>>3871077>And Mari being a version of Anno's wife doesn't make it fanfic.You seem to miss the point bruv. Rei isn't Rei in the Rebuilds, Asuka isn't Asuka, etc - it's all thrown aside. It's one of those times Evangelion becomes genuinely meta. There's even a shot where they get rid of "Evangelion" by literally deleting the model in blender.
So making the comparisons between two works here, in terms of lore, when the lore in the Rebuilds one is thrown out the window, is pointless.
TV Rei is Lilith, 1x immortal soul going through the human condition until she is able to return to true form. There is no soul splits, nothing, the established canon in NGE TV, EoE is hard settled considering that it was said so in ep 23, and the "glossary" books that came with EoE explain that Rei I, Rei II, Rei III have the same soul, and they are only different due to external circumstances.
Rebuild has changed that "settei". Unfortunately in a way which means that they're technically separate, or at least they're able to be split.
It's not that Rei fans aren't able to love a "different" version of Rei, as you yourself point out, other non-canon versions don't work. But Rei Q/Rebuild Rei (Including pokanami!) just doesn't live up to the heroine role Rei had originally. Rei Q represents a bludgeoning hammer to Rei's potential as a character in Rebuild, the "last" Eva show made by Anno.
But QS, I think Rei Q has proven herself to be a good girl. In the Rebuild "version", she is indeed Rei Ayanami or a facet of the "True Rei", that we arguably don't get to see at all in Rebuild.
The answer is that Rei never really was in Rebuild. Just a facet of her.
