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First half of the film The End of Evangelion, which is meant as an alternate ending to the series, complementing or replacing the original episodes 25 and 26.
With the Angels defeated, Commander Gendo Ikari and Seele finally break their relationship and Gendo attempts to start Third Impact with Rei and the Angel Lilith in Terminal Dogma. Seele orders the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Forces (JSSDF) to attack Tokyo-3 and NERV headquarters, culminating in vaporizing Tokyo-3 with an N² mine. Asuka uses Unit 02 to repulse the JSSDF's attack on NERV, prompting Seele to retaliate by sending in the nine Mass Production (MP) Evangelions, Units 05 through 13, to fight Unit 02. Meanwhile, Misato rescues Shinji from advancing JSSDF troops and brings him safely to Unit 01, but is mortally wounded. Ritsuko tries to initiate NERV HQ's self-destruct as an act of petty revenge against Gendo, but it fails due to her mother's programming, at which point Gendo fatally shoots her. In a tough battle, a reawakened Asuka is able to defeat all of the MP Evangelions, but Unit 02's batteries run out, and the MP Evangelions reactivate despite their wounds because they are fitted with S² engines. The MP Evangelions proceed to eviscerate Unit 02. Shinji leaves the Geofront in Unit 01 and, upon seeing the remains of Unit 02, loses his last hold on sanity. |
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Second half of The End of Evangelion, which is meant as an alternate ending to the series, complementing or replacing the original episodes 25 and 26.
Gendo starts Third Impact with Rei, but she rejects Gendo and merges with Lilith to become a god-like being. The MP Evangelions crucify Unit 01 with their Lance of Longinus replicas, and centering around the Rei/Lilith being, create an Anti-AT field which spreads over the entire world, reducing everyone to the primordial soup of LCL, merging into a single super-being as all souls merge. In a surreal sequence (in which Shinji imagines himself in different scenarios interacting with the people he has come to know and care about during his time as an Eva pilot), Shinji examines his life's meaning with Rei and what he truly wants, and after talking with the soul of his mother in Unit 01, decides to reject Instrumentality, accepting individual existence and the possibility of pain over the painless loss of identity. He is told all living things will have the choice of returning to individual existence if they can remember it. The Rei/Lilith being and the MP Evangelions die. In the end, Shinji wakes up on the beach of the Sea of LCL, which has formed over Earth, and finds that Asuka is lying next to him, inexplicably alive, her injuries sustained during her battle with the Mass-Produced Evas covered in bandages. Shinji, still in an emotionally fragile state, strangles the seemingly comatose Asuka, but stops himself when Asuka, instead of lashing out at Shinji, lovingly caresses his face. At Asuka's action, Shinji comes to his senses and breaks down, crying uncontrollably. Asuka looks down at the crying Shinji with her one good eye, and faintly mutters "How disgusting." The story ends at this point, with the message "Fin" appearing at the bottom of the screen, leaving the fates of Shinji, Asuka, and the rest of humanity unresolved. |