Postby Jornophelanthas » Thu Oct 18, 2012 3:50 pm
Having watched the trailer again (and again, and again, and again, and...) I am now actually starting to doubt my own position that the Rei we see there is a Rebuild-version of Rei III.
We have two shots of Rei in the trailer. The first is Rei naked floating inside a tube, opening her eyes in an expression of what looks to be astonishment or surprise. This is a display of emotion that can be attributed to both Rei II and Rei III.
The second time we see Rei in the trailer, she is (still) naked with dripping hair, looking at the camera and speaking. Also, her facial expression (mostly the eyelids and eyebrows) seem to suggest to me the faintest of smiles.
We can derive a few things from this:
1. Rei is not alone in that scene.
2. Rei is making eye contact with someone.
3. Her expression is not blank and doll-like.
Needless to say, 2. and 3. are behaviour very unlike a Rebuild-version of Rei III.
Recall Rei II in episode 5 of NGE, and Rebuild-Rei in Rebuild 1.0. In both continuities, Rei was not embarrassed at Shinji seeing her naked or having Shinji fall on top of her with his hand on her bosom while being showered with her own underwear. Nor did she exhibit any discomfort at having Shinji in the room while she dressed herself.
Recall Rei III in episode 23 of NGE. This Rei was mostly confused, stopped wearing clothes at some point without a second thought, and had no clear memories of her previous life (or more accurately, her predecessor's life). Still, she was prone to unexpected emotions associated with people or items she did not consciously remember.
The point I am trying to make is that the second of Rei we see in that trailer already exhibits more social aptitude than Rei III ever did in NGE or EoE. While I admit that her expression in that second shot could still be very neutral, the fact that she is making eye contact while speaking to someone is a huge deal.
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The final question I wish to address in this post is, of course, who she could be talking to.This pure is guesswork, but my guess is it would have to be someone she has interacted with before, because Rei tends to ignore people who have no direct bearing on her.
Possible candidates are:
- Gendo (who has seen her naked before, during tube-floating sessions)
- Shinji (who she has a meaningful relationship with, no matter which version of Rei we're talking about)
- Ritsuko (who performed medical check-ups on Rei during 2.0, and who Rei also addressed by name at least once)
- One of the female pilots, with whom she could have been bathing (which is highly unlikely, but not impossible and a pipedream for many a fan)
- Kaworu (...)
And finally:
- Anyone, really. (If this Rei has the same personality and memories as the character we saw in Rebuild 2.0, she has learned how to interact socially. Proof of this is her greeting the class upon entering the classroom. To everybody's astonishment.)
Jornophelanthas wrote:This also feeds into my pet theory that the Shinji-in-emotional-distress-while-holding-the-music-player footage from the trailer is him grieving over Rei not having returned with him.
