I think I spotted the parallel between the two splashes my first time around; it's easier to see if you watch Death before watching EoE. Still, I don't buy the suicide theory. It's probably just a fanwank extrapolated from the splash and from the fact that Shinji's character design seems off in the first scene---he looks older and lankier.

Lucretius wrote:Still, I don't buy the suicide theory. It's probably just a fanwank extrapolated from the splash and from the fact that Shinji's character design seems off in the first scene---he looks older and lankier.

It's not a fanwank, since there isn't any attempt to resolve possible oversights or plot holes involved. It's just speculation -- which, IIRC, tracks back to me, but who really knows any more. Like so many other things, it's a possibility to consider that doesn't really impact the rest of the story one way or the other. You can take it or leave it, but some folks find it compelling, which I assume is how the idea managed to propagate itself for this long.

When I first suggested the idea, the falling battery had nothing to do with it. I just noticed that Shinji's hair looked wet and he had droplets on his face, so the notion that he might have made some kind of feeble suicide attempt came to mind. (He felt like he should have died instead of Kaworu.) Couldn't help but recall his comment about never learning to swim, too.

On the subject of the head dunking. I believe it was mentioned in the Bosnian Asuka thread, that jumpers and such tend to remove their clothes before offing themselves. In Shinji's case, it would explain why he was soaked, but his clothes were dry.

Yes.

Incredible. Never knew that he actually tried commiting suicide, but didn't have the ability to actually do it. Never understood the wet look on Shinji in EoE. Didn't understand Episode 4 that much before reading this thread. Sought of like Francis Ford Coppola during production of "Apocalypse Now" (true fact). Both tried, but never fully gave up.

tomrule123 wrote:But during EoE, he kept saying that he didn't wanna die repetively in 26'.

I can't recall any such moment. Are you confusing it with his chanting of "Mou iya da" ("I can't take any more"), right before Giant Naked Kaworu shows up?

Reichu wrote:

tomrule123 wrote:But during EoE, he kept saying that he didn't wanna die repetively in 26'.

I can't recall any such moment. Are you confusing it with his chanting of "Mou iya da" ("I can't take any more"), right before Giant Naked Kaworu shows up?

You know, you might be right. Either way, he doesn't want to go through instrumentality.

tomrule123 wrote:You know, you might be right. Either way, he doesn't want to go through instrumentality.

How do you get that from his stating that he's so overwhelmed by what's happening that he no longer wants to live?

Shinji is probably suicidal. He's made in such a way, and his portrayals are congruous with that of a suicidal person. He doesn't let anyone (and Anno doesn't let us know either unless through Word Of God) about his tendencies and often can't go through with it. The cliff scene strikes a nerve in me of when I used to be suicidal. I would often sit on the edge of the road wondering: "Why do I even bother existing? I don't mean anything to anyone...Should I do it?" Sometimes I would lay down in the middle of the road itself. I would usually chicken out and go home, or just sit there until I cried or my friends found me and cheered me up. Enough of my sob story though...my point is that Shinji's actions in the lake (it must be remembered that he can't swim; by the way, where does it say that? I know it's canon, but I just can't remember where it's from) are very realistic and I personally think that he tried (or at least strongly considered) suicide on the cliff and in the lake.

ALKENO wrote:by the way, where does it say that?

Episode 10, in the swimming pool scene.

Ugh since this shit got dragged up in the 4.0 speculation topic I decided to see there's a thread. I'm disgusted and disappointed you people had a 4-page discussion without bothering to look at the storyboards.




Note:
ほほに汗 = sweat on cheeck
汗 is underlined twice for emphasis. 汗 is specifically sweat, not any other fluid.
汗　　　　　　　　　あせ　　　　　　　　　　　ase (n) sweat / perspiration [Common]

The entire scene is set up to show it's hot as fuck with the ultra bright sunlight and wavy air. Anno's words + storyboard = doubly disproving the nonsense suicide suggestion.

This is an exact repeat of the cliff scene. Shinji a bit from the edge but then can do nothing more than find somewhere else to sulk.

I can't wrap my head around how I could commit such a profound failure of fact-checking. Blurgh.

Womp womp. Interesting parallel w/ 04, though-- I'll admit that was something that had not occurred to me.

The theory that he tried to drown himself just before the movie started is a lot more interesting than it just being sweat. Regardless of what the storyboard says, that's how I choose to perceive it. Along with the splash shot, it's the perfect scene to demonstrate the current mental state that Shinji is in before the hospital scene.

I have a hard time wrapping my mind around this: Shinji was shown more than once being outside without more than a little tiny sweat drop here and there, and here in the morning he suddenly get sweaty to the point that his hair ends sticking to his face?

LukeMM95 wrote:The theory that he tried to drown himself just before the movie started is a lot more interesting than it just being sweat. Regardless of what the storyboard says, that's how I choose to perceive it.

Hehe, no. The storyboard says it, you follow it. Ipso facto, case-o closed-o.

- (insert tired old vague reminder that death of the author and disparagement of all sources but the film itself is a valid take here) -

Nuclear Lunchbox wrote:Hehe, no. The storyboard says it, you follow it. Ipso facto, case-o closed-o.

Make me!

TMBounty_Hunter wrote:I'm disgusted and disappointed you people had a 4-page discussion without bothering to look at the storyboards.

Not all of us have the storyboards for EoE dude.


However, if I did, I'd want that shit translated and proceed to obsess over it for a month.

Some of them are community resources.