You jelly.

And that doesn't even scratch the surface on what you need to know to understand the series.

Good luck newcomers!

 Spoiler

I'm so f'ucked up.

Lulz.

And to touch on a few things Derosis said that are partially true.

 Spoiler

Rei Ayanami is considered a genetic modification of Lillith but in reality is a clone of Yui Ikari, Shinji's dead mother. From the beginning, SEELE put Gendo in charge of the Project (HIP) but right off the bat Gendo planned to take control of the situation on his own and developed Rei, thought to be his "daughter" by his co-workers when really she was just going to be used so he could be the dictator of said project, not SEELE.

The Human Instrumentality Project can be succeeded by two or three probable methods I believe. Two being SEELE's and one being Gendo's personal plan. One of SEELE's is to combine Lillith, Lance of Longinus, and an Evangelion's S2 engine to fully complete a cycle of the project. Gendo's method is to combine Lillith, Adam, and the soul of Lillith which is later discovered as being Rei. Both these can cause the Third Impact and SEELE intended to use all of their tools at the right time because they felt that evolution has reached it's peak in the world, however Gendo just wanted to reign supreme.

Which is why you should get an Xfire so I can finally have a discussion with someone to debate things about Eva C: