On Fri, 5 May 2000, E.L. Toh wrote:
Whereas before Rei would sport a slight blush, this
time her crimson flush was very obvious. She even twitched
her fingers slightly in agitation.
"Shinji's fine," replied Rei, again softly, her
voice with an unmistakable shyness to it.
of course she would know, hanging outside his window at night
to check up on your love interest tends to give you that kind
of knowledge... but seriously, i always enjoy the passages on
Yep.
Rei - especially the 'cute, shy girl exploring her emotions'
aspect though the tension with her murderous aspect is very
fruitful as well. more on that later.
That's our goal!
and didn't Misato promise Shinji a handwriting sample from Rei?
Doh! I forgot. Thank you for the reminder.
Rei knelt and pet the cat, which to Shinji and Asuka's
surprise, didn't shy away from her. "Hello, kitty," she said,
wai! Hello Kitty!
please tell me that was not a deliberate pun! ;)
Just a coincidence.
The student council stared at each other. The dance
was coming up in a few days, but none of them had gotten
asked out. Something HAD to be done. They'd explored the
idea of a date lottery, but everyone was afraid of ending up
having to date some stupid.
... some stupid ?. incomplete sentence?
someone stupid.
The way Langley explained it, all people dream but
only a rare few can reach the Dreamlands. For him to see
two other people from his school in the Dreamlands was an
incredible coincidence. It was kind of against the odds,
the way Asuka told it.
i suppose in fanfics, there is no such thing as coincidence.
another aspect of this elseworlds that closely follows the
original anime, with potential EVA pilot candidates being kept
closley together.
Yep.
He continued staring at the group of monks as they
walked away, part of him wanting to give chase to confirm
what he'd seen, part of him (the majority part) deciding
that was a bad idea and to just go about his business.
for someone who is usually thought of as not the brightest
bulb in the batch, Toji has got remarkably good intuition
and instincts.
Yep.
The light blush told Ritsuko everything. Maya
must've found herself a man. Lucky girl.
(covers face with hand) for the Greatest Scientist alive
in this elseworlds, Ritsuko sure can be really unobservant.
then again, cognitive dissonance with respect to love seems
to be a characteristic common to most of the EVA cast.
Well, you see, spotting the signs of love wasn't part of her science
training. It's the difference between intellect (she has tons) and
intuition (Not so strong)
"We met off and on since then," continued Maya.
"But I was really surprised when I found out she was with
NERV, and my boss too! It's neat how life works out, don't
you think?"
this is a HPL-esque world. things don't often work out
nicely. then again, Dream Quest is probably one of HPL's
most optimistic works.
Yep.
feelings." She smiled a little. "Love brings out the best
in us all."
For just a moment, Gendo smiled. "Yes, it can. But
it sometimes makes monsters of us as well."
well, that really applies sooo well to Gendo.
Yep.
> "She has lost her balance. I hoped that this would
be good for her, but it is happening too fast, and she lacks
the experience to deal with it. A normal person could not
handle being in her position; for her, it must be much
worse." He frowned. "But she cannot be replaced yet. The
latest report from DAGON was more an obituary than a
progress report. Only two successes, and one is worthless
as a pilot, while the other is on its way to becoming
worthless in general and a threat besides."
hmmm. where is the first success? can two Reis exist
simultaneously?
The first success will be showing up before all is done.
"Unless?"
"It might be possible to summon her mother."
"Who wouldn't want to help."
so i assume Naoko has completed her transformation
into a Deep One and now dwells below the waves?
That would be telling.
"If she knew the truth?" Gendo asked.
"Some people can see beyond the flesh," he said.
"But they're rare and precious, and I fear Maya is
still too young and superficial. We cannot count on her to
do it. A pity the Monteleone formula didn't work."
as events show, it seems that Fuyutsuki is right.
any implications for Gendo's plans then?
Yep.
She shook her head. "Can you come with me to the
hospital later? I don't wanna visit her alone... I don't
like hospitals."
"Yeah, I know the feeling."
Toji would definitely recognise Mika but there doesn't seem
to be any mention of the hospital visit later.
Everything from that point onward takes place in the same day; they
haven't had time to go to the hospital yet. (Ended up not going that
same day)
"Commander Ikari's words were to report to base
immediately," the head man in black stated simply.
Rei looked down again, defeated, and accompanied
them through the gates.
ouch. this passage just broke my heart.
A blast of cool air rushed in as the gym doors
opened, and many people turned and looked. The music
changed to "Can't Stop Missing You", by the upcoming singer
Hagesawa Hayao.
oh, the singer with the perfect voice/aging mutation?
Heh.
them moving, spinning, turning. First one circle, then
another, and yet another, each one a layer, and with each
layer an intricate series of strange symbols and drawings,
seemingly endless circles within circles within circles, all
within the surface of her eyes.
oh, something like the graphic on the CoaEG webpage.
You got it!
Unseen by the world, hidden amongst the grove of
trees on a lonely beach, two lips met, and two lonely souls
found shelter in the storm of their lives, if only for a
fleeting moment.
well, at least Maya has found the courage and had the chance
to express how she feels.
Before her brain gets eaten.
And from around the corner emerged Rei, no emotion
on her face, no words from her mouth, just an eerily silent
walk.
is this meant to parallel Rei II's death in the original series?
Not deliberately.
overall, this feels like a particularly important and good
installment of the series. several threads are made explicit -
like the nature of Ritsuko's illness. characters are given some
impetus - Shinji x Asuka, Maya's feelings. Cthuga is arriving
soon. how long can the seal contain Rei? will she still feel
the same way about Shinji? why Shinji?
The Second Sun Also Rises in episode 17...:)
all the character interactions have been just been such a
pleasure: Maya-Gendo, Ritsuko-Maya, Shinji-Asuka (esp. when
Shinji was imitating Rei and the 'lonely' talk), Makoto-Maya.
Rod wrote most of those, so he gets the credit (except for Shinji-Asuka,
which was usually me)
probably the only one set of interactions which i didn't get
as much of a buzz from were the Touji-Hikari scenes. they
don't seem to ring as true...
How come?
the letter between Asuka and Anna are an effective medium
for conveying information as were the previous Himmelfarb-
Asuka letters. i assume Commander Ikari will be playing
voyeur to these letters as well. i dunno, given the general
Yep.
sense of dread that parts of this series has given me, i
can't help but feel that Anna is going to meet a very nasty
end - at Asuka's hands or the new Rei's. going to screw
things up for the cast either way.
Anna's fate will...well, that would be telling.
more on the tragedy that is Ayanami Rei. the two strands of
her character (as described at the chickenball awards) have
provided much dramatic tension, humour and now tragedy.
Thanks!
go further into that other than to say - i felt very sad for
Rei but it was written in a such a way that i didn't feel let
down. in my previous c&cing of CoaEG, i had always assumed
that it would be Shinji who let Rei slip out of his grasp, but
it seems the order should be reversed.
We'll just say that the game is not yet over...for it is not easy for mice
to keep a cat belled, so to speak.
despite being a Reihead myself, i can't agree with Jon's
recent post on this part - partly saying that Biles-sama
and Rod-sama have written Asuka as too perfect a character.
she's got flaws still and is endearingly vulnerable. and
the characterisation change to Asuka is intended, explicit
and written with an even hand. it's an elseworlds afterall.
Yep. It's a deliberate characterization change due to a changed past of
Asuka's. To her, her parents died heroically, and she wants to emulate
them; her mother never went mad and rejected her or killed herself, and so
she became a different person.
John Biles
Emperor of all He Surveys
http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
"How embarrassing must that be for the Kree when they try to explain their
government: "Yes, we worship a giant green head in a tank."
--Reed Richards in a FF parody on psycomic.com