How competent is Asuka, really? (college & piloting)

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How competent is Asuka, really? (college & piloting)

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Postby NemZ » Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:16 pm

Aside from her one comment to Shinji about being a college grad, is there any evidence in the show that this is actually the case?

I always thought she was just bullshitting him but several other sites seem to accept this statement as fact and run with it.
Last edited by NemZ on Wed Jul 16, 2014 4:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby Anonymous_Evafan » Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:17 pm

Several external sources confirm this (RCB, CI, etc).
Oh, but God forbid any of these theories have any validity! After all, we are just brainwashing innocent people with Reichu's fanclub propaganda!--Trigger's Elysium sarcasm for the masses!

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Postby NemZ » Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:26 pm

there's a reason i used the words "in the show"
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Postby Gamer_2k4 » Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:53 pm

I wondered about that too. It certainly begs the question as to why she's going to junior high. All they ever talk about is the second impact anyway...
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Postby Ornette » Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:54 pm

And for what reason would you not believe Asuka? She doesn't say it to brag or anything, it was just a passing comment:
Ep10 wrote:Shinji:
You mean you couldn't read the questions in Japanese?

Asuka:
Right, I haven't learned all the Chinese characters yet.
We didn't study it in college over there.

Shinji:
College?

Asuka:
Oh, I graduated last year.
So, what does this one say?

Shinji:
It's about thermal expansion.

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Postby Anonymous_Evafan » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:11 pm

NemZ wrote:there's a reason i used the words "in the show"

And I'm telling you why those sites run with it as fact, because it is.
Oh, but God forbid any of these theories have any validity! After all, we are just brainwashing innocent people with Reichu's fanclub propaganda!--Trigger's Elysium sarcasm for the masses!

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Postby honsou » Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:06 pm

Ornette wrote:And for what reason would you not believe Asuka? She doesn't say it to brag or anything, it was just a passing comment:
Ep10 wrote:Shinji:
You mean you couldn't read the questions in Japanese?

Asuka:
Right, I haven't learned all the Chinese characters yet.
We didn't study it in college over there.

Shinji:
College?

Asuka:
Oh, I graduated last year.
So, what does this one say?

Shinji:
It's about thermal expansion.


It is pretty interesting that she never bragged about graduating college at 13, I wonder why she didn't play that card more often

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Postby Gamer_2k4 » Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:08 pm

Ornette wrote:And for what reason would you not believe Asuka? She doesn't say it to brag or anything, it was just a passing comment:
Ep10 wrote:Shinji:
You mean you couldn't read the questions in Japanese?

Asuka:
Right, I haven't learned all the Chinese characters yet.
We didn't study it in college over there.

Shinji:
College?

Asuka:
Oh, I graduated last year.
So, what does this one say?

Shinji:
It's about thermal expansion.

It may have been a passing comment, but it was an unnecessary one at best, and bragging at worst. I'd say the vast majority of people aren't going to know all of the kanji when they go to Japan, so there's really no need to make an excuse for something that's probably going to be expected anyway.
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Postby NemZ » Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:13 pm

That whole scene is Asuka showing off as much as possible, which is why I suspect it. That and I guess it just seems that she never manages to do anything particularly intelligent to support the claim that she graduated at, what, 12?

I don't necessarily think she's lying but more that she's stretching the truth. Perhaps she had tutors in Germany that were professors most of the day and one of them just sort of in-passing and half-jokingly mentioned she knew the material better than some of their graduate students? I always got the feeling that growing up with Nerv branch 2 she was constantly having her ego stroked by people who didn't know how else to deal with her temperamental nature, and somewhere along the line she started believing her own press... then spinning it out into an imaginary world build around her inflated sense of accomplishment.

No, there's clearly no evidence whatsoever for all this fanwanking on my part, but that's how I see her.
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Postby V » Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:23 pm

although there is a possibility, narrative wise, that because Asuka is saying she graduated college that she was an unreliable narrator; however, multiple independent sourcebooks and encyclopedias treat this as a fact.

We have no idea what field/degree she had.

why is she still in class? 3 reasons I could think of:

1 - the entire purpose of class 2-A is really to keep all of the potential Eva pilots in one place for safekeeping

2 - to try to socialize Asuka and make her fit in more by spending time with other children (in the practical sense that her emotional well being affects her

3 - Asuka honestly needed to learn more Japanese if she was to work in Tokyo-3
Last edited by V on Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Gamer_2k4 » Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:43 pm

V wrote:although there is a possibility, narrative wise, that because Asuka is saying she graduated college that she was an unreliable narrator; however, multiple independent sourcebooks and encyclopedias treat this as a fact.


Don't most sourcebooks, etc. also treat it as fact that she is 14 throughout the entire series?
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Postby V » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:07 pm

oh for crying out loud: why did so many here treat it as a shocking revelation that Asuka isn't 14 when the series starts?

Her birthday is in early December, thus I think she's 14 by the end of the series.


Regardless, they're not saying "14" in terms of forensically/scientifically "14 or more"

They call them all "14 year olds" in the generic sense.

By that logic, would we say "well, Shinji is a 14 years and 4 months year old?" no.


It's "14 years" generally speaking, and its not anything new or original that yeah, she isn't "already 14" when the series begins.

I mean I STILL call her a "14 year old", just as I do the other characters that have birthdays in late 2015.
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Postby Ornette » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:18 pm

Gamer_2k4 wrote:
V wrote:although there is a possibility, narrative wise, that because Asuka is saying she graduated college that she was an unreliable narrator; however, multiple independent sourcebooks and encyclopedias treat this as a fact.


Don't most sourcebooks, etc. also treat it as fact that she is 14 throughout the entire series?

They say she's 14. Doesn't say when.

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Postby Anonymous_Evafan » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:27 pm

Lol technicalities
Oh, but God forbid any of these theories have any validity! After all, we are just brainwashing innocent people with Reichu's fanclub propaganda!--Trigger's Elysium sarcasm for the masses!

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Postby NemZ » Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:51 am

Yes, all the lower-tier stuff agrees. I know that. What I'm asking is if this information is based on anything more substantial than this one questionable, throw-away line of dialog.

Seriously, is there even one piece of evidence anywhere else in the series or movie that corroborates this at all? Just one and I'll shut up.
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Postby Mr. Tines » Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:07 am

If you have the knack for the discipline, having a math degree by Asuka's age is not unknown -- most of the effort is in getting over the administrative hurdles. And the kids who have been hot-housed like that do turn out to be the sort of people who would naturally fit in amongst the damage cases of NERV.

It is also consistent with her "I'm an adult, you are all children." attitude to her contemporaries, even if she doesn't act terribly adult much of the time.

And all this against the background of a culture that has a very strong "tall poppy" attiude.
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Postby Ornette » Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:08 am

NemZ wrote:Yes, all the lower-tier stuff agrees. I know that. What I'm asking is if this information is based on anything more substantial than this one questionable, throw-away line of dialog.

This is, of course, your opinion. I would assume the majority of people have no reason to think Asuka is making this up.

As for the reason she attends high school? Social reasons probably.

Seriously, is there even one piece of evidence anywhere else in the series or movie that corroborates this at all? Just one and I'll shut up.

If there were, it would probably be another questionable, throw-away line of dialog.

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Postby Eva Yojimbo » Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:54 am

I think this one can be solved with simple narrative reasoning:

-That line is given in passing. Obviously Asuka is showing off, but that's not reason enough to doubt it.
-It could be very easily contradicted. If Shinji didn't believe her, one question to Misato and he would know.
-It fits with Asuka's character of having to be a grown up at her young age.

It's certainly a bit... odd that Asuka would have graduated college at even 14. I'm guessing it's not unprecedented, but definitely odd. I would've probably had said she was attending instead of graduated - which would've made it a bit more realistic.
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Postby Mr. Tines » Sat Jul 12, 2008 4:12 am

Reality checking via Google for "youngest math graduate" had this link on the first page

Gregory R. Smith, 14, also a graduate student in math, received a wave of publicity this summer when he enrolled. Smith, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics, has been making headlines as an academic prodigy and international children’s rights activist much of his life.


http://www.virginia.edu/insideuva/2003/19/teen_grad_students.html
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Postby Ornette » Sat Jul 12, 2008 4:13 am

There are people who graduated even younger, there was even a guy who was a college professor at age 17. Here's one who graduated college at age 11 and opted to attend high school.


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