michigrim:

The use of dolls as a motif in this episode is rather interesting.

In the script for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Mamoru Oshii described the psychology for the fear of dolls thusly:

[It’s] the uncertainty that perhaps something that appears to be alive actually isn’t, and the uncertainty that on the other hand something that doesn’t appear to be alive actually is. If you want to know what makes dolls so unnerving, it’s because they are modeled after humans. In other words they are man created in their own image. [It] creates the fear that the human phenomenon is fundamentally devoid of meaning and purpose…that humanity can be reduced to simple mechanical parts.

In the context of the story, the doll motif reflects the fear of being replaced. To be cast aside in favor of something new. Broken mechanical parts swapped out for newer ones that last longer and work harder.

Asuka values her skills as a pilot because they give her a sense of self worth via others’ dependence on her. She takes pride in her competitive spirit and her high synch ratios. She loves the fact that others depend on her to defend them against the Angels. However, she is dependent on others for her sense of self despite her personality. After all, human beings are social creatures and we depend on each other for both social, physical, and mental needs. You can’t live a healthy life “on your own”. Without the ability to pilot the EVA, she’s cast aside like a broken doll, broken parts in a machine by the power structure of NERV and SEELE who soon finds a new “toy” to replace her with in their game, now that she no longer has any value to them.

As a side note, the language that Gendo uses when discussing the pilots is rather interesting. In the subtitles, pilots are rarely if ever referred to by their names, the exception being Rei. Even Rei outright states that if she dies she can simply be replaced. When Shinji shows up, he’s referred to as “the spare”. The pilots are simply interchangeable parts in the command structure, kicked out when no longer useful and replaced.