Shinji and his fans...or lack thereof

[Bagheera]

That's not to say that I don't like him. I find a lot of things in him that I hate about myself. However, unlike Shinji, I tell myself "I can acknowledge my weakness, but not let it beat me. I have to suck it up and live with it." And that's where my frustration with Shinji lies. He acknowledges his flaws but doesn't say or do anything to deal with them until it's too late. But I can't bring myself to totally hate him either

I think he does quite a bit to deal with them, actually. The problem is that every time he starts to make a little progress something really horrible happens to knock him back to where he started. So, when you say "well, I acknowledge my problems and learn to deal with them!" he says "Yeah, that's great and all, but when was the last time you were mentally invaded by an Angel? Or forced to hurt or even kill a friend? Or given the privilege of watching someone you care about disintegrate before your eyes with you helpless to stop it? Or...well, you get the point.

It's easy to note Shinji's failings, but I think people overlook the whole "supernatural entities crushing his mind on a regular basis" bit in the process. It's kinda important.

[Shogo-Kun]

@Bagheera: Yeah, there's that, too. Maybe NERV should consider getting actual soldiers to fight the Angels, not mentally crushed children. Or at least invest in an alternate battle strategy. :whatever:

[Bagheera]

@Bagheera: Yeah, there's that, too. Maybe NERV should consider getting actual soldiers to fight the Angels, not mentally crushed children. Or at least invest in an alternate battle strategy. :whatever:

Well, it's not like they wanted to go that route...

[GAP]

Unfortunately, I highly doubt even real soldiers would sane after this. In the real world, war is traumatizing enough but Evangelion would chew you up and spit you out especially when actaully consider the nature of the Angels. You know this would actually make a good fanfic idea.

[Trajan]

For all we know, the damn Evas actually run off of childhood trauma and mental instability.

[Hyper Shinchan]

Well, Evas could be activated via dummy system, but you know how "plot" works...

[Bagheera]

Well, Evas could be activated via dummy system, but you know how "plot" works...

That wasn't available until late in the game, though, and it didn't work so well when it did show up. Hell, even if it did work I don't think I'd trust the system to deal with most of the Angels in the show.

[Trajan]

^
Exactly. I believe a dummy plug controlled / berserk Unit 01 wouldn't have done so well against Ramiel or Sahaquiel.

[Hyper Shinchan]

Hell, even if it did work I don't think I'd trust the system to deal with most of the Angels in the show.

Again, it was unstable in Eva-01's case because it was required by plot, the Eva Series did their work pretty well when plot required otherwise.

[Bagheera]

Again, it was unstable in Eva-01's case because it was required by plot, the Eva Series did their work pretty well when plot required otherwise.

Not really. I wouldn't trust those things against most of the Angels. Their tactics sucked, their response time was crap, and they fell apart at the least provocation. That's why Asuka could whip nine of them at an average of 20 seconds apiece. Without the S2 engines they would have been dead meat in nothing flat.

And again, the Dummy System wasn't available until late in the game.

[Hyper Shinchan]

Not really. I wouldn't trust those things against most of the Angels. Their tactics sucked, their response time was crap, and they fell apart at the least provocation. That's why Asuka could whip nine of them at an average of 20 seconds apiece. Without the S2 engines they would have been dead meat in nothing flat.

Well, Eva-01's reaction and tactics in episode 18 were much better than Eva Series in EoE.

And again, the Dummy System wasn't available until late in the game.

Sure thing but many "traumatic" battles happened exactly late in the series, they could have substituted the pilots with the dummy if it weren't for plot events like Yui's refusal of the dummy and Ritsuko's madness.

[Bagheera]

Well, Eva-01's reaction and tactics in episode 18 were much better than Eva Series in EoE.

Again, not really. Hell, it didn't even use tactics. If Bardiel had actually done anything it would have been screwed.

Sure thing but many "traumatic" battles happened exactly late in the series, they could have substituted the pilots with the dummy if it weren't for plot events like Yui's refusal of the dummy and Ritsuko's madness.

If the Evas reject the dummies they really aren't an option, now are they?

And for the nth time, they weren't available until around the time of the Bardiel incident. NERV was stuck using the children until that point no matter their opinions on the matter.

[Hyper Shinchan]

Again, not really. Hell, it didn't even use tactics. If Bardiel had actually done anything it would have been screwed.

The performance of Eva-01 strongly resembled the ones during berserk, I doubt anything could have stopped it.

If the Evas reject the dummies they really aren't an option, now are they?

One Eva out of ten rejected it...

And for the nth time, they weren't available until around the time of the Bardiel incident. NERV was stuck using the children until that point no matter their opinions on the matter.

And for the nth time, the worst battles were against the last Angels, e.g.: the dummy system could have been an excellent option against Arael, no risk of mental contamination since it doesn't have emotions, and the Eva Series were at least capable of using their copies of the Spear of Longinus.

[biodude711]

The performance of Eva-01 strongly resembled the ones during berserk, I doubt anything could have stopped it.

However, Unit-01 displayed no tactics what-so-ever when it was controlled by the Dummy System. The Eva Series showed some tactics due to the fact that the Dummy Plug's they were using were second generation so most of the kinks in their programming were hammered out.

And for the nth time, the worst battles were against the last Angels, e.g.: the Dummy system could have been an excellent option against Arael, no risk of mental contamination, the dummy system doesn't have emotions and the Eva Series were at least capable of using their copies of the Spear of Longinus.

However, the last Angels were more instinct driven battles. Also, the Dummy Plugs could never replace a human Eva pilot for the same reason a computer could never replace a human fighter pilot. Computers think logically not instinctively. In combat, instinct, not logic, is key to survival.

[Shogo-Kun]

Um, how did we go from taking about Shinji being loved/hated by the fans to a debate about the dummy system?

[Xard]

yeah you guys are seriously off-topic

time to bring this thread back on topic:

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there

To cure Shinji you need to love him like Kaworu did and that's only feeling you should harbor for Shinji.

[Shogo-Kun]

@Xard: Does the same apply to Gendo?

[Xard]

@Xard: Does the same apply to Gendo?

are you stupid? Of course not!

Gendo is just messed up adult Shinji and the WORST REPLACEMENT EVER for Kaworu, even worse than Asuka

[Shogo-Kun]

@Xard: I meant if you loved Gendo like Kaworu loved Shinji!

[Xard]

that was Yui's role but she botched it because LOL I WANT TO BE A GODDESS XDDDDD