Mai accepted the Obsidian Lord's proposal.
This technically doesn't contradict anything: she received the power to rebuild the world as she wanted it, with all her friends alive and happy. As an added bonus, her acceptance of the Obsidian Lord is now a Ret-Gone event, leaving her free to do whatever with her love life. The whole final episode is Mai's delusion, similar to the one she was experiencing under Yukariko's influence: an effort to imagine a "better" world where she's not a HiME.
If you want a Downer Ending, this option is for you. The whole series after episode 8 is Akane's delusion.
Read this.
Episode 15 wasn't The Worf Barrage for Kagutsuchi; both it and Mai did indeed die, but they were resurrected by Mashiro.
Note how, after Artemis fires at Kagutsuchi, it is engulfed in a fireball and drops from the sky... until Mashiro, having recovered from her shock, whispers "Mai-san", after which the fireball stops falling, Kagutsuchi emerges and regenerates, and a stream of fire detaches from the fireball and transforms into Mai. Presumably, both Mashiro and the Obsidian Lord were stacking the deck in Mai's favor for the There Can Be Only One Festival; she was one of the primary chess pieces of their dueling Xanatos Speed Chess. This is also why she's allowed to change her Most Important Person.- Another MIP was chosen for her after Takumi's death because he was slain after Akira was defeated, and he shared life force with both of them. A situation like that repeated itself immediately afterward, with Yuuichi as her chosen; but he's also bound to Shiho, who had been actively trying to kill Mai since Episode 18. So, yeah...the Gods liked messing with Mai's head and heart.
- It's implied that Takumi's desire for independence was starting to form a rift between him and Mai, which, combined with Mai gettinh closer to Yuuichi, caused her to switch Most Important People before Takumi died. This doesn't necessarily rule out her MIP switching to someone else after her previous one's death, but it's less likely that happened when Akira's Child was defeated.
- Interestingly enough, in the manga, Nao gets another Key after her first one dies, but in this case, she barely cared for her first Key at all, and the rules may be somewhat different (Yuuichi becomes Natsuki and Mai's Key after they first meet).
As above, but Kagutsuchi resurrected itself.
This would explain why it's implied in episode 25 that Kagustuchi's user has won every previous Festival. How can you finish off something that just comes back upgraded when you kill it?- It was only implied that Mashiro used Kagutsuchi in the previous Carnival. Nothing is known about older ones. But yes, that is one insanely powerful beast.
- After revealing Mashiro won the previous Festival, Reito offers Mai the world in exchange for her hand in marriage. Mai refuses, citing what a cruel bastard he is. Mai (who is being seen from Reito's point of view, mind you) immediately fades into a flashback of Mashiro in battle-torn shrine maiden robes standing in the exact same place as Mai giving the viewer exact same cold stare as Mai. After the flashback ends, Reito mumbles something to the extent of "Kagutsuchi users are always stubborn." That's not simply an implication.
- Although that doesn't prove Kagutsuchi (which is some sort of dragon-phoenix hybrid) won every previous carnival, it does imply that the Obsidian Lord has always had trouble with Kagutsuchi and its users (their usual personality types would probably lead them to fight against destiny, if nothing else), which is probably why it has the Sealing Sword in its beak - to ensure that if a Kagutsuchi user goes rogue and tries to derail events, as they seem to have a habit of doing, the Obsidian Lord can keep it under control (possibly allowing another CHILD to take it down). The most powerful CHIL Ds in the carnivals appear to be Kiyohime, Miroku and Kagutsuchi, and possibly Duran after its upgrade.
- It does have a blatantly obvious phoenix theme going in that scene.
Nagi is a representative from Earth's local Hell who brought Mashiro with him.
The Obsidian Lord is some kind of Space Demon Overlord who summoned Mashiro from Hell for the "flavour" of the last Festival. Nagi came along to help organize the deal; while the death and destruction is amusing, it's not his job. Thus, when the Obsidian Lord's defeat concludes the deal, Nagi escorts Mashiro back to Hell.Natsuki's original "Most Important Person" was her mother.
However, with her dead long before the Festival began, Natsuki kept insisting that she had nothing to fight for, since, like Mai, she was trying to avoid getting romantically involved with anyone. Therefore, another one was chosen for her in Shizuru, the one person on campus who supported her unquestionably. Unfortunately for Natsuki, Shizuru has chosen her as her MIP.- This isn't so much a WMG. She pretty much realizes this before/during her final battle with Shizuru and accepts what's going to happen.
- I don't think dead people can ever be most important people. If Natsuki had been defeated prior to her epiphany in Episode 24 (when her mother might have been more important than Shizuru among all people, but Shizuru was the most important living person in Natsuki's mind), Shizuru (and then Natsuki herself) would have disappeared. In the final battle between Mai and Mikoto, while Yuuichi was likely Mai's most important person, he was not her current MIP as she and Reito assumed, and that went to Mikoto (likely second or third most important to Mai, but most important among the living). It's thus likely, for this reason, that the writers had Nao's mother be comatose rather than dead like Nao's father.
Shizuru was Brainwashed the whole time she went crazy.
She (briefly) gets what look like Mind-Control Eyes after attacking Haruka and Yukino, and then walks away from the scene speaking in a dull, flat tone, expressing the desire to take out anyone that gets in Natsuki's way. Later, Nagi and the Obsidian Lord are seen reveling in the destruction that she's causing. Since the Obsidian Lord is Reito, who worked with the student council and thus knows about Shizuru's infatuation with Natsuki, he probably had the perfect chance to administer his "treatment" offscreen, the same way he did with Mikoto.- Furthermore, after being resurrected, Shizuru starts crying and apologizing to Natsuki, which could indicate that she's suddenly been hit with the full extent of what she did while under control. Even Shiho, who appears to regret her actions, doesn't seem to have such an extreme reaction.
- Shiho 1.) appears to be closer to Mikoto in the regard that she's not completely aware of what her HiME self is doing, and 2.) is only briefly shown waking up in her hospital bed and doesn't have her immmediate post-power restoration reaction shoved in the viewer's face. Shizuru does.
- If Shizuru were brainwashed, why would the series explicitly show Reito ordering Nagi around to indirectly order Shizuru around? That doesn't make any sense. If Shizuru's state of mind was anything like Mikoto's, complete servitude would just come naturally for her. She wouldn't need to be manipulated by Nagi.
- Rather than Brainwashed in the traditional sense, it could be the Hime-star exerted an influence that clouded the judgement of the Himes in question. Their choices are their own, but made under extreme strain. The Obsidian Lord knew what Reito knew, such as which buttons to push. As Reito knew Shizuru closely, he had greater knowledge of how to manipulate her. Shizuru was maneuvered into an impossible situation. She was aware that There Can Be Only One. She knows Natsuki is a Hime. And she knows Natsuki is her MIP. If she loses, Natsuki dies. If she wins, Natsuki will lose her own MIP and be broken, something Shizuru doesn't want for her. And she had no way of knowing she was Natsuki's MIP. Even then, she could have no meaningful victory, and she knew it. All that power, and not only couldn't she protect her MIP, but was guaranteed to lose precisely because of her power.
Could it be an AU of Metal Gear?
You have an Ancient Conspiracy explicitly said to be able to control the US Presidency, with one of the key characters involved in it being called Searrs. Now you have the Patriots, who have also been said to control the US Presidency; and the President is called or, more accurately, uses the pseudonym George Sears... So there is an "r" off, yeah; maybe Sunrise wanted to dodge the lawyers from Sears & Roebuck. All those HiME powers are Nanomachines - hey, it worked for MGS, and the similar WMG for Code Geass was also rather far out.- The Elseworld sequel, My-Otome, explicitly uses nanomachines summon their powers. Coincidence, or teasing of Konami's lawyers?
It was all Kiyohime's fault that Shizuru went Psycho Lesbian.
We know that it's possible for a CHILD to carry across Festivals, passing from one HiME to another, since Kagutsuchi was Mashiro's CHILD in the previous festival. Shizuru also got one like that, the one who in some previous festival had formed the basis for the Kiyohime legend. Tied to a Child with that much history regarding scorned women, she naturally went nuts at the faintest hint of rejection.- It's specifically stated that the HiME's emotional state and the form of love they hold toward their most important person determines their Child's shape, not the other way around. Granted, though, even that guideline wasn't all that consistent in application.
- " Misery loves company? Two strong personalities, both brimming with negative emotions and secret self-loathing. A CHILD with that kind of personality could easily push their Hime further in that direction. Such things happen with people all the time.
The Obsidian Lord is Akio
After Anthy left him, Akio started the HiME Festival (which is essentially a duelling tournament) as a method of creating a new Rose Bride, using the same method of tempting the winner with whatever they desire in return for their servitude.- Following on from this, Tate and Shiho are reincarnations of Touga and Nanami.
Normal!Shizuru and Psycho Lesbian!Shizuru were originally two separate characters
Given Psycho Lesbian!Shizuru's radical change in characterization from what she did previously, it's entirely possible that they were meant to be different individuals, but the writers didn't want to have to introduce a new character so late in the story and merged the roles. That character would most likely have been similar to (if not a counterpart of) Tomoe from Mai-Otome, and the producers may have created her to serve as the obsessive Psycho Lesbian without necessarily offending Shizuru's fans.Mikoto was always Mai's "most important person".
Despite what she said, the fact that she could still summon her child after Yuuichi's death proves that the person she cared most about was still alive. Mikoto is the only real candidate. Note also how happy she is when she discovers that Mikoto is still alive in Episode 23, just a day or so after Mai tried to kill her and after Mikoto was responsible for Takumi's death.- As a possible explanation of this, it may be that a HiME's powers rely not the person for whom they care about the most, but the person about whom they cared the most when they released their powers for the first time. And Mai used her powers for the first time to save Mikoto's life, as well as her own.
- When Yukariko first manifests her Hime powers, she's defending Aoi from the vampire Orphan, yet Ishigami becomes her MIP. Similarly, while Natsuki was already friends with Shizuru when she got her powers in "Natsuki no Prelude," Shizuru wasn't anywhere nearby when she first accepted Duran; Natsuki ran into Akane on the way there, but otherwise, no one except Natsuki and Nagi were present. Nao and Midori's most important people were unlikely to have been anywhere near where they were fighting Orphans during the time in which the show took place. This theory is thus unlikely.
The person Nao wanted revenge on in the Blu-Ray special was Yukariko and/or Ishigami, not Shizuru
- While the girls are force-feeding Reito spicy food in revenge for what the Obsidian Lord did, Natsuki sees Nao and Yukino sitting it out, and Nao points out that she has someone else to seek revenge on. Natsuki assumes that this is Shizuru, but given that Yukino (who also lost her Child and most important person to Shizuru) apparently disagreed with Nao before going off to give Reito a spicy hot dog, it's possible that Nao had someone else in mind. Since Nao knows why the Hime attacked her in the battle in which she lost her eye, she might have wanted to go after Yukariko (for faking her injury) or Ishigami (for making her do it).
Mikoto's Element is a Shardblade.
It is a BFS, but she is able to wield it effortlessly. She can summon it from afar, and by all means should be able to materialize it only when needed. We have seen it cut cleanly through almost anything, and only magical objects (Orphans, etc.) could resist it; we have not seen its effect on natural living matter, so we can not know whether it cuts the flesh or the soul.Kaiji Sakomizu is Natsuki's biological father
- Natsuki's Prelude reveals Sakomizu used to work with Saeko Kuga and would entertain Natsuki and Duran while Saeko was running late. We're also told Saeko's husband was having an affair even before Saeko died. But what if that worked both ways? What if a workaholic like Saeko had an office affair, and Natsuki was the result? It would explain:
- 1. Why Natsuki's legal father ran out on her after Saeko died. Excerpts from Natsuki's Prelude show he was, at one point, a caring father. But when Natsuki was comatose in the hospital, a crosstyping could have revealed to him that he Natsuki wasn't his after all. He paid for her upkeep because he still cared, but knowing the truth was also too painful.
- 2. Why Sakomizu was always trying to help her, even knowing it could end very badly for him. He learned the truth after Natsuki was hospitalized, but he was, according to Natsuki's Preludethe agent responsible for Saeko's accident. He felt a responsibility to protect Natsuki, but felt too guilty for his involvement in Saeko's death to tell Natsuki who he really was to her.
