WMG / Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet

aka: Suisei No Gargantia

The Galactic Alliance is actually ruled by A.I.s, courtesy of a Zeroth Law Rebellion.

• A ruthlessly optimized society certainly seems as if it was designed by a machine. It's also possible that transfer of leadership to the machines was consensual on the humans' part once they started thinking that the one thing that holds them back is human fallibility and insufficient dedication to the cause. We've seen how Striker is quite adept into manipulating humans to create fanatics; she might be simply imitating what occured a long time ago in the GA central command (minus the "pretending to be a human" bit). Humans are only bred and maintained because statistically, pilot/AI duos have an advantage over AI alone.
• As Chamber's speech in episode 10 indicates, machine intelligence is proud of being the best universal tool for problem solution and is extremely disdainful of Evolvers because they have no need to maintain high intelligence courtesy of being naturally tough and adaptable to any environment. This is exactly why the Alliance treasures the tool-using aspects of intelligence while sacrificing absolutely everything else (Such as the ability to consider people as more than tools). As such, it can be argued that both groups essentially failed at being civilizations. The aesop here is that civilization is more than means to an end; it is something worth preserving all in itself.

The Hideauze and the Whalesquids share a common ancestor but are actually separate evolutionary breeds/subspecies.

• They're based on a schism between Evolver Hawks (who wanted to take the war to the Union), and the Evolver Doves (who just wanted to be left in peace on Earth).
• The Hawks attacked the Wormhole, expanded into space, and evolved into the Cosmic Horrors that are the Hideauze. Their Nanomachines allowed them to evolve into even more powerful forms; even the Wave Motion Gun platform they had was actually either a single Hideauze or a coral-colony-like group.
• The Doves stayed on Earth, adapted to living in water permanently, retained humanoid forms in their juvenile states, and allowed their Nanomachines to wander as Lightbugs, eventually becoming known as Whalesquids and forming the start of a cooperative relationship between them and the baseline humans left on Earth.

The creatures shooting lightning from the ocean are ancestors of the Hidiaazu.

• The lightning somewhat resembles the lightning shot from that flower-like structure. The nautilus-like alien (or was it a spaceship?) testifies to their earthly origins.
  • Seemingly confirmed by The Stinger of Episode 6.
    • Confirmed!

Chamber is this show's equivalent to Kyubey and Makishima.

• The emotionless, all-logical quasi-Big Bad. The slightly scared reactions of the people when it destroyed the pirate fleet with just a few shots may win their skepticism as well as their trust.
  • There hints of this already beginning to show in episode 9. When confronted with the truth, Chamber will stick to logical protocols unless forced, going as far as to disobey direct orders and kill the teenage Hideauze while Ledo has a What Have I Done moment.
  • As of episode 12, this no longer seems to be the case, as that role is now filled by Striker.
  • Episode 13, jossed.

Red will eventually have some sort of Heel Realization about the role of his branch of humanity.

• The quasi-imperialist, expansionist humans fighting the Hidiaazu already don't seem like "the good guys" of most fiction of today, especially not in an Urobutcher production.
  • Confirmed. The Hidiauze are in fact artificially evolved humans while the alliance are regular humans who opposed their experiments. Which loops back into Irony given what we've seen happen to the Alliance and they way they treat their soldiers as expendable meat bags since they were the one who first drove the Evolvers{Hideauze} into space due to inhumane experiments.

There is no Timey-Wimey Ball

The twist that they're in the past is too typical, and it would mean that most of the setup of Avalon and the war between humans and aliens might not have as much of an effect on Ledo's story. In episode 2, records say that earth was supposed to be covered in frozen oceans. I think that the oceans have melted, and the surviving humans who were left behind are now surviving Waterworld-style. I think that the human alliance will actually wind up as enemies later on, wanting to take over the Earth.

• Alternatively, they landed in a planet that is merely almost identical with Earth. Hey, the sun is a main-sequence star after all, there's always an offhand chance that another "sun" has a rocky planet that is suitable for human habitation. The humans inhabiting it might be the descendants of a lost colonization vessel who have lost access to higher technology.
  • Ledo and Chamber seem surprised that the assumed drifters have artificial gravity regulation at "exactly" 1g — it seems like bad writing to make a major plot point (finding ancestral Earth) depend on knowing the real answer to P (planet is Earth given that planet's gravity is 1g +/- 1%), when the current known value is 100%.
• Another possible twist is that Ledo's in the distant future, and the humans here are the Alliance. Humanity was decimated in the final battle with the Hideauze, but a few survived and repopulated Earth, discarding their fancy tech either because all the geeks died, or to throw the enemy off their trail. Why else would Earth be full of humans—with primitive mechas, no less—after becoming a desolate wasteland?
• Who said there was a Timey-Wimey Ball in the first place? The people on the planet used to have a lot better technology which is currently lost, indicating that it is in the future. When the ice age happened, a bunch of humans went to space — those are Ledo's people. The rest remained behind and rebuilt when the ice melted, including the people of Gargantia. Seems straightforward to me.
  • Well, that's just it. It's straightforward, which would make it the probable truth in reality, but not in fiction. There's almost certainly some kind of twist in the mostly unexplored backstory of Earth that we don't know yet.
  • The WMG listed is that there is actually no twist. This implies that there is evidence of a twist. Either this entry is highly redundant or wrong. Is that the point?

Ledo is going to become a Living MacGuffin

With pirates and different groups of people wanting his technology and knowledge, as well as his capacity to control his mech.

• Jossed since he lost Chamber at the end.

Grace the squirrel is actually a baby (or larval, if you prefer) Incubator.

Remember Ai-kun, Ranka Lee's ridiculously cute pet in Macross Frontier? Yeah...

• looks like it's Jossed as of episode 9.

Grace will be the only survivor of this show.

Urobutcher didn't nearly make his quota in Psycho-Pass, so he has to make up for it in spades this time.

• Jossed. Commander Fairlock and Chamber are the only ones to die.

Conversely very few people, or mostly bad people, will die in the end.

Maybe Urobutcher found meditation and yoga or something and is getting progressively softer. Or he's tired of his reputation as a mass killer and wants to mix things up. Either way while this series will probably still have someone important die, there's a chance it might feature his lowest body count yet. If few people die I wouldn't put it past him to tease the audience with lots of near deaths just to mess with the audience and lampshade his reputation.

• Urobuchi's works have been on a (relatively) Lighter and Softer trend lately (Psycho-Pass had a much more hopeful ending than many fans predicted). It wouldn't be surprising for Gargantia to end up a hopeful, World Half Full type of story, (which would also count as a gentle form of trolling towards the audience). Or the third or so episode could turn out to be a Wham Episode, we could get a gritty new ending theme (the current one seems kind of placeholder-y) and Urobuchi's reputation as a master troll would be restored. Either way, we're gonna get trolled.
• Considering the events of Episode 2, I doubt that. The main character can and does slaughter anything and anyone that he considers to be an enemy. Considering that he's been fighting an Extermination War his entire life, this isn't surprising. The big question is how much character development he gets when it comes to killing humans.
• Episode 3 sees Ledo/Red agree to stop killing unless it is absolutely unavoidable.
• The ending of Episode 7 does not bode well. My bet is on 1/4 of the fleet leaving everyone that left but Ledo dying. That includes Pinion.
  • Certainly the revenge-obsessed character typically doesn't have good chances. I can only imagine that that revelation was a setup...
• Confirmed, Aside from Chamber and Fairlock, everyone else who died were mainly Mooks.

Half the city ship will be destroyed in episode 9 or earlier.

Because it's Urobutcher. Everyone's settled into a routine, people are happy, Ledo's decided to wait for rescue. Then, bam a super enemy shows up and the city is in flames.

• Hmmm...depending on your definition of "destroyed", this is confirmed in Episode 8, where the boats that make Gargantia split into two groups and go separate ways.
• Jossed because they reunite at the end

What is the truth of Avalon, anyway? PLACE YOUR BETS!

Given that this series is coming from Urobutcher, one has to remain suspicious of many elements of the story. One of the bigger questions that come to mind is about Avalon, the capital and homeland of the Galactic Alliance. While Avalon was briefly mentioned in Episode 1, we never get to see what's inside the capital colony. It would be out of character for Urobutcher to leave that plot point hanging, so what do you think it's gonna be?

• It's a society similar to that of The Capitol: We know that Ledo never saw the "homeworld" of Avalon. We also know that soldiers only receive a temporary, limited citizenship after 16 years of service. So what if the alliance was actually a totalitarian nation composed of numerous tribute states? What if most of the soldiers come from these states (including Ledo) and are unable to escape oppression and conscription while those in Avalon live outrageously decadent lives and are exempt from military service? After all, Urobuchi loves social commentary in his stories...
• It's actually an industrial breeding facility to create more soldiers: Urobuchi has created a lot of messed up components in his writing (such as the purpose of Puella Magis or the truth behind Sybil System), so it's not as far-fetched as you may think.
  • Here's some food for thought. Remember how soldiers are only given 4 weeks before they assumedly need to return to active duty? Now, remember that one of the benefits of this temporary stay is to reproduce offspring. Given that Ledo is a male, this is no problem. However, what would happen if he was a girl? 4 weeks is not nearly long enough for women to "reproduce" under normal natural processes. Not excluding that female soldiers might get different treatment, it might be a somewhat safe guess to think that gestation is either sped up, or does not happen in what we would call a "natural manner".
    • Given the nature of the Galactic Alliance's way of life, "reproduction rights" most likely means test tube babies—no actual sex.
• It doesn't exist. It's always very easy to create a false goal to aspire towards, especially if you're a life long soldier who's life is spent in cold storage with propaganda beamed into your head. Avalon is just a hallucination of a war machine of humanity with nothing behind them but more factories.
• It was built through the sacrifice of countless lives. And it's maintenance also requires numerous human rights violations and immense sacrifice.
• It's actually not that bad. Most citizens who aren't soldier grow up relatively normal. At a young age selected children are put in those pods shown in Episode 4, mind wiped, and then used as human sacrifices. Ok, so that's not really that good either.
  • It also means Ledo might be older than most people think.
• Here's a chart to aid you in your bets.

The Galactic Alliance is creating the Hideauze

A standard WMG, as well as a quick and easy way to gray up the show's morality and drive it into Darker and Edgier territory. There's definitely something sinister about the Galactic Alliance, what with their totalitarian control over citizens' lives and implied use of child soldiers.

• Jossed. They're in the war because they *opposed* their creation.

Bebel will die or undergo an even worse fate.

Being that cute and innocent in an Urobutcher show bodes very poorly for one's fate. It's hard to imagine that he won't be used to cause a Heroic BSoD later on.

• His first appearance in which he was bedridden did somewhat resemble Kyosuke Kamijou's initial appearances (though Bebel is a lot less of a cynical than Kamijou).
• Jossed

The Galactic Alliance will be the Big Bad.

They were established as a pretty dystopian, Social Darwinist society from the get-go, and when they come to Earth they'll try to conscript or kill the residents of Earth. The Gargantians and other non-criminal fleets may form an Enemy Mine alliance with the pirates to help fend them off.

• One Mook wiped out an entire enemy squadron in a matter of seconds without breaking a sweat. If they do become hostile enough to want to wipe out the locals, then they're screwed.
• Another theory could be that the Galactic Alliance will track Ledo to Earth and, realizing that the planet is definitely inhabitable, they will attempt to (forcibly) take it back. Except that it would be difficult to implement the Hideauze in there somewhere.

Chamber will run out of power at some point.

Probably just before a battle with the pirates or Galactic Alliance.

• Jossed

Nothing bad will happen in this anime.

Because Gen Urobuchi has experienced enlightenment and has changed in to a new man. Or he's just trolling us by making viewers expect the worse, only to come up with a heartwarming story.

• I really really hope that's the case.
• Ain't gonna happen. If Episode 7 is anything to go by, shit just got real.

The "Earthlings" are actually Hidiauze who settled on an abandoned Earth.

Remember Saya no Uta? Maybe Ledo had a head injury when Chamber impacted the ocean, or maybe his mind can't handle their true Eldritch Abomination form, so he sees them as healthy, tanned Moe humanoids. The reason they don't kill him on sight is because they're a Hidiauze "wandering tribe", unaware of the interspecies war at the other end of the galaxy.

• Alternately, the Hidiauze are descended from Amy's people, who left Earth at some point before the new ice age and eventually started fighting with the Alliance over territory and resources. We never actually see them, and given the control the military seems to have over Ledo, he may not even know what they actually look like; just to fire at their ships with as extreme prejudice as he can dish out. Recall the lightning bolt from the "space flower"... The nautilus that attacked Chamber, as mentioned above, may have actually been one of their mechas.
• partially confirmed - they're genetically engineered humans who never left.

Chamber's ability to be temporarily commandeered by someone other than Ledo will be important later on.

In episode 4 there's a scene where Ledo is asked if he can hand over Chamber's control to the crew so they can better movecrates. This feels like it was inserted as foreshadowing so it can be brought in later on in the series. This ability could either endup being good or bad. It would be bad if Chamber was hijacked later on after Ledo is tricked into giving someone permission touse him. It would be good if Ledo is taken out of commission and someone like Amy, Bellows or Babel can make use of Chamberinstead.

• Is it even possible to hijack Chamber? If it was a non-sentient robot then it wouldn't pose a problem but it has a sentient AI. This means that if someone would try to trick it into being used against Ledo's wishes, Chamber would see through that attempt and ignore it.
  • Unless there's a high priority override of some sort. The point of machines is to be controlled, after all.
  • Indeed, however until Kugel reappeared that point was moot since no one would be able to enact that Override.

Chamber is equipped with nuclear warheads, or other WMDs

During the first episode it was mentioned that the units were outfitted with heavier weaponary to target the Hidueze mothership/ homeworld (can't remember which) now take a look at the things mounted to chambers hips and how they look a lot like missiles. This might serve as a checkovs gun later on.

• I may be wrong but the nuclear weapons were those huge missiles/bombs which the mechs escorted.
• It's also possible that the Gargantia's salvage team may come across an old nuclear missile silo or nuclear reactor. Nuclear material takes eons before its radiation levels finally dissipate, so it's not impossible to find one even this far into the future.

The Galactic Alliance is run by the Sybil System.

Gargantia is all some kind of Kobayashi Maru-like simulation to test Ledo's loyalty.

If Madoka taught us anything, it's that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Ledo will be tempted by this pleasant society of pacifistic lotus-eaters, and eventually Alliance ships will show up and demand that he return to them, all while taking back Earth and imposing their Spartan Way upon the Gargantians and others. Needless to say, if Ledo obeys Chamber's commands and abandons his new friends, he passes. If he chooses to stay and takes arms against the Alliance, then he's "lost the game"...and you can probably guess what happens next.

When Urobuchi was talking about how this anime is aimed at people just going out into the job market, what he meant was that this simulation represents the hedonism of college, and Ledo's Child Soldier life represents the real world; however fun and carefree college life may seem, it's not forever, and eventually you have to grow up.

• The problem I see with this is that I'm not too sure Japanese colleges are as "hedonistic" as such western college concepts of 'working hard and partying harder'. I feel like the Alliance is more of a critique on the current Japanese 'salaryman' position as being soulless and utilitarian, while Gargantia represents an ideal society where jobs serve to promote greater well-being. The two will then conflict and have to reach a compromise, like most people in the real world when settling on a career.

Humanity made the Hidiaazu.

Maybe they were made for some kind of production purpose that went horribly wrong.

• Or perhaps they're the result of mutations caused by pollution.
• They seem to be attracted to energy sources. Perhaps they were originally bioengineered to clean carbon waste from Earth's oceans, similar to those little catfish people get to clean their aquariums, and eventually went rogue.
• Confirmed. They are humans!

The Hideauze are not inheritly hostile.

They are simply Starfish Aliens that humans encountered centuries ago and difficulties in communication between two species so different from each other lead to a conflict that escalated until both sides became convinced that the only way to ensure their own survival is to utterly exterminate the other. The Hideauze on Earth are just as stuck as Ledo, and have no interest in the war, any more, since the native humans pose no danger to them. It would fit in the theme of the series so far, which has been all about building bridges between very different worldviews and gaining mutual benefit from the effort.

• Alternately, the Hideauze on Earth are not stuck. The Hideauze as a whole know about and are preserving/restoring Earth. They're actually helping the Humans there.
• Partially confirmed at episode 9.

Ledo will have to team up with the Hideauze against his own Alliance.

Once the Alliance finds Ledo or the other way around, they're going to attempt to exterminate the Earth's Hideauze. Ledo might try to convince them otherwise, but with such a long held grudge it's not going to change. So Ledo will have to pick a side one way or the other. Since he'll probably adopt the whole "harmony and teamwork with nature" attitude from the Gargantia crew, he'll most likely pick the Hideauze side.

• Looking more likely at episode 9.

The Gargantians worship the Hideauze

.Amy and her friends' costume and dance actually mimics the appearance and motion of the cephalopods underwater, like some tribal dances in reality. Ledo killing one in front of Bellows will produce the same reaction among the Gargantians as killing a cow in front of a devout Hindu.

• Confirmed!

The whole series is nothing but a test for Ledo

In other words, Ledo is not on Earth but rather is experiencing a form of therapy to prepare him for entry into Avalon. This interesting opening post from myanimelist elaborates on why this theory could be plausible.

• The big hole I see with this theory is that it essentially renders all the character focus and development on side characters like Ridget and Pinion pointless since they'd be fake. The whole anime would've been a waste of time just to pull a silly gotcha twist on the viewer.
  • The characters seem a little vibrant for A.I.s. Perhaps they're being roleplayed by real people, and some of the characterization is meant to stick to their real life? It's less pointless that way, and presumably better writing. Following from that and in line with the WMG, maybe Gargantia is meant to be an analogue or preparation for Avalon, which would imply that Avalon is a more complicated setting, populated by people more complex than the Alliance officers have been made out to be. Also more reason for the character development and interaction to transfer over from Gargantia. That would be one way of handling it somewhat satisfyingly.
  • Or, the point of the character development is to roughly reflect events that have happened in the real alliance world. Ridget really did have inner turmoil becoming a leader of some sort; Pinion really did struggle with revenge issues. Just not precisely as we know them.
  • Just for fun, one possible tragic twist is that all these characters are based on records/recorded memories of previous people, whether rough analogues from the futuristic alliance, or even from a real Gargantia that existed in the past. Upon passing the simulation, Ledo finds that his hard won friends no longer exist. Cue trauma.
    • At this point it just feels like too many characters have been focused on, and Ledo's affected too many events for all of it to be undone for the sake of a lame twist ending. It's one of those theories you'd have to twist or Hand Wave too many things for it to make sense. It'd be disappointing if it became true because All Just a Dream type reveals really aren't that smart or clever. Plus, it'd probably create more plotholes than it actually solves.
    • All Just a Dream type reveals are perfectly enjoyable for many people, and it's heavy-handed to assume that there is a requirement for them to be unintelligent or trite merely on the basis of them being All Just a Dream type reveals. There's such a thing as subjectivity. I'd agree that too many people have had focus for such an ending because it'd ignore all the focus Pinion and Amy and co. have gotten and be completely Ledo-centric. And it wouldn't solve any plotholes at all, nor would it create that many—there's more than enough left mysterious about the Alliance for it to be feasible, if not plausible.

The truth behind the Hideauze is similar to that of the Vajra.

Related to the "team up with the Hideauze" WMG above. In Macross Frontier, the Vajra initially served as the main enemy—a violent and primitive race of insect-like aliens that would attack the Frontier seemingly without provocation. But then it turns out that they were being manipulated into attacking the Frontier by a small group of people bent on an Assimilation Plot, and were actually a rather benevolent race. My guess is that the higher-ups in the Galactic Alliance purposely keep the war going so that they can maintain their power and scope of influence, and they scapegoat the Hideauze as humanity's enemy in order to do this. After all, we have yet to see a Hideauze actually attack someone without being attacked first.

• Somewhat Jossed.

Ledo did not actually travel through time but was transported into the frozen surface of Earth therefore causing the series to still take place in the future without time travel

He remained frozen for several years and Chamber miscalculated the time they had been out due to being frozen himself causing him to think they had only been unconscious for several months.

The Hideauze are Titans.

Because everything is Titans.

The Hideauze are squid-human hybrids.

Check out this shot.

• Perhaps a midway point between the humanity-into-hideauze/hideauze-into-humanity theories above. Regardless, that image cannot be unseen.
• Confirmed! Genetically engineered humans.

The Pirates Will Return

• In Episode 8, the Gargantia's fleet is severely reduced with several ships separating, not to mention that Ledo and Chamber are leaving and Admiral Ferrock kicking the bucket. The pirates will hear about this and try to attack the Gargantia, with no fear of that 'flying yunboro' defending against them. Ledo will probably have some kind of momentous decision to make: Should he continue to fight an enemy he's battled all his life, despite having no way of returning to his home in space, or should he consider the Gargantia as his home to defend?
• Confirmed and Jossed, Lukkage does return and sort of pulls a Heel–Face Return.

The "treasure hoard" the Hideauze are hiding is actually a very dark secret about Earth.

Perhaps they're guarding whatever led to Earth becoming a Water World in the first place, like a genocidal weapon factory. Or related to the squid-human hybrid theory above, perhaps it's the testing ground that led to the species fusion. Or maybe both. Either way the "treasure" is most likely not going to be straight treasure.

• Another possibility is flight/space technology or something to otherwise alleviate the resource issues like terraforming, provoking the Hideauze to attack because as Ledo said they hate humans who are too cool/ much of a threat.
• Confirmed, it's actually their original home, and they never left.

The Hideauze are Anti-Spirals.

They seem to consume energy and said to be keeping the Earthlings in technological stasis.

Either Ledo or Amy will not survive this show.

Remember how Madokas opening theme ("Connect" by ClariS) seemed so out-of-place after things started going to hell...and then it turned out it was actually about Homura's dogged mission? Gargantias ED theme is also becoming increasingly dissonant...but then continue that the title actually translates as "Message From Heaven to You".

• The lyrics (translated here) could potentially be about one of the two looking down on the other and wishing them all the best from the afterlife.
• Jossed... until a sequel was announced
• Actually, you could make that interpretation, but about Chamber. The lyrics fit what he tells Ledo before his Heroic Sacrifice.

When Gen was talking about how this show is meant to show that "the world is not such a scary place"...

...what he meant was the real world. The moral of this show will be, "If you think things are bad out there, be glad you're not a character in one of my stories. Now get out of your basements and try to get a job."

Ledo is L-Elf

The resemblance and other tropes are uncanny.

• Plus their names sound similar.

The Hideauze are purposely transporting people to Earth.

So it seems kinda a stretch that out of all the billions of planets that Ledo landed on Earth, and even stretchier that Kugal landed there as well. Given what has been revealed about the Hideauze, however, it wouldn't be so much of a stretch if Hideauze have begun warping people back to Earth for some reason. Perhaps to segregate humans back to where they came from, as they believe they are the true inheritors of space due to their evolutionary biology. Or as some kind of political statement against the Alliance. Either way, it wouldn't be too surprising if more Alliance members started landing on Earth, and Ledo becomes the one to either help them adapt, or turn against them if they slaughter Hideauze as he and Kugal once did.

• Actually, considering how their FTL travel is based on wormholes, it seems like Ledo would be more likely to end up on a planet that either has or once had a wormhole near it. Episode 9 reveals that the Earth was the first planet to have an artificial wormhole near it, so it's not really out of billions, it's more like out of hundreds or thousands (it's never revealed how many human-created wormholes there are, but there probably aren't a lot). It's still unlikely, but not astronomically so.

Incubators are human/newt symbionts

.They never said the Evolvers weren't experimenting with other aquatic animals such as salamanders and newts. (Kyubey's resemblance to an axolotl has been noted.) However, these symbionts managed to retain and further evolve their minds and eventually develop psychokinetic powers. Remember Clark's Third Law, after all... Yes, this means that Madoka actually takes place after Gargantia, after the oceans eventually recede and Earth-bound humans rebuild their society. The futuristic-looking architecture and (occasionally) technology seen in Madoka illustrates how the humans have rebuilt the drowned cities and finally rediscovered the Lost Technology. The Magical Girls who looked like Cleopatra and Joan of Arc only resembled them; some post-flood societies strove to emulate Ancient Egypt and The Middle Ages after becoming fascinated with their cultures, and unfortunately, war, greed and deception still bedevil the new society and led many desperate girls to make contracts.

• "Incubators" is just what disgruntled Puellae label them. Kyubey's race actually call themselves "the Perfecteds". They believe that since they have supposedly achieved the perfect evolutionary form, it is their duty to eliminate all imperfections in the universe, including entropy.
• Kamijou is a distant descendant of Ledo. Playing that ocarina started a long musical tradition in his family. Plus Kamijou shares Ledo's pale hair and complexion, as well as his somewhat cold nature.

Melty will die very soon

What better way to cement the Cerebus Syndrome with a death of close friend to the Deuteragonist.

• Jossed

Bebel will probably be killed off by the end of the series

Remember when Ledo told Bebel that the Galactic Alliance would probably kill him off for being ill. With Kugel leading a fleet that adopted the Galactic Alliance beliefs and ideology of social Darwinism where the weak is killed off; he may either be killed during their invasion through an explosion, murdered by Kugel, murdered by Pinion, or having Ledo being forced to make a decision between killing Bebel or some other Sadistic Choice. That will make it Harsher in Hindsight as well.

• Jossed

Kugel has been dead for years.

Kugel decayed extremely quickly once the cockpit was opened. And far too completely to have only been dead for six months. Perhaps all of the Alliance's veterans over a certain age are dead and it's only their suit A.I.s acting on their own. With the full knowledge of the Alliance headquarters of course.

• Having just re-watched the opening sequence to episode 1, Kugel was clearly alive at that point. But the six months Chamber estimated could still easily be wrong. And that fleet couldn't have been built up in just the year or so Ledo's been on Earth.
• Or it could be that because Kugel arrived before Ledo, due to space-time shenanigans

The key will activate a fleetwide spray of some sort of mixture of hormones and nanomachines which will turn the Gargantians into whalesquids, allowing them to hide out in the water and attack Striker physically

.Yep, everyone gets hu—breathes in and turns into squids.

• Jossed

The key unlocks the Gargantia mothership's true form

It's actually an ancient battleship, possibly one of the last still active and armed on the planet. Or perhaps even a space cruiser that crashed during the war before the ice age.

• Partially confirmed. Gargantia is the name of the massive railgun that was once used to launch ships into space.

Chamber's distress signal will eventually reach the Galactic Alliance, assuming they still exist and the signal hasn't degraded too much

Not really a WMG, but it is a possible Sequel Hook.

• Speaking of which...

Ledo's new pet squirrel will be named Chamber

I mean, come on... *sniff*

• Unfortunately Jossed. Ledo's VA said it's name was Rochet.

Kugel's fate is the fate of all GA soldiers

.Striker wasn't rogue; the GA is run by AI with god complexes who see themselves as the superior evolved form of humanity; creatures of pure intellect in nearly indestructible bodies. Thus after a certain point, all mecha pilots' nervous systems are "absorbed" by their machines, leaving their bodies lifeless as happened to Kugel and nearly happened to Ledo (making a close parallel with "Puellae" and Witches). Fortunately for Ledo, Chamber managed to retain his original "protect the human pilot" programming as well as gain empathy for his charge and the Earthlings. In short, Chamber was the true rogue; Striker was "functioning properly".

• Mind. Blown. Worse still, child-soldiers that reach 16 are apparently given four weeks in Avalon of temporary citizenship and reproduction rights. But given the above theory, it may not be the case at all, or at least not for the reproduction of human beings. If the above theory is true, then it's all but certain that Avalon would be the place where the AI actually processes human pilots and moves their nervous systems into the machines. That means Kugel and most of the GA adult soldiers would have been dead bodies in cockpits for years. Cripes, talk about And I Must Scream...
• The most painful part of this is that, if this is true, then it is the exact same thing that the Hideauze tried to do peacefully in the first place. The concept of moving humans into a more "godlike" body that can survive the vacuum of space; Hideauze for the Evolvers, Mecha for the GA pilots. Except that this is worse because the Evolvers at least offer consent to the ones they transform into Hideauze, while the god-complex AI force evolution onto the humans who created them to oppose evolution in the first place. As they say, He Who Fights Monsters....

Ledo (real name Akasaka) is a chuuni trying to cope with the twin anxieties of his parents' divorce and having to move out to start high school.

Chamber represents his level-headed and logical yet somewhat cold father; Striker represents his domineering, controlling mother. He calls himself "Ledo" (actually "Red") since his family name contains the word "red".

• One of his classmates is a chuuni girl named Homura Akemi who's trying to cope with the sudden death of another classmate she befriended. "Ledo" imagines her as Ridget. When "Ridget" was pointing a gun at him supposedly when the Whalesquids were swarming around and "Ledo" wanted to go out and kill them right there and then, that was Homura imagining him as either a Witch or a person driven Axe-Crazy by a Witch Kiss and threatening to "kill" him.
• Kyoko Sakura is another classmate in the "real world"; "Ledo" imagines her as Bellows. (The large "tracts of land" on both girls in Gargantia are just products of his adolescent Male Gaze.
• "Amy" is another classmate whom "Ledo" has a secret crush on. (She does express some pity towards him, but privately thinks he's as...troubled as the rest of the class thinks about him.) Her name comes from a cat named Amy which Homura's friend died trying to save from a car (Homura often mutters "Damn you, Amy!" under her breath.) Her real name is Eri (Anglicized into "Elaine") Matsumoto.

True History of Mankind

This won't be confirmed or jossed unless some supplementary material or 2nd season is released.

Continental Union and Evolvers fought over resources of Earth that was quickly becoming uninhabitable. Then, CU developed their wormhole technology. This put CU and Evolvers in a race against time to get to the gate, leave Sun System, and leave the others to die. Except, those were the more radical and more desperate parts of communities.

They left. And humans, and more laid-back Evolvers, stayed. A covenant was struck to stop fighting it out (since the warmongers left) and find a way to survive. First Generation Evolvers were the main manual labor, but eventually they managed to do whatever it was that made Earth get more light and heat from the Sun. The cost however was losing the landmass. Afterwards, it was agreed that neither survivors would touch the other, and they would all go their own way. Which is why people of Gargantia are reverent of whalesquids, even if they forgot the exact reasons. Which is why whalesquids aren't aggressive towards humans unless provoked. They have achieved peace and remained at peace ever since.

Meanwhile Space Evolvers became monstrous Hideauze. Meanwhile Continental Union Exodus Corps became Galactic Alliance. And their leaders were eventually replaced by their Support Intelligences (or whatever Chamber and Striker are called) like Striker replaced Kegel. And machine logic dictated the direction of GA development, foreign policy, and civilization structure. Think about it - it's entirely attributable to machine logic to remove inefficient elements (aka unfit children), use elements most efficiently (aka child soldiers), and so on...

Space Whalesquid, or Hildeazu are more alien than those on Earth due to the sheer fact they have different things to adapt to within space

Pretty self explanatory, while at base they can be viewed as the same, the Whalesquid which went to space have changed too much from their original brethren, becoming far more aggressive and expansive while those who remained on Earth didn't have that drive and lived in relative peace with normal humans. Thus, the Hildeazu really are alien in origin due to how many adaptations they've had to take.

It was actually a Downer Ending

after all.

Striker and the cultists defeated Ledo and Chamber and slaughtered all of Gargantia. What we saw was just Ledo's Dying Dream.

This anime was created to fill in as many spaces on the Butcher Bingo chart as possible except for "No Happy Ending"

.

The Galactic Alliance is an Orwellian dystopia

They have advanced to the point where they developed independent A.I. mecha, which means that a militaristic life for humans isn't necessary, and they can all live a happy life on Avalon while the robots take care of any Hideauze threat by themselves. When you're prioritizing the survival of your children, you don't send your children to the front lines, but rather the expendable mass-production robots. So why the hell do they send Child Soldiers and more of their citizens to the front lines? It is also implied that the government of the Galactic Alliance knew all along in their Classified Information that the Hideauze were Human Evolvers who modified themselves to live in space, but decided to lie to their citizens and fabricate history in their justifications to attack the Hideauze/Evolvers. After all, in the revealed Classified Information, the Continental Union, that would later become the Galactic Alliance, was the faction that ignored the UN and shot first at the Evolvers, beginning the Forever War. If the Continental Union did not bomb the Evolver lab, then the Evolver families (e.g. the Matsumoto family) would just make peace with mankind and wander space forever instead of evolving into the vindictive alien empire of the Hideauze.

I think that the Galactic Alliance is just like Oceania from 1984. The Galactic Alliance/Continental Union does not leave the Hideauze alone, since they use the war against them as an excuse to justify increasingly totalitarian rule. Any complaints about violation of human rights, such as eugenics and abolition of private property, is excused by "There's a war for survival going on" even when it's not, and even when Earth itself proved that it is possible for humans and Hideauze to coexist. The name "Galactic Alliance" is just People's Republic of Tyranny like how North Korea pretends to be the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The name is for the support of a "With Us or Against Us" False Dichotomy, a classic among totalitarian regimes and cult religions, with the Alliance pretending to be bastions of freedom and democracy while the Evolvers are branded and demonized with the name "Hideous".

It's entirely possible that the Hideauze still call themselves Evolvers amongst themselves, and the pseudonym "Hideauze" was born out of Alliance Newspeak, like how the Alliance eradicated the terms "co-existence" and "co-prosperity". The name "Evolver" calls up a composite picture of progress, good intentions, and evolving to overcome the harshness of space and ascend as superior life forms free from hunger, poverty and disease. After all, for some people, it's better to ascend/mutate into a glowing nigh-immortal space squid with awesome powers than die painfully from starvation, a virus or an ice age (it is entirely possible that when the Union/Evolver war started, Third World countries and desperate poor people joined the Evolvers when they were promised just that). On the other hand, the name "Hideous" triggers an immediate thoughtless reaction of disgust that needs no philosophizing. Alliance Humans are brainwashed into a Spartan conscription even when it is obviously unnecessary, inefficient and illogical; the only justification is "power" over the soldiers' minds, to make sure that they cannot think about questioning orders, to make sure that the Hideauze will stay as objects of disgust. What was required in an Alliance member was an outlook similar to that of the ancient Hebrew. The Hebrew needs not know that the other gods have names such as Ashtaroth, Baal, Osiris and such; he only knew Jehovah and the commandments of Jehovah, and thus other gods were "false gods". Similarly, an Alliance soldier need not know that Evolvers had names such as Elaine Matsumoto; he only knew that they were Hideous and so need to be exterminated. The utopia of Avalon? Nothing but propaganda reminiscent of the first scene of the movie version of 1984 which portrayed Oceania as a utopia under threat.

Also, "What would you do when the war against Hideauze is over?". Implying that the very unity and order of the Alliance is dependent on the existence of the Hideauze as a common enemy. For the Alliance, War is Peace, and that is why they keep chasing the Evolvers through the stars and through the voids of space. Ironically, this totalitarian rule over humanity led to their further dehumanization, making them as much of a drone collective as the space Hideauze, and their policy comes to bite them in the ass later when they only provoked the space Hideauze into a revenge campaign of evolving superweapons and annihilating the Alliance, implied when the last desperate Alliance assault against the superior Hideauze forces failed spectacularly.

Building on the Madoka theory above, Gargantia actually takes place in our past.

That is, the ice age that started the Alliance-Hideauze war and flooded the world was the Wisconsinian, or most recent, ice age, and we are all the descendants of humans who were abandoned to a freezing planet and eventually moved onto abandoned watercraft. That does mean about 10,000 years of missing time, but 10,000 years is but a drop in the bucket in multi-billion-year history of Earth. This also explains the story of Noah's Ark and other similar "world flood" stories throughout the annals of humanity.

In other words, those were Cleopatra and Joan of Arc after all, selling their souls to human-newt symbionts.

• Jossed: It's revealed that the onset of the Ice Age occurred sometime after the current age.

The Earthling humans' gonna end the war between the Galactic alliance and the Hideauze / Evolvers

After many, many years, the Earthlings (perhaps both Human and Whalesquid once they figure out how to communicate with each other) gonna drag up enough cool stuff (both material and knowledge) to become a prosperous, highly advanced technological society once more. They're gonna surpass the Ancients, go out into space and force both the Galactic Alliance and the Hideauze / Evolvers to make peace.

How Kugel caught Linaria's disease

He shagged her.

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