Something else that I noticed that might indicate that this short takes place after Actual Third Impact: if you look at the nose of the plane Mari is piloting, you can see that the "NERV" lettering is barred by two blue bars, the same way that the Wunder's original name was barred in Thrice, so the rebellion must had already happened, and we know from Kohji in Thrice that it happened as Third Impact happened.
Also I find it darkly amusing how this short present a Midori driven full of determination as if she was a shonen protagonist, then in the movies, once put in combat situations, she's the one freaking out the hardest and in Thrice is told by Maya (a veteran) to calm down, sit and continue her work.
My hot takes below in no particular order:
- the communications at the beginning being in Japanese and English implies that the personnel of WILLE are multi-national, which is coherent with their food in Thrice being labeled in English and Russian
- the "core wave" at the beginning of the flashback lose a lot of its gravitas when you notice the FoIs literally popping out of the ground ejected through dozen of meters in the air before falling down, clearly it doesn't have the grace of Quantum Rei taking everyone's soul!
- the way the the core erosion first spread as a giant wave going a light-speed and then spreads much slower and also around the FoIs as they pop out of the grounds makes me wonder if the initial wave wasn't when Actual Third Impact was happening, then as it was stopped by Kaji's sacrifice, the big wave stopped, but enough of the world had already been turned to core so it continued its spreading, with FoIs randomly popping out of the ground. That would explain why it was going so fast at the opening shot, and then going much slower (it was already several days later, but there are still fain rings in the sky that didn't dissipate yet).
- I had the theory that those FoIs pops out in places where the density of Lilin is big enough, hence why they seemed to first appear in the middle of cities (meaning that Japan is turbo-fucked), and we later see the the popping out from the hill where Midori was hiding to be almost transparent and "jello" like, while the one in the city looked better formed, so the "consistency" of a FoI might depend on how many people form it as it emerge from the ground?
- I wonder during how much time the FoI were mobile, if it lasted years then that might explain how NERV managed to get enough time to set out their flying base, as WILLE was too busy saving what they could from them
- The core grid on the Moon is pulsating, I don't remember it being the case in Q and Thrice, also the Moon doesn't have the blood stains or its atmosphere yet
- most of Unit 02's armor is green, and the pattern is almost the same as its form fused with Jet Alone, it was probably done on purpose
- Asuka seems to have a mini-berserk mode/limit break where she let out some fo Bardiel's power for an increase in strength (we even see Unit 02's eyes turning blue!), I wonder if she didn't showed that later because her later eyepatch seal it better, she got better control over her emotions or Khara didn't thought about it
- it was probably noted already, but Asuka's blindfold looks almost exactly like 2B's from Nier:Automata
- Midori spent the next 14 years living as a civilian and only very recently joined WILLE, I wonder if she lived in Village-3
- as noted above, Asuka talking to Midori about how she should live and fight to punch the "idiot responsible for this" implies that at this point she still believed that he could come back from Unit 01's core, which makes me wonder if Unit 01 was already sent in space? Maybe after 14 years of drifting up there and Ritskuko telling that there's nothing to do, she came to the conclusion that it was over?
All in all, it was a nice "lower deck" short, got to flesh out Midori and explain that weird hair color that made her stand so much, as well as show us how terrifying this Evangelion and Impact business looks from a clueless civilian's POV.
Although like Axx°N N., I'm surprised by how the story goes that this all completely 100% Shinji's fault, seemingly forgetting about the apocalyptic Illuminati death cult behind everything of which Gendo is an important member.
The way that Asuka said that "one dumbass is the cause of that" and Midori later thinks that her goal is to hit the one who decided to destroy the world makes me wonder: do they think that Shinji triggered N3I on purpose? That he know what was happening and decided to still go through it because all he cared was Rei? Then 3.0 happens, he comes back and is asking what happened, how is everyone and is happy that they are fine, and everyone is like "fuuuuuck, he actually didn't had any idea of what was happening doesn't it?"
Konja7 wrote:Now, Shinji is blamed due to the N3I, which was the trigger for the Third Impact. However, it's difficult to blame Gendo for the N3I. The situation happened as Gendo expected, but he did not cause any of the events (except allowing Shinji to pilot Eva-01).
Bullshit.
Gendo planed for it to happen, literally most of his scenes in the first two movies are about his next moves to have it happen and how he placed all the pieces in the board for fourteen goddamned years for it to happen (up and including brainwashing), that it happened slightly differently to how he planned but still happened because of everything he did absolutely don't absolve him from blame and responsibility.
If you have plane built with a hidden function that make it go nuclear once it goes beyond a certain speed, know about it, doesn't tell it to anyone because you
want it to happen, don't train or even inform the intended pilot of the plane existence or that he will have to pilot it until the moment he had to literally be shoved inside the cockpit so he won't have the opportunity to get familiar with it, brainwash the one who will be his coworker so they'll get close fast and in the way you intended because you plan to put her in a situation where he will push the plane to the speed where it'll go nuclear, and that it finally happens but because the girl put herself by her own in the situation that will incite the pilot to go to nuclear speed to save her instead of by the way you originally planed, that's not the pilot who you have to blame,
but the guys who planed all of this to happen!Konja7 wrote:It's weird because Midori mentioned the N3I killed her family in 3.0+1.0 (while -46h implies her family dies due to the corification). At that point, she was an adult and should know the difference between the N3I and the Third Impact.
Not to mention that Kensuke and Touji speak about the N3I as it being the worst thing that happened:
Kensuke: At that time, I didn't think the old man, who survived the Near Third Impact, would die like that in an accident.
Touji: We survived even the Near Third Impact. Have trust in our own luck and in Misato's Wille.I've really doubt the destruction at the end of 2.0 was really worse for Tokyo 3 inhabitants than the corification we see in -46h.
No wonder Gendo played them like a fiddle. Those 14 years must had been boring as shit having manipulating people dumb as toddlers with brain damage as his main challenge.
