>>2623373My argument is not that she's literally not present but that she really doesn't do, develop or interact that meaningfully for quite a long stretch of episodes, she basically got put in 'pause' between episode 6 and episode 16. She's in most episodes but most of the appearances I listed are borderline cameos.
In retrospect, 2.22 might have handled it poorly but getting to see how her crush towards Shinji developed beyond the Ramiel fight could have been a good way of integrating her more into what was going on during that stretch of the story rather than just have her hang around, building her meme reputation as emotionless.
Instead we get to wait until pic related, to get a sense of what else is going on with her. Don't get me wrong I'm in no way defending Rebuild or putting down NGE which to me is near perfect but as a Reifag, if it was up to me I would have done a little bit more with Rei during those episodes, not too much, I get Asuka needed to have her focus to make up for her absence at the start and that even expanding on some of the other characters is what gave Eva a scope and texture Rebuild lacks.
But just a little bit more Rei could have been great.
