Evangelion fanboy geektalk

Somewhere in my old blog, I posted something about the movie, End of Evangelion. I’m doing this right now since I marathoned Evangelion: Death and End of Evangelion and to my surprise, I think it made sense. Maybe because it’s my second time watching the end, or maybe it was because of decent subtitles, but I pretty much understood the freaky end to the Eva series and it wasn’t really depressing the second time around.

 Spoiler alert!

I remember seeing the final scene of the movie. Half of Rei Ayanami’s gigantic head rests on the earth, smiling her creepy smile. Dead Eva05s are scattered all over the earth, looking like weird crucified corpses. A red ring composed of human souls surround the orange, LCL-covered Earth (LCL is something like the primordial soup where all things come from). Shinji wakes up next to an unconscious Asuka. He looks at his surroundings and sees Rei Ayanami standing in the distance. Camera focuses on Shinji, then back to where Rei was standing. Rei disappears. Camera focuses on Shinji’s blank face. He looks at Asuka. He then tries to strangle her, waking her up. With a terrible effort, Asuka caresses Shinji’s face. Shinji stops, bursts into tears, and says, "Kimochiwarui… (I feel terrible)" And the movie ends.

The first time I saw it, that was the part where I went, "Huh? WTF? Wha?!? Everybody just dies?!? GIMME MY MONEY BACK!" and proceeded to rant about it on the internet. Right now, I’m wondering what Shinji meant by I feel terrible. Could he be feeling terrible since he tried to kill someone who really did care about him? Or maybe he regretted his choice of re-establishing the human race? Maybe a third run-through on a widescreen would help.

Seeing Evangelion: Death cleared up a few things since it recapped the important parts of the series. It made me see things that were there all along but I just didn’t notice them:

1.) The AT Field is more than what I thought it was.

The Evangelions and the Angels produce something known as the Absolute Terror Field (AT Field). The AT Field serves as an impenetrable barrier of sorts. As Kaworu Nagisa said, it’s a wall that protects the Holy Domain, and no one can trespass on the Holy Domain. It makes sense for the Angels who produce it, but sadly people can trespass on the Holy Domain. AT Fields have been broken in the series, and what happens after is usually not a good thing. When AT Fields get broken, expect explosions and/or extreme violence to follow right after.

Now Kaworu also mentions something about everybody possessing an AT Field; that the AT Field is the wall that protects one’s heart. Maybe he didn’t say something like that, but he said something similar. Like Shinji, we all went "WTF?" since we understood AT Fields to be super barriers. Well, it turns out, AT Fields are actually pseudopsychological terms for the wall to one’s identity. Somewhere inside of us is the person we really are, the one we know as our true selves. The AT Field is what prevents other people from seeing that. Yep, it’s what Kaworu meant… I think. But then it makes sense. Absolute Terror Field, a field we do not want to be crossed, and a line that we don’t want to cross. It’s what creates the space between people. Unlike berserk Evangelions, anyone who has forcefully broken through an AT Field wouldn’t fly at the person and start dismembering them, they’d only do it in a metaphorical sense.

Then there’s also the weirder part of the AT Field. In the world of Eva, the AT Field is also responsible for not only psychological identity, but also physical identity. When the giant Rei Ayanami released a wave of its Anti-AT Field to the whole world, people burst into the orange liquid called LCL, leaving the pure form of their souls. All the souls were then collected by the giant Rei and the souls were now subject to the whim of Shinji Ikari. (Yes, one of Eva’s main plot points is the world-depends-on-one-boy storyline) 

2.) Evas are female and they house a motherly soul inside them. 

In my copy of Death, in the recap of  the most brutal scene of the berserk Eva Unit 01, it dismembering then eating an Angel, the subtitles referred to the Eva as "she" as in "She’s taking in the S2 engine into herself!"

Well I should have seen it all along since Eva is a play on the name of Eve, mother of all humanity… in the Judeo-Christian sense.

There’s also the part where the pilots themselves refer to the Evas as "mom". When Asuka finally acknowledges the presence of a soul in Unit 02, she recognizes it as her mother’s voice soothing her. Shinji also sees glimpses of his mother in Unit 01. 

3.) Evangelion is actually inspirational.

 In EoE there is a part where Shinji is asked to choose what happens to the whole of humanity by the unified Adam and Lilith in the form of a giant Rei Ayanami. A scene follows where Shinji asks Asuka for help since he can trust no one. Asuka insults him for that and ponts out that she can’t help him if he’s not even willing to help himself. Shinji pleads with her, utilizing the pity card to its maximum potential, screaming, "HELP ME!" To which Asuka just replies, "No." Shinji is outraged and tries to strangle Asuka. At that point, he chooses to not want to feel anymore. He doesn’t want to be betrayed, to be hurt, and to hurt. For that to happen, humans must be exterminated. No other people, no betrayal, no pain.

At this point, the giant Rei releases her Anti-AT Field and turns everybody on Earth into LCL and gathers all the souls into one body. The scene where everybody is greeted by Rei Ayanamis who turn into their ideal partner before they burst into LCL is accompanied by an upbeat song that reminded me of the nananana part of Hey Jude. This is also the part where we see that the unfeeling Gendo Ikari can feel. He’s basically Shinji who grew up without dealing with his avoidant behavior. Gendo believing himself to be unworthy of love, didn’t want to hurt Shinji, a boy who could love him as a father, so Gendo distanced himself from Shinji. Sounds familiar? He asks Shinji’s forgiveness before he explodes into the orange liquid.

We are then showed another scene where Rei and Shinji are alone, floating in a pool of LCL. "Where is this?" Shinji asks.

"This is the world as you have wished it." Rei replies, "Everyone has turned back into LCL, the liquid from which life has come from. Everyone is united now. Here, no one can betray you or hurt you…"

"But… this isn’t right."

And here Shinji learns the price of Isolation: Loneliness. One is saved from all forms of pain except that of loneliness.

Rei offers the alternative, to reinstate humanity, at the price of potentially hurt feelings and betrayed trust. Shinji acknowledges the pain but sees that at times, he was genuinely happy. He knows that he’ll be hurt, but he’ll also experience happiness.

And then some stuff follows I still have to read over and over to make sure I understood them. It was the part where Shinji asks Rei how he can find happiness in Reality. This is also the weird part with live-action footage of japanese people in an auditorium. And then the final scene as I have described above.

No, everybody’s not dead. Rei mentioned something about the soul remembering its physical form, and that if it wills it, the soul can recreate the body. I’m thinking that people are going to reconstitute themselves and pop up into the world as if nothing happened. Either that, or Shinji and Asuka are to serve as the new Adam and Eve.

4.) SEELE, Nerv’s behind-the-scenes boss, actually had good intentions.

The Third Impact was the next big thing in the evolution of the human race. One human problem is the search for the missing piece. As corny as it sounds, the thing that completes you, usually a person. By bringing all souls together, harmony can be established, and humans can be godlike in the giant Rei Ayanami body. Then… uh… we… go travel the universe? I don’t know.

There were other stuff but I just can’t remember them right now… gah…

If you think that I just wasted your time, I apologize. I had to get it out of my system. You should have seen me when I was watching Full Metal Alchemist and I was really getting into it. I was actually thinking of Alchemical Theory; I noticed that transmutation circles concerning organic materials like trees had more curvy patterns than your average transmutation circle. There was also the part that the more complex the transmutation, the more complex the transmutation circle, and it had straight lines, curved lines, and even letters! Okay enough geek talk.

To think I still have a report on the women’s issues of Southeast Asia tomorrow…