01-11-2014, 03:49 AM
Well, yes, the rebuild movies are easy to digest, expensive, beautiful, succesfully epic when they want to be etc. I don't shy away from "guilty pleasures" like that, I did enjoy them:)
For example, expanding on Rei's character was entirely done for the moneyz, as she is arguably the most popular character from the series. Also, they are nice and epic together and you go awww when he goes to save her and all that stuff:)
BUT, arguably the main purpose of Rei's character in the original series was to present the non-valid love interest to Shinji, which he would pursuit in an oedipal frenzy (which is heavily punned throughout the show, with Rei actually being the clone of his mother), which would, poetically result in fruitless disappointment, as it should be. As the whole point of the show is basically a coming of age modern myth, where one can't develop mature love while being infantile. So, Rei is basically more of a tool than the actual character and she has the clear purpose of underlining some vital aspects of the show.
So, the movie intervention was going in the wrong direction, imho - at least when it comes to what the Evangelion is all about. BUT, Anno did brutally punish Shinji, and really, all of the cast (well, he does love to do it:) ) for going after Rei, which shows that maybe Rei's role wasn't changed, as Shinji goes two steps back on his journey of psychological maturity when he does that. Allegorically, the message seems to stay the same.
About the trippy transcendental stuff - surprisingly there is not much of that in the original series. The philosophy is pretty much basic and pushed aside in favor of psychology - which I feel is the opposite in the Rebuild. The psychology is very much toned down (the characters are effectively reduced to tropes), but we got more trippy stuff that are plot based (much like Memento or something like that). Whereas in the original series, there weren't that much "plot delicacies" as there were pure psychological treatments of the cast. So, now we have stuff like this:
Whether it's just for the sake of puns or there's something behind it, we may see in the fourth movie:)
For example, expanding on Rei's character was entirely done for the moneyz, as she is arguably the most popular character from the series. Also, they are nice and epic together and you go awww when he goes to save her and all that stuff:)
BUT, arguably the main purpose of Rei's character in the original series was to present the non-valid love interest to Shinji, which he would pursuit in an oedipal frenzy (which is heavily punned throughout the show, with Rei actually being the clone of his mother), which would, poetically result in fruitless disappointment, as it should be. As the whole point of the show is basically a coming of age modern myth, where one can't develop mature love while being infantile. So, Rei is basically more of a tool than the actual character and she has the clear purpose of underlining some vital aspects of the show.
So, the movie intervention was going in the wrong direction, imho - at least when it comes to what the Evangelion is all about. BUT, Anno did brutally punish Shinji, and really, all of the cast (well, he does love to do it:) ) for going after Rei, which shows that maybe Rei's role wasn't changed, as Shinji goes two steps back on his journey of psychological maturity when he does that. Allegorically, the message seems to stay the same.
About the trippy transcendental stuff - surprisingly there is not much of that in the original series. The philosophy is pretty much basic and pushed aside in favor of psychology - which I feel is the opposite in the Rebuild. The psychology is very much toned down (the characters are effectively reduced to tropes), but we got more trippy stuff that are plot based (much like Memento or something like that). Whereas in the original series, there weren't that much "plot delicacies" as there were pure psychological treatments of the cast. So, now we have stuff like this:
Whether it's just for the sake of puns or there's something behind it, we may see in the fourth movie:)
![[+]](images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
Spoiler