Was listening to the audio commentary for Double Indemnity and they made a very interesting comment about something Hitchcock coined called the "refrigerator" moments. Basically, when you watch a film (in this case, series), if you're into it, you tend to suspend disbelief until it's over. But that night you might get up to go get a midnight snack in the fridge and you'll stop and go "hey... wait a minute, that can't be right!" and something that doesn't make sense in the film will dawn on you. Hitchcock said he didn't mind these moments as long as it happened AFTER the film and the audience was entertained. IOW, it's important they don't realize these moments while watching the film.

So how well does NGE work its "refrigerator moments"? How many ever caught the obvious mistakes and inconsistencies while watching the series for the first time to the point it took them out of that "suspended disbelief" mode?

actually I caught all of the mistakes or logical stretches the first time (I watch a lot of TV and I'm good at this) I just didn't let them hinder my enjoyment of the series....case in point, the extreme lengths they went to to make it that Shinji doesn't know Toji is in Eva-03 are kind of forced, but I didn't really mind.

Eva Yojimbo wrote:So how well does NGE work its "refrigerator moments"? How many ever caught the obvious mistakes and inconsistencies while watching the series for the first time to the point it took them out of that "suspended disbelief" mode?

Ursus said in another thread that the fluctuating sizes of the Evas bothered him. That was never a problem for me, at least until EoE: but then, Eva-01 bursts through GNR's eye, which would mean, even by a liberal estimate, that she is several kilometers tall. And just moments later, both of GNR's eyes are intact again.

I was young and energetic back then, and promptly proceeded to concoct a theory that GNR had an additional, smaller eye on her butt. I am kinda ashamed of that.

EDIT:

V wrote:actually I caught all of the mistakes or logical stretches the first time

All of them? Even the SDAT display blooper? :)

What blooper is that?

I have the rare and braggable ability to immerse myself completely (granted it's a good movie/game/whatever), so I seldom see plottwists coming up no matter how many hints are dropped beforehand. So no, having my immersion killed only happens when my parents start bugging me. Seriously, my dad will come in during a climactic cutscene on my first playthrough of MGS3 and not leave until I've explained in full detail why I want him to leave, and discuss how this is affecting our relationship. Moving out helped a bit.

I've had refrigerator moments with "Advent Children" and "Resident Evil Apocalypse". I saw them, enjoyed them, then a while later realized that wait a minute... that was fucking terrible!

I admit that I didn't really notice anything, even after watching it through several times.

Eventually I noticed the continuity errors (like the GNR-eye thing), which I got later on (so I guess that could qualify as a refrigerator moment).


..And I agree that I got them on "Advent Children". XDD

All of them? Even the SDAT display blooper?

hard to see animation errors are by the definition you provided, not a "refridgerator moment"; those appear to be more asking about "logical fallacies of the plot", etc.

NAveryW wrote:What blooper is that?

Copypasta from Kiyone:

But the strangest thing of all with the cassette player is that the display includes the hour as well as the minutes and seconds, but when we see the time displayed, it's always 00 hours 76 minutes XX seconds, rather than 01 hours 16 minutes and XX seconds!

I think I mostly suspended my disbelief the first time. I remember thinking that Eva-01 mysteriously getting back into the Cage without explanation after her dining incident was a total bullshit copout, though. Probably other things, too.

Reichu wrote:I think I mostly suspended my disbelief the first time. I remember thinking that Eva-01 mysteriously getting back into the Cage without explanation after her dining incident was a total bullshit copout, though. Probably other things, too.

XDD I was just wondering about that yesterday!

It was a moment of utter WTF because they never explained how they regained control of her in order to cryo-freeze her. o_o

I don't consider animation errors to be continuity errors; I just consider them "not canon". The cigarette wasn't intended to disappear, so we don't have to wonder if it might have been pseudo-unsubstantiated by the surrounding air or pulled into a Dirac sea.

When Kaji was shot, i thought i was Misato, later that day i had one of these refridgerator moments and went and looked it up on the wiki.

Reichu wrote:I think I mostly suspended my disbelief the first time. I remember thinking that Eva-01 mysteriously getting back into the Cage without explanation after her dining incident was a total bullshit copout, though.

That and...the random firepower of the N2 Mines where the only things I caught on my first run...and they piss me off.

I rarely catch errors the first time aside from the most galring. I'm totally capable of suspending disbelief. It's a skill I'm glad to say I have, since otherwise things might really irritate me.

Themaninblack wrote:That and...the random firepower of the N2 Mines where the only things I caught on my first run...and they piss me off.

What do you mean by this? Surely like normal nukes there can be N2s of differing yields. Or are you talking about the way the bombs sometimes don't produce shockwaves?

That's the same suggestion I made. Nukes have a wide range of yields. One particular artillery-launched nuclear warhead had a pathetic yield of ten tons (The Russkies have a new superbomb four and a half times as nasty) while the most powerful (and thankfully, untested) thermonuclear weapon built had a hundred megaton yield- enough to make a hole three times the size of meteor crater in Arizona.

I made the suggestion that the N2 Rei got her hands on in Episode 19 was an old, low-yield model, or else the whole Geofront(And perhaps even Zeruel)would've been pulverized by the blast.

Dr. Nick wrote:

Themaninblack wrote:That and...the random firepower of the N2 Mines where the only things I caught on my first run...and they piss me off.

What do you mean by this? Surely like normal nukes there can be N2s of differing yields. Or are you talking about the way the bombs sometimes don't produce shockwaves?

That and random amount of yeild from the N2 mines. Yes, like real nukes some would be more powerful then other blasts. But as the series progress the power of them becomes absurdly weak.

The most powerful N2 was actually right at the end of the series- the one that completely blew open the Geofront.

V wrote:actually I caught all of the mistakes or logical stretches the first time (I watch a lot of TV and I'm good at this) I just didn't let them hinder my enjoyment of the series....case in point, the extreme lengths they went to to make it that Shinji doesn't know Toji is in Eva-03 are kind of forced, but I didn't really mind.

My thought always was that it was pretty damn obvious that Toji was being selected; Shinji just didn't want to SEE it, and the human mind can be good at self-blinding when it wants to.

Incisivis wrote:My thought always was that it was pretty damn obvious that Toji was being selected; Shinji just didn't want to SEE it, and the human mind can be good at self-blinding when it wants to.

Well, there's also his perspective of what an Eva pilot is. When he thinks of an Eva pilot, he sees Rei and Asuka, neither of which are a mold that Touji, a not very bright jock, fit into. Asuka didn't even believe it when she first found out. It's not the first time that he's missed class for days:

ep03 wrote:HIKARI:
Aida, you're good friends with Suzuhara, right?
He's been absent for two weeks. Aren't you worried?