Melkor wrote:I recently had another interesting and somewhat vivid dream about Evangelion, this one being about what Shinji and Asuka did after waking up on the beach in End of Evangelion. After Shinji stops choking Asuka, he gets up and starts to walk away, leaving Asuka behind on the beach. When Asuka wakes up, she finds a message Shinji left in the sand that said something like "Don't come looking for me. I've failed as a human being." From this it seems that Shinji feels a mixture of both guilt and shame towards Asuka, both for masturbating over her while she was unconscious, and for trying to choke her, and so he can't bring himself to face her. Deciding that Asuka would probably be better off without him, Shinji goes off to survive on his own in the post-apocalyptic landscape, and Asuka does the same.
A large amount of time then passes, roughly 20 years, and Shinji and Asuka are both shown living by themselves in makeshift homes they have created. The two have not spoken to each other at all during that time, and avoid going near each other if they can help it. The dream didn't show much of what Asuka's makeshift home looked like, but it showed a glimpse of Shinji's, where he appeared to be growing a patch of watermelons (I guess some of Kaji rubbed off on him). Shinji being able to grow watermelons shows that at least some plants have returned, and possibly some animals as well, but more complex organisms such as humans have not yet returned from the sea of LCL. As a pastime, Shinji would use the leftover rinds from the watermelons to make little sculptures, some of which resembled Angels he has defeated. Shinji also kept a headless scarecrow in his watermelon patch, likely a representation of Kaworu. In these 20 years they have been apart, Shinji and Asuka seem to have both matured and regressed in various ways. With nobody else around to talk to, Shinji and Asuka find various outlets for their loneliness. Shinji keeps a severed white arm with him that he often talks to as though it were a living person, possibly a remnant of Rei, (most likely it’s the same white arm he was holding onto in Last B unused ending), and Asuka similarly has a hand puppet she has crafted which she often talks to (this seems to imply that she has gotten over her hatred of dolls). It was just sad, seeing how Shinji and Asuka have been talking to these inanimate objects for 20 years. I would imagine that they've probably started to go a little insane from it.
The fact that humans have still not returned from the sea of LCL after all this time seems like it could be a sign that there is something more that might need to be done. Maybe there is one final step that needs to be undertaken in order to fully undo Human Instrumentality and set humanity free from the sea of LCL so they can start to regain their forms, and the only way to do that is for Shinji and Asuka to work together. The problem though is that the only two people left on Earth who can do this refuse to talk to each other and have actively avoided one another for 20 years. Shinji and Asuka being the only two people left on Earth also kind of serves as a parallel to Adam and Lilith and how they were the first two beings on Earth, Shinji representing Lilith in this case and Asuka representing Adam.
Eventually this changes when Shinji and Asuka cross paths one day while scavenging for supplies in the ruins of Tokyo 3, both of them now full grown adults. If they were both 14 years old when Third Impact occurred, then 20 years later they would both be around 34 years old. As the two silently pass by each other, Shinji tries to ignore Asuka and leave. Unexpectedly, Asuka then breaks down into tears and says to Shinji: "Would you just say something already!", finally breaking the silence between them. Shinji is surprised to hear Asuka speak to him for the first time in 20 years, and it is then that the sad irony of the situation comes to light. Shinji reveals that he thought Asuka hated him and would not want to see him anymore, which is why he avoided her for 20 years, and Asuka likewise reveals that she thought Shinji hated her and would not want to see her anymore, which is why she avoided him for 20 years. That right there just destroyed me. This whole time, the two of them were basically living under the exact same assumption about the other, one that easily could have been resolved if they had just tried talking to each other. The dream ended there, so I can only imagine what would have happened next. Hopefully something positive, like Shinji and Asuka maybe opening up to each other now and starting to repair their bond.
Damn, that's a good dream. Why is Shinji Lilith and not Adam?