|
|
"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | The beginning and the end are one and the same. Yes, all is right with the world. | ” |
| ~ Keel Lorenz being proud of his actions causing Third Impact, and his famous last words. |
Chairman Keel Lorenz is the secondary antagonist of the iconic Studio Gainax anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, its famous and spectacular finale film, End Of Evangelion, and also serving as the main antagonist of the video game Neon Genesis Evangelion 2.
He is the shadowy and sinister leader of the mysterious organization SEELE and the chairman of the ominous Human Instrumentality Committee. For centuries, SEELE has been hiding in the shadows, manipulating the rest of the governments in the world with their global influence, and has been a big threat due to their goal of accomplishing the Human Instrumentality- the goal of uniting the human race as one to end all wars and suffering and they are also the real origin behind Second Impact and the Angel War, which would turn the world into the apocalyptic wasteland it is today.
Their leader, Keel Lorenz, is the true mastermind behind manipulating most of the anime series important events, by hiding behind in the shadows, as while as being the instigator of the plot by being responsible for Second Impact, and funding the creation of NERV, being the superior of Gendo Ikari and the commissioner of the Eva Project. His ultimate goal, is therefore, is to kickstart Third Impact to achieve Human Instrumentality, which will wipe out humanity whole, in which he will go to ruthlessly extreme lengths to achieve by any means necessary in order to fulfill the secret Dead Sea Scrolls, which tell of a way to evolve all life into a perfect hive mind with no cares and lives in eternal bliss due to the belief that humanity is a slave to sin. Being the sinister and malicious leader of SEELE, who is the catalyst for all the countless tragedies and evils that have occurred in the series and as well as attempting to wipe out humanity again to horribly force them into a single divine entity against their own will, Keel Lorenz has earned himself the rank of being the Ultimate Evil of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
In the game, Neon Genesis Evangelion 2, Chairman Keel Lorenz of SEELE is an elitist and psychopathic misanthrope, who has far more different and twisted intentions. With the "Classified Information" revealing, that he caused the Second Impact for his desire to become a deity and tries to cause Third Impact to use Human Instrumentality to place himself and SEELE to ascend to godhood, being uncaring of the fact, that humanity will be place under a Fate Worse Than Death, he is willing to do anything to further his goals of ascending to godhood, without fulfilling the prophecy of the Dead Sea Scrolls, just to satisfy and fulfill his god complex.
He is voiced by Mughito in Japanese, Richard "Rick" Peeples in the ADV Films English dub, and D.C. Douglas in the newer Netflix English dub, who also voiced Albert Wesker from Resident Evil.
Actions & Characteristics[]
- He is the most irredeemable influential villain of the entire series, being the one responsible for funding the Katsuragi Expedition, which caused Misato’s father’s death and her trauma and as well as kickstarted Second Impact, wiping out nearly all of humanity and leading the world becoming the apocalyptic wasteland it is today in the present story. While the war between the Angels and NERV was bad enough as it already was, Keel is the very instigator of the plot by being responsible for the Angels return by starting Second Impact and was also the one who funded the creation of NERV, which was the place where most of the events took place and as well as the creation of the Evangelions. Being the superior of NERV, he is responsible for most of the events in the series, such as Gendo Ikari recruiting his son Shinji Ikari into helping fight off the Angels and as well as Gendo’s other crimes. He is also the driving force behind End Of Evangelion, as he would send the JSSDF to massacre all of NERV’s personnel so they can use Eva Unit-01 to begin Third Impact, which will lead to the deaths of Misato Katsuragi and Asuka Langsley Soryu, who the former dies from the bullet wounds of JSSDF soldiers and the latter being killed by SEELE’s mass produced Eva’s. Near the climax, the pain of losing his loved ones and his existential angst getting the better of him would lead to him initiating Third Impact, wiping out humanity along with it in the process, and fulfilling SEELE’s goal and even when the process is later reversed, the world is still thrown into chaos, showing that while Shinji’s intent of beginning Third Impact was on his accord, it was still partially Keel’s fault.
- He is the most evil villain in the series, as given his history of wiping out nearly all of humanity by kickstarting Second Impact and the creation of the Angel War. He has also commit many other horrible crimes such responsible for most of the crimes Gendo Ikari would commit such as recruiting child soldiers and breaking them into becoming killing machines and being the one to run painful experiments on innocents, leading to Kyoto, Asuka’s mother, to commit suicide. The recruitment of the child soldiers would also lead to the main casts suffering and is responsible for Shinji’s and Gendo’s corruption. By the time of the finale film, would launch an attack on NERV, causing thousands of NERV personnel’s deaths and when the Second Child, Asuka Langley Soryu, begins a counterattack and fights back against the army units, he sends his SEELE Eva units to fight back against Asuka, causing her death and showing he has no problem killing children and even after that, he would use EVA Unit-02’s disemboweled remains to help send Shinji Ikari into a emotional breakdown and subject him to the Human Instrumentality project, which will lead to him wiping out the rest of humanity into becoming a single hive mind, and even after he rejects it, still causes the world to be thrown into societal chaos. The process of the mind assimilation isn’t even a good intention, as it is shown to be comfortable lie that they used just to ascend to godhood and is just to escape reality in which just causes Shinji’s rejection of Instrumentality and his actions still cause the tear jerking ending at the end of the movie as well as thanks to his lack of remorse and redemption, help make him stand out as the worst the series has to offer.
- Given that Gendo Ikari has a Freudian Excuse for his crimes as well as feels remorse for his actions in End, which Keel lacks, Kaworu Nagisa has a general love for humanity and love for Shinji which makes him redeem himself, in which Keel has no regard for humanity or has any empathy, Lilith’s and Adam intentions are neutral and they are in the grey zone, the Angels are while dangerous, are beings with intelligence we can’t understand and we don’t know if they are actively malicious or pretentious, Keel’s intentions are clearly malignant instead of neutral, Keel shows a calculating and callous mindset, which is exceeds the Angel’s themselves. He is far more evil and worse than they are due to showing no sympathetic traits or morally ambiguity, standing out as the most irredeemable villain in the series.
- Being the leader of SEELE, he has the most collective resources as he is able to help fund the creation of NERV and is able to create Evangelions and is also capable of manipulating world governments to do their bidding and is able to create many weapons such as the Evangelions as well as Spear Of Longinus. He also shows excellent intelligence and manipulation as he helps cover up the true cause of Second Impact under the guise of meteorite hitting the Antarctic and is able to manipulate the JSSDF into assaulting NERV by tricking them into thinking they are trying to start Third Impact and at the end of the story, takes advantage of Shinji’s intense emotional distress so he could use him to initiate the ritual of causing Third Impact, with him being content at the results at his death, expressing no serious remorse about it.
- He creates and raises Kaworu Nagisa by genetically engineering him from the Seed of Life of Adam, molding him into a sleeper agent for them, so Keel could kickstart Third Impact, by manipulating him into thinking that causing it would allow the Angels to become the dominant species, which would lead to him nearly succeeding, before sacrificing himself at Shinji’s hand when he realizes that Keel has lied to him and perfering humanity to inherit the earth over his own children out of gratitude and love for them and their culture, permanently emotionally damaging Shinji.
- He is the most personal antagonist as he caused the suffering that the main cast is put through, by causing Yui Ikari to be assimilated into the Eva unit, which emotionally broke Gendo Ikari into the cold-hearted and calculating abusive father he is today, which would by extension, be the cause of Shinji’s emotional pain. The Katsuragi Expedition also caused Misato's father to be killed, which would traumatized Misato into becoming the broken-hearted but cheerful woman she is today and her deep vengeance against the Angels for the death of her father. He is also the culprit behind Asuka’s mothers death, causing her to build up an arrogant facade to hid her truly sad insecure self. Additionally, Shinji’s first experience with the Eva-01 would lead to Toji’s sister becoming hospitalized, making him partially responsible for Shinji’s hostile encounter with him.
- In the game Neon Genesis Evangelion 2, he is far worse, as he is a opportunistic megalomaniac, driven by the desire to become a deity, without caring that he would leave humanity into a "And I Must Scream" fate by having them suffer from nightmarish visions.
- Although Adam was technically the creator the Angels and was responsible for kickstarting the events of the entire series, as well as being responsible for the creation of Kaworu Nagisa and would cause Third Impact if ever awaken, he is still left too enigmatic to count. So with all of this, Keel is a far worse monster than any of him and proves himself to be worthy of the TUE status of the entire anime series.
- While Gendo Ikari may be the main antagonist of the Neon Genesis Evangelion, Keel Lorenz himself is proving to the greatest threat in all of Evangelion, he even uses Kaworu Nagisa as a pawn to further his agenda and funds Gendo Ikari's scheme to cause Third Impact by providing him with the resources he needs, and pulling the strings of the rest of the United Nations government, despite the fact that Gendo Ikari would avoid being a pawn by scheming to fight back against SEELE themselves, as well as manipulating the rest of the characters and nearly successfully reaching his goal of reaching his own version of Human Instrumentality.