Well, I had my doubts about 8-Megadork-8’s aptitude* for air combat from the start. >_>

Partly because of its somewhat inefficient-looking propulsion system…and partly because plot conventions unambiguously call for a defeat on the first attempt, as demonstrated before in this space. Demonstrated repeatedly, in fact, since these rules are just so strict and unchanging.

Latho’s point also stands, of course – recycling footage of the Titanor-Twin’s first victory for depicting their second one saves effort. Animation effort on the hypothetical movie level, but also drawing effort back here in webcomic reality. =P

And speaking of effort, particularly small amounts of it, another positive side-effect of all of this parsimony is that Shinji currently finds himself doing a pretty simple and easy job. Which he very much appreciates, thank you – his general feeling is that his circumstances far too rarely properly reflect his personal lack of ambition, so he’s happy whenever that happens.

More on Thursday.

* Not to be confused with altitude, which also plays into the issue of air combat, but on a different level.**

** “Altitude” – “different level”, get it? =P