Impression
This was a very painful episode – it was several times worse than the time Gina was injected with the Mark IV. And just like Amelia, I have nothing but respect for Elizabeth Mably. Her decision to uphold her belief in noblesse oblige -the obligation of the nobility- is truly admirable; even in an environment where human morals and ethics don’t exist, she’s still willing to stand up for what she thinks is right. Despite it being tantamount to treason, she had the courage to try and leak details of the experiments to her family – and when shit went down, she had the courage to face her punishment head on. For a show which supports its erratic plot through the generous boob groping fanservice it provides, that’s some pretty deep stuff right there.
I think the manga’s version of the torture scene was more shocking (I’m sorry, that was unintentional I swear) but it still made me rage nonetheless. That bastard needs to get kicked by a horse and die. Even the scientists who carried out the torture were reluctant to give her lasting brain damage. Also, I felt so sorry for Andre when Elizabeth returned. He was clearly heartbroken… the relationship between a Pandora and Limiter is usually fairly deep, it’s hardly ever as ambiguous as the one Kazuya shares with Satella/Rana. And apparently that wasn’t enough for Chevalier – what a paranoid bunch of assholes! They had to go ahead and financially ruin the Mably family as well, destroying their entire conglomerate just to make sure their secrets weren’t leaked. At least both Amelia and Satella are now aware of the extent to which Chevalier are trying to cover up their tracks – and both are people who are willing to go against the establishment for what they believe is right. It’s just rather unfortunate that the other camp has Pandora like Chiffon or Charles, who both completely obey the chain of command and refuse to oppose Chevalier.
Finally, I was very surprised at Satella leaving Alaska for a flimsy reason like a minor injury – she’s a Pandora! She can regenerate her limbs if they’re cut off, yet she was sent away for small injuries made by Elizabeth’s SSS? Of course, Violet and Louis el Bridget turning up means that they’ve decided to animate the Siblings arc after all – canonically, that should have happened before the E-Pandora arc. I have a couple of problems with that, the first of which is a pacing issue. If we’re only going to have one cour (presumably) then can they still fit in this arc while properly concluding the E-Pandora arc? It would probably have been better to animate the Siblings arc first, at the start of the season – because Satella does have a fairly important role in Alaska after all. My second problem is the content of the arc itself. I haven’t read it for quite some time, and frankly, I have no desire to – it’s nasty. There’s a lot of rage inducing stuff in this, and I’m not really looking forward to revisiting it. I have bad memories of that arc… don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with it, soon you will too!