UPDATE: There are also rainbows in the Rei apartment scence in Rebuild
among many others Ill make a list of

That came in Episode 05 as well.

Well, there are 4 rainbows, so you could see them clearly. Definitly they mean something (if it's lame or important, i don't know).

After Sachiel:


After Samshel:


In Rei's apartment (appears slowly through the jar of water):


In Ramiel's Drilling:


If you find another one, post it!

(mmm curious thread to comeback to the forums...)

Yay, welcome back!

I thought I already posted this in this thread but it doesn't seem to be here now -

If you type in Yggdrasil (the Norse tree of life) into Google image search you get pictures showing a rainbow connecting the upper regions of the tree with the lower. In Norse science this rainbow is called Bifrost, a rainbow connecting the macrocosm and the microcosm on the tree.

I know nothing at all about Norse stuff so I probably got something wrong there.

What's interesting is when we look to the Torah, in Genesis ix:xiii, we find that the Hebrew word for bow in the verse "I have set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth" is קשת and when we look to the Hebrew's tree of life we find these are the letters of the paths connecting Malkuth to Iesod, Malkuth to Hod, and Malkuth to Natzach - essentially the same as the bow connecting the microcosm to the macrocosm on the Norse tree depending how you look at it.

Interesting!

Here is an illustration of the tree:


And the useful info that good old Wikipedia can give to us:
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil[/url]

Wow so they might be throwing Norse Mythology into eva as well, thats pretty cool.

Zugzwang wrote:If you type in Yggdrasil (the Norse tree of life) into Google image search you get pictures showing a rainbow connecting the upper regions of the tree with the lower. In Norse science this rainbow is called Bifrost, a rainbow connecting the macrocosm and the microcosm on the tree.

Zugzwang, I remembered your post and felt like I should mention that I'm currently reading the third chapter of Evangelion Academy, and it directly mentions Yggdrasil, calling it the World Tree.

The title of this thread makes me wonder if the rainbows are subliminal advertising for Skittles. I mean come on! There's Doritos is rebuild!!!!


DORITOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's definitely a strong visual motif whenever anything concerning the Angels are involved.

The rainbow is also used on the DVD menu.

EvaCub wrote:religious symbolism anyone?
"God promised not to flood the eath again?"
ie:possible No 3rd impact?

I think OP has the right idea. For starters here's the Genesis blurb on God's promise:

Genesis 9.13-17 wrote: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

tl:dr the rainbow is God's promise never again to use waters to destroy all life on earth.

As pointed out before, we also have rainbows as part of the standard angel death sequence (do we have them in 2.22? at the moment I forget). I think the significance of the rainbows is in the first conversation between Gendo and Seele.

Seele Monolith wrote:Defeating the Angels is but one step in fulfilling our contract with Lilith.

Now I'm not a translation expert, but at least in English, contract and covenant are practically synonyms. Furthermore in the original series there were no rainbows, and similarly no mention of any kind of covenant with Lilith.

Later in 2.22 the word covenant appears two more times

Seele Monolith wrote:Indeed. There are more pressing issues at hand. The true Evangelion we desire... With its birth and Lilith's resurrection, the hour of our covenant will arrive. The required rites must be carried out before that. For the Human Instrumentality Project.

Gendou wrote:Indeed. It won't be long before we consummate our covenant.

That last time he is speaking at the very end of 2.22. I'm guessing he was aware that Seele and Kaworu would be there to stop the impending 3rd impact.

So the rainbows over the angels' corpses exist as a confirmation that killing the angels is not only just 'part of the scenario' but also the covenant with Lilith. The key difference here is that covenant implies some existing agreement or understanding in which Lilith is an active part, which is a much different picture than suggested by the imprisonment of Lilith beneath a fortress nailed to a cross and (presumably) kept in stasis by a Lance, to be used as both a God and a possessed asset in the machinations of mortals. Possible tie ins to sequel theory or recurring time theory or whatever its called, as the rainbows could be feedback (from Lilith?) that they're correctly setting up the series of events in the agreed upon scenario/covenant.

If we guess at it from the point of view of Genesis, the natural assumption would be that Lilith or 3I will either not happen or not result in the destruction of all Lilith-derived life. I think we can rule out 3I not happening however.

also as angels die they turn into a not inconsequential tidal wave of red goo. It even gets its own little scene in 1.11 after Sachiel is defeated. "The blood is like a lake from hell..." "It's got the same nasty feeling as the Second Impact." Reichu pointed out to me that its like its own little flood. In this incarnation of the eva-verse, the oceans (at least around Japan) are completely deviod of life. This is kind of a huge deal, and I think highlights the parallels to Noah. This gets its whole sequence in 2.22.

Here are all the angel deaths in 2.22.

Tunniel



Clockiel



Sahaquiel



Bardiel



Zeruel

Thanks for making the post, Slothen.

If Sahaquiel's case looks ambiguous, I checked the script, and it does indeed seem to confirm that those are rainbows (niji).

The absence of any rainbows upon Zeruel's death might be revealing in some way... If Slothen is onto something, that the rainbows are a "sign", then perhaps the absence of them is a sign, as well...

"Sin from Genesis", the title of 2.X's version of BEAST II, accompanying the scene where Zeruel is defeated (albeit not yet killed), is popping into my head, as an obvious Biblical reference to an event where peeps violated an agreement with God. I feel like I want to tie it in somehow with everything else here (as a hint that Eva-01's awakening is naughty-naughty and violating some kind of agreement), but I'm not sure how...

Tunniel's death has two crosses but only one rainbow: to indicate that Eva-05 died but wasn't an angel?

For me a disturbing part of Bardiel's death is that its rainbow appears only after Eva-01 chows down on its entry plug.

Brutalman wrote:Tunniel's death has two crosses but only one rainbow: to indicate that Eva-05 died but wasn't an angel?

According to Slothen's suggestion, the rainbows don't just automatically appear because Angels die, but because they're a sign related to the covenant with Lilith. Eva-05's death wouldn't have been part of this "covenant", just a casualty along the way.

The lack of a rainbow when Zeruel goes asplode could also be a sign of something "sinister".

For me a disturbing part of Bardiel's death is that its rainbow appears only after Eva-01 chows down on its entry plug.

The entry plug was where the core was located, so when that was destroyed Bardiel was officially dead. (Incidentally, I proposed a good while back that Eva-01 destroyed the entry plug in #18 because Bardiel had 'set up headquarters' in there, though I didn't think to say "core" specifically...)

I think Bardiel is the only angel that is disabled or otherwise heavily damaged before the core is destroyed.

Reichu wrote:According to Slothen's suggestion, the rainbows don't just automatically appear because Angels die, but because they're a sign related to the covenant with Lilith. Eva-05's death wouldn't have been part of this "covenant", just a casualty along the way.

The lack of a rainbow when Zeruel goes asplode could also be a sign of something "sinister".

We sure as hell know that Gendo's plans involve unit01 one way or another, while in Seele's eyes, unit01 is merely there to pave the way for the mark 06. Therefore they decide to hasten its awakening. remember the line from 22' "we cannot turn back time, we can however, spur it forward through our own actions." IF Seele's plans for 3I and its covenant with Lilith are the status quo, then Gendo is the man trying to subvert them for his own ends. "Seele won't take this lying down." Seele cannot retaliate in any meaningful way Ritsu-rape anyone?, because Gendo and the awakened unit01 are still required to finish off the angels.

even so however, Gendo's last line indicates he's in the covenant fulfilling business (just perhaps a different one. Maybe a covenant with Yui).

Brutalman wrote:Tunniel's death has two crosses but only one rainbow: to indicate that Eva-05 died but wasn't an angel?

For me a disturbing part of Bardiel's death is that its rainbow appears only after Eva-01 chows down on its entry plug.

It's becouse everyone thinks the scream is from Asuka, but its actually bardiel scream, you see tha last remains of the angel,like a fungus is on the entry plug.

The absence of any rainbows upon Zeruel's death might be revealing in some way... If Slothen is onto something, that the rainbows are a "sign", then perhaps the absence of them is a sign, as well...

Maybe he's not really dead, I mean Rei was reconstructed with his LCL so maybe his soul is now in Rei's body or something.

slothen wrote:I think Bardiel is the only angel that is disabled or otherwise heavily damaged before the core is destroyed.

Zeruel seems pretty disabled when he buys the farm, too. He just kinda levitates there and lets himself get core-raped.

Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion wrote:Maybe he's not really dead, I mean Rei was reconstructed with his LCL so maybe his soul is now in Rei's body or something.

Now there's a disturbing thought...

Reddish train interior. Rei and the Tenth Angel are seated opposing Shinji and Yui.

Angel: ...... Why am I here?
Yui: To provide much-lacking exposition on your kind.
Angel: You go first, lady.
Yui: Hmm... IS it time for me to stop being a non-entity in this version...? :checks watch:
Shinji: Ayanami... I feel like such a dick...
Rei: It is all right. In the end, we are both nothing more than slaves to the plot. And to your parents.
Shinji: W-WHAT!?! ParentS?
Yui: :teehee:
Angel: (to Rei) Do I know how THAT is...

Reichu I demand you make that a full-fledged fanfiction right fucking now.

(but complete your Episode 24 Bad End first <3)