text:
Talk:Snoring

Removing
I'm removing the remark about divorce being the only viable solution to a snoring partner. Although it provided some humour, it didn't serve as a positive contribution. 86.147.227.213 (talk) 20:37, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Somnoplasty/Somniplasty
Somniplasty is an orphan article and just links to a BBC article from 1998 and googling the term gets results referring back to Wikipedia or pages with computer compiled terms. The procedure described on the page sounds like what is referred to by Somnoplasty.--209.7.195.158 (talk) 18:02, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Regarding the comments "Snoring As A Defense Mechanism" and "Evolutionary Background"
Good article for the area of the topic that it covers! Regarding the talk page topics "Snoring As A Defense Mechanism" and "Evolutionary Background", I would also like to see the article enlarged to include topics about snoring as it relates to defense against predators in our evolution, snoring in other species (very common in dogs and cats, and pigs snore just like humans), non-placental mammals (do kangaroos and duckbill platypuses snore?) and non-mammalian snoring, and even to ideas about what possible benefits snoring has for molding family structure by making people sleep separately from each other (such as snoring as a form of birth control, for example after not being able to escape from my partner's snoring all night long I most certainly did not feel romantically inclined). There has got to be a reason why such a supremely annoying, even life-threatening (via sleep apnea auto-strangulation or being strangled by an enraged sleep-deprived family member), thing exists! Linstrum (talk) 13:27, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

What Doctors might ask first:
Who is most affected by the snoring? This is often the bedpartner, especially with simple snoring. Is the snoring personally disturbing and/or the relationship? If so, how much? Since when is the snoring a problem or worry? Has the person recently gained weight or increased the collar size? Alcohol consumption and its possible influence on the snoring. Intake of sleeping pills and other sedatives. Does the sleeping position, especially lying flat on the back, influence the snoring? A history of nasal problems which could refer to nasal polyps Obstructive sleep apnoea

What your doctor might check out first:
Measurement of Body Mass Index (BMI) and collar size since many patients with sleep apnoea measure a BMI >30 and above 43 cm collar size. Examination of nose for polyps or septal deviation. The crowding and size of tonsils and uvula. A receding lower jaw and the crowding and quality of teeth. Daytime sleepiness. Thyroid functioning.

Smoking "clogs the throat"
What, like bacon grease? Just a weird parenthetical that I was curious to learn more about -- not sure if the revert to the citation-needed tag there was because my stupid edit message made it seem like I was adding this self-evidently absurd claim, or because the claim is obviously true and I'm just being dense. 2600:1702:6D1:28B0:DDB0:105C:EDBE:C48D (talk) 17:11, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

What to do to stop it
How should I treat it? Sigmakratos (talk) 18:58, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Snoring


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of flags with one color

This page is an archive of the discussion surrounding the proposed deletion of the page entitled List of flags with one color.

This page is kept as an historic record.

The result of the debate was to redirect to List of flags by number of colors.

Interesting. Keep--Beelzebubs 03:20, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Contains only one flag. 66.32.144.73 03:06, 15 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Added another. Vote to keep, there is a group of flag pages on wiki, but one has to accept that, due to the nature of flags, this will probably never be a long list. Rhymeless 04:34, 15 May 2004 (UTC)
 * I think it's a useless list, but if we're going to delete it, everything else on List of Lists of Flags need to go at the same time. -- Cyrius|&#9998 05:09, May 15, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. If a list is encyclopedic, it shouldn't be deleted just because it's short. -- Jao 09:32, 15 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Shortness of a list shouldn't be a reason for acceptance, specially not if it fits along other lists. (As a kid, I did wonder how many countries would have a single colour flag). Abigail 11:43, May 15, 2004 (UTC)
 * My older brother always said that's what happened when you hired non-union flag designers. Rhymeless 05:02, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Alcarillo 18:42, 15 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. ditto Cyrius' remarks: it's no more or less useless than any of the other lists. Feedle 08:34, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. See Cyrius' comment about the List of Lists Of Flags page. DO'Neil 09:02, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep, in present form it's a decent little nugget of trivia, does no particular harm, "Wikipedia is not paper." Dpbsmith 22:26, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Interesting. Fredrik 09:45, 17 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep, why is it that some people here insist on deleting everything by instead of improving it, only after i had been doing some housework here by merging the whole flag-mess to List of flags by number of colors and List of flags by color did i notice this page when fixing the redirect. Please IMPROVE pages that lack instead of listing them on VFD, in the future. VFD is for pages that do not belong, not pages that could be better and/or merged. --Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 17:23, 2004 May 17 (UTC)
 * Keep. -- pne 14:17, 19 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. -- Pedro 13:45, 20 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. I agree with Abigail and Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 's comments -- Cabalamat 19:00, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue should be placed on other relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Talk:United States Department of Agriculture

Dairy section for "Private sector relationships"
Hello Wikipedians. I recently read a fairly well-regarded article by legal scholar Andrea Freeman critiquing the USDA (and Dairy Management Inc.) for simultaneously needing to address public health through nutrition while also selling the nation's dairy surplus. I imagine a small paragraph could be written about this with further research, and refer readers to the DMI.

Here is the article for anyone interested: https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=ucilr I will try to incorporate this on 4 July. Ornov Ganguly (talk) 01:57, 3 July 2024 (UTC)


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Flateyjarbók

Flateyjarbók ("Book of Flatey") is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name Codex Flateyensis. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and produced by the priests and scribes Jón Þórðarson and Magnús Þórhallsson.

Description
Flateyjarbók is the largest medieval Icelandic manuscript, comprising 225 written and illustrated vellum leaves. It contains mostly sagas of the Norse kings as found in the Heimskringla, specifically the sagas about Olaf Tryggvason, St. Olaf, Sverre, Hákon the Old, Magnus the Good, and Harald Hardrada. But they appear here expanded with additional material not found elsewhere (some of it being very old) along with other unique differences. Most—but not all—of the additional material is placed within the royal sagas, sometimes interlaced. Additionally, the manuscript contains the only copy of the eddic poem Hyndluljóð, a unique set of annals from creation to 1394, and many short tales not otherwise preserved such as Nornagests þáttr ("the Story of Norna Gest").

Especially important is the Grœnlendinga saga ("History of the Greenlanders"), giving an account of the Vinland colony with some differences from the account contained in Eiríks saga rauða ("History of Eirík the Red"). Here also are preserved the only Icelandic versions of the Orkneyinga saga ("History of the Orkney Islanders") and Færeyinga saga ("History of the Faroe Islanders").

History
From internal evidence the book was being written in 1387 and was completed in 1394 or very soon after. The first page states that its owner is "Jonn Hakonar son" and that the book was scribed by two priests. One of them, "Jon prestr Þórðar son", scribed the contents from the tale of Eirík the Traveller down to the end of the two Olaf sagas and the other, "Magnús prestr Thorhallz sun", scribed the earlier and later material and also drew the illustrations.

Further material was inserted towards the end of the 15th century.

The manuscript first received special attention by the learned in 1651 when Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson of Skálholt, with the permission of King Frederick III of Denmark, requested all folk of Iceland who owned old manuscripts to turn them over to the Danish king, providing either the original or a copy, either as a gift or for a price. Jon Finnsson, who resided on Flatey ('Flat Island') in the fjord of Breiðafjörður on the northwest coast of Iceland, was then the owner of the book which was already known as the Flateyjarbók. At first Jon refused to release his precious heirloom, the biggest and best book in all of Iceland, and he continued to refuse even when Bishop Brynjólfur paid him a personal visit and offered him five hundreds of land. Jon only changed his mind and bestowed the book on the bishop just as the bishop was leaving the region.

The manuscript was given as a present from Bishop Brynjólfur to King Frederick III in 1656, and placed in the Royal Library of Copenhagen. In 1662, the bishop presented the king with a second medieval manuscript, the Codex Regius (Konungsbók eddukvæða). It and Flateyjarbók survived the Copenhagen Fire of 1728 and the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807 and were eventually repatriated to Iceland in 1971 as Icelandic national treasures. They are preserved and studied by the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies.

Contents
Flateyjarbók consists of the following texts:

 * Geisli – a religious poem on St. Olaf II of Norway
 * Ólafs ríma Haraldssonar – a poem on St. Olaf in the rímur style, the earliest such poetry
 * Hyndluljóð
 * A short piece from Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum
 * Sigurðar þáttr slefu
 * Hversu Noregr byggðist
 * Genealogies of Norwegian kings
 * Eiríks saga víðförla
 * Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar (en mesta), including:
 * Saga of the Greenlanders, consists of:
 * Eiríks þáttr rauða
 * Grœnlendinga þáttr (I)
 * Færeyinga saga
 * Jómsvíkinga saga
 * Otto þáttr keisara
 * Fundinn Noregr
 * Orkneyinga þáttr
 * Albani þáttr ok Sunnifu
 * Íslands bygging
 * Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts
 * Sörla þáttr
 * Stefnis þáttr Þorgilssonar
 * Rögnvalds þáttr ok Rauðs
 * Hallfreðar þáttr vandræðaskálds
 * Kjartans þáttr Ólafssonar
 * Ögmundar þáttr dytts
 * Norna-Gests þáttr
 * Helga þáttr Þórissonar
 * Þorvalds þáttr tasalda
 * Sveins þáttr ok Finns
 * Rauðs þáttr hins ramma
 * Hrómundar þáttr halta
 * Þorsteins þáttr skelks
 * Þiðranda þáttr ok Þórhalls
 * Kristni þáttr
 * Svaða þáttr ok Arnórs kerlingarnefs
 * Eindriða þáttr ilbreiðs
 * Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar
 * Hálfdanar þáttr svarta
 * Haralds þáttr hárfagra
 * Hauks þáttr hábrókar

 * Ólafs saga helga, including:
 * Fóstbrœðra saga
 * Orkneyinga saga
 * Færeyinga saga
 * Nóregs konungatal
 * Haralds þáttr grenska
 * Ólafs þáttr Geirstaðaálfs
 * Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa
 * Hróa þáttr heimska
 * Eymundar þáttr hrings
 * Tóka þáttr Tókasonar
 * Ísleifs þáttr biskups
 * Eymundar þáttr af Skörum
 * Eindriða þáttr ok Erlings
 * Ásbjarnar þáttr Selsbana
 * Knúts þáttr hins ríka
 * Steins þáttr Skaptasonar
 * Rauðúlfs þáttr
 * Völsa þáttr
 * Brenna Adams byskups
 * Sverris saga
 * Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar
 * An addendum to Ólafs saga helga by Styrmir Kárason
 * A saga of King Magnus the Good and King Harald Hardrada of the Morkinskinna type
 * Hemings þáttr Áslákssonar
 * Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka
 * Sneglu-Halla þáttr
 * Halldórs þáttr Snorrasonar
 * Þorsteins þáttr forvitna
 * Þorsteins þáttr tjaldstæðings
 * Blóð-Egils þáttr
 * Grœnlendinga þáttr (II) (not to be confused with the first Grœnlendinga þáttr)
 * Helga þáttr ok Úlfs
 * Játvarðar saga helga – Saga of King Edward
 * Flateyjarannáll

Modern translations
Flateyjarbók is currently being translated into English by the Saga Heritage Foundation of Norway. The translator is Alison Finlay, professor of Medieval English and Icelandic Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. A Norwegian edition, translated by Edvard Eikill and comprising six volumes, was completed in 2019.

Editions

 * Flateyjarbók, ed. by Guðbrandur Vigfússon and C.R. Unger: volume 1 (1860), volume 2 (1862), volume 3 (1868), also digitised at Heimskringla.no (diplomatic edition)
 * Flateyjarbók, [ed. by Sigurður Nordal], 4 vols (Akranes: Flateyjarútgáfan, 1944–45) (normalised Old Norse spelling)

Translations

 * (Tale of Halfdan the Black, pp. 1–10; Tale of Hauk High-Breeches, pp. 11–20)

title: Flateyjarbók


text:
Cynisca

Cynisca (or Kyniska, Κυνίσκα; born c. 442 BC) was a wealthy Spartan princess. She is famous for being the first woman to win at the Olympic Games; her horse teams competed in the sport of chariot racing, driven by male charioteers. Cynisca first entered the Olympics in 396 BC, where she won first prize competing with a team of horses she had trained herself. In 392 BC, Cynisca entered her horses in the Olympics for a second time and was awarded another victory in the same event.

Etymology
Cynisca's name means "female puppy" in Ancient Greek, and she was named after her grandfather Zeuxidamus, who was called Cyniscos. It is possible that this name is derived from the hunting traditions of the Spartan elite, or her family's practice of raising hunting dogs.

Early life
Cynisca was born around 442 BC in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta and was the daughter of the Eurypontid king Archidamus II and his wife Eupolia. Her brothers were Agis II and Agesilaus II, both of whom succeeded their father as a king of Sparta. Because of her family's wealth, Cynisca was able to spend time developing her sporting skills and learning how to train horses for chariot racing, paving the way for her future Olympic victories. According to Pausanias, Cynisca was exceedingly ambitious to succeed at the Olympic Games from a young age.

Several sources from Xenophon and Plutarch make mention of how, in her youth, Cynisca's brother Agesilaus encouraged her to breed horses and compete in the games, though his motivations for doing so have recently been debated. According to these ancient sources, Agesilaus supposedly viewed success in chariot racing as a victory without merit. As opposed to other events, where a man's bravery and virtue were the decisive factors, he believed that chariot racing only demonstrated wealth due to the lack of involvement on the part of the horses' owner. Both of these ancient authors suggested that Agesilaus hoped to expose how the sport was unmanly and aristocratic by having a woman win, though in reality Cynisca's victories did not stop wealthy Spartans from engaging in the sport. Several modern scholars, on the other hand, have theorized that Agesilaus' motivations were more practical. They suspect that he was using her victories and wealth to promote his own political career and gain public support through association, rather than providing a moral lesson. The evidence provided to support this theory is that Cynisca's two Olympic victories would have also brought fame to Agesilaus and to the wider Eurypontid house. Additionally, the establishment of Cynisca's hero-cult after her death could suggest that Agesilaus was still making use of his sister's fame even after her death.

Olympic Games
In 396 BC, Cynisca employed male charioteers to drive the horses she trained and entered her team at the Olympics for the first time, where it won in the four-horse chariot race (tethrippon Greek: τέθριππον). Cynisca is thought to have been approximately 40 years old when she won her first Olympic victory. In 392 BC, Cynisca again entered her racing team at the Olympic games and secured another victory.

To commemorate her Olympic achievements, Cynisca dedicated a set of bronze statues which depicted herself, her charioteer, her chariot, and her horses at the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. According to Pausanias, these statues were placed in a prominent location in the entrance way of the temple, next to the throne dedicated by Arimnestus, a king of Etruria. Along with the statues, Cynisca also celebrated her victories with an inscription, declaring that she was the only woman to win the wreath in the chariot events at the Olympic Games. Cynisca also dedicated another monument with copy of the same inscription in Sparta. The inscription from Olympia (c. 390-380 BC) reads:

 * English
 * Kings of Sparta are my father and brothers
 * I, Kyniska, victorious with a chariot of swift-footed horses,
 * have erected this statue. I declare myself the only woman
 * in all Hellas to have won this crown.
 * Apelleas son of Kallikles made it.

 * Ancient Greek
 * Σπάρτας μὲν βασιλῆες ἐμοὶ
 * πατέρες καὶ ἀδελφοί, ἅρματι δ’ ὠκυπόδων ἵππων
 * νικῶσα Κυνίσκα εἰκόνα τάνδ’ ἔστασεν μόναν
 * δ’ ἐμέ φαμι γυναικῶν Ἑλλάδος ἐκ πάσας τόν[-]
 * δε λαβεν στέφανον. Ἀπελλέας Καλλικλέος ἐπόησε.

Pausanias also mentions an epigram to Cynisca of unknown authorship, which he claims was the only poetic composition ever written to commemorate the deeds of the royal houses of the Lacedaemonians. In addition to this, a heroön (hero-shrine) was erected for Cynisca in Sparta at Plane-tree Grove, where religious ceremonies were held. Previously, only Spartan kings had been graced in this way; Cynisca was the first woman to receive this honor.

Cultural context
While most women in the ancient Greek world were kept in seclusion and forbidden to pursue athletic activities such as riding or hunting, Spartan women of the elite spartiate class were trained to excel in sports. The greater freedom that spartiate women experienced in terms of athletic pursuits was largely due to the fact that they were able to dedicate significant amounts of time to their training, since the helot system, whereby the majority of the population was kept in slavery, relieved them of the typical household duties that most other Greek women were expected to attend to. High levels of female athleticism were encouraged in Sparta because as a society, they believed that strong women would produce strong children and supply the army with powerful soldiers.

Despite the greater level of social freedom that spartiate women enjoyed, participation in Olympic Games remained almost entirely restricted to men. There is debate about whether women were even allowed to attend the games as spectators. Several passages from Pausanias shed light on this issue, as he suggests that parthenai (young, unmarried women) were allowed to attend the Olympics as spectators, but gynaikes (married women) were barred from entering. In terms of competing in the Olympic games, women were only allowed to enter the equestrian events, not by participating themselves, but rather by owning and training the horses.

However, while it was rare for women to compete against men in athletic games, as Cynisca did, there is evidence to suggest that separate athletic competitions existed for women in the Greek world. The existence of these competitions is supported by Pausanias' mention of a number of bronze statues dedicated by victorious female runners (mostly Spartan) at the temple of Hera at Elis, as well as several stone inscriptions that have been uncovered.

Cynisca's cultural impact
Based on archaeological evidence such as the locations of her dedications and hero-cult, as well as the speculation of modern scholars, Cynisca's win at the Olympics likely had a great impact on women across the Greek world, not only her fellow Lacedaemonians. After Cynisca's victory, several other Greek women went on to achieve varying levels of success in the sport of chariot racing, including Euryleonis, Belistiche, Zeuxo, Encrateia and Hermione, Timareta, Theodota, and Cassia. However, according to Pausanias, none of these women gained greater recognition for their victories than Cynisca. When Berenike of Egypt won in the four-horse chariot race at the Olympics in the early third century BC, she commissioned an epigram by the poet Posidippus in which she explicitly claimed to have "stolen" the fame (κῦδος) of Cynisca. Her epigram was included in the so-called Greek Anthology, which also indicates its continuing relevance long after the victory itself.

Some scholars have suggested that Cynisca's Olympic victories and heroic qualities were likely also honored by men, based on the fact that her heroön was placed in a prominent location near the Platanistas, the exercise grounds for male Spartan youths.

In modern times, Cynisca has been commemorated by the Greek poet Zoe Karelli, who wrote a poem about her love for horses and the Olympic victory which made her name famous in Greek history.

Cynisca is included in Judy Chicago's 1979 feminist art exhibit commemorating historically famous women throughout civilization, The Dinner Party.

In sports of the modern era, Cynisca continues to be recognized. Cynisca Cycling is a U.S. registered women's professional cycling team named after the Spartan princess. Kyniska Advocacy is a UK organization fostering a safe environment for women in sports. Kyniska Hoops is an AAU girls' basketball club, also playing in the girls' U.S. Junior National basketball tournament.

title: Cynisca


text:
Arrow squid

Arrow squid is a common name for a squid.

Species called arrow squids include:
 * Doryteuthis plei, the slender inshore squid
 * Heterololigo bleekeri, the spear squid
 * Nototodarus gouldi, Gould's squid
 * Nototodarus sloanii, the New Zealand arrow squid

title: Arrow squid


text:
Talk:Ragdoll

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 May 2019 and 2 July 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Potatocircle.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 07:45, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 August 2020 and 12 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Meowzi.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 07:45, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 6 September 2020 and 7 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Shangyingsun.

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video request
I request a photo or video clip of a ragdoll going limp and relaxed when picked up.

Dodobird. These cats are not pain resistant
I've noticed You've edited the article severely and I don't agree with at least 1 of your changes.

I suppose You like the current desription of Ragdoll saying that these cats don't feel pain etc. but removing entire paragraph with its sources explaining how these ridiculous claims originated seems immature to me. It looks like your motivation is to maintain the "supercat reputation" of Your Binka on Wikipedia :)

here's the paragraph You've deleted

Ragdolls were created in the 1960s by Ann Baker, a Persian cat breeder in California. The name "Ragdoll" is derived from Baker's belief that her cat Josephine was genetically manipulated during treatment at the local university, after she was run over by a car, resulting in future Ragdolls being relaxed when picked up, and unable to feel pain. Naturally, Ragdolls experience pain in the same way as any other breed of cat. 78.131.137.50 (talk) 04:49, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

 * Hi, the article does not state that Ragdolls don't feel pain. If you look in the section on temperament, it says that "The defining characteristic of the original Ragdoll is its docile temperament and tendency to go limp when picked up, thought to be due to a genetic mutation or passed down from the Persian and Birman breed. This has led to the myth that Ragdolls are pain-resistant". Does that address your concern? --Dodo bird (talk) 05:34, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

 * It's a shame that I've started rewriting this article in these circumstances. It really needed cleaning but now I've got You as a potential revert-war-enemy :( It was not my intention. Sources in "temperament" section can't be verified. Currently it ascribes cat's temperament to a single genetic mutation(sic!). I've deleted it and instead I included citations from breed standards regarding temperament in the intro as well as a mention of "lipmpness" that You seem to care for the most. The latter one is my attempt to reach compromise with You. Preparing this edit took me some effort. Even though it's substantially correct in every way and backed with sources, I feel You won't like it because facts and sources I included may weaken the enthusiastic tone of the article in Your perception.78.131.137.50 (talk) 07:25, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

 * Hi again. The article does not ascribe the temperament to a single genetic mutation, it says "thought to be due to a genetic mutation or passed down from the Persian and Birman breed". This is backed by the reference to Tabor. I fixed your issue with verifiability by modifying the references to link to preview pages so you can check them out yourself. Limpness (aka floppiness) is mentioned in both references.
 * The temperament section you deleted has been restored and your additions based on breed standards have been moved here. I scraped the "Naming" section as all relevant information there is already in the article. Besides it uses a breeder's website which is unlikely to meet the WP:RS standard. I don't understand your complaints about "enthusiastic tone".--Dodo bird (talk) 12:30, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
 * These sources that you're questiong are consistent with already existing sources here
 * Look yourself:
 * "According to Baker, in the early 1960s the Ragdoll’s foundation cat, a longhaired white Angora look-alike named Josephine, was taken to a laboratory after being hit by a car, where she was genetically altered as part of a secret government experiment. All subsequent offspring possessed the same characteristics: non-matting fur, docile nature, larger size, imperviousness to pain and the tendency to go limp like a child’s rag doll—thus the breed's name. However, this couldn’t be confirmed, Baker claimed, since the government suppressed all the evidence." . That's why I'm restoring the section.
 * Hmmm... Dodo, this discussion is getting really embarrasing. You invoke WP:RS (to be proven wrong) and at the same time You cite other sources very creatively. I've just went through these links and they say nothing You wrote in the article
 * For example here's Your edit "-The defining characteristic of the original Ragdoll is its docile temperament and tendency to go limp when picked up, thought to be due to a genetic mutation or passed down from the Persian and Birman breed".

 * The book doesn't say anything like it. It only mentions "genetic mutations" just to refute it as a myth:

 * Ragdoll Cat. The Ragdoll Cat is an American breed developed during the 1960s from a line of white and pointed Bitman and Burmese cats. It is a large, heavily boned and muscular cat that is always colorpointed. Accepted colors include (...). The Ragdoll received it name because of its relaxed, gentle and lethrgic nature. It is reputedly said to go limp when held, thus appearing to be completely floppy like a feline rag-doll. The controversy of this breed lies in assumption by some that the cat's laid-back nature means that it will not respond to pain. There is no support for this claim, however, and it appears that the Ragdoll does not carry any type of genetic mutation causing it to be unable to escape from pain or cruel treatment
 * Note how this confirms statements in the reference You've deleted as "unreliable" (already confirmed here ).
 * Let's clear the atmospheare. We both know where you're going. You want the limpness thing to be described as an undeniable fact and delete any mention of how it originated from a crazywoman who believed her cats were genetically manipulated, claimed she crossbred them with other species etc. You're in a lost position because there's too many sources describing this. Though it is not my intention to remove the mention of limpness because there are sorces for them too and sooner or later someone will addd it back eventually.

 * I'm going to reedit the intro only with sourced citations. Current claims are weasel words. In temperament section I'll put only exact citation too. Section "the name ragdoll" will gain more sources.78.131.137.50 (talk) 01:40, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

(outdent) Did you read the Tabor reference. I used Tabor for the point about breeders breeding away from extreme docility and how it is likely derived from a mutation or from crossing with other docile breeds. These two key points are not present in your version. The Case reference is for the point about pain resistance being a myth, which we both agree. Case does not contradict Tabor. Don't confuse the inability to feel pain with limpness/floppiness. I think we agree on the general temperament of the breed, although you seem to want them to be presented in the form of "according to X" rather than as a generalization. I think we have enough third party sources to make that unnecessary but it's not a big deal.

I don't understand why you insist on the section on naming. The sentence in the lead that says "The name "Ragdoll" is derived from the tendency of individuals from the original breeding stock to go limp and relaxed when picked up." is more than adequate. The stuff about Baker's claim of genetic manipulation is already present in the History section.
 * After she recovered, her next litter produced exceptionally friendly kittens, which Baker claimed, was a result of a secret government genetic experiment on Josephine(a claim rejected by genetics experts[5]).

The temperament section addresses the myth that Ragdolls are pain resistant. What important information is in that section that is not already present in the article elsewhere? --Dodo bird (talk) 05:01, 12 October 2009 (UTC) Please note that I left a comment at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Cats requesting third party opinion.--Dodo bird (talk) 05:07, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Tabor is there. It's higher than before.
 * Dodobird, breeder Ann Baker had bad reputation because of her 2 ridiculous beliefs :
 * A that Ragdolls were pain resistant because of genetic manipulation done to her cat as part of a secret government experiment
 * B that her cats go limp in human's hands because of the same genetic manipulation
 * Your edits delete the information on B. The unsourced opening sentence You proposed presented Baker's B belief as a fact without explaing how it originated. I mean this one :
 * "The name "Ragdoll" is derived from the tendency of individuals from the original breeding stock to go limp and relaxed when picked up."
 * I'm not insisting on leaving section "The name Ragdoll" exactly as it is. I'm insisting on leaving information B with its sources visible and clear in the article. As for the intro and Temperamnet section these 2 now contain only sourced material without "I love my cat" rubbish. They gained on our polemics. Third party could help to make the History section more tidy. I hope he/she won't be a sock though78.131.137.50 (talk) 06:51, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

1. Baker claiming genetic manipulation changed Josephine, that is one ridiculous belief, not two. No need for separate section. 2. Do not confuse the breed's limpness/floppiness (a factual generalization) with Baker's belief that those traits were a result of genetic manipulation. 3. The sentence in the lead was not sourced because the exact same info was already sourced in the temperament section. Tabor states clearly that Baker's Ragdoll are "undeniably floppy". 4. There are easier ways to improve an article. You can give yourself a pat on the back for making it not so. 5. Don't cut and paste from the reference. 6. Try to spell the authors name right.--Dodo bird (talk) 16:11, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Maybe it should be made clearer that Baker's claims are impossible, while leaving her story intact as a fictional account? - Smoke — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.147.235.211 (talk) 14:14, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Ragdoll page editors - please read!
May I suggest that the page be changed to put the "genetically engineered" claim more clearly. I feel I have wasted time investigating this Ann Baker and her unusual beliefs. I thought the page had been vandalised when I first saw this entry but I sought to find the truth before reverting anyone's edits!

I read this at the Iams website given as a reference.

''"According to Baker, in the early 1960s the Ragdoll’s foundation cat, a longhaired white Angora look-alike named Josephine, was taken to a laboratory after being hit by a car, where she was genetically altered as part of a secret government experiment. All subsequent offspring possessed the same characteristics: non-matting fur, docile nature, larger size, imperviousness to pain and the tendency to go limp like a child’s rag doll—thus the breed's name. However, this couldn’t be confirmed, Baker claimed, since the government suppressed all the evidence.

''While most well-balanced people scoff at this conspiracy theory, and genetics experts say that this kind of genetic engineering wasn’t even possible in the 1960s, this story and other Twilight Zone tales uttered by Baker have plagued Ragdoll breeders for years, since cat associations found it hard to take the breed seriously. According to the Ragdoll Connection Network, a group committed to promoting the breed, Baker’s claims became even more strange and hard to believe as time went on. For example, they say she claimed Ragdolls were crossbred with skunks to improve the cats’ tails and also represented a link between humans and extraterrestrials"''

If all this X-Files/conspiracy theory stuff is from one person who offers no evidence for her assertions, then please may the page reflect this emphatically.

Respectfully Yours... --88.107.199.68 (talk) 23:43, 24 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Like it or not, breeders love to spread crazy stories about their cats. Actually, this paragraph was clarifying how some absurd claims regarding Ragdolls originated. If You delete this, some kid will eventually paste in more of Baker's stories as facts.
 * I agree that Wikipedia should be strictly scientific but You have too many cattery owners treating Wikiarticles as their personal websites for breed promotion78.131.137.50 (talk) 04:18, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your comment. Yes, for the reason you state I can see that perhaps some reference to Baker's unusual belief fills a void that might otherwise have something much worse. 88.107.199.68 (talk) 18:30, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Common Health Problems
This section is next to useless. Can we either clean this up or cut it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.245.198.206 (talk) 23:52, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Mean Ragdoll
This message was left on my talk page. Discussion about the article is best done on the article talk page so I have copied that message here.

"I reverted your edit - see WP:LINKROT - Do not delete factual information solely because the URL to the source does not work any longer. WP:Verifiability does not require that all information be supported by a working link, nor does it require the source to be published online."

- Ron h jones (Talk) 21:23, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

IP editor 75.109.142.137 had made to this article which included new factual information. The cited source for this new factual information was a reference to a dead link. It was then and is now my opinion that adding new factual information with a dead link source is the same as adding unsourced information and so may be challenged.

I have again deleted IP editor's addition.

--Trappist the monk (talk) 12:13, 10 June 2012 (UTC)

Kitten growth and maturity
Could someone who knows Ragdolls add a sentence in the "Physical characteristics" section on how long it takes kittens to mature? I know the large breeds often take two to three years to achieve adulthood which often comes as a surprise to people who think all male cats are mature at one year. Thank you. Rissa -- bossy, obsessive/compulsive copy editor 03:49, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Okay. We have some contidictory information.
"One study utilizing Swedish insurance data showed that of the common cat breeds, the Ragdoll and Siamese have the lowest survival rate. They live 15 to 25 years." An average closer to 20 years is HIGH for cats by breed. 15-25 isn't a low range for cats. Even just 15 as a baseline.

The Swedish data suggests the opposite supposedly. And frankly sounds false unless a local factor is a major part. This potion of the article has major uneven footing. Honestly seems like spot-data involving a very narrow genetic grouping, since I can't imagine Sweden having huge genetic breadth on a California centric breed. And if said IS Sweden Centric. It doesn't belong here. And we have no citation for this? Probably should be purged either way. And doubly so if one cannot be provided.

Founder?
"Around 45% of the genes come from only one founder, Ann Baker."

I think that sentence could be worded a bit more accurately. 27.33.121.123 (talk) 12:33, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

Adding to the Rag doll page
I would love to add to this rag doll page that Grumpy Cat is listed as a possible Ragdoll and that he shares the same characteristics as a traditional Ragdoll. Grumpy cat was an internet icon and I feel as though even though he was not pure bred he was a good representation of the breed. __Cebell1 (talk) 23:49, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

Pictures that are way too big
The page has 2 pictures that are really large, so big that it's impossible to fit more than ~25% of the image on screen. This problem is really obvious and I don't think that I need to say where on the page it is, but it happens twice in "History" and "Gallery". I don't know where else to report problems, so I decided to make a comment here — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2603:6080:9707:E983:FC37:2A1A:D19E:A189 (talk) 23:40, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

 * Thank you for the report. The offending images, as well as the policy non-compliant gallery, have been duly removed. SilverTiger12 (talk) 00:48, 12 April 2022 (UTC)

Insurance survival rate
> One study, utilizing Swedish insurance data, showed that of the common cat breeds, the Ragdoll and Siamese have the lowest survival rate. They typically live from 12 to 15 years.

This study only considered insurance data. Of course people are more likely to insure their expensive Ragdoll or Siamese than other cats. They don’t really have that many health problems.

Also “survival rate” is not explained, you have to follow the link to figure it out. 180.150.117.11 (talk) 09:48, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Ragdolls Cats
Can you please give me a price range? How do I go about getting one? 2601:243:1800:46F0:9592:BAAB:A507:F31F (talk) 23:22, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Not what Wikipedia is for. Meters (talk) 23:53, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

Lifespan
You should add the lifespan of the cat. 2601:248:8101:1370:B8AA:2E81:1AA7:6C2B (talk) 13:44, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

 * There's a new study that has come out that looks at the life expectancy of pedigree cats. I'll add it to the article now. Traumnovelle (talk) 20:11, 10 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you 2601:248:8101:1370:616F:AA70:C270:192F (talk) 13:18, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ragdoll


text: User talk:68.115.186.126

title: User talk:68.115.186.126


text: Talk:Doryteuthis plei

title: Talk:Doryteuthis plei


text:
Standard time

Standard time is the synchronization of clocks within a geographical region to a single time standard, rather than a local mean time standard. Generally, standard time agrees with the local mean time at some meridian that passes through the region, often near the centre of the region. Historically, standard time was established during the 19th century to aid weather forecasting and train travel. Applied globally in the 20th century, the geographical regions became time zones. The standard time in each time zone has come to be defined as an offset from Universal Time. A further offset is applied for part of the year in regions with daylight saving time.

The adoption of standard time, because of the inseparable correspondence between longitude and time, solidified the concept of halving the globe into the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere, with one Prime Meridian replacing the various prime meridians that had previously been used.

History of standard time
During the 19th century, scheduled steamships and trains required time standardisation in the industrialized world.

Great Britain
A standardised time system was first used by British railways on 1 December 1847, when they switched from local mean time, which varied from place to place, to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It was also given the name railway time, reflecting the important role the railway companies played in bringing it about. The vast majority of Great Britain's public clocks were standardised to GMT by 1855.

North America

Until 1883, each United States railroad chose its own time standards. The Pennsylvania Railroad used the "Allegheny Time" system, an astronomical timekeeping service which had been developed by Samuel Pierpont Langley at the University of Pittsburgh's Allegheny Observatory (then known as the Western University of Pennsylvania, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Instituted in 1869, the Allegheny Observatory's service is believed to have been the first regular and systematic system of time distribution to railroads and cities as well as the origin of the modern standard time system. By 1870 the Allegheny Time service extended over 2,500 miles with 300 telegraph offices receiving time signals.

However, almost all railroads out of New York ran on New York time, and railroads west from Chicago mostly used Chicago time, but between Chicago and Pittsburgh/Buffalo the norm was Columbus time, even on railroads such as the PFtW&C and LS&MS, which did not run through Columbus. The Santa Fe Railroad used Jefferson City (Missouri) time all the way to its west end at Deming, New Mexico, as did the east–west lines across Texas; Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads used San Francisco time all the way to El Paso. The Northern Pacific Railroad had seven time zones between St. Paul and the 1883 west end of the railroad at Wallula Jct; the Union Pacific Railway was at the other extreme, with only two time zones between Omaha and Ogden.

In 1870, Charles F. Dowd proposed four time zones based on the meridian through Washington, DC for North American railroads. In 1872 he revised his proposal to base it on the Greenwich meridian. Sandford Fleming, a Scottish-born Canadian engineer, proposed worldwide Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute on February 8, 1879. Cleveland Abbe advocated standard time to better coordinate international weather observations and resultant weather forecasts, which had been coordinated using local solar time. In 1879 he recommended four time zones across the contiguous United States, based upon Greenwich Mean Time. The General Time Convention (renamed the American Railway Association in 1891), an organization of US railroads charged with coordinating schedules and operating standards, became increasingly concerned that if the US government adopted a standard time scheme it would be disadvantageous to its member railroads. William F. Allen, the Convention secretary, argued that North American railroads should adopt a five-zone standard, similar to the one in use today, to avoid government action. On October 11, 1883, the heads of the major railroads met in Chicago at the Grand Pacific Hotel and agreed to adopt Allen's proposed system.

The members agreed that on Sunday, November 18, 1883, all United States and Canadian railroads would readjust their clocks and watches to reflect the new five-zone system on a telegraph signal from the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh at exactly noon on the 90th meridian. Although most railroads adopted the new system as scheduled, some did so early on October 7 and others late on December 2. The Intercolonial Railway serving the Canadian maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia just east of Maine decided not to adopt Intercolonial Time based on the 60th meridian west of Greenwich, instead adopting Eastern Time, so only four time zones were actually adopted by U.S./Canadian railroads in 1883. Major American observatories, including the Allegheny Observatory, the United States Naval Observatory, the Harvard College Observatory, and the Yale University Observatory, agreed to provide telegraphic time signals at noon Eastern Time.

Standard time was not enacted into US law until the 1918 Standard Time Act established standard time in time zones; the law also instituted daylight saving time (DST). The daylight saving time portion of the law was repealed in 1919 over a presidential veto, but was re-established nationally during World War II. In 2007 the US enacted a federal law formalising the use of Coordinated Universal Time as the basis of standard time, and the role of the Secretary of Commerce (effectively, the National Institute of Standards and Technology) and the Secretary of the Navy (effectively, the U.S. Naval Observatory) in interpreting standard time.

In 1999, standard time was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame in the category "National: Technical Innovations."

The Dominion of Newfoundland, whose capital St. John's falls almost exactly midway between the meridians anchoring the Atlantic Time Zone and the Greenland Time Zone, voted in 1935 to create a half-hour offset time zone known as the Newfoundland Time Zone, at three and a half hours behind Greenwich time.

The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, introduction of the railways made it desirable to create a standard time. On 1 May 1909, Amsterdam Time or Dutch Time was introduced. Before that, time was measured in different cities; in the east of the country, this was a few minutes earlier than in the west. After that, all parts of the country had the same local time—that of the Wester Tower in Amsterdam (Westertoren/4°53'01.95" E). This time was indicated as GMT +0h 19m 32.13s until 17 March 1937, after which it was simplified to GMT+0h20m. This time zone was also known as the Loenen time or Gorinchem time, as this was the exact time in both Loenen and Gorinchem. At noon in Amsterdam, it was 11:40 in London and 12:40 in Berlin.

The shift to the current Central European Time zone took place on 16 May 1940. The German occupiers ordered the clock to be moved an hour and forty minutes forward. This time was kept in summer and winter throughout 1941 and 1942. It was only in November 1942 that a different Winter time was introduced, and the time was adjusted one hour backwards. This lasted for only three years; after the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945, Summer time was abolished for over thirty years, so during those years, standard time was 40 minutes ahead of the original Amsterdam Time. As of 2017, the Netherlands is in line with Central European Time (GMT+1 in the winter, GMT+2 in the summer, which is significantly different from Amsterdam Time).

New Zealand
In 1868, New Zealand was the first country in the world to establish a nationwide standard time.

A telegraph cable between New Zealand's two main islands became the instigating factor for the establishment of "New Zealand time". In 1868, the Telegraph Department adopted "Wellington time" as the standard time across all their offices so that opening and closing times could be synchronised. The Post Office, which usually shared the same building, followed suit. However, protests that time was being dictated by one government department, led to a resolution in parliament to establish a standard time for the whole country.

The director of the Geological Survey, James Hector, selected New Zealand time to be at the meridian 172°30′E. This was very close to the country's mean longitude and exactly $11 1/2$ hours in advance of Greenwich Mean Time. It came into effect on 2 November 1868.

For over fifty years, the Colonial Time Service Observatory in Wellington, determined the correct time each morning. At 9 a.m. each day, it was transmitted by Morse code to post offices and railway stations around the country. In 1920, radio time signals began broadcasting, greatly increasing the accuracy of the time nationwide.

title: Standard time


text:
Rei Ayanami

Rei Ayanami (綾波 レイ) is a fictional character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise, created by Gainax studio. In the anime series of the same name, Rei is an introverted girl chosen as the pilot of a giant mecha named Evangelion Unit 00. At the beginning of the series, Rei is an enigmatic figure whose unusual behavior astonishes her peers. As the series progresses, she becomes more involved with the people around her, particularly her classmate and fellow Eva pilot, Shinji Ikari. Rei appears in the franchise's animated feature films and related media, video games, the original net animation Petit Eva: Evangelion@School, the Rebuild of Evangelion films, and the manga adaptation by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.

Hideaki Anno, director of the animated series, conceived her as a representation of his unconscious. He was also influenced by his readings on psychology, in particular on Freudian psychoanalysis, taking inspiration from Freud's theories on the Oedipus complex. Other influences for its creation include earlier works by Gainax staff members, such as Aoki Uru, and Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose. Rei is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara in Japanese, and by Amanda Winn-Lee, Brina Palencia and Ryan Bartley in English.

Rei has been well received by critics and in reviews. She has maintained a high ranking in every popularity poll of the series and has also appeared in polls to decide the most popular anime characters in Japan. Reviewers have praised Rei's mysterious aura and her role in the story. Merchandising based on her has also been released, particularly action figures, which became popular. Critics linked her success to a series of moe traits that proved popular with anime fans, influencing the creation of subsequent female anime characters.

Design
According to the Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Unofficial Guide by writers Kazuhisa Fujie and Martin Foster, director Hideaki Anno instructed Yoshiyuki Sadamoto on Rei's character design saying, "Whatever else, she needs to be painted in as a bitterly unhappy young girl with little sense of presence." The band Kinniku Shōjo Tai's theme song "Doko e demo ikeru kitte" and its line "hotai de masshiro na shojo" (包帯で真っ白な少女) inspired Sadamoto to draw Rei. The same band produced a song named "Fumimi no kodomo" (福耳の子供), in which a female monologue is audible, and Sadamoto tried to portray a girl with a similar voice. Ukina, a character from Sadamoto's previous work Koto, served as Rei's model, and the artist gave her "shaggy, bobbed, wolf-like hair". Another source of inspiration was The Snow Goose, a novella written by Paul Gallico; the story describes a painting portraying the protagonist, a thin and pale girl in an empty room, and the artist tried to create a character similar to her.

Anno required a "gloomy", "cool character with short hair", so Sadamoto designed Rei originally as a brunette with dark eyes; however, it was necessary to distinguish her from the other female protagonist Asuka Langley Soryu, so he designed her with eye and hair colors opposite to Asuka's. He also published a drawing of a dark-haired character named Yui Ichijō among Rei's designs in one of his artbooks, without specifying whether it is an early conception of Yui Ikari or not. While Asuka was conceived as "an idol-like figure" in Neon Genesis Evangelion and a symbol of "heterosexual desire", Sadamoto designed Rei as a motherhood symbol, thinking of her as "the Yin opposed to Asuka". Anno also suggested that Rei's eye color be red, a feature he believed would give her more personality and distinguish her design from those of the other characters. Her hair color changed to blue, similarly to the main character from Aoki Uru, the movie sequel to The Wings of Honneamise (1987) which was never made. Sadamoto also gave her black stockings, inspired by a women's handball team he saw playing when he was in middle school. Black allowed him to differentiate her from the characters of the series released in the same period and go against their trend.

Development
Like other Evangelion characters, Ayanami's surname comes from a Japanese World War II naval vessel, the Fubuki-class destroyer JAPANESE DESTROYER Ayanami. Her first name comes from the character Rei Hino of the anime and manga series Sailor Moon. This was done to get one of Sailor Moon's directors, Kunihiko Ikuhara, to work on Evangelion. Written in kanji, Rei (零) can mean "zero", "null". The character Rei (例) also means "custom", "routine". According to writer Patrick Drazen, her name can be a pun on her Evangelion 00, while for critic Hiroki Azuma it may have been influenced by a character named Zero, the protagonist of the 1987 novel Ai to Gensō no Fascism, written by Ryū Murakami. Anno also took inspiration from Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic concept of Oedipus complex for her role. He conceived the Evangelion and Rei as palliative mother figures for Shinji; Rei was also conceived as emotionally close to Shinji's father, Gendo, creating a multi-layered Oedipus complex. In a discarded draft of the character background, she was thus a more sensual character than her final version; character designer Sadamoto, however, unlike the more frank and explicit Hideaki Anno, decided to give her a much more "enigmatic" and bland eros.

During Evangelion's production and first broadcast, Anno encountered difficulties writing the character, not feeling "particularly interested" or relating to her, but he thought of her as a representation of his unconscious mind, conceiving Rei as "the unconscious Shinji". In the fifth episode, "Rei I", explicitly dedicated to her character, Rei speaks seven lines and fifty-two words, while in the sixth she has twenty-five lines. Not feeling particularly close to her, the director for a long time forgot to explore Rei's personality, ignoring it or giving it marginal space. In the eighth episode, "Asuka Strikes!", for example, she does not appear in any scene, while in the seventh installment, "A Human Work", he remembered her and he added a scene with Rei. As with other Evangelion characters, he transposed aspects of his life into her character, including the choice to not eat meat and maintain a vegetarian diet. At the beginning of the production he also stated that he did not know what would happen to Rei or to the other characters, "because I don't know where life is taking the staff".

Her history has eventually undergone changes. According to Sadamoto and assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki, she was originally conceived as an alien entity, but staff later went on to make her at least genetically human. During an interview, they described Rei as a girl who has both the human genes of Yui Ikari and the genes of the first Angel Adam [sic]; Tsurumaki also associated her condition to a Devilman, a hybrid presented in the manga Devilman by Go Nagai. Moreover, in the twenty-first episode, the first Rei clone, killed by Naoko Akagi in the final version of the script, would eventually survive after being strangled and having lost consciousness momentarily, awakening in an empty command room without Dr. Akagi, while the death of her second clone was planned by Anno since the beginning. During the production of the fourteenth episode, the director decided to focus on her and "explore her emotion", adding a monologue of Rei. When he was working on the monologue, he wanted to develop her in a "schizophrenic" direction and wondered how to portray a kind of madness. He was loaned a magazine-like book entitled Bessatsu Takarajima (別冊宝島) on mental illness that contained a poem by someone who suffered from a mental disorder, and that triggered his imagination. Moreover, during the production, Ikuhara, annoyed by the idealized image and the fetishism that some fans built around the character, proposed to Anno to "betray" fans and show her as a real girl who gets married and "gets pregnant in the last episode", but Anno rejected the suggestion. Furthermore, in the original finale wanted by Anno, the giant Rei added in the film The End of Evangelion (1997) was not foreseen, since it was conceived at a later time. Anno himself declared he considered her character "already finished" in her smile scene from the sixth episode, since "she and Shinji completely 'communicated' there".

Voice
Megumi Hayashibara voiced Rei in all her appearances in the original series, as well as the later films, spin-offs, video games and the Rebuild of Evangelion saga. In 1995, Hayashibara said she was somewhat "surprised" by her role and her laconic character saying, "I have to challenge something new." Hayashibara also attended auditions for Asuka and Misato Katsuragi, but after hearing her performance in an OVA named Chigatsu ni wa Christmas (一月にはChristmas) Anno felt her voice more suited to Rei. She noticed that before Neon Genesis Evangelion there were few taciturn and cold characters to deal with, so, in the absence of examples to imitate, she tried to characterize her "as best I could". During the dub sessions, Hideaki Anno instructed and guided her, advising her to read her lines in the flattest tone possible: "When the director explained her character to me, he said, 'It's not that Rei doesn't have any feelings, it's just that she doesn't understand'." According to Hayashibara, since Rei "doesn't know emotion, there's no difference between what she says and feels". At first glance, her "great beauty" comes from "this surface, not without depth, but with the absence of its necessity". She added, "Rei's beauty comes from the truth that she has feelings", and "when I found the warmth below the coldness in her words, I synchronized with Rei for the first time".

Voicing the mahjong game Shinseiki Evangelion: Eva to Yukaina Nakamatach (新世紀エヴァンゲリオンエヴァと愉快な仲間たち), she stated that she understood the difference between "lack of intonation" and "absence of emotion" in words. She linked the lack of intonation as a sign of "self-confidence"; an insecure or bad-faith person, in her opinion, would tend to emphasize words, while Rei is completely honest and only tells the truth. The voice actress also reprised the role for the Rebuild. While filming for the third film in the saga, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (2012), she worked on parts that weren't fully animated, so she had to ask the director what was happening in the scenes. Hayashibara stated she had to do "countless takes" for Rei's short lines and find the right nuance the staff wanted. She had to dub her as she was indifferent and be careful in conveying her character's feelings of happiness "without overdoing it".

Regarding the final installment, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021), a difficult part for her was showing another Rei clone who is slowly growing up; when she tried to be pure she was criticized, and when she tried to be less emotional she was criticized anyway. Anno tried to make the characters younger and with fuller emotions, so it was difficult for the voice actress to get the nuances the director wanted. With Rei's role, Hayashibara's popularity as a voice actor grew, and she became an icon of anime fandom. Shunsuke Nozawa, assistant professor at Hokkaido University, noted how in the 1990s there was an explosion of interest in Japanese voice actors, believing the figure of Hayashibara to be at the center of this change, thanks to the "enormous, societal-level fascination" exerted by Ayanami. Hayashibara thus began to be interviewed about the series and to be regularly invited on television as a celebrity.

Amanda Winn-Lee voices Rei in English in the original series and in the Amazon dubs of the Rebuild of Evangelion films. According to Winn-Lee, despite the cold and detached appearance, there is still "a small spark of humanity" in Rei, "clouded by this huge sense of negative self-worth and the realization that she is expendable". She also stated: "She knows she's expendable, but the thing is, she's still human." In the Funimation dub of the Rebuild of Evangelion films, her role is entrusted to Brina Palencia, while in the Netflix dub she is voiced by Ryan Bartley.

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Rei Ayanami's birth date is never specified in the original series. All data about Rei's past are unknown or erased; her age, 14 in 2015, is the only known fact. Officially, Rei is chosen by an organization called the Marduk Institute as the First Child and pilot of Eva Unit-00 to defeat creatures named Angels for the special agency Nerv under the command of Gendo Ikari. In 2014 she moves to the first municipal middle school of the new city of Tokyo-3, and Gendo becomes her legal guardian. Through the course of the series, Rei, who is originally completely submissive to the will of Gendo, becomes friends with fellow Eva pilot and classmate Shinji Ikari, changing attitude. She also begins to become more aware of her own identity and desires.

In the battle with the Angel Armisael, Rei decides to sacrifice herself alongside Eva Unit-00 to save Shinji and destroy the enemy. After her apparent death, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi reveals she was born in Laboratory for Artificial Evolution's third branch, a place located under lake Ashino and Hakone city. Her body with albino-like traits was created in absolute secrecy from the salvaged remains of Yui Ikari, a brilliant researcher who lost her life in a testing experiment by Evangelion Unit 01. Ritsuko also reveals that in the deepest level of Nerv's headquarters many Rei clones are kept, so that when one Rei dies, she can be replaced. When a clone is activated from a level named Terminal Dogma, although she remains characteristically distinct from all former incarnations, she is endowed with the soul of Lilith, the second Angel. Her memory is eventually saved in an object similar to a spinal column placed in the Central Dogma of the Nerv, the Dummy Plug Plant. In 2010, Gendo brought her first clone (Rei I) to the Gehirn base, the predecessor of Nerv and responsible for the development and construction of the first Evangelion units, introducing her as the daughter an acquaintance had entrusted to him. This first Rei was killed by Dr. Naoko Akagi, colleague and secret lover of Gendō. During her visit to Gehirn, Rei I got lost in the laboratory control room and met Naoko, calling her an "old hag", as if to provoke her. She then revealed that it was Gendo who called Naoko that. Naoko suddenly recognized Yui's facial features in the little girl's face and, in an outburst of violence, she strangled and killed her, after which she committed suicide.

After her sacrifice, Rei II is replaced by a third and final clone. All the other bodies in Terminal Dogma are later destroyed by Ritsuko. Thanks to her close relationship with Shinji, the last Rei decides to rebel against Gendo's will. Rei III thus acts as the main catalyst behind an apocalyptic event named Third Impact. She merges with Lilith, letting Shinji freely decide the course of a process named Human Instrumentality, during which all of mankind unites into one collective consciousness. A giant white and naked Rei emerges into open space during the process, holding Shinji's Eva-01, and, when Shinji rejects Instrumentality, this figure decomposes. After Shinji rematerializes, he briefly sees a version of Rei watching over him from a distance before vanishing.

Rebuild of Evangelion
Rei returns as a primary character in Rebuild of Evangelion and appears in the first installment of the saga, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007). Her character remains virtually identical to the anime, acting as a pilot of Evangelion Unit-00 and helping Shinji defeat Angel Ramiel. Writer Thomas LaMarre noted that the Rebuild saga makes the relationship between Shinji and Rei a more central element to the story, increasing and improving the scenes depicting them. In the second movie, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009), her character develops and her relationship with Shinji is shown much more openly than in the original series. In a departure from her original traits, she attempts to host a dinner party for her fellow pilots. Anno first thought to use this idea for the fourth episode of the original anime, but the proposal was shelved during the production of the series. During the climax, Angel Zeruel devours Rei and Unit-00. When Unit-01 goes out of control, Shinji forces his way into the Angel pulling her out, and the two embrace each other; at the end of the fight, they are both trapped within Unit-01 as the action triggers the Third Impact. During the feature film, it is also suggested that Gendō and Fuyutsuki plan to bring Shinji and Rei together. Assistant director Tsurumaki was asked about this after the release of the feature film; according to him, the impression of a strategy to bring Shinji and Rei together was a result of the complex script writing, and "Anno probably hasn’t thought about that very deeply".

In the third installment, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (2012), set fourteen years later, the same Rei does not appear; a different clone is introduced instead, who acts differently than the other Rei, maintaining a cold and silent demeanor. In Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021), the last film of the saga, Rei's new clone, named Ayanami (Tentative Name), heads together with Shinji and Asuka Shikinami to a small town called Village 3, inhabited by survivors of the various Impacts that occurred and isolated from the outside world, almost uninhabitable. Here Rei interacts with the adult Toji Suzuhara and Hikari Horaki, old schoolmates of the previous clone, with the children and women of Village 3, helping them to work in the fields; with time the new Ayanami begins to develop her individuality, gradually discovering the world around her and learning to socialize with the inhabitants. After some time, however, Rei (Tentative Name), whose real name turns out to be Ayanami-Type No.006, is unable to maintain her form without continuous contact with the Evangelion's LCL liquid and dies in front of Shinji. During the Instrumentality, Shinji meets again the Rei of fourteen years before, who remained inside the Eva-01. The old Rei, with visibly long hair, argues with her companion, who decides to live in a world without Evangelions and give the world a new birth, Neon Genesis. Rei and Shinji then say goodbye to each other for the last time, shaking hands and smiling.

In other media
In the official Neon Genesis Evangelion manga, by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, further differences are evident in the characterization of Rei. In the manga, she is generally more empathetic and open to human contact compared to her animated counterpart. In the comic, moreover, the character has more space than Asuka, who in the anime has a predominant role. Compared to the classic series, Sadamoto tried to tread his hand on her relationship with Shinji, particularly insisting on the symbology of the touch of the hands and the theme of motherhood, inspired by Kazuo Umezu's The Drifting Classroom. As in the series, she at first considers herself empty and useless, created solely for piloting the Evangelion under Ikari's orders; Shinji's touch changes his attitude. In a scene from the fifth volume of the manga where they are both at Rei's house, Rei gets burned while preparing tea with Shinji and their hands touch for a moment. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Rei invites Shinji to speak to his father and open up to him; in another chapter, thinking back to that moment, she wonders if her hands will one day be able to touch Shinji again. During the clash with the Angel Armisael, Rei becomes increasingly aware of her feelings of sadness and affection towards Shinji, towards whom she demonstrates a certain romantic interest. Sadamoto himself described Shinji and Rei's feelings as mutual love.

In a scene from the last episode of the animated series, an alternate reality is presented with a different story than the previous episodes; Rei is presented as a girl who has just moved into the class of Asuka and Shinji, with a cheerful, distracted and irascible personality. An outgoing Rei is featured in some Neon Genesis Evangelion spin-offs, such as Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, set in the alternate reality of the last episode. In the original web anime series Petit Eva: Evangelion@School, a parody of the original animated series, three Ayanami sisters are presented, one is diligent and introverted; another sport oriented and extroverted; and another is a four-year-old girl with a passion for soft toys. In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Anima, set three years after End of Evangelion in an alternate scenario, several Rei appears; Rei Troi, pilot of an Eva named Evangelion Unit-02 Type II Allegorica, Rei Quatre, Rei Cinq and the seven-year-old version Rei Six, all of them pilots of Evangelion-0.0 units. In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse, Rei shares a mysterious connection with Kaworu that triggers Shinji's attention. She is also present in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legend of the Piko Piko Middle School Students. In a simulation game entitled Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Raising Project, the player takes on the task of looking after Rei. She is also available as a romantic option in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel 2nd, Neon Genesis Evangelion 2, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari Raising Project  and its manga adaptation, wherein she is a distant cousin of Shinji.

In addition to games based on the original series, Rei has appeared in media not related to the Evangelion franchise, such as Monster Strike, Super Robot Wars, Tales of Zestiria, Puzzle & Dragons, Keri hime sweets, Summons Board, Puyopuyo!! Quest, Line Rangers, Unison, MapleStory,  Valkyrie Connect,  Ragnarok Online,  The Battle Cats and in an official Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion crossover episode.

Characterization and themes
Rei Ayanami is a taciturn girl who limits relations as much as possible and mechanically executes any order given to her, even if particularly cruel. She is introverted, socially detached and laconic. Sociologist Satomi Ishikawa noticed that in a scene from the sixth episode of the series, "Rei II", her companion Shinji asks her the reason that pushes her to want to pilot Evangelion 00; Rei replies saying she finds her only "bond" with other people in this, thus demonstrating that she is committed to the struggle against the Angels "as if it were the only reason why she exists". Throughout the series she proves to be indifferent to life and engages herself in drastic acts that could cost her life. The Artifice's writer Justin Wu noticed that, unlike other characters from the series, she does not care if she dies, and embraces death "as if death is the only way to prove that she has lived".

For the critic Gerald Alva Miller, despite her cold attitude, Rei experiences feelings of alienation and existential angst. Gualtiero Cannarsi, who cured the Italian adaptation for the series, similarly described Rei as a girl "unaware of the most basic rules of life and hygiene", as she has had no one to teach them to her, resulting in her being disinterested in them. Her attitude is reflected in her apartment, where hygiene is neglected. In one episode Ritsuko Akagi says, like Commander Ikari, she "is not very adept at living". Scattered on the floor of her apartment are scientific texts on biological interactions and genetics written in Latin alphabet in the original series, and The Happy Prince and Other Tales in the Rebuild of Evangelion series. Critic Susan J. Napier also noticed that in the last two episodes she confesses to wanting to die and "go back to nothing". According to Evangelion character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, she is "translucent", like a shadow or "the air": "The kind of girl you can't touch. The girl you long for, but there is nothing about her that you can grab a hold onto." He also interpreted Asuka and Rei as "strong characters, in their own separate ways". Furthermore, Hayashibara described her as an "ethereal character"; according to her: "Her emotions are like waves, so if I was off by even one millimeter it would affect her character, and I'd have to redo it".

During a show a little girl asked Hideaki Anno what Rei likes, and he replied that he never thought about it. According to him, she does not appreciate her own life, hurts herself and feels she does not need friends, being aware of the fact that "there'll be another to replace her": "Her presence, her existence—ostensible existence—is ephemeral. She's a very sad girl. She only has the barest minimum of what she needs to have". Anno also likened the Japanese national attraction to characters like Rei as the product of a stunted imaginative landscape born of Japan's defeat in the Second World War, because "since that time, the education we received is not one that creates adults". The architect Kaichiro Morikawa compared the face of the first Rei, usually presented in a distorted and deformed way, to the installations of Tony Oursler, also comparing her bedroom to Gottfried Helnwein's photographs. Writer Claudio Cordella associated her personality to that of the female characters portrayed by the painter Edward Burne-Jones, and her gaze to the "fixed and lifeless eyes" of the Olympia from The Tales of Hoffmann.

Takekuma Kentaro linked the image of Rei in bandages to the photos of Romain Slocombe, while Sadamoto compared her to the works of mangaka Sensha Yoshida. In an interview with Anno, Japanese writer and academic Ōizumi Mitsunari likened the figure of Rei to the girls committed to the Japanese sect Aum Shinrikyō, which carried out the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995, as "completely dependent on their guru", Shōkō Asahara. The book Schizo Evangelion, edited by him, describes her as "a sacrifice offered to all the Japanese mama's boys and sadists" and in a series of dichotomies, such as opium and euphoria, Satan and God, "the infinite power of Eros" and "the blinding power of Thanatos at the same time", "a sarin prepared by Gendo Ikari for his plan to destroy humanity", the "keyhole of Pandora's box" and the Great Bad Mother trying to take in her son.

For the scholar Hiroki Azuma, Rei Ayanami introduces a "new type of solitude". Before her, anime characters were divided between sociable girls, with expensive clothes and cosmetics, technological gadgets and often engaged in prostitution activities named kogal, and otaku, isolated characters, with rooms full of "computer software" and magazines. Rei, according to Azuma, transcends the two stereotypes; he likened her room to Satyam, scientific laboratories of Aum Shinrikyō. Critic Krystian Woznicki also compared her to Pinocchio in the film 964 Pinocchio (1991), but "Rei's character is quite realistic, whereas Pinocchio is completely removed from reality". Japanese critic Tamaki Saitō described her as "the culmination of the pygmalionism that began with Nanako SOS", while Kenneth Lee noted a similarity in her path of self-awareness with Pinocchio and Key from Key the Metal Idol. Furthermore, writer Tamaki Saito reported that Ami Mizuno from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon has been interpreted as "the prototype" of Rei.

Critics linked her silent and inexpressive personality to alexithymia or a schizoid personality disorder. An official Death and Rebirth booklet describes her as "an expressionless noh mask" and "a girl who does not dream", while the book Schizo Evangelion as "a dreamless mind, completely separated from Jung's collective unconscious". According to Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Rei is capable of feeling emotions and feelings but has expressive and communicative difficulties. From the first episodes of the series, Shinji tries to connect with her; however, Rei is unable to parse the meaning of his words and actions adequately. Although the two pilots occasionally converse with each other, they cannot communicate on an emotional level and do not understand their feelings. However, facing a crying Shinji, who is glad that she is alive after a big fight in the sixth episode, she smiles, marking one of her most significant moments of character development. After this, both their words and actions move to a place of mutual understanding. For critic Manabu Tsuribe, with her smile in the sixth episode Neon Genesis Evangelion reaches its climax, and "as a story of 'growth and independence of a boy'—like a Bildungsroman—ended there once. Evangelion as a story has stopped there". In the last episodes of the series this Rei dies and is replaced by another clone, who acts like a stranger to Shinji. Anno compared the story after her smile scene, in which there is a step back in interpersonal communication, to Hideki Gō, a character from the Return of Ultraman series; Gō seems to get closer to other people and his colleagues from the Monster Attack Team, but "then next week things begin again from [a position of] estrangement". He also added: "At that point something emerges of my mistrust or fear of communication with others".

Academic Frenchy Lunning described Rei as Shinji's anima. In one of the first scenes of the Evangelion anime, Shinji sees a ghost of Rei Ayanami in a deserted city near Tokyo-3. The Rei visible in the sequence is not the real Rei; the appearance has been connected to the scenario of the film The End of Evangelion, released in 1997 as a conclusion to the classic series. During the film, all forms of life come together in one being during the Instrumentality; human beings, shortly before dying, see Rei's ghosts appear, guiding them in the process as "messengers of redemption". According to Yūichirō Oguro, editor of some of the contents of the Japanese home video editions of Evangelion, the Rei's ghost Shinji sees on the avenue is "the existence that gazes upon man", and the scene symbolizes that "Shinji is protected by his mother since the beginning of the series". For screenwriter Yōji Enokido, she produces in young men a feeling of distance "as though they were still half in the womb". Patrick Drazen noticed that, like other Neon Genesis Evangelion characters who have traits of some deities of Shinto mythology, Rei has affinities with the goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu, who is reborn at every dawn. He also compared the show's two other protagonists, Shinji and Asuka, with Susanoo and Ama-no-Uzume, respectively; Shinji, like Susanoo, has clumsily social manners and unsociable behavior, while Asuka, like Uzume, is ebullient and flaunts her body. According to Italian scholar Fabio Bartoli, her three incarnations could be linked to the three evolutionary stages of the soul postulated by the Jewish Qabbalah—Nephesh (the mere animal vitality), Ruach (the normal human soul) and Neshamah (the elevated spirit, after the connection between man and God). Her image is often flanked by that of the Moon, a celestial body associated with motherhood, pallor, passivity, and femininity. Japanese engineer Yumiko Yano thus noticed a hieratic and unattainable aura in Rei Ayanami, comparing her to the Virgin Mary. Yano also associated her figure with the fragile and chaste women portrayed in fin de siècle art, particularly popular among the works of Symbolists painters. For Kazuya Tsurumaki, Shinji feels a sexual and incestuous desire for her, while Kentaro Takekuma described her as an "eternal virgin".

Popularity
Reception to Rei's character has been positive. Since 1995, she became the subject of homages from the Neon Genesis Evangelion fandom, including fan fictions, fan arts and dōjinshi, proving popular. Writer Patrick W. Galbraith described her as "the single most popular and influential character in the history of otaku anime". She also ranked highly in popularity surveys. Immediately after Evangelion's first airing concluded, the 1996 and 1997 Anime Grand Prix survey by Animage magazine elected Rei best female character of the moment. In 1998, when Revival of Evangelion was released, she ranked fifth as the most popular Evangelion female character. Rei also appeared in the monthly surveys of the magazine, remeaning in the top ten in 1997   and 1998  and in the top twenty in the 1999 polls. In 2002 TV Asahi ranked her 36th among the 100 most loved characters in anime history. TV Asahi later published the results of polls on anime's greatest scenes; all the Evangelion scenes which ranked in the lists were related to the character.

Rei Ayanami also won first place in Newtype magazine popularity charts. In July 2005, for example, she emerged tenth, and the magazine itself wrote that: "Her many charms and mysteries continue to shine and captivate fans even now, ten years after the broadcast". In August and September 2009, after the release of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, she ranked in fourth and second place. In October, she took third place, becoming the most popular Evangelion female character. Rei was also voted the most popular female anime character from the 1990s in a Newtype poll in March 2010. In 2015, almost twenty years after its debut, she conquered the first place among the female characters favored by fans, thus beating all the heroines of the anime of the season, while in 2018 Rebuild Rei was included among the best thirty characters of the previous decade. In 2013 the NHK Shibuya Anime Land radio show ranked her among the ten top anime heroines of all time.

For Oricon News, Rei's character has become Evangelion's emblem. She also ranked in Evangelion popularity polls, usually in the top three. A column in the September 2007 issue of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper said, on the occasion of Evangelion 1.0 theatrical release, that there were over one million dedicated Rei fans in Japan and that, "This bandaged Goddess is an icon of Japanese anime." She also had a place in Mania Entertainment's ten iconic anime heroines list written by Thomas Zoth, who commented on the large amount of merchandise based on her: "Shops in Akihabara struggled to keep Rei Ayanami figurines and toys in stock. ... Many critics also credit Ayanami for starting the moe boom in anime, with its reliance on weak, vulnerable characters that the audience would desire to protect". In March and April 2021, after release of the final Rebuild film, she finished eighth and sixth most popular female character in a Newtype poll, and sixth and second place in May and June.

Critical reception
Rei has been well received by anime critics. Japanese cultural critic Hiroki Azuma described her as "an extremely impressive character", praising the performance of Megumi Hayashibara and its psychological realism, since "Rei's solitude is grounded in a completely tactile substantiality which gives us extremely realistic images of the discommunication that children of the present face". Newtype praised the fifth and the sixth episode, describing the drawings of the scene in which she smiles at Gendo in "Rei I" as "excellent", and the scene where she greets Shinji before the battle against the Angel Ramiel in "Rei II" as "impressive". In February 1996, Animedia magazine ranked her smile scene from the sixth episode among the most memorable anime moments of the month. The Artifice writer Justin Wu also praised the scene, describing it as a "powerful" and "iconic moment", since it is "the first time she has deliberately shown an emotion, and one of the handful of times she has done so throughout the whole series". Screen Rant and Comic Book Resources praised her development and the various revelations about her identity, placing her among the best characters in the series. Science Fiction Weekly ' s Tasha Robinson expressed appreciation for the character's conclusion. Comic Book Resources' Luke Penn positively received the differences introduced in Sadamoto's manga and the increased space dedicated to her. IGN ranked her tenth on its list of the top twenty-five anime characters of all time. Writer Chris Mackenzie described her as "a hugely influential character concept"; Mackenzie also found Rei different from similar characters created after Evangelion, since: "The difference between Rei and so many almost-Reis is that there might be something behind the façade."

Other critics expressed a negative opinion of the character. The Anime-planet.com site, while appreciating some interesting revelations about her past and still considering her "by far the most interesting character", was critical that her character had not been "explored as much as she should have been". Animecritics.com wrote, "[Rei] has absolutely no personality to speak of, and she remains an enigma for most of the series. Part of the intrigue in the series is discovering the secrets she holds." THEM Anime Reviews' Raphael See criticized the characterization of the whole Evangelion cast for being "cliche", saying he did not understand the reasons for her great popularity. Anime News Network's Kenneth Lee considered her character arc a wasted opportunity, as he considered that "a 'dummy shell,' gaining a soul could had an entire series devoted to it". Comic Book Resources' Anthony Gramuglia praised her character design but criticized her lack of development, especially in the 1997 cinematic finale.

While reviewing the Rebuild of Evangelion films, writers from Anime News Network praised Rei's character development. On Evangelion 1.0, Carlo Santos noticed that Rei's personality is the same as in the TV series, and "those who hated the original Evangelion for its highly dysfunctional characters still won't find anything to like in this version", while Justin Sevakis praised her response to Shinji's kindness in Evangelion 2.0. UK Anime described Rebuild ' s Rei as a more human character who is easier to empathize with. The Fandom Post appreciated the fact that she becomes progressively more independent from Gendo, while Anime News Network's Mark Sombillo wrote: "Her personality and plight form much more of the core motivation of the story and despite her still tryingly hesitant attempts at communication, there's genuine warmth beneath her actions and it's hard not to be won over by her".

Her role in the last installment of the saga, Evangelion 3.0+1.0, received a particularly positive reception from critics and reviewers, especially for its optimistic view. Critics praised her journey and campy scenes in the first part of the film as "immersive" and "moving". Crunchyroll's Daryl Harding described them as "one of the nicest parts of the film". The Otaku Revolution website positively compared Rebuild ' s Rei with the one of the television series, also praising the warmth of her actions and her growth path: "She's allowed to be more animated, even as she is alien, a wonderful dichotomy that makes her part of the story irresistible". Geek Ireland praised how Thrice Upon a Time gives a sense of conclusion to Rei, Shinji, and the other characters, while Paste magazine lauded the fact that the movie shows Rei and the other pilots outside the militarized and violent context of the battles. According to Gizmodo, she has "the most complete journey" among those presented by 3.0+1.0, while Otaku Voice wrote that: "Watching Rei discover the real world through her childlike eyes of wonder is one of the greatest pleasures of the film". Otaquest's Chris Cimi similarly praised her character development, saying that her actions "make for something different and warm", but "still Evangelion".

Merchandise

Mania.com's Thomas Zoth wrote, "Rei Ayanami proved such a popular character that she started a merchandising boom". Her image was used in a wide range of products, including toys, t-shirts, action figures, musical instruments, life-size statues,  makeup, accessories and reproductions of her clothing. On March 30, 2001, King Records launched an album entitled Evangelion: The Birthday of Rei Ayanami. In 2012, a team built an 18 m tall figure of the character outside of the NTV Tower in the Shiodome area of Tokyo as part of the Shiohaku Expo 2012 summer amusement event. The following year, a reproduction of the girl's bedroom was built, and a life-size model was exhibited at the Eva Expo in Shanghai. In 2020, Honda used Rei and other characters from the series for a number of commercials, which aired on the occasion of a collaboration between Evangelion and Honda Civic.

In 2007 her costumes ranked first among the best selling cosplay costumes of the year by the company Cospa. Rei Ayanami's action figures also enjoyed success. Writer Thomas LaMarre wrote that Sadamoto's design for the character became "the sensation of the series", selling "an unprecedented number of figurines" and spurring expensive speculation about her character in the press and the world of anime criticism. The high sales of Ayanami merchandise have been described by scholar Patrick Galbraith as a turning point for the Japanese market, since they helped to expand the figures and fanzines sector, with "entire fanzine conventions .... committed to the series and its characters". According to one estimate, plastic models before Evangelion sold about three thousand units, but Rei's figures managed to reach ten times that amount, and for Galbraith "the series overlapped with a boom in figurines of anime characters and the spread of the Internet, making otaku consumption and community more conspicuous". Newtype USA magazine similarly wrote that: "Hordes of otaku flooded Akihabara in search of the enigmatic Rei Ayanami, and companies realized for the first time that catering to the geek crowd could be very profitable. ... Akihabara itself has transformed from an 'electric town' famous for household appliances to the geek paradise it is today".

In 2005, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the first airing of Evangelion, mangaka Mine Yoshizaki designed several action figures of the Angels with anthropomorphic appearances; among the various models, he devised a figure of the Angel Lilith inspired by Rei's character design. According to Japanese writer Kazuhisa Fujie, despite models and toys in the series were a commercial failure at first, Rei's action figures immediately became so popular that they exceeded Evangelion's unit sales, thus creating the first and perhaps the only case of a robotic anime "where reproductions of the human characters outsold those of the robots". Furthermore, books and magazines portraying her on the cover were successful. She also appeared on the cover of an issue of Rolling Stone Japanese edition, among others. An artbook about her named Evangelion Photograph - Rei (ＲＥＩ－レイ－ 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン文庫写真集) was published in 1997. According to Fujie, sales of Rei-themed merchandise led Japanese media to call her "the girl who manipulates magazine sales at will", "the fastest route to the sold-out sign" and "the Premium Girl".

Legacy
Rei Ayanami had a significant influence on Japanese animation and subsequent fictional characters. Following the fame gained by Evangelion, other characters with its aesthetic and character traits were created. Critics regarded Rei and her success as the beginning of the moe phenomenon, with the creation of characters according to definite stereotyped features easily recognizable and consumable by the Japanese otaku audience. In the late 1990s, characters bearing a close resemblance to Rei have been produced and consumed on a massive scale in comics, anime, and novelizations, both in the commercial market and the fanzine market.

According to Japanese scholar Hiroki Azuma, this output is not linked to a direct Evangelion influence, since "the emergence of Ayanami Rei did not influence many authors so much as change the rules of the moe-elements sustaining otaku culture". As a result, even authors who were not deliberately thinking of Evangelion began to produce characters resembling Rei, using newly registered moe-elements, such as a quiet personality, blue hair, white skin, mysterious power and an absence of emotions. For Azuma, moreover, the twenty-sixth episode, in which an alternative reality with Rei running with a slice of bread in her mouth is shown, constitutes a turning point within the otaku culture. The scene, according to him, represents the point where the era of great stories ends and that of moe characters begins; from that point on, therefore, the emotional response to the protagonists would become more important than the plot of the series. He also regarded Ruriko Tsukishima from Shizuku as being directly influenced by Rei, and Ruri Hoshino of Martian Successor Nadesico as a combination of both.

Critics compared other characters to her, including Miharu in Gasaraki, Vanilla H in Galaxy Angel, Maya in Geobreeders, Neya in Infinite Ryvius, Aruto Kirihara in Kagihime Monogatari Eikyū Alice Rondo, Riza Hawkeye in Fullmetal Alchemist, Dorothy R. Wayneright in The Big O, Anthy Himemiya in Revolutionary Girl Utena, Chise in Saikano, Yuzuriha Inori in Guilty Crown, Miyu in My-HiME, Ai in Zaion: I Wish You Were Here, Diya in Butterfly Soup, Yashiro Kasumi in Muv-Luv and the female cyborgs in Gunslinger Girl. Serial Experiments Lains Lain Iwakura was also associated with the character; Lains main screenwriter Chiaki J. Konaka stated he was not influenced by Evangelion and, while appreciating their characteristics, he said he did not see similarities between the two characters. Eureka from Eureka Seven has similarly been compared to Rei Ayanami, causing dissatisfaction in series screenwriter Dai Satō. Rurouni Kenshin ' s author Nobuhiro Watsuki compared Yukishiro Tomoe to Rei. He said Yukishiro became an Ayanami lookalike, with the only unique feature being her black pupils. The author originally conceived her as a "cool beauty", but, once she revealed her true feelings in the end, she became a different character.

The Artifice writer Justin Wu regards Rei as the prototypical mukuchi (無口), a term used by anime fans to describe reticent and emotionless characters, usually with a monotone voice who speak to-the-point, and avoid unnecessary conversations. This moe element, which gained wide popularity only after Rei's success, can be found in numerous subsequent female characters, including Eva in Black Cat, Ai Enma in Hell Girl, and Yuki Nagato in Haruhi Suzumiya. The character is also credited to have popularized the kuudere stereotype, a term for male or female characters who hide their true feelings behind a melancholic and cold facade. According to Kaichiro Morikawa, a Japanese architect and academic, characters with physical defects before Evangelion and Rei Ayanami were rare, such as Char Aznable in Mobile Suit Gundam, who has a scar on his forehead, and Princess Kushana in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Justin Wu also noticed that, after the success of the series, the bandages gained great popularity, becoming the trademark of the character and a common feature in cosplays.

Japanese band Rey derived its name from her. Singer and guitarist Motoo Fujiwara wrote the lyrics of the song "Arue" taking inspiration from Rei, with the English title "R.A." inspired by the initial letters of her name. Ging Nang Boyz album Door features a song named "Ano ko wa Ayanami Rei ga suki" (あの娘は綾波レイが好き). According to the Japanese site Animentalism, the track "Ray" by rock band Luna Sea, included as the B-side of their single "In Silence" and composed by Sugizo, could be a tribute to Rei Ayanami. Artists have produced fan arts about her, including Okama, Huke, Hiroya Oku and Arina Tanemura. Celebrities paid tribute to Rei cosplaying her, including Shoko Nakagawa, Natsuki Katō, Miu Nakamura, Yuuri Morishita, Umika Kawashima, Rio Uchida, Kokoro Shinozaki and Shōma Uno. During Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2012 English model Jourdan Dunn wore a dress similar to the character's plugsuit; Gainax only learned about the outfit from the Internet and was perplexed by the situation. Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend contains a reference to the character. Rei's image appeared on a shirt of a character from the Veronica's Closet series. Further references have been identified in other Japanese animated series, including Joshiraku, Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku, Gurren Lagann, and Nisemonogatari, in which her line from the sixth episode "You won't die, because I'll protect you" is parodied. According to Vogue, her plugsuit also inspired a piece of clothing for the spring 2016 line by the fashion house Louis Vuitton.

title: Rei Ayanami