Great website! I’m very new to this great movie, but I thought I’d take the time to put down a few thoughts/theories/observations that occurred to me after a few views.
First I should probably mention that I’m kind of strangely hung up on the possibility of the symbolism of the firearms used in the movie. Sounds pretty odd, I know, but it was one of the first things I stumbled across when reviewing the movie, but I’ll come to that.
Like many others, I’m pretty convinced that the entire movie is VR. There is some pretty convincing evidence for this that has already been presented, so I won’t recap, I’ll just plough into my theory.
I’m pretty convinced that Ash is herself an AI game sprite (the hero, or central character) and that the game player is, in fact, Oshii.
The object of the game is guide/manipulate Ash through the levels (home/battlefield/class real/Avalon/beyond….?)
I believe that Oshii is controlling Bishop to this end, either through a first or third person interface. And so to the first weapon reference. Bishop uses a broomhandle Mauser, Oshii’s favourite weapon (Red Spectacles/Stray Dogs/Jin-Roh)
Notice that Ash appears to actually need this specific weapon to shoot the ghost and proceed to Class Real. Stunner fails using an automatic, and Bishop ensures that Ash replaces her Walther PPK with the Mauser before her attempt on Class Real. Clearly a special weapon/powerup.
About that Walther…hardly a practical weapon for the battlefield…It seems that only the central Characters in Avalon – Ash, Bishop & Murphy, carry handguns. Perhaps they are status symbols and mirrors of the central character’s personality. Certainly, the small, sleek & deadly Walther matches Ash as much as the Mauser matches Bishop/Oshii. Murphy may carry the powerup weapon of Class Real…
Anyway…when Ash awakens in Class Real, her new weapon is a Mauser HSC – the personality of a Walther PPK with the status of a Mauser. Interestingly, this scene mirrors very closely the scene in Besson’s Nikita where Nikita is presented with the gun to carry out her first assasination, following her training.
After Ash ‘kills’ Murphy, she fills the clip with his discarded bullets, and takes HIS gun.
So what does this signify? Perhaps that Ash realizes she needs a ‘special’ weapon to progress to the next level?
A few things elude me completely. The dog – another Oshii avatar? Murphy’s place in the Nine Sisters – is Murphy able to travel between Class Real and the Battlefield at will? Of course, some games allow you to return through previous levels once they have been completed. But if he is so keen to stop Ash from achieving Class Real, why does he allow her to Kill him? Perhaps he knows that he has to take her out while her stats are lower than his, that ultimately she will always defeat him in Class Real.