NieR:Automata – Adam & Eve: Who are they?

adam-eve-who

Ever since this year’s Tokyo Game Show when the newest couple of trailers were dropped, we’ve been left wondering just who the heck are these two new characters, Adam and Eve.

** Please beware of potential spoilers **
( Especially beware of text in red. ) 

Here’s what we know specifically about these two at this point:
(Updated February 12)

  • The two are twin brothers, Adam is the eldest.
  • They both have red eyes.
  • They both have gray hair: Adam has long hair whereas Eve has short hair.
  • NEW→ Given Adam’s dialogue in the NieR:Automata opening movie that was released at Tokaigi 2017 on Saturday, February 11, they are likely Bio-machines, or rather Bio-machine “terminals” much like Term Alpha and Term Beta from the YoRHa stage play.

adam-eve-diagram

  • They both have a curious glove with dragon-esque red claws that seem like a call-back to Gabriella’s design. Adam has the glove on his right hand and Eve with his left. They also have gold tags around both wrists that are, again, reminiscent of Gabriella:

gabriella

sinzui-humanoid-gabriel

Fanart by sinzui — (sinzui.tumblr.com)

  • Eve apparently has a long tattoo down the entire length of his left arm that expands to cover the entirety of his arm, including much of his face and chest where it clearly shows the crest of the Church of Angels aka Cult of Watchers, also a symbol of Brother & Sister One (DOD3):

eve-red-eyes

  • Adam appears to be more intellectual whereas Eve is more about brute force and strength.
  • The two brothers appear to be perfect halves of a whole:
    • Dragon glove: Adam Right / Eve Left
    • Hair Length: Adam long / Eve short
    • Clothing style: Adam concealing, semi-formal / Eve revealing, informal
    • Personality Strengths: Adam intellectual / Eve physical
    • Personality Type: Adam thoughtful / Eve spontaneous
  • If these two were ever to merge into a single individual… he might be the perfect “being”.

Next, a major thing that we don’t know about Adam & Eve is what race they could be.
Are they human? Are they androids? Are they Bio-machines or “terminals”? Are they something entirely different?

  • We know that they are *not* Gestalts/Replicants. Yoko Taro stated in an old interview that neither of these beings exist at this point in time. Since humans apparently still exist in this timeline, we’re lead to believe that –somehow– the Gestalt Project *did* in fact succeed, but we don’t know what form the new humans have taken. Perhaps they were able to remain intact after the Gestalt Project, having been restored completely. Or, perhaps they’ve become something more, evolved into a completely new entity? Or, perhaps… they were able to exist in spirit form only while inhabiting an entirely new form of BODY in the shape of…androids.
  • The end of “The Lost World” novella seems to suggest that the “reconstructed” Nier may not be a typical Replicant like all the others… He may actually be an android, just like the 4 android copies of Kaine that the system created for the real Kaine to fight.
    • We know the YoRHa androids, and quite possibly the earlier generation of androids, were given “false” memories of a past life. Where did these memories come from? Were they merely programmed into their systems… or did they come from somewhere? Perhaps they are the remains of the Gestalts that were copied into the wide-scale database system such as the terminal in the center of the Forest of Myth (Novella: The Lost World). Could it be that humans were unable to sustain a natural, physical body due to the failure of the Original Gestalt (the original Nier) and were forced to improvise or face extinction?
    • We know the Commander is an android and yet she displays a great sense of desperation through not only her words and how she commands the other YoRHa androids but also what she’s done in the past in the name of the “mission”. We know she conducted many morally questionable experiments on androids that clearly feel pain and express real emotion… and yet she presses forward even though she knows these experimental androids could *DIE* in the process. She witnesses her subordinates question their motives and ethics, she suggests them to undergo a routine “check up” to correct these erroneous thoughts, all the while questioning herself just WHO needs the “check up” (aka. she knows her methods are wrong and yet…the mission takes precedence).

Touching a little further on the fact that both Adam and Eve have red eyes. We know that in the past, Brother & Sister One had red eyes. They were direct descendants, or rather “offspring,” of the Flower; Brother One being less than pure-blood. Still it is Brother One’s bloodline that, as far as we know, is the only one that existed long enough to produce multiple generations, each time producing TWINS. Information regarding Brother One’s *complete* lineage is not available and we can only make a list from the information that we’ve been given. Male children are listed as (m), and female children as (f). Grenat’s sex is unknown; could be either male or female.

Brother One + Rosa = Gruen (m) & Grenat
Gruen (m) + ? = Verde (m)
Verde (m) + ? = Fey (f) & Luis (m)
Fey (f) + ? = Chloe (m)

That’s 4 generations right there on Gruen’s side… Now let’s take a look at how sparse the info is for Grenat’s side of the family:

Brother One + Rosa = Gruen & Grenat
? + ? = ?
? + ? = ?
Ramia (f) + ? = Manah (f) & Seere (m)

There is *no* proof that there are even 4 generations on this side of the family. There very well could be only 3.

Please note that I was the one to compile the info regarding this on the Wiki…so there’s no need to use that as a source. It is inherently flawed.

Whoever Grenat’s children were and why Brother One never went to kill that side of the family is unknown… but it could have something to do with the Red Eye disease that seems to be passed down generation to generation.

Although Brother One had red eyes, his original twin children may have actually had DIFFERENT colored eyes, one child with red eyes and the other with green eyes. This is purely speculation given their names alone. Gruen means “green” where as Grenat means “red”… so…..If Gruen indeed has green eyes, as his name suggests, then why did One kill the green-eyed children and not the actual RED-eyed children? Maybe he eliminated the wrong side of the bloodline? We know that as long as Manah survives, so does the Red-Eye disease…

Also important to point out is that… it appears that Verde, Chloe, and Ramia were single children. This is not necessarily the case. It merely proves that this is all the information that we have. If Brother One’s bloodline does in fact produce TWINS every single time… then there is a possibility that there are other “missing children” out there… which would allow for other descendants of Brother One to potentially live to present day in Automata… It’s probably a far reach to make that conclusion, but given the information that we have thus far, there is nothing to prove that Brother One’s lineage is COMPLETELY gone after Manah (and I’m not going to touch DOD2. It’s in an untouchable region of space as far as Yoko Taro is involved and therefore probably can no longer be considered truly “canon”).


Why is Eve male? The biblical tale of Adam & Eve depicts Eve clearly as female.
Is he? We know that dragons/angels have no apparent sex — they are neither male nor female, although we may attribute a specific gender pronoun to them. Could it be that the same is true for Adam & Eve here? If they have some connection to dragons or angels, they could potentially be sexless, much like the humanoid Angelus from the DOD1.3 novella.


Up to this point in the DOD / NieR universe, there has been numerous literary allusions to the Book of Enoch, a series of pre-biblical scripture that was essentially scrapped in lieu of what became the Old Testament. This is where the notion of angels, Watchers, the relationship between God and mankind, etc. originally comes from. Other similarly scrapped material discusses quite a lot on the subject of Adam and Eve, taking up nearly 80 chapters. The majority of these chapters depicts the trials and tribulations of the pair after their exile from the Garden of Eden. I am currently about halfway through reading these chapters, but at the time of this post, it is still unclear whether or not this has any intended allusion to the new Automata characters. They may somehow represent the “rebirth” of the human race.

NEW→ More recently, with but 12 days remaining until the release of NieR:Automata, an illustration by Funahashi Eiji shows Adam and Eve in a recreation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam.

In this sense, Adam on the right would represent God while Eve on the left would represent Adam or the “new race” of beings. This analogy or allusion is curious because that would greatly change their relationship of being equal twin brothers… rather, it would make them much more like Brother One was to Sister One. Brother One was effectively the male copy of Sister One, but he wasn’t her equal. He had less energy and power than she did. Although we’re told Eve is more physically strong, and Adam is more mentally astute… There could be a lot more meaning behind this illustration that we realize.

It may also be important to note the gray cubes surrounding Adam. This is purely my speculation, but I believe these are data cubes of humanity that within them house the the individual history and identity of a once-living human. It is these data cubes that give the androids their sense of identity, their “fake” memories, etc. You can imagine them as artificial souls. So in the sense of this illustration, you can also make the assumption that “God” Adam is giving life and a soul to the “Human” Eve. Of course, they’re both still artificial enigmas, you get the idea… maybe…


This post is a work in progress. Future additions and edits may occur! Oh, my!