>>4009928having it be a dream doesnt invalidate anything. its still real trauma shinji experienced, and obviously hes making up these fantastical stories as an attempt to cope with whatever he went through in the past; poor parental relationship, mother died young, failed attempts at love, etc. everyone copes with mental trauna in different ways, and habe it be do compounded that you have pyshiactric episodes like this is prrtty surreal.
again, its something anno himself literally went though and the entire reason he created the show itself. the final scene is his way of saying "I understand now, and i hope you guys can also move on from your last mistakes instead of living in the past". i think it makes the entire series much more meaningful because instead of just being a fictional world with detailed characters, it becomes something much more real and physical. its not just a tv show and movies, its someones real experiences put to screen, and its constructed in such a way that even the characters of the screenplay are subject to the same thing as the author.
i genuinely think the rebuilds take the eva from "a good show with gold characters" to " a work of art and a study of the humans ability to deal with trauma". it turns something good into something beautiful.
