Oh, my! Poor Souseiseki.

On the aerial battle versus Barasuishou:
- Barasuishou's main attack needs contact to the surface below
- As the crystals grow, higher altitude means more time to react
- Obviously, hiding between the houses does not work
- Flying above Barasuishou would probably mean getting her in the crystals' way

Thus it seems like a bad idea to me to fly way lower than Barasuishou.

Waaaaaaaah, Souseiseki was my favourite! Bring her back! Curse you, over-powered Yakult fiend!!

About Barasuishou's attacks - she also has the crystal shards, which she would presumably use on an opponent in mid-air with her. But let's face it, the main reason the chase sequence was done like that was for coolness's sake.

Agreed. I posted the majority of my episode 09 thoughts over at 4chan in /a/, but the thread didn't even make through the night before deletion :/. It's an imageboard after all. I'll try to remember and condense what I said. Episode 09 was exactly what I was hoping for in RM Traumend: battles, and the progression of the Alice Game. Those poignant scenes (when Sousei pushed Suisei away, that was wow!), the atmoshere, the emotions, the music...delivers it in spades in episode 09. Good show.

Is it just me, or did the episode 10 preview reveal a bit too much? Maybe it isn't really what it seems...

Well if they flew high or above Barasuishou, Barasuishou can still send fast torrents of shards of crystals at them. Either way, Shinku & Hina will have to do some dodging.

It seems to be hinted at that Hina Ichigo will be the next victim but I don't see how they can wrap everything up with so few episodes left. Either a lot of stuff is going to happen fast or else I think there might be a third season but that might depend on RMT's pouplarity.

Ugh, I hope not, I love Hina Ichigo, she's such a sweet character :( Also, I have to wonder if there won't be some Mai HiME style resurrection ending...

The one I feel bad for is Suiseiseki, who is my favorite along with Shinku (at least as of late). In her situation I'd knock one of my vines through both Barasuishou and Suigintou's chests :mad: . Though that might be going against all that she's fighting for :heh:

Having read the fourth German volume of the manga on the same day I watched episode 9, I saw Souseiseki "die" twice on one day. :(

(I wonder whether Suigintou will "eat" Souseiseki's Rosa Mystica, like in the manga... :twitch:)

Off to deduction or something:

In the manga version, I did get a better picture of her Rosa Mystica, as it extracted itself from her body (without those loads of shimmering like in the anime), and it looked somewhat familiar.

Going back to episode 1 of ~träumend~, in the flashback to Shinku's creation, some weird Actually-Not-Crystalline-But-Looking-A-Bit-That-Way-Structure (ANCBLABTWS from here on) is shown.

ANCBLABTWS: http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/9...atws5of.th.jpg
Rosa Mystica (manga): http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/3...anga8am.th.jpg
Rosa Mystica (anime): http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/1...nime5gg.th.jpg

Also, I saw something similar in another place. Enyu put something that looked like a piece of ANCBLABTWS into the oven he used to heat the parts of the doll that he made, while Jun was watching.

A piece of ANCBLABTWS? http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/6...btws7su.th.jpg

Now, unless it is common practice to put weird substances into the oven you heat porcelain with (which I know nothing of), it would seem to me, like he is trying to do something with that piece of ANCBLABTWS--wherever he may have gotten that from--like, for example, trying to imbue some quality of it into the doll he made, or even consciously trying to create a doll with a Rosa Mystica.

Assertions that are probably true:
- Rosa Mysticæ are made of ANCBLABTWS
- Father had a whole lot of ANCBLABTWS
- Enyu has ANCBLABTWS (either he got his hands on father's supply, or it is a more or less common substance that can be found in Europe and in Japan alike)
- Enyu tries to use the ANCBLABTWS in the process of creating dolls

Speculations on possible scenarios:
1) Assumption: Enyu is not father
1. a) He has found out that ANCBLABTWS might improve the quality of his dolls and is in the process of researching how to use it
1. b) He has found notes of father and tries to create new Rozen Maiden dolls using ANCBLABTWS (or some substitute)
2) Assumption: Enyu is a reincarnation of father
2. a) He has persistent memories (although maybe not quite clear) or found notes of his previous reincarnations and tries to build new Rozen Maiden dolls.
2. b) He has persistent memories (although maybe not quite clear) or found notes of his previous reincarnations and experiments with ANCBLABTWS for reasons unknown.
3) Assumption: Enyu is father
3. a) He tries to build new Rozen Maiden dolls, but for reasons unknown (variance in quality of ANCBLABTWS?) is not successful
3. b) He tries to build new Rozen Maiden dolls, but no longer has the skill to do it (right)
There are most probably more possible scenarios or combinations of those I listed.

...this post is longer than I thought it would. This overlength post was brought to you by forum downtime.

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/5...chan8zq.th.jpg http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/6...chan6jb.th.jpg http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/3...chan5ow.th.jpg http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/3...chan0to.th.jpg http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/2...chan9nf.th.jpg

It's very sad to see that the preview that seems to be hinting Hina Ichigo's demise, she and Kanaria are the most innocent of the seven, to happen to her so early in the game... I guess it's better early than late, considering i don't want to see poor Hina crying too much...

Up until this point, we did not know what Suigintou was going to do in regards to the Alice Game, though we did suspect that after Barasuishou's manipulation, she would again try to defeat the other dolls.

The 9th Episode clearly established Suigintou's position as well as that of Souseiseki and Suiseiseki. We already knew Shinku's pacifist ideology and this knew what she would do in the fight.

What's is interesting to note is that Suigintou has clearly regained some sense of her original personality that was absent in the earlier episodes. Perhaps this reflects the time she has had to think over the Alice game and the other dolls. It is my guess that she was awake quite some time before Shinku woke up with Jun in the first season. Her focus on numbers and the Alice Game simply reflect how long she had to wait and how long she thought upon the subject until it drove her to take action, literally.

I'm not sure, but I think that Suigintou actually was questioning father's motives during her battle with Souseiseki. Although she didn't say it outright, certainly it would be logical for her to wonder about father despite her new situation. In many ways, that battle was between the two dolls that cared for father the most.

Originally I believed that with Shinku being a pacifist, Suiseiseki would take the spotlight with Hinaichigo in terms of battling. Shinku would only fight if Jun or the other dolls were in danger (and only if it was not possible to run away as we saw in episode 9). I have no doubt that Suiseiseki would be quite willing to fight to protect Jun and the others, though that might change with Souseiseki's death. It would either harder Suiseiseki's resolve to not fight, or make her determined to defeat her enemies, especially Suigintou who destroyed her twin. Episode 10 will be the indicator.

If Barasuishou and Suigintou continue to work together, I would say it would be pretty difficult to defeat their combination. When this season started, Barashuishou, Shinku, and Souseiseki were certainly the strongest three dolls. Of course, this has changed with Suigintou's rebirth, Kanaria's introduction, and Souseiseki's death. Now the only two I feel that could stand up two this axis of evil are Shinku and Suiseiseki (and only if Shinku uses her full force). Undoubtedly without Shinku, there will be definite need for Kanaria and Hinaichigo. Heh, poor Jun, he'll be quite spent after that battle.

As for Enju, I have very little doubt that he is the dollmaker, or the dollmaker in a different form. His own philosophy of smashing imperfect dolls fits so well with the Alice Game. Certainly he's mysterious enough and his connection with Barasuishou (who is trying to start the Alice Game), does support the link. Of course, Barashuishou may not know that is father.

The only unknown element in all of this is Jun, surprisingly enough. Jun possesses the rare talent to repair dolls, like father. Thus, even though Shinku should have been disabled at the end of season 1, she was in fact spared thanks to Jun. Jun is in fact the foil (the opposite) of father/Enju. He believes that the Alice Game is pointless and accepts all the dolls despite whatever imperfections they may have. It is Jun that will be the ultimate factor in the end with, if not the skill of father, the raw ability to make a difference and bring back those who are gone to help those who are still here.

I think sugintou also had start questioning the alice game and had already long lost the desire to be alice. Now all she wants is to save megu.

Poor Souseiseki! I hate to see you go. But you wanted to fight sugintou 1 on 1 and that is definitely courting the death you got and she didnt even use her medium powers.

Maybe from now on, every ep will have a doll death? Else how are they going to end this. MOre eps or third season?

Excuse me while I go cry of sadness. Ah man, they killed my favourite character! :upset: Now I hope at least another doll also dies. Otherwise I'll feel as though they killed off Souseiseki for the sake of having someone killed off. Ah I sound so selfish. :heh: But yeah, RIP Souseiseki.