Summary
- Asuka's eyepatch is a result of the events in the third film, where she is contaminated by the Ninth Angel.
- The eyepatch serves as a nod to the iconic scene in the original series where Asuka is pierced by the Lance of Longinus.
- The eyepatch is also a visual representation of the age of time, as it shows that time has ed since the events of Evangelion 2.0
The second Rebuild of Evangelion movie ended with a tease for the next film, but that movie wouldn't be out for five years, leaving fans with a mysterious image of Asuka wearing an eyepatch that led to a lot of jokes. While Asuka does have an eyepatch in the third film, it's kind of glossed over, leaving many fans of the original series to wonder how exactly she got it.
Among the many changes for Rebuild of Evangelion, one of them was eliminating Toji Suzuhara, Shinji's friend from school, as a potential EVA pilot. However, the events related to Unit 03 and the Angel still occur--this time, however, it's Asuka in Unit 03's pilot seat.
Unit 03 is contaminated by a blue goo, which turns out to be the Ninth Angel. The goo reaches the inside of the entry plug and begins to contaminate Asuka as well, causing an emergency alert as the Eva activates and begins rampaging. Unit 03 is now indistinguishable from an angel, and the former entry plug is now recognized as the Angel's core. Unit 01 ends up destroying Unit 03, ripping the Eva to shreds, but Asuka (somehow) survives.
Asuka Has an Eye Patch Because Unit 01 Attacked Her
When Asuka is next seen in Evangelion 3.0, she wears an eyepatch over her left eye, although it's not addressed. The initial assumption one would make is that it's an injury from the Unit 03 incident, which is at least partially true. Later in the film, when Shinji and Kaworu descend into Terminal Dogma in Unit 13, Asuka tries to stop them with her upgraded Unit 02. Unfortunately, that doesn't work.
With nothing else left to try, Asuka takes off the eyepatch and reveals a "sealing pillar" has been implanted where her eye was, and that the Ninth Angel was never truly purged from her body. Removing the seal, the Ninth Angel takes hold and Asuka (and Unit 02) transforms. Unfortunately for Asuka, this response from her was part of the plan, and her Angel core (the entry plug) is absorbed into Unit 13.
Evangelion: Every EVA Unit from the Original Series Explained
Neon Genesis Evangelion's EVAs are some of the most unique aspects of the series. Here's a run down of every EVA encountered in the original anime.
From a meta-perspective, there's another reason why Asuka has that eyepatch. In End of Evangelion, Asuka and Unit 02 are defeated by the Mass Production Evas equipped with duplicates of the Lance of Longinus. One of them throws the Lance at high speed, piercing Unit 02. The eyepatch in Rebuild of Evangelion doubles as a nod to this iconic scene, and perhaps even acts to convince dedicated fans that they know what happened to her eye, only to be surprised by the Ninth Angel reveal. It also helps to show that a fair amount of time has ed, despite Asuka and the other Eva pilots not having aged.
Asuka's Eyepatch Was Also a Reference to End of Evangelion
"Pirate Asuka" certainly was the focus of some memes around the time of the eyepatch's reveal, but Neon Genesis Evangelion has taken what first seemed a bit silly and made it properly horrifying, just as the series is so good at doing.
All Rebuild of Evangelion films are streaming on Prime Video.
