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Zeruel is a major antagonist from the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. He first appeared in episode 19 of the original anime television series. An extremely powerful member of a paranormal race of giant monsters known as the Angels, Zeruel was classified as the Fourteenth Angel by the NERV Organization in the original television series, while both the manga adaptation and Rebuild of Evangelion designate it as the Tenth Angel.
Biography[]
Original Canon[]
Sometime after Bardiel's savage demise at the hands of the Dummy Plug-controlled Evangelion Unit-01, Zeruel appeared in Tokyo-III. The creature has quickly obliterated any of the JSSDF's forces to oppose it before proceeding to destroy 18 layers of armor at the GeoFront. This made NERV sent Evangelion Unit-02 to stop its advance, piloted by Asuka Langley Soryu. To the pilot's horror, Angel was completely unaffected by rounds from the Pallet Riffle and rockets from the Hand Bazooka alike. Visibly annoyed by her efforts, Zeruel proceeds to dismember Unit-02 of its arms, as well as decapitate it.
After her attempts to synchronize with Evangelion Unit-01 proved futile, Rei Ayanami is sent in Evangelion Unit-00 to fight with the Angel. However, Unit-00 is armed with an N² Bomb in its remaining forearm. Although she succeeds at shoving the N² Bomb through the Angel's AT Field, Zeruel manages to cover its core with a protective lid at the last possible second. While Zeruel emerges from the explosion without showing any physical damage, Evangelion Unit-00 is incapacitated from the fight.
With nothing to oppose it anymore, Zeruel resumes its attack at the GeoFront, eventually making its way down to Central Dogma. There, the Fourteenth Angel spots computer technicians alongside Misato Katsuragi. Just as the creature prepares to fire an energy blast at the NERV's crew, it receives a punch to its face from Evangelion Unit-01, piloted by Shinji Ikari. The surprise attack prevents the Angel from successfully defending itself, although it manages to cut off Unit-01's left arm. Not letting the pain slow him down, Shinji uses Unit-01 to forcefully drag the Angel at the surface of GeoFront.
Outside the GeoFront, Zeruel is pinned to the ground by Evangelion Unit-01, who is currently trying to rip off the Angel's face. Suddenly, Unit-01 runs out of power battery. This allows Zeruel to grab Unit-01 and throw it at the nearby cliff. The Fourteenth Angel then removes Unit-01's chest armor, exposing its core, which the Angel proceeds to repeatedly hit with its arms.
Intense emotions felt by the pilot cause Unit-01 to enter "Berserk Mode", which allows it to temporary operate without the internal power supply. Grabbing the opponent's left arm, Unit-01 lifts Zeruel onto its face before ripping the Angel's arm off. Zeruel tries to stop Unit-01's assault by activating its AT Field, but it instead causes its own mutilation as Unit-01 disables it with its own AT Field. Barely holding on to its life, Zeruel witnesses Unit-01 crawling on all fours as the Angel prepares to blast it off with its energy laser. However, Unit-01 reaches the Angel before it can fire the energy blast, and smashes its head. Unit-01 then starts devouring the crippled Zeruel, absorbing its S² Organ in the process.
Rebuild Canon[]
Tenth Angel appeared in Tokyo-III right after its predecessor's failure, initially covering itself in its bandage-like arms. It effortlessly pulverizes JSSDF's military units before destroying all 22 layers of armor plating that protected the GeoFront. Because Evangelion Unit-01 is rejecting the Dummy Plug System, NERV sends Mari Makinami Illustrious in Evangelion Unit-02 to deal with the invader.
Unit-02 starts the fight with blasting the Angel from dual Pallet Riffles, to which Zeruel responds by encasing itself in AT Field. Unit-02 proceeds to jump on the Angel, trying to stab in the face with Thunder Spear. Instead, Zeruel sends her flying by activating several layers of its AT Field. Creature then tries to blow Unit-02 with energy blast, but its opponent succeeds in dodging it. Seeing the pointlessness of the fight, Mari decides to activate the "Beast Mode", releasing Unit-02 out of its restraints, which causes a massive burst of agility and strength of Evangelion Unit.
Beast Unit-02 then performs a drop-kick which breaks though several outer layers of Zeruel's AT Field. Continuing its assault, Unit-02 breaks though another few layers of AT Field, before the Angel severs Unit-02's left arm. Tenth Angel then repeats its attacks, knocking Unit-02 down.
Suddenly, Evangelion Unit-00 enters the battlefield, carrying a gigantic N² Missile in its arms. However, even activation of explosive's jet propulsion does not help in penetrating Tenth Angel's main layer of AT Field. Despite its severe brain damage, Beast Unit-02 manages to get up and help Unit-00 by biting of Tenth Angel's remaining layer of AT Field. Duo finally succeeds in completely destroying force field and Unit-00 shoves N² Missile into the Angel, who uses its bear trap-like rib cage to cover its core. Unit-00 then pushes Unit-02 away from her, taking force of the blast onto herself alongside the Angel.
The explosion was so immense it could be felt even at Central Dogma, and it crippled Unit-00. Unfortunately, Tenth Angel was revealed to be still alive and unaffected by the blast. Monster then proceeded to open its tripartite jaws before swallowing Unit-00's entire body, leaving only its calves and head intact. Using Unit-00's genetic makeup, Tenth Angel transformed into colossal pale woman. Blowing a hole into NERV's operational base with a single blast of the energy, creature focused on its primary goal of heading toward the Lilith.
Smashing its way through the main screen at the Central Dogma, 10th Angel reached Central Dogma. There, it nearly vaporized its workers but was hit in the face by Unit-01 before doing so. Managing to overpower larger opponent, Unit-01 dragged the Angel across NERV, until it cut off its left arm. However, this did not stop Unit-01's assault, as it send both of them on the elevator platform. Activating it with a foot, both of opponents found themselves at the GeoFront.
Unfortunately, internal batteries of Unit-01 run out of their power, forcing it to cease its assault. Seizing the opportunity, Tenth Angel transformed its arms into stretchable bandages and send Unit-01 crashing into nearby mountainside.
But before the Angel has a chance to do anymore damage, Unit-01 starts awakening its true power. Formerly green parts of its armor start glowing crimson red, while Unit-01 rises onto its feet. Angel launches its arms at the opponent, who blocks the attack with its enhanced AT Field. In response, Angel instead launches itself onto Unit-01 and tries to blast it with its rays of energy. Even at point-blank distance, Awakened Unit-01's AT Field blocks them with ease, whereas Unit-01 transforms AT Field into artificial arm. Unit-01 then uses concussive force, which sends Tenth Angel flying at least mile away. Seeing a brief flash of light in Unit-01's eyes, Angel immediately encases itself in AT Field, which breaks in the contact with Unit-01's optic lasers. This does not keep the Angel down for long, as it gets up a moment later; unleashing even more powerful blast of energy, Unit-01 cuts the Angel in half and creates a mushroom cloud.
Smashing Zeruel's remains of face with a foot, Awakened Unit-01 reached the Angel's core with its AT Field arm. Desperately wanting to release Rei Ayanami's soul trapped inside Zeruel's core, Shinji unintentionally made the Eva fully awaken. After successfully ripping Rei's from the core, the Tenth Angel's entire body was assimilated into Awakened Unit-01's core.
Personality[]
Both incarnations of Zeruel in the franchise could be best described as straightforward brutes. Because the Angel lacks any psychic or infection-based powers, Zeruel relies on its sheer physical strength, as well as its arms and optic lasers. When under attack, the Angel simply allows the opponent to attack until they run out of the ammunition or energy, before killing them with its arms. The only instance known where Zeruel retaliates before their opponent stops their assault was its fight with Evangelion Unit-01, where the Angel severed its left arm.
While mostly the same as its television counterpart, the Rebuild of Evangelion incarnation of Zeruel seems to be aware of the self-destruction system in Lilith's chamber, which would initiate the self-destruction of NERV's operational base had it detected the Angel's DNA. This would explain why it choose to devour the incapacitated Evangelion Unit-00, switching its genetic pattern into that of a humanoid.
Physical Appearance[]
Original[]
Similar to Sachiel and Israfel, Zeruel possesses humanoid-like body shape with primary black-and-white color scheme, as well as multiple orange formations, likely serving as false cores. The creature's actual core is located at the middle of its chest, appearing slightly oversized in comparison to other humanoid-shaped Angels. Because of its core's large size and thus difficulty to protect it, Zeruel developed a protective lid-membrane that can withstand N² Bomb's point-blank explosion. Its face heavily resembles a mask, and is located at the upper half of the torso. Located on wide bony shoulders, Zeruel's bandage-like arms can be stretched to several times of the Angel's size, and are normally folded. The entire body of Zeruel is supported by two stubby elephant-like legs with no toes. In original television series and manga adaptation, Zeruel appeared to be around typical Evangelion Unit's height, which are inconsistently shown to stand between 130 ft and 656 ft.
Rebuild[]
Tetralogy's incarnation of Zeruel underwent through a significant redesign, standing at approximately twice of Evangelion Unit's height (which in ROE continuity stand at 246 ft, making Zeruel at least 490 ft tall). The Angel initially appears in Tokyo-III with its tendrils covering the rest of the body, leaving only face visible. The creature possesses no legs, forcing it to levitate in the air.
After dispatching military units, Tenth Angel reveals its arthropod-like body by unfolding multiple pairs of its tendrils, which are red inside and black outside. Two of the said tendrils serve the Angel as lower limbs, helping it stand on the ground in vertical stance. Its body lacks its orange formations, not counting a single pair of them at the shoulders. Its true core is located deep inside the chest cavity, and is protected by ten rib-like protrusions arranged akin to bear trap. Later, the Angel is revealed to have additional tripartite set of elastic jaws, which can be used to devour its opponents.
After assimilating Unit-00 alongside Rei Ayanami, Zeruel transforms into ginormous pale-skinned woman, with only its face remaining the same as its original form. Its tendrils are now black "hair", while the Angel developed an actual human-like set of arms with five-fingered hands, although abnormally long and still capable of reverting back to bandage-like limbs. Instead of supporting its body on tendrils like its previous form, Zeruel now possesses two stubby legs with no toes. Core has been moved just below its neck, retaining its protective rib-cage. Similar to Rei Ayanami, Zeruel now has crimson red eyes, which is visible in close-up just before it tries to blast Awakened Evangelion Unit-01 with its optic lasers.
Powers and Abilities[]
Angel physiology: Due to being in possession of S² Engine/Fruit of Life, Zeruel's body generates infinite amounts of energy, meaning it can never get tired or die of exhaustion. In addition, while ROE's incarnation of Zeruel is able to consume organic matter, it does not need any food or air supply. As demonstrated with several other members of its species, the Angels can survive in a vacuum of space.
- Immense durability: Even without its AT Field, Zeruel's body is dense enough to withstand any type of conventional weaponry or those wielded by Evangelion Units without so much as a scratch. Right after AT Field was breached, Zeruel's protective lid-membrane/rib-cage shielded survived a N² Bomb/Missile's explosion, which was able to create a colossal mushroom cloud and incapacitate Unit-00, but the Angel itself did not receive any damage despite it exploding at point-blank range. Rebuild's Tenth Angel survived two shots from Awakened Evangelion Unit-01's optic blasts, although not without immense amount of damage.
- Immense strength: Both incarnations of Zeruel are capable of lifting and throwing tens of thousands of metric tons at the distance of many kilometres. For example, after Unit-01 ceased its attack, Zeruel lifted it at high into the air above its face and send it crashing into nearby mountainside. Earlier, Tenth Angel send Unit-02 flying multiple times, effortlessly swatting away its attacks even after it entered Beast Mode. Outside lifting feats, Zeruel smashed its way down to Central Dogma with bare hands, tear though Evangelion Unit-01's body armor and stab though it.
- Immense reflexes: Zeruel was able to quickly react to Evangelion Units' attacks from very small distance; examples include activating its AT Field just before Unit-00 was able to detonate N² Missile on its core and later activate AT Field just before Awakened Evangelion Unit-01's optic blasts were able to hit it. During its fight with regular Evangelion Unit-01, Zeruel severed its opponent's left arm before it had a chance to hit it.
- Elastic appendages: Zeruel's natural weaponry include highly stretchable, segmented set of razor-sharp appendages. The Angel is capable of extending them at multiple lengths of its body, launching them at its opponent, and even using it as means of faster locomotion. Extremely sharp edges of its arms allow it to dismember Evangelion Unit with a single strike, as well as stab though their bodies and decapitate them.
- Optic energy blasts: Zeruel is capable of shooting optic lasers of yellow energy from its eyes, which is a trait present in all incarnations of the character in both television series, manga and film tetralogy. Those optic lasers are powerful enough to obliterate all 24 layers of armor plating in NERV's operational base with a single strike, which previously survived a nuclear explosion with no damage. Said optic lasers have also dismembered Unit-01, but failed to break though Awakened Unit-01's AT Field.
- Apocalypse inducement: As in case of just about every Angel in the series, had Zeruel reached the Terminal Dogma and touch Lilith, it would trigger cataclysmic event called the Third Impact. Its result would be instantaneous death of every living being on Earth, as well as permanent transformation of the said planet into uninhabitable wasteland where only beings bestowed with Fruit of Life can survive.
- Absolute terror field: Like almost all Angels in the series, Zeruel can weaponize its soul to summon Absolute Terror Field at will; when AT Field is raised, the Angel becomes immune to all forms of the attack, both physical and energy-based. Aside from means of defense, Zeruel as Tenth Angel from Rebuild of Evangelion appears to be able to use AT Field as means of attack, trying to blow up Unit-02 using this technique, although it fails because the latter manages to dodge this. Tenth Angel also displays ability to create AT Field composed out of tens of armor layers with varying degrees of durability, with weaker ones at outside; while outer layers can be broken by Beast Unit-02's physical attacks, final layer requires combined efforts of two Evangelion Units to break though.
- Levitation: Akin to some of its relatives, Zeruel is also able to utilize its AT Field to warp laws of gravity and hover in the air. Both Fourteenth and Tenth Angel initially use this ability to quickly travel across Tokyo-III.
- Absorbing replication: Another Tenth Angel-exclusive technique used by Zeruel is power to biologically assimilate organic material; after incapacitating Unit-00, Zeruel extends a tripartite set of jaws from its mask-like face to consume almost entire body of its opponent. Then, Tenth Angel copied Unit-00's genetic pattern to bypass NERV's security systems, which are programmed to self-destruct the operational base if it detect any being with Angel's DNA.
Trivia[]
- Zeruel's name is a reference to an Angel from Judeo-Christian religion, also known as Cirviel. His name meant "Arm of God" in Hebrew language and symbolized strength, and has been sent by God to help David slay Goliath.
- Zeruel's design might have been used an an influence for two aliens from the Ben 10 franchise, namely Upgrade (stubby legs) and Snare-oh (bandage-like limbs), created a decade after Zeruel. Zeruel design was inspired by Zetton from Ultraman franchise.
- Zeruel's final form from Rebuild of Evangelion is a reference to the Rei-Lilith hybrid from End of Evangelion and Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, with both of them taking the form of a giant pale woman.
- In the manga, Evangelion Unit-01 uses its horn to impale the Angel's right eye after going berserk.
- The Fourteenth Angel's segmented bandage-like arms are often compared to toiler paper by fans, similar to how LCL is compared to fanta. For this reason, the Tenth Angel from Rebuild of Evangelion possesses black-red tendrils instead.
- The Tenth Angel being responsible for assimilating Rei and leading to her trying to kill the Angel by suicidal explosion is a reference to what Armisael does in the original television series. But unlike Armisael, Zeruel is successful in assimilating Rei Ayanami and does not die from the explosion.
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 Villains
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