What the F@#$ Did I Just Watch?! END OF EVANGELION

Topic started by No_name_here on May 21, 2010. Last post by kenshi 2 years, 1 month ago.

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Post by No_name_here (830 posts) See mini bio Level 11

Staff

My mind has officially been blown. Now, more than ever, I must say…

WHAT THE F@#$ DID I JUST WATCH!??!?!

I had to call my friend, a long-time Eva fan, almost immediately after watching END OF EVANGELION to get my head together. He was the one who was singing this show’s praises (to tune of “ODE TO JOY” probably) in college, and years later, he was finally able to break everything down to me in an hour-long discussion. Between that and reviewing a lot of spoiler-filled comments that you lunatics have left throughout this column, I have to say that I think I’ve got a good enough of a handle on this show's mysteries. It's all there! However, questions still linger and I want ANSWERS!

I loved the ending (even more after it was explained to me.) How Shinji gets the power to make anything happen through instrumentality and the first (and possibly only thing?) he does is summon Asuka back from the dead. Her subsequent repulsion over him being so petty was spot-on and “Disgusting” is a PERFECT ending line. But… but… but… if Shinji desires Asuka so much, why does he strangle her? Is it a kinky thing?
I’m still not 100% clear on what caused Second Impact. Did Seele summon Adam through some kind of occult ritual? And when do we actually see Adam’s embryonic form from which the Evas were supposedly cloned?

What’s the significance of Gendo eating the angel flesh and getting a demon hand with an eye on his palm? Does it just mutate him the way it mutated Yui/Unit-01? And was there something lacking in Toji’s mother’s “soul” that allowed his Eva to get possessed?

With those questions out of the way, let me just say that the first 45 minutes had to be the most adrenaline-pumped segment of the entire series. This makes up for all my frustrations with the final two episodes (and it actually puts them in a better context as the individual perspectives of Human Instrumentality). Seele’s invasion of Nerv, Misato taking out the spec. OPs, Asuka’s last stand against the freaky mass-produced Eva… you couldn’t make this more intense if you tried.

There are two scenes I specifically want to comment on. First is that bit with Asuka muttering “I don’t wanna die” over and over again while hanging upside down in her Eva. THAT is what sets this apart from almost all adventure sci-fi. You have truly-damaged individuals…. AND I LOVE THAT! Also, even though it’s totally messed, the bit where Misato finally kisses Shinji was powerful stuff. One of the most powerful scenes, actually. It pretty much confirmed everything I suspected about their relationship throughout the show. I’m sure some fans have probably rationalized it as her just trying to motivate him, but get real… she French kisses him and, more or less, tells him they'll have sex when he gets back? That’s more than a few steps above a simple good luck peck on the cheek. She wanted him, and I called it.

I think the only portion of this that I wasn’t crazy about was that we got yet another over-long “introspection section” that came off as a little student film. Gainax even played with their filters like some kid just discovering plug-ins. I did like the bit about Asuka, Misato and Rei showing up in real life in the “meta” portion, but I really could’ve done without those overlong shots of the audience. I get it, we’re making reality, let’s move on to the batsh*t crazy imagery in space, because that stuff was astonishing.

Ha! And there actually WAS significance to “Fly Me to the Moon,” wasn’t there?

Let me just say that watching Eva has restored my faith in art, in a lot of ways. My imagination hasn’t been captured by a series like this in many years. I hate convention, I hate archetypes and I hate predictability. Most times when I watch a movie or a show, I have to almost play devil’s advocate and state how much I enjoyed it while qualifying that it’s still “been there, done that.” That definitely wasn’t the case for EVANGELION, at all. I have genuinely been wrapped up in this show's mythology and it's been fun to debate over the "deeper meanings" of a story with fans, once again. I feel like I’ve just watched the WATCHMEN of anime, here. Something that not only blazes new ground, but is also startling in its complexity and, more important, rewards you for paying attention.

I want to watch those REBUILD movies, now, just because I want more EVA! Comics, movies, novels, video games… I’m adding NEON GENESIS EVANGELION to my list of all-time favorites in any medium.

-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Studios and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Pre-order the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover now on Amazon.com.

Posted 3 years ago

Post by ReVolutionOfEvangelion (102 posts) See mini bio Level 3

Oh no no no… Mr. Pinchuk what you just said isn’t right at all.

Further…that’s what we’ve been doing for 15 years, “I didn’t understand it…but then my roommate explained it to me!” – every opinion you’ve said your “roommate” had on the show that you’ve repeated here, has been ridiculously wrong; from that weird “Kaworu is Asuka” thing, to now this.

What did “your roommate” say or do, that qualifies them as an Eva expert….any more than you yourself? All they did was watch it first; now you have equal claim to that.

I assure you your roommate has no credentials and no idea what they’re talking about.

Do I? Well I run con panels and run a fansite, so…I’ve at least got a leg up on “my roommate told me so”

The "ReVolution" of Evangelion is that were going to stop trusting "what my roomate told me" and instead "things we read in the actual guidebooks or can cite with evidence"

Lets begin:

How Shinji gets the power to make anything happen through instrumentality

No. Wrong. Shinji rejected Instrumentality. Instrumentality basically is a Nirvana of Nothingness in which all minds are merged, free to live out their fantasies where anything is possible…and its all not real. As fake as The Matrix. Shinji rejected Instrumentality, and went back to The Real World.

he does is summon Asuka back from the dead.

Shinji didn’t bring back Asuka and was as surprised as we were to see her.

Basically, Yui said that “anyone who can find the strength of will to want to come back, can also come back”. Some people will want to “take the blue pill” and stay in the Matrix. However, a handful will, like Shinji, want to leave. Shinji was just the first.

Asuka had already chosen to “embrace life” when she decided to fight the JSSDF and MP Evas and never give up. So she instantly came back too, because she already made her choice.

You see…and you can check this….the Rei/Adam/Lilith Hybrid can transcend time, because it’s a Living God…not unlike Dr. Manhattan…and if you notice ***Avatars of the Hybrid appear before it even forms***

Freeze frame when Misato dies: there’s an Avatar of the Hybrid there. Freeze frame when Ritsuko dies, theres an Avatar of the Hybrid there.

The idea is that…you saw the Avatars of the Hybrid “gathering the souls” of everyone in Nerv HQ, right? Hyuga, Maya, Aoba? Well, she also did that to Misato and Ritsuko. Not to Kaji, he died too long ago.

That's also how Rei appeared in the first episode:

http://revolutionofevangelion.org/how-rei-appears-to-shinji-in-the-first-episode-fully-explained-in-5-minutes/

But anyone who died CLOSE to Third Impact got “gathered up” anyway.

****we don’t actually SEE it happen, in order to have a dramatic reveal later, but the idea is that off-screen, in Asuka’s dying moment in Eva-02, an Avatar of the Hybrid appeared to her too, and “gathered her up. So she was in Instrumentality as well, along with Misato and Ritsuko, Mayba, Aoba, and Shinji.

Asuka came back because she wanted to come back.

I’m still not 100% clear on what caused Second Impact. Did Seele summon Adam through some kind of occult ritual?

I explained this last time in a LONG post: Seele used the Lance of Longinus, in an experiment by the Katsuragi Expedition, to wake up Adam, to *intentionally* cause Second Impact: the real goal of which was to reduce Adam to a controllable, embryonic form. You see if they tried “Instrumentality” with the adult Adam it wouldn’t be controllable.

NO, why do you think it would involve an “occult ritual” at all? There is no religious meaning to anything in the show whatsoever. They used the Lance of Longinus. Remember the new director’s cut opening to episode 21? When they’re spouting off *technobabble*?

And when do we actually see Adam’s embryonic form from which the Evas were supposedly cloned?

PAY. ATTENTION. Don’t you remember episode 8, when Kaji dropped off the Adam embryo and Gendo said “This is Adam?”

And was there something lacking in Toji’s mother’s “soul” that allowed his Eva to get possessed?

No, nothing lacking. Could have happened to any of them. Even tried to infect Eva-00.

What’s the significance of Gendo eating the angel flesh and getting a demon hand with an eye on his palm? Does it just mutate him the way it mutated Yui/Unit-01?

OH COME ON TOM -- that isn’t from End of Evangelion. Gendo ate Adam in the alternate continuity *manga* by Sadamoto. You’re mixing up the REAL series with the manga spinoff again.

They explain this directly in a Director’s Cut scene, I hope you were paying attention: Gendo fused the embryonic Adam into the flesh of his own hand, at some point, and kept his gloves on all the time to hide it. It didn’t mutate him because it was still dormant, and he’s just a man; it needs to merge with Lilith.

It pretty much confirms everything I suspected about their relationship throughout the show.

Misato tongue-kissed Shinji because she’d been shot in the kidneys, knew she was dying, and with her last breath tried to shock Shinji out of his state of near-catatonia. She knew that no matter what, she’d be dead within minutes.

Her subsequent repulsion over him being so petty was spot-on and “Disgusting” is a PERFECT ending line. But… but… but… if Shinji desires Asuka so much, why does he strangle her? Is it a kinky thing?

Why did Shinji strangle Asuka?

You got this utterly wrong.

They loosely explained this on a trading card once, but really you have to look at their storyarcs. Consider:

Shinji is the introverted boy who “runs away” from pain.

Asuka is the extroverted girl who can *never* show weakness…or tenderness. Had difficulty lowering her psychological defenses to show basic signs of kindness to Shinji.

***Remember when Shinji is hallucinating, and he strangles hallucination-Asuka…and nothing happens? She doesn’t fight back because it’s a hallucination, not a real person. Shinji wanted to avoid real people so much, and now he’s stuck in a fantasy dreamscape where he can do whatever he wants but none of its real.

So whats the first thing he does after he gets back to the “real world”? He’s afraid he’s still in Instrumentality, and wants to make sure its “real” again.

Basically, *Shinji is trying to provoke Asuka to attack him*. Had Asuka passed out or something he would have stopped. Hes hoping shell fight him off and resist him, proving that this isn’t a hallucination. So Shinji, the introvert who avoided pain, is now demanding the possibility of pain as proof that he lives in the real world. He’s fulfilled his character arc, he’s not cripplingly afraid of pain anymore.

And Asuka does indeed “resist” him (proving she’s real)…but not the way he thought. Asuka, who could never express tenderness because her extroversion made her think it was a sign of weakness….resists Shinji by caressing his cheek lovingly, wordlessly imploring him to stop. Asuka is now capable of letting down her neuroses and revealing to Shinji that she actually cares about him. Asuka has fulfilled her character arc.

That is why Shinji strangles Asuka, and why Asuka resists the way she does.

As for the SEPARATE question of “why does she say, “how disgusting”?”….its meant to be ambiguous, but was sort of a meta-commentary on the whole “Experience” that 1-Instrumentality was a disgusting experience to go through, 2- their entire history with the Evangelions and all the trauma they went through was disgusting 3-life in general is disgusting.

If you want to know more, please check out the recorded Evangelion panels I keep on my website, as well as our ongoing video series “Analysis of Evangelion” which I’m restating now (I had to stop the past few weeks as I was finishing my Master’s Thesis)

Edited 3 years ago

Post by FoxxFireArt (2,530 posts) See mini bio Level 25

Moderator

That moment when Misato saves Shinji was awesome. She really swoops in to the rescue. She kissed him and promises him more. You got to envy that little whiner. Pissed me off so much that she was killed.

There was that scene where Shinji is watching a scene from Misato's past with Kaji. She talks about how she wanted to be a mother for Shinji but failed. That was kind of heart breaking how the one person who openly cared something for him feels so defeated.

This movie really did save the series for me. This movie is pretty much a right of passage moment for anime fans.

I know I keep saying this, but if you like V for Vendetta and Watchmen. Code Geass might be right up your alley. It's about two seasons of about 25 episodes in each. One of the things I love about it is that the character that in any other series would be the villain. He is actually the hero of the series. I'm also play chess and I loved the chess theme used in the series. The end had me quite surprised about the motivations of many characters.

Edited 3 years ago

Post by ReVolutionOfEvangelion (102 posts) See mini bio Level 3

@FoxxFireArt: Why do you think I splice clips from Code Geass into ReVolutionOfEvangelion.org trailers?

Posted 3 years ago

Post by ReVolutionOfEvangelion (102 posts) See mini bio Level 3

I would like to point out that the third piece of artwork used for this article, of Eva-01 facing off against an Angel, isn't from ANY episode of the series nor End of Eva: it's a promotional image; Gainax held a fanart contest saying "hey, draw an Angel and send it in, and we'll refine your drawing and draw it with our production-quality art team". This was a decade ago. For some reason, it CONSTANTLY comes up in basic Google-searches for "Angels"

Wouldn't a picture of the Mass Production Evangelions been far more fitting?

Posted 3 years ago

Post by Dream (4,394 posts) See mini bio Level 20

But… but… but… if Shinji desires Asuka so much, why does he strangle her? Is it a kinky thing?

The entire scene is open to enough debate. If I have to go with my own theory, I'd say seeing Asuka back in the flesh gave Shinji an opportunity to get back at her for the verbal abuse he took from her throughout the series and putting him through emotional hell because of her coma and death. But the caressing of his cheek brought him back into reality making him realize he couldn't go through with it and Asuka's "disgusting" comment being in response to seeing how pathetically vulnerable Shinji truly was.

I’m still not 100% clear on what caused Second Impact. Did Seele summon Adam through some kind of occult ritual? And when do we actually see Adam’s embryonic form from which the Evas were supposedly cloned?

Not a ritual. SEELE awoke Adam to intentionally trigger Second Impact and revert the Angel to an embryonic form in their plans for the Instrumentality Project. Before End of Eva, the earliest appearance of Adam's embryonic form was at the end of episode 8 when Kaji delivers it to Gendo and was the reason why the Angel was attacking the UN carrier ships.

What’s the significance of Gendo eating the angel flesh and getting a demon hand with an eye on his palm? Does it just mutate him the way it mutated Yui/Unit-01?

By fusing Adam's embryo with his hand, Gendo tried to trigger a Third Impact under his own scenario by fusing with Rei, likely wanting to make himself a God and bringing his wife back to life to be by his side.

Posted 3 years ago

Post by OnlyWonderBoy (16 posts) See mini bio Level 4

@ ReVolutionofEvangelion I gotta say I'm pretty damn impressed with your total grasp of the show. Reading you comments has helped clear up a lot of confusion I've had, especially for episodes 20-26 and End of Eva.

@Tom_Pinchuk So now that you're done with Eva, do you plan on doing this feature for another series? If this isn't the first show you've done this for then i apologize, but I haven't been a member of the sight all that long.

Posted 3 years ago

Post by No_name_here (830 posts) See mini bio Level 11

Staff

@ReVolutionOfEvangelion: See, you're getting worked about me getting details of the show wrong while you're getting simple details of these posts wrong. I didn't say my college friend was my roommate, for one. I also said, a while back, that these are just my thoughts about the show as a newcomer watching it for the first time. I haven't re-watched every episode, over and over, nor read any guidebooks... so I've thus never claimed this column to be an objective summary of EVANGELION from an expert. I leave that to your website.

I appreciate your enthusiasm for the show and how informative your posts have been in fleshing out the secrets of the plot. I don't appreciate the hostile, condescending way you've addressed me and other posters throughout this column. If you're trying to get people to go to your website, join the Revolution of Evangelion or even become fans of the show, I'd really advise you to adopt a friendlier tone.

Posted 3 years ago

Post by sickVisionz (3,783 posts) See mini bio Level 24

Moderator

I want to watch those REBUILD movies, now, just because I want more EVA! Comics, movies, novels, video games… I’m adding NEON GENESIS EVANGELION to my list of all-time favorites in any medium.

I secretly hoped that this would be the final outcome of you watching it.

I kinda disagree about Misato really wanting to jump down on Shinji. I think it was a desperation move to find something to motivate him. Nothing else seemed to be working and he was apathetic to the point where he was going to let everyone get killed, even himself. People will do strange things under circumstances like that.

PS, I love the insert song during the exploding vagina's in outer space getting penetrated by lances segment.

Edited 3 years ago

Post by Dream (4,394 posts) See mini bio Level 20

Now why is this exchange with RevofEva reminding me of a certain Nostalgia Critic episode?

Posted 3 years ago

Post by OmegaChosen (43 posts) See mini bio Level 6

@Tom_Pinchuk: I hate to say it but, "Congratulations!" :3 You have officially completed a run of Evangelion. I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as you did. It's always fun seeing how new fans take to Evangelion, but yours was a special case seeing as you were almost totally free any sort of past experience with it.

I'd like to try explain why Shinji tried to choke Asuka if I could though. A lot of evidence points towards Shinji having been on that beach for a lot longer than a few hours. From the graves he built for Misato(with her cross nailed to it) and Asuka(the one that was kicked over), it seems to suggest that he's been there for a rather long time. After seeing everything that he did and possibly days of no contact with no other human beings, and the realization that he may have caused the extinction of the human race, he understandably is rather insane. Then Asuka shows up and just lays there next to him. He sees her, a disturbed look in his gaze, and whatever crazy thoughts in his mind(possibly "well, I almost killed her before, I should finish the job") makes him try to choke her. She caresses his cheek, in a manner reminiscent of Yui, and he just starts bawling. Also, Asuka's "Disgusting" is rather hard to translate from Japanese, meaning "disgusting", "you make me sick", and "I feel sick" all at once yet not exactly meaning all three either. The most apt thing I could think of would be "This is disgusting", seeing as that's ambiguous as to whether she means the whole Shinji crying thing or just the state of everything but "Disgusting" works fine as well. If it helps, alternate scripts exist for the ending, one with Asuka saying, "Idiot, you think I would let you kill me?" after the choking and one where no one comes back and Shinji sits there caressing some person's arm and then you see that it's just an arm.

I believe Adam was frozen in Antarctica, in a suspended animation state, and they initiated a contact experiment with it. Apparently touching Adam is a no-no and that caused Second Impact. If you look closely enough around stuff, you see that Kaworu's birthday is on the day of Second Impact, leading many fans to believe that his "birth" had something to do with Second Impact.

Also, there's a suggestion that it's possibly not Toji's mother's soul in his Eva, but his sister's, who was in the hospital where NERV had easy access to her for soul fusing. >_> That's just a theory roaming around though.

Regarding Misato, I guess it is sort of a case of wanting him as well as trying to shock him. If you look at the subtext in episode 23, where Misato says she is there for him and Shinji pulls his hand away, she was trying to initiate a sexual encounter in order to "help" him through having Rei die and Asuka go comatose. This time, she realized just how bad she had been at being a guardian and had royally screwed up protecting Shinji. She tried encouraging him to try to save Asuka the only way she knew how, figuring that if she couldn't be a mother figure to him she might as well be something else. When you think about it, if you were only seeing everything Shinji had done without going into his mind, it does makes him out to be a big damn hero. I mean, this guy is the best Eva pilot out of the bunch, he saves the world multiple times over, and he's not overtly grotesque to look at. Having someone like that around and seeing everything he's gone through would make better woman than Misato entertain having a relationship with the luggage-heavy Shinji.

And with the blood loss she probably wasn't thinking too clearly and was just kind of doing stuff without thinking about it too deeply. :P

I should probably stop now though, as I could go for a very long time explaining the numerous theories out there and which ones I feel are most accurate. If you ever feel like delving deeper into the Eva mythos and learning more stuff about it, and this goes out to all you readers out there, I'd like to recommend wiki.evageeks.org as a very good site for everything Evangelion-related, which is where I learned most of what I know about Eva.

I hope you continue being a fan of Evangelion Tom and I certainly do recommend watching the Rebuild series, of which the first is now out on DVD and Blu-Ray. It was great following your trek through the Evangelion world and I appreciate that you were kind enough to allow us all to follow along as well. And again, "Congratulations!"

P.S. I didn't think you'd call out ReV like that. :3

Edited 3 years ago

Post by hitsusatsu11 (9,455 posts) See mini bio Level 20

EoE is a great movie, epic scenes all throughout especially Asuka vs MP Evas, cool visuals during instrumentality, love Komm Susser Tod playing, everything is truly magnificent.

Now since there are many experts on Eva here, I would like to ask a few of my own questions:

1) Is instrumentality a worldwide or universal phenomenon? Obviously it takes place on earth but is the resulting "supreme being" planetary or universal? What effect would said supreme being have on the the universe, other races within the universe, and the "First Ancestral Race"?

2) Who exactly can come back in instrumentality? Everyone who has the will to come back? Does this include Ritsuko who died right before instrumentality, would this include kaji? (I would think it wouldn't, but we do see him in ep 26 so idk) What about the theory that Asuka and Shinji are the only ones who came back and must be the new "adam and eve" of mankind?

3) How come when Rei appears at the end in her schoolgirl form, the corpse of "Giga Rei" is still there, i mean shouldn't her Lilith fused state just turn into her schoolgirl form, or was said Rei just formed out of the primordial LCL when she decided she wanted to exist with that form?

4) Any thoughts on what Gendo's final words are to Ritsuko?

5) How come all throughout the series it seems Rei can teleport, disappearing and reappearing all the time. Especially at the end there, it seems she knows "instant transmission" or something. Does the Rei at the end of EoE still have some godly powers?

6) What is the significance of Misato's cross being on the tree?

7) Why exactly does Shinji choke Asuka, he just decided to choose life and values being with others, and the first thing he does is choke Asuka? (I don't buy hes testing to see if she's real lol) And we can all guess why Asuka says "how disgusting" lol, (cough hospital scene) but what about the old theory that her lines are really "I feel sick" as in morning sickness as in she's pregnant? (personally i don't buy into that one)

9) What happens to the ppl who don't choose to come back, do they still exist in a lake of LCL somewhere, is there still some sentient instrumentality being somewhere?

Edited 3 years ago

Post by hitsusatsu11 (9,455 posts) See mini bio Level 20

@Tom_Pinchuk said:

"

My mind has officially been blown. Now, more than ever, I must say…

There are two scenes I specifically want to comment on. First is that bit with Asuka muttering “I don’t wanna die” over and over again while hanging upside down in her Eva. THAT is what sets this apart from almost all adventure sci-fi. You have truly-damaged individuals…. AND I LOVE THAT! Also, even though it’s totally messed, the bit where Misato finally kisses Shinji was powerful stuff. One of the most powerful scenes, actually. It pretty much confirmed everything I suspected about their relationship throughout the show. I’m sure some fans have probably rationalized it as her just trying to motivate him, but get real… she French kisses him and, more or less, tells him they'll have sex when he gets back? That’s more than a few steps above a simple good luck peck on the cheek. She wanted him, and I called it.

That scene is the first I ever saw of NGE, and i thought is was intense, for the same reasons you did.

It was a good call.

Congrats on watching it all, I hope you watch the Rebuild series, I also suggest reading Sadamoto's manga, and if your really in love with the characters and don't mind some high school slice of life I recommend "Angelic Days" and "Raising Shinji". "Gakuen Datenroku" is a cool Eva spin off manga which is kinda like eva meets bleach, you might enjoy that.

Anyways I enjoyed reading your articles and hope you enjoyed Eva.

Posted 3 years ago

Post by Lemegeton300 (300 posts) See mini bio Level 10

glad you enjoyed the ending. i enjoyed evangelion though i still cant get my head around some of it.

Posted 3 years ago

Post by FoxxFireArt (2,530 posts) See mini bio Level 25

Moderator

@ReVolutionOfEvangelion:

I was involved for a time in a sort of online fan fiction comic based on Evangelion. It was a project called After Impact, about what happens after the events of End of Evangelion. Various artists worked on it. I did three episodes. I was paid petty well. They had some people to do voice acting. To the left is one picture of the project. Sadly, I only got to draw Misato once for that project in a flash back.

If you are wondering about Shinji's build. This scene happens some years after the EoE finale. He also suffered injuries from an animal attack.

@Tom_Pinchuk:

**clapping** Bravo, good sir!! I completely agree. What does it hurt if someone comes away with an interpretation of a show, a scene, or a book that might be different then your own. It's just how they see it. I'm an avid reader of the classic Sherlock Holmes novels. Some people read those and see an uptight almost law professor type of personality for Holmes. Though, when I read it. I always pictured something closer to what Robert Downey Jr. portrayed in the recent film. No one is either right or wrong.

Far too often people see their personal tastes as some sort of dogma.

Edited 3 years ago

Post by OmegaChosen (43 posts) See mini bio Level 6

@hitsusatsu11: A lot of questions huh? Well, I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.

1) Is instrumentality a worldwide or universal phenomenon? Obviously it takes place on earth but is the resulting "supreme being" planetary or universal? What effect would said supreme being have on the the universe, other races within the universe, and the "First Ancestral Race"?

I believe it is planetary. It probably wouldn't have any real effect on the universe outside of Earth as it was just humans on this one planet that are forced back into the primordial goo that was the black moon(I believe). A fit description would be it being a kind of reset button, with all the tang that Lilith spreading across the globe when it first landed going back into the ball. What would have happened after that, such as the goo being released back onto Earth or perhaps the ball shooting back into space to find a new planet, is anyone's guess. But Shinji chickened out so we'll never know. :P

The First Ancestral Race probably wouldn't be affected by any of this, assuming they're still exist somewhere out there. They never intended for two moons to land on the same planet and they especially didn't intend for one of the spears to be broken if they ever did.

2) Who exactly can come back in instrumentality? Everyone who has the will to come back? Does this include Ritsuko who died right before instrumentality, would this include kaji? (I would think it wouldn't, but we do see him in ep 26 so idk) What about the theory that Asuka and Shinji are the only ones who came back and must be the new "adam and eve" of mankind?

Yes, anyone with the will to come back can come back. We only ever see Asuka and Shinji but for all we know there might be small pockets of humans reemerging around the world. I like to believe that as I like to think that there are people with stronger mental individuality than Asuka and Shinji. >_> I believe that Ritsuko would count in that but it may be less likely, seeing as she was dead and I'm not sure how the conscious' of dead people are factored into Instrumentality. For all we know, dead people may have been converted into tang without their consciousness and they could just be leftovers.

3) How come when Rei appears at the end in her schoolgirl form, the corpse of "Giga Rei" is still there, i mean shouldn't her Lilith fused state just turn into her schoolgirl form, or was said Rei just formed out of the primordial LCL when she decided she wanted to exist with that form?

That's a point of contention among fans. Some just see it as a bookend for the beginning and the end of the series, others see it as an insight into Shinji's mental state, and there's even a crazy theory that this whole thing, as in the series in its entirety, from the second the Rei ghost first showed up was Instrumentality happening because Shinji arrived too late. I personally see it as the first two, bookend and mental state, and reject the last one. Also, from reading this question, I'm not sure if you know it was a Rei ghost or not but I'm going along with you do.

4) Any thoughts on what Gendo's final words are to Ritsuko?

Not really. Probably something stupid to try to save his skin or perhaps him calling her out or something. " I love you" is too cliche but "I never loved you" is just as cliche. They never recorded a line and there's so many possibilities we just could never know. When you think about it, what could he say at that moment to make the scene better? I feel like leaving that line blank was just as good as making it something, if not better. But that's just me. Anno could have a few possible lines rolling around in his head.

5) How come all throughout the series it seems Rei can teleport, disappearing and reappearing all the time. Especially at the end there, it seems she knows "instant transmission" or something. Does the Rei at the end of EoE still have some godly powers?

That's ghost Rei. No one really knows. Shinji does physically see her, as in an episode he recalls seeing her in a flashback. It's not a hallucination as he had never met her when he first saw the ghost. Rei is part Lilith, she could be using Angel-like abilities to contact Shinji at various points of time. Add in the fact that Rei is a clone of Shinji's mother and Llith is the mother of all Lilin, that could make her connection Shinji particularly strong if this is in fact the case. Also, the last Rei gains god-like powers after completely fusing with Lilith and Adam and with these god-like powers, she started instrumentality and took everyone in the world at once. With these powers, it may be feasible that she was in more place than once across time as well, meaning that the Rei we see in the beginning and the end are actually the god-like Rei giant across time. I like these two theories best, but it could just be stylistic type of thing as well if we don't look too deeply into it.

There's quantum mechanics stuff thrown in as well but meh.

6) What is the significance of Misato's cross being on the tree?

It was a grave actually. It's implied that after freeing himself from Instrumentality and seeing that basically everyone else was dead, he erected graves for the people who died, though the graves of Misato and Asuka are particularly focused on. Shinji hung the cross on Misato's grave as a marker. It's a nice, human gesture from a disturbed Shinji.

7) Why exactly does Shinji choke Asuka, he just decided to choose life and values being with others, and the first thing he does is choke Asuka? (I don't buy hes testing to see if she's real lol) And we can all guess why Asuka says "how disgusting" lol, (cough hospital scene) but what about the old theory that her lines are really "I feel sick" as in morning sickness as in she's pregnant? (personally i don't buy into that one)

He's been alone for who knows how many days, even weeks, without anyone else. He's basically insane at this point, especially if he had to resort to eating the red liquid people for sustenance if he had been there for enough time. The first thing he probably did was search for anyone else coming out of the sea. After a day or two, he probably realized no one was coming. Deciding to hang out for a few days, he probably realized that maybe no one else was coming back and probably had a mental breakdown for destroying humanity. Then he erected the graves and just kind of hung out near the beach, wallowing in his insanity and regret.

Regarding the Asuka line, as I've said before, it's open to vague interpretation. I don't believe the pregnancy thing seeing as it doesn't make much sense for her to be pregnant. It's probably just a line signifying her disgust with just everything, from just getting out of the sea, to seeing Shinji sob all over her, remembering what Shinji did to her, and just for the state that the world is in.

8) What happens to the ppl who don't choose to come back, do they still exist in a lake of LCL somewhere, is there still some sentient instrumentality being somewhere?

Instrumentality kind of succeeded when you think about it. Everyone was turned to goo and the only thing Shinji accomplished was letting everyone get the chance to come back. If I had to hazard a guess, I guess for those who choose not to come back will stay in the lake along with all the other non-choosers as well. Not much you can do about that one. :/

I hope these answers helped and are to your satisfaction. :)

Edited 3 years ago

Post by Fabe (56 posts) See mini bio Level 6

@FoxxFireArt said:

" @ReVolutionOfEvangelion:

I was involved for a time in a sort of online fan fiction comic based on Evangelion. It was a project called After Impact, about what happens after the events of End of Evangelion. Various artists worked on it. I did three episodes. I was paid petty well. They had some people to do voice acting. To the left is one picture of the project. Sadly, I only got to draw Misato once for that project in a flash back.

If you are wondering about Shinji's build. This scene happens some years after the EoE finale. He also suffered injuries from an animal attack.

You worked on After Impact:The audio manga, cool, I loved that too bad the plug got pulled just when things where getting really interesting. I did manage to find a copy of the original fanfic so I was able to see how it all ended but I would still like to seen the audio manga finished .

Posted 3 years ago

Post by fragilenin (7 posts) See mini bio Level 11

I just want to say thank you Mr. Pinchuk for doing this column. I have looked forward to it everyday since it started, even before you started Evangelion.
I had done a marathon of the series and EoE about two weeks or so back and I came away with pretty much the same feeling that you did. Just falling in love with Evangelion in general. It was about a day later if not later than night that I popped in Eva 1.11 (the rebuild film) and watched it again. One warning though when you watch Eva 1.11, you will want to watch Eva 2.0 or just the series again. Here is to hoping that Eva 2.0 gets a speedy US license because judging from trailers, Eva 2.0 is awesome.
So once again, thanks for doing this column, it is fun to follow along with you as you watch series that I have or haven't watched. Anime Vice's own endurance run of sorts.

Posted 3 years ago

Post by Burntlettuce (155 posts) See mini bio Level 14

Congratulations of finishing and it enjoying it no less. It's truly a great series, and an even better movie. I suggest you check out Gunbuster sometime down the line, Evangelion in general, pulls a few things from this series.

Posted 3 years ago

Post by Ryuku_Ryosake (58 posts) See mini bio Level 6

@hitsusatsu11: @OmegaChosen:
While I'm not really an Eva expert or anything I'll give you my thoughts. Just offering some alternatives to Omega Chosen's answers.
1) Is instrumentality a worldwide or universal phenomenon? Obviously it takes place on earth but is the resulting "supreme being" planetary or universal? What effect would said supreme being have on the the universe, other races within the universe, and the "First Ancestral Race"?

I would say universal. We are talking about a "god" here who has proven the ability to transcend space and time. It wouldn't make any sense that the effect of Instrumentality would only be limited to a planet. There is also the fact that the First Ancestral Race seemed to not want Instrumentality to happen. Proving the fail safes of Lance of Longinus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It could be argued they just wanted to offer the chance of survival to any Lilim who wants it. However you could bet that there are tons of other Seeded planets who face extinction on a regular basis just because of things like dying suns. It would seems hardly worth it to go through that much effort for the slight chance of letting on planet of life live. Yui even mentions that even if instrumentality is rejected there will be a time when all signs of humanity will cease to exist except for her and Eva 01. So it's going to happen anyway so why try to stop it.

I would also like to bring up that I still think the process of instrumentality was still actively happening across the universe as Shinji made his decision. Instrumentality if it was only based on the planetary scale was done and over by the time Shinji changed his mind. That would mean Shinji could have changed his mind anytime until the earth was destroyed. It just doesn't make sense to me unless he could have possibly changed his mind while the process of Instrumentality was still on going across the universe.

2) Who exactly can come back in instrumentality? Everyone who has the will to come back? Does this include Ritsuko who died right before instrumentality, would this include kaji? (I would think it wouldn't, but we do see him in ep 26 so idk) What about the theory that Asuka and Shinji are the only ones who came back and must be the new "adam and eve" of mankind?

I pretty much agree with Omega on this one.

3) How come when Rei appears at the end in her schoolgirl form, the corpse of "Giga Rei" is still there, i mean shouldn't her Lilith fused state just turn into her schoolgirl form, or was said Rei just formed out of the primordial LCL when she decided she wanted to exist with that form?

The Rei God could have sent this version of herself into the future transcending time and all that.

4) Any thoughts on what Gendo's final words are to Ritsuko?

I like the blank because the way I see it anything Gendo would have said to Ritsuko would have been a lie. Pretty much showing how Gendo really has no feelings negative or positive about her.

5) How come all throughout the series it seems Rei can teleport, disappearing and reappearing all the time. Especially at the end there, it seems she knows "instant transmission" or something. Does the Rei at the end of EoE still have some godly powers?

Transcending space and time and stuff. Yes that probably how she showed up to Shinji.

6) What is the significance of Misato's cross being on the tree?

What Omega said.

7) Why exactly does Shinji choke Asuka, he just decided to choose life and values being with others, and the first thing he does is choke Asuka? (I don't buy hes testing to see if she's real lol) And we can all guess why Asuka says "how disgusting" lol, (cough hospital scene) but what about the old theory that her lines are really "I feel sick" as in morning sickness as in she's pregnant? (personally i don't buy into that one)

Well the last interaction he had with her in Instrumentality he chocked her. Just picking up where he left off. Plus the madness. Also fitting the first interaction between the first people out of Instrumentality is hurting each other physically and mentally. I think Asuka's lines are probably from regret. She seems to not react to the choking at all but more to the fact that Shinji cries and shut down when she seriously reaches out to him for love.

9) What happens to the ppl who don't choose to come back, do they still exist in a lake of LCL somewhere, is there still some sentient instrumentality being somewhere?

Yup that's pretty much what what they're doing at least until the LCL creates new life or something.

Posted 3 years ago

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