Dummy System

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The Dummy System is an artificial pilot system for the Evangelion Units. It can be made to take over control of the Eva from the Pilot, as in Episode 18, or it can work with a Dummy Plug, an altered Entry Plug which is red instead of white, as with the Mass Production Evangelions. The Dummy Plugs contain the "personality" of either Rei Ayanami or Kaworu Nagisa and are designed to trick an Evangelion into thinking that it is synchronizing with a real pilot by mimicking the thought patterns of either Rei or Kaworu. Essentially, the Dummy System functions as an autopilot system: Nerv HQ does not specifically control the actions of an Eva Unit whose Dummy System has been activated. Eventually, all regular Evas are fitted with backup Dummy Systems based on Rei. The Mass Production Evangelions exclusively use Kaworu Dummy Plugs, removing the human element from their actions.

Nerv successfully uses the Dummy System only once, when Gendo has it seize control from Shinji in Episode 18. In Episode 19, Evangelion Unit-01 rejects both Rei and the Rei Dummy Plug, accepting only Shinji as its pilot. Never again is any attempt made to use the Dummy Plug with Eva-01. A Dummy Plug was supposedly installed on Eva-02 as well but it has never been seen in use with that Eva.

Analysis

At the end of Episode 23, Ritsuko Destroys the Rei Tank in the Dummy Plug Plant, putting an end to the Dummy System. The connection between Rei clones and the Dummy System is neither obvious nor easy to comprehend. From what little that can be deduced, the scenes with Rei soaking in the LCL seem to have something to do with imbuing the Dummy System with her personality and/or memories.

The Dummy Plugs themselves do not have clones physically inside them (the controller Ritsuko uses to destroy them starts with Rei 4 and Rei 1-3 are accounted for) which raises the question of how the destruction of the tank of clones could affect the Dummy Plugs installed in the Evangelions. The Dummy System was successfully activated only once, and never seen in operation afterwards, so there remains no way of knowing how much functionality the systems installed aboard the Evas retain.

The existence of Kaworu Dummy Plugs for the Mass Production Evangelions means that another, independently created Dummy System is in existence, but nearly nothing is known about it.

Rebuild of Evangelion

The appearance of a red-eyed Eva-01 in scenes corresponding to the dismemberment of Bardiel suggests that the Dummy System, or some form thereof, will appear in Rebuild.