The End of Evangelion AKA 25 & 26 [Spoilers]

[bobbarker31]

Asuka said "no" to Shinji. Since Shinji wants to be everything that was mentioned, not being ignored, not being abandoned, and not being killed...He pretty much busts a vein and goes crazy.

Ok here some new stuff i picked up.

Apparently Asuka is a mixture of Rei, Misato, and herself. If you notice, her banadages represent the ones the others had, and her eyes are brown. Though, that makes it more confusing for me...
cuz now i have no idea who the hell she is.

Heres a question from myself...after Shinji chokes Asuka on the shore...did he go back to spanking da monkey?
(I'm assuming this is him realizing that he has to feel pain...though it still seems a lil...well...)

No, that is still Asuka... no Rei or Misato in her. She looked the way she did because of red hue that everything seemed to have on that beach. Remember what Rei said to Shinji before they parted. Everyone can come back if they have it in them to see themselves as a separate person. That does not mean that they would come back as a jumble of a couple of people. If you are all part of the Egg of Lillith with all those souls mixed together, you can leave if you want to. If you do not want to, you can stay in the pool with everyone else. Shinji and Asuka were the first two that envisioned themselves separately. (Don't ask me where the bandages came from).

Shinji's mind was shredded from the experiance and there are a number of theories as to why he was choking Asuka. What did stop him was her reaching up and touching his face. That is what changed everything and caused him to stop his grip.

[GloryQuestor]

No, that is still Asuka... no Rei or Misato in her. She looked the way she did because of red hue that everything seemed to have on that beach. Remember what Rei said to Shinji before they parted. Everyone can come back if they have it in them to see themselves as a separate person. That does not mean that they would come back as a jumble of a couple of people. If you are all part of the Egg of Lillith with all those souls mixed together, you can leave if you want to. If you do not want to, you can stay in the pool with everyone else. Shinji and Asuka were the first two that envisioned themselves separately. (Don't ask me where the bandages came from).

That's explains the main point of what Rei said, but you are forgetting the details around Anno's ending (which he defended and actually worked a bit of in the End of Evangelion anyway):

All of this is in Shinji's head.

Knowing this:

Shinji's mind was shredded from the experiance and there are a number of theories as to why he was choking Asuka. What did stop him was her reaching up and touching his face. That is what changed everything and caused him to stop his grip.

Out of all the "people" in his world, Rei, Misato, and Asuka represents himself the most, as his own Freudian id, ego, and superego:

- id: the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is completely unconscious and is the source of psychic energy derived from instinctual needs and drives (Asuka).

- Ego: one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that serves as the organized conscious mediator between the person and reality especially by functioning both in the perception of and adaptation to reality (Rei and/or Kaurou).

- Superego: the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is only partly conscious, represents internalization of parental conscience and the rules of society, and functions to reward and punish through a system of moral attitudes, conscience, and a sense of guilt (Misato).

(These definitions are from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.)

In the TV series, episode 20 (Splitting Beast) introduces us to his voice versus the divisions of his psyche. The train scene was a return to that concept -- that all three girls represent the three parts of his own psyche.

In the course of the last episode of End of Eva, his superego becomes unneccesary (Misato being shot in the back and killed) and his ego

When he choked Asuka, it was Shinji finally fighting his id -- his unconscious instincts. In the end, he doesn't want to be in this "mind-world" any more -- he doubts his own existence and wants everyone to die. Finally, he returns to reality -- modern-day Japan. Rei begins to discourse with him about the nature of reality and dreaming -- which is exactly what the ego is about ("the perception of and adaptation to reality").

In the end, what remains in the world is himself -- and all three parts of his psyche finally unified into one. He chokes her because she now represents himself -- and he still hates himself. Once Asuka/Rei/Misato (his psyche) reaches out to him, he breaks down because he finally realizes that he still can't overcome his psyche -- to which his psyche is disgusted.

[GloryQuestor]

Sorry, I forgot to add the middle there.

...and his ego (Rei) begins to grow beyond the borders of Shinji's "reality", perhaps to demonstrate that his reality is not reality at all.

(Don't quote me on this one, though...)

[bobbarker31]

I'll go you one better...

This was written by Brendan Jamieson of the Evangelion Otaku page. www.EvaOtaku.com He presents his ideas and the research that he did to support it. I think it is as close as we are going to get to an official answer given the enigmatic personality of Director Anno. This is the theory that I happen to agree with.

The sequance is one of the most hotly debated in Eva circles all over the world. Until now there was no definitive answer to the mystery. However, Bochan Bird has recently stumbled onto the absolute answer, held within the Eva Carddass Masters Trading Card Game.

Here is the original answer I wrote about a year ago for this FAQ:
'I need you.' affirms Shinji's choice to return to reality, and in doing so has separated himself from Asuka once more. His first impulse is to strangle her, to finish what he started during Complementation. But then he feels her caress (which is very similar to the one he received from his mother only moments before) and realizes what he's doing. He releases his grip and collapses as an emotionally broken little boy - which disgusts Asuka.

The following presents the definitive answer to this question, as translated by Bochan Bird -
Part II (movies) Drama card D-88
Title: "Kimochi warui"
Small print:
"Shinji renounced the world where all hearts had melted into one and accepted each other unconditionally. His desire... to live with 'others' -- other hearts that would sometimes reject him, even deny him. That is why the first thing he did after coming to his senses was to place his hands around Asuka's neck. To feel the existence of an 'other'. To confirm (make sure of) rejection and denial."

---- So, I was half right. The scene is meant to be an affirmation of Shinji's decision to return to reality. As I wrote on the Evangelion ML, the scene is there to prove "pain once again exists". However, I didn't give Shinji enough credit for his intention when he strangled her. I thought it was a carry over from the previous strangulation scene, when it was actually meant as a test to see if he was indeed back in the real world.

[hanyou21]

Ah yes, the confusion that is EoE ...

You must keep this entire film in the context that it is art. This is not a standard anime, with a open and closed plot, it is meant to be highly interpretive, in many ways analogous to music. Impressionistic music is a good example of Eva, in so much that each person interprets the music a different way, and comes to a different meaning of what the notes are trying to convey - in many ways, it's an ink blot test. That's EoE, at least from my point of view.

From where I'm sitting, Asuka and Shinji are the only 2 ppl left on Earth for the time being, they are likely to be the new Adam and Eve, and we as a species are screwed because of this . People can either choose to live in a world with no boundaries, where everyone is one with each other and there is no pain, or they can live in a world where they are seperate and vulnerable, but able to live and experience good things and know that it's real. Consider when Shinji was in the LCL, in eps. 25 and 26 in the series - he mused through a variety of possible worlds, coming across my favorite with the social-toast-eating-Rei, but he chose reality. In the LCL, life is what you make of it, it's a dream - the problem is it's not real. It's a dilemma that everyone post-3rd Impact has to make, whether to live in a dream world of pleasure or to live in reality where you will die and have to work hard just to survive. In some ways, the LCL sea is the Dead Sea, the sea where nothing changes - life that is not dynamic and does not change is not life at all...this idea is supported by the fact that LCL is continually referred to as the primordial soup by Ritsuko(?) and others - primordial soup is a dead thing, merely life that is not alive yet. This is probably why Asuka is onshore with Shinji, she doesn't want to die, and she can't accept a dead, nonchanging, false reality.

Oh, and as far as the Evas, they turned to stone...don't ask how, idk how or why. Remember that we're dealing with an anime based on Judeo-Christian mysticism from at least the Middle Ages, unless your a religious studies major I doubt anyone has an idea...

Asuka is being choked by Shinji merely because her bitchiness caught up to him and he had enough, he just couldn't avoid confrontation anymore so he exploded. I mean, I would too - talk about pressure: your guardian is dead, your quiet friend turned into a giant angel hybrid who is trying to absorb you and end humanity's existence, and your comatose bitchy friend is refusing to help you through this difficult time and telling you to die......lol, talk about being able to handle stress...

There is also the omnipresent theory that the latter half of EoE never really happened, that it's something like the eps. 25 and 26 in the series, all in Shinji's mind. Basically, he imagined everything after the 3rd Impact as a way of coping with the unberable truth that everyone's dead, gone, whatever, and he's either alone on a dead planet or about to be absorbed by Rei-Lillith. So, he creates the idea of turning into LCL, and then being given the choice whether or not to live in reality, and then has Asuka on the shore with him as a way to rationalize that it was real. Let's think about this, you remember how totally pwned Eva 02 was by the MP Evas? Remember how it was dismembered and broken when Shinji first saw it? How could Asuka survive this? I mean, let's compare this to when Rei's entry plug ejected from 00 in her test, it hit the wall and she was badly hurt - I don't think getting torn apart is less damaging than hitting a wall, not to mention Asuka was fully in sync with her unit when it was "killed", possibly killing her mind as well...furthermore, where did the bandages come from, and why does she not act like the Asuka we know when he chokes her? Sad to say, I'm starting to think this is a pretty valid idea to explain EoE: Shinji made it up in order to stay sane .

Okay, that's my 2 cents - I'm trying to kill some time so I thought I'd post...btw, that evaotaku.com is pretty cool, y'all should go there ^_^.

[DTJB]

(Don't ask me where the bandages came from).

Are people actually not getting this one? Amazing. If you notice, Asuka's bandages cover up the areas on her body that got severely injured at the end of her battle with the mass-produced Evas. Specifically, when she got stabbed in the left eye with the first lance and when her right arm got split down the middle with the second. And I thought that was fucking obvious.

[supersayian313]

(Don't ask me where the bandages came from).

Are people actually not getting this one? Amazing. If you notice, Asuka's bandages cover up the areas on her body that got severely injured at the end of her battle with the mass-produced Evas. Specifically, when she got stabbed in the left eye with the first lance and when her right arm got split down the middle with the second. And I thought that was fucking obvious.

no actually it not fucking obvious. if you were transformed into the lcl liquid, and you decided to come back to your previous form you would be naked. bandages and clothes are not the same. do you have clothes or bandages when your born? no.

[GloryQuestor]

(Don't ask me where the bandages came from).

Are people actually not getting this one? Amazing. If you notice, Asuka's bandages cover up the areas on her body that got severely injured at the end of her battle with the mass-produced Evas. Specifically, when she got stabbed in the left eye with the first lance and when her right arm got split down the middle with the second. And I thought that was fucking obvious.

no actually it not fucking obvious. if you were transformed into the lcl liquid, and you decided to come back to your previous form you would be naked. bandages and clothes are not the same. do you have clothes or bandages when your born? no.

Theory:

Unless she was sychronized in the same way Shinji was in Episode 19. Once she gained full synch with the realization of the Eva's true identity, her entire being became part of the LCL.

However, she didn't suffer the same loss of identity that Shinji did in Episode 20. She kept her form separate from the Eva's LCL pool. Remember Episode 18 when Shinji was being strangled, or Episode 19 when Eva Unit 02 was about to be decapitated? At her current level of synch, what happens to the Eva happens to her and vice versa.

She reactivates Unit 02 with her very will, but that put her into the position of being one mind & body with her Eva -- just as Shinji would have become in Episode 20. Therefore, when a lance pierced the Eva, she shared everything -- it pokes out her eye when a lance runs through Unit 02's helmet, then splits her arm when Unit 02's is split.

As to the clothes... you're right, where did those come from?

(btw, I still want to know where the plug suit in Episode 20 came from... )

[hanyou21]

hey GQ, I can't see what ur theory is - it's just white blank space

[hanyou21]

hey GQ, I can't see what ur theory is - it's just white blank space