

Asuka being the second child would seem to suggest she should be piloting the
second Eva, Unit 01, instead of the third Eva, Unit 02.

Does the series or for that matter anything else outside the aeries explain
the discrepancy in ordering? It’s logical that the first child, Rei pilot the
first Eva, Unit 00, but Shinji being the third child and Asuka the second
doesn’t make sense to me when they pilot the second and third units (Shinji 01
and Asuka 02) respectively.


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neon-genesis-evangelion
Does NGE explain why the third child pilots the second Eva?


Obviously, these are huge spoilers for the original series:

My understanding is that Unit 01 is actually the _first_ EVA unit created. It
was quite literally pulled from Lilith (the angel they have crucified down in
the basement -- that's why they only have the top half of her; you can see
this in process in some quick scenes flashing back to the original Contact
Experiment). The initial plans and intentions are unclear, like a lot of
things in this series, but after Unit-01 absorbed Yui Ikari, Unit-00 and Unit
02 were created in a different manner, from cloned cells from Adam (the First
Angel who blew up in Second Impact). It's probably better to say that Unit-00
was the first EVA unit that was _functional_ , and it's the testbed for the
control and containment technology to keep the monsters biddable, like the
plate armor and the giant crucifix they jam into the spinal column
(termination plug). Unit 01 was armored and armed after that testing had taken
place, and given the designation then; Unit-02 was then built as the
"production" model.

As to why Shinji is then the Third Child, and not the first, well, it's
certain that he was not known, to the public or to the Human Instrumentality
Committee, to be a pilot before Gendo summoned him to Tokyo-3. It seems
possible that Gendo did not intend to have Shinji pilot at all, meaning to run
the whole system with Rei until the Dummy Plug was operational -- but when the
Third Angel was about to attack with Unit-00 and Rei disabled, he grabbed
Shinji to pilot, knowing that Unit-01 would sync with him because of the soul
inside it. It makes sense that the "public" pilots would have designations
given to them first.

Now, extra-textually, you could also consider some symbolic considerations.
Rei is first, but she's _rei_ (zero), without a soul of her own, so she pilots
Unit 00. Asuka is all about duality -- everything the current 'tsundere' trope
is -- so she is the Second Child and pilots Unit 02. Shinji -- well, he's the
Third, and he pilots Unit 01 -- and when three are really one but still three,
Christianity calls that the Trinity, and so Shinji ascends to the Godhead in
Third Impact.

(This is extreme armchair symbolism and very basic, so take it with as many
grains of salt as you need.)


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