FGC:Episode 26 Scene 07

A world of freedom

Commentary Navigation
<< Back to Scene 06	Episode #26 Scene List	Continue to Scene 08 >>

Screenshots	Cut #	Description/Dialogue	Commentary
	220	SHINJI:“What is this? A world with nothing in it? A world with nobody in it?” SHINJI (OFF):“A world of freedom.” SHINJI:“Freedom?” SHINJI (OFF):“It's a world of freedom, where there's nothing restricting you.” SHINJI:“This is freedom?” SHINJI (OFF):“Yes, a world of freedom.” REI (OFF):“But in exchange, there's nothing.” SHINJI:“As long as I don't think of anything?” MISATO (OFF):“Yes, as long as you don't think of anything.” SHINJI:“But I don't know what I should do.” REI (OFF):“You're insecure, aren't you?” ASUKA (OFF):“You don't have an image of yourself, do you?” SHINJI (OFF):“It's all just too vague.” MISATO (OFF):“A world where there is nothing solid enough to grab onto...”
	221	TEXT:“That is freedom”
	222	KAJI (OFF):“A world you can do anything you want with...” MISATO (OFF):“But you're insecure, aren't you?” FUYUTSUKI (OFF):“Do you not know what you should do?” SHINJI:“What should I do?” IKARI (OFF):“I will give you a restriction.”
	222-1	ASUKA (OFF):“There, now you have heaven and earth.” REI (OFF):“But now, you've lost one aspect of your freedom.”
	222-2	MISATO (OFF):“You must stand on the ground.” KAJI (OFF):“But you feel more secure.” HYUGA (OFF):“Because a small weight has been lifted from your mind.” AOBA (OFF):“And you try walking.” IBUKI (OFF):“That is of your own will.” SHINJI:“This is my will?” RITSUKO (OFF):“A ground exists in this world, and that is the world you live in.” TOJI (OFF):“But you can move around in it freely.” KENSUKE (OFF):“If you wanted to, you could even change the position of the world.” HIKARI (OFF):“And the position of the world never stays still either.” KAJI (OFF):“It changes, along with the passage of time.”	Dr. Nick: Some remarkable sakuga cuts by Yoh Yoshinari, the man behind many a hype Studio Trigger moment.
	223	FUYUTSUKI (OFF):“You yourself can change as well.” IKARI (OFF):“Because what shapes you is your own mind and the world around you.” RITSUKO (OFF):“For, this is your world.” MISATO (OFF):“It's the form of reality that you perceive.”	Mr. Tines: Gratuitous Hallucigenia ; but no Anomalocaris. A much younger me would have identified the arrow-headed beast. EDIT: BTW I found my old dinosaurs/prehistoric creatures book, and it is a diplocaulus (an amphibian). UrsusArctos: One of those images resembles the Neo-Atlantean flying battleships from Nadia, and we get other Hallucigenia like the Angel figure. The arrow-headed creature looks like a mashup between a lizard and a hammerhead shark (if such a thing did live on Earth, I'd put it way back in the Mesozoic Era rather than present). EDIT: Tines is right on the money, it really is a diplocaulus - and that's a creature of the Paleozoic Era, before the dinosaurs. No idea what it's doing there except for adding to the general surrealness of the scene, unless someone on the staff was a fan of the diplocaulus-esque Pokemon Dreepy or just Paleozoic lifeforms in general. Perhaps it was a byproduct of the same thought process that led to Sandalphon being modeled off an anomalocaris? Dr. Nick: This remarkable sequence illustrates a thematic parallel. It's about the individual's potential to remake themselves, and the visuals link it to the Angels' incredible shape-shifting abilities that seem only limited by their imaginations. This is humanity's version of the same power, and that's an almost starry-eyedly optimistic message.
	224	TEXT:“"That is reality"”
	225	SHINJI:“This is... A space with nothing in it. A world with nothing in it. A world that has nothing else in it, except me. I'm losing my grasp on who I am. I feel like I'm disappearing. The existence that is me is vanishing.”
	226	TEXT:“"Why?"”
	227	YUI (OFF):“Because you are the only one here.” SHINJI (OFF):“Because I'm the only one?” YUI (OFF):“Because without the existence of things other than yourself, you cannot know your own shape.” SHINJI (OFF):“My own shape?”
	228	TEXT:“"My image of me?"”
	229	MISATO (OFF):“Yes, you know your own shape through seeing how other people are shaped.” ASUKA (OFF):“By looking at the barrier between you and other people, you visualize your own shape.” REI (OFF):“You cannot see yourself unless there are other people.” SHINJI:“I can exist because there are other people around! If I'm alone, I'll always be alone, no matter how far I go with it! All the world would just be me!” MISATO (OFF):“By recognizing the differences between yourself and others, you shape who you are.” REI (OFF):“The very first other person is your mother.” ASUKA (OFF):“Your mother is a person separate from you.” SHINJI:“Right, I'm me. But it's also certain that the other people shape my mind as well!” MISATO (OFF):“That's right, Shinji Ikari.” ASUKA:“Did you finally figure that out”	UrsusArctos: The person-within-a-person drawing could be symbolic of the Evas. midoriyoh: “The very first other person is your mother.” Shinji wishing farewell to his mother before leaving Instrumentality is very symbolic in this context - it resembles birth, when one first separates oneself from mother and thus for the first time recognizes "other" human existence.
	230	ASUKA:“stupid Shinji?!”

Commentary Navigation
<< Back to Scene 06	Episode #26 Scene List	Continue to Scene 08 >>