Do you think original!Rei is going to make an appearance in the new movie at all?

[EvaRei789]

She's such a beloved character I can't imagine she doesn't appear at all for an entire movie and is simply replaced by an entirely separate character that only looks like her. But with Anno's recent comments about Rei and knowing he doesn't have any emotional attachment to her character whatsoever I don't know. What do you think?

[ShinjiStranglesAsuka]

I'm sure she'll show up.

I'm more curious about Anno's supposed recent comments about Rei. Can you post the sources?

[EvaRei789]

I'm sure she'll show up.

I'm more curious about Anno's supposed recent comments about Rei. Can you post the sources?

I looked for them but I can't find the sources or the interviews but I did see a lot of people comment about it on reddit. Maybe I'm wrong or jumped to conclusions although I thought him disliking Rei was common knowledge. (maybe dislike is a string word but he does not care much for her).

Its true I saw a lot of a people talk about him bashing Rei recently but in case those claims aren't truthful (since I looked for any recent comments or his and didn't find anything)then I'm sorry if I've caused confusion

[Kendrix]

That is neither recent nor accurate.

It refers to a pretty old interview (It'ssomewhere here) and taken wildly out of context to support the "EoE is a fuck you to fans" or what i like to call the "index finger wagging interpretation of EVA".

In the same interview he refers to Rei as representing the "deepest, purest part of his psyche" - What he's really saying is that he doesn't consciously make plans for her 'cause she comes from his unconscious. She writer herself, basically- which is something much deeper & much more interesting than "Liked this character? hahaha you're a loser".

EVA isn't a cautionary tale or a "bildungsroman", it's a metaphorical autobiography, a meditation on the human condition.

...during the rebuild interviews he also refers to forgetting Shinji at some point. It's an artistic process thing not a gotcha.

[BusterMachine4]

That is neither recent nor accurate.

It refers to a pretty old interview (It'ssomewhere here) and taken wildly out of context to support the "EoE is a fuck you to fans" or what i like to call the "index finger wagging interpretation of EVA".

I mean, I understand why people took the interview out of context. Anno saying something along the lines of "the only reason people like Rei is because the nukes turned them all into a bunch of whiny babies" is a pretty extreme thing to say, and it comes off as him saying that he hates Rei and her fans. I'm sure the real meaning of the interview is somewhat more nuanced, but it's somewhat hard to deduce beneath all the fan bashing and "back in my day we had real men" style rambling.

[EscapismIsBad]

Definitely, through Rei Quantum form, Giant Naked Rei or a manifestation during instrumentality.

[ArtyumR]

She's such a beloved character I can't imagine she doesn't appear at all for an entire movie and is simply replaced by an entirely separate character that only looks like her. But with Anno's recent comments about Rei and knowing he doesn't have any emotional attachment to her character whatsoever I don't know. What do you think?

Nahhhh We Rei Q fans now.

T. Hideaki Anno.

[Drunken_Skunk]

I think she will. Wasn't the reason that Unit 1 couldn't synchronize with Shinji is that the original Rei's soul was trapped in Unit 1. Unit 1 was fighting Unit 13 in the trailer, so I'm pretty sure she will appear again. Of course, Anno might be screwing with us again, given that he did lie to us before, but who knows? I really like the original Rei too

[Kendrix]

Now I'm sure she'll show up in some form because her presence in EVA is an obvious checkovs gun.

The real question is whether she will show up for a last farewell conversation/ brief thematic resolution like Kaworu in EoE (and play a role like Aerith in 'Advent Children') or if she will emerge from EVA 01 in flesh and blood.

The former is pretty much a given & already heavily alluded to in "Until you come to me"; The latter is not impossible, but unlikely, because she is basically treated as being dead - Shinji pretty much outright grieves for her in Q.

If she comes out, we'd have another character who is still mentally 14 and has no clue about the post timeskip world & that could be interesting, but it might also be precisely what Anno doesn't want if Shinji having to deal with that complete isolation & the different world is what he wants the final emotional crux to be. Also she could go and say to ReiQ "Hey I'm not that special either, I'm super confused too, you do you." and while that could be interesting and moving it could also be "too easy", maybe he wants ReiQ to work it out even if she can't have the absolute certainty of actually meeting Rei II.
I don't think it would immediately take all the difficulty out of the plot & it might have its own potential, but if impedes the particular plot that Anno wants to do it's not going to happen.

[EvaRei789]

Now I'm sure she'll show up in some form because her presence in EVA is an obvious checkovs gun.

The real question is whether she will show up for a last farewell conversation/ brief thematic resolution like Kaworu in EoE (and play a role like Aerith in 'Advent Children') or if she will emerge from EVA 01 in flesh and blood.
.

Her emerging from the Eva would be awesome ngl but I doubt it would happen. I like that she was developed more in the first two movies and it would suck if they just dropped her entire character arc with no resolution

[Blockio]

Assuming that Anno has any of the narrative skills we like to give him credit for, Rei Q's arc is going to invovle becoming her own person and breaking away from Rei 2, so the latter is going to show up in some extent by necessity

[Gendo'sPapa]

I do think we’ll see the Rei from 1.0 & 2.0 return.

I also wouldn’t be surprised, if she doesn’t die off early or something, if Rei Q gives herself a new name in the final film. She’s always referred to as Rei Ayanami (Tentative Name) in Khara’s merchandise/marketing.

My fan theory is in the first half of 3.0+1.0 Asuka (and maybe Mari) keeps referring to her by some rude nickname - Robot, Drone, Miss Orders, something along those lines - and if Rei Q awakening to her own individuality is a big part of the films story maybe in an emotional scene at the start of the third act she’ll ask Shinji to please refer to her by a name of her choosing. I feel this could have been set up in 1.0 with the quick dream sequence where we hear Yui and Gendo talking about naming their child and then we hear Rei after a few options - Rei... Rei... Ikari Rei... - say her name.

Ideally this would be in a mirror scene to the sequence from 1.0 when Shinji asked that Rei why she pilots the Eva and her response was “it’s a bond with all people and because I have no one” only now she pilots because “It’s a bond with all people and I do have a bond with myself and at least one person” (then she offers Shinji a hand and that’s a shot from the previous trailer).

[Heaven Piercing Man]

Considering she was supposed to die permanently in 2.0 i don't expect her to be back beyond some ghostly quantum presence coming from EVA-01.

But I can't help but wonder how would the Near 3rd Impact would have happened or differed with her dead.

[Kendrix]

Probably exactly like the end of 25': just with EVA 00's slurped out helmet or it's self-destruct crater in place of the eviscerated EVA 02. Cue epic scream, EVA 01 blowing off the armor, spreading wings, and cut to black.

Supposedly the one thing that never changed during is "Mari has a fight at the start" (with the Third angel possibly becoming a template for the Wunder later on) and "Shinji loses control of his EVA at the end", which is imho exactly like it should be framed; The absence of the "action arc" makes the un-controllability of the EVAs a lot more emphasized in Rebuild.

IDk if the original draft would have included something more like EoE where there was a deliberate choice ("then they can all just die") but as far as Rebuild goes, he never wanted anything like what happened, had no idea it could happen, he had no idea it even did happen until Kaworu showed him.
He lost control of the EVA -
I don't think he was conscious at all from the moment onwards where we see him & Rei sort of fade to white inside the plug.
He simply panickedly slammed his hands across the keyboard, hit the God Mode button with his elbow, and forgot to turn it off, mostly 'cause he did not know of the urgent need to do so - he managed to control it all through concentrated willpower which ceased to be present the moment he felt the relief of having gotten Rei out. Judging by that fountain of blood when Zeruel skewers EVA 01, he was also mortally wounded throughout the whole ordeal and would have bled out a few minutes later if he had not dissolved into LCL when he did; Perhaps that's exactly what he believed to be happening when he lost consciousness.

And then bam - there's nothing in the driver's seat apart from perhaps Yui, or, if Reichu's theory bears fruit, EVA 01's true nature as one of the Adams

Most likely, he didn't expect to survive - if you appreciate the irony - but in the end, the effect was that he lived (not Rei) and everyone else died...


That said, I remember that a lot of people compared the 2.0 finale to the one from utena's finale.
At that time, I had not seen Utena yet, but it should've tipped me up -
Because Utena doesn't actually succeed to get Anthy out despite her best efforts and at least appears to just die sensibly, with the villain remarking that she doesn't seem to have affected any change at all much like Gendo going "all according to plan"
- But the victory is not physical, but spiritual. She may not have changed Anthy's situation, but she moved her to ditch the villain '(something she could only do herself) on her own and all her friends to get on with their lives.
I've always been super annoyed when anyone compares Rei to Anthy tbh they are very different characters with different fundamental points, it's the same sort of shallow, point.missing comparison as comparing Lord of the Rings to Song of Ice and fire.

But if we're talking about this particular scene, the victory was not pulling Rei out; That was something that couldn't be changed. It was telling her she's irreplaceable. So far Shinji has stayed true to that belief & I feel it will have some long-term consequences in the end.

In other words, "You can't disappear ppl's problems, but it still matters that you care"

Under that set o assumptions it's certainly unlikely that they'll be reunited in the flesh, but that's not the most important thing, we all part and we all die in the end

[Line]

Yes. I imagine something, like all Reis Ayanami at least to me, are pretty much the same personne and they're all are connected subconsciously in a "Instrumentality" sort of way fashion, so even though we willl not see Rei II miraculously ramping out of Eva 01 like a child out of a mother womb, I'm sure that's if Rei Q start to care for Shinji and bond with him, which will seem to be a good hunch of this film theme, then she could develop once again as her own individual, just like how her previous version tried before her.

I'm pretty sure that's the connection of what I am talking about, will make Rei II surging somehow through Rei Q. Every new clones of Rei that's come out of the Reiaquarium and are given conscious, not just sub(conscious) and a right to walk on this world after the one before died, is as if, everytime Rei is reincarnated. They might not be the same personne every cycle, but it's still the same soul/personne.

So, if you take it this way. Then, yes.

[Zusuchan]

What would be the point of Rei Q developing her own personality only to end up as a "replacement" of Rei II? Everything seems to be hinting at Rei II and Rei Q truly being different persons.

[Jäeger]

What would be the point of Rei Q developing her own personality only to end up as a "replacement" of Rei II? Everything seems to be hinting at Rei II and Rei Q truly being different persons.

It's called "wishful thinking", because the still don't accept what Q did

I'm pretty sure she is gonna make an appearence.....as a ghost. Rei Q is obviously a different person (far away from what Rei III was) and what makes the new movie interesting is the way she is gonna be developed. I doubt she is gonna be given a god role.

[FXArmaros98]

What would be the point of Rei Q developing her own personality only to end up as a "replacement" of Rei II? Everything seems to be hinting at Rei II and Rei Q truly being different persons.

It's called "wishful thinking", because the still don't accept what Q did

I'm pretty sure she is gonna make an appearence.....as a ghost. Rei Q is obviously a different person (far away from what Rei III was) and what makes the new movie interesting is the way she is gonna be developed. I doubt she is gonna be given a god role.

I could be wrong but I remember that in You Can Not Redo there was a scene where Rei Q while immersed in the LCL had seen a Rei Quantum. Such a thing also happened in Until You Come To Me, Rei Quantum appears for a brief moment reflected in Rei Q's eyes and then apparently Shinji seems to notice her, curious the fact that in the mirror of water you could see Shinji not with his plugsuit of Eva 13 but with his school uniform .. Maybe the Until You Come To Me refers to the memories and knowledge of Rei II that Rei Q will succeed in one way or another, thus forming a more mature Rei that has the experience of his previous selves.

[silvermoonlight]

I am still wondering if the Rei Shinji saw in the first shot like series which was identical in rebuild 1.11 was that Rei, since Q Rei seems to have taken a very different path.

Also a Rei does appear outside Q Rei's tank before vanishing in the bubbles in 3.33, but I always thought that one was the one trapped in Shinji's player and re merging with her old self hence why Q Rei starts to wake up from her haze.

[FXArmaros98]

I am still wondering if the Rei Shinji saw in the first shot like series which was identical in rebuild 1.11 was that Rei, since Q Rei seems to have taken a very different path.

Also a Rei does appear outside Q Rei's tank before vanishing in the bubbles on 3.33, but I always thought that one was the one trapped in Shinji's player and re merging with her old self hence why Q Rei starts to wake up from her haze.

Merging the minds of the 2 Rei into one being seems to me the best choice to avoid having 2 Rei around. Let's not forget that in the latest trailer Rei (we don't know which one) is apparently still being used for Instrumentality .. Lilith has exploded in LCL in 3.0 but in one of the trailers (if I'm not mistaken the one before the one released a few days ago) you could see a Rei-Lilith made of blood .. I wonder if to carry out the resurrection of Lilith mentioned by SEELE it was necessary to first destroy her body and then use her soul on a new one.