So Lady Eboshi wants to rule everything basically?
No, she just wants to take care of her people. Her village is made of outcasts. People who have leprosy, women she rescued who were originally sold into sex slavery, etc. She wants to build it to become a noble city to spite the rest of the country which tossed out those people.
She killed a lot of the forrest so that's why the animals and spirits hate her correct?
Yes, but that's because her village is a mining village. She needs to cut down parts of the forest to reach the next iron deposit. The spirits hated that she was going into their territory and killed her people first. So of course it was natural for her to kill them back, they drew first blood.
When an animal dies, does it automatically become a demon or is it just certain animals?
Only animal gods can become demons. And that's when their magic is filled with miasma.
Why did those guys want the head of the forrest spirit? What was their goal?
The Emperor was the one that wanted it. He assumed it would give him immortality. Possibly by eating its flesh like that in mermaid folklore. Shishigami is the god of life and the god of death so it makes sense to him that it would give him eternal life. You are what you eat lol. The guys were doing such a dangerous mission because the Emperor promised to protect their home village from barbarians and get a fuck ton of money.
Why was the movie named after San? The movie felt like it barely had anything to do about her. Ashitaka was definitely the driving force of the movie and made the most impact on characters. How is she a princess?
She is the [adoptive] daughter of a mononoke god, so that makes her a mononoke princess. San is what bridges the gap between humans and mononoke, her existence what what everyone in that world should strive for--a balance between nature and mechanization. That's the whole message of the movie.
What was resolved at the end? The forrest died, then it came back. So they were back to where they started. Does this mean all the fighting stopped?
Yes, Eboshi realized her foolishness of making a grand city as it was pointless and that having a homely village is just enough. Her people are happy, the forest is happy; spite should not be what they live for. They should live for themselves, not to rub it into the faces of those who shunned them.
Are humans, animals and spirits going to coexist now? Because I don't feel like anything was resolved at the end. Iron Town was going to be rebuilt with Ashitaka's help. Lady Eboshi just gave up her evil ways? What about the samurai army? Did they learn some kind of lesson?
Yup coexist. Eboshi got her arm bit off, it puts a lot into perspective and changes a person; near death experiences. The army just went back home, nothing they could do about a god of life. They'd just have to tell the Emperor shit didn't work out, failed mission, nothing they can do about it. Don't mess around with gods would be the moral.