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Conferences Neon Exodus Evangelion Topic #278
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Gryphonadmin
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Feb-04-16, 05:13 PM (EST)
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"So here's a strange thought..."
 
   For no reason I can determine, I was possessed yesterday of an odd impulse to re-read NXE for the first time since... well, since I did the annotations, I suppose, however long ago that was. I can't say for certain whether this presages a reawakening of the long-abeyant sequel I teased here once upon a time, or something else entirely, or nothing much at all, but in the course of going back over the material I've noticed a couple of things.

First, it hasn't been as painful to re-read as I was expecting, partly because it's been so long since I last saw any of it that I've forgotten how most of it goes, but mostly because for the most part I don't even feel like I wrote it any more, so the bits that are dismayingly clunky (and there are many) don't cause that inward cringe sensation I usually get when going over my own work. No idea why that is, but there you are.

Second, it's a strange sensation going back over this material, because, it occurs to me, the events depicted therein are happening... well, sort of now. Precise date stamps are rare in NXE—I hadn't developed the habit of tracking that kind of thing closely yet—but from the relatively few that are available, I can work out that the middle section of Exodus 3 is happening right now. The last scene of the regular series, and the opening scene of the movie, take place on April 1 of this year. Right around now, over in that universe, Shinji is in training for his raid on Worcester-3, Asuka is beginning to get her groove back, and DJ finds himself in the curious position of having to resign himself to being just a giant robot pilot...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
  RE: So here's a strange thought... BeardedFerret Feb-04-16 1
     RE: So here's a strange thought... Arashi Feb-05-16 2
         RE: So here's a strange thought... Gryphonadmin Feb-05-16 3
             RE: So here's a strange thought... ebony14 Feb-05-16 4
  RE: So here's a strange thought... zwol Feb-05-16 5
     RE: So here's a strange thought... Gryphonadmin Feb-05-16 6
         RE: So here's a strange thought... zwol Feb-05-16 7
             RE: So here's a strange thought... Gryphonadmin Feb-05-16 8
                 RE: So here's a strange thought... zwol Feb-05-16 9
                     RE: So here's a strange thought... Gryphonadmin Feb-05-16 10
                         RE: So here's a strange thought... Nathan Feb-05-16 11
                             RE: So here's a strange thought... Gryphonadmin Feb-05-16 12

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BeardedFerret
Member since Apr-21-08
470 posts
Feb-04-16, 10:05 PM (EST)
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1. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #0
 
   Glad you're enjoying it. It hit me incredibly hard when I was around 22 and while it obviously doesn't have that first-read effect anymore, it's still good for a re-read every year or two.

Let's not forget the other big happening in NXE right now - Gendo Ikari and Ritsuko Akahi are both getting second chances.


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Arashi
Member since Mar-12-10
77 posts
Feb-05-16, 11:55 AM (EST)
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2. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #1
 
   >Glad you're enjoying it. It hit me incredibly hard when I was around
>22 and while it obviously doesn't have that first-read effect anymore,
>it's still good for a re-read every year or two.
>
>Let's not forget the other big happening in NXE right now - Gendo
>Ikari and Ritsuko Akahi are both getting second chances.

Sequel? Sweetness.

Also, one other 'big' thing occurring Gendo becomes an almost likable human. Forget second chances, that right there was the mind-screw.

Granted mind-screws goes rather hand-in-hand with Evangelion, but still.. whoa.

When in Danger, or in Doubt.
Run in circles, scream and shout.


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Gryphonadmin
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Feb-05-16, 12:33 PM (EST)
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3. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #2
 
   >Sequel? Sweetness.

Don't get too excited.

>Also, one other 'big' thing occurring Gendo becomes an almost likable
>human. Forget second chances, that right there was the mind-screw.

GENDŌ
I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but if you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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ebony14
Member since Jul-11-11
298 posts
Feb-05-16, 01:30 PM (EST)
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4. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #3
 
   >GENDŌ
>I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but if you find the
>time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS
>FUCKING COUCH!

Hah! Unfortunately, that means Ritsuko is playing the part of Wilford Brimley.

RITSUKO
You guys think I'M crazy! Well, that's fine! Most of ya don't know what's goin' on around here, but I'm damn well sure SOME of you do!

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."


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zwol
Member since Feb-24-12
136 posts
Feb-05-16, 02:25 PM (EST)
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5. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #0
 
   Coincidentally, yesterday I was reading someone else's Evangelion reboot while waiting for computers to do their thing, and it was startling how many of the same notes it hit. I guess you're not the only person to figure things would turn out better for everyone if the Children would just grow up a little, stand up for each other, and not go along with everything Gendou wants?

... So then that got me rereading NXE, and I noticed that the first season's pacing is quite similar to the pacing of the Serial Experiments. All the installments are relatively short, there's usually one big set piece that everything is structured around, and it looks like they were originally published at roughly weekly intervals, too. I don't have a point to make with that, I'm just throwing it out there.


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Gryphonadmin
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Feb-05-16, 02:37 PM (EST)
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6. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #5
 
   >I guess you're not the
>only person to figure things would turn out better for everyone if the
>Children would just grow up a little, stand up for each other, and not
>go along with everything Gendou wants?

In fairness, that's not a shatteringly innovative insight, particularly in light of... uh... whatever it is that Gendō actually wants in the original, I've never been entirely clear on that but it seems to me that it ends with human extinction, which is a pretty committed endgame.

>... So then that got me rereading NXE, and I noticed that the first
>season's pacing is quite similar to the pacing of the Serial
>Experiments.

Hmm, yeah, you're right. I had forgotten that we attempted to hold NXE to a schedule in the early days, probably because that was pre-website and so seems a little bit like it was part of another geological epoch. :)

(On one level, I regret the Forum not being here when all but the last couple of episodes originally dropped. On the other hand, ye gods.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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zwol
Member since Feb-24-12
136 posts
Feb-05-16, 03:51 PM (EST)
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7. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #6
 
   >particularly in light of... uh... whatever it is that Gendō
>actually wants in the original, I've never been entirely clear on that
>but it seems to me that it ends with human extinction, which is a
>pretty committed endgame.

I'm even more in the dark on that score, never having seen more than tiny fragments of the original. I mean, I'm not even clear on why Gendō was put in command of NERV in the first place. I guess he did design the EVAs, but shouldn't that just put him in the Dr. Shen role?

(The road not taken, at least by anything I've read: it's all on the adults -- Misato, Maya, and maybe also Ritsuko and Kaji -- to figure out that Gendō/SEELE's plan is all kinds of bad for humanity and put a stop to it. Yeah, the Children are the main characters in the original, but they're fourteen-year-old kids and they've got enough on their plates.)

>>... So then that got me rereading NXE, and I noticed that the first
>>season's pacing is quite similar to the pacing of the Serial
>>Experiments.
>
>Hmm, yeah, you're right. I had forgotten that we attempted to hold
>NXE to a schedule in the early days, probably because that was
>pre-website and so seems a little bit like it was part of another
>geological epoch. :)

I was mostly thinking about the pacing of the writing there, not the release schedule, but I guess the two are pretty closely tied.

>(On one level, I regret the Forum not being here when all but the last
>couple of episodes originally dropped. On the other hand, ye gods.)

Mm. I owe you an apology for a cranky email sent at some point in season 3, come to think of it. It's been so long that I can't remember what I said or why, but it was uncalled for.


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Gryphonadmin
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Feb-05-16, 04:05 PM (EST)
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8. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #7
 
   >I'm even more in the dark on that score, never having seen more than
>tiny fragments of the original. I mean, I'm not even clear on why
>Gendō was put in command of NERV in the first place. I guess
>he did design the EVAs, but shouldn't that just put him in the Dr.
>Shen role?

Dr. Shen called, he says he's hurt that you would equate his role to Gendō's when the obvious parallel with Ethical Vacuum Vahlen is there for the taking.

>(The road not taken, at least by anything I've read: it's all on the
>adults -- Misato, Maya, and maybe also Ritsuko and Kaji -- to figure
>out that Gendō/SEELE's plan is all kinds of bad for humanity and put
>a stop to it.

Well, that's presumably why he surrounded himself with underlings who can, for the most part, just barely keep out of their own way.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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zwol
Member since Feb-24-12
136 posts
Feb-05-16, 04:27 PM (EST)
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9. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #8
 
   >>I'm even more in the dark on that score, never having seen more than
>>tiny fragments of the original. I mean, I'm not even clear on why
>>Gendō was put in command of NERV in the first place. I guess
>>he did design the EVAs, but shouldn't that just put him in the Dr.
>>Shen role?
>
>Dr. Shen called, he says he's hurt that you would equate his role to
>Gendō's when the obvious parallel with Ethical Vacuum Vahlen is
>there for the taking.

I admit to having only been thinking in terms of Shen being the weapons, robots, etc. designer.

(I wasn't super impressed with Shen in the expansion, though. Little too gung-ho about the full-cyborg conversions. Vahlen actually seemed to care more about the long-run welfare of her variety of super-soldiers.)


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Gryphonadmin
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Feb-05-16, 09:42 PM (EST)
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10. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #9
 
   >(I wasn't super impressed with Shen in the expansion, though. Little
>too gung-ho about the full-cyborg conversions.

Huh. I haven't played Enemy Within in a while, but I remember him having pretty significant reservations about that. (Which is why you have to wait until someone gets seriously wounded before you can make one, IIRC.)

Then again, he's probably just happy to have something to do that didn't involve torturing enemy prisoners of war to get the specs for it.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Nathan
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Feb-05-16, 10:31 PM (EST)
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11. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #10
 
   >>(I wasn't super impressed with Shen in the expansion, though. Little
>>too gung-ho about the full-cyborg conversions.
>
>Huh. I haven't played Enemy Within in a while, but I remember
>him having pretty significant reservations about that. (Which is why
>you have to wait until someone gets seriously wounded before you can
>make one, IIRC.)

I do, and so does everyone I know, but it is not actually obligatory. You can send a completely healthy soldier into the Conversion.

>Then again, he's probably just happy to have something to do that
>didn't involve torturing enemy prisoners of war to get the specs for
>it.

I've always just figured that Vahlen just compartmentalizes like a motherfucker. There's a couple points where you click into the labs and her quote-of-the-day makes Shen seem positively blithe.

Of course, my headcanon also says that she suffers from the worst nightmares in XCOM, largely as a counter-reaction against the 'Doctor Warcrimes' interpretation, so what do I know.

-----

The most wonderful thing about BBs
Is BBs are wonderful things
Their sides are made out of iron
Their guns are made out of pain
They're crashy smashy bashy flashy fun-fun-fun-fun-fun
But the most wonderful thing about BBs
Is there is more than one
The~re is more than one!


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Gryphonadmin
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Feb-05-16, 11:28 PM (EST)
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12. "RE: So here's a strange thought..."
In response to message #11
 
   >I've always just figured that Vahlen just compartmentalizes like a
>motherfucker
. There's a couple points where you click into the
>labs and her quote-of-the-day makes Shen seem positively blithe.

"It's the way her mind works, man, it's all... compartments."

(OK, Warrick was talking about a different obsessive scientist, but. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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