Yeah, army rest with 5 episodes left for the season. Episode 3 in all was better for me from a storytelling perspective, the pace was improved. And indeed, didn't care for the love life with the token blind girl to "humanize" him.Originally Posted by shinta|hikari
Still, this season has been a disappointment so far. The previews though look promising to me, time for some pirating maybe?
Such a pity. It was a perfect opportunity to make Arslan his own man, yet it was all wasted by giving him back his old gang who do absolutely everything for him, even to the point of correcting his deadly mistakes. It's like this story is trying to tell a perfect king is one who can be all mellow and benevolent even under the most difficult situations because he never needs to do the difficult things by himself. That's no king but a puppet. Instead he should have got perhaps only the rogue to keep him alive and grant him access to shady places and teach him street smarts. Then he could have become like a good version of the Silver mask.
I wonder if the author didn't realise this or perhaps he thought he didn't have a choice as the story would have changed too much if he couldn't have kept writing about Arslan with his jolly crew anymore.
I agree on Silver mask's case: There was absolutely no need to try to make him more humane with the love affair. He was a better character as a deranged person with no excuses but the history of injustice and vengeance.
Episode 4 is out:
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=833380
I liked this episode better than the rest of this season. Judgment still out on the stories sudden direction, but at least it does seem like the story settled down. Only 4 more episodes, so it seems like we'll have a mini-arc here and be done with it. It does seem like a tangent story, though it gives us some insight into how potential allies are viewing his policies, particularly from people that would be or could've been sympathizers to his cause.
And here's episode 5:
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=835705
Everything soooo predictable in this one. At least the after credits scene showed some promise, but in all the episode had little to offer other than moving the pieces along to whatever confrontation is coming.
Arslan has become too much of a useless character, at best a side character.
This should be titled The Heroic Legend of Narsus.
Peace.
The Heroic Legend of Narsus: The Sword of Daryun.
...Why the fuck do Narsus and Arslan have hawk eyes? They saw Daryun going back to back with the sea man from the PORT.
And you know what makes no fucking sense? Why Andragoras didn't kill the older brother dude before throwing him off the carriage. The pursuers would've stopped to check anyway, so there was no gain from letting him go unscathed...
Peace.
If he's thrown off alive, at least some of the guards (if not all) need to stay back to keep him safe.
Also the port isn't that far away.
Androgoras is a sweet name though. Totally off-topic I wish my name was Androgoras V. Barocruz.
Wasn't that far away? You can't have ship battles close enough to the port to see that much detail. There were tons of ships surrounding the pirate fleet from the overhead shot of the battle. It's not like 50 feet away.
Having some of the guards stay behind is irrelevant. None of the guards caught up to him after getting delayed. More guards chasing after him won't matter because none could reach him, which is also nonsensical because he's in a carriage on they are on horseback.
Peace.
Here's episode 6:
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=837910
Easily the best episode this season. Now, there was no Arslan and company in this one... not sure if it's a coincidence.
Also, with everyone so fractured, we really don't have that big impregnable force we had in the beginning on the series, which should make things easier, but we'll see how goals change after this, if any.
Etoile confirmed as Arslan's bitch.
Peace.
I wonder how no one commented on her being a girl, except Alfreed's brother. Once she let out the long hair, which she has always been careful to hide, it should've been obvious to everyone there, yet no one seemed to care for it... unless I miss something.
Does it matter to them? She's just a criminal to be executed from their POV.
Peace.
I wonder why the former princess was to be burned, though. Isn't that a fate reserved for heretics and witches? She was of the same faith as the ones intending to burn her. Since Etoile was about to simply lose her head, the same should have been happening to the princess as well, considering they shared the exact same accusation.
Episode 7 - HS
- - - - - - --
The plot was painfully transparent in this one. I suppose it's true that if the rotten merchant friend hadn't really needed to use his head for a long time, getting away with elementary tricks like this, then he wouldn't immediately recuperate enough to cook up a plan that would fool Narsus. But still, pirates gleefully telling of some fabulous treasure hidden on a deserted island... That's something a 10 years old would come up with. Even Arslan himself wouldn't have swallowed that one. It's something meant for greedy idiots like the previous viceroy.
I don't even know what to say about Etoile's request. Is she bereft of her wits? She comes to Arslan to ask him to help the very leader of the invaders who caused so much death and suffering in the country. It's possible the loser king would make a deal of immediately withdrawing if he's saved, but even considering such a hypothetical case, Etoile is acting like an entitled fool. Arslan could never help the enemy king. Even if he ended up saving him, it would need to be a side effect of helping Pars.
It'll be a side effect of conquering that king's country.
And are you joking about Narsus? NO ONE can trick that guy.
Peace.
EPISODE 8:
---------------------------------------------------
Androgoras is such a fucking alpha male yo
Etoile promising all those things with no backing whatsoever was pretty funny. I'm glad they pointed it out to her. While the weak king indeed might readily agree to anything, it's also true that a weak king would as soon forget what he promised if he was faced with another tough situation, such as all of his generals (and his brother if still alive) arguing against withdrawing. There's no promise a man like that could give that anyone sane would believe until everything is finished. Another detail worth noticing is that Etoile only readily gave those empty promises, but promised nothing that she would actually be capable of promising, such as a offering her own sword to Arslan. But then again, if Arslan wouldn't be likely to think her way to begin with, she wouldn't have come at all. One might instead think that her personal mission was to bring the news, that's it. The soft and naive Arslan would be doing things this was even if she hadn't begged so pitifully.
A battle of 3.5 armies ought to be interesting in any case.
And season 2 comes to a close, didn't care for much of it. I thought season 1 was much more stronger. If they don't make season 3, season 2 was pretty much of a waste of an effort.
Things were going to get interesting now with a free-4-all of armies.
Why the hell do people in this show keep letting enemy leaders go when they have such great chances of killing them? A lot of this story feels cheap, but that's the cheapest part.
Etoile better let Arslan dip his stick in her for rebelling at her request.
Peace.
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