>In real life, fighter pilots tend to have massive egos, and this is
>generally a good thing, because it's a job that requires massive,
>unwavering self-confidence in order to succeed. Piloting a machine
>like the Evas would very much fall in the same category. Now, maybe
>Gendo needs a doormat to make Instrumentality happen, but they won't
>get to that point if Eva's pilot doesn't have the balls to go out and
>win. Shinji is not sufficient to the task at hand (which, granted, the
>show admits with the way things go in the end).

Good point, that--and it's not just fighter pilots, either. Test pilots (anyone flying something with an X or Y prefix on the type designator, e.g. X-35 or YF-35) also have egos roughly the size of small moons; ground attack pilots have egos that are even bigger; and while the local Management here is apparently fond of Yeager and I'd be stupid to say anything bad about him, the combination of figher+test article pilot results in an ego that could eclipse most suns.

Every single pilot I've met/worked with/worked for in those categories has been, without exception, an arrogant sumbitch with a truly enormous ego.

Perhaps that's part of what bothers me about Shinji piloting the massive prototype robot...