Okay. Sven and Kaji.
Both smoke. Have ponytail (rat tail?). Have inexplicable knowledge of things. Made more interesting by changes in continuity.
Kaji's knowledge can be explained by the fact that he's something of a double-or-triple agent. He's furthering everyone's interests, but the question is: what's in it for him? He works for SEELE, NERV, and the Japanese Government.
In one of the manga, Kaji is given the backstory where he grew up with a gang of orphans stealing food from Government shelters. He gets caught, and offered a deal to rat on his friends to spare himself from the death penalty. Which he takes. So he lives with this guilt and his underpinning motivation is just to disrupt people in power...in theory.
Sven is much younger than Kaji, but he's in a near similar situation. His family is in hiding. I think if Sven was ever caught he'd be afraid of exposing everyone.
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I'm not sure how Kaji ended up working for SEELE - who has this grand scheme for humanity. But Gendo, who is leading NERV works for them but has his own agenda.
In Perseverance I think this is similar to Esperia who works for Heldath but is pursuing her own agenda.
Kaji obtains the Key of Nebuchadnezzar (it was an "Adam Embryo" in other continuities) which he gives to Gendo to transcend his humanity. SEELE was keeping it as a spare or backup if they ever had to restart their plans. (I'll come back to this)
Likewise, Esperia is after the Devil and Angel Genes to ascend to become a Serazai. Coincidently Sven...presumably... inherited a spare set of genes as well.
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In the Eva Rebuild movies there is a 14 year time skip between the 2nd and 3rd movie. We don't know what happened to Kaji until the 4th movie. He died. Sacrificing himself. But we don't get any hard details. Internet fans however have extrapolated a general idea based on a broad overview of the series.
This tickles me because that's what I've attempted with PFC.
Basically at the end of the 2nd Rebuild movie, SEELE and the Japanese Government launch an investigation into NERV, realizing that Gendo has his own plans that go against their own. So Gendo and his second-in-command, Fuyutsuki, were temporarily removed from their positions and replaced by Kaji and Kaworu Nagisa.
Kaworu is another interesting character. He is meant to be suspicious from the start because he's an Angel. In other continuities when Kaworu shows up in the story, Kaji recognizes him but then the story doesn't elaborate on what that connection is.
I've read an early concept imagined Kaworu with a cat. It was really the Cat who was the angel and it was controlling him.
In other continuities, Kaji is brainwashed an takes a position in SEELE. Becoming a puppet himself.
I don't know who would correspond to Kaworu in Perseverance. Maybe Bufudyne? I think in pre-clash continuity, after Sven blows up Naxon, Bufudyne might have had a chance at a redemption or got a promotion at least.
Otherwise I think I'd have to invent a character. Kara's Brother was always a thought in my mind. But he only recently made an appearance in FANTASIA.
There's also potential Angel Gene persona, but we've never seen one awaken.
The other thing about Kaworu is that his Eva's weapon is the Spear of Cassius which is a riff on the spear of destiny.
Svoli manifests shafts of light. I've always imagined if Sven should awaken an angel/devil form, or was just more adept at combat, he would utilize a spear.
FANTASIA also introduced DENUI. Demons of Ultimate Influence meant to take control of powerful characters so they don't cause too many problems.
They weren't established yet in PFC, but in theory Sven would have one as well.
From a chat I had with Remichan, I learned that Sped's DENUI was weakened while Esperia was torturing him, and his devil gene took the opportunity to kill it. Because these persona occupy the same virtual soul space, I guess.
This is why you never fight Sped in FANTASIA.
I have to wonder if Sven would still have a DENUI. Maybe it would have checked out once Sven died and lost his angel/devil genes. Not being powerful enough to merit one.
Hmm, I don't think I've considered this before. I've been trying to explain Sven's "sacrifice". But maybe this wasn't Sven at all. Maybe that was his DENUI's own exit strategy. The other DENUI are high ranking archangels assigned to "powerful" mortals.
I can see Sven having a DENUI that knows it's out of it's league if Sven's genes ever manifested. So he's nipping them in the bud.
It's a bit contrive though. I mean. On top of the DENUI controlling people, Naxon had his Sacrament thingy that was also controlling people. Unless I reimagined it as controlling low level DENUI in the first place? Which would explain why it didn't affect the Perseverance Union.
Maybe Sven's DENUI was under Naxon's control, but Sven never acted on it because his devil and angel kept it restrained?
In the 14 year gap of Eva Rebuild, Kaji also stole the ship "WILLE" from SEELE. It was 1 of 5 "Vessels of Adam". I don't have the energy to explain -here- what Adams are in Rebuild. But it was basically a kind of Noah's Arc/ seedship to restart life on another planet. I think.
As I mentioned above, Kaji gave Gendo a "key". But in other continuities he gave him was an Adam Embryo.
FANTASIA reveals that Kara's brother, as well as Svoli's mother, had gone off into space. Which begs the question of what they used as starships. There's actually a lot of options. Lots of ships. Lots of space civilizations.
Among other reveals, Splod wasn't actually from Earth to begin with.
Supposedly Kara and her brother had many close encounters but always just missed each other. I've trying to imagine a scenario where a spaceship was involved. But it might be too much for 1 story. Naxon has a helicopter. Might have had a starship too?
It's hard to say how Kaji died exactly. But from what I gathered from the brief scenes in the 4th movie, he flew a helicopter into Central Dogma (an underground shaft containing...you know what, nvm) and there he...idk...did something?
It funny because there's so many ways Sven could have survived in PFC. But I'm just reaching for a satisfying grand plan to explain why he doesn't. I'm sure Eva Rebuild was trying to do the same thing with Kaji.
According to wiki entries "Central Dogma" is a biology theory that says genetic information only flows in 1 direction. From DNA to RNA to Proteins. So Kaji flying into "Central Dogma" has to be a metaphor for encoding something. Or breaking a sequence, I guess? Because he averted the 3rd Impact. It's hard to say what was happening. This is Evangelion we're talking about. "The Doors of Guf were open". The chamber of Guf is a kind of treasury of unborn souls. I could be mistaken, but maybe Kaji went in there and interrupted it.
Coincidently, in the 4th movie it turns out Kaji had an unborn son on the way with Misato. Who is then named Kaji Jr and basically looks like his reincarnation at 14. (The same age as Sven)
Jr grows up apart from Misato. The subtext is kind of fucked up. Because Misato had daddy issues and saw her father in Kaji at first, which is why she broke up with him. She would no doubt see Kaji in her son as well.
*cough*
So in Perseverance, Bufudyne would die but be resurrected by Naxon.
I'd like to imagine a scenario where Sven tricked Naxon into resurrecting him instead of Bufudyne. Sven would lose his angel and devil genes, but I feel Esperia would hold Naxon accountable. So maybe Sven and Naxon would agree not to tell her anything.
