Unsurprisingly, the latest trailer for the final Rebuild of Evangelion movie – Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon A Time – is as vague as it is exciting for fans who’ve suffered roughly a decade of waiting. One of the expectations for the finale is that it finally closes the book on the long-running story that arguably started way back in 1995 with Neon Genesis Evangelion.
To accomplish that, Thrice Upon A Time will have to put some burning questions to rest. Not just those raised throughout the Rebuild movies, but also lingering ones that persisted even long after the original anime ended with 1997’s The End of Evangelion.
10 Can The Fourth Impact Be Undone?
Any kind of Impact in Evangelion is a cataclysm of untold proportions that threatens life and reality itself. Despite that and the title of 3.0 literally saying You Can (Not) Redo, WILLE seemingly found a way to reverse the effects of the Fourth Impact as seen in the first ten minutes of Thrice Upon A Time.
Though it only affected a few blocks of Paris, the fact that the devastation of the Impact could be reversed is one of the biggest revelations in the entire franchise. Will this be the endgame of the final Rebuild? Also, will Shinji play a part in this since he’s an undeniable part of the Impacts and even reversed the original Third Impact in The End of Evangelion?
9 Can The Curse Of Eva Be Broken?
A disturbing revelation in 3.0 is that the Eva pilots are now ageless thanks to what Asuka called “The Curse of Eva.” The mechanics of the curse haven’t been elaborated upon, but the gist is that the Evangelion pilots don’t age physically and are now stuck as teenagers for the foreseeable future, despite more than a decade having passed between 2.0 and 3.0.
What’s important for Thrice Upon A Time isn’t the reasoning for the “curse” since a lot of the details of the 14-year timeskip have been left up in the air in 3.0, but whether or not it can be broken at all.
8 Will Eva Unit-01 Ever Return?
As of this writing, Unit-01 is still stuck as the AAA Wunder’s power core and hasn’t been seen since 3.0’s opening minutes. Given how important Unit-01 is not just to the characters (especially Shinji) and the story, but to the franchise itself, it seems almost inevitable that Unit-01’s return is being saved for a momentous scene in the finale.
Of course, Unit-01 never reemerging in the finale could make a certain amount of sense with the right in-universe justifications, but its complete absence in Thrice Upon A Time seems highly unlikely.
7 Why Does Asuka Know About Lilin?
In the anime, “Lilin” is a term used by Kaworu to describe humanity as a whole. Generally, the Lilin are the children of Lilith who came to be after being given the Fruit of Knowledge. This technically makes all of mankind the eighteenth Angel, with each person’s AT Field preventing the human race from reuniting into a singular form/primordial soup.
While it makes sense for Kaworu (an Angel himself) to know about this, Asuka strangely uses “Lilin” when presumably referring to WILLE in the final seconds of 3.0. Does this mean that she and her fellow pilots are now beings distinct from humans, or that she simply knows the truth of mankind’s origins?
6 What Does Gendo Hope To Accomplish?
Though it’s made clear that Gendo Ikari has been manipulating events to his accord ever since the first Rebuild, it’s never really made clear why he’s doing it. Previously, Gendo wanted to instigate the Third Impact to resurrect his dead wife Yui. His plan backfired and he was killed before Human Instrumentality (the unification of all human souls) could take place.
In Rebuild, Gendo constantly mentions that the goal of starting another Impact is nearing fruition, but his motives for doing so remain a mystery. Whatever his new goals are seem to be a lot grander in scale when compared to simply bringing just one person back to life.
5 Who Exactly Is Mari?
Since it’s a soft reboot, it wasn’t too surprising when Rebuild introduced a new Eva pilot in Mari Makinami Illustrious. Compared to the other pilots, Mari is more positive and unburdened. She even enjoys piloting the Evas to the point where she can get bloodthirsty in combat. Problem is, nobody knows why she’s even in Evangelion in the first place.
In 2.0, she infiltrated NERV but whatever her mission was is irrelevant in the post-Third Impact world. Currently, she fights for WILLE but her reasons for switching sides are unclear. The manga, strangely, shows her befriending Yui and even getting envious of her romance with Gendo, making her age and purpose an even bigger mystery than expected. Mangaka Yoshiyuki Sadamoto has clarified that this side story was not canon. As it stands, Mari is just a new character who sticks out.
4 Will Rei Ayanami Ever Return?
The Rei Ayanami that Shinji (and viewers) loved in the first two Rebuild movies isn’t dead, but she isn’t exactly alive either. Through some cruel twist of fate, Shinji pulled her out of Zuriel at the end of 2.0 but she’s somehow been fused with Unit-01 as a result. She’s technically alive, but she no longer exists in the reality of the Rebuild movies.
Right now, only Shinji is aware of her presence since he can hear her voice. The question now isn’t whether or not the original Rebuild Rei is alive, but if she’ll ever come back. That, and how exactly she will accomplish such a return.
3 Does Kaworu Know About The Anime?
When Kaworu finally joins the fray in the final seconds of Evangelion 2.0, he stops the Third Impact by impaling an awakened Unit-01 with a spear. As he descends, Kaworu tells Shinji “This time I’ll make you happy.” Some fans thought this was a cute nod to the anime where Kaworu momentarily made Shinji happy before his untimely death, while others took it literally.
Rebuild Kaworu seems to know more than he lets on, giving the impression that he’s seen the events of Evangelion unfold before or even more than once, with Rebuild only being the latest timeline. This has only increased speculation that Rebuild is more than just a modern remake of Evangelion.
2 Is Rebuild Connected To The Anime?
As far as some fans are concerned, the Rebuild movies are indeed connected to Evangelion. Whether they’re a direct continuation, an alternate universe, or something else entirely has yet to be clarified, but strange hints and clues seem to make this fan-favorite theory an inevitability.
From scenes and visual cues that directly mirror the anime to the animated short until You come to me (above) which directly acknowledges the anime's events (especially The End of Evangelion), it’s likely that the narrative and thematic connections between Evangelion and its cinematic reimagining will be revealed in Thrice Upon A Time.
1 What’s The Point Of Rebuilding Evangelion?
By now, it’s no secret that Evangelion deconstructed escapism through the lens of a mecha anime. With that in mind, remaking it seems thematically contradictory. Conceptually, Rebuild is a vindication of the escapist fantasies and deification of nostalgia that Evangelion criticized. Not helping matters was how some story beats felt like wish-fulfillment, like everyone being more emotionally stable, Shinji growing a backbone, and even confessing his love for Rei. And then 3.0 happened.
3.0 demolished the power fantasy and showed how even with a newfound confidence and self-realization, Shinji was still trapped in a downward spiral of pain and misery where running away or facing a harsh reality are the only escapes. How Shinji confronts the hellscape he inadvertently created seems to the be the focus of the fourth Rebuild. It should be noted that Rebuild’s more sympathetic yet unflinching outlook is a result of the show's creator Hideaki Anno’s own emotional growth. Seeing what he has to say with his return to the deeply personal world of Evangelion is going to make Thrice Upon A Time more than just a cinematic finale.