Ignoring the pun in the title, I've come to notice a lot of similarities and/or potential shout-outs to EVA in what we've been shown of Death Stranding so far as well as the connections to Archilect. Quick shout-out to and a thank you to RetroHellspawn for the new sub and for inspiring me. Love your videos, man.
[Archilect.]
Let's start off with this. While Archilect was dismissed as being a promotional stunt separate from DS and the Ruse (mostly by those in the Death Stranding community as a whole), several pictures and gifs from Evangelion, the manga, and End of Eva were posted by the A.I. (also Archilect is still pretty suspicious and I don't believe that it's over) Archilect was noted as posting parts from media Kojima was a fan of, but Evangelion isn't something I think he's ever publicly commented on or mentioned being a fan of. Weird.
Sorry for not linking to them in this post, but they are up there for you to look at. I'm a bit lazy.
[Similarities in characters.]
Sam Bridges has been described by Norman Reedus as someone with a phobia of being touched - he's afraid of people touching him, and I'm willing to believe this extends to people getting to know him. He's afraid of being getting close to him. His journey is a lonely one.
Sound familiar? Shinji Ikari, Eva's protagonist, is described as timid, shy, and afraid of opening his heart to others and getting closer to people who open their hearts. Hedgehog's Dilemma.
Sam is described as an Everyman, much like how Shinji isn't special compared to Rei, Asuka, Kaworu, etc. He's special to Gendo, but he doesn't have anything amazing or interesting. He's an insert for the audience but is still his own person. He's the everyman in that regard, a normal guy. We are him, in a sense. Or rather, the Otaku audience Anno was aiming at.
"They won't be playing as you, they'll be you." And didn't Reedus claim Sam would be transcending gender in a way - Shinji was designed to look soft and feminine.
Confident redhead who turns out to be a puppet for the masterminds of scenario? Sounds Familiar. It's worth noting that Asuka is NERV/SEELE's puppet - a literal NPC of sorts?
Semi human morally grey antagonist who acts as a friend and enemy, and has supernatural powers? Mads and the Golden Masked Man definitely get me thinking of Kaworu. Doesn't help Kaoru and Mads both have grey hair and Mads' character has some connection to the Ludens.
[Touch.]
Touch is symbolic of opening up to others in Evangelion. We have the lyrics, "Once more, the touch you long for".
And in End of Eva's infamous ending we have this: touch. Asuka and Shinji finally opening up to each other, and Shinji overcomes his fear in one beautiful moment.
Given the similarities between Sam's phobia and Shinji's fear, I'm keen to believe that the Hedgehog's Dilemma will be a topic of discussion in Death Stranding.
[The Apocalypse.]
Okay, this one is kinda too obvious to be overlooked. An apocalypse that wipes out most of the population and leaves the remnants to fight over resources while multiple groups scramble to create a solution (TRIDENT, NERV, SEELE) and pollutes the water and destroys the environment and the Earth's axis? Second Impact. The second explosion?
And a following apocalypse that annihilates the entire population, leaves the environment in an even worse state, turns humanity into a single unit of souls (primordial red soup), and leaves behind only a select few? Familiar, right. The third explosion? Third Impact. Is Death Stranding Kojima's post Third Impact fanfiction?
And that's not mentioning the Rebuild's Third Impact and the interrupted Third Impact in the second movie. And the possibility of a Fourth Impact mentioned in the third movie.
The Death Stranding event feels very similar to the Impact. Keep in mind that the Impact was engineered by SEELE - and I don't think the Death Stranding happened on accident. Kojima did recently tweet about Spider-Verse being similar to Death Stranding. Did someone in Death Stranding break a super collider on purpose?
[Oedipal Themes..?]
I don't know for sure if this is the case, but I'm willing to believe that the identity of Sam's wife, daughter/child (?) and mother (?) is definitely being obscured for a reason. Eva also has it's share of Oedipal material. Rei, the Evangelion itself, etc.
[Mecha]
Let's not lie, Kojima clearly loves his giant robots. Metal Gear? In MGSV, Sally was piloted by a Third Child (Mantis). So Evangelion has influenced his work to a degree. It would be a shock to not see a giant robot in DS.
But the Kojipro mascot definitely made me think of Shinji's plugsuit and oddly reminded me of Unit 01. Also Shinji's plugsuit being white and blue, Sam also wearing blue and white, yadda yadda.
[Conclusion]
Evangelion is a big influence on Kojima and you should definitely watch it before you play Death Stranding. Thoughts? Anything I missed?
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