This is a theory I’ve been turning over for a while about how the Angels, in Evangelion, start to get very, very good at hitting the humans in their weak points, such that it seems that Adam is learning about what works best as he progresses, and with Kaworu, finally wins.

This theory is predicated on an idea which there may or may not be evidence for in the show, but which may also be unsustainable, which is that whatever is “sending” the angels forth has within it all the memories and knowledge of the previous angels. I know that Adam isn’t watching over everything and planning a strategy, designing angels and sending them out one by one, but it can sometimes help to think of the show like that, or maybe even think that the metaphysical consciousness of each angel can leave its dead corpse and travel to the next one, to the next embryo, so that it can best differentiate it for the next attack.

As a final disclaimer to the fast-and-looseness with which I’m playing with a lore which I grasp very well but not fully, if you don’t think it adds up as a theory then the piece could just be adapted to be a theory about how Anno was driving the personal narratives by changing the angel every time to best excrutiate the key points in every episode. This in itself is self-evident, because it’s a written TV show, but the theory will then at least be a nice way of looking at how exactly Anno does this angel by angel.

Anyway this idea all kind of comes from the Angel Tower.

When Armisael enters the teeming state of organic reproductivity and stretches out from Eva 00 before it enters further into it, it seems to generate biological matter based on whatever genes are in it. I think we know this from how it produces a Rei after it has combined with Rei. The tower itself, a pretty mysterious element of the show, is composed from every single angel that has come before, as if Armisael contained all of their specific designs within it from the start.

It could be that each Angel embryo has the potential to differentiate into any Angel, so that every Angel possibility was technically within it at all times, but if that was the case then why turn into the 13 specific angels unless it was those ones in particular that had been designed previously and ended up still in the DNA, unless Armisael was the product of their successes and failures, the next step? It even looks like a DNA plasmid itself.

The next point of lore to contend with is the point that Angels aren’t shaped by genes but by their AT fields: but if humans are angels too, and we know that humans DO have DNA which determines their appearance, then I think we can say that DNA probably plays a role in AT field formation.

So if Sachiel is the same Angel as Armisael, even genetically, then what happened inbetween? I’ll go through each angel in turn and show how their tactics, and most importantly their intelligence, improves. I’ll be starting at 1 for Sachiel even though I know that it’s the third angel, don’t @ me.

1. Sachiel: a pretty basic first angel, tries to make a direct attack. Doesn’t demonstrate great combat ability and does the thing where it stands still as it attacks, as if it’s notionally kind of dumb or inarticulate, or even not in great control of its own body. Moves slowly in combat, it’s weapon could even be a metaphor for how it’s the initial striking-out.

2. Shamshel: Another attempt to break through by force, that is, by defeating the Evas in hand-to-hand combat (or hand-to-whip combat). Isn’t smart enough to change up its attack once it notices that 01 is distracted with the kids.

3. Ramiel: Adam realises (or the angels realise, or whatever, but for the purpose of the article I’m just going to pretend that Adam is the mastermind for the angels’ assaults) that the Evas have angels beat in basic combat, at least until he can make an angel which is better. So he sends in Ramiel, which is basically untouchable, and can annihilate targets at more or less any range. Note that until Zeruel this is the last “basic” angel which just tries to bust through by force- but it’s still kind of dumb, it doesn’t realise that it can attack preemptively, it has to wait for the proton cannon to be set up and fired before it fires back. If Ramiel had the combat intelligence of Zeruel, then this angel would have won, no question at all.

4. Gaghiel is an exception which backs up my theory nicely- this angel isn’t sent against Nerv at all, but instead directly at Kaji because he has the embryo. There was no possible way for Gaghiel to have gotten to Nerv, unless it can also travel on land, so this one was designed by Adam in a rush because he knew Kaji would be over water.

I think Gaghiel realises that Ramiel was beaten by teamwork, and that Asuka and Shinji showed pretty bad teamwork…

5. Isrfael: …so this angel tries to exploit the teamwork-question. You can’t beat two targets at once without good teamwork. This is an important turning point: Adam has for the first time played it smart by trying to exploit a tactical weakness that isn’t just a combat weakness.

6. Sandalphon: repulsed once again, Adam changes tactics entirely. The next 4 angels all try to subvert face to face confrontations, finding that to be way more effective considering how easily humans can become divided. I think the original plan is actually to swim through the mantle and under Nerv, before swimming upwards and burrowing into central Dogma, but it gets found out too soon. Again, what other purpose could this angel have served unless there was some sort of plan going on to get to Lilith in different ways?

7. Matarael: another one with a sneaky approach- knocks out the power first, then tries to kind of burrow its way in with acid. Could’ve even gone totally unnoticed, but is in fact the single weakest angel, as it gets beaten by gunshots alone.

8. Sahaquiel: was going to explode its way to the heart of Nerv. Again, subverts direct combat- Adam may have even reckoned that there was going to be no way for the Evas to stop this one. The fact that it can’t be stopped prematurely, being in space, shows another smart adaptation.

9. Ireul: this is where the angels really start to get weird. Seeing that he was beaten by teamwork again, this time between three different Evas, Adam now tries the most basic way to split them apart from the inside, by stealthing into Nerv and then infecting the decision-making centre.

It’s established that the Angel at this point learns a huge amount about humans and about civilisation from the database. The final angels don’t make nearly as much sense unless we accept that the information which Ireul gathered was actually passed on to the next angel, that is, that they aren’t discrete agents but that an intelligence is either governing them or passing between them.

10. Leliel: Now Adam is either trying to defeat Evas by a very roundabout method of sealing them away, knowing from the database mining that if you keep a pilot in an Eva for too long they will die or be highly psychologically damaged, or Adam is trying to learn even more about humans and Evas, or Adam is actually trying to get at Shinji’s mind and fuck him up, knowing that that’s just as good a way to mess with the human’s plans because it’s one kid to an Eva, and those kids are hard to replace.

Notice also how abstract the angels have become: as they become more and more specialised they start to look weirder and weirder, as they move towards the ideal form for beating Evas. In fact, Ireul onwards, apart from Zeruel, none of the angels even have a real concrete form.

11. Bardiel: Another great piece of evidence that the angels gain intelligence. Leliel was beaten because the Eva was able to reactivate almost without power, and so Adam perhaps realises, or perhaps knows from the databases, that Angels are part biological, which means he can send in the fungal-type Bardiel and control an Eva for himself. He reckons that he can take a human weapon away from them, gain a huge amount of power by himself, maybe enough to win there and then, but most importantly that he can disrupt the humans from the inside, he can turn them against themselves. He might even know that Toji is Shinji’s friend and be seeking to really mess with Shinji. This plan works nearly perfectly and Bardiel does an enormous amount of damage.

A side note: Adam probably realises that it has pretty much always been Eva 01 that has been his downfall, and perhaps also notices that it’s the one that always goes beserk when he’s nearly won, so although he gets a chance to kill 00 or 02, knocking them down completely, he decides not to and instead go straight for 01.

12. Zeruel: I think at this point maybe Adam thinks he has won, or he is getting restless because he knows that he only has a few angels left- we don’t really know what limits it to 16/17 beyond the Dead Sea Scrolls, but the DSS only predict the future after all, they don’t determine it, so maybe Adam was going to send endless angels until he won, but then in becoming almost too much like humans as Kaworu, he realises that he doesn’t want to win. This would itself be a nice piece of symbolism: Angels, in trying to beat humans, become more and more like them, until the point of Armisael and Kaworu, where they decide that they don’t want to win anymore because they actually like humans too much.

Anyway, Zeruel is kind of a throwback to the earlier angels which try to brute force their way through, it might even be pretty much the strongest an Angel can be without being abstract. It’s appearance is kind of a throwback to Sachiel too. It bursts through nearly every layer of armour immediately, can float, and can cut bits off of Evas. Cutting off the head of an Eva, as it does to 02, is probably the best way to actually beat one, because it immediately severs the pilot’s connection.

Adam thinks that at this point 01 won’t want to pilot anymore (he’s nearly correct) and that 00 and 02 can’t possibly beat something as strong as Zeruel. In fact, if you don’t factor in Eva 01′s berserk mode, Zeruel actually wins, and very, very nearly kills 01.

Once Zeruel gets beaten by the berserk mode I think Adam realises that there’s no way a non-abstract angel can ever win, because as close as he gets, 01′s berserk will kill him first.

13. Arael: nearly the perfect angel, pretty much as strong as Armisael. The only way to beat one of these guys is through a huge sacrifice, in this case they lose the spear, which is pretty much a one-shot free angel kill.

Arael goes straight for what has been most effective before Zeruel, which was psychological attacks, and completely takes out Eva 02 and Asuka. It could’ve easily done similar things to Rei and 01.

14. Armisael is actually similar to Arael but slightly different in that the nature of its psychological attack is kind of benevolent, it wants to learn about Rei and Shinji and actually tries to fuck with Shinji by turning into Rei, who he wants to protect. In fusing with an Eva, as Bardiel could do, it can also circumvent turning Eva 01 Berserk. They need to sacrifice 00 and Rei 2 to kill this one, it’s the culmination of everything that came before it and is pretty much the ultimate NGE weapon, apart from one…

15. The reason Tabris is so perfect is not just because it’s obscenely powerful and able to activate Evas at will, but because it’s on Shinji’s side from the beginning, such that he actually gets in front of Lilith, before deciding to let Shinji have the win. Tabris is slightly separate to this discussion because he’s the vessel of Adam’s soul, so one could even say Armisael was the final angel, and that after that enough had been learned for Adam to send himself in directly.

Turns out the weapon that best beats humans most resembles humans. I think it’s quite wonderful that later angels are more and more curious about what exactly a human is.





Okay that’s a wrap. I’d just like to reiterate that I know that it’s not Adam who’s watching over all this, but I stand by the idea, as I think I have demonstrated at least very strongly, if not conclusively, that there is a consciousness which connects all the angels and which learns bit by bit, to the point where attacks become less by force and more by psychology.

Thanks,

Alex