First: if you haven't watched all the TV episodes and at least heard
the spoilers of the 1st movie, you probably want to skip this message.

(You probably also should be *very* careful discussing Evangelion, for
things are seldom as they seem early on in the series....)

On the story "I'm Shinji":

At 06:49 PM 6/23/97 -0700, Captain Jack wrote:

"Tell me more about your father."

"He's been great.  He took it really hard when mother died, but he's
done everything he can to give us a better life."

Ok, here we *know* Shinji's out to lunch ^_^.

"Who is 'us'?"

"Oh, you mean me, father and Rei."

"Rei?"

"Yeah, she's my sister.

Rei *is* to first approximation Shinji's sister....

"Girlfriend?"

"Ya, Asuka.  Why are you asking me these questions?"

And Asuka is to first approximation Shinji's girlfriend....

[...]

Four hours later, Misato meets Gendo in his office.

[...]

"Good.  He knows too much sensitive information about Evas and NERV.
Since its been determined he is no longer of use to us, I'm afraid we
will have to dispose of him."

Gendo would never tell Misato this:

a) As we first see in episode 7 (runaway nuclear powered robot) Misato
is not in the inner circle.  That episode starts one of the major
subplots, that of Misato trying to figure out what's really going on.

b) Misato would never stand for this.  I wouldn't put it past her to shoot
Gendou on the spot.  She will most certainly kill to protect Shinji.

c) Gendou is not Seele; he's quite rutheless, but there's no evidence
I'm aware of that he's that rutheless.  He's also smart enough to know that
that sort of policy would destroy Nerv by destroying it's morale.

d) Episode 19 shows that he's quite willing to send Shinji away with his
mind and memories fully intact.  Shinji did learn some important things
after 19, but I doubt he learned anything Seele didn't know, and Seele
is the only serious enemy Gendou/Nerv have.  I think Seele knows just
about everything but Genou's real intensions, and Gendou was willing to
place a far more knowledgeable person in Seele's hands (someone in the
inner circle) in episode 23.

e) Such an action would give Seele *way* too much a hold on Gendou if they
found out about it.

Now onto Eva vs. Valkyries:

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 14:23:23 -0500 (CDT)
From: dalton@texas.net (David Hofelinh)

well there's no question who's win there :P....why even think of it
:)...personally i think minmei's singing could bring any EVA to defeat :)

Not if the "dull boy" or "doll" is piloting it ^_^.  There's only one pilot
that would work on....

From: wacko@laplace.snu.ac.kr (Yoo C. Chung)
Date: 26 Jun 1997 00:53:01 +0900

(Actually, I doubt that even nuclear missiles could do much harm.)

In one episode they were planning on dropping 992 N2 depth charges
on an Evangelion in a nasty situation, with the expectation that it
wouldn't completely destroy the it (athough it would kill
the pilot).  EVAs have survived just about contact N2 explosions
without a scratch; at full power their AT fields are *very* *very* good.

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:11:25 -0500 (CDT)
From: dalton@texas.net (David Hofelinh)

until the Eva runs out of power. No AT field. No Eva soon after.

eva's are groundbound....the valkrrie is a sure win

Not necessarily; stock equipment includes some sort of jet pack in
the shoulder/mount things.  And of course they could be bolted to
an air mobility device.

Eva's can use rifles. :)

valkyrie's use rifles all the time :)

Not positron "rifles" that can hit objects in orbit from the ground....

Also, after watching episode 19 you'd be much less sure a Valkyrie would
generally win....

Set up the situation properly (episode 22) and the Eva is *guaranteed*
to win---this is admittedly a special case, but in this one case an EVA
will always win against it's opponent.  Even if it was the Macross in orbit.
(Don't disagree until you've watched the relevent episodes.)

Bottom line: most of the EVA's apparent deficiencies are artificial.  Deal
with those, and then it's really a matter of range: if the Valkyrie closes
in, it's toast, if it stands off, it can't scratch the EVA due to its AT
field.

It's the AT field that makes the real difference; the Macross world
has nothing on it's scale, and counterwise, the AT fields of the Angels
have produced a focus in EVA weapons and tactics that don't fit with the
Macross style of battle.  Give Nerv a few days or weeks to develop stuff
specificly focused on Macross weaponry and ... I'll leave that as an
exercise to the reader.

					- Harold