Now i don't get to look around these boards nearly as much as i'd like. so what i'm saying could very well be old-hat, but i took "mark-6" as in Unit 6.

To quote Legandary:

Gendo: The true Evangelion...
Gendo: Its completion will be ushered in by the current body containing Unit-01.
Fuyutsuki: The Mark-06, isn't it?
Fuyutsuki: This means what they are trying to create is not a false god, but a true god at last?
Gendo: Yes. We must hasten the awakening of Unit-01.

Now this goes into the sequel theory again but i took it as... the "real" evangelion, unit 01, is inside the body/armour of unit (mark) 6 (so having the original series unit 01 from the moon or in space, wherever from EoE).
So to quicken the awakening of it, the events in 2.0 occur, bringing not only Mark/Unit-6 down (the true evangelion unit 01) for them, but what Azathoth earlier wrote about nebuchadnezzar - Kaworu, son of the gods etc, to appear out of nowhere(plus the whole real god/fake god stuff).

Then this leaves the key to be used - on the real original eva 01 perhaps?

Bit of a fan-wank, and probably has holes in it i'm unaware of due to me being rusty in all things eva, but it seems quite convenient to me!

It's probably a bit safer and more economical to first attempt interpretation that doesn't involve sequel theory...

Split due to enormous tangential discussion from here onwards.

The Key is just the replacement for the Adam's eye because the Adam eye pretty much can't exist in this continuity due to the fact the Kaworu is already awakened.

It's probably going to do the same exact thing as the eye but it's 10x less confusing on how it works.

...Um. What the hell are you talking about? Kaworu was awake when Adam (no eye) was around in the first continuity too.

Some loony stuff that popped into my head today...

Okay, Neb's Key. What the hell is it, and what the hell does it do?

I'm going to suggest that it has nothing to do with hypodermic needles, Adam, embryonic Spears, or anything else I've heard so far. Instead, I'll suggest that it is, in fact, what it says it is: a key. The nervous system is not that of a mysterious lifeform, but a practical functioning part of the key. Essentially, Nebuchadnezzar's Key is a piece of alien (FAR, if they exist in this continuity) technology that unlocks something related to HIP we haven't seen yet.

The nervous system may be the biotechnological equivalent of a computer chip. I say this because of the utterly bizarre "neuron room" we're shown in Central Dogma in 1.XX. A vast chamber, full of what look like humongous neurons. What the heck is going on here? Is Nerv responsible for this? Or is this in fact a preexisting structure? It's so vastly bizarre and casually unexplained that it occurred to me -- assuming the concept of the "Moons" is still present in some form, could the giant neurons we see be part of a huge biocomputer that operates the core of a Seed Carrier (=Moon/Egg/whatever)?

Is the nervous system on the Key a super-miniaturized version of the same technology, and intended to, possibly, interface with something containing a neurosystem similar to that in the Hakone Geofront?

Continuing this same jumble of thoughts: We now know thanks to DVD/BD rips that Gendo and Fuyutsuki are shown in the 3.0 preview dressed up in desert-going garb accompanied by a donkey. Just what the hell are they up to? Whatever it is, it seems they want to be inconspicuous about it. "Dead Sea" pops into most people's minds when they see the image. Did the two high-tail it out of Tokyo-3 following Near 3I, leaving the staff behind to deal with the attention and clean up the mess, in order to travel to the Dead Sea Region to secretly forward their scenario in some mysterious way? (I don't see any particular reason to believe that a flashback is being depicted, since neither of them look any younger, and where the plot intends to go is a virtual unknown.)

But what could be in the Dead Sea region that Seele wouldn't have taken away upon discovering? Something too large to move? Are Gendo and Fuyu going to unlock some weird alien shit (possibly the closest thing we'll ever get to Arka)?

Had to post all that just in case any of it turns out to be right.

Sounds very plausible. There might be more than just two moons on the Earth this time around. Nebuchadnezzar was Babylonian, and they had either imperial control or influence over a whole lot of areas- including Israel and Judea during the infamous Babylonian captivity. Perhaps the ancients stumbled upon another biological computer room somewhere out in the desert near the dead sea. Seele may not have been able to move an entire Geofront/biocomputer station.

Either that, or the key itself was kept far away and could not be put to use to activate whatever was there, leaving Seele with an incomplete or incorrect version of the scrolls for their prediction.

One somewhat throwaway line "The tenth Angel (Zer) is more powerful than predicted" and the subsequent destruction of Tokyo-3 means that Gendo and Fuyu would want to know exactly what's coming for them afterwards, since they have no defenses left.

Reichu wrote:Some loony stuff that popped into my head today...

Okay, Neb's Key. What the hell is it, and what the hell does it do?

I'm going to suggest that it has nothing to do with hypodermic needles, Adam, embryonic Spears, or anything else I've heard so far. Instead, I'll suggest that it is, in fact, what it says it is: a key. The nervous system is not that of a mysterious lifeform, but a practical functioning part of the key. Essentially, Nebuchadnezzar's Key is a piece of alien (FAR, if they exist in this continuity) technology that unlocks something related to HIP we haven't seen yet.

and you seemed so convinced it was a needle. i expect it to work like a needle except in key form. crazy theory begin.

so the way the "key" is shaped obviously resembles a bite sized humanoid, which, due to the importance that is placed on it, I'll assume it's Adam, or the NTE continuity equivalent of. The humanoid quality of the object can is it's shape, defined by little twiggy things. Whether those are veins, nerves or even roots is difficult to assert, seeing as how the nervous make up or circulatory systems of angels/seeds could be different than humans.

If the key is the nervous system of Adam, assuming that the terms for 3I are the same as they were in EoE, it will probably be "injected" into lilith, or the NTE equivalent of, as Adam was magically sexxed into Rei. So the key is a needle.

Contrary to this, the actual hilt (or what appears to be the cerebral area) does not contribute to the hypodermic. It has no plunge, instead the top of the needle (inject button) is designed with a fragile ring, maybe a finger hole for a key. this suggest that the key is actually a key, used to open a door/mind/initiate HIP. If the later is the case, then it's the same situation experience in the TV series, in which Gendo holds the key SEELE didn't want him to have

but yeah i think it's a needle, the design of the hilt in high def looks like it's capable of sliding and functioning as one. The only thing that get's me is the top ring, but it's probably a design flaw.

flapjack wrote:and you seemed so convinced it was a needle.

I'm allowed to propose zany alternatives once I can see there's no actual visible needle on the thing. ;p

I mean, I could be completely off base, but I thought I might as well take the opportunity to offer up a literal key explanation that gets the drive-by-no-explanation-provided giant neurons and maybe even what Gendo and Fuyutsuki will be doing involved. Just for something completely different.

BTW, that it's a nervous system seems fairly unambiguous. The distinct spinal cord gives it away.

UrsusArctos wrote:Either that, or the key itself was kept far away and could not be put to use to activate whatever was there, leaving Seele with an incomplete or incorrect version of the scrolls for their prediction.

One somewhat throwaway line "The tenth Angel (Zer) is more powerful than predicted" and the subsequent destruction of Tokyo-3 means that Gendo and Fuyu would want to know exactly what's coming for them afterwards, since they have no defenses left.

Could you perhaps elaborate on these two paragraphs a little more? I'm not sure I'm following along completely (but I want to).

this appears to be the same design on the "head"
also the sign for coheed and cambria's KEYwork. coincidence probably but it's something worth pointing out.

and yeah i see what you mean, it's definitely the nervous system.

To elaborate-

1. The key may have gotten stolen or misplaced, preventing Seele from activating something either at the Dead Sea or in the Geofront that would help them completely unlock the Dead Sea Scrolls or the secrets behind Adam and the Angels. However, Seele seems to have placed a fair amount of confidence in its ability to understand the DSS themselves, and have gone head with their contract with Lilith and whatever else they're up to.

2. Zeruel turned out to be a more powerful Angel than predicted, which would bring serious questions to the accuracy of their predictions. Considering the sheer amount of wrecking Zer was responsible for, the prospect of dealing with an even more powerful future Angel would not be pretty (adding to this, Eva-01 got rid of all of Tokyo-3). Gendo and Fuyutsuki must have wanted details of what was heading for them instead of relying on a bunch of flaky predictions.

Ursus, thanks.

A possible monkey wrench: Kaji refers to the Key as a "backup". That seems to imply that there is something else that serves the same function, and Gendo had Kaji swindle it to circumvent the limitations of that "something else" being kept out of his own arsenal.

Reichu wrote:I'm allowed to propose zany alternatives once I can see there's no actual visible needle on the thing. ;p

Laggan put up a Blu Ray shot of the Key http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/7301/1274812805240.jpg in the Interesting Little Details in 2.XX thread. I can't see any straight needle part to - to me it looks like the "spinal cord" on the figure starts right after the end of the cylinder.

Can anyone translate what's written after "Specimen Name" in that image? The same characters seem to be on the brass body of the key, but they're upside-down.

Probably says "Nebuchadnezzar".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nebukadnessar_II.jpg

...

The nervous system looks fairly human to me, judging against some anatomical diagrams I looked up. Strange...

The key may be some kind of mechanism to populate words by the FAR, while the Lance of Longinus are safe mechanism to stop the Shitos (like adam or Lillith) from going amock, the key maybe responsible, for example, to open the Gaulfs "Hall" and release souls in life/earth.

During the 3I on EOE, the Hall of Gaulf is open where the souls would come back and them, enter the egg of lillith, maybe this key is something related to this process during the 3I.

Yep, the "specimen name" matches with the akkadian signs of the nebuchadnezzar images

But what does the rest of the text say? It's impossible to read the tiniest of it, but perhaps the larger characters?



And with increased contrast, in case that helps:

Reichu wrote:Continuing this same jumble of thoughts: We now know thanks to DVD/BD rips that Gendo and Fuyutsuki are shown in the 3.0 preview dressed up in desert-going garb accompanied by a donkey. Just what the hell are they up to? Whatever it is, it seems they want to be inconspicuous about it. "Dead Sea" pops into most people's minds when they see the image. Did the two high-tail it out of Tokyo-3 following Near 3I, leaving the staff behind to deal with the attention and clean up the mess, in order to travel to the Dead Sea Region to secretly forward their scenario in some mysterious way? (I don't see any particular reason to believe that a flashback is being depicted, since neither of them look any younger, and where the plot intends to go is a virtual unknown.)

They could be going to use the key. The nervous system could be essential to operating the key, or like a retina scanner, opens something that scans the electronic signals withing the system?

When they say backup its easiest to assume that if 3I didn't happen right then that was their "backdoor" to succeed. Or they could be referring to a different event. 3.0 will DEF answer most questions