[EVA] (no subject)

[Carl Gustav Horn]

>>
> Misato is not a professional soldier.  She is a fighter definitely,  
> & the NERV cops are paramilitary I guess, but more like armed police.


NERV has literally less than a handful of frontline combat soldiers,  
per se, since instead of an M16A2, their primary weapon is the  
Evangelion. Her missions don't require her to physically accompany  
the Children into the field, nor would it be desirable or advisable.  
But since NERV's HQ is the focal point of combat, to say that she's a  
staff officer doesn't mean she's far away and safe (it's as if she's  
in the Pentagon, but the Iraq War was being fought in Virginia), and  
as we see from the very first episode, she's not afraid to go outside  
into the combat zone if a mission requires it.

What the 1995-97 story never explained is how Misato acquired not  
only combat training, but training sufficient to take out three  
assault-rifle packing JSSDF troops armed with only a pistol, a pistol  
she had never been seen before to use, except for pointing it at  
people's backs. (It would be one of my special otaku requests to have  
such a special flashback scene in the new films explaining this). It  
might make some sense for Misato to receive such training, if part of  
her job was conceived as protecting the pilots, the key asset of  
NERV. But while Hyuga and Aoba were at least willing to defend their  
position, Misato alone, at the end (just as at the beginning) was  
willing to go out and face the danger head-on. And she's 29 years  
old; why, that's 87 in anime years.