Yes, anyone who means to write something else after contributing this would be well advised to go find a bad cup of coffee, especially if they usually hate the stuff.
Anyway, my comments for the time being - I'd suggest a mix of the fourth and fifth options, with a twist: The Evas are wierd biotech things that, in their inactive mode, look and act more or less human. When turned on, they merge and colocate with their... dang, can't think of a phrasing dirty enough... pilots, essentially becoming power armor in their own right. As originally designed, their 'human mode' is essentially vegetative - which will bounce interestingly off of Asuka's Doll Issues, but a fun little twist that develops as time goes on is that, when an angel is reduced, the Unit absorbs her - ie, during that intro scene, Sachiel is actually driving Shinji's Eva in autonomous mode. Each Unit can swap or be swapped between any of the angels it's... interacted with, with the timing and identity being controlled first and foremost by the Unit's controlling Child and, in absence of other orders, by the relevant Angel(s) themselves. No, two units cannot manifest the same Angel at the same time, and Ritsuko is likely to go at least halfway bats trying to figure out where Israfel's second body comes from when she's doing the driving.
As to character bloat, well, howsabout this - Shinji can't decide the 'winning Angel' until the entire mess is over with, but he - or one of the other pilots - can decide the losers ahead of time... in short, if a Child tells an Angel they have defeated to Get Lost, and means it in a more-than-just-momentary-pique way, they go. Dissapear, out of the game.
Obviously, in this setting, there is no need for LCL.
Ja, -n
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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Anyway, my comments for the time being - I'd suggest a mix of the fourth and fifth options, with a twist: The Evas are wierd biotech things that, in their inactive mode, look and act more or less human. When turned on, they merge and colocate with their... dang, can't think of a phrasing dirty enough... pilots, essentially becoming power armor in their own right. As originally designed, their 'human mode' is essentially vegetative - which will bounce interestingly off of Asuka's Doll Issues, but a fun little twist that develops as time goes on is that, when an angel is reduced, the Unit absorbs her - ie, during that intro scene, Sachiel is actually driving Shinji's Eva in autonomous mode. Each Unit can swap or be swapped between any of the angels it's... interacted with, with the timing and identity being controlled first and foremost by the Unit's controlling Child and, in absence of other orders, by the relevant Angel(s) themselves. No, two units cannot manifest the same Angel at the same time, and Ritsuko is likely to go at least halfway bats trying to figure out where Israfel's second body comes from when she's doing the driving.
As to character bloat, well, howsabout this - Shinji can't decide the 'winning Angel' until the entire mess is over with, but he - or one of the other pilots - can decide the losers ahead of time... in short, if a Child tells an Angel they have defeated to Get Lost, and means it in a more-than-just-momentary-pique way, they go. Dissapear, out of the game.
Obviously, in this setting, there is no need for LCL.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"