[FFML] [Mai Hime] Under a Barrel

[David McMillan]

Raye Johnsen wrote:
> --- David McMillan <skyefire at skyefire.org> wrote:
> 
>> 	*Still* seems awfully unexpected.  I just find
>> myself hoping that he 
>> takes more after his mother than his father.
> 
> Well, HiME!Mashiro wasn't what I'd call completely
> open and honest either.  I thought that was the whole

	True.  Although the vibe I got from Mashiro was more that she was 
making the best of a bad situation where she didn't *have* any good 
choices (in her opinion -- I'm not saying I agree with her), while Nagi 
seemed to *enjoy* twisting people around and steering them into 
positions of inevitable conflict.  Mashiro at least seemed to *care* 
about the girls, while Nagi seemed downright masochistic.
	I supposed my opinion is also influence by the fact that Mashiro, 
whatever else we think of her, wasn't *just* playing chessmaster with 
the HiMEs -- when it came down to it, she put her own neck on the 
line... and lost it.

> point of the ending - that the original HiMEs have
> locked up the information so tight that now, when the
> second generation are looking for answers, they will
> consider this most untrustworthy of sources more
> reliable than their parents - because he's actually
> willing to *tell them something*.

	Oh yeah, *that* little irony came through loud and clear.
	Hmmm... which, if we over-extend the parallels, places the first-gen 
HiMEs in a position similar to Mashiro (keeping secrets from you for 
your own good), which *could* imply that there's going to be someone 
stepping up to play the Nagi role...

> I foresee a lot of conflict and angst in future
> chapters, when the adult HiMEs are opposed by their
> kids (you know it's gonna happen, just check TV
> Tropes), because the kids' information tells them the
> HiMEs are the bad guys - and the HiMEs realise that a)
> if only they'd sat down and told the kids first, this
> would never have happened, and b) they're going to
> have to fight anyway.

	Well, wouldn't be much of a story otherwise.  :)
	
	Supposedly, the Festival cycle was broken after the last battle at 
Fuka, so one has to wonder just how things might get started again.
	Or maybe the whole "strip search" thing is a red herring.  Maybe, while 
the Fuka Survivors are looking for signs that the Festival is starting 
again, maybe something *else* entirely is going to crop up involving 
their kids while they're all looking the wrong way (can we say "Maginot 
line"?).  There's a technology that the Searrs foundation used to create 
Miyu, for one thing.  For another, I can't imagine that an organization 
as deeply and broadly connected as the First District didn't leave some 
survivors... looking for revenge, maybe?