Quoted By:
>People still haven't learned
Even though I'm sure it's just the same guy every time, here's the laydown:
Rei Ayanami is a character whose strength, journey and development in the original relied on her own musings, will and ability to act at certain points, as well as the fact that she wasn't a simple clone. In fact the word "clone" was never ever used about Rei in the original series. There was an unique and important thing about Rei, and that was that there was only one Rei Ayanami. One Rei that wasn't entirely human, but was artificially made. There were spare parts in forms of bodies in a tank. All soulless, dead and not alive.
Because Rei knows this, it gives her the perfect reasons and motivation to be self-inquisitive. She has the experience to know what she's talking about when she shares thoughts on life and the nature of the self.
The character is a complete success when it comes to it's end in 23-24-25 and EoE. In addition to this the character is very well-represented. Her EVA is cool, she contributes to combat and the betterment of everyone else, and she does this knowingly. She throws an awesome lance and has a slew of cool imagery surrounding her.
Now consider Rebuild, 3.33 especially. It has completely betrayed the above in explicitly turning her into a simple clone, and made her into a damsel in distress whose only point to exist is to refer to Yui. The entire character and it's journey to assert itself has been made pointless.
>b-but the final movie can fix this!
No it can't. The character is so far behind anything the original or the spinoffs were (save ANIMA), that the damage is done already. Congratulations, it's a new low.
It's so far behind that the only way it can get "up to speed" is by essentially cheating - no development, no character effort, just a pathetic plot device that flips into some sort of "good Rei" for the finale.
So if you say you like Rebuild, or Rei Q, that's the same as saying you like Rei's destruction.