Theory and Analysis:Mari's age

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Mari is an enigmatic character in Rebuild of Evangelion, she has an appearance of a British high schooler in Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance. However, as the series goes on, “Mari” seens in Fuyutsuki’s photo in Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo and in Gendo’s flashback in Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon The Time raise many questions about her age. How old is she? How’s her relationships with Fuyutsuki, Yui and Gendo? Did she have the curse of Eva back then? Is she a clone of the Original? (Note: more extra evidences will be in the Theory section).

Mari's relationship with Fuyutsuki, Yui and Gendo

In the right, there is a person that looks like Mari

In a scene in Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo where Shinji and Kozo are playing Shogi, Kozo tell Shinji that if he missed her mom, to which Shinji replies that he don't, then Kozo showed a photo of Shinji (as a baby), Yui and other people around her. Interestingly, in the photo it had a person that looked like Mari, which may implied that it was her. However, it was shown that her hair is brighter in the photo and didn't wear a headband. So it's unknown that it was her or soomeone else. However, it is that this is not an only time we see strange connections between them. In many scenes of [[Mari refers to Gendo as "Gendo-kun". Interestingly, "kun" is used for younger man but it also used for a person with the same age. In Gendo's flashback, we see "Mari" with Gendo. She also introduced Fuyutsuki and Yui and they got along with each other.

The Hakone Conversation
File:Mari in the flashback 2.jpg "Mari?" in Gendo's flashback 1	File:Mari in the flashback 2.jpg "Mari?" in Gendo's flashback 2	File:Mari in the flashback 3.jpg "Mari?" in Gendo's flashback 3
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Curse of Eva (Before the Event of Rebuild of Evangelion and/or after Evangelion 2.0)

File:NERV Doggy.png

NERV Doggy but not Shinji?

Another Evidences to mention is about Curse of Eva. We see that she has an apperence of a 16-year-old girl but way have knowledges about Nerv (likes the knowledge of "Beast Mode" and relationship with Fuyutsuki, Yui and Gendo which is mentioned above. It may impled that she had curse of Eva before the event of Rebuild of Evangelion. However, if she actually had that, why Nerv has to recuit children/clones likes Rei, Asuka and Shinji in the first place? instead of recuiting right away? As they can know about her curse and take that as an advantage due to her relationships of Curse of Eva. They could have offer Misato to be a pilot for Nerv when she was a teenager to take revenge on Angels and she wouldn’t mind having a curse. Also if that exist and there is a procees to achieve that (whenever "Mari" was the creator/developer of that process or someoone else), why don't the WILLE troops and the people in the villages use it? means becoming immortal and only requiring only water sounds horrible but it can brings many advantages to repair all the problems in the post-Third Impact world and they don't need to worry about dying bustling in LCL when the Angel-sealing Hex Pillars eventually fall, starvation, disease or lack of resources.

Also, if she has a curse before the Rebuild events , why Mari doesn’t recognize Shinji when she meets him on the roof of a school and just simply calls him “littte NERV doggy” as she had a relationship with Yui and others as seen as the above photo in above? If she does, she could have mentioned about how he is similar to "Yui's child" or just simply call his real name (likes Shinji-(honorific)) but in the end she don't.

File:Yui and "Mari" height comparision.jpg

File:"Mari" and Yui's height comparison in Gendo's flashback.png

In 2.0, Mari, as metioned above, has an appearance of a 16-year-old British high schooler while in Fuyutsuki's photo in 3.0 and in Gendo’s flashback, she is as tall as Yui. If she has a curse, how she is that young as "Mari" in 2 above evidences must be same age as Yui or little younger than her? This can be impled that with curse of Eva (with other things), she can revert her age to be as young as a young teenager but there is no evidents for that.

Theory

Thanks to those above speculations, many fans created many theories, but there are two most popular theories among the fans:

Mari is (one of the) first victim of Curse of Eva before the event

The most popular and also the most easily accpeted theory

Mari appeared in Rebuild of Evangelion is a clone of the original

The second most popular theory

Trivia

Based on the The Ending of Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 which Shinji and Mari on screen together with Mari being depicted as having the Curse of Eva before the Events of Rebuild of Evangelion by many, there are many memes depicted Mari as a cougar or a pedophile and many “60 years old” jokes around her along with “Shinji marrys a 60-year-old woman".

References

• https://forum.evageeks.org/thread/21192/Is-Mari-a-clone/
• https://forum.evageeks.org/thread/21286/Mari-is-not-afflicted-with-the-Curse-of-Eva/
• https://forum.evageeks.org/post/921331/How-do-you-feel-about-Shinji-ending-up-with-Mari/#921331

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