Episode 13
Due to a still healing finger injury, I’m going to be taking over just this time for Shadow.
So it looks like things are finally going to do down now that we have accusations, a straight up war, and Piodon arriving. I had been wondering what exactly the Merchant Barons were after exactly, since they’ve only appeared here and there with not much significance until recently. But we finally find out their true intentions as Dragunov and Liselotte meet with them. Apparently they’ve created a weapon called the Harmonizium that nullifies fantasia. With this, he can render the sorcerers and infected powerless, which makes the Inquisition’s job much easier for them. But this is also a huge win for the Merchant Barons because they’ll be able to reap the rewards in wealth and other resources. Those exact resources being slaves of said infected. These guys are absolute scum, and I thought Dragunov would call him out since he’s proven that he does care about people (Rumble Town), but the conversation was cut there. Later on the Inquisition arrive and it looks like Dragunov completely agreed to the plan, which shocked me. Maybe being a Thaumaturge things are different, but I’m shocked that he didn’t show at least a bit of resistance against the Merchant Barons. I wonder if he has something up his sleeve.
The rest of the episode was dedicated to Ocoho and the info she learned from Mordred. Apparently the Queen and those called the Faithful of the Hermit wanted to use Ocoho as an assassin to punish knight-sorcerors who went against Merlin and farmers who trade with foreigners. And to protect Ocoho from being used like this, Mordred instead used her to place Spectres. I’m not totally sure that Mordred is completely innocent, I don’t really know him enough to pinpoint him as a good guy, and I’ve always been suspicious of him. Though he did spill the beans on the spot, so that’s something to consider I suppose. Once Ocoho learns that the Queen is behind this, as the only way to be part of The Faithful of the Hermit you must swear total loyalty to the Queen, she becomes totally conflicted. Especially when ordination day is literally the next day. Ocoho has always dreamed of being a knight-sorceror ever since she was a child, and depending on what she did, she could either achieve her dream or completely lose it. But thanks to a quick pep talk with Seth, Ocoho was able to come to a decision that she believed in, even if it went against her original goal.
I do have some problems with this whole scene. At the ordination, when Ocoho is the only person left without being taken into a family because of her reputation, she uses this moment to speak out against the Queen and tell the people what she learned. I understand what she was trying to do, and of course the truth needs to come out somehow, but the way the show went about it was a little ridiculous.
Ocoho doesn’t really have any evidence to support her claims other than the words from Mordred. So all she did was yell out these accusations against the Queen and certain members of the knight-sorcerors. Sure, Lord de Gulis reacted irrationally and certain sorcerors looked mildly uncomfortable from the accusations, so I guess that was enough proof that Ocoho’s claims were true. And hey, a big shout out to Brangoire for defending Ocoho and not taking anyone’s shit.
My problem is…what exactly was Ocoho expecting? The Queen to just start explaining herself and telling the truth to everyone that she and the others were using the Spectre Nemesis to instill fear into the citizens to hold on to their power? There’s no way in hell that she would just confess to it all, and I find it really hard to believe that the citizens would listen to the words of some random girl against the words of the Queen, someone whom the citizens love and look up to. Like I said, I know what Ocoho is trying to do but the way the show went about it was kind of ridiculous. But we don’t even get to see this situation escalate, as the Inquisition begin to invade. And during all this time, Seth and Doc sneak into the castle’s library and it looks like we’ll get a much-needed meeting next time.
Hey, I’m completely Team Ocoho here. I love this girl but I wasn’t particularly a fan of the whole ordination scene. Though I am looking forward to the stuff coming up next time with Diabal and Seth meeting, and finally learning the truth of just who Piodon is.
Episode 14
All-out war has began against the citizens of Caislean Merlin and the Inquisition, and during this time Doc finds an interesting book, while Seth finally comes face to face with Diabal and gets some shocking answers. Also I hope it’s just me that is feeling some death flags with Myr, but it sure is making me nervous. He and his wife look at their happy baby fuzzies, he senses the imminent war, goes off to leave and hesitates for a slight moment. I sure hope I’m wrong but I’ll brace myself because I like this weirdo. >_>
Setting aside all the drama that happened in the throne room, all the knights-sorcerers gather up and head off to face the Inquisition. The call for peace didn’t go well at all as they got interesting accusations against them, and it sounds like there’s a spy amongst them feeding information to the Inquisition when they mentioned using Spectre Nemesis against their own people, amongst other things. The only guess I can make on who the traitor is is probably Gulis, as we only have a small group of characters that we can pick from. And most of our main cast had no idea that the Queen and the others were doing some shady business, and Gulis was the one that acted rash at those accusations. I feel like he’s the only one with enough authority to even be on speaking terms with the Inquisition, so…there we go. The battle rages on and while the Queen has enough power to fight back, the big problem is the Harmonizium nullifying all the magic thrown at them. So while they can take out the Inquisition’s smaller fry, the issue is going to come from taking out the big guys. It’s probably going to get very violent. Also on a sidenote, I never noticed the Queen actually had “queen” tattooed on her fingers. Either they showed it before and I just forgot, or we just saw them now but it made me laugh. This woman really is narcissistic.
Doc is on the move to find any book that can help with their Radiant search, but he couldn’t find a single thing surprisingly. Until a book lands on his head called the Book of Truth, which seems sentient as it was answering his questions. Unfortunately when he asked about Radiant and it led him to page 10, he found the page to be ripped out. Which is very telling because there was probably some really great info on Radiant in it but someone ripped it out either to keep for themselves, or because there was info on it that no one should see. Either way, it means it was significant and I hope Doc is somehow able to sneak that book out of there.
And of course a huge moment from this episode was Seth’s meeting with Diabal. I’m so glad that they were able to speak with each other because I’ve been dying to know who Diabal is, as well as Piodon. And learning his past with him, I can understand why Diabal is so afraid of him. To keep things simple, Piodon is a piece of crap. From what Diabal says, he and Seth, as well as Piodon and another guy named Triton are all brothers. They look alike, and they also have the same horns and can all use Fantasia bare handed. Diabal’s orphanage handed him over to the Inquisition when they learned this about him. A literal child being sentenced to death, it’s no surprise that Diabal trusted Piodon completely when he came over to “save” him. Diabal followed all of Piodon’s orders, fought like he wanted him to even when he didn’t know what for only because he was so grateful to him. But it seems like what was happening with Seth with those dark powers happened to both Diabal and Triton, with Piodon controlling them both. What’s even more annoying is that Piodon never made his goals clear, so we still have no clue what he’s trying to accomplish from controlling them. And seeing as how Diabal was able to find someone just like him, he and Triton came together and threw some theories around. One theory that makes a lot of sense is that they were born as sorcerers from two infected, which is why they have the same exact horns since others have different curses. And if those same have more children, then even more sorcerers like them will come into the world increasing their numbers. If they wanted, they could have enough power to change the world, which is probably why the Inquisition sees Seth as such a huge threat and want to capture him.
And when they told Piodon their theory? Piodon just throws them away and lets the Inquisition torture them. Fuck off, Piodon. Fuck the hell off. He’s been fishy from the start and I never trusted this dude, but I really hate him now. Obviously their theory was probably true or else he never would have just discarded them like trash. And it’s no wonder how terrified Diabal gets if he even thinks Piodon is after him, because imagine being a kid that no one wants. You’re throw into a prison cell and you learn that these people are going to kill you. And then a man that looks like you comes to “save” you and calls you their brother and gets you out of there. Of course you’re grateful to this man for giving you another life. And then all of a sudden he sets you aside so the same people that sentenced you to death can torture you. What the fuck. That’s just disgusting.
What I’m really curious about is that Piodon is part of the Inquisition, so I’m wondering what the story is there. There’s still so many things we don’t know yet, so I hope we get some answers very soon.
