In the scene in the movie where Belldandy and Celestin watch Morgan and her friend get separated by the Judgment Gate, we never learn who the friend was. He was possibly early European, such as a Celt, and had a harp or lute on his back which might make him a bard. Well someone with more time on their hands than me did some research and came up with a name, Myyridin. That's an early Celtic name for a mythological figure who later became Merlin. Myyridin (or Myrddin) started as a celtic bard who went mad when he lost all his loved ones in a battle. He ran off to live in the wilderness, could talk to animals, and gained the gift of prophesy. That he could be the guy with Morgan is possible, several versions of his story have him being the one who taught Morgan Le Fay her magic.

Celestin's punishment in the movie also tells us something about how things work in Belldandy's world. Essentially, his access to Yggdrasil or its heavenly equivalent was turned off, making it impossible for him to create a body, and his animating spirit was placed into an object that couldn't be manipulated to move or function in any way. His intelligence remained, but could no longer influence the reality around him while still remaining linked to a physical object. When Morgan rescued him and agreed to be his partner,  he could then access Yggdrasil through

her connections. So when his intellect becomes dominant, her body changes to his because that's how Yggdrasil recognizes him.

When he possesses Keiichi though, he can only make external changes, clothes and external program markings, because Keiichi's body is separate from his intellect and it would require a separate transformation to change it to resemble Celestin's, and that might mess up Celestin's access to Yggdrasil.

I didn't notice this until the fourth or fifth time I saw the scene and then it wasn't until many more viewings that I realized this was an important plot event.

Right after Urd arrives at the convention center and threatens Celestin after he's freed Belldandy's memories, he lets go of Bell, who turns around and weaves about for a bit before focusing somewhat on Urd. We see by a confusion of images that Belldandy is having flashbacks to the vordhr (guardian angel) attack on Celestin and levatates off the floor. Then (this is the subtle part) if you watch closely, she shrinks slightly in her clothes before announcing "Don't harm Celestin!" to who-

ever she thinks is there and attacking Urd.

After a short, but intense, battle between Bell, Urd, Holy Bell, and World of Elegance, Urd warns Bell she's being used. This gets through to Belldandy's inner consciousness, she shudders, then goes into an emotional collapse, symbolized by Holy Bell retreating in pain back into Bell and her wind element powers raging out of control around her. Then Keiichi arrives, and once again saves Bell from her torment by providing her a focus to grab onto, one true emotional point, as it were, when all others are suspect. Bell grabs hold of her emotions and passes out.

Then we have what at first seemed a rather confusing scene with a naked grown up Belldandy rising out of a watery surface to confront, comfort, and embrace a younger looking Belldandy. The gist of this conversation is that older Bell would accept and feel the other's pain and together they would face whatever was to come. Then she wakes up to discover Keiichi in a soggy state next to her, and based on her sleeves, she's returned to her normal size (important).

At first this sequence of events, while confusing in spots, wasn't nearly as bothersome to me as what val heid meant. But as I kept closely watching the movie (trying to find new hidden references and guest shots) I began to realize it wasn't my imagination, Belldandy really does shrink. So what did it mean, since it was important enough to animate? Then I connected the water scene and how I thought Yggdrasil worked, and came up with this.

When Urd gave that potion to Belldandy, it didn't erase the emotions of loss and betrayal that were incapacitating her, it just separated them from her active consciousness. (Urd even says at one point that not even heaven can permanently erase memories.) In other words, it transferred all Bell's telemetry records for the events involved to a separate file that she couldn't access. The movie depicts this rather graphically in the scenes after Urd gives Bell the potion. First Bell sheds a tear, which splashes and becomes a blue ball, which then rises past Belldandy in her bed. As it floats past the bubble becomes transparent revealing a young, nude Belldandy clasping herself in a position of grief, the same position she's seen in later in the water scene.

This left a break in Bell's life's records at the point where Celestin revolted, the absence of which caused a vague confusion but didn't really effect her functioning. (Celestin did something similar with her memories of Keiichi.) When Celestin unlocked those memories, he unlocked her telemetry as well, causing Ygdrassil to go back to creating Bell's physical body at the age she was when it happened. Belldandy came to thinking at first that it was the day Celestin was captured and resumed defending him, and her body changed to reflect this younger Bell. Hence the shrinkage.

If you watch carefully, as she bends backwards while floating, her arms recede into her sleeves and her bust becomes smaller, symbolizing that her body now reflects the younger Belldandy we just saw in Celestin's flashback. Finally Urd got through to her current consciousness, which caused Bell great internal confusion as she tried to sort out the conflicting memories and emotions. She was losing this battle until Keiichi called out to her, giving her a strong emotional link to focus on, but the shock caused her to pass out.

The water scene then symbolizes the current Bell confronting the younger, emotionally damaged part of her life that had been separated and sealed. Now older, more mature, and supported by a love she can count on, Bell accepts the pain and loss that had incapacitated her before, and recombines it with her main memories. This makes her far stronger than she was, and ready to face further possible loss, something she hadn't been able to do before. It also returns her to her normal physical form.

In the big movie fight scene in the conference center, Belldandy successfully defends Celestin from all of Urd's attacks and easily keeps her eldest sister on the defensive. But didn't she say early in the series that Urd was much more powerful than her? She did, but I think it was a matter of her perception (and/or Mr. Fujishima changing his mind). As Urd's younger sister, Bell grew up with the knowledge that Urd was initially more powerful than her because of their age difference. And lacking any real aggressiveness except in defense of people she loves, Bell doesn't put the force and effort into her general attacks that Urd does, so she just kept assuming  that Urd  was stronger than her.

And Urd has been quite willing to go along with this perception, even though she KNOWS who's really the most powerful now, having seen what Bell can do when motivated. That's one reason she's a little afraid of what might happen should Belldandy lose it completely. She's been there and knows she couldn't stop her.

Of course Urd was also holding back in the fight. Like I said, she wouldn't want to hurt Belldandy, just Celestin. And I'm sure you've noted the difference between what she tosses at Belldandy and what she produced at the end of the movie to attack the scythe monster. That was an impressive bit of lightening, easily up to the level Belldandy was describing back when she was telling Keiichi how powerful Urd was right after she arrived. (like mother, like daughter, that's Urd) Her attacks at the convention center were barely on the map compared to that.

Skuld's magic shows a great deal of improvement in the movie. When she impulsively lashes out at Celestin, she's strong enough to injure him (and Morgan), and floods the area with the backlash of her water-element powers. The movie also shows her levitating herself and being able to both teleport and lift Keiichi. She's seen supporting Nobel Scarlet at goddess levels and using her with skill and power. (As seen in the final singing scene, Skuld and Scarlet are holding their own with the others). Obviously, Skuld has matured and

become a lot stronger in the movie than she is in the current Dark Horse releases. (The future stories explain and highlight this growth, but any details would be spoilers.) This is one of my points in saying the movie hasn't occurred yet in the manga.

As for why she could take out a god as powerful as Celestin, he's really only as strong as Morgan could be, and isn't particularly aggressive. In the whole previous fight he just stood there while Belldandy did all the work. And I don't think he was expecting any serious attack from Skuld, the last time he would have seen her she was still very much "just a kid". So he really wasn't prepared for it. Finally, as seen in the Sentaro arc, Skuld was already capable of surges of adult strength power back then. Her level of surge power could only have increased. So in a moment of rage, our goddess of the future and her angel should have been able to produce quite a powerful attack, and Celestin wouldn't have been expecting it.

My guess, based on what Chrono said earlier in the movie about how the virus was in sync with Belldandy's telemetry (I won't say emotions, though that would be a part of it), is that when Bell saw Keiichi being kissed, she was hit with one of her infamous jealousy storms (like she told Keiichi on the porch) and the energy surge caused a corresponding spike in the virus's activity in Yggdrasil. (The movie also made a point of showing Belldandy's power breaking all those glasses and bottles at the motor club welcome party when she becomes jealous after seeing Sora rubbing herself against Keiichi.) This may have been part of Celestin's plan, though how he could have arranged the timing is questionable

The scene in question is part of my evidence that each god, goddess, or demon is their own source for the directions that keep Yggdrasil (or heaven) fabricating their body. The vaccine has disrupted the process and is examining the command chains and files that make up Belldandy, looking for foreign elements while temporarily disassembling parts of her. Those parts are still real as far as our world is concerned though, Yggdrasil could do that to anything here if it was so instructed. Afterwards, much like a real vaccine, it was supposed to  attach  program  patches (antibo-

dies) to these foreign command strings and render them inert. Of course this time it didn't work.

The danger in this process lies in that as memories and personality elements are also additions to her basic program (existence), they might also be rendered inert as well.

Despite what's been printed on other sites, that's not Thor cutting down Yggdrasil. Thor uses a hammer, as a god would be protecting Yggdrasil, and would be the same size as the other gods (goddesses). In all likelihood that's supposed to be Surt, the first fire giant, or one of the other giants destined to try and destroy Yggdrasil during Ragnarok. In many versions of the story this attempt at destruction is necessary to trigger  the  world's  restoration after

Ragnarok, so symbolically action by a primeval giant against Yggdrasil embodies both destruction and rebirth.

The confusion probably comes from the title of the accompanying soundtrack, which I've been told is something like "Thor Hammetsu?" Still I stand by my objections, that can't have been intended to be Thor. Considering the effort made with Belldandy's rune reading, the loom style controls in Yggdrasil central, and his past use of Norse names for things in general, I have to believe Mr. Fujishima at least cares about getting it right when he bothers. Not that he's bothering too hard. More likely the music title is the work of someone who could only think of Thor when trying to name a big, hairy, destructive divine being, but the scythe monster is as much a computer program as Gunigir and as such couldn't be a god.

Mr. Fujishima appears to have given us a huge clue in the movie as to what he may have had in mind when he made our goddesses Norns. It occurs after Yggdrasil's roots have been cut off from the earth and the energy of creation is spewing forth. First, Belldandy rallies her sisters and the three of them seemingly contain the energy outflow with little effort and then use it to easily reconstruct the connections. Now heaven (Peorth and the command center) couldn't do that with all their (admittedly beat up) resources and indeed aren't sure how it IS being done. But our three Norns had the knowledge and strength within them to do it almost on their own. (It appeared to me that the other goddesses in the control room were sort of compelled to sing along with Bell and her sisters, adding their strength and knowledge to the task without really choosing to do so, but not really fighting it either.)

Side note. (I really don't understand how Celestin's plan was supposed to create the better world he kept talking about. It wouldn't have sped up personal development, all it would probably do was sterilize our universe. Sort of like too much fertilizer on a garden. Which is what Belldandy was trying to say, I think. For a supposedly wise god, he really didn't know much about practical things like revolts and changing systems. I guess it would be a case of more theory than practice.)

So since the Norns are mythologically credited with maintaining and reviving Yggdrasil, it may be our goddesses have a special empathy that allows them to recreate parts of the Yggdrasil system when needed. The song-spell to do it would be buried in them and only come out in times of need. (Not to be confused with recreating the universal superstring, that Yggdrasil can do on its own. This is recreating Yggdrasil itself.) If they can restore the World Tree, they restore creation. And conversely, if they were able destroy it, they would end the world. And those abilities would certainly be within the job description of a Norn.

Making a movie is a complicated effort, and an animated one even more so. All sort of errors can sneak in when mixing together scenes done at different times and locations and it's the job of the continuity directors to make sure they don't. For the most part they did a fine job in Ah! My Goddess, but they did miss a big one. At the very end, when Bell and Keiichi are saying farewell to Celestin, Keiichi has Celestin's markings back on his face.

Earlier, just before the Judgment Gate scene, Keiichi regains control of his body from Celestin while Belldandy is protecting from his face and Celestin's face mask medallion appear from his hand, symbolizing his rejection from Keiichi's body. (The medallion was probably slipped into Keiichi by Morgan when she kissed him, most likely through hand contact but if you want to think orally, go ahead.) After that, Celestin remains separate from Keiichi and K-1's face remains free of markings. Bell and Keiichi pass the Judgment Gate, then Bell saves the world with help from Skuld and Urd, and finally rejoins Keiichi for the big closing scene. And there, back on Keiichi's face are Celestin's markings, even though Celestin isn't speaking through Keiichi's mouth. So either K-1 let Celestin have one last fling as a living being or the continuity director missed something between the two production teams animating the different sequences.