Wes Ayala

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS 

The wings of Unit – 01 in the Opening sequence

The being that is called angels in English is called in Japanese shito (使徒). This word when directly translated to English means Apostle. However, even in the series, they are often referred to as “Angels” this incongruity has its own significance. 

The very fact that the enemies of the series are referred to as “Angels” points Neon Genesis Evangelion not being a simple narrative of Good vs Evil, rather it can be said to even oppose such a narrative. Unit – 01 that our protagonist pilot is based on Lilith who is often referred to as the devil, and the wings on the back of Unit – 01 in the opening sequence are referred to as the “Devil’s wings”. This points some to make a case that this series is a story of Humans descending into demon hood while fighting for their right to survive against the onslaught of the angels, although I disagree with this idea. 

The angels have played an additional and significant role in sparking interest in this series outside of the Otaku communities. If so, what is the nature of these beings in the universe of Evangelion?

One reason for the disagreement on what makes for the category of “Angels” arises due to the inconsistent descriptions the characters of the series give of them. The fourteen angels we have discussed in the previous chapter are definitely considered under this category, and Tabris is widely considered to be the “Final” angel. Adam who is their ancestor is referred to as the first angel and Lilith who is in the same status as Adam is referred to as the Second. Furthermore, some refer to humans (Lilins) as the eighteenth angel.

Adam has 4 legs?

Therefore, to understand what makes an angel, we need to take a look at what ‘ADAM’ is. Adam is the being that was in the White moon that first made landing on earth and holds the fruit of form. Due to the Evangelions being made using parts of Adam’s body, they are genetically identical to Adam. While Unit – 01 makes an exception due to being Lilith based, there is a possibility of Adam’s DNA having been inserted, thus we cannot make any definitive statement for now.

Adam is sometimes described as the giant of light, and it illuminates as does Arael, making it impossible to see its body in detail. In the picture of Adam in Episode 1, we can make out the restraints on its shoulder that are similar to those on the Evas. Some attribute this design detail being present to allude its relationship with the Evas, I argue otherwise. In different illustration of Adam, we do not see such restraints, thus we can make a case that these restraints were places artificially by either the Katsuragi expedition team or Seele.

As mentioned in the earlier chapters, Adam is the being that the First people encapsulated in the White moon and sent to earth. But before Adam was able to fulfill his role, Lilith in the Black moon landed, and the loss of her Lance of Longinus resulted in Lilith creating descendants to populate the earth before Adam woke up.

Zeruel about to attack humans

When looking at the vs Zeruel fight, we see it attacking humans that are not in the way of it achieving its goals. This points to the existence of instinctual hostility the angels hold against the humans who have taken over the earth that they should have rightfully owned.

After eons since the first impact, Seele and the Katsuragi expedition finds Adam and become interested in the fruit of form (S2 engine) he had and initiated the “Contact experiment”. We know that there were at least three “Contact experiments” that have happened in the series, the one with Adam, then Yui with Unit – 01, and Kyoko with Unit – 02. This shows us that the “Contact experiment” is an attempt to create a connection between a Human and the “being close to god”. 

In detail, the “Contact experiment” is the bringing together of a person with the Core. While we do not know exactly the location of S2 engines in the angels, due to the importance the Core has for the Angle’s survival, it is most likely to be located within it. This claim is supported by the consumption of Zeruel’s core by Unit – 01 being portrayed in detail as Ritsuko describes this act as the absorption of the S2 engine. 

The “Contact experiment” then can be described as the attempt at the transfer of soul between humans and the angel’s core, and for the case of Adam, the soul was transferred to create Kaworu.

The consequence of waking up Adam

The experiment however went out of control and the expedition team tried to put Adam back in control using the Lance of Longinus but failed. While the second impact was prevented from wiping out all of humankind, a great calamity befell on earth (and Lilith). At this moment, Adam releases strong waves of anti-AT field, and concurrently opened the door to the room of Guf.

The act of opening the room of Guf is the act Adam took in desperation to create the angels based after himself and insert them with souls necessary for their creation. That makes the moment of the Second impact as the moment of birth of the angels.

Now let’s talk about the origin of the angels. Even with the understanding that the moment of the Second impact was when their souls were inserted, many questions need to be answered. There are arguments to be made regarding this when we look at some of the angels, so let us take a look.

The state of how Sandalphon was discovered provides us with many answers but also raise new sets of questions. This was the first and the only angel that was found by humans. Sandalphon was discovered deep inside the stream of magma, inside an egg, shaped like a fetus. Through this, we can tell that the angels developed inside of an egg likely hidden in the deep sea/lava until it hatched in 2015.

Sahaquel and Arael also offer us similar evidence. Unlike the other angels, these two appeared from space, showing us that at least these two developed in the outer space. However, I do not believe that this happened due to their eggs being flung out into space during the explosion of the second impact. 

Just from their gigantic size, we can understand that they would not have been able to develop properly if they were burdened by the conditions on earth. Therefore, I believe that these two needed to develop outside the earth’s atmosphere and their eggs were strategically placed where they developed (Either by the angels themselves or by some other force of Adam).

Evangelion development documents 

The Evangelion development document, a 35-page document that was published on Newtype 100% Collection 29 in 1993, and again in 1997 by Kadokawa points to another possibility to the birth of the angels. While the continuity between the development document and what we got is fuzzy at best, the document states that the First people created the angels. This makes Adam not the genetic ancestor of the angels but a spiritual one, as he becomes the first angel to have landed on earth and the others followed. It is not a useful piece of evidence in our argument, but it does raise an interesting hypothesis.

How did Gagiel know of Adam’s location?

If we think back, the angels have never distinguished between Adam and Lilith until episode 24, and even in this episode, Tabris did not realize that it was Lilith until he was floating right in front of her. There is a potential theory that Nerv deliberately placed Lilith in Central dogma to lure the angels to the strategic location to destroy them. It is a plausible theory but it presumes that the descendants of Adam are unable to distinguish between Adam and Lilith despite their difference. This logic will give rise to the statement that Adam and Lilith may be more the same than different.

Even the inter-character dialogues in the series point to this possibility, and if we were to borrow from the facts from the development document, the manner of which the angels locate the ancestor is not through any biological intuition of the particular being but sort of a magnet that draws towards any “Seed” that exist within the planet.

No… This is… Lilith?!

The one planet one seed principle was supposed to be Law and if it was kept, the descendants only needed to find the seed on the planet and would be “Programmed” to do so. But the situation on earth was unique and the angels had no need to nor the capacity to differentiate between Adam and Lilith. In the Evangelion games, the angels are depicted as having diverse goals yet it is interesting that none of them specifically mentions that they are looking for either Adam or Lilith, again pointing to the fact that the angels are unable to distinguish them apart.

If we reframe our perspective to this argument, that the angels are looking for the “Seed”, it becomes possible to justify the surprise Tabris experience when he finds Lilith in episode 24.

Won’t you become one with me?

There is something to be said of the reason the angels desired to initiate the Third impact. If we exclude Tabris who carried the soul of Adam, Armisael could be said to be the final angel. In episode 23, it is revealed that Armisael feeling lonely during its conversation with Rei. This is in contrast to the assumption that angels are unable to feel any emotions, let alone loneliness due to being a unified being and not having the fruit of knowledge.

The first thing Armisael asked/demanded from Rei was “Won’t you become one with me?” and this is the same desire humans show regarding the instrumentalization. In other words, the angels are not as different from humans, they are capable of feeling loneliness, and desire to be together and become whole. We can then see this as the reason for their desire of initiating the Third impact.

Did Sandalphon really attack unit – 02?

Other then this, we are also told that the angels’ DNA is 99.89% identical to humans’ and this similarity was kept constant in other media spinoffs of Evangelion as well. So be it Adam, Lilith, angels, or humans, it can be said that they are all genetically identical. The key difference is the Fruit of knowledge or form that they possess. Only moments after Sandalphon has hatched, the sound used for its cry was a human baby crying, just lowered down a few pitches. In its movement too, the way it bit and sucked was more akin to what babies do in the first few weeks of their birth.

It was a baby. The only difference was how it looked. It behaves just like a human baby.

Shinji: What do you think the angels actually are?

Asuka: Huh? What are you asking all of a sudden?

Shinji: Angels, the messenger of God. Why are they our enemies? Why do we have to fight them?

Of course, the angels hold the fruit of form unlike the humans thus it results in their behavior patterns being different from that of humans. But in the later episodes of the series, we see them showing interest at humans, learn from them, and also experience character developments. Just like how the humans gained the fruit of form in their battle against the angels, the angels were also able to understand many things about us.

Shinji has questioned why the humans have to fight against the angels? 

It is through the series that we can gain the answer to that question.

It may not be necessary. The two groups can perhaps come to understand each other.