I'm asking so many questions because the movie is coming out tomorrow
Hey, ask away, dude. It helps me to clarify things in my own mind as well, so we both win out of this.
Plus, I've had over eight years to try to puzzle various things out, while you've only had, what, about a week?
Also, the inverted pyramid in the air above the ruins of Geofront is supposed to be Neo-NERV HQ. But is it a new structure completely or a piece of the ground lifted in the air? The reason why I'm asking is because there is a scene where Gendo is sitting at his desk in what looks very much like his room at old NERV HQ - there is half the wall missing and the fact that he still sits there, 14 years after Zeruel's attack is kind of ridiculous)
If I'm being honest, I find the whole inverted pyramid itself ridiculous, but that's another story.
But yeah, it's the original NERV HQ and its immediate surroundings, all in ruins, entombed within steep cliffs and now incorporating new, apparently automated, facilities. Exactly where these new facilities are actually located within the structure is unclear, but Rei and Shinji seemingly have to pass through the old ruined parts before reaching the new sections. The main shaft leading down to Lilith's chamber, once completely underground, has been pulled up out of the ground to form a sort of stem.
The pyramid in the sky is a concept recycled from the Tower of Babel seen in Hideaki Anno's 1990 anime
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. See these images for comparison:
But I still don't get what causes Evas to awaken, exactly.
Is going berserk the same thing as awakening? Probably not
In the case of Shinji and Unit-01 in
2.22, it was because became so desperate to rescue Rei that the intensity of his feelings caused the Eva to awake and answer his prayer.
In the case of Kaworu and Unit-13 in
3.33... well, he tells Shinji that it was all because he became the 13th Angel, but there's no outwardly visible sign of that. The editing of that sequence makes it appear as if the catalyst was the extinguishment of the last SEELE monolith, but that's probably unintentional.
Note that the choker is responding to Kaworu's feelings overwhelming him as he wills the Eva to move for him despite his controls being cut off, rather than to the actual awakening of Unit-13 itself.
And, from what I understand, impacts are caused by Evas uniting with Angels? If angels want to unite with Adam and Evas are made from Adams, that would mean that close contact of two would basically achieve angels' goal. Right?
Difficult to say exactly. It would seem that the trigger for the opening of the Gates of Guf is in a lifeform attaining more than one soul (each one represented by a Core). In
2.22, though, the 10th Angel absorbed Unit-00 without triggering anything, and the Mark.04Cs that the crew of the
Wunder battle in
3.33 actually have a block of 32 cores each, so...
Also, was Unit-13 able to open the Gates because it carried two Spears of Longinus? Or because it's one of the Adams? Or because of both? Even after Kaworu's demise, the Gates remained open until Mari forcibly ejected Shinji's Entry Plug. Why was that? Yet more unknowns, I'm afraid.
Incidentally, the idea of the Guf is drawn from Jewish mysticism:
en.m.wikipedia.org
Also, according to Kiwaru, the central dogma had been sealed for 14 years... Which is weird. Because the skulls on the floor supposedly belonged to Failures of Infinity.
According to Kaworu it had, yes. It could be suggested that Near Third Impact and
actual Third Impact (if they
are indeed separate events) might have happened less than a year apart.
You'll notice, though, in another story contrivance, that Asuka and Mari were able to gain access to Lilith's chamber through a crack in its ceiling, bypassing the previously sealed main shaft entirely.
in the battle in space there is a moment where Unit-01 destroys the second defence system (It's called Mark.04B, I believe). I wonder if that was a Yui moment or Shinji subconsciously controlled the robot?
That was definitely caused by Shinji. Asuka called out for him to help immediately before Unit-01 intervened, and then Ritsuko later informs Shinji that he had the Eva awakened for 12 seconds only recently.
And lastly for now...
I may be completely wrong here but I believe the purpose of Toji's shirt is to trigger Shinji and in turn the audience to question exactly what has happened to everyone he knew over the 14 years which then leads into the next scene Kaworu shows Shinji what has happened to the world.
@MayDay is absolutely spot-on in that assessment. Moreover, it's no coincidence that Shinji came into possession of something that one belonged to one of his old friends: it's another orchestration by Gendō.
I guess it ended up being an item of clothing because, aside from food, clean clothing is the only other thing that Shinji is provided with in his daily life, so spartan is his environment at Neo-NERV.
)
