NGE - "The Birth of NERV" - On the Criminal Elite

Following the 400% Sync Ratio incident, SEELE takes Fuyutsuki, Gendo's second-in-command, into custody for interrogation. During this time, he reflects on the events which led to this point, events dating back fifteen years to the days when he was a college professor. It was through his job that he met Yui Ikari and Gendo Rokubungi.

After Second Impact, the marriage between Gendo and Yui was finalized, and SEELE, the organization funding Yui's research projects, came under heavy fire for its near-exclusive investigation into the Second Impact. A press blackout was spearheaded by United Nations at the behest of SEELE, and the world would never know about the first Angel's part in the tragedy.

When Fuyutsuki threatens to publicize the scandal, Gendo shows him the Geofront for the first time, and the origin of the first Evangelion unit. In this episode, we also gain insight into the lives and connections that the Akagi family, and the Katsuragi family, had with SEELE and the eventual post-organization NERV.

This is where it all began. Our suspicions about NERV using the weapons and processes that the Angels use is confirmed when it is revealed that Evangelion Unit-01 was created in the very image of the First Angel (Adam). It would appear that, from the very beginning, SEELE was planning to initiate an Impact of their own (something which comes to fruition in the End of Evangelion film). EVA-01, then, is the true last Angel of the series, a dramatic irony not lost on the viewer.

Furthermore, SEELE reveals that their intention was never to create a singular God, meaning that the taking in of the S2 organ by force (EVA-01 ripped it out of Zuruel and ate it) was entirely done to the benefit of Gendo Ikari. Ikari's sole motivation following the death of Yui Ikari is to unleash his version of the Human Instrumentality Project, which we still know nothing about.

So, what can we take away from all of this?

First, Yui Ikari must have been the descendant of some rather powerful people if an elite organization like SEELE was willingly backing her. Gendo, meanwhile, was an apparent nobody who could see that Yui was being supported by a greater entity, and he found ways to exploit that to his own end.

Second, SEELE's ability to bully its way into the Second Impact research, and then cover it up, speaks volumes about their pull in other sectors as well. We know that Chairman Keel was the acting leader of the UN, which explains the ease of the Second Impact cover-up. That said, the significant level of financing and resource procurement provided by the other chairpersons of SEELE remains a mystery.

What it does reveal is that this organization, allegedly funded through religious donation, had to be getting their money from somewhere else. Either they were embezzling it from the world governments (seriously, who would even be able to check?), or they were manipulating global banks for profit (similar to the LIBOR Scandal).

Yui had to come from a family which was privy to this. Either a relative of hers is on the committee, or a relative of hers was indirectly in collusion with the organization. And Gendo? He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

In reality, how much do we know about the so called "social elite?" How many of them have incomes that are factually reported? How many of them do we simply not know about? Who really controls the allocation of resources on a global scale?

We often make jokes about the so-called "Illuminati," and the Knights Templar have become something of a modern media icon thanks to a certain popular videogame franchise. But the truth is, we will never truly know if the things we hold to be romaniticized myths are indeed mythical.

Just something to think about.