Let’s see what our card game buddies are up to.
– Sometimes, the humor works. You initially see this first-person perspective, so you think our heroes are in for a wild ride. But this is all that’s happen, so Favaro’s just screaming at the top of his lungs for no good reason.
– Somehow, our heroes find themselves in an enchanted forest. It’s clear that they got here by boat, but still, was this enchanted forest just nearby? Or has some significant amount of time has passed? Honestly, I like the various settings in this show. I almost wish this was a longer anime so we could explore the rest of this world. After all, with just twelve short episodes on hand, it becomes difficult to imagine how our characters can manage to go from one place to another in such a short amount of time.
– It’s hard to respect this king…
– …which is why it’s even harder to see Jeanne in such a state. She has done so much for the kingdom and its people, and now, she’s being executed without a fair trial. How can any of these soldiers honestly stomach this? Who would you rather follow? The shameful king or the people’s savior? But when it comes right down to it, I guess most of these soldiers are just cowardly. This seems to be the prevailing opinion, unfortunately. Then when tragedy befalls them in a similar fashion, they undoubtedly wonder why it has come to this.
– But to be fair, these soldiers have at least some excuse. This is the world of gods and demons, after all. In other words, they can mistakenly assume that the king’s decree is also the gods’ decree. Of course, the gods have also constantly blessed Jeanne, bestowing upon her the finest of heaven’s armaments. So from my point of view, it’s more likely that you’d be siding with the gods if you help Jeanne out. As for modern day cowards, I have no idea what their excuse is. In any case, maybe one of Jeanne’s former soldiers will hopefully set an example and help her out before she’s burned at the stake.
– And of course she’s getting burned at the stake. It’s Jeanne d’Arc!
– Ah, the last temptation of Jeanne.
– So Kaisar catches up to Favaro and Amira, and they pretend to struggle with each other for a bit. There’s no pretending on Amira’s end, though. Anyway, our knight even manages to break Favaro’s short sword. The latter should probably find himself something that isn’t so cheaply made.
– Somehow, our three heroes get sucked into… a different plane to reality? The idea seems cool, but for some reason, the animation quality takes a dump on itself.
– Everyone sees a barb stuck in the ground, so they decide to try and remove it. Why? I mean, this is obviously a “The Sword in the Stone” moment for our heroes, but the story seems rushed. With a sword, I can understand the basic motivation behind trying to pull it out of the stone. After all, a sword is useful. Meanwhile, our heroes get sucked into a different plane, sees a giant barb on the ground, so they all decide to try and remove it? Again, the story seems rushed because we’re not really given a good reason why our heroes would suddenly care about some barb.
– As fate has ordained it, Favaro is the only person who can remove the barb. And in doing so, he gains the gratitude of some forest dragon who claims to be the eternal observer of the world. Apparently, the barb came from Bahamut itself. Wait, old forest dragon? Oh god, we’re not going to get exposition, are we? No… noooooooooo!
– Elsewhere, gods and demons are rallying their troops for one final encounter. Hey, this beats listening to some old dragon talk about Bahamut in a dry fashion.
– Let’s get down to brass tacks. Amira will awaken Bahamut if she gets close to the damn thing, and they’ll merge forever or something. And when that happens, Bahamut will lay waste to the entire world. The only way to avoid this, according to the forest dragon, is for Amira to chill out with this forest dragon for eternity. You’ll recall, of course, that Amira is developmentally a child. So not only do you tell a child that she’s trapped in some empty plane for eternity, she also won’t get to see her mother. You can thus imagine what her reaction would be.
– But like most anime protagonists, Favaro delivers an inspiring speech about how fate can totally be changed, and that they are the ones to do it. Well, it sounds a little better coming from Favaro and not a high school kid riding a mecha.
– Plus, how can we even trust this forest dragon? What if he’s lying to us? C’mon, if some old dude tells you that you have to stay with him or else the world would end, would you honestly believe that?
– And hey, what do you know! That barb now becomes Favaro’s weapon. I’m sure this one won’t break in what was supposed to be a pretend swordfight.
– Meanwhile… oh c’mon, even the civilians know that this treatment of Jeanne is wrong and outrageous! But of course, the soldiers continue to do nothing. Blah blah blah, this is the king’s decree. The world is full of cowards. Lavalley will try to talk some sense in the king, but at this point, there’s nothing you can do but depose this weak and ineffectual ruler.
– As for Rita, she didn’t get much of a spotlight this week, but she nevertheless manages to run into some trouble all by herself. With her friends far, far away from her, we can thus expect Rita to somehow save herself as well.
– With the barb, Favaro manages to open a portal back to the original world. But when we next see our trio, they’ve already arrived at the location where Amira’s mother is currently held. Did he open a portal straight there, or did they walk from the enchanted forest to this location? Again, the story feels rushed.
– Before he could join his friends, however, Favaro receives some ominous information from the forest dragon: if he wants to keep Bahamut sealed away, he has to kill Amira. But again, why would you trust some crusty being from a separate plane of existence?
– Plus, Favaro just went on and on about how they can totally change fate, so it’s just silly to me that Amira suddenly has to die. Oh well, it’s likely that our heroes will figure something out anyway.
Filed under: Anime, Series, Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis Tagged: Anime, Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis
