Pen Pen is the key to the Rebuilds

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I think all of NTE takes place inside NGE Pen Pen's imagination. It makes sense if you think about it.

See, NTE Pen Pen has more human goals and aspirations than NGE Pen Pen. In Eva 1.11, for example, Pen Pen can be seen reading a newspaper, complete with a lamp beside his chair and small TV across from him. He did not have these things in NGE, but they are human-like things he sees Misato, Shinji, and Asuka do on a regular basis in NGE. In 2.22, we see Pen Pen aspire for promotions. He achieves this when he is hailed "King of the Penguins" at the aquarium. (There's a shot where Pen Pen stands tall while all of the other penguins bow to his ultimate greatness.) He was inspired to aim for a promotion like this when he saw Misato getting promoted from Captain to Major in Episode 12 of NGE. NTE is basically Pen Pen imagining his life if he could live as the humans around him live. We're seeing him building his own world within his head using the human behaviors he witnesses throughout NGE.

Even his sudden absence in 3.33 is another sign that Pen Pen is imagining the entire NTE series. After achieving the greatness of being hailed King of the Penguins, Pen Pen has an existential crisis, similar to Shinji's existential crisis in EoE. Just like Shinji was presented with a world without his existence and is shown what it would be like in EoE, Pen Pen also has a similar vision in the form of 3.33. Eva Q is basically Pen Pen's existential crisis, where he is shown a world without his existence and the horrors that come with it. Pen Pen is perhaps the most important character in NTE, as it's his existence that kept the world of Eva from falling into the chaos we see it in by 3.33. Once he's gone, the entire planet goes down the tubes. (Pen Pen is the key to all this, if they could get Pen Pen to work as a character. 'Cause he's a funnier character than we've ever had in the movies.)

But, why? Why would Pen Pen even imagine this to begin with? What on earth could he have possible experienced in NGE that would have caused him to go into this existential thought process? What would have made him want to escape from the world of NGE so bad that he ended up accidentally mentally escaping to a place that's much, much worse than NGE?

He saw Asuka and Shinji engaging in erotic asphyxiation between Episodes 15 and 16. Anything is better than watching Asuka and Shinji engage in erotic asphyxiation between Episodes 15 and 16. We know he has a tendency to play voyeur with Asuka and Shinji, what with him watching them kiss in Episode 15, so it makes sense that he would have walked in on them doing the deed later on.

It all makes sense of you think about it.

[kuribo-04]

So PenPen's reappearance in Shin is confirmed to solve everything.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Yup. I'm thinking he's gonna save Wille with his army of penguins, of which he has been king since Eva 2.22. It'll be like Aragorn riding into Gondor with the Dead Army. I'm taking a massive wave of penguins that blackens the surface, swarming in and destroying all of Nerv's Eva Units.