Ugly Yet Beautiful World

[Alondro]

Gainex has created a new 12-episode series called "This Ugly Yet Beautiful World".  I can't say too much about it without spoiling it, but I must say they seem to have come full circle from their internal turmoils and depression after "Evangelion".  There is much more hopefulness and self-discovery in this series.

*chuckles*  It's interesting how many philosophers in so many different ages of mankind, in so many different ways, have taken a path of thought and ended up in the same place when they follow it to where it leads them.  Through searching, doubt, despair, sorrow, resurrection, then hope... it's been the same back all the way to Solomon, this path remains the same for those who can bear the whole journey.   They find that wallowing in hopelessness and confusion simply isn't worth the time!

The human mind hasn't changed much in 3,000 years.  But then, that's a mere blip in species developmental terms. 

Still, the series is an interesting one, with a good and quite original story, so far as I can tell I've never seen another like it.  At last, here is one that finally directly defies this illusion of destiny.  I find destiny is only as strong as the human nature to allow it to become self-fulfilling.  Destiny is one trap of despair that holds us in our lonliness, forcing us to abandon the possibilities and making us blind to the many branches of the road before us.  We do not see the little lights twinkling as stars far off down the winding trails and rather pitch ourselves headlong into the black emptiness that we call our fate, declaring we can change nothing of ourselves or our final state of being.  That is destiny. 

But destiny cannot exist where there remains self-determination.  It is the destiny of a caterpillar to become a moth or butterfly.  It is the fate of a leaf to fall from its branch.  A snow flake falling upon a sunlit road will inevitably be melted.  Be we can choose our path, we can forgo instinct and act upon our own ideas. 

That, at least, seems to be the message I took from the series.  The philosophy hidden behind the fiction.   

[Netami]

I thought Gainax made up for the horror that was Evangelion by creating FLCL, an anime that most people should watch in high school instead of having to read Catcher in the Rye; that anime/manga is all about coming of age. It was pretty deep, despite being 95% humor. I guess Gainax just felt really bad about making Evangelion, though.

[luiqui]

I thought Gainax made up for the horror that was Evangelion by creating FLCL, an anime that most people should watch in high school instead of having to read Catcher in the Rye; that anime/manga is all about coming of age. It was pretty deep, despite being 95% humor. I guess Gainax just felt really bad about making Evangelion, though.

What was it about Evangelion that makes you hate it so? I always consider it one of my favourites, but then, that was just because it was interesting and I vaguely registered some kind of philosophical undercurrent. Perhaps I'm just a philistine.

[Slavkei]

Becuase there really isn't any philosophical undercurrent to Evangelion. It's a bunch of forced metaphors, meaningless imagery, and biblical names, smashed together in a script that doesn't make sense in order to confuse people into thinking that there's a message. In reality, it's a bunch of deep-sounding stuff, that, upon examination, turns out to be as shallow as the kiddie pool.

Also, it's emo.

And in general, giant robot anime is stupid. (Big O EXCEPTION!)

[Alondro]

Uhm... well, the Eva's were actually cyborgs of the Angel Adam and Lilith (only unit 01 for Lilith) and the other units in the End of Evangelion, I'm not sure what they were made from... (FLCL "Robots are different from cyborgs!"  gets washed down-river)   

IIt would have had a better message if the writers weren't all taking LSD, crack, heroin, PCP, smoking pot and drinking sake every day... and that was just breakfast!     Then for the last part, they REALLY started taking stuff!  Crazy-ass imagery.  But kinda cool in a twisted way. 

Anyway, I've taken advantage of the many many many plotholes to begin creating a fan-fiction of my explanation of what the Angels were and why SEELE was instigating Third Impact.  It involves Atlantis and why it was actually destroyed.  It fits in quite nicely with the legend of Lilith, since Adam and Lilith were fighting... after all, who did pin Lilith to that cross with the Lance of Longinus and cut the lower half of her body off all those eons ago?  Certainly couldn't have been humans, since Lilith only spawned them after those injuries as a last-ditch attempt to fulfill her programming... but I've said too much already.   

[superluser]

Anyway, I've taken advantage of the many many many plotholes to begin creating a fan-fiction of my explanation of what the Angels were and why SEELE was instigating Third Impact.  It involves Atlantis and why it was actually destroyed.  It fits in quite nicely with the legend of Lilith, since Adam and Lilith were fighting... after all, who did pin Lilith to that cross with the Lance of Longinus and cut the lower half of her body off all those eons ago?  Certainly couldn't have been humans, since Lilith only spawned them after those injuries as a last-ditch attempt to fulfill her programming... but I've said too much already.   

No more caffeineabsinthe for you.

And, although it will spoil the snappy comeback, I gotta ask--didn't the Spear of Longinus come into existence after humans?

[Zedd]

Anyway, I've taken advantage of the many many many plotholes to begin creating a fan-fiction of my explanation of what the Angels were and why SEELE was instigating Third Impact. It involves Atlantis and why it was actually destroyed. It fits in quite nicely with the legend of Lilith, since Adam and Lilith were fighting... after all, who did pin Lilith to that cross with the Lance of Longinus and cut the lower half of her body off all those eons ago? Certainly couldn't have been humans, since Lilith only spawned them after those injuries as a last-ditch attempt to fulfill her programming... but I've said too much already.

No more caffeineabsinthe for you.

And, although it will spoil the snappy comeback, I gotta ask--didn't the Spear of Longinus come into existence after humans?

*snicker* 

[Alondro]

Ah, but that's the odd thing, isn't it?  If the Spear existed after humans came about, how did Lilith get pinned to the cross with it?  She certainly didn't stick it in herself!  If you watch the series carefully around episode 19 or so, you'll hear that Lilith spawned humanity as something of a last resort, and there are human legs and such sticking out of the bottom of the sliced off part of her.  Now, what could have done that except an Angel?  The Lance was stuck in her, preventing her regeneration.  As soon as Rei pulled it out, her lower body regenerated instantly!  That can lead to only a single logical deduction:  the Spear existed before humanity and had been stuck in her the whole time.  Thus, something that preceded humanity stuck it into her.  Since SEELE was the one giving all the so-called explanations, and we already know they lied to everyone about everything, even lying about several details to Ikari, we can trust NOTHING of what they said.  Everything becomes suspect and we can therefore only believe the things that have been visually presented as evidence.  This also includes First Impact, and even Second Impact, which we do not discover until about the middle of ""The End of Evangelion" that they initiated deliberately to awaken the other Angels.  This was likely done to get rid of the inferior, imperfect Angels first to ensure that they would not be able to interfere with Third Impact, for if they awakened DURING Third Impact they could inadvertantly have become part of it and altered its progress. 

Plus, there is another unusual thing to consider:  the old SEELE commander, after dissolving into LCL, his spinal column and skull were seen for a few moments and appeared to be biomechanical; indeed, very similar in construction to the artificial 'Adams' being grown in the Eva production facility.  We must also look at the final statements from the SEELE members themselves.  they spoke of a ceremony, their words indicated they'd been waiting a very long time, their souls would be at peace.  I believe this indicated that they themselves were not purely 'human'.  Could they have been the last remnant of the Atlantean race, still alive after so long from Atlantis' technology.

The artificial Lances too.  Throughout the whole series, there was no mention that the Dead Sea Scrolls gave instructions on how to create one.  Indeed, after the original was lodged on the moon, all at Nerv felt the plan was lost.  Yet SEELE was not concerned, for they knew they already had duplicates which could serve the purpose as well.  And indeed, these other Lances could penetrate AT fields quite easily. 

There are many more things I have written down.  I wrote each and every question and inconsitency I discovered as I watched the series.  I have about 9 pages of material. 

When I do a fan fiction, I leave nothing to chance!