Thoughts on Evangelion (original, end, or rebuild)
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Hmm, interesting take... what makes you say that the ending of NGE/EoE removed the agency of the characters? Because it all came down to Shinji’s choice to reject Instrumentality or not?
He rejected it, and thus gets left on a destroyed earth to starve with Asuka somehow. The ending has nothing to do at all with the evas or their fight with the angels, the villains are never confronted or even discovered, and the entire show was utterly pointless. The ending in EoE was just watching a prepubescent boy reject being raped by a goddess who harvested the souls of humanity, killing the goddess and leaving earth as a desolate hellscape.
At least in rebuild, they actually confront the villains throughout movies 3 and 4, and the final ending has the protagonist unsubtly saying EoE was bullshit.
After he rejects it though, it’s stated that anyone with a strong enough desire/will to return can also reject it, hence Asuka coming back after him. You could imagine that happens to others, or you could imagine a new Adam and Eve scenario, both of which are intriguing in their own rights.
You’re totally right about the plot structure going semi-haywire (villains left unconfronted/discovered, and never really getting the kind of perfect/complete breakdown of their methods & motivations we rationally desire) - BUT - that’s from the perspective that seeks control (total knowledge) or seeks to dive in to “escapist fantasy” completely, and I think that in fact one of the most powerful things NGE as a franchise has to say is on the rejection of complete escapism! Both the original show and the rebuilt series end by showing the real (non-anime) world, and I don’t think that’s an accident. Shinji’s choice is ultimately one between “comfortable” fantasy of total ego dissolution, and (the sometimes harsh) reality, where the only way to connect with others involves making yourself vulnerable.
:)