[EVA] Is that the real Asuka

[zio Gilgamesh]

Hi all ^_^
second mail to the list, first actually Eva-related one.
Interesting thread goin' on..

I happen to disagree with Sebastian's views on NGE's ending (and the
narrative steps which leaded to it). First of all, I'd like to remark a
silly point. I think one cannot really judge NGE after watching the whole
series and movies just once. Uh, note well, I'm not saying everyone is
*forced* to watch it twice and then he *must* like it ^_^;; just saying that
when you watch back the series with a "I know how it ends" perspective,
everything changes already. Plus, you must consider that NGE pushes the
"show, don't tell" rule to its outer limits, and even more, changin' it into
"show it just once and if they don't get it they'll be luckier next time"
:-D
Most o' the things in Eva *got* an answer.
Well, if you did watch the series and movies more than once, then to find
your answers go watch it again eh eh I never get tired of it :-P

About the "I like it, I don't like it", well, that's personal taste of
course.

[Sebastian]
> Downbeat and negative is only the half of it.

Uhm, I don't know.
I mean, it's Neon Genesis Evangelion, not "Barbie's summer party" (ugh), so
let a bit of melancholy feel your dreams. You won't get hurted ^_^

> It was awful.

Right, I find TEoE is a masterpiece eh eh
So, just explaining from now on why I personally feel that the movie is a
bit better than awful :-D

> the nine "production EVA" units
> _were_ foreshadowed,
> as were their S2 cores, but
> *copies* of the Lance? No way.

Why "no way"?
They're the ideal weapon, since they reproduce the Lance's structure (not
its
powers o' course), which has the.. structural will to penetrate the
ATfields: just a question of shape (see the actual Lance in action in
episode 22).

> Regeneration?
> Where the hell did that come from?

Since blooddrunk Asuka forgot to destroy their cores, the Evas were able to
regenerate themselves ^_^ don't forget all Evas are but angels. Especially
those who have an S^2 engine won't need any external help (as on the
contrary the non-S^2 units need) to regenerate. Eva units 00-01-02,
remember, were able to regenerate too: not even the decapitation of 02 by
Zeruel killed the unit.

> whoever chose the music was severely twisted

If you are referring to "Komm, süsser Tod", that song *can* sound
inappropriate at first listening. We're watching the end of the world
(actually, the "end" for human race) and we were maybe expecting an epic
orchestra score.
Yet after a while the song there sounded perfect to me. Now I love it. That
song, as the soundtrack for that scene, is more a description of feelings
than a comment to facts; yet it's well-synchronized with the whole sequence;
the epic score gonna come later, when the Eva-01 breaks free, re-shapes the
Lance, spreads wings, gets officially started as the new god, etc.. please
note how Rei's theme comes back as Rei-Lilith faces 01 for the last time ^_^

> I was almost ready to just skip forward - get it
> over with, already, they're dead anyway,
> you don't need to show us all
> of it.

No, I wanna see all of it, I wanna feel disturbed ^_^ I want to see my
favourite characters dissolve into one single entity. They don't die, I must
say.
I don't want the usual coarse and lack-of-imagination apocalypse that any
cheap writer could tell us about.
I feel it as a moment of terror and joy. Maya screaming while Lilith passes
throuhg her is great.
Yep, we know, personal views.

> is the main character trying to choke the
> only other survivor? Ick!

Yes, a spasmic memory of what he tried to do in his mind, when he finally
collapsed.
Then she caresses him. Such a simple gesture, such a handful of meaning.
Shinji cryin' afterwards is not due to sadness or pain to me; looks more
like as you happen to break down and cry after a moment of huge emotional
stress.

> (Plus, the sexual references had nothing to
> do in that film whatsoever.
> Why put them in, they didn't _add_ anything?)

Mean Shinji doin' his private job at the beginning?
Dunno, I feel alright about that. It fits the charater; masturbation is just
one of the ways somebody has to escape from reality.

> The 13th angel I could forgive - almost.

Toji losing his leg and arm is a pain in your stomach. Right, one can like
it or dislike it.
I'm not happy for Toji, yet I do like the implications for Shinji and about
mr. Gendo. You see once more how he actually doesn't care about blasted
anyone.

> The 14th angel was interesting,
> and served more than one purpose.

*just* interesting ^_^ .. ?
Zeruel rules :-D
gwooooooooooh (zio Gil entering berserk mode)

> The 15th angel eliminated one of the
> major sources of comic relief

We actually stopped laughing since episodes before.
Don't get me wrong, I love comic relieves (or "reliefs"..?), but there comes
a time when you don't need them every half a minute. "Comedy reliefs at all
costs" usually lead to Jar Jar Binks :-P

> Oh yeah, it introduced the superweapon.
> (Did we even see that thing before
> Rei fetched it? Talk about Deus ex
> Machina!)

Yep we did see it ^_^ !!
(that's why I put those useless watch-it-more-than-once lines up there)
We saw Rei herself walking through Terminal Dogma on 00 bearing the Lance in
episode 14. Then during episode 15 we discovered what was Rei doing with the
Lance, since they finally showed us Lilith with the thing in her breast.
Last but not least, we firstly saw the Lance in episode 12; well-packed on a
ship when recuperated in Antarctica by a Nerv expedition. I guess it was
there since the Second Impact. (you finally get the mysterious artifact was
originally found in the Dead Sea, as said in one of the audio tracks of U.N.
video footage shown at the beginning of 'Evangelon:Death', as well as on
episode 21, director's cut)

> The 16th angel, was actually not too bad

Don't forget it brings more clues about Rei's nature and, in director's cut,
about 00's nature.

> And the 17th angel...how?
> I still don't understand that episode.

Given that Kaworu is Adam's soul in a human (cloned? guess so) body, being
then sort of an artificial angel, just like Rei was..
Given that, the boy knows that if merging with Lilith he will "pass through
the next level" and everything else on earth will be destroyed, just as
would have happened with any other angel before him. So he goes and decides,
just as Jesus and mr. Spock, that one person's good is less important than
the good of the many (farewell good English, methinks). And says "kill me,
so I won't destroy you all". The other angels were not so kind :-D

> No need to clutter up the list with a flamewar

och, I see we're keepin' it very polite 'til now ^_^
Having ideas doesn't automatically lead to flames, does it?

> What happened? I stopped laughing.

I see the point. Question: were you watching Eva to laugh ^_^ ?
You know Dickens' rules: make'em laugh, make'em cry, make'em wait.
I did the three of them and enjoyed it. Again: tastes, tastes, tastes.

Anyway, I enjoy both canon respectful and unrespectful well-written fanfic
^_^
Then I'll read yours with pleasure.
(oh, and about that, the URL to "Higher Learning"..?)

ciao
zio Gil

"Och, stop that crap like 'everyone's a bit weird'... nothing but a
commonplace.
I AM weird. You guys gonna have just one scanty paranoia each."
-Gaea Muir-