J.C. Bengston said:

>We know from one of the earliest episodes (3 & 4) that Kensuke doesn't
>have a mother.. and from the way Toji speaks similarly, he probably
>doesn't either. And it's later learned that all the children in class
>2-A are candidates for Eva piloting.. was Toji's mother in EVA-03 then?
>If so, since when did he ever have a connection to NERV / SEELE prior to
>being "chosen"?

I had always assumed that Toji's mother was in Eva 03.  AFAIK we're never given
any background on her, so I say just assume that she had some unspecified
connection to NERV.  We don't know who Unit 04's pilot was or was going to be,
so there's no way to tell whose soul was in that one.

>But then on the other hand, what the heck good would an Evangelion be if
>it didn't have it's most powerful offensive and defensive weapon, the AT
>Field? They built the thing just so it could go berserk? That seems
>unlikely..

Someone's soul has to be in it.  If NERV ran an activation test with a live
entry plug, there had to be some soul there for the entry plug to synch with.

>Is ignorance bliss,

Yes.

> or does anyone else have thoughts on this? I won't
>even get started on ideas for the Mass Production Units.. ;P

I will! We know that the entry plugs had Kaoru-based dummy plugs. Kaoru, being
an Angel, can synch with an Eva no matter whose soul is in it. (Whether he can
do so at will, or the Eva's soul needs to be submissive for some reason, I
don't know.) We know that the MP Evas do have AT Fields: this is explicitly
stated when their AT Fields start to resonate as the Evas start to merge with
Lilith and we get that '70s disco symbol. So there must be souls in there.  No
souls, no AT fields.  My best guess is that they're nine chumps (more likely
chumpettes) from NERV's other branches.
One other thing about the MP Evas that bugs me: after they resonate with Lilith
and all the little Rei-heads pop out, are they still being controlled by their
dummy plugs, or are they dominated by the will of Lilith?

--R.--