Summary
Sheffield transfers Louise’s Void power to Joseph, allowing him to use Explosion to blow up the fire orbs and cause destruction in Romalia. Saito and Tabitha turn up to save Louise, who manages to escape while Saito faces off against Sheffield, managing to beat her with a gun given to him by Julio. While nearly losing against Joseph and his Void power, Acceleration, Louise and Tabitha beat him with their own spells, choosing to have mercy on him and letting him live. As they leave the ship, Joseph and Sheffield choose to blow themselves up, resulting in a new Void mage being born.
Impression
Well, so he wasn’t a bad guy outright, but I DID say that there was more to the Pope than meets the eye. And it seems that Julio was in on it too, since his first allegiance isn’t to Saito and friends, but instead to his master and Romalia. When it’s important for all Void users to be on the same side, inviting one to a country then using her as bait isn’t gonna exactly improve international relations, since now both Saito and Henrietta will be wary of the Pope. So much for sucking up to him, right Louise? xD
There’s more connection between Saito’s Japan and this world than we think, since modern weaponry keeps making its way even to places like Romalia. First the bazooka, then a fighter plane and now a gun T_T I wonder why Joseph knew what it was, as well as the fact you didn’t exactly need to be Gandalfr to use it. I mean, everyone thought the bazooka was a giant wand, and that the plane was a metal dragon.
So Joseph can use Shunpo and is a shinigami in disguise While Louise’s Void power is blowing things up (surprise surprise) and Tiffa’s is oblivion magic, Joseph gets the hax power of being able to move at insanely fast speeds, being even faster than a gun. Obviously, as with all bad guys, theatrics and loving to hear the sound of his own voice led to his downfall, ironically by Charlotte/Tabitha. While I knew Tabitha would never be cold-hearted and impale Joseph with a giant icicle, part of me did wish she just went ahead and did it, because she deserves to. Being driven on revenge is never a good idea though, since it does tend to become a habit (Looking at YOU, Sasuke).
Choosing to just die was…a noble thing to do, as reluctant as I am to admit it. Props to Sheffield for being a bitch loyal familiar to the very end, and blowing themselves up while kissing, along with the last fire orb. Hey, doesn’t this mean the Pope had to kiss Julio when they made the contract? Oh god I kinda wish I forgot that now. Anyway, the death of one Void user means the birth of another – do they mean as a baby, or a Void power manifesting themselves in a random mage? Hahaha, I’d laugh if it turned out to be someone irreparably evil, so that another war will be…oh wait no, the bad guys are all dead aren’t they?
To be honest, from that preview I have a very bad feeling a filler or something meaningless is about to turn up, since the way Season 3 went was that we had a few eps of plot at the start, filler in the middle and for the finale, a bit of plot with a dodgy ending. I’ve loved S4 of ZnT so far, so I’m hoping they don’t get complacent somewhere down the line…err, next episode.