#also Ritsuko *w* and Misato *w* and Kaji *w*

[karizard-ao3]

My reactions to Evangelion episode 17: Fourth Child

I regret ever doubting Misato. It was not her who was sus, it was NERV.

Actually, I did wonder if the Angel was trying to communicate with him.

The need for "heart" to operate the Evas is stirring some things in my head.

Toji is a good brother.

ope, my kid is home. I'll save this as a draft and try to resume later.

Okay, it's later. My kid is asleep and I'm squeezing in an episode before I also go to bed. I'm just going to start from the beginning. I think I could probably actually watch this with him because the content doesn't seem too mature for him, however he would not be able to restrain himself from talking through the thing and I would annoy him by pausing the show if I have long notes to make, so he'll just have to wait to see if I feel I must do a second watch after the first one.

I like that Misato is protecting Shinji from this interrogation.

The Angels are EVOLVING?

So I've been thinking about how Adam appeared to be a fetus in a suitcase when Kaji brought him to Gendo and how he was called the first Angel when Kaji showed him to Misato fully grown, so I wonder if instead of dying they just do a little Steven Universe thing and revert back to an embryo? Or actually maybe comparing them to a phoenix is more apt. Also, I did find it weird when the lava Angel pupae looked so similar to fetus Adam but I also take it for granted that all embryos/ early stage fetuses look the same no matter what species they are, so I didn't think too deeply about it. That should have been my first clue that Adam was an Angel and not a person.

What is the S2 drive?

So the base or whatever vanished. It disappeared into the Dirac Sea. Was it the S2 drive and human error that caused this vaporization of sorts or was it an Angel attack?

The dummy plug is very interesting to me. The Eva needs to feel like there is a pilot to sync with. Is it because the implanted personalities long to have a soul again? Or am I just thinking weird things because I'm tired? lol

Is that actually Rei in the tube? I guess it is.

Ritsuko, why so creepy?

Asuka being mean again. Oh, young lady.

Does class rep like Toji??

Rei's got medication she takes.

Rei's reaction to Shinji cleaning up after her was so cute.

She's never said thank you before?

Here we go with some Garden of Eden talk. Is Tokyo-3 the Eden? Maybe it's a space station for when they destroy the Earth.

The Marduk Institute doesn't exist? And Shinji's school seems to be involved. Maybe all the kids there potential pilots.

"But I'm not a girl" Shinji, I love you.

Kaji is a watermelon farmer.

I wonder what traits they select for when choosing pilots.

Kensuke is so nosy,

The birth rate has been falling. Hmmm.

She's offering to make you a lunch, dumbass.

I'm changing Asuka's name to Karen.

In Conclusion

I feel like things are starting to come together but I'm still no closer to figuring out exactly what the secrets here are. Soon, soon.

Toji being the Fourth Children is tugging on my brain because I feel like if I could figure out what about him makes him the candidate they've been looking for then I would have a much better idea of what's going on with the Evas. I had thought there may be some kind of psychic element to this but I haven't seen any signs that they are being evaluated for psychic skills. It seems the "heart" is the most important part, but what determines that there is enough heart? All the pilots are so different, except for that they all do have some kind of trauma. Is that the trick? I don't seem to recall any mention of Toji's parents being killed but he just mentioned that there's no one at home to make a lunchbox for him anymore, so maybe he has lost them. Shinji lost his mother and his dad's a deadbeat, Asuka mentioned she has no one left to care about (if I remember right), and Rei is also alone from what I can tell and may have lost her loved ones horrifically. We know she has no one to make her feel connected to the world with all the suicidal sounding stuff she was saying that upset Shinji. Maybe she was the one who said she had no one left? Could have been both girls. So, I guess now I'm wondering if Toji's sister has died. Anyway, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I have a feeling the dummy plug is going to be a disaster.

That's about all I'm coming up with right now. I have to get to bed or I will regret it in the morning and all day tomorrow, so I will try to watch another episode tomorrow night, but maybe earlier in the evening so I can fit in a couple. We'll see. It all depends on a certain dependent of mine and how fast he goes to bed.

#neon genesis evangelion #evangelion #first watch #thoughts #reactions #shinji ikari #rei ayanami #asuka langley soryu #misato #toji suzuhara

[ritsuko-akagi-spotted]

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mod also runs @kaworu-nagisa-spotted !

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[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 16

Tonight's episode: Whatever this thing is.

This one opens with another breakfast at Misato's place, but Asuka jumps out of the shower complaining it's too hot, then jumps down Shinji's throat for apologizing for things he can't control, like the water being too hot. She also seems sore about Misato getting back together with Kaji, then she slams the door shut, which I didn't even think you could do with those Japanese sliding doors. You'd just tear the whole thing apart, right? Anyway, this scene was probably intended to reintroduce the main cast, particularly Shinji, who will be psychoanalyzed later, but it's weird how Asuka will barge into a room, throw three different fits simultaneously, and leave. I feel like that probably needs some professional attention.

The kids do another round of testing at the NERV base, and Shinji's compatibility with the Eva has increased again, finally putting his numbers above Asuka's. Misato hopes this will improve his confidence. Asuka, of course, is very gracious abou-- ha ha I can't even finish that sentence. No, she throws another fit, because it's a day that ends in a "y". Rei's like "good luck with that" and leaves her to stew.

It does actually give Shinji something to feel good about. He does a little fist pump on the bus, but he sees some kids laughing at him and he gets self-conscious about it.

The next day, a giant sphere shows up over Tokyo-3, and they can't even tell if it's an Angel or not, but the smart money is on "yes it is". Misato sends all three pilots to reconnoiter, and tells them that one will go into attack, with the other two backing that one up. Asuka suggests that Shinji take point, since he's testing so well these days. Misato isn't sure he's up for it, but Shinji's feeling his oats, so he wants to do it. Well okay then.

But Shinji's a little too eager this time. He pulls too far ahead of the others, so there's no one to back him up. Impulsively, he opens fire on the Angel, and then a shadow appears underneath him and swallows him up. Great, so it's a Stand User on top of everything else.

Later, Ritsuko explains that the shadow is the Angel, and it only appears when... look, I'm not going to pretend to understand how this works. The big sphere is actually the shadow cast by the Angel's weird geometry. The point is that Shinji's inside a parallel world separate from our own universe. The power cable to his Eva was severed when they tried to pull it back out, but if he conserves battery power in life-support mode, he should be able to survive for sixteen hours.

Okay, these batteries are complete bullshit. Sometimes they're only good for one minute, other times they can power an Eva for five minutes, and now there's a way to keep it on for sixteen hours. I get it, it's probably all about what you do with the Eva while it's on the battery. Combat and locomotion are going to waste power much faster. But it's strange to me how it can last that much longer in a situation like this. It would have been easier for me to buy that they developed a better battery since the last episode.

Asuka openly mocks Shinji for his predicament, and Rei asks her if she pilots the Eva just for the praise of others. Uh, yeah, Asuka practically admitted this a few episodes back. Asuka denies it now, but come on. Don't kid a kidder, Asuka. I don't think I understand Rei's point here, but it's pretty clear that Asuka is just acting out to avoid dealing with the stress of Shinji's disappearance. Rei isn't buying it and she's not going to take the bait just to give Asuka the distraction she wants.

Inside, Shinji is still alive, but there's nothing he can do. His sensors can detect nothing outside the Eva. To his credit, he did set the Eva on life support mode, so he's got plenty of time, but there's not much he can do other than wait for a rescue.

It doesn't take long for him to start panicking. See, he's thinking about blood, which is what Rei was thinking about when she synced up with Unit 01 a couple of episodes back. She got a taste of his dark thoughts, and I guess he got a taste of hers when Unit 00 went berserk all over again.

Outside, Ritsuko proposes a plan that would involve dropping 992 N2 mines into the shadow, all at once. That would somehow allow them to recover Unit 01. Misato asks how Shinji could possibly survive such a thing. Well, he'd be inside the Eva, so if the Eva's salvageable, I assume he'd be alive as long as his life support doesn't run out.

But Ritsuko doesn't say that. Instead she explains that the Eva is the priority here, not the pilot. Misato slaps her for that. Damn!

See, this is what I'm talking about when I was complaining about the first half of this series. Not everything has to be a laser karate fight or an exploding robot. This show's premise is loaded with tension--the world is always in danger of being destroyed-- so you knew that one of these days Ritsuko and Misato might not get along as well as they normally do. But they could have done something like this much, much earlier in the show than this, and it would have added a lot of texture to the story. I mean, at least they're doing it now, so it's not a total waste, but a lot of the good stuff we're getting in the second half makes me mad at the missed opportunities in the first half.

Ritsuko pulls rank and tells Misato that she's told her all she knows. We know that's a lie, because Kaji showed Misato that secret room in the NERV basement. Misato doesn't know what an Eva is, exactly, but it's got something to do with that Angel corpse that's trussed up downstairs, and Gendo Ikari and Ritsuko seem to care more about the Evas than the pilots.

Meanwhile, Shinji experiences some sort of presence who identifies as himself. All beings, it explains, are composed of two selves: one's own self-perception, and the way one is perceived by others.

The voice tells Shinji that he fears the Shinji Ikari that exists in the minds of others. He's too wrapped up in worrying about how others feel about him. This probably stems from his father deserting him as a small child, but...

... the voice tells him it isn't that simple. Shinji ran away from himself that day. There's images and voices accusing Gendo Ikari of killing his wife, so I have no idea how to unpack all of that, but there's a rich tapestry of issues here. It's hard to imagine that this is just Shinji's mind talking to itself, because he normally isn't this willing to confront these things head-on like this. So maybe this is Angel trying to make contact with him, but we can't tell.

Then, as Shinji seems to succumb to the life support failure, some ghostly figure embraces him and... I don't know.

Outside, the shadow on the ground begins to form bloody cracks, and NERV's sensors go off the charts. No one knows what's happening.

Ritsuko is especially confused, because her recovery operation hasn't even started yet.

Then we see the Eva's hand burst out of the sphere. You know, the sphere that Ritsuko said wasn't actually the Angel? Well, all that blood coming out of it would beg to differ. Maybe she didn't understand it as well as she thought.

I gotta say, this is pretty cool.

Finally Unit 01 busts out and it screams like it did way back in the beginning, when Shinji didn't know what he was doing. This terrifies a lot of the people on the ground. Asuka is gobsmacked to see just what it is she's piloting. I think Rei already knew they were like this. Pretty sure Ritsuko knew as well, but...

This is still beyond anything she might have expected.

Her words are a clue for Misato, but she doesn't think the Evas are simply copied from the body of the first Angel. There's more to it than that, and what really concerns her is this: Just what is NERV planning to do with the Evas once all the Angels have been destroyed?

Anyway, they get Shinji out of the robot and he's still alive, though delerious.

Later, Ritsuko and Gendo are overseeing the repairs to Unit 01, and she worries that Misato or Shinji might have noticed something about the Evas that they're not supposed to know. If they ever figured it out, she worries that they'd never forgive them. Gendo acknowledges this, but wants to leave it be for now.

Shinji wakes up in the hospital bed, but this time Rei's there at his bedside. She tells him to take it easy and leaves.

As Rei leaves, we see Asuka at the door, much to her chagrin. Shinji is gratified to know they both care about him.

Shinji looks at his hand, then observes "It still smells like blood." His hand, or the whole room? And what does this mean? Did he kill his mother?

#neon genesis evangelion #2024ngeliveblog #shinji ikari #rei ayanami #asuka langley soryu #misato katsuragi #ritsuko akagi #gendo ikari

[miss-peanut-butter-cups]

The End of Ram's Foray Into Neon Genesis Evangellion

Lotta companies that made this one

so did Shinji's character development realm from the last two episodes happen?

Forgot she was in hospital

uhhh

what the fuck

wtf dude

ah, it's a cult

Oh there were more Magis

Yeah that's a pretty sure situation

Wow they're just sending in the whole army, I thought they'd have an Eva or something

Steele's been preparing for this for a while

Now that's probably the single worst Thu for Rei to find

It is very disorienting to see armed conflict and casualties in this show

What happened to "happy shinji who wants to live" from last episode

God damn N2s are strong

Yeah let's have a nice exposition talk in the giant skull corridor

Wait are the other angels from different species

Asuka mumbling t herself like that if very unsettling

It can make the cross beam!?

Ah. She's lost it.

Oh that's a lot more Eva's than j thought they:d bave

Oh hey they're that one Elden Ring enemy

Unit-02 goes hard

Ah fuck Misato's definitely dying

So was episode 25+26 an alternate ending?

She's holding up very well for being shot

Uhh gonna put that up to the blood loss

Rei?

"Hey here's an idea let's give out new Eva's giant mouths" some shmuck at steele

Ritsuko can I have an exposition speech here?

How exactly are the Eva's their mothers?

GET IN THE FUCKING ROBOT SHINJI

What how'd they get that back!?

Oh fuck she's actually lost an eye

Fuuuuuuck. That's a way to go.

The wings!!

Evangellion why are you showing me credits halfway through this? There's still 45mins to go.

Well while they roll, halfway thoughts:

This is a lot darker than I was anticipating. So much death, and there's a real sense of despair. I really feel for the mission control people stuck in their room while it gets assaulted. Asuka's battle against the S2 Eva's was so cool, great to see her go all out. Sucks they just have respawn cheats though. Also, if that's Lilith chained up beneath Nerv, then where's Adam.

Oh ok that's where Adam is.

That doesn't look healthy.

Wait. Are you doing this whole end of days mastermind gigaplan just to see your dead wife!?

Did you have to reach there Gendo

Oh it was a second spear that got Asuka?

ITS THE THU G CDKM THE JNTRK!!

Good last words, random soldier

Whoa.

Yeah! You go do .. whatever your about to do Rei

Haha, that's fucking creepy as shit

Yeah that's how JD be reacting too Shinji

How do all the organisations know what's going on here?

Wow it managed to get creepier

So he wants to destroy Nerv?

If I had a penny for everyone there's a just-too-long out of frame sex scene between Misato and Kaji. I'd have 2 more pennies than I'd want.

Are these real memories? If that's they case then Shinji and Asuka have a very unhealthy relationship

VERY UNHEALTHY

THUS JS WHY YOU FIBW THERAPY RK TBE MJND YKU LHT JN TBE GKD RKBKT

Wow this is a beautiful sequence

Wait was Seele a robot all along!

Everyone dies?

Nope don't like that put it back j your fkrehead

Man what the fuck is going on

Huh???

Why are w ein live action land

Did this show in cinemas? Are those the people that watched it?

Is... he undoing it?

Oh ok Unit 01 was just in there

JESSE WHAT THE FUCK JS GOING ON

No way did Asuka survive all that. Or did she just rebirth herself?

That's your first instinct? To strangle her? Really?

Closing Thoughts:

Nostalgic Show. Strange Show. Good Show.

#neon genesis evangelion

[asuka--langley--soryu]

I know you headcanon Asuka as a lesbian, but do you have any other sexuality headcanons? Your Asuka post was nice so I was wondering if you had any other similar headcanons

aw ty ty im glad you liked my post <33 tbh even though it was kind of a rambling mess I'm like a lil proud of it lol and am happy it resonated w a lot of other people.

in terms of other hcs I don't have any that are nearly as detailed or interesting, mostly just kind of vague sketches and ideas. except for asuka I mostly think of character's sexualities in regard to relationships between them and other characters rather than how they may exist as 'an identity' within the character as an individual entity, if that makes sense.

Like, for example, I think of Misato as bi but most of my interest in that is vested in reading her and ritsuko as ex-girlfriends--bc i think its a fun idea and a genuinely interesting way of reading their dynamic and also objectively correct :). And I really only think of Rei's sexuality (as in identity and actionable interest. i think about rei's '''sexuality'' as in her presence as the womb/mother and how she's objectified etc quite often lol) pretty exclusively in terms of Asurei because it's kind of the only situation in which I can imagine Rei in romantically. I do think that probably Rei would have a difficult time genuinely forming a relationship with a man considering her experiences. I have some loose thoughts on her connection to gender because I imagine it's pretty nebulous--in terms of 'hcs' id say I see her as p solidly nb--but also fraught in that 'im supposed to be a womb' afab way crossed with 'literally a clone of a woman and a genderless alien'. could maybe expand on this more but I'd have to think on it a little--i'm still not really sure where i'm going with it lol.

off the top of my head for just like cut and dry hcs: ritsuko is a lesbian. duh. if you are even thinking of considering saying anything about gendo to refute this then your head is full of sawdust. kaji's bi but what else is new. Toji and Kensuke COULD be Boy Best Friends but probably theres too much robot trauma going on and also kensuke might be a little too dense idk. tbh I just want someone to hold toji's hand who isn't like also trying to be his mom :/

kaworu is firmly gay and uh....gendery. idk he's an alien and obviously distanced from the concept of humanity but, also, has consciously identified himself as a boy or at least like.....boyish. I also have some vaaagueeee thoughts about that and him self-assigning as a 'protector' but as of rn I mostly think that it is worth noting that he chooses to be 'a boy' in whatever kind of approximation of that and of 'gender' he has. but also at the end of the day kaworu doesnt give a shit about gender he's from space.

uhhhh off the top of my dome thats all I can think of rn. if you want me to talk about anyone specifically feel free to ask!

#evangelion #neon genesis evangelion #nge #asks #this is a mess sorry i just wanted to actually fucking answer it lol #but my brains oatmeal so forgive if this like. sucks. #for real im somuch better w specifics so like feel free to ask about someone in particular if you want to knoow idk #if you see me go back and edit this do not be surprised #mine