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In the last (and second to last) episode of Ghost in the Shell - Stand alone Complex 2045 quite a few things happen and because of reasons we can't be quite sure which of these actually happened and which are illusions, planted memories or similar. Which of these happened?

All of these are major Spoilers!

1.

The nukes are launched. If the launch is an illusion or doublethink, whose illusion?

The smart gas is released, however most of N survive thanks to the pods. Or is the smart gas ultimately not triggered because the US Government joined N?

all of section 9 except Kusanagi, Togusa and Esaki are killed

This would imply that all the scenes we see with section 9 at the end happen inside Kusanagis mind. The last scene between Batou and Kusanagi is a farewell, "Batou" thinks Kusanagi will vanish for a while. In fact Kusanagi will jank the cables from Takamura, ending her own doublethink and thus "Batous" existence: "The next singularity will take us to the stars. We live in this time and this reality" implies that she does not agree with the N-singularity / doublethink

But then, maybe there's clues that some of the above, or most of it, did not happen, Or did not happen quite that way, or not neccessarily. Clues that I missed.

кяαzєя
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mart
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1 Answers1

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The nukes are launched. If the launch is an illusion or doublethink, whose illusion?

It could be that the person would see what he/she wishes to see, but given it was seen by Easki and Kusanagi, it probably was launched, but was not targeting anyone. Directional red herring #1 but one thing we are certain is that no nuclear war occurred.

all of section 9 except Kusanagi, Togusa and Esaki are killed

We can assume if one gets hacked, one would start double thinking.

Boma

He got hacked, then the brain got jacked out. However in the world of GitS that does not mean he is dead. His later appearance shows him in wheelchair, which can explain he is getting used to the body again.

Ishikawa

He got hacked, then we see explosion from the outside. The explosion may not mean anything though. It could be he was lead to release the grenade safely in the real world.

Saito

He got hacked, and then see himself from afar. Both of himself sniped each other. Again it could be an illusion. What I don't understand is that, once the original Saito fall down, and then disappeared, yet the one from afar fall down and was still present. Could say the one from afar is some other sniper, and original Saito was taken away by Tachikoma next to him.

Batou

He was hacked very early on, was shot offscreen and was shown to be unresponsive, but I'd say he was merely disabled.

is the smart gas ultimately not triggered because the US Government joined N?

We first see smart gas being released with signs of snow. Then we have the scene where Chris the prime minister tries to contact United States President. We are later told that Kusanagi's first contact with Chris passed virus to Chris, and Chris then established the communication to the US, spreading the virus there. Therefore the smart gas was indeed released.

However the director really teased us here, as we were shown Chris hang up an rotary dial phone, failing to establish communication with the US President. We can only assume communication later happened off-screen. I don't like the direction though, since we have to assume virus spread through rotary dial phone which usually I'd assume otherwise.

Overall there are too many red herrings in ep 11, so I stopped caring anymore.

lulalala
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