Alderamin on the Sky

[Kraco]

Ever heard of contraception? I'm pretty sure the scientific Ikta, who by the way slept with a married woman (so much for being responsible), is smart enough not to sow his seed all over the place.

For these people it must be something like placing a bat wing under the pillow. After all, they don't even know what science is. I'm fairly sure Ikta and his lost scientific brethren weren't studying such a field either. But yeah, he could be taking care of it and with his wits he should, but accidents happen.

Ikta is only taking responsibility for the army because he has no other choice. Marriage is generally something you do by choice.

Back in the day if you made a woman pregnant, you were supposed to take responsibility and marry her, whether you liked it or not. Under normal circumstances for a woman the choice was made by her parents anyway. That's why the suitor had to ask the father for the daughter's hand. If the father didn't agree and wouldn't budge, then that's it.

[shinta|hikari]

Let me rephrase myself then. Ikta would never willingly get married.

And now, this.

[David75]

I was also going to react to the birth control part.
Mankind did learn breeding and understood the process quite early in its societal evolution. Sure they didn't know the minute details we have now, but since the act and fluid exchange are fairly easy to study, the causes and effects were easy to identify too.

Back to Ikta:
His lazy attitude and playboy character would not go too well with mariage. I do not see him marying to have a cover either.
It's possible Yattori does not love him in a romantic way, or/and she can't marry him because Ikta is not worth it with regard to the Igsem familly criterion.

[Buffalobiian]

I highly doubt the effectiveness of early condoms in birth control. It would probably be similar to withdrawal.

I think Ikta would become worthy of being integrated into the Igsem family. The narration suggest he turns into a big shot later.

[David75]

Donkey bowels were used by romans. Basic, but probably effective.
The narration also feels nostalgic, as if it is not a happy ending.

[KrayZ33]

Not sure how peeps could predict ww1-howitzer appearing. not sure how they were supposed to help either, if Air Mortars are a thing, I'm pretty sure they could have the same effect than these things, which might have a bigger punch and range... but why not use 100 mortars instead of super hightech new weapons that might fall into enemy hands because they are on enemy territory right now and all that.

Basically what I'm saying is, what did they do, what mortars couldn't have done? I doubt they try to invade and conquer without siege weapons or basically anything that can shoot in an arc?

[shinta|hikari]

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Supposedly, the regular mortars lack the range and power.

I predicted the cannons through the process of elimination.

[Kraco]

Like I said earlier, it's pretty obvious the foreign military advisor is mainly interested in testing the new weapons and tactics. Why wouldn't he be? This is the best opportunity and Kioka has no specific goals there, I reckon, other than to cause any damage to the Empire. So, even if they were defeated, it would still be a successful mission, as long as the sleepless dude survives, of course. The theocracy might think otherwise, but as far as I can judge the progress of the invasion, the theocracy isn't really up to the task anyway.

[KrayZ33]

Meh, I don't like that explanation, that would mean the Outriders went and trained to ride through a wall of fire that is about ~1km deep or something.

Well, I had some problems understanding how they had delayed the forces for that long anyway.. the scope and size of the fire and forest was always unclear to me. How do they keep a burning forest burning and once everything is burned how do they set fire to it again?
The only way I can think of is:

You start a fire ~2km behind the entrance of the forest, then move back 2km and start a new one once the old one burned out and so on and so forth. But they fought with air guns when they were about to set fire again... which means they have scouts close to their new "fire starting point" and what exactly is stopping ~200 riders to run through them? Their already meager numbers must be stretched thin, otherwise they couldn't keep that wall going.

[shinta|hikari]

I think there was a barricade right after the burning forest fire. So if the riders run through the forest, they are stopped by the barricade and get caught between a forest fire and enemy fire.

That's why the cannons were essential. With the barricade gone, the only problem becomes the burning forest, which they managed to overcome by following directions sent by the balloon about where it is safe to run through. Like you said, Ikta's forces are spread thin, so the fire isn't that comprehensive.

That's just my interpretation though. I watched this while drunk so I'm hazy on the details.

[Kraco]

Episode 13 Final - HS



-- - - - - -- --





Bluffs aren't bad either. The more the enemy strategist thought he's an indispensable hero destined to save his country and the oppressed people of other, lesser countries, the less he could afford to let himself get killed, especially during this sort of mission that's not even about directly defending his home country. He was the kind of dude who started to hesitate once things didn't anymore go according to his plans or even his contingency plans. Like somebody once said, during a fight the worst thing isn't a wrong decision but no decision at all. Ikta's bet on forcing the Sleepless into a situation where he would need to make a decision was crafty, as that opened the path for the possibility he would make the wrong decision (from Kioka's pov).

It's nice the princess isn't a useless extra character. She's actually a super radical. Her own means aren't super large, but she's willing to choose a really long road.

This was quite a smooth ending for the series, making this a far more wholesome ad for the original novels than some other shows ending at a more random point.

[shinta|hikari]

Amazing.

Lelouch got so owned!

To spoil a bit about the LN, which isn't really spoiling since the show has gone past it, the scene between the princess and Ikta and about losing the war happened right after Ikta saved the princess from the kidnappers in the first arc (yes, the one with the awesome post-Igsem-zerker-massacre scene). They moved it to the end of the series, which I believe is a brilliant decision to round everything up.

Ikta and Yatori are clearly in love with each other. Both of them are just too broken to realize that. Oh well, loli princess, who won't be loli in a few years, is good too.

[NeoCybercoin]

Not sure if they are in love with each other or just love each other. Big difference.

[Kraco]

I don't know why they should be "too broken". What's broken about them? Yatori is a proud noble with the skills of a sword saint. Ikta is a proud... womaniser with the mind of a genius. Nothing in their behavior suggests they are broken in any significant way.

[shinta|hikari]

They hardly behave like normal humans do. I used the term broken as a relative adjective to describe that. It isn't necessarily a negative thing, but their mindsets certainly don't belong to the majority or accepted normalcy.

Yatori was brainwashed to be an Igsem heir from childhood, so much so that she would willingly kill Ikta (or so she says) at the cost of tossing away her self.

Ikta is so obsessed with being lazy because his father died doing his best to become a hero. His flightiness and apparent lack of desire to take on responsibilities and ties also stem from that.

They aren't exactly psychologically normal. If not for these issues, I'm pretty sure they'd be shacking up already. I mean come on, look at all their scenes together. They are closer than most spouses and certainly see each other as desirable. They even enjoy physical contact. They just have a barrier they can't cross because of the reasons I stated.

They are so valuable to each other that neither is willing to risk drastically changing the nature of their relationship and destroy that.

[Kraco]

So far those things are only just talk. We don't know if it really happened. I'm sure Yatori could kill Ikta if Ikta became a wicked criminal (not a political criminal, but a real, concrete criminal). But if somebody simply told her to slay Ikta for some ambiguous reason that would obviously be politically motivated... Nah, I don't believe it before I see it.

Ikta keeps preaching about laziness, but in reality he has worked harder to produce real results than any other imperial officer so far, of the ones we have seen at least. He's a realist instead of an idealist. That's not being broken.

If there indeed is something broken about them, it's not sharing the same bed, like you said. Yatori is a bishoujo, and I guess Ikta isn't bad looking either, and they don't hate each other, so... Yeah.

[KrayZ33]

The negotiation was horrible to watch.

If Ikta can play dirty, so can he. Felt like Ikta won because he had to win.

[shinta|hikari]

But he doesn't play dirty because that's his personality. He wants to win in style and is like pride incarnate. Stooping to Ikta's level just to win a single battle will likely weigh him down more in the long run than letting a cheater get a win.

@Kraco - Even if they are only words, they aren't words a normal person would say to the closest peron in their life. The very fact that she could even say those words make her broken.

Ikta wasn't lazy before. He only became "lazy" after his father died. It broke him. Instead of seeing wonder in the world as a scientist, he turned into a cynic who scolds royalty for being... royalty.

To clarify, they aren't necessarily too broken to fix. I just believe they aren't as normal compared to Torway and the gang.

[KrayZ33]

If he were honor and pride incarnate, he wouldn't have given in to Ikta.

[shinta|hikari]

Pride can be placed in many things. He decided to uphold his own principles over winning a skirmish that won't decide the war. He held more pride in his way of doing things over winning a small battle in the bigger picture.

A good analogy would be when playing a multiplayer game you are really good at and you get cheated, would you cheat as well just to beat that player when you can just beat him fairly next time? Cheating just to get even sounds more petty than prideful. Pride (taken in a positive sense) is different from having a big ego after all. Both commonly coincide but are not always the same thing.