Why don't the creators of Rebuild of Evangelion never have time for Mari?

[ElMariachi]

I'd argue that having Mari (and Kensuke) around probably made it less worse/ more bearable.
There's only so much you can magic away with The Power Of Friendship, her situation objectively sucked.

Like, being friends with a war veteran with severe PTSD isn't gona magically cure it, but they're probably gonna be better off than with no support system at all.

Seeing as they show up in her instrumentality sequence, their support did play a role in helping her come to her transformative realization etc.
It's the total absence of Misato that is pretty sad considering where we left off in 2.0.

Of course Mari and Kensuke's presence during the past 14 years helped her to keep herself together, and there's no doubt that she would had been much less functional (if not dead) without them.

What I meant is that between seeing Asuka's attitude toward her body and Mari trying to talk her out of it in the prequel manga and in Shin, how she refuses to even meet other people in the village in Shin, the VAs interview in the theater booklet explaining that the reason she stays naked in the village is because she doesn't care because from her POV clothes are for human beings, and Misato's last line to her in Ha about how she's still young and that the world is full of great things that she has yet to discover and experience and that she should have fun; there a theme permeating the movies about what it is to be human beyond the physicality of having a human body, that being human is more than eating/sleeping/fucking/aging (since those are traits shared with simple animals) and that many of the characters are defined by this theme:

• Mari lost her physical needs a long time ago, but kept her humanity by learning new things through books, as knowledge and its conservation for future generations is "the pinnacle of humanity" as she says
• Kaworu, he too free from human limitations such as eating or even breathing, experienced humanity through music
• Rei II and Rei Q, while still having physical needs, are unstable clones trapped to regularly have to go through recalibration to stay alive, connected to their humanity through trying to form connections with other people (Shinji, Gendo and her classmates for Rei II, the people of the Village for Rei Q)
• On the contrary, Gendo abandoned more and more of his humanity by cutting himself from his son and all of mankind, voluntarily transformed his body into something unkillable (and which probably didn't had any physical needs) and is seen most of the time in his office doing nothing except planing his next move
• SEELE has gone even farther by having abandoned their body a long time ago to be left as immortal slabs of stone with nothing else to do than scheme to bring forth the end of the world

And I find that there was a missed opportunity to continue exploring this theme through Asuka, with her trying to reconnect to humanity through something that isn't base physical needs, especially since this lack of connection is the core of her post-timeskip character and was even foreshadowed by her last conversation with Misato.
This theme could also had been explored with Shinji (or be in parallel) if the timeframe of the movie got long enough to have the effects of the Curse of Eva kick in with him, especially since one of his strong talents is that he's an excellent cook. (for example: why continue cooking if you can't even eat anymore? Maybe do it for others, but then why?)


I hope I'm clearer about what I meant.

But that’s still a whole heck of a lot better than what the Bridge Bunnies got. That’s basically what Mari is; a character of “Bridge Bunny” significance that also gets to pilot a couple of Eva Units. That’s pretty cool, if you ask me.

The thing is that she has the plot significance of a Bridge Bunny, until the last 30 minutes of the last movie where it's suddenly revealed that there's much more to her than what we thought, that she was pivotal to Gendo and Yui's early story, that she probably knew about their plans from the beginning (and probably kept that to herself, from the many times where she's the only one to notice that something is wrong) and she suddenly ends up as the last friend/mentor/lover/whatever of Shinji in the epilogue, with absolutely no previous build-up from it.

[Saint Eva]

I like Mari and don't have any problem with her but I find it odd how at one hand she talks about connecting with humanity through books she but doesn't make relations outside of Asuka and Shinji. I read in an interview that she's friends with one of bridge bunnies, but I have read there's no mention of it in the movie. There's a missed opportunity in not showing her interacting with others. Maybe they should have given her pet cat or something. I wonder how her relations with Misato must have been? I really wanted to see that 2.0 post-credits scene where Mari removes her glass and gets serious, and possibly talks with Rei and clones.

It was deceitful of her to know all about Gendo and Fuyutsuki's plans yet never bring up such a essential knowledge to anyone. Also, it's strange how she says in 2.0 opening that hates using adults for her plans yet she's 15-20 years older than Kaji the only adult from her perspective should be Fuyutsuki.

[Kendrix]

I find it odd how at one hand she talks about connecting with humanity through books she but doesn't make relations outside of Asuka and Shinji.

Actually that makes perfect sense. If she had an easy time connecting normally, she wouldn't need to do it indirectly through reading.
She is characterized as a bit of a loner - in 2.0 it's lampshaded twice how she does things alone without checking with any authorities, and in marked contrast to Asuka she never wears a WILLE emblem, like she's more an ally than a member.

She's prolly the sort who keeps to herself in order to follow her own rules. She's also very eccentric in a way that ppl might find annoying. That doesn't tend to be popular.

It's also why she's so attached to Asuka - She's her only friend.

Also, it's strange how she says in 2.0 opening that hates using adults for her plans yet she's 15-20 years older than Kaji

*banging pots and pan together * Mari is a clone theory Mari is a clone theory Mari is a clone theory
Asuka says the pilots are artificial & there's no way 'Makinami' is a coincidence


That said, I also would like her interacting with Misato or to know what she was supposed to be discussing with Rei; particularly the Misato thing is an obvious missed opportunity.
Looking back now this is the interim Rei that ended up fused with Lillith and/or Mark 6, she definitely existed - the sweater is still lying around near ReiQ's room. The tiny Reis we see there might be ReiQ and the other adams Vessel pilots.

Maybe we'll get unused drafts like with 2.0.

[ElMariachi]

So, I'm upping this thread because it's the one that seems the most relevant.

The other day I was looking at the translations posted in Reichu's website, and there's a passage during the revelation of Mari's real name that I think deserve some attention:

(Nerv warship. Fuyutsuki is looking outside.)

Fuyutsuki: Mmm. So it's starting at last.

(Feet approaching behind him.)

Fuyutsuki: There you are.

Mari: It's been a while, Fuyutsuki-sensei.

Mari:
Gendo-kun is trying to make his wish come true...
by putting himself at the center of Instrumentality.
I'd like to help out...
No. I have a request.
I do understand how you feel, Fuyutsuki-sensei,
but I don't want all humankind to be involved.

Fuyutsuki:
So it seems.
My role ends here.
The things you wanted have been gathered.
Handle the rest as you see fit,
Mary Iscariot-kun.

Mari:
Heh...
I haven't heard that name in a long time.
Well, this is goodbye, then.

And a little later:

(Above the Nerv warship. Marks.10, 11, and 12 surround Eva-08+09.)

Mari:
The full line-up of Eva Opfer Types,
a.k.a. the Adams' Vessels.

(Mark.10 opens up its mask.)

Mari:
Just the finesse you'd expect from Fuyutsuki-sensei.

(A fireball comes flying.)

Mari:
Sorry, but I need you guys...

(Cutting through the sky, Eva-08+09 does a flying kick to the second fireball. It punches Mark.10 in the face. While grappling with Mark.10, it drops.)

Mari:
...to become vittles for the overlapping.
Like so!

I am crazy, or the dialogue between Fuyu and Mari implies that they were in cahoot behind Gendo and WILLE's back the whole time, doing their own thing, and the second passage implies that Fuyu lined up the remaining Adam's Vessels in front of EVA-08 so Mari could easily devour them (which she did)?

Because if this is the case, that would put most of her scenes in Q and Shin (and the prequel manga) under a whole new light, for example how she can be so laid back most of the time except when things go really unexpected (namely Kaworu being "demoted" from First to 13th Angel and when EVA-13 devoured Asuka).

That makes me think of those Eva fics where one of the characters, either from the show or OC, manage to completely change the outcome of the story of NGE by acting in the shadow with knowledge only they possess (through time travel or butterfly effect), and Anno made it canon with Mari, except we only learn of it in the last 30 minutes of the saga.
And now I also remember the stage greeting with Mari's VA where she revealed that Anno told her secrets about Mari that are implied to be bombshells, but that she won't reveal because she don't know how Anno will react. "Mari and Fuyutsuki were actually double agents working for their own agenda" sounds like a big enough bombshell.

Makes you also wonder if the communication was going both sides, if Fuyutsuki leaked info to Mari... and vice-versa. But for what goal?

[Axx°N N.]

I am crazy, or the dialogue between Fuyu and Mari implies that they were in cahoot behind Gendo and WILLE's back the whole time, doing their own thing, and the second passage implies that Fuyu lined up the remaining Adam's Vessels in front of EVA-08 so Mari could easily devour them (which she did)?

Seems as coherent an interpretation as any, given we don't have much to go on. But it requires a fuller re-appraisal not only of Mari (like you imply) but also of Fuyutsuki's actions. Is he acting on his own agenda when he gives Shinji the plot dump in Q? And don't forget that Shin opens with him sending what seems like an impossible horde to Mari & co., but then again, she does seem to summarily plow through the 'desperate' situation without too much hassle.

But for what goal?

Well, they both love Yui. Or at least, Fuyutsuki loves Yui if that still aplies in NTE (does it?) and Mari does in an even less canonical manga epilogue its author hand-waved as "just fanservice," so, back to square one. But taking it for granted that it's something to go off of, maybe it's that they have sympathy for Gendo because of his relation to Yui, but as Mari says, maybe not so much if he goes too far with it.

It could be that in a few days time the official Khara translation job makes this a bit more clear. Or not.

[Asugran233]

Willing with you talking, and why Mari in end of movie has big relations with Shinji since almost by majority movies they didn't big relations.

[ElMariachi]

Seems as coherent an interpretation as any, given we don't have much to go on. But it requires a fuller re-appraisal not only of Mari (like you imply) but also of Fuyutsuki's actions. Is he acting on his own agenda when he gives Shinji the plot dump in Q? And don't forget that Shin opens with him sending what seems like an impossible horde to Mari & co., but then again, she does seem to summarily plow through the 'desperate' situation without too much hassle.

Well, ripping away the last anchor of Shinji's sanity (his belief that at least he managed to save Rei) was vital to make him break so he would accept Kaworu's offer to go pilot with him and desperate enough to make him continue even after Kaworu told him that the spears were the wrong ones, so I would say that he did that infobomb by obligation toward Gendo (and SEELE).
BUT, just before his big infobomb to Shinji about Rei in Q, he's seen trying (and failing) to convince Gendo to try to make Shinji willingly join them by making him aware of their plan, and during their talk he's still trying to impart some wisdom to Shinji (about how one must keep a clear and collected mind to reach victory and how rebuilding the world is hard) and try to make him sympathize with Gendo by telling him that he's ready to make all the sacrifices for his plans, even his own soul, so I would say that this part wasn't done by obligation. Hell, he wasn't even obligated to tell him that Rei was a clone of his mother and that both are preserved inside EVA-01 to break him mentally, just to say that the Rei in neo-NERV is a clone and thus that he didn't saved "his" Rei. Maybe that was a way to not completely bring him to despair by making him aware that his Rei is still preserved somewhere?

As for the opening in Shin, Ritsuko says that Fuyutsuki is "testing them", and even for Gendo's plan it was essential that WILLE wins so they could take the JA parts to repair Unit 02 so Asuka could participate in the final battle and they could capture her to start Final Impact, so no matter his loyalty to Gendo, if he wants Instrumentality to happen, WILLE has to win in Paris.

Well, they both love Yui. Or at least, Fuyutsuki loves Yui if that still aplies in NTE (does it?) and Mari does in an even less canonical manga epilogue its author hand-waved as "just fanservice," so, back to square one. But taking it for granted that it's something to go off of, maybe it's that they have sympathy for Gendo because of his relation to Yui, but as Mari says, maybe not so much if he goes too far with it.

It could be that in a few days time the official Khara translation job makes this a bit more clear. Or not.

That's the thing: we know that in NGE, Yui, Gendo and Fuyu's initial plan was simply to stop SEELE, and that Yui intended for the Contact Experiment accident to happen so she could protect Shinji, and revealed this to Fuyutsuki while making him promise to never tell it to Gendo (since he would try to prevent her to do this) and to keep an eye on both him and Shinji. Except that Fuyutsuki was too infatuated with Yui to let her go, so he decided to join Gendo's plan of Instrumentality so he could see her again. (well, there's also the revelation in EoE that Yui's real plan was to "become an eternal monument to mankind's existence", but let's put that aside)

But in NTE, we have no indication of his feelings toward Yui. Worse, we don't even have any evidence that the Contact Experiment wasn't' an accident this time, which the fact that Shinji's role as pilot of EVA-01 and trigger of the Impact was planned since his birth, implies that Instrumentality was her plan and that she co-planned it with Gendo and Fuyutsuki. Unless it's like in the manga and Shinji was planned to pilot 01 to stop SEELE, but Gendo and Fuyu completely derailed that plan to make Instrumentality.
The problem is that I don't see how they would suddenly be working together in the final battle, no matter their goal:

• Does Fuyutsuki wants Instrumentality? But then why help Mari that obviously want to stop it.
• Did they wanted to prevent Instrumentality from happening? But they had many opportunities to do it through the past 14 years: all Fuyu had to do is contact Kaworu and tell him "Hey, Gendo swapped one of the spears to screw you and SEELE, so here's what I propose: you splatter Gendo against a wall, I unplug SEELE, we bring Shinji here with the resources of neo-NERV and explain to him calmly whats going on and work on a way to turn the LoL back to a LoC so the world will be restored and Shinji forgiven, deal?"
• Did they wanted to have Shinji confront his father during Instrumentality because he was the chosen one that would save the world or something like that? But how could they predict that WILLE would come up at the last minute with a super-spear that combine the powers of the two spears while only needing one wielder?

The worst is that I feel that we would had gotten the context explaining Fuyu and Mari's motivations and goals in the missing proto-Q movie, but we'll never know it because Anno didn't wanted to have a movie without the MC in it.

Willing with you talking, and why Mari in end of movie has big relations with Shinji since almost by majority movies they didn't big relations.

Why do you think many people think that Mari in that last scene is a stand-in for Anno's wife, Moyocco Anno?

[Axx°N N.]

My post was mostly a prompt for you and I wasn't disappointed, excellent breakdown. I can foresee "the Fuyutsuki question" becoming an EGF focal point in the future, because Mari can be (maybe some would say undeservedly) more easily chalked up to "Meta" or "Moyoco."

[The worst is that I feel that we would had gotten the context explaining Fuyu and Mari's motivations and goals in the missing proto-Q movie, but we'll never know it because Anno didn't wanted to have a movie without the MC in it.

As it stands, there's a certain degree of plausible deniability about it; "It would have made perfect sense if there was a whole movie in that time period, but alas!"

[Asugran233]

Why do you think many people think that Mari in that last scene is a stand-in for Anno's wife, Moyocco Anno?

I do not understand.

[Axx°N N.]

I do not understand.

It's a popular theory, especially on Japanese twitter, that Mari becomes symbolic at the end (and thus retroactively) for the role Moyoco played in Anno's life in the time between EoE and Rebuild's start. Basically, if EoE was his expression of his inner turmoil in the time he made it, logically Rebuild would be his expression of his life afterward, and one of the major differences between those times is his falling in love. He's said several times how important Moyoco is in stabilizing him, that she got him through his depression post-Q, for instance.

Personally, I think Mari isn't just Moyoco, and staff of NTE have pressed against this claim (this detail is discussed on this thread page if you want to catch up). But I do think she represents the difference in Anno's life between EoE and NTE, which isn't just Moyoco but also includes support he found in others, namely Khara confidants. I think when she holds her hand out, it's symbolic in general of the many hands that have been held out to Anno.

The source of the "Mari=Moyoco" theory is an essay linked to in this post here if you're interested.

[ElMariachi]

My post was mostly a prompt for you and I wasn't disappointed, excellent breakdown. I can foresee "the Fuyutsuki question" becoming an EGF focal point in the future, because Mari can be (maybe some would say undeservedly) more easily chalked up to "Meta" or "Moyoco."

You know me so well!

As it stands, there's a certain degree of plausible deniability about it; "It would have made perfect sense if there was a whole movie in that time period, but alas!"

The most infuriating is that this isn't just wishful thinking, since said movie in that time period was initially planned, by Anno's own admission during a stage greeting a few weeks ago.
It gives me the feeling that the story was gearing toward expanding the rest of the cast, then in the end Anno decided that the story will stay laser-sighted on Shinji, which is a shame because from what little tidbits we get of other characters' stories, he has the least interesting story of the cast (mainly because his character arc "ended" at the end of Ha, everything afterward was just accepting that he ruined the life of everyone, giving a closure to their old traumas and disappear from their life after activating the McGuffin to undo the damage done, like an epilogue dragged on two movies), while the others have stories that I would be really interested to see:

• the aftermath of Asuka's trauma and how it changed her body to her utter misery, her friendship with Mari and Kensuke which helped keep her head above water? Sign me up (and I'm salty that Shin didn't took the opportunity to explore more the "Curse of Eva" body in Part A, there was an opportunity for a fantastic character arc here! At least it would had given Shinji the opportunity to do something for her for once)
• Mari's integration with WILLE, her behind-the-back dealing with everyone while keeping the image of a simple pilot who loves singing and fighting, her motivations to try to stop Gendo? Sounds very interesting!
• Misato trying to pick up the pieces of what the fuck happened which led to N3I, her tragic love with Kaji which led to her breaking point making her abandon her son Ryouko, forsake her surrogate son Shinji and breaking the nascent parental bond she had with Asuka, leading to her treating Asuka like a living weapon, and her transformation into the cold and uncompromising leader of WILLE waging a seemingly (and actually) hopeless war to save what's left of humanity? Sound tragic, and very interesting!
• Toji having to grow up fast and do very questionable things to make his family survive, finding redemption in the love of his wife and work as a doctor? Talk about great character development, that must be so cool to see!
• Kensuke's survivalist otaku passion suddenly becoming very relevant, and him joining up WILLE, taking up the responsibility to help establish Village-3 and kinda adopting Asuka. That sounds so cool to see the "joke character" becoming a central part of the community!
• Speaking of those two, expanding on the reasons why they don't hold any grudge toward Shinji would be nice too: sure Rei Q says because "they're his friends", but so what? They've only know for a few month and interacted during schooltime and sometime after while they were hanging out, and he's still credited for obliterating the world and making their life hell, I've seen friendship ending for far less. Misato has been his guardian/surrogate mother for months and they lived together, yet she holds an immense grudge toward him and wants to punish him, so why Toji and Kensuke don't hold any grudge toward him?
• And on the other side, what's Sakura's story? Why does she holds a grudge toward Shinji when both she and Toji lost their father to N3I, what's the source of their different feelings? What made her turn to medicine and join WILLE? Does her willingness to give Shinji a chance came from stories Toji told him about him? Did she volunteered to be Shinji's caretaker to meet her brother's old friend and see for herself if he's worthy of being forgiven, or was she ordered to be his caretaker and it's just her natural kindness which counterbalance her grudge? I was really curious to see how the last movie would develop this character (the first apparition of Toji's famous little sister!) beyond "outwardly nice caretaker which still has a grudge", but nothing more came out of it.

I do not understand.

The last part of the movie (once Shinji enters Minus Space/Instrumentality) quickly turns extremely meta, with the Tokyo-3 inside Shinji's mind where he and Gendo are fighting being a Tokusatsu (the Japanese monster movies, such as Godzilla, Ultraman...) film set where they fall through the "fake sky" to end in the IRL studio Khara, and iconic sets of NGE appearing in his final conversations with Asuka and Kaworu, his final conversation with Rei happening again in the IRL studio Khara in the middle of the models they used to make the movie while excerpts from the original TV series is projected behind them while Shinji is telling Rei that he'll "live in a world without Eva and that she should do the same" making it clear that it's not really Shinji talking, but Hideaki Anno making his metaphorical farewell to the franchise.
And the last scene of the movie in the train station doesn't take place in any train station: it's the train station of the city of Ube, Anno's hometown, with old trains, high-school uniforms and buildings from Anno's childhood digitally added to the live footage. So many people interpret that last scene as not Shinji starting a new life or whatever, but Anno (as Shinji) saying farewell to the Evangelion franchise (represented by the adult Asuka, Rei and Kaworu who board the train in the opposite platform without even noticing that "Shinji" is here) so he's now free from the burden of said franchise (represented by the DSS Choker).

So from here, many people came to the conclusion that Mari, who's implied to be his new lover and take away his DSS Choker before guiding to a new world of happiness, is actually a representation of Anno's wife Moyocco, who IRL helped him get out of his depressions (both the one post-EoE in the 90's and the post-3.0 one after 2013) and pushed him to make that damn last movie so he could be done with it. It doesn't help that like Mari in that last scene, Moyocco is a brunette usually letting her long hair free and wearing glasses.
The staff at Khara have said in different interviews that Mari is not a stand-in for Moyocco, but I'll be honest, I have a hard time believing it with the amount of meta thrown in the last part of the movie.

[Konja7]

The most infuriating is that this isn't just wishful thinking, since said movie in that time period was initially planned, by Anno's own admission during a stage greeting a few weeks ago.
It gives me the feeling that the story was gearing toward expanding the rest of the cast, then in the end Anno decided that the story will stay laser-sighted on Shinji, which is a shame because from what little tidbits we get of other characters' stories, he has the least interesting story of the cast (mainly because his character arc "ended" at the end of Ha, everything afterward was just accepting that he ruined the life of everyone, giving a closure to their old traumas and disappear from their life after activating the McGuffin to undo the damage done, like an epilogue dragged on two movies), while the others have stories that I would be really interested to see:

To be fair, we won't likely see most of the things in your list even if we have the original Q movie (without Shinji).

The most likely is that movie would end on the Third Impact (maybe after it's stopped by Kaji's sacrifice). And the next (and last) movie would start with Shinji awakening after the timeskip.

Honestly, I don't think Anno has so much interest on how humanity survived after the Third Impact.

[AsukaShikinami10]

ElMariachi wrote:
The staff at Khara have said in different interviews that Mari is not a stand-in for Moyocco, but I'll be honest, I have a hard time believing it with the amount of meta thrown in the last part of the movie.

They even did the same thing by denying their original plan for the 3.0 movie wasn't to put all those next-time-preview events in a movie, and then they straight-confirmed in a recent interview that they did plan to do the original 3.0 with the events shown in the preview but then scrapped the idea because Shinji wasn't in it.

I bet they will later confirm Mari being Moyocco all along was their true idea, thus contradicting themselves again.

[ElMariachi]

To be fair, we won't likely see most of the things in your list even if we have the original Q movie (without Shinji).

The most likely is that movie would end on the Third Impact (maybe after it's stopped by Kaji's sacrifice). And the next (and last) movie would start with Shinji awakening after the timeskip.

Honestly, I don't think Anno has so much interest on how humanity survived after the Third Impact.

Yeah, I admit that I mixed character arcs from just after Ha (Misato, Asuka, Mari, Kaji) with character arcs that happened later in the timeskip. (Sakura, Toji, Kensuke)
My point was that the timeskip introduced a lot of characters and characters arcs that were full of potential and potentially very interesting to explore, but that in the end the story stayed fixated on the one guy who has the least interesting story. (his character arc boils down to silently accept his punishment and fulfill his obligation as a son to try to understand and love his father)

[LightDragonman]

To be frank, the series, imo, pretty much peaked with the climax to 2.22, as that felt indeed felt like proper conclusion to Shinji's arc. The fact that they had to go and retcon what all happened at the end of it in the next film only adds to my suspicion.

Funnily enough, at least in 3.0+1.0, I actually thought Mari was highly entertaining, and enjoyed her interactions with Shinji. I just wish it wasn't completely crammed into the last movie for her to get any sort of significant screentime with the others. Heck, her not interacting more with Rei was also a huge wasted opportunity as well.

[Axx°N N.]

Heck, her not interacting more with Rei was also a huge wasted opportunity as well.

Does she get any time with Rei? Drawing a blank.

[LightDragonman]

Once with Rei II when she is saved by her, and once with Rei Q while they are fighting. That's it.

Talk about a wasted opportunity. Then again, Rei's character as a whole felt rather wasted in the last film. Rei Q got yeeted out of the film after a more condensed version of her previous incarnation's arc, and Rei II only got a couple minutes with Shinji, which I think was rather insulting, given how much her relationship with Shinji was one of the cores of the saga.

Again, really feels like the series peaked with 2.22's ending.

[ManureTruck]

...and Rei II only got a couple minutes with Shinji, which I think was rather insulting, given how much her relationship with Shinji was one of the cores of the saga.

I felt like that at first until I thought about it and realized Rei II was literally as close as one could possibly be with Shinji for like 13-14 years (remember they were in Unit 01 together). She never left it after 2.22 - I think when Shinji left Unit-01 in 3.33 he intended for Ayanami to follow, but she consciously stayed because she knew what was coming and her plan was to spare Shinji pain and take on his burden (she apologizes in the last film for not being able to). I think they purposely gave her long hair to remind people how long she had existed and remind them she was in the core with Shinji for a VERY long time, completely bonded. She may have also in some way been conscious of the cycling/resetting.

If anything NTE was the ultimate Ayanami-fan fanservice series.

So yeah, disappointing for Ayanami fans who wanted to see Rei II in action, but satisfying on a deeper level for people who wanted her to be "fulfilled" as a character. She most certainly was.

Again, really feels like the series peaked with 2.22's ending.

I agree with 2.22 being peak, at least in terms of filmmaking quality. It was tight and satisfying.

Long-haired Rei is also really satisfying too. Would have been nice to see more of that hairstyle on her.

[ElMariachi]

Once with Rei II when she is saved by her, and once with Rei Q while they are fighting. That's it.

Talk about a wasted opportunity. Then again, Rei's character as a whole felt rather wasted in the last film. Rei Q got yeeted out of the film after a more condensed version of her previous incarnation's arc, and Rei II only got a couple minutes with Shinji, which I think was rather insulting, given how much her relationship with Shinji was one of the cores of the saga.

Again, really feels like the series peaked with 2.22's ending.

Even Rei II's motivations were dumbed down: in NGE she kinda took a backstage after episode 6 (as per Anno's own admission he fired that gun too fast and didn't know what to do with her, then Asuka arrived and took a lot of screentime), but there was still her arc of her waning loyalty and feelings toward Gendo in favor of Shinji, as she discovers that hey, the world is beautiful, culminating in EoE where she gloriously told Gendo to fuck off (and fucked off with his hand ) before fulfilling what she perceived as her destiny but still on her own terms by giving the trigger of Instrumentality to Shinji, which completed her character arc.
But in Rebuild, even after the 14 years her motivations are exactly the same as when she sacrificed herself: "keep Shinji from piloting because it hurts him" (which ironically he already got over it since Ha's final battle since his first act when awakening in the Wunder is asking to be deployed to assist Asuka), her arc with Gendo is completely absent, despite the beginnings of it being present in Jo and Ha. Hell, they don't even talk at all, despite the first two movies making it clear that he considered her like a surrogate daughter. But nope, it's all about Shinji.
Hell, even her motivation of wanting to spare the pain to Shinji is muddied by the revelation that her feelings for him were pre-programmed in her mind by Gendo!

Her motivations are so narrow that in the end, they had to sacrifice Rei Q so Rei II could take over her life and have something to do in her new life. (which by itself shits on the entire premise of Rei Q's character arc in Q that she's her own person and not Rei Ayanami or a pseudo or sub-Rei Ayanami)

[LightDragonman]

Seriously, Rei Q got yeeted out of the film unceremoniously after going through a decent, albeit derivative mini-arc, and was thusly replaced with her old self. With that in mind, I was hoping for more of the latter getting to share scenes with Shinji, but alas. Heck, the fact that Rei was programmed to have feelings for Shinji doesn't really matter either, given how, even when being aware of it, she still chooses on her own to help him out. So I have no idea why the heck that was thrown in, as it basically added nothing to her character, be it Rei II or Rei Q.

And her having all those years with him in Unit 01 doesn't mean much when we don't get to see them interact during that time. For all Shinji knows, one moment, she was in his arms, and then immediately after, bam, awake with guns pointed at his head.