[EVA] Misato the crack shot

[Carl Gustav Horn]

Shooting a pistol well on a target range, and shooting it well in  
running combat against people with better weapons and body armor  
firing back (ask any soldier if they'd prefer a pistol to an assault  
rifle if they had the choice), may be two slightly different things.  
Not that Evangelion is known for making the strictest sense, but  
Misato appears to shoot the first soldier in the back of the head  
(the one about to shoot Shinji) from several yards away, even though  
he's wearing a helmet. She then charges the two other soldiers while  
under automatic fire, and is not only not hit, but manages to kill  
one and disable the other with a kick before shooting him under the  
chin. It doesn't exactly scream beginners' luck.

On Aug 20, 2007, at 12:47 AM, Harold Ancell wrote:

> At 09:55 PM 8/19/2007, Drew Lewis wrote:
>
>> On 8/19/07, Carl Gustav Horn <once at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Misato is not a professional soldier.  She is a fighter definitely,
>>>> & the NERV cops are paramilitary I guess, but more like armed  
>>>> police.
>>>
>>> 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
>
> A gun is not a magical totem, conferring upon its wielder any
> special ability.  In this case, surprise and hitting where they
> aren't wearing body armor counts for a lot more.
>
> Shooting a bunch of armed people does not indicate any skill, and
> while their failure to quickly take the "bridge" was I'm sure mostly
> a matter of dramatic necessity, in "real life" the use of grenades
> (free and launched) would have made that a short affair against
> people without fragment protection (body armor and helmets).
>
>>> 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).
>>
>>              I always figured that she was seconded from some  
>> other branch
>> of the UN military to Nerv for the duration of the crisis.  I  
>> can't think of
>> any evidence of this offhand, but it would explain a few of those  
>> questions
>> if she were a former infantry or  armor officer.
>
> I don't have anything handy to cite and Wikipedia says there is no  
> information
> about her past between college and NERV (except for a bit from the  
> manga about
> "genetic research" WRT PenPen), but I *thought* it was canon she  
> had done a
> stint in the ground part of the JSDF before joining NERV, and so  
> she's as
> "professional" as an ex-JGSDF officer might be.
>
> Learning to shoot well with a pistol only requires time,  
> opportunity, and
> determination as well as some aptitude, and while coaching is  
> helpful, it's
> not essential past the basics.  She could have learned once she was  
> in NERV
> at a level where she was issued one, I'm sure in its depths it has  
> at least
> one good conventional range.  And there *has* to be least a short  
> course for
> those who, especially in Japan, have no prior training.
>
> Most people also say they need at least monthly refresher practice  
> for a
> handgun (long gun skills don't seem to deteriorate much), but that  
> doesn't
> seem to be true for me---however I started shooting in  
> kindergarten, and
> based on the abilities of all my blood relatives it would seem I  
> have some
> genetic aptitude as well.
>
> All in all her performance in the one time she used it "in anger" is
> entirely credible given a few reasonable assumptions like the above.
>
>                                         - Harold
>
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