Postby Reichu » Sat Dec 18, 2010 12:50 pm
I'll split it later... If I did it now, I'd accidentally the whole thread. [EDIT: Okay, done. Looks like this post repeats a lot of the crap I wrote earlier, too. Oh well.]
According to the CI, the FAR are "humanoid", and according to the conversation between Kaworu and the Mystery Seed, the FAR's souls were either invested into the seven Seeds of Life or put towards the Seeds' future offspring. (There was a good conversation about this and its corollaries somewhere...)
The point of my graph, confusing as it is, was to designate what the show itself calls Angel and Human, and, in doing so, help elucidate what these terms (or their "broad" definitions) "really mean", since they are, understandably, the source of considerable confusion.
"Human" clearly takes on a definition that is more metaphysical than purely biological. I think, probably, the only way to make any sense of it is to consider the FAR the first Humans, who created the Seeds (humans in turn) to propagate humanity in various forms. This could be by starting from scratch (LCL), and somehow directing evolution toward the humanoid form (e.g. Lilin), into which the Fruit of Knowledge would be invested; or by creating human godlings at the onset, bearing the Fruit of Life and capable of exploiting their humanity on a very different level.
As for "Angel", this is a lot more difficult, but IMO we can reach a "broad definition" that generally works by considering what "Angel" literally means. Both "Angel", and its Japanese equivalent "shito" (Apostle), deal with the idea of a messenger. Looking across the series at the various things that have been plastered with the term -- from Seeds, to Adam's children, to us -- what could we possibly be messengers of?
The FAR, and the "message" is humanity.*
* (This would mean that the Evas and Rei are implicitly Angels as well, despite not being listed in Seele's catalogue -- but this understanding seems to generally exist anyway.)
NB: skikes, "Lilin" refers solely to our species (Kaworu talking about "Lilin civilization" and how he and Rei have the "forms of Lilin", etc., and the CI entry that flat-out states it).