This is a page for the characters of Shinji and Warhammer40k
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God Emperor Shinji and His Sisters-in-arms
Shinji Ikari
The wimp that was not.- Adaptational Badass: Besides his prologue power-up, Shinji eventually travels to Javaal to better understand his abilities, returning with the power to reduce an Angelspawn to vapor with a glance.
- Ironically, this is the one trope Bpen was deliberately trying to avert at first; his author's notes claim that Shinji just needs a better childhood to become awesome, but Shinji's "better childhood" also came with his own gang, Chessmaster training at the feet of an Eldar Farseer, the universal respect and adoration of his entire hometown, and the ability to call in favors and financial support from wealthy friends.
- All-Loving Hero: He redeems bullies into Bully Hunters with forgiveness and inspiring words.
- Berserk Button: Kaworu Nagisa. He is so enigmatic and affable that Shinji is completely pissed off by the sight of him.
- The Chains of Commanding: He learns very early that leadership comes at a cost. As the story progresses many characters note his melancholy demeanor as more and more lives are lost in the war against the Angels. A large part of his internal conflict is based on the choice of treating his allies as people or as tools.
- The Chessmaster: A trait that he inherited from Gendo.
- Chick Magnet: The number of female characters in the story who do not want to get into his pants can be counted on one hand. With fingers left over. To put this into perspective, when Valentine's day came around, the national Japanese government issued a special exemption for Shinji that forbade all but a select few of his classmates to offer him chocolate for the holiday, because in the previous year (before he even came to Tokyo 3), he was put into the hospital for consuming too much of it.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The only people that know (initially) that he is The Leader of Da Boyz are Da Boyz themselves. To everyone else he is a nice and quiet boy.
- Defeat Means Friendship: How Shinji formed Da Boyz. When he was eight years old, three older delinquents stole his Warboss figurine. Shinji confronted them and, despite being outnumbered and outmatched, managed to win. The delinquents themselves were so impressed by the boy's massive brass balls that they pledged their loyalty to him. Since then, Da Boyz refer to Shinji as "Da Boss" and any command he gives them as "Da Word".
- Destructive Saviour: Whenever Shinji saves the day, stuff blows up. It happens so often that people instantly know he's back when there's massive destruction. Even when he's trying not to, Shinji ends up causing more destruction than actual Angels.
- Friend to All Children: By his own admission — while he does believe that there are no innocents, Shinji sees no reason for childhood not to be safe and happy, and Da Boyz were styled by him primarily as a way to keep kids entertained and out of trouble.
- Funetik Aksent: Shinji's English is quite "authentic," as he learned it by reading Ork codices. His groups Da Boyz and Gretch picked up the same speech patterns, resulting in a generation of Japanese schoolchildren who speak like English football hooligans.
- Guile Hero
- Grew a Spine: And how! Shinji goes from wimp to God Emperor of Mankind.
- The Hero
- Horrifying the Horror: Shinji is so awesome and brutally efficient that Angels see him as
Nightmare Fuel incarnate. Holy Shit. - Hot-Blooded: For everything he does he either delivers an awesomely loud inspirational speech, or has one waiting for the moment when people ask why. And if you need him to knock something down, he won't just knock it down - he'll lay it and everything in a ten mile radius to waste while also proclaiming why it was ultimately doomed to fail against the will and might of all mankind.
- I Can Still Fight!: One of Shinji's defining characteristics. If his body is still intact, no matter what the situation, he will find some means to continue the battle.
- In the Blood: Shinji has inherited a lot of traits from his father that he'd prefer not to admit, such as being manipulative and the Always Save the Girl behavior Gendo has with Yui. Fortunately, Shinji's way more kindhearted than Gendo and has different goals than he does. Ritsuko imagines Shinji as mini-Gendo and the mere thought of history repeating again through Shinji's friendship with Rei (whom Ritsuko also imagined as mini-Yui) makes her freak the hell out.
- The Leader: A type I and IV for Da Boyz. He's the mastermind behind their activities and the respect they have for him is regularly likened to religious devotion.
- Literal Split Personality: His four figurine advisers. Rei can speak with them, though at first this just looks like her own developing imagination. Later they start talking Asuka and Kaworu also speaks to them which pushes them more fully into this trope.
- Lonely at the Top: Becoming this in the end is one of Shinji's deepest fears. It's a feeling he shares with his father Gendo....for what he wanted most was a friend, not a slave.
- Messianic Archetype: No matter how vehemently he tries to deny it, events just keep lining up in a way that make it clear he is destined to rule the entire human race. And he would be a worthy ruler.
- My Greatest Failure: He blames himself for Minase's rape by a high schooler, thinking he indirectly provoked it and could have stopped it. This is compounded by accepting the Chaos Marine's offer the night before and wanting to cause her pain. The guilt of both acts causes him greater torment than anything in his life.
- Point of No Return: Throughout the first arc of the story Shinji spends most of his time growing his personal network and preparing for some future conflict. Once Kaworu begins directly manipulating events in Tokyo 3, Shinji decides that the preparation phase is over and effectively declares open war against Seele.Shinji: Then hear my command. Send the assassins. Plant the evidence. All the things we talked about before... let it be done. Begin the purge. Protect my city.
- Spanner in the Works: Is this for Gendo, who had planned to receive an emotionally hollow, easily-manipulated wreck of a child that he could push into triggering Third Impact on his own terms. What he got was an emotionally mature, iron-willed schemer with natural tactical and political affinities that would put Julius Caesar to shame, who immediately subverts his control over all of NERV and even undermines SEELE's influence across the globe.
- Success Through Insanity: Let's run down a basic list of his accomplishments. He trained himself as a master class schemer via the advice of four imaginary spirit advisors so well that he has almost every army on the planet bowing to him as their glorious leader. He defictionalized a tabletop wargame through engineering and the liberal application of financial resources. His go-to approach in any fight is to Use Your Head, followed by whatever dirty fighting tricks he can get away with. He regularly accomplishes feats that have the resident genius Omni Disciplinary Scientist seriously considering the use of hard drugs just to relieve the stress. He has an Unwanted Harem that includes almost all of his female coworkers (as well as a few of the males), along with every single female student in his school, and possibly every single female on the planet who knows his name. He out-witted Gendo and caused him to be relieved of duty as NERV commander by punching himself in the face. He undermined SEELE so effectively that they ended up abandoning Earth and moving into a secure facility on the moon. All of this was done barely halfway through the story. Everyone who knows him is convinced that he is absolutely insane, and they'll follow him anyway.
- They Would Cut You Up: As his abilities continue to develop he voices hesitation about leaving himself in the care of institutions out of concern that doctors would want to disect him to determine the source of his power. During the Time Skip in which NERV removed itself and Lilith temporarily from existence, it turns out his fears were completely justified. His comatose body was seized and harvested repeatedly by the world government (enabled by his powers of regeneration) in order to manufacture anti-AT Field weapons on a massive scale.
- Young Conqueror: He's a young teenager and already he's on his way to being immortalized in the history books.
Asuka Langley Sohryu
The Red-haired Tsundere Love Interest.- Ace Pilot: One of the best pilots in the series.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Inverted. After killing Israfel, she simply says: "Hey Shinji?...I think I like you."
- Badass Bookworm: She is fourteen and she is a college graduate. She and Ritsuko bonded for a short while due to her scientifically-inclined mindset.
- Badass Normal: She uses this term to describe herself. Subverted when it was revealed that she was infused with Angel DNA.
- Battle Couple: With Shinji.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: with Shinji.
- The Berserker: Asuka's battle antics are those of a berserker and she uses the traditional gear of a Khornate Berserker (in the form of an Eva-scaled chainaxe). She is reportedly enough of a berserker that her battle rage overrides even that of her Eva's default mental state. However she's a cold berserker. A berserker Unit 02 uses weapons and fights with the same techniques, only with more eating of enemy body parts.
- Big Damn Heroes: She performed one in Germany.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: With Rei and Asuka. They make a surprisingly good comedy duo. Typically, Asuka is the straight man, while Rei is the boke. Asuka, perhaps understandably, thinks "tsukkomi" is some sort of bizarre Japanese perversion and refuses to listen whenever someone attempts to explain it.
- Broken Ace: She is an excellent pilot and she has been heavily traumatized.
- Broken Bird: Her mother died, her father ignored her and she had to turn herself into a badass to cope with it.
- Buffy Speak: She falls into it occasionally:Asuka: "Again, with the not giving of the good feelings."
- But Not Too Foreign: Half-Japanese, half-German.
- Calling Your Attacks: "SCHLAGANN IMPACT!", "GIGA DRILL BREAKER!"
- Chainsaw Good: She uses a prog-chainaxe.
- Child Soldier: Trained since she was four.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: She is extremely possessive and jealousy of Shinji. During their Relationship Upgrade in chapter 36, she claims him like hers, and declares that she will have everything from him.
- Companion Cube: After Shinji goads Unit 02 into a berserker rage, Asuka screams "DON'T TOUCH MY EVA!"
- Destructive Saviour: She does not reach Shinji's levels, but she is still pretty destructive on her own.
- Determinator: She is very, very, very stubborn.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Seriously, Asuka, Shinji just woke up from one. That's what she wants us to think, at any rate.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Asuka had to deal with Rei's advances since chapter 12.
- Fiery Redhead
- Gratuitous German: Used widely.
- Hot-Blooded: Very much so. She is full of anger, passion, bravery and bloodlust. Ironically her hot-bloodness is overshadowed by Shinji in this setting.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: All of her hubris and her bluster was in reality a mask to hide that she is a very traumatized, very lonely child with zero self-esteem. Shinji saw through her façade immediately.
- It Meant Something to Me: In chapter 36 Asuka feels betrayed and wonders if Kaworu -and even Shinji- were playing with her feelings. Shinji insisted that, although he hates Nagisa, he knows that Kaworu loves her. And Nagisa knows the same thing about Shinji.
- It's Personal: When Kaworu uses the Earth Cradle to take over Germany by force, Asuka is just ticked off.
- Lonely at the Top: During their conversation in chapter 36, Asuka admits that it was warm be held and protected by someone, and it was cold to stand alone and so high.
- Love Triangle: With Shinji and Kaworu. She liked both and they cared for her. Eventually she chose Shinji.
- Lovely Angels: With Rei.
- Official Couple: With Shinji since chapter 36.
- Only Sane Woman: Often she feels like it when Shinji starts to break physics laws and everyone else simply choose shrugging it off.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Played straight with Shinji; subverted with Kaworu.
- Tsundere: Asuka's irritation/anger at Shinji increases early on the more she comes to adore him. Outright rage tends to be reserved for her rivals for his attention.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Shinji. Resolved in chapter 36.
- Worthy Opponent: She realizes that Kaworu's reason to seize Germany is dare her to take it back because he knows that she loves a challenge, and he hopes that if he gives him a good one, maybe she will return to him.
Rei Ayanami
The blue-haired Yandere who likes blowing things up.
- Brother–Sister Incest: She loves very much Shinji. She is also genetically his sister due to being cloned from Yui's DNA, but she does not care about it.
- Double Entendre: Rei embraces this as a unique "brand of psychological torture as a device for humor." She seems to particularly enjoy reminding Asuka of how well she and Shinji "connect," while implying that she and Asuka could "connect" in a similar fashion."... and she began to scream. I still fail to understand this concept of humor."
- Lovely Angels: With Asuka.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: As of chapter 6, she is utterly devoted to Shinji whether he likes it or not, and is willing to do absolutely anything for him. One word from Shinji and she'll do it gladly.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: May God, Adam, Lilith, the God Emperor of Humankind, the Ruinous Powers, the Eldar and Orkish gods and other assorted deities protect you if you hurt Shinji. She does not particularly cares about the city blocks she has to level to catch you.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Shinji and Rei agree early on in the story that her being being a Half-Human Hybrid doesn't warrant exclusion from the human race, and when her secret gets out, her classmates readily accept her for who she is.
- Yandere: Shinji's schoolmates see Rei as the yandere to Asuka's blatant tsundere, as past chapter 6, Rei will do anything Shinji wants (and by that we mean absolutely anything) without a moment's hesitation.She felt indeed, happy. Whatever you say, pilot Ikari. It is as I will be. For you have said to believe, and I do. Together shall we stand; until time itself ends. My name is Ayanami Rei. I shall love that which you love, and shun that which you shun. Until time ends.
- The only reason Rei isn't insanely creepy as a Yandere is that she has no desire to Murder the Hypotenuse... rather the opposite, in fact.
- Yuri Fangirl: She is this.
The Four Imperial Councillors
The Eldar Farseer
One of the four figurine advisors of Shinji. She is old and wise, and when she is not trying to convince Shinji to get his own harem or talking Asuka into getting into Shinji's pants, she is actually helpful.- The Chessmaster: She is the one who trains Shinji to begin manipulating events to accomplish his goals.
- Dirty Old Woman: She's constantly trying to persuade Shinji into forming his own harem and getting into Asuka's (and/or Rei's) pants. Shinji is not amused. She also tries to do the same with Asuka, persuading her to getting into Shinji's pants.
- Fiery Redhead: In spite of her age she can get pretty temperamental.
- Girlish Pigtails: She wears them. It is ironical because she is very, very, very old.
- Shipper on Deck: Although she fully supports the notion of Shinji getting himself a harem, she has often encouraged Asuka to get in Shinji's pants and claiming him like hers.
The Ork Warboss
One of the four figurines advisors of Shinji. He isn't too bright and is often the one who encourages that Murder Is the Best Solution.- Funetik Aksent: One of the main reasons for Shinji's "English".
- More Dakka
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Loves fighting, and always pushes for violence whenever it's a viable option (and often when it isn't). That said, he also follows a strict code of honor. It was because of his example that Da Boyz came into being.
The Space Marine
One of the four figurine advisors of Shinji. He is the most overtly heroic of the set, and the one first brought to life as a reflection of Shinji's developing ideals.- Arch-Nemesis: To the Chaos Marine. The two of them spend a lot of time directly opposing each other.
- Badass Creed: THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!
- Determinator: If there is a course of action that requires one to push through adversity to triumph, you can bet he'll be the first one to offer it.
- The Hero: Of the four figurine advisors, he is the one that most consistently pushes for forthrightness, perseverance, and honor.
- Hold the Line: The core of his creed. For humanity to thrive, heroes must stand fast and protect their people at all costs.
The Chaos Marine
One of the four figurine advisors of Shinji. He is the most morally ambiguous of the group, and often encourages Shinji to be more outright manipulative. Later he becomes more supportive of Shinji's heroism and begins looking for ways to smooth his path to godhood.- Arch-Nemesis: To the Space Marine. The two of them spend a lot of time directly opposing each other.
- Evil Chancellor: Whenever he offers a plan of action, you can be sure somebody else is going to end up screwed by it.
- Token Evil Teammate: The most overtly evil of the four advisors. He mellows out over time.
The Allies of His Majesty
Misato Katsuragi
NERV Director of Operations. She took Shinji and later Asuka in.- The Captain: Of the pilots. At the beginning, she holds this rank. Later she got promoted to Colonel.
- Colonel Badass: After being promoted to Colonel, she basically became this.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Her plans rival Shinji's in craziness.
- Heel Realization: Played for Laughs when she notices that NERV's Tokyo-3 installation satisfies many Evil Overlord tropes and basically qualifies as a lair.
- Parental Substitute: She is the only real parental figure Shinji and Asuka have got since they were three.
- Shipper on Deck: She ships Shinji with Maya, Shinji with Rei, Shinji with Asuka, Shinji with Mana, and Shinji with herself.
- Start My Own: Due to mounting military and political pressures in the wake of the Earth's Cradle crisis and Yang's assassination, she ends up declaring NERV a sovereign nation, with herself as its regent.
- Trash of the Titans: Her home apartment is a deplorable mess when Shinji arrives. He makes it far more livable, but her bedroom still falls into this territory due to being her personal space.
- You Are in Command Now: When Gendo is arrested for abuse of power and of his own son, she takes on the role of NERV's commander. Gets double subverted - she much prefers to stay in charge of tactical operations and let somebody else deal with the political and financial maneuvering that the commander is responsbile for, but after events come to a head and Gendo exits the dimension permanently, she is forced to once again take control of the organization.
Maya Ibuki
NERV Evangelion/Pilot Monitor, and Ritsuko's chief technical assistant. She gets drawn into Shinji's circle and becomes one of his battle sisters.- Badass Biker: Becomes this after taking a healthy dose of confidence from her time spent with Shinji.
- Badass Normal: She's not a pilot, she's not part-Angel, and she's not in any of Shinji's special combat units. She's just a bio-engineer computer technician who happens to hang out with the most dangerous people on the planet and knows when it's time to put up or shut up.
- Becoming the Mask: She and Shinji go incognito for their first several dates, so she decides to be someone completely different from her usual reserved nature. Eventually she gains enough confidence in herself to embrace the changes openly.
- Closet Key: Inverted. She is well aware and comfortable with the fact that she is a lesbian, but Shinji manages to charm her to the point where she is perfectly fine with pursuing a relationship with him as well.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Becomes this for Ritsuko as she descends further into madness thanks to Shinji repeatedly telling physics to sit down and shut up.
- Game Master: At Shinji and Misato's request, she uses the MAGI to totally revamp the Eva simulator to include all new conceptual weapons, enemies, and battlefield conditions, and also makes it an actual competitive simulator the pilots can use to train against and with each other. It later includes a scoring system that can be used to rate performance. She usually administers wargaming sessions, and even sets up a betting pool.
- Les Yay: Like her canon counterpart, she has this for Ritsuko. Unlike her canon counterpart, she also develops this for Misato and possibly even Rei.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: When kidnapped along with Shinji and threatened with rape, she takes a page out of Shinji's book and decides to fight. She wins.
- Promoted to Love Interest: Thanks to Ritsuko passing on Misato's invite to a dinner party and sending Maya in her place, Shinji ends up asking her out on a date. Misato threatens to make it an actual order. Maya later on embraces the relationship wholeheartedly and becomes a contender among the shipping fan clubs at Shinji's school.
- The Reliable One: Has always played this role for Ritsuko. Later expands to supporting Shinji and his allies in their activities throughout Tokyo-3 and beyond.
- Took a Level in Badass: Hanging around Shinji and the other pilots has done wonders for her confidence. In addition to being more outgoing, as a ranking NERV officer she joins in Shinji's counter-intelligence ring and helps him eliminate non-Angelic threats to Tokyo-3.
Stormtrooper Toji Suzuhara
Shinji's classmate, who initially tries to beat him up for letting his sister get hurt in the first Angel attack. Later becomes a close friend and takes on the role of the Stormtrooper.- Badass Longcoat: Wears a white one signifying his status as a Stormtrooper.
- Battle Couple: With Hikari. Not that he wants it that way. Not that she cares.
- Big Brother Instinct: Is very protective of his little sister and will do anything to ensure her safety and happiness. Later extends to Hikari's own younger sister, and eventually to all Gretchen.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: After the battle with Shamsel, he takes it upon himself to be Shinji's last line of defense. It earns him the title of Stormtrooper.
- Defeat Equals Friendship: Tries to punch Shinji for injuring his sister. Shinji beats the crap out of him instead. They later become good friends.
- Friend to All Children: Looks after Da Boyz of Tokyo 3 whenever they're together.
- Jerk Jock: Presented this way at first, ultimately subverted. He's actually quite clever, at least in combat situations.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His belligerence is entirely driven by his protective instincts for friends and loved ones.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Downplayed, along with Kensuke. The two of them are perfectly fine with suffering some slapstick for their antics, but if anyone tries to harm Shinji, they get deadly serious about ending the threat by any means necessary.
- Oblivious to Love: Shares this trait with Hikari at first. Shinji gives them both a push.
- Relationship Upgrade: With Hikari.
- Took a Level in Badass: Thanks to Shinji's influence, he becomes one of the first characters to wield a bolter, and is even allowed to carry one at school as part of the pilots' protection detail. He contributes to the defense of Tokyo-3 in the battle with Matarael's Angelspawn, even providing JSSDF troops with a cache of bolters when their own firearms fall short.
Inquisitor Hikari Horaki
Shinji's class representative. She later becomes the pilots' minder while they are on campus, and is in charge of their protection detail.- Appropriated Appelation: At first the title of Inquisitor was merely a derogatory nickname the other students gave her. NERV then offered her a position to monitor and protect Shinji by giving her real authority over the rest of the students in school, and she assumed the title seriously.
- Battle Couple: With Toji. Not that he wants it that way. Not that she cares.
- Big Brother Is Watching: How she earns her place as an Inquisitor. Being the class rep and a member of Shinji's inner circle, she takes it upon herself to monitor the activities of all of her fellow classmates. NERV later commissions her to make the oversight official.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: As the class rep, she keeps the students in line. Later extends to the teacher as well, after Yang Wen-Li takes the position.
- Coat Cape: Wears a black one signifying her status as an Inquisitor. It enhances her intimidating manner and adds dramatic flair to her actions. It also conceals her bolter pistol.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Of the three Horaki sisters, she is the responsible one.
- The Kid with the Leash: Thanks to her reputation and her position as the one in charge of Shinji's safety when he's not on duty, she is the only person besides Shinji himself that can deploy the Legio Terminatus anywhere on the globe.
- Mood-Swinger: She can flip from sweet and girly to Iron Lady in the blink of an eye. It's one of the reasons nobody dares to test her as the Inquisitor.
- Oblivious to Love: Shares this trait with Toji at first. Shinji gives them both a push.
- Phrase Catcher: *gasp* Inquisitor Horaki!
- Promoted to Parent: Sort of. She has an older sister as well as a younger sister, but she is the most responsible and level-headed of the three of them.
- Relationship Upgrade: With Toji.
- State Sec: Played with. She offers to "disappear" some students that give Asuka a hard time at school, and it's clear that she's playing up her reputation. That said, she really does have unilateral authority to expel any student in the population, for any reason.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: She has a talent for getting the drop on students who are getting up to no good.
- Took a Level in Badass: She is the first to earn the right to carry a bolter on her person while at school in order to defend the pilots from any threats. Or just scare away potential harassers. Later she joins Toji in defending Tokyo-3 from the Angelspawn in the battle with Matarael.
Tech Priest Kensuke Aida
Shinji's classmate, who usually hangs around with Toji. Later becomes one of Shinji's main developers for new tech and joins NNHIS as a design engineer.- Ascended Fanboy: Absolutely loves all things military and NERV tech. Shinji recruits him to become a weapons manufacturer and designer. And then he becomes a Tech Priest.
- Badass Longcoat: Wears a red one signifying his status as a Tech Priest.
- Chick Magnet: Thanks to being the only guy among the pilots not dealing with a girlfriend or an Unwanted Harem, he actually develops a core base of fangirls for himself. His defense of the school against Matarael's Angelspawn plays a big role in this.
- *Click* Hello: If something threatens Shinji while he's around, it's likely to receive one of these.
- The Engineer: Shinji recruits him to help make the weapons of Warhammer into a reality. He manufactures the first working bolters and bolter pistols, and even crafts the ammunition that goes along with them. Later on he joins the design team of NNHIS to assist in developing weapons and armors for the Evas and Magnos Tancred.
- Guns Akimbo: He dual-wields bolter pistols.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Downplayed, along with Toji. The two of them are perfectly fine with suffering some slapstick for their antics, but if anyone tries to harm Shinji, they get deadly serious about ending the threat by any means necessary.
- Technopath: He takes worship of the machine spirit further than any other character. Makes sense considering his role as the Tech Priest.
- Took a Level in Badass: Starts off as a military Otaku, ascends to full blown Tech Priest who singlehandedly defends his entire school from waves of Angelspawn during the battle with Matarael. Also earns the right to openly carry a bolter on school grounds as part of the pilots' protection detail.
Agents Kentaro and Jiro
The two Section 2 agents who were originally sent to notify Shinji about his recall to Tokyo-3. Later they begin to support him more directly as his power and influence expands.- Captain Ersatz: They are expies of Agents K and J from Men in Black.
- Cool Car: Shinji gives them an old body Ford loaded with bells and whistles.
- Double Agent: Both of them switch sides to supporting Shinji personally once they learn about Gendo's plan to trigger Third Impact. They maintain their roles as Section 2 agents to keep an eye on things from inside.
- The Men in Black: All of Section 2 is styled like this. They are fully aware of the resemblence.
- Old Soldier: Agent Kentaro is a veteran spy with decades of experience. He frequently uses this to mess with his partner.
- Those Two Guys: They always come as a pair, and more often than not will have something witty to say about whatever situation the characters happen to be in.
"Miracle" Yang Wen-Li
A retired Chinese admiral and hero of the Impact Wars, feared across the globe as an unbeatable strategist and a tactical genius. He meets Shinji as a liason to the JSSDF and eventually takes on a more direct supportive role in the Angel War.- Boom, Headshot!: Gets shot in the head by a sniper while attending a UN summit after Kaworu steals the Lance of Longinus.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: An unstoppable military mastermind and political player who would rather spend his days reading and teaching history.
- The Conqueror: He is directly responsible for the current political landscape in the aftermath of Second Impact and the wars that followed. His military exploits also contributed heavily to the forming of the JSSDF.
- Enemy Mine: His relationship with Shinji has shades of this. Both of them have great respect for the other's skills and accomplishments, and they are both willing to pool their talents into guiding the Angel War to its best possible outcome. At the same time, each is fully aware that if the situation changes they may be forced to take opposing sides.
- Thanatos Gambit: His ghost explains to Col. Nasuna that he planned his own assassination in order to catalyze certain events, though it isn't entirely clear what outcome he was pushing for.
- The Mentor: Takes on this role for Shinji, not so much to guide his strategic planning, but to keep him aware of the hardships he will have to face as a consequence of his actions.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Due to Second Impact and the ensuing breakdown of local and global government organizations, he rose from being an unremarkable Chinese Navy commander to the man who single-handedly reunified China and the rest of southeast Asia, and could easily have conquered the rest of the world had he chose.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: He often projects the textbook image of lazy indifference, even when engaging high level political figures in a public setting, but anyone who knows him is well aware that the things he says and does cut on multiple levels and will hit you where you least expect them.
- Passing the Torch: He is perfectly happy to let Shinji surpass him and take the role of Emperor of Mankind, and lends his assistance to this outcome wherever he can.
- Smart People Play Chess: Subverted in that he is actually pretty awful at strategic board games or RTS games. This is because the games are too limited in scope to allow him to make use of his strategic talents.
Commissar Mana Kirishima
A Child Soldier of the JSSDF who trained in mechanized combat. She is made commander of the first Trident Land Dreadnought produced by NNHIS and assists the Eva pilots in protecting Tokyo-3.- An Arm and a Leg: She loses her left arm in the battle with Matarael. She later gains a bionic replacement so she can continue commanding the Magnos Tancred.
- Badass Longcoat: She is granted the right to design her own uniform as first commander of the Trident Land Dreadnought. What she comes up with includes one of these.
- Calling Your Attacks: More than any other character, if she makes a move, she will name it.
- Canon Immigrant: Lampshaded. She originally appeared in the visual novel Girlfriend of Steel and is introduced in a similar fashion in this story. She eventually backs off of pursuing Shinji in favor of supporting his aim to protect mankind, and Tokyo-3 specifically.
- Commissar Cap: It comes with the title.
- Cynicism Catalyst: She gets hit hard in the battle with Matarael, losing not only her arm in a traumatic injury, but also the lives of her two closest childhood friends. Her interactions with Shinji and other characters become a lot more restrained (though still supportive) as a result, and she loses a lot of her cheerfulness in general.
- Hot-Blooded: She really, really gets fired up when fighting in the Magnos Tancred.
- Lovely Angels: Plays this role with Rei when Asuka is deployed to Germany. Unit 00's DA1-0H armor even includes a docking port for the Magnos Tancred that allows them to combine for enhanced combat.
- Rank Up: Starts as a simple lieutenant in the JSSDF, but is eventually named a commissar in honor of the fact that she is the first to be made a commander of the Trident Land Dreadnought. Her authority is roughly at the level of an army captain.
- Spanner in the Works: For Kaworu. For whatever reason all of his schemes completely fail to account for her presence on the battlefield.
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Having very little social interaction as a child means her only knowledge of relationships comes from shojo manga and dating sims. She grows out of it.
The Enemies of the Emperor
Gendo Ikari
Shinji's father and Commander of NERV. He abandoned his son after his wife's death because was afraid of him. He will do anything to bring Yui back.
- 0% Approval Rating: Absolutely nobody likes working with or for Gendo, especially once Shinji arrives and starts positively influencing the shape of NERV and the Angel War in general.
- Abusive Parents: Like canon, he abandoned Shinji after Yui's death.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: He uses the embryo of Adam implanted in his hand to subjugate Kaworu and single-handedly take control of the Black Seed.
- Always Save the Girl: He will do anything to get his wife Yui back just like his canon self, even if he will destroy humanity in an Assimilation Plot to do it.
- Bad Boss: He has no problem with throwing NERV officers under the bus for daring to do the right thing against his orders. Even when it is literally impossible for those officers to be aware of those orders in the first place.
- Big Bad
- The Chessmaster: Despite all of his horrible qualities as a human being, he is still the best suited for directing NERV in its mission to destroy the Angels at all costs.
- Dirty Old Man: Like canon, he made Rei as a disturbing substitute for Yui.
- Jerkass: He is such a douchebag that even Canon!Gendo would call him out on his actions.
- Kick the Dog: His main shtick, especially when Shinji is concerned.
- Like Father, Like Son: It seems that Shinji inherited more from Gendo than he'd care to admit, such as being The Chessmaster.
- Lonely at the Top: A feeling that he shares with his son Shinji.
- Not So Above It All: Despite all the effort he puts into maintaining his aloof and threatening persona, he is not above referencing shonen anime when it suits his purposes.
- The Scapegoat: Part of the reason his is allowed to resume his post as NERV's commander after being arrested for abuse of power is because NERV needs somebody to take the blame for all of the backlash that will result from its role in winning the Angel War.
- Villainous Demotivator: He drains all positive morale from a room simply by walking through the doorway.
Kaworu Nagisa
A human-Angel hybrid created by SEELE to fulfill their plans for Instrumentality. Later becomes one of the primary antagonists of the story.- Arch-Nemesis: For Shinji, both practically and ideologically. He is a highly skilled combatant and manipulator who is also bent on absolute victory, driven by the belief that mankind is doomed to fail and must be replaced by something worthy of the future.
- Beleaguered Boss: Frequently laments the poor quality of henchmen he is able to recruit to his cause.
- Deadpan Snarker: When he isn't pontificating about humanity's inevitable doom, he will usually be providing scathing commentary.
- Deal with the Devil: Made one of these with Gendo, so that he could retrieve the true Lance of Longinus. It immediately bites him in the ass once the terms are fulfilled, because it's Gendo.
- Faux Affably Evil: For all of his politeness and generosity, he will not hesitate to end every life on Earth if it promotes his goals. His kindness is also a key component of his cruelty.
- Hypocrite: Despite regularly reminding his opponents that the universe is unfair and owes nothing to anyone, he frequently vents his frustrations that the universe continues to unfairly resist his efforts to steer history. Being aware of the hypocrisy only makes him more angry about it.
- The Man Behind the Man: The reason Angel attacks were so much more brutal and destructive in this continuity is that he was offering them advice behind the scenes. Later subverted since the Angels stop listening to him.
- Start My Own: Rather than going along with the plan to trigger Third Impact, he decides to create his own faction of human-Angel hybrids with which to conquer the world.
- Take a Third Option: Humanity is inferior and is not worthy to reign supreme on the Earth. The Angels are mindless power that has no appreciation for life or free will. Kaworu decides to kill both and force them to merge into a new hybrid species.
- Transhumanism: He argues that humanity has reached the apex of what it can achieve with just technology, and that in order to advance further still people must evolve.
- Turned Against Their Masters: He was bred for the sole purpose of fulfilling the prophecy of the Dead Sea Scrolls by attempting to initiate Third Impact. He abandons this role and makes his own bid for world conquest, and also begins actively trying to destroy SEELE itself.
- You Fight Like a Cow: He just cannot resist engaging Shinji in prolonged banter while fighting. He is fully aware of the liability it presents, but feels obliged to follow through anyway because not doing it just wouldn't be right.
Keel Lorenz
The chairman of SEELE's Human Instrumentality Commitee. When the prophecy of the Dead Sea Scrolls goes Off the Rails, he steps in to force events to conclusion himself.- Assimilation Plot: Like in canon, his entire purpose is to reduce humanity into a divine Hive Mind with himself at its head.
- The Chessmaster: He has been manipulating events to bring humanity towards Instrumentality for nearly 70 years, with almost nobody else even being aware of it, even after Second Impact is triggered.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: About the only part of his original body that hasn't been replaced by machinery is his brain.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The architect of Second Impact, Nagisa's creator, and Ikari Gendo's boss. He is directly and indirectly responsible for the entire scope of human death and suffering that marked the beginning of the new millenium.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: He doesn't banter. He doesn't make speeches. He often doesn't even emote. When he shows up, he means to end you. Along with the rest of all life on Earth.
- Orcus on His Throne: Subverted. For most of the story he remains as a schemer in the background, but when events spiral completely out of his control, he refuses to accept the outcome and decides to personally intervene.
- Soul Power: What makes the MP Evas dangerous this time around is not their ridiculous Healing Factor, but the fact that they are empowered by trapped human souls which boost their AT fields to absurd levels of power.
- Worthy Opponent: Defied. He couldn't care less about the lengths to which you might go to stop him. All he wants is to clear every obstacle out of his way so he can get on with triggering Third Impact.
Spoiler Character
Lilith
The Progenitor of the Black Moon, designated as the Second Angel. She awakens after the Earth's Cradle crisis is finally resolved, and begins trying to initiate Third Impact herself.- Arch-Enemy: To Adam. When the Black Moon arrived on Earth, she warred with Adam for supremacy and ultimately won the right to seed the planet with her children. Her only desire now is to reclaim the souls of all Lilim and use their power to fight Adam once more.
- Assimilation Plot: She wants to reclaim all souls on the Earth back into herself, both living and dead, in order to recover her full strength to continue her war with Adam.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: All Earthly souls originated with her, therefore she is completely within her rights to reclaim them as her own.
- Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: Inverted. In this case, Cthulhu tried to romance Shinji.
- Do You Want to Copulate?: She approaches Shinji and very directly asks him to have sex with her in order to trigger Third Impact.
- The Dreaded: With excellent reason. She is the source of all life on Earth, with power greater even than Adam himself.
- Humanoid Abomination: She inhabits one of Rei's clone bodies, but is endowed with reality-bending powers.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Another one of the ways her power manifests in Rei's clone body.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Her AT field is far beyond anything else witnessed in the story, to the point where even Apocalypse!Rei can't stand up to her directly. The most any of the characters can hope to accomplish is momentarily distracting her and then finding a way to return her to dormancy.
- Not Right in the Bed: How Shinji figures out that she is not actually Rei.
- Power Floats: Once she begins channeling her abilities, her feet never touch the ground again.
- The Problem with Fighting Death: Her death would spell eternal suffering for all living things on the Earth simply because nothing would be able to properly die anymore.
- Psychopomp: All souls of the dead return to Lilith. Unfortunately, nobody figures this out until she is temporarily removed from reality.
- Reality Warper: She can render human souls into LCL with a thought or a glance, unless they are particularly strong-willed. Even more frightening, her mere existance is what separates the human concepts of reality from fantasy, and life from death. When she is removed from the timeline, humans become subject to waking nightmares and hallucinations that can only be banished by NERV personnel, and lose the ability to die completely.
- Soul Power: Literally. The more souls Lilith possesses, the stronger she becomes.
- Voice of the Legion: Once she drops the mask, her voice becomes this.
Other Characters
Minase
One of Shinji's classmates in elementary school and his first crush.- The Beautiful Elite: Her delicate beauty and grace and general 'princess' atmosphere are what attract Shinji.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Acts sweet when she's truly snotty.
- Elegant Classical Musician
- Defiled Forever: Has this opinion of herself after the high schooler rapes her. She's ashamed to see Shinji because she thinks, despite his crush, he wouldn't want anything to do with her now.
- Hero's Muse: She's the reason Shinji took up the cello; he wanted to be near her in the band and impress her.
- Heel–Face Turn: After the debacle with her high school boyfriend she becomes one of Shinji's converts.
- Ojou A high class girl adored by many in the school, including Shinji (at first).
- Rape Portrayed as Redemption (Rape as Drama?) - Happens the end of the prologue. The person who did it is then killed (accidentally) after being attacked by her and Kobayakawa.
- Rich Bitch: She acts like a snotty princess because her family's well off.
- Ship Sinking: If Minase rejecting him did not kill the couple, Shinji leaving for Tokyo-3 definitely deep-sixed it. Now Shinji is being chased by Asuka, Rei, Maya, Mana... and there is no place left for Minase, especially now that Shinji has chosen Asuka.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: She knew Shinji since they were little kids, but she turned down Shinji's crush because she thinks she's too good for him. This bites her in the ass later, now that Shinji has grown up and attracted the attentions of every female in Tokyo-3, including Rei and Asuka, Shinji's girlfriend. Poor Minase was left in the dust.
