Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby torts92 » Fri Oct 01, 2021 1:50 am

The Angels thought that Adam was in Terminal Dogma. They wanted to make contact with Adam for what exactly? To be the dominant life form on Earth? To wipe out humanity? To create third impact? And how exactly does merging with Adam achieve those results?

SEELE's goal is to trigger a third impact as a means for the Human Instrumentality Project. They sent Kaworu which has Adam's soul in him (which makes him an Angel), to make contact with Adam in Terminal Dogma to trigger third impact? But SEELE knew that being was not Adam, but actually Lilith. What was SEELE's plan here?

And why Kaworu won't touch Lilith? What happen if he touch Lilith? It will be a merger of Lilith and Adam (Angels), so won't that trigger the third impact? Thus making the Instrumentality possible? Wasn't that what SEELE wanted? Or do they need to defeat all the Angels first for the Instrumentality to occur in accordance with the prophecy? I'm confused. And how does SEELE's goal differs from Gendo's?

What's the difference between the merger of an Angel and Adam, and the merger of an Angel and Lilith?

Last question regarding the Angels. I know about the FAR and the seeds of life. But I'm always confused where exactly the Angels kept coming from? I know they are children of Adam just like we are of Lilith. But they kept coming one by one, did SEELE send them? Who send them? Can the Angels think for themselves, or were they programmed. How were they created?

I know the simple explanation is that the series was designed as a monster of the week format, that's why the Angels kept coming one by one to attack the heroes. But I'm sure there's an in universe explanation to all this.

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby UrsusArctos » Fri Oct 01, 2021 11:12 am

Welcome to the forums! In short, you're asking all the right questions and your post is an excellent list of the ones that have vexed us for years on end.

Apparently an Angel merging with Adam would create Third Impact and wipe out all lifeforms descended from Lilith. Why were the Angels heading for Lilith? It seems like there might be multiple answers to why. The "Classified Information" entries for the NGE 2 video game that were allegedly produced with the involvement of Evangelion's creators might help out a little, although they don't provide a whole answer -
https://wiki.evageeks.org/Classified_Information_(Translation)#Angel
https://wiki.evageeks.org/Classified_Information_(Translation)#Adam
https://wiki.evageeks.org/Classified_Information_(Translation)#Third_Impact
About Seele's agenda with sending Kaworu to Nerv, nobody is entirely sure.

I know the simple explanation is that the series was designed as a monster of the week format, that's why the Angels kept coming one by one to attack the heroes.


It has been suggested, with some justification, that only one Angel can exist at a time. Many of the Angels don't follow the monster of the week format, in particular with every Angel after Leliel (the shadow-and-sphere Angel) having serious and lasting plot consequences.
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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby sithsauron » Thu Nov 04, 2021 7:19 am

There's lots to observe that could be used to theorize the answers. Here's some examples of what I personally think:

1) Angels are looking for mother/father Adam to re-merge with. Merging would awaken Adam who could then give birth to Angels once again, but not before destroying all non-Angel life on earth via catastrophic explosion, which is part of their re-birth process. This seems to be the mechanism.

2) Seele may be double crossing Adam, trying to make a deal with him but at the same time fully expecting him to die at the hands of Nerve to fulfill the Dead Sea Scrolls' prophecy. They know they need one more angel dead to enact the Human Instrumentality ritual. They think Gendo is stalling this from happening so they want to force his hand. Seele's deal with Adam could be that he gets his flesh back and maybe even is allowed become the official Seed Of Life for Earth, as long as Seele gets to undergo Human Instrumentality, either for just the council members or along with the rest of humanity and become a god-like being, and maybe travel to another planet. Kaworu is unaware he would be considered as the final Angel to die according to the Dead Sea Scrolls, so he gets double crossed.

3) Angels have a sixth sense for Adam's living or dead or frozen flesh. Perhaps the 7-eyed mask covering Lilith is made of flesh from Adam's corpse after it exploded in Antarctica, put there to confuse the Angels so they could be lured to a place where they could be fought without them terrorizing other nations.

4) Seele said: "Gendo has Adams resurrected flesh right in the palm of his hand". Kuwaro may have thought this was a figurative statement, not a literal statement, and perhaps English translators have failed to recognize this in the anime.

5) Merging Adam with Lilith actually doesn't do much other than create a powerful gestalt being, however it doesn't explode and cause an impact off the bat. However, if you do a ritual with 8 to 12 Eva's, this Adam-Lilith meta-being will grant you your wish, and even initiate Human Instrumentality for you, impact included.

6) Seele wants to sacrifice the Eva series in a ritual to initiate Human Instrumentality. Nerve actually just wants to learn to transfer human souls into Eva's so they would be the next stage in Human Evolution/Existence, since they figure humans won't be around for much longer due to probability of catastrophic disease or nuclear war. They know they won't be able to make an Eva for every single person on earth, but they may as well just keep making them as long as the human race ain't dead yet, because why the hell not?

7) Gendo realized he could have a chance at merging with Eva-01 (his wife) if he became the resident soul of Adam's flesh and merge with Rei possessing Lilith's soul and flesh to do the deed, with Rei's permission of course. He did not expect Adam's soul to be already merged with Rei's soul, and they double-crossed him. I suspect when Shinji killed Kaworu, Rei was watching from above in the Dogma shaft, and allowed for Kaworu's soul to be collected and merged with hers right at time-of-death, as both of them were tired of being test-subjects for Lilin agendas.

8) Angels reside in eggs. Eventually they hatch and attack Tokyo-3. That's at least what I think. It's probably the reason they come one at a time, because they don't know any better than to immediately go on the attack as soon as one hatches.

9) If I had to guess, Angel eggs were created during the 2nd impact and either fell to Earth or the ocean, or even catapulted up into orbit. They probably think like animals and go along with their nature. However they can be extremely smart when it comes to attacking things.

Anyway these are all just guesses.

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby OutlawThirds » Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:22 am

This also brings up another question that's been bugging me: why did Kaworu think that SEELE was going to let him kick off the third impact for the angels? They presumably controlled his entire environment skinner box style for his whole life so they could feed him whatever lies they wanted (and seem to have done a pretty good job compared to how NERV-Japan and NERV-Germany did with their charges.) He seems to realize that it's a double-cross once he sees Lillith, so presumably they told him some sort of lie to get him into Terminal Dogma. Could they have told him that their plan was to just let the angels win (and how would he square that with them defeating the other angels?) Maybe they convinced him that they where convinced that if he merged with Adam he would be able to control the third impact (like Rei did) and achieve instrumentality, even though Kaworu didn't actually have that power and was just going to do the usual thing any angel would.

As to why SEELE sent Kaworu there: I think they sent him there to die. NERV HQ actually the most dangerous place in the world for Kaworu since the only thing that can stop him and his AT Field is an Eva with a pilot. Why send Kaworu to die? Since many characters at various times act like angels are being forecasted by SEELE, one possibility is that they're following the predictions in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the scrolls say "Last Angel appears at specified time" so that's the time they choose to go send Kaworu to die. On the other hand, having the timing of the last angel's defeat under their control from the beginning means that SEELE might have more flexibility, allowing it to make sure it's ready to do instrumentality when the time comes by holding the final lever.

Makes you wonder what the lab was like wherever they created and raised Kaworu into a functioning clone-person. Either they where better than Gendo at convincing him that they liked him, or they had a very bad day when they found out what happened to their kid when he was sent to NERV-Japan.

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby sithsauron » Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:47 pm

So the question is what was Seele's deal with Kaworu that made Kaworu think they were trustworthy? Here's a scenario, it may not be the right one...:

Seele requested Kaworu to initiate a third impact so that it would destroy all Lilin life which would then be gathered back into the Black Moon egg and be catapulted into space where Lilin could find and repopulate their own planet, and Adam-base life could live peacefully ever after on earth as was originally intended. Amen. Whenever Seele spoke to Kaworu, they indicated Lilin were the false successors and angels were the true ones, Lilin in their current form only ever caused chaos as they evolved improperly so evolution needs to be restarted, and that restoring earth to the angels and Lilin going back to being one being is optimal to achieve all this (although Seele did not mention Lilin had to leave earth, it may have been implied however). I guess Kaworu could do all this stuff if he was able to get back to his Adam body. The reason why another Angel initiating Third Impact was not allowed is that angels are not reasoning things...with Kaworu they could at least make a pact before the ritual begins.

What are Seele's real intentions that would lead to Kaworu realizing he was betrayed? Another wild guess...:

When Kaworu saw he was being tricked into merging with Lilith's body, he realized that Seele wanted something very different than what they agreed on. With a merger of Adam and Lilith, the resultant entity would have the ability to direct Lilin to merge and be reborn as Angel-type beings "children of God". They were in fact NOT giving earth back to the Angels, they wanted to become Angels themselves.

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby HedgehogsDilemma » Wed Dec 15, 2021 1:46 am

God I have to read this thread when I'm either a little more lucid than I am now or otherwise when I'm incredibly stoned; this is basically a full list of all the topics that still kind of elude me four years after watching it lmao. Whenever I'm re-watching 24 I'm like "I do not understand anyone's agenda here at all but I'm just going to ignore that for now, vibe to Ode to Joy, and I can learn the lore later."

View Original PostUrsusArctos wrote:It has been suggested, with some justification, that only one Angel can exist at a time.


Interesting, can you elaborate on where/how/why this has been suggested? I haven't heard it but am new to the fanbase/boards and honestly I never really questioned them not showing up at the same time, just accepted it as part of the show without ever thinking about it either way I guess.

Tabris did already exist throughout the events of the series, so per this suggestion would he just be an exception because he was artificially created via the contact experiment?

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby ASW_Canuck » Wed Dec 29, 2021 9:08 pm

The script for Ep 24 implies that SEELE is expecting NERV to destroy Kaworu/Tabris (“I will be praying that Unit 01 will accomplish its task”), but slipping him into NERV undercover is insane given what's at stake. In the end NERV more or less fails at that task; if Kaworu had actually wanted to merge with "Adam" he could have done so as soon as he entered Terminal Dogma instead of going through his Shakespearean soliloquy while waiting for Shinji to beat EVA-02 down. In some forum post I think Reichu referred to the plot structure of Ep 24 as a "Lovecraftian horror", and I'm inclined to second that motion...

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby DantesInferno » Sat Jan 15, 2022 1:08 am

Regarding the "one angel at a time" hypothesis, here's how I see it:

Basically, each angel is a reincarnation of the same soul, over and over; a successive attempt at creating an Adam-based humanity (the lilim are the Lilith-based humanity).

From christian theology (and some fan theory books I read in Fukuoka back around 1998), there is this idea that the human soul is essentially one, and we are divided into individuals only by virtue of our physical bodies (AT-Field, in NGE lore). That is why when you die, according to Christian theology, your immortal soul gets a new body before going to heaven (or hell): humans are not complete without a body. Think about a lump of whater that gets divided into multiple ice cubes inside a mold, but revert sinto a single entity when the ice melts.

The angels (of christianity), in contrast, are soul-only entities, undivided by any physical body, and each is thus "equivalent" to the whole of humanity, in terms of soul.

My theory is that, each angel in NGE contains the whole set of souls that travelled inside the Adam seed, i.e. they all have "achieved instrumentality" from the get-go (this is consistent with the whole of the lilim being collectively refered to as the 18th angel. For some reason, we and we alone are "divided"). This explains why when an angel is destroyed, the word senmetsu 殲滅 (extermination) is used: a whole species is being genocided.

Thus, each angel is a successive reincarnation of the same (unified, many-in-one) Adam soul, over and over.

This explains why only one angel appears at a time.

But it does not explain what "soulless" state Kaworu must have been since his birth at Second Impact up until the extermination of the 16th angel. And of course, it does not explain why some of the reincarnations went after Lilith either.

Another problem with this theory is that, apparently all the names of the angels were aready known to Seele likely from the Dead Sea Scrolls. It remains to be explained how the successive reincarnation of the Adam soul into each angel body could be known in advance. And raises the question of where each new angel body came from, if we no longer assume they were all created simultaneously during Second Impact.

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby Zoop » Mon Jan 17, 2022 7:44 am

Interesting take, I like it. Could explain Kaworu simply because he's special, he has a lillim body and at least has a part of a soul of a FAR in him, just like Rei does.
I really like this theory, it would suggest the same entity keeps trying new approaches and thus largely explaining the angels' motive (finding its original body) and their different behaviors until finally giving up in the form of Kaworu.

The names might just be something humanity gave the angels, it doesn't necessarily need to be their actual names. But what if the DSS merely predicted the amount of times this Adam entity could retry and thus assigned a name to each of those iterations. Their bodies could simply be a manifestation of their AT field, upon each incarnation it chooses a form and then takes a little while to evolve into its intended form (like Sandalphon).

The part where it becomes difficult to me, is, Lillim being the last angel. Meaning, we too are incarnations of the same adam soul (having small pieces of it? Or Lilliths? Lillith is an angel too, does she have a bit of Adam's soul too, which she gives in little pieces to Lillim? I don't think so, I don't think Lillith should be linked to Adam other than also being a FAR). In that regard, Lillim aren't all that different from Kaworu apart that he probably has a larger piece of the soul, probably a fruit of life (and thus is able to use his at-field magic) and more importantly, a memory knowing who and what he is. But it would also break the hypothesis why there can be only 1 angel, Kaworu and Lillim would prove otherwise, so an Angel has the whole bunch what is left? Could it be split in 2 to create 2 slightly less powerful entities (Israfel)?

Maybe angels simply can't spawn in numbers, being unable to split the soul (as would be the case with Lillim) and thus is an "all or nothing" type of deal, maybe that's exactly what makes a bearer of a FoL so much different from a FoW. Israfel being an experimental attempt to copy Lillim's ability to have split souls (and why the angel and the whole episode turned out a bit goofy). And why earlier Angels (Leliel, Arael, Armisael) became interested in Lillim about what set them apart; their individual ego's (and why there's another experimental angel (Arael) trying to exploit that individualism by attempting a mindrape).

This is also a bit inline with Anno's other work Shin Godzilla, throughout the movie, the monster keeps evolving to its surroundings and threats. At the end, when its being defeated by mankind (lots of individuals working together), it is shown that Godzilla's final attempt to evolve was to spawn its own humanoids (you can see all sorts of grotesque human shapes in its tail trying to form, but frozen in place).

In any case, I never really did like the idea that all Angels were created during Second Impact. Because if that is the case, where have they been all this time?
Now all of the sudden we conveniently find an angel gestating in a volcano, but no angels have been found whatsoever during the 14 years prior?
Imo, Sandalphon was only inside that volcano for hours/days, just freshly reincarnated, taking some time to adjust to this incarnation. Other angels generally appeared from space or the ocean where they would have the time to gestate for a couple hours/days before assuming their assaults. If this process took 14 years then I find that no others were ever found unbelievable.

And of course, it does not explain why some of the reincarnations went after Lilith either.

This is my take, Adam and Lillith being both on the same planet was never supposed to happen. Except for Gaghiel, they all went for Lillith (directly or indirectly). They are looking for a FAR body, assuming it must be Adam (since this is an unprecedented situation on the first place). They have no clue that the one they are going after is in fact Lillith. Kaworu only realized at the end, when he saw Lillith (maybe he doesnt know of her existence, assuming humanity is what came from lillith, having no idea that FAR is still around, or assuming it's Rei, thinking she was going to merge with Adam downstairs, but in fact realizes humanity needs Kaworu gone and caring about Shinji, complies). And Gaghiel just happened to notice "a" FAR being transported with the fleet (the Adam Embryo). So this wouldn't discredit your theory, imo.
The problem i have with this take is, what would have happened if any of the angels made it as far as Kaworu did? They say it would cause third impact, but would an angel be interested in that (Kaworu wasnt)? With your theory, they would have no desire to accomplish instrumentility when they already have such a state. So ... just a big kaboom giving the next angel free reign to search for Adam (/Gendo)?

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby DantesInferno » Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:01 pm

View Original PostZoop wrote:Their bodies could simply be a manifestation of their AT field, upon each incarnation it chooses a form and then takes a little while to evolve into its intended form (like Sandalphon).


Exactly. I think the angels use a different evolutionary approach, and each successive attempt is somehow more "fit" for life on Earth, and the ultimate destination is Kaworu; i.e. the Adam-based lifeform reaches the same conclusion, the same "answer" to the Life on Earth problem, as the Lilith-based ones.

View Original PostZoop wrote:The part where it becomes difficult to me, is, Lillim being the last angel. Meaning, we too are incarnations of the same adam soul (having small pieces of it? Or Lilliths? Lillith is an angel too, does she have a bit of Adam's soul too, which she gives in little pieces to Lillim? I don't think so, I don't think Lillith should be linked to Adam other than also being a FAR). In that regard, Lillim aren't all that different from Kaworu apart that he probably has a larger piece of the soul, probably a fruit of life (and thus is able to use his at-field magic) and more importantly, a memory knowing who and what he is. But it would also break the hypothesis why there can be only 1 angel, Kaworu and Lillim would prove otherwise, so an Angel has the whole bunch what is left? Could it be split in 2 to create 2 slightly less powerful entities (Israfel)?


I think lilim being "the 18th Angel" is just a figure of speech, showing how we too are the offspring of a Seed of Life. I don't think it implies any connection between the lilim and Adam.

View Original PostZoop wrote:Maybe angels simply can't spawn in numbers, being unable to split the soul (as would be the case with Lillim) and thus is an "all or nothing" type of deal, maybe that's exactly what makes a bearer of a FoL so much different from a FoW.


Yeah.

View Original PostZoop wrote:Israfel being an experimental attempt to copy Lillim's ability to have split souls (and why the angel and the whole episode turned out a bit goofy). And why earlier Angels (Leliel, Arael, Armisael) became interested in Lillim about what set them apart; their individual ego's (and why there's another experimental angel (Arael) trying to exploit that individualism by attempting a mindrape).


I wouldn't dwell too much on Israfel's ability to split into two, other than it's an interesting, distinctive ability for a monster-of-the-week to have.

View Original PostZoop wrote:In any case, I never really did like the idea that all Angels were created during Second Impact. Because if that is the case, where have they been all this time?
Now all of the sudden we conveniently find an angel gestating in a volcano, but no angels have been found whatsoever during the 14 years prior?
Imo, Sandalphon was only inside that volcano for hours/days, just freshly reincarnated, taking some time to adjust to this incarnation. Other angels generally appeared from space or the ocean where they would have the time to gestate for a couple hours/days before assuming their assaults. If this process took 14 years then I find that no others were ever found unbelievable.


I think the general consensus is that they were all created in egg form as a result of 2I, and for some unexplained reason started to awaken 15 years later, one by one. I don't buy it either. But your theory still requires that each new body essentially appears "out of nowhere" whwnever the next reincarnation is due. And we still have no explanation for the 15 year hiatus.

View Original PostZoop wrote:
And of course, it does not explain why some of the reincarnations went after Lilith either.

This is my take, Adam and Lillith being both on the same planet was never supposed to happen. Except for Gaghiel, they all went for Lillith (directly or indirectly). They are looking for a FAR body, assuming it must be Adam (since this is an unprecedented situation on the first place). They have no clue that the one they are going after is in fact Lillith. Kaworu only realized at the end, when he saw Lillith (maybe he doesnt know of her existence, assuming humanity is what came from lillith, having no idea that FAR is still around, or assuming it's Rei, thinking she was going to merge with Adam downstairs, but in fact realizes humanity needs Kaworu gone and caring about Shinji, complies). And Gaghiel just happened to notice "a" FAR being transported with the fleet (the Adam Embryo). So this wouldn't discredit your theory, imo.


I see, makes sense.

View Original PostZoop wrote:The problem i have with this take is, what would have happened if any of the angels made it as far as Kaworu did? They say it would cause third impact, but would an angel be interested in that (Kaworu wasnt)? With your theory, they would have no desire to accomplish instrumentility when they already have such a state. So ... just a big kaboom giving the next angel free reign to search for Adam (/Gendo)?


I think the angels don't want to trigger Third Impact to achieve instrumentality (like you mentioned, they already have it), but to obliterate the competing lilim, the only thing in the way of them becoming eternal (i.e., free of threats and thus able to live forever). The lilim try the exact same thing, given that they need to exterminate all the angels before attempting instrumentality.

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby Gendo's Glasses » Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:52 pm

It's actually really obvious. SEELE tells Kaworu that Adam's body lies within Gendo. At this point, SEELE and Gendo are butting heads (Gendo has thrown the Lance into space, something which Fuyutsuki said would displease SEELE.) SEELE think Angels want to make contact with Adam and have told Kaworu that Adam's body is located in Gendo. Whether SEELE knows this is true is irrelevant, the point is that they're trying to point a human Angel who they control at Gendo.

So, SEELE sent Kaworu to NERV in the hopes that he would assassinate Gendo and then, presumably, be killed. This would rid SEELE of the last Angel and of their treacherous subordinate. Kaworu, however, goes rogue and decides to go after Lillith for some odd reason, ignoring or disregarding what SEELE told him of Adam.

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby DantesInferno » Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:34 am

View Original PostGendo's Glasses wrote:It's actually really obvious. SEELE tells Kaworu that Adam's body lies within Gendo. At this point, SEELE and Gendo are butting heads (Gendo has thrown the Lance into space, something which Fuyutsuki said would displease SEELE.) SEELE think Angels want to make contact with Adam and have told Kaworu that Adam's body is located in Gendo. Whether SEELE knows this is true is irrelevant, the point is that they're trying to point a human Angel who they control at Gendo.

So, SEELE sent Kaworu to NERV in the hopes that he would assassinate Gendo and then, presumably, be killed. This would rid SEELE of the last Angel and of their treacherous subordinate. Kaworu, however, goes rogue and decides to go after Lillith for some odd reason, ignoring or disregarding what SEELE told him of Adam.


The scene where Kaworu is told this was added for the DVD release I think? (not included in the original airing), and I've seen it mentioned before how Seele telling Kaworu that Adam's body is already inside Gendo is at odds with Kaworu later mistaking the white giant at dogma with Adam... To the point of even being labelled a "continuity error"/"plot hole". What do you make of that?

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Re: Why did SEELE send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma? And a few questions on the Angels' purpose

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Postby Gendo's Glasses » Thu Jan 20, 2022 1:31 am

View Original PostDantesInferno wrote:
View Original PostGendo's Glasses#933807 wrote:It's actually really obvious. SEELE tells Kaworu that Adam's body lies within Gendo. At this point, SEELE and Gendo are butting heads (Gendo has thrown the Lance into space, something which Fuyutsuki said would displease SEELE.) SEELE think Angels want to make contact with Adam and have told Kaworu that Adam's body is located in Gendo. Whether SEELE knows this is true is irrelevant, the point is that they're trying to point a human Angel who they control at Gendo.

So, SEELE sent Kaworu to NERV in the hopes that he would assassinate Gendo and then, presumably, be killed. This would rid SEELE of the last Angel and of their treacherous subordinate. Kaworu, however, goes rogue and decides to go after Lillith for some odd reason, ignoring or disregarding what SEELE told him of Adam.


The scene where Kaworu is told this was added for the DVD release I think? (not included in the original airing), and I've seen it mentioned before how Seele telling Kaworu that Adam's body is already inside Gendo is at odds with Kaworu later mistaking the white giant at dogma with Adam... To the point of even being labelled a "continuity error"/"plot hole". What do you make of that?


Yeah, the nature of the production of the original series has led to a fair few rough patches when it comes to understanding just what the heck is going on. Especially in the later episodes, which is why so many of them are filled with dense exposition (and why so many people finish the series and ask questions like what were the Angels' goals?) The Director's Cut introduces a lot of new material that complicates an already dense thicket of a narrative that was being drafted on an episode-by-episode basis.

While Angels are seemingly almost instinctually drawn to reunite with Adam, Kaworu isn't an Angel precisely. He's something similar to Rei, as seen in the scene where he meets her, and I believe apocryphal material confirms that he was a product of the Antarctica Contact Experiment where human DNA fused with Adam. SEELE seem to think that can point Kaworu at Gendo and, either way that goes, they rid themselves of one or two threats to their plans.

But, like Rei, Kaworu has a certain degree of free will (and is, indeed, named for the Angel of Free Will.) So, Kaworu decides to not go after Gendo and instead descends to Terminal Dogma for a reason that isn't clear at all (and all of this confusion stems from the fact that Lilith did not exist prior to this episode -- previously, the white giant was Adam.) However, there's some rich thematic stuff there with Kaworu almost reuniting with a primordial mother figure, similar to the womb imagery and so on with Shinji and Unit 01.

I try not to think of things in terms of plot holes, but the writing is certainly messy and imprecise. But I think the question is imprecise, too. SEELE did not send Kaworu to Terminal Dogma, they sent him to NERV. Kaworu went down to Terminal Dogma seemingly of his own volition. The problem is Kaworu's motivation is almost impossible to determine, especially with the DC scenes taken into account. Angels seek out Adam. Kaworu is told where Adam is ("within Ikari.") But then Kaworu does practically everything but following the lead SEELE provided him, possibly because he identifies Gendo as Shinji's father. After befriending Shinji, he abruptly descends to Terminal Dogma and is surprised that he finds Lilith instead of Adam. We're missing Kaworu's internal world -- does he like or believe SEELE?

But here's another thing: Kaworu knows Lilith exists, too, because in the conversation at the lake both Lilith and Lilin are mentioned with the former named as the progenitor of the latter. So, whatever revelation Kaworu comes to in Terminal Dogma ("I see now, the Lilin, Lilith!") is difficult to reconcile, too. I wouldn't call it a plot hole or continuity error but more an issue resulting from inserting a dense, lore-rich scene in an episode that had already been planned and executed. It's still not impossible to reconcile but I think the nature of Evangelion's development means there's always rough edges to making it all fit together neatly.

So, the question is really "Why did Kaworu decide to go down to Terminal Dogma?" and I'm not sure there's an answer one can determine on that count without some form of headcanon -- Kaworu could sense Lilith, Kaworu was putting on a show for Shinji and/or Rei, Kaworu thought SEELE was lying about where Adam was, etc. I assume in the original broadcast, Kaworu was genuinely confused based on whatever 'sixth sense' Angels appear to possess.


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