Konja7 wrote:The problem starts when Mark-09 free the 12th Angel inside Mark-06. The 12th Angel seems to attack Shinji with illusions, which causes Shinji to panic and throws an Spear of Longinus at the angel (Kaworu doesn't expect Shinji to do this). The Spear of Longinus destroy the 12th Angel's core, which seems to be what starts the Fourth Impact.

Funny, the impression I got was that the 12th Angel taking the form of a spiral triggered a mental programming on Shinji that made him destroy it. In the image after Mark.09 decapitate Mark.06, Shinji is seen surprised, but not Kaworu, as if it was part of the plan. Also, I imagine that he should had known that the 12th Angel had telepathic powers, no? That would had also made Fuyustuki and Gendo's talk of brainwashing in Jo and Fuyu's mention to Shinji that his memories were erased in Q (assuming it also happened in this early version) as a foreshadowing of what they did to him beside messing with his memories, also it's a more solid plan to make sure that Shinji does what needs to be done to derail Kaworu's plan rather than bank on him managing to destroy the 12th Angel after its attack or him behaving in a very exact manner. (looking at you, final version of Q)

I guess it'll be impossible to know without the dialogue, maybe the 3.0 CRC will shed more light on it? Although I admit that the idea of the 12th actually being a mix of Armisael and Arael is a very interesting one, and an excellent "Oh shit" moment for the audience when they realize that this is not just Armisael 2.0, but also that infamous Angel.

On closer inspection, something that I didn't caught on at first was that Shinji throws the spears with 13's left hand, but Kaworu caught it mid-air with the right hand by dropping his spear, then Shinji catch the falling spear and throw it, good reflex Shinji! (also that implies that Shinji controls the left side of 13 and Kaworu the right side, that thing must be a bitch to pilot without complete synchronization between pilots)

ElMariachi wrote:In the image after Mark.09 decapitate Mark.06, Shinji is seen surprised, but not Kaworu, as if it was part of the plan. Also, I imagine that he should had known that the 12th Angel had telepathic powers, no?

We don't exactly see Kaworu's face in the imageboards when Mark.09 decapitated Mark.06. So, I don't know if he was surprised when the 12th Angel appeared or not.

When I say Kaworu was surprised, I mean that he doesn't expect Shinji to throw the Spear of Longinus towards the 12th Angel (whose destruction seems to start the Fourth Impact). As you mentioned, Kaworu tried to stop it.

Konja7 wrote:We don't exactly see Kaworu's face in the imageboards when Mark.09 decapitated Mark.06. So, I don't know if he was surprised when the 12th Angel appeared or not.

When I say Kaworu was surprised, I mean that he doesn't expect Shinji to throw the Spear of Longinus towards the 12th Angel (whose destruction seems to start the Fourth Impact). As you mentioned, Kaworu tried to stop it.

Oh, I didn't understood what you meant at first, my bad.
But yeah, it's impossible to know exactly wtf is going on this scene (mental programming? Mental attack making Shinji instinctively attack back? Mental attack that triggers a mental programming? ), the main take away from this scene is that in this version Shinji is more "heroic" in that it's not his own fatal flaws that made things go to hell, the focus seems more to be how Gendo is a mastermind that outflanked them rather than how Shinji has more growing up to do. (I don't think it's a coincidence if Asuka and Mari only arrive after the 12th Angel liberation in this version)

ElMariachi wrote:But yeah, it's impossible to know exactly wtf is going on this scene (mental programming? Mental attack making Shinji instinctively attack back? Mental attack that triggers a mental programming? ), the main take away from this scene is that in this version Shinji is more "heroic" in that it's not his own fatal flaws that made things go to hell, the focus seems more to be how Gendo is a mastermind that outflanked them rather than how Shinji has more growing up to do. (I don't think it's a coincidence if Asuka and Mari only arrive after the 12th Angel liberation in this version)

True. The final version of 3.0 wants to highlight the fatal flaws of Shinji. They really want to show that Shinji's actions are moved by despair.

Another thing, a good point for mental programming activated by the 12th Angel appearance is that Shinji is the only one affected. However, I would wonder when Shinji went through this specific programming.

Konja7 wrote:True. The final version of 3.0 wants to highlight the fatal flaws of Shinji. They really want to show that Shinji's actions are moved by despair.

Another thing, a good point for mental programming activated by the 12th Angel appearance is that Shinji is the only one affected. However, I would wonder when Shinji went through this specific programming.

The conclusion I have after analyzing this first draft is that in the final products (Q and Shin) the story is mainly about Shinji's personal growth and all the rest is secondary (look at how all the problems of the world were basically solved by themselves once he confronts Gendo), and that in the initial version it was the contrary: the main focus would be on the fight to save the world and defeat NERV, and Shinji's character development would be a part (albeit important, since he's the MC) of this greater story.

As for an eventual mental programming, it could had happened at several points: maybe after Yui's contact experiment when Shinji's memories were erased (maybe this memory wipe was actually to make him forget what they did to him), or before he woke at neo-NERV, or one of the many times he lost consciousness during his days as an Eva pilot.

It's fascinating that Kaji being alive means that he will be living in Neo-NERV. It makes sense, since the idea of Kaji as Vice-Commander after N3I likely existed before these imageboards. I just wonder what WILLE thinks about Kaji in this version.

It's also interesting that the role of showing Shinji the destroyed state of the Earth was originally for Kaji (and it seems he told Shinji that the N3I was the trigger to bring about the Third Impact). When Khara decided that Kaji died to stop the Third Impact, this role fell on Kaworu.

ElMariachi wrote:The conclusion I have after analyzing this first draft is that in the final products (Q and Shin) the story is mainly about Shinji's personal growth and all the rest is secondary (look at how all the problems of the world were basically solved by themselves once he confronts Gendo), and that in the initial version it was the contrary: the main focus would be on the fight to save the world and defeat NERV, and Shinji's character development would be a part (albeit important, since he's the MC) of this greater story.

We should consider these imageboards are still ideas in the works. It's possible they didn't have a clear direction for the next movie when they finished these imageboards.

They have a version of Village-3 planned at that time, but that was originally the ending for this movie. Khara must have noticed that they don't have the time to develop this part properly in 3.0.

Konja7 wrote:We should consider these imageboards are still ideas in the works.

That's exactly what imageboards are. It's throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks visually. There is no fully complete and coherent movie to find here because it didn't exist yet. Heck look at how they haven't yet decided if Asuka would use her normal old plugsuit or the test suit.

Also note the last imageboard in here, from Village-3 is dated March 3rd, 2011. That's a week before the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami and we know that caused them to pause and rethink things.

It is however a great example of the creative process because the ideas that did survive into the final movie often did so as is.



Honestly my favorite part is that 02 and 08 just got honest to god Jet Scranders

It is absolutely insane to me that those imageboards dated 2011 include stuff we wouldn't see til Shin came out (Village-3, Tsubame, etc.)
Also, hard to imagine Q having that segment at the end.

Not just Village-3 and Tsubame, but it goes all the way up to Ayanami's Sayonara, which takes place on the railroad turntable instead of the cage. Pretty damn amazing for them to sit on that for so long.

Now give me the damn CRC khara!!!!