Theory- NGE takes place entirely during Instrumentality as flashbacks

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AdamMalkovitch
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Theory- NGE takes place entirely during Instrumentality as flashbacks

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Postby AdamMalkovitch » Wed May 12, 2021 6:22 pm

I know this is very likely a thread on here, or was brought up before, but the search function on here kinda suc c0c so I can't know for sure, but I'd like to introduce you to an idea I had while rewatching the best episode in the series with my gf while introducing it to her- ep19: A Man's Battle/Introjection.
During his hospital visit, there's a scene featuring Toji on the same metaphysical train where Shinji speaks to Rei and his younger self on a few different occasions. Toji looks over and overhears Shinji talking to Rei about how he only half-assed trying to understand Gendo. This... makes zero sense from Toji's perspective. He knows nothing about the relationship between the Ikaris, I don't think Shinji ever even brought up his father in conversation with Toji. But, there's a massive hint here- Shinji isn't talking to his younger self like we've seen previously, he's talking to Rei. Y'know, the same character he speaks with in End of Evangelion's Instrumentality scene? Obviously Kaworu's absence is a bit off, but there are scenes where he's talking to Lilith as Rei alone and then Adam as Kaworu comes in.
Another thing I noticed recently is that Shinji's SDAT player in NGE only ever specifically plays tracks 25 and 26, the episodes in which Instrumentality takes place. One important thing to note about EVA is that it was always planned to only have 26 episodes, and even in the original episode plots, the ending was to take place as a two-parter over the last two episodes. You may say, "but what if the series was popular enough to be extended with episodes in the middle, like Nadia was?" My rebuttal to that is, Nadia was popular as a series but made very little money back. That's one of the catalysts that caused Anno to fall into depression before starting on NGE. He knew that TVTokyo very likely wouldn't give the same opportunity to the next series by the company that made so little cash back, so went full tilt on this 26 episode outline.
So, here's my theory. Technically a hypothesis but theory is the word popularized by MatPat so here we go. ALL of Neon Genesis Evangelion takes place during Instrumentality, from Shinji's perspective, as flashbacks taken from others' minds. We really don't know how much time passed in Instrumentality, and we know there's different simultaneous layers to it since the TV ending and EoE both take place at the same time but show the same events differently. One of the main themes of the TV ending is that everything is based on your perspective, so maybe the physical, real version of events shown in EoE was from the perspective of Rei/Lilith, and the metaphysical, subconscious version seen in the TV ending is Shinji's perspective. This could also be why the ending is so ambiguous, since even Rei III never fully understood human interaction, so since we're seeing her interpretation of humanity's return from Instrumentality, it makes just as little sense to us as it does to her, that's why she gave Shinji the power to choose.
Anyways, feel free to call me an idiot if I totally missed something super obvious.
*injects Angel blood* I know what the fuck an EVA is now :)

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