The Last Train Station Scene

[Gendo's Glasses]

What confuses me is how we get from (a) Kaworu and Kaji taking over at Nerv, to (b) Kaworu working with Gendo and Fuyutsuki once the latter two re-assume control of Nerv.

3.33 illustrates that Kaworu, Gendo and Fuyutsuki are at-odds. Fuyutsuki calls Kaworu "SEELE's boy" and implies they have no control over him. So, they think he's working for SEELE and assume he'll be an impediment to their plans. With that and the ending of the second film, it seems clear that there's some antipathy between Gendo and SEELE and that, by the third film, they appear to be allies of absolute necessity. I do wonder how they got ousted, though. My assumption had been that it was the UN that did it, in the sense that the two commanders abandoned their posts to avoid being interrogated. But then, who appointed Kaworu?

[T. K. Simon]

The ending is really confusing for me.

In my opinion, Shinji created 1 world without Evas, but he did not eliminate the other (in which he also eliminate Evas)
In short, I create another reality

[Archer]

The ending is really confusing for me.

In my opinion, Shinji created 1 world without Evas, but I did not eliminate the other (in which I also eliminate Evas)
In short, I create another reality

Basically, there’s two options for what Shinji does:
1. He literally creates a new world where Evas never existed, which develops into a fictionalized version of our real world. This is represented by the switch to a live-action shot of Anno’s hometown with Mari and Shinji turning 3D as it zooms out from the train station. The “Evangelion world” still remains, but is now free from the threat of more Evas/Angels/whatnot in the future.
2. He creates a “world without Eva” by removing everything Eva-related from the “Evangelion world”, which removes the threat of more Eva shenanigans in the future and leaves humanity free to rebuild civilization. The switch to live action is a visual metaphor for how Evangelion is now over and we, the viewers, are also being returned to reality like Shinji and Mari.

With Option 1, it is ambiguous whether Shinji and Mari (and the other pilots, minus Shikinami who is explicitly shown to have returned) choose to stay in the new continuity after having put Eva behind them, or if the train station acts as a nexus between worlds that lets them return to help rebuild society.

With Option 2, the train station is explicitly a mental construct inside the anti-universe where he’s stranded after Instrumentality, until Mari finds him and brings him back to reality.

The scene is almost certainly intentionally vague in order to let you draw your own conclusions. So if you don’t “get what’s going on”, that’s totally fine because there’s specifically enough detail left out so that neither can be explicitly confirmed as “what really happened”.

[penguintruth]

I don't like the idea of Shinji creating a world in which there never was any Evangelions (as if they were the problem), because it's just running away again to another world rather than dealing with the world he was given. Kind of goes against the entire main theme of the franchise.

[Archer]

I disagree, the whole point of the movie is that Shinji has moved on from Eva. He isn’t running away from his problems because Eva isn’t his problem anymore - whether he’s in the “new universe” or the “Eva universe” doesn’t actually matter, because in both cases it’ll be a world where Evangelions aren’t a looming threat on the horizon waiting to destroy the world.

While personally I prefer the interpretation that he goes back to the Eva world, I think part of the point is that it doesn’t matter where he goes because either way he’ll be happy.

[penguintruth]

He can move on from the world of Evas by helping rebuild the society in the world he was born into and help solve its problems rather than rewriting things so that the problems never existed. This new world he creates is just as big a cop-out than the world Gendo wanted. EoE Shinji was mature enough to realize running away to a convenient reality was the same as not existing.

[pwhodges]

He can move on from the world of Evas by helping rebuild the society in the world he was born into and help solve its problems rather than rewriting things so that the problems never existed.

That, of course, is how it went in my ending

[pir2confusion]

Despite occasionally acknowledging the fact that the different Rei’s are, in fact, different characters and people, I feel like she (they, I guess) still get treated interchangeably to an extent, both by the story and by the fans.

Yeah. Rei clones have been often seen treated as interchangeable characters. There were promo videos for Shinji, Rei, Kaworu, Asuka and Misato. In Rei's case it includes from Rei II and Rei Q.

That said, it seems to be bigger differentiation between Rei II and Rei Q. The merchandise always call Rei Q as Rei Ayanami [Tentative name].

Isn't the point that Rei with Long hair who is Rei II, holding a doll of Toji and Hikari's kid which is important to Q, supposed to mean that the Rei are the same like their souls merge/return or some kind of thing like that?

[Konja7]

Isn't the point that Rei with Long hair who is Rei II, holding a doll of Toji and Hikari's kid which is important to Q, supposed to mean that the Rei are the same like their souls merge/return or some kind of thing like that?

When Shinji speaks with Rei II in the Instrumentality, he mentioned that Rei Q found her place, then Rei II could also find hers too. This strongly implies that Rei II and Rei Q are different people even if both are Rei Ayanami.

Not to mention that the conflict Rei II has in the Instrumentality (she couldn't imagine a live without the Eva for herself) wouldn't fit with Rei Q's development.


In 3.33, it is implied Rei Q doesn't have a soul in her body. Then, I think Rei Q's soul is Rei II (who is inside Eva-01), which could explain that Rei II has Rei Q memories.

However, as I mentioned, Rei II is different from Rei Q.

[Archer]

Yeah, the main problem is the doll. Rei Q is the one who desperately wants Shinji to pump a baby into her, there’s really no good argument for why Rei 2 would be holding the doll if it wasn’t trying to imply at least SOME degree “continuity” between them.

[Settie]

I'm of two competing thoughts on this.

1. It's entirely meta and those aren't Shinji or Mari anymore but rather Anno and Moyoco finally saying goodbye to eva and finally moving forwards from it towards new projects. Signified by classic eva characters in the background and Shinji going a different direction.

2. Shinji literally created a new reality where only he and Mari crossed over from the eva world. Though said eva world still exists and that's where the remains of Willie and all the village folks and the un-evafied people can restart on a clean world where evas will no longer exits but the scars from them remain, it's also where Asuka got yeeted to. The Rei, Kaworu, Asuka that Shinji sees in the new world aren't the same from eva world, but are instead just look alikes that will be able to have a life without eva.

I've no problems with the 1st interpretation but the 2nd one i'd have massive issues with as it would be just another form of running away from your problems.

[pwhodges]

Having two worlds at the end, one for Shinji and Mari and another for the rest isn't as way out as all that, actually.

At the end of EoE, only Shinji and Asuka have returned to the real world - everyone else is still in instrumentality, though they now have the option to return if they desire. So maybe the rest of the NTE cast will have the possibility of leaving the station when they're ready to.

[Ah Q]

Basically, there’s two options for what Shinji does:
1. He literally creates a new world where Evas never existed, which develops into a fictionalized version of our real world. This is represented by the switch to a live-action shot of Anno’s hometown with Mari and Shinji turning 3D as it zooms out from the train station. The “Evangelion world” still remains, but is now free from the threat of more Evas/Angels/whatnot in the future.
2. He creates a “world without Eva” by removing everything Eva-related from the “Evangelion world”, which removes the threat of more Eva shenanigans in the future and leaves humanity free to rebuild civilization. The switch to live action is a visual metaphor for how Evangelion is now over and we, the viewers, are also being returned to reality like Shinji and Mari.

There is evidence that Shinji created a "world without Eva" in the second sense, i.e., by removing everything Eva-related from the existing world. After Shinji resolves to "rewrite" the world and his parents (as Eva Unit 01 and Eva-13) impale themselves with the Spear of Gaius, the film shows us the results in the existing world: Giant Naked Rei collapses, her wings disappear, and her head explodes; the Eva Infinities released from GNR's exploded head turn into people and animals; and, critically, we get a long shot of the earth revealing that the moon has been returned to normal and the oceans have been turned blue. We know this is the existing world, because in this same shot, we see the seed pods that Asuka ejected from the Wunder. It then cuts to the village, where we see Asuka's ejected entry plug by Kensuke's shack and the Wunder escape vehicles in the water.

In other words, it appears that Shinji "rewrote" the existing world so as to remove at least some of the effects of the Evas: the oceans are no longer red, the land is no longer corefied, the Eva Infinities are now people and animals, and the moon no longer has a red cross-hatch pattern or rapid rotation.

Now, does that imply that Shinji and Mari also went back to the "real world," which has now been "rewritten"? I'm undecided. I really don't know.

[Konja7]

Yeah, the main problem is the doll. Rei Q is the one who desperately wants Shinji to pump a baby into her, there’s really no good argument for why Rei 2 would be holding the doll if it wasn’t trying to imply at least SOME degree “continuity” between them.

I've seen this situation as Rei II having the memories of Rei Q. However, these memories don't change Rei II or make her an amalgamation with Rei Q.

As I said, Rei II shows her own personal conflicts in the Instrumentality, which wouldn't fir Rei Q's development.

[pir2confusion]

It isn't just that Rei 2 is holding a doll but that it is labeled Tsubame meaning that Rei isn't wanting to be a mother but that she has feelings for that baby or if it is all a stage here pretending to be holding something she shouldn't know or have knowledge of. So the Rei's are all linked or this is Shinji creating Rei that is both of them.

[Konja7]

It isn't just that Rei 2 is holding a doll but that it is labeled Tsubame meaning that Rei isn't wanting to be a mother but that she has feelings for that baby or if it is all a stage here pretending to be holding something she shouldn't know or have knowledge of. So the Rei's are all linked or this is Shinji creating Rei that is both of them.

In 3.0, it was implied that Rei Q doesn't have a soul in her body. The most likely is that Rei Q's soul is Rei II (who was inside Eva-01). That's why Rei II seems to have the memories of Rei Q.

However, even if Rei II has Rei Q memories, Rei II mantain her own personality and conflicts (and Shinji still differentiate between Rei II and Rei Q in that part). So, she doesn't seem an amalgamation with Rei Q.

[pir2confusion]

It isn't just that Rei 2 is holding a doll but that it is labeled Tsubame meaning that Rei isn't wanting to be a mother but that she has feelings for that baby or if it is all a stage here pretending to be holding something she shouldn't know or have knowledge of. So the Rei's are all linked or this is Shinji creating Rei that is both of them.

In 3.0, it was implied that Rei Q doesn't have a soul in her body. The most likely is that Rei Q's soul is Rei II (who was inside Eva-01). That's why Rei II seems to have the memories of Rei Q.

However, even if Rei II has Rei Q memories, Rei II mantain her own personality and conflicts (and Shinji still differentiate between Rei II and Rei Q in that part). So, she doesn't seem an amalgamation with Rei Q.

Was it implied she doesn't have any soul or just isn't Rei II's soul? We see in the village that Rei Q is able to become a full person so if she doesn't have a soul then she develops one or always had one. So is the soul something that is able to be created or is the soul something that can't be created? Can the soul be destroyed or is it permenant and that is how it gets recycled at the end of the film for all of the other people? Kaworu has knowledge of dying and waking up as a new body on the moon so either the soul or just the memories can be shared.

[Szmitten]

1. It's entirely meta and those aren't Shinji or Mari anymore but rather Anno and Moyoco finally saying goodbye to eva and finally moving forwards from it towards new projects. Signified by classic eva characters in the background and Shinji going a different direction.

Mercifully Khara staff have recently gone on record (someone source it for me I know I saw it the last few days) to say that Moyoco isn't Mari, and with the CRC reading I've been doing Anno had the absolute minimal involvement with her character (by design in fact, so that she could alter Evangelion as an alien presence without Anno trying to massage her into a status quo role).

[Konja7]

Was it implied she doesn't have any soul or just isn't Rei II's soul?

In 3.33, Kaworu explained that Rei Q couldn't activate the Spear power, because her soul was in the wrong place. That implied that Rei Q could have a soul, but it isn't inside her body.

That's why I said the most likely is Rei Q's soul is Rei II. That would be the reason why Rei II has Rei Q memories.

[Settie]

@Szmitten

Staff may say one thing but the way things come across is not up to them. Shinji being to a certain degree Annos self insert then having someone that isn't involved in eva coming along to basically lead Shinji away from eva is pretty on the nose, even if it wasn't intended that way.