Going into this episode, Felicia was probably the biggest enigma of the cast to me — she’s the mom-type character who watches over everyone else, but she didn’t have a whole lot of depth. This episode changes all that, as you see what she went through during the war, her guilt at surviving the battle, and her despair at defending a dying world. This episode wouldn’t have worked without the six that came before it, either — building the peaceful setting of Seize and everyone’s everyday lives gave the actual scenes of the war that much more impact by contrast.
Could not have put it better myself.
People certainly took to this episode across the anime interwebs. For the first time since the series began we have finally seen actual war, with tanks and explosions and everything. Everything thus far had only been hinting at war behind the scenes, such as no-mans land, so to finally see these moeblob character designs in a battlefield was something I’d be anticipating ever since the show revealed its war-torn past. Will the war ever reach the characters in the present day?
Anyway, it would appear that Filicia fought in some battle a few years ago, but prior to that there was a major conflict between either different countries or between humanity and and some other, perhaps alien, force. That could fit with the legend, so the idea of Kanata and company fighting a monster with Takemikazuchi isn’t so far off anymore.
So what were humanity fighting that lead to this war and the state of the earth as we know it? Remember that the Felicia scenes were barely more than 5 years ago so it’s not like the fighting has ground to a halt or anything. It also highlights the fact that they were still desperate enough to hire teenage girls to pilot tanks in those times as well. The idea of an alien force isn’t unbelievable but there hasn’t been any hints at aliens in the show so I’m not inclined to agree with that idea.
First of all, the Japanese somehow took over Europe. After that, or during that, there followed a technological boom, and what I expect is AI going out of control (humans in machines don’t control them like the way they moved in that flashback). In order to get rid of them, nuclear weapons were used. The Japanese died of the aftereffects of the fallout, and the French resettled the area. My guess is that we’re currently at one of the few areas that were unscathed.
Wild theorizing from psgels, most of which I think is absolute nonsense (I still have my doubts that this is even earth and why is everyone so obsessed with the idea of nuclear weaponry?) but he did hit upon the idea that those spider tanks were not acting the same way the human-piloted tanks were.
Well, the use of “them” is quite interesting, because, to me, that word would seem to imply that they were fighting something “other”, meaning other than human. So, what I’m going to assume is the “them” was some form of human technology or AI that got out of control ala The Matrix or The Terminator; I know I’m jumping to an conclusion by excluding the possibility of some sort of alien invasion or just a plain old human vs. human war of annihilation, but I’m leaping.
The use of ‘them’ is an odd one because it could just as easilly mean the human enemy. Of course, ‘them’ could just be a fansubber-brought idea but the fact that psgels and Omni, both raw watchers, came up with relatively similar ideas suggest that they are fighting something that is not human. I was in the camp of the AI vs Humans, however what dismantles that theory slightly is an earlier episode where Kanata pointed out that the tank is just a machine and that it’s the people inside that do that. She wouldn’t be making a statement like that if the tank was acting by itself. OK, Kanata is a bit on an idiot but Noel would know if a tank kills people by itself seeing as she’s the one repairing the thing. With that in mind I think I’ll stay on realistic ground and blame this war-torn planet on a simple human vs human war.
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Although I was one of the people who mentioned Aliens, I actually not at all serious when I said that the opposing force was aliens, I think I would actually be sorely disappointed if that the case. There is a somewhat know roleplaying game out there called Bliss Stage that’s surprisingly parallel to this anime that I know I’ve been referencing, and maybe others have as well. There’s no way that Sora no Woto is based off it, just the similarities are amusing.
I think the idea of ‘them’ being AI is easy to go with (I know I support this theory) as the soldiers we see are being overwhelmed by an enemy that so much more powerful then them. Of course, that could be human soldiers with superior technology. It’s also kinda preferable to imagine machines causing this death and destruction then humans.
You know, I haven’t read anyone offer up the possibility that the humans were fighting straight up demonic forces. The show has already hinted at the possibility of the existence of ghosts, and the hallucination of the dead Japanese soldier had a pretty occult undercurrent to it.
Demons have been portrayed with wings in the past across many cultures…just saying.
I got a comment from someone that the Newtype spread says the Filicia from the flashbacks is 2 years younger. Even if I could manage to find the image I wouldn’t be able to read it to confirm it myself, but it’s something to think about when trying to build a timeline.
I take back what I said last time; it’s all coming together now. We now understand the purpose of the tank simulation a couple eps ago: to set us up to see the real thing in a brutal flashback.
Aliens or wack AI sound a little too weird to me. Supernatural combined with “something else” would be my bet. 14:18 seems really important because it showed whatever caused the apocalypse had large black wings. We’ve already seen a ghost, a giant skeleton, the legend from the 1st ep, heck even part of the flashback was done by a long dead soldier of the ancient war. The more revealed, the more the pieces start to fall in place.
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/soranowoto/images/b/b7/Full_episode_7_ver_3.jpg
this could be helpful ^^
Fascinating. Thanks for pulling this stuff together.
I really don’t think the enemy could be AI. I think AI would be more persistent. Humans on the other hand would want to regroup after a costly victory (or an exhausting defeat) at Vingt.
Generic comment at everyone:
After reading some of the theories and looking back at the 14:16 shot, I’m now of the opinion that we are definately looking at something other than humans and most certainly not AI. Probably not aliens and certainly more likely that it’s some sort of supernatural creatures. Plus they’ve done suitable foreshadowing for that sort of thing to exist, what with the fossil and the fire-maiden ritual. That also means the invisible reaper could just as well be an invisible demon.
This fits in rather nicely with some of the other ideas. I still seriously doubt that nuclear war caused this and this might also hint that this isn’t really earth. Now the question is why are these things here and were they always here…which makes them sound like aliens again
Oh, about that scan, I found it on an archived thread on 4chan while looking for theories (dammit I only got few), googled the file name, and here it is.
Another interesting thing about that scan is a quote from Kanata from one of the latter episodes. 「嫌です、わたし！みんな同じなのに！みんないっしょ……なのに……！」
“I don’t like this! Even though we’re the same! Even though…we’re together!“
Or something like that.
The text after that goes says that, perhaps they parted with Shuko? and other stuff I’m too lazy to read though I remember it was translated those archived threads in 4chan.
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