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OtapediaList of Evangelion Angels

The term “Angels” is a term that can refer to a variety of things but is often used to refer to otherworldly beings with unbelievable destructive power and abilities that are not yet fully understood by NERV. The destruction of Angels is the main objective of NERV, as the assumed goal of the Angels is to destroy humanity as it is commonly known. While the exact meaning of “Angel” can change depending on the context, there are some general traits that most Angels share with each other, namely A.T. Fields, durability, cores, and a unique wavelength referred to as a “pattern”.

A.T. Field

A.T. fields are said to be generated by everything that has a soul, humans included However, the A.T. fields generated by Angels and Evangelion Units are so strong, they can be manifested as both an incredible barrier for defense and, in some cases, a powerful method of attack. Normal projectiles and weapons are usually completely blocked by an Angel’s A.T. field, leading to an Evangelion Unit to be the least destructive method of destroying an Angel as they can emit a similarly strong field to counteract an Angel’s.

Durability

When an attack successfully makes it past an Angel’s A.T. field and hits its target, any damage may be short-lived or simply ineffective. Most Angels possess remarkable regenerative capabilities. One example, in particular, being the Angel Israfel, which recovered from being hit with an N2 mine in only a few days. As such, the only way to truly defeat an Angel is to defeat its core.

Core

Both Angels and Evangelion Units have a deep red core, though there are some differences between an Angel core and an Evangelion core. An Angel core is said to house the Angel’s soul as well as an organ called an S2 engine, which is the main source of energy for an Angel. Evangelion Units lack this S2 engine and have to rely on power cords and batteries. While A.T. fields make a fantastic defense on their own, the cores themselves are also incredibly hard to break.

Patterns

Magi, the trio of supercomputers at the NERV Headquarters, has the ability to analyze a living object and categorize it under a certain wavelength, Angels are no exception. When NERV suspects an attack from an Angel, one of the first actions taken is confirming the Angels “pattern”. Angels are only shown to have two designated patterns: blue and orange. A blue pattern designates that the target is definitively an Angel, while an orange pattern designates that Magi is uncertain about how to categorize a target. Some Angels are shown to switch between blue and orange patterns. Leliel and Armisael are two examples of Angels that have an orange pattern at one point or another.

The First Angel: Adam

In the Evangelion universe, all life is created by two different types of beings. One type carries the “Fruit of Life” while the other carries the “Fruit of Knowledge” Adam is a carrier of the Fruit of Life and is the first being to arrive on Earth, but before it could use its Fruit of Life, another creator of life, the Second Angel Lilith crashes into Earth, which causes Adam’s Spear of Longinus to force it into hibernation-like state. In the year 2000, the body of Adam would be discovered by an expedition of scientists led by Dr. Katsuragi. This discovery would eventually cause the disastrous Second Impact and, eventually, the appearance of other Angels. All of the Angels that appear in the original series (with the possible exception of Tabris) are all referred to as “Children of Adam”, though the methods in which Adam created these beings are unclear.

The Second Angel Lilith

Lilith is another being that can create life, however, unlike Adam, it carries the Fruit of Knowledge. It successfully using its Fruit led to the creation of life on Earth as we know it. In other words, Lilith is the being responsible for creating humanity. The vessel used by Lilith to travel to Earth is referred to as the “Black Moon” and, when discovered, was repurposed as the location of the NERV Headquarters, which also keeps Lilith stored in its bottom-most level called the Terminal Dogma. There, Lilith is used as a seemingly infinite source of LCL, which is revealed to be the physical blood of Lilith.

The Children of Adam

This label refers to the Third to Sixteenth Angels that appear in the original anime series. Each “child” has a widely different appearance and set of abilities and can range from a defined physical being to an abstract shape that breaks the laws of physics as we know them. The following list is a collection of the Children of Adam:

The Seventeenth and Final Angel: Tabris

Tabris is the Angel name given to Kaworu Nagisa. Tabris is a unique case, as is an Angel, but he is not a Child of Adam, but rather something more akin to a reincarnation of Adam itself. Tabris has the body of a human, but the extracted soul of Adam. He is capable of producing an incredibly strong A.T. field, but whether or not he actually has a core is not explicitly shown or stated.

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