After reading LVDB's Compromises and particularly Lavanya Six's Better Luck Next Time, I kept wondering if the Peggy Sue scenario, one of the most common types of Eva fanfiction - and, indeed, fanfiction in general, was possible at all.
Here we have one shy, passive and unassuming teenager, against his obsessed dad and a at least decades-old conspiracy by a powerful secret society to, 8ahem, reform humanity rather forcefully. Even if he has knowledge of the future, can he really succeed in changing it? Don’t even get start on why I think it is thematically… wrong.
There are a myriad of things post-Instrumentality and about its nature which are open to interpretation, after all. I’m sure you have all discussed this many times before, but…
Firstly, how much does Shinji actually know? Things like the angel battles, Rei's origins and etc are a given. Shinji, after all, never ceased to be a pawn until the end. We usually assume that the whole mind-meld group therapy gives him deep insight into, for instance, Misato and Asuka. Yet, does he necessarily remember the memories of... uhmm, everyone? It would seem pretty hard for his consciousness to remain stable if he could no longer differentiate himself from anyone else. Hence, how much the whole "all is one" thing really goes - everyone is connected, we know that, yet that does not entail that even during instrumentality there wasn't even an hint of an "I". After all, Shinji sees Misato's memories yet he still separates himself from her and Kaji, Misato, Ritsuko, etc, just like he has a confrontation with Asuka in a physical form that's not really physical. It's more like having an library and being able to read all of its books, instead of having them sealed somehow, or if they were all just one book (I suck at analogies, I know)
Personally, I like to think that the collective intellect of humankind thought it best if people just got to know the people that were already a part of their lives. Hence, post-3I Shinji could think of Asuka and remember all the bad stuff with her mother. He would think of Hikari, someone not as close to him, and, say, remember what she thinks about her sisters, something not as personal. He would think of her sisters and remember how much they like her cooking, something probably even less personal. Does that mean he could tell that Section 2 agent by the corner is called Larry and has a hamster who likes to eat Pringles? I doubt so.
While all that is fine and dandy for dealing with people better - not that that can't have a positive effect on the final outcome - knowledge from the minds of SEELE's members, as well as Gendo would undoubtedly be useful, yet if we go by my assumption above he would likely only have Gendo's. He didn't even know Chairmen Keel existed before 3I.
To makes this post just a little more conceited: Anno and subsequently Eva have been gratefully influenced by existentialist philosophy, one of its foremost authors being the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard, who is referenced multiple times in Eva. Instrumentality is pretty much one big exposure of existentialist views. One of its most important philosophical descendants was Camus' absurdism. Absurdism, being bluntly short, postulates that the man should not attempt to find an inherent meaning of life and the universe, not because of a futility to itself, but rather because the human mind is incapable to comprehend it. I could talk a lot about it but I don’t want to derail this post any longer.
How successfully can Shinji disguise such knowledge? Obviously SEELE wouldn't like to have a time traveler running amok to thwart their plans. However, much like Gendo tolerates Kaji until he is no longer useful, could Seele and Gendo do the same with Shinji? Would Gendo go as far as to… dispose of his own son? Obviously there is a great deal of character interpretation involved. Would they let him be until he… outlived his usefulness, or will they deem him too much of a risk and “erase” him soone¿ I must confess I never really understood what was the exact purpose of Shinji in Third Impact itself before Rei III handed it over to him.
All that seems to hinger on my next question…
How capable is Gendo, really?
We all know Gendo is a ruthless bastard who comfortably uses people as tools in order to attain his goal – which happens to be reuniting with his lost love. As such, Gendo, despite all his raw badassery, is NOT the perfect planning machine. In fact, his unwillingness to let go is indicative of some strong flaws in his character, not to mention all the underlying similarities with Shinji. The apple never falls far from the tree, does it¿ He is just as human as everyone else, and humans are flawed. Case in point – Rei II’s activation test incident. It would probably be better to just get rid of an injured Rei II which represented a liability, instead of keeping her around, or how much desperate he was in rescuing her (or, as EvAbridged put it “normally we would just send a laser cutter team to retrieve the entry plug, but the commander said… EJECT THE ENTRY PLUG). I think you see where I’m getting at: he has grown attached to Rei and completely trusts her to do his will, no wonder he is so surprised when she turns her back on him in EoE. I think that invalidates what happened in Better Luck Next Time with Gendo...
SPOILER: Show
having an spare Rei for that purpose
BLNT also emphasizes that Gendo is able to use Section 2 to keep track of all movements of NERV’s personnel, and that there should be no such thing as privacy in all of Tokyo-3. This is a major gray area. We never really know whether how much of a security and surveillance detail each pilot has. We usually assume they have a discreet bodyguard detail escorting them. Wouldn’t want some pesky Yakuza to try and kidnap the pilots for money, now would we? Furthermore, is there ANY reason he would NOT have Katsuragi’s and Rei’s apartments and many other places bugged to listen to everything? All the “you can be yourself Rei” and “Eva is not everything Asuka” conversations, and many other juicy details. It could depend on not being paranoid on the original timeline (would he?), but this time he could get more distrustful, due to Shinji's behavior.
Another problem, also mentioned, is Shinji’s abrupt big change in behavior. How could a meek little boy suddently turn into a confidant, battle hardened, smooth-talking, high-sychronization Casanova warrior, as most fics make him into¿ If Shinji played it carefully he could just keep acting like his old self and implement slight, progressive changes in his personality to make it seem believable, but telling Daddy to stick this giant robot where the sun don’t shine right out of the blue is like putting a big “DANGER” sign hanging over his forehead.
Furthermore, when exactly does Shinji comes back to?? Most commonly at the start of the series itself, otherwise after waking up in the aftermath with the battle with Leliel. Funnily enough, it might even be for the best, given Shinji has less of a chance to expose himself.
In fact, what is really necessary to stop Third Impact? Is it enough to merely actually destroy one of the Eva units? Are they all necessary for the post process of Third Impact itself? Given their astronomical costs, it could not be feasible for Seele to replace them again at least for the time being. They were not planning on still having to worry about money, after all.
Arresting the Selle members somehow¿ - I always thought it was rather interesting how their power seems to be great yet not infinite. They appear to have simply convinced the Japanese government that NERV is some sort of terrorist organization instead of actually controlling it? What if they are just publicly exposed?
Convincing Rei not to go along with… anything in the first place, and leaving Gendo waiting for her fruitlessly in Terminal Dogma? Or otherwise just tying her up to a chair in a dark room somewhere he can’t find her?
Just killing Gendo?!?
I’m open to your opinions, O dear sages of Eva wisdom.