Episode 19
Selesia’s understandably having a hard time adjusting to the thought of fighting against the man she has harbored feelings for, and she demonstrates this by repeatedly trying to get between Charon and Rui. She pleads for Charon to see through Altair’s deceptions again and again, but nothing seems to get through to him.
Down on the ground Yuuya manages to convince Shou that there’s no point in trying to defeat their creator in retaliation for the deaths Yuuya himself was blamed for. Yuuya makes Shou a consolation offer – when they return back to their world, Yuuya will go with Shou to find and kill the fortuneteller. Shou notes that Yuuya has changed since coming to the human world.
Meanwhile Aliceteria opts to fight Altair one-on-one, and it looks like the noble knight has finally killed Altair via an impalement on her lance. However Altair uses one of her Holopsicon abilities to reverse cause and effect – in a nutshell, Aliceteria impales herself, while Altair takes no damage. Aliceteria refuses to give up and tries to land one more powerful blow, but she either forgets or ignores Altair’s ability and ends up killing herself instead.
Charon cuts off one of Gigas Machina’s arms, and this is what finally forces Selesia to realize she must stand against Charon. He’s more powerful than she is, but she will still try to take him down.
Rui jumps back into the fight with Charon, though it’s clear the young pilot is no match for Charon. However that doesn’t stop him from grabbing Charon’s blade with his mecha’s good hand, causing Rui’s real hand to bleed and be in immense pain. Rui tells Charon that Selesia is more of a hero than he is, and that Charon should step up and be responsible like Selesia.
At long last Selesia actually interferes in the fight between Rui and Charon, telling Charon that she has to choose her path and she chooses to fight against him. As they soar through the sky together, slashing at each other with their mechanized weapons, they reminisce about their past as allies.
Then in a move no one sees coming, Selesia throws her weapon away and allows Charon’s blade to stab her mecha. This allows her to grab onto his mecha and cast a powerful ability – she will sacrifice herself in order to take Charon down. Selesia orders Rui to cast a reflector spell, which will crush both their mecha seeing as how Charon is now her captive. Rui initially fights Selesia’s order but eventually complies. In her final moments, Selesia asks Takashi to give her world both stories and coffee.
Episode 20
In the aftermath of Selesia’s death, everyone (including the audience) is stunned. Hikayu attempts to attack Altair, but the attack backfires when Altair uses another one of her Holopsicon abilities to strip Hikayu of her new powers. Hikayu is defenseless as Altair strangles her with one hand until the poor schoolgirl loses consciousness. An outrages Yuuya tries to pick up where Hikayu left off doesn’t have much luck.
Meteora explains that Altair is using their birdcage idea against them, and since she is now in control she can afford to treat the other creations like plot devices because she feeds on the audience’s acceptance. As long as she can fight in such a manner that the audience approves of her actions, no matter how devious, Altair will continue to exist.
It’s time to break out some secret weapons. Meteora casts a new spell which will summon forth their first hidden trick – an empty “dummy character” that has been designed to be an exact replica of Altair. Her name is Sirius and she’s pretty badass. Altair is upset and reveals that Sirius’ design is one of the last Setsuna created before her death… something Souta might’ve known and been able to share with the other creators as they were designing her. Hmm…
Sirius and Altair clash, and it looks like Sirius has won. Then again that would be too easy. Sirius’ next major attack attempts to merge Altair’s existence with her own, which is why Sirius was designed to have no personality and can also therefore not speak.
But again, the creators have spoken too soon. Just as it looks like Sirius has absorbed Altair, swords come flying out of nowhere and impale Yuuya’s body from behind.
Masaaki explains: because the new character didn’t have much information about it released ahead of time, and it was hard to flesh out a character that had no information, Altair was able to overtake Sirius’ body and have her personality be the dominant one. She “slipped into the possibilities for Sirius” and so instead of Sirius overtaking Altair, the reverse happened.
This means it’s time to break out the big guns. Souta comes rushing towards Kikuchihara and the other creators up in the MVP box. As he’s running the fight against Altair continues, this time with Shou attempting to attack Altair with Bayard. Altair uses the 9th Holopsicon movement to strike him down. Cracks are beginning to appear in the birdcage – will Souta make it back to the others in time?
Souta’s in luck. He begs Meteora to use his secret character as their last backup weapon. Masaaki warns that they if they add Souta’s character to the main part of the story it would destroy the flow of the story, and Souta says that he understands that extra character details can’t be added at this point. Some of the other creators don’t agree that Souta’s character should be introduced, but others feel that they might as well because the world is on the verge of ending anyways. Meteora agrees to try.
So can you guess who Souta’s secret character is? Who Souta would be able to write about better than anyone else? You guessed it – his secret character is Setsuna. As Meteora casts the spell Souta clutches the fool’s gold necklace (from Magane around his neck) as he desperately wishes for the character to survive. It doesn’t initially, until Magane notices what Souta’s trying and together the two of them speak the magic words of her ability: “a lie about a lie will turn inside out.”
In the final moments of the episode, Altair is shocked beyond words as she watched the last moments of her creator as she walked down the steps of the train station towards the tracks.
My thoughts: I feel like this is the first episode where we really got to see both Altair’s personality and fighting style on display. During her fight with Aliceteria, it was easy to get a feeling for how much Altair truly despises the human world for giving nothing to her Creator. This girl is definitely a little twisted, but one must understand that her pain is born from the grief of knowing how her creator suffered. I wonder if she hates Souta personally too.
The final minutes of episode 19 left my jaw on the floor. I did not see Selesia’s kamikaze plan coming AT ALL. T_T I just kept saying “What?! Whaaat!!” Ugh poor Selesia, and poor Takashi. I feel like Charon’s appearance and quick exit were kind of anti-climactic after when we first saw him hinted at compared to when he formally entered the plot, and then now he’s gone like an episode later. I wanted him and Selesia to make up. *pout*
As for Setsuna being Souta’s secret weapon… I kind of saw it coming, in the moments leading up to that scene. As the creators were discussing its addition to the story I just had a feeling. I mean who else would he write about anyways? So now we know it’s Setsuna, will she try to speak to Altair and get her to give up her revenge? Will she talk to Souta and forgive his past actions against her? When the festival is over, will her character spontaneously stop existing? So many questions!
Author’s Note: I’m sorry this is so late. Again. T___T Work kicks my ass some weeks and when I’m out of the house for 12 hours for my day job (10hr shift + travel time), some days I get home from work and I don’t have the time or the energy to sit and blog because I have other basics to take care of first. I’m really sorry. I am going to try to figure something out for next season because I know I can’t keep being late like this. Thank you for your continued patience with me.
The meta-commentary of Ep 20’s the strongest I’ve seen thus far.
The most cunning part of Altair hijacking the birdcage is how she’s presented herself to the (in-universe) audience, as this cool, charismatic, and godlike villian of the Festival’s story, which the audience accepted.
Also, the Sirius plan failed because the creators had underestimated the power of the fanart community. The collective’s shared efforts and the emotions they put into Altair fanworks was able to empower Altair and outstrip Sirius, who was merely a backup plot device.
Therefore, the good guys need the resolving force or party to be something just as grand, and not just any cheap plot device.
Setsuna’s entry makes sense, since she’s been the motivator for all of Altair’s actions and the one thing she’d have no real defense against either physically or mentally. (Provided Souta was able to write in Setsuna’s ideals in detail and flesh her out as he remembered her.)
PS. The most heartbreaking moment was when Takarada broke down in tears watching Alice die.