Eva and Northern Exposure Continued
Posted by erin at November 22, 2002 03:39 PMI thought it was about time I finish up this post:
http://erinfinnegan.com/blog/archives/000010.html
Click below the read the new part of the post, or go to the link above to read the whole thing. The new part begins with "In Setting"
In SettingDespite different continents and time periods, Cicely, Alaska and Tokyo-3 have some things in common.
The most obvious similarity is that the two cities are examples of humans living in extreme environments. I use "extreme" here to refer to environmental conditions that are violent or adverse to typical human lifestyles.
In Cicely, Alaska, this violence is inherent in the weather. Extremely cold temperatures, tons of snow, isolation from other cities, and dangerous animals like bears and moose make living difficult for residents of the small town. Due to the isolation and long winter months, which restrict travel, trade, and commerce, the economy of Cicely rests (most likely) on lumber.
In short, Cicely is surviving on the edge of what could be considered human survival. So is Tokyo-3.
In Eva, the Earth has been attacked in the past by giant monsters they call "Angels." The first such attack, called the "First Impact," melted Antarctica and killed most of the Earth's population. I hardly need to mention that it flooded the original Tokyo. The "Second Impact" occurred about 20 years later, and again, huge battles were fought, populations decimated... Tokyo-3 was built in preparation for the dreaded Third Impact. However, rather than another tremendous explosion (or "Impact"), when the new "angels" began appearing only 12 years later and started appearing every 12 days (or less) thereafter, and apparently they do not cause the giant catastrophes on the scale of the 1st and 2nd impact.
The angels are huge, and appear (seemingly) out of nowhere. Despite being called "angels," they are wingless, and only vaguely humanoid in shape (some are not humanoid at all - one was more whale-like, another a floating diamond shooting lasers). Conventional weapons are useless because they are surrounded by an "AT Field," which is apparently some kind of energy shield.
Only the Eva units (mobile suits, or giant robots to you laymen) are capable of breaking through the AT Field and destroying the angels. NERV, the agency in charge of stopping angel attacks, only had time to put together 3 Eva units before the angels started attacking again - and to be honest, they barely got to test them and had no time to train the 14-year old pilots.
It is no coincidence that the angels started attacking as soon as the first Eva unit was completed, and it is no coincidence that the angel attacks almost always focus on Tokyo-3, the city where the NERV headquarters are located. The angels have an agenda, and although they never try to communicate, it is clear that they are trying to get rid of NERV and the Eva units.
So this makes Tokyo-3 a terribly dangerous place to live. If you don't get killed by an angel stepping on you, or shooting a laser at you, you could be killed when an Eva unit, in the process of fighting the angel, falls onto your apartment building.
Anticipating destruction, Tokyo-3 is built for battle. Its skyscrapers, in case of emergency, can be lowered into the ground. The citizens are put through drills all the time, and know exactly where the shelters are located.
NERV headquarters, besides being miles underground, is also protected by 12 heavy-duty steel shields. NERV is self-sustaining, with it's own life-support systems and no less than 3 back-up power generators. Deep within NERV is a terradome, so, in case of a big emergency like the dreaded Third Impact, NERV can become a self-contained colony, growing its own food.
I cannot possibly imagine what the economy of Tokyo-3 could based on, other than providing services for NERV headquarters. I suppose, like any other large city, Tokyo-3 serves a center of business and commerce - or it did until the angels started attacking. At that point many people left the city. Despite all of it's high-tech-safety gadgets, Tokyo-3 is the most unsafe place to live in Japan, and possibly the world, all because of NERV.
Without NERV, however, no one is safe. It's a bit of a problem... NERV's budget is huge, and tremendous amounts of energy and resources are poured into it - while people in other parts of the world, and even other part of Japan starve. Tokyo-3 teeters on the edge of finical (and physical ruin) all the time, thanks to NERV. This is not unlike Cicely in that, if the lumber industry pulled out, the town would cease to exist.
Toko-3 is comparable to Cicely, Alaska in that the two cities are self-sustaining (for the most part), and allow humans to live under extreme conditions.
Not to mention how Cicely is attacked on a near-daily basis by Morty the Moose.
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April 23, 2004 04:56 AM, Phentermine said:
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