Ok i came across this in the complete works book and it sorta got me thinking.



I you pay attention to the number on the back of her original plusguit design you can see clearly that it is a 4.
This is what sparked my thinking on weather or not Mari was supposed to be European at all, or if she was supposed to pilot Unit 04 and be an insignificant character being sent to a dirac sea after the test activation.
Either way it seems odd to me that they even considered her a pilot for unit 04.

Other things pop up at this time, like if they were going to include some american NERV screen time or if unit 04 was going to be successful in the fact that the s2 engines were successfully made this time round, taking the theory that the movies are sequels.

KaaVI wrote:Either way it seems odd to me that they even considered her a pilot for unit 04.

I think Sadamoto simply forgot what number goes on the back of the plugsuit when he drew that sketch up.

SaltyJoe wrote:I think Sadamoto simply forgot what number goes on the back of the plugsuit when he drew that sketch up.

I like my Reasoning better.
But yes your idea is also plausible.

I'm more interested in the fact that her plugsuit at one point had the same color scheme as Unit 01.

TIME-TRAVELING YUI, ANYONE?!

Read the interview translations from the Complete Records Collection and you'll learn all about the wonderful world of the Mari that might have been.

It could also have meant the order of the Evas changed. At that point they might have decided that the Nevada Incident happened to another Eva, or not at all.

I mean the MP evas appear to have been cut in favor of more Numbered Evas (5, 8, ect), It wouldn't have been a big stretch to say that the ordering of the numbered series could have been changed to, and that Unit05 was going to be unit04 at one point in the design process.

Not saying I disagree, just saying there is more than one way to interpret this.

NAveryW wrote:Read the interview translations from the Complete Records Collection and you'll learn all about the wonderful world of the Mari that might have been.

Holy shit someone finally translated them?!

Those plugsuit designs look too much like....Kaworu's...

AuraTwilight wrote:Those plugsuit designs look too much like....Kaworu's...

I was thinking they looked even more Sachiel-esque than the regular plugsuits, but yeah, that applies to Kaworu too, actually.

AuraTwilight wrote:Those plugsuit designs look too much like....Kaworu's...

If actually they weren't originally meant for Mari and then reused because indeed they were a little Saquielesque as Azathoth putted it.

NAveryW wrote:Read the interview translations from the Complete Records Collection and you'll learn all about the wonderful world of the Mari that might have been.

Links ASAP, please!!

Aw, do I have to? Just go to the thread titled "Evangelion 2.0 Complete Records Collection".

NAveryW wrote:Aw, do I have to? Just go to the thread titled "Evangelion 2.0 Complete Records Collection".

As far as I know, there's no translation of the interviews there, only of some weird omit scenes.

I doubt they'd introduce a character to kill her off right afterwards. Of course they had many ideas/alternate takes of what to make of her character (there's also a scetch with various alternative designs for her), since they were starting from scratch and Mari had to both contrast and complement and fit into the original cast. Of course they wondered about which sort of character would be best for that. Many of Mari's early scetsches show a 'four' but this can be attributed to something way simpler: She's the fourth child. She has to be, since Touji isn't a pilot in Rebuild and I doubt that they'll change Kaworu's designation. That's were the four comes from - i guess it was only latter that they decided to follow the good old EVA's number sheme or came up with the idea of putting her in Unit 05/creating 05 is the first place.

PS: there were a original Unit 05 and 06 that were scrapped for parts in the original NGE.... So theorethically, 05 and 06 COULD have excisted in the original Series... Which poses the question if there was an Alt!Mari as well. Well, her Name doesn't necessarily be the name (see Asuka). Think of it. Maybe there was a , uh, Makinami Mariko Victorious or something, but she never got deployed in battle...
Or, whatever event made Rebuild!Mari a dieahard optimist/determined warrior utterly broke NGE Mari so that we never heared of her...
Then again, if you were to compare the NGE Cast with the Rebuild cast the main difference (aside from NGE being a series and therefore having the time to flesh out the main character) would be that Rebuild has more use of willpower, be it in a good or bad way. It's also what Anno said in the interview announcing rebuild. Something about going back to the portrayal of willpower.
A Mari with less willpower would be no Mari at all.

...

Kendrix wrote:A Mari with less willpower would be no Mari at all.

Mari is no Mari at all. We don't have even the slightest idea of who she is or how she behaves apart from being literally insane.

NAveryW wrote:Aw, do I have to? Just go to the thread titled "Evangelion 2.0 Complete Records Collection".

okay finally found it after going through 11.5 pages of the thread

Azathoth wrote:Mari is no Mari at all. We don't have even the slightest idea of who she is or how she behaves apart from being literally insane.

I think that we get to know quite a lot of her in the few screentime she gets. There is a reason that proto!Mari was rejected and replaced by Final!Draft!Mari with her fewer appearances; We don't know what her EXACT plan is, but in the little screentime she gets, we get to know a lot about Mari as a human being. Much unlike other EVA Characters, she has her "true self" written all over her face without us needing to know about the facts of her life. It was a good choice to leave out the background they had planned for her, she is not entirely defined by events that happened to her or special plans/attributes she has (that would make her a sue, anyway. All Plot, no Character.) but by her attitude trowards life which is the important thing anyway since that is where the message is.
The Plot is a metaphor anyway.

"Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained"
"If you keep feeling sorry for yourself like that, you won't have any fun."
"Happyness won't come to me just because I'm looking for it, so I'll go and get it. One step in one Day, two steps in two Days... Three steps foreward and two steps back."
"I don't like involving adults in my plans!"/ Misato: ""Whoever it is wants to do it alone."
"Farewell, Eva 05. Thanks for fullfilling your role."
"Oh, it hurts, it hurts! But is doen't matter, piloting is so much fun!"
These quotes tell us EVERYTHING we need to know about Mari.
She just enjoys things instead of complaining endlessly.
She, in radical contrast to Shinji who things he can't get anything right anyway, tries anything at her disposal. (Self Destruction, Beat Mode...) It's not like she always wins. Zeruel beat her, remember? But she tried. She freakin tried and that's all one can ask from a human being. If she wants to do something, she goes ahead and does it. (Evanapping, being a rogue element, inhaling shinjis scent, the goddams PARACHUTE)
Isn't that the main question that Evangelion wants to raise? What if Shinji tried? What if they all tried, just a little? What? Well, Shinji hugging the Premium girl, of course!

Oh, and thanks for the links.

Kendrix wrote:Isn't that the main question that Evangelion wants to raise? What if Shinji tried? What if they all tried, just a little?

They did. Did we watch the same NGE?

Well, Shinji hugging the Premium girl, of course!

esselfortium wrote:They did. Did we watch the same NGE?

Yes, they did. And Rebuild sort of opened my mind to that. I had the same experience Shinji had in ep. 26. Badass!Shinji made me value Series!Shinjis few efforts, Shikinami made me see the potential for Kindness in Soryu and Rei made me aware of the actual Personality beaneath the ice with also showed a LOT in the middle of the Anime.

But they fell hard.
Except for Rei who kicked the bucket.
This is why the title is "You can (not) advance", why Mari's quasi-opening-song says "Three steps forewards and two steps back", why we get to see "Track 27".
The tracks 25 and 26. Shinji kept walking as many steps backwards as forewards, instead of "taking the next step right away" like Misato advised him in ep 15.
So, he fell. (He might have redeemed himself in EoE or 26 (and I belong to the faction who think he did) but the problem is, not many people "got" that, hence Anno being dissapointed with the reactions to his work and wanting to make EVA "as it was intended to be" -> Make Shinji take one step backwqards and TWO steps forewards in a way the audience would get it.
This is You can (not) advance.

Oh, noticed something about the happiness song, "Track 27" and Shinjis getting back up, going on despite the big "setback" that was the dummyplug incident. ... Yes. Mari.
She was supposed to encourahe him from the early drafts of the script on (albeit by... different methods. I like the one she used in the final drafts because it's more unique to Mari. The early draft loooks like she's just cheaply replacing Kaji, the "You'll nerver have fun" speech and her accepting him being the way he is and even helping him to flee is something diferent and gives Mari more depht. )

Kendrix wrote:Shikinami made me see the potential for Kindness in Soryu

If Shikinami makes you see anything in Soryu, you need to look again. She's a completely different character representing a completely different concept - not adulthood but reaching out to others (at least I think that was it).

Kendrix wrote:This is You can (not) advance.

Key word: not. Same old shit. Lower-pitched screaming than usual and a shiny background can't make Shinji's will to death any less pathetic.

Kendrix wrote:Oh, noticed something about the happiness song, "Track 27" and Shinjis getting back up, going on despite the big "setback" that was the dummyplug incident. ... Yes. Mari.

Something I don't think I've seen pointed out before in any discussion of NME: Shinji's SDAT player now goes to Track 27, but Track 27 doesn't play any sound that Shinji can hear - right before his chat with Kaji, Shinji's trying to fix it. Regardless of whether it looks like she moved it forward or not, Mari kind of broke his SDAT player.