You've never heard of Warhammer 40,000?

Warhammer 40K
Chaos Space Marines

Polychrome

Heard of it, yes. Played it, no. Seen the game paraphernalia in person, no. Become so familiar with it that I'd recognize a reference to it just by the word "40k", no.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Bitter, miserable universes where everyone in charge has an evil plan, failure is the only option, and if you're lucky you'll die horribly and pointlessly before your soul gets carved up?

Perfect match.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

If only Evangelion had also shared Warhammer 40,000's "dude, if you like Iron Maiden's album covers, you'll love our game setting!" design ethos - I'd never have started watching it in the first place.

--G.
\m/ \m/
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I think the NGE/40k fest of late has a couple things going on for it, and I bet a lot of it is similar to the appeal of NXE here :) My only encounter with the original Evangelion came about when I was stationed in Korea and lived in the single officer dorms - one of the dudes down the hall was a zoo classmate of mine and a fellow anime nut. He lent me the DVDs. I got through two episodes before I gave them back with the standard, "Dude, WTF Over?" The show turned me right off, right away. There were a lot of neat concepts and some great design work, but the mental torture of watching it just turned me off, and the character of Shinji especially, well, he just pissed me off the way few fictional characters have ever done so at all. Then, looking into the show on the web, in an attempt to give it another shot and be "opened minded" and all that, I encountered an aspect of fandom that just really drove me away from the whole enterprise completely for years. Call me arrogant, but my reaction to a seemingly overwhelming part of the NGE fanbase made me think, "Okay, do I really want to be associated with all this?"

I couldn't grok all the praise heaped on NGE, I really couldn't, and I thought the pseudo-intellectual discussion around it was really phony - pretentious attempts to get around "the show sucks, but we want to appear smarter than you" that one often sees with indie rock album reviews. All I could really grok was that the writer decided to play out his own personal mental hell on the animation world, and I really wasn't all that interested, especially if I had to pay for it! The phrases "grow up," and "give me a break" came to mind. I thought, if there was ever an anime series that deserved to be mocked, well this was it. Sorry if this offends any fans of it here, but I don't find nihilistic mind-screws all that enjoyable, try tedious at the least.

Fast forward some years - and along comes the anti-NGE (NXE), as well as some irreverent takes on the whole NGE story: Children of an Elder God, and now this 40k inspired stuff. I think it's great, if anything ,just to tweak the noses of the "NGE is soooooo profound" crowd that needs to learn how to laugh and not take itself so seriously (which I thought NXE did brilliantly, all while presenting a version of the universe that was actually ENJOYABLE to read). I also think 40k is an "anti-NGE" - even at its darkest, it features stories about admirable military virtues in many of its characters (whether you believe they exist or not). You have to be willing to believe that even in a lousy grim future like that a little of the old "with your shield or on it," is still possible, hell, necessary, for it to work. If you can do that, it's likely that characters like the original Shinji will tick you off, and a character like DJ Croft or the Shinji of NXE draw you in. That aspect of it - well, I think it's a little bit of...dare I say it...manliness, that Shinji needed a severe injection of. Grab a pair, and all that.

Enough's enough with the hand-wringing, etc, a little unabashed, unafraid ass-kicking is good for the soul every now and then. Even encouraged, and the idea that this version of heroics (and yes I know the 40k world is 'dark and grim' and all that) still has a place beats the hell out of Emo Shinji any day of the week - and especially the way it ticks so many people off. I just like seeing some groups of fan spun-up. It's hilarious.

I believe that there are things worth fighting for, and I also believe that heroes exist. The difference is they overcome the odds, even in death they point the way and inspire. All Shinji in NGE makes me want to do is change the channel! :)

"A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan next week" - Gen George S. Patton, Jr.

Heh, he made me want to scream, "Get a backbone!"

Hey, who knows, Ritsuko could be a closet Scorpions fan.

------
"Will you Rock with me?"
"If I am ordered to, I will do it."

Jon Helscher

That thing you burned up isn't important to me. It's the fluid catalytic cracking unit. It made shoes for orphans. Nice job breaking it, hero.

GLaDOS- Portal