Last Exile Ending Speculation

[USSRGirl]

Okay, so I just finished GONZO's Last Exile and enjoyed it very much - reminded me of a weird mix between Ace Combat and Howl's Moving Castle (the book, not the anime). But the ending left me rather puzzled, and I was wondering if anyone could shine some light on my one huge question:

[spoiler] Did Dio survive? o__O It would appear that he went [more] insane, began hallucinating, and blew off into the Grand Stream somewhere. Yet, his voice is heard in the Silvanna's control room after this point - is this only a memory, trying to make a point that his... how shall I put it... "perky" spirit was preserved even after Delphine pounded it out of him? Also, on the art work that comes on the cover slip for the last DVD (the one inside - looks like the characters doing laundry outside Claus and Lavie's vanship) the characters are staring in surprise towards the left side of the page where Dio's glove and boots are scene sorta off screen, implying that somewhere down the line they met up again. So... dead or alive? o.O[/spoiler]

[rii namuras]

[color="Red"](The general opinion of the fandom [to my knowledge] is...)[/color]

[spoiler](I think it's pretty safe to say he's alive, with the voice and the DVD cover. LE didn't go down that "his spirit lives forever!" with any of the other characters that died, and the other DVD covers are canonically correct. Mullin was also thought to be dead and survived...)[/spoiler]

[theanimeguy]

Yes, the dvd cover.

[USSRGirl]

Whew! Now I can sleep peacefully knowing all is well. u.u

[Rev. Doc]

He's alive. I saw him at a Baskin - Robbins ordering some ice cream just off Hollywood Blvd. not too long ago.

[USSRGirl]

He's alive. I saw him at a Baskin - Robbins ordering some ice cream just off Hollywood Blvd. not too long ago.

Was it delicious?!! When something is delicious you're supposed to show it on your face! ^_____^

Thank you all for the reassurance of [spoiler]Dio's[/spoiler] continued existance. I feel... *sniff*... so much better now. My life is now complete. u.u

[mitsuki lover]

I always have believed that he died when he fell.There's simply no way he could have survived.

[That Dude]

I was surprised about Mullin making it...Though I never even thought about Dio.

And I've seen the series 4 times through.

[rocklobster]

Glad to see you enjoyed the series, USSRGirl! That's one of my all-time favorite animes! What did you think of Alex Rowe?

[GeneD]

I always kinda thought [spoiler]Dio died and that, like USSRGirl said, his voice heard later on is just a memory, but of course we never saw a body and anime being anime, there's a chance he survived.[/spoiler]Wasn't it so sad though when he was looking for Luciola and couldn't understand where he had gone. I felt so sorry for him!

What did you think of Alex Rowe?

At first I liked Alex, since he has this mysterious, almost dark leader thing going. But eventually I decided I didn't really like him that much since he uses his mysterious, almost dark leaderness to be a jerk.

What did you think of the ending? I've heard a lot of people say that they didn't like it, and since I do like it I was just wondering why exactly?

My favourite character is Lavie.

[USSRGirl]

My opinion of Alex is about the same as Gene's. He was cool towards the beginning, but fell way too far into the "dark, brooding anime guy with a troubled past" area later on to the point where his personal issues seemed to make him a disfunctional captain in the later episodes (just look at the state of the Silvanna! Alex sits in a chair all day, hardly talks, and Sophia makes most of the decisions. Meanwhile, everyone does whatever they want to his ship - Dio runs crazy like it's a playground and steals stuff out of Alex's office, harrasses Tatianna while she's doing a mission briefing, and goofs off in their planes. Tatianna refuses to report in, and no one seems to care much. Lavie and Claus do whatever they want, and his crew seems in general disarray.) XD Thus what happens when dark, brooding anime guys go over the top.

I thought the ending was good - I don't actually have any complaints with it. I was surprised about Mullin though.