Sorry for interrupting all of the Mari/Mary/Maria/Milia/Miriya(?) talk, but I was hoping to go back for a moment to the Unit-03/Bardiel core attack portion of this thread. I was a bit late to the party, but found the debate interesting and was hoping to address a couple of comments and possibly get some additional feedback. However, if the admins feel that this will take things too far off topic, perhaps they could move my post to a more appropriate venue or point me in the right direction.
esselfortium wrote:Crushing the container of an amorphous fungal growth to neutralize it...might get the job done through sheer dumb luck, but it's about the least logical and most wasteful possible way that they could have possibly done it...It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense as a defensible strategy, and it's certainly not the only way the Angel could have been defeated.
Could not agree more with this. Also, assuming the dummy system was even capable of detecting and pinpointing the exact location of the angel's core, why would its programming select Unit-01's teeth to be more accurate and effective versus a progressive knife for the purpose of destroying it?
Sailor Star Dust wrote:We see a screenshot of Eva-03's plug in NGE too, the source of Bardiel is still within the entry plug itself. It appears to be insane overkill, but the Dummy System is actually methodical in both continuities.
Unless I'm mistaken, in both the tv series and Rebuild, the first action the dummy system takes is to strangle Unit-03. Once its neck had been snapped, Unit-03/Bardiel didn't appear to offer any further resistance, as its limbs (all of them) seemed to go limp. Why then does the dummy system waste so much extra time completely dismembering Unit-03 before finally locating the entry plug? This attack incorporated a fair amount of madness to its method, but not the other way around. If, as you suggest, Bardiel's core was contained within Unit-03's entry plug and the dummy system is supposed to be intelligent enough to realize this, then shouldn't the dummy system have attacked it directly without further hesitation?
Consider how quickly Shinji was able to liberate Unit-00's entry plug in the immediate aftermath of the battle against Ramiel (both continuities). I would call that a whole lot more methodical.
OTOH if the dummy system was actually programmed for insane overkill or, as I suspect, really just tricking the Eva into activating some mindless, uncontrollable beserker mode, then mission accomplished, I guess. Not only did it critically injure Unit-03's pilot, but in the process also unnecessarily damaged a gillion dollar weapon designed to help defend humanity, beyond all hope of salvage/repair. Fine job all around; I mean it's not as though any additional healthy pilots or an extra functional Eva available on the roster might be useful toward future angel battles. Bottom line, IMO Maya was probably downplaying how much of a lemon the dummy system truly was.
esselfortium wrote:If you have to destroy the plug to kill the Angel, it would make a whole lot more sense to destroy it in a way that would actually affect an amorphous blob, like melting it or something. By crushing the plug to kill a fungal growth in it, you might as well be trying to punch a bowl of pudding to death.
Besides that, once the plug is removed from the Eva, the actual threat is immediately neutralized already because it has no body to control. If anything, biting it only created far more danger by risking the possibility of infecting Eva-01 through its mouth.
Good point. Gendo observes how this angel has infiltrated Unit-03 and, while strangling Unit-01, starts to infect it, as well. His response? Activate the dummy system so that Unit-01 will, in the process of close quarters combat, make even further physical contact with this angel. First time I saw it I was half expecting Bardiel to somehow jump over to Unit-01 in an act of desperation, as an attempt to preserve itself.
Hyper Shinchan wrote:Any suggestion? The Angel was that
blue substance around (and presumably inside, like Reichu said) the entry plug, utterly smashing it to pieces sounds like a legit "strategy".
A while back, I posted the possibility that, had Shinji ended up losing consciousness, and Gendo had placed more faith in his wife than a machine, Unit-01 might have just gone into beserker mode on its own in order to protect Shinji. Most of the responses implied that it would've brought about either a similar or somehow worse result than what took place onscreen. I'm not so sure. Yui's instincts have always been to protect her son (as demonstrated with Sachiel, Sea of Dirac, Zeruel) but, as a parent, I don't think she would be as enthusiastic about harming someone else's kid (perhaps that's just wishful thinking).
As far as strategy is concerned, the first thing I would've done is tell Shinji to get some distance between himself and Unit-03 ASAP, and try to avoid getting any more of that angelic goo on him. We've seen how fast Shinji is able to make Unit-01 move when he's motivated and this was one situation where I would fully endorse running away, hopefully in the direction of NERV, where a better plan could be implemented. Maybe some N2 mines could have been used to distract Bardiel while Shinji retreated.
Once Shinji gets back to the Geofront, has anyone ever suggested that he visit the basement and arm himself with the Lance of Longinus? Based on that scene from 1.11 just prior to operation Yashima, Misato shows Shinji where it is and, unless she was using Kaji-esque untraceable means to gain entrance, Gendo should be aware that Shinji already knows what's down there. The secret's out. Why not let Shinji use the Lance to incapacitate Unit-03/destroy Bardiel without having to risk further contact? From what I recall, it was extremely effective against Arael in episode 22 and in EoE even a replica was able to stop an Eva in one shot. I'm no expert on how the Lance is supposed to work, but I don't think you would even have to necessarily stab an angel's core with it in order to take one out. Just sayin'