► EXPLANATION: 'The Fate of Destruction is also the Joy of Rebirth' is a (the?) biggest theme in Evangelion, besides (and in addition to) the realisation of self. On an in-character level, Mari is already representative of this phrase, as she is known to be actively working towards the destruction of the Angels and appears to be invested in furthering the Final Impact, or perhaps a specific form of that Impact. On a meta level, Hideaki Anno himself only knew he wanted Mari to "destroy Eva" when he first onceived of her (and then leftit for someone else to figure out.) Mari's frighteningly thorough knowledge of not only the Eva units themselves but the machinations of other characters and organisations gives her a means with which to destroy 'Eva' from inside out, and she's continued that pattern in Lost Carnival. She more or less weaponises her knowledge to affect the outcomes she wants.
► FAMILIAR: Peacat, turned into a strange eyes-cat and now called Tabris. (Note: in Evangelion, Tabris is the Angel of Free Will and the Angel of Betrayal. The final angel. Most people know him as Kaworu Nagisa, though.) Because he's her only familiar, he gets the full share of her power.
► POWER: Other than the continued (mis)use of her miniature Lance of Longinus, Mari's power is the manipulation of probability--you know, fate. In combat, this is mostly used to ensure her attacks always hit (or rather, "don't miss"--conveniently mirroring a canon uote, "when I aim, I don't miss!") and that others' attacks are less likely to land. Now that I'm typing this, I realise it actually functions not unlike Vriska's luck from Homestuck. It's basically just shy of a reality marble. Which is to say, if she has a bag of 99 black marbles and 1 white marble, she can pull the white one out (almost?) every time. If she has a bag of 100 black marbles, though, she still can't produce a white one.
Mari Makinami Illuminati
► INTENSITY: 9
► EXPLANATION: 'The Fate of Destruction is also the Joy of Rebirth' is a (the?) biggest theme in Evangelion, besides (and in addition to) the realisation of self. On an in-character level, Mari is already representative of this phrase, as she is known to be actively working towards the destruction of the Angels and appears to be invested in furthering the Final Impact, or perhaps a specific form of that Impact. On a meta level, Hideaki Anno himself only knew he wanted Mari to "destroy Eva" when he first onceived of her (and then leftit for someone else to figure out.) Mari's frighteningly thorough knowledge of not only the Eva units themselves but the machinations of other characters and organisations gives her a means with which to destroy 'Eva' from inside out, and she's continued that pattern in Lost Carnival. She more or less weaponises her knowledge to affect the outcomes she wants.
► FAMILIAR: Peacat, turned into a strange eyes-cat and now called Tabris. (Note: in Evangelion, Tabris is the Angel of Free Will and the Angel of Betrayal. The final angel. Most people know him as Kaworu Nagisa, though.) Because he's her only familiar, he gets the full share of her power.
► POWER: Other than the continued (mis)use of her miniature Lance of Longinus, Mari's power is the manipulation of probability--you know, fate. In combat, this is mostly used to ensure her attacks always hit (or rather, "don't miss"--conveniently mirroring a canon uote, "when I aim, I don't miss!") and that others' attacks are less likely to land. Now that I'm typing this, I realise it actually functions not unlike Vriska's luck from Homestuck. It's basically just shy of a reality marble. Which is to say, if she has a bag of 99 black marbles and 1 white marble, she can pull the white one out (almost?) every time. If she has a bag of 100 black marbles, though, she still can't produce a white one.