The Photograph

[ChaddyManPrime]

????????????

Mabye they have always been one person, mabye they are an angel, the rebuild version of Israfel.
It split in half at some point and there memories where whiped....

Nope let me PM you

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

Willie [sic] creates a plug system which breaks down the 2 pilots in the Lcl and reforms them as as single person!

Insanely cool idea, however impractical it may be. I would fangeek so hard if that happened.

[Charsi]

And this Asuka/mari looking person IS actually them!, of course it falls apart unless time travel
Is introduced or these events already took place and some how the mari/Asuka merger survived.
But the evidence is sound the girl In the pic does look EXACTLY like the 2 characters merged together.

No need for time travel, really. I think you're onto something here.

Consider:

They did a contact experiment on Yui to create the control system of the test type (EVA-01).
What if they ALSO did a contact experiment on the scientist wearing glasses, and that's where production control system (EVA-02, 05 etc) came from?

This explains why Asuka and Mari can pilot the same Eva, which is using the same control system template: the second scientist. Like Shinji and Yui, the other control system shares a genetic link with both pilots, because it's their "source material". For both of them. They're both partial retrievals (or clones if you will) of of the scientist.

Consider Shinji in 3.33. When they get him back he's designated BM-03. So there was a BM-01 and BM-02. What if those designations were for Asuka and Mari respectively, years earlier?

They don't age because aging doesn't happen to biological mass that coalesces from of LCL. It looks like a Lilim, but it really isn't.

This could even explain the -nami naming thing. The -nami suffix might designate a "person" that coalesces in LCL, templated on one of the two scientists who became control systems for Eva through contact experiments. Rei is templated on Yui Ayanami, and Mari and Asuka are templated upon the other scientist. They aren't really "cloned" so much as they coalesce in LCL and are fished out, much like they fished Shinji out 14 years later.

In the intervening years between 2.22 and 3.33, they either are told it or figure it out. They're not human. They don't age. They just kind of form in LCL and look somewhat like their templates. So, Asuka and Mari are sort of sisters, in that they have the same "mother", but are different partials of the same overall puzzle. The woman in the photograph is their "source", their basis, which is why she kind of looks a little like both of them, but not entirely like either one.

[ElMariachi]

^
But then, how is it that Mari can also pilot Units 05 and 08, and Asuka can also pilot Unit 03?

[Charsi]

Theory: Yui became the control system for the prototype / test types only, that is, Eva-00 and 01.

I am suggesting the unknown scientist in the photograph became the control system for the production series (all eva's from 02 forward). This would include 03, 05 and 08, but not Seele's stuff I assume, because of Kaworu.

I'm also suggesting Asuka and Mari are like Rei, in that they were basically fished out of some sort of LCL arrangement with their respective Evas and that's why they look like their respective source materials. Rei has one source, Asuka and Mari share the other and that's why the woman looks like both of them, but not exactly like either one.

I'm reaching for an answer to the "why is it these kids and only these kids can pilot", as well as "who is this woman in the picture and why does she look like both Asuka and Mari". And for shts and giggles, "why do all these kids names end in -nami except Shinji".

[ElMariachi]

^
But coming from a partial soul wouldn't mess Mari and Asuka big time?

Also Fuyutsuki said in 3.0 that Rei and Yui were preserved inside EVA-01, implying that it's their soul that's inside, and you can't copy a soul, only split it in pieces (well in NGE at least), but then it tends to make unstable Evas.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

^
But then, how is it that Mari can also pilot Units 05 and 08, and Asuka can also pilot Unit 03?

Core swapping. We actually see core removal in 2.22.

[Charsi]

EM: It's dangerous to assume stuff about souls based on NGE that may not be applicable in rebuild. Notably, they removed a lot of the instances of Yui taking action as Eva-01 from rebuild - shielding Shinji with the Eva's hand in the first episode, and reactivating beyond power limitations to defeat Zeruel were originally implied to be Yui taking action. But in Rebuild, the first instance is removed, and the latter has been rewritten as Shinji going berserk.

I'm not even sure if Yui is really "in" there in the Rebuild scope. Sure, Gendo talks like she is, but he also talks to the giant decapitated head in the third movie.

Core swapping. We actually see core removal in 2.22.

Core swapping or simply core removal and re-insertion? Because I can't imagine where NERV got a personalized core for Eva-02 for Mari to use, who wasn't even a registered pilot with them. I know they put the core "back" and "reconfigured" it, I don't think they brought in an entirely new red ball.

[Kendrix]

^

The hand thing was probably simply removed for dramatic reasons, it was a bit too early to reveal that this thing is alive, especially if you don't have the break between eps 1 and 2.

The ep 2 protective berserk is still very much in there, and Fuyu said she was 'preserved' in there, plus all the things Shinji experiences hinting at her presence, the smell thing, the name dialogue etc...

[ElMariachi]

^
And don't forget EVA-01 going berserk and massacring Sachiel just after the non-existent hand scene, followed with Shinji's first hell train mind trip where he heard a reminiscence of a conversation between Yui and Gendo that happened before his birth, so the memory come from someone else, and since Gendo is still alive, it can only come from Yui.

Now that I think about it, it's very strange that during that scene, when Yui was repeating the possible names for the baby, the moment she says "Ayanami Rei" we got an image of Rei juxtaposed, as if Yui knew about Rei... it can't come from Shinji since he only briefly met her and didn't know her name yet.

Could it be an hint that Yui was in cahoots with Gendo and that Rei's "birth" was planned by the two?