Grancrest Senki

And now I feel like we know Marrine and Alexis more than the main characters. I got pretty invested in their story too.

Alexis is such a fun fellow. Can't help but like him.

Villar used some advanced sophistry, to make total bullshit sound reasonable, Kudos.

I still can't get a hang of Marrine motivations. Like, I really don't see any reason why she acts the way she does besides the fact that the story needs a conflict.

The fact there is no logical reason for why she acts the way she does is probably the point. She's being overly emotional just in a way we're not use to seeing played out. Its very rare we get to see a "villain" have their head and the heart pull them in two different directions. That's usually a conflict reserved for the protagonists.

The thing is, we don't really get any reasoning for the "head" part of this conflict. She goes from deducing that someone arranged the attack on the wedding straight into "I guess it was just not meant to be!" with no step in between, and it does not really follow. Like yeah, now they know that someone evil and powerful wants to prevent the wedding, but that's just an obstacle not something that invalidates the idea of marriage itself.

Previously I though that she might be under political pressure from her own side to cancel the whole thing, but not only we don't actually see anything like that, her response to one Lord getting uppity with her is "let's see if he'll still be a smartass after I invade his lands and kick his ass!" so that doesn't seem likely.

So yeah, either I'm missing something here, or the story does because the whole thing seems like artificially created conflict to me.

I'm having flashbacks to our conversations about the motives of Siluca's adoptive father after episode 4. We're just constantly missing out on context. At this point the only question is whether it's a directorial choice to trim the expository dialogue from the original novels (probably for time and pacing) or if it's a problem that the original novels have that is just carried over to the anime.

Yeah, I know the usual advice is Show, Don't Tell, but in this case, they're telling us so little that what they're showing makes little sense.

Its both. I don't know about Marrine's motivations but I do know the novel has a few scenes of Silluca's dad being affectionate and loving towards her. However its still not explained why he's being such a dick to her. So its more like the anime is cutting out some characterization but what its cut out STILL doesn't explain things.

Wasn't there a line in this episode hinting that Marine thinks that there is a conspiracy to prevent her marriage to Alexis? Like, she believes someone or something is directly trying to stop peace on the Continent and I believe, the creation of the Grancrest which is why they had that demon crash in their wedding and kill their parents. I think she's pulled away from Alexis because she fears that if she doesn't stop the conspiracy or whoever was behind that attack before they try to be together, they'll target them both next and she fears for Alexis' life.

It would be somewhat in character then, given that we have seen that Marine is way more the pessimist and realist of the two, seeming to deal with war and politics in a way less idealistic way than Alexis. I can imagine her then making a plot while in the shadows trying to understand who was responsible for the demon summoning and what they intend to do before she risks having Alexis in the enemy sights once again. However, then she'd be embroiled in a ton of issues trying to keep the side she controls in order and running smoothly while keeping a tense balance between peace and war.

edited 25th Feb '18 2:00:13 AM by daltar

Notice the rank difference.

Alexis is not his father, and he doesn't have his father's full Crest - he's a marquis and not an archduke (suggesting that some of the Union lords haven't sworn allegiance to him, likely because he's not going to push it like Marrine is doing). Accordingly, Alexis and Marrine combining their power would not create the Grancrest, but it would put them in spitting distance of it and thus paint a really big target on both of their heads. Obviously, the conspiracy against their parents will go into panic mode, but also, not having the Grancrest will have ambitious underlings (Villar, quite possibly) smelling blood in the water. Being almost-but-not-quite Emperor and Empress is a reeeeally dangerous position, particularly with Alexis not exactly being very strong.

Speaking of Villar, I really want to know what his game is. Episode 8 said as much: based on the facts on the ground, he should take control of the Union, declare himself Archduke, and continue the war for keeps. His reason for not wanting to continue the war based on family ties to Marrine' doesn't pass the smell test, and him and Alexis both punting just means that Marrine can reinforce and counterattack. He knows that, so what else does he know?

Episode out:

Well this wasn't so hard, 10 episodes in and they kissed already. Theo was silky smooth this episode.

Marrine really dosen't mess around.

That last scene.... I feel unclean now.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

That last part of the episode made me feel gross too. Which I guess was the intent. Poor Alexis. He needs to find a better woman.

Dunno, I have kinda rambling thoughts about that last scene.

I still like Marine and to a certain extent I think like... if their genders were reversed and Marino was being a ruthless warrior conquering the continent for love of Alexia and to keep her safe and at some point some brown skinned babe from a foreign country said she'd join him and give him troops but to bind the pact they'd have to sleep together a lot of people would be more willing to forgive Marino than Marine. Hell, some would celebrate him.

And online in some other places I'm seeing people HATING Marine a whole lot over this... like the point where they see her as a despicable and dumb villain.

I dunno, it follows her ruthless and pragmatic attitude so far and it is not a role that is usually given to such a still sympathetic female character. Hell, she and Alexis seem to be genderbends of the protagonists of another tale with Alexis as a woman would be the cliche perfect and kind Princess wanting peace and waiting for her Prince to cleave earth and heaven for them to be together again.

But still... it remained an uncomfortable scene even as framed... and really, the whole request was very much steeped in conventional sexuality with the whole "I want to conquer you" and how a powerful lady seemed to make him hot so he wants her to be 'his' by sex. I dunno, I almost wish Marine had asked him whenever he also asked Villar to sleep with him before they were allies. Then there was the whole maid crying while undressing Marine and her own obvious discomfort even if beforehand she was acting strong and nonchalant about it. It is kinda 'realistic' but I wish they had even called him out and not done it or for Marine to have owned the moment, told her maid not to be so dramatic and think the whole thing a dumb requirement but nothing too big to do... but still, the whole thing is really complicated and I'm rambling enough already.

I've mostly seen people cheering for Milza and calling Alexis a baby for being such a sensitive and kind person and that he deserves to have his woman stolen. So, you know, people being fandumb.

New episode is out. The Heroes are so screwed.

In case anyone had any doubts that Millza is a psycho, he killed his father. Wow.

Who though of attacking a place that has a freaking laser beam for defense? Milza is not much of a strategist it seems.

It feels like we wasted whole episode on Milza not quite reaching the shore and Marine crushing some bit players mostly off-screen, while completely skipping on how Theo defeated a force over 10 time bigger than his. Weird.

I too found that weird. Also Villar is probably going to die next episode since its titled "The Fall of Castle Unicorn". Theo and co will probably end up serving under Alexis once that happens.

I don't think he realised they had mirror lasers.

Well that went about how I expected albeit I didn't think all but one of the mage girls would be killed. Especially the glasses girl getting brutally axed like that. That nord bitch can get fucked. God all the villains in this show are utterly despicable. Why can't there be at least one noble demon among the villains?

I'm kinda just watching this to see Milza die horribly later now.

I keep forgetting this is a 2 cour series. Feels like we're approaching a finale.

edited 16th Mar '18 9:07:52 PM by BlackYakuzu94

Did that mage girl just kill herself for no discernible reason?

I'll give the series this- it does a good job portraying how pointless and nonsensical the war is, but indeed not making much sense. No one, including Marrine seems all that into that war, and yet it happens. Well, except Milza but he's just a rabid dog.

I'd also like to mention that we barely seen our main character for the last 2 episodes, which is almost 1/5 of the series run up to now.

She killed herself because of honor I guess. She was truly loyal to Villar and didn't want to work for his killers. Short haired girl had more sense and just wanted to help the wounded like Villar asked her to.

I'm surprised no one but me actually mentioned how brutal and abrupt the glasses girl's death was.

"I'll kill myself, that'll show them!" - Honor Before Reason at it's finest, I guess.

I still don't get it what about Villar that inspired this sort of loyalty anyway. He was just kind of a mood fop from what we've seen.

And if he's just going to give Marrine his crest and encourage her, then couldn't he just surrendered in the first place? Or is it another honor thing? Because this series sure makes a good case of honor being stupid.

He was aware that he couldn't surrender. Marrine would have just killed him anyway. So he decided to go out swinging instead of dying on his knees. That was the vibe I got anyway.

Recap episode. Move along.