FGC:Episode 23 Scene 02

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Screenshots	Cut #	Description/Dialogue	Commentary
	041	?? (OFF):“It is impossible for us to recover the Lance of Longinus.” ?? (OFF):“Why did you use it?” ?? (OFF):“We still do not have the planned number of the Eva series.”	UrsusArctos: Although the timeline is fuzzy, not much time appears to pass between Episode 23 and the events of End of Evangelion, where nine mass-production Evangelions are deployed in combat, and therefore those Evas should be fairly far along in construction (last discussed in Episode 20). The last Seele member's grumbling about not having the planned number of the Eva series comes off as either hypocrisy or a deliberate attempt at hiding their existence from Gendo.
	042	IKARI:“I made destroying the Angel my first priority. It was an unavoidable situation.” ??:“Unavoidable, was it? You should make your excuses more convincing than that.” ??:“Your recent actions have become intolerable.”	UrsusArctos: Perhaps the Committee is right and Gendo has no excuse for using the Spear of Longinus in a manner that makes it irrecoverable, but just how did they expect him to deal with Arael otherwise?
	043	IKARI:“Fuyutsuki, we're in the middle of deliberations here. All right. An Angel is currently drawing near. Let us continue this at another time.”
	044	??:“If your seat is still waiting for you, that is.”
	045
	046	KEEL:“Ikari... Does he intend to betray Seele?”	Dr. Nick: For all the power and influence they wield, Seele seems to be completely in the dark about what might be motivating Gendo, or Yui for that matter. UrsusArctos: How much Seele knew about Yui is as much of a mystery as the woman herself, but Gendo's act of destroying all of Yui's photographs would have seemed a convicing damnatio memoriae on his part. I'd guess Keel jumped to the conclusion Gendo planned to take his place at Third Impact.
	047
	048	MISATO:“I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Launch Unit 00 from Number 32. Send Unit 02 as backup. That's right, Commander Ikari's orders still stand for Unit 01. I don't have the authority to lift the suspension on it. Bye.”
	049
	050
	051	MISATO:“visual confirmation of the Angel...”
	052
	053
	054	WOMAN (OFF):“Unit 00 launched, heading for intercept point.”
	055	HYUGA:“Unit 02 on standby at current location.” IKARI:“No, launch her.” HYUGA:“Commander!”
	056	IKARI:“It doesn't matter. She can at least serve as a decoy.”	UrsusArctos: Gendo makes it very clear which Eva is expendable and which ones aren't. I guess he wouldn't be too worried explaining Eva-02's loss to Seele even after they drubbed him for losing the Spear of Longinus, since he thinks he knows exactly how much he can get away with.
	057	HYUGA:“Yes, Sir.”
	058	MAN (OFF):“Eva Unit 02, prepare for launch.”
	059	ASUKA:“Here I am, shamelessly back in the pilot's seat. I'm so bad at letting things go.” IBUKI (OFF):“Unit 02, please go to Gate 8. Launch as soon as your deployment position has been determined.” ASUKA:“I'll only be in the way, even if I go out there.” AOBA (OFF):“Target approaching. It has crossed the Gora Final Line of Defense.”
	060	ASUKA:“I don't care anymore.”	Dr. Nick: This scene exemplifies why Evangelion is sometimes said to belong in the mecha subgenre of "hybrid robot". In classic super robot shows, the robot is an extension of the hero's willpower, and the stronger their heroic emotions, the better the machine performs. Usually this is metaphorical of course, but some shows do contextualize this by making emotions or willpower the actual in-universe power source or motive mechanism. GaoGaiGar with its appropriately green-glowing G-stones is a classic heroic super robot formulation of this, and Evangelion earns its hybrid status by combining this type of ludicrous in-universe science with unnervingly realistic depictions of the human condition at its lowest. So, when the mech is emotion-driven and the pilot is in a state of deep depression-borne passivity, we get the anticlimax of Cut 113. And of course, this borrowing from both sides of the aisle goes on: Asuka's awakening and big rampage in episode 25' is a very super robot moment; her getting skewered and eaten only moments after is mean-spirited real robot territory (or perhaps more correctly Tomino territory).
	061		Dr. Nick: The episode with the big origins infodump comes with plenty of DNA imagery, not to mention penetration, pregnancy and birth imagery.
	062
	063	AOBA (OFF):“Target hovering over Ohwakudani, continuing to rotate in place.”	Parkagirl: I love these 'action shots' of Rei in her entry plug, i.e. all the times we get to see her craning her neck to get a better view of the target. Without getting into too much analysis, I see these cuts as kind of humanizing for Rei. We see brief glimpses of her trying, rather than a truly lifeless and all-knowing robot-girl calmly sitting there and acting as if on autopilot.
	064	HYUGA:“Target's AT Field is still active.”
	065
	066	RITSUKO:“What were you doing?” MISATO:“I won't waste time on excuses. What's the situation?”
	067	AOBA:“We've been in a persistent deadlock.”
	068	HYUGA:“Pattern cycling from blue to orange!” MISATO:“What does that mean?”
	069	IBUKI:“Magi indicates it cannot find a solution.”
	070	AOBA:“We don't have enough data to come to an answer.”
	071	RITSUKO:“But one thing's certain.”
	072	RITSUKO:“That shape isn't a fixed form.”
	073	MISATO:“So we can't make the first move.”	UrsusArctos: Would it have been impossible to kill if it had no fixed form? This is kind of vague.
	074	MISATO (RADIO - OFF):“Rei, we're going to wait and watch for a while.” REI:“No, it's coming.”	UrsusArctos: So what was the purpose of keeping Rei out in the open all this time? And how did Rei know that the Angel was coming after her? Was it something she or Nerv said or did? Her instincts as a vessel of Lilith kicking in?
	075
	076
	077	MISATO:“Rei, counter it!”
	078	HYUGA:“It's no use! She won't make it in time!”

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