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Subject: "Annotations: NXE: Apotheosis Now"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
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Nov-17-07, 08:53 AM (EDT)
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"Annotations: NXE: Apotheosis Now"
 
   [1] Rachael, known to EPU Forum regulars as username Rachie, was a regular on our boards, a fan artist of considerable talent, and a big fan of both NXE and the Symphony of the Sword series. She signed off the boards for cancer treatment, and we all wondered for a while what became of her, figuring she was just too busy to bother with a fanfiction board. It wasn't until more than a month after the fact that we learned she'd died. After a lot of thought, we decided to honor her with a spot as an angel in the NXE movie, since she enjoyed the series so much (and provided one of the definitive fan images of our version of Rei).

[58] This summary ties together the three main threads that provide the NXE world backstory - Neon Genesis Evangelion, In Nomine, and X-COM: UFO Defense (AKA UFO: Enemy Unknown) - with a dash of the original Tomb Raider for flavor.

[126] President Fields was named for a boss I had (and disliked) at a previous job.

[156] Continuing with the line started by the inclusion of SHODAN in the regular series, Xerxes is based on the computer from System Shock 2.

[186] As will become apparent shortly, HAL is talking to Marina Kirishatova, about whom more later.

[229] I was asked during the run-up to the movie what the deal was with the world of NXE having a Soviet Union in it. My answer at the time was:

If half the world's population died, I suspect the Russians probably would revert to a system under which they weren't starving and overrun by rampant crime. Plus, I liked the idea of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics saving humanity and world freedom from the United States. :)

(It should be noted that the post-Second-Impact USSR gets a number of things right that the original version got wrong, by virtue of not having had Stalin in power. General Secretary Kirishatov is a lot nicer guy. :)

I can't think of anything much to add to that after the fact.

[270] The Soviet scientists are all original creations, though Professor Kirishatov takes his Christian name and patronymic from the Russian mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevskiy, by way of the Tom Lehrer song about him.

[278] Apparently not everything about the New Soviet Union is all that new; state security people can still get away with just about anything.

[283] Marina is a Russianized version of Mana Kirishima from the video game Neon Genesis Evangelion: Iron Maiden (sometimes weirdly, if probably more accurately, translated as Girlfriend of Steel).

[372] Jon and Asuka, in Exodus 2:5 - Skyfall.

[535] "Kiss me, I'm German."

[658] Just a random Russian name, apparently; I don't recall it referring to anyone specific and a web search turns up nothing that rings any bells.

[664] Somewhat antiquated by the time of NXE - hell, somewhat antiquated now - but a real destroyer/frigate class still in service.

[710] The Raiden being a descendent of the MiG-31 Firefox has roots in the canonical X-COM, in which the early transport aircraft available to X-COM were of Soviet manufacture.

[766] One of the movie's most popular lines.

[814] Same reason her sister stole a plasma weapon when she left SEELE. You never know what's in those woods...

[915] Before taking over X-COM, of course, then-General Lethbridge-Stewart was commander of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, precursor to SEELE/NERV's own more military role in defending Earth against extraterrestrial aggression - as seen on many episodes of Doctor Who.

[921] It never came up? But Zed at the time of the NXE movie is none other than Sir Henshingly Croft, DJ's grandfather. And you thought he was just an aristocratic prat without any secrets in his life...

[934] The endgame of the original X-COM.

[937] Sgt. Keller was by far the fastest squaddie in my main X-COM game.

[1056] In the game, a Blaster Bomb won't take this many waypoints, even at maximum operator skill, but what the hell.

[1134] Keller took Fuyutsuki's place in the original series, fueling considerable speculation that the latter would never appear. Then again, people also made that assumption about Shinji.

[1208] One of the first sequences I wrote for the movie, if memory serves - intended to illustrate the changes in both Rei and Asuka.

[1228] Though a demon can get close, they never quite hear the Symphony right thanks to their inherently dissonant nature.

[1404] The tale of the Grigori, and its consequences for other angels, is straight from the In Nomine game background.

[1453] Way back in Exodus 1:7, Rei indifferently informed Asuka that, if ordered to be her friend, she would, implying that otherwise, she didn't much care.

[1540] Rachael's place in the story was originally occupied by a male angel named Orihalcon, who was not an artist but rather a writer. He only appeared in this first scene, having been replaced by Rachael before subsequent bits were written. In background he was similar - a Malakite in service of missing Eli (Archangel of Creation), picked up by the Light after spending much of the interregnum at loose ends.

[1618] One of the main teases in the In Nomine backstory is whether Yves, the oldest of the archangels, is in fact the Almighty (who vanished from the Lower Heavens many years ago) incognito. In NXE, we've left it vague, but if he isn't God Himself, he certainly has the Almighty's ear.

[1726] The Québecois translations of Xerxes' dialogue were a hoot to get. Ardaniel got them from a friend of hers who knows the proper way my neighbors to the west swear, which is much more colorful than the way they do it in France.

[1751] Sovietskiy Zashchitnik is based on Fighting Force Pulsion, one of the playable robots in Capcom's giant robot parody fighting game Choukosenki Kikaioh (Tech Romancer in the US). The joke here is that Pulsion is the game's Evangelion riff.

[1850] Petya is very loosely based on (and massively scaled up from) the "Terminax" missile carried by the Firepower armor in Iron Man Vol. 1 Nos. 230 and 231.

[2016] When we last saw Otis, he was a NERV Security squad leader screwing up an assault on the EVA cage back in Ignie Ferroque. That performance apparently got him demoted to generic security guard.

[2320] I know now that an explorer as well-traveled and well-read as Lara would call them the Himalaya (no s), but oh well - live and learn.

[2404] Professor Ikari knows better than to offer a person with an addictive personality the cannabis in his other pocket.

[2501] For those familiar with In Nomine, Rei may or may not actually be in the early stages of Falling, but she's certainly building up dissonance at an alarming rate.

[2586] The Allman Brothers Band, 1969.

[2609] Psalms 102 (KJV).

[2916] Gentlemen, we can rebuild her. We have the technology.

[3018] "Abendsegen", German lullabye from Hänsel und Gretel (the 1893 opera by Engelbert Humperdinck): "Evenings, when I go to sleep / Fourteen angels with me keep... "

[3206] In In Nomine terms, Asuka has just become a Soldier of Light, which implies that she has - possibly has always had - a sixth Force (ordinary humans have only five).

[3287] The ability to hear the Symphony is a standard ability conferred on Soldiers by that sixth Force. It's possible she could hear it before, but interpreted as something else - such as the power to control an Evangelion - before now.

[3323] Specifically, Star Wars.

[3522] Ah, the psi-amp. Along with the Blaster Launcher and laser weapons, one of the best research budget lines you'll ever blow in the original X-COM.

[3575] Maine Route 9, also known as the Airline Road, from Calais to I-95 is indeed one of the dullest, most featureless roads in the state.

[3835] The Mark II psi-amp is based on the one found in System Shock 2.

[4265] Yes, that's Reese's line from the original The Terminator. (That code is also Scott Bernard's serial number over in Undocumented Features.)

[4366] The Ark of the Covenant, which in NXE is really in a museum in London by that point.

[4370] Lara Croft's first line in the tutorial from the original Tomb Raider.

[4392] "I love you."

[4515] Hello, me - meet the real me....

[4568] In In Nomine terms, an extreme manifestation of the Corporeal Song of Numinous Corpus - not a bad second move for a relative rookie.

[4671] You don't survive being such a fast mover in the Soviet system without adaptability, whoever your grandfather is.

[4752] It was originally 2030, but then I realized people might mistake that to mean just until 8:30 PM, so I had to make the last two digits higher than 59.

[4908] There was more to this scene, but I cut it off here and then apparently lost the cut part. It involved a bit more exposition and the implication that DJ took Rei to bed, albeit probably Not In That Way.

[4932] This particular artifact was the Cross of Coronado.

[5037] About nine years in the future, as we now know.

[5094] ELIZA, named for the Pygmalion character Eliza Doolittle, is an old computer program that parodied a psychoanalyst by rephrasing user inputs as questions (e.g., "I feel more comfortable talking to a computer." "Why do you say you feel more comfortable talking to a computer?").

[5380] The same movie, in fact, or at least the novelization thereof.

[5417] Some people thought this was a response of some kind to the Sept. 11, 2001 attack. It wasn't; I had this planned as the trigger to the final confrontation pretty much from the first mention of pump-dependent New York back in the regular series.

[5422] The beginning of the Lord's Prayer in German: "Our Father who art in Heaven... "

[5457] Just as President Fields was named for an ex-boss, Prime Minister Hannigan is named for a coworker I actually liked at the same job.

[5469] It is unlikely that King Stephen II actually said this in so many words, but his actions certainly convey the message.

[5675] Not a canonical In Nomine archangel (unlike the other two who "drive" the Archangelions), but one who makes mythological sense. Not to be confused with the brainwashed minions of the Order of St. Dumas.

[5909] Why does Gabriel's Horn always miss on the first shot? Aside from dramatic license, lack of practice.

[6102] Well, what? She's right.

[6298] Why, yes, that is an Uncle Buck reference.

[6313] Continuing our tradition of naming NERV Security personnel against people who were, at the time of the original series's writing, Red Sox pitchers. Truss and I never liked Wasdin much.

[6583] The two men leaving are Detective Inspector Juriaan deKok ("De Cock", which means "the cook", in the original Dutch) and Detective Sergeant Dick Vledder, creations of the Dutch mystery writer A.C. Baantjer. Mathieu's hallucination take place in their home city of Amsterdam.

[6715] Another Baantjer reference: One of his short stories is a meta-piece in which Baantjer meets deKok and they discuss whether the detective is a self-insert of the author. This is a theme I would further explore (or, if you must, "steal") in my own short piece, An Encounter at Shamrock House.

[6905] And so Shinji Ikari completes the circle, largely thanks to Truss.

[7004] This move caught some people by surprise, but it seemed so right when we got to it. There was no way out for Yamashita but one - and if that way didn't involve surviving, well, at least it offered her a chance at regaining her honor.

[7744] "Ignition!"

[7913] As previously noted, Québecois swearing is a highly pungent (and often weirdly religious) thing. What Xerxes is saying here is not a literal translation of his English line, but rather how a Québecois speaker would put it, roughly: "This is Xerxes. The heart of the reactor is off-limits to any intruder spawned by the Pit. Our security forces are under way to make you suck the pipe, you son-of-a-whore chalice of shit from a host of ass-fuckers. We regret any inconvenience."

[7943] A variation on SHODAN's signature line from System Shock: "Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you hope to challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"

[8097] Not many, even in Hell's inner circle, knew that bringing about Armageddon was not a matter of finding Abbadon, but merely Naming a suitable candidate accordingly. Lucifer could have ended the War in ultimate fire anytime he wanted... he simple didn't want to.

[8114] Of course Jon's mother was that clever. Dr. Dana Scully was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them.

[8186] This was not the way I initially envisioned the final battle ending, but after all we put Gendou through making a likeable character out of him, it seemed only fitting when the time came.

[8423] He's talking about the part that got cut - see line 4908 above.

[8540] In In Nomine canon, something similar happened to Uriel, the Archangel of Purity, after purity became outright fanaticism - though that didn't involve a physical manifestation via Yves, just a booming voice.

[8563] In retropect, I should probably have made her the Angel of Secrets, given how many she plumbed in the course of her odyssey, but Courage works too - just not as subtly.

[8690] Bob Dylan.

[8817] Frangelico, an Italian liqueur whose bottle resembles Mrs. Butterworth's brother the monk.

[8909] A passage from John Milton's Paradise Lost. The implication is fairly clear: Durandal left the message believing that he was taking Lucifer's place as ruler of Hell. Was he? That would be telling.

[8968] "I'm good, thanks. And you? That's good to hear. Listen, DJ and I are tired after everything we went through this week, and we simply don't have the energy for a flight to England. Maybe you could come here? Or if you'd rather wait, we can come by ship later. ... Everything's clear. We'll expect you Thursday evening. You're in luck - that's taco night! Sure. Thanks! See you Thursday, then. Bye."

[9163] This whole tag scene is a bit of a snort at the canonical Evangelion movie, at the end of which the two characters shown are the last two people on Earth, and Asuka says she doesn't feel well.


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Annotations: NXE: Apotheosis Now [View All] Gryphonadmin Nov-17-07 TOP
   RE: Annotations: NXE: Apotheosis Now Meagen Nov-17-07 1
   RE: Annotations: NXE: Apotheosis Now twipper Nov-21-07 2
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   RE: Annotations: NXE: Apotheosis Now Moonsword Nov-27-07 3
   RE: Annotations: NXE: Apotheosis Now The Wanderer Dec-09-07 4


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