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Angels
(page
II)
Q: What
do each of the Angels look like and what were the fates of each?
A: There
were 17 Angels, each with a different physical appearance from
every others. Their pictures and fates are as follows (cont.):
Fourteenth Angel
Zeruel |
Zeruel was a walking wrecking
ball. He marched right through EVAs 00 and 02 and right to Central
Dogma's front door (Eva-01 stopped him before he could reach
Terminal Dogma).
For weapons, the
fourteenth Angel had ultra sharp, whip-like blades for arms and
a photon discharge from its "mouth". With its whip-blades,
it was able to slice up Asuka's Eva-02, and take off its head
and arms. Its armored skin was also strong enough to withstand
Eva-00's attack with an N2 bomb. Now that's Helluva Tough!
It had even mutillated
and defeated Eva-01, but it did not finish it off before it went
Berserker (again with no power).
Fate: Zeruel was ripped apart
by Shinji and Eva-01. In its Berserker mode, Unit-01 finished
the fourteenth Angel off by eating it and its S2 Drive (which
made the Eva fully operational without any outside electrical
energy source and it allowed the Unit to grow to its fullest
potential as a weapon and part Angel). One of Zeruel's whip blades
was ripped off and attached as Eva-01's left arm. |
The fifteenth Angel to appear
was a being of pure light. It remained high above Earth's orbit
and only attacked when Asuka and Unit-02 showed up and looked
like they were going to attack it. It retaliated by mind raping
Soryu Asuka Langley and forcing her to relive her most painful
memories that she chose to lock away years ago. It was unrelenting.
The pilot of Eva-02
couldn't stop the flow of emotions that Arael was forcing her
to feel and she cracked.
The Angel's attack
could only be focussed on one mind at a time, and Asuka was only
saved when Eva-00 and its pilot showed up. After a failed attempt
to shoot the target down, Ayanami Rei was given orders to retrieve
the Lance of Longinus from Terminal Dogma, with which she launched
a physical attack at the Angel.
Fate:
The Lance of
Longinus cut through Arael's ATField and destroyed the Angel
of Light. The Lance landed in the moon and remained there until
the Third Impact was about to begin. |
Fifteenth Angel
Arael |
Sixteenth Angel
Armisael |
Armisael was a shape-shifting
Angel that originally had the form of a double helix (like the
Lance of Longinus) closed up in a circle. Its main means of attack
was to merge with the EVAs and attack the minds of the pilots.
It only managed to get into Ayanami Rei's head, though.
When Armisael first
attacked Eva-00 and its pilot, it made Rei to experience true
emotions for the first time in her life. It made her realize
that she was truly lonely in her existence and had never opened
herself to anybody, not even those closest to her.
Then Shinji appeared
in Eva-01. The sixteenth Angel tried to attack him too, but the
First Children held it back and self destructed herself and her
Eva in an attempt to destroy the Angel before it could hurt Shinji.
Fate:
Armisael was
vaporized in the blast (as was most of Tokyo-3) caused by Eva-00's
self destruction. |
Seventeenth
Angel
Tabris
(Kaworu Nagisa)
The seventeenth Angel was
the least expected. Keel Lorenz was the only one to know that
Kaworu Nagisa (born on the very day of the Second Impact and
the Fifth Children [his name meaning 'Kaworu of the Seashore'])
was indeed the final messenger of man's fate. Lorenz sent Tabris
to NERV headquarters in order to hurry the prophecy of the Dead
Sea Scrolls along.
When Tabris arrived
at Geofront, he quickly became Shinji Ikari's best friend and
the best synchro-rated pilot of the children. Soon after his coming,
however, he began his attack.
Because his synchro-rate
with the EVAs was so high, he could pilot them without even getting
into the entry plug. With Eva-02 as his body guard he slowly
made his way to Heaven's Door and Terminal Dogma in the heart
of NERV HQ. While an enraged Shinji and Eva-01 attacked Eva-02,
Tabris realised that he had been duped by SEELE when he finally
saw the white giant nailed to the cross above the lake of LCL.
Fate:
When
Tabris realized that the Angel that he was face to face with
was Lilith and not Adam (the one whom all Angels must return and who's
soul was inside Tabris' human shell) he allowed Shinji to grab him with
Eva-01. He explained that life and death were the same to him and that
he would
allow himself
to die so that mankind could decide for itself the path that
must be chosen. After 60 seconds of pause, Shinji squeezed and
Tabris/Kaworu died. |
Q: Do
you have any proof that Lilith is the first Angel?
A: Yes,
but don't forget, Lilith was only the first Angel that man discovered,
not, I repeat NOT the very first Angel. It is clearly
stated in the TV Series and the Films that Adam was the Angel
at the site of the Second Impact in September of the Year 2000A.D. Lilith
has been around since long before then.
The reason? Humans
had already started the Human Compliment Program long before
the Second Impact when Adam awoke, but we already had some sort
of Angel "technology" at our disposal (not Evangelion
Units [they were spawned from Adam], but the artificial Angel
cloning project to hasten the Third Impact and such).
Also, look at SEELE's logo It is the "Seven
Eyes of Lilith." But SEELE has been around since looooooong
before the Second Impact. And don't you think that SEELE
(or to be more precise, Keel Lorenz) would need more proof than
just the Dead Sea Scrolls to believe that the next step in man's
evolution was nearing? He's not that gullible or simple
minded, and the body and soul of Lilith would go a long way in
convincing him.
It has also been
said somewhere that EVA-01 itself is a clone of Lilith and not
Adam. This is just somebody's speculation (especially because
the Evangelions are "Evas", or "Eve" meaning
"from Adam"), so take it with a truckload of salt.
And don't forget that clones are supposed to actually look
something like the beings from which they are replicated from.
EVA-01 doesn't look like Lilith (even without her mask), but
it does look identical to Adam (i.e. same shape, they both have
cores in the same place [Lilith doesn't even have one showing],
and they both have yellow wings [Lilith's are white]). And the
final clue that the EVAs are not from Lilith is the fact that
I say that they are from Adam in episode 21. Remember?
And "yes",
Lilith is really something of an Angel (contrary to one rumor
floating arround). How else would most of the Shito be fooled
that she was Adam if she was not Angel herself (trust me, they're
not that dumb to believe a non-Angel entity was the being from
which they came)?
Q: Why
do you say that Adam is the Second Angel, and why do you say
that his fate is that he is freed and returned to Lilith during
the Third Impact? In the TV Series it is stated that Adam
had vanished after the Humans failed to shrink him.
A: Adam
is not the Second Angel, but the second Angel that
mankind encounters (for the same reasons stated above) and
he's the first human (as I have stated in episode 8 [with Eve
he had Cain and Abel and Lilith mated with Cain to produce the
rest of humanity]).
How was he released
to return to Heaven (or at least "freedom") after the
Third Impact? Well, mankind was no longer around to keep
him imprisoned after the Third Impact started (after he was merged
with Rei, then Lilith). When it is seen just how easily
Lilith and Yui (as the soul of Eva-01) escaped their bonds to
help complete the Impact, it is easily conceivable to believe
that Adam could do the same and "un-meld" with me when
that much
"Heavenly" or "Angel Energy" is enveloping
the Earth. Hmmm? Not to mention the fact
that Angels share a 99+% genetic similarity with the humans that
are trying to evolve and return to Heaven themselves.
Also, in the movie
Rebirth or End of Evangelion Misato (the only survivor
of the Katsuragi Expedition that made first contact with Adam
and his warnings) said that the reason that Adam blew up was
because we succeeded in shrinking him to embryo form to keep
his powers at a minimum to keep damages low when more Angels
were prophecied to come in search of him (his embryo form might
even prevent the "destructive" Third Impact altogether
and it allowed me to become one with him a lot easier).
Q: I
keep reading all over that there were actually 18 Angels. Are
these people loco or am I just seeing things?
A: You're
not seeing things. What they are referring to is during the End
of EVA movie, Misato says something to the effect of "We
are the 18th Angel, born from the source of life, Lilith. Other
angels are possibly a seperate race of beings who threw away
their physical forms. They were doomed to a sad existence of
betrayal and pain because they rejected each other. We, people
are the same." A dry and bitter remark that Tabris wasn't
the final Angel, mankind is. It's just a comment at how destructive
people can be to their fellow man (especially when they break
into your base of operations and shoot at anything that moves!).
The Dead Sea Scrolls
in the series clearly state that 17 Heavenly Messengers will
visit the Earth (that's what the members of SEELE say on a number
of occasions). Not 18. By saying that man is the final Angel
Misato is showing her utter distaste for all humanity (just as
she loathed the Angels themselves).
People keep posting
Misato's comment and taking it at face value which is wrong.
If mankind truly was the final Angel (or an Angel at all for
that matter) why did this whole song and dance thing have to
occur? If
man was the final Angel, a simple touch with Lilith would have
begun the Third Impact. Or, when we came in contact
with Adam we would have initiated the destructive Third Impact
and the series would have been over before it began. Trust me,
mina-san, Katsuragi was only being sarcastic.
Q: Are
there more Angels or are the only Angels that exist the 17 that
were defeated in Evangelion?
A: Technically,
the word "Angels" used in Evangelion is a bad translation.
The Japanese word used is Shito which is closer to the
English word "Apostle" or "Disciple". Gainax
translated it to English themselves as "Angel" (just
as they translated "Shinseiki" to "Neon Genesis"
and not "New Century"
or any of a hundred others). This needed to be explained because
even though it is obvious that a lot of research was done by
the Studio for the series, it is a little confusing that there
were 17 Shito (in ShinSeiki Evangelion), but in
reality there are only 12 Apostles and 7 ArchAngels (Michael,
Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, Sariel and Jerahmeel [the last
three also known as Izidkiel, Hanael and Kepharel]). Do some
of their names sound familiar? It is not truly clear what Gainax
intended to connote, or maybe
they just said "Screw what the Old and New Testaments say!
This is entertainment!!!" I relied on Yui to translate the
Dead Sea Scrolls for me, and now she's, well uh, gone and now
I have no idea who or what they said would be our Heavenly messengers.
To get back to the question (sorry, I ramble when
excited), yes, there are more Angels than the ones that were
seen in Evangelion. The ArchAngels that attacked (if that's what
they were) are only the highest order of Angels. In legend, these
were the same Angels that remained faithful to God and drove
Lucifer out of Heaven an eternity ago.
Q: So,
does Kaworu have any parents? If so, who are they? You mentioned
that he was "born" on the exact day of the Second Impact.
A: No
parents that we know of, but don't forget that almost nobody
in Shinji's class has any. And it's only through SEELE's "official
records" that we find out what day he was supposedly born.
From what we know, every Angel seems to have been born or "awoken"
on the day of the Second Impact and they haven't come to maturity
until recently. The Second Impact may have released them from
Adam in Antarctica. The date "September 13, 2000" may
have any number of meanings seeing as SEELE knows that Kaworu
is the final Angel. His birth date could have only been used
to try and fool NERV long enough for Kaworu to infiltrate Terminal
Dogma.
Q: I've
been told that Rei is actually the Second Angel, can this be
true? I thought she was just a clone with angel DNA.
A: ".............................................."
Since
Ikari Gendo refuses to answer this one I'll take a stab at it
myself. Hi, Misato Katsuragi here. From all the information I've
gathered on the subject, I would have to say "no".
All her synchro tests we have performed on her over the years
indicate she is more human that Angel (definitely not 100% Angel).
And given that she had such trouble synchronizing and piloting
with an EVA (granted, the screwed up Unit-00) it is assumed that
she has only a little Lilith in her (especially when it is seen
what a real Angel [Kaworu] can do with an EVA).
Also
there's the fact that the only things mentioned that are definitely
from Adam are the EVAs themselves (first this disproves Rei as
Angel number two because if the EVAs are from her, she would
be able to control them like a part of her [like Tabris], second,
Rei only first appears after the Human Compliment Program is
in full swing at Gehirn and the EVA's are already in the test
phases). And when Rei finally merges with Lilith in End of
Evangelion Lilith says "Welcome home." Remember
that all humans are from Lilith. She wouldn't say that to an
Angel (who cannot and do not even want to unite with her). And,
all Angels have to return to Adam (the second Angel), so why
don't they try to merge with Rei (even the sixteenth Angel, Armisael,
didn't sense that she was the one that it had to return to after
it had bio-fused with her a little). Interesting, huh?
Not
to mention that when Kaworu finally confronts her he says "We
are the same" (meaning she has Angel DNA too and she is
only being used by the humans around her), but he makes no mention
that she is Adam (or a being with Lilith's soul trapped in it),
the being he must recur to. He seemed like a smart cookie, I
mean he figured out that Lilith was the one on the cross, didn't
he?
But
I shouldn't get too carried away, because there is some evidence
that Rei is the second Angel. There are a lot of little clues
dropped throughout the series that just pass right by if you're
not looking for them (like the few times Rei appears as an apparition
to Shinji in the streets of Tokyo-3, and her really strong AT
Field, her red eyes just like Kaworu, and the fact that SEELE
got royally pissed when Ritsuko told them about her [although
this could just be attributed to the fact that they now knew
of Commander Ikari's ultimate plan for his own Impact]).
It's
also been theorized that both Rei and Kaworu are the 17th
Angels: One sent to destroy man (with Adam's soul implanted in
him), and one to save him (with Lilith's soul implanted in her).
This makes a little more sense than Rei being the Second Angel,
but there is still not enough evidence to make any clear hypothesis.
So, until Gendo sees fit to tell all of us, we'll just have to
guess.
MORE
TO COME SOON!!!
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