Postby Gendou WILL KILL YOU! » Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:30 pm
Hi there.
Before I add my two cents I'll clarify I've been here a looong time. I may not have many posts under my name, but that's because I've been a lurker most of the time. I knew EVA in 2001, and started reading most of the regulars here since we all were excited especulating on the EVA LA movie at the trivialbeing forums.
And yes, I disliked Q.
Here's the thing (and mind you, it may be a tad long): I never forgot the whole plan of rebuild was doing a new version of the story to a point, and then make a completely different ending. I knew from the start we wouldn't get EoE again (which I love), and knew the whole focus and themes would necessarily change. Anno has, like me, grown. The guy went from having deep depresion and no motivation to a creative explosion and chaos (while making EVA) to an ego boost to a need for change (leaving Kare Kano, making his live action movies that went from indie to toku) to probably dealing with the fact that EVA was his non plus ultra, his signature work, both loving and hating and accepting it eventually. He went from being a lonely otaku who craved new issues of I''s and basically creating the Gainax bounce (Gunbuster) to being a married man. So yeah, he changed. And thus EVA had also changed in its preocupations and themes.
So when 1.0 came I understood what he was highlighting: this time the focus was on action in a way, without losing the character interactions (and that's fine, I find that when you grow up many things are already too serious so some levity in your entertainment is required). And the more you dived into it, as always with EVA, it delivered more complex details: blood on the moon, red sea (sequel/not sequel), third angel missing, exploding angels, moon kaworu...
In 2.0 big changes happened: there was a third angel afterall (troll), Mari Fanservicegami does shit because, ADAMS (which are Ultras LOL), Bardiel fucks up Asuka (who is a completely different character really) instead of Touji, moon Kaworu has moon eva which is an Adam, different lance, Zeruel's battle leads not only to Shinji being stuck in Shogoki but has Armisael's role of destroying Rei II AND leads to a mutherfucking IMPACT. All the extra details are there too: the Adams/Ultras thing, the dummy plug/collosus-forbin connection, etc. But what made it all work was not the technobabble (ZA BEASTO), but the fact that despite having less than 2 hours to develop, the characters shined (OK, Asuka got shafted and Mari has no soul). Gendou showed a heart, Rei got poka poka and Shinji fucked everything to get HIS MOTHERFUCKING Rei BACK. It was fucking epic to watch and feel and... my mind was blown.
So what was Anno's next step? The story was changed completely as promised, and left on the highest note. What was the Nebuchadnezzar key, given Adam was no longer singular? What's the deal with the halo impact? Is Shogoki an Adam now, explaining why it didn't move unmanned to protect Shinji from the debris in 1.0? And what are the Adams? What/who is Mari? And most importantly, interactions: what will happen to Rei/Shinji? What of Asuka? What about Kaji, and Misato for that? So many interesting changes and unresolved questions.
And then Anno goes full autist and makes EVA a scifi with ships and SPAAACE. You see, it's not that I cannot accept the plot device of the time skip, the problem is IT KILLS EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN BUILD UNTIL NOW. A pillar of everything in the story is Misato's love for Shinji ...killed. You know, I always found Gendou to be a complex and relatable character, depite the usual opinions ...no wait, he's in FULL VILLIAN MODE now, and EVERYTHING IS AS PLANNED REGARDLESS. Wait, making Asuka 28 years old not only breaks her relashionship with Shinji, but makes her a completely different person ...DON'T WORRY SHE IS STILL A LOLI COOL HUH?? (no, it's actually worse and stupid). Where are Kaji, Touji et all? ...PROLLY DEAD BECAUSE TRAGEDY!! OK, so all relashionships are broken, you better make up somehow... any insight on Nebuchadnezzar, Adams, and hey, what about mark 6 the halo eva from space? ...WE GOT ADAM VESSELS NAO, MARK 6 IS BROKEN (AND LATER DEAD) AND NOW IMPACTS COME WITH 200% MORE LANCES/ARMS! What the hell happened after 2.0 then?? ...WELL, AN ACTUAL IMPACT THAT CAN ONLY MAKE SENSE AFTER ONE ANGEL WE DID NOT SEE AND ONE WHO POSSESED MARK 6 AND LILITH GOING LOSE AND FAILURES OF INFINITY AND EVERYTHING IS A CORE BUT NEVERMIND THAT, LOOK, SPAAACEEE! And don't get me started on how is all supposed to be Shinji's fault after his impact was stopped, someone made some serious shit happen and he ends up in space not at all like in EoE.
Look, I'm OK with change, but only if it makes sense. One thing I kept thinking (besides "MY HEART IS BROKEN") while watching it was "WHY ANNO, WHY DID YOU BROKE EVERYTHING SO MUCH??". I can only fathon he got bored, so he trew everything in the can and hamfisted EVA to what he wanted to do: a technobabble scifi show in the future. So we get "my YAMATO is bigger than yours" WUNDER and stoic captain Misato, retardo-beasto-pathernigoki, Shogoki is a battery, mark9isnot00 and mark13isnot01double, Gendou is now Keel and everyone is pissed at Shinji because I don't want to explain shit.
(And yes, I know about the Wunder/Nadia thing, but it's still there as Anno's middle age compensation Yamato)
So he broke relationships and made a ridiculously flawed plot (why no one explains Shinji stuff/why is he so retarded to take the lances) ...and yes, it's a bad script, if it wasn't there wouldn't be discussions convincing people we get no explanations to get in the mindframe of Shinji and he took the one obviously bad decision because he wanted to fix things so bad. If those were the actual reasons and it was written properly we would GET it, not shout at the screen in frustration. And why did we get this? To change things? The way I see it an interesting change would be Kaworu not dying, given the actual reasons on the sacrifice weren't really there. It was all too deus ex machina. No, we actually got the same superficially: we get our Rei III, only no one likes her because poka Rei is not in her. It's just a Rei in black latex. We'll get Asuka/MP evas, only it's retarded "8+2 because nigoki is destroyed every 20 minutes in rebuild".
And the whole failures of infinity/lances/adams/vessels/impacts thing? I used to love trying to understand minutia like that. Now that the actual important things are broken I don't really care. Sure, it's interesting to try and make sense of it, and I will keep reading. But for all I care final will have 5 impacts involving 5 lances and a chihuahua. Eva will still be broken.
Finally, I know many others must feel like me. But (and sorry if the comparison is too harsh) they're forcing themselves to like it, because it's EVA and Anno, just like hardcore Star Wars fans defend the prequels. I'm too old for that, I know I didn't like it and I know why. I'll watch final, but I'm not excited for it. So there. Sorry for the ultra long post.
"When GOD is the enemy,
who do you pray to?"
"And DEATH shall have no dominion"