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.

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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

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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.

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 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.

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