust and Rei=Sloth. Also, Shinji may have started out representing Sloth before being broken into a form more useful to NERV, which would make Asuka Wrath. Also fitting, wouldn't you say?
 * The same could be said of Misato. If you'll recall, the two of them spent a whole week together.
 * This could actually be very solid if one chose to use more ancient forms of the Seven Sins, back when they were Eight, for example: Gula (gluttony), Fornicatio (fornication, lust), Avaritia (avarice/greed), Tristitia (sorrow/despair), Ira (wrath), Acedia (acedia), Vanagloria (vainglory) and Superbia (hubris, pride). Rei in particular is practically the textbook definition of acedia, and Asuka is very much vainglory (but wrath could also work, with Ritsuko being vainglory). Gendo would then be hubris, Misato gluttony, Shinji would be despair, I'd say, but I'm not so sure about avarice and lust.

Everything but the first five minutes and the last five minutes is a delusion caused by Instrumentality.
At the end of End of Evangelion, a vision of Rei appears before every person on Earth. She performs some symbolic action that helps them come to terms with Instrumentality, and then their body reverts to LCL. Rewind to the first episode. Shinji has been summoned to a rendezvous in a deserted town. Suddenly he sees Rei standing near him... bear in mind, Shinji has never met Rei before and should have no idea what she looks like. Just as suddenly and inexplicably, Rei vanishes. Then giant aliens, fighter planes, fast cars, dangerous women, and all the other paraphernalia of Eva-as-we-know-it come crashing into frame. Everything that happens from them on is a delusion created by the collective consciousness to psychologically wear him down to the point of accepting Instrumentality. It takes them a lot longer than the other cases shown (26 episodes, versus a few seconds on average), but even the other characters had to admit that Shinji was an expert at rejecting people.
 * This theory is supported by Shinji wearing a watch in the beginning; as soon as Misato picks him up, it disappears, never to show up again. It could be explained as a simple continuity error, but in the remake Rebuild of Evangelion, it happens again!
 * But Misato picks him up after he sees Rei. She must be a messenger of Instrumentaily, too.
 * If the watch disappears, time disappears. All Evangelion takes place in Shinji's head in the same split second as Instrumentality takes place in everyone else's head, which could presumably contain equally crazy events.
 * A lot of 1.0, especially the beginning, was made directly from the TV series frame-for-frame.

The entire series takes place during Instrumentality
An alternate take of the above: Shinji is too late arriving at Tokyo-3. In the opening of the first episode, the shockwave that rocks the city is not from explosives, but from Sachiel (who is actually the only Adam-based life that exists in the real world) making psychic contact with and activating Lilith, thus initiating Third Impact. Vaguely supported by the appearance of soul-collecting Rei. Humanity doesn't realize this, and their combined delusion of continuing their lives forces Instrumentality to create an illusory world for all the souls within it. Only objects with a psychic presence (id est, an AT Field and therefore a soul) are given a non-illusory or functional form within this Intrumentality; thus, in this world human weapons are utterly ineffective against the Angels, whilst the Evas, which have souls, easily dispatch them. Shinji slowly goes mad as he realizes that he can See the Code, so to speak; in-series "Instrumentality" occurs when he becomes "the One," takes control of Instrumentality through Rei and Unit 01, and breaks down the illusion for everyone. Both EOTV and EOE are valid endings, with the two conflicting desires in Shinji -- to live in the real world he doesn't know, potentially ruined beyond recognition, or to continue life as the god of his own illusory world -- causing him to split into two distinct personalities. The personality split may occur after his reappearance on "real" Earth, with Rei appearing once more to collect the unwilling portion and close the metaphorical book.
 * ...and this should be The Matrix nth Renaissance.

An unknown amount of Evangelion takes place during instrumentality
It could start at the first five minutes, it could have been going on since before the start of the series, or possibly it actually occurs during EoE. Either way, Shinji is then stuck in a Groundhog Day situation wherein he is given an unlimited number of tries to accept himself. When he fails, the world Which makes the last broadcast episode the last point possible in the story of Evangelion chronologically (as long as the world isn't perfect/near perfect).

The last two episodes are an examination of what Shinji thinks when he listens to the SDAT tape.
If you look closely, the tape is marked "Program 25 and Program 26". It's made reasonably clear that the tape and its contents are what, essentially keeps him going; without it he has nothing to make him feel better, nothing to rely on. Considering the last two episodes are the characters essentially re-affirming his existence, working as a "Good End" to the series, this makes perfect sense.

The album playing on Shinji's SDAT player is Pink Floyd's The Wall.
If any album could serve as a metaphor/soundtrack for Shinji's life, this would be it. Not only that, but The Wall has 26 tracks, just like the music on the SDAT player. The continual moving back and forth between track 25 ('The Trial') and track 26 ('Outside the Wall') represents Shinji's wavering back and forth between feeling judged and desiring escape.
 * Except that you can hear pretty clearly what he's listening to via earspray, and it's just generic 90s J-pop.
 * That could just be inserted, so you can't hear The Wall, in order to avoid copyright infringement. It is Evangelion after all.

The entire cast of the show is in purgatory.
Let's face it, this theory makes a lot more sense here than it does anywhere else.

Shinji is in Hell.
Take a moment and ask yourself what hell is like if you're an obsessed mecha Otaku. It probably resembles Evangelion just a little: NGE is everything you would not want giant robots to be.
 * But the Evas were designed that way because Anno despised the toy companies; see The Notenki Memoirs...

Shinji is in Ironic Hell, and he's there for being a rapist, murderer, and heretic in life
Think about it. What are the worst things Shinji does during the series? He falls on Rei and accidentally gropes her while being attracted to her, with the expected slap coming long after the fact over something apparently unrelated; it's possibly symbolic of the delayed punishment for misdeeds during life a soul experiences in Hell after death. Then there's the... incident... with Asuka in End Of Evangelion; her reaction, too, is long delayed. As for the murder, there's the horror as he is shunted out of the driver's seat and forced to watch while his Eva rips apart one that turns out to contained his friend Touji, and his being forced to kill Kaworu.

The blasphemy? It's his job to kill angels. Anvilicious enough for ya?
 * Nitpick: Rei didn't slap him for the grope. She slapped him for violation of the fifth commandment (fourth for Catholics), disparaging his father.
 * More accurately, Shinji is in hell in accordance with Sartre's "Hell is other people".
 * That's certainly possible. Just replace some of the words of Hedgehog's Dilemma and it makes sense. Risking pain by becoming closer becomes enduring pain and being forced to come closer.
 * That means I'm also in Hell, and Everybody Is Jesus in Purgatory is right after all. Come on, Hedgehog's Dilemma is everywhere.

Shinji is the Antichrist and the inverse of Jesus.
Think about it. Jesus sacrificed his life so that the sins of man are forgiven. Everyone died for Shinji's sins, which include Cowardice and at least one instance of the each of the Seven Sins. The Antichrist is foretold to unite the world against God. Shinji united every soul in the world during Instrumentality; what more can you do to spit in the face of God than to tamper with Creation?
 * Shinji didn't sacrifice anyone - none of those people were killed. They were translated, as Elijah.
 * You mind giving examples of all seven? Sloth, yes, and Lust (Shinji is a fourteen-year-old boy, after all). But overbearing Pride? This is Shinji we're talking about! Gluttony? Wrath? This is SSE, not FMA.
 * One form of gluttony, as stated by Thomas Aquinas is "eating too daintily." Misato calls Shinji out for being finicky. As for wrath, that's the sin he seems to be most fond of, considering he loses control and goes berserk every third or fourth episode. Pride, the love of self to the point of having contempt for others, could 'possibly' be seen in his attitude after Rei II's death. He could be interpreted as pushing away Misato because he considers wallowing self-pity to be more important than them helping each other through the grieving process - and therefore considers himself to be more important than Misato, to the point of apathy towards her feelings. Of course, this interpretation is almost certainly bullshit, but hey, it's wmg.
 * He got sucked into the 12th angel. He got overconfident after praises of his sync test scores being higher than Asuka. Yeah, a brief instance, but it's there.
 * Doesn't fit the definition of pride as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
 * However, "Nobody wants me, so it's fine with me if everyone dies" sounds really prideful. He's considering his pain to be more important than human life, or at least is considering his views of humanity to be more important than those actual people.
 * Similarly, his general obsession with Asuka stems from Envy, seeing as he is jealous of her looks, her personability, and her charisma. Gluttony is briefly visible in the early series, though used for comedic effect. Greed is omnipresent in many of the characters, though of a more metaphysical sort, with them desiring to receive unconditional love without any effort or cost on their part. Shinji has more Wrath than is healthy for a human being, what with his battle with Zeruel, his attempt to kill his father after Bardiel, and his two attempts at murdering Asuka. He asks for everyone to be killed in EOE essentially out of revenge.
 * Two attempts? He only tries to kill her once. Also, Shinji (per the initial entry) does not show gluttoney anywhere, though Misato does. Also, Shinji vs Zeruel shows a desire to protect, not a desire for wanton destruction.

The Eva Units are made using technology from Cybertron.
Well, think about it. What other planet has robots that unquestionably are alive? Plus, the synchronization with the pilots  bears an eerie resemblance to the binary bonding of the Powermasters, Targetmasters, and especially Headmasters. .

Since they can't create sparks for the Evas, it makes sense that NERV might try to use mankind's closest equivalent (human souls) as a substitute.
 * Except that the Evas aren't robots, but cyborgs. Additionally, the various fins are consistent with the series' internals as shown in the scenes using them.
 * It may be Unicronian technology. That was somewhat organic.

The so-called Alternate Universe sequence in episode 26 is real and is the near future of former NERV members.
With the Angels done and the Evangelions now redundant, NERV was disbanded. The interactions in episode 25 allowed Shinji, Rei, Asuka and Misato to better understand each other and come to terms with their quirks -- most notably Shinji, who realized that being an Eva pilot is not the only possible future for him. This probably involved some memory wipes to remove the horrid memories that resulted in them growing so messed up in the first place. As for the movie? Naaaah, no thank you, not today! Also, some people come back to life.

Everything in the show is a dream of Pen-Pen the penguin, who is God.
He's so conspicuous and out of place in the storyline that there must be some greater reason for his existence. In addition, the whole world seems to be designed for his comfort, and he's the only member of the cast who is not screwed up.
 * ...So Pen-Pen is Mokona?

Pen Pen was trying to prevent third impact
Cute animal mascot in what ended up bieng a very dark and mindscrewing series? Pen Pen was actually trying to lighten things up and help everyone keep things together so that they would be in better shape mentally and stop Seele's plans (Penguins don't like for the oceans to be full of tang). Sadly Misato sent him away at a critical juncture, and screwed it up.

The entire series is inspired by the infamous Game 11982 of Freecell.
Those who play a lot of Freecell will understand the joy in how the field slowly progresses from chaos to order with each deliberate move, ultimately reaching the point where all the loose ends simply fall into place (so simply that most versions do it for you). Just like a typical action series. Now, Windows users set up that particular game, or any reader deal it out and play it yourself. If you had tried that, over and over again, before it became public knowledge that not all Freecell games are winnable, wouldn't you have written something like Neon Genesis Evangelion?

Third Impact didn't last long.
If the last two episodes are any indication of what Third Impact is like for those reduced to LCL (and what else could it be?), then it would make sense that humanity might come back relatively soon after Third Impact. If the movie went on a bit longer, it might have had a happy ending.

SEELE is The Illuminati or a parody of the Elders of Zion.
Think about it. A cabal of old men with hooked noses  running the UN, plotting the fate of humanity on their own, and using something that seems suspiciously like Jewish Kabbalistic magic. The only way they could have made it any more obvious would have been to make them all bankers.
 * Given the other intentional use of Western symbols (though not for their symbolism), is this actually a guess?
 * This also means that in the EVA-verse conspiracy theorists are right.
 * You think?
 * The mythos of Evangelion was inspired in part by the mystical beliefs of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, who do in fact believe in the existence of a Jewish Omniscient Council of Vagueness inspired by the Protocols. So this one's pretty close to being true.
 * I, Prime Evil, had another idea a few months ago: SEELE is a modern-day offshoot of the Cult of Shandor. Let's face it: Gendo's line in Episode 1 (or 2)--"humanity doesn't have much time left" (or whatever it is) = "the world, as it stands, is too sick to survive much longer." Add to that a lot of weird symbolism and rituals, copious quantities of slimy substances with unknown properties (for "LCL" read "black slime"), and replicas of sacred altars (the roof of 55 Central Park West = the Geofront and all that goes with it).

The weird katakana spelling of "Evangelion" in Rebuild (Wevangeriwon) is a reference to Weta Workshop, which is co-producing the live action movie.
Proposed here (Russian language), but it makes enough sense to be added here.
 * It's actually "Ye-va-n-ge-ri-wo-n". The "Ye" has no reason to be there, as it's antiquated. The "wo", on the other hand, is a perfectly acceptable romanization of a Japanese vowel sound (See Ka-wo-ru, for example)

Evangelion is set in an Alternate History where the Axis won World War 2.
Think about it... not only does Japan appear to be a military superpower, but all the most influential organizations have German names.
 * Erm, as noted below Japan's FY '08 military expenditures were the fifth highest in the entire world.
 * Not to mention that the Japanese military is the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Forces, an obvious outgrowth of the Japanese Self Defense Forces, which did not exist until after World War 2 and were essentially a way of providing Japan with a military in a way that got around the finer details (namely, Article 9) of the Post-War Constitution. This makes no sense with an Axis victory.
 * America is also indicated to be a military superpower, albeit a faded one, which was in part (though not totally) a result of World War 2.
 * And in Rebuild, a European supranational government is alluded to, indicating the existence of the European Union, which also grew out of the Allies' victory in World War 2.
 * Hey, in heaven the engineering is German.

Germany runs the organizations that run the world for most of the series.
In Real Life, the EU is basically run by Germany, France, and Britain. The Second Impact clearly caused a massive rise in sea levels; since Germany has less coastline than Britain or France, it would have been the least affected of the Big Three and hence would have emerged as overall leader of Europe. This would have given the secret societies within the German government the opportunity they needed to advance their master plan.
 * It doesn't explain Japan being a military superpower, though.
 * Japan a military superpower? That don't have much beyond a basic defense force. The fleet in Asuka's introduction episode was comprised of formerly American ships owned by the UN. Remember that all the world's governments are subverted by SEELE to some extent.
 * * AHEM* Japan is the fifth country in the world when it comes to military expenditures right now. Here's proof.
 * Japan is actually #7. It has a defense budget of about $50 billion/year or 1% GDP. China, which is more militarily capable by far, is number 2 with a defense budget of $100 billion/year or 2% GDP. The United States trumps everyone with a budget of more than $650 billion annually, or 4.0-4.5% GDP, and it like will only continue to grow in absolute dollar terms.
 * Indeed that only proves that Japanese weapons cost more.
 * Remember that this is an anime from, of all places, Japan. It makes sense that Japan is a world power, has the main NERV branch, and to boot, is the center of all the action. This is a common trope in most anime.
 * This editor had a hilarious corollary theory involving Wolfenstein 3D that was lost in The Great Crash, but he can't seem to reformulate it quite as eloquently.
 * Britain as one of the countries mainly running the EU? France and Germany sure, but not Britain. We're seen as too close to the US and not europhile enough (we're not in the single currency for example and are unlikely ever to be) and actually have very little influence.
 * Little influence? Britain has round about same number of MEPs and council members as france, and so naturally has the same influence. Influence in the european government is roughly dictated by country size, not how much the media like you. We'd be truely stuffed if that was the case...not having the Euro was our governments choice, not the result of the rest of the continent telling us we couldn't be in their club.
 * The U.S. and China at least also host major facilities (including but not limited to developing technologies, hosting MAGI systems, building the Mass Production Evas, testing the S2 engines, and so forth). And U.N. military technology seems to be not unlike late-20th-century U.S. designs. So it's probably not really about Germany so much as it is about the Committee/SEELE and especially Keel Lorenz, who just so happens to be from Germany; members from a few big countries appear to be in on SEELE, and we never do get to see where most of its members are from since we don’t get so much as a glimpse of most of them. The fact that NERV and GEHIRN also get German words for names may be Germany’s fault, but it may just be Keel Lorenz.

SEELE was founded by Van Hohenheim.
At the end of Full Metal Alchemist, Hohenheim is shown as a member of the Thule Gesellschaft, a German mystical organization to which all the top Nazis belonged. This group was heavily interested in occult, alchemical, masonic, and religious matters.

Hohenheim was an alchemist during his life. In Real Life, the ultimate goal of alchemy is to purify the human form and essentially become God. Fuyutski remarks in End of Evangelion that Shinji has become God.

Now, consider that SEELE is a German organization interested in many of the same matters as the Thule Gelleschcraft. Their attempts to advance humanity to the next level are analogous to the alchemical goal of purifying the human form. The rational theory is that Hohenheim's research eventually led to a great alchemical work which was carried out on Adam after his location was derived from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Furthermore, this suggests that the angels' and EVAs' cores are Philosopher's Stones, made using the souls of their pilots' mothers and possibly those of Adam and Lilith.

The last two episodes and End of Evangelion are all parts of the same ending.
Specifically, they fit in the spot where  The last two episodes are said to be Instrumentality from Shinji's POV. We see a bit of Instrumentality from Shinji's POV in EoE. The bit in EoE is part before the and part after. Afterward, Shinji has totally changed his view on Instrumentality in apparently not more then an hour. Makes as much sense as any other theory here to fit the last two episodes into that hour.
 * This is not a guess. This is the actual, original plot, according to the script.

Rebuild of Evangelion is a Sequel!
Quite a few people who have seen the first movie believe in this theory, since the first movie released has such things like. There is also the final scene of the movie; although the exact translation is heavily debated, it is accepted that  It is heavily debated though, and the mechanisms of the sequel range from reincarnation to the "Glitched reset button idea".
 * The best theory relating to this is that after EoE, Lilisukei (Lilith/Asuka/Rei, the apparent Asuka at the end) tells Shinji that he messed up and asks if he wants a mulligan on it. Shinji takes the offer, and Rebuild starts.
 * Just as a technical point, there is no "Lilisukei" or "Misukei" or anything to that extent. Asuka at the tail end of EoE is simply Asuka. Her eyes look "brown" or "red" due to the red filter of the light, and her bandages correspond to the injuries Eva Unit 02 suffered while she was fighting the Eva Series (Ã¼ber synch rates of death will do such things to a pilot, as shown earlier in the series). The aesthetic and artistic juxtaposition is surely intended, but Rei, Misato, and Asuka (or any other strange combination of hypersexualized female characters) did not merge into some composite amalgamation just because Shinji willed it to occur. If you want to fact check this, original cels of this scene show Asuka without the red light filter. Her eyes are still blue.
 * You know, if all humanity has been merged into one giant puddle of Tang, then there is a chance that there may be glitching when individuals try to get back out...
 * That totally undermines anyone's individuality though. Its also highly derogatory that 3 aspects of the main 14 year old male character's crushes are embodied in this one person following the end. Especially considering the whole point if someone wants to enough, they can reject instrumentality as Shinji did. Misato was dead and Rei was the instigator, so if anyone had a reason to reject it, it was Asuka. I get the composite character thing, but that was probably a thematic choice, but the disgust is pure Asuka. I mean, It just makes sense!
 * An alternate idea that comes to mind is that Shinji wished for a much lighter, less serious version of the world as suggested, but the similarities between this idea and the end of The Big O are staggering enough to suggest Yui Ikari is this universe's equivalent of Angel, all theme naming aside.
 * If the movies are a Peggy Sue -- that is, if one of the characters has arrived back at the beginning of the story with foreknowledge of the original series -- the obvious candidate is Misato. She acts differently from her original self, being somewhat more mature and treating Shinji as less of a child (though that could be because most of the "domestic" scenes were cut, leaving only her Badass commanding officer moments.) Most importantly, she knows about Lilith, and shows her to Shinji around 18 episodes ahead of schedule -- the one major plot departure in the first movie from the series. This goes a long way to help motivate Shinji fight Ramiel...
 * Alternatively Mari Illustrious Makinami is the Peggy Sue, and in fact Toji's little sister, who is often called Mari in fanon.
 * It's relevant to mention the big red stain across the moon in the end, too. A direct reference to Mega-Rei's High-Pressure Blood decapitation moment at the end of EoE? Perhaps!
 * Well, if you accept any amount of postmodernism (of which Instrumentality is a prime example), reality is the aftereffect of perception. This means that if the world/humanity decides to reject instrumentality, it would be completely possible to (* cough cough* ) rebuild the world and try to make a better future. Of course, it doesn't explain why they wouldn't create an entirely new better world or completely reverse the second impact. But then again, given the mental instability and need for attention of the (main) characters, especially Shinji, recreating a very certain world where at least some amount appreciation and importance is guaranteed doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
 * Perhaps there are limitations to what can be done to change the reality. The most that could be done was do a reset to where things went wrong and a few personality fixes.
 * And now with what Kaworu said in 2.0:"This time I will surely show you true happiness", apparently he is one of the persons who came back with info on the past earth.
 * Another way to look at it is that Shinji and Auska * hem* re-boot the human race, history plays out again, and eventually reaches the same point again but things played out differently through history, leading to the changes (heck maybe a tie in to the Axis won WWII theory). Kowaru, being an angel could probably remember his past life or not actually be dead or have some other alien magic up his sleeve to explain the knowledge he has. This would have the added bonus of explaining how Auskas name changed, having different parents. Witch could also mean she didn’t get the extra scaring effect of hearing her dad fuck the nurse/doctor. Indeed, a slightly lower level of insanity could also save her life (in terms of taking different actions) in her fight against the MP evas, leading to the eye-patch as seen in the preview of 3.0, as opposed to death.
 * Something also to add-out of all the voice actors for the characters to return for the rebuild series, only Shinji, Auska and Misato have the same voice actors throughout the series and rebuild (English voice actors, going off TV Tropes list). Coincedintally, those are the same characters who have their psyche examined in Episodes 25 and 26, and two of them are the survivors at the end of EoE. A coincidence, or a plot point...

Shinji Ikari is the unknown Third Angel of the movie trilogy, and the new "Glasses Girl" character (Mari) is his daughter from the future

 * Well, this is the first I've heard of the missing Third Angel thing, but if that's the case, it's probably just Kaworu since he arrived to the party early this time.
 * Actually, I'm pretty sure Kaworu is the Seventh. If you look at the scene on the moon, there's a lot of opened coffins to his left, and closed ones to his right. The opened ones are the Angels fallen. The closed ones, the Angels to come. The Third thing, however... well, it's possible.
 * The former is disproved as of Rebuild 2.0., in which the Third Angel is shown and is destroyed by Mari in the opening. As for the latter, while it hasn't exactly been disproven yet, considering the fact that Mari doesn't even recognize who Shinji is when they meet, it's highly unlikely.
 * It could be worth noting that in the popular Doujinshi Re-Take, Shinji was both a Peggy Sue and It could be that Rebuild is heading for a similar plot, especially if you add in the "sequel" theory above.

During his brief period as "God" in EoE, Shinji created a large or infinite number of Alternate Universes.
This is the central premise of a certain popular Doujinshi, and accounts for Evangelion's numerous Elseworlds such as Angelic Days, the Shinji Ikari Raising Project, the manga, and the Super Robot Wars Alpha and Super Robot Wars MX games. These alternate continuities are almost universally Lighter and Softer, or at least cast Shinji in a better light: this is a result of Shinji's desire to avoid this whole mess or make himself feel better.
 * That would also explain Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku...
 * It also accounts for several apparently mutually exclusive WMG theories involving Instrumentality, and may mean that Shinji is yet another face of Haruhi Suzumiya -- or, perhaps more likely, if you follow the first theory on the Suzumiya Haruhi page, Kyon.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is one of them but the least stable, which is why his counterparts' two female supporting characters are still named Rei and Asuka and why the Big Bad is still trying to initiate Instrumentality.
 * So all the Evangelion fanfic was actually created by Shinji trying to make a better universe?
 * Yes. The inspiration for this theory was, itself, one big Deconstruction of Fanfic Tropes in Evangelion. Also, as the author of this theory recently observed on another page, it's pretty much impossible to find a Fanfic that doesn't arbitrarily improve somebody's lot in some way, because it's not like it can get much worse.
 * Try the first chapter of THIS fic. It seems to make things MUCH worse for all characters involved.

Maya is Shinji's half-sister, the result of an affair Gendo had before marrying Yui.
This would explain why she bears such a strong physical resemblance to Shinji.
 * It's possible. Gendo was 24 when Maya was born (Yui was only 14), and apparently he didn't meet Yui until he was 30-something.

Instrumentality failed miserably.
Somebody in NERV, I don't know, Misato or somebody, took control of the process from Gendo and initiated Instrumentality, only giving everybody a free choice involving introspection of the sort that Shinji had. Knowing exactly what Instrumentaliy would entail, the entire planet rejected it. EoE is an Elseworld, like Angelic Days or the Shinji Ikari Raising Project. Remember the "goodbye my mother" title card. Shinji did reject Instrumentality in End of TV. Otherwise there was no need for him to say that.
 * Alternately, Instrumentality was designed to fail. Somebody, somewhere, wanted to force humanity to realize that self-determination was the way to go by showing the human race the alternative.
 * That's funny because I actually used this idea in a fanfic (not for Evangelion, but it was sort of my take on the TV ending). An Ancient Conspiracy tried to initiate an Instrumentality-like mind fusion, only to fail when the entire world rejected it unanimously.
 * Instumentality did canonically fail miserably, albeit not in the way described here.

Third Impact was, for the most part, reversed.
Yui said that anybody with the proper sense of themselves could come back. Well, as it turns out, that's most people on Earth, though probably not Rei, Gendo and the SEELE Dudes. For all we know, Misato and Pen Pen could be just a few miles across the LCL Bay from Shinji and Asuka by the end of the movie.
 * This one's true (or about as true as anything can be in the ambiguous world of Evangelion). Not only are there hints dropped everywhere, it would not make sense thematically if this were not true.
 * Well, I still wouldn't want to be the guy who had to clean up all that leftover LCL. Or explain all of the new junk that had suddenly entered orbit.
 * I like that idea. I just think it's funny that the ending is so sad, that they're the last people left in the world... only they're not. For some reason, I can't stop thinking of Eddie Izzard involved in some way; "Er...hello? Yes, ah, mind the gap, it's full of LCL..."

Ritsuko does reciprocate Maya's love.
She's just too screwed-up to realize it. It sort-of comes out when they're fighting the computer virus angel.

(Insert Here) resulted in (Insert Here) a.k.a. Infinitely Huge WMG Dart Board
The truth of the matter is that, due to the show's widely interpretive style, Evangelion may theoretically have an infinitely huge dart board capable of accommodating an infinite number of Wild Mass Guess darts thrown at it.
 * Alternatively, the reciprocal is true: practically any show can have a Wild Mass Guess invented for it involving Evangelion -- and in a credible way, no less.
 * Sesame Street? TMNT? The Simpsons? Dino-Riders? Firefly? I want to read all five of those.
 * Sesame Street is the idealized world inside the instrumentally. Mr. Hooper is the only one to escape.
 * Shinji decides that he's going to reformat the world as it once was, with him becoming a peaceful martial arts master named Hamato Yoshi. Gendo follows him, now known as Oruko Saki. Devolves into TMNT from here, except now we obviously know that Shredder's ultimate goal is to achieve Instrumentality again, this time relying on mystic arts rather than EVAs and Angels. April is Misato and Asuka combined, and the turtles themselves represent the four piloted EVAs; Leonardo is EVA-00 (Rei), Donatello is EVA-01 (Shinji), Raphael is EVA-02 (Asuka) and Michaelangelo is EVA-03 (Toji).
 * The Simpsons is simply a much-altered universe where the laws of physics are so different everything gained a mutated look. Either way, C. Montgomery Burns is clearly Gendo, who has clearly given up on resurrecting Yui in favor of being filthy stinkin' rich. Shinji is of course Bart, and Rei and Asuka are Sherri and Terri. Homer Simpson is the physical manifestation of Misato's love for beer. Kaji is Principal Skinner or Ned Flanders. For everyone else, take your pick.
 * The Alliance of Firefly is headed by NERV/SEELE, and possibly by an immortal Gendo. The rebellion, founded by a descendant of Shinji, is trying to stop Instrumentality again. The Reavers were an attempt by NERV/SEELE to recreate Instrumentality without the need for EVAs or Angels, possibly "artificially" by inducing a hyper-relaxed state as stated on the show and therefore achieving the same end goal as Instrumentality proper.
 * Or, it's the distant future, and the only people left are distant descendents of the least social skilled members of mankind, and the most individualistic.
 * Wait, are you saying that Mal is descended from SHINJI?!?!?!?! That might be going into Poison Oak Epileptic Trees territory there.
 * Or the cool anti-social people, in other continents.
 * Dino-Riders involves SEELE trying to recreate Instrumentality with Dinosaurs (not too terribly familiar with that show)
 * Metal Gear Solid 2 deserves a special mention, IMHO. Shinji < - > Raiden, Asuka < - > Rosemary, Rei < - > Emma, Kaji < - > Solid Snake, Gendou < - > Solidus, SEELE < - > The Patriots, just to name a few off the top of my head.
 * Whew, there. I believe that satisfies the requirements.
 * Oh no, I have some series for you. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, Hellsing. Super Monkey Ball, and the Mickey Mouse canon.
 * This is starting to tie in with my fledgling "Eureka Seven/Gurren Lagann/Spongebob/Zelda exist in the same timeline" theory. I never watched NGE, though, so I'll need some help fleshing this out.
 * For Mr. Rogers there is one solution: THERE'S ONLY ONE HUMAN IN THE SHOW!
 * Oh, and someone needs to do Worldwar, Left Behind, and Twilight.
 * Evangelion takes place on an alternate version of Earth created after a botched attempt to destroy all possible Earths at the end of Mostly Harmless.
 * Twilight: Vampires represent the Angels, "perfect" beings with imperfect conditions that prevent them peacefully co-existing with humans, werewolves are Evas (more animalistic beings, some of which [piloted EV As] live amongst humans despite the danger). Bella is Shinji, Edward is  as Shinji wished they could be (to be together), Renesme is Asuka (what happens with her is mostly a result of Shinji and   screwing around and not doing their best to   before  ). Gendo is Bella's mother, Misato is her father, Rei   hasn't appeared yet since it's not quite the end of the series, and Pen-Pen simply doesn't feature in the.
 * Evangelion takes place inside Instrumentality in a kind of infinitely recursive loop!
 * Evangelion is the future of . Yui is obviously Yui, her guitar skills leading to Shinji's development of his Cello skills. Yui is a little bit of a Cloudcuckoolander in both, less obviously so in Evangelion but it's still an important part of her character. Her weirdness is best proven in her ungodly complex plan for Instrumentality, which she saw as a bit of a game.
 * Okay, for the ultimate challenge, somebody had to do Real Life.
 * Obviously, Shinji chooses to  and lives in a world where   never occurred! In order to ensure that everything goes according to plan, he becomes a person born before it happened. However, even after all the Instrumentality stuff, he is still prone to depression and decides to write his own story. Shinji Ikari is  !
 * Well actually, there are a great number of parallels between the lives of the two, and quite a few scenes were just taken from his life.
 * This goes quite further. Not only is there parallels between every fictional/real universe, but the entire multiverse originates from Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's the Earth-Prime universe that Owlman was attempting to destroy.
 * Well since we are on this subject, Unicron is Seele combined. Primus is Shinji. The entire Cybertronian race is humanity, Megatron is Gendo and Optimus is Misato or Yui. So the reason that Transformers end up on Earth like its some kind of big farking magnet is quite simple, they are trying to go home subconsciously.

The red water in Rebuild is a consequence of Second Impact.
In the TV series, the ocean is shown similarly red where Antarctica once was. It isn't red around Tokyo 3 in the TV series because this stylistic idea didn't occur to them at that point, but they implemented it in the movies?
 * The Red water in Rebuild was caused by the Forbidden Siren.

(What? I actually find it more plausible than "Rebuild is a sequel". Rebuild is supposed to be a retelling of the story "more accessible to non-fans" -- i.e. an Adaptation Distillation -- and so far, it succeeds at being exactly that.)


 * Theory confirmed by Rebuild 2.0.

The god-like-warrior in Nausicaa is a Jet Alone.
Jet Alones are an independantly operating giant machine with a nuclear power source. God-Like-Warriors shown in Naussica are similar to this. Especialy since we see that god-like-warriors poison the environment in a way similar to nuclear power.
 * Except that: 1) the god-warriors were clearly biological, 2) modern (and presumably future semi-post-apocalyptic) nuclear reactors do not poison the environment, and 3) Jet Alone did not have Death Rays.

Why Gendo made sure that Shinji had no photos of mother Yui.
This was done for two main reasons:
 * Revenge: He resented the fact that Yui disappeared for Shinji's sake thus leaving him without the love of his life, so by making sure Shinji had nothing of hers, it would serve as a form of payback.
 * Also, when Shinji meets Rei, he would not be able to figure out that Rei looks like his mother as he lacks any photographs of his mother to compare Rei to.
 * Or maybe Gendo's just a screwed-up asshole and a terrible father.

Kaworu was cloned from Misato's father.

 * I can't take credit for this theory. Look around on the site evageeks.org for details.
 * Great, just great; next thing you know, you'll be mentioning fem-Kaworu.
 * And Evas having ovaries.
 * If Misato's father is Kaworu, and Kaworu is Jesus, does that makes Misato's father Jesus? I knew Misato's love for alcoholic drinks are not just for comedic effect...........
 * Officially disproven in Evangelion 2.0. Kaworu calls Gendo or Fuyutsuki "otousan" ("father"), it's not clear which of them he was addressing. Since he looks nothing like Gendo, it's likely that Fuyutsuki was the donor. On the other hand, if Gendo was capable of cloning his wife and actually raising said clone instead of his own son, it's not impossible for SEELE to clone HIM in turn.
 * Jumping the gun, I'd say. We know next to nothing about NME!Kaworu's nature or origins in NME, let alone what the ultimate significance of that mysterious line will be. Whatever route the creators end up taking, it probably won't be retroactively applicable to the original show.

The worst thing going for the "Misato's father was the donor" idea is the simple fact that it lacks any concrete support in the end. On a thematic and character level, it is actually rather appropriate, and the basic setup is all there, but, regrettably, it was never taken advantage of.

First of all, consider: Misato is, on one level, participating in the Angels' extermination in order to avenge her father's death, but she told Shinji that is also, essentially, using them to take revenge on him and purging herself of his ghost, so to speak. Misato's tense, love/hate relationship with her father is directly paralleled with Shinji and Gendo -- and, as it goes, Shinji is also using the Angels to sublimate the rage towards his father ("Enemy! Enemy! Enemy! My enemy!!!"). And, as it goes, both of Shinji's "enemies" end up literally fusing when Gendo does that creepy thing with Adam's embryo. Considering this aspect alone, it would have made complete sense within NGE's framework for Misato's father to have done something squicky with Adam, producing the fusion of Angel and Lilin that is Kaworu. And so Misato's "vendetta/revenge" would have come to a rather logical and ironic conclusion...

There is more going for the idea than this, but ultimately this is one of those things that you either like or don't like, since Kaworu being related to anyone in the main cast will probably amount to nothing more than wishful thinking in the end.


 * I think that the donor of the genetic material that fused with Adam and eventually became Kaworu was the person involved in the Contact Experiment. If that's the case, then it couldn't have been Dr. Katsuragi, since we all know what happened to him....

The show is actually a testament to the power of Metal.
I mean, think about it. If Shinji had been a metalhead, don't you think the show would have turned out somewhat differently. Instead of "I musn't be afraid", it'll be "I must ROCK!". And what better power to fight Angels with than something that comes from Hell.
 * Ooooohhhh, if Shinji was a metalhead... "I must ROCK!" is just a little step before "Who the hell do you think I am!?"...
 * Well Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann pretty much is Evangelion but with the power of Metal. Except they call it Spiral Energy.
 * Spiral Energy is just a horrible, horrible misspelling of Spinal Tap.
 * Then the Pick of Destiny is actually the live-action verion of SSE, isn't it?
 * Interesting, when you consider that S2 Engines are apparently double-helix (i.e. spiral) shaped (according to one of the semi-canon games, anyway), and generate vast amounts of energy...

Going with the Above, Rock and Rule comes after Evangelion.
A post-apocalyptic world with no humans, only near human creatures, where the power of rock reigns supreme?

Also going with the above, Shinji (and by extension, the other pilots) was actually a failed project, and the EVAs were a desperate backup-plan.
His upbringing and experiences were engineered, not to make him a neurotic, wangsty Mecha pilot, but rather, to make him neurotic and outright psychotic enough to form and lead the Evangelion version of Deathklok.

And Now for Something Completely Different: The entire show takes place in the Lotus Eater Machine at the end of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
... But not in the way you were expecting. It's not in the generation shown on the show, for it is noted that the AntiSpirals did this before, and there were other people trapped forever, you see -- Shinji is actually trapped in the Alternate Universes, things started out Normal, how the kid always wanted to live, not having to risk his life for others, but then, because it is apparent that true Lotus Eater Machines have conflict to give just the right amount of meaning to their victims' lives, the events of NGE occur.

Eva 01 is actually Lilith.
At the end of EoE, we see Eva 01 drifting off into space to be a "messenger" of sorts for humanity. It crashes on another lifeless planet, outputting its "recording" of Earth in the form of LCL (A.K.A primordial ooze/soup) and millions of years later is discovered by the humans of that time, and is mistaken for "Adam" (which is actually part of the decaying Rei/Lilith hybrid). This event of Eva 01 crashing into the planet is considered "First Impact".
 * Confirmed when.
 * Eva-01 did have a Lance of Longinus with it when it drifted off into space, just like Adam and Lilith did. However, Adam and Lilith crashed to Earth within the White and Black Moons, respectively. These were the "Seeds of Life," with the Black Moon being the source of all the souls on Earth. Eva-01, even though it was cloned from Lilith, couldn't act as a progenitor of life for another planet on its own in my opinion. It simply serves, as Yui said, as an "eternal reminder that the human race existed."

In a reverse of most theories, Neon Genesis Evangelion occurs in the Warhammer 40K universe!
No, not those. This is totally inspired by ultima+ exterminatus this 4chan thread. It makes an awful lot of sense though, especially if the Angels are simply Greater Demons of Chaos...
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion is a prelude to the White Crusade (named after the body colors of Angels), which permanently cripples the Imperium of Man and annihilates the Eldar and the Tau. The Illuminati, knowing the Imperium is doomed to torture by Chaos, Necrons, and Tyranids, carries out a plan to revive the Emperor as the last resort. The Emperor successfully comes back to life... and simply ends the universe as he has been sick and tired of watching the galaxy burn. While singing "Komm, Susser Tod". That is the end of all.

NGE takes place in this world...
...after the Scientologists succeeded in destroying all "psychs" (psychologists and psychiatrists, not psychics) with a well-placed "meteor strike" at a world psychiatry convention, hence why There Are No Therapists in the future.
 * So why is no one trying to cleanse Shinji and Rei from their harmful Thetans?
 * The Angels are the Body Thetans....
 * With the psychiatry convention, the meteor hit Antarctica. A psychiatry convention in Antarctica?

NGE takes place on the world Dr. Manhattan intended to create after he left earth for good.
It's a lot more complicated then he thought it'd be, and strangely it contains quite a few similar characters: An emotionless artificial god (or gods, if need be) who ends up becoming a world destroying/creating naked giant, a brilliant Magnificent Bastard who helps cause world peace by eliminating a large chunk of humanity, a woman pushed by and rebelling against memories of her mother, a DNA Frankenstein's monster of a pet, and scores of people who were unwittingly aiding in the end of the world.... (Note: This troper has no idea if the creator of NGE ever read Watchmen; if he did that's cool; if not that's crazy, because the similarities are odd. Alternatively, has Allan Moore seen NGE?)
 * They are both Deconstructions of things that are culturally similar; Giant robots are to Japan what superheroes are to America.
 * Also, God-Rei is not nearly as emotionless as Dr. M. She is the penultimate mother-figure (for all humankind) and sacrifices herself out of compassion for her "children".

NGE takes place on the normal Earth of Watchmen
Alternative to the above. Without Dr. Manhattan the US failed to remain a super power and when the USSR fell apart in the late 80s/early 90s Japan arose as the world's new Military power. The Angels are just attempts by  to keep the world peace brought on by the. After discovering the First Angel Adam, he lets it loose too early and causes the Second Impact on incident in which he himself perishes. The other Angels have either broke out of their confines on their own or have been released by SEELE.

The "First Earth" from Battlestar Galactica is NGE-Earth thousands of years later
How Did We Miss This One?? Anyway, enough people managed to separate from Mega-Rei (who went on to "seed" the colonies with humans and animals) to repopulate the planet using NERV's technology. The Colonies' gods are Rei's memories of her human friends and otherworldly enemies while the Cylon's god is a gender-shifted Rei (Rei = Dei = Deus = Zeus(?)). Either that or a variation of the first Watchmen theory: Dr. Manhattan's world's creation Rei tries to create her own world; Earth Shattering KaBooms, deconstructed archetypes, and fucked-up love affairs ensue (apparently things would be worse if the blond Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter and the Tall, Dark and Bishoujo Lady of War were actually lovers; the Well Done Son Guy and Well Done Daughter Gal get off comparatively easy (which is to say they survive ...ish).

Son of a Witch takes place in Instrumentality
(note: horrifically superficial)
 * Elphaba = Yui (by default, unless they both really are the "all according to plan" type)
 * Galinda = (?)
 * Fiyero = Gendo (by default)
 * Liir = Shinji (Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette boy with a dead mom and absent father who is desperate for human connection but is abandoned by virtually everyone while wearing his mother('s cloak))
 * Dorthy = Rei ("disguised" as Asuka - TOW describes the traditionally Action Girlish Dorthy as "boring" and only a love interest because "she's there")
 * Candle = Asuka ("disguised" as Rei, perhaps getting a little revenge?)
 * Trism = Kaworu (only male love interest, only one Liir has a real emotional (and physical) connection with, disappears not long after their meeting and is probably an enemy agent)

Rei and Dr. Manhattan are the "parents" of all Deconstructor Fleet universes
And of course the conception and births are pure Nightmare Fuel.

The Evangelions each contain
True. Or possibly False. Some signs point to, others point to the rest getting in on the   action.
 * Possibly, this extends to Evangelions besides This would mean
 * Actually,
 * No, ...
 * Other theories say that
 * Another possible for Unit Zero is
 * A possibility is that Unit 3 didn't have until . This would imply that Unit 3 was unable to activate its AT-Field before . Also, Unit 4.
 * This actually seems likely. It wouldn't even be a surprise if SEELE had had Bardiel in their possession for some time, and just needed the Americans to build an EVA without a soul. The show tends to be a bit vague about such details. And if this is true, then the only reason they sent a Japanese child to pilot the EVA-03 would be because they needed an excuse for inserting Bardiel in EVA-03 (which they would be able to do secretly during maintenance).
 * Unit-03 was infected by Bardiel during transport, when the plane flew through that odd cloud with Unit-03 dangling underneath it. There was even some ominous blue lightning hinting at it.
 * Unit 03 must have The fact that he never winds up doing so isn't relevant; he was expected to be able to. As to Unit 04, it wasn't completed yet when , so it probably didn't have  , either.
 * We don't know if the Americans (who built Unit 03) were even aware of . And Gendo and SEELE both (probably) expected because of the, which explain Instrumentality and the events that precede it.
 * Maybe Unit 00 has no soul at all. This is how I see it: The tandem pilot-EVA needs one soul in order to work, doesn't matter if comes from the EVA or from the pilot. this would mean there are different kinds of autonomous movement for the Evangelions: the Berserker mode is when the EVA itself (the creature) regains control over its body overriding the NERV systems and still needs external power  and the "Possession mode" that occurs when the soul takes the command seat and doesn't need external power. This mode makes the EVA behave a little more rational and least like a beast
 * This doesn't seem to apply to Rebuild of Evangelion, because (at least) Asuka and Rei were potential pilots for Unit 03.
 * This doesn't seem to apply to Rebuild of Evangelion, because (at least) Asuka and Rei were potential pilots for Unit 03.

The Evangelions DON'T contain
They are. The link to the pilot works by, so the Eva serves as a. This works best if the person in question Anyone piloting an Eva would sense  presence, but only  and achieve a useful synch ratio.
 * And here I was thinking I was the only person who thought this!
 * That is somewhat supported simply by that scene where they say, but denied by the part where
 * Is he talking to Yui, though, or to Unit 01's recreation of her?

The Evangelions contain their own souls, which have imprinted upon the {{spoiler|souls of their absorbed test subjects
Compromise! But really: the Evas are independent, sentient beings that are influenced by the souls they have consumed.

SEELE is led not by Keel Lorenz, but run behind the scenes by...
Seal. Because it would just be hilarious.
 * And because, hey, naming the organization after himself would just throw off investigators.
 * You know we're never gonna survive, unless we get a little tang-y.


 * Third Impact was the testing of the ultimate "Fuck The World" device, a la Boatmurdered. Originally, the Human Instrumentality Project was intended to create a more efficient way of taking care of goblin sieges, but more importantly, of elephants, carp, elves and the like. As a nice bonus, LCL is also actually a kind of booze. In fact, "Komm, susser Tod" goes pretty well with the last few installments of Boatmurdered, even.
 * The Second Impact was said to be a contact experiment. They were experimenting with what would happen when a pickaxe contacted Adamantite.
 * So, the Angels are Hidden Fun Stuff! As bad as the Third Impact was, at least they didn't have '&'.
 * Sandalphon is actually !!Sandalphon!!.
 * Nah, Sandalphon probably has the [FIREIMMUNE] creature token, at least.
 * And there're no cats! Gendo was smart enough to avoid a catsplosion. Either that, or his gloves were Kitten Leather Gloves.
 * Tokyo III was built on top of Hidden Fun Stuff.
 * The reason there's less than 20 Angels in the entire world is that angels are megabeasts, and they tend to die off in world gen, which has been going on for the past five thousand years or so.
 * What was the end dates and percentage beasts dead for stoppage?
 * Yui's death...well, Gendo was unhappy about the Evangelions failing, and he was stressed out, and last thing he remembered, he looses a roaring laughter, fell and terrible! When he woke up, he had a legendary Eva, and some...chunks.
 * Alternatively, Yui was working on the Eva when she locked herself in the work bay and started demanding Adamantine and Crystal Glass. After a while, they decided it would be safer and more merciful to just flood the chamber with LCL.
 * Or, everyone was stressed out from working on the project, and Yui just started screaming before she was beaten to death for knocking over a chair.

Angelic Days is the 'real world. The regular Evangelion is actually a fanfiction written by Rei, disgruntled after being dumped by Shinji.

 * Rei is the mysterious cool girl.
 * Shinji is a whiny, irritating hero.
 * Asuka is a mean, foultempered bitch.
 * Kaworu was there for the Ho Yay.
 * Wait... does that mean that Rei's a Yaoi Fangirl?
 * It would seem that this theory is plausable.

The entire series is a fantasy of Mesousa.
Many other entries theorise that their series are Shinji's fantasies, but think about it: For Mesousa, Shinji's life would be a definite improvement over his own.

AT Fields are actually souls and the EVA's souls can act as shields due to their massive energy input
Oh wait, that's true.

Rei Ayanami is actually
Oh, wait -- that was true.
 * Not necessarily - see below.

Rei Ayanami is NOT .
Rei was actually an unrelated human drawn from Lilith using genetic engineering, and was then molded by Gendo in Yui's own image. Which makes Lilith the biblical Adam and Rei the biblical Eve. This might be Jossed, but This Troper was simply concerned of the Rei / Shinji fan pairings, and the canonical fact that  will give lots and lots and lots of Squick.......
 * I have no concern for the desires of shippers, but I actually believe this to be true. Up until the end, we see pairs of female human legs sticking out of the Lance-impaled Lilith; this is where the multitude of Reis come from and where Rei III returns to in The End of Evangelion. As we see, Lilith is basically composed of silly-putty, meaning that Rei, a derivative of Lilith in human form, could probably have been given any shape desired by someone seeking to manipulate it. She clearly has some connection to Yui beyond her physical appearance, but I am dubious of the assertion that she is a "clone" in the genetic sense.

The Angels are
Oops, that was true, too.
 * Somehow.

Gendo Ikari is
Um... yeah, true.

The MAGI computer trio is
True.
 * Not true.
 * I think you mean before . However, I put this in a close-enough catagory. It is based on her own mind, or Naoko's self image of herself in those three roles. So it as close as you can get without resorting turning the MAGI into a stationary EVA like device.
 * The MAGI had to be created after Ritsuko's birth. Not only would Naoko have been unrealistically young before that point, one of the Magi is based on her identity as a mother, which couldn't exist before having a child.
 * Wasn't it stated in the series that Naoko had uploaded portions of her mind into each of the supercomputers? This statement both is and isn't true.

The entire series is Shinji's dream. The only "real" part is the "normal world" in episode 25.
True -- in at least one Alternate Continuity now being published in Japan.
 * It was his worst nightmare ever... So horrible he couldn't go to bed for a few days without his mom and indoor lighting...

Shinji wrote the scenario of Evangelion based on his dreams.
The dream was so impressive, he thought it would make the greatest horror story ever. It went horribly right.

The Angels are all female, including Kaworu.
From a biological standpoint, female -- having an XX chromosome -- is the default sex. This is why asexual animals like worker ants and bees are considered female despite having no need for procreation. All animals are built on a female template, with males (XY) being a necessary deviation from that to facillitate reproduction (and males still have vestigal female traits, such as nipples). Thus it stands to reason that the Angels, being an asexual species, are all female as they have no need for males -- including Adam, despite having a male name. Kaworu is biologically male, his body (I say "his" because that's what's used in the text) apparently being a clone of some unnamed Japanese man in the same way Rei is a clone of Yui Ikari, but his "soul"/psychic imprint/whatever is Adam's, and Adam is female. Thus it's possible that while Kaworu has the physical traits of a male human, "he" views himself as female.
 * Hence why the XX series of Angel Moe figures exists, with a female Kaworu who has three or four pairs of wings and his/her usual shirt and shoes, but no pants (the shirt covers "her" midsection Ranma-style).
 * It is doubtful though that Kaworu views himself as male or female.
 * Who's the say? Kaworu's character is practically a blank slate.
 * Actually, that's wrong. True, in mammals, XX is female and XY is male. In birds, however, the opposite is true - XX is male and XY is female. In some reptiles, such as crocodiles, sex is determined not by chromosomes but by the temperature at which the egg is incubated.
 * Male birds are ZZ and female birds are ZW, to be more accurate. But the females are still heterogametic while the males are homogametic, while it's the other way around in mammals.
 * But what are the Angels besides alternate evolutions from the humans? Thinking about that, then, they are sorta mammal, and then, they might be all female. At least Lilith was.
 * The Angels did not evolve from humans, they evolved in a similar manner to humans (that is, being the top of the evolutionary chain and started from Adam, they are beings comparable to humans who are the top of the evolutionary chain and started from Lilith). This phenomenon is also known in science as "Convergent evolution" (Which means, creatures from different habitats can evolve similarly to resemble each other). This means they're not necessarily mammals-- in fact, they're more likely to be a completely different taxonomical kingdom, maybe even a completely different domain (I mean, really, let's take that Eldritch Abomination that can change its appearance into a kaleidoscope of geometrical shapes and can shoot massive energy beams from its core and classify it as a reptile. Or the Eldritch Abomination which has a shadowlike antimatter body and casts a 3D shadow in the air and classify it as a mammal. Sure). Since the determination of sex varies by species and isn't even always genetic, there is no way of determining their sex. At most we can say they're homozygous from the fact that Adam most likely reproduced asexually, but there is no way to determine whether that makes them "male" or "female" (or both? None?).
 * Actually, nipples on men aren't vestigal. Some men ARE capable of lactating, so nipples on men technically aren't vestigal, though depending on how much value one puts on one's perceived masculinity, one is more likely to deny or ignore it.
 * Reading this bullet point really struck me with just how far-out this discussion has gotten. Ah, Wild Mass Guessing.
 * Can't even say if the Angels are homozygous. What if, for example, Adam used parthenogenesis? Or if the Spear of Longinus contains a plethora of genetic information and can double as an impregnation device? Far too many unknowns. Also, as far as classification goes, the Seeds (and the Evas by extension) obviously can't fit into any Terran slots, since they're from another planet, and quite possibly bioengineered god-versions of the FAR themselves. About all we can say is that Seeds/Evas and Angels (intrinsically) are highly convergent with hominids -- or more like the other way around, by design. Don't forget: 99.89%!

Pen-Pen is actually a fusion of the soul of Misato's father with a random penguin, caused by the energies of Second Impact.
What? It makes just about as much sense as half the Canon stuff.
 * FINALLY! Someone appreciates how important Pen-Pen really was.

The Rei clones faked their deaths, changed their faces and hair, and got work in other anime.
Since Rei was such a popular character, it would have been easy for them to find work with how popular a character type Rei became.
 * Some of them travelled back in time, to make older anime. The most sympathetic of them all is Ami Mizuno.
 * Related: http://quasimanga.deviantart.com/gallery/31460#/d12y2vq

Kaworu has ascended to self-awareness of the plot
In rebirth he is able to appear to Gendo along with Rei and Yui. In the "remake"/"Sequel" it is debated if he is aware he has met Shinji before. I am stuck on how much he can do about it, but think about it...
 * This is potentially compatible with every WMG out there.
 * All versions of NGE are Shinji's instrumentality BSOD? Shinji just couldn't completely reject/alter the one person who seemed to care for him, even as Shinji murdered him. So subconsciously Shinji carries along the real Kaworu into each universe with himself. Kaworu just plays along in an attempt to help Shinji recover emotionally.
 * Kaworu is Itsuki in Haruhi Suzimaya in the Shinji = Kyon WMG s. Kaworu tells "Kyon" that Haruhi is god when it is Shinji/Kyon all along in his quest for a normal life. Every so often Kaworu/Itsuki makes subtle hints at Shinji/Kyon's true nature in an attempt to get Shinji to return to the "real" world and fix everything. It would also explain the Stupid Sexy Flanders both characters have.
 * Angelic Days Rei wrote the original NGE? Kaworu gave her the * nudge nudge, hint hint*
 * The show, or the whole franchise, is in purgatory? Then this is less meta and Kaworu is a celestial guard who has taken sympathy on one of the inmates, Shinji, and participates from time to time for his own motives.
 * ...* cough* ...
 * Holy shit! I just realized they've even got the same seiyuu. Wonder what this means for Cho Hakkai?
 * The seiyuu that voices Kaworu and Xellos also voices Fate Averruncus. If we combine this with some other WMGs, and take this to its possible conclusion, we end up with Fate trying to enact a Gambit Roulette that will result in Shinji (as Negi) saving all of his friends, and preventing The End of the World as We Know It, allowing Shinji's mind to take another step towards heath.
 * So, Xellos and Kaworu are just manifestations of a singular greater meta being that is also incarnated at Itsuki? Does this mean every fictional universe has a bit of Kawollotsuki..., an Elder god name if I ever heard one?
 * Super Robot Wars, of all things, appears to run with this; in Alpha 3, Kaworu (never mind how he managed to survive SRW Alpha in the first place) makes references to the events of SRW F Final and SRW MX, both in entirely different continuities. The leading theory in SRW fandom is that he's a Time Lord Diver and travels between dimensions, and thus is the same being in every continuity (including canon and presumably Rebuild).

Shinji's Three Love Interests are an Intentional Corruption of the Maiden/Mother/Crone dynamic
Misato is the crone, skewed in that though she is still young and beautiful, she believes herself to be Christmas Cake... an old maid convinced that her married friends have passed her by, despite all evidence to the contrary. Asuka plays the traditional role of the maiden to Shinji, while at the same time being as truly NOT maiden-like as possible. Rei is positioned as the mother, a relationship position whose skewing should be obvious.

After Instrumentality, Pen-Pen becomes a god after feeding upon LCL and fighting the last two living Humans to the death.
Because Pen-Pen is awesome. And Evangelion Is Better With Pen-Pen. And whoever kills the last angel gets All Their Powers Combined. Alternately, Pen-pen already is god, because becoming a god after Instrumentality was retroactive, and Instrumentality had to happen for Pen-Pen to become a god. Which he already was. So it did and he did.

Gendo abandoned Shinji as a Take That to Yui choosing to be adsorbed into Eva 01
While it is true that Gendo is so fixated on Yui that he cannot cope without her in his life, a part of Gendo resents Yui for leaving him the way she did and as a Take That in the form of an eye for an eye by abandoning Shinji.
 * This is most definitely Sadamoto's take on it - in his version of the Beginning to the End, Gendou Hannibal Lectures Shinji about this: Yui was his light, his only reason for living. As soon as Shinji was born he got all the love/attention. If Shinji is Oedipus, then manga!Gendou is definitely Laertes.

Third Impact was an attempt by God to get rid of the Human race and replace them with his true chosen race
The Penguins.
 * And Pen Pen is their Messiah.
 * This is actually canon explanation for Second Impact. Third Impact, on the other hand, was just a clusterfuck.

Real Life is an Anime in the world of Neon Genesis Evangelion
In 1999, when the second impact occured, Earth became an interresting place to live, in the sense of the classic Chinese curse: "May you have an interesting life." Climactic extremes, finding out that mythology was true, conspiracies in every bush, etc. When something is interesting, it is most likely plagued by war and chaos (See Warhammer 40000 and try to see what this troper means). When something is peaceful, it is most likely plagued with boredom (That is why after the Nazis and Soviets the real world just got boring, and most of the interesting lives had to be transported into computers, which can simulate Nazis and Soviets). When you live in a dull world (for certain values of dull), you escape to interesting fiction (khmmm...). When you live in an interesting world, you long for a boring peaceful world (Real Life). It makes sense: most people with interesting lives probably escape to a fantasy of dull farming.
 * This wanker is so fucked up. Hee hee hee.......
 * The alternative theory (far less likely, by the way) is that Neon Genesis Evangelion is an Anime in Real Life, but that's too much of a stretch even for a WMG page.
 * Nah, that's just too OBVIOUS. Why would Evangelion do something so completely unironic?
 * NGE, an anime in real life! Don't be crazy! Real Life is exactly like Death Note, have you ever looked at Zac Efron before?

Digimon Seasons 1 and 2 are a TV show in the EVA world.
Agumon's upper digivolutions look like EVA, and the light-hearted message of banding together with your friends, some of whom look weird and have self-esteem issues, to fight scary, evil monsters is meant to help the general public accept the existence of the EV As and NERV (someone's gonna ask where those big robot-things come from, right?) as part of the battle for good. Gendo is a fan of the Digimon Emperor, who he emulates by wearing glove and acting like a BAMF.

Asuka has Bipolar Disorder, specifically Bipolar-II
When we first meet her, she's on top of the world, better than everyone, and can do anything. She acts rashly and without thinking about the consequences, which is more or less the symptoms of hypomania (Hypomania = Lesser form of full-blown mania). At her lowest, she has the classic symptoms of depression. While she did indeed have a screwed up childhood, and what she suffered would mess anyone up, her shifts in overall mood are just so incredibly drastic that being Bipolar would just explain a whole lot. It's a pity that There Are No Psychatrists in Evangelion.
 * To me, she wasn't really bipolar, but a Stepford Smiler all the time. Sometimes I pretended to be aggressive and/or overly happy when I was sad, so, I know sometimes that's just it.

Neon Feminist Evangelion!
NGE is fundamentally a feminist work from a male perspective. It explores womenâ€™s spiritual, familial, and societal roles, as well as typical personal dilemmas they must face. Many of the male characters, including the protagonist and his Magnificent Bastard father, are largely dependent on their relationships with women (Especially the protagonist and the Bastard, see also Oedipus Complex). The females are often defined by the conflicts that they, as women, encounter (Particular examples are Asuka, Misato and Ritsuko).
 * Shinji and Asuka's attitudes are flipped compared to other idealistic anime. Sexual anxiety, an Unwanted Harem and lack of maternal attention are actually psychologically bad for you, as Shinji has shown and contrary to most other harem anime out there. And if you force an Inferiority Complex down on a woman's throat, as patriarchal regimes had tried in the past, you may just end up with someone that has a really angry Superiority Complex, as Asuka has shown.
 * An Eva's armor, which constrains her body like a corset/bondage gear and makes her dependent on an external power source, symbolizes societally imposed restrictions on women. When Eva goes into berserker mode, freeing her from the restraint technology and strengthening her Ego Barrier (Absolute Terror Field), especially in times when she needs to protect herself and her child, you see woman's true, natural, powerful form, which from a misogynistic perspective is a disgusting, absolutely terrifying Eldritch Abomination.
 * In the Adam and Lilith mythology, Lilith is the first feminist, refusing to bow down to Adam. She is cast out of Eden, births the daemonic Lilim (the demons could symbolize how our society sees feminism as "daemonic", in one or another sense), and becomes the Serpent of the Tree of Knowledge.
 * As some fans have already proposed, Rei-Lilith is a manifestation of the divine feminine.
 * The Ikaris can also represent patriarchal rule. Gendo is the archetypal Patriarch. Yui and Shinji are the underlying weaknesses of this Patriarch's seemingly absolute totalitarian rule, with Yui being the dependence onto the opposite sex to maintain the basis for the Patriarch's power and Shinji as the agitating instability and Oedipal rage that is waiting to collapse the entire power structure anytime (Gendo has Yui as his messiah and only reason to live which is why he does all this screwing-with-the-order-of-creation in the first place, and in End of Evangelion he even admits that he's afraid of his own son, making his true self behind his magnificent facade something very pathetic). Not to mention that in many real life ancient empires that seem to be strictly Patriarchal from the outside, women usually assumed the role of The Man Behind the Man.

Rei is the idealized woman, the Galatea that patriarchal regimes constructed: silent, obedient, willing to do whatever the Patriarch says even at her own expense, and exotically cute (see also: the "China doll" stereotype). Hideaki Anno tried to portray Rei as a unnatural mass-production clone straight out of the Uncanny Valley to parody objectification, but it fails in this area, since she ends up as the object of industrial-scale mass Perverse Sexual Lust of the otakus everywhere. And even then, what we see as this perfect Galatea is actually imperfect, Rei herself gets Character Development where she grows from an Extreme Doormat into something capable of one's own volition, which (as EOE has shown) frightens Patriarch!Gendo indeed.....
 * Perhaps the mass-production perversity is Anno's point all along: instead of facing reality with all its pain and sexual anxiety like how Shinji rejects the false reality of Instrumentality and chooses to be with Asuka despite fully knowing how much of a Jerkass she is, the otakus and male chauvinists choose to replace the real female with something artificial instead. They are who will get tanged first when the real-life Instrumentality comes.
 * This is barely even a guess. The series is positively awash with feminist themes, and Hideaki Anno is a friend of another feminist filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki. NGE is also one of the most influential works in the Superflat genre, which openly mocks otaku sexism (along with other aspects of Japanese modern culture), particularly about the popularity of the Moe genre (which is associated with objectification) among otakus and misogynists alike.

During the time NGE was made, Japan in particular is still obsessed with the Yamato Nadeshiko ideal, which produces conflicts with women's liberation. NGE shows this to a degree with the Rei and Asuka contrast (with Asuka being the extreme foreign element). Nowadays, one of the consequences of growing gender equality in Japan is, instead of mutual respect it happened to be growing misunderstanding. Young women are revolting against the traditional role of obedient housewife. Just like how Rei gets Character Development from an Extreme Doormat into someone capable of free will. Startled men are retreating into solitary ways. Just like how Gendo fell from a relatively normal and sociable person into someone very callous and antisocial. Of course, this conflict contributes to growing hikikomorism and the decline of marriages/birth rate/population, making gender issues even more relevant to Japanese society-at-large.

Also, one of the most major interpretations of that scene in End of Evangelion is being Anno's way of Flipping the Bird to both the antisocials and the merchandising that serves them. Someone needs to write an essay on this, like, now.

Evangelion is about learning to drive
Seriously, think about it:
 * Shinji's father pulls him up out of the blue and puts him in a big, scary metal machine which is quite capable of killing him or someone else if he misuses it.
 * He is immediately thrown out into a hostile situation and expected to master said machine on the fly
 * He struggles to keep any semblance of control
 * And it all ends in tears.
 * This theory also provides the simplest explanation of Shinji's mindscrew sequence inside the Sea of Dirac -- he's given up and taken the train instead.
 * How Shinji learned to drive, huh?
 * So Berserk Mode is symbolic of Shinji accidentally hitting the accelerator instead of the brakes, and bumping the gearshift into reverse when he tried to go for the hand brake? And then being forced into it again to run an out-of-control car off the road? Shinji's driving lessons are awesome.

Rebuild's character Mari Illustrious Makinami is a Take That to Mary-Sues.
Her plugsuit, Asuka's surname change (Asuka Langley Shikinami, to fit the "nami" theme), her name by itself (Mari Illustrious, guys, it's obvious), the different uniform, and her sudden role were just Gainax's way to say: "Hey, Suethors, see how weird is the whole unfitting theme? We're going to make better than you, it's a promise. Just give up writing instead." In-series explanation? Shinji was just creating someone that would finally like him for what he is.
 * Perhaps the same could be said of all religions Asuka: She arrives just as suddenly in the original series as Mari in Rebuild, has an impressive Sue resume (Fiery Redhead, half-German, Teen Genius college graduate, fire-red Ace Custom mecha), and her abrasiveness and ego, if nothing else, seem to be just the kick in the rear most of the cast needs, especially Shinji. Then it all returns to nothing, it all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down...
 * As for Mari, she's probably going to turn out to be a sociopath. She appears normal, and actually pretty happy... but in the Evangelion universe that right there should be a warning flag. Plus how could a person that content with their lives have a strong enough AT field? It turns out she's carefree because she is completely detatched, with an inability to feel love or intimacy, and having difficulties with empathy. Plus, you know, she's even more batshit insane than Asuka in combat.
 * Or else Mari is not a sue, but was originally from a Super Robot type universe, in which she fit in perfectly with the other characters, and accidentally ended up in the Eva world when she was fighting a Monter Of The Week. She used too much Getter Rays/Photon Power/Spiral Energy/GN Particles at one time, and poof, she ended up crashed in some sort of crazy place where the mecha are squishy and everyone's all angsty all the time.

Shinji's class is made up of any child who had a parent die anywhere near an Evangelion.
From scientist mums whose souls were sucked inside Evas to contractor dads who tripped over and broke their necks while walking through the NERV building. We know that Shinji's classmates are all potential Eva pilots, but there's a difference between being a potential pilot and actually being able to pilot it. SEELE knew the parent-soul-thing worked with Asuka and Shinji, but didn't know how it happened and decided to leave a large margin for error.
 * I'm pretty sure this one's true. Kensuke and Hikari don't have mothers either, I think.

Shinji is insane and is living in a world of his own imagined in a mental asylum in greater Tokyo.
After witnessing the death of his mother, Shinji suffered a mental breakdown. The media spectacle of a meteorite impact in Antarctica served as the focus for the creation of a new world to escape to. Which means:
 * Gendo is Shinji's emotionally distant father. After becoming a widower and being forced to commit his own son to an institution, he has become emotionally distant and has absorbed himself in his work. He still visits Shinji out of familial obligation, but is unwilling to become attached to his son again because as far as Japanese society is concerned Shinji is 'disposable'.
 * Fuyutsuki was at one time Gendo's supervisor and instructor, and is his close friend. He visits Shinji with Gendo in order to try and help his friend move on with his life.
 * Ritsuko is Shinji's psychiatrist. She seems distant because of her temperament as well as the fact that she is treating Shinji with professional detachment.
 * Misato is an officer in the US military, who knew Ritsuko when she was an exchange student. She is stationed as an officer in one of the US bases in Japan. She visits often because her husband Kaji is insane, which has brought out her alcoholic tendencies - which are not nearly as bad as Shinji thinks they are. Seeing how Shinji bonds with Kaji, she comes be something of a maternal figure to the boy.
 * Kaji is Misato's husband. He is convinced he is a double agent working for the CIA and Japanese Intelligence. He treats Shinji like a favorite cousin, filling in a paternal role.
 * Asuka and Rei are fellow patients whom Shinji befriends. Asuka is also a withdrawn, hikikimori-type girl who easily gets caught up in Shinji's world. Rei is made emotionally distant by the mood stabilisers she takes as she receives counselling for domestic abuse. Both hang out with Shinji for a while but leave his life after when they are released. Shinji's most vivid and violent imaginings see Rei and then Asuka 'killed off' as they leaves him to his fantasies, though he later fixates himself on the memory of Rei in his final days in treatment.
 * Kaworu, a sociopathic genius (who resembles Alex in that he loves classical music, especially Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, while committing acts of ultraviolence), was institutionalised when he killed a kitten in a crowded street. He 'befriends' the vulnerable Shinji for his own amusement, taking Misato hostage with Shinji at his side. Emotionally torn, Shinji attacks Kaworu who goads Shinji into killing him.
 * Just another thought to throw in there: Do you think Shinji really decapitated him or was that just a delusion?
 * Touji, Kensuki and Hikari were Shinji's friends before he was committed. At first they visited him as a sign of solidarity, but like his father they visit less and less often over time and eventually leave him as he becomes more detached with reality.
 * Pen Pen is Shinji's only constant companion, a plush toy given to Shinji by a sympathetic Misato. Alternatively, he could be Misato's pet cat which she brings and lets Shinji play with while visiting Kaji.
 * The bridge bunnies and other NERV personel are all orderlies and nurses.
 * The Angels are Shinji's interpretation of Christian angels, who are conceived as the "enemy" with Shinji developing a God Is Evil perception. Misato tries to explain the Western conscept of Angels in the context of death and afterlife, but Shinji doesn't quite understand. Ritsuko supports Shinji's impressions to give Shinji an 'enemy' to complement his delusions, allowing her to openly discuss the details of his treatment with the orderlies in front of him.
 * The Evangelion are giant mecha rationalized into Shinji's dillusions. The comment that they are humanity's 'substite for God(s)' reflects his own obsession with the genre.
 * Yui died rather violently as Shinji watched, though she was a decent enough mother in life. Gendo has forbidden all photographs of her to avoid agitating Shinji; although he barely remembers her, Shinji sees a resemblance to her in Rei. Shinji imagines his personal giant mecha as embodying her maternal spirit as a coping mechanism.
 * Lilith is Shinji's warped recollection of his mother in death, who has become to him a faceless giant. Reflecting Shinji's underdeveloped sexuality and social skills she has become a grotesque, deformed and powerless figure.
 * An asteroid did in fact hit Antarctica some years ago. It did cause some problems and a slight rise in sea levels, but not nearly as much as Shinji likes to imagine.
 * EoE represents the last throes of Shinji's insanity and his re-admittance into normal society. The last two episodes of Evangelion show his personal journey towards coming to terms with his mental problems and rejecting the dream-world he has created to avoid dealing with them. Pronounced well enough to be released from the asylum to live in a special school with other released patients, he tries to get into the swing of a normal Japanese highschooler's life while he is still slightly out of touch with reality.

When the Evas go into berserker mode, they instinctively manifest their AT Fields to the contours of their bodies.
That's the only reason I can think of to explain why Zeruel's razor ribbons failed to cut through EVA-01's fingers. In addition, it's the reason why the 3rd angel's suicide explosion didn't do diddly squat. 4th angel in rebuild. ..
 * It could also explain why that after an angel is N2 bombed and damaged, the attack isn't kept up to further damage it while it regenerates, even if this is a long period of time, because the angel goes into a defensive state and projects a more powerful AT field.

The separate continuities are all part of an unstable time loop.
The alternate universe was the original universe. As seen in the main series, this world is a fairly perfect version of the NGE world. When the angels came to that world, it was much more of a shock and most of the cast were killed due to the absence of the EV As. At that point, Shinji became god, (like in EoE) rebooted reality, and hoped for the best. This produced the universe seen in the anime. Shinji is so depressed partly due to the fact that he subconsciously realizes that he's only made the world worse. This world progresses to EoE and he gets the power to reboot reality once again. Attempting to stabilize the loop, he takes the opportunity, causing Rebuild of Evangelion. The other continuities can easily be contained within this theory as separate steps within Shinji's time altering operation. RahXephon or Petit Eva are ideal timelines in Shinji's mind.

In Rebuild, Mari and Asuka are also (modified) clones of Yui.
If you've been keeping up with the Rebuild spoilers, you'll know by now that Asuka attempts to pilot EVA-03 before it goes haywire, and Mari successfully pilots EVA-02. The general consensus seems to be that the "EVA only works if the soul contained within it is the pilot's mother" rule has been changed.

THIS IS A LIE.

First I'll go into an earlier theory I had before this information came to light. As you may know, most Eva characters are named after World War 2 warships. Rei Ayanami, Mari Makinami and Asuka (Sohryu in the original, Shikinami in Rebuild) are no exception. See a pattern with the Rebuild names? Ayanami, Makinami, Shikinami. Here's the thing, though. While all three of those were indeed ships in the Imperial Navy in WW 2, the interesting part comes later, after they were decommissioned. In the late fifties and early sixties, the JMSDF commissioned a new Ayanami, Shikinami, and Makinami (among several others).

All of them are considered Ayanami-class destroyers.

Now, assuming this is intentional and not just me reading WAY too deeply into Anno or whoever's ship-otaku-ness, this could be a hint that Rebuild Asuka and Mari are based on the same "template" as Rei--in other words that they are ALSO clones of Yui. Rei was presumably considered a failure due to lack of aggressiveness. So they modified the genetic template to compensate, and came up with Asuka. Except they overcompensated, and ended up with an egotistical borderline psychopath. Mari is the third attempt, and most successful so far--fairly normal when she needs to be, but goes just as batshit (if not more so) as Asuka in combat.

Now, since every EVA pilot (except Shinji) is a modified clone of Yui Ikari and therefore, in a sense, her "daughter", NERV does not have to match each EVA to a single pilot. They can simply use a copy or piece of Yui's soul in every single EVA, making them much easier to mass produce.

When we see the Reiquarium in 3.0 or Final, it ain't gonna be the Reiquarium. More likely the Mariquarium.


 * But a bunch of Reiclones appeared in the preview for 3.0, hiding behind a clothed Rei Prime.
 * That also implies a change, due to the fact that none of the Reiclones in the original were anything but shells, due to their bieng only one Rei mind/soul.
 * We never knew that for certain.
 * Ritsuko outright stated they were nothing but empty shells.

Mari is the Eva-verse's version of Hayato Jin of Getter Robo fame
Her Evangelion has a claw-arm and a drill-esque weapon, much like Getter Two, and her love of battle and intelligence both are reminiscent of Hayato. She also does a good batshit insane berserker thing.
 * So who are Ryoma, Benkai, and Musashi?
 * Rei is definitely MUSAAAAAAAAAASHIII given her love of nuking herself. Rebuild-Shinji might count as Ryoma if only because he's the 'main pilot', but he's more of a Kouji Kabuto as outlined below. Maybe Asuka is the Ryoma, she has a red mecha and had a scene where she killed many mass produced versions of her own mecha. (Yes, Evas count as mecha, shush)

Rei Ayanami is a ghola.
She was grown in a creepy tank from, according to The Other Wiki, comes out a bit of a blank slate yet with motherly nuances, and every time she gets killed, there's a new copy waiting down below. There, I said it.

Rebuild-Shinji is the Eva-verse's Kouji Kabuto
He fights for those he loves, demonstrated when his decision to pilot Eva 01 again was when Rei got eaten by Zeruel, and then somehow figuring out a way to extract her from said Angel. He will never give up, as shown in his getting pissed off enough to force Eva 01 to work without power and an S2 Engine, no 'whah mommy halp', it's all Shinji. And the most convincing evidence: He made Eva 01 do an AT Field-based Rocket Punch and then gained the power to become either a God or Devil.

Now for one to piss off half the fanbase: Evangelions have no physical gender.
"No physical gender" here is defined as 'Does not have genitals', XX chromosomes and maternal souls aren't the topic here.

Evangelions are copies of either Adam or Lilith, and share more in common with Angels than humans. We know that Adam and Lilith did not give birth to the Angels and Humanity respectively through 'conventional' means, as the legs sticking out of Lilith suggest that the first humans were originally produced by something not unlike budding. Adam's means of propagating angels was probably something vaguely similar. (freezeframes in the Director's Cut also suggests that Eva 01 was 'pulled' out of Lilith and not made from an embryo as per common fanon) Adam and Lilith were also meant to propagate lifeforms by themselves, which requires an asexual form of reproduction/spawning/whatever; therefore sex is not necessary, ergo no true gender.

The Evangelions are NERV's attempts at making more beings like Adam and Lilith and/or the Angels, it would be logical that they share many of the same properties.

As for Lilith's 'menstrual LCL' ...that's probably just Anno throwing in yet another one of those psychosexual things he so loves, like Eva 02 having vagina eyes in End of Evangelion. (I'm not joking) "Seeds and Evas have no physical gender" is more like viewers' default assumption, with "they are physically female" being a rather idiosyncratic and statistically unpopular, however notorious, viewpoint. That said, there is no official word on the matter, so interpretation doesn't have to be rigidly enforced in either direction (female or sexless -- although given the intense "mother" themes and female symbology, male is probably out). Perhaps this goes without saying, though.
 * But why would the engineers let the EVAS have penises or vaginas, after all?
 * As if you need to ask.

Other items to note: Adam's method for producing the Angels is in fact completely unknown; the aforementioned "birthing" theory for Eva-01's creation actually does take the image from episode #23' into account; the biological status of being female is not actually as straightforward as this entry implies (e.g., if a species abandons its males and takes up parthenogenesis, its members do not suddenly stop being females); LCL coming from between Lilith's legs has rather straightforward implications that do not disappear because vulvae appear on heads and so forth elsewhere; Lilith's little legs probably have more to do with Rei than anything else; and the Spears could possibly be invoked to satisfy a "male role" if necessary (which they already do on a symbolic level),

In the Rebuild continuity, Unit-01 has a visible scrotum, if one carefully freeze frames the apotheosis sequence (concept art also depicts it with a penis). Whether this is because the pilot and the EVA must be the same sex to sync properly or because it throws in pointless transgender-incest symbolism is anyone's guess. Technical readouts in the original series indicate Unit-00 has a prostate gland and at least one cowper's gland (the male body has two), which may be one of the many indicators why it doesn't function properly (i.e. greatly differing hormone and neurotransmitter levels compared to the pilot).

The AT Field cannot account for all of the phenomena surrounding Evas and Angels
Somewhere along the line, Eva fandom got this weird idea that the AT Field could do anything it ever wanted forever and ever and ever, amen. With such gems as: "AT Fields can make things fly, it can make things explode, it can conduct electricity", and the strangest so far: "AT Fields can work like glue". I blame Kaworu and his cryptic lines about souls and lights and whatever. It's fully possible that the AT Field's sole purpose is being just that, a forcefield of some manner, and that many of the unique abilities of the Angels and Evas are caused by other properties.
 * Of course the A.T. Field doesn't account for EVER Ything, but it does account for a lot. The A.T. Field fundamentally isn't even a forcefield -- it's a projection of a being's soul, and the emanating, polygonal forcefield, while being the thing usually referred to as "A.T. Field", is but one manifestation the ATF can take. For unresolved reasons, the ATF is much more powerful in Angels, Evas, etc., than in "normal" lifeforms, to the point that it can essentially manipulate physical reality. That A.T. Fields have multiple uses is firmly established within both the show itself and supplemental materials and certainly is no invention of a deluded fandom.

Rebuild of Evangelion is a Reconstruction
Thus far it is a more accesible version of the series with the charecters bieng in better shape emotionally. Evangelion is pretty well known for bieng a deconstruction of the Mecha genre, so in some ways it would be fitting if a remake of a deconstruction is a reconstruction. After all how do you deconstruct a deconstruction?
 * It helps your argument that, from a language standpoint, there is no qualitative difference between rebuilding something and reconstructing something. In fact, the two words have the exact same definition. Coincidence? I think not.

The Angels are Greater Daemons of Chaos
Massive, otherworldly monsters inextricably linked to the human psyche, with forms and abilities in blatant defiance of physics, are at best mildly inconvenienced by standard weaponry, can only be truly damaged or defeated by weapons of a similar nature to them, inspire fear and foreboding by their very presence and seek to destroy everything. The AT-Fields represent either their daemonic nature, shielding them from anything not of the Immaterium, or as the link allowing them to exist in the Materium, which when breached allows them to be "killed". What is referred to as Adam and Lilith are merely the remains of two Greater Daemons from before human civilisation and the storyline is the result of humans attempting to use their powers, which obviously goes balls up for everyone involved (as is the nature of Chaos).

Shamsel (a GIANT FLYING PENIS) and Arael are Slaaneshi. The ones with the most destructive and unsubtle capabilities, Sahaquiel and Zeruel, are obviously Khornate. Bardiel and Armisael, both of whom infect and corrupt an Evangelion, are creatures of Nurgle. Iruel and Tabris are Tzeentchian, the former almost pure mutation and the latter heavy on the subterfuge, also being essential for Shinji crossing the Despair Event Horizon (which was Just As Planned). Which deity the others serve is less certain.
 * Interestingly, some people have suggested that the angels (as in, the Living Saints) are actually warp entities (aka daemons) that serve the God Emperor (aka Jesus) and possess his "chosen ones". So, maybe the other angels are just actual "angels" gone horribly wrong?

Kaworu is a Time Diver like Ingram and Corbay, he is the same one in each continuity
This is why he said 'The third again' at the end of Rebuild, Just like Ingram asked Ryusei if it was 'that time again?' during the final battle of Alpha Kaworu is aware that this is a new universe. The Kaworu in SRW 4/F/F Final, Alpha, MX, Angelic Days, Raising Project, ALL OF THEM are the same Kaworu who has the same memories.

He only brings up old memories when he realizes the world is moving differently (Read: Rebuild)

Pen-Pen was found at Adam's dig site.
Misato took him in after NERV got bored of keeping him under surveillance in case he did something interesting.

Bookend-Reis = "God" = Instrumentality Reis
For this, we need to assume two things: First, "God" is the alpha and omega. That's the reason for why Rei appears at the beginning at the end. Rei in herself isn't God, but during EoE gains the divine powers via the Lilith/Adam-fusion to make Shinji's (and NOT Gendo's) wish come true (a world without people to hurt him and his beloved. There have been speculations about that last Asuka actually being a Asuka/Rei/Misato mix). During that time, a number of Reis harvested the souls of people. They could transform into their beloved (most likely a reference to near-dead-experiences which speak of a light and a pure feeling of love), but most of the time we see Reis in their school uniforms - the same Shinji sees in the beginning in the end. Also, there was "one Rei for everyone" (that sounds so weird), even in a view of a floor full of dead and now Tang'd people ther's one Rei standing beside every puddle. I think this could be a reference to another belief, that God is "too big to fit into one religion" and that he/she/it is within all of us. So maybe Shinji was twice able to see "his" God. Because he's the chosen one or something.

Rebuild takes place after End of Evangelion
The blood on the moon might still be there because of Third Impact (remember that blood fountain when GNR died?), Kaworu uttered something along "The Third again, huh?" (in my version at ~1:32), which might be referring to Shinji as the Third Child who will be once again in the middle of prophecy. Image this with me together: After Third Impact, EoE style, the world began from zero again. We know there are some chances because the LCL puddle could still spawn people together. We don't know what happened to Shinji and Asuka after Third Impact, maybe they died because there's no food around, maybe they joined the LCL - the primeval soup from which new life will spawn. Imagine the world is going through the almost the same (/similar) destiny and process again and again and is reset again and again when Shinji gets his impact-wish-fulfillment (remember, Keel/Kiel said the beginning was the same as the end or something like that). My guess is Seele knows this and tries to change history in their favor now. Kaworu also seems to know such things, maybe he gave them some info. Maybe Anno's message this time is that everything we need to be happy is already in our lifes, we just need to find it. And Shinji may need to relive his life some times before he realizes that. On the other hand, maybe Haruhi's Endless Eight left brain damage on me. Also, for maximum symbolism, I hereby say the world's resurrection started 3 days after it's end!
 * Wasn't it pretty obvious?
 * Didn't Yui's soul vanish together with EVA-01 in space? If so, it should prove a problem trying to resurrect her... Also, if everyone's body was just created from the LCL because they recognize themselves again and have the will to come back, I don't think those creates would be protozoons which start evolution over again. Also, didn't Shinji /reject/ Instrumentality...?

Makinami Mari Illustrious is actually Adam.
Before we get to the main WMG, let's look at the Angel battles in '2.0 You can (not) advance.':
 * She fought and killed the Third Angel by self-destructing Evangelion Provisional Unit-05. Assuming that Mari is actually Adam, the mother of the Angels, she most likely would have been killing the Third Angel out of mercy, considering that all of its flesh had been carved off.
 * She was not involved in the battles against the Seventh Angel, Sahaquiel, or Bardiel.
 * However, she fought Zeruel full-on, even going so far as to activating Eva-02's The Beast mode. Again, being Zeruel's mother, I postulate that she would have known exactly how powerful Zeruel's AT Field was, and even if it was penetrated, that Zeruel was resilient enough to withstand even a point-blank N2 missile strike.

Now then...

Adam is embittered towards humanity for robbing the Earth from her offspring, the Angels. Reborn in human form as Makinami Mari Illustrious in Second Impact, she intends to generate a Third Impact so that she can destroy the Lilin and take her children's birthright back from them.

This WMG was initially postulated here.

Also, look closely at her plugsuits... both of them. They both have a small red ball in the middle of her chest. It looks too much like a Core to be a coincidence. Only one other Eva pilot in the Rebuild continuity has a "Core-ball" in the middle of their plugsuit's chest: Nagisa Kaworu, pilot of Evangelion Mark.06, who we already can assume is an Angel, given that he was able to breathe on the Moon.
 * Amendment to this part of the WMG by the original author: Asuka is the only Rebuild character to have no "Core-ball" in the middle of their plugsuit's chest. Neither of her plugsuits have that particular feature. It's understandable for Rei, but Shinji... he may be the exception, or it could reflect on his mother having been assimilated by Eva-01?
 * Addendum by the original author of this WMG: an archaic definition of the word "Illustrious" is "shining brightly with light". What in the world of Evangelion do we know that shines brightly with light? Could it be... Adam? The Giant of Light? Hmm...
 * Satan
 * Addendum from yet another troper: when Unit 01 triggers Third Impact, Mari remarks that Shinji is "quite the convenient fellow". It is possible that Rei discovers her identity in 3.0 as the preview shows the four Reis confronting Mari who takes off her glasses, looking annoyed. Remember: Mari is Blind Without'Em - or so she says.

Kaworu traveled to the Rebuild Universe from the EOE universe after his "death".

 * You should probably get snacks before reading this...

The Dead Sea Scrolls prophesied that instrumentality would happen right? No one knew who would cause it, but it had to happen, that's why NERV was set up, to ensure that humans would be the ones to initiate it. Think about how many close calls there were, how many times the angels should have won? Perhaps humans were ALWAYS going to be the ones to cause instrumentality! That's why no matter how often then angels should have won, the EVA's managed to pull through at the last second. Fast-forward to End of Evangelion, Shinji rejects instrumentality, but this isn't possible as the scrolls, and by that end, instrumentality happening is the only reason he was there in the first place. If instrumentality didn't happen then the scrolls would not have predicted it and Shinji wouldn't have been in that position in the first place. Instrumentality HAS to happen, there is no way around it.

By rejecting it Shinji fucks up everyone's very existence. In order for reality to not collapse on itself, and perhaps because Shinji was sort-of-a-god during EoE and wanted more than anything to go back and fix everything, time itself reset to the beginning of Neon Genesis Evangelion, however, normally things would have just continued on their path and the same problem would be faced again, that is, Shinji would have rejected Instrumentality yet again.

Something would have had to change, and that change is Kaworu, the only person Shinji really felt like he loved. Maybe at an unconscious level, Shinji causes Kaworu to retain his memories when Neon Genesis Evangelion "resets" into Rebuild, hoping Kaworu will save him because he is too weak to save himself.

Remember that Kaworu is just to Seele what Rei is to Nerv? The Kaworu on the moon at the beginning of Rebuild could be one of several clones of Kaworu, they all retain the same memories and soul, but only one can be active at once. (Notice that in EoE the names on the dummy plugs on the mass production Eva's is "Kaworu".) What if when Kaworu was created, some time before the beginning of Rebuild of Evangelion I assume (The same time he was created in the original NGE, who knows how old he is?), he knew everything that happened during the series, how Shinji would be hurt and how he would die. He doesn't want that to happen because he has fallen in love with Shinji during NGE and wants to change the course of history now that he knows what would have happened, so, without Seele's knowledge, he changes things before the beginning of Rebuild, makes decisions that will lead the characters down alternative paths. (Like arranging that the new girl, Mari would be transferred to Nerv in Japan.)

That is why we have the new girl, Mari, in Rebuild, obviously Kaworu plans to use her for something... So now Kaworu has set everything in place and is just waiting as everything goes as planned, neither Nerv or Seele is aware. He is the only one in control, waiting for things to play out. Waiting for Shinji...

There! Now figure that out!


 * As far as we know, from supplemmental materials (informed by Anno himself) released after the show finished airing, the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls are merely manuals that contain details about the "workings" of the Seeds of Life (Adam and Lilith), and what happens when either is awoken. They contain no information regarding Instrumentality, since the concept of Instrumentality itself was developed by Seele, who used the information found in the S.D.S.S. as a sort of groundworks. The show itself contains almost no infromation about what is written in the S.D.S.S.

Angels are not actually "alternate evolutions" of humans themselves, but their representatives
It makes no sense for creatures so large like the angels to become the dominant species -- the earth doesn't have enough resources to support creatures that large and they don't look like anything seen on Earth. However, they are a similar size to the Evas, and many are similarly styled and shaped.

While the Evas were made in man's image and therefore look like stylized versions of humans, the Angels were built from their respective species' images, and therefore represent stylized traits of their respective species. This would also explain why the Angels seem to end up by Tokyo-3 -- that's a space where these representatives can come from their respective dimensions to fight. It's not so unbelievable that some of these Angels would have pilots, too, and that NERV and SEELE were concealing their existences from the pilots because knowing that they were fighting and killing intelligent beings would discourage them from fighting.

For example:


 * Sachiel is the representative of a humanoid race that has perhaps evolved in a slightly different way from humans, accounting for the shape
 * Shamshel is representative of an intelligent squid species
 * Ramiel is the representative of an intelligent species that still takes geometric forms, like viruses
 * Gaghiel is the representative of a reality where whales are the dominant intelligent species instead of humans
 * Israfel is the representative of an intelligent species that can survive and live when split, like worms
 * Sandalfon is the representative of a species that wasn't prepared yet, thus the reason why it was found in an embryonic state
 * Matariel is the representative of an intelligent insect/arachnid species
 * Sahaquiel is the representative of a species that has already colonized space, and used space technology to its advantage
 * Iruel is the representative of an intelligent bacterial colony that has become the dominant species in its reality
 * Leliel is the representative of an intelligent species of shadow creatures, or creatures from another dimension
 * Bardiel is the representative of a species similar to Iruel's, but is airborne
 * Zeruel is the representative of a species similar to humans, but perhaps similar to gorillas, considering its proportions
 * Arael is the representative of a psychic bird/winged humanoid species
 * Armisael is the representative of a species of energy beings
 * Tabris is the representative of a Sufficiently Advanced Alien that decided to forego the idea of a huge creature and use genetic engineering instead

The reason the angels seem to become more intelligent and powerful as they go on is because the fights functioned as elimination rounds and therefore the Evas had to fight more and more powerful angels. By reaching Instrumentality, the humans "won".


 * That idea would make an awesome fanfic. Also, does it sound like Bokurano to anyone?
 * Wait, that means that Leliel is the representative of the Vashta Nerada!
 * The "Earth can't support Angels" concept is pretty firmly Jossed by a couple of things. One, Angels don't NEED resources, they have infinite energy generators, as stated in series. Nor do they need the Earth to support them - the Angelic ecosystem has no plants. The CI in the video game also implies that Adam and Lilith are terraforming devices with their own ecosystems (just add water!) and thus the Angels are an ecosystem in and of themselves, and not extra dimensional. "Alternate evolutions" was just a descriptive term. The two sets of ecosystems are completely unrelated.
 * Although the representative concept can still work, think of the Angels and Evas as monuments.
 * The whole "alternate evolutions" thing seems to be memetic mutation stemming from bochan_bird's script translation of EoE, which may have obscured the meaning of a critical line by, incidentally, not being literal enough! Misato seems to be essentially saying that "we humans" (18th Angel, Lilin) and the "Angels" (Adam's progeny) are two possible humanities, and, unlike us, the Angels abandon human form (see: Sandalphon). This interpretation seems to be affirmed by an info dump from an anonymous Seed of Life in Neon Genesis Evangelions 2 (PSP), who reminds Kaworu that Seeds of Life served as "designers" for their progeny, and "either bestowed upon them shapes as any form of life, or acted as representatives and chose the form" (Angels vs. Lilin, anyone?).

Our guess is as good as yours.
Yes, this means all our crazy theories are correct.
 * Shrug of God, dude. Could be eiter right or wrong, we'll never know.

In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Doritos are perishable goods
In 'Neon Genesis Evangelion: Rebuild', when Shinji first moves in with Misato, he inspects her kitchen. He pulls out three drawers, one containing ice, one containing snacks (Doritos), and one containing beer. The 'snack' drawer is pulled out in between the ice and beer drawers which are implied to be refrigerated, so the drawer holding the Doritos is most likely also refrigerated. Why else would Misato put Doritos in the refrigerator if they weren't perishable? They may not be perishable now, but perhaps after Second Impact, the types of preservatives Doritos use may be difficult to afford, so Doritos in Evangelion are a perishable good.
 * Or, you know, Misato just wasn't completely together when she put them in there. That kind of stuff happens.
 * Eva Fans: Analyzing FUCKING EVERYTHING since 1996!
 * Some people say crisps are nicer when they're left in the fridge. Misato is a firm believer in it.
 * Or, you know, she just prefers her Doritos cold. There are people who prefer stuff thatt way.

Rei/Mari/Kaworu will have a Pen Pen encounter
Thus far in the Rebuild movies both Shinji and Asuka have had comical encounters with Pen-Pen in the bathroon. At some point in the remaining two movies, the joke will be continued in some way with the at least one of the remaining children.
 * Kaworu will be able to speak Penguin.
 * There will be a scene where the two discuss what would be needed to make Shinji happy, and whether he should end up with Rei or Asuka.
 * There is already fanart about Mari falling victim to this... Rei won't as she has no sense of modesty.

AT Fields are real
Throughout the series AT Fields are described not as a shield for Humongous Mecha, but as the definition of our individuality. AT Fields also provide a good reason for our individuality and limited sensory perception (meaning the AT Fields are the reason why we have only 5 senses). If we never had an AT Field, then our perception should have been increased hundredfold, such as the the usage of telepathy and other psionic powers, the existence of Reality Warpers and the development of a Hive Mind. We simply forgot how to use it.
 * Didn't you watch the movie? Everyone gets their AT fields removed and they turn into Tang. That doesn't seem like a very potent form.
 * Ya. Humans are technically a single angel; the reason we can't use our AT fields is because they're devoted entirely to maintaining individual identities. Removal of them- or too much usage for other purposes- would cause a breakdown in individuality, and tangification.
 * Exactly. Angels have more versatile AT Fields but less scientific progresses because they sacrificed their individuality in search for power; while Humans, which found power in determinism (science) instead of the AT Field, ignored their AT Fields and left those to freeze into individuality and uniqueness.
 * Or maybe Lilith's hand is responsible. Remember, humans are unique because they have the Fruit of Knowledge instead of the Fruit of Life. Lilith may have "disabled" our ability to consciously project AT fields so that we are forced to use our uniqueness.
 * This idea is Older Than Radio, and Schopenhauer called it the "Hedgehog's Dilemma". Schopenhauer's parable describes a number of hedgehogs who need to huddle together for warmth and who struggle to find the optimal distance where they may feel sufficiently warm without hurting one another. The hedgehogs have to sacrifice warmth for comfort. Remember, the hedgehog's quills evolved as a form of protection against predators. Why do we have this AT Field? It protects us, particularly from Cosmic Horrors (aka Angels), and also serves as a filter to block unnecessary chaos, however, as a consequence, as a barrier, it has to separate humanity.

Rebuild-Kaworu is Ascended Ayato Kamina, here to undo Second Impact
Ayato has come to the Rebuild-Eva-Verse to 'retune' it properly and fix what Second Impact did, as he did with his homeworld. Eva 06 is 'built differently' than the rest, because it's just the RahXephon in a candy shell armor plating and rubber. This is also why "Eva" 06 was able to get close to Near Third Impact, as it can warp reality itself and doesn't need to worry about a little thing like a godlike energy being. The big reveal in 4.0 will be 06 purging its armor and revealing its true form, and helping Shinji fight the Final Boss,.

Neon Genesis Evangelion was a Plan used by Plato (or some other philosopher) to bring the philosophical-dialogues genre back to popular media
He got control of the World of Forms in some way..... and with it he transcended time and space....
 * It was created by Schopenhauer.
 * I disagree: it was created by Kierkegaard and Sartre. Isn't it obvious how Hegelian SEELE is?

== Neon Genesis Evangelion is the distant past. Real Life is in fact an aftermath of Instrumentality that backfired; and the survivors of NERV recorded their experiences but was twisted into legend creating The Bible == Rei, at Instrumentality's climax, announced that everyone who had the heart to be individuals can return back to their original form. Unfortunately (for SEELE), Instrumentality failed, because people can only go together if they had the same ideas and identities. The survivors from NERV, such as Shinji, tried to record their experiences by creating The Bible, and rebuilt civilization, but without SEELE and the Angels, it was a less advanced society. Based on this Wild Mass Guess, Neon Genesis Evangelion happened during The Bible's alleged time of creation, 6000 B.C.
 * This might be the new theory that will connect science and The Bible: in 6000 B.C., Humanity wasn't created, they were just re-created.
 * Now there's one I haven't heard before!

What Instrumentality's purpose is
You just happen to find three ancient artifacts called Adam, Lilith, and the Lance of Longinus, and these happens to be the three most powerful artifacts in the universe. They are originally seperated, but when merged together, they form the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the most powerful being in the universe and the source of all life. The Tree of Life is then merged with a clone of God named Rei Ayanami, and everybody turns into Tang. However, what does exactly happen to the human souls during Instrumentality? What is it's purpose?
 * This troper heard of SEELE uniting all humanity in death. That makes Instrumentality a Euthanasia program turned into a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum.
 * Yes, but if SEELE wants to euthanize humanity, why would they go to great lengths and summon Physical Gods instead of creating a virus?
 * Maybe, SEELE already knew that the humans will remain ignorant and will have a fear of death, so if they create a pandemic, the world's scientists will just try to find a cure. That would make the euthanasia program similar to Light Yagami's plan: a bitter failure. Other methods of Destroying The World, such as asteroids or Global Warming, will also fail because of the world's scientists continually finding solutions. By using the Tree of Life, they let God kill off humanity by stripping off their AT Fields, and with it their will to live. Schopenhauer theorized that the human world was made of the obsession of the will to live, and without that, the world will collapse like dominoes.
 * This troper found a clue: the Human Instrumentality Project was a direct reference to the Instrumentality of Mankind, a possible future created by Cordwainer Smith. In Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality, everyone has his responsibilities, but if a person commited wrong, it was different. For example, any Lord can put any Lord to death, but the Lord who put his fellow Lord to death was also put to death. While the Instrumentality government acts on "an eye for an eye" ideology, the lower classes were imposed with a fixed lifespan of four hundred years. The Human Instrumentality Project, therefore, was a plan to restore the "eye for an eye" ideology by dissolving the AT Field, and with it, morality.
 * Or the Instrumentality was a situation very similar to that of The Matrix. Humanity was forced to live on an interactive world they can actually warp, while being oblivious to the fact that they live in a Crapsack World. Shinji, for rejecting Instrumentality, has a status of a Red Pill.
 * Maybe the Instrumentality was actually a situation where humans were given a chance to be Anonymous. Remember that the AT field is actually the definition of a person's identity. If that is the case, then dissolving the AT Field will mean stripping off everybody's name and labeling it "Anonymous", causing humanity to become Legion, united as one, divided by zero.
 * Is it me or does this troper thinks that SEELE was somehow related to Four Chan?
 * Keel Lorenz is then, after being corrupted by /b/. This leads to an alternate timeline where TEH REI was a more lasting meme than she was in our world, leading to  turning into a misaimed fan of SEELE's goals after becoming like Anonymous and then watching Evangelion, followed by the events of Evangelion happeneing due to Anonymous interference and then sending back records as the Evangelion we know, creating a Stable Time Loop when Rei becomes a meme.
 * Adding to that, Project Chanology and its aftermath introduced to Scientology, which inspired him to cause the outlawing of psychology post-Second Impact through his Ancient Conspiracy world control, allowing all of humanity to go mad enough that they might accept this crazy Instrumentality thing. This backfired when one of the most disturbed people on Earth (who was purposefully broken as part of the grand master plan!) was given control of the process, and he turned out to be analogous to So Bad It's Good: Shinji turned out so crazy by the end that he had a moment of powerful sanity, and in that very moment he rejected Instrumentality.  plan to break Shinji into a justifiably emo warrior with an occasional berserker rage turned out too successful, to the ruin of the plan, all because a bunch of Internet users protested Scientology.
 * Or, the events of NGE was the possible result of the actions of both Scientology and Anon, as a response to the discovery of the AT Field and Adam. In this timeline, after the popularity of TEH REI, everybody discovered that AT Fields are real (see above WMG for example), as well as the existence of the aliens (Christians often called them Angels), but the factions who most exploited it was Scientology, which used the AT Field technology (and their abundance of money) to design "alien weapons", and Anon, who used the AT Field tech for "ghost hacking" and being able to troll higher organizations in Real Life (such as the Japanese Government, the USA and the United Nations). When the UN decided to meddle, they accidentally activated Adam while the Angels invaded (it could be possible they were members of either Scientology or Anon), causing Second Impact, and Scientology used this as propaganda aka an invasion of "Xenu", as well as using their lawyers, allowing them to take control of the world for a while, changing the date to 2000 (when in fact it was the distant future, see also 1984) and outlawing psychology, hence why There Are No Therapists (Christianity is still the dominant religion, hence the title Neon Genesis Evangelion, but the organizations are under control of Scientology). The world fell into grim darkness and despair, yet Anon still survived, and discovered if the AT Fields of all people are removed, it can still have the chance to bring teh lulz back to the world. The most effective way to break someone's AT Field to submission? Perverse Sexual Lust, or as we say it, breaking the fourth wall and oneself's AT Field for promise of unconditional love. However, as seen in Japan, it alone cannot destroy the AT Field, but when combined with Memetic Mutation, or as we say it, The Virus, and psychically projected, it will be turned Up to Eleven and break down the person's ego like a corrupting virus. They try to start Instrumentality from Japan and chose TEH REI as the meme, because of the conditions listed above. Anon appointed as Keel Lorenz (or Gendo Ikari, to keep with Anon's meme theme). By creating IRL Rei Ayanami, and psychically seeding her all over the world using a cyborg dubbed "Eva" to infect everybody with the memetic version of Perverse Sexual Lust, Instrumentality happened, but it went wrong when Eva's original pilot, Shinji Ikari, was so despaired he decided to retain his identity instead of joining Anon. With this a failure, Shinji assimilated some of Anon's god-like powers, ruling the galaxy and becoming  himself. Xenu (who is actually ) then imprisoned souls of several races of aliens (particularly angels from a planet that resembled our ancient culture) in a massive MacGuffin named Adam, which allowed the rebirth of Angelkind and humanity, while Anon, in vendetta (and For the Evulz) created Lilith (hence Lilith's mask) and crashed it on one of Xenu's planets named "Teegeeack", on the hopes of starting TEH REI and instrumentality once again. Then, on Teegeeack, with the discovery of Adam and the popularity of TEH REI in the distant future... Let's think of it as like a Stable Time Loop.
 * The concept of being  and the concept of  being, and Teegeeack being cursed to repeat the curse of Evangelion once again for eternity is kinda interesting, but it makes more sense if Seele, with their obsession with alien precursors, were the Scientology guys while Gendo, being the Uber-Pimp that he is, worked separately for Anonymous and against the scientology guys, leading to him and Teh Rei haxoring the entire Instrumentality plan and putting the Instrumentality less in favor of a crap imitation of psychoanalysis and more in favor of trolling us otakus for teh lulz.
 * Some of Anonymous' quotes are "We are everyone and we are no one" and "United as one, divided by zero". The Instrumentality is specifically described by Rei in End of Evangelion as "a place where you exist everywhere, yet you are nowhere, all at once" and "a world where we are all one". Coincidence?
 * It was also likely that one of Anon's members was an Evangelion fanboy, and also some of Anon's members have influence in the workings of the government......
 * Remember the part where Rei takes the form of people's desires? There is a clue that Instrumentality was intended to make all humans Voluntary Shapeshifters.
 * Then our true form is Tang that can change into Reis?
 * That means Shinji becomes the ancestor to a race of shapeshifters. When he rejected instrumentality and chose to live in reality, he became a shapeshifter, which will eventually become the First Ancestral Race. It is also plausible that Adam and Lilith were also shapeshifters, considering the Precursors / Shinji were shapeshifters, but was trapped in form due to the Lance of Longinus, which may have originated from Eva-01 (In the series Lilith was trapped in injured form when pierced by the Lance, but after the Lance was removed, Lilith came back to her true form, a formless humanoid mass, then later changed into a, and considering the Lance's spiral resemblance to DNA, it can apply as the same to us, but with DNA molecules).
 * Easy: SEELE wanted to turn humanity into the perfect, godlike being that takes the form of Rei and Kaworu in The End of Evangelion. No more individuality, with all the problems that come with it, and no more need for earthly resources: we would all live in paradise as part of one perfect, penultimate being. SEELE themselves express that things are going exactly as they want for the bulk of Instrumentality, up until Shinji rejects it and God-Rei sacrifices herself.

Eighty percent of the series is Shinji suffering from long-term serotonin deficiency.
It was kicked into overdrive by piloting the EVAs. Results include being small, weak, pale, depression with an eventual (and extreme) rise in aggressiveness, religious experiences... He was strapped into a giant mecha, told to stab some "angels" and get along with a crazy German girl who was transferred to be a pilot, and eventually snapped, deciding that his friend was Jesus and   at Asuka. It's likely inherited from, Rei's just better at hiding the later symptoms (or they have less time in which to manifest, thanks to  ).

The S2 Engine generates Spiral Energy.
Well, the organ is supposed to harness some sort of helical energy....

Neon Genesis Evangelion takes place before Norse Mythology
The fusion of Adam and Lilith (Muspelheim and Niflheim) basically killed off all life on the planet, allowing to bring forth a new creation story and a new myth altogether, while at the same time it brought forth the, who was retconned as the first living thing, Ymir (who later became the building material for the Yggdrasil), while Eva-01 became the cow Audumbla. The cow Audhumbla licked on a salt stone. On the first day after this a man's hair appeared on the stone, on the second day a head and on the third day an entire man emerged from the stone. The man is Shinji Ikari, who emerged from the Instrumentality. Shinji got over his issues through the god powers he gained from the Instrumentality, and with Asuka he fathered Bor, the father of Odin, Vili and Ve. The rest of Norse Mythology (or Greek Mythology, or Egyptian Mythology, or The Bible, what-have-you) takes off from there. Not to mention the Proud Warrior Race Guy attitudes of the Norse could be inherited from Asuka herself, and the emergence of Shinji during the creation process basically resulted.

Neon Genesis Evangelion takes place after Norse Mythology
Shinji is the last survivor of Ragnarok (the war against the Angels), Lif. Asuka, the last woman, is Lifthrasir.

Everybody is Shinji in Purgatory, and Kaworu died for our sins.
It's addictive.

Lilith is in fact the Sophia from Gnosticism
And lilim/humans, the "materialistic" angels, are the Demiurge. The all-powerful Adam, on the other hand, is the Pleroma.
 * It matches, though, since Sophia had fallen from grace, mirroring how Lilith was crucified by the Lilim.
 * Also mirroring how the "real" Lilith was expelled from Eden.
 * Sophia means Wisdom, and Lilith is the Fruit of Knowledge. It does make sense. Also, the Demiurge is a lesser entity with a God complex and a celestial bureaucracy, which is most like modern Humanity.
 * Wait, Sophia is always portrayed as naked and beautiful, while Lilith is virtually a giant ragdoll.
 * Hello? Rei Ayanami? Always portrayed as naked and worshipped by otakus as Ms. Fanservice?

Angels, as they are portrayed in Evangelion, are Real
Because they are celestial beings, their true form is comparable to an Eldritch Abomination. Don't believe those people who keeps on saying angels are The Beautiful Elite.
 * Well, they do have more in common with some of the downright bizarre descriptions of heavenly beings found in ancient Judeo-Christian scriptures than the usual "dudes with wings and togas" imagery.

In Rebuild of Evangelion, Eva-01 .
REBUILD SPOILERS AHEAD.
 * In Evangelion 2.0: You can (not) advance., Gendo mentions . At the end, Eva-01 . In the preview for Evangelion Q,.
 * The line from Gendo that served as the main inspiration for the theory was a bit of an awkward translation (and actually read . It has since been corrected to.

This whole show was supposed to be a metaphorical warning from the future about Sonichu.

 * Think about it. Shinji is Chris, Rei is Megan, Asuka is Julie, Misato is vivitheg, and Gendou is his parents collectively. The Angels are the trolls.
 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS Tic Qs 4 Ke 8&feature=related

Asuka's Nerve Clips are permanently attached
As the Second child, she's got L2 biotic implants an older model, one that had to be surgically implanted.
 * They're not. She took them off in Rebuild 2.0 before attaching the spherical green ones that came with the TEST plugsuit.
 * If they get removed, she shuts down. And if they'd continued development, the A11 Nerve Clips would have let her fly.

EVAs are a Deconstruction of Magical Girls.
They're slender females with an angelic/fetishistic nature that fight Freudian Horrors through dancing and (for the more powerful attacks) emotion (especially intimacy-related emotions). Since this is a Grimdark series after all, the Fridge Horror behind being a Magical Girl is revealed, struggling against Eldritch Horrors with incomprehensible sorcery is not healthy for your own sanity and the welfare of your loved ones, you're going to end up mostly alone, and no matter what you do you are inevitably cursed in the end (and of course, how the Applied Phlebotinum uses the user's energy, ego barrier and emotions, most especially love, portrayed here as a tremendous source of Angst, makes magical girl magic a case of Powered by a Forsaken Child). EVA-01 can be a Tsundere, which tends to deconstruct or parody into Yandere. At the end of the series, the protagonist gains divine reality-warping power but instead chooses to be normal and gives hope for the rest of humanity. I had more, but I'll need to figure out if any of it was written down or saved somewhere, or if the Data Vampires ate it while I was trapped offline. And in case you think this is a joke WMG, it's not.
 * Puella Magi Madoka Magica?
 * This one seems a little bizarre, but it's not that far off from the "Neon Feminist Evangelion" entry above, which is pretty much true.

Humanity is just a stage in the life cycle of Gods
Inspired by Science Fiction: more specifically, by Arthur C. Clarke 's "Childhood's End" and Tiptree/Sheldon's "A momentary Taste of Being"

Angels are essentially sperm: Third Impact is essentially conception. Humanity merges into a unified mind which is a new God. Gods, in turn, seed the tree of life, which creates ever-new variants on Adam, Lilith and Eve which will make new worlds into seedbeds of consciousness. SEELE hoped to create a distorted Third Impact (their own End of the World Special) so that rather than humanity merging into a common mind, they will become the "core" of the new divine consciousness, esentially becoming a God while everyone else is reduced to just thoughts running around inside their head. (Keel probably planned to double-cross his partners at some point, once he no longer needs them). Sometimes the cycle fails, and the new "zygote" disintegrates back into its component parts, although in most cases it simply sheds a percentage of unfit elements. What happens to them is of no importance: it's job done, the "seedbed" (terrestrial ecosystem) will die off before long.

Kaworu, Kazuhiro Mitogawa from Ga-Rei Zero, Nagi Homura from Mai-HiME and Full Metal Panic!'s Leonard Testarossa are all the same person
There are a few reasons why I thought up this. First, at the behest of a friend, I watched Mai-HiME, and noticed Nagi, a white haired relatively bishonen boy. Kaworu comparisons were automatic. Again at the behest of said friend, I watched Ga-Rei Zero, and saw Mitogawa, a white-haired relatively bishonen boy. While thinking this over, Leonard Testarossa from FMP came into the mix. The only difference with him is that he's older. Now, these four have moe similarities than just appearance. A simple place to start is between the first two I compared: Kaworu to Nagi. First point? They have the same seiyuu. Yep, Akira Ishida voiced both Kaworu and Nagi, two remarkably similar characters. Both characters are quite the tricksters. Even though Kaworu did understand Shinji (at least from Shinji's perspective), his goal was pretty much to. Simply put, he was manipulating Shinji. Keep that in mind, as it's very important to link these four characters. Now, let's move on to Nagi. He starts out as more of an observer type guy, albeit with a creepy air to him, most likely due to the visual similarities to Kaworu. Later, it's revealed that he, though admittedly, he is not entirely behind everything that goes on, which actually makes his identity as a manipulative trickster, despite his trickery being much less harmful than the other three in this WMG. He is also, adding to the supernatural theme shared by all four. But, time to move onto perhaps the most evil of the four, Kazuhiro Mitogawa. This guy, nicknamed "Evil butterfly dude" by myself and some others, manages to place himself in situations where he can manipulate characters into being corrupted by their own hatred and dark desires. He, like the others, is quite enigmatic and does his work on the sidelines. Due to his manipulation,. Pretty important stuff. To add to the connection between Mai-HiME and this series, Ga-Rei Zero has a character named "Natsuki Kasuga" who appears in the first two episodes, rides a motorcycle, and has a similar appearance to Mai-HiME's Katsuki Kuga. It's pretty much a given that she's an expy, leading to other possible connections betweent Mai-HiME and Ga-Rei Zero. And unlike Kaworu and Nagi, Mitogawa has pretty much no shreads of goodness in him. Which leads nicely into Leonard Testarossa, who also happens to be a not very nice guy. To be honest, Leonard doesn't have as strong a connection to Kaworu as the other two. He could be seen as an adult version of the younger three. To keep with the somewhat supernatural nature of these characters, Leonard, much like his sister. He is a manipulative (yet definitely not Magnificent) bastard, though. And FMP can be loosely connected to Eva in that they're both non-standard Mecha series, giving each of these series a general connection to one another, some stronger than others. In the end, though, given this evidence, it's very likely that these four characters could be the same person, just hopping from 'Verse to 'Verse. If anything, this merits some closer attention, which I'll try to give it in the future. I'm totally on to something here, mark my words.

Neon Genesis Evangelion was created to be easy for its fans to think up crossovers
Take the WMG pages for example.
 * I can name, right off the back of my hand, at least 10 anime series that are far more crossoverable.

Shinji is the Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind
No, not just Shinji and Warhammer 40 K. Why did Yui plan to grant Shinji a bright future, when it actually turns out to be one of the biggest Grimdark Nightmare Fuel he ever experienced? Answer: it was to make him the God-Emperor of Mankind. The Sea of LCL / Instrumentalized Humanity evolves into the Warp. Shinji, being able to draw powers from LCL / Warp, became an immortal powerful psyker, and being the only surviving man, decides he can finally strip off his Butt Monkey tendencies and unify humanity (his descendants) as more of a Ubermensch this time, molding history form millenia and finally leading to the creation of the Imperium of Man. This of course would also make a good Freudian Excuse for the Imperium's actions. Alternatively, both Shinji And Warhammer 40k and Warhammer 40000 canon are Alternate Universes Shinji created during Instrumentality with him placing himself into the role of the possible God-Emperor.

All the characters are representations of Anno's mind.
Not so much a WMG as Anno stated Mia as being the sole exception to this, but what are they?
 * Shinji = Anno himself. Note in the first series Shinji is more wangsty while Anno is fighting and recovering from depression. The happier stuff while depressed and the more depressing end as he actually recovered. Revival written when Anno relapsed and raged against Otakudom. Rebuild, Shinji is happy as Anno now is. Rich and famous thanks to Otakudom.
 * Rei = The inner Otaku. Rejected as a love interest compared to Asuka and designed to be creepy. However, being created for an anime and representative as his inner anime geek she is the lil' godling we all know she becomes. The love interest is off and on as Anno wavers back and forth with his views of Otakudom, and he/Shinji rejects her in the end of the original series in the hopes of normalness. In Revival she becomes enthralled with Shinji/Anno, mirroring the fans. However, because of Anno's hatred of the Otaku lifestyle around that time she becomes the effective destroyer of all life. In Rebuild, recovered and wealthy thanks to Otaku/Rei, Shinji/Anno as of Rebuild 2.0 loves her openly.
 * Asuka = The "ideal" life. Active, boisterous, a tinge of exotic. Shinji becomes more like her as the original series progresses. Wavers between good and traumatized as Anno waves back and forth over if the "ideal" life is worth it.
 * The basic premise of this (that all or most of the characters are a reflection of Anno) is undeniably true; it's what lends the series its extraordinary sincerity and brutal honesty, the same qualities that fundamentally make it so enthralling to some and so alienating to others. However, the same could be said of any writer who goes to great lengths to flesh out his or her characters psychologically, and I doubt any of this was as calculated or literal as you propose. Anno was quoted a couple years ago as saying about Rebuild that Mari was the first character he's created who wasn't fundamentally "a part of him", or something to that effect.

World after End become World of Goo
Most peaple was changed to goo, rest rebuild civilisiation and create World of Goo Corporation. World start being less cynical and angsty, more cartoony and also some how mor realistic in case of phisic laws, but little Mind Srew remein

Instrumentality happened not because Shinji united with Rei, but because Gendo GENDOWNED Ritsuko near Adam and Lilith
Yes, since turning everybody into Tang takes a lot of initial force, and doing that near Applied Phlebotinum will result in the end of the world.

Humans themselves are an Evangelion to an unknown species, and there are in fact infinite Evangelions, nestled within each other.
Think about it: Evangelions can replicate near-human emotions and feeling, and are apparently biological in nature, like humans. Evas are also described as the actual "humans" in the series, NOT the humans (which are termed Lilim, or demons). Also, look closer to the AT Field: it seems to possess a layered structure, like an onion. In EOE, the Evangelion becomes assimilated to a Giant Naked Rei, which itself is a giant human. In instrumentality, when the humans became Tang, red dots break outside the humans and join the Giant Rei. If that's the case, then an Evangelion is a human, and the human itself is an Evangelion, possibly to another lifeform (the red dots), which itself is an Evangelion to another lifeform, and so on. The conclusion: In NGE, there are infinite humans nestled within each other. Instrumentality is simply the process of replacing the "useless" layers. The same can also apply to Angels. A better comparison might be a matryoshka doll.
 * Nothing is said about Lilin being any less human than the other human entities in the show (Evas, Angels, Seeds of Life, etc.). "Lilin" is most straightforwardly a reference to our status as Lilith's offspring; that the Lilin are traditionally Lilith's demonic spawn has more to do with subtext and irony than us literally being "demons".

It's all Haruhi Suzumiya's delusion.
Hey, who else has a WMG dart board as infinite as NGE?

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a sentient Me Me.
Not only that it is a sentient Meme that is also an Eldritch Abomination determinded to take over the globe and then feast on humanity's collective sanity and leave us all in howling madness. Read this page and deny it doesn't make sense

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a literal God.
Like the above it is an Eldritch Abomination, but because it has lots of plot holes, it also achieved instrumentality for all fiction, uniting them all together and ascending to a higher plane of existence, becoming God and the moderator between different types of fiction, hence why the infinite WMG dart board

Shinji never escaped from Instrumentality
Him ending up with Asuka on the beach was an illusion. After all, Instrumentality is supposed to work and bring happiness to people by giving them exactly what they want.

There was a happy ending for Shinji, and everyone else.
Instrumentality hadn't ended after the death of the Lillith/Adam/Rei/Yui Angel, as the world hadn't returned to its original state. Therefore, the collective minds and souls were still combined. When Asuka said that Shinji was "disgusting", this leads to her mental harassment towards Shinji in Episode 26. During the "Congratulations!" sequence, the world is returning to normal, with Shinji's conflicted mind is at peace.
 * If Rebuild of Evangelion is a sequel, then everyone returned to their states prior to Instrumentality. Due to the nature of Instrumentality giving you what you want, some people have happier memories in their lives, and are much more mentally stable than they were prior to it.

Shikinami and all -nami names are codenames/alias/cover identities.
After all, it's improbable that 3 out of 4 Eva Pilots would just happen to have names like that, and we already know that Ayanami isn't really Rei's proper name (since she should be Rei Ikari(or Ikari Rei)).Of course the fact that Illustrious isn't a person name at all adds even more support to this.
 * False; the odd names are a result of the fact that many of the characters are named after WWII warships (Anno is something of a military otaku, hence the presence of Kensuke).

There is no coherence in NGE whatsoever. Any appearance of actual cohesion or symbolism is purely coincidental.
As You Know NGE was produced as an attempt to utilize a loophole in Japanese tax laws, and it became a blockbuster completely by accident. The production crew was intended to have a loose grip on reality, and they just threw in as many random things as possible just because they sounded good individually. There is no real meaning to any of it; the fans just assume that there must be, so they create Epileptic Trees to convince themselves that there is an actual plot and meaning to this story.
 * The Springtime for Hitler story is an Urban Legend (albeit an amusing one), and the series has an awful lot going on thematically for something that was intended to be meaningless. If you're looking for something that's completely (and intentionally) incomprehensible, though, Gainax still has you covered; just check out Dead Leaves or Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt.

NGE is set in the future of the Watchmen-verse
Think about it.

Ozymandias could be as well The Man Behind the Man of SEELE. He had a base where the first Angel was found (Antarctica), the necessary highly advanced technology to develop the EV As & Co., the moral that anything justifes the result and most of all, the motive, the wish to unite humanity. Dr. Manhatten could be as well an early Angel/human hybrid. The parallels between him and Rei, Kaworu, GNR and the first Angels are obvious.

End of Evangelion's Third Impact and Rebuild of Evangelion's Third Impact are Angst and GAR overloads respectively
It makes sense since in EoE, Third Impact happened because of how depressed and sad Shinji was. In Rebuild, he took so many levels in badass that Third Impact happened all over.

It's a story written by Shinji.
A guy who's a fan of Super robot shows and a need to work out his problems in his life. His dad is distant and cold. His wife died years ago, and he just remarried. His new wife (Misato) has an autistic daughter (Rei). Shinji regards her with a mix of fear, confusion, and sympathy. Asuka is bitchy girl at school he likes. After a while, pressure begins getting to him, and he seeks relief experimenting with LSD (the ending). A few years later, he decides to try rewriting it (rebuild).

Shinji is reincarnated....As
After the final scene in EOE,. As Shinji. His.

Shinji becomes. There is a tremendous, trippy psychological fight within the.

The world.

Lilith / Yui Ikari / Rei Ayanami is in fact Jesus Christ
As Lilith she exists as YHWH / Adam's equivalent, is our Mother, and was crucified by the Lilin. As Yui she becomes a parental figure to Shinji, with some Philosopher tendencies, and was crucified in Unit 01 for the protection of humanity. As Rei, she exists to protect Shinji, even though Shinji keeps rejecting her, and as seen in the fight against Armisael, she died for his (mankind's) sins. She rose again as The Third (Rei III), became our universal Companion both in Fiction and Real Life, brought Armageddon (Instrumentality), and died again for Shinji.
 * Gendo himself represents Christianity, if that's the case. After the death of Yui, he was so fanaticized that he created a replica Yui, which he altered with metaphysical biology (aka, Rei). He only cared about her, wishing to merge with her in Instrumentality, forgetting Shinji in the process and ending up becoming a brutal hypocritical villain whom Yui would not actually want Gendo to become. How is that similar to modern Christianity? After the death of Jesus, the disciples created a replica religion after him, called Christianity, which they added with their own Word of Dante. They only cared about him, wishing to merge with him in Heaven, forgetting Real Life in the process and as the Medieval Catholic Church shows becoming the institution that was less "Love thy neighbour" and more "HERESY!".

If the above theory is correct, then Kaworu was also a clone of Yui, added with some Y chromosomes for good measure.
Kaworu is Jesus. The above theory says Yui is Jesus. If that's the case, then Kaworu is Yui. Q.E.D.
 * Evangelion is the leading anime series in Christ figures per square kilometer.

SEELE is Satan, Gendo is the Antichrist, Yui is Jesus, the series is an allegory, and the rest follows. Also, the message of the series is that you can't cheat your way to Utopia.
The idea is that Satan is always vying for the throne of God, and as such, attempts to make himself a god. Humanity are pawns in this cosmic game, and the Angels are the attempt at stopping SEELE (Satan's) attack. SEELE attempts to obtain unholy power through screwing with the order of creation, triggering the Apocalypse (Second Impact) and Tribulation (the following years.) This brings the wrath of god in the form of the Angels to earth--they didn't bother us until we forced second impact. Not in line with biblical chronology, after this Jesus (Yui) is crucified to the Evangelion for the sins of man, collectively represented by Shinji Ikari, who's being continually tempted to succumb to Despair Event Horizon and join SEELE in destroying the world. She returns on Judgment Day (As incarnated in EoE), helps with how Shinji questions whether it is really worth it to kill off human life just to be a god, gives him hope in humanity thus allowing him to reject Instrumentality, and in the end spends the rest of eternity in space as an individual symbol to humanity's existence. Granted, this is more of a heavy borrowing of concepts from christianity than an allegorical fulfillment of them; the series is not allegorical event-wise, but in a general, thematic sense: Those who attempt to become God both destroy the world and lose anyway. None of the correlations I've mentioned likely hold, but the theme seems reasonable. It's the old tale of Hubris, with religious overlays.

Also, the theme seems to be more or less a dystopian staple: true Utopia is earned organically, not imposed synthetically. Though Shinji's fantasy-world is great, it cannot be had in reality, and thus he rejects it. Like many Utopias' failures, the cause of failure is the imperfection of humans and how they cannot tolerate boredom; before evolution such as Instrumentality would bring can take place, we must actually change by ourselves to the point where it is natural to reach that state. Shinji's realization that human's can't truly co-exist in harmony for real--and thus, a free, intelligent and interesting life must include the painful chaos of individuality--is the reason that Lilith/Rei dies and Instrumentality goes kablooie. For other examples of collectivistic transhumanist utopias which get deconstructed because human nature isn't ready for it, see "The Matrix", "Brave New World", and "The Giver." If we were able to live in peace, Bread and Circuses forever, there would be no more plot, our souls suffer death-by-boredom (which we may not notice superficially) and it would not be much different from an And I Must Scream state (hence why in dystopian literature fandom, the fates of the people living in "Brave New World" are compared with of all things those that live in the absolute Despair Event Horizon of all Dystopias, "Nineteen Eighty-Four"). The idea that we can't cheat our way to peace is actually one that would be very important to remember in real life.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a testament to Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology centers on the belief that the brain has self-organizing tendencies, and are able to perceive patterns on otherwise meaningless objects. As seen earlier, NGE was a Springtime for Hitler attempt where they threw in random symbolism to confuse the audience, but still, the audience still sees a coherent plot, and a terrifically beautiful plot at that.

Everyone went to Heaven in the last episode

 * As someone said that Lost had an ending similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion (there's a theory on that on the "Lost" page), it is only fair someone do the same to NGE. The Lost ending was at least more comprehensible than NGE's.

Being screwed up is a requirement for being an Eva pilot.
"Absolute Terror Field" is supposed to refer to the way traumatized people push others away from them, and are unable to make connections to other people. Interpreting it like that, in their Evas the strength of their AT-field depends on how badly they connect to others in real life. A very responsive and extroverted individual would let his field crumble instantly, subconsciously seeking to connect with the Angels, but a person who fears all close contact with others pushes them away, and strengthens the field with their anxiety. Now, is it any wonder that Shinji's AT-field is the strongest of them all? The effects of Asuka's mental collapse weren't directly caused by the loss of confidence, but from her increasingly passive mindset that couldn't even have the energy to shut others away properly
 * The premise of this one is true, as discussed (way) above.

The Precursors who created Adam and Eve were the gods of New Genesis
They were created for peaceful reasons, but due to a flaw in their creation (they were never meant to inhabit the same world) and human interference, it webt horribly wrong. Hence the title, "Gospel of New Genesis".

Several Gainax works are part of the same cosmology
The stories were retold several times and were subjected to cultural syncretism and Adaptation Decay, but can still be linked together to form a coherent story: This is of course far from being a perfect chain, so feel free to adjust and expand on it.
 * Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: this is the world BEFORE the second impact.
 * FLCL: The events preceeding second impact or the Anti Spiral Invasion (Hard to tell which of the two it is).
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion: The remnants of Neo Atlan reemerge as Seele. Several descendants of the Nadia cast reappear and are dragged into the plot. Yui (Shingi's mother) is the descendant of Jean and Nadia while Asuka's mother, of Marie and Sanson; Fuyutsuki, is somehow linked to Lord Gargoyle, as is Akagi to Electra. Third Impact occurs, and everyone turns into orange juice. Shingi's involvement foils Seele's plans and they loose control of their 'new world'
 * Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi: Well decades after the series anyway. The now adult Sasshi, who was assimilated during the Third Impact, emerges and begins reconstructing the world, creating the Spiral Universe.
 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The Anti Spiral becomes avare of Sasshi's multiple recreations of the universe and declares war on it and wins. Naota (or his reincarnation - depending on where you place FLCL) becomes Lordgenome, and seals humanity beneath the surface. Sanson, reborn as Kamina initiates the uprising against Lordgenome and the surface is retaken, leading to the final confrontation with the Anti Spiral.
 * The Anti-Spirals are the Instrumentalized humans, led by a mind-raped Shinji. It may explain what he did to Nia.
 * A Gainax crossover anime/game. I'd watch/play it.

Rei Ayanami is a Tardis.
It travels the universe and the spacetime continuum (hence the Instrumentality Reis at the very beginning and the end), and stays in one place (the Giant Naked Rei).

The Human Instrumentality Project is actually an attempt to finalize The Ultimate Question To Life The Universe And Everything
Well, if the Ultimate Question and Ultimate Answer are to ever reunite, something weird has to happen. It resembles the Instrumentality a lot: combine ultimate beings together, and a massive Mind Screw happened. Here's how it happened: The race of super-intelligent pan-dimensional beings called the First Ancestral Race already found out the Ultimate Answer, and it was 42. However, the problem is that the Ultimate Question cannot be found, and it needs an even more powerful computer to calculate the Ultimate Question. That computer was Earth. Angels and Humans were once part of Earth's computational matrix which was meant to calculate the Ultimate Question. However, instead of Earth being destroyed by Vogons, this Earth was set in an alternate history where the Seele council works for the First Ancestral Race, and Second Impact was deliberately initiated by them to activate the Earth supercomputer. Also, the reason why There Are No Therapists in the Eva-verse is because everyone knows the Ultimate Answer is 42, and Seele told humanity that the Ultimate Question was going to be found. However, Gendo and Yui tried to ruin the whole Instrumentality plan using Shinji and Rei so that humans would never find out their meaning in life, and when they never find out the absolute meaning in life, they will have the freedom to live. By the way, how many S2 Engines / Fruits of Life are there in the Universe? 42.

The entire Neon Genesis Evangelion universe is powered.... by Epileptic Trees / Wild Mass Guessing
There was once an earlier WMG here which says that it is a Springtime for Hitler designed to deliberately fail and any actual cohesion or symbolism in NGE was purely coincidental, and fans create Epileptic Trees to convince themselves that there is an actual plot. The question is, why did it became successful? Answer: Eva is a massive Epileptic Tree garden. Its inherent meaninglessness and lots of circumstances which confuse and bug the audience makes it a fertile land for epileptic trees to grow. And remember, If there's something that most kinds of fans from intellectual critics to the dumbest of the dumb love, it's farming Epileptic Trees. Fans come and go into the Eva-verse to post their own Fan Wank and pet wild theories, some silly, some philosophical. If Fans lost their ability to create their own theories, then Eva would be the So Bad It's Horrible flop it was intended to be. It wasn't just Hideaki Anno's art, It was the Epileptic Tree which helped push Eva to the top tiers of anime fame.
 * Also, the AT Field is powered by existentialism and one's own choice. So, maybe, the entire point of NGE's history is that we must use our own AT Fields to be free to post Epileptic Trees in the Garden of Fiction.
 * In a less reality-grounding and more imaginative WMG, Shinji, Anno, Seele, and all of Nerv are actually servants to a race of super-intelligent pan-dimensional sapient plants called Arbor Epileptus, aka the Epileptic Trees, which are obsessed with tropes, Time Lords, media infested by confusion-causing bugs, fridge-chilled logic, mind-penetrating screws, screws, Jesus in Purgatory and other things you think are symbolic, and reproduce by forcing fans to masturbate. The creation of the entire Eva-verse is a plan for the Epileptic Trees to take over our world, spreading their multiversal empire of life-ruining tropery. The End Of Evangelion? It's just a plan to terraform the Earth into an Epileptic Tree homeworld, perfect for growing lots and lots and lots of Epileptic Trees. They are planning to invade other fiction, even Real Life, and TV Tropes is their headquarters / mothership. Oh, and Shinji is a Time Lord in Purgatory.

Based on the theory above, Neon Genesis Evangelion is set in the same world as Lost
Both are populated by epileptic trees. Enough said.

Yotsuba&! takes place in the same time-line as Neon Genesis Evangelion
If it's set pre-Second Impact, Yotsuba will be killed in Second Impact, an if it's set post-Second Impact, her real parents were killed by it (doubles as a origin WMG), and she will have to face the unremitting horror of the main show/End of Evangelion.

Yui Ikari's maiden name is Hirasawa.
No, this does not make any sense at all. I just wanted to see what would happen if you mixed a Tastes Like Diabetes Slice of Life anime from Kyo Ani with a deeply disturbing, super-Mind Screw anime from Gainax. I hope I don't get flamed for this.

Though, if you think about it, this could happen, since K-On! Yui had Sickeningly Sweetheart parents, which could realistically translate into adult Yui (both K-On! and NGE) being kind and caring, which, from what little characterization we get for Shinji's mother, she seems to be. A more complete comparison/description can be found at the K-On! WMG.
 * Jossed, Ikari is her true family name and Gendo's one was Rokubungi, he takes Yui's name.
 * Perhaps Yui Hirasawa eventually has a daughter who marries a guy named Ikari and joins SEELE. She decides to name her daughter after her famous rock star grandmother. So Shinji is Yui's great-grandson.
 * Or Yui just changed her last name. Much more simpler.

There's a (somewhat) logical explanation as to why the pilots are so young.
They didn't think all the Angels would appear to attack so close together, (afterall, the First and Second Impacts were a couple thousand years apart), so they thought they would have been older when they actually started training them. Although, this begs the question what would the series be like if Shinji was an EVA pilot at the age of 83.
 * I doubt it. There's reason to believe that children (and adolescents in particular) are the ideal Eva pilots, for reasons discussed in several of the above entries. Also, SEELE claims that the coming of the Angels is foretold by the Dead Sea Scrolls, though it's unclear exactly how specific these prophecies are.

Flemeth is behind EVERYTHING!
She made you look.

The Instrumentality is where Angels and Humans exchange places
The Angels, being the perfect, immortal beings with super-strong AT Fields, suffer from extreme loneliness and lack of civilization, therefore envying humans and striving to become them, while humanity, on the other hand, being an imperfect species who suffer from Hedgehog's Dilemma, envy the Angels and long to become them. Wait, does this means angels and humans envy each other? There was Armisael talking to Rei about his/her loneliness. There was Kaworu admiring Lilin civilization and the Ode To Joy. What happened, then? There are two explanations. One is that Seele in fact made a deal with the Angels to propose the Instrumentality, where in a ritualized battle, they can exchange places. First, perform euthanasia on the Angels while the angels try to battle because their instincts kept them, or because they battle to try out if being Human is really worth it. Second, combine Adam and Lilith so that the Chamber of Guf is reopened. Third, Kill All Humans. Fourth, gather all souls into the Chamber of Guf, where there will be no more segregation between Humans and Angels. Last, make the Humans and Angels choose their own form, Gendo and Seele might choose a new Angelic form, Kaworu might choose a new Human form, but others can still retain their original form, such as Shinji. Another explanation is that the Angels are trying to become humans, but Seele won't let them because this is their one-shot chance at getting themselves into Angels and the Angels taking control of the Instrumentality will mean more humans.

The Instrumentality is Anno's interpretation of a scenario where NGE and Real Life exchange places.
It was stated in a previous theory that people with interesting, war-torn lives long for peaceful, boring lives, and people with peaceful, boring lives long for interesting, war-torn lives. Also, it is well known that NGE is Hideaki Anno's Take That against Otaku. Apparently, Hideaki Anno witnessed the phenomenon that is Otaku, who long to escape Real Life boredom by escaping into the realm of Anime, but because of the laws of physics, otaku cannot escape to Anime, yet they cannot realize that Anime life is chaos-ridden life. As a result, Anno created the whole Instrumentality idea for either the interpretation of the people from anime longing for Real Life in exchange for Real Life humans longing for anime life. (explaining the school scene from Episode 26 and Angelic Days, and the live-action scene at EOE), or, it was Anno's Take That against the entire idea, with the angels representing Real Life Humans (Why is their progenitor called Adam anyway?)

The entire Neon Genesis Evangelion storyline is a "Princess and Dragon" fairytale story
We all know the princess and dragon stories, where the Damsel in Distress was kidnapped by the Big Bad using The Dragon, and the Knight in Shining Armor try to rescue the beautiful princess from The Empire. This is also known as a manifestation of The Dulcinea Effect. Let's see, how do we deconstruct the whole premise? When you look at the whole setting, it seems that the Angels are trying to rescue Lilith from the civilization that is Humanity, but their instincts made them lose to Humanity's super science. Add fairy tale tropes, and you get the whole premise! The Angels are actually Knights In Shining Armor who are trying to rescue the hapless, imprisoned princess Lilith from The Empire that is Humanity, but their Don Quixote attitudes made them lose to Humanity's superior wizardry. Evangelions are obviously, The Dragon. The Instrumentality? It's maybe because Lilith is actually someone who resembles The Pillar Of Cephiro. The reason why angels look like them Eldritch Abominations is either because the angels possess magic of their own, which makes this somewhat an Elves vs. Dwarves conflict (as evidenced by the S2 Engine), or because Humanity was so angsty and grimdark, they reject all forms of idealistic premises and caricature them as ugly. Or because it's a Take That and Deconstruction.

The main thing that Hideaki Anno was trying to tell us in End of Evangelion is.....
......that men will never truly understand women
 * More generally, that people may never truly understand each other, but damn it all we should still try.

Asuka is pregnant with Shinji's child in the last scene of the movie.
Shinji and Asuka were both screwing around during Instrumentality, and the hospital scene sort of implies that Shinji had sex with his comatose friend and pulled out at the last minute. It would also explain both interperetations of the final line ("I feel sick" could refer to morning sickness and "How disgusting" could refer to her feeling of disgust towards her 'husband'). In addition, it reinforces the feeling of their (and subsequently, humanity's) uncertain future. Tiffany Grant, Asuka's VA, seems to believe this theory, according to The Other Wiki.
 * Oh god, this one originated from an essay by Sean McCoy, a prominent Eva fanboy from the late 90's/early 2000's so dedicated he was actually brought in by ADV to do commentaries for several episodes showcasing his Fan Wank theories. It's pretty out there, although you have to admire the guy's ability to read meaning into EVERYTHING. I never got the impression that Grant believed this herself, although since she's obviously met and talked to McCoy, who knows?

The angels are ordinary humans
That's right, you heard me. And the "humans" are insects, either ants or termites. Sachiel? He's just a police officer. The EVAS? Owners of the house, or environmentalists fighting for insect rights. Lilith? A dead hooker buried under the lawn. Israfel? Two kids playing piggyback. Gaghiel? He's just someone on the swimming pool. Sandalphon? A baby. Sahaquiel? An aeroplane seen from the distance. Zeruel? Probably an exterminator. Arael and Armisael? They're both entomologists (Mind Rape? That's just dissection). Instrumentality? A can of Raid. The octahedral one? A tiller. The one shaped like bacteria? A lawnmower.
 * This Troper actually considered this as canon. Angels' progenitor is called ADAM (The first living HUMAN). If The Angels' progenitor is called Adam and the Humans' progenitor is called Adam, then the Angels are Humans. The Lilims themselves are like insects, and Lilith / Rei is somehow a Hive Queen / unifying symbol / Mook Maker (which is similar to actual insect hive queens). Heck, in Neon Genesis Evangelion females rule and males are freaky loners, like in actual insect hives. The Eva pilots? They might be lice.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is part of a cycle and the fate of all Humans was unavoidable.
Unit-01/Lilith leaving Earth with the Lance of Longinus is the beggining of the cycle. Eventually she is going to collide on another planet, spill out LCL and create new life and a new Adam.

This life will evolve to become either human or resemble humans, eventually discover Unit-01/Lilith, a new Adam and the Lance. And the whole thing starts over again.

The strength of an AT Field and its function in extroversion / introversion of an individual doesn't go between soft and hard....
It goes between malleable and brittle. This Troper expanded on Kaworu's statement about the nature of AT Fields, that it is the energy that what separates people and makes introverts. Still, the nature of the AT Field being "introverted energy" doesn't explain everything: Asuka's Mind Rape, the Human Instrumentality Project, and if we would include Real Life, the majority of the internet (which is RL 's answer to Instrumentality) being introverted hikikomoris. Maybe, it is instead measured in malleability versus brittleness. Think about it. For example, Asuka's Mind Rape. Asuka has a very powerful AT Field, but after being mind raped by Arael, she fails to generate her own AT Field. If we would go by the traditional scale (no AT Field = extrovert and powerful AT Field = introvert), then after being mind raped, she should turn out to be a normal extroverted person! If we would measure her AT Field in the term of malleability versus brittleness, then her AT Field might be powerful, but still brittle (Remember, hard things, like diamonds, can be very hard, but still shatters into many pieces when struck with a powerful force). This explains why Instrumentality targets introverts, introverts have very powerful AT Fields, but can still be broken by a very powerful force. What about the other side, malleability? People with "malleable" AT Fields are very ductile, versatile and can bend to society, ergo, they do not require a ridiculously powerful force (Instrumentality) to break them. In other words, people with malleable AT Fields would end up sociable and extroverted.
 * The AT Fields don't cause extroversion/introversion; if anything, they are a product of it.

The AT Field and Kaworu's conception of it as the energy that separates people is a lie
Two explanations: Take this literally, and the AT Field is simply some kind of force field that is utilized by beings made of particle-wave matter (Angels, Evas) and isn't related to the extroversion and introversion of people. Take this metaphorically, and the AT Field is what makes people lie to each other (which sounds like Code Geass ' own version of Instrumentality).

Another theory, is that the Instrumentality, which is Eva's own cake, is a lie. It was just Shinji's psychotherapy session.
 * Why would the writers outright lie to us? Kaworu's explanation is consistent with the plot and themes of the show.

The Angels are War Machines
The First Ancestral Race made at least two kinds of seeds: Black Moons with Lilith, who create "normal" terrestrial life that can eventually develop into sentient beings (they might also contain the original form of the First Ancestral Race), and the White Moons with Adam, who create the Angels which command great destructive power but have no real will of their own.

The First Ancestral Race was not alone in the universe, but the "life" they encountered was so alien and malignant that they designated some worlds (such as Earth) as guardian worlds or some such, to be populated by Angels which would fight against such beings as they encountered them. However, when Lilith was knocked off course for whatever reason, Earth's case went pear shaped. The reason the Angels wish to reunite with Adam and cause Third Impact is so they can wipe Earth clean and set it up as a guardian world as originally intended.
 * Maybe the utterly alien species they encountered were the Humans of Real Life, concerning the postmodernist tendencies of NGE....
 * The utterly alien beings encountered were the Anti-Spirals.

Alternatively (based on statements in the Playstation game), the angels were created as mechas to fight wars and do construction work by the FAR, who were Human Aliens. The evangelions were the initial experiments, and the angels were the perfected version. The FAR eventually became arrogant enough to try and create an artificial god or make themselves gods or crossbreed humans and angels or something along those lines. This caused a calamity that nearly destroyed their civilization (this is where we get the story of the Fall of Eden, the Tower of Babel, and Atlantis from). So they created seven colony ships to seed their legacy on new, untainted worlds. Some of these ships were given to the Angels, who by this time had developed a rudimentary intelligence/solipsistic madness/endless loneliness. The evil and egotistical proto-Rei managed to hijack one of the human ships, replaced the pilot, and steered the ship towards an Angel-claimed planet, where she waited 4 billion years until she could manipulate the reincarnated human civilization to give her the Fruit of Life so she could become a god (conveniently, the crash destroyed her Lance and gave the resident Adam Easy Amnesia). The Dead Sea Scrolls are merely the historical records of the FAR, which were misinterpreted by Earth-born humans as religious texts and subverted by Seele in their plans to achieve Godhood or plunge the world into Hell or destroy mankind or whatever the heck it was they were planning before the Ikaris took control of it.

The episodes 25 and 26 and End of Evangelion actually happened because Shinji divided by zero.
After the death of Kaworu, Shinji get very depressed and angry with everyone, then, in all that rage he din't care about that we can't divide by zero and he ended up doing it. And he didn't do a normal division by zero..., HE DIVIDE ZERO BY ZERO!!!!. After all that mindscrewing apocalypse Class 5, the world actually resets itself now with 40% less angst and 100% more badass.

What Gendou said to Ritsuko was that he loved her.
Well...look at it this way, if Ritsuko said "You Liar!" it might possibly him confessing his love for her. Yuriko Yamaguchi, Ritsuko's JP VA, even stated this is what she thought Gendou said. What else do you think he might have said to her?
 * Maybe that he is her father. I know... EEEWWWWWW!!!!!
 * "I loved her." For one possibility. But really, the whole point is that we weren't supposed to know; her reaction tells all.

Pen-Pen is actually Cthulhu
Think about it. It makes sense. Antarctica was utterly destroyed, and Tierra del Fuego and other non-antarctic locations are probably destroyed too. In the aftermath of the Second Impact, it's almost certain that noone was maintaining zoos, thus, penguins are also dead. Thus, Pen-Pen is a Great Old One, and also, the Zeroth Angel. All of the other angels are simply lesser entities Pen-Pen calls up. Why is Pen-Pen seen as a penguin? Because his true for would drive men insane, so the cast's minds instinctively change it to something else. Finally, it handily explains all of the Nightmare Fuel if a Great Old One is behind the scenes.

The First Ancestral Race are the ancestors of the Protoculture
After spreading the Seeds of Life around the galaxy, a lot of generations later the First Ancestral Race became what was later known as the Protoculture. This can aply more better if there were two Earths, the Macross one and the EVA one, you dicide wich is better to live in.

The Instrumentality Sequence in EoE is a reference to the Rapture
The concept of Instrumentality in general too. Y'know, just to add more symbolism.
 * Basically, yeah. See above entries about Instrumentality being symbolic of Nirvana, Heaven, etc.

GNR was only Rei and Lilith, not Adam or Kaworu like some people think
Not like this is really a WMG, but whatever. People seem to think Giant Naked Rei is some kind of Lilith/Rei/Adam hybrid because of the giant Kaworu that appeared to Shinji, but that was just part of the whole "Rei appears to people in the forms of someone they love" gimmick. Besides, Adam got killed, remember?
 * Wasn't Kaworu in the MP Evangelions and Adam in Gendo's hand?
 * Rei absorbed Adam into herself (via Gendo's hand) before reuniting with Lilith. So Rei-Lilith does contain Adam as well.

Gendo gets reincarnated as Billy Ray Cyrus
Yes.

The entirety of NGE is Shinji on a bad drug trip
See, Sninji is a regular normal student in Japan. Second Impact did happen, though it was a meteorite and only some of Antarctica was destroyed. Everyone really exists. Allow me to expand:
 * Rei is Shinji's fraternal twin. She dyes her hair blue because she's in a band. Shinji and Rei have been experimenting with each other.
 * Askua is Shinji's neighbor, who likes changing with the window open, directly across from Shinji's room..
 * Gendo is his father, and works at NERV, which is a medical company that designs and build cybernetic/prosthetic limbs. Yui is actually dead, having been killed in an electrical fire while testing a power suit. Gendo has also turned to Rei for comfort, which has screwed her up a bit in the head.
 * Misato is one of the other neighbors, who Gendo asks to keep an eye on Shinji and Rei when he has to travel out of the country for work. She's a bit of a drunk and when hammered dances around in the nude with her stuffed penguin, Pen-Pen. She may also be Shinji's dealer.
 * Ritsuko is the family's doctor. Also having a strange relationship with Gendo. He's blackmailing her with pictures of the two of them having sex to keep her mouth shut about Rei.
 * Futyuski is one of the division heads of Gendo's department. He's a walking test subject for NERV's cybernetic enhancements.
 * Kaworu is the Bishonen class member who all the girls want, but is uninterested in anyone, because he's a eunuch.
 * Toji and Kensuke are Shinji's friends from school, and Hikari is Toji's girlfriend. They like partying with Shinji because he gets the best stuff.

Rei appears at the beginning and end because Shinji is looking at her when he takes the hit, and she's shaking him back to consciousness at the end. As for why Asuka and Rei are in his his room while he's snorting some weird combination of drugs, it's because they're going to have a bit of a party with their friends, who haven't shown up yet. This is also why Shinji is having sex with Asuka during the Instrumentality section of EOE, because he actually is. That was why he took the drugs. He just got a bad dose. And yes, I know it doesn't make any sense, but hey, it's a possibliity
 * Alternatively, it was actually Keel Lorenz's hallucination of what he wanted to happen after he took lots and lots of drugs, but after regaining consciousness, he saw how actually a few different things happened.

The sequel to Evangelion is... Real Life.
Think about it, humanity can't decide where exactly it came from. Here's looking at it from both angles.:
 * The Bible says that the first created human was Eve, and from her the first man was created, named Adam.
 * Also, the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life is how everything began in Real Life. The Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life are    is also the beginning of Real Life.
 * Now from evolutionists that say humans came from organisms in the sea. Humanity was, and it was specifically said that   So, who's to say that humans didn't evolve from being something in the sea,  ?
 * This one would also indicate that Hideaki Anno is the only person mentally insane enough to remember all of it, and that the result of people who tried to but misinterpreted it... is The Bible. Which would explain all the symbolism in the series. It's not Evangelion taking after The Bible, it's The Bible taking after Evangelion.
 * Does this mean Shinji is God?
 * There's a problem with that: By the time life evolves back to normal(about 3.6 billion years), the Sun would've made the Earth unlivable.

Konata and Miyuki are Angels, Kagami is Asuka, and Tsukasa is Rei.
And Minoru is Shinji. Hey, there are more than enough WMG's linking Haruhi Suzumiya and Evangelion, especially via Instrumentality. Why not go one step further? Tsundere Kagami makes a good Asuka, Tsukasa has the short hair (almost the same color) and slightly pushover personality. The fact that Kagami and Tsukasa are twins and Asuka hates Rei makes things deliciously ironic (although Tsukasa occasionally provokes the same reaction in Kagami). Miyuki is frequently judged by Konata to be the penultimate in Moe...a perfect definition of an Angel if there ever was one. And Otaku Konata seems to be adored by most of her peers, as opposed to most stereotypes of otakus. She's also athletic and a Genius Ditz when need be--hence a higher being in the eyes of most otakus.

Neon Genesis Evangelion was
Once upon a time,there was a kid who lost any self esteem ,and with it his will to live. After he made several attempts to suicide, his family and friends were desperate, they did all what they could do , until they heard about a special reality-based therapy that has the potential to cure the most extreme cases of mental disorder.They put the boy under this treatment. Under its effect, his broken mind began to create an entire simulation of the earth from his POV, and began to confront his own issues. He recreated lookalikes of his loved ones as the cast of the NERV facilities ,imagined the evangelion as a way to fight his disorders,and the angels were the embodiment of his fears,problems,and issues. But because of his low_esteem, even those virtual heroes began to lose their fight,and his virtual world agonised, and died (end of evangelion),but he snapped back,and fixed (altought temporarlily) the earth (rebuild of evangelion),however the fate of this new simulacrum was still destruction,but at the very deep of his despair,he understood that even when the entire earth was killed off,he's still alive,and that he was something after all. Then he succeded, he conquered his mental sickness (the breaking sound at the very end of the episode 26) and he activated a happy ending program where he saw his family and buddies congratulating him for what he did , he was finally cured.

Gendo plans to take over the world by Botany
How else do you explain a Snowdrop named Galanthus Ikariae?

SEELE is actually the German pop-rock group Silbermond
I mean, come on, just tell me those lyrics don't sound like they're about instrumentality: http://lyricstranslate.com/en/meer-sein-be-sea.html Full song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMKLNuay5GM

The White and Black Eggs (Adam and Lilith) are Lost Logia from Al-Hazard.
The Manuals state that the first two Angels are essentially two kinds of Terraforming technologies used to spread life across the universe, with all the Angels being off-shoots of Adam. Given what we've seen the Angels being capable of, the Idea of Eva somehow being involved in the Nanoha-verse makes a great deal of sense.

Tokyo-3 was built where it was precisely to ensure that Eva units are the only defense against the angels.
Basically, there's no good reason to build a city over top of something that is sure to be attacked, no matter how much of a 'fortress' said city is. Building said city into a massive underground cavern is also a bad idea in Japan; an area well-known for seismic activity. However, there can be an explanation for this: While power calculations done by fans have shown that a megaton-yield thermonuclear device could feasibly kill an angel, you wouldn't want to detonate one of those over a city, especially a city where "cave in" is a legitimate threat. The construction of Tokyo 3 in that specific location may be a deliberate ploy by SEELE to prevent the use of the only non-eva weapon theoretically capable of harming an angel. (Okay, there was that one plan involving 992 N-2 devices but, given the N-2 mine's calculated yield, that would hardly equal a 20mt nuke. To put that in perspective, 25mt weapons were commonly deployed by the US Air Force during the Cold War and Tsar Bomba, the largest thermonuclear device ever created, had a whopping 50mt yield -- at half-power.) This forces humanity to rely on the Eva units, which is exactly what SEELE wants.
 * This one seems plausible, seeing how much behind-the-scenes influence and power SEELE and GEHIRN/NERV are shown to have. Also, "While power calculations done by fans have shown that a megaton-yield thermonuclear device could feasibly kill an angel" Please show me this, it sound hilarious.
 * The previously-mentioned math was on a particularly useful wikipedia talk page which has unfortunately been deleted. It had to do with calculating the amount of energy per unit area in a point-blank thermonuclear detonation. This was then compared with the known output of the positron canon, which penetrated Ramiel's AT field, an AT field that was stated to be unusually strong. According to the calcs, an 800kt initiation at point blank would deliver a comparable amount of energy per unit area as the positron canon, which means it could quite likely penetrate an AT field. We have more powerful ordnance that can be carried by a strike fighter meaning that, should this be true, any US jet fighter manufactured since the 70s would be capable of killing an angel. Unfortunately, the collateral damage would incredible, which means it would be a bad idea to use this method of angel-slaying inside a city.

Angels are actually terrified and afraid of humanity and...well, everything else
O...k. This might be a stretch, but some facts (as far as I can recall). 1) Every living thing with awareness has an AT Field. 2) The AT Field is used to isolate the true self/soul from others. 3) Angels and Evangelions can PROJECT their AT Fields. 4) AT Fields are strong enough to stop anything up to the honestly-not-a-nuke N2 Mine. -And one more fact, this time not relating to AT Fields directly- 5) Angels are trying to reunite with Adam and cause 3rd Impact, which would, to quote the fandom "turn everybody into Tang"

Drawing from these facts, This Troper proposes (insane smile here) that Angels have such a strong AT Field BECAUSE they are completely afraid, isolated, and alone. Completely. This means that the Angels' desire to cause 3rd Impact isn't out of any sort of maliciousness. They are genuinely terrified of EVERYTHING in reality. They want to cause 3rd impact to STOP being so isolated and afraid. This theory would go some way to explaining why Angels never work together. They feel more isolated and terrified of even others of their species than Shinji on a very very very bad day. Possibly they would even view it as a kindness. If they thought that every living thing was like then maybe they think that it would be an act of generousity to make everybody one without doubts or fears.

But yeah, this is sorta a crack theory, even for the WMG page.

The End of Evangelion has no meaning
It was originally made to troll the people who hated the original ending, so why not.

The First Ancestral Race are the aliens who preceded/created the universe in the Stargate Verse and the Destiny's mission has some relation to Instrumentality
(Sorry, I just happen to love Stargate and Evangelion, so I had to do something like this.) Think about it... Most of the other aliens they have encountered in Stargate (with the exception of the Wraith and the Jaffa, who are basically derived from humans, and the Goa'uld, who may be ralted in some way to one of the other angels) are vaguely humanoid due to being spawned from Black or White Moons that were placed on other worlds. Being descended from Adam or Lilith copies, this makes some sense. And, of course, ascension is basically a superior version of Instrumentality. Or Instrumentality is a (premature and somewhat flawed) attempt at ascension. Whichever you prefer. And, as I mentioned earlier, Destiny's mission (the stuff about cosmic background radiation) is related to the First Ancestral Race, who are the same beings who created "Eden" and brought back Caine and the others left behind. They lack the ability to bring back souls, however. To be honest, though, I mostly just like the idea of a Stargate Verse/Evangelion crossover. What can I say?

AT Fields and The Force are opposing parts of the same metaphysical model
The Force is a connection, binding everything in the galaxy / universe together. But if it existed on its own or if it became too powerful, the minds of every living thing would bleed together through that connection, and rapidly become a single, homogenized consciousness trapped in a state of nirvana, in other words, Human Instrumentality. There would have to be a counterbalancing existence to prevent that from happening. Conversely, if The Force didn't exist, if there were no connection between living things, then Human Instrumentality wouldn't have worked. The souls of mankind would not have been drawn together into a singular collective consciousness, but instead would have floated away individually into the void.
 * The Force is the real name of the Anti-AT Field and midichlorians are actually S2 Engines.
 * It can also be said that the AT Fields are the manifestation of the Dark Side of the Force. Think about it. While Jedi try to keep using the Force for peaceful purposes and the Light side of the Force is based on calm, meditation and universal harmony, on the other hand the Dark Side is based on passion, hatred and powerful emotions, those things that determine the strength and isolation of AT Fields, which in turn are of course simply a metaphor for the individual personality.

To understand the effect of the Dark Side on AT Fields, we must fundamentally know the Dark Side causality: Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Suffering leads to the dark side. (It also helps to know the Anti-Life Equation: loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=dark side) Now what powers AT Fields? What are the dominant emotions that control the world of Evangelion? What are the major factor in our personality and Character Development? Fear. Intense, raw or negative emotions. Suffering, which influences behaviour. Self, the dark side.

Such powerful emotions are how the AT Field manifests itself onto the world, why Shinji is nearly omnipotent in his AT Field abilities, etc. It is also accepted that one has to be fearful and/or mentally deranged enough to manifest powerful emotions and AT Fields if he or she is to become an Evangelion pilot. One of the more obvious of these is the hedgehog's dilemma, the fear of becoming mutual enemies with oneself and others. The stronger the fear is, the stronger one wants to protect and isolate oneself from the rest of humanity, and thus the person is more and more seduced by the Dark Side to acquire more energy for his AT Field. For example, the stronger Shinji's wrath is, the more he manifests the Dark Side energy, which he uses to convert into AT Field energy. What if Shinji did not fear or is a normal person? Besides suffering from lack of character development, he is ignored by mother and gets defeated by the Angels. It was his dark side which allowed him to become an Eldritch Abomination altogether in End Of Evangelion. Not to mention AT is known as "Absolute Terror", which the Dark Side is supposed to bring upon the world when it manifests.

But why do our personalities have to be an extension of the Dark Side, rather than the Light Side? Even though The Light Side is as effective in manipulating the universe as the Dark Side could, the reason why the Light Side is not effective for powering AT Fields is because the Light Side is based on living in harmony with the universe, which of course results in the AT Field being neutralized rather than strengthened. This also meann that the Light Side is the Anti-AT Field used to bring about Instrumentality, or should we say Nirvana.

Heck, Psychoanalytical, Jungian or even Hindu and Buddhist metaphors can even be shoved into this: The Force represents the collective unconscious of Brahman, the Light Side represents the path to Nirvana, the AT Field represents the Ego or Individual, while the Dark Side of the Force represents the Id, the personal subconscious desires on which the Ego draws power.

This is just an elaboration, but I can see that both the philosophy of the Jedi and the psychology of Evangelion would make an interesting model of metaphysics.

Actually, I thought that the Star Wars Universe is an Instrumentality by Iruel and midichlorians are all him and the Force is an AT Field.

Joshua and Kaworu are the same person.
Think about it. Joshoru got bored with being Composer after Neku and the gang were returned to life, so he hopped on over to an alternate universe, which we know as Neon Genesis Evangelion. In that universe, his powers were converted to something like the angels while still retaining his human form. For some reason or another, he started calling himself Kaworu and started to mess with Shinji, porrbably because he somehow reminded him of Neku. When he got bored of being in the NGE-verse, he convinced Shinji to kill him. From time to time, he pops into the NGE-verse to check in on everyone and possibly wreak havoc.

Kaworu is omnipresent
Expanding on the above and a number of previous WMGs, Kaworu has the power to not only transcend continuities, but to show up in any work of fiction he desires in Expy form.

Not only are Kaworu and Joshua the same person, Joshua came first and he's everywhere.
It was proven in Another Day, the alternate universe bonus chapter in The World Ends With You that Joshua can transport himself to alternate dimentions. Therefore, we can asume that after The World Ends With You ended Joshua decided to try another reality.

Enter Evangelion, a reality way more screwed up than his home reality. After he was done with that, he decided to do research into what other people are like. Shinji and Neku were similar, but Shinji was a much worse case. So he decided to insert himself into another reality. As Izaya Orihara of Durarara.

As Izaya he decided to take a much more direct approach in researching humanity. He also tried a new look, something he didn't think of when he was Kaworu. He eventually pissed of Shizuo Heiwajima which led Joshua to partially abandon this reality, as he would still slip back in from time to time to do more research.

He then became Itsuki Koizumi to research humans more. Until he realized that Haruhi had pretty much the same power as him. Except, she didn't know it. This is where Joshua discovered that if Haruhi willed it, everything woould dissapear. Never before had he met someone with the same, if not greater, power as himself.

So he formulated a plan. He would need to have access to a vast ammount of power if he was to stop Haruhi if he ever needed to. Therefore he decided to enter more realities.

He looked for power in many other worlds and eventually discovered that so many people were like Rei Ayanami. After thinking about it for some time, he figured it out. That he had people of another reality watching him and creating other realities for him and other people to occupy. But he didn't know which reality so he couldn't access it.

To this day Joshua is living out these, and more, lives. At first it was due to boredom, but now, it was to prevent a fourth impact if you will. One that would consume all realities. That is what has happened, and there are more people who can traverse the realities as well.


 * You mean Planeswalkers?

The Episode26!AU Pen-Pen is a celebrity with a massive merchandising empire.
Hence why AU!Shinji has a Pen-Pen bobblehead. Also because Pen-Pen is awesome, and the idea of TV-star Pen-Pen is too epic to ignore.

The First Ancestral Race created the Reapers
Hey, mysterious god aliens can have more than one Eldritch Abomination creation, can't they? And the Reapers have an Assimilation Plot somewhat similar (though very different in the details) to Seele's plan of instrumentality.
 * Maybe the First Ancestral Race also created the Great Old Ones, the Anti-Spirals and all our mythological gods.
 * This means that, naturally...

...the First Ancestral Race was then wiped out by their creations
Hence, why we haven't seen the First Ancestral Race pop by to check on their planet seeding and correct the disastrous accident that was Earth (which has both Adam-based life and Lilith-based life).

Running off of this idea, Adam-based life was a last ditch invention created to save themselves from Gotterdammerung.

The First Ancestral Race is Humanity.
No not the Lilim or even the Instrumentalized Lilim, but Humanity as in like Real Life Humans, only they were so advanced and absurd to the point that they turned into a Sufficiently Advanced Alien Eldritch Abomination Singularity who looked totally incomprehensible when seen from the perspective of other lesser species. And of course Man Grew Proud, and created so much artificial lifeforms to entertain themselves they were wiped out by their own creations in the process.

Running off of this idea, Lilith-based life was basically Humanity's last-ditch attempt to recolonize, reproduce and save itself from Gotterdammerung.
 * Obviously the First Ancestral Race is the mind of Hideaki Anno.

The Angels are children
Admittedly there's no real evidence of this but the idea that the combatants on both sides are children is disturbing in an appropriately Eva-ish way.
 * The episode in which they try to destroy the fetus of an angel may support your theory. When it transformed into its bigger form, it may have actually been a child.

Unit 00 doesn't contain the soul of anyone on the show.
Rei can pilot any Eva, regardless of whose soul is in it, so why should the soul in her preferred Eva be someone close to her?

The human race makes it through Third Impact only to suffocate to death.
At the end of End of Evangelion
 * I don't know about that. This troper has met some house plants with more of a force of personality than Shinji. I'm not kidding.

Kaworu LITERALLY has the ability to make people care about him.
Shinji was just under his influence for the later parts of the series.

Kaworu's human donor was Dr. Katsuragi
Described in detail [here. Obviously, like with all theories, it has problems, but why not?

Angels are the antitheses to Pokémon.
Pokémon are loveable creatures that come in all shapes and sizes with different powers that can be harnessed by humans. Angels are (mostly) hideous Eldritch Abominations that come in all shapes and sizes with different powers that can be used to destroy humans. The Pokémon universe runs parallel to the Neon Genesis Evangelion universe, and so Pokémon can be regarded as "matter" and the Angels "antimatter".
 * Since Giratina is based on antimatter does that make it an angel?
 * Giratina's not an Angel, it's freaking Yog-Sothoth! Well, an avatar at the very least. Which means the Angels are Great Old Ones.
 * Angels are Darker and Edgier Pokemon.

Rei Ayanami has Aspergers.
Think about it. She's got the lack of social understanding, formal speaking, has trouble showing/understanding her emotions, she's truthful, but completely blunt about it, she's a picky eater (at least, she doesn't eat meat), strong attachment to familiar objects (Gendo's glasses, and Shinji's tapeplayer in Rebuild), and (according to this video) trouble making eye contact, and stares off into space (implying she has an active imagination, and thus has no need for outside stimulation).
 * Nah, Rei's a schizoid. If anything, Gendo has HFA/AS, and Rei picked up some of the traits when living with him.

Straight from the Deus Angst Machina page...

 * "With all the Deus Angst Machina, there are moments where you suspect the story is actually about Fictional Character's fighting the Author, with the Angels being sent by Hideaki Anno himself to torture them in cruel and horrible ways. Then you add in that the Character's themselves are also Personified Aspects of that Crazy Man, then you realize the entire series is about Someone Cutting Himself and trying to commit Suicide. But that's yet another (non)literal interpretation."

How and Why instrumentality failed.
This theory goes as follows; instrumentality failed because not all conciousnesses were combined. In his hatred for Gendo, Shinji prevented Gendo from joining instrumentality. Without Gendo something was missing from instrumentality. This is why instrumentality did not 'feel right' to Shinji resulting in him reversing the process.

Pen-Pen is god
He is watching the humanity and sending his angels in order to decide if they deserve to live or to die. To make a decision, he needet to watch shinji's ecolution.

Shinji Ikari doesn't like off-colour tomato soup
This entire theory that formulated in an incredibly slow afternoon as a response to a serious theory on an End video on YouTube is based around the "fact" that LCL is actually really shitty, watered down tomato soup created from people - like a sort of liquid Soylent Orange.

Gendo was a douchebag so he made Rei get naked but she didn't want to so she got big and went into space. Then Shinji thought soup was cool so they all got made into soup. Shinji then realised that soup wasn't all that cool because he didn't like tomato so he stopped being soup. Asuka thinks that soup isn't? coo l either so she was dead with bandages because she thinks bandages are sexy. Then Shinji strangles her back to life. Fuyutsuki doesn't care.

The Anti AT Field generated by Lilith during Third Impact that turns everyone to orange goo is the Anti-Life Equation
When Darkseid fell backwards through time his death manifested in the Evangelion timeline as Third Impact and the Second Impact that preceded it. Everyone on Earth was merged into one being, one life, one will that is Darkseid. End of Evangelion is so depressing and bleak because it's the Anti-Life Equation trying to manifest in our world. Give in.

The events of Evangelion happen in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
It explains all of the mind screw stuff and where the angels come from. The Earth in Evangelion universe is a planet cut off from outside contact by a Warp storm eons ago (perhaps during the Age of Strife), yet unlike most other planets engulfed by the Warp, the Earth entered into the period of relative stability, until the Second Impact came along. And Adam and Lilith? They may be Greater Demons, the new Chaos Gods, or something unimaginably horrible from another galaxy... Eons later, the Imperium finds the utterly devastated Earth emerging from the Warp storm. An inquisitor, looking at the planet, orders an Exterminatus. The end.
 * Or, more Angels pop out from the Earth and eat the starships carrying out Exterminatus. Cue the Angels threatening to tear the Imperium apart on top of horrifying gods fed from emotions, all-consuming space bugs, implacable robots, bloodthirsty beasts, manipulative psychic elves, and a race of demented hedonists.

Seele is a group of Well-Intentioned Extremist cranked Up to Eleven who just wants to "save" the humanity from all its flaws and suffering.
Well, Human Instrumentality Project is basically getting rid of AT field and merging all souls of humans into one so that one human's weakness is complemented by other's strengths. As a result, the humans as a whole become a god, no longer subject to loneliness and suffering and all those nasty stuffs. Humans have massive, fundamental issues, so we may need a drastic measure of apocalypse for such a drastic problem.

Or, Human Instrumentality Project would only produce mindless drones/neurons/body parts subject to one Hive Queen or something similar.
AKA my first impression of Human Instrumentality Project. Either Keel is a Complete Monster out to enslave the souls of every human being, or Human Instrumentality Project is doomed to failure (either Gone Horribly Wrong or Gone Horribly Right) to begin with.

The First Ancestral Race were the Precursors.
Recent teasers and data suggest that the Precursors were around billions of years ago. And it's stated by Forerunner records that Precursors could "create and accelerate the evolution of intelligent life", among various other things. Maybe the White and Black Eggs were terraforming agents sent out by the Precursors as part of their "Mantle" (the belief in a responsibility to create and safeguard intelligent life). Maybe the Angels are Precursor biological planetary-defense or -invasion weapons who have gone rampant.

The First Ancestral Race were Time Lords
it took this long to say it? Time Lord blood is orange, they seeded a lot of the universe with life...

The Angels literally and metaphorically wanted a hug from their "parents", but all they got was being raped and murdered by Lilim, which feeds into the emotional theme of the series as a whole.
The AT Field is the barrier that all living, feeling things have, their emotional personal space if you will. As referenced on the Mind Rape page, the Angels' external fields could be interpreted as a sign that they are the most lonely, frightened beings in the universe. They came to reconnect with their progenitors, who had been separated from them for billions of years, only to find that not only did their sibling actively not want them there, but that said sibling was willing to violate the Angels' boundaries, destroying them, in order to keep their way of life from being changed. Eventually, the Angels used such tactics to fight back on the terms that their opponent set, Sahaquiel paving the way for later Angels. tried a different tactic: Love, embracing Lilim. It didn't work. The last we see of Lilim? .

This ties into the theme of the series, as it extends from the characters and their instabilities, to the way the EVA pilot system works- Even when Blue and Orange Morality comes into play, people need connections. To shut oneself off from the universe, even when one's environment and one's own body do more to foster that sense of separation than anything that single person can do, leads to problems, inherently contagious problems. The Angels tried to break their self-propagating loneliness, even when it meant lashing out when others were in the way, and  raped their souls and killed their body for the attempt.

Footnote 1: I'm not saying that  any more than the series already does (which is to say, not entirely but certainly more than a little, and everybody else is just as screwed up), but if you look at it this way, it really does reinforce every aspect of the main point that the series made. Footnote 2: Yes, I know I'm implying a weird. It's technically correct (whether or not that is the best kind of correct), but I preferred that over spoiler marking nearly every noun in the guess.

Shinji is the descendant of Jesus
Well, According to a legend, Jesus scaped to japan, had 3 childs and then returned to Judea, well, at least one of the childs could have enough lineal descendense to live 'till our days, and one of that descendents is Shinji, and well, just think about it, In EOE, Shinji goes through an kind of judgement,is cruxified in the same manner, then stabbed in the chest by the longinus spear, and Shinji, Being the Grand, Grand,....................Grand Son of God, "Resurrect" from the LCL sea.

Pen-Pen is Jesus.
Hence why everything fell apart when he left.

The world of Evangelion is part of the Dominion, from the Star Trek universe
What's golden-orange in colour, a liquid, and contains every member of a race essentially merged into one, when they revert from solid individual bodies into a formless unity? LCL? Or...the Great Link? The characters in Evangelion are Founder Changelings who forgot, over a great expanse of time, how to shapeshift or link effectively. Hence they experienced crippling loneliness. The Rei clones are a product of the same technology that clones the Vorta, complete with the previous clone's memories. And when it comes to designing organic fighting machines, who better than the people who created the Jem'Hadar? What we have here is a lost colony of Founder Changelings cut off from the rest of the Dominion, who are having difficulty living as solid individuals and seek to recapture the lost Link. With the evas and Rei, they seek to incorporate their hazy recollections of the wider Dominion into this plan. Even their self-conscious use of "Child" as an official label for their young, socially-crippled heroes is a memory of their origins; it's connected to the idea of the Hundred; the young changelings sent out into the galaxy, thus to be the loneliest of changelings but upon whom the future supposedly depends.

Humanity does not need Evas to defeat the angels
1. AT-field can only be breached with another AT-Field (excluding Frickin' Laser Beams, Nuclear Option and stuff). 2. AT-fields come from the desire for isolation. Ergo, an army of depressed hikkikomori can punch out an angel. You can start your "Evangelion without Evangelions" fic now.

Shinji ikari raising project is a version of evangelion without the biblic influences or the mindscrew/angst elements
There are several details that let me emit this supposition about this alternate continuity from what was shown until now: Yui ikari and misato's father are still alive. dr akagi and asuka's mother didn't commit suicide. Rei and Kaworu are fully humans. Gendo is still sane and so are Shinji and Asuka. ritsuko and misato don't work (directly) with the NERV. the effects of the second impact aren't adressed suggesting that it never happened, or at the least not with the same magnitude as with the NGE second impact.

Those differences led me to think that this continuity isn't some better restart like rebuild of evangelion, but an entirely different reality independent of the NGE continuity, although it shares many similitarities,so we can consider it like a lighter and softer "reboot" universe. therfore, we can imagine some "rebooted" elements from the original continuity:

The NERV is a TORCHWOOD-like organisation. The angels aren't related to the human race, and are simply higher-plane beings. the eva are wholly man-made technology. The SEELE isn't an organisation bent into guiding mankind's fate but merely a S.P.E.C.T.R.E expy who wants to develop high-tech to create a new world order. The Human Instrumentality Project never existed, or is merely a cover-up for another project. Mankind isn't the 13th angel.

If those "rebooted" elements are true, then it means that ...

The events of shinji ikari raising project are the result of eva 01's crossing over to the past of an alternate timeline after the events of EoE
If the "rebooted" elements are true, the angels aren't related to humankind's origin and destiny,then, there wouldn't be a reason for the NERV to build the evangelions, or in general, for this earth to follow the steps of NGE earth. in this case, the scenario below would solve some of these issues:

In EOE, Eva O1 was doomed to drift through space forever with Yui's soul trapped inside it. after millenias of errance between the stars, it fell in a space-time anomaly and got sent through space and time to the far past of an alternate timeline where it crashed in Antartica. that was this world version of the "first impact".there is no Adam nor lilith or any of the NGE earth's angels in this reality.

Her energy source depeleted, it went into sleep mode, and got buried under the ice sheet of Antartica. But The wake of her dimensional leap had left open a small dimensional rift.

Millenias later, the EVA had recharged itself with the help of its S2 engine and reawakened temporarily, triggering this earth version of the "second impact", but at a much smaller scale.it attracted the angels, which are in this reality higher-dimensional beings that lives in other levels of existence, to earth and came there via the rift.

The SEELE was puzzeled by the second impact and sent a team of scientists to investigate the phenomenon. They retrieved the EVA 01 at ground zero desactivated. They brought it back to the NERV HQ and stored it at Terminal Dogma, a high-security containement warehouse.

Afterwards, a young scientist named Yui ikari and her husband Gendo became the head scientists of the project evangelion. the goal of this project was to discover the nature and origin of the alien artifact(the EVA 01), and reverse-engeneer its technology for pratical uses.

Meanwhile, the angels began to appear on earth searching for the cause of the dimensional rift wrecking (non-maliciously) amok. The SEELE turned the situation to its advantage by using the angels' appearances as an excuse to turn the evangelion project from fundamental research to armement R&D, thus creating the first prototypes of fully functional real robot mechas.

They used it to fight the angels officially, but in fact they were testing the breakthrough technologies developped through their studies of EVA 01 since the ninities, and loot the corpses of the angels after the battles for analyse and autopsie, therefore amassing more and more of knowledge, which leads us to the conclusion that....

Solaris takes place in the far future of
After the defeat of the angels on Earth, the SEELE gained enough technology and data from EVA 01 and the angels to bring a new golden age to the world. With the nigh-unlimited energy source given by the S2 Engine and the force field tech brought by the science of the AT Field, Man Kind conquered space and flourished between the stars in relativistic spaceships.In the same time, interdimensional travel has been perefected, enabling those high-tech spaceships to achieve FTL speed and travel through the multiverse.

Eventually, an interdimensional exploration ship stumbled on an earth-like world covered by a single sentient ocean and named it Solaris, unknown to them that this world is from where came EVA O1, and that the ocean contain the collective consciousness of what was once called Man Kind, thus closing the loop.

It also explain the hallucinations experienced by the characters of the novel and the movies adaptations as it was caused by the urge of the collective consciousness to bring more people into.

EVA-01 was in Berserker mode when Shinji first saw it
Seems far out, I know, but follow me either way.

In the original version, you can clearly see that EVA-01 has its eyes open, though later, we only see the EVA with open eyes when it goes Berserk or when its head armor is removed for repair. However, because it doesn't have an Entry Plug or pilot, it is effectively paralyzed, and can't do a thing, thus making it safe enough.

However, in EoE, EVA-01 moves independently, but it still has its Entry Plug ready, thus allowing it to move at will.

This might just be dismissed as a Blooper, but it's a pretty visible one.

Lilim is the only Angel without a core.
We've been told in-series that "Humanity is the least perfect form of humanity". What if that's true? So far, all the Angels had cores, and then came Lilim. What if Lilim doesn't have a core? The only thing that seems somewhat plausible would be if every single human is an individual Angel, rather than Humanity in general, in which case the human brain might qualify as our cores. This also does make some sense, since it is the center of our ego (or as we like to call it, "soul") and we can't move without it, just like the EVA's have the cores as the center of their soul and can't move without it.

However, the confusing thing is that Humanity is claimed to be the 18th Angel, not every individual human. The only other solution would be that Lilim's core is actually the red sphere Rei holds in End Of Evangelion.

Seelee is a religious cult trying to bring Biblical Armaggedon.
It would fit the religious motif. Plus one interpetation of Heaven ends up with "all of humanity becoming one with God", eerily similar to Going by this, it may actually be Armageddon. Thus either Kaworu (who decided not to destroy humanity) or Shinji is the Second Coming of Jesus. It also ties with Keel being the Wandering Jew: the Wandering Jew is destined to live forever until the End of Days. Keel is tired of living forever, so he decides to end it all.

== Shinji is just a normal kid, being tortured by Pinhead. The Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise and fanfiction is his personal hell, and the other characters are other damned souls who were chosen to share in it. ==
 * Shinji was basically just a normal kid. In fact, he was so average that he had no self-esteem or any real goals in life and sought the Lament Configuration to end his boredom. He ended up being dragged to Leviathan's Labyrinth, where his darkest fantasies are used to craft ever new forms of twisted entertainment. This also allows every single other WMG to be true, as they are all different worlds in his dreamworld/personal hell. All the other characters are just ordinary people who also discovered the Lament configuration and were chosen to share in Shinji's hell. In fact, Shinji is considered one of Hell's crowning works of art for the sheer ecstatic agony.

Evangelion is a prototype of a real-life Brown Note for a psychological warfare.
Think about it. The messed up characters, gore and violence, and nightmarish imagery... Whatever organization behind the anime wanted to bring the world to its knees by driving people insane with a single anime/movie/novel/viral video. The prototype, namely Neon Genesis Evangelion, despite being one of the most disturbing animes of all time, doesn't seem to be very successful...
 * Well, at least Evangelion does have its share of crazed, fanatical otaku fandom...

Evangelion is an Eldritch Abomination in the form of anime.
It was a horror beyond space and time, beyond cause and effect. It wrote itself into existence and created Hideaki Anno as its avatar.
 * Evangelion is suspected to be Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu, Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, or Hastur.

Evangelion is the anime version of the Act II of The King in Yellow.
In the ordinary Act I, there are Cassilda and Camilla, respectively Rei and Asuka. Cassilda is a daughter of a powerful Prince (Gendo) and has an older brother (Shinji). Cassilda recites a poem about a city named Carcosa, probably symbolizing the devastated Earth after EOE or the Chamber of Guf. The Prince summons The King in Yellow to revive his dead wife, starting the infamous Act II that is also the Evangelion series. Hideaki Anno went into deep depression after reading the Act II and expressed what he saw in the form of an anime. The Act II is indescribable by human language, Evangelion was the best attempt to express it in forms humans can somewhat understand.

Evangelion anime itself is The Ugly Barnacle.
The anime, especially EOE and Episode 23, was so nightmarish that those who saw it died from shock and heart attack, became catatonic, began to murder anything that moves, or were Driven to Suicide. To make matters worse, the Giant Naked Rei popped out from the movie screen and forcefully fused with the remaining living beings. Thus, in the universe of SpongeBob SquarePants, all terrestrial life is extinct. However, the Giant Naked Rei soon gave birth in the Sea of LCL to the walking talking intelligent marine lives and told how she destroyed a dystopia and remade the world into the cheerful (but still dystopic) Bikini Bottom. However, the story now is largely forgotten, and Patrick Star is the only one who remembers the story, albeit in a heavily deformed way.
 * Squidward is Shinji, duh.
 * Sandy is actually the Giant Naked Rei disguised as a squirrel.
 * Or, a handful of human beings hid deep under the sea and formed the Bikini Bottom.

Care Bears are an someone's Instrumentality dream.
Fuyutsuki or Gendo or Lorenz is the horse Noble Heart while the bear True Heart is Yui. No Heart is Gendo and Shrieky is either Rei or Asuka or Misato or Ritsuko while Beastly is either a negative aspect of Fuyutsuki or Keel Lorenz or Kaji, more likely the combination where the woman rejects her man the way Shrieky rejects Beastly. This makes Professor Cold Heart Keel Lorenz or Gendo and Auntie Freeze is Naoko Akagi or Yui. Dark Heart is Asuka and or Kaworu while the 'camp champ' Christy is Shinji, who gets blasted by Dark Heart in a role reversal of Shinji killing Kaworu or choking Asuka. The Great Wishing Star is probably Adam or some other kind of Angel. Nicholas Cherrywood is Gendo or Fuyutsuki while the evil spirit inside a book is Yui.The rest of the Care Bears and Cousins are Angels and Cozy Heart Penguin is most obviously Pen-Pen.

Adam and Lilith were originally intended to be two parts of one perfect, godlike entity.
Unlike Adam's children, who possess S2 Engines, Lilith's children (Lilin, aka humanity) seem to be nothing more than messed-up, frail creatures unfit for long-term survival. Then why would the First Ancestral Race create such unfit organisms when trying to seed the universe with life? My hypothesis is that Adam and Lilith were supposed to be one entity, with Adam providing eternal energy and Lilith providing superintelligence, but something went horribly wrong, separating them from each other. How about the Lances of Longinus attached to them? They kept Adam and Lilith in a comatose state so that they would not gain sentience and plan something else before they were fully grown and one with each other.


 * It's not so much that Adam and Lilith are two parts of some superbeing, but that they are two different types of Seeds of Life that were never meant to inhabit the same planet. Adam is a "Fruit of Life" type seed. His children, the Angels, are immensely powerful creatures with monstrous AT Fields, but little intelligence. The Fruit of Life they inherited from Adam is the S2 Engine, the source of their nigh infinite power. Lilith, on the other hand, is a "Fruit of Wisdom" type seed. Her children, the humans ("Lilim") are intelligent beings capable of developing advanced technology, with very weak AT Fields compared to the Angels. The Fruit of Knowledge they inherited from Lilith is, in my opinion, either the soul  or the brain, the seat of intelligence within the body. If one being were to possess both the Fruit of Life and Fruit of Wisdom, it would have both power and intelligence and thus enter a god-like state of existence.   The Lance of Longinus is supposed to be a safety precaution to ensure that two different seeds are not active on the same planet at the same time.

Gendo was a former Hikikomori or nearly succumbed to hikikomoriness
That is why he wants Yui so badly: she was the only one who gave him the strength to come out of his dark ages. Without Yui, he felt isolated again and had to rely on a nearly-sociopathic facade just to cover up his past hikikomoriness.
 * Isn't he ( or should I say EVERYONE) already a freaky loner in canon? Not quite hikokomori, but close.

Alternatively, SEELE is also known as the NHK
Evangelion is an experimental Brown Note to drive us to despair and thus hikikomoriness.

Madoka Magica takes place after Instrumentality.
Humanity returned to form from the Tang and rebuilt its society...however, their capacity for arrogance, pride, bastardry and schadenfreude remained, creating Madoka's cruel world where.
 * The may actually be manifestations of humanity's collective opportunism.

Angels are pets of Gendo
Firstly, Angels are attacking during narrow period of time compare to humanity life. Secondly, Angels appears just in time, order and way it is useful for Gendo: (Sachiel appears when EVA is already finished, Matariel was too weak and can even appear during blackout, ridiculously strange appearing of Sandalophon in the volcano). Thirdly, sometimes Gendo even suspiciously absent before or/and while Angel appearing. "How did he manage to get and keep them?" He got them as frozen embryons (like Adam) while first Antarctic expedition. "What about Kaworu? Gendo was clearly unaware of him at the beginning?" The best and most powerful, 17th embryon Tabris was given to SEELE as ensurance of his loyalty to them. Actually, SEELE were OK with that position until Ayanami use Longinius Spear on Arael. Then they try to force situation and use their wild card.

Shinji isn't a maladjusted human
He's a Dwarf. From Dwarf Fortress. Which would actually make him rather sane, by those standards. He's moody and when he gets unhappy enough, he tantrums. "Sachiel stabs EVA-01 in the head with his Adamantine Spear! It is mangled! The right eye is torn out! EVA-01 is propelled away by the force of the blow! EVA-01 slams into an obstacle! EVA-01 stands up. EVA-01 has entered a martial trance! EVA-01 grabs Sachiel by the head with his left hand! Sachiel grabs EVA-01 by the upper body with his right hand! Sachiel breaks the grip of EVA-01's left hand on his head! Sachiel throws EVA-01 by the upper body! EVA-01 charges at Sachiel! EVA-01 misses Sachiel! Sachiel bashes EVA-01 in the upper body with his AT-Field! It is bruised! EVA-01 grabs Sachiel by the AT-Field with his right hand! EVA-01 grabs Sachiel by the AT-Field with his left hand! EVA-01 locks Sachiel's AT-Field with his left hand! Sachiel misses EVA-01! EVA-01 cripples Sachiel's AT-Field! EVA-01 grabs Sachiel's left hand with his left hand! EVA-01 grabs Sachiel's right hand with his left hand! EVA-01 punches Sachiel in the left hand with his right hand! The left hand flies off in an arc! EVA-01 punches Sachiel in the right hand with his right hand! The right hand flies off in an arc! EVA-01 charges at Sachiel! EVA-01 punches Sachiel in the head! It is smashed into the body, an unrecognizable mass! Sachiel, Angel, has been struck down."
 * Evangelions are artifacts, with a masterfully done rendition of an image of a Maple Leaf done in Redroot Dye.
 * Misato drinks enough to be a Dwarf.
 * Which is why Shinji was so upset and slow all the time; not enough booze.
 * That's why Shinji is always unhappy; Misato's house sucks. If he'd actually had a decent place to live...
 * Shinji Ikari has been ecstatic lately. He was awoken by noise while sleeping lately. He has witnessed death lately. He lost a good friend lately. He ate a truly decadent meal lately. He has sustained minor injuries lately.
 * Heh heh heh.