cat42 wrote:I'm wondering if there is a relation between the fact that until Ep. 22 Lilith has not been shown with legs, and the fact that the twisted Unit-01 left only Gendo's legs?
She actually left his whole lower body. It sorta made me think of this:
...and how, in meltdown, Rei faces Misato's upper, rather than lower, section. Because that's where the soul likes to stay?
......
^"Y HALO THAR..."
^"YUI."
^"Have I ever told you that you look much hawter in purple?"
^"RLY?"
^"YA, RLY"
^"O RLY?"
"YA, RL--"
^:crunch:
(click for bigger)
"Look, Ma! No arms!, etc., etc."
"And no LCL, either. Hey, Rei is still here. And two more than there were a moment ago. What's with that? lol mindfuck, lol time paradox"
*****
Yui's shirt-changing seems to represent a sort of visual evolution, as it were. When we first meet her:
And then later, when we're reunited with her:
Aside from Yui's reunion with Fuyutsuki-sensei in #21 and Gendo's Retribution, the purple turtleneck shows up at least four other times: the illustration of YGK added to #21' (when Naoko discusses Yui's 'death'), #26 ("you're not happy, are you?"), #26 ("Omedetou"), and #26' (the farewell). The significance of the color purple should be pretty self-evident.
They seem to slip in the visual transition from pink blouse to purple turtleneck to :DROOOOOOOLL: as a way of letting the audience know that yes, that freaky EVA-01 is Yui, and nobody but. Additionally, the possibility of the Eva being some sort of Rei-based transition guide is dampered by Rei's continued presence after the Eva, and her quarry, disappear. (So too has Kaworu, for that matter.)
That Gendo should be visited by the three deities -- and we're not given any reason to doubt their identities, IMHO -- and be partially devoured by his wife rather than dissolved by a Rei who would spirit his soul away strikes me as being a rather ... "distinguished" manner of exit. Where did he go? Where did Yui and Kaworu go? How did Yui and Kaworu get there, and appear as they did, in the first place?
I blame Rei. Maybe this is relevant in some way:
You might notice here...
...that Rei's arms are hanging at her sides. Yui and Kaworu are still there.
Afterwards, Rei is holding her two hands up near her chest:
(click for bigger)
...a gesture reminiscent of the "cupping" that is seen in EoE (GNR/GNK & EVA-01, GNR & the Black Moon), in #22 (Arael's arm-wings around her free-floating core), and in #24 (EVA-02 & Kaworu, briefly). Is Rei "holding" something here, as well?
Now, while Gendo does, somehow, manage to get partially eaten, I doubt this scene:
...literally happens, with Yui clutching him in her lefty against a red backdrop and all. Gendo seems to actually stand up:
...to get what's coming to him, and...
...he's still standing there when it's over. But the scene that briefly takes form may be something that only he perceives, and the EVA-01 that he sees is, in a sense, the image of her most prominent in his mind. (I.e., the unleashed beast he smiled so impishly at in #19.) It seems to correspond to a similar scene in #25:
...where Shinji encounters this dark, looming, stylized Eva against a red backdrop, the visual manifestation of what "EVA-01" means to him at this point.
Incidentally, another point of correspondence between the two scenes is to be found shortly afterwards:
...when EVA-01 takes Shinji into her right fist. (With Gendo, it was the left. Cute, huh?)
Shinji's scene in #25 corresponds to the end of #25' in EoE, when Yui breaks out of the bakelite, clutches at Shinji, and tells him to get in. (Did he have to traverse her arm like a bridge or something?) So, like... the outcome for both Shinji and Gendo is that they end up inside Yui's body. Kinky.
One odd thing to point out: The freaky Shogouki in #19 had a meal, and where did the contents end up? In her core. I've wondered if, by evoking the same imagery (*slobber, growl*) and methodology (*munch*), they were trying to tell us something about where Gendo ends up...
Although I can psychically predict what Wayne will say.
Wait... what was this thread about, again?
;