Apologies all if this has been well-answered in the past; I tried using the search function and apparently wasn't specific enough in what I was looking for.

In Episode 08, Gendou tells Kaji that Shinji was sent as a back-up pilot. Gendou could obviously be lying here, either about Shinji being a back-up or about actually requiring Shinji accompany Misato. But it feels like he meant it - if Gendou suspected the Adam embryo would be attacked, sending Unit 01's pilot into danger if Shinji cannot sync with Unit 02 feels reckless. If both Unit 02 and Shinji are lost for example, was it worth actually sending him as part of the deception.

With what is later revealed about Unit 02 and why Asuka seems to be the exclusive pilot of it, is this all just misdirection on Gendou's part? Obviously, Shinji has some ability to sync with Unit 02, hence the dual-sync records Ritsuko is comparing at the end of the episode. It's not just Asuka's sync with Shinji's pattern being background noise that needed to be filtered out like Kensuke and Touji when Unit 01 fought Shamshel.

This feels like something that is either meant to not be answered or the intent of why Asuka was the exclusive pilot wasn't decided until later in the series' development and thus minor compatibility was still considered possible at this point in the show.

Has this been answered anywhere?

I don't think its been answered.

I believe any previously activated Eva could sync with a kid with experience piloting. Having the pilot's mother as a resident soul in the core allows syncing to go much smoother and reach higher degrees of performance and allows for potential Berserk Mode if the pilot is in immanent danger.

Also now that I think of it, at this stage Kaji is unaware of the nature of the Marduk Institute's Child Selection process, meaning he is unaware of the resident pilot's mother-soul in their Evas. Indeed calling Shinji a back-up pilot for the Adam Sample collection trip without sending Unit-01 with him could be subtle misdirection on Gendo's part early on to confuse Kaji later about the nature of the Marduk Institute's dealings with pilot-evacore pairings when Kaji tries to snoop them out.

sithsauron wrote:Also now that I think of it, at this stage Kaji is unaware of the nature of the Marduk Institute's Child Selection process, meaning he is unaware of the resident pilot's mother-soul in their Evas. Indeed calling Shinji a back-up pilot for the Adam Sample collection trip without sending Unit-01 with him could be subtle misdirection on Gendo's part early on to confuse Kaji later about the nature of the Marduk Institute's dealings with pilot-evacore pairings when Kaji tries to snoop them out.

Which I'm willing to buy, but I'm not willing to buy Gendou gambling on potentially costing Unit 01 its pilot if things go south during the escort to make this misdirection.

And since Shinji does sync with Unit 02, even if it is misdirection it can't be entirely misdirection.

Fair enough. Still maybe Gendo didn't know the angel would attack, and mentioned Shinji being a backup as an excuse to make Kaji feel better. But again you said you felt he meant it when he said it, so your guess is good as mine. Also if the Dummy Plug system was already on its way, getting rid of Shinji would be convenient for Gendo, but again you are right why would he take that risk when Angels are coming in so fast?

Other than that maybe Gendo just wanted the 2nd and 3rd children to meet and bond early so as to ensure they develop loyalty to Nerve, knowing later on they would be involved in a conflict with Seele. However that would be just one of a hundred random reasons I could pull out of a hat, with nothing seen in the TV show to confirm it.

By misdirection I mean Gendo does not want Kaji to know that Shinji's mother is in Unit-01's core or Asuka's mother is in Unit-02's core, at least for a while. Thus, by suggesting pilots can easily sync with each other's Evas would throw Kaji off that trail in case he suspects something.

Perhaps what Gendo meant by back-up pilot is that if Asuka dies in the initial Angel assault before getting into her Eva, and Shinji survives, Shinji can try to jump in and pilot Unit-02 as best he can. The Adam sample is very important to Gendo's plans, arguably just as important as defeating the Angels possibly. The only reason Gendo didn't fly out Unit-01 to that navy fleet for support is because it's too big and it would set off alarms at Seele that Gendo might be smuggling something on board one of those ships.