Thread by @MizuKaoriSan

#Evangelion #エヴァ
If you are still confused about or even troubled by Shinji and Asuka’s love confession in the past tense, there are several things to keep in mind:

1. In 3.0+1.0, someone else used past tense before Asuka and Shinji did:
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#Evangelion #エヴァ
…Black Rei (Kuronami) was the one who used past tense before everyone else did

And the context is: at that point, she knew pic 4 is what would happen to her in a sec

Anno already gave us all the hints in Rei. We just need to connect all the dots
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#Evangelion #エヴァ
…
Once you’ve made this connection, then you can go one step further and ask:

What happened to Black Rei after she turned LCL?

She met Shinji again

And that’s all because of:

2. さよなら “Sayonara”: the spell to meet again
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#Evangelion #エヴァ
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Not only did she meet Shinji, she even had a handshake—the spell to become friends—that she didn’t get from him in the 3rd village
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#Evangelion #エヴァ
…When Asuka and Shinji confessed their love to each other in the past tense, both thought they were about to die and never meet again, and that’s why they used past tense

Exactly the same as why Black Rei used past tense when she knew she was about to die…

#Evangelion #エヴァ
…But that’s what Shinji thought. When he said Sayonara to Asuka, he (unknowingly) cast the spell on her to meet again

Note Asuka was the only one he said Sayonara to

Actually, the spell was already cast in 2.0 when Asuka was in Unit-3:

#Evangelion #エヴァ
…

If you listen to Takahashi Yoko’s “What If?” you will have an even clearer idea of the meaning of Sayonara (Goodbye) & past tense

music.apple.com/us/album/shiro…

#Evangelion #エヴァンゲリオン
If you are interested in reading more about why 3.0+1.0 is a LAS ending, please see this previous thread:

#Evangelion #エヴァンゲリオン
For more on EVA rebuild’s Sayonara and the spell to meet again, please see: