Okay guys, Just finished watching EoE for the first time. Upon revisiting them, Ep 25-26 aren't so bad when you know what to expect and aren't anxiously awaiting a resolution to the plot.
Anyways, it went full art house film for a bit there, didn't it? Real life footage? What appeared to be character cosplay in it's own movie? WHAT. THE. FUCK.
One of the many things I don't really understand is why giant God-Rei-Lilith-Adam suddenly started hemorrhaging and falling apart. Did Unit 01 "kill" her for some reason? Was it because Shinji decided to return as an individual? (however the bleeding starts before he decides this). Instrumentality was still in full effect. So what was the significance of her crashing back to earth? Was it so humanity can reside together on earth itself and not within a "god" (I thought that's what SEELE wanted the whole time, though)?
Or was it meant that LCL was literally Lilith's blood and she had to bleed out and die for it to work the way it was intended and "re-seed" the planet, even though individuals also have the option to will themselves back into existence?
FAKE EDIT: I think this might be it the more I think about it. It looks like she's "gathering" what appear to be the souls of the whole planet into the black moon and herself when the ritual begins, then it all "bleeds" back the earth as LCL where everyone resides, living and dead. I'm not sure if Shinji "rejecting" it or not made any difference to what was happening.
I tried to re-watch that part a few times but after Shinji's crucified Eva enters the giant vagina-eye on god-Rei's forehead (that seems way weirder when you type it out) it quickly shifts to the real life footage stuff and then she has already started falling apart.
Such a strange way to end. I keep thinking about what they're supposed to do in the following days. I guess look for others who also choose to reject and hopefully try and rebuild the planet a bit at a time.
It's funny, on the one hand I was interested in seeing what "happened" during Ep 25-26 and yet on the other hand this film may have just raised twice as many questions as it answered. What a ride.
And for some reason I found it deeply disturbing when each individual person was devolving into LCL while being confronted by the people they care about, like it was supposed to be something joyous. It just seemed so clearly wrong.