>>4259733>You think if Bardiel hadn't happened and Toji would've joined the crew as the fourth child that anything would've changed?Good question. I think it would have been good for a while, for Shinji at least. Maybe the others too if he can bring some stability to the dynamic. Toji was a pretty good friend to Shinji, and had a good understanding of what he was going through after the time he got to see Shinji in action. Could have been good for him to confide in. But as you mentioned, he probably wouldn't last. Shinji was exceptional as a pilot and had his mom's hax on his side, while Toji was coming to the party late, compared to the others. All the angels after Bardiel were no joke, and he could have easily been done in by any of them with a lesser level of experience compared to the other three. That would probably crush Shinji just as bad as Bardiel did, if not worse if he had time to bond with him over being a pilot.
>perhaps it would've been him who self destructed and not Rei II.Interesting scenario. Shinji not loosing Rei II would have been good for him, but at the cost of Toji im not sure if it wouldn't just give us the same outcome anyway.
as for SEELE and Gendo, i think unit 03 was intended to give SEELE a way to remove Gendo from the loop in regards to their plans with Eva-01. They wouldn't need Yui if they had an Eva specifically made for them to control, vs the prototype that was finnicky in general and unit-02 which was designed specifically for combat.
