Ha! It is funny because a baby gets dead.

[NAveryW]

The first three times I watched episode 19, I didn't notice that anyone got killed when Unit 02 crashed into the shelter in front of Shinji. I watched it a fourth time a while back and noticed these lines:

"Abandon the Sixth Shelter! All survivors, hurry to the Third Shelter!"
"Take casualties to the Sixth Block."

I suddenly realized something I should have a long time ago: a lot of people were killed offscreen when Unit 02's head crashed into the shelter. The fact that it happened right offscreen and I didn't even notice it was really disturbing to me. Then, today, I watched it a fifth time and noticed you do see some of the people who end up getting crushed:



You see them for less than two seconds, but they look happy enough. You can even hear the baby on the right giggling. (Giggling, yes. Much colder than having the baby cry IMO).

Several cuts later, I noticed something else I hadn't before: covering the rubble around Unit 02's head is purple blood and... red blood? I turned off the subs and, indeed, you can see two or three corpses.



The baby's definitely dead, BTW; he's giggling pretty audibly before the crash and afterwards there's no infant sound to be heard. I'm usually against using the death of a baby you've never seen before as shock value (this was particularly egregious to me in the Battlestar Galactica pilot), but this was done in a masterfully disturbing manner. I didn't even notice until five viewings in.

The only thing that does bother me is the ridiculous improbability that Unit 02 lands juuuust in the right place to land right in front of Shinji and not hurt him, requiring an extraordinarily accurate velocity and angle of flight. I made another thread about things like that before, though, so I won't get any further into that. Still, note that Shinji's desire to sit in a corner as far away as possible from other people saved his life.

So yeah, SSD said this deserved its own thread. Apparently enough other people didn't notice the carnage to make it worthwhile. For anyone who hasn't caught this yet, you're welcome.

[Sailor Star Dust]

Damn you Anno!

...On the plus side, they could all return after 3I if they wished? But uhh... yeah. That's depressing.

EDIT: Shinji looks pretty shocked by all of this by the way, not just the fact it's Eva-02's head in front of him.

Warning, Rebuild 2.0  SPOILER: Show

Also, for what it's worth, there doesn't seem to be anybody sitting by Shinji/no evacuation warnings in 2.0. I didn't notice any dead bodies or anything in that scene and it seems other people that checked the scene out didn't notice that either.

[Axell]

The baby's definitely dead

"He's dead jim"

Anno is a cold blooded man, to put that in for us to find after all this time is just evil. That bastard

[Sailor Star Dust]

Anno is a cold blooded man

Gendo needed to be molded after somebody...?

But yeah. I'm actually speechless right now, I never noticed that before.

[Iron Rooster]

The gore only serves to show just how determined Shinji is to not pilot Unit 01. Even when Asuka has her Eva's head cut off and people are dying right in front of Shinji, the violence just shows how much pressure has to build up before Shinji will pilot Unit 01. This is probably my favorite episode of the series, for the intense action and the feeling of desperation.

On another note, I find it very interesting that Kaji is the one who finally gives the final push to convince Shinji to pilot.

[NAveryW]

Yeah, episode 19 is now solidified as the most disturbing Evangelion episode ever, even without the Zeruel munching. And that's saying something.

[Monk Ed]

Holy shit.

All these years and I never noticed! That's incredible! I had no idea anyone got hurt.

Oh man. Now I'm starting to wonder, how many other shots are there like this, where people die as a result of Angel battles?

This changes my whole interpretation of that scene -- in particular, Shinji's reaction to seeing Eva-02's head. The first time I saw it, I thought his reaction, including the darkening of the screen, was to reflect his horror that Asuka might have died. Now I'm wondering if his reaction was seeing all those people die and realizing it could have been him.

Not that he needs a single specific reason to be freaked out. Come to think of it, it's obviously all of the above: 'Oh my God I almost died', 'Oh my God those people died', and 'Oh my God Asuka might have died'.

[NAveryW]

Now I'm wondering if his reaction was seeing all those people die and realizing it could have been him.

Not only could it have been him, but he might have been able to prevent the others' deaths if he had chosen to pilot Unit 01 from the start.

[Axell]

or Asuka could just not have sucked.

"lets shoot bullets and missiles at it even though it only ever worked once. Yea! What a great and refreshing new plan! I sure hope it doesnt have a shield of some kind, that would suck....."

[NAveryW]

or Asuka could just not have sucked.

"lets shoot bullets and missiles at it even though it only ever worked once. Yea! What a great and refreshing new plan! I sure hope it doesnt have a shield of some kind, that would suck....."

It is pretty weird that they chose to have Unit 02 shoot conventional ballistics at Zeruel when various tanks and missile launchers were doing the same thing a couple of minutes ago with absolutely no effect and Unit 02 wasn't able to project her AT Field nearly that far. I say nobody was thinking clearly due to the pressure or something.

[Rock-Slash]

I notice it the second time i watched it, it was disturbing but hey, thats war for you, there always are casualties, how many people do you think couldn't make it to the shelters when Unit 00 self-destructed, in ep22 when Asuka shoots that cannon after being hit by Arael those explotions probably killed someone, this case is more disturbing just because we are watching it directly.

Not only could it have been him, but he might have been able to prevent the others' deaths if he had chosen to pilot Unit 01 from the start.

or Asuka could just not have sucked.

"lets shoot bullets and missiles at it even though it only ever worked once. Yea! What a great and refreshing new plan! I sure hope it doesnt have a shield of some kind, that would suck....."

Misato told her to do that and she followed orders, after she lost the arms there wasn't much to do.
I think you are giving too much credit to the pilots individual skills and too little credit to Zeruel.
After all, when yui ripped half of his face he was still up to blow shit up with his laser eyes(of doom).

[Fazmotron]

Noticed the dead before, but never the baby.

Very interesting.

[Monk Ed]

"lets shoot bullets and missiles at it even though it only ever worked once. Yea! What a great and refreshing new plan! I sure hope it doesnt have a shield of some kind, that would suck....."

It is pretty weird that they chose to have Unit 02 shoot conventional ballistics at Zeruel when various tanks and missile launchers were doing the same thing a couple of minutes ago with absolutely no effect and Unit 02 wasn't able to project her AT Field nearly that far.

Quoth Asuka: "I'm neutralizing its AT Field, aren't I?!" Maybe she started shooting early, but eventually Zeruel got within range of her AT Field for neutralization.

Let's not forget two very important things:

First, the primary reason the Evas are considered the only weapon capable of defeating the Angels is not because they are any more powerful than conventional weapons generally, but because they can neutralize the enemy's AT Field.

And second, the definite pattern established by prior Angels is that they were fairly susceptible to conventional force after their AT Fields were properly neutralized. In fact, Zeruel was the only Angel up to that point to demonstrate a capability to withstand a frontal assault from an Eva post-AT Field neutralization; the standard, up to then, was that they used tricks to avoid ever actually being hit.

Going by percentages, the strategy was perfectly sound, especially given the sheer suddenness with which Zeruel attacked.

[Joseph the PRPD]

I like seeing on screen casualties and thinking of off screen casulties during angel battles. Makes it seem much more epic. Like the thought of somebody might have been crushed during Asuka's and Shinji's synco dance in episode nine.

[NemZ]

I knew there were casualties (random guy says so) but never noticed the baby or froze the screen there. Nice find!

[BattleMonkey]

or Asuka could just not have sucked.

"lets shoot bullets and missiles at it even though it only ever worked once. Yea! What a great and refreshing new plan! I sure hope it doesnt have a shield of some kind, that would suck....."

Like pretty much the whole show where they use weapons that don't seem to do anything to the angels?

[Otakon 08 Ikari]

Guess that just adds to the whole picture huh. That one guy is really dead haha

[Dr. Nick]

Considering how much Anno borrowed from Ideon, I would've expected a baby-killing scene to be waaay more explicit.

[THE Hal E. Burton 9000]

^I guess he figured it would be censored out so he didn't bother

besides, it fits together with the patented "GAINAX Budget Shortfall®"

[Logan Payne]

But when you dwell too long on those dead bodies of people we didn't know, it takes a whole different direction.