>>2880970>This can be proven >provenWell, that's the problem. If Shinji "sees" Rei, then that isn't proof of any split soul. Consider that he also sees Rei in episode 1. What exactly Shinji "sees" or rather, feels, is something he doesn't think is Rei. Truth is, since they were experimenting with copying Rei Ayanami's personality or thinking patterns and in that very moment testing that, it might be the new dummy plug tech they are working on. That was the purpose of the test after all.
I say that one is safely debunked.
>When Unit-00 berserks the first time, Ritsuko highly suspects that it was chasing after her. Also note how her hair before the murder was brown, and she dyed it blonde on purpose. Just a fashion choice? Maybe, maybe not. It's not in Ritsuko's personality to make such frivolous choices, is it?It obviously is, this is the woman with toy cats on her desk. Also this is a real stretch tying an extremely normal thing (woman dying her hair) with someone's soul being split. This is just in-character for Ritsuko, she's always completely fucking afraid of the EVA's, in the episode before she was having a mini-breakdown about "what they copied from the antarctic".
Safely debunked as well.
>After the death of Rei and destruction of Unit-00 there is a massive personality change, with Rei being much more defiant and daring. This is something Rei I and Rei III share in common that Rei II lacks. Rei doesn't lack "defiant" or "daring", refer to the instance where she refuses to back down against either Zeruel or Armisael, or when she stands up to Asuka. The "personality change" is what you'd expect from having been in a traumatic accident and then recovering.
There is nothing tying any "soul split" with the original Rei character. If anything for Rei, the immutability of her soul is placed a strong emphasis on by showing how she still is "Rei" despite dying and being reincarnated.