Savia wrote:In answer to which ending I prefer... I don't know. I think that the essence of the original ending- the idea that Instrumentality finally did away with everything and the minds of the characters was all that was left- is closer to what I think the 'best' ending; the show was never really about the robots and stuff anyway. It's about Shinji and the rest of them, about human beings. That's what makes it such a good show.
I hate to be mean, but we've all been saying that for a long time...

You should read the thread...or perahps you're just re-iterating

Either way I wholeheartedly agree.
[quote="salvia"But then again, while EoE is good and certainly higher-budget, it doesn't have the same ring of truth to it. It's too much about *how* Instrumentality happens, and not enough about why Shinji rejects it. That part needed more screentime. Oh, and I really dislike the 'real-life' section in 26'.[/quote]
Well from what I have *heard*, Episodes 25 and 26 are Anno's true ending and afterwards there was a HUGE backlash from the fans since they disliked his character driven (no "what happened") ending (the part of the fans hating it, is true). Since Eva did well, they got the money to make a movie and Anno....(un)fortunately made the movie. The main thing Gainax did, as you said was show the "story" elements, like how instrumentality happened and whatnot.
However, at the same time, it's been debated that the reason it's so "f'ed up" is b/c Anno was angry at the fans rejecting his "true" ending. I've heard people say Asuka saying "Kimochi wa Warui" (I feel sicked/disgusted) is really Anno talking to the audience since he was somewhat forced by the fans to make a movie he didn't want to. Either way, it's what I heard. I'm somewhat glad he did explain how it happened, but like you said..it isn't at all necessary since it's not that important.