Spear of Longinus
The Spear of Longinus (ロンギヌスの槍, "Longinus no Yari") is an extraterrestrial artifact with the power to effortlessly penetrate any A.T. Field.
Properties
Physically, the Spear of Longinus resembles a long, red bident on an Evangelion scale. Its structure is inherently double-helical, with the majority of its length being straight and tightly interwoven. At one end, it unwinds and forms two massive tines.
The Spear is considered to be a weapon of "god-like" power. N² weapons have enough destructive potential to bring minor amounts of damage upon some of the weaker Angels; and Evas can use armaments against Angels after nullifying the Angels' A.T. Fields with their own. However, the Spear of Longinus is capable of piercing the active, unneutralized A.T. Field of any Angel or Evangelion.
While the bident is the Spear's default shape, it also has metamorphic capabilities. When thrown at the Angel Arael (22), the tines wrap together to form a seamless piercing object. Upon encountering Arael's A.T. Field, the "flaps" of the Spear open up, revealing a white, gill-like structures that seem to aid the Spear with self-propulsion under conditions of extreme resistance. Finally, the Spear's bident shape is perpetually altered by Eva-01 in Episode 26' when she separates the two helices and the Spear takes on a form reminiscent of a horizontally elongated infinity symbol, ∞.
The Spear is not of Terran origin, having been created by the First Ancestral Race, an ancient extraterrestrial species of human. The one is the show is, in fact, only one of many: Every Seed of Life was sent with a counterpart Spear, including both Adam and Lilith. One established function of a Spear is that of "security device" capable of safeguarding the First Ancestral Race's plans, which includes disabling one Seed of Life in the event that two should land on the same planet.
Spears of Longinus are technically alive and believed to have wills of their own. The Spear featured in Evangelion belonged to Adam, whereas Lilith's is believed to have been lost or destroyed during First Impact.
Pre-2015
First Impact
Adam (and her Spear), contained within the White Moon, was the first Seed to land on Earth, at least 4 billion years ago. Before Adam-based life could be established, Lilith crash-landed on Earth within the Black Moon, her Spear apparently being destroyed in the process, and caused the event now known as the First Impact. Due to an unspecified law in the First Ancestral Race's plan, two Seeds are not meant to co-exist on the same planet, and, resultantly, Adam's Spear -- as the only one remaining on Earth -- took the initiative to subdue its own counterpart Seed. Adam remained in suspended animation for billions of years while Lilith-based life was allowed to develop and prosper.
Second Impact
In the year 2000, the Katsuragi Expedition unearthed Adam and the Spear in the Antarctic. The Spear was removed, briefly relocated to the Dead Sea region, and then shipped back to the South Pole in preparation for the Contact Experiment. After the experiment led to unforeseen consequences, the team attempted to wield the Spear against Adam to "reseal" her, but they failed. In classified video footage of the incident [21], scientists can be heard shouting off-screen that the Spear needs to be 'pulled back', and that it's "sinking in". Second Impact could not be averted, and, ultimately, the Spear appears to be responsible for causing Adam's retroversion to an embryonic state (Chronicle).
Present
The Spear first appears in the series in Episode 12 under wraps as it is transported from the Antarctic to Nerv on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. It reappears at the end of Episode 14 as Rei is ordered by Gendo Ikari to go into Terminal Dogma to insert it into Lilith, the result of which is seen in Episode 15. It remains there until Episode 22 during the battle with Arael, upon which Rei once again descends to collect it from Lilith in order to destroy Arael, which was floating in outer space high above Earth's atmosphere. Rei used Evangelion Unit-00 to hurl the Spear of Longinus like a javelin into Earth orbit, and kill the Angel. The Spear exceeds escape velocity, and is lost from Earth's orbit.
Third Impact
It finally returns in Episode 26' after reacting to the awakened and freed Evangelion Unit-01. It proceeds to become an important tool for the Human Instrumentality Project and merges with the Eva, creating the Tree of Life. However, after Shinji Ikari rejects the process, the Spear is regurgitated, destroys the copies used by the Mass Production Evangelions and leaves Earth accompanied by Unit-01.
Replica Spears of Longinus
Seele is able to create nine copies of the Spear of Longinus for use by their Mass Production Model Evangelions. The copies have most of the original's properties, such as its size and dimensions, along with its ability to pierce A.T. Fields, although they are bluish grey in color rather than red. Also unlike the original, they cannot be used to initate Instrumentality with Lilith herself -- only with her "alter ego".
The replicas exhibit metamorphic capabilities beyond those observed in the original, as they are observed taking on appearances entirely different from their native forms. When the Eva Series are first sortied in 25', their Spears initially appear as massive, double-edged blades. Their true nature is revealed when one comes in contact with Eva-02's A.T. Field and, within seconds, morphs instantaneously into its Spear form while suspended in midair.
Officially, the "double-edged blade" variation of the Spear copies goes by two different names. The script refers to them as 重い槍 (omoi yari), or "Heavy Spear". However, this term is rarely observed elsewhere, and 大剣 (ooken), or "Giant Sword", is seen in its stead.
Notes
- While the English-speaking fan community heavily utilizes the translation "Lance of Longinus" (a habit reinforced by ADV and Manga Entertainment's localizations), the official translation, indicated by a computer display in 25’, indicates that the official English rendition in NGE is, in fact, "Spear of Longinus".
