Gendou Ikari is the commander of NERV and father
of Shinji Ikari.
When
we first see Gendou in Episode 1, he is speaking to Shinji for the first time in
years. Even after all their time apart from each other, this father has no kind
words. He tells Shinji he was only called because he had a use, nothing more.
Gendou forces his son to pilot Unit-01, and shows no regrets about putting his
son in imminent danger.
It is clear that Gendou is a also man with
important responsibilities. He is the leader in charge of the defense of the
human race, and he takes this post seriously. However, Gendou's crusade is not
one of nobility or benevolence, but one of vanity and self righteousness. He is
the protector of the earth from the angels, but there is nothing living on this
earth that he is concerned about. To understand what drives Gendou, it is
necessary to look into his history before the second impact, and his
relationship with two people: Yui Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki.
When Gendou was a young man, he had a reputation
for being a rogue, and had gotten himself into trouble. Professor Fuyutsuki was
assigned to look over him, after he had gotten into a bar fight. Through
Professer Fuyutsuki, Gendou met one of his favorite students, Yui Ikari. They
got to know each other, and finally on one of her walks, Yui admitted to Kozo
that she had started seeing Gendou. Although Fuyutsuki did not want to admit it,
he had feelings for Yui, and could not hide his shock when he heard this news.
Gendou
became more involved with the Katsuragi research team, and was on the expedition
to Antarctica before the Second Impact. Fortunately for Gendou, he had left the
day before the disaster struck, conveniently taking with him all
documentation. Gendou was obviously a part of this plan, and it just go to
show what lenghs he will go to to achieve his ends.
It was while working at NERV with his wife after the Second Impact that an event took place that would change Gendou's life forever In an experiment with Evangelion Unit-01, Yui sync ratio was above 400% which trapped her sole into Unit 01 like what Shinji did when fighting the ,
.
After this incident, Gendou was a changed man.
Earlier, things like his research and his son were important to him. Now he had
a more important goal, a reunification with Yui. And he would stop at nothing to
achieve it.
To
help ease his feelings of loss, while at the same time creating a means with
which to return to his wife, Gendou cloned Rei Ayanami. Through her, Gendou saw
his wife represented. He frequently had talks with her, and at one point
demonstrated his love for her by rescuing Rei from an accident in her Eva.
During the process, he burned his hands in order to save her. Although he is
kind to Rei, he does not truly love her. In his mind, he sees Rei as a
manifestation of his wife Yui.
To satisfy his ambitions, Gendou could not have
been any ordinary man. Indeed, he was incredibly skilled at manipulating people,
and acted as some kind of a puppet master for much of his time at NERV. The most
obvious examples of his handiwork are the Akagi women, Ritsuko and Naoko. He did
not actually love either of these women, but both of them had a use that was
critical to his plans. The way he treated Naoko and Ristuko bears an uncanny
resemblance to the way in which he dealt with Shinji, putting them to work
because they had a use, nothing more.
Naoko
was the one who originally came up with the MAGI theorems and was a critical
resource in their development and construction. Gendou needed her to make these,
and to make sure she stayed, he became involved in an affair with her. Naoko
realized that he could never forget about Yui, but it was acceptable to her, and
they became involved.
Ritsuko was aware of the affair between Gendou and Naoko, and she was aware of the consequences of loving a man like that, but she obviously didn't care. The computer genius let lust cloud her normally good judgement, and she too fell in love with Gendou. History was fated to repeat itself however, and Ritsuko accepted the fact that she could not beat Rei/Yui for his love. In a act of hate and revenge, she destroyed the dummy plug facility that held all the Rei clones.
Later in the movie, Ritsuko tried to self
destruct the MAGI, but her mother Naoko, whose aspects resided in the MAGI even
after her death, chose Gendou over Ritsuko, and refused her command. Gendou
takes out his gun, and whispers to Ritsuko that he really did love her, but she
recognizes the false statement, calling him a liar before Gendou shoots her.
In
his post, Gendou is relentless. He brushes away all sentimental feelings when it
comes to destroying the angels. He would not hesitate to put a battered and
bruised Rei into combat if it served his purpose, and sent Asuka out as a decoy
even when she could not fight. When Shinji pleaded with him that he didn't want
to kill the pilot of Unit-03, Gendou removed the control from his son and
watched with a smile as the dummy plug system took out Toji from his Eva and
crushed his entry plug. Gendou continues to behave in this manor throughout the
entire series, and only really changes while instrumentality is happening.
