Rebuild of Evangelion/WMG

Shinji becomes an angel during the Zeruel battle
Think about it. Shinji's eyes turned red. Now both
 * Alternatively, Shinji already was an Angel.
 * No Shinji, you ARE the angels! And then Shinji was a zombie.
 * Actually, that makes a bit of sense, seeing as during the fight with Zeruel Shinji was pulling off stuff that only full-blown angels were supposed to be able to do such as weird crap with his AT field and shooting Eye Beams.
 * Not to mention the halo over 01's head. Particularly because in Rebuild most angel seems to have one.
 * Are we forgetting that Evas are just jury-rigged Angel clones? All that stuff could have just been 01, triggered by Shinji's Wangst determination
 * I know the EVA 01 is a clone of  but when EVA 01 ones goes apeshit and angel mode Shinji is usually knocked out. In this, he is pissed and his eyes turn bright red. Could the EVA turned into him something more than human? is he gonna start combining all the EVAs and create drills made out of AT Fields? We won't know until we get 3.0 and 4.0
 * We are warned of really awful stuff happening when Synch ratios get too high.
 * Ritsuko (or maybe Misato? I can't remember which) explicitly states that if Shinji were to continue he wouldn't remain human.
 * It was Ritsuko, and she looked very concerned
 * Well, in the latest chapter of the manga, Unit-01's left arm turns all glowing-ish as Shinji attacks one of the MP EV As. With just a slight amount of imagination, it looks particularly much like Unit-01's AT-Field Rocket Punch capable arm from the battle against Zeruel in Rebuild 2.22. Seriously. Just look!

The rebuild characters retain some memories from NGE and EoE
Consider that in 2.0 when Mari comes crashing in to meet shinji via the wrecked Eva 02, Shinji isn't even phased by the fact that Eva are obviously ORGANISMS, with all the blood and brains he couldn't have not seen that Eva is alive. Has no one noticed this yet? "Ritsuko: The artificial human, Evangelion."
 * ...Eva being organisms was never a secret. Shinji knows they are cyborgs.
 * And at what point during Rebuild was he told this?
 * In both Rebuild and the original series, the mechs were described as such in the first episode:

"Shinji: What is Eva...?"
 * Aww, but why was Shinji shocked when he saw that Eva 01 was alive in NGE?


 * Because being told something is an artificial life-form, and then seeing it for yourself in all it's eldritch glory are two entirely different things.
 * Alternatively, there is a difference between being biological and being alive.
 * This might actually be true. Think back to NGE episode 1. Misato told Shinji to just concentrate on walking, but Shinji had no clue how to do that, so she explained it to him. In Rebuild 1.0, during Shinji's first launch, Misato tells him to just concentrate on walking, and Shinji just thinks "walk", and the Evangelion begins walking. This time Misato didn't have to tell Shinji how to make the EVA move.

The World of Rebuild is the world of the original after the reboot at EoE
It shares a lot of similaties with the of EoE,but take another turn in the most dramatic moments,so my theory is that the are the re-incarnations and are on their way of learning from their mistakes in EoE.
 * At least according to Kaworu, this would be correct.
 * Of course, since there apparently are TWO Giants that are both Lilith is rather odd....and that Kaworu is the ONLY Character that is aware of the Alternate Universes of Eva. The differences between Life and Death is meaningless to me, indeed.
 * Also, the coffins Kaworu is seen in on the moon is the number of times Shinji has reset the world, not the number of angels released in the film. This says that there may be a limit to the amount of times Shinji can reset the world and that Kaworu is the same in ever timeline (he gets "reborn" in the next coffin), and we don't see the total number of coffins.
 * Let us also recall that Misato is indeed nicer here, and is putting a concerted effort into making the poor kid gain a sense of self-worth. Also, she seems to be slightly more reasonable in how she explains things to Shinji.
 * Further, she shows him Lilith.
 * ALL THE EVA CHARACTERS ARE TRAPPED IN AN ENDLESS CYCLE OF SAMSARA!
 * We've entered an endless recursion of time.
 * The NeverEnd of Evangelion
 * Kaworu may have experienced this endless-rebirth cycle near-infinite times too, judging from his "I'll make you happy" quote.
 * Oh my God... KAWORU IS HOMURA.
 * In fact, maybe the Second Impact shown in the Rebuild-verse was actually the Pilots (including Kaworu) materializing there due to Shinji screwing the previous universe over by initiating Third Impact yet again. It makes sense, since we were shown the "ADAMS" in the 2I-flashback scene.
 * The loop is a result of the Angels Save Scumming. It will continue until one of them "wins."
 * Sounds sensible. Also reminds me of a popular Radiant Silvergun / Ikaruga continuity WMG
 * There is some heavy evidence of this being the case in the short trailer for Quickening.
 * This troper thinks of this particular Wild Mass Guess as being the next step in a path to each character's "self-actualization," something he thought of after a 2-second-long segment of the scene in Rebuild 1.11 where Shinji runs away after fighting the flying alien... squid... thing. Shinji carefully walks down a "yellow line road." Let's think of the line in the middle of the road as being the "Yellow Brick Road" in The Wizard of Oz. (Let's ignore the likely intentional original symbolism, being social commentary on the state of the United States near the end of the 19 century.) Based on Joey Greene's Buddhist interpretation of the Wizard of Oz, the yellow brick road is the path to self-actualization. This quote from a page on self-actualization adds more detail: "... the concept was brought most fully to prominence in Abraham Maslow's 'hierarchy of needs' theory as the final level of psychological development that can be achieved when all basic and mental needs are fulfilled and the "actualization" of the full personal potential takes place." Since each character is based on a subject in psychology, have each fix their respective psychological problems through one unified method... in an alternate universe; and, every time they fail, turn everyone into orange tang and start all over.
 * It sounds like it could be a coincidence, but one of the battleships in the television series was called 'Over the Rainbow.' It was probably named after the song from the Wizard of Oz. Oz could also be simplified to Dorothy trying to escape from reality, which is mirrored in Shinji's desire to escape from reality.
 * More evidence supporting this theory is the inclusion of a red ocean and a blood like streak across the moon, mimicking the events in the End of Evangelion.
 * Also note the very first shot of the first Rebuild movie corresponds to one of the final shots from the End of Evangelion.

Rebuild is a separate continuity from the orginal
All indications that Rebuild is after Eo E is just Anno having fun with our heads

Rebuild Kaworu is EoE Shinji Reborn
An extension of the above WMG, consider this. Unit-01 suffers severe facial trauma in NGE, and in Rebuild, we see the Mark 06 being (re)built on the surface of the moon, away from prying eyes, specifically Gendo's prying eyes, around an EVA whose SEELE mask has an additional bit of covering right over Unit-01's affected area. Kaworu even goes so far as to call Gendo 'Father'. This theory implies two things:

1. Everything, including NGE, EoE and Rebuild up until now has possibly all been according to SEELE's plan. This is supported by Kaworu's incredibly convenient timing at the end of You Can (Not) Advance.

2. There's a timeline from before NGE itself where Third Impact was triggered by Yui merging with Lilith and Shinji merging with Adam, spawning Rei with Lilith's soul, and Kaworu with Adam's soul into the NGE timeline. Yui, having retained her memories of this possibly original timeline willingly merges herself into Unit-01, in accordance with SEELE's wishes, so that she can later facilitate Unit-01's consumption of Zeruel in berserk mode in NGE to set up the (Second) Third Impact scenario in EoE. This explains why Lilith/Rei/Yui hands over responsibility for Instrumentality to Shinji whose personality in the NGE timeline was specifically crafted in order to precipitate the reality he would create in Rebuild. This leads us into Rebuild where Rei and Kaworu are still working as agents of SEELE, this time around to heal up Shinji's relationship with his dad and his other relationships (as evidenced by Misato also acting nicer to him, possibly under influence from SEELE) and turn him into someone both strong enough to achieve the Godlike state necessary for Instrumentality, and the happiness with his life that would allow him to abandon his AT Field and finally, ultimately complete the Human Instrumentality Project that's been in motion from before NGE.
 * Actually, apparently people call their friends' father the same word in Japan commonly. So I think that's just Kaworu acknowledging that Gendou is Shinji's father. As for how he knows that...
 * Actually, they would only use the same word for "father" when talking to the friend, not to the father. It's similar to simply saying "your father" in English, as dropping personal pronouns such as "your" is pretty common in Japanese. Now, if you were addressing the friend's father, calling him simply "father" would be just as strange as it is in English (for example, when Yotsuba addresses the Ayase sisters' mother as "Mom" for the first time the sisters are confused). Kaworu does exactly that (although, for all we know, he could have been addressing Fuyutsuki instead, but that's a whole other theory).

Kaworu Nagisa is prescient
Or in other words, he can see the future. He has played out several versions of the possible yet-to-be timelines in his mind, so when he drops lines like "I shall make you happy this time", he is referring to memories of the future he already has. Of course, nothing guarantees that the future he seeks will actually happen, with destiny being as fickle as it is.
 * This one has some credence, as in damn near every extra work he's appeared in he's has some sort of greater knowledge of things. Like the manga, or his Super Robot Wars appearances. Maybe he's just replaying those continuities over in his head.

Kaworu Nagisa was created from Gendo Ikari's DNA
. A fan theory in the original series suggested that Kaworu was born from the human DNA inserted into Adam that started Second Impact. If the same thing happened in this continuity then...yeah. Of course. it's still possible he's referring to Adam in Gendo's hand...except Kaji brought him something else this time.

What the hell is Mari Illustrious Makinami?

 * A Deconstruction of the Mary Sue /Moe Girlfriend The accusations of Mari Illustrious being a Canon Sue are correct… in a way. Kazuya Tsurumaki stated, citing Anno, that "Mari is the only character who isn't somehow dervied from Anno's psyche" and also that she is "meant to be wildly different from every other character". If she’s not from ‘’Anno’s’’ psyche, couldn’t she be from ours? She’s got everything a male fanfic author would want in an imaginary girl friend, and everything a female Self Insert writer is sure not to forget adding in: a gimmicky outfit (glasses, twintails, kneesocks), a weird Verbal Tic, little sense of personal space or social etiquette, a contrived Crash Into Hello with the male lead… that she has a Blood Knight battle mode isn't even much of a subversion. A seemingly sweet and cuddly girl has a psychotic mode is old hat to otaku who love to make sweet characters into secret psychopaths, and the sort of otaku silliness the writers would love to poke fun at. She even acts, on occasion, like myriad fan-portrayals of a vicious, Blood Knight Shinji! She seems to shrug off any damage inflicted on her as we would expect a Mary Sue to do, but this is deconstructed by making her some sort of bloodthirsty masochist. She acts in a sueish way, taking everything lightly, but then she does poorly in both her engagements, with her Evas badly damaged or destroyed. Her personal Eva unit 05 is "special," radically different from any of the others, but those differences cause it to be noticeably less effective in battle, not more. She talks about having plans she doesn't want adults getting in the way of, but she has so little connection to the actual main character that we still barely see her do anything. She even has what might be a Mary Sue token flaw in her glasses, though that too is deconstructed by making her completely Blind Without Em. But, the problem with the Mary Sue is that she, herself, is surreal. Mari lives in a Crapsack World and enjoys every minute of it; and will not acknowledge her mistakes, how is that not insane? Like other Parody Sue s before her, eventually, the toll of not being as superior as she thought she was will take its toll…
 *  A Re/Deconstruction of the standard Super Robot protagonist As Shinji was a genderswapped inversion of the standard teenage SR pilot when it was first created, Mari is the Badass, straight ahead, 1% into 100% version. Her Blood Knight status and cheery love of battle is vaguely reminiscent of Ryoma Nagare, she gets to pilot the primarily red Unit-02, and the color palette she's presented in ZA BEASTO mode is a peculiar green and red. Her introduction song in Provisional Unit-05 sounds like something out of Gunbuster, as does her pre-Beast code quip of "Sometimes you've got to risk it all to get that special something". She's basically a chimera of Studio GAINAX's previous Super Robot heroes with glasses. She's got Noriko's guts (and tits), Nono's weirdness, and Kamina's hotheadedness. The subversion of trope is the fact that she has come dangerously close to dying in both her fights; there’s even odds that her "problem" is either she's a Death Seeker, and/or she ends up mirroring Kamina in more ways that her fans would like.
 * Related: Mari is an Expy Gender Flip of Derek Joshua Croft
 * A replacement for Asuka Langley Soryu  What if she was designed to Steal Asuka’s “spotlight”, as it were ? The But Not Too Foreign child prodigy Fiery Redheaded Tsundere with the Ace Custom Eva who showed up late seemed like she could pass for a Sue in her first few episodes, and we know what happened to her.
 * The Kid From the Future... ...or past. Something like that. Considering how too many Eva fanfics have done this, and how Rebuild seems to be pretty fanficcy, this becomes downright plausible. Bonus points if she pulls out Misato's cross that Shinji got from Eo E and announces Everything that has happened before.... Even more bonus points if they redo that official artwork which had Shinji and Asuka look at the giant Rei head to have her in it.
 * This could explain why she also has an obsolete SDAT player...she got it from her father,Shinji,when she was/willbe younger.
 * An antagonist. Her Evajack of Unit-02 actually foreshadowed her true identity as an Angel. (The person who Evajacked Unit-02 in the original series? Kaworu.) After the other Angels are defeated, she'll probably whack Kaworu from behind with a large heavy object and subvert our expectations by taking his place as the final Angel. Bonus points if her and Rei have a mid-air battle outside their Evangelions. Note that this doesn't preclude any of the above, and she might prove to be a Well Intentioned Extremist or Necessarily Evil.
 * Or possibly a human antagonist. We haven't seen much of her outside of combat, It's possible that outside of the cockpit she's an Ax Crazy Psycho for Hire or some other kind of bad person, possibly working directly for Seele. Maybe in this continuity she's the one who kills Kajji.

Applying Fridge Logic, what is FINAL?
The Meaningful Name/Idiosyncratic Episode Naming of the movies holds the fact that each of the movies are part of a three-part stage act...but that doesn't make sense: where does FINAL fit in?

If we assume that Rebuild is an Alternate Timeline, then FINAL is...what? The original series? After Death?

If we assume Rebuild is not an Alternate Timeline, then FINAL is...AfterTheEnd? If After the End equates to after EoE, then the theory that Rebuild is an Alternate Timeline is false, since Rebuild is assumed to be a...huh?

The entire continuity is a Peggy Sue orchestrated by Kaworu.
Someone needed to say it. His "this time" line is definitely suspicious, as is his. The fact that he referred to Gendo (apparently) as "father" (which I took as referring to ) is a slightly more subtle reference.

Mari is a clone of Kyoko Zeppelin Shikinami.
...Okay, apart from eye color and her ability to sync so well with Unit-02, I got nothing supporting this.
 * Well, considering Rei's red eyes and blue hair =/= Yui's brown eyes and brown hair, why the hell not? This has some standing.
 * I know WMG's are supposed to be wild, but:
 * If the whole "mother's soul" dynamic still holds in Rebuild for Evas aside from Unit-01 (because Yui was confirmed in 2.0 to be in there), then Asuka wouldn't have been able to sync up with Unit-03, unless Unit-02's core was transferred into 03 before the ordeal. But if that's the case, then Unit-02 wouldn't have a core by the time of the Zeruel battle (Unit-03's torso, where an Eva's core is, was completely smashed into goo by Unit-01, so it is highly improbable that 03's core survived), meaning that it could not have been piloted by anyone. So her piloting Unit-02 doesn't really suport her being a clone of Kyoko.
 * Remember the "cross-synch" tests from the TV series, too. It is possible for a pilot to synch with another's EVA, it just isn't as effective and sometimes has some weird side effects (and the dummy system wouldn't work at all if cross-synch wasn't possible). Remember that Asuka offered to test Unit 03, mostly because she was bored; the NERV folks probably didn't expect her to do much more than start it up and maybe have her walk it around a bit and prove it functioned. Once they confirmed it wouldn't explode ala Unit 04, then they'd go dragoon Toji into being a pilot (unless Asuka could somehow pilot it well enough to use it as a unit). So it isn't that odd that Asuka can synch with 03, and Mari with 02; they just aren't as effective as they would be in their "proper" units.
 * Supposing that Touji was considered to be used as a pilot is an assumption that relies entirely on the original series's canon. Ritsuko did mention there being back-ups for the pilots, but it's never mentioned that any of Shinji's classmates are viable candidates in Rebuild.
 * It's also worth remembering that "synch" is partially a function of the soul inside the EVA as well; if a soul inside an EVA doesn't like the pilot, they won't boot or odd things will happen (see 01 (aka Yui) refusing to boot via dummy plug). Given that we've also seen "cross-talk" between an EVA's soul and a pilot's, it's reasonable to assume they can stay informed of a situation via the surface thoughts of a pilot. So, when Mari hops in to Unit 02, Kyoko realizes a) Asuka is injured and can't fight and b) NERV HQ, and thus her injured daughter, is in imminent danger. It isn't out there at all to think that 02's thought process is then "my daughter must be protected, very well stranger, we will fight together this one time." So Mari doesn't need to be a "Kyoko clone" to synch with Unit 02, 02 just needs to have a good reason to listen to a stranger - which she had.
 * Wouldn't that be Kyoko Zeppelin Shikinami (unless Asuka adopted the name later)?
 * Oops. My bad.
 * Yui's eyes are green. Like those of Eva-01. OH SNAP!
 * Remember that EVA-02 was the first Combat Deployment-type Evangelion built. First. Indicating that more would be made. EVA-03 was probably another Combat Deployment-type. And besides, if it's meant to be launched in emergency situations, having the soul-synch-thing in EVA-02 and EVA-03 would be one huge handicap, as it would mean only one person would be able to properly pilot them. So it is quite possible that EVA-02 and EVA-03 don't even have souls in Rebuild.

Asuka originally had the last name Soryu, she just changed it to distance herself from her mother
Which makes sense if her backstory from the series is present.

Anyone else here seen Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Kai?
They're all trapped in an endless time loop that doesn't stop until fate is put right. Or rather, until the character conscious of the time loop gets out alive and the Big Bad is stopped. The Big Bads are anyone working towards Instrumentality and the conscious character is Kaworu. Once he figures out that he really can Screw Destiny by not dying, things will be put right and everyone can go play club games. Or not.
 * If that's so is kawaru bernkastle?

Contact Experiments are not required for Evas.
During the scene in the first film, there's a whole bunch of little red lights floating around. As we saw in End of Evangelion, that little red light is a soul, thus it's not neccisary for someone to get munched to get a soul into an Eva: They just need to pop on down to Level EEE and pick up a random soul and shove it into an Eva. Ergo, Yui may have died another way, and Kyoko may well be still alive.
 * But if we apply the "soul needed to synch" rule, then putting a random soul into an Eva instead of the soul of someone to whom the pilot is strongly connected to in some way doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Using a total stranger's soul would actaully be an obstacle to effective synching, IMHO. Personally, i think those litle red dots are just particles from the LCL flowing out of Lilith (i don't think this needs to be spoilered anymore). You know, sort of like with a waterfall.

Asuka will resist her mind rape this time and kick ass.
We had EVA 01 Rocket punches and eye lasers, this will just be the next step of awesome. Or maybe I am just optimistic.
 * Trick is, though, there are guesses below (based on hints in the movie, no less) that her mind rape already happened when she was inside Bardiel/Unit 03; we just weren't privy to how it went down in Rebuild 2 so we could focus on Bardiel getting ripped apart for maximum hand-over-mouth horror.

Mari is a clone of Ninamori with the same taste in glasses.
Just look at those color
 * More than likely Mari is a Expy of Ninamori. Like how all of Studio Gainiax's main characters Post-Evangelion are Shinji with a differenet upbringing.

The "mother soul" rule only applies in full to Eva Units 00 and 01.
As Asuka said, Unit-02 is the first Eva made specifically for combat. It's problematic if the Humongous Mecha syncs only with one person--what are they to do if said sole pilot is injured? In this way, both Unit-00 and 01 could be considered "flawed". Especially 00, since it is the prototype. 02 is an upgrade; the same goes for 03. The "mother soul" probably makes it easier to sync, but the upgrade renders it no longer necessary--hence why Asuka could sync with 03, and Mari with 02.

Final will have a battle against ADAM.
Think about it. As of 2.0, we have exactly three Angels left: Arael, Armisael, and Tabris. Unless Final simply deals with Instrumentality and The End of the World As We Know It (which has not only been done before but also seems to be a far cry from where the series is going), there is hardly enough material to make two more movies. Also, it would be f___ing awesome to say the least.

Mari is Evangelion Unit-07
Mari is able to Pilot Unit-02 when It's core had been removed. How did she do this? The answer is that Mari herself is an Evangelion, one that was made at human size. An apparently weird supposition, if not for that fact it was the plot to one of the spinoff games.
 * The entire point of the silo scene was to imply that everything is being taken out of storage, though. Presumably Unit 02 had its core reinserted quick-smart once Mari (and/or whoever is helping her) authorized Unit 02's removal from cryostasis.
 * A Diebuster reference, I see.

The pilots are the .
Quoth the preview for 3.0: "The reunion of children whose destinies were determined by fate." The corresponding image shows four shadows. These are likely Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Mari. This is the reason why they can sync with the Evas and do spiffy things such as those shown in the "GIVE AYANAMI BACK" scene.
 * But then, that brings the question: What's up with Rei, and why is she so different from the other three?
 * She's Lilith like she was in the original.
 * actually, I disagree. I think the fourth ADAM was, in fact, Kaworu. Think about it, he's a pretty important character from the TV series as well as some other continuities, so it would only make sense for him to be one of the ADA Ms. Not to mention, he gets his day in the limelight in Rebuild too.
 * The picture above is from 2.0.

Asuka, after the incident with the EVA-03, learned about the past timeline of Evangelion.
During the infection, the song Les Betes of Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 has the chorus of Halelujah, the same one that had been sung during Asuka's Mind Rape in the original series. Ritsuko mentioned that the Angel Bardiel had probably polluted Asuka's mind... but could it also mean that the angel let her know what happened before the first Third Impact?
 * Using an old theory as a reference, the Reis that had appeared throughout the course of the series were suspected to be the ghosts of Rei-Lilith that she had sent to gather the souls of humanity, and that she even managed to go through the past... and perhaps even the future. If Lilith is the most powerful being in all creation, with the power to bend time and space, then does it mean that the world of Rebuild, and the things that have been happening, are the result of her actions? And are her angels influenced by her, now wanting to turn Bardiel and Asuka into her literal messengers?
 * After Bardiel chokes EVA-01, he grows another pair of arms... and they have the same colour as Asuka's plugsuit, with her forearms with a normal skin colour. Bardiel wasn't the only one that wanted to end Shinji. He let Asuka know about what had happened, prior to pressing the reset button.
 * She probably knew that Shinji masturbated in front of her, that he left her to die, that he let the world end, and that in the end, he tried to kill her by choking her... but he was too much of a coward to even finish the act.
 * As a result, she wanted vengeance. She wanted retribution. After going through the same Mind Rape, and knowing not only about her past, but about her potential future, she wanted to kill him for what he had done to her. After she wanted love from him, and knowing he was the reason she had lost, she felt rage.
 * And then, for a little cherry on top of the Nightmare Fuel sundae? Since she's in Unit 03, she gets to feel like she's been strangled to death anyway. Remember, she was (probably) synched to 03 and/or Bardiel while it was being choked and ripped apart (and "her" arms were the ones that kept trying to fight the longest), so...
 * I like it. The only thing I see wrong is that Unit-03's second set of arms are obviously male, with a thickened, heavier lower arm and hair on the top. However, it's not unlikely that the arms are a combined thing - the rage of Asuka, the strength of Bardiel, given form in Unit-03's attack.
 * The eyepatch at the trailer of Rebuild 3.0. It is the same eye Asuka had gotten injured in her last stand during End of Evangelion. Her damage post-battle is far too specific to be a coincidence.
 * The smile at the trailer of Rebuild 3.0, what does it mean? Does it mean that Asuka manages to overcome these problems, and comes out as an even stronger person, or is it a facade to avoid showing weakness, the thing she has always tried to do? Or... is it a "I'm going to murder all you motherfuckers" kind of smile? The rest of her facial expression, after all...
 * There's also the fact that what we see of her experience in Unit 03 looks and sounds a hell of a lot like Shinji's experience in the "River of Souls" in EoE, giggling and all. The imagery can't just be coincidence; longtime fans are supposed to see the similarities.
 * As an aside, the last we see of Asuka's face in 2.0? She looks horrified, but she's "horrified" looking right into the blue glow that seems to represent Bardiel's consciousness. Is she just freaked out at something weird happening... or was that the moment at which she began to see? Symbolically, at least, Bardiel's "cross of feathers" were fully reflected in, and even dominating, her eyes... before her face got eaten by the blue staple stuff, anyway.
 * As a final note, the doll and the changing of her last name was most likely deliberate. I get the feeling they will be Chekov's Guns for the last movies... Could they be hints to the demented theory that, indeed, she IS a different Asuka, or a reincarnation of her from the past events, now linked to Rei Ayanami and to Mari Illustrious Makinami? (“children whose destinies were determined by fate.”)
 * And what about the FUCKING REI GHOST APPEARING WHEN ASUKA IS BEING MIND RAPED?!?!
 * Hm... I'll get back to you on that one. The only idea I have about that one is the "Lilith during Third Impact in Eo E sending Reis to the past and the future" theory. -D 21 Jaydee
 * As a pure total aside, for the record... what the hell is up with the staples. Seriously. Augh.
 * As far as the Hallelujah chorus goes, this troper doesn't really hear it. The pitch and syllabic quality of the vocal in Les Betes are similar to a couple of bits here and there in the Hallelujah recording used in episode 23 of NGE (found on the Evangelion: Addition CD), but other similarity is not heard by this one. So, some sort of connection or reference to Asuka's Mind Rape? Sure. But this troper doesn't think "has the chorus of Halelujah" is a proper way to put it.

Asuka, Mari and Kaworu will form an another Power Trio
The preview seems to imply that Rei and Shinji are out cold for a while in the next movie. So, Nerv is forced to assemble another team of three children, which´ll include Kaworu, Mari and (because they haven´t an alternative) Asuka. And this is the reason, why Asuka´s character was toned down! Because in the old team she represented the Id, but now Mari fulfills this position (ZA BEASTO everyone?). So the roles in the new team will be like this:

Ego = Asuka Superego = Kaworu Id = Mari

The question now is: How will this turn out? (And will it be awesome?)

Shinji and Rei have been permanently fused into one being.
Shinji doesn't appear at all in the 3.0 preview. Not even for a split second. He and Rei have gone through a small-scale Instrumentality, and neither has the will to break from it. The combined soul will be restored into one of the empty Rei bodies, much of the time not spent fighting Angels will be spent attempting to seperate the two of them.

Shinji and Rei are trapped in Unit-01 permanently.
They spend the whole third movie impaled outside the Geofront; at the climax (either vs. Kaworu or vs. Unit-08, depending on what Unit-08's "quickening" actually is), they'll be released as a last-ditch attempt to save everything. Rei, Shinji and Yui will have a long talk, and then they will proceed to kick everything's ass. Alternatively, they aren't released until the fourth movie and they fight Adam or Lillith or something.
 * There will be a touching moment where Yui calls Rei her daughter. Followed by Eva-01 rebirthing them as twins. It will also answer the "who was in Unit-00" question
 * This may well have some teeth, given that Dream-Rei in 1.0 explicitly brings up the idea that a "Rei Ikari" could've existed if one chromosome had been different. And of course, given the series' predilection for Theme Naming, "Rei Ikari" has some interesting undertones...

The blue version of Unit-00 will show up next movie
Rei will spontaneously form it nowhere, now as a Lillth-based EVA like 01 rather than an Adam based Eva...assuming how the Evas were created from the series is still present in the movie. And she will kick ass. Waaagh!.
 * Similarly, Unit-04 will show up from nowhere. Mari will probably pilot it.
 * Unit-04 was destroyed along with Nerv's Nevada Branch when it was activated. Mari could be the pilot of Unit-08, or 07 if there is such an Eva.

In the end, Everyone Lives
Yes, the perfect subversion to the expected Mind Screw Downer Ending would be an unambiguous happy ending. Misato, Kaji, Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and much to his own surprise Kaworu will look out as the sun rises upon a deep blue sea. Shinji will briefly see the bookend Rei who smiles and vanishes (or turns into Mari and vanishes), thus providing a Happy End of Evangelion.

Oh, and Ritsuko and Maya get together.

During the Final Battle the Tone Compleatly Shifts To Old School Super Robot
All the Pilots will be Hotblooded, and everyone will scream out the names of their attacks, as the Eva's suddenly gain weapons and powers we've never seen before. This will be due to the Spiraling power of their couragious hearts or something.
 * And then Gendo joins Master Asia style and start owning Angels on foot,or alternately...
 * SUPER COMBINING EVANGELION.
 * JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?

The SDAT player that switches to Track 27 in Rebuild is actually Mari's SDAT
She swapped them with Shinji after running into him. That's why he seems surprised when it changes to Track 27- his only had 26.

After get infected by Bardiel, Asuka will return as a Newtype in 3.0
Probably during the Angel Infection to the Unit 03 and it's pilot, Asuka could have been affected by the energy of Bardiel's S2 engine making her a Newtype (according with some WMG, the S2 engine could be related to the Spiral Energy wich is the power of evolution and by Word of God the Newtypes are the next step of human evolution). Then in 3.0 she will appear with her new EVA (a reconstructed/regenerated/repaired Unit 02 or the Unit 08 or maybe the not revealed yet Unit 07) with it's own Fin Funnels and then she will be fighting against Kaworu à la Char v.s. Amuro in Char's Counterattack in front of Lilith and then she will be owning him while yelling "Fin Funnel!!!!!". Don't deny it, it will be AWESOME!.
 * Newtypes are NOT the next step in evolution...per Word of God.
 * Is she gonna be three times faster ?

Cores will be switched around
Yui's core will be transferred to Unit-08, while Zeruel's core (containing Rei) will remain in Unit-01. The remnants of the soul in Unit-00's core is transferred into Unit-07, giving no useful information as to who it is, and introducing even more questions. Things become unbelievably more awkward for Shinji.
 * Unit-00's core is now obviously Rei-I. Since Zeruel ate Unit-00 core and all. Rei is now complete.

Third Angel Speculation
Notice how Sachiel is now the 4th angel instead of the 3rd? That brings to question, who is this missing third angel that came after Adam and Lilith? I don't know, but my bet's on the evil guy downstairs....
 * The Third Angel showed up in the opening scenes of Rebuild 2.0; NERV had managed to capture it before it activated. Mari then kills it.
 * Oh crap right. Dammit.

Mari will have some kind of psychological problems.
Self Explanitory, really. This is E V A after all. She's a Blood Knight, implying psychopathy or psychosis, possibly a detatchment from reality. She is rather nonchalant about the whole Eldritch Abomination mecha thing, which means that she might see everything as a game, pointing to the psychosis mentioned earlier. In classic EVA style, things will go horribly, horribly, wrong.

Shinji doesn't need mommy anymore.
In the series, Shinji often "won" battles by the skin of his teeth by Unit 01 going berserk. As we know, this is actually Yui doing the fighting. In the movies, however, this has only ever happened once - admittedly, it doesn't have a chance to, but one of the more significant berserk episodes is indeed the battle with Zeruel. This time around, Shinji was in full control. This could mean that Shinji, in addition to involving himself in the world by trying to rescue Rei, is taking control of his life.

His entire life at this point pretty much revolves around Unit 01, and in turn shows his dependence on his mother. Besides that, he shuts out everything else. One of the main features of Shinji's character is that he doesn't involve himself in the world due to his feelings of worthlessness. Then he becomes the pilot of a giant robot and saves the world - big, big change. Shinji then leaves NERV temporarily after the Unit 03 incident, but comes running back to fight Zeruel, even outright declaring that he is the pilot of Unit 01, embracing his role in the world, and then fighting for something he truly cares about... not the fate of the world, but for someone he holds dear, Rei Ayanami. Pretty big step forward from "waaah I'm worthless and only hurt others - fuck the world, fuck me." Even if his rescue of Rei triggers Third Impact, this is a show of personal growth.

Now, the fact that he was in full control of Unit 01 - his "life", so to speak - during this fight hammers in the idea. He didn't need Yui to help him - or, alternatively, didn't rely on her as much, depending on how you connect Unit 01 itself to her, as well as its powers (which, it should be noted, never showed up when Unit 01 berserked in the movies or in the series... only when Shinji took over).

So yeah, Shinji is still saying "fuck the world", but he cares about something (Rei), and is willing to put himself forward and involve himself in life.

Everything is still going to go to hell.
2.0 ends on a pretty optimistic note (Kaworu not withstanding), but everyone is forgetting an important fact: There are two more movies after this. Proportionally, we're approaching the halfway mark. In Eva Classic, when we were approaching the halfway mark, we were doing a funny awkward love comedy thing, and we were trashing guys like Israfel and Sandalphon and Matariel like they weren't actually a serious threat to all human life. Sounds an awful lot like what 2.0 was about.

More than that perhaps is the fact that after all of that moe moe, things went down in flames. . But. It's almost like we experienced the remade version of the part of Evangelion with Asuka in a bathtub, Rei is a clone now, and we made it out this time, like we can take whatever they throw at us now, we're ready for ya.

But. In Evangelion, there were three angels who came after Zeruel: Arael (destroyed Asuka), Armisael (destroyed Rei), and Tabris (destroyed Shinji). We've still got lots of time for Asuka to be crippled emotionally and for Rei to plummet into the uncanny valley. We can fit all of that into one movie and have another one left over to do End of Evangelion, in which Evangelion went to hell and then kept digging and dug some kind of new double hell. My point is that if we go by an approximation of the original timeline, we've hit the high point in the series for positive emotion, and there's a whole lotta negative left over.

To wit:

Asuka is still gonna end up in the bathtub.
Asuka Langley Shikinami is subtly but dramatically different from Asuka Langley Soryu. Sometimes, this seems like change for the better. Instead of whoring for her class's attention, she's cagey and plays DS. She doesn't have her awkward Lolita thing for Kaji anymore, and her attraction to Shinji now seems like a genuine crush and less a bizarre sexual attention thing. And in the end, she can speak of Shinji and Rei as if they're really her friends, overcoming the inability to connect with people that crippled her in the original series. Oh, and she has no problem at all with dolls anymore.

Ah. Wait right there.

It's a fair assumption that it's "Shikinami" now because her mother is not Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu. Well that's great; maybe Shikinami-san didn't hang herself and string up a doll as her daughter's surrogate. Well, Asuka's fine with Raggedy Asuka, so that seems like the case. She doesn't call Rei "doll", after all. She calls her "pet". Oh.

Asuka befriending Rei and Shinji, even if it lasts, isn't the end of her character arc by a long shot. And, if I may speculate, I don't think Asuka and Mari are going to get along one little bit.
 * Actually, she does refer to Rei as a doll in one scene. But ONLY during that scene.

The final movie will be exactly the same as End of Evangelion.
We all hope for a better ending, with hot blood and manly tears. We're all expecting a worse ending, a dreadfulness to top even the inexorable miasma of EoE. So, since we're ready for all that, what's the only way left for Gainax to troll us? Make End of Evangelion again. Blood will run in the streets.
 * And at last, Anno's plan to usurp Kubo as "King of the Trolls" will be complete.

The final movie will be episodes 25 and 26.
In the streets.
 * So...End Of Evangelion?
 * The other episodes 25 and 26, I think. From the TV series.

The final battle will feature Shinji unleashing the Wings of Light with EVA-01
Because it was in the opening animation and Hell, it's about time. The final level of Evangelion 64 has him do this, too.

The third Rebuild movie will be called You Will (Not) Understand.
After You Are (Not) Alone and You Can (Not) Advance, and given NGE's reputation, would anything else be more appropriate?
 * And FINAL will be "You Must (Not) Run Away". Because, Why not?
 * Jossed. It's You Can (Not) Redo.

Stemming from that, Final will be an original story where the world is undoubtedly saved, and Eva will finally have an undoubtably happy ending.
Because after all that mindfuck over the years, the World of Eva needs a happy ending.
 * To build on that,look at the title "rebuild" as to fix something that has gone wrong.

It's all a Dying Dream
You know the drill, it's all Shinji hallucinatiing about a happier universe in which neither Rei, Toji or Asuka die; in which his father shows at least a little respect/love, in which he actually acts the way the pilot of a towering rage-powered war machine should act...

Rei will end up naked in the Eva-01's cockpit, during a battle in which Shinji will kick all sorts of Angel ass
Because if it works for Gainax's OTHER starting-wimp pilot...
 * Well, I guess she's already in there...and she's already naked...and the trailer implied they'd be stuck in there for a while...yeah, this could actually happen.

Mari is Shinji's clone
Look closely to her face when she lose her glasses in the parachute's scene. Here, between the times 0:17 and 0:21. And yes, they swap their SDAT players.

A fifth pilot will show up in Final or Quickening
Along with the original trio and Mari, it'll make a Five Man Band.
 * Well Kaworu is technically a pilot, so yeah.

Unit 01 will become a Mark-class Evangelion in 3.0
After the whole "Almost cause the End of the World" fiasco, it is likely that those pesky locks they put on an Eva's true power will be gone from Unit 01, making it a True Evangelion. The court is out on whether this upgrade will include it going from purple to blue, and the shoulder fins being replaced with energy vents.

Shinji remembers the events of the original show, and is insane and in denial because of it
He's convinced that this time he can save everyone, since he knows what is supposed to happen. Unfortunately for him, things are different this time around, which he finds infuriating. Thus why Shinji goes batshit on NERV HQ when Asuka apperantly dies, and when Rei is consumed Shinji decides he doesn't care about this timeline anymore, so he decides to initiate the Third Impact himself and try again. This probably isn't the first time he Rage Quit on the world either, odds are everytime things don't go his way he hits the Reset Button. Kaworu shows up to stop Shnji because all these resets are somehow negatively affecting the universe.

Why Kaji can't speak English
I think someone pulled a horrible prank on Kaji's voice actor. Right before that scene, somebody told him that Hideaki Anno wanted him to speak with a Russian accent but speaking English words - because they're ambiguously in Russia. It was so hilarious that they left it in

The ending of the final movie will reveal that not only Rebuild, but also the original Evangelion was all a hallucination of Jowee
. I mean, there is a character called MARI for pete's sake!

Mari is actually a rogue Angel
Admittedly I'm just kind of pulling this out of thin air, but with her personality in mind I was thinking about it. She's got no real emotional issues similar to how Kaworu has no real emotional issues and she is a total Blood Knight. My bet is that Kaworu hasn't killed her yet (I don't know why but I can see him doing this and still being IC) because he wants to make Shinji happy and that means that having someone around who's far more eager to take out Angels lifts a little of the burden off of his shoulders. As soon as Kaworu thinks that she isn't working to the benefit of Shinji's happiness, there's going to be a massive fight between the two in an EVA vs EVA clash.

Gendo knew what would happen to Unit 03. He put Asuka there deliberately.
He either remembers some of the events of the previous universes or the prophecies he is aware of are very specific. Either way, he had some idea what would happen to Unit 03. And since his plans rely on Shinji becoming closer to Rei, and Asuka could easily get in the way of that, it was as good a time as any to remove her from the equation.
 * Just after posting this, I remembered that Asuka volunteered to take Rei's place in the test. There could still be sinister goings-on going on though. Gendo assigned Rei, knowing that by putting her in danger, he could provoke Shinji into action (as had happened before against Ramiel). When Asuka stepped into her place, his plans were briefly disrupted and he decided to nip the problem in the bud by leaving the Dummy Plug active long after the threat had been neutralized, hoping to kill Asuka while leaving his hands clean.

Rei STILL is
Crazy, I know, right? But while there's some speculation to the contrary, Evangelion 1.0 ports one of the very first clues about this from the end of the series to it's very beginning. This seems to be a subtle clue from Anno, that this particular important detail remains true in Rebuild, despite appearances to the contrary.

And that's not even mentioning how in 2.0, Gendo outright.
 * Is there seriously someone who thinks Rei isn't?
 * I've heard some interpret this to be the case based on the implied Rei/Shinji shipping from the movies.
 * I'd expect such delusional thinking from shippers. I'm calling it. Frakking Jossed by goddamn precedent. Plus, who in the hell would she be a clone of otherwise? Just some random OTHER woman who happens to look exactly like Yui?
 * *sigh* Why does every discussion of Rei being a clone of Yui turn into shipping? It's unavoidable; either way she and Shinji will be torn apart by the irreversible hand of fate. That's the whole basis of her character being a clone.
 * Than again, considering that this movie series is a Reconstruction of the source material, and the fact that the Ship Tease is almost blatantly rampant, especially in 2.0, anything goes. Even if she remains as a clone of Yui, that doesn't necessarily mean that they both won't end up together. After all, Shinji says "There's no Ayanami like you." Again though, this is all a WMG so I could be wrong (the shipper in me hopes that I'm right), but who knows.

Kaworu intends to cause the third impact himself at some point
If him saying "This time I'll make you happy" when talking about Shinji and assuming he somehow knows how the events of the origional series played out are anything to go by. His lack of understanding with regards to humans means that when he sees how utterly broken having to kill the one person who showed him some love left Shinji he assumed it was because he had made the wrong decision. So now he intends to cause the third impact himself and do what he thinks will make S Hinji happy. Plus it fits with his real name "Tabris" the angel of free will, he has the choice to either prevent the third impact or cause it, and this time he intends to make it happen.

Unit 06 is a regenerated Adam.
Kaworu was originally Adam's soul. This time around, however, he got himself a spanking new body.

Shinji is the reincarnation of James Strang, and will continue to re-incarnate until he can create a mormon kingdom on Beaver Island, Michigan
The ending of the first rebuild movie talked about how the phase of the Dead Sea Scrolls is over (a reference to the tv series) and now it is time for the book of law. The Book of Law could the Book of the Law of the Lord better known as Book of the Law. James Strang had 5 wives while Shinji has 5 love interest (Asuka, Rei, Misato, Mari, and Kaworu). James Strang failed to create the mormon Kingdom that the Book of the law prophesized so clearly it's now up to Shinji to convert Nerv to the the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) and move them all to Beaver Island, Michigan and take over.

Mari Makinami is really from the First Ancestral Race.
She's on Earth to check up on things,because they are just plain less neglectful than other Precursors.

Shinji will get a new Eva.
As long as he's using Unit-01, he's still relying on his mother. In order to complete his growth into an adult, he'll have to leave Unit-01 behind, and get a new Eva.
 * Alternatively, Yui's soul is purged from Unit-01 and Shinji takes over completely, achieving 400% sync whenever he pilots and resubstantiating at will when the fight is done.
 * So Shinji's assuming direct controll?

Shinji has ascended to become a Champion of Khorne.
Consider: Before counterattacking, the EVA spews out a ridiculous quantity of blood, which could only attract the Blood God's attention. He granted Shinji the rage needed to get Rei back, demanding more blood to fuel it, which was given when Shinji entered the field, stripping his arms and face of skin.

Khorne, like fanboys, believes the pilot of a Humongous Mecha should not be a cowardly little wimp, and certainly not one devoted to Slaanesh. More than happy to correct this glaring error in the universe and steal a worshipper from his hated opposite, he will ensure that Shinji continues to be the terrifying asskicker he should be.

Unit 06 is the prototype or test type for the MP Evas
Based solely on SEELE referring to it as the first true EVA.

Shinji will learn that Rei is a clone of his mother.... and stay with her anyway
The boy damned near killed the planet to save her life. After what he's been through (and what's likely to come), finding out that "oh, BTW, your love interest is your sort-of-half-sister" seems a relatively trivial thing. To be sure, there will probably be a stretch of time where he's shocked and confused, but he will get past it (in what will probably be another Crowning Moment of Heartwarming).

The third movie will be A Day in The Limelight for Mari.
With Shinji and Rei trapped in Unit-01 and Asuka heavily injured and potentially insane, Mari and Kaworu are the only pilots in any shape to actually be doing things. Mari didn't get much development in 2.0 due to the other characters getting focus, but now they're out of the picture. (This may be very obvious to everybody else, but it only occured to me today.)

Leliel will appear in the third movie.
While this would mess up the order of Angels, it would make sense. Since Leliel is the Dirac Sea, and the Dirac Sea still exists (Unit-04 got pulled into it), Leliel must therefore exist, and therefore has to be fought before Kaworu. This could possibly explain some of the scenes in the trailer, like the one where Rei is wearing her AU clothes.
 * Sahaquiel from the second movie incorporates some of Leliel's design (specifically the striped sphere) in its first form. The second form uses an appearance similar to the original Sahaquiel. Therefore Leliel will either not appear (since it was merged with another angel) or will appear with a completely different design.

Mark 06 is Lilith.
The mask on Mark 06 before the construction starts is exactly the same as the mask on Lilith in the original series, with the seven eyes. The 'Lilith' in Terminal Dogma has the standard 'Angel Face' mask that is on most of the Angels. I think that the Mark 06 is made from Lilith's body, but without the soul (which is in Rei). The Dogma Lilith is a clone (much like the evangelions) that is a decoy placed there to fool anyone attempting Third Impact by Kaworu and SEELE, who want complete control over the process. Doesn't work too well when Unit 01 stands in pretty well for Lilith though...

The Lilith in Terminal Dogma is Adam.
This isn't very well thought out, I admit. However, it would make sense that like the "Adam" of NGE turned out to be Lilith, the "Lilith" of Rebuild, which has a mask similar to Adam's child, would actually be Adam (or one of the "Adams").

If Rebuild is indeed a 'sequel' to the original, then the Mark-06 is the Unit-01 from the Original Series.
(This is a little far fetched, but bear with me here)

During the last scene of 1.01/1.11, we see a Lilith lookalike on the moon, which is being converted into the Mark-06.

Now, this may not seem to be too relevant to this theory at first, but according to Anno/Gainax/The Producers, there was an unused ending for Eo E that had Unit-01 'lying on the Moon, and woman's hair flowing from its broken mask, her face remaining unseen'.

Helping this theory is the fact that:
 * Unit-01 was almost a second Lilith under the armor, if more bestial and less powerful.
 * The Lilith Lookalike has the outline of a core visible under the wraps.
 * In relation to the above, during Eo E, the core of Unit-01 becomes visible and emerges, and it stays that way for the rest of the movie. At the same time, the 'real' Lilith never has a visible core.
 * Technically, EVA-01's core becomes visible while the EVA eats Zeruel, then NERV re-covers the core, and the core is once again exposed in Eo E.

From this, it could be assumed that, if Rebuild is indeed a sequal, SEELE found the 'Original' Unit-01 on the moon, and as per it already possessing an S2 Engine, utilized it for the Mark-06, hence the 'True Evangelion' schtick. Depending on how you think, this could also 'explain' why the Mark-06 and Unit-01 have very similar armor.

Make of this what you will.

(Still a farfetched theory, but one that does make some sense.)
 * Given that growing an entire, functioning Eva in a dry vacuum is nonsensical even with copious amounts of Rule of Cool, stripping the original 01 of its petrified armor and refitting it with the Mark-06's would actually be Awesome Yet Practical on SEELE's part. The biggest evidence for this theory, however, is that the 06's head casing has battle damage corresponding to the fight with Sachiel. Being made to evoke Lilith, fitted in armor with the Eva-01's silhouette, having a noticeable core from the start, and sharing the same scars all point to it being the 01. It would even be the movie's namesake- the rebuild of Evangelion.
 * The Mark-06's spear functioned just like the Lance of Longinus, shutting down the Eva-01. There is a good chance it is also the original disguised under a new look, since they would have found them together.
 * Now revealed in the Comiket trailer for Q, the Asuka sporting an eye patch is likely Asuka Langley from End of Evangelion identifiable by her plug suit's design and damage. The scars and set pieces carry over one way or another.
 * Oh Crap! That's right. Only her original Plug Suit has been fixed with a healthy dose of duct-tape.

Mari and Kaworu will have to fight each other in their respective Evas.
Whether or not you believe that Mari is an Angel, Kaworu definitely is. Mari is going to find this out and, due to her hotblooded nature, get her ass kicked. This'll put Shinji in a tough spot - avenge Mari and kill Kaworu (who's still his friend), or don't avenge Mari and hesitate to kill Kaworu.

The Rebuild Movies take place in a Potential "New World" for Shinji
The movies take place during EOE, when Shinji is basically God and trying to decide what to do with Instrumentality. While experiencing the "new" universe, Shinji has no recollection of the old one(s). But Kaworu does. He's there to guide Shinji to a happier universe, so he'll try to change things in Shinji's favor and help him.

This is EVA however, so it's all gonna end up even worse.

Rei's feelings are at least partially maternal
In the Rebuild movies, especially 2.0, there have been many hints for romanctic feelings between Shinji and Rei. Hell, Asuka even says that. My guess is that at least part of these feelings from Rei's side are maternal, due to her. She still has romantic feelings, only they're competeting with the maternal ones.

The revalation of this will cause some angsting in the next two movies.

Rebuild will go the way of EOE
There's news going around that Anno is depressed again. If this is true, well, we're in for a ride....
 * OH PLEASE LET THIS BE FALSE! I DON'T WANT ANOTHER END OF EVANGELION!!

By "father" Kaworu was referring to Fuyutsuki
He's the product of an affair with Yui, and is an angel due to...reasons.
 * How 'bout this: Yui is the daughter of one of SEELE's members, right? Mabye she went to Dad for help with her illegitimate child and he promised to "take care of it"...by which he meant "splice its DNA with that of an Angel."

Asuka is an Angel.
Probably,but not certainly, the Last Angel.
 * In which case Asuka Langley Soryu, possessing Shikinami, looks to be the angel. All her familiar battle damage in the trailer is in the same spots of the angel infection display. The real question is when her plug suit itself changes. The preview shot in the BD and DVD releases show her wearing her current plug suit while the trailer shows her with her original.

All of the civilians are dead.

 * 10th Angel+Nuclear blast=No more Tokyo 3.
 * The height of the Geofront is about a kilometer.
 * The shockfront from that bomb traversed the distance in 1 second.
 * This indicates a yield of about two hundred fifty hundred kilotons.
 * The blast pressure and associated winds at that range would damage even most "hardened" structures, and direct overpressure (and temperature)is enough to directly kill any human not in an air tight structure.
 * The shelter Shinji was in was fine. Eva structures are obviously stronger than real structures, and Tokyo-3's armor and absorbers are impressive, since even Ramiel preferred to drill into Tokyo-3 instead of trying to burn through.

The Adams are Ultramen

 * Explanation see here

About the updated trailer for 3.0
Asuka's spoiler:space/aerial battle is against Arael. But instead of the original's Mind Rape sequence, this time she'll take the fight to the Angel, showing her character development this time around through shrugging of the Hallelujah-Beam's effects.

Kaworu lives and...

 * Joins Shinji/Asuka as the One True Threesome. Think about it. If the ending mimics Eo E, Rei will still perform Instrumentality, and at the End of Eo E, only Asuka/Shinji are left. But, Instrumentality gets screwed up by Mari, who is ultimately sacrificed within Unit-01 as an "eternal testament to the existence of Mankind". Rei will still be watching over U-01, but, due to Mari's intereference, most of humanity remain, and Kaworu really does get to make Shinji happy. Because, why not?

Mari will somehow give birth horribly
Okay. Mari. Mary. Rebuild. New Testament. ?????. Profit.


 * Bonus points if, by means of Timey Wimey Ball or somesuch, it turns out that ''she's actually Shinji's mom, that Shinji was sent into the past as a baby to save the world as we know it, and Shinji performs a Heroic Sacrifice to avert the End before Rei/Lilith resurrects him three days later and Shinji later becomes one with Rei and/or Mari after saving the world, eventually becoming his own father and then sending himself back in time as a baby for the sake of a Stable Time Loop. Hey, it's possible, given the series.

Kaworu will actually attempt to make Shinji happy.
And not in a weird apocalyptic way or anything. He'll just go around doing nice things for Shinji because he wants a better ending.

Mari is this universe's version of Mana Kirishima
From what this troper is aware of, Mari acts somewhat similar to Mana outside of an Eva, or at least somewhat similar to some of her fanfic portrayals. Since I don't believe Mana ever actually fought in Girlfriend of Steel, she could have been a Blood Knight and we just not known it. You know, All There in the Manual-type stuff, only without the Manual.

FINAL / EOE
This is similar to some of the above WMG that 3.0 will finish the rest of the Angels and FINAL will be the same as/similar to EOE. However, I don't believe that to be the case. So far, given the first two movies, the last Angel battle in the film deviates wildly from the original, moreso than the others. This tells me that the last Angel battle in 3.0, likely Kaworu/Tabris, will also be very different. As a result, either Kaworu and Shinji will become friends and Shinji will Take a Third Option, possibly by destroying the Lilith entity so that there's nothing handy for Kaworu to merge with. However, Kaworu's plan to "make Shinji happy this time" might involve a Zero Approval Gambit on his end, so that Shinji will still kill him, but because there was no friendship, it will not be a source of angst.

Then, SEELE becomes the Big Bad of FINAL, and despite Shinji's, Asuka's, and Rei's best efforts, everything still starts going to hell a la The End of Evangelion... and at the last minute, Mari Illustrious Makinami Bright Slaps all three of them before going on to perform some sort of Heroic Sacrifice worthy of Kittan himself, weakening the MP Evas/Unit-06/whatever-the-hell-SEELE's-main-anti-EVA-force-is and inspiring her friends (because given how much more sociable the big three are, it's bound to happen) to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, unleash their true potential, and give the Big Bad the biggest No Holds Barred Beatdown in recent anime history, and in the end, Everybody from the original series (except possibly Kaworu) Lives, thus compromising between both sides of the Broken Base.

Utada Hikaru will sing Cruel Angel's Thesis in one of the upcoming movies.
And it will accompany the single greatest beatdown in franchise history.

Rei's soul is now whole
This may seem like piling one WMG over another, but there is a theory that in the TV series, a fragment of Rei's soul was within Unit 00 and that part of her soul was reunited with the rest of it upon Unit 00's destruction. If this is the case in Rebuild, then Rei's soul may have become whole when Zeruel consumed both Rei and Unit 00.

Asuka was already Mindraped
. Remember how the version of The Beast featured "Hallelujah", not to mention the girlish giggling that didn't come from Asuka right before she sprouted wings and was forcibly pulled into the Entry Plug? Yeah... I'd say Q will feature this between Asuka's periods of not being filled with suicidal depression about it. This Time, this troper suspects Mari will be mindraped (Shinji's in the hospital, presumably Rei is too, and, well, Kaworu's an Angel...why would he suffer the effects of Mind Rape?).

Rebuild is on Post-Scratch Earth
The ocean is red from a Betty Crocker rebranding experiment.

Rei will be fully human when she get's released from Unit-01
And it will be a huge sign that Yui has her own agenda different from Gendo's.

Rei looking like Yui, and trying to get her and Shinji romantically involved was Yui's idea.
Turn's you Yui was a huge fan of brother/sister incest mangas.
 * Can't imagine how much fun she had with Fire Emblem 4, then.

The final Angel won't be Kaworu, but Shinji.
And after Mangsting about it for a while, he'll unleash all holy hell on all those who would see the end of his new, adopted race.

Theories on what future angels may look like.

 * Arael
 * More advanced wings, and a giant needle-like body.
 * Leliel
 * A liquid blackness foaming around the "shadow", while the actual body breathes.
 * Armisael
 * A double helix like before, but more blatantly similar to DNA. The Angel Tower it spawns could get more of an appearance.

Gendo's ultimate plan this time around is to make a weather-controlling machine.
...It was a weird dream I had the other night, but considering this is Evangelion, I'm not counting anything out.

This time around we'll get to see the Evas go head-to-head with the ADAMS themselves
Because it would be awesome and not fighting ADAM in the original was really disappointing.

The Rebuild movies take place in the RE-TAKE multiverse
Okay, so RE-TAKE takes place in. I theorise that this is one of those worlds, except Kaworu's existance is messing with Shinji's world. The old and the new is clashing, and this is causing some rather problematic changes: the most notable is. Shinji is forced into another, far more problematic situation, where he begins to transcend the boundries of humanity and starts 3rd Impact. Kaworu has to stop this, and he does. But why does he have to stop 3rd Impact on this world?

This world holds the key to birthing the original Earth anew.

Combining the object Kaji bought Gendo in this series of movies with an EVA, and then divecrashing it into Lillith, will cause a process that will result in an Earth that is an exact replica of the original series' Earth, which will then be taken over by SEELE. The entire plan from the beginning has been to get Shinji to cause 3rd Impact, create a series of worlds with one "key world" that would allow a "master world", a replica of the first and original Earth, to come into existence. Taking advantage of the young state of this earth, the SEELE men will take the role of God and rule over the original Earth. This whole process causes a "Big Bang" effect, destroying every other smaller world, along with the rest of the universe, and creating a single galaxy in the now completely empty universe consisting of the original Milky Way galaxy,with SEELE ruling over everything.

Asuka Langley Sorryu, of the old earth, knew of their plan, and followed them to this "key world". Hence, we have Asuka Langley Sorryu in 3.0 working to cause 3rd Impact so the SEELE guys can't possibly get their hands on it.

Kaworu is no longer Tabris. Mari is.
It's already an established theory that Mari is an Angel, but everywhere on this page, people seem to be assuming that Kaworu is definitely an Angel. But this is Rebuild. All the bets are off. If Mari is playing the role of and Angel, then her actions (disguised as a human, being able to sync perfectly well with any Eva) mirror Kaworu's in the original series. Given that if this is the literal 'Rebuild' that people mainly think it is, and Kaworu really is responsible for its existence (likely, as he's the only one conscious of the change), then why would be put himself in the position of Shinji's enemy, when his goal is to 'make him happy'? So he shoved the role onto a poor unsuspecting girl, who in the old world, just lived a normal life (well, as normal as you can get in post-apocalyptic world). So the people who think Mari's existence is down to self-indulgence on the part of the writing staff are right, on a meta-level. Whether or not Mari is aware of her identity at the moment, I don't know.
 * Okay, I get that. In this scenario, then, how does Kaworu Survive Unaided in the Vacuum of Space?
 * Perhaps he added that into his blueprint for the new reality as well? I mean, who wouldn't want to abuse their power a little and just add: 'Also, I can totally breathe in space' into the small print?
 * So he gave himself a Redemption Upgrade Humanoid Abomination Monster of the Week to Silver-Age Superman?
 * Maybe he can breathe in space do still not being human. Or, for a wild guess, what about Kawuro actually being ADAM?

Touji is the pilot of Unit 08 mentioned in the 3.0 trailer

 * In further defiance of the Downer Ending philosophy of the original series, Touji will actually become a proper Eva Pilot and fight alongside the main characters, piloting Unit 08 instead of 03. Not only will this qualify him as an Ascended Extra in the Rebuild plotline, but this will culminate in Touji going against the Mass Production Eva Units on his own... and winning

In this continuity, Humanity was born of ADAM (Or equivalent thereof), and the Angels were born from Lilith (Or equivalent thereof)

 * In this continuity, 'Lilith' (Or at least the being in Terminal Dogma) is seen with an Angel mask, which carries... certain implications, whilst the Eva-Like entity on the Moon that becomes Unit-06 is seen to wear a mask similar to Lilith's from the Original Series. In addition:
 * Second Impact is shown to have turned the oceans red in this continuity, which is similar to what happened in End Of Evangelion with the mass tanging. If it was Lilith that was awakened instead of ADAM, this could be a possible explanation.
 * In Rebuild, the Angels explode into LCL when killed. Where does that seem familiar?
 * Shinji's Feats at the end of 2.0 could be explained as some kind of ADA Mite trait, possibly activated by proximity to the EVA? It could also explain how Mari was able to control the Berserk Unit-02, to some similar degree.

But, all things considered, Anno is probably just trolling us with this little details. Or is he?

Mari is The reincarnated form of the previous world's EVA-01

 * This is an alternative theory to those who suggest she's an Angel. Perhaps her ability to control (and seeming empathy towards) the EV As is a sign of the fact that she is the soul of the 01 from the previous world. That is, assuming each EVA has its own soul - not Yui, but rather the soul of the would-be Angel that became the EVA.

Kawuro is either ADAM himself or an entirely new being.
Going by the thought that Kawuro knows what's going on and isn't Tabris anymore (from an above wmg), perhaps Kawuro is actually ADAM? It'd explain his breathing in space and his appearent knowledge of what happened in NGE. Plus, ADAM was in the original - it would explain the "father" line.

If he's not ADAM himself, he could just be a human-avatar of ADAM, created and used to watch over the human world and guide things to go the way he wants them.

As for my second guess (still going on the thought that Kawuro =/= Tabris), maybe he's a separate entity entirely. Not from ADAM or Lilith, but a being sent from wherever it is ADAM and Lilith came from to watch over the Earth and make sure things don't go too bad or against some sort of plan.

Mari and Kaworu are both Tabris.
Based on this.

Plug depth affects synchro ratios
I'm not sure about the first Rebuild movie since I haven't seen it in some time, but the second movie makes a great number of references to an EVA pilot's "plug depth". What I'm thinking is: the higher the plug depth (the closer to an EVA's core the pilot is), the higher their synchro. Anyone who watched the original TV series knows a higher synchro rate means finer control over the EVA, but the greater chance of bodily harm the pilot risks should their EVA take damage. In Rebuild, a higher plug depth also grants better controls, but once more at the risk of bodily harm, on top of risking "contamination" from the EVA's core and subsequent loss of humanity. This would correspond with Mari having a high degree of control over EVA 02 when she activated its Beast Mode (her plug depth was said to be in the negative range, suggesting she might've actually been inside EVA 02's core), as well as Shinji's powerful control over EVA 01 when he snaps towards the end (plug depth of 180+).

Ritsuko and Gendo are in a relationship
Just like in the original. They show no sign, but when questioned, a piece of Ritsuko's cigarette falls down, and Symbolism is high in this series.
 * Dear God I hope not, it was at that revelation, when the entirety of the psychological problems in the series overrode this troper. Ritsuko went from one of the least problematic characters, to just as crazy as the rest.
 * Besides, the Maya-Ritsuko ship would be a neat direction to go.
 * Honestly, I'm just hoping that they make Ritsuko more sympathetic in these movies without the need for rabid debate.

The Final movie...
Will be subtitled "You Must (Not) Runaway". Search your feelings, you know it to be true.