Postby Kendrix » Fri Apr 02, 2021 12:40 pm
I honestly don't see how one possibly flirty comment means they're married now.
The whole final scene is very ambiguous & possibly entirely metaphorical.
It certainly could be read that way - "life went on & he got with someone he didn't know (that well) as a teen like most ppl" (big Mari has the same glasses as Mrs. Anno; but that's so meta), but it's very open ended overall.
They talk as if they haven't seen each other in a while ("You're as X as ever") so it might as well be some reunion scenario.
Mari seems to represent among other things, something like supportiveness (she's usually dispensing advice - to Asuka too) & the movie as a whole is a story of Shinji (and the others!) being lead into freedom through supportiveness - so that last scene makes perfect sense.
And for a story about maturing & letting go of the false gods you've made yourselves dependant on, showing everyone as adults living normal lives is a logical coda.
There were even ppl claiming Rei and Kaworu "ended up together" just because they're briefly seen talking to each other (not even holding hands or anything!) which is just 'ridic.
I don't get why some ppl act like Kawoshin was totally jossed either; Having some underlying unacknowledged motive to meet his own emotional needs just makes him... the same as everyone else? It's no different from Misato's, Shinji' & Asuka's segment in ep 25.
I was honestly VERy glad to see that 'cause it's only confirmed what I've always been saying that he liked Shinji cause he views them as similar & that Shinji only views him as an inexplicable savior. Take that, "plot device" crowd!
Note that Shinji only compares him to Gendo after he's had a big epic reconciliation hug with Gendo so in that context it wouldn't mean like evil, manipulating etc. but the new info that he just learned about Gendo: That he just attached to the first person who was nice to him cause he had little hope for himself. (there's even a similar line in episode 24' when SEELE brings up Gendo's plan)
The difference between Rebuild & the OG series is that Kaworu apparently cannot escape by dying.
& though he hated being trapped by fate (Yay! I missed this aspect of Kaworu from the original) he also kind of relied on it to connect him with others... exactly like Shinji with his EVA.
In that sense Kaworu is a bit like those ppl with 'stealth depression' who look like cheerful creampuffs on the outside because do everything to make their friends happy, having little hope of happiness for themselves.
To say, "No, it's YOUr turn now, you don't have to keep being strong for me" is a super-duper caring thing. It's Shinji getting over the inferiority complex that plagued the relationship from day one when each kept insisting they should be the one to sleep on the floor.
the toxic idea that your relationships are over once people no longer need you is what kept Shinji tied to the EVA in the first place.
(all this holds equally true if you read them as friends of course; This was another point that was deliberately left ambiguous so it could be "whichever would be more comforting to the beholder in Shinji's position")
& they keep it from spinning right around into self-flagellation because Shinji himself is helped by Misato before & rescued by Mari after his stunt & his parents take some effin responsibility for once after causing it all by paying for it in his stead.
As much as I have my preferences as much as everyone else, all three options (plus Misato sort of, less so in rebuild) were both very clearly intentional (complete with official statements to back it up) & conceived to speak both to universal appeal and common character flaws,
See that whole "Rei is for the sadist, Asuka for the masochists & Misato for the manchildren" comment.
and they're there mostly to fill functions in the plot.
All three main love interests got something like a confession scene, Shinji got to save them & make up for what he couldn't do in the past, cut to that whole "I will always be proud of having loved you" song etc & have important roles in the motivation & journey.
I guess AsuShin is the closest to jossed but the point of them was always to be the least compatible people you could imagine you still got a pretty validating mutual confession of sorts.
That's way more than I expected to see and a huge contrast to the 'you liar you're just coming to me for comfort' we got in EoE. Now Shinji's motives there were far from 100% sincere (anyone who wanted to argue the opposite would've gotten nothing) & Asuka had every reason to be mad, but at the same time, I don't think he was 100% insincere either from how the line is said; and even if something couldn't didn't work out doesn't mean that it was valueless. That's what I thought, but I wouldn't have bet my savings that Anno thought so as well
- in general a shift I noticed throughout the whole film, that he wasn't quite as strict on the characters. (we see this also with how Shinji gets defended by his former classmates & some WILLE members, apologized to by Misato... Asuka's still harsh but that's just her role.Some people are going to be harsh - and she did help a bit, too, let's not ignore that.)
In general I've always read a lot of what ppl read as finger wagging at the audience as a realistic depiction of self-doubt, which of course extends to questioning ones' subcultural surroundings (that is sensible to do).
And isn't there this big talk in eps 25 and 26 about how those negative voices aren't always right?
Of course it's realized in concept there.
But in this film you sort of see this more in practice. The characters get a break (and therefore, maybe, so do all those little parts in Anno's head.)- after a long & ardeous journey, mind you- even the depictions of everyday life also contain fear, deprivation & death.
& Asuka's in the last scene if you squint; I've seen loads of fics take advantage of the wiggle room there already.
I'd go "Hehe and you said we were the butthurt ones" but post Q persecution responses have made it obvious that the blue team also has its share of diehards XDD
...like, this was never going to be a hugely romance-focussed movie under any circumstances. This was never that sort of genre.
No false promises were made. Though if that's what people wanted they'd probably go see a soap opera instead. It's probably more about a sort of validation. You really should be confident enough in your opinions that you don't need a choir of ppl around you telling you you're right, or unable to receive it unless it comes in one specific form.
Both getting attached & being disappointed is normal & doesn't make you stupid but over the top butthurt isn't productive either.
I'd say there were plenty of sweet moments too, & most importantly, they lived. They all got told that they matter and that it wasn't wrong to care about them. That's gotta be more important than if they get with one specific dude.
All in all, while there's individual aspects I would change, I really like that this ended up a very dense, open-ended, ambiguous thing because I feel that's something EVA did well that is really missing in today's media landscape.
They want everything neatly packaged, sanitized & labelled good or bad, but how can you do that when you're not even fully sure what even happened?
Especially since a lot of people were under the assumption that "happy" endings must always be dumb & easy and hand you all the closure & packaged explanation. It was probably not easy to make it offer a different kind of catharsis than EoE did* while still leaving room for mystery & interpretation.
*not because EoE was bad or needed to be fixed, but because it's good, so you're not going to make something universally better by repeating it.
there will always be some butthurt people. best to ignore them & keep having fun anyways /continue the serious discussions in the next room.
Last edited by
Kendrix on Fri Apr 02, 2021 2:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I wanted to try harvesting the rice
I wanted to hold Tsubame more
I wanted to stay together forever with the boy I like
