How differently would the TV show turn out?

(Kind of a stupid question considering 3.0 + 1.0 hasn't been made yet, but it was something I've wondered about amid dishwashing...)

I can't really imagine Mari on NGE at all. That's probably a testament to how fresh and new she feels in NTE. But if she were in NGE she would probably have a backstory as insane as Haruko Haruhara's in FLCL. I can't imagine a Kazuya Tsurumaki character having more prominence while also being integrated in a sci-fi setting without it getting on several levels of comic crazy.

I've sworn up and down for years that what NGE needed was a yandere. Make Mari a yandere.

Why exactly would NGE need a Yandere?

Because I love yanderes. Particularly realistic portrayals, which I'm sure NGE would have been able to pull off. Unhealthy co-dependency, separation anxiety, jealousy, obsession, and a desire to bathe in the blood of one's enemies. What's not to love?

Mari's already got a bit of the bloodthirsty crazy. She just needs the soul-crushing backstory and attachment issues. Of course, this would take away from a lot of what makes Mari fresh in NTE, but if you gotta do it, might as well go all out.

plus the possibility of a non incestuous threesome.

I'm terrible.

The obvious thing is for her to take on Sarai's role in the original.

Mari would probably work as a comic relief, and a shitty one at that. Not to mention that it would just make things even more convoluted, seeing as how they'll have to add even more background to a series that was losing money with each passing episode.

Director Black wrote:Mari would probably work as a comic relief, and a shitty one at that. Not to mention that it would just make things even more convoluted, seeing as how they'll have to add even more background to a series that was losing money with each passing episode.

Citation needed on that last bit.

If Mari were in NGE, she would be one of the nameless female 2-A students because, really, where else is she going to fit?

I guess the concept came from the one-sided fight between Asuka and the Harpies. What if a second Eva were online?

ZetaSonic wrote:I guess the concept came from the one-sided fight between Asuka and the Harpies. What if a second Eva were online?

I think Asuka would have still taken the spear to the eye because I get the impression she destine to loose her left eye what ever but Mari might have been able to stop them ripping her unit apart by distracting them and fighting them until Shinji got there.

Sachi wrote:Citation needed on that last bit.

Sorry. I meant for a show whose budget was falling, Mari would just feel crammed in there.

Reichu wrote:If Mari were in NGE, she would be one of the nameless female 2-A students because, really, where else is she going to fit?

If that were the case, then that would make a pretty cool Easter Egg for the Rebuilds.

Ray wrote:plus the possibility of a non incestuous threesome.

I'm terrible.

Where's the fun in that?

Mr. Tines wrote:The obvious thing is for her to take on Sarai's role in the original.

Anyone think this sounds like it could be an episode of the New Scooby Doo Movies? Just imagine, Sarai is causing mischief in NERV HQ and scooby and the gang have to track Sarai down and stop her. The episode could end with them unmasking Sarai to reveal it was actually Mari.

Meh, Mari's character is overall pretty empty so I don't think we would need it in NGE.

Sachi wrote:Because I love yanderes. Particularly realistic portrayals, which I'm sure NGE would have been able to pull off. Unhealthy co-dependency, separation anxiety, jealousy, obsession, and a desire to bathe in the blood of one's enemies. What's not to love?

Mari's already got a bit of the bloodthirsty crazy. She just needs the soul-crushing backstory and attachment issues. Of course, this would take away from a lot of what makes Mari fresh in NTE, but if you gotta do it, might as well go all out.

I have to disagree with you, in two ways. Number one, I wholly disagree with the idea of adding a yandere to anything Evangelion as a matter of opinion, because it's one of the least realistic of the personality type tropes I've seen in anime. Secondly, I don't think yandere's would suffer dependency or attachment issues. What you see with yanderes, at least in anime, is that they are generally psychopaths or sociopaths. It's not that they need somebody to be with, it's that they don't respect the rights of others and are interested in owning their senpai like they're property or a possession--not unlike an abusive boyfriend/husband or in some cases, girlfriend/wife. They don't care about them as a person at all, they just want to own them; they need their senpai to be their's, and nobody else's. Not only that, but they're willing to do anything, like manipulate others and become violent if necessary, which only further proves my point about psychopathy or sociopathy. The difference between the two is that psychopaths are born with it and exhibit slight differences in their behavior, whereas sociopaths are "made" for a lack of better word. With a sociopath you might be able to give them some kind of backstory, but they'd be so repulsive of a person if they were shone in a realistic, deconstructed light that you would no longer find the yandere type of character somebody you could relate with or feel sorry for in any kind of way. If you were to know someone like this in real life, you would only feel disgust, disdain, or possibly fear towards them.

Really, you could argue that Ritsuko in NGETV is a bit of a yandere, she does plenty for Gendo's affection, all the way up to killing all the Rei clones. She's not "craaaaaaaaaazzzyyy", but there's what I feel makes them so unrealistic. I know it's not a close match, but really since yandere's are so unrealistic, there isn't much of a better match you could make there. She certainly doesn't treat Gendo like an object to be owned. Either way, the NGETV Ritsuko is almost just about as awful of a person as you'd expect one to be to boot (luckily for her, she's significantly more like-able and less cuntish and evil in Rebuild, I actually like her as a person in it, whereas I hate her in NGETV).

Asuka isn't a tsundere, but she's the closest NGE incarnation. A NGE yandere wouldn't have to fit the term 100%.

Not to plug my own characters, but I used to have an RP character that was intended to be an NGE!yandere, with a natural, realistic descent into madness, based somewhat on one of my past relationships (toxic parts about both of us in one person). Unfortunately, the character arc was never finished.

I wouldn't apply the same arc to Mari, but I feel something to the effect of what I said could be done. Even if you disagree with whether it's actually yandere.

Sachi wrote:Asuka isn't a tsundere, but she's the closest NGE incarnation. A NGE yandere wouldn't have to fit the term 100%.

Not to plug my own characters, but I used to have an RP character that was intended to be an NGE!yandere, with a natural, realistic descent into madness, based somewhat on one of my past relationships (toxic parts about both of us in one person). Unfortunately, the character arc was never finished.

I wouldn't apply the same arc to Mari, but I feel something to the effect of what I said could be done. Even if you disagree with whether it's actually yandere.

Well, by the nature of the deconstruction of these tropes Anno was famous for doing, he broke the mold of those archetypes with his characters. In a sense, you could describe Asuka as a tsundere and in a very shallow, surface level, oversimplistic way, she is. However, if you actually examine her traits as an individual, she's really just a normal person sharing a few traits that otherwise encompass the entire personality of the trope.

I suppose with enough creativity, you could make a worthy yandere addition to NGE, I'm just a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to the series. I like mah NGEs mane, lol. So naturally, I'm opposed to whimsical changes that appeal to someone's specific trope-liking sensibilities. My opposition isn't quite justified, especially considering this thread and these ideas have no bearing on any actual changes to NGE. I may have been a bit negative with my original post, so sorry if it irked you any, I didn't really have any malintent.

So, I saw this forum as I wa going through areas of the site I've never really perused before.

Well, if you'd like to see how Mari would look inside the series itself, look no further than my fanfic, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legacy. The fic goes through the origins of the adult characters, in the first arc (including Mari), the second arc retells the show with the apporiate changes for the story, and if this sounds interesting to you, may I direct you my thread here on evageeks, or my Fanfiction.net Profile.

Either way, there's a lot that goes on with Mari in the mix and how she breaks up the Asuka/Shinji/Rei trio and her lasting effects on their interpersonal relationships.

Now I know my take won't be everyone's take on how Mari would be if she had been in the original series, but it's my best guess, and will it be entertaining to write and hopefully for ya'll to read.

In short it would be very different.