But then there are those fun cases like the tank of Rei clones that somehow manage to maintain physical form without souls. And, of course, saying that their ability to do so stemmed from their container is speculation without evidence -- no?
Considering all the evidence from EOE about soul and form (wich confirms the previous theory), this is a clear exception. Then why? I think the key resides in the destruction of the clones. It wasn't an anti ATF who destroyed them, as we see, it was only this "Destrudo Release" wich was individual for each clone. So, it seems that by some way they managed to keep those bodies in a unity for each one, and just releasing the destrudo, would end that unity. So, no ATF, still form.
And just by the way, before pasting a soul into a body, there must be a body, right? So, they have to have some way in wich to trick the ATF stuff, just like the dolem legend. It was a body of clay, if left alone it would lose form with time (as happens with the dead, wich could apply really fine in Eva), by putting "death" on its forehead did the same as the destrudo release, and by putting "life" (I think) it gained conciousness, an analog of pasting a soul inside a Rei clone.
Imagine a can of conserves (spell?) with olives and stuff. Left alone they lose their unity, they lose form (they don't have what could be called their vegetable soul anymore). Inside the container they last a long long time, soulless and all. Perhaps the pool was nothing but a conservant container, avoiding the clones from loosing unity by lacking soul and ATF.
I have to add: the same that happens to the dead, might apply to the clones. We see dead people on Eva, they don't lose form, but they will, no soul, no ATF, gradually the unity of the body is lost (ask any guy with some knowledge on aristotelic phylosphy about the hilemorphic theory and how it applies to the dead). The clones have no soul, gradually they should lose form, but the container keeps them, as the olives, from 'rotting', as some kind of refrigerator.
The "soul copying" stuff is very fishy because, as Dr. Nick once pointed out to me, NGE in general stresses the individuality of souls. (And they tell you that the human mind and spirit aren't able to be digitized; how could they any sooner possess the ability to duplicate the human mind and spirit instead?)
A copying process that doesn't include previous digitalization. There's a fact, a soul that is in the same moment in two different places. Theres also a rule for body form. Taking 2 and 2 means that there had to be a same soul on 2 different places at the same time. As I remember, there ain't a single stated rule in NGE, or an induction based rule, that denies the soul copying. Besides
there's evidence of soul copying, Rei 001 and Rei 002, two almost same souls on 2 different places at the same time. Rei's soul is "one and the same" as the RCB states. There ain't, because of this, room for some kind of Rei soul matrix. Besides we can see Rei's soul update across the series, and specifically on episode 23, wich can only mean that its just one soul wich miraculously flies from one body to the other, or from one body to some container (returning to Lillith?:: think about this: Lillith, if has no soul, and being a source of life, her body never loses unity, an 'inmortal body'. Soul is taken out, loses its container, but there's still the original container, so it 'magnetically' returns to it... still speculation after all), and then its pasted on another body.
If souls are nothing more than things than can just be copied (like bodies can be, via cloning and such), a lot of the stuff in NGE becomes very inconsistent and less cohesive than it already is.
Wich stuff?
Also regarding the Rei/Zerogouki stuff I hate so much... I was watching episode 23 again, and Rei says, "If I escape, the A.T. Field will disappear". I find this confusing, because episode 03 demonstrated that the entry plug can be ejected with the Eva holding with the current commands. Wouldn't the dispersal of the A.T. Field be one of those commands? Why would the field disappear if Rei-002 left?
I think that there's a difference between mantaining the current position, wich is something purely mechanical (remember the armor plates were used to 'control the Eva'), but the ATF is something non-mechanical, wich seems to need a link between pilot and resident soul, and certain ammount of synch (episode 23, Asuka not displaying ATF, not even moving, low synch).
On a final note, do you still doubt the femininity of the Evas, AA? I think I know your answer already, but I just want to be sure...
I guess you could call 'em feminine as long as there's a feminine resident soul. But if there's no physiological indication of gender, then I think its irrelevant to genderize 'em. And the names... Eva, Lillith, Adam... they cannot be taken exactly with the same meaning as religion. They're more like tags wich fit the situation, like for example, ever read that stuff about Lillith-the black moon?(in the astrological sense, people who believed there was a 2nd satelite around earth, a black moon called Lillith, and no connection to the mythological Lillith. This is for real.)
Sharp-kun:
I'd like one day, if you want, you could pass me your archive of saved posts, please.
Originally posted on: 30-Oct-2003, 22:28 GMT
Still, I think it's pretty damn funny.* (Though I forgot the fallopian tubes -- ARGH!)
