#genrei

[bai-xue]

The fact that my 70-year-old mother, who knew next to nothing about Evangelion, read one of my Gendo/Rei fics and enjoyed it so much that she began shipping genrei by the end will never stop being extremely funny to me

[gendorei]

ゲンレイ

[baixueagain]

Hi! I just read your longform on Gendo and Rei and had a thought. Rei II places Gendo's broken glasses in her cockpit for comfort/safety... and then doesn't she die soon after? To me as a survivor of CSA, I read that series of events as proving Gendo is a predator to Rei and not a real source of protection. I just watched the series for the first time as a 32 year old with my husband, who was a fan as a teen -- love your analysis!

We don't really have an exact timeframe for the show; however from general estimates it's likely that it takes place beginning in summer 2015 and ending on 1 January 2016. Rei II using Gendo's glasses as a sort of good luck charm likely occurs in mid-late summer 2015, and she likely dies in November or December. So in the grand scheme of things, no, that's not much time, but in the scope of the show that's a pretty big gap.

She uses Gendo's glasses this way when she re-activates in Unit-00 for the first time after her accident. She hasn't been in 00 since her accident so there's no telling how it will respond to the first re-activation attempt. Will it go berserk again? Will she be hurt again? There's no way to tell for sure. So it makes sense for her to be frightened about what might happen and bring the glasses--a symbol of what occurred the last time she did an activation test, and a reminder of how Gendo rescued her then--with her.

The glasses are a consistent symbol associated with Rei throughout the show, and are used in different, sometimes contrasting ways. Their presence is a highly ambiguous one, as is the relationship between Gendo and Rei. I would hesitate to label him as either predator or protection for her, because he is both and neither all at once, alongside being a number of other things to her. Part of the fascinating nature of this dynamic between them is that there is no clear label one can place on it, which is the case with many of the relationships portrayed within Evangelion.

Anyway I'm glad you're enjoying it! Thanks so much!

[baixueagain]

Came out of 2021 with not one but TWO ships that can be perfectly described as "deeply unhappy old man with an extremely shady job and the weird blue haired girl that he practically raised"

[baixueagain]

God, every time people throw a fit about you writing "bad" fiction for cannons where similar or worse things happen I feel like I take 900 points in psychic damage. I'm not even IN this fandom, and I'm vaguely aware that one of the people set up at one point as a potential love interest for the teen MC is an older woman, but it's fine when the teen is a boy, I guess

It really is the funniest shit, most fanfic I write is based on extremely evident subtext (and sometimes straight up text) in the original material. Like violaf? Olaf openly states his intention to fuck her, acts sexually interested in her at various other points, and canonically undresses her while she's unconscious (at minimum) and takes a trophy. Is it creepy as fuck? Yeah. But it's very much in the original material.

As for genrei...yeah that shit's pretty much canon too. She's the bodily resurrection of his wife, he hangs out staring at her naked body with clear enjoyment on his face, she's explicitly portrayed as being in love with him at various points, and that's not even including what happens in EoE when subtext just becomes text.

Misato and Shinji's relationship is...complicated? She has a hard time relating to men outside of sex bc trauma, and she's both the closest thing he ever has to a mother figure and becomes an unconscious influence over his sexuality and source for his understanding of women. She's not strictly presented as a possible romance, but he does fantasise about her and at a couple points she appears to make a pass at him bc she wants to comfort him and has no idea how else to do it (again, bc Trauma).

But anyway yeah I really don't understand where fancops get off acting so absolutely shocked and appalled that someone might have looked at the famously fucked up origin material with canonically disturbing relationship dynamics and then picked that up and went with it.

Especially when it comes to NGE, where genrei fanworks have been in circulation throughout the Japanese fandom for literal decades.

Also even if you look at more wholesome popular franchised spinoffs like Shinji Ikari Raising Project, there are in-text jokes about Gendo and Rei. Like this is not a shocking new invention that came outta nowhere lmao.

[baixueagain]

listen I know there’s issues with the Netflix dub, but Gendo’s English VA choosing to murmur “Trying to refuse me, eh?” in a wry, almost playful tone in episode 19 when Unit-01 rejects Rei? Fucking hell that’s the good shit right there!!!!

[baixueagain]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Gendo gives for once.

[baixueagain]

making myself cry by outlining my next genrei fic bc it’s gonna be a happily-ever-after AU and some really beautiful things are gonna happen and just thinking about writing them is making the happy tears well up