To be honest, the movie would still suck ass, but then again...

tbh i kinda thought it made sense with Shinji starting a relationship with Mari because unlike Asuka, Mari was nice to Shinji (although not on Kaworu levels tho)

I never really understood the "she was nice to him" argument, Asuka is a tsundere, people tend to forget for some reason that a tsundere is a character arc in which a character (usually female) starts off hostile (in a slapstick way usually) then becomes sweet, obviously in the way EoE ends we don't see that other half but it is implied that's where it goes

although i still do see where you're coming from with this meme