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ASUKA SOURYU LANGLEY
She is the most flamboyant and outspoken of the EVA pilots. She prides herself
as a very skilled EVA pilot. She first appeared in Episode 8 with EVA-02 and
her trainer Ryouji Kaji.
Throughout the series, we slowly find out that her pride was a facade for her
inner pain. Her mother ignored her when she was little. Asuka wished that she
could exist without the need for either of her parents. Yet she could only remember
that she never wanted her mother to leave her. She does not want to feel unneeded,
therefore, like Shinji, she found her self worth in piloting EVA. When Shinji
bested her in synchro-rate, her security was challenged. That lead to her drop
in her own synchro-rate. Like a vicious cycle, that made things worse and worse.
Finally, the 15th Angel exposed her deepest pain at gunpoint when it tried to
probe into her mind, thus dropping her synchro-rate below requirement to control
EVA-02 when the 16th Angel appeared. Shinji had to take over. Being drained
of all her pride, she was emotionally reduced to the state of catatonia and
had to be replaced by a Fifth Children. If she had not escaped from her past
for such a long time she probably would have been much less vulnerable to the
emotional attack of the 15th Angel. Her EVA-based sense of self-worth only made
things worse, thus triggered the complete breakdown.