Mostly about my thoughts/predictions on the final episode of the anime (the true ending, not episode 25) because they keep swarming in my head and my partner certainly isn’t helping by always being willing to discuss and add to my thoughts.  So here we go.  SPOILERS LIKE WHOA for game and anime, and lots of fangirling  ^^

1.  My crazy, crazy theory that probably isn’t true:  At the end of episode 25, Yu is on the train holding glasses.  I figured that the “true ending” would play out like a flashback, you know, he’s thinking of that tough battle with Izanami and Margaret beforehand or whatnot.  But then my brain thought, what if it was something weird, like he rides off like you do in the good ending, then it’s New Game Plus time where you can face Margaret and such and hey, if you do it correctly, you get the true ending.  I’m fairly certain that the anime won’t do that, have some weird “Yu arrives in Inaba, re-meets everyone, faces everything again, ends up facing Margaret, and discovers Izanami because he didn’t last time,” moment… but what if it did?  That’s be pretty rad.  Or maybe even something like he’s coming to visit Inaba (hence the party, though it’s probably a going away party since Nanako is all “don’t forget me!”)  I guess what triggered this train of thought is that the episode ends with the episode 25 title, instead of beginning with it, like, “Hey all that just happened… now let’s start at the beginning.”  I’ve read some pretty interesting fics that dealt with the sort of “going back” thing that happens in the game, like if you fail you can go back, and there’s this feeling of, “I’ve done this before… haven’t I?”  I suppose we’ll see.

2.  My sad theory that probably is true:  So since there’s all this bromance/romance/whatever “mance” you choose to ship with (though I adore Yu/Souji and Yosuke, I have since the game) I’m pretty sure that, in the big battle, Yosuke is going to die for him.  I know everyone dies during that fight and it’s because they throw themselves at the MC to protect him, but the anime has been doing a good job of establishing bonds between everyone (the game did too, of course, but the anime has been adding a bit more, like Yu and Yosuke, Kanji and Naoto, ect.)  I’m hoping that instead of everyone dying to protect Yu, they die protecting each other, which would be a bit more realistic.  Like Chie protecting Yukiko, Kanji protecting Naoto, ect.  So I’m pretty certain that Yosuke is going to throw himself into the pits of hell to protect Yu, and Yu is going to be forced to watch and cry out Yosuke’s name because let’s face it, Yosuke has saved Yu a LOT in this crazy shindig.  

Of course it might go down like everyone protecting Yu, using their new persona which prove to be useless, and Yu having to watch all of them.  But I like the idea of this being a team battle and the team dying for each other.

3.  My fangirl theory that makes my fangirl brain spaz:  If certain pairings went down like this: Yukiko gets to save Chie this time, you know, she gets to save her prince.  Though in reality I’m thinking that it’ll be the other way around, it would just be cool if it went down this way.  If Yu got to protect Yosuke, since Yosuke has been doing all the hero saving, but in the game Yu is the last to go so it can’t go down that way and unless if the dead in the shadows Naoto clip is just some crazy thing that Margaret is making Yu see, or Yu having a bad dream, then I can assume that the entire team is going down in the Izanami battle.  And last, and definitely not least, Kanji and Naoto.  

Oh man, here we go.

So as much as Kanji spazzes to protect that girl (her dungeon, Heaven dungeon, holding her up during the Adachi fight) and as much as I would love for it to be reversed and Naoto protecting him, my ultimate scenario would be as such: Kanji protects her again and they get some uber tragic, last moment together scene.  You know, circuit Sailor Moon with Uranus and Neptune, that heartbreaking stuff that just hurts to watch.  Some moment where Naoto gets to be close to him and he’s dying, but still smiling because she’s o.k., and he gets to reveal his feelings and what not a kiss would be nice but I’ll settle for a last minute hand hold.  Now, the reason why I want it to go down like this is for one simple wish: for Naoto to lose her shit.  For her to see Kanji die and just snap because she cares for him too (I saw that smile in that two second clip).  And maybe this is where the anime can be super awesome, maybe everyone can get their third level personas that are in the Vita game (Naoto’s is glorious, btw) and maybe she can snap so hard that her persona levels up and tries to fight Izanami.

Of course, if its the other way around I won’t complain, or even if they die together since the anime had them be all team badass would be great.  But the anime is good at surprising me, so we’ll see.

4.  My curious brain being curious: so in the game, everyone gets sucked into the shadows, even the MC.  Rise… gets left behind.  Is she going to be sucked in too in the anime?  Or is she going to be forced to watch all of this… which is far worse.  I’m also curious how the Margaret fight even comes up.  Like are they on their way to the big bad battle and she just shows up?  Do they all fight her or is it just Yu?  This is why I was thinking that whole New Game Plus thing, because if that were a thing they’d have to save Nanako again and would be in Heaven regardless.  I’m not even sure.  I do like how the trailer didn’t show Izanami at all so new comers might be thinking that Margaret is just this evil bitch, which is pretty clever.   

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So that’s my ramblings.  The only other things I’m wondering about is a) that note Yu is holding, I’m predicting it’s from Adachi since he does send him a letter, b) the order of who dies when, I’m thinking Yosuke is the last to go, you know, right when Yu is losing his mind because his friends are dying then he gets to watch his bestest friend go, or maybe do something like, “Please don’t do this,” because Yosuke wants to protect him and Yu doesn’t want him to die, and c) when Yu is in the shadows and gets the pep talk from everyone, I’m thinking the last voice of encouragement he hears is from Nanako  :)