Owarimonogatari, Part 3

I didn't update last week, I tried to, but couldn't write anything of substance. But now I've come back, but... Sadly, having accidentally read spoilers (Damn you non-alerting writers / commenters on the internet!) about Ougi, some of the post will be whited out to avoid spoiling people. Because like this series often likes to do, the change of perception before and after the twists are massive, so after the twist is revealed, feel free to check this post again! Ironically the spoilers I've seen have been really non-descriptive, so their true nature might be wrong in my head. Anyway, let's get this party started. 

Surprisingly Complex: Owarimonogatari, Part 3

How formidable a foe is Ougi? Formidable enough for Hanekawa to use her last resort? Nope. Even more formidable. Formidable enough for Hanekawa to make mistakes.

By mistake I mean Hanekawa's last line in the episode. It implied that Araragi took Hanekawa's offer seriously, where he himself just thought that making the offer itself was a point strong enough to choose her. Such a little slip of character might be normal for other people, but not for her. It just is to show how much she's taking in. Take a look at the scenes going on, it would seriously seem that Hanekawa is out of her element. Not being able to resolve a conflict that ended in violence (Oikura and Senjougahara), not being able to argue Oikura about her clothes. It's like she's being pushed into situations where she has no time to plan, and cannot use her knowledge bank to her advantage.

If Ougi is even remotely the reason Oikura came back, one of the reasons might have been to throw Hanekawa out of the loop. Having to confront a two new people who seriously affect Araragi at the same time would throw her out of the loop pretty bad, and it seems like Ougi was rather successful.

Before Ougi, Araragi is zero, nada. That is why in the first episode of Owari, he stated that all is zero before Ougi. While it is true in his case, it's only true in his case. Only Araragi seems to be so absolutely affected by Ougi. While she has power over others (Nadeko, for example), her powers are not nearly as absolute as when she's dealing with Araragi. 

And then there was this. I don't think I have ever seen that kind of expression on Hanekawa before. One of the first times her normal self has even shown an negative expression. It's kind of amazing, really. To get such a strong reaction from Hanekawa means that Ougi is business.

And going back to the beginning, let's talk about Araragi's amnesia. He had forgotten Oikura, and he had also forgotten Nadeko before. Is it connected to the Class Assembly? Or did something happen before starting High School that made it hard to remember? Or does he simply have an extremely bad memory? We know that his face memory seems to be pretty bad, but his name memory is good, (Which might explain why he forgot Oikura, as he never heard her name). But it doesn't explain Nadeko... Perhaps he these incidents are separate, and he forgot about Oikura before the Class Assembly, and forgot about Nadeko after the Class Assembly? We may know at some point.

And next, a very swift thing that one might miss: Hanekawa presumed that going to the ruined house was Araragi tagging along with Ougi. It might seem irrelevant, but do not forget who we're talking about here. Hanekawa even elaborated later that they weren't on the same page as Araragi didn't undestand that when she was talking about a dangerous person, she was talking about Ougi, not Oikura. She then said that "It's as if you're diverting the point of this conversation on purpose." It seems as if Araragi is subconsciously trying to avert talking about Ougi. Weird...

And wasn't it weird that Ougi knew things like where Senjougahara and Oikura lived? Even though she just now heard that Oikura lives on her own? And knew the addresses well enough to know that Senjougahara lives further away? Weird...

Does this look familiar?

Does the picture of traffic lights seem familiar? When was traffic lights last mentioned in the series? Was it... Ougi?

Ougi talked about traffic lights way back in the beginning of Kabukimonogatari. Interestingly, the placement of this seemingly random part of the Second Season is still kind of ambiguous, but I would place it somewhere around here in the timeline. Exact day and time is uncertain to me, but I think it could be during the first episode of Owarimonogatari, when they went to the third floor of the school building.

The original idea behind the traffic lights was that when people are vigilant of danger they are more safe than when they take safety for granted. I am unsure if it connects to the matter at hand or if the traffic lights and the rush hour in the street was just allegories thrown around in the novels.

Okay, now let's see this again from the perspective of spoilers. Unspoiled people, I really hope that you won't spoil yourselves!

[Drag to see spoilers: Ougi is apparently an apparition created by Araragi's unconscious, and thus IS Araragi, or as I like to think right now, his doubts and secrets]

Now that we've got that out of the way, taking that into account, I can continue theorising. Everything will be in white though so unspoiled people don't have to look at them.

In this new light, Araragi diverting attention away from Ougi in the conversation seems obvious.  He doesn't want to doubt himself.

Araragi being absolute zero in front of Ougi makes sense now, because fighting one's unconscious is pretty hard.

Hanekawa knows about Ougi's true nature, maybe not entirely, but she knows that Ougi is an apparition, but realizes that as she is connected to Araragi, she cannot just say that Ougi is an apparition to him.

Though, if Ougi is an apparition created from Araragi's mind, does that mean that Araragi has started doubting Hanekawa? If taken from this stance, I'd actually say... That Hanekawa has tried to grasp the situation of Ougi from afar, resulting in her absence during Araragi's recent adventures. She does this because she knows that interfering could be dangerous, ironically creating a vicious cycle where her calm observation creates more doubts for Araragi, making Ougi stronger as consequence. Of course, as she noticed this, she took action and stopped Ougi on her tracks. Interested to see how this develops.

And of course Ougi knows that Senjougahara lives further away than Oikura. It's Araragi's knowledge, after all. Like she said before, she knows nothing, only Araragi's knowledge matters.