FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:I think it's too early to assign meaning to anything around Mari, except for maybe The Beast.
I covered some of Shinji's SDAT Player in my
analysis. I think the SDAT Player carries even greater significance after Rei picks it up from Shinji as it almost symbolizes her changes of alliance from Gendo to Shinji. (She replaces the glasses with the SDAT Player.) Also notice how she only seems to carry them around during battle:
We've already adressed this part - I personally think it's less a loyalty shift and more a change of Motivation. In both these instances, Rei risks her life. When she carries the glasses, she does it because its simply her purpose (assigned by Gendo) and because she doesn't think her life matters much. In the second instance, Rei is risking her life for a reason - For Shinji's sake. That she needs a reason to sacrifice it also implies that she regards her life as less worthless by then.
Also, guarding keepsakes is Rei's typical way of showing affection, it accentuates how much Shinji means to her...
And to continue with the keepsake motifs, try to put it in relation to Gendo's little speech at the graveyard about burying Memories and stuff...
Also, he burned all pictures and so on, but probably just left the player lying somewhere - Did Shinji pick it out of the trash (like Rei) or could Gendo not bring himself to dispose of it because it has served as a romantic keepsake before? Probably the former, can't imagine Yui with headphones. Still, it foreshadown how Gendo actually has the same problems as Shinji and also makes one think of how similar to Shinji Gendo used to look when he was younger...
Anyway, keepsake motifs are strong in Rebuild...
As for Mari's Glasses, she doesn't really show any real attachment to them, nor does she comment when they shatter, and she shatters them often - she just needs them to seeXD (Which sort of underlines the animalistic aspec of her - Many animals like dogs etc rely less on sight and more on smell. Also, ppl who are disabled in one sense often develop the others more) Mari's glasses exist mainly for the sake of making her stand out and shatterig dramatically, tough XD - Mari seems to be the "moving forward" sort of person (see her song), not one to dwell on memories.
PS: Did you guys hear about her rudimentary backstory Sadamoto mentioned in his interview? She was once meant to have lots of pets to show how she is pretty idiosyncratic despite having visited a strict, catholic school. They probably dropped the Animals (Much of Mari's character was overhauled several times) as they were part of the soldier like Proto!Mari that lives with Hikari, was at the social center, took poor Asuka's place and hated to live alone (As opposed to our final product who, as lampshaded by Misato, prefers working alone and is rarely seen talking with anyone), but the "strict upbringing/having to hide/repress eccentricies" bit could still very much apply, it could explain how she sees EVA piloting as a liberation, like she was freed from the place where she couldn't be herself by getting involved with project E and so on - hence no keepsakes. With Mari being Mari, it would probably be fine for them to give her no backstory at all, she is, despite being as far as we know, human, a bit of a mysterious sort of character like Kaworu and Rei (Interviews compare her to the former), but that backstory with the strict catholic school would really fit her character very well. Maybe even the pets because bond to nature/animalistic/not good with ppl etc(It might even have been a residential shool because EVA pilots equal parental abandonment. In fact, her father might've put her there after his wife's death (mandatory dead mother) just like Gendo - but that's too much speculation already. ) I DO hope they don't use the "pet tatoos", tough, that would be too Sue-like. IF she has those tatoos, they would be her keepsake, tough, leaving Kaworu as the odd one out. But I really hope they don't use the tattoo. It fit piloting-because-of-severe-reality-soldier-Mari, but not the final one.
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