Questions about 3.0+1.01

[GlassReality45]

After putting it off for a while, I finally watched 3.0+1.01, and I really liked a lot of it. There were a lot of things that confused me as well, though, and I want to ask if anyone here can shed some light on them, as I'm kinda lost with some of the lore here that doesn't get fully explained.

Specificallyyy... (I apologize in advance for the long list)

- Who is Mari? If she was an old colleague of Yui and Fuyutsuki's, why is she, well, a teenage girl again now?
- What did Fuyutsuki do? He was talking all cryptic like he had some plan other than Gendō's, and there was that whole conversation with Mari, but they never explained his plans and it didn't seem to me like he was actually doing anything.
- What happened to Gendō? Did he relegate control of Instrumentality to Shinji or something?
- What happened to Asuka? Why did she have to leave? What even did "she's gone" mean? Where is she?
- How did Shinji get the power to remake the world?
- Why did Shinji know about the original TV series? Was it that Instrumentality gave him awareness of the real world?
- What did Kaoru mean when he said Kaji "gave [him] salvation?" The two have never interacted on-screen. I'm... low-key baffled by the choice to make Kaoru and Kaji's final major moments in the saga a conversation that reflects on some sort of deep connection that we've never seen before.
- Why is Mari the one person besides Shinji that seems to remember the universe reset? Why does her Evangelion defy that reset? And why can she suddenly age again?
- Is there any meaning to Shinji ending up with Mari or is it just "eh we gotta have him end up with someone so use the least polarizing one i guess"

[nerv bae]

After someone smarter than me answers these questions the resulting Q&A can probably be pasted directly into the incomplete 3+1 FAQ.

[PSIWasHere]

- Why did Shinji know about the original TV series? Was it that Instrumentality gave him awareness of the real world?

I may be incorrect, But If I'm not mistaken, instrumentality basically allowed Shinji to see all possibilities relating to Evangelion, I believe NGE being showcased was just a representation of this
simply because NGE is the only real depiction of one of these possibilities.

Also I'm pretty sure the reason why Mari was able to defy the reset was because she was stuck in some sort of halfway point with Shinji during the reset which is given a basis via the sea, why this is, I'm not certain
but I'm sure that It's something to do with her promising Shinji that she'd come for him. As for Shinji "ending up" with Mari, I think it comes down to the fact that Mari is the only person alongside Shinji that retains her memory of the previous world, possibly due to her being in the aforementioned halfway point, or something like that. In terms of her "ending up" with Shinji, I've heard many reasons as to why it wasn't really meant to be like that in a romantic sense, there's a long post somewhere on here that describes that a little more eloquently than I, but the gist is that she is representative of that Shinji will still find love and happiness despite the fact that his role as pilot has ended, as he previously sought validation for his existence by being needed by those who needed him to pilot.

Take what I'm saying with a heavy grain of salt though, I'm just as uncertain as you.

[Sachiel64]

Hi there!

I just rewatched 3.0+1.0 last night with some friends who hadn't seen it yet. Figured I'd throw in my two cents here from my understanding of the narrative.

- Who is Mari? If she was an old colleague of Yui and Fuyutsuki's, why is she, well, a teenage girl again now?

Mari seemed to be a classmate of Gendo, Yui, and Fuyutsuki. She fell pray to the "Curse of Eva" and therefore hasn't aged in decades. I figure that being a founding member of Nerv, she was probably exposed to many tests and experiments that halted her aging while the Evangelions were being developed. I do think she is physically a bit older than the other pilots, maybe in her early 20's as opposed to 14 like Shinji, Rei, and Asuka. Still, her actual age is probably closer to Gendo's. She's just been submerging herself in LCL and her Eva plug for that long at the start of 2.0 when we first see her.

- What did Fuyutsuki do? He was talking all cryptic like he had some plan other than Gendō's, and there was that whole conversation with Mari, but they never explained his plans and it didn't seem to me like he was actually doing anything.

I believe in the end Fuyutsuki made the decision to rebel against Gendo as well. He was just feigning loyalty and playing his part up until he has that conversation with Mari near the end of the film. It seemed like he started moving away from Gendo's plan in 3.0. There was that scene shortly after Rei 3 (or Goth Rei) brings Shinji back to Nerv after he awakens from Unit 01 aboard the Wunder. Fuyutsuki asks Gendo why he won't approach Shinji and explain to him what had happened and was happening. You can see he is visibly cross with Gendo and even raises his voice at him. This then of course leads him to take matters into his own hands by meeting with Shinji for that game of shogi, during which Fuyutsuki starts to fill in Shinji on all that had happened. I also really like his line about how, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Destroying the world is easy, but rebuilding it is difficult." I think you can read that as Fuyutsuki believing that Gendo is continuing to take the easy way out in seeking to start Fourth Impact, rather than trying to face reality and rebuild following the Near Third Impact.
Therefore, I believe he planned to let Mari absorb Units 09, 10, 11, and 12, the Evangelions that were all “vessels of Adam.” These were the Adam's that were in the Chamber of Guf when Second Impact began. They appear as white figures with red cores and halos. This imbued Mari’s Unit 08 with the power of four god like angels, become Unit 08 plus 09 plus 10 plus 11 plus 12. That is how she was able to follow Shinji and Gendo into the anti-universe, and bring Shinji back to reality following the confrontation.

- What happened to Gendō? Did he relegate control of Instrumentality to Shinji or something?

I think that is left up to interpretation. Did he receive some kind of punishment for abandoning his humanity and absorbing the Key of Nebuchadnezzar? Was he allowed to reunite with Yui only for that brief moment? Was he allowed to transcend humanity with her in Unit 1 because he finally faced himself and accepted himself? Did he turn over the decisive power of instrumentality to Shinji after facing himself? I think you could make strong cases for all these arguments and others beyond them.

- What happened to Asuka? Why did she have to leave? What even did "she's gone" mean? Where is she?

Much like everyone at the end, Asuka was able to accept herself. She was honest and open with Shinji, proving that she too had grown and matured, breaking the "Curse of Eva" and aging up to 28. She has made peace with her past, even if she was part of a series in the rebuild universe just like Rei. She chooses to live and find her own path. You can see her seated on a bench next to Rei and Kaworu at the train station during the film's final scene.
On a side note, it's my personal interpretation that Asuka being made into a series of clones like Rei is more of a metatextual choice on Anno's part. Her character has been warped, reinterpreted, and redefined by so many other creatives and fans since the original series aired, that she has become another doll that can be easily replicated. It fits into the whole metatextual nature of the Rebuild films and Anno reflecting on what Evangelion has done to him, anime, and the world at large since its initial release.
So I think you could read "she's gone" as the Asuka from the show and EoE, Asuka Langley Soryu, the character being gone and lost to time. Or even as that very version of Rebuild Asuka, Asuka Shikinami Langley, letting her childhood go and growing into an adult.

- How did Shinji get the power to remake the world?

The Spear of Gaius. The new spear that Misato, Ritsuko, and all of Wille sent him. It's as if to say that the will power of all humanity can rival the power of gods on its own, which of course was represented by the Lance of Longinus, and the Spear of Cassius. In keeping with the theme of rebuilding, though it is extremely difficult, it can be done through the sheer will power of humanity. Life will find a way. I thought it was a very uplifting message.

- Why did Shinji know about the original TV series? Was it that Instrumentality gave him awareness of the real world?

This has to do with Shinji and Gendo entering the anti-universe. It’s a world of the infinite and anything that ever could exist. It’s a metaphor for the mind of Anno and his imagination. In that realm all realities are possible, even ones that may have already come to pass, like the original show. It brings back the ongoing cyclical theme of Evangelion. I think it makes sense to read the whole Rebuild film series as the very next cycle, following the end of the original series and EoE. I also thought it was nice how it mirrors Episode 26 of NGE when Shinji’s moment of self-actualization lets him see the alternate timeline where he and his friends are all just students, Misato is the teacher, and Rei is the new transfer student.

- What did Kaoru mean when he said Kaji "gave [him] salvation?" The two have never interacted on-screen. I'm... low-key baffled by the choice to make Kaoru and Kaji's final major moments in the saga a conversation that reflects on some sort of deep connection that we've never seen before.

I think there is a great amount of implication that Kaji and Kaworu spent a good amount of time together following the events of 2.0. With Kaji already at Nerv and Kaworu arriving at the end of that film, it wouldn’t be any stretch that he and Kaworu could have met and bonded. I think Kaji instilled the value of all life on Earth to Kawrou, making him sympathetic to what Kaji wanted to achieve with Wille.
I also think there is more to their bond than is shown on screen, but it is hinted at with the explanation that Kaji was the one who stopped Third Impact in 3.0+1.0. At the end of 2.0, when Shinji triggered Third Impact by saving Rei, Kawrou arrives in Unit 06 an seemingly stops it all on his own by impaling Unit 01 with the Spear of Cassius. In 3.0+1.0 when Misato is having a flashback of Kaji’s final moments, he’s seen in front of a helicopter that is ready to take off. In 3.0 when Shinji and Kaworu reach Terminal Dogma in Unit 13, you can briefly see what appears to be that very helicopter down amongst all the Evangelion skulls that surround the headless corpse of Lilith. I think Gendo attempted to restart Third Impact at some point between the end of 2.0 and the beginning of 3.0. This lead to Kaji heroically sacrificing his life to stop the continuation of Third Impact, leaving Kaworu as his ally at Nerv and Misato to carry on his vision as leader of Wille.

- Why is Mari the one person besides Shinji that seems to remember the universe reset? Why does her Evangelion defy that reset? And why can she suddenly age again?

Again, this has to do with Mari following Gendo and Shinji into the anti-universe, using the power of the absorbed Units 09, 10, 11, and 12. By taking in the power of the Evas that were “vessels of Adam” she is able to find Shinji and bring him back to reality after making his wish. She then ages up with the rest of the group because Shinji wished for a world where Evangelions never existed. In a world where there were never any Evas, there’d be no “Curse of Eva” either, thus allowing all the pilots to age normally. I think you could also read this as her accepting the past and embracing this new world without Evangelions herself. She did really love piloting them.

- Is there any meaning to Shinji ending up with Mari or is it just "eh we gotta have him end up with someone so use the least polarizing one i guess"

I think that it has to do with how much Shinji has matured. He’s moved on from the childish crushes he shared with Asuka and Rei, and is now able to handle an adult relationship. I even think you could argue that Shinji and Mari just end up as friends. Either way they would be the only two who still have the memory of a world where Evangelions exist, so it gives them that connection either way. I also think this is metatextual. Fans have shipped Shinji with Rei and Asuka for years, so having him instead end up with the newest character further speaks to the theme of new beginnings and moving on from the past.


I hope all that helps, or was at least interesting to read. Again, this is just my take on things at this moment. There are so many ways to read 3.0+1.0 and the Rebuild films as a whole. I’m sure as time goes by we’ll all notice more things and come to deeper understanding. I’m sure it will lead to further philosophical debates too. Thrice Upon a Time has only been out internationally for just over a month after all. I look forward to exploring them all with this community.

Cheers guys!

[nerv bae]

I hope all that helps, or was at least interesting to read. Again, this is just my take on things at this moment.

Awesome set of answers, thank you.

I have a new question for the thread: I'm dumb, at the south pole what's the difference between the Gates of Hell and the Gates of Guf? (Or, if the Gates of Hell is just the Second Impact's Gates of Guf, why does it have a different name?)

I also have a response to this answer:

Therefore, I believe he planned to let Mari absorb Units 09, 10, 11, and 12, the Evangelions that were all “vessels of Adam.” These were the Adam's that were in the Chamber of Guf when Second Impact began. They appear as white figures with red cores and halos.

From my catching-up reading over the last month, there appear to be a few competing theories about the Adams, which (including this one) are:

1) The Adams' Vessels are the radiant giants at Second Impact
2) The four Wunder-class ships are the radiant giants at Second Impact
3) Eva-13, Eva-01, Eva Mark.6, and maybe the Key (?) are the radiant giants at Second Impact

I'm not aware if any of these theories has been picked out as a winner yet.

[C.T.1290]

Fans have shipped Shinji with Rei and Asuka for years, so having him instead end up with the newest character further speaks to the theme of new beginnings and moving on from the past.

Yet, despite that fact, some fans are so certain that Shinji might be reunited with Asuka and end up as a pair. That could also be wishful thinking. Think maybe some people had missed the point of the whole film, or the theme that Anno was trying to get across?

[Sachiel64]

SPOILER: Show

I have a new question for the thread: I'm dumb, at the south pole what's the difference between the Gates of Hell and the Gates of Guf? (Or, if the Gates of Hell is just the Second Impact's Gates of Guf, why does it have a different name?)

I also have a response to this answer:

Therefore, I believe he planned to let Mari absorb Units 09, 10, 11, and 12, the Evangelions that were all “vessels of Adam.” These were the Adam's that were in the Chamber of Guf when Second Impact began. They appear as white figures with red cores and halos.

From my catching-up reading over the last month, there appear to be a few competing theories about the Adams, which (including this one) are:

1) The Adams' Vessels are the radiant giants at Second Impact
2) The four Wunder-class ships are the radiant giants at Second Impact
3) Eva-13, Eva-01, Eva Mark.6, and maybe the Key (?) are the radiant giants at Second Impact

I'm not aware if any of these theories has been picked out as a winner yet.

Yeah I'd be curious to see how people will interpret all the language of the film's climax. It almost felt as if the four ships and Eva Series 09, 10, 11, and 12 were all made of the radiant giants or guardian Adams. I think Unit 13 is the one true “god Eva,” a fifth Adam that stands above the other four based on the glimpse we get of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There is a four armed being that bears a striking resemblance. You also see five crucifixes with halos as Nerv HQ and the Wunder approach the South Pole. Four upright, the other and largest by far laying down between them. Maybe it was symbolic of Unit 13 being in stasis and not quite being awoken at that point.

As for the Doors of Hell vs Gates of Hell vs Gates of Guf vs Doors of Guf vs Chamber of Guf, I can't say for certain. Maybe they could be used interchangeably? Maybe Misato says that in reference to the hellish things a Fourth Impact or Additional Impact would bring about? In a figurative and literal sense? I'm not sure, but that's where my mind is personally at this point. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if there is some larger significance to saying Doors of Hell in keeping with the Judeo-Christian themes of the show and films. I'm not theologian by any means, so I couldn't say.

Also, I don't think you are dumb dude. The terminology and world building can be so thick and saturated in just a small amount of time that it's only natural to be a bit confused at certain times or about certain things. I often find myself lost and struggling to connect the dots in my head. Sometimes we can read too deeply into things that can be taken at face value, while at the same time overlooking others that may have several different ways they can be read. I think all the varying levels you can engage and interact with Eva at are a big part of what makes it so great. The narrative can work at a very surface level, and at a greater depth.

Yet, despite that fact, some fans are so certain that Shinji might be reunited with Asuka and end up as a pair. That could also be wishful thinking. Think maybe some people had missed the point of the whole film, or the theme that Anno was trying to get across?

I hadn't heard that, but it does sound like wishful thinking based on the narrative of 3.0+1.0. It seemed pretty clear that Asuka's entry plug landed back at Kensuke's place in Village 3. Maybe that's just the Asuka that Shinji saves from Unit 13 and the one we see at the train station is another version of Asuka living her own life? In a way the entire final scene could be looked at as a curtain call of sorts for the main cast, ignoring narrative continuity so as to give them all a “final bow” in a sense. But of course, there's always going to be fan faction. People can redo and rewrite things any way they like for themselves. I'd just hope not to a point where they project what they want onto the film itself at the loss of the author's voice and their true intentions.

Don't quote a entire post. I put that huge quote in a spoiler tag. – JoelcrNeto

[Mark 6]

Wow, excellent analysis Sachiel64 and everyone else. Very interesting reads.

[::KL7::]

I have a question about the film, and it may be something that has been covered on another thread, but as I’ve been away to avoid spoilers and only recently came back to the forum, but does anyone know or have an idea on who’s aware of the loop other than Kaworu? If this has been covered I apologize, and hope someone can point me in the right direction on where this has been discussed. Thanks.

[Zoop]

Gendo, most likely after using the Key of Nebuchadnezzar, is why he is basically omnipotent and knows how things will most likely play out and how he has managed to fool Kaworu with the spears.
And during instrumentality, Shinji becomes aware of it too i think.

[nerv bae]

Gonna add #4 to my theories list from a few months ago:

From my catching-up reading over the last month, there appear to be a few competing theories about the Adams ... :

1) The Adams' Vessels are the radiant giants at Second Impact
2) The four Wunder-class ships are the radiant giants at Second Impact
3) Eva-13, Eva-01, Eva Mark.6, and maybe the Key (?) are the radiant giants at Second Impact

4) The Eva pilots are the radiant giants at Second Impact (as referenced by this recent post by Derantor).

[Blockio]

They're not exactly competing in the way that you think they are. I'm admittedly not on top of my deeplore theory game anymore, so Dera will probably correct me on at least some part of it, but as it currently appears, all four of these are true to an extent. There appears to be a lot of offscreen shenanigans going on to get to the point where there are four radiant giants (mostly hinging on the question of how Lilith ties into the whole thing), but broadly speaking, the Adams were split into multiple entities, with the soulds being implanted into the pilots, the biomass of the bodies becoming 01, 06, 13 and the key, their cores being morphed into the vessels and the exact role of the ships being... messy and so far noone has found an explanation that doesn't leave substantial loose ends somewhere, but they are undoubtedly related in some fashion

[Derantor]

Yeah, it's ... complicated. It'll sound like a copout, but I can't really explain it right now, at least not in a way which is completely watertight or satisfactory. There's so much work that's been done over the years that it's extremely difficult to condense it down, and a lot of it is still up for debate anyway.

One thing I can correct Blockio on is that there are indeed five Adams; hence the five crosses, and the procession of five figures in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Adams are Adam, Lilith, Luvah, Urizen and Tharmas - corresponding to Kaworu, Rei, Shinji, Asuka and Mari. The last three names are borrowed from Blake's mythology, but that's just a convention for the sake of convenience - otherwise, we'd have to refer to them as "Adams 3/4/5". It's no different from calling them Alice, Bob and Claudia instead.

The most direct piece of evidence that the Pilots are indeed the Adams is provided by Asuka. Like Blockio said, Units 01, 06 and 13 are the straggler Adams. 13 is special: it's got four arms. Conversely, Units 02 and 03 are just normal Eva units. But: what happens to both of them when they interact with Asuka? They sprout two additional arms. Now, you might say "but that's because of the 9th Angel". But what is the 9th Angel? Well ... Kaworu is the First, Rei is the Second ... and Asuka is the 9th. Take a look at the Adam's Vessels: Mk.09 sticks out a bit, because it's able to produce this blue, gooy, core-like substance. Just like the 9th Angel, but it's clearly not the 9th Angel - we know that one sits in Asuka's eye. But it is indeed a Vessel of an Adams - which one? Urizen's, of course. What does Asuka do, shortly before her choker goes off? Her body turns into blue core. And Original Shikinami similarly turns blue when she pulls Asuka offscreen. Ritsuko says at the end of Ha that there's no physiological contamination remaining; yet we see that Asuka's left eye is clearly changed. So, how can she not be contaminated, when she clearly is contaminated? Because you can't contaminate yourself with yourself.

The Code 999 scene provides four additional pieces of evidence: firstly, Asuka says that she'll break 02's ATF "with her own hands" [correction: she says she'll "neutralize 02's ATF with her own" - I was getting ahead of myself, because we are shown her ATF in the form of her hands in that exact moment] - while we're shown her Radiant Giant hands, which are, of course, glowing blue. Secondly, she sprouts an Adam's Halo. It's that kind of Halo Unit 01 has too, when it goes Radiant Giant during Ha. We know that Unit 02 is in itself not special - and Angels don't produce Adams halos. Unless, of course, that Angel is also an Adams: which leaves only Asuka as the source for that halo. Thirdly, notice also how Unit 02's body doesn't actually transform (only its head does): you can still see it inside the Radiant Giant. And lastly, pay attention to the Radiant Giants head: it's got a braid of flaming orange hair. The same kind of hair Asuka has during the whole sequence. Evas have no hair: the only exception is Unit 01 at the very end of EoE, and at that point, there is no distinction between "Unit 01" and "Yui".

In other words: we're not seeing 02 entering Beast Mode or transforming into a Radiant Giant: we're seeing Asuka creating a Radiant Giant body for herself; a body which looks awfully similar to Unit 13, on account of also having four arms. Unit 13 is of course a Straggler Adams. Asuka looks like an Adams. She also walks like an Adams, and she does indeed quack like an Adams. She is, in fact, an Adams. Which is why it was necessary to bind her to human form when she was created. Which goes for all the Pilots, who carry the souls of the Adams. That in turn also explains why there are only five Pilot candidates in NTE, and not a classroom full of spares: you need a special soul to be eligible.

Edit: Also, most of the credit for the theory goes to Reichu, who came up with it in the first place, long before Shin was released. I've been working with her on the theories over the last couple of years.

[Settie]

Angels don't produce Adams halos. Unless, of course, that Angel is also an Adams

Quick question, where do the Mark 7s fit into it all? there's thousands of em and they all get halos.

[Derantor]

That's the part where I refer you to the beginning of my last post. It's complicated. The Mk.07s aren't well understood at all at this point, and the possible answers I could currently provide rely on a lot of other supporting speculation and concepts which would need a rigorous explanation first. So, I don't have a good answer, yet.

[Blockio]

There are two different types of halos; any angel produces a halo, but the halo of things that we know for a fact are Adams (aka chiefly 01, 13 and the flashback) have a different shape than the rest of the halos. It's admittedly a bit obscure, and on a cursory watch most folks probably aren't gonna pick up on it, but it's just one of the things where NTE demands some closer attention to piece together the visual cues it places.

comparison  SPOILER: Show

If you look at the halo of the third, fourth, sixth and seventh, you'll see that it has a very clear and defined outline. Images kinda suck, but they are good enough for our purposes here.





Meanwhile the Adam-Evas have a unsteady, fuzzy outline

However - and this is where things get interesting - the 07s have the same type of fuzzy-outlined halo as the Adams.

SPOILER: Show

My gut feeling is that it might have something to do with some of the more peculiar head features of the 07s; namely the fact that the chin armor is an exact match for 06's helmet and the weird antenna they have on the back of their heads; for lack of a better term, it could be that they are "extensions" of another Adams-based in some fashion; it could have something to do with soul shenanigans (remember Kaworu's line about "this pilot's soul is somewhere else"? This is more than a bit tenative, but I feel like that might be a worthwhile angle to approach this from), that they are remote controlled units, running on a sort of spirit-link.

[nerv bae]

The Adams are Adam, Lilith, Luvah, Urizen and Tharmas ... .
...
Edit: Also, most of the credit for the theory goes to Reichu, who came up with it in the first place, long before Shin was released. I've been working with her on the theories over the last couple of years.

Glad to see these three Blake names tossed around again; forum search shows that they haven't had much currency on EGF since Reichu's departure. Blake-ism was my first exposure to NTE lore and I think it has a lot of explanatory power.

If you look at the halo of the third, fourth, sixth and seventh, you'll see that it has a very clear and defined outline. Images kinda suck, but they are good enough for our purposes here.

comparison  SPOILER: Show

I think the fifth conforms to this pattern too:

SPOILER: Show

[The18°angel]

if Shinji, mari and Asuka are really the adams reincarnated in human form then how do we explain this.

1) yui was pregnant and we see that Shinji was born naturally in addition to the fact that gendo abandoned a demi-god in a train station because he didn't even know if it was going to be useful to him in his plans.

2) what was the point that Asuka will fight in a battle royale against her own clones if by default she is already able to pilot an eva for the simple fact of being an Adam.(and why are they two Asuka's?)

3) exactly how would this explain the existence of maria iscariotte and mari makinami who are apparently the same person because mari is immortal / clone / something? who was present when Shinji was born.


by the way seeing 3.0 + 1.0 notice something when gendo is remembering his past yui appears in a couple of pictures wearing her plug suit in the past instead of normal clothes ... perhaps the final impact was screwing up reality in such a way that it was projected to the past? that would certainly explain mari as a kind of uroboros paradox. She has no origin, she just exists?

[Derantor]

Glad to see these three Blake names tossed around again; forum search shows that they haven't had much currency on EGF since Reichu's departure. Blake-ism was my first exposure to NTE lore and I think it has a lot of explanatory power.

Glad to hear that, but keep in mind that "Blakeism" doesn't exist. His mythology helped solve some mysteries, but it has been completely replaced by an NTE-Internal framework. In fact, Blake's mythology was never assumed to be the framework underlying NTE, it just had certain parallels to what happens in NTE which make a few things more obvious.

@18thAngel:

1: Being born naturally and having a god-soul merged into the body is no more difficult/different from cloning somebody and transplanting a god-soul in the body. As for Gendo: Gendo's being Gendo, I guess. Like you said, he didn't know if he would even need Shinji, and his plans don't seem to involve him at all, right up until the end.

2: Current hypothesis is [redacted].

3: No clue, I don't understand Mari & Maria.

[nerv bae]

Glad to hear that, but keep in mind that "Blakeism" doesn't exist. His mythology helped solve some mysteries, but it has been completely replaced by an NTE-Internal framework.

Is the NTE-internal framework written up anywhere public? I can't recall seeing it written up neatly here on EGF or over on ARQA APOCRYPHA (either way, she needs to update that darn blog lol).

1: Being born naturally and having a god-soul merged into the body is no more difficult/different from cloning somebody and transplanting a god-soul in the body.

I'm guessing that the Artificial Evolution Laboratory figures in to this topic somehow.