[Mai Otome] Episode 18 Discussion/Poll

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by SoldierOfDarkness

Well one could say that Mashiro got lucky and got stuck with Mimi who of course doesn't know what the Queen looks like. That and her low profile, so they would just take her as another kid and wouldn't bother with her. I mean when she fell on the sand no one bothered to help her except Mimi.

Aoi on the other hand wasn't lucky.

I think the main reason Mimi didn't suspect anything, was that Mashiro first met Mimi during the Queen's birthday celebrations. Since the Queen was supposedly in her castle greeting a royal guest (a rule taken by Arika), as well as been driven around the city in a limousine, Mimi didn't think the Queen could be in two places at once. As such Mashiro was believed to be merely a girl who looked like the Queen.

[MattAlchemy]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

I think the main reason Mimi didn't suspect anything, was that Mashiro first met Mimi during the Queen's birthday celebrations. Since the Queen was supposedly in her castle greeting a royal guest (a rule taken by Arika), as well as been driven around the city in a limousine, Mimi didn't think the Queen could be in two places at once. As such Mashiro was believed to be merely a girl who looked like the Queen.

I'd say Mimi is mean. First, she cares alot about "Nina Wong" (Mashiro) and gives Mashiro her drink. Suddenly when Mashiro drinks it like crazy, she get's all mad already.

Mimi probably never seen Mashiro's "real" face because she's been living in that poor place, never to be able to see Mashiro's "real" face, so she beleived that Mashiro is Nina. (And OMG she was lucky to call herself Nina back at episode12)

[ArchDragon]

Originally Posted by MattAlchemy

I'd say Mimi is mean. First, she cares alot about "Nina Wong" (Mashiro) and gives Mashiro her drink. Suddenly when Mashiro drinks it like crazy, she get's all mad already.

Mimi probably never seen Mashiro's "real" face because she's been living in that poor place, never to be able to see Mashiro's "real" face, so she beleived that Mashiro is Nina. (And OMG she was lucky to call herself Nina back at episode12)

I think Mimi was mad over Mashiro coughing up precious water, not because she drank it like crazy.

As for why Aoi got caught but not Mashiro, I'll chalk it up to "fate".
Those 3 girls has been saved at the last minute way too many times to be considered as simply having good luck.

[Whitemoon648]

ok after watching this episode, i was planning to make a Thread about a really wild and wierd idea. But since i thought it was too wierd ( and probably not possible) i am gona state it in the episode threads. I dono if its me or not but here it goes.

Nagi mentioned somethig of mashiro-chan being raised by the queen and thats why she knew the third stanza of the song. Here there would be two possibilities in my opinion. They ( Nagi and the other guy) might have talked about when Mashiro was a baby and the Queen had song it for her( before the attack on Windbloom, 15 years ago or so). Here is where my another wierd possibility come. I am guessing that Aoi Might infact be Renna. she didnt tell about mashiro and how she looked at Mashiro was like a motherly look perhaps?. and she is really similar ( in apearence) to Renna as well. Also again Nagi said that Queen had song the song for her and thats how she knows it. If they are talking about when she was a baby, how could Mashiro remember a song from when she was a baby?^_^. The only other person that could have taught Mashiro the song and has raised her ( The Queen that Nagi was talking about) would be Aoi. Well i am just speculating it in my point of view ( since My hime was reallly unpredictble). i thought this might be a possibility.

P.S. I know its not possible but i decided to say it ^_^.

[Anime Adoru]

I don't subscribe to the Aoi equals Rena idea because it would be out of role for both of them. When Aoi greets Akira in episode 13 or so, she is frightened by her eyes and says so to Sakomizu. You wouldn't expect such a simple remark from a self-confident former otome.

[Ronin Aquila]

Mashiro is dead lucky she is not caught yet after all that time.

Her the very syntax-and-vocabulary of her speech would have had her hung-drawn-and-quartered by the angry mob in a realistic situation.

After all, who outside the royal family would use Waa-Le (Equivalent: "we" ) to address herself and So-na-ta (Equivalent: "thou" ) to address others? It is a fomrality that would not be lost to the citizens of a Feudal Society like Windbloom, even the uneducated destitute class.

And that is not counting her constant attachment of "Jya" at the end of most of her sentences. This is an syntactic-idiom utilized normally by Elderly Men, and would be most horrifyingly inappropriate for Women and Girls outside Royalty to use in everyday conversation.

Considering that common girls use Watashi or Atashi to refer to themselves and Omae, Anata or Anta to refer to other people, the band that Mashiro is poorly blending herself in must therefore be deaf and/or terminally stupid to miss her dead-give-away speech pattern.

[Matrim]

I have been saying that all along - Mashrio is the only rival of Arika for the title of the most stupid character in this series. That just further proves it.

If they are talking about when she was a baby, how could Mashiro remember a song from when she was a baby?

Since when the scriptwriters of Otome have started to care about common sense? I see them as perfectly capable of coming up with the brilliant idea that Mashrio learned this song when she was less than a year old and still remembers it.

[NeonZ]

Considering that common girls use Watashi or Atashi to refer to themselves and Omae, Anata or Anta to refer to other people, the band that Mashiro is poorly blending herself in must therefore be deaf and/or terminally stupid to miss her dead-give-away speech pattern.

Did she even talk to anyone of that group?

She was only shown talking to Mimi, but that girl has other reasons to believe that Mashiro isn't the princess. Didn't she meet Mashiro previously(during the princess' birthday)?

[Ronin Aquila]

Even so, familiarity with the vocabulary used by nobles should still be ingrained in Mimi's knowledge, considering the nature of the society she grew up in.

[NeonZ]

Originally Posted by Ronin Aquila

Even so, familiarity with the vocabulary used by nobles should still be ingrained in Mimi's knowledge, considering the nature of the society she grew up in.

That's true, but, what would a noble be doing in a slum, and with a bunch of poor refugees sometime later? Most likely, she just thinks "Nina" is a bit crazy. Either that, or she thinks "Nina" is weird because she's from Artai.

If that little incident in Mashiro's birthday hadn't happened, what you're saying would be true, but I think that it does explain why Mimi didn't suspect Mashiro in this episode.

In fact, this whole episode probably was the reason she appeared in the Princess' birthday episode, considering that Mimi's cameo seemed utterly pointless during that one.

[Kinny Riddle]

Nooo, Aoi~~ At least she didn't betray Mashiro like a coward and died honourably. Poor Chie. Looks like they're serious in killing off characters for good this time, unlike in Mai HiME where everyone who died got brought back, even the old cast isn't immune this time. Looks like it's really goodbye Ers-chan as well.

(I commend the producers for being brave to kill off even the old cast, unlike someone in charge of an overrated mecha-franchise anime last year. )

Mashiro is probably one of the best developed characters in the whole series, from bratty queen to fallen "sinner", she's basically gone through all sorts of emotions. Not bad for a drama queen.

Oh and Natsuki's so cute whenever she's freaked out, couldn't bring herself to eat a fried snake.

[Tremalkinger]

Originally Posted by Ronin Aquila

would use Waa-Le (Equivalent: "we" ) to address herself

我々(romanization: wareware) is used as the English word 'we'.

我 (romanization: ware) is used as the word 'I'

The distinction is often lost in Mashiro's speech, because she often refers to herself as 'we' while talking about matters of state. But, just wanted to make the small point of correction.

And that's interesting... I didn't know why she kept adding 'jya' to everything. Thanks

[Ronin Aquila]

"Jya" is a suffix used by elders and nobility to denote their self-perceived sense of social importance, usually earned through old-age but in Mashiro's case, "innate."

[Ronin Aquila]

Originally Posted by Kinny Riddle

Oh and Natsuki's so cute whenever she's freaked out, couldn't bring herself to eat a fried snake.

Well, if it wasn't freshly dead (as shown by the comical "crossed-eyes-of-pain" look on the poor animal) it would not be as gruesome. And judging by the comical coloration it was more than likely unevenly char grilled, no doubt with chunks that are still cold, sticky and ucooked.

Poor Natsuki...

Well at least according to Chinese-Medicine, snake meat is good for one's complexion, and an extensive diet of such might make her even more beautiful....

[Pracharat]

Nina Wong was from far far away country, which might have different style of speaking than Windbloom's people - Mimi though ^^

[Tatiana Razajev]

Honestly it's not just because of the way HiME ended, but in general I think it's best to not assume anyone will stay dead or remain alive. At least not until the series itself concludes. After all this is fantasy and almost any type of ending can happen. Although what's important to me is for the ending to make sense. Which thankfully for me the HiME ending made sense. Well okay I thought the final battle could have been a bit more epic.

Heck Aoi's death is an off screen cliff death. This is exactly the type of death scene you do if you want to keep the option of bringing a character back to life or revealing she never died in the first place. Of course granted they could have just decided not to show the gruesome outcome, but it leaves the window open. However unless she comes back in a later episode, one should still consider her dead.

Honestly I felt a bit more for Aoi's death than Erstin's to be honest. Although at first I was feeling sorry for those people, but now because they caused Aoi's death, I'm extremely bitter towards them. Ah well at least in the end, Aoi was able to show she's a much better person than all of thoe people put together. Which has nothing to do with the fact they are poor and she was better off given her position.

[Ronin Aquila]

I thought the staff of Mai Otome were incredibly irresponsible in his portrayal of the lynching, and were lopsided in their inporportionate sympathy towards Aoi.

Sure, she was the vicitim, no doubt. However, the Director decided to lazily portray the angry peasants as "monsters" by resorting to the cheap trick of removing their eyes in the scene, and therefore de-validating their humanity. All circumstances considered that resulted in their loss of family, home and livilihood, they are perfectly human in their actions and have every right to be angry towards the royal family.

It is hard to believe this is the same Sunrise that sympathetically portrayed the Warriors Of Zaft who avenged their families in Gundam Seed Destiny, which although was ultimately a bad series, dosen't de-validated any of its cast members' humanity. It is incredibly immature to portray victims of rage and grief as anything less than human beings, however illogical they may seem to act.

[Hyosuke575]

Hmmm, I'm starting to think that they might do a complete reset like they did in Mai Hime and bring all who died back to life in the end. I mean just look at how Erstin died, it was pretty much the exact same way the mai hime characters died. On Aoi's death thought it was different but, they left it open just like other people said so its possible that shes still alive. Just from experience from Sunrise I doubt that they will kill of their characters and keep it that way, and as for bringing them back I think the Harmonium will have something to do with it.

[Akuma-sama]

@Ronin: We've seen that scene from Mashiro's PoV: SHE was the one dehumanizing them.

That scene was perfect as it was.

@Hyosuke: Sadly possible, I mean, we know Nina, Arika and Mashiro are needed to open the Harmonium. Erstin was someone very important to Nina and Arika, Aoi to Mashiro - I'm betting Sergei will die heroically next, to turn Nina against Nagi. So, Arika would bring back Erstin, Mashiro Aoi, and Nina her favorite Otousama -- be right back while I hack Yggdrasil to make sure Sergei doesn't pull a Tate.

[NeonZ]

Hum...


HiME Spoilers

Spoiler:

I don't think there'll be any reset... By this point in My HiME, we already had seen that every dead person created a pillar, and we later learned that those pillars had their energy. So far, there's nothing in Otome.

There were hints in HiME pointing to a possible reset(though it didn't happen, the resurrection was close enougth), but there's nothing at all like that this time. A reset will have to come out of nowhere.

The only kind of reset which could happen, if Aoi is really dead, or we watch more people dying without green sparks, would be reality manipulation(probably using the Harmonium and the Blue Star), but that was considered something evil in HiME, so I don't see it happening now.

Besides, a green spark resurrection in Otome would actually mean bringing back every Schwarz member, not just Erstin, and any eventually dead Otome/Master...