>>(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.)
>
>I just thought she had some particularly potent Grigori heritage
>myself. Not as stong or direct as Shinji, but very much there. Are you
>implying there's more to it than that?

No; less. Asuka has no celestial heritage whatever. And that, in itself, is what makes her so remarkable.

Asuka is the only normal human who can operate an Evangelion.

Look at the record.

First Child, Rei Ayanami: An Earthbound angel.
Third Child, Shinji Ikari: A Nephallite.
Fourth Child, Jon Ellison: Celestial hybrid, mostly infernal.
Fifth Child, DJ Croft: Current incarnation of Saint Longinus, who can master any weapon.

Others who have piloted EVAs:

The Ellison brothers: Same as Jon.
The Ayanami sisters: Fallen clones of Rei (Djinn).
Tabris: At the time he activated an EVA, he was a Habbalite (Fallen Elohite).

Everyone there has some touch of the celestial. Just having the extra Force that gives a Soldier of God her sensitivity to the Symphony isn't enough, or there would have been dozens, maybe hundreds of EVA pilots available to NERV, assuming the Marduk screening was administered to a decent percentage of the world's remaining population.

So you see, in a way, Asuka is the most distinctive ("unique" is an absolute, there are no degrees of uniqueness) of the Children of Project Evangelion. All the rest of them had been touched by the celestial (or infernal) before they began their careers as EVA pilots; they're all in some way aberrant. Asuka is not. Her special factor is innate and independent from the fact that she's a six-Force human.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/