Okay, I really should read the entire thread before posting replies....
Anyway, I have an alternate suggestion: Some plucky band of too-clever mortals (NERV, anyone?) get fed up with the way that Gaia and Alaiya carry on, and come up with a way to slip their own joker into Gaia and/or Alaiya's deck -- a Heroic Spirit-class combatant who's a free agent and devoted to justice. Maybe summoning canon DJ crosstime from some variant of the NXE-verse.
...although now I can see some problems with that.
Hm... okay, try this: the true natures of some (many?) Heroic Spirits rebel against how they become warped by their legends, and "splinter off" an untouched fragment. And the Eternal Soldier is the serial reincarnation of these splinters, rather than the "main" Spirits residing on the throne.
Now, that raises the intriguing possibility that the ES becomes more powerful over time, as he accumulates reincarnations.
Anyway, I have an alternate suggestion: Some plucky band of too-clever mortals (NERV, anyone?) get fed up with the way that Gaia and Alaiya carry on, and come up with a way to slip their own joker into Gaia and/or Alaiya's deck -- a Heroic Spirit-class combatant who's a free agent and devoted to justice. Maybe summoning canon DJ crosstime from some variant of the NXE-verse.
...although now I can see some problems with that.
Hm... okay, try this: the true natures of some (many?) Heroic Spirits rebel against how they become warped by their legends, and "splinter off" an untouched fragment. And the Eternal Soldier is the serial reincarnation of these splinters, rather than the "main" Spirits residing on the throne.
Now, that raises the intriguing possibility that the ES becomes more powerful over time, as he accumulates reincarnations.