[EVA] The Moon & Preliminary Plot

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

>
> There is plenty of proof. Rewatch the series and tell your mind to 
> forget anything not mentioned in outside sources. You'll find that 
> there is no evidence in the TV series that hints at Rei being an 
> avatar of Lillith. The TV ending does not mention that at all. Episode 
> 23 reveals that there is something Angelic about Rei, and that she is 
> a clone. Episode 24 reveals that she has a powerful AT field. She is 
> never connected to Adam or Lillith once in the TV series. (That isn't 
> hard to do, given that Lillith is only revealed in episode 24, and 
> Adam makes very few appearences.) 
We have #14 and #19 already alluding to the Rei copies/clones. The Reis 
themselves referred to as being "salvaged" in #23, along with Rei 
looking like Yui and talk of another failed salvage experiment in #20, 
obviously Yui's. Shinji's memories revealed in #16 confirm Yui's 
accident occurred in Unit-01. We also have Ritsuko's words in #23 
claiming that the "Chamber of Guf" was empty but only Rei has a soul, 
Kaworu proclaiming that Rei is the same as him in #24, and Rei I's words 
in #25 proclaiming that Rei "may not be human in form". There is the 
matter of Adam/Lilith/The thin in Terminal Dogma's fractal legs, but I 
don't think the fractal imagery makes an appearance anywhere else in the 
original series.

To sum up, from the TV series it's deducible that Rei is the result of a 
failed attempt to rescue Yui, al la Shinji in #20, but it is also clear 
that Rei is some kind of Angel. The question is which Angel? We've got 
some choices. a) Adam, b) Lilith, c) Unnamed angel, something Nerv 
created. Since Nerv can't create souls for the Evas, it's unlikely they 
could do so for Rei, so d) is out. Adam could be a candidate, but since 
it only makes an appearance at Nerv in episode #08, it seems unlikely so 
a) is, tentatively, out. That leaves Lilith and Unnamed Angel, which are 
admittedly virtually synonymous.

However Gendou's declaration that Rei was "created for this day", and 
his words about "reurning to our mother who has been lost to this world" 
, plus some judeo-christian mythology concerning Lilith as a mother 
figure(but that is an outside source), would all point to Rei having 
something to do with Lilith rather than being completely different 
Angel. Alternatively, Occam's razor could get you there, but well... 
that's sort of cheating a bit.

> We don't get any information in the TV series that would contradict a 
> "The Angels were born on the moon!" theory. We just got that they were 
> composed of a special hand-wavey material that mimics human DNA, and 
> are born of Adam and wish to reunite with him but get confused by 
> Lillith.
We don't get any information in the TV series that would contradict a 
"The Angels were born on the Earth" theory either. Basically, we don't 
get very much information at all. The original series proposal did if I 
recall correctly have Angels descending from the moon, plus we have 
Rei's association with the moon etc, but there is nothing in the series 
which concretely puts even one Angel on the moon, or coming from the 
moon. Sahaquiel and Arael might imply it, but  Sandalphon directly 
contridicts it. Essentially there is next to nothing in the originally 
aired series about the origins of the Angels, aside from the fact that 
they were "born from Adam", which we know was in Antarctica, not the 
moon. They would seem to come from Earth.


> Basically, I'm arguing that Gainax was making up a good chunk of the 
> EVA mythos as they went along and had to later backtrack to make their 
> final ideas work.
That's a pretty inescapable conclusion. I doubt most specifics were ever 
ironed out. However there are solid constants; Yui in Unit-01, the 
Instrumentality project, the connection between the Angels and humans. 
There is a theme running through Evangelion, or at least the outline of 
one. The series has what I like to call a lucid dream plot to it, where 
details are fuzzy but there is an overall logic to the proceedings.

> Hence the director's cut footage to PreForeShadow EoE. If they had 
> known that Rei was going to be Lillith, or that Kaworu was going to be 
> Adam the dialogue in the original TV episodes would have reflected it.

There's no doubt that backtracking, reediting and indeed retconning went 
on for the NPC
material. The question is, does this reediting fundamentally alter the 
mythos presented in the TV series
, or simply alter its details? Details have been added, and changed, but 
does this represent a complete rewrite of the intended backstory, or 
simply a fleshing out of previously vague notions? I'm inclined to 
favour the latter interpretation.