Wolf's Rain/WMG

So, what do you think is going on in that last episode? (Spoilers galore, needless to say.)

Kiba is the reincarnation of Larka, from The Sight.
Both of them being white wolves aside, they both have to go on a long journey to try and save their respective worlds from destruction. Perhaps a white wolf spirit is reincarated over and over again in order to save the world, and Kiba and Larka are not the only lives it has had. Of course, if you view Wolf's Rain as taking place in the distant past, rather then the distant future, than Larka would be the reincarnation of Kiba.

Wolf's Rain is an allegory for certain tenets of Buddhism.
See the Wikipedia entry for bhavacakra (the wheel of life) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavacakra. From there it is easy to figure out the ending, as well as the overall structure of the show.
 * Wolf's Rain is playing off some word play in Japanese. Okami and Kami, one meaning wolf and god respectively. In this world the gods are wolves and they represent pride, the nobles are demi-gods and they represent jealousy, and then you have humans (desire or passion), animals (ignorance), so on. As you die and are reborn into the new world you move up and down in the realms, depending on karma lost and gained.
 * In the last scene Kiba has been reincarnated, as he has been countless times, as the wolf/god that searches to begin the cycle of life and suffering anew. This also apparent from his actions and wolf form in the theme song, which take place during the same time period.
 * Tsume, Hige, and Toboe have been reincarnated as humans, dropping down from the god's realm for their various "sins". (Abandonment, betrayal, and murder respectively.) This is evident from their abilities to do things that the wolves were incapable of doing throughout the show, (such as riding a motorcycle, holding a bag and eating, and holding an umbrella and a kitten.) This also explains the opening song where Kiba walks by all of his friends but they do not recognize one another.
 * There is a fan theory that Blue was reincarnated as the kitten.
 * Darcia, partly going crazy from losing his love and being poisoned and because he felt the call of paradise so strongly, was trying to stop this cycle of suffering by killing everything, creating a paradise that is a "world of darkness". This is why he says: "The world where you would walk hand in hand with the flower maiden has neither perfect happiness nor joy nor life. This is because it also does not contain perfect sadness nor misery nor death."

Alchemy: The power of the gods.
Alchemy is a subject that is shown and alluded to, but never outright discussed in Wolf's Rain. However, there are many plot points that are connected to the use of alchemy and its nature in this universe. If one pays attention you can figure out what this pseudo science is doing throughout the show. When used as a weapon or on a grand scale alchemy can be identified as a red, unearthly light. The alchemy spell that stopped time, (aka the false paradise), was first summoned by Darcia the First 200 years before the events of Wolf's Rain, and that destroyed much of the world and left it to die slowly. Jagura's later summoning of the same spell pretty much destroyed the rest. The recreation of the world itself, the cycle of life and death, can also be seen as a big giant alchemy spell being preformed by the world and the gods/wolves.
 * Only the nobles, the fallen wolves that embraced the guise of humanity, are shown using any flash and bang styles of alchemy. Cher at one point says that the nobles were able to open the paths to space and time with this power. They have also figured out a way to stretch out their lives, "living long past their natural span of life". Humans are implied to be unable to use this power.
 * Kiba is able to overcome Jagura's alchemy twice, once when he closed the false paradise that stopped time, and the other a circle that was meant to drain him of his strength.
 * The wolves are shown to use a more natural form of alchemy. It seems to flow out of them with ease, and without any circles or incantations.
 * All the wolves can project a human like form into the minds of humans in order to fool them.
 * Kiba and Darcia are shown using strange, (alchemical), powers whenever their (wolf's) eyes widen or flash. Darcia is able to put people to sleep, and Kiba is able to summon super strength to break out of his bonds under the moonlight crucible.
 * This can be seen when Darcia's keep is destroyed, when the false paradise is summoned by Jagura, whenever the nobles use a circle, or when Darcia is struck by a bolt of pure alchemy on the mirrored lake.
 * It is this troper's belief that it was Kiba who summoned up the bolt of alchemy to destroy Darcia and keep him from entering what he thought was paradise.
 * Cheza, who was made from a simple flower using alchemy, has dark red eyes, (which don't work fyi). This could be seen as a symbol of her origins.
 * Cheza is also seen using alchemy or some sort of power to heal and put the wolves to sleep.
 * The nobles also placed a seal on The Tree of All Seeds to keep it from dying, making it stay alive well past when it should have died. In effect, this would keep the wolves from opening paradise.
 * So there would be no evolution, but everything would be set to a perfect "Garden of Eden" state at the end of the spell.
 * This is evident by the birds and different kinds of flowers appearing almost immediately after the world's ice starts to melt.
 * The red moon would herald the beginning of the spell, and it's fading to white again would be the end of the spell.
 * This spell would have been started the first time Cheza bloomed, with the wolves dancing around her, and shows the path to paradise. This event is later mirrored by the nobles at Jagura's great feast, where Cheza blooms for the second time and the nobles dance to open the false paradise. (The third time Cheza blooms she turns into seeds and helps to summon the real paradise.)
 * At the very end of Kiba's last bit of dialog, (which bookends the series), he says, "I hear someone's voice, calling to me," and he opens his eyes wide as though he was using alchemy. This event seems to summon the rain, and with it, paradise is opened.

The owl is Darcia the First.
We see the owl try to trick the wolves into getting devoured by giant bugs. We also see it delighting in the fact that Kiba is trapped in The Garden of Eternity. The owl also has no scent, and is implied to be a ghost. We also see an image of it flash over the image of Darcia the First as he tried to open the false paradise the first time, implying that they are the same being. Adding to that, we see Darcia the First at the beginning of episode 27, lamenting that paradise would come and end the world. He also has the exact same voice actor, and speaking patterns as the owl.
 * It was Darcia the First that sealed The Tree of All Seeds to stop paradise from opening, and he also tried and failed to stop time to keep it from happening, (this event, ironically, is what cause the world to end in the first place). Later, it was Jagura who continued his crusade and tried to kill off all the wolves, and dig up or burn all the wild lunar flowers, all to keep the true paradise from opening. Because Darcia started this it isn't too much of a stretch to believe that his spirit hung around to try and finish the job.

The "extinction" of wolves and collapse of society 200 years before the show begins was caused by a nuclear war.
Not exactly a huge stretch, but completely obfuscated in the series.
 * Not a very far from reality; it could be an alternate reality as to what would have happened if the Cold War hadn't ended. It's kind of like Watchmen.

Kiba, Tsume, Hige and Toboe are all reincarnations of the wolves who originally created the world.
Possibly Blue is as well.

The series takes place hundreds of millions of years in the past
...except for the opening titles and, which take place in the present day.
 * This troper's not sure about hundreds of millions of years, but he is also convinced the series (save the opening titles ) takes place way back in the past. It would explain the bending lasers, the wolves with their human illusions, and the magic in the series. Not to mention that it would reinforce the idea of a new world (Paradise) emerging from the dying old world.
 * Genius Bonus: According to the Toba Catastrophe Theory, a 6-10 volcanic winter, followed by a 1,000 year cooling period, not only reduced human population to 10,000 overall but also caused mass extinction. So one could guess that the events of Wolfs Rain take place before the event.

That very last scene...
When the reincarnated Kiba finds the lunar flower at the end of episode 30, the corruption we saw caused by Darcia's eye will be healed and the world will become a true Paradise.

Neither Wolves nor Humans were destined to inhabit Paradise.
Let's take another look at the last few minutes of the final episode: Kiba is implicitly the last animal alive until the snow geese fly overhead. As he dies, he is surrounded by Lunar Flowers. We cut to a view of the newly-formed Paradise, and who do we see living there? Wolves? Humans? Neither! It is instead almost entirely populated by plants (so Cheza's destiny was to create a world where her kind rules) as well as the occasional bird (which helps explain that damn owl who keeps popping up -- OK, not really, but it's something to chew on). The kickers are the final pages of The Book of the Moon, which are revealed to contain a giant two-page spread illustration of Lunar Flowers. Darcia's eye wasn't necessarily a corruption. However, it started the sequence that brought mammals into the world. Hence the humans, rats, cats, wolves(?, see next post) in the flash-forward. And speaking of that flash-forward...

Upon resurrection, in the flash-forward, Kiba and company have become something more akin to traditional werewolves.
In that they now actually (and unambiguously) assume human form. Therefore, Tsume can ride a motorcycle and Toboe can pet a kitten without it loosing it's shit (as much). They are still fundamentally wolves however.

The search for Paradise is a cyclical thing that will go on forever until one version of Kiba's pack gets it right.
Simply put, this is essentially the "Let's get a human to play the role of The Messiah and save everyone - but not really" situation that the Architect went on (and on and on and on) about in The Matrix Reloaded. This time could have been the one where they did get it right, if the Nobles hadn't wrecked it for everyone.

The series takes places on Russia or a country that speaks Russian.
It is coincidence that the Book of Monn is written in cyrilic alphabet? In all the series we see cyrilic alphabet: In market, in books, in documents, on vodka bottles, on potato sacks Blue fell on and so on. So... is Wolf's Rain a kind of Russian legend or something to do with Russia?

The series is set in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist 200 or more years later.
Darcia and Jagara both use what suspiciously looks like transmutation circles. Also, the Moon Crucible is actually the Philosopher's Stone, which helps open Paradise and complete Darcia's transformation into wolf form.
 * The titular wolves could be some kind of chimeras.
 * Cheza is a wolf/moon orchid chimera. Darcia I made her (and her kind) look human for some weird reason.
 * Or millions of years earlier

Kiba can't complete his quest to open a true paradise without Myu.
Myu's imprisonment in the  was a deliberate attempt to sabotage Kiba by keeping her out of the picture. If she had joined the party and became Kiba's mate, she no doubt would have fought fiercely to protect Kiba from  perhaps more than any of the wolves had, perhaps just enough to stop him from corrupting the reborn Earth, though.

Blue DID make it to paradise
As Hige's wife, she was at home with the kids. This is why we don't see her in the final ending scene.

The whole world revolves around Fractal Theory.
Ever since I finished Wolf's Rain, it reminded me of Fractal Theory as explained in Jeremiah. The two strange attractors in Wolf's Rain were Kiba and Darcia, and the variable was the lunar flower. If Darcia had won by keeping the flower from making it to the end of the world, the next incarnation would have been a twisted hellscape without the flowers - or at least would have been closer to one by the absence of Cheza's kind. There is no end, only a different phase.

They actually did make it......sort of.
When I first watched the series, the ending actually implied to me that those shots of each character's individual paradise was really happening, meaning that the entire time, Paradise was more or less a wolf afterlife.
 * Same here, I've always assumed that the rest got their happy ending, as they sought something personal. Only Kiba remains running, because he never had anything but the journey to Cheza. Also, if you look at the city, it looks less oppressive and grim.