Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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cyharding
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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby cyharding » Tue Feb 02, 2021 12:45 am

View Original PostASW_Canuck wrote:Any thoughts on this? In the manga Rei could have exacerbated her pre-existing injuries when she tried to fight Sachiel in EVA-01, but this event does not happen in the anime.

It must be stated that the concept of Rei fighting what we now know as Sachiel dates all the way back to the series proposal. The fact that Sadamoto has a fight between the two in the first chapter suggests they were sticking with the concept up to a year before episode 1 aired. There may have been some early drafts of the episode with that fight predominantly featured.
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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby Kendrix » Wed Feb 03, 2021 10:36 pm

I have checked the same Q& A that gave us the name meaning and it does indeed say that Rei was injured just a few days before Sachiel attacked.

The test might even have been preparation for Sachiel's impending arrival.

Gendo probably had bandages under his gloves or something, though most likely they just hadn't yet decided that he was gonna injure his hands.
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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby BusterMachine4 » Thu Feb 04, 2021 1:26 am

View Original PostKendrix wrote:I have checked the same Q& A that gave us the name meaning and it does indeed say that Rei was injured just a few days before Sachiel attacked.

What Q&A was it? I'd really like to know what level of canon it was. Like, did Anno make it or something?

And a few days before the 3rd Angel is the implication in the show, but the "22 days earlier" card doesn't really match up with the previously established dates. That, coupled with the fact that it seems impossible for Misato to wreck her apartment in just a couple days, has caused me to head-canon that "22 days earlier" is actually referring to 22 days before Episode 1.

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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby AWinters » Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:17 pm

Let's say there was a week between the incident and episode 1.
Gendo's hands would still be in a really bad condition, extremely painful and gunky. I imagine his hands were cling film wrapped under those gloves throughout the first 2 episodes at least.

From the force that the entry plug hit the ground, most of Rei's injuries would have been internal. She would have likely been in and out of surgery all week, having broken bones set back.
In episode 1, I reckon she was fresh out of the operating theatre earlier that day and her fresh "injuries" were actually surgical wounds.

As for her plug suit; they possibly prepared her as a backup as soon as she was awake.


Rei has been there her whole life, so I think they were cutting it unnecessarily fine with that activation test.
That should have been done a year earlier to give them time to make corrections.
Leaving it to the final week is bad standards for how important they are.

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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby Lavinius » Sun May 02, 2021 9:53 pm

There's no reason to think that the test where Rei was injured was her first time piloting. Misato says that Rei took seven months to learn to synchronize with her Eva. She's obviously not going to be talking about the disaster of a few days before as if it were successful synchronization. The test when Rei was injured was just another of the sync tests Nerv does constantly, to keep everything online.

On the other hand, it's strange how Gendou never apparently had Rei try to pilot Shogouki before, since he's always so eager afterwards to ditch Shinji and get her in. Zerogouki is the least reliable Eva, and I can't imagine Gendou intended for Shinji to pilot Shogouki but only called him in last-minute. That part probably is a plot hole, probably created in the shuffle that removed the Rei vs. Sachiel fight.
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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby AWinters » Mon May 03, 2021 5:23 am

The pilot and the soul within the Eva need to be a match for best performance, which is why Rei II is paired with Rei I and the other pilots are paired with their mothers.
I guess synchronisation levels are dependant on the bond between the two souls.
Maybe Rei had tried both Evas, but the top scientists of NERV knew that Rei couldn't operate Unit 01 to its full potential.

I think Gendo knew all along that Shinji was required, but he waited until the 11th hour to call him in and risked Shinji rejecting the job and walking away, which seems kind of dumb.

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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby Zusuchan » Mon May 03, 2021 5:31 am

It would be the best decision to have made Shinji a part of Nerv far earlier, but I think Gendo didn't want to both deal with his presence and put him into harm's way, which is why he was called up as a last resort. It's not like Nerv really shines in terms of tactical and strategical decisions when it comes to its pilots, anyhow.

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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby Archer » Mon May 03, 2021 8:55 am

View Original PostZusuchan wrote:It would be the best decision to have made Shinji a part of Nerv far earlier, but I think Gendo didn't want to both deal with his presence and put him into harm's way, which is why he was called up as a last resort. It's not like Nerv really shines in terms of tactical and strategical decisions when it comes to its pilots, anyhow.

My personal theory/headcanon is that the angel attacks happened a bit earlier than anticipated. After all, it’s a complete coincidence that Shinji arrives in Tokyo-3 the day the third angel attacks - it’s not like he was called there in response to it or something.

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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby AWinters » Mon May 03, 2021 6:04 pm

View Original PostArcher wrote:My personal theory/headcanon is that the angel attacks happened a bit earlier than anticipated. After all, it’s a complete coincidence that Shinji arrives in Tokyo-3 the day the third angel attacks - it’s not like he was called there in response to it or something.

Yeah, I'm sure the attack was anticipated, but they were maybe a day or two out, unless the idea was to have Shinji arrive on the day to apply pressure.
They had the military at HQ on the day, which I assume was organised by the UN.
Misato had only recently started working there too. I assume it's the same for a lot of the staff.

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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby Archer » Mon May 03, 2021 7:26 pm

I’m not even talking a couple days, I mean like several months to a year. We’re talking about an ancient prophecy here, being even in the right decade would be a close enough approximation for them.

The day Shinji arrived, they literally didn’t have a viable pilot and no way to prepare for an attack. In fact, if Rei HAD in fact been injured several weeks ago, that could’ve been what motivated Gendo to finally call in Shinji in the first place, so that they could at least have a backup pilot.

With regards to the actual timeline fuckery, I always go with what makes sense over what’s stated in the script. Turns out a lot of the time writers don’t have the timeline of events carefully plotted down to the day and just make shit up. As for why Rei’s in her plugsuit in that scene, I think the most likely explanation is that they suited her up because they WERE fully preparing to send her out to fight until Shinji just happened to show up at the right time, because what the fuck else were they gonna do?

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Re: Pre-Episode 1 timeline headaches - Gendo & Rei's injuries

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Postby BusterMachine4 » Mon May 03, 2021 8:27 pm

View Original PostArcher wrote:With regards to the actual timeline fuckery, I always go with what makes sense over what’s stated in the script. Turns out a lot of the time writers don’t have the timeline of events carefully plotted down to the day and just make shit up.

That's my feeling too. Eva fans are always looking for a way to get all the plot holes and inconsistencies in the show to make sense, but at the end of the day stuff like the "22 days earlier" title card was mostly just pulled out of the writers' tonketsu. So I think it's fine to just gloss over stuff that doesn't make much sense. No one cares that Asuka's "5 minutes" to defeat the MP Evas took more than twice as long, so why should we care about stuff like this?


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