All I Can Say is... The Ending Is Weird.... Thank God For The Movies... ^_^ I Get It Sorta But I Mean C'Mon...

Yikes, nitpicking these two is pretty close to impossible... Unless you're a philosophy student, in which case, you MIGHT catch onto a few "big picture" nits. I've found one. At the end of episode 26, Shinji declares that he's going to start living simply for himself, his "true self", rather than for otehrs (I don't think I phrased that right, but I'm still trying to get it all straight in my head). Yet the spent quite a lot of time establishing the idea that one's identity, the "true self", is established through interaction with others. If that's the case, how can Shinji be his true self on his own?

An extention of the above nit: if he's creating a world for himself where he exists to be himself, why is everyone there clapping for him? Wouldn't that suggest that he's still seeking approval from others? Does that mean that Eva ends in a triumph of self-delusion? (ouch)

Here's the biggest big picture nit imaginable: It is said here that there can be more that one truth: truth is simply the perspective through which one observes things and can therefore be diferent for every individual and change at any moment. In other words, there can be no absolute truths; yet isn't "there can be no absolute truths" an absolute truth? If it's not, then the whole thing falls appart becasue the second it is admitted that some things are true outside of how individuals percieve them, there's really no concrete way to defend the idea that there is anything that's not.

Furthermore, what is the "truth" in question involves another individual? Suppose Shinji thinks the truth is that Auska drinks Dr. Pepper, but Auska thinks she drinks Coke. How can Shinji's "truth" really be true if Auska, who is the subject of said "truth", contradicts is? It the "truth" only in Shinji's mind? That can't be, because for it all to be in Shinji's head, the "real" Auska couldn't exist: she'd have to be a figment of Shinji's imagination, existing only in his perception.

Or, suppose that Shiji or Auska or Rei believed that the "truth" was that they didn't exist. How could that be relative? If they do, thein there is no way they could percieve themselve as NOT existing because the very act of percieving would require that they do. On the other hand, if they do NOT exist, then there is no way that they could percieve themsleve as existing because there would be nothing to have that perspective. And there is certainly no way that they could be both, depending on how they or anyone else looks at it. If they were to possess even the slightest bit of existence, there is no way they could possess any NONexistance. The two concepts are incompatible, it's either one or the other. No relativity about it.

WHEW!!! That made my head hurt. On a much lighter note, I got a real kick out of the "school kid anime" sequence. Kind of felt like the folks at Gainax were writting their own fanfic.

Well, I'm a bit tired right now, so I won't even attempt to digest everything you said... but as for the whole Coke / Dr. Pepper thing:

As long as Auska doesn't tell Shinji she drinks Coke, and as long as he doesn't pick up her glass and take a sip from it, then what is to stop him from having his own Truth? As long as he believes it, it would certainly be true for him and thus be his truth, even if it isn't THE truth.

Now, if Auska tells him, "Baka Shinji, this is Coke, not Dr. Pepper!" then Shinji would be perfectly free to adjust his truth to a new one. (According to Evangelion, after all, the Truth can be fluid depending on your perception of it.)

He may also choose NOT to adjust what he believes to be true, mind you. That is entirely up to him. But in this instance, I think that he would have to be pretty stubborn and foolish to cling on to such a belief when it is of little significance.

(Alas, sometimes people believe in things of great significance, and see them as absolute truths, when there are some basic fallacies in what they believe. Those can be harder to change. Kevin Smith had it right when he was talking about the fundamental differences between "beliefs" and "ideas." But I digress...)

Well, brain shutting down for now. Be back later. (One of these days, I must get my DVDs out again and pick up on my own nit-picking. Can't believe I left off at only Episode 8!)

As long as he believes it, it would certainly be true for him and thus be his truth, even if it isn't THE truth.

That's a very interesting sentence; what exactly is THE truth and how is is different from my/your/shinji's truth? Please correct me if I'm missunderstanding, but it sounds as if "THE truth" is refering to an actual state of reality (such as a collection of water, aluminum, and syrup mollicules that together form a can of Coke), whereas "his truth" is simply Shinji's assumption that it's Dr Pepper (I wish I'd used a more inteligent sounding illustration, this is making me laugh as I write it). If that's the case, then it seems a rather egotistical to call it "truth". Yes, he BELIEVES that it's truth, but that just makes it belief, not truth itself. How does that stack up to what Kevin Smith said? That quote sounds familiar, but it only rings a very faint bell.

I could concieveably go on, but I'd buch reather hear what somebody else thinks than blab on like an idiot myself.

DRAT! I forgot the part I was going to say first! Well, imagine the post above begins liek this:

"Not to rush you or anything, but I'd really welcome the company! It's getting lonely posting on all these anime boards practically by my lonesome."

Was episode 25 all in Shinji's head?
This seemed to be mainly a psychological study of the four main characters:Shinji,Misato,Asuka and
Rei.
The most interesting part was when the different
Reis confront the current Rei and she has to confront who and what she is.

I enjoyed the finale despite it being confusing in places and overly philosophical as compared to the rest of the series.I don't know now if I'll go out and buy End of Evangelion now or not,since the finale was satisfying enough for me.Then I am probably in the minority on this point.
What I enjoyed was that they were able to experiment with different types of artwork in the animation,which they couldn't have done earlier.However since this was the finale they were able to do so.
Another aspect I loved about it was the really hilarious alternate reality Shinji came up with where he WASN'T an Eva pilot.
So he sees Asuka as his best friend?
Also why did he think up such a dorky voice for Rei?
Misato as the teacher was just Misato being Misato except as a teacher,she even DRIVES like
the original Misato!!LOL!!!!
Note:In the end when Shinji realizes he CAN accept his reality the entire cast is on hand to applaud him,even Pen Pen.