Stripey says, "It's pointless to kill a HiME without her 'ichiban taisetsu na hito'." (most precious person)

It just wouldn't make good dramatic sense not to capitalise on the angst derived from a HiME's defeat/death. And as if to make doubly sure we WILL agonise over a HiME's demise, ep 17 lays all the groundwork for the up-and-coming HiME battle royale. The 'most precious person' (MPP) is confirmed for some and further hinted at for others. (For a really detail/insightful postulate of the various HiMEs' MPPs, check out Mentar's entry at Memento.) Some of the dormant story elements (buried in earlier eps) have begun to surface (for example, Reito's connection with Mikoto's bro?). Truly, the quickening toward the unraveling of the entire HiME plot beckons and I suspect it's going to be a non-stop, frantic ride to the finale from here on.

Wild/random postulates

Personally, I feel the HiME-lander theme is unlikely to be carried through to the finale. SUNRISE, the master of layered plots, is likely to throw us a few more curve-balls before the series ends. Even though the foreboding doom that Nagi spelled out for the HiMEs seems to be largely true, I can't help but feel this irritating imp is being economical with the whole truth. The First District and the powers behind Mashiro can't be trusted *Stripey sense tingling...* and are certainly using the HiMEs to achieve the same megalomanical ends as the SEARRS foundation did. Therein lies the HiMEs' 2nd challenge (the first being to stop HiME in-slaying): To free themselves of the insidious manipulations of this secret but powerful organisation. (Utterly crushing/annihilating it sounds very feasible and SUNRISE ) Only then would they be able to pursue the final and most important goal: To defy their fate as HiMEs without sacrificing the world. Midori's expertise would be invaluable for this layer of the plot though I'm not sure if she'll survive till then (yes, I'm with Mentar on this. I too think she unlikely to see the last ep) I believe also this is where the purported Prince of Darkness will have a magnified role to play. Of course as the series progresses through the 3 layers, attrition of the HiMEs will occur. I just hope Natsuki survives. Honestly it would be prudent to keep her alive unless SUNRISE is begging for rabid Natsuki fans to torch its studio.

Really looking forward to ep 18...