Yep. It reminds me of the striking difference between most space travel sci-fi (in which the pilot of a spacecraft is the captain of their vessel and can go whe

Yep. It reminds me of the striking difference between most space travel sci-fi (in which the pilot of a spacecraft is the captain of their vessel and can go wherever they please) and, say, the Space Shuttle (which required meticulous planning and a large ground support staff for every single mission). Evangelion does a great job of visually conveying how the pilot in the robot's cockpit is, in part, just a focal point for the efforts of thousands of other people. And then, of course, it subverts that portrayal by revealing that (ROT13) gur Rinf jrer npghnyyl perngrq ol na bpphyg frperg fbpvrgl hfvat napvrag nyvraf, naq abar bs gur grpuavpvnaf be bcrengbef unir n pyhr jung gurl'er ERNYYL pncnoyr bs.