Im not sure what it is about both of these but i cant help but think they are conected in some way. Any ideas?

EDIT BY THE EVA MONKEY: This topic is in reference to a proposed corrollation between the large swinging pendulum and the sand pyramid that Shinji destroys in The End of Evangelion.

Could you provide a little more context about the scenes you are connectign here - you haven't given us all that much to be going with.

What I’m saying is, I don’t know of any connection I can’t see one, but I can’t help think there is one.

If you wondering what scenes I’m talking about i mean the ones in EoE:

Pendulum: where there is a man at a desk and there is a great big pendulum swinging past the 3 columns of light (windows)

Swing: where Shinji makes the pyramid sandcastle and destroys it.

Maybe there is some connection between what he is thinking and the 3 columns of light?

I probably look like some sort of idiot saying this... I just don’t know how to explain what I’m saying. :roll:

Wibbl wrote:What I’m saying is, I don’t know of any connection I can’t see one, but I can’t help think there is one.

If you wondering what scenes I’m talking about i mean the ones in EoE:

Pendulum: where there is a man at a desk and there is a great big pendulum swinging past the 3 columns of light (windows)

Swing: where Shinji makes the pyramid sandcastle and destroys it.

Maybe there is some connection between what he is thinking and the 3 columns of light?

I probably look like some sort of idiot saying this... I just don’t know how to explain what I’m saying. :roll:

And you expected people to know what you were talking about?

I'm not seeing any connection, either.

You know what, never mind...

Phaze wrote:

Wibbl wrote:What I’m saying is, I don’t know of any connection I can’t see one, but I can’t help think there is one.

If you wondering what scenes I’m talking about i mean the ones in EoE:

Pendulum: where there is a man at a desk and there is a great big pendulum swinging past the 3 columns of light (windows)

Swing: where Shinji makes the pyramid sandcastle and destroys it.

Maybe there is some connection between what he is thinking and the 3 columns of light?

I probably look like some sort of idiot saying this... I just don’t know how to explain what I’m saying. :roll:

And you expected people to know what you were talking about?

I'm not seeing any connection, either.

To be honest I knew what he/she was referring to, however I am not sure if there is any significance--it may simpy be stylistic move for affect, but I'd have to think about it more...

Thank you, someone who understands me. I probably just said it better to you in person then I can on here. ^^

Oh and bp32, it's he.

Perhaps the connection is the pendulum's time connotation? the swing moving somehow resembles a clock, and after Shinji destroys the sand castle, its ceasation signals perhaps that humanities time has run out?

The pendulum / column thing is entirely interpretive in nature. I refuse to believe there is any great degree of visual metaphor unless someone can provide concrete proof of it being directly related to anything. Until then, it is merely an intriguing visual aesthetic to me.

As for the sand castle, it represents to me Shinji's frustration and anger with his father. While the pyramid he sculpts may not have been his intentional rendering of Nerv HQ, its visual corrolation is close enough that I equate the two. I am reminded of the destruction he threatened upon it in Episode 19, which subsequently happened, albeit not at his hands. Ironically, he threatens something he ends up seeking to prevent.

As for a connection between the two, I fail to see any whatsoever. There is no significant reasoning or thought process revealed at this point which would even give me an inkling of interest to even try analyzing a relationship.

There are three columns within the Tree of Life.



The Right side of Mercy.

The Middle of Benignity.

The Left side of Severity or Justice.

The Prime Minister of Japan is sitting within the boarders of the middle column.

The swinging pendulum could be viewed as his indecision or it could be viewed as his ‘centre’, reviewing the situation from various viewpoints and making a balanced judgement.

It’s interesting that the Magi computers operate in this way (remember what Ritsuko said about how they were programmed) and that this corresponds to the Tree of Life and the three columns as well.

Three facets of herself were programmed into the system: Herself as a scientist (left column), herself as a mother (middle column), and herself as a woman (right column).

I'm with the monkey, that scene ( and many in EoE ), are intended to be like an ink blot test. You see what you want to see.

Schopenhauer is famous for having written that "life swings like a pendulum to and fro between pain and boredom, and these two are in fact its ultimate constituents."

First of all: This whole post is entirely my opinion. I'm not claiming any of this as cannon. This is just what I saw from the imagery in the scenes.

The pendulum is representative of time, and man's use of it. The pendulum is swinging in the foreground of a frame in which an authority figure chooses between seizing the moment and letting time slip through his fingers. He also talks about the past present and future in that scene. The pendulum is a visual amplifier to the themes being brought up in the scene.

The swing and sandbox are representative of childhood and innocence respectively. They also correlate together. The swing is swinging without Shinji, his childhood innocence is passing him by. In the sandbox, he creates a perfect pyramid. The similarity to NERV headquarters gives it a link to his father, Gendo. As we all know, Gendo leaves Shinji as a child (possibly for NERV, but that's just opinion), destroying his childhood (hence the swing swings without him). The pyramid's resemblance with NERV also gives it a connection to the Evangelions. It is Evangelion Unit 01 and the events surrounding it that take Shinji's innocence for good. Shinji then destroys the pyramid, and the swing stops. His childhood is gone and the perfection created in his innocence is also gone.

P.S.: If any of you noticed there are also two suns in the end of this scene. I think this is a symbol towards the duality of man. Both sides are evidenced in the scene, the creator (building the pyramid), and the destroyer (smashing the pyramid). However, in the end, the sun sets on them both.

P.P.S.: The only real connection I can see, to answer the original question, is the idea of letting things pass us by when we should be making the most of every moment.