Thoughts about Mari

[Reichu]

Implication being, there were going to be peoples who looked like Rei, but were not called Rei. Or something. We're not likely to know now.

[Sailor Star Dust]

Retroactively "Ayanami Series", maybe?

Really hoping 3.0 CRC goes into some of this stuff (Mari or otherwise). Or we're given some kind of backstory on what the hell happened during the 14 year timeskip. I find it hard to believe that all the timeskip events are irrelevant to the plot. Asuka growing out of insecurities over 14 years, fine. But what's the deal with Mari when 2.0 CRC claimed she'd have a bigger role in 3.0? (Script revisions aside.)

[TheTuna]

Are people actually surprised that Mari would eat and drink in the entry plug? She's practically an LCL junkie. I would not be at all surprised if she likes the taste. Like seasoning, y'know?

Really hoping 3.0 CRC goes into some of this stuff (Mari or otherwise). Or we're given some kind of backstory on what the hell happened during the 14 year timeskip. I find it hard to believe that all the timeskip events are irrelevant to the plot. Asuka growing out of insecurities over 14 years, fine. But what's the deal with Mari when 2.0 CRC claimed she'd have a bigger role in 3.0? (Script revisions aside.)

Same. I'd really love if one of the added scenes for the DVD release was even a thirty-second conversation between Mari and Asuka outside of the entry plug, but that is most likely a pipe dream.

As much as I love Mari, they really need to explain why the hell she exists in 4.0, as if they don't there is really no justification for her insertion into the series other than providing an extra pilot for WILLE, which is admittedly somewhat important.

Is she there to be a real friend/partner for Asuka, and nothing more? Cool! That's great. Even just that would be fine and more than justify her existence, but they need to give us more than just a pin; they need to show us how working with Mari has changed Asuka.

[Darkwing]

So it looks like Asuka and Mari are going to share an Eva next movie. I wonder if Asuka is going to have to deal with Mari's stuff getting on her side of the entry plug.

[JoeD80]

I remember Mari seemed to be sneezing a lot in 2.0 if she was outside her Eva. Maybe she did get to a point where she can only live inside of one...

[TheTuna]

I remember Mari seemed to be sneezing a lot in 2.0 if she was outside her Eva. Maybe she did get to a point where she can only live inside of one...

Wasn't that just because it was really cold? Or did she do it in other places besides the IPEA shelter?

[kuwisdelu]

Wasn't that just because it was really cold? Or did she do it in other places besides the IPEA shelter?

She sneezes again during Near Third Impact, just after the comment "things just work out for him, maybe it's his smell."

[LiLi]

I'd really love if one of the added scenes for the DVD release was even a thirty-second conversation between Mari and Asuka outside of the entry plug, but that is most likely a pipe dream.

Well, technically there is the one phone conversation in 3.0 in which only Mari is in the entry plug... the one in which they talk about Shinji, and Mari is making light fun of Asuka in a way that seems to imply some degree of friendship-intimacy.

Really digging the Asuka-Mari partnership, definitely hoping to see it explored more in depth in 3.33 and in 4.0.

Are people actually surprised that Mari would eat and drink in the entry plug? She's practically an LCL junkie.

Indeed, indeed...

I wonder if Asuka is going to have to deal with Mari's stuff getting on her side of the entry plug.

Well, I am guessing they might either be sharing one entry plug in Frankeneva or have two separate plugs, a la Eva 13... depending on how broke Wille is?

[TheTuna]

Well, technically there is the one phone conversation in 3.0 in which only Mari is in the entry plug... the one in which they talk about Shinji, and Mari is making light fun of Asuka in a way that seems to imply some degree of friendship-intimacy.

Really digging the Asuka-Mari partnership, definitely hoping to see it explored more in depth in 3.33 and in 4.0.

Oooh, so Mari's the one Asuka was on the phone with? Hadn't heard that! Very nice. I'm glad to hear that they had a fun dynamic. If they seem to be friends, that definitely bears out Asuka wearing the eyepatch skeleton/RAF pin on her head. Fingers crossed for some more exploration of their partnership in 3.33 indeed.

Well, I am guessing they might either be sharing one entry plug in Frankeneva or have two separate plugs, a la Eva 13... depending on how broke Wille is?

It's possible that we may see something like the initial proposal for 2.0 where Asuka and Mari were jammed into the same entry plug.

I'm pretty OK with anything that gives us double simultaneous beast mode.

[Kendrix]

I'm glad to hear about that "chilling-in-her-entryplug-scene", that's one nice evangelion-style character moment and fits with what we saw in 2.0.

I guess Mari would be the type to eat alone in her room or in her vehicle and have both in a messy state.

they probably have limited accomodations on the Wunder, so maybe Mari opted to use her entry plug as a room rather than share a room with someone else.

[Darkwing]

A train of thought about Mari I had in another thread. There is something about Mari that might be unique for the Eva pilots. This came to me because of talking about her eating and relaxing in her entry plug. Mari is comfortable. She's comfortable in Eva. Unlike the other children, Mari seems to straight up be okay with herself and piloting Eva. She's relaxed enough to just be shown eating in it, she doesn't seem to have ever had any of the trauma's or fixations the others had. And that might be why she isn't derived from part of Anno's Psyche. Mari is comfortable with herself, and it seems with others.

[Electric Sachiel]

I know its been talked about a lot already, but I still can't buy the idea of Mari eating and drinking in her entry plug. I understand that LCL acts as a conduit to allow any Eva pilot to breath more efficiently and become better synchronize with the unit. Newborn babies can apparently swim and breath water. But to eat and drink in LCL, I find thats a bit too ridiculous. That would be equivalent to making an attempt to drinking soda pop and eating potato chips underwater in the swimming pool while you have water in your lungs? Huh?

But as with all things Eva the finer details often don't make sense......

[TB3]

Like Sachiel, I'm a bit 'wha?' with eating in LCL - drinking through is another thing - based on normal human bodily functions that we see the kids doing in the entry plug (salivating, nervous swallowing) would it stand to reason that their stomachs are full of LCL anyway?

(though that has horrible implications for the never-seen off-screen moments where the kids retch up any LCL still in their lungs after exiting the cockpit - now add in 'emptying stomach contents' on top of it).

[Kendrix]

Well, she doese use straws so the LCL won't mix with whatever she's slurping, it doesn't seem to mix with water, anyway.

Her Burgers may or may not get a bit mushy from the liquid, but maybe that's just the Mari version of dipping your cookie into your hot chocolate.

I wouldn't say that Mari never had any problems - look at how she behaves in the roof scene. It's just that we rarely see her in a normal setting, the one time they gave her something other than a plug suit, it was an uniform to avoid private clothing, we don't see her in "normal" states at all.
It's not that obvious in a post-apocalyptic wasteland because she seems to really belong in such a setting, but think of the one time we see her talk to a stranger of about her age in a school, just how out of place she looks. That catholic schoolgirl uniform? Imagine her in school to match.
The girl is really odd.

Being a pilot and doing extreme sports (and if they ever use that, having lots of pets) are probably her ways of living her true self out. She's probabaly aware that she's weird, which is why she cut the connections.
But it does seem true that she doesn't seem to have a complex about it.

She no longer needs to have one, though, there's no more normal life constrained by norms left for her to avoid. She doesn't seem too upset ("Hey, Puppy, save the Princess and come join us!" ) about the situation, maybe because she was never knocked out of what she'd consider "her element", but then again, she was always big on the dissonant serenity.
(*apocalypse going on* Mari: *picks up drink* *sluuuuurp*)

Without reading too much into it, we can at least say thet she's someone who's very comfortable with unnormal things, perhaps more than with normal ones quite the contrast to Shinji which is why I think it's a shame they didn't get to interact more, their few interactions were always interesting.

It's interesting how she basically seems to leave him a message to guide him (Echo to 2.0) "Get to know the world a little!" bit sompler formulation of Kaworu's "fate will guide you" speech, but similar.
Both have this "seek-the-next-station-of-the-heros-journey"-step.
Find something, some peace and quiet before the big finale so you can make your decisions, basically.

[Seele00TextOnly]

...

[driftking18594]

A train of thought about Mari I had in another thread. There is something about Mari that might be unique for the Eva pilots. This came to me because of talking about her eating and relaxing in her entry plug. Mari is comfortable. She's comfortable in Eva. Unlike the other children, Mari seems to straight up be okay with herself and piloting Eva. She's relaxed enough to just be shown eating in it, she doesn't seem to have ever had any of the trauma's or fixations the others had. And that might be why she isn't derived from part of Anno's Psyche. Mari is comfortable with herself, and it seems with others.

My guess is, unlike Asuka and Shinji, her mother didn't die in traumatic circumstances. My own personal hypothesis is that Mari's mother died from a terminal illness, and she underwent a contact experiment as she was dying.

[Kendrix]

I think it's more that Mari had trauma, but overcame it/grew stronger from it.

She is not "undamaged" by any means. Functional, comfortable about herself, having a positive attitude, yes.

But there was a measure of self-imposed isolation there, and her introduction to Shinji practically parallels the one with Rei in her room (While she also gets a battle intro to contrast her with Asuka), as in, she arrives in what should be an embarassing, suggestive situation, and it goes over her head/ hammers down that she is far from being normal.

Shinji: *WTF IS SHE GONNA KISS ME* *Don't come so close!"*
Mari: ...*sniff sniff* Yummy. Oh, and I was never here.

If she greets everybody like this...

Kaji calls her a troublemaker, Q portrays her as constantly late and outwardly looking a lot less competent that the final battle eventually shows her to be.
Portray what happens when you put such a person in a strict catholic school, heck, any school or remotely school-like place where she'd get a school uniform from.


What is to be commended is that she can definitely take "You're weird." She just annoys Asuka back XD Weird and proud of it. She may cut the com link or ask to speak in Japanese so she can be weird in peace, but trying to hide /being ashamed of her... weirdness is something she probably stopped doing long ago. She's comfortable with herself, that is true.

So unlike with Rei or Shinji, it doesn't feel like Asuka's verbally hacking at someone who can't fight back, Mari actually indulges in some banter with her but doesn't seem to mind taking the backseat as long as she can have some fun. A "most games are fun, not won" person. I can see how that'd have a good influence on Asuka.

On the other hand, that they are friends is probably a testament of hoe Asuka's character developement from 2.0 DID stick, Bardiel or no Bardiel. She was sorta begining to make peace with Rei...


I think that if Asuka and Mari had met any earlier, Asuka would have put her on the enemy list. To Asuka's simplified perception she used to habe back then, Mari would be a big threat since she's very capable, and "the real thing", a proper independent loner type.

On the other hand, it helps that Mari does react to some playful rivalry - Shinji and Rei just aren'r rival material, Shinji in particular just wanted to be friends with Asuka and she'd misinterpret their lack of indignated/competitive reaction as them ignoring her/ acting like she's beneath them.


Also, why is there so relatively little reaction to the fact that Mari seems to be the one who saved the day by fetching Asuka a battery pack and yanking Shinji's plug out?

[Darkwing]

I won't say Mari is a paragon of normality. But she is someone who is okay with herself. She doesn't see her quirks as flaws, and things that are wrong with her.

What I find interesting is that in 2.0 Mari tended to end up very close up in her fights, littereally in her opponents face. In 3.0 she's acting as a sniper, and seems to be doing better.

[Kendrix]

I won't say Mari is a paragon of normality. But she is someone who is okay with herself. She doesn't see her quirks as flaws, and things that are wrong with her.

That is true.

I find interesting is that in 2.0 Mari tended to end up very close up in her fights, littereally in her opponents face. In 3.0 she's acting as a sniper, and seems to be doing better.

Lots of time for practice? Also, technology marched on so they have Guns which actually do something.

She shows herself still capable of manhandling EVA 13 the old-fashioned way if need be.

[Lonecow12]

Again, I am sorry for not reading the thread as I'm trying my best to avoid spoilers (shouldn't even be in here I know) but the whole Mari being Kaji and Misatos daughter theory. How is that possible? I know this is from NGE and nothing is the same, but Misato was only a child during second impact.

Mari would have had to been born much much later than the other kids, so the curse wouldn't have made her look younger when she was older it would have had to make her look older when she is younger, which isn't possible.

Unless you are saying Kaji's sperm and Misatos egg were taken from them when they were children and Mari was bread from that, but that just seems pointless.