The other day I discovered something really cool. In East Antarctica, there is a place called Taylor Glacier where a phenomenon known as the Blood Falls occurs, in which red liquid literally seeps out from cracks in the ice. Seeing this, I immediately thought of Adam and how he was discovered in Antarctica, and how after Second Impact the ocean turned red due to his LCL leaking into it. I can't help but wonder if Anno might have been inspired by this real-life phenomenon when coming up with the idea of Adam in Neon Genesis Evangelion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Falls



I looked into the Blood Falls some more and discovered some pretty interesting bits of information that make the connection to Adam even more intriguing. The red color of the Blood Falls was originally thought to be the result of algae, but recently scientists have discovered that it is actually the result of iron-oxide sediments from a subterranean lake deep beneath the ice. This subterranean lake has been trapped under the ice for millions of years and is thought to potentially have all kinds of ancient bacteria and organisms living in it, which is kind of like how Adam was buried deep under the ice of Antarctica in the geofront created by the White Moon. Scientists in Antarctica are always discovering new things buried under the ice, like ancient bacteria and viruses, so who knows what else might be waiting down there. The fact that it is iron-oxide that is causing the Blood Falls makes it even creepier, since iron-oxide is the very thing in blood that makes it appear red.

Lol, what if Adam is real and the Blood Falls are actually his LCL seeping out into the ocean? Can you imagine how scary that would be? You better hope that global warming doesn't cause the ice caps to melt and release him from the ice, otherwise some curious scientists in Antarctica might come across him and accidentally cause Second Impact by coming into contact with him.

Interesting find! I think I've seen this before but had forgotten about it and not really given it much thought. There's a lot having to do with the South Pole that is similar to the Evangelion plot it seems. It's hard telling how much of it Anno was exposed to and used as inspiration for the plot.

For instance, H.P. Lovecraft's story "At The Mountains of Madness" is the tale of a scientific expedition to Antarctica. The scientists discover ancient, pre-historic forms of life preserved in the ice, as well as advanced ancient structures that predate man. A majority of the crew is slaughtered by the thawed creatures that have somehow been restored to life and are dissected (the crew, not the creatures). Two of the scientists explore and investigate the ancient ruins and discover hieroglyphics that depict the preserved beings they found. The glyphs describe how these beings (called the Elder Beings) arrived on Earth sometime just after the moon had formed and they went on to create a race of worker beings called the shoggoth that could change form based on the needs of the Elder Beings, their designed tasks, and as reflections of thought.

It was deciphered that eventually the shoggoth gained independence and all but wiped out the Elder Beings themselves. It is hinted that some of the biological material making up the shoggoth was what was responsible for the formation of cellular organisms on the Earth. At a later point an attempt at a description of a shoggoth that was encountered was that it was a black bubbling mass of ever growing and decaying eyes. So, their biological material, an amorphous liquid capable of changing form so as to reflect thought (the heart?) is what seeded all subsequent life on the planet Earth. Any of this sound familiar?

Antarctica is also the subject of loads of conspiracy theories and so-called Ancient Alien theories postulating a historical alien presence on the Earth and their being responsible for the development of human evolution, civilization, and technology by intervening during key moments throughout time. It's claimed that an enormous hole exists in the middle of the continent that opens up to an ancient subterranean alien city and civilization that they've used throughout the centuries and millennia as a base of operations, along with such claims that the moon is an alien satellite whose placement is contrived to such a degree that it is purposefully tidally locked with the earth (so that only one side is ever visible in the sky) to hide another alien base for observation purposes... with of course the recognition of the moon's vital importance in creating regular tides and slowing the spin (and wobble, known as axial precession) of the earth in creating a more stable environment for the facilitation of intelligent life not being lost on Ancient Alien theorists, who take it as evidence of their claims.

Somewhat related (but seems merely coincidental) also are the two potential giant impact craters that some scientists believe exist under the ice in the South Pole, which serve as evidence of massive impacts from meteorites some time ago in the past.

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that there would be so many conspiracy theories surrounding Antarctica, given the air of mystery that comes along with it being the least explored continent in the world. Believe it or not, Antarctica actually used to be a desert, back when it was connected to Australia during the age of the dinosaurs. It's only started to become the frozen wasteland that it is today about 15 million years ago. Scientist have found tons of dinosaurs fossils along its shores, and that's just the parts of Antarctica that aren't covered in the ice, so there's plenty more that could be discovered further inland.

Now that I think about it, that means the White Moon would not have been buried under the ice of Antarctica for the whole 4 billion years it has been on Earth. There would have been portions of Earth's history where it would have been exposed, like during the time of the dinosaurs. So how is it that it managed to go all that time without any lifeforms accidentally coming across it? Second Impact easily could have been caused long before the age of humans by some random creature that just happened to approach Adam and touch him like what happened during the Katsuragi Expedition.

I find it pretty hilarious that there are people who actually think that there is something hidden on the other side of the moon, when we literally have pictures of what the far side of the moon looks like that have been taken by orbiters over the years, with more being taken everyday. If aliens wanted to hide something, I'm pretty sure they would be way smarter about it than just simply placing it on a side of the moon facing away from the Earth and assuming that's enough to keep it from being noticed, especially if they are aware that we have the technology and capability to travel to the moon, and that their entire operation could be exposed by someone just stumbling across it by accident.

Melkor wrote:that means the White Moon would not have been buried under the ice of Antarctica for the whole 4 billion years it has been on Earth. There would have been portions of Earth's history where it would have been exposed, like during the time of the dinosaurs. So how is it that it managed to go all that time without any lifeforms accidentally coming across it?

Was it JUST buried under ice, or was it buried under sediment as well? If the latter, how old are those sediments? The closest thing we get to a location for the underground base is Mt. Markham, but that's part of the coverup, so who knows. In any case, that's part of the Transantarctic Mountains in East Antarctica, and in regard to this, Wikipedia says:

East Antarctica is geologically very old, dating from the Precambrian, with some rocks formed more than 3 billion years ago. It is composed of a metamorphic and igneous platform which is the basis of the continental shield. On top of this base are various more modern rocks, such as sandstones, limestones, coal and shales laid down during the Devonian and Jurassic periods to form the Transantarctic Mountains. In coastal areas such as Shackleton Range and Victoria Land some faulting has occurred.

I would just look at geological surveys but I haven't mastered the whole "finding obscure academia from the comfort of my home" thing...

If the White Moon was actually in that area, it would likely be under the mountain layer, in some very old rock.

Though, all that said, even if it had been exposed to dinosaurs or whatever, I think they would have a hard time accomplishing three basic prerequisites for making proper 'contact': getting inside, actually finding the part of the interior where Adam is, and then somehow removing the Spear from her.

Reichu wrote:Though, all that said, even if it had been exposed to dinosaurs or whatever, I think they would have a hard time accomplishing three basic prerequisites for making proper 'contact': getting inside, actually finding the part of the interior where Adam is, and then somehow removing the Spear from her.

I thought the Spear was still impaled in Adam when they performed the contact experiment. Did they have to take the Spear out first before doing the contact experiment, and then put it back in afterwards?

The Spear placed Adam in a state of suspended animation. The contact experiment and what we see happening in its wake would have been impossible if the Spear were still in place.

Melkor wrote:Now that I think about it, that means the White Moon would not have been buried under the ice of Antarctica for the whole 4 billion years it has been on Earth. There would have been portions of Earth's history where it would have been exposed, like during the time of the dinosaurs. So how is it that it managed to go all that time without any lifeforms accidentally coming across it? Second Impact easily could have been caused long before the age of humans by some random creature that just happened to approach Adam and touch him like what happened during the Katsuragi Expedition.

Adam's Spear made the autonomous decision to impale "her" because the arrival of the Black Moon on the Earth and the destruction of Lilith's Spear. As Reichu said, the contact experiment would not have been possible without removing it first.

Additionally, I have to wonder whether or not organisms that evolved from Lilith's primordial LCL bearing the Fruit of Knowledge are capable of initiating an impact by simply making contact with Adam like an Angel bearing the Fruit of Life. It isn't explicitly detailed how the Spear was involved in the contact experiment, only that it was removed and that it was to be inserted back in.

I think the Spear's phallic symbolism here shouldn't be something we gloss over considering this is Eva we are talking about, nor should its highly mysterious nature and how little is known about what its intended functions and purposes are. Combine that with the very odd phrasing concerning the manner in which the Lilin DNA was inserted, muddling the exact nature surrounding how this occurred, and the possibility of a symbolic and nearly literal reference for sexual intercourse arises. That is to say, what if the Spear was somehow used to "insert" the DNA through a veritable act of insemination, because a lack of FoL meant human beings lacked the ability to initiate an "impact", which is really just the process of the birth of a new form of life at the cost of all forms of life that came before it?

Either way, animals somehow making contact wouldn't have been an issue.

StrokeMeGoat wrote:Adam's Spear made the autonomous decision to impale "her" because the arrival of the Black Moon on the Earth and the destruction of Lilith's Spear.

The whole "Lilith's spear got destroyed at First Impact, somehow" thing is pretty questionable, IMO. I personally choose to ignore it, as I don't find it compatible with the show. In the DC episodes, two new pieces of Spear-related information were provided: we're shown that Adam was found impaled on a Spear, but we're also told that a Spear is delivered to Antarctica from the Dead Sea. The relevance of the Dead Sea association is obvious -- it's implying that a Spear had been at the Dead Sea this entire time and provided the means of inspiring the Scrolls. Now, if you listen to Eva2 here, then both of these Spears have to be the same one, and you both lose this explanation for the Dead Sea Scrolls, you also have to believe that Seele would send an enormous object away from Antarctica, halfway across the world, and then back again, within what is likely a matter of mere months. Even getting objects as small as people and supplies in and out of Antarctica is a pain in the ass; and why oh why would you want to send anything TO West Bank? None of it makes any sense, and it doesn't add anything. Things make much more sense if they're sending a second Spear down to Antarctica.

Why a second Spear? Well, for the reason you mention. It's part of the experiment. Suppose the Spears have different properties by default depending on who they belong to. The one in the show seems much friendlier to Lilith-based life than to Adam-based life. What if it's Lilith's? What if that's the one Adam was impaled on, and the one at the Dead Sea was Adam's?

Now, that said, I personally think Adam's Spear would have been used to merely assist the team's weird transgenic experiment. It still wouldn't actually replace the role of the donor. Without Adam and a flesh-and-blood Lilin coming in contact, it's hard to justify why in the world Second Impact is triggered by the experiment. I don't think Adam would have been awakened and made Impact-ready without being engaged on a spiritual level. It also is stated that the experiment is with the donor (a person) and not with their donation, which implies live experimentation; and furthermore, why would they call this a "contact experiment" if it has NOTHING in common with the Eva ones?

BTW, "inserted" is a mistranslation; the Japanese very clearly states that the DNA itself "dived" into Adam. Which, yes, makes the sperm analogy all the more obvious. I've been a big advocate of the reproductive undertones of the contact for quite some time; nice to see someone else actually mention them.

I think you're right about the Spears. Taking the Spear out of Adam, sending it to the Dead Sea, and then sending it back to Antarctica just seems way to convoluted. Whatever happened to the second Spear anyway? Did it get destroyed during Second Impact? If Adam was in Antarctica, and Lilith was in Japan, then how in the world did that one Spear even end up at the Dead Sea in the first place, assuming that it was always there?

On another note, I have a slight theory/head-canon regarding the donor who was used for the contact experiment. Kaworu was heavily implied to have been born as a result of Second Impact, so I think it's likely that whoever the donor was had a resemblance to Kaworu, and that is why Kaworu looks the way he does, because the donor's human DNA was carried over to Kaworu and became the basis for his human-like form. It's similar to how Rei has a resemblance to Yui due to part of her DNA consisting of Yui's. I wonder who the Kaworu-resembling donor could have been then? Some random no name, or perhaps someone important?

My current head canon about the Spears situation (which is, well, actually pretty old, but Eva2 shamed me away from it for a while) is that Lilith personally went to the White Moon after landing. She and Adam had a bit of a scuffle, and Lilith won; she planted her spear through Adam's spine, took Adam's spear with her when she left, and cast it away into the molten Earth. That's how it ended up in the Dead Sea region, nowhere near either of the Moons. Adam had previously used her Spear to "father"* the eggs of the Angels we know (which only received souls upon Adam's liberation at Second Impact). Having sacrificed her own spear to put Adam under, Lilith is unable to create life directly, and instead must resort to the long, drawn-out process of abiogenesis and evolution. Adam's Spear is brought back to her to be used as a "reproductive assistant" for the contact experiment. Adam apparently internalizes it completely when the Katsuragi team try to remove it (sort of similar to how Eva-01 had internalized the Spear of Longinus before "coughing it up" at the end of EoE), and presumably it''s destroyed when Adam explodes.

(* Spears are phallic counterpart to the Seeds, shaped like DNA; Lilith develops a pregnant-looking abdomen after the Spear is removed from her in episode 22'.)

I'm a big advocate of the donor being Dr. Katsuragi himself. What we see of his face suggests "biseinen" features (so, basically, "Kaworu-ish character design, but older"). Misato admits that her vendetta against the Angels may actually be a way to "get revenge" (?!?) on her father and to free herself of his hold over her -- and if the last one basically is her dad, well... Episode 24' of course doesn't confront the audience with this in any direct way, but Kaworu bothers Misato on some kind of subliminal level; she has a sort of parallel journey to Rei (suggesting Misato, similarly, is connected to him on a deep level), pondering over Kaworu's existence and what it means, and also at one point similarly receiving a look from him at a distance that she isn't sure how to interpret. She seems incredibly bothered by the reveal that he's an Angel (even though Ritsuko basically told her as much earlier), and at the end of the episode her words about Kaworu almost feel like... they aren't really about Kaworu at all.

Character parallels are also used as a subtle form of suggestion... Misato's relationship with her father is paralleled with Gendo, who Shinji, like Misato, sublimates his hatred against by killing Angels (see episode 20); and Gendo of course ends up BECOMING ONE with the Angels by merging with Adam. Kaworu and Kaji also have lots of strange similarities, down to the way their respective deaths are framed; and Kaji, as we know, is a proxy for Misato's father. The symmetry between Rei and Kaworu, and our respective child and adult protagonists (Shinji and Misato), is just the cherry on top of all this.

Melkor wrote:Taking the Spear out of Adam, sending it to the Dead Sea, and then sending it back to Antarctica just seems way to convoluted.

Real-life tidbit here: it's very common to send samples from an extraction site to another facility to carry out analysis of the material.
So, if the expedition didn't want to, or was unable to, extract a sample from the Spear but still needed the data, the two ways that they could obtain it was to send the entire thing to a place with the proper instruments, or build a facility on site with all the necessary equipment. If they couldn't do the latter (as mentioned before, Antarctica is not the most accessible place) and if the building costs and time needed didn't justify it, it's not unreasonable to assume that they had to ship the Spear elsewhere. And since the funding party (Seele) had interest on the research's result, I'm led to believe they could arrange the means to carry out the transportation.
Also Gendo and Keel visited the excavation site before the Impact, so taking into account the timeline of the events, I think that it's probable that they even hitched a ride with the delivery team of the Spear back to the site.