#not really a timeloop for eva but like shinji and kaworu still have that weird thing going on so i think it counts

[idontdrinkgatorade]

i guess ‘guy (gn) makes a time loop to try and save the love of their life from their inevitable death’ is just a trope that i keep on accidentally running across in my fav media

[foulserpent]

yeah more elaborated thoughts on the ending of 3.0+1.0. spoilers obviously

ok so EOE is heavily pessimistic w,ith a slight aspect of hope when examined closely. a traumatized 14 year old who has had what little was good in his life taken away and all his fears validated is put in control of the apocalypse, so OF COURSE he decides to take the easy route and create a world without individual humans to hurt each other (since thats the main option on the table). thats entirely natural and understandable. and by the time he comes around to rejecting this, its partially too late, and we’re left with a desolate world, but with the hope that people can reform and a potential for a future. he suffers tremendous consequences for what isnt so much a personal failing as like, pretty much inevitable. and i dont really like analyses that treat it as like Punishment For Shinji's Sins bc even if maybe its meant that way, this is still a situation where him and the other kids are victims. but i feel like the consequences are IMPORTANT like it shows that he has accepted the potential for pain and is willing to face it.

eva 3.0+1.0 is almost the exact opposite, where shinji knows exactly what to do, manages to make peace with everyone in his life, and create a better world. which like, if you take the og series and rebuilds as one set of media Maybe works, but on its own is a little hollow too. and definitely feels like a sudden and unlikely transition from how despondent shinjj is at the beginning with no real concrete impetus for change

i mean idk since they DID confirm timeloops i think it might be implied shinji was aware of the previous timelines and that informed his decisions? but its never really shown. idk i think id rather see some key transitional moment(s) that prepare shinji to make peace with everyone, bc as it stands its just a couple things with not-rei (and then hes weirdly unaffected by her death) and him hallucinating kaworu once and then hes suddenly like. hes good. hes fine. i mean i dont want an extra hour of him being despondent but it wuould have been nice to have a lot more buildup to him being willing to reject instrumentality/make peace with everyone.

but also i feel like a more balanced ending thats STILL very optimistic would be that hes able to reverse the destruction to the world but not reset it altogether. like its still the post apocalyptic post 3rd impact world you see at the beginning, but its no longer coreified, life can grow again. that way there ARE consequences and shinji has to live in this world he (unwittingly) created, but its one where people can live and 'rebuild' (lol) where theres a hope for the future and day to day happiness, even if its not an idealistic certainty

bc this ending feels a little weird underneath the superficial happiness like... what happened to that village and its ppl? the baby and etc? are they just gone? even if they were like, transferred to the new world, it kinda feels like everything they built was kinda for nothing.

i mean like THE core theme of evangelion is facing things instead of running away, and like on one hand shinji very much does face things (literally finding resolution in every one of his relationships, which is the emotional core of the show) but hes still kinda "running away" in a sense.... but then on the other end, its very directly a 'return to the real world' and a conclusion to the meta arc of shinji as kind of representing the audience a little, not to mention anno lol. i honestly just dont know how to feel about it. still liked it tho

[waaty]

OK SO I WATCHED THE NEW EVA MOVIE SO I’M GONNA DUMP MY THOUGHTS HERE TOO i also posted this on twitter and obviously this has spoilers for the entirely of shin evangelion 3.0+1.0 don’t read if you haven’t seen the movie!!!

OK SO i actually really quite liked it!??? i was a little worried at first because even though i was spoiler-free i did see some Reactions.

ANYWAYS so like. wow where to even start. i think i really liked how it commentated on end of eva. i thought how it really went into gendo’s past and how he saw the world was really cool. end of eva suggested that gendo had fears like shinji, but it was cool to see it really shown here. gendo, especially in rebuild, is shown to be like this inhuman evil so it was cool to see him like… humanized in this way?

i enjoyed how kaworu was handled too. it was cool to see the timeloop theory stuff kinda… proven??? i mean it was obvious but it was still nice to have it heavily suggested. i thought it was sweet that he cried when young shinji extended a hand to him, it’s not everyday you see a kaworu with such emotion!!! i thought it was funny but also kind of interesting that shinji said kaworu was like gendo lol i think what he meant was that kaworu, like gendo, does crazy things to try to save the one he loves. he does it for selfish reasons and… idk, i enjoyed that actually! it was really interesting. god i loved the reanimated ep24 parts.

the EoE parts were really neat and Weird which is fitting imo. the real life lady was so ?????????? but also? i get it. i respect it. the weird wanderer things turning into headless 3D naked reis? don’t get it but still respect it. for real tho i really liked how they did the “what do you wish for?” conversation and i also thought it was neat that they even did the EoE final scene. the art style was really weird, it kinda… reminded me of RETAKE??? did anyone think this

it’s not without flaws but like, every rebuild movie is pretty flawed, but like honestly in general i really liked it! sure asuka needed pants but hey!

oh speaking of asuka i loved how she told shinji she once had a crush on him but the she became an adult. that was really good actually.

the fact that shinji/mari is endgame is also actually hilarious to me and tbh? is the perfect solution to rei vs asuka waifu wars. they had nearly no buildup compared to other love interests but honestly i’m not mad? i’m kawoshin biased but i’m still happy because at least he’s alive! he may meet shinji again! it’s not a sad ending to me. tbh i still dont know wtf is up with mari (why does she have judas’ last name) but that’s ok.

i should probably wrap this up now so tldr 9/10

[semi-imaginary-place]

Watching Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0

3.0 hmmm so rebuilt really is a rebuilt a rewrite. here’s to hoping its less... weird.. about everything than the og series. if they take out how every woman miraculously wants gendo i will be happy. mmm that earth isn’t looking so good. so the collars are kill switches. one of the crimes of the anime is that the writers drove misato and ritsuko apart. hmm but who is fighting who here. asuka and mari were fighting against eva tech. hmmm mari’s connections to the evas hasn’t been revealed yet and they’ve been teasing kaworu for 3 movies now. shinji hasn’t realized he caused the apocalypse, i’d be easier if someone just told him hey you destroyed the world. they gave him crocs! 14 years hm? why didn’t asuka age? did the opening scene take place recently? or 14 years ago? all eva pilots all teenagers frozen in time. restored? hmm what rei thought was important? ah I love this for ristuko. when the climax of the anime hit and the writers had ritsuko risk it all for gendo i was ... going to write a strongly worded letter. but take down nerv and stop instrumentality with her gal pal? hell yeah. misato threw a coup and most of the staff went with her. i love that. or at least i think the short haired woman was on the command station team in nerv.

nice contrast between the slapdash rushed and hectic but filled with people nature of wille vs. the empty and automated nerv. oh so this is the gay piano scene people were freaking out about a decade ago. oh wow shinji’s getting like 10 the exposition her got in the anime. anime was all dramatic irony because the audience knew more. i think its pretty kind of misato and co not to kill shinji outright given how dangerous he is. i can’t read kaworu. i do believe he is doing this for shinji, but what he has said plays well into seele and nerv’s plans. will the two of them really be able to take the spears away from the control of everyone else? didn’t he say those were the keys to instrumentality? shiji is totally being used here no question by seele, nerv, and kaworu. why is lilith sealed off? nerv had access to their body before the third impact. if shinji left with unit 13 he could stop/delay nerv’s plans. ... does this mean shinji and kaworu are drift compatible? lilith’s corpse? at the epicenter of the third impact, whose head is the giant rei head gendo has. the giant rei formed at the end on 2.0 how is that lilith? what happened to the giant crucified one? ok those skulls are huge what are they.

ah there it is. give kaworu false information and use him to convince shinji to get in the eva, and once in shinji will magical thinking his way into completing the mission even when it will no longer save the world. oh shinji is totally about to make things worse. no more cyborg spines for seele they’re full digital in the movies and gendo has pulled the plug. mark 6 turned into Big Rei which turned into a fetus which turned into a smaller red ball which mark 13 ate. hnnnnnnnnnn over to the wiki i go! instrumentality refers to wiping out lilith lifeforms for adam lifeforms to take over???? well that’s a big change from the anime where it meant hiveminding humanity. “this is my fault?” yup it sure it. well kinda. is it me or is the translation for 3.0 wonky? hmm asuka is much more stable here in the rebuild. her family issues weren’t aggravated and she didn’t have a breakdown like in the anime. huh so this planet still has a breathable atmosphere.

wow so in the end just like the anime kaworu was hyped up and only got 30 minutes of screentime which i suppose in an improvement. there’s definitely something to be said for shinji killing kaworu, but i rather like kaworu’s role here all the same. i remember back in the day people were waying kaworu was stuck in a timeloop like homura, was that all theorycrafting and speculation? there was only 1 line in this entire movie series that supports this. the one living thing shown the entire movie the tree by the piano was a nice touch. shinji’s sanctuary.

oh so unit01 fusing with giant rei was the near third impact. the true third impact was a later separate event caused by the fusion of mark 6 with lilith. ahhhh i see. if mari releasing shinji’s entry plug was what stopped the fourth impact, did kaworu need to die?

one thing i would have wanted to see more of in 2.0 would be the destruction from past battles. i wanted to see more of how humanity isn’t springing back quickly. how the cities destroyed aren’t instantly repaired. the dialogue alludes to this like how nerv jp is running out of spare parts and has to prioritize fixing 01 over 00 and the deterioration of rei’s apartment but i would have liked to see that also reflected in the landscape more.