Tear Jerker / Rebuild of Evangelion

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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1.0: You Are (Not) Alone

• Can we talk about Rei for a sec? In the original series, Rei had this robotic, empty quality to her voice, giving the eerie sense that she wasn't completely human (or human at all). Here, her voice does sound admittedly more human, but she always sounds so...empty. She never changes her tone from that of apathetic resignation. It sounds like the voice of someone who has completely given up on themselves. Considering what happened in the original series, this becomes much more poignant and heartbreaking.
• After the second Angel encounter, Misato harshly scolds Shinji for disobeying orders. His despondent response and dead smile makes her recoil. As he walks away Misato is forced to realize the person she was treating like a soldier is a 14 year old boy who is already borderline suicidal from the ordeals he has endured, and promptly slaps herself in disgust.
• After Shinji leaves, he spends some time wandering the city and sleeping on the streets, but when he approaches the city limits we see he cannot go any further. The road leading outside has been obliterated by the previous fight between the Eva and the Angel. He then turns around, bitterly demanding the Section 2 agents show themselves, and is showered in lights, proving that they were in fact tailing him all along. The Third Child cannot escape the cruel fate that awaits him, even when he wants to run away, he cannot.

2.0: You Can (Not) Advance

• Rei comparing herself to the fish in the aquarium, and how she doesn't belong outside of the confines of NERV. Also, the fact that this aquarium is pretty much all that remains of marine life after the Second Impact is pretty depressing.
• Asuka's "death" in 2.0. It's heavily foreshadowed, but still... and that Goddamn song playing when it's happening just makes it worse.
  Shinji: STOP IT!!!
• The whole Goddamn ending! Many viewers will already know the Zeruel Event from the original series, so all the changes can be jarring. First, there was the big, fat Hope Spot that was Mari's badass intervention and her subsequent Moment of Awesome when she fought in Beast-Mode. She got back up several times and helped Rei out with the Bomb, even with her EVA seriously damaged and a freaking hole in her side! And then, it ends up failing anyway and Rei pays the price.
• Hell, "Give Me Wings" on its own is a huge Tear Jerker if you're in the right mood.
• But of course, the biggest Tear Jerker of all was Shinji's fight with Zeruel. Just like in the original series, just when he seems to have grown some guts, his power runs out. In the series, he starts to whine at this part, begging the EVA to move so no one can blame him for the world's end. What does he do in Rebuild? He demands Rei back, even if it means the end of the world! Then, as the Third Impact is about to begin, he holds her tenderly and thanks her for her efforts to resolve his family issues. It may not have been the most reasonable decision, but it was clearly one of the most touching moments in Rebuild thus far. However, as of the next movie, he failed.
• Gendo and Rei's "dinner" together, in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. Gendo has a full porterhouse steak with all the trimmings. Rei has nutrition pills.
  • No mention for the scene afterwards? Rei attempts to convince Gendo to come to a dinner party she's planning for him and Shinji. At first, Gendo, being Gendo, declines...only to look at Rei and see Yui, who repeats the words she said to him before she "died": to care for Shinji. He then accepts the decision, which makes it worse as it leads to the Bardiel fight.

3.0: You Can (Not) Redo

• Shinji waking up after 14 years to find that he didn't save Rei, and nearly ended the world while at the same time killing so many people.
  • After Shinji arrives at what remains of NERV, he is given a clean set of shirt. Said shirt has Toji's name patched over...
  • The lack of proper treatment prompted Shinji to trust Kaworu, a complete stranger, instead of anyone at WILLE or NERV. Then the ending takes the only person in the entire world who treated Shinji as a human away from him...
• In 3.0, Shinji unconsciously awakened Eva-01 to help Asuka before she was killed. His reward? WILLE puts him an Explosive Leash in case he loses control again.
• The state of NERV HQ and of the whole world as well, the Scenery Gorn in some of the locations of the previous movie and even the original series themselves and the sheer loneliness and abandonment that they radiate as well.
• Everything involving Shinji and Rei, or rather, the new Rei clone from Q. First, the girl he was willing to give his life for is dead after all, and when he thinks he found her, what he does meet is an Empty Shell that doesn't react to his attempts to communicate with her. During this, Shinji is shown to know some pretty personal things about "his" Rei, like what books she liked to read. He concludes that the other clone "isn't Ayanami", showing that he really meant it when he said she was irreplaceable to him, and he really suffers having lost his first love. She's only present for a few seconds, but Rei II's presence hangs darkly over the movie. But by the time he's given up on her, Q!Rei has begun some minimal development and is shocked by his talk of another "her" and she becomes increasingly lost and confused, until Shinji's words throw her in an all-out existential crisis.
• Kaworu's death and Shinji's reaction to it. We now know what it takes to totally break Shinji. And there is tons of Fan Art being made of it.
  • "We'll meet again, Shinji-kun."
  • It's especially heartbreaking because at the end of 2.0 Kaworu says that he'll 'definitely make Shinji happy', and spends the entirety of 3.0 pretty much achieving that. It isn't until the end of the movie that he realizes what has to be done and that to save Shinji he has to do the one thing that would hurt him the most.
• It's not really focused on, but when told to kill Shinji by Ritsuko because they can't let Gendo get a hold of him, Misato can't bring herself to do it. Even though she blames him for Third Impact, she still cares about Shinji.
• As awesome as it was, the fight in Central Dogma between Asuka and Shinji in 3.33 becomes one in hindsight. None of the two wanted to fight each other and, due the events that happened and their circumstances, they cannot resolve it by talking or reasoning with the other, thus leading to Fourth Impact.
• Even as Kaworu tells him something is wrong, Shinji still goes for the spears, as his anger and desperation boil over he furiously rants that he just wants to undo the horrible tragedy brought by his actions, and showing that despite the cold treatment Misato gave him, he still cares about her.
  Shinji: That's the only reason that I'm even in this damn Eva!
  (Shinji disconnects Kaworu, taking full control of Unit 13)
  Kaworu: The control system!
  Shinji: I'm doing this for you Kaworu! for you and everyone else I know! I HAVE TO MAKE EVERYTHING RIGHT AGAIN! IF I CAN RESTORE THE WORLD, THEN EVEN MISATO WILL...!
• At the end of 3.0 when Asuka finds Shinji in his entry plug. She first states how he didn't save her, adding more salt to the wounds, pushes him with her feet and begins to insult him about how much of a spoiled brat he is, and complains about his catatonic condition while dragging him with her and making him drop the SDAT that Kaworu fixed for him, meaning he tried to take it with him when he got out of the entry plug even in his severe Heroic BSoD. The worst of all is that she is not doing this out of malice, but because she still cares for him, yet the 14 years of fighting have made her unable to show that without hurting him in the process, leaving the two in the same kind of relationship they had in the original series.
  • Not to mention that it acts as a dark inversion of the hand-holding motif that the movies have shown. Rather than being shown as an act that provides Shinji hope, it is instead shown as Shinji being forced to confront a world without anyone caring about his soul or mental state, as the loss of his SDAT player symbolizes.
  • Also, just the fact that despite being severely emotionally messed up at the moment, Shinji still tried to take the SDAT player Kaworu fixed for him with him. He latches on it, clings to the only thing left of the only person who had ever treated him with love and affection at the time, yet Asuka (unintentionally at that, which is even more heartbreaking) makes him drop it. Let's just hope that Rei!Q picked it up even if no one ordered her to do it.
• "Sakura Nagashi", the ending song of 3.0. The melody is sad enough, but the lyrics make it even worse, especially since they can easily be applied to the movie's events:
  I can't believe that I'll never see you again
  I haven't told you anything yet
  I haven't told you anything yet
  • It seems to be sung in Shinji's POV and is about Shinji mourning for the loss of Kaworu.
• Pretty much all of 3.0. The movie is depressing all the way through. It feels horribly lonely and claustrophobic, like some terrifying homage to I Am Legend. Shinji has basically committed near-total omnicide. This movie is literally Shinji's hell. As Asuka notes, Shinji's introverted nature makes him tend towards egotism — he thinks only of himself. He knows this. He hates himself for it. Shinji also has a breakdown about two thirds into the movie which doubles as Nightmare Fuel and while 1.0 and 2.0 had some comic relief, there is no comic relief in 3.0. At all.
• The curse of Eva; it locks the pilots to be perpetual teenagers, which not only means they have a harder chance of ever finding a partner, this also means that a part of them will never mature since the process of growing up is both physical and psychological.
• Shinji playing piano with Kaworu, going with the flow of events instead of asking questions. Despite the soundtrack, it's depressing to see Shinji deciding to shut himself off from the outside world.

3.0+1.0:Thrice Upon a Time

• Shinji's mourning period continues even in his downtime. What was a melancholy scene turns tragic when Shinji spots Asuka's collar and pukes at the sight. He's clearly still remembering Kaworu's sacrifice, and it's mighty sad to watch.
• On that note: the extended montage of Asuka angrily shoving rations into catatonic Shinji's mouth. She was simply furious at Shinji for not getting over his self-loathing, but couldn't see the proper ways to express it. Treating mental illness with violence does not help matters at all. And in the end of first half she is about to leave this sorry butt behind had he not got over his slump and shown up.
• Rei-Q accepting her identity as Rei Ayanami and confessing her love for Shinji despite Asuka's insistence that such feeling is fake and programmed into Rei-Q by NERV, only for Rei-Q to undergo Clone Degeneration and melting into a puddle of LCL right at that moment in front of Shinji's eyes. We later learn that Gendo let the pilot trio escape just so Shinji can learn and sympathize with Gendo's goal (to revive Yui) through the loss of Rei-Q. She is doomed from the start. Thankfully, all it managed to do is wake Shinji up from his slump and he starts going against Gendo.
  • Rei-Q's Plugsuit just had to change its color scheme to that of the 'original' Rei just before the clone dies for extra pain.
  • In her final few moments, Rei-Q lists of all the things she wanted to do that will never happen now, including spending more time with the old ladies who were kind to her, playing with Tsubame (who she'd clearly become quite fond of) and being with Shinji forever.
  • On the morning of Rei-Q's death, Hikari enters her room to find a note thanking her and saying goodbye. Just after Rei-Q dies, baby Tsubame is shown weeping while a frantic Hikari calls the old ladies to see if they know where Rei-Q has gone. It's clear that even though their time together was short, Hikari had truly grown to love Rei-Q.
• Asuka’s past revealed. In this continuity, she’s the last and only successful clone of the Shikinami series. From the day she was created, Asuka was constantly training and pressured to be a successful Eva pilot, all while secretly desiring a normal childhood. The scene in where she looks on with envy at a young Shinji with his parents is sure to pull some heartstrings.
  • Shortly after this, Asuka awakens on a beach, suspiciously similar to the final scene of the End of Evangelion. She is in her original plugsuit, which has begun to burst, as she now appears as her true age. Shinji is nearby smiling quietly. In a deconstruction of the bleak tone of EOE, Shinji thanks Asuka for saying she cared for him and to let her know that the feeling had always been mutual, asking her to give regards to Kensuke before he departs. Asuka is clearly flustered, but her expression also indicates a new level of sadness. She and Shinji are finally communicating! All her fears of rejection by him are put to rest!! And now he has to leave again. Shinji himself sounds sad about this as well, but is trying to put on a brave face.
• As Shinji and Misato discuss letting him pilot EVA 1 again, Midori suddenly pulls a gun on them. In a mix of pure sorrow and hatred, she rants about how she lost her entire family to Near-Third Impact.
  • Misato ends up Taking the Bullet for Shinji during the standoff. As Shinji frantically tends to her, she somberly admits that she was just as responsible for Near-Third Impact as Shinji was.
  • And slightly after that Sakura being forced to admit that this Gendo Jr., whose (as far as she knows) selfishness took everything from her, and that she's pointing a gun at is now humanity's final chance of survival and therefore shouldn't be killed.
• Shinji and Gendo's confrontation: Gendo finally admits that growing up, he cared more for isolation and being alone, but when he met Yui, he finally gained an understanding of human interaction and appreciation of those around him. But then when Yui "died", he felt alone once again, only for it to hurt him than provide him comfort. Anybody who has struggled with introvert behavior and loss can relate hard, and suddenly we and Shinji understand that in his pure despair at having lost the only light he'd ever known in his life, Gendo let his emotions lead him to the extreme of 'I will tear the entire world apart if it means I can be with her again,' in the process unintentionally pushing what actually remained of Yui away: Shinji.
  Gendo: I see. So that's where you were...Yui.
  • Gendo also addresses that yes, he realized that him pushing Shinji away was his way to not feel pain and to not hurt his own son. This eventually leads to him hugging a younger Shinji in regret.
    Gendo: Shinji... I'm sorry...
• Shinji and Gendo's Battle in the Center of the Mind represented as two Toku actors on stage, the cast leaving the familiar 'scenes' one by one and the destruction of all the numbered EVAs all in a row just drive the point home that this series is finally over.
  Shinji: "Goodbye, Evangelion."
• With Misato's Heroic Sacrifice, Ryoji has now lost both of his parents.

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