{"id":230,"date":"2011-10-04T12:53:10","date_gmt":"2011-10-04T16:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/?p=230"},"modified":"2019-06-23T17:01:01","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T21:01:01","slug":"evangelion-scholar-lecture-1-rebuild-as-a-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/?p=230","title":{"rendered":"Evangelion Scholar – Lecture 1: Rebuild as a Sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, I’ve made this argument many times on IRC and in random threads here and there since Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22: You can (not) advance<\/strong> came out, so I thought I’d lay it all out right here.<\/p>\n

The new Evangelion ‘Rebuild’ movies are not a retelling of the series, they are a sequel. \u00c2\u00a0The events of these movies occur after the original End of Evangelion movie, and I’m about to show you why that is obvious to me.<\/p>\n

The What and Why-For of it:<\/h2>\n

Shinji rejected instrumentality and in that single instant in which he was basically in control of all living things, and effectively reality, opted to reboot the world. \u00c2\u00a0So, the events of the new movies play out as if the series never happened, but nonetheless takes place after the events of the series and End of Evangelion.<\/p>\n

Evidence For:<\/h2>\n

Seas of Blood<\/strong>
\nThe seas are red. \u00c2\u00a0The opening shot of rolling red surf is almost identical to a shot in the last few minutes of End of Evangelion. \u00c2\u00a0An alternate explanation however is that they are picking up more details from scripture this time and the seas have been red since Second Impact. (A fact supported by EVA2.22)<\/em> \u00c2\u00a0Revelation 16:3 says “And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.”<\/em> \u00c2\u00a0Though given the additional evidence, I’m willing to go as far as ‘It happened in EoE, and was hand-waved in the rebooted reality as having happened during Second Impact.’<\/p>\n

The Moon<\/strong>
\nThe line of blood across the moon occurred in End of Evangelion; it was arterial spray from ‘Giant Naked Rei’. \u00c2\u00a0There is no other possible explanation for this.<\/p>\n

The Mass Production EVAs\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>
\nThe outskirts of Tokyo3 show evidence of the remains of the Mass Produced EVA units, some of which descended from Low-Earth Orbit, crucified, and run through with duplicates of the Lance of Longinus. \u00c2\u00a0 Remember that no angels had surfaced since Second Impact, and no EVA unit had been successfully activated yet, so there’s no explanation for EVA\/Angel-sized chalk outlines and depressions in the bloodied ruins surrounding Tokyo3.<\/p>\n

Ikari Yui<\/strong>
\nThere is no evidence that the soul of Ikari Yui resides in EVA Unit 01. \u00c2\u00a0None of the instances of Unit 01 acting on its own to protect Shinji are present. \u00c2\u00a0This fits with Shinji bidding farewell to his mother, as Unit 01 drifted out into space, and the light going out of its eyes. \u00c2\u00a0There are two small holes in this theory however; the original berserker incident is left almost completely untouched, and when the Dummy Plug won’t initialize, Gendo still says his original “Why are you refusing me, Yui?” line. \u00c2\u00a0But neither of those are definitive proof of anything and could very well be red herrings.<\/p>\n

Kaworu<\/strong>
\nDamn-near all of Kaworu’s dialogue up to this point seem to indicate that he is conscious of the fact that this is not the first time these events have played out. \u00c2\u00a0It’s a common trait given to him in various media that he sometimes says things relevant to different continuities, and occasionally breaks the fourth wall, so that’s pretty normal.<\/p>\n

Arguments against:<\/h2>\n

“If Shinji could remake the world as he wanted, why is he still suffering?”<\/strong>
\nThis is a good question. \u00c2\u00a0There are a several theories. \u00c2\u00a0It could be social commentary by Hideaki Anno about how screwed up youth are today; think “If you could make the world however you wanted, you’d choose to still be miserable!” Or, Shinji realized that if he had a ‘normal life’, he’d never meet any of these people who he cares about. \u00c2\u00a0 Maybe he simply wanted to ‘try again’; \u00c2\u00a0he seems to be getting better. \u00c2\u00a0Asuka is treating him (marginally) better. \u00c2\u00a0He’s managed to get closer to Ayanami, who is acting a lot more human now. \u00c2\u00a0He is close to maybe getting along with his father better. \u00c2\u00a0And he certainly manned-up to save Ayanami, all on his own. \u00c2\u00a0Of course, maybe Shinji’s just…Shinji…and it never occurred to him to try and be happy.<\/p>\n

“Why would it be a sequel? And if so, why wouldn’t they just say it? \u00c2\u00a0This is pretty convoluted, man.”<\/strong>
\nWe’re talking about Hideaki Anno. \u00c2\u00a0You know damned well he hates EVA fans and just wants our money. \u00c2\u00a0Also, he’s batshit insane. \u00c2\u00a0In all seriousness though, why not? \u00c2\u00a0It adds depth to the lore that isn’t immediately apparent and makes it so old fans get more out of it, while new fans don’t have<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0to go back and watch the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, I’ve made this argument many times on IRC and in random threads here and there since Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22: You can (not) advance came out, so I thought I’d lay it all out right here. The new Evangelion ‘Rebuild’ movies are not a retelling of the series, they are a sequel. \u00c2\u00a0The events […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[34,35],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-anime","tag-evangelion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}