I Had A Really Interesting Dream About A Potential 2.5 Rebuild OVA/Movie That I Feel Like Sharing.

Discussion of the new series of Evangelion movies ( "Evangelion Shin Gekijōban", meaning "Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition"). The final instalment made its debut in Japan on March 8, 2021.

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Melkor
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I Had A Really Interesting Dream About A Potential 2.5 Rebuild OVA/Movie That I Feel Like Sharing.

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Postby Melkor » Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:11 pm

Hello everyone, I know the title of this thread may sound really weird, but this is something I feel like I should definitely share as an Evangelion fan. Due to the bizarre nature of this topic, I wasn't really sure what section I should put this in, but seeing as it has to do with the Rebuild continuity I felt this would be the best place to put it. Recently, I had a rather interesting dream involving the story of the Rebuild movies. It wasn't just your average run of the mill dream either. Something you should know about my dreams is that they can sometimes be pretty elaborate and occasionally have plots to them. This happens a lot with dreams involving shows or series that I really like, Evangelion being one of them. Many of us have often wondered about the events between 2.0 and 3.0 and what exactly happened, since none of the events in the preview for 3.0 shown at the end of 2.0 showed up in 3.0 itself. Being that dreams are often manifestations of yours wishes and desires in real life, wanting to know the answer to what happened inbetween 2.0 and 3.0 so badly eventually caused my wild and creative mind to have a dream about it one night where it created an answer. The events of the dream felt so realistic, like something I could actually see happening in the story of the Rebuild movies that I just had to share it with my fellow Evangelion fans.

The dream I am about to describe in this post may seem rather long for something that was just a dream, but like most of my plot-driven dreams it flew by so fast that I barely had time to process what was going on, so to try to make sense of it I will be going into as much detail as I can (which will likely result in this being a very long post) to make it easier for people reading this to gain a clearer understanding what happened by providing lots of context to the events, since dreams are often very hard to describe to other people in a way that makes sense to them the same way it did to you. I also keep a dream journal where I write down some of my more interesting dreams so that I can come back to them later, this dream being one of them, so that is another reason why I am able to remember so many details from it, because I wrote most of them down while they were still fresh in my mind. Keep in mind that since this is a dream, not everything in it will make perfect sense, as is usually the case with dreams. Some parts of the dream were kind of vague and disjointed, especially towards the end, so I had to fill in a few of the gaps with my own educated guesses based on the context of what happened. Without further ado, here is the description of my dream.

Rebuild of Evangelion 2.5: I Do (Not) Need You

Something that would be a dream come true for all Evangelion fans is if they ever made a movie or OVA showing what happened inbetween 2.0 and 3.0, and in my dream that's basically what happened. It gave context to a lot of the events from that original 3.0 preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeF4tWlOS3E, and the story was composed of a mishmash of various events from Episode 21, 22, 23, 24, and End of Evangelion retold as part of the Rebuild continuity. Oddly enough the majority of it actually followed Mari's perspective, but let me tell you it gave some surprising depth to her character and made me view her in a much different light than before. The dream opens up by showing a title card for a potential OVA, and it is all black except for some white letters that say Rebuild of Evangelion 2.5: I Do (Not) Need You.

The story picks up pretty much right where 2.0 left off, showing Kaworu descending from the sky in Unit 06 after using the Spear of Cassius to pierce Unit 01 and stop Near Third Impact. Kaworu greets the Nerv staff on the ground and says that Seele sent him to help against the Tenth Angel, and Misato's response to this is pretty much "Are you shitting me? Seele couldn't have sent you earlier? Your help would have been really useful about five minutes ago." The next day, forces from the JSSDF arrive at the Geofront and start rounding up all the Nerv staff and placing them under arrest, having been send there by the Japanese Government. After the incident with Near Third Impact, the government has begun to call into question Nerv's ability to keep humanity safe after nearly allowing Third Impact to occur, and Gendo is summoned before a tribunal of government officials for a hearing. Gendo is now in hot water with the government, who threaten to cut off funding to Nerv, but he manages to work his way out of the situation by explaining what happened, though skewing the story in his favor by leaving out certain key details. Gendo is eventually let off the hook, but he ends up having to do a press conference with the media where he gets put on full blast, and then after that he gets scolded by the Seele Council for nearly derailing their plans. All in all, Gendo ends up eating a lot of shit from the government, the media, and Seele, and honestly he kind of deserves it after what he put Shinji through with the Ninth and Tenth Angels.

After the Nerv staff are all questioned and released, they go back to business as usual, the damage to Nerv Headquarters not appearing to be as severe as what we see in 3.0, though the event that led to it being in that state will be revealed later on. Shinji and Rei are both still trapped inside Unit 01, which sits outside Nerv Headquarters with the Spear of Cassius impaled in it. Asuka also finally wakes up from her coma after what happened with Unit 03, though now she has to wear an eye-patch over her left eye, which might have contamination left over from the Ninth Angel, and she is briefed by Misato on what happened while she was out. Asuka's reply to all of it is "Of course this is all stupid Shinji's fault!" After this there is a scene where Gendo is talking with Fuyutsuki and says that they will need to make a new Rei to replace the one they lost to the Tenth Angel, which is going to set their plans back a bit, but in the meantime the production of the Dummy Plugs is going well (the Dummy Plugs and the Dummy System in this dream appear to be two separate things, but the two of them together will end up playing an important role later). After Unit 02 is recovered with Mari inside, she becomes an EVA pilot under Misato, joining both Asuka and Kaworu, with Kaworu filling in for the role of Rei and Mari filling in for the role of Shinji. The three of them end up having a pretty interesting team dynamic, especially since Kaworu and Mari's personalities seem to be the exact opposite of the people they are filling in for, which throws Asuka off. Kaworu and Asuka in particular do not seem to get along, mainly because Kaworu would always use his expert deduction skills to point out all of Asuka's flaws and always call her out on her bullshit, which Mari would find to be amusing. My goodness Kaworu was a savage in the dream with the way he would unintentionally roast Asuka with his analyses, and it was so satisfying to listen to. Not surprisingly, Asuka ends up hating Kaworu's guts and calls him a smug bastard.

Mari and Asuka on the other hand are a somewhat different story. Upon seeing the damage that Unit 02 sustained while Mari was using it, Asuka is understandably mad and tells Mari "I don't know what it is, but something about you reminds me of that brat Shinji, and it really pisses me off!" Despite their rocky start and differences however, Asuka and Mari are eventually able to come to a mutual understanding and learn to cooperate. After Unit 02 is repaired Asuka goes back to piloting it, while Kaworu pilots Unit 06 (I was so pissed we never got to see that thing in action) and Mari is given the newly finished Unit 08 to pilot (where Unit 07 is or what happened to it, I have no idea). The three start training together and learn how to work together as a team, and in time Mari starts to become close with Kaworu, even flirting with him at times (I mean what girl wouldn't want Kaworu). Curious about who Mari is and where she came from, Gendo eventually does some digging into Mari's background and has a discussion with Fuyutsuki about what he finds. It turns out that Mari's father is a researcher by the name of Dr. Makinami who worked with Gehirn, and after Gehirn was disbanded rather than transferring over to Nerv he began working with the IPEA instead (possibly even being on the same team as Asuka's mother that worked on Unit 02). Gendo's reaction seems to imply that he personally knew Mari's father and that the two were rivals of some sort.

Next there's a scene where Gendo and Fuyutsuki are on a trip to some desert country (the one from the preview where they are riding on donkeys) and they visit a Nerv base where one of the four Adams is being used to construct a new weapon that is like a cross between an EVA and a warship (this weapon being what will eventually become the AAA Wunder from 3.0). This Adam appears to have its own Lance of Longinus, which could mean that each of the four Adams had a Lance of Longinus, or perhaps only two of the Adams had Lances of Longinus while the other two had Spears of Cassius, which is probably more likely. Gendo seems pleased by the project, saying that it will at least make up for the setback they experienced by losing both Unit 01 and Rei with Near Third Impact. Later on at Nerv Headquarters, which is undergoing some repairs to fix the damage caused by Shinji's battle with the Tenth Angel, the Eleventh Angel suddenly appears in the sky. The Eleventh Angel basically looks the same as Arael, and Asuka, Kaworu, and Mari are all called upon to fight it. The scenario plays out pretty much the same as it did in Episode 22, except Mari is playing the role of Shinji and Kaworu is playing the role of Rei. Asuka and Mari try shooting at the Angel from the ground but none of them can hit it because it’s too far out of range, and the Angel retaliates by shooting back at them with its beam of light. Much like before, Asuka gets mind raped by it and it makes her remember all the stuff about her mother Kyoko and how she committed suicide, and as this is happening her eye that was damaged by the Ninth Angel begins to hurt in response to the Eleventh Angel’s beam of light.

Mari also gets hits by the beam and starts getting mind raped as well, the experience being so terrifying for her that she literally pisses herself in her plug suit and the LCL in her cockpit starts turning a yellowish color (which is pretty disgusting because the pilots breathe in the LCL, which means Mari is now breathing in her own piss). Mari begins having traumatic flashbacks of her own mother, but unlike Asuka whose mother was kind and loving, Mari's mother was angry and abusive. Mari sees an incident from her childhood where she had wet the bed and her mother severely punished her for it. Throughout her childhood Mari's mother often ignored her, never showing her any love. The only times she ever seemed to pay any attention to Mari was when she misbehaved, in which case she would beat her as punishment. Mari remembers one instance where her mother was disciplining her as a child and you can hear her saying "Ow mommy, please don't hit me! I promise I'll be good!"

Mari's mother often referred to her as a "problem child", and would sometimes even tell her daughter that she wished she had never been born to her, which might imply that Mari was an illegitimate child. Mari would always try her best to please her mother in the hopes that it would make her love her, whether it be by acting on her best behavior or doing well in school, but her mother would still ignore her. Her mother spoke in a British accent, so I guess Mari and her mother are British, and when Mari is old enough she gets sent away by her mother to live in the city, presumably London. Mari lived in a small apartment by herself where she would often stay secluded inside, rarely venturing outside. Whenever she did go out into the city she would ride the trains to get from one place to another, mirroring the moments Shinji would ride the trains of Tokyo-3 and his personal hell train car. There were some days where Mari could not even find the motivation to get out of bed because of how depressed she was. Mari was a lot like Shinji, believing that nobody wanted her and that she was a failure, which made her feel sad and lonely. As a form of escapism she became an otaku, collecting all sorts of geeky things and filling her room with them, losing herself in fantasy with books, video games, anime, and manga, having an interest in the mecha genre in particular.

Mari's life would change one day when a strange man arrives at her door who introduces himself as Dr. Makinami and reveals himself to be her father. He hugs Mari and tells her that he has been looking for her and had hoped to meet her one day. Mari is at first unsure of how to react to being hugged by her father, this being the first time that anyone has ever shown her any affection like this. After sitting down and talking with her, Dr. Makinami goes on to explain that he is a researcher working on the development of the EVAs, and he asks Mari if she would like to come with him and serve as a test pilot. Mari is quick to accept his offer, overjoyed by the fact that she is finally wanted by someone, regardless of what it's for. Mari then goes to live with her father at the research facility he works at, and there she learns the ins and outs of piloting an EVA from him, which might explain how she knew about the secret code to activate Unit 02's Beast Mode. While there, Dr. Makinami would constantly have Mari run battle simulations, and after each one he would log and record her battle data (what this data was being gathered for will be revealed later). Whenever she would complete a test or simulation, Dr. Makinami would praise Mari and tell her how proud of her he was which would make her very happy. Mari reflects on the time she spent with her father, thinking "All I wanted to do was make papa proud.", because doing so meant she was useful to someone. Over time Mari actually starts to enjoy doing the battle simulations, thinking of them as a fun little video game and becoming addicted to the thrill of it. This could explain why she acts so reckless (and a little insane) when piloting an EVA in battle, like with Unit 05 and Unit 02, because her mind has probably gotten so used to the simulations that she basically views piloting an EVA as more of a video game than a life or death situation, causing her to not take it as seriously.

The time that Mari spends assisting her father ends up being a positive influence for her, helping her to develop more confidence in herself and giving her an opportunity to experience more of the outside world and realize that it's not so bad. Overall Mari had a very good relationship with her father, who seemed to genuinely care about his daughter, the exact opposite of someone like Gendo. Mari's life greatly parallels that of Shinji, and in a way she is basically like a reverse version of him. Mari was a depressed and lonely girl with a mother that did not care about her but a father did, while Shinji is a depressed and lonely boy with a father that does not care about him but a mother that did. The dream was kind of vague on what became of Dr. Makinami, so I don't know if he's dead or alive, but considering all the parallels between Mari and Shinji it could be possible that something might have happened to him in the same vein as what happened to Shinji's mother Yui, perhaps an accident involving an EVA. What sets Shinji and Mari apart though is that Mari was able to cast off her anxieties and self-doubts and grow as a person. Looking at it another way, Mari is a representation of what Shinji could be if only he were to open himself up to the world around him. Shinji and Mari were both dealt raw hands in life, but how they reacted to their individual circumstances differed. Shinji retreated inwards, whereas Mari projected outwards. Being called a "problem child" by her mother was something that Mari originally hated, but now she wears that title proudly as her nickname in battle, showing how she is able to take the worst that life has to throw at her and turn around, living every day to the fullest, an outlook which is reflected in the song she sings at the beginning of 2.0.

It then cuts back to Mari in the cockpit of Unit 08, where she starts hallucinating these evil-looking apparitions of her mother, all of them telling her that she has been a bad girl and that it’s time for her to be punished. For a moment Mari is scared of them, but then she builds up her resolve and shouts to the apparitions: "Screw you bitch! I don't need you anymore! I've been doing just fine without you!" Upon saying this the illusion shatters and the apparitions all disappear, bringing Mari back to reality. As this is going on, Kaworu is given the second Lance of Longinus that came from the Adam that is being used to build the AAA Wunder and meets back up with Mari in Unit 06. Kaworu comes up with a crazy plan and asks Mari to throw him towards the Angel (presumably so he can get a better shot at it with the lance). Mari has Unit 08 grab hold of Unit 06's legs and begins spinning it around, and after she gathers enough momentum she lets go, sending Kaworu flying high into the sky with the lance, and about halfway there he aims the lance and throws it at the Angel. The lance blasts straight through the Angel and destroys it, its velocity having been multiplied by that of Unit 06 hurtling through the air, after which Kaworu safely floats back down to the Earth, though the lance is now lost in lunar orbit (I know the whole scene may sound a little ridiculous on paper, but seeing it play out looked really awesome).

After the battle is over, Mari goes off to the showers to get cleaned up, and judging by how in 3.0 she has all those drinks with her in the cockpit of Unit 08 she must not have learned her lesson from her battle with the Eleventh Angel, because in all likelihood she probably ended up pissing herself again during Fourth Impact. While bathing, Mari starts feeling really horny, and seeing that she is alone (yes, even "that" scene from End of Evangelion happens, but with Mari) she literally just starts masturbating right there, seemingly not giving a damn. After she's done, she stops for a moment and says to herself "I'm fucking disgusting." mirroring Shinji's line from End of Evangelion where he says "I'm so fucked up." Yes Mari, you are disgusting, going from pissing yourself in your own LCL to shamelessly masturbating in the public showers. Mari then hears someone say "Are you enjoying yourself?" and she looks up from the bath tub to see Kaworu standing right there, butt-ass naked. Mari turns red with embarrassment, having been caught in the act by Kaworu, and asks if he was watching her the whole time, to which Kaworu replies by saying that he was already there and that she is in the men's showers, which further embarrasses Mari because that means she went into the wrong showers by accident (she wasn't wearing her glasses, so she likely misread the sign for men's showers as the woman's showers).

Kaworu seems rather calm and nonchalant about the whole situation, and asks Mari if he can join her, then he just sits down right next to her in the bath, mirroring the bath scene with Shinji and Kaworu from Episode 24. Mari, unsure about where Kaworu swings, asks him if he's into boys or girls, and Kaworu replies by saying that he is fascinated by all humans and that their outer forms do not matter to him, so I guess this means Kaworu is bisexual, which makes sense all things considered. Kaworu then flips the question and asks the same of Mari, and she gives a vague answer that seems to imply that she might be bisexual as well. Mari and Kaworu then start to bond in the shower, much like how Shinji and Kaworu did, and the scene switches to them sitting outside at night by the impaled Unit 01. Kaworu then tells Mari that he thinks he understands now why he feels so drawn to both her and Shinji. Mari asks why and Kaworu says that it's because she and Shinji are both the same. Despite their outer selves being complete opposites, like Yin and Yang, their true inner natures are quite similar. Mari is surprised that Kaworu was able to deduce her former nature, and Kaworu says that it’s because he can read people's souls (possibly by reading the unique individual AT Field of each person) and he can feel that Shinji and Mari both share a similar pain in their hearts.

Mari thinks back to the time she first met Shinji on the rooftop, and when she found him in the shelter during the Tenth Angel's attack, and wonders if the two of them were destined to cross paths. Mari reveals to Kaworu that the Dummy System which caused Shinji to not want to pilot Unit 01 anymore was created using the battle data her father Dr. Makinami had gathered from all the simulations he had her do, which was then uploaded to the Dummy System as the algorithm for it to follow in battle. Mari begins to wonder if she had made the right decision in convincing Shinji to pilot Unit 01 again, seeing as it only resulted in him being absorbed by it and causing Near Third Impact, and because of this she feels partially responsible for it. Hearing Mari beginning to doubt herself, Kaworu asks her why she decided to help Shinji then if leaving him be would have been the more logical thing, since he would have just shown up in Unit 06 anyway to slay the Tenth Angel. Mari thinks about it for a moment, then says the reason she felt so compelled to help Shinji in that instance and push him to get back up and fight again is because seeing him in such a pathetic state reminded her of how she used to be, so she wanted to show him that no matter how bad things may seem, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel.

In the days following the Eleventh Angel's defeat, the effects it had on Asuka's psyche still remain, causing her to be unable to synchronize with Unit 02. Realizing that relying solely on living pilots might be too risky, especially considering how easily the pilot's mental states could be broken in battle with an Angel, Gendo decides to try making one of the EVAs fully autonomous as a way of mitigating this risk. Gendo chooses Unit 06 to be the subject for this experiment, and he does this by installing a Dummy System Core Control Module like the one from Unit 01 into a red Dummy Plug created from Rei's personality data. Along with automating Unit 06, Gendo starts to revamp Nerv Headquarters a bit, upgrading and automating some of its systems, as well as changing the Nerv logo to the new one we see in 3.0. The main reason for Gendo doing this is to put on a show by invoking the memory of when Gehirn was first reorganized and revitalized as Nerv, since the incident with Near Third Impact has caused public opinion towards Nerv to shift, many now beginning to view them as an organization that does more harm than good. As part of this new and improved Nerv, Gendo unveils Nerv’s latest weapon, the AAA Wunder, which will act as a new branch base for Nerv as well as a mobile fortress that can travel anywhere in the world it is needed.

It then cuts to a scene where all the pilots are gathered in Gendo's office and are being briefed by him on what Nerv’s future plans will be going forward. Along with Kaworu, Asuka, and Mari is a brand new clone of Rei, (not sure if it’s the same one from 3.0, but it’s likely from the Ayanami series like she is). Kaji is there too listening in, and the discussion is about how some of Nerv's forces will be reallocated. Misato will be placed in command of the AAA Wunder, where Unit 02 and Unit 08 and their pilots Asuka and Mari, as well as several other Nerv personnel will also be stationed, while the Rei clone, Kaworu, and Unit 06 (as well as Unit 01, even though it is unusable) will remain at the main Nerv Headquarters in the Geofront with Gendo and Fuyutsuki. After the briefing is over, Kaji has a private conversation with Mari, who he has been working with in secret, as hinted at in 2.0, and he tells her that he has uncovered much about Seele while working deep undercover, but he suspects that they might have discovered what he's up to and will try to silence him. Kaji then gives Mari a small flash drive, which he says contains all the data he has gathered on Seele's true plans, and tells her that if she doesn't hear from him again to give it to Misato. The reason for giving it to Mari instead of directly to Misato is because Misato is the first person they would expect Kaji to go to due to his connection with her, but they would never suspect one of the EVA pilots of being involved in his little spy game. Next it cuts to a scene at night where Kaji is at a phone booth and leaves a message for Misato, after which his suspicions come true when he is confronted by a shadowy man who appears and shoots him, the scenario playing out very similarly to how it did in Episode 21.

Here is where things start to get a little hazy. For some people the beginnings of their dreams are harder to remember while the endings are easier, while for others the beginnings of their dreams are easier to remember while the endings are harder. For me it is the latter, and as the end of the dream approaches things sort of turn into a clusterfuck once the Twelfth Angel appears and shit hits the fan. The scene opens up on the AAA Wunder, which at the time is stationed in the waters of Lake Ashinoko outside Tokyo-3, where Mari is on the deck of the ship with Asuka, whose mental state seems to have improved a bit. Asuka mentions that she hasn't seen Kaji in a while and wonders where he is, being in the mood to see him, and Mari remembers her last conversation with Kaji and assumes the worst has happened to him. She decides now might be the time to give Misato the flash drive Kaji had given her, but before she can do anything the sky suddenly begins to darken. Everyone looks up and sees a giant swarm of black and red organisms that appear to move in unison, blocking out the sun like an eclipse. The Twelfth Angel which we saw briefly in 3.0 has finally arrived and everyone has to get ready for battle, so Mari is forced to forget about Kaji's flash drive for the moment heads to the EVAs with Asuka. After Mari launches in Unit 08, Asuka gets into Unit 02 and tries to do the same, but her synchronization rates are still too low to pilot it, much to her frustration. Misato then says "Damn, the Angels really caught us with our pants down this time."

The Twelfth Angel had some pretty terrifying abilities, attacking like a swarm of locusts that devour everything in sight, and there was one disturbing scene where some civilians were trying to run away and as soon as the Angel touches them their bodies were eaten away in seconds, leaving behind nothing but bones. Anything the Angel touched corroded away in an instant, leading Misato to remark that it is like death incarnate and that they can't risk directly touching it or else the same will happen to them. Nerv and the JSSDF start throwing everything they have at the Angel, even blasting it with N2 bombs, but the only thing that seems to be able to keep it at bay is AT Fields. The Angel tries attacking the AAA Wunder but can't reach it due to the immense AT Field of the Adam inside it which protects the ship, so the Angel instead starts tunneling into the ground. It eats a hole straight down to the Geofront in with little effort, Mari following after it in Unit 08 while the now fully autonomous Unit 06 is launched from Nerv Headquarters. Unit 06 and Unit 08 both team up to fight the Angel and try crushing it between their AT Fields, but it manages to slip away and eats its way into Nerv Headquarters itself. The Twelfth Angel seemingly has a mix of abilities from both Ireul and Armisael, and starts by hacking the Magi supercomputers like Ireul did. A distorted metallic voice can then be heard over the intercoms in Nerv Headquarters, speaking in broken sentences like a child. Gendo, who is in the command center with Fuyutsuki, the Rei clone, and Kaworu, says that the Angel appears to be attempting to learn their langue and communicate with them, disturbed by the rapid pace of its evolution. A child-like laugh then starts to echo everywhere, and all over the computers and terminals in Nerv Headquarters the words "Die Lilin" start filling up the screens, flooding out everything else. Gendo remarks that the Angel appears to be taunting them, and that out of all the Angels so far this one seems to be the only one that is purposely going out of its way to be as malicious as possible. The Angel even starts screwing around with everyone by saying the names of all the Nerv personal in the command center, having learned them by reading all the files, including Gendo's, which freaks them out.

The Angel then goes back outside where Unit 06 tries fighting it again, but the Angel proceeds to hack into its Dummy System, allowing it to take full control of Unit 06 and use it as a puppet. After this the Angel starts taking control of all the automated weapons and defense systems of Nerv and the JSSDF and turns them against everyone. All hell starts breaking lose as a bunch of N2 bombs start detonating everywhere, blowing holes in the ceiling of the Geofront. As this is going on, Asuka is still in the cockpit on Unit 02, trying to shake off her doubts and insecurities as the battle rages on outside. She begins giving herself a pep talk of sorts, reaffirming her skill and superiority as an EVA pilot, and slowly her fighting returns. She is finally able to synchronize with Unit 02 and launches from the AAA Wunder while saying "Of all the times for Shinji to be sitting on his ass doing nothing! Do I have to do everything myself!" Asuka meets up with Mari and they begin fighting the hijacked Unit 06 together, which proves to be rather tenacious, like the Mas Production EVAs from End of Evangelion. Remembering that the Dummy System controlling Unit 06 uses an algorithm based on her battle data, Mari uses this to her advantage and starts predicting with some accuracy what its next moves will be, leading to a stalemate between the three. The stalemate is broken when the Angel appears behind Asuka and Mari and blindsides them with an energy blast that sends them both flying away, and together the Angel and Unit 06 begin descending down the shaft leading to Terminal Dogma.

Back in the command center, Gendo surmises that the Angel must already be aware of Lilith's existence after hacking into the Magi and reading all the files, but he is unsure why it would still be trying to reach her after having learned the truth. After the Angel reaches the bottom of the shaft it easily hacks the doors to Terminal Dogma and opens, then goes over to the impaled Lilith and examines her for a moment, after which it does something unexpected. It has Unit 06 grab the Lance of Longinus and pull it out of Lilith, which greatly shocks Gendo as he cannot fathom why the Angel would do this. After the lance is removed from Lilith she wakes up and begins showing signs of activity. Lilith breaks free from the rest of her bindings and falls to her knees where she starts trying to crawl away, showing signs of fear towards the Angel and wanting to escape from it. In response the Angel has Unit 06 land on Lilith's back and start fusing to her body, seemingly trying to absorb and assimilate her into Unit 06 in a similar manner to how Armisael tried to absorb and assimilate Rei in Episode 23. Gendo then remarks "I see, greedy little bastard. Not only does it seek our destruction, but it also wishes to claim Lilith as a prize for itself." The implications behind what Gendo means by this is actually pretty dark. What the Angel is doing basically the equivalent of saying to humanity "I'm going to kill all of you, and after I kill you I'm going to rape your mother and make her my slave." Gendo was right, this Angel truly is malicious.

As Lilith continues to fuse with Unit 06, she starts to take on the appearance of Rei, this being due to the presence of a Rei Dummy Plug inside Unit 06, and seeing this Gendo begins to worry. Unit 06 was created from one of the Adams, so if it fuses with Lilith the result will be Third Impact, one that more closely follows Seele's designs rather than his. Just when you think things couldn't get any worse, Unit 01 suddenly reawakens outside and floats up into the air as a halo forms around its head, which further worries Gendo. Since Unit 01 is a clone of Lilith, she and Unit 01 are now beginning to resonate with each other, even while the Spear of Cassius is still impaled in Unit 01. Not only that, if the Rei we saw in 1.0 and 2.0 also possesses Lilith's soul like Rei in the original series did, and being that she was absorbed into Unit 01 along with Shinji, then that would mean Unit 01 not only has Yui's soul but also Lilith's soul inside it as well, in a sense making Unit 01 like a second Lilith. Either way, it would seem that the combined powers of both Lilith and Unit 01 are too great for the Spear of Cassius to handle, hence why it doesn't seem to be working in this instance. Feeling the awakening of Unit 01, the Angel immediately rushes back outside like a swarm of angry bees and goes over to it. It stops for a moment, examines Unit 01, then rushes back inside to Lilith, examines her for a moment, then rushes back outside to Unit 01, then back inside to Lilith, doing this over and over again several times. Fuyutsuki wonders why the Angel is behaving like way, and Gendo says it must be because it’s confused and can't tell which one is the real Lilith. Realizing this will buy them some time, Gendo calls upon Asuka and Mari to stop the Angel and Unit 06 at all costs. Mari is the first to get back up, and hearing Gendo's orders she jumps down the shaft leading to Terminal Dogma, her target being Unit 06.

Then things really start to get crazy as the sky turns a deep red color and the Gates of Guf open, causing the entire roof of the Geofront to collapse and expose Nerv Headquarters to the outside. The landscape around Tokyo-3 begins to shift dramatically and there is complete chaos as communications to the command center become cut off, leaving Gendo and everyone else inside with no way of knowing what is going on. While this is happening Asuka finally gets back up, Unit 02 appearing to have sustained some damage. She looks up into the sky and sees that the Angel is now rapidly moving back and forth between Lilith and Unit 01, somewhat resembling an infinity symbol when it does this. Many people throughout Tokyo-3, including civilians, soldiers, and Nerv personnel, get caught up in Third Impact and start to undergo horrific transformations, turning into the Failures of Infinity that we see in 3.0. Seeing all of this, Asuka runs over to Unit 01 and says "You have to stop this Shinji! Look at what you're doing to everyone!" As Asuka tries to get closer, her left eye begins causing her immense pain and starts glowing blue through her eye-patch, which Asuka interprets as Shinji rejecting her and trying to push her away. Asuka then makes the observation that Unit 01 and Lilith appear to be in a tug of war with each other, fighting for control over Third Impact. This results in some bizarre changes to the landscape, like that strange rift with teeth we see in 3.0, as well as the red grid-like pattern that forms on the moon, which now begins drawing closer to the Earth. Asuka tries to get through to Shinji one more time and says "Shinji you idiot, that's not Rei you're feeling, it's Lilith! Quit being so selfish and just let go already!", but Unit 01 simply ignores her.

Meanwhile, Mari finally reaches Lilith in Terminal Dogma, and upon seeing her approach Unit 06 actually starts trying to communicate with her, using Rei's voice from the Rei Dummy Plug to speak. Unit 06 sounds desperate and pleads with Mari, saying "Please, help! I don't want this! I don't want this!" From what it seems, Unit 06, or the Adam within it, does not like the fact that the Twelfth Angel has forced it to fuse with Lilith, and the distressed way in which it speaks almost makes it sound like it is being raped and violated, made worse by the fact that it has Rei's voice. Mari is shocked that Unit 06 appears to be showing signs of having a will of its own and feels some sympathy for it, so she tries to blast it free from Lilith, but every injure she creates on Lilith just regenerates immediately, making her efforts futile. Back on the surface at Lake Ashinoko, the eyes of the Adam inside the AAA Wunder start to glow, and in the sky above the Lance of Longinus which was lost to space after being used to defeat the Eleventh Angel returns. The lance creates a massive shock wave on its way back to Earth, travelling straight through the AAA Wunder and blasting a hole through it and the Adam before coming out through the other side. Blood and dismembered pieces of the Adam spray out of the AAA Wunder and rain down on the surrounding landscape, but the lance continues its path of destruction like a heat-seeking missile, now entering the Geofront. On its way down it passes Unit 01 and hits the Spear of Cassius impaled through it, breaking the spear and causing it to shatter, after which the lance finally comes to a stop when it hits the ground. After the Spear of Cassius is destroyed, Unit 01 suddenly loses its halo and deactivates once again, falling to the ground like a lifeless rag doll. With Unit 01 now out of the picture the tug of war ends and the balance starts shifting over to Lilith, who gains full control over Third Impact. Misato having witnessed what just happened with the lance from the AAA Wunder sees this as a stroke of luck and contacts Asuka, telling her that she now has an idea for how to stop Third Impact.

Misato tells Asuka to take the lance that just appeared and impale Lilith with it, saying "Ram it into that bitch Asuka!" and seeing that there's no time to waste Asuka grabs the lance and jumps down the shaft to Terminal Dogma. There she meets up with Mari, who is still trying to free Unit 06 from Lilith, and Asuka explains the situation to her. Asuka then runs up Lilith's back and stabs the lance through her from there, which freezes Lilith in place on all fours. With Lilith now sealed, control over Third Impact shifts to Unit 06, which then uses Lilith's massive AT Field to pull the Angel into its body as a way of containing it. Still using Rei's voice, Unit 06 tells them to hurry and impale her with the other lance nearby in order to stop Third Impact, saying that she can't hold the Angel for long. The scene somewhat mirrors Rei's sacrifice from Episode 23 where she holds Armisael inside Unit 00 before self-destructing, and finding it admirable that a simple Dummy Plug controlled EVA is willing to go this far to complete its duty of stopping the Angels, Mari grabs the lance which Unit 06 pulled out of Lilith earlier and impales it through Unit 06. Before it is sealed away Unit 06 tells them to cut off Lilith's head to fully end Third Impact, so Asuka and Mari both pull out their progressive knives and together they use them to sever Lilith's head, which resembles Rei's. After Lilith's head is severed the effects seemingly transfer over to all of the Failures of Infinity as well, whose heads are all severed in response, after which the Gates of Guf finally close and Third Impact ends.

In the aftermath of Third Impact, Misato, Gendo, and the other surviving Nerv members are left to pick up the pieces assess the damage, which is quite severe. The surrounding area has been completely ravaged and turned into a red wasteland, and countless people lost their lives, or worse, were turned into Failures of Infinity. Everyone who was onboard the AAA Wunder managed to survive, its powerful AT Field having protected them from the effects of Third Impact. Going with all the Biblical references in Evangelion, the AAA Wunder could be seen as a parallel to Noah's Ark, since it kept Misato and the others safe from the catastrophe. It's unclear if the effects of Third Impact were worldwide, but they seem to extend out for several kilometers from Tokyo-3. The Adam that was inside the AAA Wunder is now in pieces, only its head remaining inside the ship while the rest of it was blasted outside by the Lance of Longinus. From what Misato can piece together about the situation, it would seem that the Adam within the AAA Wunder could feel its fellow Adam inside Unit 06 being violated by Lilith, so it sacrificed itself to call its lance back to Earth in an attempt to help it. Its intention was for the lance to hit Lilith, but much like the Angel it also mistook Unit 01 for Lilith and hit the wrong target, but it still ended up having a positive effect by breaking the infinite feedback loop between Lilith and Unit 01. Misato is surprised that beings like the Adams seem to be capable of showing concern for one another, even going so far as to give their lives in a selfless attempt to save one of their own, which makes them not so different from the Lilin. This raises the question of whether the Adams and Adam-derived EVAs are actually fully conscious and capable of expressing thought and emotion, and what they must think of being used as tools by the Lilin.

Misato and the remaining Nerv members spend the next few days gathering up any survivors and refuges they can find in and around Tokyo-3, and this is when Mari finally gets the chance to give Misato the flash drive from Kaji. Misato looks at in and is shocked by what she finds, learning everything about Seele's true plans for Third Impact and Human Instrumentality, and how they were really the ones pulling the strings of Nerv. Misato is furious, realizing that Seele has been playing all them for fools, Third Impact bringing back painful memories of Second Impact for her. Misato says that Kaji's sacrifice to get this information to her will not be in vain, and she goes on to spread this information to all the surviving Nerv employees, who are all equally shocked and begin having a crisis of morality. With everyone feeling the same way as her, Misato stages a mutiny with the surviving members of Nerv, and everyone we see with her in 3.0 joins her side. Misato makes it her mission to let the rest of the world know what really happened in Tokyo-3 and to put a stop to Seele's plans, and together she and everyone else take whatever tech they can grab from the ruined Nerv Headquarters, including Unit 02 and Unit 08, and flee in the AAA Wunder. Pretty much everyone leaves with Misato, the only ones deciding to stay behind at Nerv Headquarters being Gendo, Fuyutsuki, the Rei clone, and Kaworu (it's unclear if Misato knew of Gendo's involvement with Seele and if she considered him a friend or foe at this point). As everyone is boarding the AAA Wunder and getting ready to leave, Mari sees Kaworu and asks if he will come with them, but Kaworu refuses, saying that he must stay and wait for Shinji, because Shinji will need him when he finally returns. Mari is saddened by this and sarcastically says "Come on Kaworu, are you really going to break a young lady's heart like this? I thought we had something special." Kaworu then replies by saying "Although it was short-lived, I did enjoy our time together Mari. I've learned many things about humans from you, and for that I thank you." After that they say goodbye and part ways, Mari saying that she will miss hearing Kaworu's epic roasts of Asuka. I have to wonder, was there something more going on between Kaworu and Mari, like did those two have sex or something?

That's about where the dream ended, and last thing I can remember from it is a little segment which flashes by and shows a random assortment of events and dialogue that seemed like a preview (complete with the preview music playing) for what could potentially happen in 3.0+1.0. I'll describe some of what I can remember from it, because it was pretty interesting. First there is a scene where Shinji, Asuka, and Rei are picked up by the AAA Wunder and Misato is angry at Shinji for having run off and tries to punch him, but Rei Q gets in front of Shinji and takes the blow for him, shielding him from harm with her body. After this Shinji is yelling at Misato and says "First everyone wanted me to pilot an EVA, and now they don't. Decide what you want from me!" Then there's is a line where Asuka says "So you've finally grown a pair Shinji?" presumably in response to Shinji finally sticking up for himself against Misato. Next there is a scene showing Rei Q, who is now bruised up from the beating she took from Misato, and she walks over to Unit 01 in the AAA Wunder and touches it. As she does she receives a flash of memories showing things that happened in 1.0 and 2.0 and asks "Are these Rei's memories?" Next there's a scene where Shinji is sitting by himself in some town or settlement, presumably Willie's base of operations, and Mari sits down next to him. Shinji asks her "Why would you even bother trying to help a loser like me?" and Mari says "It's because I used to be one just like you." They were both facing towards a river in this scene and Shinji's clothes appeared to be wet, which might be a sign that much like how it was implied at the beginning of End of Evangelion, he tried to drown himself, but Mari came along and stopped him from doing it.

Next there is a scene where Shinji appears to be wearing Mari's old glasses for some reason, so I'm guessing she probably gave them to him as a keepsake, kind of like how Gendo gave his glasses to Rei, or because Shinji is starting to need glasses (Gendo wears glasses too, so bad eyesight might run in the family). While wearing the glasses, Shinji kind of resembled Gendo a bit, which could either symbolize that he is becoming more like his father or that he is finally starting to come into his own. There's another line where Asuka is teasing Shinji and says "Having fun with your other half Shinji?" in regards to Shinji and Mari becoming closer, Mari now filling in the void Kaworu left behind. Asuka saying this could also be a sign that she's a little jealous. Next there's a scene where Shinji is piloting Unit 01 and almost looks happy, and Rei's voice can be heard echoing from within the cockpit saying "Even if I'm gone, I'll still be by your side in battle." It would seem that the Rei from 1.0 and 2.0 is now a part of Unit 01 itself, much like Yui is, but she can actually talk to Shinji directly whenever he's inside the cockpit, kind of like an onboard computer or A.I. Lastly there's a scene where Gendo is saying something about requiring both Unit 01 and Unit 13 for his plans, which presumably involves Unit 01 acting as a substitute for Lilith, (due to Unit 01 being a clone of Lilith and having Lilith's soul in it now after absorbing Rei), and Unit 13 acting as a substitute for Adam, (Unit 13 being made from an Adam and possibly having the soul of an Angel if it retains some form of Kaworu's soul or consciousness inside it). Those are all the scenes I could remember from the mock preview, since they all flashed by so fast, and presumably these would all be events that take place within the first half of the movie.


There you have it, all the events of my dream that I can remember, and my goodness did this turn out to be a long post. Originally I was planning on this just being a short description of each key point, but the more details I kept adding the more it just kept getting longer and longer. A scenario like this for a 2.5 OVA or movie could work to answer so many questions about what happened between 2.0 and 3.0, though not every single thing was answered, leaving the rest to be inferred. One of these inferences is that after making off with the AAA Wunder, Misato and the other ex-Nerv employees presumably go on to create Willie and inform the rest of the world of Seele's plans. As for those pieces of the Adam inside the AAA Wunder that got blasted out, they were probably gathered up by Gendo and used to make Unit 09 by combining them together with some spare Unit 00 parts to create a new "vessel" for the Adam. It's kind of sad really, because Unit 09 itself probably just wanted to reunite with the rest of its body on the AAA Wunder, but Seele used it as a tool to strike at Willie. As for how Unit 01 ended up in space, Gendo and Seele probably had reason to believe that Willie would eventually come back and try to take it, so they launched it into space with the Tesseract in order to keep them from getting it before it was time to continue their plans. Why Misato and the other Nerv employees didn't just take it with them when they initially left I have no idea, but it could be because they did not want to risk bringing such dangerous cargo along with them, especially since it had already been involved in two Impacts and there was too much uncertainty surrounding it at the time.

There were two things about the dream though that kind of didn't make sense, one major, and one minor. The major one is that the Spear of Cassius was broken, yet Kaworu in 3.0 was expecting to find the Spear of Cassius with Lilith instead of a second Lance of Longinus, implying that he didn't know about the Spear of Cassius breaking during Third Impact. Shouldn't he have known, since he was there at Third Impact, granted he didn't actually see the Spear of Cassius breaking or Lilith being sealed, and probably had no way to go down there and check for himself since Lilith's chamber was seemingly sealed off by Gendo afterwards and her severed head moved elsewhere. Did nobody bother to fill Kaworu in, or did Gendo purposely withhold that information from Kaworu in order to manipulate him into conniving Shinji to go along with his plans based on the false hope that the spear and lance could be used together to fix the world. With the Spear of Cassius being destroyed, the title of 3.0 being You Can (not) Redo makes even more sense, because now they literally cannot redo because one of the items needed to do so no longer exists, making the situation even more hopeless. The second more minor thing that kind of didn't make sense about the dream was why the Twelfth Angel seemingly wanted to cause Third Impact, but the Adam within Unit 06 did not want to, with the Adam inside the AAA Wunder even going out of its way to try and stop it. Shouldn't the Adams and Angels be on the same side, since the Angels are likely offspring of the Adams (we don't know for sure in the Rebuild continuity)? Could this imply that not all the Adams or Adam-derived beings such as EVAs and Angels follow the same mindset or even have the same goals, some being neutral towards the Lilin while others are outright evil?

Could the Twelfth Angel's appearance and subsequent initiation of Third Impact have had something to do with Seele and whatever their plans for Third Impact were? What if the Angels in the Rebuild movies are actually sent to Earth by Seele? When Kaworu wakes up from that coffin on the moon in 1.0, there were a bunch of other coffins next to his. What were they for? Were each of those coffins actually holding Angels (or at least their embryos) in stasis until Seele needs them, at which point they release them onto the Earth for Nerv to fight as part of some scenario they are trying to reenact, like from the Dead Sea Scrolls? If you look closely, when Kaworu wakes up from his coffin at the end of 1.0, there were four other coffins to the left of his that were already open, and not counting Lilith, that's the exact number of Angels that have been on Earth so far, being the Third (locked away in Bethany Base), Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth. To the right of Kaworu's coffin are four other coffins that are unopened, foreshadowing the next four Angels that will show up in 2.0. As for the Adams, three of them are accounted for so far, Unit 06, Unit 09 (being a vessel for one of them after its original body was destroyed), and Unit 13. It's possible that the unseen fourth Adam might have a second Spear of Cassius, just like there was a second Lance of Longinus with the AAA Wunder Adam, so maybe there's still hope.

So what do you all think of this crazy dream I had? Could you picture this as being an actual OVA or movie in the Rebuild continuity? Any thoughts or interpretations you would like to share? Did you have any favorite parts? Personally, I liked the stuff with Mari and her backstory, as it gave a lot of depth to her character beyond her just being fan-service and showed that she too might be psychologically damaged like everyone else in Evangelion. I love how she was basically like an alternate version of Shinji, and I really hope we get to see her and Shinji interact more in 3.0+1.0 and maybe even get to know each other. When people analyze Evangelion I sometimes see them bring up the Jungian archetypes, namely those of the anima/animus, shadow, and self, and now I wonder where Mari would fit into this, assuming that this backstory of hers is true. Rei would obviously be Shinji's anima, and Anno has said before that Kaworu is Shinji's idealized version of himself, which would make him Shinji's self. Being that Mari is like a representation of what Shinji could be, she could also possibly work as Shinji's self. On the inverse, Shinji could be considered Mari's shadow, since from her perspective Shinji would be a representation of how she could have turned out is she had continued living her life of escapism. Would Mari then be Shinji's shadow, or would that role go to Asuka?

There's a really interesting video out there called the Curse of Evangelion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHIvs0Q-uKI which talks about things like escapism and depression in Evangelion, and Mari's past seemed to perfectly represent the exact kind of escapism Anno has been trying to warn against (in a sense representing the audience), but luckily for Mari she was able to overcome that escapism and depression and come back to reality. If Rei and Asuka are like two opposite ends of a scale, with Rei representing unhealthy escapism and Asuka representing all the pain and sadness that comes with living in reality (i.e toxic people that will only hurt you), Mari would be somewhere in the middle, representing a healthy balance between the two. With this in mind, Mari might actually be a better fit for Shinji than either Rei or Asuka, because her past experiences of being hurt would allow her to empathize with Shinji and his struggles, since she too has felt that same pain he has, and like Kaworu she could help Shinji come out of his shell and grow as a person. Since Anno seems love subverting our expectations with the Rebuild movies, and will likely continue to do so with 3.0+1.0, what if instead of having Shinji get together with Asuka or Rei he has Shinji get together with Mari as a way of trolling us?
Last edited by Melkor on Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:37 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Arcadia's legacy
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Re: I Had A Really Interesting Dream About A Potential 2.5 Rebuild OVA/Movie That I Feel Like Sharing.

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Postby Arcadia's legacy » Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:39 pm

Huh. Well, that was a surprisingly more fun and engaging read than expected. Kudos
Never let the flame that is hope burn out, for despite the length of the night, the sunrise will always come
""Trolling the audience" is the same thing as "challenging the audience" (to an audience that doesn't want to be challenged)." -Reichu

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Re: I Had A Really Interesting Dream About A Potential 2.5 Rebuild OVA/Movie That I Feel Like Sharing.

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Postby Melkor » Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:32 pm

View Original PostArcadia's legacy wrote:Huh. Well, that was a surprisingly more fun and engaging read than expected. Kudos


Glad you at least found it entertaining. My mind really surprises me sometimes. I wonder what Anno would think of this? Does it sound like something he would actually come up with for a 2.5 Ova or movie?


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