Impression
First off, here’s some obligatory best girl!
Sora sure doesn’t waste any time. Immediately after defeating Jibril, he’s already setting his sights on conquering the Eastern Federation and all the kemonomimi girls who supposedly live there – though I think he’s aware that conquering an entire nation is a whole different kettle of fish from what he’s achieved so far, as commendable as that might be. Even in Jibril’s case, it’s not like he has all of Avant Heim under his control – he only owns one Flugel (although she is best Flugel). With the way they’re conducting their foreign policy, it’s not too surprising that the Eastern Federation have been met with a lot of success – putting Elkia aside, both Jibril and Elvengarde have lost to them, with the latter even losing multiple times. If the losing party’s memories of the game are wiped, there’s no way they can go away and form a plan before engaging in a counter-attack – meaning that it’s unlikely that they’d get anywhere even with a second attempt. Although to be honest, it sounds to me like there’s a reason for this sort of modus operandi – that using such heavy secrecy is actually a necessity for the Eastern Federation. Almost like they’re a one-trick pony – that their game will only work great the first time round due to some trick or gimmick that can’t be pulled off again. Thus, they actually need to get rid of any memories involving the game to make sure they can still profit off it.
The previous king turned out to be far wiser than anyone had thought – and even though Steph is still a Steph, she was right in believing in him even when faced with such overwhelming evidence against him. It’s been proven a couple of times now, but one of the few advantages Imanity has is that the other species have a tendency to underestimate them, which often then becomes their downfall – the Eastern Federation didn’t even think they had to bother wiping the memories off an Imanity because they looked down on them that much. Arguably, even Imanity themselves underestimate Imanity – but until Sora figured out that Steph’s grandfather had sacrificed himself as a springboard for the next king, it sure looked pretty bleak. Through eight consecutive losses, Elkia lost half their territory, their palace and probably all of their pride – it’s easy to see why he earned his reputation as a foolish king, although there’s something to be said in how he was willing to take so much shit from god knows how many characters now. While it was a good idea to wait and hand the reins to Imanity’s greatest gambler, that decision in itself was a massive gamble – there was no guarantee that people like Sora and Shiro would turn up. And Kuuhaku aren’t really “Imanity”, strictly speaking.
Even though they now have a much better chance, I still can’t see a way they can get past the Warbeasts’ mind-reading thing, especially if all their tactics and strategies are laid bare. That issue will probably be addressed next week though – is that a kemonomimi loli I see in the preview? And the once-defeated Kurami isn’t completely out of the picture, either. She supposedly wants to apologize to Dora(emon)-chan, but still sounds fairly hostile to Sora and Shiro – I’m not sure whether that translates into mounting another offensive or just sitting back and observing for now.