1.When the major was linked with the puppeteer he told her that his plan was already in motion even though section 9 intervened, but in the next scene we find out the puppeteer died and nothing happened. wtf?
2. Why did the tachikomas think that the conversation between the major and the puppeteer was not important? The conversation can be used as evidence for the identity of the puppeteer
Batou and the Tachikoma's were hacked, dawg.
didn't you hear the bullsh*t excuse Batou gave her? It was nothing like what the puppeteer told the Major.
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2) The Tachi's are still evolving and consider the Major's conversation private.
1) Watch that exchange again. The puppeteer's plan had already come to fruition.
1. The solution is in the title: stand alone complex. In the end the system of abducting children from abusive households, giving them family names and backgrounds from elderly people who are not part of society anymore, educating those children and sending them back out as useful parts of society, is so well integrated it doesn't need a mediator anymore. It started working on its own and the puppeteer can step behind the scenes, run away, even die and it will not affect the system.
That concept of an artifial process so well integrated in a system of society it stands alone without anyone guiding it, was repeated in different variations in both stand alone series, so it is far easier to understand if you know those.
2. Simple: Both Batou and the tachikomas know about the conversation, but choose not to talk about it. Though the puppeteer was only a fragments of the Majors subconsiousness, she would be held responsible, if the conversations became known.
Interesstingly that was always the relationship between Batou and the Major. Both know something, like for example feelings for each other, but they do not talk about it so they can keep on pretending.
Thanks for those answers, but I got a few follow up questions
1.If the puppeteer's plan was already successful, why did it need to lure the major into linking with itself?
2.Section 9 returned all those abducted kids back into their original households. How was the system suppose to continue to work?
3. Who is going to abduct more children in the future?
I didn't get this either. Who was the puppeteer in the end? Was it the net itself, becoming aware? But only the Japanese portion of it, since it wanted to help Japan. If it was the net, why did it care for humans? Why that wacky name 'Solid state', was it because its prior state was fluid, like the net, and now it got a body?
Was it some portion of the major that was somehow sucked into the net, while she was floating and lurking around in it?
It is shown in the flick that Motoko can control two separate bodies at one time, not more. Why was this shown to us? As a clue to the puppeteer origin perhaps?
Why did the puppeteer answer Motoko's question regarding his identity and knowledge of her with 'Didn't you figure it out already? How many people do you know of this sort?' and used a 'thought maze' on her or whatever, that made her envision all the stubborn self-righteous asses of the series, ending with Kuze and herself? If the puppeteer considers itself known to the major, familiar and intimate even, it cannot be the net, or the noble rot, the net is without shape and definable characteristics, and the old dudes come into no contact with the major.
So who or what is the Puppeteer?
And why did it start 2y ago, precisely around the time Motoko took her leave from section 9 to peruse the net, why not 5y or 3y ago? Another clue?
Why did the puppeteer threaten to take out section 9 after trapping the major?
It didn't pursue this course of action, it just talked its way into oblivion.
Why the flashback, showing the same model puppeteer body exit one of the chambers that hold reserve bodies in what appears to be Motoko's secret lair from the beginning of the flick?
If the puppeteer planned to die after putting this 'solid state' into motion, whatever it is, why did it threaten section 9 and trap Motoko?
How exactly did the puppeteer put the 'Solid State' into motion, since, as you said, the noble rot plot got exposed and the kids returned to their parents?
Did he mean something else by it?
Why did the Tachikomas argue amongst themselves in the background in the end, and why did Batou put so much effort into exclaiming that whatever occurred, occurred and there is no point in thinking about it. What are they hiding?
What is 'beyond society' the puppeteer mentioned while causing Motoko to experience visual and auditory delusions? It speaks as it has done its job and ready to depart for something better. But what has it done?
Did it really die?
A poor ending. I don't mind an unsolved case or two in a 26-episode series, 'cause it just adds flavor, but for a standalone movie to be unsolved, well, it's frustrating.
Solution A: If what the puppeteer told the major after mentioning it was putting her through a 'thought-maze hack' is true:
All the data leads me to believe that the puppeteer was known to the major and in fact intimate with her. Since nobody could hack her from the faces shown in the delusion, not Gouda as wicked as he was, not Kuze who was a misguided pure-hearted soldier with a noble overt rebellion in mind, and not the Laughing Man who was a benign kid that had no motive whatsoever to pull this op, while the others (Aramaki, Togusa and Batou) definitely were not capable or willing to do this deed, that leaves only one persona that could pull it off - Motoko herself. Or some fragment of her.
But the problem here is that Motoko is not a multitude of ghosts and consciousnesses, therefore cannot become a unified version of the same. She has one ghost, versatile as it may be, it is not multipliable and not a collective.
It seems that the puppeteer took something from Motoko, while holding her trapped, something that triggered the Solid State Society into being. And the puppeteer's job was done so it went wherever.
But what about the threat to section 9, or was it only that the puppeteer had to disable Motoko to buy time to trigger Solid State, and it had nothing to fear from the rest for the time being, shown by how easily it hacked Batou and the closest Tachikoma?
This solution, that the puppeteer was some renegade fragment of Motoko can be further supported by the fact that the Tachikomas and Batou play pretend in the end about the recorded conversation. But Batou was probably just excited about having his not-so-secret darling up and running, and back with the team.
Also, some 20 minutes into the flick, as Motoko's first remotely controlled body returns to the hideout via elevator, a body model that is exactly the same as the puppeteer's enters the elevator as Motoko's remote exits it. A possible renegade fragment? Or just a popular body model? But the body model looks exactly the same, talking about the face, as the original guy that died of illness 2y ago, as shown during the final scenes of the movie.
If it was the puppeteer, what was it doing at Motoko's?
Solution B: If what the puppeteer made Motoko experience after activating the 'Thought-maze hack' is all false and the result of the hack:
Purposeful disinformation would serve to throw section 9 off the puppeteer's track. Or, the puppeteer wasn't a remote, and was dying, and its thoughts, as a result, were random gibberish. But the problem here is, that it makes for a poor ending. Not overly dramatic or unique, no way to end a story. Nobody finishes stories like that.
Solution C: Fifty-Fifty:
Let's take the story about the puppeteer 'napping kids and using the noble rot for the benefit of Japan as true, as there is no other reason, for the puppeteer to off the Chairman politician guy that wanted to brainwash kids to create elites, presented in the flick. Let's take as truth that the puppeteer shot itself to lure Motoko in, to render section 9 without its trump card, in order to buy time to trigger Solid State, whatever it is. Because i doubt it meant destruction of section 9, only disabling it for precious minutes, and because it would be poor story-telling if it was all disinformation.
Let's not take as truth the implication the images shown to Motoko during the hack make, it couldn't possibly be any of those guys, and it's not likely that it was some renegade fragment of the ol' Major. Let's take the image gallery ending with her own face as a way of saying 'I am as you are.' for all the people shown had or have a strong idea of how to do something great, greater, for Japan or mankind, even Gouda in his own twisted way. The puppeteer says here that he knows her because he is like her and like them all, in a way.
So he waylays Motoko and 9, buys enough time for the remote's data to degrade, triggers SS and logs off. But again, what is he, it? Refers to itself as collective consciousness acting autonomously via subconscious means. Is it the noble rot collective or the net itself?
The Standalone Complex triggered here is that what the puppeteer did seems to work, the kids get a fortune, some get better homes, the noble rot get to leave a legacy, Japan remains liquid and mobile. The net wouldn't care about this, so it must be the dying geezers. So the Puppeteer was a Hub for their collected minds, with the SAC started, Pandora's box opened, he had no further role and passed to a place beyond. Like Aoi the Laughing Man, and like Gouda tried to. Perhaps this body contained the original ghost of that dude that died, that he transferred into it by some chance or operation, and because he died alone and unnoticed, he got this idea of kidnapping and washbraining kids for the benefit of all.
Perhaps this whole Standalone Complex was unwittingly triggered by the Major herself, when she dove into the net 2y before to search for the Tachikomas, for Kuze and for herself. There might have been something in there that found her while she was lurking.
Somehow i think that the way it ended was not the way it was meant to by the storyteller. Something happened, got lost, overwritten, confused or rushed.
Or maybe i'm just too used to classic Hollywood endings where the bad guy bites the bullet, the manly guy gets the girl, and the black guy says something funny.