[190] Stephen II's numbering indicates that the crown counts King Stephen (ca. 1096-1154), last Norman king of England, as a legitimate ruler. In his time, that was far from certain, as Stephen spent much of his career in civil war with his cousin, the Empress Matilda. A year before his death, he reached an agreement with her whereby her son, Henry Plantagenet, succeeded Stephen as Henry II upon Stephen's death.

[251] If this seems odd - and it certainly did to some of our Irish and English readers - keep in mind that this is the aftermath of the Second Impact we're talking about. Lots of people re-thought their priorities. Well, lots of the half of the human population who didn't die, anyway. I don't think it's all that unusual to think that a pair of small island nations, whatever their past history, would see that working together was the only reliable way to ensure their survival.

[262] Old man indeed - Stephen II is 32 when he appears here.

[298] A parody of Shakespeare's own "Sonnet XVIII", which famously begins, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate."

[354] The Honourable Judge Shield is named for the late actor Bob Shield, who played the compassionate family court judge Robert J. Franklin on the 1980s courtroom re-enactment TV show The Judge.

[785] The way this situation was resolved in the original was so absurd I couldn't help but make fun of it in the way we handled it here.

[822] Naturally, the glee DJ takes in Evangelion comba, and the lengths to which he went to get back to it when he could've taken the excuse to get away from it forever, are intended to stand in sharp contrast to Shinji's reluctance.

[921] Here's the first mention of Colonel Natla, who is based (albeit fairly loosely, and more so as the series goes on) upon the main villain from the original Tomb Raider.

[961] And that's it for Exodus 1. We learned many things from this little experiment. The first was that maintaining a weekly release schedule was very difficult, and indeed, after I moved back to the East Coast late that summer, it proved effectively impossible. The second was that some people get very touchy about Evangelion. The third was that, for the most part, those were people who deserved to be made touchy about something.

Looking back on it, I can't say that my parts of the first season represents my best work ever, or even the best work I did during that period, but there's still plenty about it I'm pleased with, even if other parts make me wince. It's a little too breezy, a little too faithful to the source (even as it mocks it), a little too open with the aforesaid mocking. On the other hand, what comes after, which involves much more divergence and a lot more of the kind of creative dovetailing that makes EPU projects such fun to work on, wouldn't stand without it. In a way, remaining so parallel to the source material for the first half or so of the series was critical - without it, the later divergences wouldn't have carried as much weight, I don't think.

If I remember rightly (and it's been a while since I had any cause to), the official date was supposed to be September 13, 2000. Or so I thought, anwyay. In the end, I doubt it really matters.
The date here is more amusing anyway.

>[785] The way this situation was resolved in the original
>was so absurd I couldn't help but make fun of it in the way we handled
>it here.

This way sure as hell makes a lot more sense to me. Out-synching a synchronous being? Wha? Silly. Moreso given the training seemed to only involve "learn to press coloured circles at the same time".

>[961] And that's it for Exodus 1. We learned many
>things from this little experiment. The first was that maintaining a
>weekly release schedule was very difficult, and indeed, after I moved
>back to the East Coast late that summer, it proved effectively
>impossible. The second was that some people get very touchy about
>Evangelion. The third was that, for the most part, those were
>people who deserved to be made touchy about something.
>
>Looking back on it, I can't say that my parts of the first season
>represents my best work ever, or even the best work I did during that
>period, but there's still plenty about it I'm pleased with, even if
>other parts make me wince. It's a little too breezy, a little too
>faithful to the source (even as it mocks it), a little too open with
>the aforesaid mocking. On the other hand, what comes after, which
>involves much more divergence and a lot more of the kind of creative
>dovetailing that makes EPU projects such fun to work on, wouldn't
>stand without it. In a way, remaining so parallel to the source
>material for the first half or so of the series was critical - without
>it, the later divergences wouldn't have carried as much weight, I
>don't think.

When I first read NXE, I didn't really have the mindset to appreciate the parrallels -or- the divergance. Mind you, I remain dubious of a lot of the things I thought at that point in time.

Reading it later on, I'm inclined to agree. The later changes almost certainly wouldn't have had the same effect if the beginning hadn't parralleled so much. Being forced to align so similarly may have been a bit adverse on the writing to start with, but I think it pays itself off with the later work.