WMG / Aldnoah.Zero

The princess is alive.

We never saw a shot of her necklace in the wreckage.

• The cinematography of the missile impact which kills her is overall suggestive that the "princess" murdered is actually a body double.
  • Confirmed.
• So the real issue is that she knew what was going to happen, and that some of her subordinates were willing to kill her in order to start a war. Now, how is she going to stop it?
  • Asseylum never knew about the plot. She only avoided the assassination by a stroke of luck.
• It says something about this show that even by Episode 12, the end of the first season, that this WMG still applies.
• Confirmed by second season trailer.

This is a prequel to Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet.

Perhaps the long-term tidal/climatic effects of "Heaven's Fall" led to the ice age seen in Gargantia. And perhaps the Evolvers/Hideauze or the Continental Union/Galactic Alliance eventually united with the Vers Empire, perhaps incorporating some of the Martian Lost Technology.

• The Terrans' mechas actually resemble Chamber's series.

The Vers king knows that their religion is a sham.

The founder of the empire is likely still alive, based on how less than 45 years ave passed since Mars's independence, and how he's seen in this◊ concept art. He likely created the Vers's religion in order to control the people, and his knowing it's fake may be a part of why the princess wants peace with earth.

• He is, having retaken his throne after his son and heir was killed in the Heavens Fall disaster. It's actually entirely possible that he himself has sent his granddaughter to Earth in an attempt to put his rebellious nobles in line. The central authority on Mars doesn't seem to be very powerful.

The kids will pull a Grand Theft Prototype on the Kataphrakt chasing them in episode 2.

How else will the earthlings stand even a breadth of a chance at fending off the Martians?

• They've managed to down Nilokeros, but it's probably too damaged for repairs, what with Inaho emptying the whole magazine of his 3" autocannon into its insides.
• The meteor bombardment that destroyed Shin-awara city in episode 4 took the Nilokeras with it, so not happening.
  • The Nilokeras was actually still intact after the meteor shower, albeit heavily damaged. However, considering that we found this out because one of Saazbaum's agents was on the scene, it's probable that the Vers Empire may have recovered the mech or destroyed it.
    • Officially Jossed, now that season 1 has ended and Inaho's still piloting the orange Kat.

The aliens will come back.

And they're not gonna be happy that humans have been abusing their technology and broke their Hypergate.

• To add on to this one... they might have already tried. Just to try to answer one of the biggest mysteries of the show: the Hypergate's destruction was no accident. The full-scale war that erupted on the Moon in 1999 involved the unprecedented use of so much Aldnoah technology for war, as shown in Saazbaum's history slides in episode 10. This much Aldnoah being activated may have alerted the original aliens who created it, and they began streaming through the Hypergate to reclaim their technology from a non-Mars entry point. This then led both the Earth and Vers forces to think they were facing an Alien Invasion and destroy the Hypergate, cutting Earth off from the rest of the galaxy. Nobody knows about this because all the evidence and witnesses were wiped out in the Moon's destruction. Unfortunately... they're now aware humanity has hijacked Aldnoah and they may be searching for an alternate means to return to Earth and Mars. Cue season 2!
  • Jossed, season 2 has no aliens.

The Martians in Orbit and people from Earth will unify against the Vers Empire on Mars.

The code name for the creators is Olympus Knights. Martians in orbit call themselves the knights of gods. It's probable that their side will turn out to be the "good" one, or as good as a side can be in a Grey and Gray morality situation. As Koichirou Marito, the wine-drinking teacher from episode 1, had said: they've been fighting a war for survival, it couldn't have been very comfortable living on the orbiting moon pieces, which could drop to Earth and turn into an asteroid any given moment. Plus, the environment of those pieces must be incredibly harsh, seeing as it isn't exactly a walk in the park surviving the environment of Real Life moon, hell, it's doubtful whether those pieces even have atmospheres. Thus, they are confined to the spaceships that they're living on and run into the same problem the human from the Macross franchise ran into: they're forced to recycle every single thing from waste to human bodies! It's only natural that they would want to live somewhere a little less harsh. Thus, the invasion. If the people from Earth agree to spare them a patch of land, which they have aplenty, seeing most of the population of the old world already died from the previous war, it's probable that they will make peace. Also, the lyrics of the OP looks suspiciously like it was written from a particularly idealistic Martian Knight's point of view.

• Except the Knights are portrayed as complete assholes who don't give a second thought about collateral damage or civilian casualties and have really done nothing to suggest that they are "good" in any way. In fact, the central authority on Mars seems to be the more reasonable and level headed faction. Plus, there is also the fact that at least one of the Knights plotted the assassination of Princess Asseylum so they would have an excuse to invade Earth.
  • The assholeness is exactly what the whole Gray and Grey morality is about. One can be both an asshole and the "good" side at the same time. Besides, it's not like the UE cares that much about collateral damage, as well-demonstrated by episode 2. In a war, people tend not to care about that sort of thing, especially when the concept of gentlemen's war had been considered outdated since WWI. Had the central authority been truly level-headed, they wouldn't have reverted back to absolute monarchy in the first place. That system makes for some very discontented subjects, nobles and peasants alike, and as a result, does the exact opposite of its intended purpose, weakens the central authority. This was exactly why the king is actually a puppet and some of the Knights are conducting their coup d'etat with the distraction that was the war with Earth, which come with an added bonus of gaining a habitable planet.
  • Incredibly enough, this one might actually come true... Saazbaum considers his true enemy to be the central authority on Mars and the backwards, archaic feudal system it represents, with Earth merely being a sideshow. Apparently, the show's opening and ending lyrics were from the point of view of Saazbaum.
  • Or, they may unite against the returning Vers aliens (or Martians backed by aliens). Episode 11 & 12 are going to be the final battle between Saazbaum and the Earthers, so this makes sense for season 2.
• This is extremely likely now that season 1 has ended. Officially, UE won but in reality, it was a Pyrrhic Victory at most for them. A good chunk of the world's population and landmass was gone. The UE army was even more useless than before. Inaho and Asseylum, who might have been the only reasons the UE didn't get outright creamed, were seemingly dead. They didn't win. They only fought the Orbital Knights to a standstill without actually resolving the conflicts that ignited the war in the first place, indicating that another war is inevitable. The Orbital Knights just lost, plain and simple. In the end, the only side to have profited from this war was actually the Central Authority on Mars, what was with the rebellious nobles and UE being weakened, if not outright destroyed, in one felt scoop.
• Didn't happen. Most of them remained the prime antagonists of the series. Also the Knights could probably get resupplies from Vers.

The princess will become a Sacrificial Lion, or at least a Decoy Protagonist.

The princess here is obviously a combination of Euphemia of Code Geass (as evidenced by her in-series role of an ineffectual Reasonable Authority Figure, the weird braid and all the twirling and dancing under the blue sky), Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica (as evidenced by their almost identical poses in the opening), Kotori Monou from X1999 (the having-Earth-in-one's-hands pose in the OP). In the puddle scene, in contrast with Madoka's crying-out-of-relief-while-holding-Amy-the-cat which implied a happy-ish ending after all the sufferings and despair, princess Asseylum here is also reaching toward the "heavenly blue" sky, but in the end she gives up and lets her hands drop back into the water, which implies a possible future failed attempt at her goal. Also, Gen Urobutcher has a history of breaking and killing the cuties. Although he had said that he had been trying write more positive things, the ending of Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion said otherwise. That said, she looked so alike Rena from Higurashi: When They Cry in her new disguise that it's kind of creepy... If she snaps, it will be spectacular.

• Confirmed. Sacrificial Lion it is.
  • Only to be Jossed the next episode.
• Confirmed in the Season Finale. Shot in the back twice, and once in the head, just to make it clear that yes, she is really and truly DEAD
  • Not quite. Her body was never found and probably the bullet just grazed her head, the princess already managed to escape the grim reaper 2 times, why not the 3rd?
  • Second Season trailer shows her to be alive.

Inaho had suffered through some kind of Trauma Conga Line.

That would explains his unusual reaction to well, everything. Picking up the clues from episode 1, 2 and the OP, we can conclude that:1) He used to be a part of the army, more specifically, he might have been a warrant officer or any rank above. He had seen real battles before and considered all Martians to be either enemies or useful tools, which was exactly why he got on so well with Rayet. This hints that like Rayet, he had had some past involvements with the Martians.2) The insensitivity can be attributed to PTSD. He was battle-worn and used to seeing people dropping like flies.

• I was honestly going to say that he's this series' Homura, but I like your idea better. It's not like Urobutcher to blatantly recycle things.

In the second ED, the Japanese part of the lyrics is obviously from the Slaine's new point of view at the end of episode 4. However, it could be interpreted to be from Inaho's point of view, what's with the pessimism and all. In the English part of the lyrics, the visual cues give us some further insights to the characters' mentality at that point, the relevant part is the bit with "I say, cry" and a picture of Inaho over a dark background, implying this as a possible reason for his outward non-reactions.

• Inaho is just a student trainee, and is too young to have fought the Vers in the first conflict. The most likely source of trauma would be his parents dying in the Heaven's Fall incident, considering they have been absent throughout the entire series so far.
  • In the beginning of episode 1, while the phrase "speaking from experience" of Inaho could be taken as about them being late, another interpretation of it was that of him talking about having been in his sister's position. This, being right after he mentioned his sister's rank, reinforced the other interpretation, as The Law of Conservation of Detail dictates. Besides, he could be, if the below WMG are true, an adopted amnesiac half-robot Martian Sleeper Agent.
  • Well, now we may never know after that season finale...
• His sister would've mentioned his past military career if this was true when he actually became a warrant officer and gave her an order in the series. Also, it still doesn't work given his age. His classmates would've mentioned it too if this was so.

Inaho and Slaine has some kind of history together.

As mentioned in the fridge page, Inaho and Slaine are a mix and match of Lelouch and Suzaku from Code Geass. It would makes sense that they would have some kind history together, too.

• Slaine is an earthling.
• The amount of artwork featuring them together is staggering.
• While on one hand the lyrics of the opening theme could be about Slaine trying to protect the princess idealism, on the other hand, the visual cues suggested another possible side of the story. When it was talking about idealism, we were shown a shot of Slaine's shadow on a bridge. When it was talking about protecting that idealism, we were treated with a shot of Inaho gearing up, preparing for war, complete with stepping in sync with the Kataphrakt.
• As a below WMG theorises, Inaho might have seen the princess's necklace which was given to her by Slaine before.
• Jossed, they were never acquainted previously.

Slaine is a part of the Vers royal family.

As he's seen in this picture◊, he bears a striking resemblance to Count Cruhteo, who, in turns, resembles the king of Vers. The count was shown to be in charge of the other "Knights of Gods", indicating that he was in a position of high power, combining with his tittle and his similarities to the king, it's easy to assume that he's a relative of the king. While Slaine was originally from Earth, it was mentioned in episode 1 that he and his father were picked up by Count Cruhteo. With the degree of racism that the Count had demonstrated, it's unlikely that anything less than family ties would make him do that, thus Slaine's father was probably a relative of the count, and by extension, the royal family.

• Episode 3 shows us that even though he's part of the Martian army, he had never killed anyone before, which supports the theory that he's a relative of the count.
• Saazbaum once gave Slaine the Tharsis. There was no reason why he would give it to Slaine if Slaine couldn't drive the thing, so there's a high chance that Slaine has the Aldnoah gene, thus related to either the royal family or one of the knights.
  • It has now been officially confirmed that Slaine could, indeed, activate the Aldnoah drive with much surprise on his part, further cementing that he was truly related to either the royal family or one of the knights without his knowledge.
• Now Inaho can activate it as well. It is hinted that it is either because they both went mouth to mouth with the princesses or they had some of they blood fell in their body.

Either episode 3 or 4 will be a Wham Episode.

Known Lying Creator Gen Urobutcher said that he only wrote the first three episodes.

• Ep 3 isn't much of a Wham Episode, though it does suggest that the series will be defying Humongous Mecha conventions.
  • It does have a Wham Stinger though. Slaine, even though he's part of the Martian army, had never killed anyone before. He's got some nice shots though.
• The title of episode 4 is "The point of no return"... but it's more of a Breather Episode than anything, so Jossed.
• Really, the Wham Episode seems to be episode 7.
  • It won't be one if Slaine survives, which seems pretty likely unless he still hasn't learnt how to swim after almost drowning once, but no one is that stupid. Inaho's actions and motivations also were well-hinted at since the beginning of the series.
    • He does, but much good did it bring him...

It was final episode of season 1. Tragically so.

In either this timeline or another, Princess Asseylum contracted with Kyubey.

You didn't really think we could have another Urobutcher production without me crashing the party, did you?／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

• Homucifer-sama, he's here! The rat's here!

The princess will die again.

This time it's for real and it will act as the Start of Darkness for Slaine. She just reveals her real identity to the factions that her countrymen's been annihilating, and in a Grey and Gray morality setting to boot! Finagle's Law dictates that everything will go to hell shortly, seeing as there are simply too many ways for the current situation to go wrong.

• Confirmed. RIP Princess Asseylum.
• And then she was resuscitated immediately after.
• And now it really does look like she was Killed Off for Real. Though the one flicker of hope is that Yuki's ending narration says that officially, the princess is "missing."
• She's alive again, though barely.

Mars was destroyed.

This is why the Martians hold such hatred towards Earthlings. When one end of the hypergate exploded, so did the other, transforming their homeworld into a new asteroid belt.

• Jossed: The princess has mentioned that she left Mars three months ago, meaning that there was something to leave behind. This argument against the WMG was confirmed after Episode 5, where we do see scenes on Mars and the place itself looks fine.

The hypergate explosion froze Earth in time for ten thousand years.

...or catapulted Mars back in time just as far. This is the big secret the Earth government is concealing; this is why the Martians had the time to build hundreds of colossal supertechnological war machines; this why the Martians act like an alien culture, even though most of them should be old enough to remember growing up on Earth.

• Jossed, The Orbital Knights have been in Earth's orbit ever since the hypergate explosion, they would've mentioned it if this was the case.

Yuki likes Marito.

Just something about the way she's constantly calling his name and rank brings to mind another almost-but-not-quite military couple...

• Still no indication of love affection after the series ended.

The 19 active Castles that landed destroyed the other castles in space.

Marito said that the Martians had been fighting to live another day for the past 15 years. They could have conquered or destroyed each other. Plus he said they considered each other rivals.

• Hardly the case: the Landing Castles in orbit were seen supporting the Castles on the ground by launching missiles at the UE communications satellites in space. In episode 3, Trillram has a video call with Saazbaum, who is in orbit, via a laser comlink.

There are alien artifacts on earth.

There was a hypergate on the moon. Why put something on the moon the planetary satellite and put nothing on the earth? Therefore, there might be some alien stuff on the earth.

• Atlantis maybe?
• Episode 6 has revealed that a Martian Kataphrakt landed on Tanegashima island very shortly before the Hypergate exploded. Perhaps it was searching for something like this...
• Seemingly confirmed in episode 7, when the protagonists find an entire flying battleship hidden under Tanegashima. Then it turned out the ship was a top-secret United Earth government black project based off of the Kataphrakt's technology.

There is a ruined alien city on Mars

There has to be other ruins other then the Hypergate, namely a city with manufacturing and shipping yards which allowed them to build their Castles and mechas as well as advancing them to the point of achieving independence.

• This is likely, since we're never really given a detailed account of what kind of technology the original Martian colonists found.

Rayet is this series's Homura in the making.

• Seemingly emotionless girl. Check.
• Traumatic past. Check.
• Used to be a nice teenager. Check.
• Monotone. Check.
• Extremist. Check.
• Purple eyes. Check.
• Seemingly antagonistic role. Check.
• Seemed to care for an idealistic and naive girl. Check. If she hadn't cared, she wouldn't have said that much.
• Strange familiarity with firearms. Check.
• Mature for her age. Check.
  • Jossed. She killed said naive girl in episode 9.
    • She may be just unconscious.
    • Not Jossed. She was resuscitated by Inaho.
• On a related note, in Gen Urobuchi's original story outline Inaho was supposed to go in a downwards spiral of obsession and isolation after Asseylum's third "death" and kidnapping, meaning he was supposed to be Aldnoah's Homura.
• Jossed. She got further demoted to sideline character in season 2.

Asseylum really did die in Episode 1.

The girl we're seeing now is either actually her body double, or a clone, or another projection of some sorts from the Martian technology, like her disguise.

• Jossed. Only people with royal blood have the power to activate Aldnoah drives, which she does in episode 7.
  • Not Jossed. Knights also have the power of Aldnoah. The current Asseylum could be orginially a Martian Knight. Furthermore, a clone will be a perfect copy of the orginal, Aldnoah gene included.
• Now, it's probable that we will never know whether this WMG is true or not.
• A duplicate wouldn't have known about Slaine telling Asseylum that Earth's blue sky was caused by sunlight refractions prior to her Earth's landing which she brought up while conversing with Inaho. Also Eddelrittuo probably would've been by the real Asseylum's side.

Nao is a Martian Sleeper Agent.

That's why he's acting so cool and stoic. Maybe he forgot that he was an agent.

• His sister is definitely not one though. Maybe he was adopted by his "sister". Taking this even further, maybe he was the "thing" that Marito referred to when he said something came down before the moon, and the reason Marito didn't recognise him from episode 1 onward was either because of shock (his whole regiment died) or he just couldn't see Inaho's face clearly at the time.
  • The other thing that came down was a battleship.
    • No. The battleship was built on Earth, using the Aldnoah drive and reverse-engineered technology from the fallen Martian Kataphract. It is even named after it — Deucalion. They did abandon it, though, because they couldn't activate its drive, due to not having a loyal Martian noble around. In fact, it's entirely possible that the battleship was the real subject of Dr. Troyard's research.
  • Dr. Troyard's research was vaguely revealed to be about Aldnoah activation factor.
• Episode 7 showed us that he considered Martians to be either enemies or useful tools, or both. This hints that maybe like Rayet, he was betrayed by the Martians in the past.
• Side materials seem to indicate otherwise.

The Vers Emperor (Asseylum's grandfather) was involved in Asseylum's assassination attempt.

She's so certain that her talking with him will end this war; Butcher wouldn't let things end that easily. Maybe this will bring about her Break the Cutie moment and/or her aforementioned Sacrificial Lion moment.

• Jossed. He was just a puppet king and not involved in the attempted assassination.

We are being lured into a false sense of security. Once most of us have been tricked, they will pull out the rug from under our feet.

Because I still don't trust anything with a different ending themes in between episodes, the underlying theme of lies, unexplained behaviors of characters with unknown pasts and anything remotely related to Gen Urobutcher. It's not really paranoia if they're really out to get you.

• Confirmed. Asseylum is dead again.
  • I don't let myself be tricked again, she may be just unconscious.
    • She's got 3 minutes to not be brain dead. Her chance is slim.
    • Confirmed in #10. Inaho saved her Martian tuchus again.
    • Technically, it's up to 6 minutes, though there's a serious chance of the loss of function if the circulation isn't restarted within 5 min. 3 minute limit is generally an accepted safe figure.

Inaho is the John Humeray guy de-aged and amnesiac.

It would be hilarious if the person Marito thought dead the whole time was right under his nose. Plus, it would explain all of Inaho's strange quirks.

• This was probably Just for Fun, but it's safe to say this isn't true, considering that Darzana would probably remember what her brother looked and sounded like at that age.
• Jossed: We're shown what John Humeray looked like in Episode 9 and he looks nothing like Inaho. And getting mercy-killed by your best friend while roasting alive in a tank leaves little ambiguity as to his fate.

The emperor is deathly ill, and this is being hidden from the Martian populace.

From the Characters page, it's stated he was supposed to have retired in 1997 due to his health but because of the death of his son, he was back on the throne after only 2 years. It probably didn't take much to concoct a story that he had a miraculous recovery. The strong, confidant man we see on the throne is merely a projection of the image he wants to present to the empire, and this is the only part of him that the average Martian sees; the real him, however, is the frail, easily manipulated man confined to his bed whom only a select few know about.

• He doesn't even need to be ill. The man is old enough to be frail just because of his advanced age, as he's no less than eighty.
• Character databooks show he's 70 years old, actually.
  • That means that he was born in 1944, and 28 y.o. is kinda ridiculously young to be a head of the research mission to a freaking other planet. As far as the real scientific hierarchy goes, the head of such mission ought to be at least a full tenured professor with at least a full decade of experience under his belt, which would imply a man at least in his forties, not a freshly minted Ph.D barely out of his first postdoc contract as the age of 28 would normally mean.
  • 1972 was when the Hypergate was discovered, but for three years, the world's governments didn't do anything major with it, they were probably still reeling from the shock that humanity was not alone in the galaxy. 1975 was when the scientific expedition went to Mars. 31 years old is still pretty improbable, but what's interesting is that in the translations of the official timeline, there is a footnote (written from the perspective of an in-universe analyst) that this is all based off of the United Earth government's "standardized official history." The footnote goes on to say that this particular entry is the truth, "perhaps due to foolish carelessness", but "I advise the readers that, instead of focus on what is written, you should pay more attention to what is left out." Something is fishy about the whole Martian scientific survey as a whole...
    • The material goes on to note that the scientific survey was more or less a sham to dump the poor on Mars or was at least a half-hearted effort that the Earth governments quickly abandoned and left the colonists there to rot.
  • Confirmed as of Episode 14. He is on a respirator, barely conscious, and has some kind of force field isolating his bed. And in episode 23, he has a brief conversation with Asseylum. Though he initially seems to want war, he then starts to ramble about not misusing Aldnoah technology. It's implied that he dies shortly after this, as Asseylum then takes over as the new Martian Empress.

The Vers Empire does not truly understand Aldnoah technology.

There are some strange Schizo Tech levels in the kind of technology the Vers Empire has. One example being in communications: in Episode 3, Saazbaum and Trillram had to rely on a line-of-sight laser comlink to have a simple teleconference between an orbital Castle and the Earth's surface, but then in Episode 5 Slaine uses an incredible holographic projection system that has an instantaneous link to the Martian surface from Earth's orbit. The Vers Empire may be pulling a Covenant on us in that they are merely looting the remnants of a hyper-advanced alien race without truly understanding how it works, building a state religion off of it, and relying on brute force to win a war.

• Then how did they manage to build all those complex systems in their bases, Landing Castles and Kataphrakts without understanding how they work?

Some Martians are part-robot.

Because of this blink-and-you-miss-it moment. The true form of the Aldnoah technology that was found on Mars was that of a machine that turned anyone who touched it into cyborgs, which meant that every Martians excluding the high-ranking knights and royals were actually the same as every other Terrans. This explained why your average Martians and Terrans could still copulate with each other, creating children of mixed heritage like Slaine. Doctor Troyard - Slaine's father, could be one of their engineers. And if one of the above WMG was true, Inaho, as a sleeper Martian agent would be a cyborg as well, which would explain so much about his atypical behaviours.

• Who said, that the cyborgization didn't leave the genitals intact?
  • I wasn't talking about that! I was talking about Ernst Mayr's classical definition of species as groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups. As in, normal Martians and Terrans can still reproduce with each other wheres the Vers royalties and knights may not be able to do so with Terrans and normal Martians. The change in their chromosomes, if it's enough to turn them into cyborgs, will definitely be enough to interfere with the pairing of the chromosomes during the fusion of the gametes.
• They would probably discover it when giving Inaho surgery but no, he was just a normal human being.

The Martian Knight in episode 6 wasn't part of the conspiracy to kill the princess.

At the beginning of the episode, she was shown drinking with tears in her eyes and looking at Earth. It's possible that she was crying for the princess.

• Very few actually are. The only ones who are in on it are from Castle Saazbaum and the Vers Lunar Base on the remnants of the Moon.

The Princess will give Inaho the Mid-Season Upgrade

• Jossed, Calm outright asks Inaho in Episode 10 if he ever plans to use something better than the Sleipnir, and Inaho declines.
• Not necessarily. Inaho notes that the extra armor on the Areion line of Kats is useless against anything they've fought so far and thus, the Sleipnir is actually better for him. If he's offered a genuine upgrade, there's no reason to suspect he won't take it.
• Jossed. Season 1 has ended and not one upgrade was to be found.
• the SRM packs on the Sleipnir's legs are the only upgrade handed out.
• CONFIRMED as of Season 2! [[spoiler: Somewhere in between Inaho giving Asseylum mouth-to-mouth, and Asseylum bleeding all over Inaho in the S1 finale... Inaho has gotten the Aldnoah activation factor! "Holy Shit!" Quotient = 3
  • Jossed, Inaho still stuck with Sleipnir now that it became iconic in the war unless you count space equipment loadout as upgrade.

Inaho isn't going to get the Mid-Season Upgrade... Marito will.

"Orange" is pretty much Inaho's trademark now. He's most likely going to remain in the Sleipnir Kataphrakt. Marito is most likely to be the candidate to pilot the "demon" Kataphrakt recovered under Tanegashima. It would be quite a symbolic move for him to get back into the saddle if he controls the "demon" that has been haunting him for the past 15 years.

• This seems pretty likely. Inaho refused an upgrade once before.
• Jossed. The Kataphrakt was gutted and largely disassembled to build the Deucalion flying battleship. He still might snap out of his PTSD, though.

Slaine was not truly dead.

We weren't shown his body. As with the knight in episode 4 and the princess in episode 1, no body meant not being dead.

• It's pretty clear that Slaine's craft did not take lethal damage. Only the wing was hit, and Inaho attached a line to the craft before it crashed into the water, most likely to recover it.
• Confirmed in Ep. 8. Though you'd still want to hug the poor guy.

Saazbaum's goal is to become the new Vers Emperor

Think about it, the son of the Emperor who was most likely Asseylum's father died before the series began (during Heavens Fall I think) forcing him to return to throne despite his poor health, leaving only the princess to take the throne once the inevitable happens, but if the princess's assasination would've gone as planned there would have been no one left in the line to reign, and presumably to be the owner of Aldnoah, so that's where Saazbaum enters. That's pretty much it, unless there's another unnamed child or grandchild of the Emperor, which this troper finds doubtful, since it feels like someone like Asseylum would have mentioned it if there were any.

• Asseylum's father Gilzeria did indeed die during Heaven's Fall; he was commanding the Martian forces on the Moon when it exploded. This is probably why Saazbaum's very interested in finding Slaine and probably by extension, Dr. Troyard. The nature of his research was almost certainly related to Aldnoah, maybe Troyard found a way for Aldnoah to be activated without needing the genetic key and Saazbaum is after that piece of research.
  • Jossed. He didn't want to become the new emperor. He wanted to abolish the whole political system of Mars and invade Earth.
• And surprisingly, Asseylum's dad did has another child.

There are other Hypergates

The original Martians couldn’t only have built the two gates. There have to be other gates on other planets or something. Unless the original Martians from 30,000 years ago are just humans from earth.

Inaho may have seen the necklace Slaine gave to Asseylum before.

He reacted to seeing it, which in itself is strange. He seemed surprised that she had something like it, and the tone of his voice when he was told it was given to her by a Terran could mean he has some memory of it somehow.

• Jossed. Troper might be overreading into things. Inaho still doesn't recognise it as anything significant to himafter keeping it for sometimes post episode 12.

Saazbaum is going to turn Slaine over to his side.

Slaine fell unconcious believing that Cruhteo was one of the traitors. At first Sazabackstab will claim that he rescued him from Cruhteo, and try to use him as a tool to find the princess with. He'll later turn Slaine against the earthlings by claiming that the earthlings she's with are using her to further their own ends. (Inaho's actions in their last encounter will help convince him of this.) All of this will culminate in Slaine suffering a massive downward spiral and the princess potentially firing on him, hence this scene◊ from the opening.

• The misunderstanding didn't happen. He was trying to recruit Slaine though. So partially confirmed.
• Though Slaine suffering a massive downward spiral and the princess pulling a gun on him did come true for a different reason.

Count Cruhteo is not dead.

Every character whose corpse wasn't shown never seemed to really die in this series. And he was this series's Jeremiah Gottwald to boots! This is particularly probable if the above WMG about some Martians being part-robot is true.

• Possibly Jossed, since Episode 9 shows that when a Martian dies, any Aldnoah Drives they activated will deactivate. After Saazbaum's attack, you see Cruhteo's entire castle power down.
  • There are 2 ways for an engine to die: either by the fuel source being cut off or by the engine itself to be damaged badly. At this point in time, it's impossible to really tell by which way the Alnoah Drives got deactivated, so it's still possible for the Count to be alive.
  • The Deucalion also powered down when Asseylum "died", and it didn't power back up when she was revived— she had to go turn it back on. So let's say Saazbaum missed him by that much, almost killing him, but then he got better. And now he's just wandering around earth with amnesia. Yep. I am fully willing to go down this rabbit hole of delusion as an act of rebellion against writers who would throw away the beginnings of interesting character development just to have a shocking Wham Shot.
• Jossed, Cruhteo is definitely confirmed to be dead by Episode 10.
  • Yeah, sure, just as Asseylum was dead "for sure"... Two times as of episode 10.
    • He's pretty much dead, especially with the arrival of his son in episode 21.

Someone else will end up using the late Cruhteo's Kataphrakt.

They wouldn't have mentioned the Tharsis if it didn't have some significance, no?

• Most likely Saazbaum will recover it and gift it to Slaine. Since Inaho's group is already headed to Russia, it's highly unlikely they'll come across Cruhteo's castle.
• Saazbaum does indeed give the Tharsis to Slaine, having retrieved it from Cruhteo's castle sometime ago.
  • Now there is the question of activating it, as Slaine is unlikely to be a knight and have Aldnoah powers.
• Confirmed. Slaine could activate it after all.

The Hellas' alternate mode is meant as an escape craft, not an offensive weapon.

There has to be a reason why the thing has no weapons other than just ramming itself into enemies. It's probably not supposed to fight. The alternate mode is meant to facilitate Femianne's escape if all the fists are destroyed or disabled. However being the arrogant asshole she is, naturally she would try to finish off her enemies anyways.

• All Martian Kataphrakts except Saazbaum's and Cruhteo's doesn't have secondary weapons or even an evacuation system. That's just their way of combat.

Saazbaum's betrothed was the pilot of the original Kataphrakt that was scrapped to make the Deucalion.

That's why he looked so shocked when the wreckage was found. And to tie in the "Inaho is part-martian" theory, she was either pregnant with Inaho (who would later be adopted) at the time of Heaven's Fall and gave birth before dying or survived long enough to have a child with someone from Earth.

• It's actually very possible that Saazbaum and his betrothed were both piloting the Kataphrakt, as Saazbaum mentioned he was caught in Heaven's Fall, as well.
• Confirmed in that Orlane was the Deucalion's pilot. Saazbaum was still using the Dioscuria fifteen years ago, though.
• "Inaho is Orlane's son" is Jossed though, she died immediately in Heaven's Fall.

Inaho met Slaine's father in the past.

Referencing the above WMG, it's possible that Slaine's father at some point met or even delivered Inaho, which is how Inaho recognizes Slaine's pendant. For extra WMG points, When Saazbaum's betrothed was caught in Heaven's Fall, Slaine's father helped her deliver Inaho while he also saved Saazbaum's life.

• Jossed, Dr. Troyard would've told Saazbaum about it if that was the case.

Inaho will resuscitate Asseylum.

Since he's with Edelruitto, he's in a perfect position to assist Asseylum since the first thing they'll do after the Deucalion crashes is check if she's safe. It also ties into how Asseylum saved Slaine's life by resuscitating him as well.

• He's got 3 minutes then.
  • He DID use those 3 minutes.
    • It is unclear why he used a Magical Defibrillator, though — Asseylum didn't have a pulse due to being strangled, and asystole is generally accepted as a non-shockable condition, which modern defibrillators are programmed to recognize and display an error message in Real Life.
    • It's what viewers expect, probably.
    • He did start with chest compressions before shocking, which on occasion restores the heart to a shockable rhythm.
    • Strangulation frequently causes cardiac arrest, which is a shockable condition. I'm no expert but to my knowledge, lack of pulse is common in cardiac arrest. IIRC, a later episode confirms that Asseylum had gone into cardiac arrest - but there's more than enough evidence even without Inaho's confirmation of what happened to come to the conclusion of "Asseylum was in cardiac arrest and was not dead." But to a viewer who isn't well-versed in medical emergencies like the one being portrayed, it's very easy to assume (and the show doesn't go out of its way to prevent this assumption) that Asseylum "died". Certainly, for the drama value, it's better to have viewers think that. But really, it seems like a misconception that's taken over.

Inaho sees the Princess as just a tool to fight the Martians

Inaho's sister threw out all these fantasies about Inaho being attracted to Asseylum in episode 9 (which Inko took to heart) but his sister has been shown not to be a good judge of character, as she misjudge Rayet badly. And Inaho has made it clear to Slaine that he sees the princess as a tool. And he was not at all angry with Rayet for trying to kill Asseylum. He was actually somewhat sympathetic - not what you would expect if he had feeling for Asseylum.

• Jossed. He cared enough for her to have a flashback about the princess, with special emphasis on the key moment when he saved her life after she gets killed. Even considered her above his own sake.

The entire story is a reimagining of The War of the Worlds

Having seen only the first two or three episodes as of this writing, I'm already seeing some parallels to the original H. G. Wells' story. First and foremost, the antagonists are Martians—just not alien Martians. Secondly, their arrival/initial attack in the invasion amounts to a Colony Drop, the logical conclusion of the Martians' method of space travel to Earth in War of the Worlds: by boarding their vessels and firing themselves out of cannons from Mars at Earth, landing like meteorites. Third, much like Wells' invaders, the Martians in Aldnoah.Zero are going out of their way to slaughter civilians and other non-combatants, and are using extremely advanced technology that Terran weaponry has little to no effect on to do so, here more closely reflecting later versions of War of the Worlds in which the Martians protected their weaponry with energy shields because, unlike in the original 1898 story, human technology had advanced to the point that an otherwise unprotected tripod would pose little to no threat (due to those later adaptations taking place in the year they were made, in the mid-20th and early-21st centuries and after the invention of nuclear weapons).

Given these parallels, it's likely that others will develop as the story goes on, the most important of which being the eventual use of biological weapons by the Terrans as the Aldnoah.Zero version of the Martians being wiped out by the common cold and other Earthly microbes that they have no resistance to.

• Well, we've got the resource crisis on Mars, but there has not been a single mention of biological weapons.
• Jossed, the Martians made peace with the Terrans in the end.

The United Earth Headquarters is not a dedicated nuclear bunker.

It's a repurposed diamond mine (like the one in Modern Warfare 3), modeled after the Mirny mine in eastern Siberia. Let's assume in this timeline, the Soviet Union built a second mine in southern Siberia and converted it to HQ after Heaven's Fall.

• Sayan Mountains in Southern Siberia have a wrong geology for the diamonds to be located there, but the region is known for its coal deposits. A large open pit coal mine looks not much different◊ from a diamond one.

Saazbaum will be outgambitted by Inaho in the end.

We've seen how smart Inaho is and how he is able to easily eliminate each Martian Knight and their Kataphracts one by one. Now with Saazbaum entering the field himself, it's his turn.

• Moreover, there are times when pragmatic villains, regardless whether they remain that way or not, had weaknesses that became their own undoing.
• Inaho is very good at adjusting his strategies to the situation, or coming up with new ones on the fly.
• Confirmed: turns out that the Dioscuria actually has all the abilities of the Nilokeras, Argyre, and Hellas combined so Inaho is able to use the same weaknesses of those machines against it.

Inaho is Orlane's son.

The government either pulled her from the wreckage and realized that she was pregnant, or she somehow managed to get away like Saazabaum did, but with amnesia or injuries that caused her to fall into a coma as soon as she got to safety—or even some combination of the two. Since Orlane obviously couldn't take care of him, Inaho was later given up to adoption as one of the countless children orphaned by Heaven's Fall and raised as a Terran by the Kaizuka family.

• Or perhaps Orlane got rescued by Yuki's dad and stayed with him since she had nowhere left to go and no way to contact the Mars force aside from her damaged Kat. And since revealing she's a Martian is a bad idea - considering Heaven's Fall just happened - they both decided to hide anyway.
• I actually just thought this up, but what if the princess isn't pointing the gun at Slaine in the opening like we've all thought? What if she's actually pointing it at *Inaho* because he's Saltybum's kid? I can see Inaho using his own life as a bargaining chip, too: "I'm your son? So you value my life, correct? Very well then, 'father'. Princess Aseylum, please shoot me if my father refuses our demands."
• Orlane definitely survived the explosion resulted from the piece of the moon crashing down to Earth. If she didn't survive, the UE goverment wouldn't have bothered to build the Aldnoah-run Deucalion II. She, along with Dr.Troyard, must have helped build the ship for unknown reasons, probably not against their will, seeing as the Aldnoah drive may not be activated without a Martian Knight or Royalty's consent. Then, they may have a fallout of sort with the UE government after it had been built. Dr.Troyard ran away to Mars with his son and Orlane herself died. The continued existence of Orlane would explain the gag order about Tanegashima from the UE government, as having a horde of angry families and survivors after the main component of the future Deucalion II would impend the construction greatly and the added benefit of continuing to cast all Martians in villainous roles would do wonders to the war effort. After possible fallout, the gag order was still in place to keep the whole thing out of public eyes.
• Or a darker take on it: the UE government had to break Orlane down to the point where she would willingly activate Aldnoah even if she didn't want to, most likely through some rather nasty and questionable means. That would definitely be reason enough to classify the Tanegashima base as a top-secret facility if it was the equivalent of both a Black Mesa research center with a Room 101.
• It could explain why Inaho was able to activate the Deucalion, It wasn't the princess's blood, but his blood. Orlane was the original pilot of the Deucalion Kataphrakt, thus he should have inherited the ability to activate that specific drive.
• Supposedly Blu-rays bonus material has a story where it is stated that Inaho's mom was killed in Heaven's Fall while she and her children were on a train so, unlikely.

Martians do not receive the proper nutrition and thus have several physical shortcomings, and in particular decreased brain function.

Count Saazbaum mentioned, during his dinner with Slaine, that such things as common as chicken and fresh vegetables are almost impossible to find on Mars unless you're a goddamned aristocrat, and that the majority of the population almost exclusive gets their nourishment from algae (Spirulina?). Even assuming that the algae provides a broad enough nutrient profile to keep someone alive, it's still lacking in a lot of developmentally-important nutrients, including Omega-3 fatty acids (which have been scientifically verified to be crucial to brain development, and in particular cognitive development). And because at least 2 generations have already passed between the time Mars was settled and the events of the show, the malnutrition-induced defects that the initial settlers acquired could well have been rendered genetic and passed on to their descendants. This is the only plausible explanation I can come up with to explain why a bunch of grown-ass men and women of extremely high military command and (Martian) pedigree calling themselves the "Orbital Knights" keep getting blown the fuck out by a high school student driving the Martian equivalent of a Ford Model T.

• He also mentioned krill (a.k.a. plankton) is the other major staple food of the Martian diet, which does contain the kinds of essential fatty acids humans need. But the point still stands: the Martians may be eating the necessary nutrients, just not enough of it considering the desperate resource shortage on Mars. It's probably not unusual for the majority of Martian people to go to bed hungry every day.
• If the Martian people were that retarded then how come they (besides being ruled by an Emperor Scientist) were able to reverse-engineer, replicate and operate Aldnoah technology?

Martian society is on the verge of collapse

Think about it - when the Emperor dies, the Martians effectively lose the ability to build new power plants (and some of the extant ones will shut down) unless they get Asseylum back, or unless the Emperor has more kids we don't know about.

• The Martian society won't collapse because of a lack of an emperor. After all, Professor Rayvers, the first emperor, had been a perfectly ordinary human before he found the Aldnoah technology that gave him the necessary gene. Even if both the royal line and all of the Orbital Knights, who can still activate the drive, die, the technology could just automatically choose a new activator the same way it chose Rayvers in the first place. The reason why the Martian society may be on the verge of collapse is both the lack of natural resources, a given, seeing they're living on a dead planet, there's a reason why the ancient Martian civilization disappeared, and the outdated political system. More precisely, the mode of production outpaced the relations of production of a monarchy, demanding a new relation of production be created, resulting in social unrest and dissent.
  • Saazbaum does tell Slaine about how despite trying to terraform Mars, they were unsuccessful and people grew irritated at the growing problems they kept encountering and not even being able to have a decent standard of living. He also says the previous Emperor, like any dictator, channeled their rage away from him, and directed it at Earth, stating that it was the Terran's fault that their life sucked. This worked them up enough into a frenzy to start a war with Earth, which then resulted in the Hypergate collapse. When Slaine later tells him the food they're eating was from Earth, and was designed to survive space travel as charity to ease their suffering, Saazbaum shows even more contempt for the Emperor when that food is better than the krill and algae they've been forced to subsist on.

Marito is really the main character.

Because his story line so far has been completely separate from the main story, aside from the Mr.Exposition when they first discovered Deucalion II. And he's making progress to boot!

• He very well may become a more significant character in the second season, now that it looks like two of our three main characters are dead.
• He's been powering up for 12 episodes. Just watch, he'll go Super Saiyan next season.
• A season 2 audio preview shows that he'll be back in the saddle leading Clydesdale platoon.
• Unfortunately he still remained more or less the same in the end.

Aldnoah Zero is a distant sequel to Asura's Wrath

Aldnoah is actually the Lost Technology of Shinkoku Trastrium. The reason why it doesn't work for common people is because Shinkoku technology is powered by Mantra and when Chakravartin died, it caused all the Mantra to disappear. However, Mithra survived and passed down her godlike Mantra-altering powers to her descendants: the Vers family, who can use Mantra once more and thus can kickstart long-dormant Aldnoah by infusing it with Mantra.

It also explains why Aldnoah stops working when its owner dies: it is powered by the user's Mantra. With the user dead, the Mantra stops flowing and Aldnoah shuts down since it's no longer being powered.

Inaho was Driven to Suicide after Asseylum's death.

Considering The Reveal that he actually loved Asseylum, it's possible that seeing her die in front of him put him over the Despair Event Horizon, which is why he drew his pistol on Slaine in order to die from Suicide by Cop (slain-by-Slaine, to be specific).

• Seeing as how this is the most irrational thing he has ever done in the entire series, one can say he was driven by grief. There is no way someone as calculating as Inaho would not know the consequences of pulling a gun on Slaine at that moment.
• Or considering the history of all their past encounters, he figured Slaine was going to shoot him anyway.

The Martian technology and power of Aldnoah can create miracles, including resurrection.

The recovered Martian technology has some pretty impressive features such as armor that absorbs anything, flying castles, and holograms. But we still don't know everything about the power just yet.

• The last part comes from the fact that Princess Assyleum has survived many attacks against her before, whether she knew it would happen or not. The fact that her body is missing according to the Season 1 epilogue increases that hope of her return.
• The thing that casts doubt on this, though, is that from what we've seen, Aldnoah is pretty useless when it comes to actually providing for human health. The Emperor looked pretty bedridden and like he was at death's door in episode 5 despite being the master controller of Aldnoah, and episode 9 revealed it's also pretty useless when it comes to generating food for humans.

Inaho is not dead

Otherwise, how could he join the PTSD club? Second season will involve the most traumatized characters dealing with their demons.

• This may actually be possible, considering that he only got one bullet from a low calibre gun to the head, meaning that the damage wouldn't be too terrible, and people has survived a bullet to the head before. Case in point: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the 2011 Tucson shooting. Furthermore, it would be a waste of a perfectly good character if he was killed off for real without any explanation for his non-reactions and his absurdly sharp mind at the start of the series.
• Confirmed

A broken Asseylum will attempt to kill Slaine in Season 2.

As retribution for Inaho. What better way to keep Slaine suffering than having the one person you ever loved, whom you thought was dead, try and murder the ever loving crap out of you for another man.

• She didn't actually try to kill him, but she did point a gun at him.

Gen Urobuchi intended Aldnoah.Zero to be a Self-Parody.

Like his works or not, one can't deny that his name is immediately associated with suffering and character death to the point of fans practically starting death pools with the announcement of a new production of his, especially of the most seemingly vulnerable cast member, and even more so of female cast members. And here we have a female lead who has seemingly died three times now and been "brought back" twice; given her prominent political connections and control over the Aldnoah Drive, it's likely that she will be resuscitated again at some point during Season 2. Gen is obviously aware of his fans and followers and/or become somewhat tired of being typecast; it would be like him to play with our expectations in that way. (He may not have developed the characters much, but he did write the main story outline.)

The true nature of the Alnoah technology was that of a new source of energy.

It would have be able generate an insane amount of energy in a short period of time, seeing as most of the Martians' technology like the Nilokeras's barrier, the Argyre's plasma sword, the holograms and the hypergates, which could be just a fancy way of saying artificial and controllable wormhole, required it. The Aldnoah "gene" may actually be nothing more than strains of genome that were indicating of the Rayvers and the Knights. The device the first emperor found simply recorded his and the knights' genetic makeups, making them the heritable keys to the power source.

• This would certainly explain why all the Martian tech that doesn't run off an Aldnoah drive doesn't seem all that different from Earth tech.

Slaine is Orlane's son

It would explain how he was able to active the Tharsis - he inherited her link to the Aldnoah.

• Well... Slaine is 16 years old◊ which means he was born in 1998, a year before Heaven's Fall... and he's a native Terran, so that throws a lot of doubt on this one since 1999 was the very first time Orlane (& Saazbaum for that matter) set foot on Earth.

Dr. Troyard was researching ways to make Aldnoah accept another bloodline as part of Earth's scheme to level the playing field with Mars.

Think about it - why would they bother to make a battleship like Deucalion, powered chiefly by a technology that no one on Earth can use, without also trying to figure out a way to get Aldnoah access? It would also explain how Dr. Troyard and Slaine were able to defect to Mars in the first place. There's no way they could get off-planet without the knowledge (and help) of the United Earth government.

The ending was All Just a Dream.

And I mean it: The Tharsis was able to perfectly evade every shot from the Areions shooting at it to the point that one of the pilots even wondered out loud in sheer disbelief if the Tharsis could somehow know where the bullets will go before they are fired. What happened at the end was just it showing Slaine one possible future that could have happened if he made the wrong decisions. That means we don't know what really happened in that room. This matches up with Yuki's ending narration that the princess is "missing" as well as Urobuchi's original outline for the ending which makes no mention of anyone's life or death.

Saazbaum is a member of the Fraternity.

There's the infamous "shoot the handcuffs" moment he pulled in episode 10 which miraculously didn't harm Slaine at all. Then there's episode 12 where the angle he shoots the princess doesn't make any sense from where he is. His first shot hits the Princess in the back when he's not facing her back, as noted when she turns in confusion to her right and then he lands a headshot. This dude can make bullets go wherever he wants them to, up, down, left, and right, truly he was Too Cool to Live.

• Homing bullets exist. They've been in R&D since 2010. Saazbaum, as an Orbital Knight very close to the Emperor obviously got his hands on a advanced, functional prototypes.

Aldnoah can be passed through people's mouths.

Which would explain how Slaine was able to activate the Tharsis. I wouldn't be surprised if Inaho turns out to be alive in season 2 due to some Aldnoah-related ability he gained when he resuscitated Asseylum.

• It will be revealed in Season 2 that Slaine received a blood transfusion from either a knight or from the princess, transferring the Aldnoah activation factor to him.
• Confirmed. Good call.

Every single Orbital Knight will be tried as a war criminal during/after the events of the series

Even by the standards of fictional antagonists and even the Nazis, the Orbital Knights are EXTREMELY prejudiced and, just by the conclusion of the first season, have committed the worst genocide in human history. If and when they are finally defeated, the surviving Orbital Knights will be brought to justice in a series of trials that will make Nuremberg look like a picnic, and all or almost all of their leadership will be executed for crimes against humanity.

• I want this. I really want them to get the most karmic deaths in the history of anime.
• Infuriatingly Jossed. As far as we know at this point, the Orbital Knights are a bunch of Karma Houdini who got away with murdering billions of civilians.

The Dioscuria is the only human-designed Vers Kataphrakt we've seen to date

It's notably different from the other Vers Kataphrakts in that it doesn't suffer from Crippling Overspecialization. The others all seem to have one big Aldnoah-powered trick. However, it seems unlikely that the Dioscuria is the one designed by the aliens, because it's got some design flaws like not having anything to make the drone docking ports invincible while they're detached. Thus, it seems likely that the aliens preferred having specialized designs and presumably used several of them together, with the Dioscuria combining several technologies so it can effectively operate independently but with integration problems. That would also explain why it only uses technology seen previously, since the designers would only be able to work with stuff owned by allied clans that would likely deploy in the same general area.

• All Vers Kataphrakts seem to be human-made. Saazbaum had a new Dioscuria in season 2.

Slaine is going to rebel against both sides...

...and turn against both the Martians and the Earthlings after seeing the Princess gunned down in front of him.

• Confirmed. As of Episode 21, he plans create a kingdom on Earth that will be able to harness the power of Aldnoah in addition to having the abundant resources of Earth, and has renounced his Vers citizenship.

The source of Aldnoah is Sapient and the Series Greater-Scope Villain.

The Vers are simply its Unwitting Pawns in its plan to manipulate humanity into destroying itself.

• Doesn't seem so now that the show has ended.

The original Martians' history will be expanded on and will serve to supplement the theme the show may be trying to present.

Think about it, why did the previous civilization build a hypergate from Mars to Earth? They must have originated from Mars since the remnants of their civilization lies primarily on Mars. What were they doing on Earth? Why didn't they exploit Earth's still abundant natural resources? This leads to a theory this troper has been entertaining:

• Perhaps the original Martians were divided and fought each other to extinction similar to how the Terrans and the Martians are fighting each other in the present. Thematically, this would show that conflict is inevitable to all advanced civilizations and warns against letting the conflict escalate to the point where we kill ourselves off. This theme would certainly match the our modern geopolitical climate.
  • The tagline might be relevant here too. Both sides kill each other in the name of their own justice until they have destroyed each other, thus causing the fall of human civilization.
  • Of course, the hypergate might just be for the writers' plot convenience.
    • Seem so now that the show has ended.

Inaho will be able to activate Aldnoah drives in season 2

Since Inaho and Asseylum's blood mixed when they were both shot at the end of episode 12 Inaho will get the Aldnoah activation factor.

• Semi-confirmed. Although the key was exchanged because of the mouth-to-mouth earlier.
  • And all the other knights got THEIR Aldnoah activation factors by frenching the emperor.

The focus of Season 2 will be on the Martian civil war

Slaine will attempt a coup, using Asseylum (alive or dead) as a puppet to support his attempt to overthrow the throne. It will fail, thus reinforcing Slaine's record of making poor choices.

• Somewhat came true minus a war actually breaking out between the Martians.

The Tharsis ability is precognition

given that Slaine was designed to be 'intuitive' to Inaho's 'logical', it makes sense that his Kat' will give him the ability to intuit the enemy's attacks

• Confirmed in episode 14.

Inaho will lose his shit

When Inaho finds out that Asseylum is alive, he will go rogue to try to rescue her, despite it being a very bad idea.

• Very much Jossed. Inaho calmly figures out that the Princess is alive in addition to her TV appearances being an impostor.

With a few exceptions, all of the Martian Kataphrakts are Improvised Weapons.

The Martian war effort has some pretty terrible equipment for fighting a war. They all suffer from Crippling Overspecialization and almost all of them lack ranged weapons. These machines seem much more likely to be designed for mining and Terraforming. The Deucalion and the Hellas are perfect for use in transporting large amounts of material around quickly when you have the power of anti-gravity and remote-controlled giant hands. The Nilokeras would be able to plow through pesky environmental objects such as a thick forest to create a clean flat surface. The Argyre would likely be the scalpel to the Nilokeras's asphalt roller when you'd likely want to create a carefully shaped opening instead of a big hole. And the Elysium would act as a mobile battery, storing entropic energy in a pocket dimension to be carefully dispersed when necessary.

In fact, one might go so far as to say that the Martian invasion is kind of similar to the Scrin invasion in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars with the invading force using mainly mining tools with only a very small part of their force actually being dedicated weapons. The Tharsis, with its unusual outfit, probably is one of the few machines that is meant for combat, and even then, it seems like it's meant more for light security: its skillset appears geared toward dodging attacks, and it has the weakest weapons of all the Martian tech we've seen so far (it took multiple shots from it to destroy the last Terran Kataphrakt in Episode 13). Saazbaum's Dioscuria also appears to be a custom model taking parts from others, it is likely a commander unit that is meant to direct a battle from afar and use its drones to fight instead of actively engaging, as Episode 12 showed a lot of problems that would crop up if you try to combine abilities together (you gain a lot of weaknesses too).

Nobody lives happily ever after

My bet is that the series will end with Lemrina murdering Inaho in front of a newly awakened Asseylum, only to be gunned down by Slaine (who thinks she's threatening her sister). And in the end, Asseylum will reject Slaine. Slaine ends a emotional wreck. Asseylum is crying by Inaho's body, Inko crumples as well.

• Jossed... As of now.
• Show's ended, and turns out that everyone lives happily ever after! Unless your name is Slaine Troyard.

The Martian colonization effort was deliberately sabotaged to fail by the United Nations.

Those who have read the series backstory from the show's Japanese website know something is being left out of the official timeline. The United States and the Soviet Union ended the Cold War in 1975 as a result of Aldnoah's discovery. Five years later, the UN made a large push for a colonization effort on Mars and established the Martian Immigration Program. The MIP then okay'ed some rather dubious actions in 1980, most notably the sending of 340,000 people to Mars without giving anyone proper training or intelligence on what living on Mars would be like. With this many people sent there, the MIP then proceeded to fail to send enough food and other supplies to sustain this population, leading to the resource crisis, and then proceeded to give Rayregalia Vers Rayvers the middle finger when he approached the UN for help by having him arrested when he returned to Mars.

It can be inferred then, that what is being left out is that it was probably likely the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were about to restart the Cold War in 1980, so the UN used the promise of a Martian colony as a big media spectacle to distract from this (most likely pulling the prospective colonists almost exclusively from America and Russia, which also helps to explain the lack of racial diversity among the Vers populace). By deliberately withholding critical supplies from the Martian colony, the UN planned to commit an act of mass genocide that would result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans and Russians that would defuse Cold War II. As for covering up their own complicity, they could easily use any number of excuses such as lack of available space shuttles to reach the Moon, an accident in orbit, or that the supplies simply got lost in transit through the Hypergate.

• In this scenario, abandoning the colonists need not have been malicious. If the UN was using the colonization effort as a way to defuse political tension, then they might have just rushed the plan through half-assed, and not bothered to allocate enough money / resources to support it. After all, organizing a colony the WRONG way is so much easier, especially if you don't care if the colony succeeds.

Eddelrittuo is a gynoid made with Mars technology

This little brat did not age in 19 months despite being SO young!!

Inaho and Slaine may reach an end by a case of Hoist by His Own Petard

Though Inaho was warned earlier by Soma since episode 17, its clear that the Electronic Eye Inaho has is starting to become a harm from his reaction after episode 21, and Slaine is getting more and more power among the Vers Knights even usurping the real Princess Asseylum's power. The Serial Escalation of their powers in the 2nd Season is gonna come back and bite them both in the ass real hard.

• Jossed for Inaho, not so much for Slaine.

Slaine and Inaho powers are symbolic of their viewpoints on the future.

Inaho's eyes are very effective at looking at the current world and analyzing it there are limits towards how much he can see an predict using it. Slaine's ability to see into the future is very short in the amount of time he can observe. Both of these ideas could be used to show how each character is flawed by how each observe the future and the effects it will have. Slaine is short sighted while trying to achieve a longer goal, while Inaho has difficulty in the present trying to use a long game to achieve a basic goal.

The ancient Martians were Advanced Ancient Humans.

The show's final episode is titled "Inherit the Stars," which was the title of a sci-fi novel from the Giants Series where in 2028, an expedition to the Moon discovers the body of a dead human astronaut that has been there for 50,000 years. It is eventually revealed that the ancient human was from a planet that suffered an Earth-Shattering Kaboom and is now the asteroid belt. It's practically guaranteed the writers for Aldnoah.Zero read this book and modified the basic background plot of it for the show.

There will be a sequel after Ep.24.

...Right? I mean c'mon, if Aniplex says this thing is gonna be "bigger than Gundam" and Gundam has 10+ different series, they better catch up. Plus, there is also this timer on their website.

Asseylum's decision to share Aldnoah technology with Earth was not a one-way deal.

The tech deal is one of Asseylum's big divisive points with some fans, who believe that Mars is getting next to nothing out of it, meaning that Asseylum would be betraying her country by weakening it even further. However, there is very little to indicate that is actually the case. It's quite possible that a condition for Verse sharing Aldnoah tech would be the guarantee of aid to Mars in matters like food. Indeed, seeking to guarantee this is completely in line with her personality.

• The reporter's dialogue specifically mentions Mars getting lots of operating capital as a result of Asseylum sharing Aldnoah tech.

It was Slaine's own request that he take the fall for the assassination plot.

Slaine already showed himself as fully prepared to place Asseylum at the head of the new kingdom he aimed to create, knowing full well that she would not approve in the least. Considering Slaine's immense devotion to Asseylum, if he was willing to let her see him as a villain (or at least a Necessarily Evil), then he would have little problem with a Zero-Approval Gambit in the interest of peace and the greater good, particularly as he was hoping to die anyways.

The Ortygia's copies get more unstable the more of them there are.

In the span of a few hours, the copies eventually decay until there's only one left. This would address several Fridge Logic questions, such as where the extra copies go after every battle, and why the Martian forces don't use the quantum copy mechanism to simply make a mass-produced army.

The sequel/continuation, if there is one, will take place on Mars.

There's a great deal to explore about what Mars is like, certainly after the events of Aldnoah.Zero.

One of the sequel's main characters will have a Martian and a Terran parent.

The personal Kataphrakt of the Emperor of Vers is called the Olympus.

Martian Kataphrakts are named after various geographical features on Mars. What better name for their ruler's mecha than the tallest mountain in the solar system - which, itself, owes its name to the home of the gods?

• It should be noted that the (hypothetical) Olympus was, in all likelihood, obliterated during Heaven's Fall - unless Emperor Gilzeria had decided not to bring it with him.

Aldnoah exposure degrades people's sanity

How else did the Martian colonists turn into hate-filled lunatics within a generation?