Does SEELE needed a pilot in unit 01 or just unit 01?

[TraxXavier]

I'm wondering if it was part of SEELEs plan to give control over the process to whomever sat inside unit 01 or if the third impact would also work without a pilot inside unit 01.
I mean of the later than it would beam that a soulless dummy plug system would control the exact outcome if the operation. Was that what they intended? That would be kind of bizarre to let something without a soul hold the fait of all man kind in its hands.

[Reichu]

Given precedent elsewhere, I honestly have to wonder if Seele would be able to accomplish anything without someone playing the role of "trigger". Perhaps their initial plan was to destroy Nerv's personnel, confiscate the Evas and Lilith, and put off Third Impact until they (Seele) could be physically present. Once it became clear they didn't have that luxury, they just went along with the idea of using Shinji, assuming he could be psychologically plied into yielding the results they desired.

[Mr. Tines]

The details of SEELE's plan (even the distinctions between what they intended and Gendo was after) are only cryptically hinted at. I'd have to trawl the scripts again to be certain, but I got the impression that EVA-01's entire role in the process from their side was an improvisation, however central it might have been for Gendo.

[Reichu]

Gendo getting rid of the Spear of Longinus somehow prevented Seele from using Lilith, hence using Lilith's backup instead. Why is Eva-01 usable without the original Spear but not Lilith? I dunno, lol.

[BlueBasilisk]

This scene from Secret of Evangelion is the only Instrumentality scenario I've seen that mostly aligns with Seele's vague objectives:

SPOILER: Show

Lance of Longinus, Lilith, no Unit 01, and no gods created. Still a little short on Evas by the looks of things.

Seele wasn't happy with what Unit 01 became, but I wonder if they might have encouraged Kaworu to approach Shinji as part of a contingency?

[Mr. Tines]

Previous rounds of discussion have suggested that their intent was to completely break Shinji, so he would be inert during the process of Instrumentality.

[Reichu]

Previous rounds of discussion have suggested that their intent was to completely break Shinji, so he would be inert during the process of Instrumentality.

Not quite.

All (chanting):
Evangelion Unit 01's pilot...
Complement humankind with your imperfect ego.

Soon after:

AOBA:
Psychograph signal down!

HYUGA:
Destrudo materializing!

FUYUTSUKI:
Surely the pilot's ego can't take much more...

And then...

AOBA:
Solenoid graph inverting! Ego barrier weakening!

HYUGA:
A.T. Field shifting to Pattern Red!

Shinji is anything but an "inert" component. The release of his destrudo is an integral part of triggering HIP.

[Mr. Tines]

He is entirely passive, rather than acting with any initiative of his own, up until the final point where he decides to crash the system.

[Reichu]

You said "inert during the process of Instrumentality", which is distinct from just being "passive" and lacking agency. He's a very active and integral component, despite his participation not really being volitional. You also suggested that this has something to do with Seele's intent, when it was actually Yui's decision to deny Shinji the driver's seat from the get-go.

[Mr. Tines]

Yes, the whole Instrumentality that we saw was a general clusterfuck as everyone's plans were subverted by Rei and by Yui. And perhaps "inert" was too strong a word.

On reflection, given the instructions given to the JSSDF forces, it would seem that Shinji was not necessary to SEELE's back-up plans -- so possibly a successful assault would have ended with a Kaworu dummy plug for EVA-01. It has been the various Kaworu/ep24 threads that have suggested that it was expected that he would at least be broken at that point to the point where he would not interfere.