Nice attention to detail the Anastasia age thing was something discussed in the spoiler chat in discord.
Melia and Marianette are definitely different versions of the same person for the following reasons
- Heavily implied during the Angie events
- Melia and Marianette never meet when we return to the past which possibly to eliminate the issue of the 2 of them touching each other like Melanie attempted to do
-They both have an affinity for normal type Pokémon as Melia was the original normal type leader
Madame X’s identity while ultimately still a mystery until its confirmed has me convinced that She is also a version of Maria/Marianette. To understand this I propose the theory that Rejuvenation’s story is taking place in a cycle where the events of certain parts in history as she knows it, are playing themselves out endlessly.
The cycle to which I think she’s stuck in can be considered the Indriad Lock (Vitus’s wife Dies, Indriad is born, Wife’s corpse and daughter are sacrificed) the reason I proposed this idea is because at the beginning of the game. Madame X clearly states “How many times will I have to see this girl suffer” which means this isn’t the first time she’s visiting that event.
In order to understand this, you have to accept the idea that the events in the prologue is a different interpretation of the Indriad lock and that during its most recent rotation, our character gets involved. The 2 are separate incidents involving seperate versions of Maria, Anathea and, Vitus
Evidence to support my theory are as follows
-Yveltal(tied to vitus and Melanie)
- Madame X clearly states that our character is a wild card which ultimately changes the way the events of the past plays out the first time we visit (“why are you so important everything, you weren’t there the first time)
-Madame X wearing a mask is solely a narrative decision to hide her face because if we could see it and didn’t recognize her. It wouldn’t make sense. We clearly know who she is but that hasn’t been revealed yet.
- If you defeat madame x’s Yveltal, she’ll lament her defeat by declaring her failure to her father which is possibly. Vitus or Lord Xendain. Lord Xenadin can very well be vitus as we don’t know what really happened to him in the modern era.
another thing to note is that Melanie is Alternate melia but she doesn’t seem to be designed as a melia Alternative. She shares more similarities with Maria/Marianette. Madame X wants Melia’s power and honestly the most logical way for her to get it is to absorb melia. If she were Marianette then this would be possible. This also means Melanie could absorb madame x or vice versa if they touched but considering it WAS madame X that warns melia against touching her. It’s a likely possibility that she knew because it was something she also had to avoid at all cost. Melanie’s age is also much closer to Marianettes age and if you actually fail and let melia get absorbed. Melanie does actually grow to be melia’s Height.
the last bit of circumstantial evidence can be taken in a couple ways. If melia is absorbed. Madame X’s Armour is seen empty which is displayed to show us that she dies too, but it can also be taken as Madame X was absorbed after her Armour was removed by Melanie. Melanie absorbed Melia is already way too strong, so her absorbing madame X after capturing her and failing to subjugate her like she does with everyone else isn’t the most wild guess.
This is all just speculation though