>(Speaking of Asuka, I'm a bit surprised nobody's asked what she
>is, since everybody else who ever drove an EVA seems to have something
>at least a little odd going on.)

(shrug) I always figured that she got by on sheer, bloodyminded willpower, espescially given how her piloting ability dropped off at the same time as her confidence in her asskicking self image, and returned as she was restored.

After all, when you get right down to it, the will to be self-determining is humanity's special power. That she exemplifies it enough to command a celestial's body (cloned or otherwise) under the proper circumstances is indeed noteworthy, but hardly unbeleiveable.

Tangentially related to that, consider all the mythology where a human binds a demon, or banishes one. Some can undoubtedly be attributed to Soldiers with added forces, some pure fabrications, but is it so hard to picture Asuka giving a wimpy demonlet the mental beat down and forcing it to obey, for a short time at least? As a further digression, weren't redheaded babies thought to inevitably become witches and were therefore killed at borth in the Dark Ages? Poppycock, but who's to say the same genetics that give red hair don't also predispose one a bit toward magical/celestial forces. Additionally, there's a social bias expecting redheads to be firebrands, and so they tend to live up to it.

I could go on, but I suspect I'm already making les sense than I think I am.

- CD