A Stone Ocean of Stars

then, new movies are made. the rebuilds. a sort of retelling / reinterpretation of nge. rebuild 1.0 is largely the same as the first six episodes. rebuild 2.0 introduces more differences, but is still recognizably a retelling of nge. but then 3.33 is completely different. it takes place 14 years later, and all of the characters have changed dramatically. why is 3.33 (and 3.0 + 1.0) so different from nge. in my opinion, it's because the rebuild is a retelling of nge, but is even more blatently anti-escapism. the change starts in 2.0 when rei is absorbed by the angel, and shinji sort of fuses with his eva to try and rescue her. he claims he doesn't care what happens to the world, as long as he is able to rescue rei. unfortunately, this causes the apocalypse. shinji, with his eva made from lilith and the angel born from adam, fusing together creates the near third impact, which would have ended the world in human instrumentality if the one guy (he looks like the guy from cowboy bebop I can't remember his name right now) hadn't sacrificed himself to stop it. shinji wakes up 14 years later to find that everyone he knows and loves has changed. (important note that 3.33 came out 14 years after eoe). shinji is a stand in for the fans who use anime, eva in particular, as a form of escapism. shinji desperately wants everyone and everything to go back to how they were before. he even constantly lies to himself that he saved rei. but he didn't. the current rei, rei q, is an empty emotionless husk who only follows orders. rei has sort of always been kind of a blank slate, but even in nge she had some emotions, and in the first two rebuilds has been shown to like shinji. but rei q has no personality at all. this is a huge middle finger to the fans. (well, actually 3.33 in general is a middle finger to the fans, but rei in this movie is especially.) she's basically an allegory of what your waifu would be like if she was real. rei is an anime character. she isn't real. she isn't a real person with thoughts and emotions and feelings and a life like you. eva is saying that escapism is pointless because you will fall in love with a fictional object that won't love you back.

shinji is understandablely upset, and starts to have a mental breakdown. I mean, I would to if I almost ended the world to try and save one person, and then realized that I didn't even save them at all. but kaworu is able to comfort him by teaching him piano. kaworu is able to help shinji live in the real world, experience real emotion, and even love. when kaworu dies, shinji is in a deep depression for the rest of 3.33 and half of 3.0 + 1.0, which takes place over several weeks. he lost the only person who he loved, and who actually loved him back. it takes him living in a community and working and living with other people to eventually help him rebuild his confidence. the entire first half of 3.0 + 1.0 is arguing for living in reality. it's messy, is rough, it's hard, and at times you'll feel like you have no reason to live. but you must continue. living in reality is better that living in fantasy. because it's not just about your needs, but the needs of the community and your friends and your family. in fantasy, you're only living for yourself. but in reality, you're living not just for yourself, but for the people around you. life isn't about personal desires. life is about the connections you form with others. the climax of 3.0 + 1.0 ends with shinji rebuilding the connection with his father that was torn all those years ago. gendo reconnects with his son. he realizes that family is more important that burying himself in his work. shinji is able to rescue rei. the real rei, not rei q (who btw has also found a reason for living and a place in her community).

evas true message is about living in the moment and building connections with the people you love. not absorbing yourself into a fantasy world, pretending that your favorite fictional character is your wife. and so many fans don't understand that, despite the message being so blatantly obvious. when people say that eoe or 3.33 is "a middle finger to the fans", it's because the fans don't understand the themes behind eva, and the writers and creators have to be more and more straightforward with telling them their message, even if that means the fans don't like what they're given.

there's not really a point to this. I just wanted to talk about evas main themes, because I kinda agree with them. enjoying media like TV shows and video games is great. but don't become so invested within them that you forget about the real world. focus on reality and the connections you have with the people you love, rather than using a piece of media as a form of escapism. the meaning of life is the connections you form with others.

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Disabled Person: YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER FOOL!

The United States Government:

In order for disabled people to receive any sort of financial assistant for their housing, food, bills, medical supplies, etc., they cannot ever have more than $2,000 of resources to their name. Ever.

It doesn’t matter what it’s for.

You’re saving up for a new wheelchair?

For college?

To put a downpayment on a house?

Hell man, you just happen to budget for once in your life so that you can have some extra money in case something bad happens?

Your benefits immediately get cut off if you’re a cent over $2,000.

And, even worse, you usually end up having to pay back every dollar the government gave you that month.

So say you get $400. If they find out you’re twenty dollars over the resource limit, you have to give them all $400 back and you undergo an investigation of your funds to see if you will continue getting money.

“What if I spend the money that day?”

Doesn’t matter. In fact, from what I can tell, people who do this are actually put under investigation for fraud.

before the movie came out, Marvel gave him an exclusive preview screening. SOme people were upset because they felt if Marvel was really wanted to thank mantlo, they should have donated money to Mantlo’s family.

Sometimes, at the end of the month, he has no idea what to do with his money because the whole month went by and he still has 400-ish bucks in his account, and he fucking panics because he doesn’t want to get anywhere near 2,000.

And here’s the funnest part of the story!

One day he did a huge commission on Second Life and wound up earning 1500 bucks off of it, and he told the guy to donate it 500 bucks at a time over 3 months. The guy didn’t want to, and just donated all 1500, which put my brother at 2,036 bucks.

The state IMMEDIATELY (I’m talking less than an hour) called him up to tell him over the phone that they were canceling his SSI, because they noticed he had gone over the 2,000 buck threshold. He had to tell them that someone had made a charitable donation to him and that this was not a common occurrence in any way shape or form, and upon not believing him, my mother had to call to talk to them as his legal caretaker and say basically the same thing until they called off the cancellation of his SSI money.

He also had to cancel his renter’s assistance because it put him to 1,062 a month, so if he went 30 days without spending any money they’d cancel his SSI altogether. Like, none of us in the family have any fucking clue why that regulation is in place and it’s the stupidest shit in human history.