Guin Saga

[shinta|hikari]

Manhandling is a term that suggests the manner of defeat, and yet you say that you don't care about the manner but the results. The old guy failed, that is the result, but he fought well. He wasn't defeated without forcing Guin to draw his sword, and Guin obviously fought his best to defeat him (just look at his face).

What I am saying is simple. In fights of this level, sometimes, one move decides the winner. That doesn't mean that the skill level is drastically different, which is what manhandling implies.

[Yukimura]

I really didn't want to argue semantics on a word I just kind of threw out there in a best fit scenario but since the dictionary happens to be more neutral/on mine side why not. Manhandling means "to treat roughly" according to the first definition in Mirriam-Webster's dictionary. While this rather vague and subjective, making it a poor word choice on my part, I notice that it doesn't say anything about a difference in skill level between manhandler and manhandlee.

In any case, I can only guess at what the implications the word might have for anyone else but in your case shinta they don't seem to be quite the same as I had in mind when I said it. What I was originally trying to convey was my elation at the domination of Marius by Guin in what effectively amounts to a 'gar' contest in my head. My 'gardar' doesn't take into account just the outcome of battles between characters but also the behavior, actions, and demeanor of the characters leading up to and after the battles and how that all affects my feelings towards them. Guin and Marius' battle only made Marius' 'garness' look weaker relative to how it looked to me before while at the same time making Guin's look even stronger, in large part at Marius' expense. This disparity of Guin seeming to take lots of 'cool points' from Marius but Marius not seeming to take any 'cool points' from Guin at all is what evoked the 'manhandling' comment.

For more clarity I will list all the things that I saw which inspired to feel more 'gar' from Guin while at the same time less from Marius:

• Guin fought Marius in melee combat without taking any blows. (flawless victories are cool, especially against strongly hyped characters)
• Guin disarmed Marius (losing one's weapon just doesn't seem not cool, while taking someone's weapon seems very cool. The cooler the person losing the weapon seems the worse losing it hurts my opinion of them and increases my opinion of their disarmer)
• Guin used Marius' weapon against the Princess causing her to scream like a frightened child.
• Guin's actions induced the Princess to make a rash decisions against Marius' counsel.
• The actions Guin induced as a result of battling Marius played into Guin's hands and contributed to the deaths of many of Marius' men.
• Finally a purely speculative observation, the events stemming from the outcome and aftermath of Guin's battle with Marius may have had a negative psychological affect on the men that witnessed the battle, weakening his standing in their eyes to some degree.

There's no hard evidence of that last one of course and a case could certainly be made that professional soldiers are just as sharp eyed as shinta|hikari at analyzing melee combat and their morale wouldn't be affected by Guin's actions or the responses they elicited in the higher ups. Personally I prefer to think grunts have at least some trouble respecting commanders who show weakness, especially bad guy mooks.

And as an addendum I would like to reiterate that that I am not at all trained in combat or field strategy or military command and my opinions and judgments are merely those of a person seeking to be entertained. I certainly recognize that people more sensitive to the realities of combat or leadership or strategy might see things in a different light then I do but I am not one of those people. I would humbly ask that you take into account that I do not plan to judge anything on this show based on how realistically it depicts anything, unless I explicitly state so.

[shinta|hikari]

I can't believe you made such a long post for this.

You could have just said " I can only guess at what the implications the word might have for anyone else but in your case shinta they don't seem to be quite the same as I had in mind when I said it" and that would have sufficed.

Still, now I understand your point more clearly. I really appreciate it when people know how to use qualifiers when they make their opinion. That's really rare, especially on the net.

[Buffalobiian]

The dictionary definition was certainly mild in nature. I think shinta and I both reckoned "manhandled" was along the lines of "owned".

PS: that "O" word gets thrown around too much in FPShooters.

[Yukimura]

When the word 'gar' is in the lead sentence for a post of mine maybe you should just ignore any opinions or judgments contained therein (or just ignore the whole thing) as they will be based on how I felt watching the episode.

[Buffalobiian]

I sort of looked at the events separately. While I didn't see Guin's win over the old man as a huge pushover (possibly because the Red Lion got the worst of it), Guin did own the Mongols tactically, no doubt about that.

As for Istavan, from his comparatively limited action scenes, he seems to be the fastest and quickest of any warrior we've seen. The Sems might beat in in the "fast" category, but he's seen to be keeping up with the horse at least in the short run when he whipped the guy back in the second last episode.

Guin probably recognised that too, as he sent Istavan to the chase even though he himself knew the land better wasn't immediately preoccupied.

[Yukimura]

That reminds me, after Istvan put on that enemy uniform did we actually see anything of what he did in it or has that been left for a future ep?

[Kraco]

I think it'll be another of Guin's nice and nasty plans. Infiltration works better anyway when there's chaos around, and he certainly already created that with the slime monster. Perhaps amidst that tumult Istavan is supposed to feed false information to the enemy, or something.

[Oniken]

Should check out Frong's release if you guys are still waiting for 08, it's a decent release.

(1280x720) http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=torrentinfo&tid=68036
(960x540) http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=68019

Looks like Guin loses his pants again in the next ep

[Penner]

What the fuck is going on with the subbers for this?
eps 8, 9 and 10 is out but the only subber is some dude named Frong... did everyone suddenly drop this?

[Kraco]

I don't think AniYoshi has dropped this. More likely they are experiencing a delay for one reason or another. Who knows, maybe we'll get a double release once they finally get their stuff together. Depending on which part of the process is causing the delay.

[Buffalobiian]

Delays aren't new for AYoshi. In fact, I've never followed any one of their subs were there weren't at least a few episodes per show that were moderately delayed.

[animus]

Episode 10 by frong

That was fucking badass. I had goosebumps.

The only patchy spots were all the shit that had Astreas in it. I hate that guy.

[Penner]

wut, i get ep 10 from that link -.-

[animus]

Yeah my bad. It's episode 10, edited the orignal post.

[Oniken]

Awesome episode, I'm really getting into the music for this show.

[Penner]

Havent watched in a while so i just finished eps 8-9-10 in a row... EPIC!!

[digitalrurouni]

Ah I am debating if I should keep waiting for AniYoshis release. I still havent seen 5-6-7 yet and they are waiting for me to view them on my hard drive...I guess I will just keep waiting for 8-9-10 to get released by Aniyoshi and have a marathon run.

[oyabun]

Man Mongaul just got smashed. Quality over quantity as some would say.

[Kraco]

I gave up and watched this Frong subs. They were understandable although the stupid TL comments did nothing to make the episodes better. The dude isn't quite as funny as he thinks he is, but beggars can't be choosers, as they say...

Istavan was right about the monkey people: They haven't got too much wits what comes to warfare. As soon as Guin left and his instructions ran out, they became nothing but prey. Istavan fleeing was a funny scene, though. You totally knew he wouldn't go through with it, and so it was only amusing to watch him try to convince himself of the wisdom of leaving the twins behind. His comeback with the sun reflection trick was just like him, though.

Actually Istavan's arrival from the covert op job was also one of the nicest parts of the episode. Didn't take him too long at all to get a slap from Rinda... A nice contrast to how happy the twins were when he suddenly appeared. It's really good for the series Guin and Istavan treat the kids so differently.