[WanderingKnight]

Gendo may not have personally put too much faith in to Shinji, but at least Seele foresaw it. I don't think Gendo is as naive as the way he led Shinji to believe. Also, it strikes me as too convenient that his backup plain in Rei basically was the key to the salvation of mankind. Gendo must have foreseen what was going to happen to a degree even with his infatuation with Yui.

See, I don't believe that such a person as Gendou, as we see him throughout the whole series, could really care about the salvation of mankind. Remember that his final plan is ultimately ruined by Rei, who develops an affection for Shinji he never thought possible. He manages to see Yui in the end, but the final form of the Eva 01 devouring him is his atonement for the wrongness he put Shinji through (and his ultimate personal redemption, as he willingly undertakes it).

It still doesn't make me like Gendo any more as a person, but I still can't find any other single character who made it more possible than Gendo. Shinji was basically just along for the ride. Ever since episode 1.

I think that every character was "along for the ride". I do believe that is one of the main points of the series--as I said in a previous post, your inner desires versus what society expects of you. Every character finds a conflict like this in one way or the other--every character except Gendou, arguably enough. Though he still maintains the appearances and bows before Seele throughout the majority of the series.

And as for the whole 'right choice' thing, I don't think there was much of a choice to begin with. Either ends up with humanity progressing in some forms, sacrificing their current forms in a major, cataclysmic way. Though I do think the illusion of choice was there.

Well, then the magic of the ending is lost in you. Yes, I'm also a firm believer on the inevitability of things and the illusion of free will, but I don't quite think that is the point EoE wanted to make. For once in the series, Shinji made the choice, his own selfish choice. It's the first time he considers what he really wants for himself when choosing his path. He could have chosen a "perfect" future, but he chose imperfection in order to retain his current humanity and the possibilities of the unpredictable. Whether you think this was inevitable or not I believe is not really important for the point Anno wanted to make.