I've finished watching Kizumonogatari yesterday, and while I enjoyed the overall experience (I'm a sucker for Oishi's style, I can't help it^^), I felt that story-wise it was somewhat rushed and I found some plot-points unclear/unexplained. Maybe some well-read gentlemen of the internet can enlighten me. :)
I will mark each question in it's separate spoiler tag. I'm up-to-date on anime material, but I would like to avoid spoilers in the answers for those light novels that haven't been animated yet. If possible, I would like to have explanations for the answers based on actual lines/events from the movie or the light novels, rather than pure conjecture.
Q#1:
Don't worry, this is the longest one. ^^
What was Oshino Meme's original, specific goal?
His original "script" was:
1, Steal Kiss-Shot's heart, thus weaken her.
2, Let the Three Stooges steal her limbs.
3, Let Araragi get bitten.
4, Let Araragi gather the limbs, preferably without killing the vampire hunters.
5, Stage a final battle between him and Araragi for the heart.
6, ...?
7, ...profit, I guess?
One of the major points of the story (not only in Kizu, but later on as well) is that Araragi has an unreal drive for helping people through self-sacrifice. Nobody in their right mind would have let a vampire "kill" them in that position. Thus, unless that one person in the whole world(Araragi) magically gets there in the subway in that one exact moment, Kiss-Shot dies, end of story.
Similarly, if the whole thing goes according to his plan, it's a very similar situation to what we got in the end. Kiss-Shot is whole, they want to turn Araragi back to human, so Kiss-Shot has to die. Without Hanekawa's involvement, Araragi does not notice anything, Kiss-Shot lets herself killed, she dies, end of story.
Obviously, there are a zillion possibilities aside from these two, but the most likely outcomes are that somebody dies, turns in to a vampire, etc. Something irreversible happens in all cases and I see no balance anywhere. So, what was he thinking? Was this only an overly elaborate plot to get Kiss-Shot repent and let herself killed? How does this achieve balance, since this is not much better than simply killing her, thus getting rid of a dangerous predator? What's his interpretation of balance in this specific case? Is there anything about this in the light-novels?
Q#2:
How does Dramaturgy stay alive? He's supposed to be a good guy, but he's a vampire. He has to drink blood, which creates other vampires if he does not eat the body.
Q#3:
What's up with this "Araragi loosing his humanity" business? All through the first two movies I thought this is a real threat, that there is a line he can't cross if he wants to be human again, but then it happens at the end of the second movie and nobody mentions it again. I would understand that it's "only" Araragi's desire not to perform acts he perceives as "monstrous" and the event let him with a wracking guilt after. But while there is indication of the former before the act, I remember nothing about the later after the act. Meme's like, "Well, I've done goofed up, there's the heart, bye", then Araragi goes off to face the whole "blonde girl eats people" problem. The entire stuff is just dropped from the story after some point.
Q#4
Hanekawa and GuillotineCutter.
I know it's kinda heartless, but we had already seen Araragi's blood heal Hanekawa once. Why not let him kill the girl, neutralize him easily with simple super-strength (no need for those bad-bad monstrous powers), then heal Hanekawa again. Because of Araragi's healing powers, the entire situation felt pointless to me.
I would accept that Araragi does not want to let Hanekawa suffer a trauma like this again, and forces himself to act out of compassion, but, again, we see no indication of this in the movie. Is there a reasoning for this?
Q1: I'm not partial to the specifics, so the best I can do for your first question, is point out that Meme was able to deduct that Araragi came from a different timeline to cause a zombie apocalypse later on in the series, even though there should be little to no evidence suggesting that could possibly be the case. Meme is like Jesus-kun 3.0 or something. (I'm sure there's a better explanation, but I haven't read the novel yet) I guess you could also say he improvised, Meme was never one for plans.
Q2: He begs for mercy, doesn't he? Araragi was only violent with him because Dramaturgy had Shinobu's limbs, so he would be heartless if he would refuse (and also the fact that nothing Araragi would do to him would actually kill Dramaturgy).
Q3: I think, once you start acting like a vampire (eating humans) you can't really go back to being a human. If you don't remember, that came up a lot with Araragi's lust for Hanekawa.
Q4: Easy, first of all, in the context of the series as a whole Kizumonogatari was technically written before Nekomonogatari Kuro, which is the only other time we see Araragi healing Hanekawa. In the context of the movie, which is the prequel to the rest of the series, the first time Araragi ever confronts a situation where he has to heal someone with his own blood is his battle with Episode, and like you said, he doesn't want to see Hanekawa suffer. I think you're thinking too far into it, after all, you as the viewer should have already clued into Araragi's feelings for Hanekawa, so there is no need for further "indications". If there were more, they would practically be beating you over the head with it. Also, I would even trade in logic for the badassery Araragi displayed in that scene mah boi.
Since I've read the novel now, I can better answer question 1. Oshino was nothing but a mediator, so he never had a plan. Rather, the only business he had both in the tensions between Kiss-Shot and the Vampire Hunters, and the location the anime takes place in (in general) was to maintain [spiritual] balance between the two forces. He stole Kiss-Shot's heart to even the playing field between her and the Vampire Hunters- so they would be at the same level. He wasn't on anybody's side and he didn't have any plan.
It just so happened that the Vampire Hunters found a way to steal her limbs, and Kiss-Shot had made a familiar- both were unexpected to Oshino and the events disrupted the balance of the area. He decided to "team up" with Araragi and Kiss-Shot because that was the only way balance would be restored- as he notes that he is just a negotiator, and doesn't belong to either side.
All of this is in the film too, it's just that it's easier to pin down this information after you see it in text.
Wow, sorry, I did not notice your answer in January. Thanks for taking the time to come back. :)
Yeah, I had a feeling that this might be the case with Meme, but it's better if its not only my feeling, but something coming from the original text. :)