Evangelion 13

"Unit-13" redirects here. For the Mass Production Unit-13, see Mass Production Evangelion#Specific Eva Units.

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Evangelion Unit-13第13号機
Model Type	Unknown
Pilot	Shinji Ikari and Kaworu Nagisa
Soul	Unknown
First Appearance	Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo

Evangelion Unit-13 (第13号機, Dai Juusangōki^?, lit. "Thirteenth Unit") is one of the new Evangelion Units in Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, piloted simultaneously by two pilots, Shinji Ikari and Kaworu Nagisa, in an attempt to restore the world before the Third Impact.

History

The Unit is first seen on screen inside a giant dome-like incubating facility deep inside NERV. Gendo and Fuyutsuki refers to it as "the Final Executor" as it is pulled from the incubator, ready to be deployed.

After Kaworu convinces Shinji to help him restore the world, Unit 13 is deployed together with Evangelion Mark 09 equipped with a scythe. Together, they breach the seal blocking the Central Dogma, and proceed to retrieve the Spear of Longinus and the Spear of Cassius impaled on the enlarged corpse of Lilith.

However, soon after they entered Central Dogma, they're attacked by Asuka in her Eva-02'γ with Mari in her Eva-08β as her support. Unit-13 fights back using its RS Hoppers and, with the help of the Mark 09, manages to reach the Spears. Despite Kaworu's discouragement, Shinji takes over the controls and pulls them from Lilith's corpse and the Evangelion Mark.06. In Kaworu's surprise, the spear of Cassius were missing and another Spear of Longinus was there instead. This awakens the Twelfth Angel which was sealed inside the Mark 06. Unit-13 begins to act on its own as it absorbs the Angel and awakes, becoming a Radiant Giant and rising at high speed from Central Dogma in the process. Kaworu mentions that he has been "demoted" from the First Angel into the Thirteenth, which somehow triggers yet another Impact and activates the DSS Choker.

After opening the Door of Guf, Unit 13 initiates the Fourth Impact on its own. This pulls the Dark Moon from the underground and raises it to the surface. AAA Wunder arrives at the scene and rams the awakened Unit 13 at full speed to no effect. While Unit 09 attacks the Wunder, Kaworu attempts to abort the Impact. He impales both spears into their belly, and activates his DSS Choker, which gruesomely kills him in front of Shinji's eyes. This incapacitates the Eva but does not end its Awakened state, and so Mari forcefully ejects Shinji's Entry Plug to terminate the Fourth Impact and shut off the Unit completely. This severely corrodes Unit 08's arms and also injures the pilot.

In the final scene, the unresponsive Eva is seen crashing down to the Earth, with Gendo and Fuyutsuki inside a dark room commenting as to everything went according to the plan with Kaworu dead and Unit-13 awakened.

In the preview of Evangelion 3.0+1.0, Unit-13 is seen lying in a cross-shaped container with the two Lance of Longinus still impaled while Gendo investigates the unit. It suggests that Unit-13 still plays a role in the final Rebuild movie.

Profile

In terms of its overall appearance, Evangelion Unit-13 is near-identical to its predecessor Evangelion Unit-01, especially the NGE version. However, it has several (if minor) aesthetical differences. While it mostly maintains the green, purple and black color scheme, the green highlights are much less prominent, replaced with a few pale yellow ones on its knees and forearms and a much higher spread of purple and black across its body. The purple is deeper in colour compared to Eva-Unit 01. Also the entirety of its body has more detailed and segmented plates across it, and the armor in its legs has been completely redesigned, with slightly wider, almost square-shaped hips, larger knee pads and heel-like foot covers. Its helmet design still retains the ceratopsid dinosaur-like appearance, though in a much more detailed fashion, its horn is designed in crooked way and it has four glowing, bright yellow eyes, with equally colored lines coming from each eye. Another key difference, is the black, cross-shaped chest piece, with two red circles on top.  

Another major difference compared to other Eva units is Unit 13's massive size, as it towered over Eva-02'γ, with the latter reaching the former's elbows in height at best. 

When entering in its Awakened state, its eyes and various highlights turn red, its center piece collapses and unveils a second set of arms and its pylons explode, revealing two crystallized wing-like appendages. It also assumes the appearance of a giant of light, similar to Unit-01 and the Adams, though it also manifests two Halos.

Features

Unlike other Evangelion units, Unit-13 has displayed several unique features. One of its more prominent ones is that it requires the use of two Entry Plugs (as two souls are necessary to wield this Eva and two Spears at the same time). Though it requires two pilots, its control system can be changed to give full control to a single pilot. Its physical strength is also noteworthy, as it was able to overpower and toss Unit-02' around despite the fact that Shinji was fighting defensively against Asuka. Another interesting fact it that it does not appear to have any energy cable or battery of any kind, attached to it, implying that this unit must be powered by an S² Engine.

Also, unique to Unit-13 is that it does not possess any A.T. Field at all like the other Eva or the Angels (as demonstrated when Unit-08 shot it with a special Anti-A.T. Field Ammunition; Unit-13 deployed no A.T. Field and instead the bullets disintegrated on contact with its body). Instead, four drones housed in the containers of the Eva's shoulder pylons (two containers on each shoulder pylon) generate an energy barrier very similar to an A.T. Field. These jellyfish-like drones, called "RS Hoppers", can either be used as either defensive or offensive weapons, depending on the situation. The RS Hoppers explode violently when destroyed. This unit also has an extra set of fully functional arms, kept locked across its chest, that can be released and gives this Eva the physical strength required to wield two Spears.

Much like Unit-01, Unit-13 is capable of entering an Awakened state and becoming a Giant of Light, when consuming an Angel's core. This led Mari to theorize that this unit is in fact one of the surviving Adams. The unit itself is much more resilient to damage, able to withstand a full assault from the AAA Wunder, Unit-02' and Unit-08, with virtually no damage. It's also much more difficult to stop the Eva in this state than it was with Unit-01, as it took it being stabbed with both Spears of Longinus, and having both its pilots disabled before it was finally de-activated.

Development

Unit-08 as seen during the 3.0 preview

While Unit-13 itself was never shown in the preview at the end of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, the role of the Unit-08 seen in the preview as an awakening Evangelion has visibly been switched to the Unit-13 over the course of the writing of the final script for the movie.

Trivia

• It seems that the numerical designation of this EVA, 13, was eerily prophetic, as the 13th Arcana is death, and this is the EVA in which Kaworu dies.
• Biblically, the number 13 refers to Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus Christ. After killing Jesus, Judas ends his life by suicide, which resonates with the fact that Unit 13 impaled itself with lances of Longinus (which was used to impale the waist of crucified Jesus) and that Kaworu killed himself with the DSS Choker.