“I’m going to drag you out of there and slap you!”
Impression
I want to be slapped by Illya
Now I remember why that line sounded so familiar! Illya has been taking lessons from Nanoha! I was assaulted with a strange sense of deja vu for a moment, but now it all makes sense – clearly, Miyu hasn’t been properly befriended yet, and thus she is in need of some re-education. This is pretty much the best possible reaction Miyu can get from Illya with regards to her many secrets. All this time, she’s been unable to tell her the truth about the origins – and now it’s been exposed by someone else, at the worst possible time and in the worst possible way. Miyu is a mirror to Illya in more ways than one – she is from a parallel world, one with a snow-covered landscape and an ominous mansion. And she has been serving as the Holy Grail for a Heaven’s Feel ritual run by a party that isn’t the Einzberns. It’s not really that surprising at this point, is it? Not to Rin and Luvia, who have had their suspicions confirmed more than anything else. Not to Caren, who has had months to observe everything occurring in Fuyuki. And not to us – we’ve known about the involvement of Zelretch and the Second Magic ever since the first season, and anyone well-read in the Nasuverse would have had an idea along these lines for some time. Even if you aren’t, the clues all make sense – the biggest is probably that Miyu has unlimited mana just like Illya. She is able to use Excalibur’s Noble Phantasm, and when Kuro kisses her she gets way more mana from her than anyone but Illya. And the Class Cards came from her world and were created for her sake, which explains why she was so driven in collecting them all to prevent them causing havoc in Illya’s world.
All of this, however, is surprising to Illya – who knew nothing other than that Miyu had a secret of some sort. It’s a lot to handle, and she reacted pretty well all things considered. If there’s any notable difference between Illya and Miyu, it’s that the latter was not created for the sake of the Holy Grail War like Illya was. Instead, the war was created for her sake. A lot of confusing rhetoric is used to describe her, like how she’s a person ‘naturally’ born with the ‘properties of the Grail’, but essentially what it means is that Miyu is someone who has the power to grant wishes. This is something the manga is only starting to delve into even in 3rei!, so all will be clarified in due course. It’s the not the last you’ll hear about Miyu’s true nature.
As for Gilgamesh – his appearance might have changed, but his personality is just the same as ever. A bit less arrogance, perhaps, and he uses ‘boku’ instead of ‘ore’ now, but you can definitely tell it’s him. His non-incarnated half, not so much – it looks more like a deformed Berserker than anything else, which is kind of fitting given that it’s up against Illya. Its obvious weak point is its huge core with dark!Archer sticking out of it, but the problem is that Kuro and Bazett can’t even reach it – its size and strength already makes things hard, and on top of that it’s also able to use weapons from the Gate of Babylon. But Illya in her 2wei form can do something! After its appearance in the OP, I’ve been waiting for this very moment – and it looks glorious. It grants her way more power than she had before, not least because she now has two Kaleidosticks and because her safety-related limiters have been released as was mentioned in the preview. And it’s a far cry from the Illya at the start of 2wei! who had a huge drop in power level because of Kuro (I’ve forgotten how that was resolved, though). This is an Illya who can stand up to the tyranny of Gilgamesh, an Illya with a very particular set of skills. Skills she acquired over a very long career. Skills that make her a nightmare for people like him. If he lets Miyu go, that’ll be the end of it. But if she doesn’t, she will look for him, she will beat him, and she will slap him.
Oh yes, I was waiting for this. Oh yes. I was waiting for this! 😀 I was so excited to see what you’d have to say after watching it yesterday, meanwhile busying myself with dispelling people’s illusions that Illya’s powering up came unreasonably out of nowhere. I guess this is another manga I’m going to have to read as soon as the anime is finished with its current season and that’s in no small part due to your rephrasing of what Miyu’s true nature is!
“…Use everything I have.” HOLY SHI- SEIHAI! You can hear Momma’s righteous rage in Illya’s voice there! Our baby’s growing up :’) It’s so beautiful. Really, everything Illya said and the way she said it from the transformation onward was increasingly admirable. My goodness. I thought I was a lolicon for a moment, but I realized I the sheer admiration I had for Illya’s sheer determination to save Miyu.
I also thought I was a lolicon for a moment. Oh wait.
Part of the explanation as to why she powered up so much is in the preview – Ruby hasn’t been taking everything so far. This sort of thing doesn’t tend to come without a cost. So it’s not that unreasonable, but I agree that it did come out of nowhere – especially in the context of this adaptation, which spent far too much of its time loitering.
Illya sounded kinda like Shirou at the end there. That level of self-sacrifice is just like something he’d say.
That’s a good point! I haven’t thought of Shirou in a while even with the glimpses of Miyu’s world that were in this episode. Hehehe, I’d love to see two different Shirou’s tackle two different little sisters :3 At least, I’d love to see how proud the Shirous would be of Miyu and Illya if they ever found out what they’ve been up to.
As for the powering up, hmm, as an anime-only watcher it didn’t feel out of place to me at all. Illya’s potential has been gradually being unlocked and that was either due to Ruby or Illya’s makings as a crucial element in the would-be Holy Grail War. Now she has Ruby and Sapphire to aide her at once, but to me the question is whether she can handle that power, especially if she’ll be using it to the point where it’s right on the verge of devouring her as the preview implies.
Perhaps I just haven’t been understanding the mechanics well, but isn’t it just that:
-Kuro has the magical ability that “they” were tuned to have at a young age, but without the virtually unlimited mana capacity
-Illya has the mana capacity, but she needs a medium through which to turn that into magical ability like Ruby and Sapphire
Perhaps that only makes sense in my head? Basically one has the original skills with a limited power source, while the other has virtually unlimited power and needs something exercise that power with and that something determines the skills. Of course, Kuro can trace a lot of items so she can gain new skills as well in a sense.
“And it’s a far cry from the Illya at the start of 2wei! who had a huge drop in power level because of Kuro (I’ve forgotten how that was resolved, though). ”
It wasn’t. It remains a problem all through the published material to date.
Ah. It feels like it’s become a lot less of a problem ever since Team Illya stopped butting heads with Kuro.
It comes off feeling kind of inconsistent at times. She’s gotten smarter in how she fights, so she’s been more effective. Then there are times when she’ll forget and try to beat someone down with power, and re-discover that “oh yeah, I don’t HAVE any power worth anything anymore.” And yet, in 3rei, both after one of those situations, and before another one, she is able to install cards and show off high-powered servant attacks that should require enormous amounts of mana, despite both Ruby and Sapphire having told her that she doesn’t have any real personal power left to speak of.
It doesn’t really seem to make sense… unless you treat this as a magical girl series where she can do what she needs to do, so long as she believes strongly enough that she can do it.