Unit-02 in Episode 8

[Gamer137]

In the final moment of combat in episode eight, Unit-02 manages to greatly increase in power to finally open the Angel's mouth. Misato later comments on this, saying it was simply due to the danger. This appears to be the conciseness regarding how the fight went. We later see that danger alone is not enough to drive up the power of an Eva in later episodes. If this was true, Eva's would be invincible.

Why the sudden surge in power? Asuka's synch ratio most likely climaxes in this fight as comments of her ratio going up is never mentioned in tests unlike Shinji's. If Unit-02 ever goes berserk in the TV episodes, this is the most likely time, and it may have. Unit-02's helmet opens up and it's real eyes brighten. Not the artificial green dots. An Eva's real eyes only appear under extreme conditions, such as Unit-02 beginning to shut down in episode twenty-two. While not berserking in the traditional sense, it may be possible for the Eva soul to open up and release an Eva's potential without going primal. Episode eight is the closest Unit-02 ever comes to being destroyed in the time Asuka retains a high enough sync ratio for her Mom to open up. This is only short of Magma Diver when Unit-02 is stuck in a volcano and can not be saved even with berserk should her cable break.

It is also possible this surge could be caused by the connection between Asuka and Shinji. Asuka alone was not enough to open the mouth or her Unit-02 would have opened the mouth without getting a surge of power so late in the fight. While they have just met, the attraction between the two as already started by that point. Asuka tries to show off to Shinji by himself by bringing him to Unit-02, which makes Shinji more important to her then everyone else. When it comes to everyone else, she does not mind boasting in crowds. Shinji tries to sneak a peak at Asuka, which speaks for itself. Maybe Asuka's mother caught the connection, and in tandem with the danger, woke up a bit. Even against the fourth angel when Unit-01 must put Toji and Kensuka inside the entry plug, there presence did not exactly hurt his performance. However the fight was not so close to getting Shinji killed that Yui had to give Eva-01 more power.

So is it possible a deeper message is being sent for the story during episode eight? Eva's do not gain a great amount of strength mid-fight due to danger alone, and an explanation is in order.

[AuraTwilight]

Adrenaline. Mama Bear response. 2+2=4.

[crystallising]

Before 02 awakens like that, you see both Asuka and Shinji desperately begging it to "move, move, move, move" with their minds/hearts completely intent on it and in total sync due to the danger they are in. The only other time we see a pilot doing that is Shinji in Shogoki when it runs out of power before going berserk to him achieving a 400% sync rate.

So I guess the EVAs' response in those situations actually is due to the danger by proxy of their respective pilots' desperate concentration, which causes them to mobilise their last reserves of strength. I wouldn't necessarily put that down to Asuka on her own not being able to achieve the same result, it does seem to be owed to the situation - although it obviously did help that they were simultaneously focussing on the same thing as hard as possible.

[AyrYntake]

What crystallising said and, to add to that, I'm of the mind that this IS a brief (but substantial) berserker incident. Note the four-eyed flash, the raised synch ratio (while it isn't mentioned in tests, we DO hear from Ritsuko afterwards that they peaked) and the very fact that the entire B-Type loadout isn't supposed even to work underwater.