A quick question regarding the pilots and their eva's

[liquidus118]

Whilst watching NGE again recently I noticed something and couldn't find a logical reason why it was so...And would like to think there isn't such a gaping plot hole in the series.

So, why do the pilots sometimes feel pain and sometimes don't?
I mean, one minute we have Shinji clinging to his veiny arm as the Third Angel is trying to pull it off and the next he's diving very deep into lava - deep enough to crush Asuka's Type-D suit and crush that drone they sent in earlier in the episode. Or in the second fight Shinji gets stabbed through the stomach and you clearly see it hurt him and then in Asuka's debut fight she gets several razor-sharp teeth straight through the body and doesn't even seem to notice; she's far more bothered that Shinji's rubbing against her in his attempts to help out.

So, is there a proper explanation for this? It can't be synch-level since Shinji was at only 40% when he was clinging to his arm in the first fight and Asuka was at a record high when she had several teeth going through her Eva.

[Seele00TextOnly]

...

[Allemann]

So, why do the pilots sometimes feel pain and sometimes don't?

The need for drama is what determines it.

[Azathoth]

If anything is an almost unavoidable plothole in that encounter, it is that Unit-01 wasn't almost completely destroyed by being exposed directly to the lava like that.

The exposure was implicitly pretty brief, and Unit 01 is made of magic space substances, when it comes down to it.

In general, I'd say dramatic effect is the most important factor, though.

[liquidus118]

In general, I'd say dramatic effect is the most important factor, though.

You think? I hope not. That'd be pretty iffy writing; having people get hurt when it's convenient despite two directly comparable events (sharp stuff through the torso) where pretty-much opposite reactions occur. I can understand it being a fair part of it, though (After all writers are obviously going to alter how things play out based on dramatic effect). I just would hope it's not the most important factor.

I'd like to think that Seele00's got it right; makes the most sense without being inconsistent writing. Which I doubt would be the case considering how good NGE is.

[jojojoker]

Well, I see the pilots reacting to the pain pretty often. Looking past the aforementioned dramatic factors, it would also relate to their sync levels.

[Hyper Shinchan]

The synchronization level can be lowered to reduce the feedback, but unless it can be done from inside the EVA I doubt that they did it in the battle against Gaghiel (since they were lacking EVA's support facilities).
In the case of Sandalphon we can suppose both that:
- the equipment was able to cool the EVA enough
- what is hot for a man isn't necessarily hot for an EVA their limit could be much higher
Yet these are only excuses made by Evangelion (and us), pilots scream in big robots since they've been animated for the first time and actually I don't even care about it (in the second episode of Gundam Unicorn Barnage lost his senses after receiving a punch, I wonder if the Unicorn has some kind of feedback as results of the direct mind control; it would be a nice mechanical EVA if it's the case).

[Aozora]

in Asuka's debut fight she gets several razor-sharp teeth straight through the body and doesn't even seem to notice; she's far more bothered that Shinji's rubbing against her in his attempts to help out.

So, is there a proper explanation for this? It can't be synch-level since Shinji was at only 40% when he was clinging to his arm in the first fight and Asuka was at a record high when she had several teeth going through her Eva.

In episode 8, their synch rate was really low because both Shinji and Asuka were piloting. I assume that's why the bite didn't hurt. After that, I guess they were really focused on opening the mouth instead of focusing on pain.

[Azathoth]

In episode 8, their synch rate was really low because both Shinji and Asuka were piloting. I assume that's why the bite didn't hurt. After that, I guess they were really focused on opening the mouth instead of focusing on pain.

That doesn't stand up; Ritsuko (or someone) mentions that they actually broke both their synchronization records in episode 8 (which makes no sense given the rest of the series' mythology, but oh well, it's the action arc).

[Hyper Shinchan]

That doesn't stand up; Ritsuko (or someone) mentions that they actually broke both their synchronization records in episode 8 (which makes no sense given the rest of the series' mythology, but oh well, it's the action arc).

Yeah, they were having both good sync ratios; actually a cutting of the sync ratio doesn't work as well because they probably needed their best synchronisation rate to open the mouth of Gaghiel.

[Sachi]

Yeah, they were having both good sync ratios; actually a cutting of the sync ratio doesn't work as well because they probably needed their best synchronisation rate to open the mouth of Gaghiel.

That doesn't explain the slight Berserker mode Unit-02 went into.

When Asuka and Shinji focus their energy on opening Gaghiel's mouth, the true eyes of the Evangelion open— I would find a screenshot, but I'm at school right now. The only other time this happens with Unit-02 is when Arael is mind-raping Asuka, which is also affecting the Eva.

This suggests that, with Gaghiel, Unit-02 went into a Berserker mode along with the energy being put in by Asuka and Shinji. This is later reflected by the cooperational synchronization between Asuka and Unit-02's berserker in EoE. These separate occasions strongly suggest that a pilot can trigger, to some extent, a Berserker while still maintaining control of the Eva.

[TheLobe]

the evas are amoured. The lava hadn't gotten through yet, not to mention evas are thickskinned. Their like the angels, so attacking them with lava is like blowing up the angels. Not to mention the angels actually pierce their skin and armour. I may eb wrong but I thought the teeth didn't go through the eva but around it.

[Shinji]

the evas are amoured.

Well, Asuka was armored when she went into the lava. But the standard-issue plating that appears most of the time is revealed not to be meant as armor plating at all, but restraints placed on the Evas to keep them in check. To how much of an extent this doubles up as protection, is never explicitly stated. Asuka brags about her armor plating being better which is probably true because her Eva is "the first true Eva unit" made for combat.

[Kendrix]

Asuka was already quite close to the surface when her cable was ripped.
An EVA needs D-Type equiptment to survive the pressure of where Sandalphon originally was, but just a few Meters of Lave might be a completely different caliber/not be enough to melt through the armor

[Nightweaver20xx]

I always thought the amount of pain a pilot feels is directly proportional to their sync ratio. At 100% or more, the pilot experiences every sensation the Eva does. And when Asuka was synced to 300% in 02 in EoE, she felt everything 3 times as intensely. Which, even given her training, was impossible to bear. At that high a sync ratio, a pilot would not only FEEL the Eva's pain, he/she would receive actual physical injuries equivalent to the Eva's. Hence Shinji's throat actually being compressed by Unit 05 in in ep 18, and Asuka's eye being destroyed by the replica Lance in EoE.

But it's all very malleable and of course the writers will just go with whatever dramatic tension requires. Eva is nothing if not loose with its physics. It's not an episode of Nova.

[lilim]

That doesn't stand up; Ritsuko (or someone) mentions that they actually broke both their synchronization records in episode 8 (which makes no sense given the rest of the series' mythology, but oh well, it's the action arc).

but they only broke that for like 30 seconds, near the very end. at first, they could have had a really bad sync rate, especially because they weren't as focused as they should have been, they are arguing with each other ("What are you going to do about this?!" "Why is it my problem?!" blah blah) also, i don't remember if it really bit in or just had it's teeth around unit 02, but i thought it was the former? i'll have to rewatch that ep.

Asuka was already quite close to the surface when her cable was ripped.
An EVA needs D-Type equiptment to survive the pressure of where Sandalphon originally was, but just a few Meters of Lave might be a completely different caliber/not be enough to melt through the armor

^that's what i thought when i watched it. at first i was like "what the heck, unit 02 has to get in a huge suit and unit 01 just dips in like it's a swimming pool?" then i was thinking about the tests they did, and it didn't seem that the danger was the lava itself but rather how far you went into it. so i assumed it would have been a problem if she was farther down when the cables snapped, but since she was almost to the top anyway it wasn't a big deal for him to reach in and get her.

[Shinji]

umm... bratwurst, strudel

[FES]

It was likely for dramatic effect, you see the early parts of the show were much more lighthearted. Characters made jokes, no mental breakdowns, problems were not as prevalent regarding relationships between the pilots/characters etc.

It would be natural that the relative happiness of the show (at that point) mirror the actions of the pilots and the situations in which they find themselves in.


Only other explanations would be synch ratio, or Epinephrine, which would be slightly contradictory.