Mari Breaking the Loop?

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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anonymaus
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Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby anonymaus » Fri Sep 29, 2017 7:11 pm

https://streamable.com/mg6m4

During this scene Mari clearly does something to Shinji's SDAT. It's possible that she simply messed it up when they collided and it fell, but if you pay attention, she is behaving strangely. She crawls down and makes a show of groping around for her glasses. Takes a long time doing it. A few lines of dialogue later, we see her hand Shinji the SDAT, even though we never witness her pick it up and she was supposed to be looking for her glasses prior.

I think she did something to the SDAT, whether she switched it for a new one or placed a new tape into it. It's possible the SDAT became a listening device to monitor Shinji. Mari is a spy, so this sounds thematically correct for her.
What's really curious though is that this scene is the first time the SDAT transitions to track 27. The looping timeline theory hinges heavily on this moment.

I'm not sure about the significance of the SDAT transitioning to track 27 at this precise moment. It doesn't seem to be an accident but rather something that Mari deliberately initiated. This would seem to be the entire reason she parachuted onto Shinji in the first place, even though it looks like a gag initially.
There really aren't enough clues in Rebuild about what's happening with the SDAT relative to the obvious importance it has to the story.

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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Ray » Fri Sep 29, 2017 7:46 pm

The time loop "Mari Is Marty McFly" theory was thorougly debunked by 3.33. Sorry.

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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby anonymaus » Fri Sep 29, 2017 9:40 pm

I don't remember ever writing that Mari is a time traveler in the OP.

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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Sachi » Fri Sep 29, 2017 9:52 pm

I've always taken the new SDAT tracks to represent the films spiritually moving forward from NGE. Mari is an embodiment of change, and her arrival in 2.0 marks a new direction for the films. Little changes eventually snowball, and we observe tremendous change by the time we reach 3.0.
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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby anonymaus » Fri Sep 29, 2017 10:45 pm

More than symbolism there is clearly weird shit going on with Mari.
For instance, it's strange that in 2.0 she gets EVA 02's left arm and right eye severed, then in 3.0 we see Asuka's right arm and left eye evidently damaged. I halfway think that after near-third impact, the dead sea scrolls scenario had to be 'redone' from scratch, complete with the pilot of 02 losing their arm and their eye at the end.

It's also strange that Mari's suit has one core, instead of one large and one small core like Shinji and Rei's (or 0 cores like Asuka's.) And why can she sync with Kyoko even though she isn't her daughter?

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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Sachi » Sat Sep 30, 2017 1:07 am

In 2.0, Unit 02 loses both arms to Zeruel.There's no correlation between Asuka's injuries and Unit 02. What her injuries do mirror, however are the ones she sustained in EoE against the MPEs. Still, it's more of a meta reference. We have a perfectly good explanation for her eye, which was infected by Bardiel. Mari has nothing to do with it.

As far as syncing with Kyoko. 1) it's not confirmed Kyoko is in Unit 02, or that the soul mechanics are the same. Shinji pilots Unit-13, which clearly isn't Yui. 2) regardless, Unit 02 is shown to have it's core reconfigured for Mari before she pilots. We are given an explanation.

EDIT: nevermind about both arms. I didn't realize they changed it for 2.0. Still, we have a perfectly good explanation for Asuka's injuries.
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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby anonymaus » Sat Sep 30, 2017 2:01 am

If anything EVA-02 seems to contain a soul that's in tune with Mari rather than Asuka.
Asuka's plugsuit uniquely contains no core at all. Every other plugsuit does.
But Mari's plugsuit she uses for 02 has a core, which glows during the 'beast mode' sequence.

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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Arcadia's legacy » Sat Sep 30, 2017 6:22 am

View Original Postanonymaus wrote:If anything EVA-02 seems to contain a soul that's in tune with Mari rather than Asuka.

Is there any evidence to suggest any of the Eva's besides Unit-01 contain souls in them in NTE?
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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Cybermat47 » Sat Sep 30, 2017 7:21 am

View Original PostSachi wrote:We have a perfectly good explanation for her eye, which was infected by Bardiel. Mari has nothing to do with it.


Wait, when was it confirmed that her eye had been infected by Bardiel? All I can remember is Ritsuko stating the exact opposite - that there was no physical contamination, but there was the possibility of mental contamination.

I would assume that Asuka lost her eye some other way, and chose to put the Angel-sealing rune on the eyepatch as a matter of convenience.
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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Sachi » Sat Sep 30, 2017 8:29 am

Angel sealing hex for convenience? There's definitely something going on with her, since her eye glows brightly with stress. The fact there there's the hex should be extremely suspect. It's there for a practical purpose.

Eye patch Asuka has also been being teased since 2.0, suggesting the idea was there before any timeskip. No, all evidence points toward her injuries resulting from Bardiel, not some off screen event.

What does mental contamination even mean anyway? Bardiel itself may no longer physically contaminate her, but mental contamination means something. Perhaps some angelic qualities rubbed off on Asuka and remain there.
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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Cybermat47 » Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:36 am

View Original PostSachi wrote:Angel sealing hex for convenience? There's definitely something going on with her, since her eye glows brightly with stress. The fact there there's the hex should be extremely suspect. It's there for a practical purpose.


Yep, that's what I'm saying. She needs a hex somewhere on her person, and the eyepatch is a convenient place to put it.

Eye patch Asuka has also been being teased since 2.0, suggesting the idea was there before any timeskip. No, all evidence points toward her injuries resulting from Bardiel, not some off screen event.


When Bardiel infects Asuka's mind, we don't see any of Bardiel's matter on Asuka herself. It seems to have hijacked the synchronisation process, slipping in to Asuka's mind via EVA-03. And it's unlikely for Asuka to have lost her eye when 01 destroyed her entry plug - if that was the case, she should have lost her entire head.

The events immediately after 2.0, as shown in the next time trailer, include Third Impact, where there's plenty of opportunity for Asuka to lose an eye, perhaps even in a similar manner to EoE.

What does mental contamination even mean anyway? Bardiel itself may no longer physically contaminate her, but mental contamination means something. Perhaps some angelic qualities rubbed off on Asuka and remain there.


That could be it, but I like to entertain the idea that the mental contamination is something like an implanted instinct to make contact with Lilith, the same instinct that the Angels have, making Asuka a possible impact trigger when piloting her Adam clone, EVA-02.

No evidence for that, just an idea I like.
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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Sachi » Sat Sep 30, 2017 10:18 am

None of Bardiel's matter, you say?

I'm also not sure why you're eager to create an off-screen explanation for the eye patch, when we have a good on-screen explanation. The Next Time teaser was a promise of Asuka's return from her previous life threatening injury. Why complicate things by getting her involved in another life threatening injury before returning with the eye patch?
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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby anonymaus » Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:07 pm

View Original PostArcadia's legacy wrote:Is there any evidence to suggest any of the Eva's besides Unit-01 contain souls in them in NTE?

Yep, all of the plugsuits except Asuka's contain one or more cores. Shinji's and Rei's contain a large and small core, and Mari's contains a large core.

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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Sachi » Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:38 pm

How do the cores on the plugsuits suggest anything about the Evas?
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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby anonymaus » Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:42 pm

View Original PostSachi wrote:How do the cores on the plugsuits suggest anything about the Evas?

I write about it in thread/19179/Yui-Lilith-Soul-Gestalt-Rei-and-Eva-01s-Souls/. The cores on the suit appear to correspond with the soul(s) inside the pilot's Eva.

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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Arcadia's legacy » Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:47 pm

And how can we be sure that the cores of the other Eva's have souls in them when only Unit-01 has been confirmed as having another living within her? As i recall, Unit-05's core was destroyed when it blew up, yet Mari was still able to pilot Unit-02 and 08 just fine, with no hints as to any other being in them
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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby anonymaus » Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:58 pm

There are clear hints that there's souls inside the Evas, I just don't think the Rebuilds had the time to show all of it in-depth.
For example, directly after Shinji's first berserk in Rebuild, he dreams about the 'distorted Rei' and wakes up sweating, implying he saw that during the berserk. In NGE the distorted Rei is exactly what Rei 2 and later Shinji saw during the 00 berserks.
Then in Rebuild 00 has its berserk exactly the same as in NGE. Why would it do the same thing if not for Rei 1 being in there?

And of course Yui is directly stated to be inside 01 in Rebuild

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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Arcadia's legacy » Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:04 pm

Unit-00 has a berserk, but i don't recall any hints whatsoever of either it, or the other units besides Unit-01, who seems to be a unique case in NTE, to have souls themselves
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: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby anonymaus » Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:37 pm

Why do you think Shinji saw distorted Rei ('berserk Rei' from NGE) in his dreams while he was in the hospital bed following the first 01 berserk?
Why do you think Mari's plugsuit core glows when she is inside EVA-02 and it goes 'beast mode'?
If the plugsuit 'cores' in Rebuild are decorations and not soul interface devices, why do Rei and Shinji (whose Evas we know are uniquely pilot-interchangeable while 02 is not, yes in Rebuild as well) both have the same 'one large core, one small core' plugsuit layout?

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Re: Mari Breaking the Loop?

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Postby Sachi » Sat Sep 30, 2017 6:50 pm

Rei and Shinji are interchangeable as pilots because of the nature of Rei's soul. If a portion of her soul resides in Unit-00, Shinji can sync with it because of Lilith, the universal mother. Likewise, Rei can sync with Unit-01 because they share the connection with Lilith, as well as a potential maternal relationship between Yui and Rei.

The plugsuit cores are just decoration. There's no evidence to suggest they do anything special at all, aside from what the whole plugsuit itself is intended for, ease of synchronization.
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