Thank you very much for replying.
However, I believe several points of your post are not accurate and your conclusion felt really weak after all the points you mentioned.
Let me reply to some of them.
mari is the new Misato, that is something that was solved in Shinji's life at that point he had made peace with Misato who was his mother figure and later yui saves him from dying with gendo ending that part for him.
I do not understand why you think that Shinji has some sort of list of things to let go and is ticking boxes throughout the movie. Shinji resolves all of his issues with the characters, but this does not mean that a big sister/motherly figure is not needed or might not happen in your life. Anyway, I a fine if you see Mari as a friend and not a sister/mother figure, it does not change the ending meaning. For me, the fact that she rescues him guides him and the dialogue and visual comparisons that imply some kind of relationship add an extra layer. But I am fine if you do not agree with that, it does not change the ending.
n Asuka's case there are several things that I think you took out of context for example the apparent parallels between Asuka / Shinji and yui / gendo and the role that mari / maria iscariote played in those relationships. to start with the rebuild, everything indicates that the relationship between Shinji and Rei since 1.0 is being developed by gendo so that they are basically gendo / yui 2.0
I believe you misunderstood my parallelism reference. Yui/Asuka and Gendo/Shinji parallelism does not imply that Asuka is indeed like Yui or that Shinji is like Gendo. In fact, I agree with you, for obvious reasons, that the character that closer resembles Yui is Rei. She is a clone, and is programmed to like Shinji, so it is really easy to get those vibes of motherly love towards Shinji.
The parallelism of Yui/Asuka and Gendo/Shinji are meant to show that they are the romantic relationship of the show, despite what some scenes or some behaviours of the characters have shown. There are further parallelism that stress this fact, such as Misato/Kaji and Asuka/Shinji , or even the comparisons between Asuka and Shinji's lives, making us understand that they are meant to understand each other.
he elevator scene has various meanings now that 3.0 + 1.0 and the confession that Asuka liked Shinji
I am sorry to disagree with your interpretation. In that scene, Rei is a mirror for Asuka. She sees and realises her feelings thanks to Rei's words, thanks to Rei's struggling with her comprehension of human relationships. At the same time, she realises she has not worked hard enough. Thanks to that, she realises that she has to be more open to others and understand others feelings, and let Rei organise the dinner. This does not mean she is over it, or that she has somehow let all she feels go, it just shows us that she has grown and is able to express herself better and would have followed that path if not for Bardiel's incident.
when Asuka brings Shinji and Rei Q to the village 03 various things happen including the infamous scene where Asuka force feeds Shinji, causing him to run away, before this Asuka is only wearing kensuke's jacket while interacting directly with Shinji in that scene she just uses her plugsuit while telling her how bad she has been while scolding Shinji for not wanting to do anything and wanting to starve, then when Rei Q visits the place looking for Shinji Asuka is seen again wearing only the house clothes and we see again the same thing from 14 years ago Asuka having trouble dealing with Shinji while Rei Q is open about what she wants and can do for Shinji, after this Rei Q starts taking care of Shinji until he asks him why he does it and unlike Asuka who only told him how bad everyone has been going through
I think that you omit Asuka's part in Shinji's healing, which is rather important. In fact, Shinji's healing is supervised by her. She is the first to feed him, follows him to check on him, and keeps an eye on him from that point onwards. She also directs Rei there, and is always close to them, albeit in the shadows. Then, when Shinji grows, she has the first communication attempt with him and asks if he feels better after crying. At that point, as in previous scenes with Shinji, she stops playing the videogame. I believe that is much important than her clothes, which I do not see your point regarding them.
both Shinji and Asuka keep a distance and only interact in the movie when Kensuke is present
I do not see your point here either. Kensuke's house is a parallelism with Misato's apartment in their previous lives. They show scenes together because they want to make that parallelism, they stress that the three of them are together.
Shinji returns to the wunder where sakura slaps him and scolds him but hugs him and cries over the Asuka she only asks if sakura is his wife which is weird because later she says that Shinji doesn't need a wife but a mother when mari asks him
This is not weird, it makes absolute sense. It is another scene that allows us to see the interior of Asuka. I do not know why you think it is weird. Asuka says that Shinji needs a mother, but she is playing the game when speaking. This might mean different things, but I am sure it is a double-edged sword. It might be only partially true, as a way of shutting herself of opening to Shinji, and it might also mean that she is in need of that parental love. Either way, Asuka is not being honest in that scene.
Then when the conversation between the two occurs in the cell, Asuka admits that Shinji grew a bit but says that she is an adult while Mari congratulates both of them for having talked,
Yes, Asuka only reveals part of the truth (that is why the confession is in the past) as she links what she says to Shinji's growth, which is not complete by that time. While it is true that Mari congratulates both of them, her words imply that Shinji is on a path to amend everything, which has not arrived yet. She says that he is doing great, keep on that (more or less), so this implies that Asuka and Shinji relationship and the role of Mari in it has not stopped.
Furthermore, a little detail: Mari says goodbye in Chinese before leaving, enhancing the meaning of goodbye as a way of seeing each other again, as they indeed see each other again. The same will be true for Shinji's goodbye to Asuka.
now mari's role in all this, many would say that she wants Asuka and Shinji to end up together but the way i see it is that mari wants Asuka to be happy and she knows that Shinji has a role in that, reason why she constantly asks Shinji to save Asuka or talks to Asuka constantly about Shinji.
I do not see why you backtrack here while you are writing. Mari wants Asuka to be happy knowing that Shinji has a role in it...but what role has Shinji then if it is not as a romantic partner, which we (and Mari) knows is what Asuka wants.
There is also the fact that mari / Asuka are a parallel of Shinji / kaworu
Yes, I agree in this parallel, although not in the way you described it. It is another parallel to show that Asuka and Shinji are equals, as in all the visual parallels Mari is on the side of Kaworu, and Asuka on Shinji's side. There is no parallel that hints that Asuka=Kaworu and Mari=Shinji, having a ton of comparisons and elements (and plot references) that Shinji=Asuka, but with different defence mechanisms in the context of the hedgehog dilemma.
nd after Shinji saves Asuka, just before sending her back mari says goodbye to Asuka, which brings us to the end where Shinji is trapped on the beach mari appears to rescue him after a long time or just before Shinji disappears completely and both end up at the train station where they go in different directions. I do not think that in the end Mari is the guide/mother/sister of Shinji rather I think they are partners/friends where Mari trusted Shinji to saving Asuka and Shinji was surprised that mari kept his word in the end even when he pretended to kill himself to rewrite the world and eliminate the evas but i believe that they will meet again in the future with the rest. But Shinji and Asuka getting together by Mari being there mmm... Maybe if the time skip had not happened. in the end the are different very from when they meet in Tokyo 03 so who knows, but Mari would troll both of them if given the chance
I must admit that it was hard for me to understand how you reached the points of your conclusion. I have repeated this many times in my posts, but to accept that Mari and Shinji are going in different directions, you have to neglect everything that has been shown previously in the movie and manga. You have to neglect Asuka and Shinji confession and think that Asuka, despite everything that has been shown, will say "Oh perfect, Shinji save me, I have had feelings for him for 14 years but yes, why not? it is time to move on for no reason at all" which makes no sense.
I agree with you that Mari and Shinji are there because they are the two left in the AU. I agree that she might be only a friend rather to a big sister or something like that (why do you introduce the partner element? That is just wishful thinking, there is no element in the whole RoE pointing at that) and I do not know where you see that they go in different directions. The other pilots are not there, they are presentations that they are already saved, so Mari and Shinji go in the direction they need to return.
So in the end, you accept that they might meet again, but you accept that if that happens that would mean nothing for Asuka or Shinji because as Mari was the one who rescued him...that means...that they have to let their feelings go? I still do not get it.
And as a final remark, you say that if the time skip had not happened, Asuka and Shinji would have been together. However, there are a lot of developments after the time skip that contradicts that, not only the fact that we know that Asuka still has feelings, Shinji too and both confesses. The thing that hampers all is Shinji's sacrifice, which is not present anymore, in the end, thanks to Yui/Gendo sacrifice.
Oh! And I forgot to mention the Eva extra manga interpretation
The manga is there to show Asuka’s feelings and how much she misses Shinji. From the first page with the moon poem references/the book quotes of Mari about the moon is beautiful/and Asuka’s position we know she misses him and still loves him. This is further expanded in Mari and Asuka’s interactions, and is clearly stated to the reader when we see she thinking about a moment where Shinji was being nice to her. In the image, we see clearly she is thinking about Shinji and not Misato or some sort of scene in the apartment as a family. Furthermore, there is no single reference in the manga to that.
As a short manga, the intention is clear. Asuka does not miss those times in Tokyo 3 (she might but it is not presented there) , she misses and loves Shinji, and that is the intention of it.
Merged, unnecessary double post - JoelcrNeto