AsukaShikinami10 wrote:My guess is that when A3I started, it continued what N3I left to be done. i.e. the Failures of Infinity taking Eva Unit 01's shape but headless, Lillith's head turning into a Rei head after being beheaded.

All of this because as Kaworu said in 3.333, Eva Unit 01 was the trigger that started the Third Impact (only to be temporary stopped by the Cassius Spear).

My guess is that when the 12th angel took control over Mark.06 (by SEELE's programming) they had the need to remove the Cassius Spear from Unit 01, so it reactivated again as the trigger for said Impact with the bottomost part of Central Dogma as the new epicenter.

That does raise the question that if A3I was "hijacked" back by EVA-01 when the Cassius impaling it was removed, changing Lilith's head to Rei's and the FoIs at its image, then how was it stopped afterwards without spears?

ElMariachi wrote:That does raise the question that if A3I was "hijacked" back by EVA-01 when the Cassius impaling it was removed, changing Lilith's head to Rei's and the FoIs at its image, then how was it stopped afterwards without spears?

Considering Lilith was impaled by the Spears of Longinus and Cassius in 3.33, we could assume the two Spears were used to stop the A3I. Maybe an Impact needs the two Spears to be totally stopped.

That said, I wonder how the Spear of Longinus a Cassius impaled Lilith/Mark-06. The Spears don't appear in Misato's flashback.

Konja7 wrote:Considering Lilith was impaled by the Spears of Longinus and Cassius in 3.33, we could assume the two Spears were used to stop the A3I. Maybe an Impact needs the two Spears to be totally stopped.

That said, I wonder how the Spear of Longinus a Cassius impaled Lilith/Mark-06. The Spears don't appear in Misato's flashback.

What I meant was that if both spears were used to stop Mark.06, which re-awakened EVA-01 when the Cassius was removed from it, then how was EVA-01 stopped afterward?

ElMariachi wrote:What I meant was that if both spears were used to stop Mark.06, which re-awakened EVA-01 when the Cassius was removed from it, then how was EVA-01 stopped afterward?

It seems to me that the theory was that Gendo and SEELE moved the third Impact from Eva-01 to Lilith as epicentre.

That said, Eva-01 was send to the Space for some reason (and we see the Moon has many red stains in 3.33). So, it's always possible they send Eva-01 to the space to prevent its awakening affects the planet.

@ElMariachi That's a good question. Maybe they found a way to build the Tessaract around Unit 01 after these events without getting corified.

However, I don't know what could have made Unit 01 re-enter hibernation mode once A3I was stopped by the spears (if it was stopped after and not before).

AsukaShikinami10 wrote:@ElMariachi That's a good question. Maybe they found a way to build the Tessaract around Unit 01 after these events without getting corified.

However, I don't know what could have made Unit 01 re-enter hibernation mode once A3I was stopped by the spears (if it was stopped after and not before).

Ultimately that's why I have a hard time going behind the theory that Unit 01 "retook" control of Third Impact at some point, because that would mean that somehow they managed to make it dormant again without spears nor the possibility to eject the pilot, and then encase it in the Tesseract and send it to space despite the whole world having been turned to core and 99.999999% of the population dead.

Personally it makes more sense if Unit 01 was encased inside the Tesseract then sent to space during the time between N3I and A3I by SEELE's orders so Gendo won't do anything with it, maybe the flying to orbit was done by Mark.06 piloted by Kaworu (for the extra christian imagery of him carrying the giant "cross" on his shoulders) with him secretly promising Shinji that he'll go back for him once SEELE is defeated, then the 12th Angel and A3I happen, everything goes to hell, Mark.06 ends destroyed (because the way Mark.06 is presented as the "true god" in 2.0 and all the hoops and loops SEELE and Gendo had to do to break the seal and start Fourth Impact implies that the situation in 3.0 was not part of the original plan) and with that, EVA-01 stayed stuck in space, out of reach for 14 years. (although the Marks 04 in space at the beginning of 3.0 implies that NERV could get it back, but didn't for reasons)

ElMariachi wrote:What I meant was that if both spears were used to stop Mark.06, which re-awakened EVA-01 when the Cassius was removed from it, then how was EVA-01 stopped afterward?

In this Twitter thread Reichu summarized and added to some speculation that Eva 01 merges with giant Lilith during Third Impact, taking up residence in her swollen belly so that Lilith is "pregnant" with Eva 01. In such a sequence, the spears that enter Mark 06 and Lilith to stop Third Impact could also enter Eva 01, deactivating all three. The implication of the linked Twitter thread is that an active Eva 01 forced its way out of Lilith, but we could instead speculate that NERV cut an inactive Eva 01 out, to be launched into space, after things settled down.

Edit: checked, and the spears don't intersect giant Lilith's belly, but I think this speculation is still viable if we assume a merged Eva 01 is indirectly vulnerable to Lilith getting speared.

nerv bae wrote:In this Twitter thread Reichu summarized and added to some speculation that Eva 01 merges with giant Lilith during Third Impact, taking up residence in her swollen belly so that Lilith is "pregnant" with Eva 01. In such a sequence, the spears that enter Mark 06 and Lilith to stop Third Impact could also enter Eva 01, deactivating all three. The implication of the linked Twitter thread is that an active Eva 01 forced its way out of Lilith, but we could instead speculate that NERV cut an inactive Eva 01 out, to be launched into space, after things settled down.

Lilith also had a big belly reminiscent of a pregnant woman (part of her "mother of humanity" image) in NGE once she regenerated after the spear was removed from her in episode 22, so I don't see how the fact that she had said belly in A3I's flash-back means that actually EVA-01 was inside of her instead of simply be how she always was, like in NGE.

To be honest, Reichu's theories are so convoluted at trying to find parallels and connections everywhere that most of the time I picture the Pepe Silvia meme when I read them.

ElMariachi wrote:To be honest, Reichu's theories are so convoluted at trying to find parallels and connections everywhere that most of the time I picture the Pepe Silvia meme when I read them.

That's part of their charm!