In Neon Genesis Evangelion, the character of Rei Ayanami was consistently kept shrouded in mystery. Even after watching End of Evangelion, I still cannot understand who she is, or more specifically, what she is.
I might have missed a lot of details, so here are some things that I can't piece together:
- Commander Ikari says she was "an acquaintance's child" (you can't possibly be more vague than that). Ritsuko's mother said she looked like Yui.
- People see hallucinations of her, mostly at the moment of death. Shinji even randomly sees a vision of her at the beginning of ep. 1, for some reason.
- In End of Evangelion she somehow has superpowers. This confused me the most, as she has never shown any signs of magical powers before.
- Kawaru says she is the soul of Lillith, or something like that.
So I can't piece together any of these. How was she born? Why does she look like Yui? Why does she have god-like abilities, and how is she "the soul of Lillith"? If she did have god-like powers all along, why didn't she display them before? Why does she even pilot an eva if she can generate abnormally strong AT fields?
In other words, what is she exactly?