Do You Want to Become One With Me?

[Sailor Star Dust]

(wow, I never realized you could see the sunlight reflecting off the water ala 21/26' Yui and Fuyutsuki's lakeside discussion.)

YUI:
This Rei is from your soul. It's an embodiment of your wish.

Rei (OFF):
What do you wish?

Anyway, I agree that the three woman were fronts for Yui asking Shinji what he wanted; which of course ties in with EoTV/EoE.

Shinji turning into LCL after Rei asks what he wishes for in EoE is similar to the ep.20 scene because he's already LCL by this point.

I guess it can be thought of as this:

20: Shinji already L.C.L before a return to Reality.
26': Shinji reverting to L.C.L as an escape from Reality.

[Squirrel Ninja]

What wish do you think that is that Shinji embodies, the wish for a mother or companionship or what. Is Rei the answer to her own question?

[PartyHard]

^ I think at that point, his ultimate wish and ideal state was everything that Instrumentality embodies.

[sadsadshinji]

I agree with SSD; the boobie-land scene was really just a way for Yui to ask if Shinji wanted a dissolved existence in EVA-01 or existence in the outside world. If anything, perhaps she is trying to show him the benefits of living a bodiless existence? She does seem rather concerned with the pain and suffering that individual existence has brought him, so it would kind of make sense. In EoE, she seems to take a similar route (with the whole "This Rei is your heart, what do you want (Asuka boobs)).

[Squirrel Ninja]

It makes since when you consider the psychological implication of the mother as protective even to the point of isolating there child. Also at the end of this episode on the radio they go through that whole conversation about the "Oral Stage" and psychological dependency.

[Sailor Star Dust]

What wish do you think that is that Shinji embodies,

With EoE, whatShinji desires is the last thing he sees before reverting to LCL:





A female chest with a particular hairstyle, the girl is crossing her arms, hey that hair and the girl kinda looks like:



Anyway, I made an interesting discovery the other day while playing the PSP version of the Eva2 game (even though it's not exactly canon since some scenes in the "Angel Attack" Scenario are changed or removed for the game). Shinji's first scenario is based on events of the series and EoE. What does Shinji say in scene from episode 20 when he's converted to LCL?

"Ayanami? Asuka? Misato-san? No, it's not them. It's mother."

implying that the three woman ARE fronts for Yui.

[Semisubtle]

Oh, so they ARE Asuka boobs. I had never really been sure on that.

[PartyHard]

...Typical Shinji.


Yui: Son, the reality as we know it and the beyond are about to be merged into One, their fate ultimately decided and based on your deepest, most subconscious need. So, speak, voice thy wish.

Shinji: Boobies!

Yui: You are just like your father!

[Eva Yojimbo]

Yui: Son, the reality as we know it and the beyond are about to be merged into One, their fate ultimately decided and based on your deepest, most subconscious need. So, speak, voice thy wish.

Shinji: Boobies!

Yui: You are just like your father!

Can't say I blame him though. There are worse things to do/think about before the apocalypse.

[Ornette]

Oh, so they ARE Asuka boobs. I had never really been sure on that.

That's debatable. I don't think it really matters who's they are, but what they represent.

[Reichu]

In the subsequent scenes, Asuka shoves her boobies into Shinji's face as she taunts him, and, during the reprise of the "kiss scene", Shinji is staring at them rather desperately. It's unspoken, of course, but the one to whom those sketchy (har har) boobies belong is rather heavily implied...

Plus if it's specifically Asuka, and not just some generic chick, in that image, that's a bit more meaningful as a response to "What do you wish for?" Also consider how Fuyutsuki, Hyuga, and Maya saw people they wished for before exploding into Tang (and Shinji undergoes his own liquification here). Shinji's whole "I want to help you and be with you forever" thing indicates a desire/need for Asuka that's beyond boobies (although boobies are fine too).

[Eva Yojimbo]

Plus if it's specifically Asuka, and not just some generic chick, in that image, that's a bit more meaningful as a response to "What do you wish for?"

I disagree it's more meaningful. I think it's more specific, but not necessarily meaningful. By just being generic boobies it could either represent him wanting them in a sexual or motherly way. Many would assume the former, but let's not forget that it's his wanting to escape individuality and returning to mother's womb that leads to Instrumentality. However, if it is specifically Asuka's then that tells us more about Shinji's wishes specifically. I rather like the ambiguousness of it myself and don't think we need to determine whether it is or isn't Asuka.... the way it's presented it could be both (Asuka's literally and just "boobies" metaphorically).

[Iron Rooster]

Shinji probably really REALLY wants Asuka since she's basically the person who would love to be with the most. This is seemingly impossible since Asuka never opens up and she lets her jealousy and personality problems create a barrier that Shinji can't cross. All he has to work with is 'BOOBIES!!!!!'. I guess that's why in that scene where he tells Asuka he wants to be with her but she blows him off exists. It sort of represents, to me at least, how Shinji wants to know Asuka beyond her sexual nature, but Asuka never gives Shinji any ground to advance.

Maybe he sees instrumentality as a way to push past Asuka's barriers against a relationship with him, hence Shinji choking her bitch ass in that scene.

And no, I don't not want to be one with you.

[Ornette]

What I meant by "debatable" is that you'll have people that can say "but wait, those are too big to be hers" etc...

What I meant specifically is that, yes, they're probably Asuka's, if you absolutely needed to know who's they are, because one can only guess. But the important thing is not who's they are, but what they represent. They're shown as a sketch, and not of a superimposed shot of Asuka, which we have seen already in the show. We're not supposed to see that and point out "hey, those tits are Asuka's". Bottom line, I don't think this is a "Shinji wishes for Asuka's boobs". While, arguably, it may be a part of what he wishes for, the reason why we don't know who's they are is because his wish is more than that.

[NAveryW]

How are they larger than Asuka's? You can't really determine the size from a 2D front-on image. The apparent "depth" could quite easily be an illusion of the shading.

[Anonymous_Evafan]

but let's not forget that it's his wanting to escape individuality and returning to mother's womb

Say what? It may be, in a sense, a return to a mother's womb but that isn't what Shinji is wishing for. He wanted death plain and simple. I don't know where you got he wanted to return to Yui's womb from everyone just die.

[Eva Yojimbo]

But the important thing is not who's they are, but what they represent. While, arguably, it may be a part of what he wishes for, the reason why we don't know who's they are is because his wish is more than that.

Say what? It may be, in a sense, a return to a mother's womb but that isn't what Shinji is wishing for. He wanted death plain and simple. I don't know where you got he wanted to return to Yui's womb from everyone just die.

It's a bit more complicated than that. What's Shinji's wishing for is a return to a state where he doesn't have the complications of consciousness and ego, which is in a sense a death. And it's possible that Shinji is consciously thinking "death" as in the completely kaput kind, but what he's getting, and likely what he's really wanting, is a return to this perfectly comfortable state of (non)existence.

I think to treat this in the most literal sense it to ignore a buttload of thematics that's built up this specific dichotomy throughout the series.

[Ornette]

How are they larger than Asuka's? You can't really determine the size from a 2D front-on image. The apparent "depth" could quite easily be an illusion of the shading.

Don't ask me, other people had argued about this in the past.

[Mr. Tines]

Breasts as fixation could equally well indicate a regression to infancy and being nursed (if not to the womb) -- after all, the only time Shinji is shown in the real world reaching out to breasts is in the reservoir flashback scene. And then there's the Shinjiquarium scene just adding to the mix...

[Eva Yojimbo]

Breasts as fixation could equally well indicate a regression to infancy and being nursed (if not to the womb)

Yes, which is what I was referring to with this: "By just being generic boobies it could either represent him wanting them in a sexual or motherly way."