Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

Discussion of the new series of Evangelion movies ( "Evangelion Shin Gekijōban", meaning "Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition"). The final instalment made its debut in Japan on March 8, 2021.

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Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

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Postby Blockio » Sat May 15, 2021 9:27 pm

I was talking to Velorex, Nuke and ProcopiousJones on discord right now and we were joking about the telephone pole imagery, how Anno's love for them might be the point that spawned the idea of the cross imagery and a few other silly things, when Nuke had an interesting idea:
Telephone poles are used for connecting people. And a lot of the time when the camera lingers on one, the cables attached to it have snapped.

That alone is hardly a revelation worthy of its own thread, but something else came up that does carry a bit more significance to it: During the fight against the 9th Angel, Unit 03 walks through a line of telephone cables, whose wires snap one by one under the barrage aimed at it; that scene is also the scene during which Shinji's relationship with Gendo (and arguably also Asuka) breaks, the communication has been cut off.
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Re: Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

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Postby bobgoesw00t » Sun May 16, 2021 3:02 pm

I wouldn't be surprised if this is true. That's a good eye those friends of yours have :D
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!

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Re: Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

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Postby ProcopiousJones » Sun May 16, 2021 6:07 pm

It gives another reason why Asuka acted the way she did towards Shinji when he's stuck in the cell. She lost her relationship with Shinji in that moment that, when combined with whatever sins he committed during the 14 year time-skip, partially explains why she acted the way she did towards him. On another level, it could also refer to her connection to humanity being severed as her plug depth was really deep during the fight against the 9th Angel, thus losing her humanity according to Ritsuko.

As for Gendo, I think that event could connect to his cold treatment of Shinji and his visual overhaul that we get in 3.0, as his connection to Shinji (and potentially humanity) was also severed; the severed connection might also tie into the overall state of Shinji that we see by the end of 2.0 and later. However, I don't have any complete ideas yet; Shin Eva might give us more to chew on, but we'll see.
Last edited by ProcopiousJones on Sun May 16, 2021 9:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

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Postby baldur » Sun May 16, 2021 9:00 pm

Nice catch.

On the topic of telephones as a motif: in 3.0, the phone in Shinji's room doesn't even have a dial - he has no means to connect/communicate with anyone. Always thought it was a cool visual metaphor.

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Re: Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

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Postby UrsusArctos » Tue May 18, 2021 6:56 am

View Original Postbaldur wrote: in 3.0, the phone in Shinji's room doesn't even have a dial - he has no means to connect/communicate with anyone. Always thought it was a cool visual metaphor.


Not just a cool visual metaphor - it provides Wille a perfectly practical way of being able to talk to their prisoner without their prisoner being able to contact anyone else aboard the Wunder.
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Re: Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

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Postby Blockio » Tue May 18, 2021 9:49 am

I think he's talking about his room in Nerv; but that might also be the case aboard the Wunder
I can see why Gendo hired Misato to do the actual commanding. He tried it once and did an appalling job. ~ AWinters
Your point of view is horny, and biased. ~ glitz2hard
What about titty-ten? ~ Reichu
The movies function on their own terms. If people can't accept them on those terms, and keep expecting them to be NGE, then they probably should have realized a while ago that they weren't going to have a good time. ~ Words of wisdom courtesy of Reichu

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Postby baldur » Tue May 18, 2021 2:32 pm

Blockio's correct, I was talking about his room in Nerv HQ. I think there's only one shot in 3.0 of Shinji's "room" in the Wunder, though it looks more like a prison cell.

But yes, the practical use of a phone without a dial would be as a means of one-sided communication. Which just feels kind of twisted, doesn't it? I think this is an intentional contrast. Shinji feels antagonized and mistreated by Wille - that he's not being listened to or paid any attention - so he leaves them for Nerv. But while Wille was hostile in demeanor, they did communicate with him and provide some answers to his inquiries. At Nerv, he is not offered that dignity. Unless communication is absolutely required (and even then he's given only terse commands), contact with Shinji is deemed unimportant, or worse: a hindrance.

Of course, when there finally does come along a certain cute and knowledgeable boy that's willing to talk to him, and better yet, with unconditional warmth and affection, Shinji hangs on to his every word.

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Postby Konja7 » Tue May 18, 2021 3:02 pm

View Original Postbaldur wrote:But yes, the practical use of a phone without a dial would be as a means of one-sided communication. Which just feels kind of twisted, doesn't it? I think this is an intentional contrast. Shinji feels antagonized and mistreated by Wille - that he's not being listened to or paid any attention - so he leaves them for Nerv. But while Wille was hostile in demeanor, they did communicate with him and provide some answers to his inquiries. At Nerv, he is not offered that dignity. Unless communication is absolutely required (and even then he's given only terse commands), contact with Shinji is deemed unimportant, or worse: a hindrance.


Well, WILLE crew wasn't so open to answer Shinji's inquiries either.

They only explain what is strictly necessary.

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Postby baldur » Tue May 18, 2021 11:40 pm

View Original PostKonja7 wrote:Well, WILLE crew wasn't so open to answer Shinji's inquiries either.

They only explain what is strictly necessary.

Honestly, for how short the time was that Shinji spent with Wille, they explain quite a bit to him. When Shinji asked questions, they usually gave him answers, albeit ones that inevitably and understandably confuse him.

Wille explains:
- what the Wunder is
- that Eva-01 is being used as its main engine
- that Shinji's synch-rates are at 0%
- that Shinji fucked up really badly
- how he went about fucking things up really badly
- why everyone is angry with him (because he fucked up really badly)
- what a DSS Choker is
- why they decided to place one on Shinji
- that it's understandable for Shinji to be panicked
- that 14 years have passed since Near-Third Impact
- that Shinji did not succeed in saving Rei
- that if Rei is still alive, they don't know where she is
- that all they found in Eva-01 was Shinji and his SDAT player
- that Rei Q is not the Rei he remembers
- that this organization is called Wille, not Nerv
- that Wille is dedicated to destroying Nerv and their Evas
- that really bad things will happen if Shinji pilots an Eva

This is a not insignificant amount of info; and vitally, it's info that Shinji goes on to totally ignore, which (predictably) leads to very bad things happening!

Let's contrast this with the grand total of what Gendo had to say to Shinji:
- This is Evangelion Unit 13
- It's for you and your co-pilot
- When the time comes, you two will pilot it
- That will be all.

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Re: Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

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Postby BusterMachine4 » Tue May 18, 2021 11:57 pm

View Original Postbaldur wrote:- that Shinji fucked up really badly
- how he went about fucking things up really badly
- why everyone is angry with him (because he fucked up really badly)

Did they explain those things, though? From what I remember, Shinji was like "Why are you all so mean to me, what's going on?" and then Misato and Ritsuko just decided not to respond because Anno was saving the big dramatic plot twist for later. They never really told Shinji anything about what he did.

But in my opinion, the problem isn't what WILLE said, it's how they said it. They were way too hostile and cruel towards a confused 14 year old boy, and it felt like a plot contrivance to make Shinji as depressed and alienated as possible without it really making sense. If WILLE were actually thinking logically, they probably would have just left Shinji with Sakura instead of dragging him onto the bridge and reintroducing him to all the protagonists just so Shinji can realize that all his friends hate him now.

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Re: Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

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Postby Konja7 » Wed May 19, 2021 5:49 am

View Original Postbaldur wrote:This is a not insignificant amount of info; and vitally, it's info that Shinji goes on to totally ignore, which (predictably) leads to very bad things happening!

However, they aren't really so clear in many of these explanations. They don't really explain why the are "punishing" Shinji with the DSS Choker or why they are angry.

Not to mention that these "explanations" are told with a lot of hostility.



View Original Postbaldur wrote:- that Rei Q is not the Rei he remembers

This is only "explained" when Shinji heard Rei's voice and he is trying to follow it. So, I'm not totally sure if it counts like information WILLE wants to reveal to Shinji.



View Original PostBusterMachine4 wrote:But in my opinion, the problem isn't what WILLE said, it's how they said it. They were way too hostile and cruel towards a confused 14 year old boy, and it felt like a plot contrivance to make Shinji as depressed and alienated as possible without it really making sense. If WILLE were actually thinking logically, they probably would have just left Shinji with Sakura instead of dragging him onto the bridge and reintroducing him to all the protagonists just so Shinji can realize that all his friends hate him now.

They are angry with Shinji, so I don't think their hostility is a plot contrivance.

Also, they put the DSS Choker on Shinji's neck, so they don't need to be nice or care about Shinji feelings. It's just Misato couldn't use the DSS Choker at the end.

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Postby Blockio » Wed May 19, 2021 5:19 pm

There are plenty of threads dedicated to wether or not Wille are literally satan for not pampering Shinji. We don't need that ever-same debate taking over another one.
I can see why Gendo hired Misato to do the actual commanding. He tried it once and did an appalling job. ~ AWinters
Your point of view is horny, and biased. ~ glitz2hard
What about titty-ten? ~ Reichu
The movies function on their own terms. If people can't accept them on those terms, and keep expecting them to be NGE, then they probably should have realized a while ago that they weren't going to have a good time. ~ Words of wisdom courtesy of Reichu

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Re: Telephone Poles and connecting to people.

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Postby baldur » Wed May 19, 2021 6:39 pm

I agree with Blockio, this is getting off topic. We can continue that discussion in this thread.


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