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My first exposure to the Evangelion franchise was, if I'm remembering correctly, in 2002, when a friend purchased some old videotapes for me on the cheap. Already, I had heard... things. Bad things. That the series as a whole, once hailed as the greatest deconstruction of shonen anime, was really a guided tour deep inside the mind of a director suffering from a massive nervous breakdown. All the Christian "symbolism"? Purely decorative. (This one I can actually cite as fact, and not mere opinion. Check out page 76 of the April 2011 issue of Otaku USA Magazine, they quote both assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki and the director, Hideaki Anno.)

I watched the first couple of episodes and wasn't impressed. Why is Shinji so angry at, and yet so eager to please, Gendo? Research I've done on the series makes Shinji seem silly for acting that way: Spoilers! Highlight to reveal: So Shinji's father abandoned him, and was responsible for the death of Shinji's mother? Shinji was a toddler at the time. Why didn't Shinji just form a fatherly bond with his teacher, or make new friends? Why does Shinji simper in front of Gendo, as if Gendo deserved his obeisance, instead of demanding the respect from his father that he, Shinji, deserves as a defender of the world? End Spoilers!

Now, I'm up to episode 13 of the original NGE series, and I've noticed something. Spoilers! Highlight to Reveal: Misato tells Shinji that he needs to care less about what other people think, implying that this is a way he can learn to trust in himself and become a stronger, happier person. At the end of the series, instead of doing that, Shinji declares that he is defined solely through how others perceive him, and since they perceive him as a coward, he is perfectly content to remain one. Spoilers! What the heck kind of ending is that?! A main character cannot be static! Where's the character arc, where's The Hero's Journey? Joseph Campbell is spinning in his grave! And if I disliked the series so far, why am I still talking... and why am I still watching?

Fanfiction, my friends. Constant surfing on TVTropes, as well as mention of the movies, sparked my reinterest, but it was the wikis listing of outstanding fanfiction that caught my eye... particularly one little crossover called "And If That Don't Work."

The character growth of the Children is very inorganic, and the author may have been better served focusing on and building up the hows and why the characters become what they become before getting all sciencey and cheerily violent.. but Spoilers! yippee-kai yo-kai-yay! Team Fortress 2! Team Fortress 2! I haven't even played the game and I love all of the characters! All of them! And, though I can see Dr. Insano of the Spoony Experiment contibuting his genes for science, I can't see him doting on Asuka, or putting up with her behavior... End Spoilers! Similiarly, what sparked my interest in more 'original flavor' fics are the epics "Aeon Natum Engel" and "Aeon Entelechy Evangelion." Spoilers! Remember how, in F.E.A.R. 2, Alma Wade was stated to be "the mother of the Apocalypse?" Now recall that in some languages, Alma means "soul"... End Spoilers!

yeah it pretty much stinks. basically it is so important because it was one of the first to do this but like watchman just doesn't hold up over time. thought rebuild was more a retelling than a sequel

Spoilers: The last angel is, canonically, all of humanity. And in Rebuild 2.22, Kaworu, having just been introduced in this continuity, tells Shinji, "This time, I will make you happy!