Lilith
| Lilith | |
| |
| リリス | |
| Number | 2nd |
|---|---|
| Symbol | N/A |
| Appearance(s) | Episode 15, Episode 22, Episode 24, Episode 25', Episode 26' |
| Defeated by | N/A |
Lilith (リリス Hebrew: נדה ,לילית xxiv folio b) is designated as the Second Angel. Like Adam, Lilith is a Seed of Life, created by the First Ancestral Race billions of years ago. Lilith is, therefore, Adam's counterpart. The other Angels are the progeny of Adam, but Lilith is the progenitor of the "Lilim": humans.
Profile
Lilith appears to be a vaguely-formed roughly Evangelion-sized humanoid upper torso with blubbery white flesh, of non-distinct gender. Lilith has no legs or hips when it is seen in the year 2015, its torso terminating in blobby masses with dozens of humanoid-sized pairs of legs growing out of it. Lilith is kept restrained in Terminal Dogma, crucified on a giant red cross; large nails are driven through its palms into the cross from which it hangs. Lilith has five fingers on each hand (just like a human). Lilith remains totally immobile and unreactive, simply hanging limp on the cross it's nailed to and unresponsive to events around it.
The Spear of Longinus was impaled through Lilith's chest while it was restrained on the cross in Terminal Dogma, but after Eva Unit-00 removed the Lance in Episode 23, Lilith's lower legs grew back (though its new legs still had dozens of pairs of humanoid legs growing out of them, from the region of its thighs).
LCL is actually Lilith's blood, a steady stream of it pouring down the cross, and it is the true source of the LCL used in Evangelion Entry Plugs. In fact, the "LCL Production Plant" is really just a large artificial lake of LCL formed by it pooling on the level beneath Lilith's red cross. The LCL apparently flows out of the exit wound formed by the Spear of Longinus in Lilith's back (as there is no LCL flowing out of the front of its torso) though Nerv has been collecting LCL from Lilith since long before the Spear was recovered in 2015 (in Episode 12). Several production sketches reveal that there are actually tubes coming out of the back of Lilith's head, labeled "LCL tube A" etc., which may be another means of extracting it.
Perhaps Lilith's most distinctive feature is the purple mask which covers its face. Lilith has seven eyes arranged in two vertical rows on its face, three on the right and four on the left, and the mask contains holes for each of the eyes. Etched onto the mask is a pointed-downwards triangle which intersects all of the eyes (except for the lowest eye on the left). It is not entirely clear if the mask is a natural part of Lilith (some form of bone-plate), or if it is another artificial restraint placed onto it. The symbol of the mysterious Seele organization is the face of Lilith: a pointed down triangle intersecting seven eyes arranged unevenly into two rows of three and four. Whether the mask is a restraint which Seele put its emblem on, or if the mask is part of Lilith's naturally-occurring face and Seele copied it as their symbol, is unknown. The purple mask is roughly oval-shaped, and is somewhat dinged and dented.
Lilith's marshmallowy white flesh forms several blubbery folds around its head (leading to the appearance of almost having two double chins). Lilith also has two ill-defined lumpy and uneven blobs on the sides of its head which are apparently its ears. Lilith's back, visible only when it descends from its cross moments before it physically begins to manifest as Rei (when it merges with her), appears to be very bumpy where vertebrae form large blubbery lumps in a line running down its back.
Origins & Discovery
Billions of years ago, Lilith's "Black Moon" transport vessel collided violently with Earth, purely by accident, in the event known as "First Impact," creating Earth's Moon. She would have had her own Spear of Longinus with her as well, but it is presumed not to have survived the crash (CI). Earth already had a Seed of Life present on it (Adam), but no two Seeds are meant to land on the same planet. However, because Lilith's Spear of Longinus had been destroyed, the only remaining Spear on the planet (Adam's) activated to try to fix the situation and reduced Adam to a state of dormancy. Lilith then spread the primordial ooze from which "normal" terrestrial life on Earth evolved over the course of billions of years (bacteria, dolphins, monkeys, etc.), which culminated in the human race. Thus, Lilith's progeny, humanity, usurped the place of Adam's progeny, the Angels, as the dominant race on Earth.
For ages, the Black Moon containing Lilith was embedded deep within the Earth. Due to shifting tectonic plates, the subterranean Black Moon eventually moved to a position underneath what would become Hakone, Japan, forming the massive underground cavern that would eventually be known as the "Geofront."
Role
At some undetermined point in the recent past (possibly even before Second Impact), the Black Moon and Lilith were discovered by Seele. Gehirn (later, Nerv) headquarters and Tokyo-3 were built around its position. Lilith was kept crucified on a giant cross in the deepest and most secret level of Nerv HQ, Terminal Dogma, and used as a renewable source of LCL for the Evangelion Units (LCL in fact being Lilith's blood). Seele and Nerv used Lilith for various experiments, then intentionally let Lilith grow to a point just before it could be used to initiate Instrumentality (for convenience), but then halted its growth by impaling it on the recovered Spear of Longinus which had been paired with Adam. Thus Lilith would be ready to use in initiating Third Impact as soon as the other components needed for the process were in place.
Eva-01, unlike the other Evangelion units, was created from Lilith (in End of Evangelion, it is referred to, ambiguously, as "Lilith no Bunshin"). Still images in Episode 23 suggest that instead of merely taking genetic samples from Lilith, Evangelion Unit-01 was created by physically tearing away from the lower half of Lilith, forming itself from the body mass of Lilith's legs (explaining its legs' conspicuous absence) and tearing away from Lilith trailing tattered ropes of flesh, in a mockery of the natural birth process.
Rei/Adam/Lilith Hybrid Being
In The End of Evangelion, Gendo forces his hand into Rei III, merging the Adam embryo in his right hand with her in an attempt to control Lilith and reunite with Yui. However, Rei rejects Gendo and with Adam's body and soul within her, she proceeds to merge with Lilith's body in Terminal Dogma. The gestalt Rei/Adam/Lilith being then initiates Third Impact and Instrumentality. However, Shinji Ikari ultimately chooses to reject Instrumentality, and Eva-01 bursts from the being's eye and breaks the Spear of Longinus in two. The Rei/Adam/Lilith being then falls to Earth in pieces, presumably dead.
While there is no official name for this being, it is commonly referred to in the fan community as "Giant Naked Rei" or GNR. However, it's also common to consider this being primarily Lilith. Since Rei was essentially Lilith itself, and Adam (as Kaworu) only appears briefly it seems that Lilith has primary control over the being.
Rebuild of Evangelion
Lilith appears again in Rebuild of Evangelion, although the timing and circumstances of its appearance onscreen are vastly different. While Lilith is seen in the series at the beginning of the descent arc (end of Episode 15), Lilith is seen roughly three-fourths of the way through Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0. Instead of Kaji revealing Lilith to Misato, Misato herself shows Lilith to Shinji in order to explain the urgency of fighting Ramiel, and correctly identifies Lilith as such. Dialogue between Gendo and Fuyutsuki reveals that a "contract" has been established between Seele and Lilith that involves the destruction of all the Angels, for purposes involving the Human Instrumentality Project.
Lilith is seen during the abortive Third Impact at the end of Evangelion 2.0, with what appears to be a faint glow and small white sparks floating off her body. Keel Lorenz, in an earlier conversation with Gendo, speaks about "resurrecting" Lilith. It is heavily implied that Lilith was in some way affected by the events surrounding Eva-01 at the end of Evangelion 2.0, though to what extent is at present unknown. It is also unknown what was done to Lilith during the 14-year time period between the setting of the two movies.
In Evangelion 3.0, Lilith has been effectively split into two: her head, having taken the shape of Rei's head, is in the old Nerv Command Center surrounded by Failures of Infinity that are reaching out to it. Deep within her original chamber, Lilith's body has pulled off the cross and grown to many times her original size. Eva-06 is fused to where the neck should be and has briefly grown with Lilith before impaling her with two Spears. The body is decaying and in poor condition, with the same red grid pattern seen on the Moon's surface and in Eva-01's old cage. Her body explodes into red fluid when Shinji in Eva-13 removes the Spears, forming around the 12th Angel as an initiator of Fourth Impact.
Design overhaul
Lilith's design in Rebuild had undergone an overhaul as well. No longer does Lilith have its trademark seven-eyed mask, but instead has an ossified mask or faceplate similar to the face Sachiel grows after the N2 mine attack, with two eyeholes and a small beak protruding out of the lower end of the mask.
The Spear of Longinus is already impaled through its chest and the large bolts driven through its palms and into the cross remain. However, Lilith's chest bears a large scar across it, one that resembles the scar seen on Misato's chest in the TV series in both location and appearance. In addition, a series of small cross-shaped objects are driven into its chest. Lilith's clusters of legs now twitch and sway, and it continues to trickle LCL into the lake below.
Allusions
Lilith's name refers to the first wife of Adam in the Jewish tradition. According to Gustav Davidson's A Dictionary of Angels, Lilith bore Adam 100 children every day - possibly referenced in the Lilin being greater in number than the Angels.
| Angels |
| Angels (general) |
| First and Second Angels (Seeds of Life): Adam | Lilith |
| Third to Seventeenth Angels (Adam's Children): |
| Sachiel | Shamshel | Ramiel | Gaghiel | Israfel | Sandalphon | Matarael | Sahaquiel |
| Ireul | Leliel | Bardiel | Zeruel | Arael | Armisael | Tabris |
| Eighteenth Angel: Lilin |
| Rebuild of Evangelion: ?Adams? | Lilith | 3rd Angel | 4th Angel | 5th Angel | 6th Angel | 7th Angel | 8th Angel | 9th Angel | 10th Angel | 11th Angel | 12th Angel | 1st/13th Angel |
| Other: Extracanonical Angels |
