I’m back with Radiant season 2 coverage and my finger is 99.9% healed! Not sure if y’all missed me, but here I am anyways. Last time, crap was hitting the fan with the beginnings of a war happening between Cyfandir and the Inquisition with both sides dishing out some pretty severe attacks. However, things don’t seem to be going well for Cyfandir due to the Baron Merchants having made a device to basically nullify fantasia, basically obliterating the majority of Cyfandir’s forces. And the fact that the other head sorcerer knights are completely ignoring Ocoho’s input on the machine if frustrating. Though it’s probably most likely because of the upheaval she tried causing a couple eps back. Thankfully it seems like Brangoire is looking into things. Man, the further I get into Radiant, the more I appreciate and like this dude.
However, I’m pretty worried at what is happening with the forest, especially how fast it’s starting to decay. Not only that, but Myr and his entire family seems to be in danger and I swear if anything happens to Jill and their babies, I WILL BE LIVID. Those children are like the living embodiment of hope for a better future and if they end up dying… just freaking blow up the world while you’re at it. Myr also seems to not be doing well as the slow digression of the forest. I’m worried that his life may be linked to the forest, though it may be that all the forest residents may depend on the forest for life. So if that stupid contraption the Inquisition are using continues to nullify fantasia, they may be killing off an important ecosystem. I can’t even imagine how Seth would react if they do end up dying… It’d be Hameline all over again but on a bigger scale. Hopefully it won’t come to that, but death flags are starting to sprout up on several characters’ heads and I’m just all kinds of worried.
At this point, I am so severely done with the Inquisition. The fact that they not only hunt down innocent sorcerers, but are also going as far to kill the forest by using an unnatural machine even if it may be unknowingly, is just unforgivable. YOU BLASTED PEOPLE ARE PUTTING PRECIOUS BABIES AT RISK. I just cannot get behind what they stand for, especially when they always act like they’re always right and are taking the highroad despite ruining so many people’s lives without a second thought. It’s honestly despicable and while Seth isn’t really interested in defeating the Inquisition, I do hope that they get a good ol’ pounding. It’s honestly hard to watch them trample over innocent people, labeling them as “cursed” without any hint of remorse.
The only one I have any sort of care for it Dragunov as I’ve already reiterated. He’s the only one that seems to have some sort of morality of whether he’s hurting innocent people. Even going as far as to give Melie a key to escape despite being the one to capture her. And honestly, I feel like if Thaumaturges didn’t have their prejudice against the sorcerers, I feel like Melie and Liselotte could have been friends. Though I’m sure Liselotte would have been very tsundere towards that notion regardless. However, I am wondering just what is going through Dragunov’s head as he confronts Seth. Especially since it seems like he is very conflicted whenever he’s dealing with the horned boy. It’s as if he’s trying to figure out exactly why he’s labeled dangerous and if he’s actually dangerous like the Inquisition labels him. I appreciate that he’s trying to find the answers for himself and not just obeying whatever order he’s given without question just like everyone else in the Inquisition.
While I do think that the Diabal and Seth tension was put at ease a little too fast, considering Diabal’s mistrustful disposition, I do appreciate that they are somewhat bonding. I do think they would have a good dynamic if given the chance and it’s most likely because Diabal sees a lot of his old self in Seth. It’s touching that Seth wants to help him after all the pain and trauma the guy has gone through. However, it definitely looks like there is a lot to unpack with Diabal considering the horrendous torture the poor guy has gone through. While his actions aren’t right, we can understand why Diabal brought spectre nemesis to the land and did what those weird magic ghosts things said. He was desperate to get away from Piodon, even going as far to destroy his sight so that Piodon wouldn’t be able to see through them. He wanted to feel safe, even if that meant disrupting innocent people’s lives. I honestly feel really bad for Diabal and I hope that he doesn’t die and that Seth can actually help him. At least the spectre nemesis will be used to help stop the Inquisition this time.
Now let’s talk about that reveal. In hindsight, it should have been so obvious. They share the same hair color, same squinty eyes and when they opened their eyes, they were literally spitting images of each other. However, because we haven’t really been focusing on the Merchant Barons that much, with their appearances being so sparse and scattered, I didn’t put two and two together until they were standing right next to each other. Once they were finally on screen together, the similarities were obvious. I’m impressed that they were able to hide the relation so well. A great example of hiding in plain sight. I was both surprised and not surprised at the same time. However, from the looks of things, it may be that Sagramore will be the magic ghost thing in disguise instead of Mordred, considering Seth recognized his armor after hitting one of those magic ghosts things. Unless they’re trying to pull one over me again. The traitor has finally been revealed, but just who within the sorcerer knights are those magic ghosts things and who can actually be trusted? Also I’m really worried about Ocoho considering she’s heading straight for where Sagramore and Mordred are. Especially since the Merchant Barons were planning to use her for something. #PROTECTOCOHO
All right… you knew this was coming because I always complain about these things, but HOLY CRAP the animation was really bad this episode. Like REALLY BAD. The sound and movement often didn’t sync very well, characters were off model 80% of the time, strange and awkward shot compositions and there was such limited and stiff animation. Not to mention there was like three full minutes of recap from last episode. Radiant has never had stellar animation, however, at least it was decent and while it was simple most of the time, they still used dynamic camera angles. This was not the case this episode. The animation was very distracting and took me out of the more dramatic moments, especially with the Seth and Dragunov spat. This was almost Season 3 of Nanatsu no Taizai levels of bad animation-wise. I’m hoping that this happened because they’re preparing for some bigger, more important fight scenes in later episodes, but this honestly has me worried. This whole episode looked like it was done by a different studio and it all just didn’t feel like the usual Radiant animation. Well, hopefully studio Lerche gets its stuff together since it would be unfortunate for the rest of the season to suffer due to bad animation, especially since the plot has been engaging and doing so well so far.
