FGC:Episode 06 Scene 06

The Bond

Commentary Navigation
<< Back to Scene 05	Episode #06 Scene List	Continue to Scene 07 >>

Screenshots	Cut #	Description/Dialogue	Commentary
	181	Inside the standby car. Shinji’s clothes are neatly folded on a bench.
	182	View through Shinji’s eyes as he presses the switch on the left wrist of his plug suit with his right hand SE <<Click>>
	183	Shinji’s left hand, and beyond it the silhouette of Rei changing clothes behind a curtain. Shinji’s suit tightens up with a shuu sound. Rei throws her bra away at the end of the cut. SE <<Shuu>>	EvangelionFan: She's naked- oh, wait, she's behind a courtesy screen. Nevermind, show's over... nothing to see here. thewayneiac: In 183-189 Shinji seems to make no effort to peek at Rei's naked silhouette. Kendrix, does that tie into your theories about the different ways that he treats Rei and Asuka? Kendrix: In this situation, he's wondering about whether he'll live to see the next dawn or not. I don't think this scene has anything to do with this. ( It is worth mentioning, though, that Rebuild expands this scene with another instance of Shinji catching himself glancing at Rei and quickly looking away.) Additional Commentary   thewayneiac: What my question boils down to then, is would he have peeked, or even stared, if it had been Asuka's silhouette instead of Rei's? Kendrix: Shinji generally isn't the type to deliberately go and peek, he's not confident enough for that, and certainly not during the prologue arc - He mostly comes in contact with boobs or other female attributes through outer forces he has little control of and then reacts in one way or another. It's also hard to compare this to the scenes involving Asuka - Shinji's at a very different point of his character developement when he meets her, Asuka, expecially in her earlier episodes, gets played for comic relief more often than Rei etc... Sailor Star Dust: Considering how "in your face" Asuka is towards Shinji about her sexuality, I'd assume he would take a peek or have stared, yes. (But possibly still do a variation of "quickly looking away" (like in 1.0) or stammering out a negative/sorry if Asuka would call him out on it.)
	184	Rei’s feet. Rei’s clothes, taken off and thrown away at random. SE <<Fwmp>>	FreakyFilmFan4ever: I like the contrast between Shinji's neatly folded clothes and Rei's laundry mess. I'd make a "typical female" jab here, but I was always thought Shinji's neatly folded clothing underscored how he believes that he's not coming back from the mission; almost like how a suicidal person would neatly arrange everything before attempting the deed. Kendrix: Anno repeatedly uses similarly 'neatly folded uniforms' in a "might not be coming back context", for example, with Asuka in the baththub in episode 24, and Rei III in EoE. And man, you know someone is nervous when they neatly fold their UNDERPANTS. FreakyFilmFan4ever: Well, two of my three sisters are really messy, the other one is very tidy. So, I guess don't know what's "typical". I just know that I've always been able to tell when my sisters have gotten dressed in the bathroom because I couldn't see the floor underneath layers and layers of wardrobe. But you're right about Rei's thinking of her mess. She probably just wasn't ordered to clean up after herself. arael: Indeed... Only before a swimming competition it is that I fold my underwear...
	185	Rei’s legs as she takes off her underwear. Behind her, through the curtain, a silhouette of Shinji sitting down can be seen SHINJI (OFF):“We might...”	ath: Damn, I couldn't help but feel ashamed when I was taking these screencaps. But we know it's all for EvaGeeks the Future of Mankind, right? EvangelionFan: She's taking off her underwear, the show is back on! Kendrix: As in episode 5, Rei's movements involving clothing look realistic and detailed. The hotness probably comes from the fact that she's doing it naturally without putting on a show/ doing it in a raunchy way.
	186	Close-up of the side of Shinji’s face. He tilts his head down a little and speaks (not really thinking about it, just muttering). SHINJI (ON):“...die here, huh?”	Kendrix: He is beginning to see Rei as someone he can confide in, at least to a certain degree.
	187	Rei raises the back fastener as high up as her neck. When Rei lowers her hands after closing the fasteners behind the suit, Shinji’s silhouette can be seen through the curtain. She lifts her head and speaks REI:“Why do you say that?”	NemZ: You know, considering he just heard that her orders are to protect him, his thinking out loud about dying here could be taken as him saying he's got no faith in her abilities. Is it possible to suck at pep talk more than Shinji does? EvangelionFan: Sadly, fans would have to wait until Rebuild 1.0 to see how exactly one gets into a plugsuit. And better yet it would be accompanied by partial nudity, glorious animated partial nudity.
	188	Close-up of Shinji’s side profile --- Pause --- SHINJI:“----.”
	189	Shinji’s face as he sits on the bench, and Rei’s silhouette through the curtain The suit looks crumpled and out of shape But when she presses the switch at her wrists, the suit conforms to her body with a “shuu” sound. Rei says her lines at the end of the cut REI:“You won't die.”	Sailor Star Dust: Am I alone in this (189-191) striking me as Yui's influence on Rei? NemZ: I don't see how that has anything to do with it... or even how it could, honestly. Sailor Star Dust: "You won't die, I will protect you." sounds self-explanatory to me, but... A mother's/parental instinct to protect her child no matter what (think "mama-bear" tendencies that Eva-01/Yui shows off) or at the cost of their own lives, is how it's mainly relevant in my mind. Since Rei serves as two mothers in one being (humanity's mother as Lilith and Shinji's mother as Yui) yet she's still her own unique person despite sharing Yui's DNA and possessing Lilith's soul. Additional Commentary   NemZ: Wouldn't be the first time the commentary had a spoilered side-discussion. Anyway, as far as mothers go Lilith seems entirely apathetic, and depending on how you look at it, she eats her young. Rei only has Yui's form, not any of her memories or emotions, and even if she did have some residual instinct I'm really not getting any sort of protective vibe here, seeing as Yui essentially abandoned her child just as much as Gendo did. Sailor Star Dust: Not sure where you're getting "Lilith eats her young" from...And Lilith's apparent apathy COULD stem from taking an interest in her children and wanting to understand them that way. I see it (Rei's "protective vibe:) as residual instinct, not anything like Rei having Yui's memories or emotions. Yui "abandoned" Shinji in an effort to protect him and the rest of humanity from Seele, it was a kill or be killed situation. While Rei doesn't have much regard for her own life (due to the clones and all), I still see Rei protecting Shinji (probably following orders, but still) as being literally self-less. NemZ: I meant that in 3I she basically ate all her descendants. Trajan: It could also bee Rei's death seeker tendencies coming out again. If someone wants to die, what better way than to die saving someone else? Although it's not like she'll ever stay dead for long. Kendrix: I think it's more Rei's initial "the orders are absolute" mentality. She is ordered to make sure he's safe, so that's what she will do. Also, as I got it, the Death Seeking is something that stated with Rei III - No. II just didn't think she was valuable/didn't see a reason NOT to take risks.
	190	Close-up of Shinji’s side profile. Shinji turns around at Rei’s words. SHINJI:“---!”
	191	The side of Rei’s face, somewhat top-down view. She raises her head and speaks REI:“—I'll protect you.”	Kendrix: Her usual expression changes to a slightly determined one as she tilts her head up. She wasn't really trying to comfort him here, but, from her perspective, simply reminding him of the plan, but if you see it from Shinji's perspective and take into consideration how he must've been feeling at the time, Rei happened to pick just the right words. He also reacts shocked/surprised at the first part of the statement in 190.
	192	Misato’s apartment Penpen stands on top of the veranda. BGM START: C-6 [A Crystalline Night Sky]
	193	The red traffic light suddenly winks out.
	194	The city lights and phone box lights disappear one after the other.
	195	Missing Cut Phone booth in front of the buildings, background skyscrapers are lit up.
		Fade out.
	196	The city. Building and city lights go out one after the other TEXT:“...a large-scale power outage all across...”
	199	Top-down view of all the lights in Neo Tokyo 3 going out, except for the Angel.	UrsusArctos: Did they really need to keep Ramiel floodlit all the time? It seems a little ridiculous.
	197	Penpen stands on top of the veranda rail. He is lit by the light of the stars.	EvangelionFan: And how exactly is Pen-Pen able to get out onto the veranda, let alone climb up onto the rail? thewayneiac: Maybe he has a key. We've already seen him open and shut doors.
	198	Inside the shelter. The people have evacuated and are sitting on vinyl sheets. Their light flickers out and then goes out, leaving only the emergency light and the illuminated EXIT sign.
	200	Night scene of the Japanese peninsula seen from the path of a satellite. With Hakone as the centre, all city lights in Japan start to go out in a circle.	FreakyFilmFan4ever: It visually feels like all of Japan breaths a sigh before the battle. Trajan: You know, for a world where sea-levels have supposedly risen the coastline looks remarkably similar.
	201	Camera pans down from the Milky Way in the night sky to the front of Mount Futago, showing all of Neo Tokyo 3 in the process. It’s a beautiful night sky, like a falling star. Only the Angel and Mount Futago are lit up	thewayneiac: The whole "lights out" sequence from 192-201 is beautifully drawn. Fireand'chutes77: From everlasting to everlasting, the stars return to view, having shied behind the veil of civilization's blazing light for some seventy years. The stars are patient, and the passage of a human lifetime - an entire century - is nothing at all to them. This is the return of the primal state; this is the wild darkness the stars broke a million years ago, and will break a million years hence, when the frail lights of man go dark once more. No matter what happens at Mt. Futago tonight or a year from now, the starlight is cooly unblinking. It is separate and aloof from humanity's life-and-death struggle, and will outlast it. thewayneiac: Very nice. Is that a quote, or is it original? Additional Commentary   Fireand'chutes77: Original. It came out a little more gloomy/fatalistic than it first sounded in my head, though... The scene was awe-inspiring (in the classical sense of the word), and beautiful at the same time... The aerospace engineer and backpacker in me both found something to enjoy. (On a side note: I wish my campus would turn the lights off at night, because the stars would be *amazing* out here if they did.) In a similar vein, I was quite impressed by the very distant views of catastrophic explosions (2I, Nevada) in later parts of the series. On the ground, the scene is overwhelming, but pull back far enough and it becomes a tiny pinprick of light on a very large planet, backdropped by the even larger matte black of space. Carl Sagan's commentary on the Pale Blue Dot came to mind several times during this series. And despite the global effects of 2I and 3I and titanic machinations of NERV, SEELE, and Gendo, the sum of it all barely reaches lunar orbit* - a distance just two or three doors down the hall in cosmic terms. *With perhaps the exception of Yui. But that's for later...
	202	The light and the moon SE <<Sound of the wind>>
	203	On top of the trapdoor of the elevator, the camera pans from Rei’s back as she sits, knees raised in front of her, to Shinji sitting cross-legged on the ground. BGM END: C-6 [A Crystalline Night Sky]
	204	Close-up of Shinji’s side profile, behind him his Eva Unit-01. A pause before he speaks. SHINJI:“Ayanami, why do you pilot this thing?”
	205	Rei hears him and looks down (as if thinking); Unit 00 is behind her. She raises her head again and speaks. REI (after thinking a little):“Because it’s a bond…”	Kendrix: She needs to pause and think before answering this question. She has probably never thought about it before.. "Because of my bonds" could either mean her ties to all the projects, or something akin to "Because of who I am" - as this and two other instances show, Rei II holds the opinion that people are defined by their experiences and interactions with others. Sailor Star Dust: In a similar fashion to Cuts 189/191, Rei's dialogue about bonds with everyone strikes me as referencing Lilith's bonds with all Lilin and the rest of creation.
	206	Rei sitting with her knees up, the handrail, and Shinji. SHINJI:“Bond?” REI:“Yes... a bond.”	NemZ: A bond can also be a form of confinement, implying that this is what she is forced to do. The prison-like composition here reinforces this secondary meaning.
	207	Camera pans from Shinji to Rei’s back SHINJI (BACK):“A bond with my father?” REI (BACK):“---With everyone.” SHINJI (BACK):“You're strong... Ayanami.” REI (BACK):“I don’t have anything else…”	Kendrix: I wouldn't necessarily interpret "with everyone" as something over-earthly/lillith-ish. It could simply mean that, in Rei's opinion ALL her bonds define her, even the less significant ones. Here, we also have the point where Shinji starts admiring Rei, at first, in an intellectual sense. To Shinji, this is an impressive strong will.
	208	SHINJI:“What do you mean you don’t have anything---?” Rei and Shinji, Rei stands up suddenly, as if to interrupt Shinji. REI (While getting up):“It's time.” Rei (At the end of the cut):“Let's go.”	Kendrix: Shinji is shocked that she would say such a thing, and perhaps even feels reminded of his own situation. As we see later, her words had a considerable impact on him. Perhaps he doesn't think that a person he considers strong and admirable deserves to feel like he did.
	209	Rei stands still, with a symbolic “moon” behind her. REI (mutters):“Farewell.”	thewayneiac: It's very telling that the script describes the moon as "symbolic", and even has the word "moon" in quotation marks. Xard: I guess this is the most iconic shot in the whole episode, perhaps excluding certain smile later on... FreakyFilmFan4ever: Cue visual moon references. These contrast greatly from the sunny shots in the beginning of the episode, and visually suggest a connection between Rei and the Moon that will be explored in the series at a later date. Additional Commentary   Kendrix: Here we see her in an epic shot all her glorified beauty, in a pose that shows her figure and assets, saying what would have become her catchphrase if not for the events at the end of the episode, with her "emblem" behind her, in a shot that summarizes everything she is/ was until now. I guess it means that Shinji now has a basic idea of who the person that will be accompaining him into battle actually is. She is no longer a stranger. InstrumentalityOne: I love how she talks about being bound to the Eva and then having her stand in front of the moon in that beautiful cut. UrsusArctos: It's as though she's longing to say "Farewell" to earth and humanity and return to the moon- her moon. The Lilith side of her is strong, even though she doesn't really understand what it is until far later.
	210	Shinji looks at her. SE <<Sound of the elevator lift going down (OFF).>>

Commentary Navigation
<< Back to Scene 05	Episode #06 Scene List	Continue to Scene 07 >>