Theory and Analysis:Identities of the Adams

This analysis page concerns the identities of the four Adams in the New Theatrical Edition continuity. The fundamental identity of the Adams is, of course, not in question: they are the four radiant giants present at Second Impact. However, the story of these beings does not end there, and figuring out where they all end up is the basic goal of this page.

The "numbering" of the Adams here is for list purposes only. If they have official ordinals, they are not currently known, at least not with any certainty.

Adams #1: Evangelion 13

Eva-13 at Fourth Impact

The movies start throwing hints to the audience that the Adams were not destroyed (not all of them, anyway) as early as Eva 2.0. It is not until Eva 3.0, however, that the identity of one is divulged directly to the viewer. So, as our "freebie", we shall look at that Adams first.

When Eva-13 becomes a radiant giant and transcends DMS (a.k.a. Eva Pseudo-Evolution) Phase 3 at the onset of Fourth Impact, becoming a radiant giant, Mari indicates that it is an “Adams survivor” (アダムスの生き残り, Adamusu no ikinokori). Because the Adams were themselves radiant giants, and "pseudo-evolution" can be taken to mean "not evolving into a new form, but returning to an old one", the implications of "Adams survivor" are thus as follows:

• Eva-13 is an Adams that survived Second Impact
• The need to clarify "survivor" suggests that at least one Adams did not survive the event.
• After Second Impact, at least one of the Adams was captured by humanity and modified into an Evangelion.

Now, with that in mind...

Adams #2: Evangelion Unit-01

Eva-01 at Near 3I

In Eva 2.0, Eva-01 initiates the event known as Near Third Impact, in which it first awakens (Pseudo-Evolution Stage 1) and eventually transforms into a radiant giant (Pseudo-Evolution Stage 2). In this form, Eva-01 bears a strong resemblance to the Adams in general, being a similarly-winged, red-eyed energy being. It also possesses a "third eye" -- a feature possessed by one specific Adams at Second Impact -- along with two cores (discussed below).

Of what is taking place, Ritsuko says that Eva-01 is "regaining its original form", "transforming into a divine entity", and "transforming into an energy condensate". These first two points correspond to the two most obvious meanings of the term giji shinka (疑似シン化), which can be read as both "pseudo-evolution" and "false deification". The last point appears to be a more technical description of what a "radiant giant" actually is. Ritsuko says, further, that the event being initiated is a continuation of the Second, and Misato directly compares Eva-01's wings to the ones she saw fifteen years before.

Taken together, these points all strongly imply that Eva-01 is the three-eyed Adams, and through Near Third Impact it is able to revert to its original state, or something very close to it.

Core Status & IPEA Logo

As if the above-mentioned were not suspicious enough, the three-eyed Adams is mostly cropped out of view in what can only be a very deliberate choice (given the amount of planning that goes into theatrical animation). That is, there is no way to confirm whether or not it, too, originally possessed two cores. The "omission via cropping" is made more curious by the fact that, if the preview version of the four Adams is anything to go by, the three-eyed Adams doesn't have any chest features to hide! However, it's precisely because the final version does not show you the Adams' chest that the preview version cannot simply be taken at face value.

The answer ultimately may be lying in plain sight, within the IPEA logo. This incorporates a three-eyed, two-cored Eva-like being -- to which Eva-01's radiant giant form achieves a rather strong resemblance. This connection is further cemented via the way the IPEA logo is situated over the containment silo doors: when the doors open, light streams out between the logo's two cores in much the same way as light streams from Eva-01's chest.

The likelihood of the IPEA logo depicting a specific being increases upon consideration of the IPEA's implied true purpose, that is, to prevent a repeat of Second Impact. See more here.

Eva-01
The four Adams at Second Impact	Eva-01 at Near Third Impact	Close-up showing "third eye"	Preview version of Adams
IPEA logo	Doors to containment silo opening	A.T. Field scans of 4th Angel & Eva-01

Blood Type

A display screen from Eva 1.0, shown when Eva-01 is neutralizing the A.T. Field of the Fourth Angel, indicates that Eva-01 possesses the blood type, or wavelength pattern, blue **A’.

We can rule out "A" being short for "Angel", since this very example provides the precedent of Angel blood types being labeled according their Angel ordinal: hence the Fourth Angel is "blue 04". Taking into account the other evidence suggesting Eva-01's true nature, "Adams" would be a logical expansion. Furthermore, the apostrophe following the "A" end is likely shorthand for 改 (kai), which means modified, improved, etc. -- fully in line with Eva-01 being a modified Adams. Lastly, the two asterisks could indicate that the individual Adams have ordinals, in which case Eva-01 would be the one designated "Second", though this is highly speculative.

Adams #3: Evangelion Mark.06

[SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

• Mark.06 shown in 1.0 at a lunar excavation site (cf. Explanation of 1.01). I.e., it is not simply being built there; it was found there.
• Gendo says construction method is different
• blood stain at Mare Tranquilitatis along with presence of spear on moon link it to 2I (see also blood spurt in omitted storyboard which confirms conclusions that would need to be necessarily drawn anyway)
• masking of face implies divinity

Further connections:

Mark.06 is designed as something of an "evil version" or "dark twin" of Eva-01. The doppelganger motif was repeated, even more obviously, with Eva-13. The three Evas are visually connected through their armor designs.

Another point of comparison is that both Eva-13 and Eva-01 caused an impact (4I and N3I respectively). The remains of Mark.06 are found in Eva 3.0 at what Kaworu calls ground zero of Third Impact, strongly implied to be a separate event from Near Third Impact. Its exact involvement is unknown, but it is not only fused with Lilith's headless body -- indicated to have descended from its cross and grown in size, in a manner evoking End of Evangelion -- it also appears to have been speared from above, creating parallels with Near Third Impact and directly implying that Mark.06 was one of the forces in the Impact that needed to be stopped. Thus, we can tentatively conclude that each of the three Adams enumerated thus far has an Impact to its name.

What of the fourth Adams?

Adams #4: The Key of Nebuchadnezzar

[SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Unlike Neon Genesis Evangelion, the films' version of Second Impact involved four giants -- a fundamental difference indicating that old continuity details cannot be taken for granted in any respect. However, since the new films are, in many respects, a response to the original series, and play with the audience's expectations, the original setting details still provide an important point of contrast.

-Key is obvious narrative callback to Adam embryo from NGE, which, there, was degenerated remnant of Adam left behind after Second Impact, smuggled away from Seele's clutches to Gendo by Kaji in a secure case with an Angel attack smokescreening his onscreen getaway, considered non-critical by Seele but which is indispensable to Gendo’s differing scenario. Even without speculation, similarities are obvious.

• Return to point about Mari calling 13 a “survivor” -- at least one didn't “survive”. Kaji referring to key as “missing number” reinforces this further.

In NGE, Second Impact, while the result of a single being, Adam, resulted in the near-complete destruction of Adam's body; it left an egg behind (the "Adam sample"), which was later salvaged and restored to the embryo stage. Now, given that three of the Adams appear to have survived, and one did not, what actually happened to that Adams? That it existed now solely as a miniturized, headless nervous system connected to a syringe creates further mysterious currently unanswerable. However, one possibly relevant point here is one made by implication early in the films. We are shown immediately that Second Impact turned the oceans red, and later we are given an inkling as to why: the Angels, when they die and undergo image collapse, swell up and explode into red LCL. A comparison between the Fourth Angel's fluid-filled self-destruction crater and with Second Impact is made directly. The inference to be made here is that the LCL in the oceans is a result of this fourth Adams being destroyed, though given the on-screen precedent it is as-yet unclear how a single being could result in so much LCL being unleashed.

The design of the key includes an element resembling the intersecting globes of the Four Zoas (converging upon the Cosmic Egg) from William Blake's poem Milton. In Blake's mythology, the Zoas were once a single being, named Albion. It's possible that the iconography is being borrowed to represent the idea of "four from one". Notice, then, how the key's design omits one of the spheres. Where it should be, we find instead the miniature nervous system -- that is, the biological part of the key is standing in for the sphere, in turn implying it is one of the "Four Zoas", or four Adams rather.

• Key's introductory scene gives it significant importance wrt the HIP that Gendo is seeking; described as “The guidepost that will link the spirit with the divine” and “will open the gates of Human Instrumentality” -- abilities rather in line with Adams (gates=Gates of Guf)

The Key of Nebuchadnezzar
Key of Nebuchadnezzar	Four Zoas symbol

Zoas / Adams

One of the more tenuous connections in the previous section is the one to Blakes' Four Zoas. Is there any way to further verify if this is indeed an intentional reference, short of the creators telling us? Let's look at the image again:

Four Zoas symbol

Each of the four Zoas has its sphere filled in with a different color. A simple test to perform, then, is to see if any color correspondences can be found in the films.

Tharmas:

Gray-Green = Mark.06

The exposed skin on Mark.06's head and upper neck is a gray-green color. (This is difficult to notice due the color filters used for Tabgha Base's exterior shots, so both unmodified and color-enhanced versions of the Mark.06 screenshot are provided below.) This stands out for its unusual nature -- green is not a normal skin tone by any means.

Do any other Evas happen to show a skin tone match...?

Tharmas/Mark.06
Tharmas' sphere	Unaltered image	Lightened and saturation boosted to bring out green

Luvah:

Neutral Gray = Eva-01

While not a perfect match, Eva-01's skin tone was modified to an off-white color for the new movies, in contrast to its original dark brown skin in NGE. This change is made all the more conspicuous due to the fact that Eva-01, as detailed previously, no longer possesses the same link to Lilith that it had in the original series.

Luvah/Eva-01
Luvah's sphere	Eva-01's hands	Eva-01 chest area

Urizen:

Crimson = Eva-13

Eva-13 never "shows skin" in a way that's as obvious as the previous two examples. However, it does grows appendages out of its shoulder area that are dark red in color. The viewer might be tempted to connect these to the pylons on the deformed crystalline Failures of Infinity in the outskirts of Tokyo-3, which may yet have some validity. However, we can at least conclude that, unlike the Failures, Eva-13's pylon-like appendages are not made of core, as they use a solid color fill rather than the animated "core" texture. This lends credence to the idea that the red simply represents Eva-13's normal skin color.

For a point of comparison, in episode 23' of the original series, the "Angel Tower" growth that developed from Eva-00's back was flesh-colored.

Urizen/Eva-13
Urizen's sphere	Eva-13 shoulder appendages sprouting	Appendages at full size
Failures of Infinity	Eva-00's back swelling

Urthona:

Yellow-Orange = The Key of Nebuchadnezzar

The key has no skin, obviously, but if we look at its sole appearance, we quickly see that it is suspended within a yellow-orange medium -- providing a correspondence with our last remaining Zoa, Urthona.

Urthona/The Key
Urthona's sphere	Key of Nebuchadnezzar

Adam? Satan??

The "Four Zoas" image referenced here does not, in Blakeian terms, actually depict the genesis of the Zoas -- as noted, the Zoas are split from the being Albion, not Adam and/or Satan -- and is, rather, a sort of cosmic map. However, this does not mean that the film creators are using the image exclusively for its intended purpose. Rather, it could have been "adapted" to the mythological context of the films, enabling it to actually portray a "four from one" relationship directly.

If the Adams indeed are, like the Zoas -- that is, four beings who used to be one -- then we might guess, based on the name "Adams" (suggesting "a plurality of Adam"), that their original united form was called simply "Adam". However, "Satan" is also written on the egg where the four Zoas' spheres overlap. Does it have any relevance, in this hypothetical?

In the original Neon Genesis Evangelion, an "Adam = Satan" subtext was present, however subdued by Eva standards. The storyboards for episode 12 directly compare Adam's wings of light to the Devil, and the imagery of Second Impact is nothing short of a living Hell on Earth. Furthermore, Adam is discovered in what could be described as a frozen state of imprisonment, bringing to mind the Devil imprisoned within Cocytus in Dante Alighieri's Inferno.

The Zoas symbol has further applications that cement the connections made here even more, but that is beyond the scope of this particular article.