Kakumeiki Valvrave Episode 4: FLAWLESS QUEEN SHOUKO!

“Then we should blackmail them back!”

Impression:

OHHHHHH SNAP.
OHHHHHHHHHH SNAP.
OH SNAP!

SHOUKO!

DAMN GURLLLLLL!! HOLY SHIT,
SHOUKO JUST BESTED MOTHERFUCKING ONE-MAN ARMY PROPHET L-ELF.

ALL
THE
FUCKING
AWARDS
GIRL!

IF YOU DON’T LIKE SHOUKO YOU ARE WRONG. HOW COULD ONE NOT POSSIBLY LOVE HER AFTER THAT?

WOW. Leadership really does flows through her veins as her father is or rather was formerly JIOR’s President. She, all on her own came up with the strategy so that neither ARUS who were about to backstab them by taking the Valrave and Haruto with them and leaving the students behind or Dorrisan can openly attack them or hold their families hostage by making their module of JIOR an independent state (and are actually LITTERALLY MOVING IT AWAY FROM JIOR BY DE-ATTACHING IT) so they can negotiate with Dorssia and ARUS as equals. You have to hand it to her because that is bloody brilliant.
Of course being an independent state does put them in some grim situations, but as long as they play their cards right and keep ARUS officials on their leash, they should be able to survive (such as ARUS being their supplier since their blackmail of handing Valvrave to Dorrisian can still be applied to this). I don’t know whether Shouko will maintain her authority as the leader of their independent state or she will leave it in the hands of the students council. Either way, she is now a major threat to L-Elf because as long as she is alive and by Haruto’s side, there is no way Haruto is going to make a contract with him. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried killing her since Haruto doesn’t exactly think straight when he is consumed by vengeance and leave shim in this vulnerable state to take advantage of- regardless of L-Elf being responsible. For example: Haruto was this close to being reeled into forging a contract with L-Elf when he revealed that they are surrounded by the Dorrisan Army.
As for L-Elf, I was relieved that he didn’t killed Thunder (but the poor guy almost got killed when Mr. Figaro decided to shoot at the students to disperse their blockade- THAT ASSHOLE I KNEW HE WAS NO GOOD!) and was amused when he was confused that his “Contract Sign” which is for both us and Haruto is a ‘Peace’ sign. It’s actually ironic because that’s also Shouko’s signature whenever she accomplishes something. Then he had that real, creepy laugh that is apparently his first in a very long time because he had mixed feelings of amusement, baffled and pissed off that he was bested by Shouko.
This revolution L-Elf had spoken of. He mentioned that with the help of Haruto and the Valvrave, he would be able to enact his personal (I believe) revolution five years earlier (that’s pretty intense). Now we don’t know any of the details behind the revolution and what’s the purpose of it is for as well as who is it going to benefit, but I am sure we’ll hear a little bit about it soon enough and if not, most likely towards the end of the season.
I think one of the key things that we should take into consideration of what had happened this episode is that L-Elf’s prophecies are not set into stone. Shouko caught him off-guard and changed his prophecy by taking action instead of standing by doing nothing. Perhaps if L-Elf did see the two paths, he ended up choosing the one he “logically” thought that Shouko would not do what she ended up doing. And if not, then this event either just changed the entire plan, pushed his plans ahead or tweaked a few things.
The girl, Akira who hacked into the communications network and revealed ARUS’ plans of abandoning the students will definitely be playing a vital part in keeping track of what’s going on as well as probably keeping them one step ahead of ARUS as long as she isn’t found. The interesting part is that she is afraid of being found and was freaking out when she realized that Shouko was in her little base.
Now about the consequences for those who are not recognized as Valvrave’s pilot. That system has quite an ominous and dark personality. The mascot had this “bitch please” look on her face when the message popped up saying, “You Mistake” and killed the ARUS pilot who was trying to get Valvrave to function so that they can take it into their hands. So there’s that. Nobody except Haruto can make it function and if you try- you’re in for a brutal death. Another thing we learned today was that the only way Haruto’s power of taking over another body by biting them takes effect is when he directly bites their skin. It doesn’t work if he bites where they are clothed- so whoever wants to capture might as well pad up and cover their entire body.
HOWEVER, we don’t know if the same rules apply when Haruto goes into that berserk state.
Overall this was such an awesome episode, it was just bloody brilliant. Seeing the students easily set up a distraction and take a stand for themselves was very exciting. However I am certain that there are going to be a handful that thinks this is all goign to be fun and games being independent, but they ought to have a reality-check soon to put them in their place if they seriously intend to be an independent state. I am really excited to see how things will be set into motion next week, and where Haruto will move their newly independent state to (I doubt he’ll be able to take it far, but it’s kind of necessity right now since Dorrisian Army is right in front of them and all) and what they will name it.