Nia Teppelin



=Story=

Beastman War arc
Nia was found by Simon in Episode 9. After falling into a canyon, Simon found Nia's pod and opened it. Nia and Simon were attacked by a Beastman but Kittan and Yoko saved them. She is revealed at the end of the episode to be Lord Genome's daughter and a princess. She was originally disliked by the members of Team Dai-Gurren,(Kittan tried to interrogate her but failed) but when Adiane, one of the 4 generals appears, and reveals she was outcasted, the members of team Dai-Gurren accept her. After her encounter with General Guame, she comes to an understanding of the reason Simon found her outside the palace, being forsaken by her father after she started attaining her own will and self-consciousness, as he considered his offspring merely toys to play with as dolls, and decides to join the Team Dai-Gurren as a cook (even though her cooking is unbearable to anybody but Simon and Boota) in order to confront her father. In the final battle with Lord Genome, she boards Lagann with Simon and when she sees Simon losing,says she will believe in him with her whole being. This drives Simon to kill Lord Genome. Nia attempts to save her father from falling, but he falls before she can get to him. She then says that "She will head towards tomorrow".

Anti-Spiral war arc
Seven years after the war with the Beastmen, Nia receives a marriage proposal from Simon. She refuses at first, after her bubbly contrived logic causes her to misunderstand his words, but after receiving counseling from Kiyoh and Kiyal, she decides to accept. As predicted by Lord Genome, when the population limit is reached, a mysterious force takes control of her body, and her hidden identity as the Anti-Spiral's messenger awakens. Appearing before the population of the planet, she broadcasts the intention of the Human Extermination System, proclaiming that the moon will collide with the Earth in three weeks, bringing the city to a panic. Her body is entirely unchanged, with the only differences being a black skin-tight suit and her narrowed, menacing eyes with dark irises. She reveals to Simon that her memories as a human still remain, but after realizing who she really is and seeing the pointlessness of human progress, her entire personality radically changes and she declares her past as long lost fiction.According to her, the Anti-Spirals purpose is to bring mankind into ultimate despair by letting them struggle to the very end, right before their inevitable destruction.

Nevertheless, by still wearing the engagement ring Simon gave to her from her own will, she comes to the discovery that unconsciously her original feelings always remained as strong as ever. When Simon points out that the true intention of the trial she set up for mankind was to create a resistance against the Anti-Spirals, she reverts to her old self. However, just as he catches a glimpse of the old Nia, she is teleported to the Anti-Spirals' home world, and Simon vows to rescue her. When the Anti-Spiral questions her and tries to probe her body, Nia explains that Simon will defeat them. Simon appears and frees Nia,returning her to normal form. She is in the head of the Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann and helps Simon defeat the Anti-Spiral. When she and the others return to earth, she and Simon get married although she fades away right after. Nia's memorial site is where Kamina's and the other members of Team Daigurren are. =Skills= Nia has no piloting skills, except when she helped pilot Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, as well as no fighting skills. She seems to be a terrible cook, creating monstrosities whenever she attempts to do so, but Simon and Boota seems to actually enjoy her cooking. She is however, a skilled sports player and won a game of volleyball against Yoko

After becoming the Anti-Spiral's messenger in Part 2, she gained the ability to travel between spatial dimensions, teleport between locations instantly, and intercept most methods of communication. She also has a power involving create holograms.

Anti-Spiral Nia


For most of the third arc, Nia serves as the messenger from the Anti-Spirals to the humans, during the Earth's Human Extermination System. After the Anti-Spiral data awakens within her and converts her into a Anti-Spiral lifeform, becoming an emotionless and serious person, the exact opposite of how Nia was beforehand. As the messenger, she wears a dark skin-tight suit, covered with a green line pattern resembling something like a circuit board, and the previously red irises of her eyes have become black.

She appears before Simon several times over the course of the arc, to repeatedly tell him that all efforts against the Human Extermination System is futile while increasing the odds against mankind. But it was when she is the only thing keeping the Gurren Lagann from the "moon"'s control system, Simon points out to her that all her actions and appearances before him were in fact the act of her true feelings of her former self, who urges Simon to keep fighting, allowing Nia to have the strength to return to her former self while ending the Human Extermination. However, she is transported back to the Anti-Spiral home world so the data on Team Dai Gurren can be extracted from her for analysis, resulting in the rescue attempt that begins the fourth and final arc.

Etymology
Nia is a play on the english word "Near" =Trivia=
 * One small inside joke that happens to present itself during the series both before and after the time-skip was that during the two times she is captured (first by Guame and then by the Anti-Spiral) she will keep a fiercely optimistic attitude (saying with a straight face that she won't die even though Guame has a gun pointed at her face or courageously declaring Simon won't fail in saving her as the Anti-Spiral starts dissolving her structure) only to tear up the moment Simon comes to save her.


 * Nia, after Kamina's death, is the one who says the episode title up until the final episode of season 1.


 * Another recurring joke is her lack of knowing things. As she mistakes Simon's meaning of marriage.


 * Despite many fans' claims of purity, Gainax has stated that 7 years is a long time, and neither Nia nor Simon were virgins by the second arc. However they haven't commented further.