LogFAQs > #904761378

Episodes 105-109

Recap: While Pitou is using her healing on the King, Knov infiltrates the palace and sets up entry/exit points. But when he sees the En aura of Pouf, he turns craven and takes himself out of the fight. Palm also infiltrates by becoming the concubine of the lone human remaining in the palace, the secretary who ran things. Morel takes out Leol/Hagya in an underground church. The squad reunites on the eve of Selection.

Meanwhile, the King continues to play Gungi against the girl - but she is getting better even as he is, meaning that he can't close the gap. The King asks her name - Komogi - and then suffers a self-identity crisis when she turns the question back on him, and he has no answer. The King prepares to kill Komogi, but when he finds her beset by a large bird, he's horrified to discover a protective instinct within himself.

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Let's cover the good guys' side real quick. Knov looks cool but I think I've rather outgrown the anime-running that he uses, which makes it really tough to swallow. However, the explanation of his ability - perfect in support - is really cool. And the tension felt real - the narrator gives us an incredibly unwelcome explanation of why Knov is having an unexpectedly easy time navigating the halls (because of the relative dearth of guards - the majority of Chimera Ants do not swear fealty to the King).

When we see that filthy, blue aura and the way Knov reacts to it, you can really understand why he's so terrified. After all, we've seen just how brutal Pitou is, how easily she pounced upon Kite from miles away and tore him apart. Later, all alone, already outside of the reach of immediate danger, Knov has a breakdown and can't control his twitching - it's the type of scene that can get a near-physical reaction from a viewer. Fantastic scene that actually makes up for some of the cheesiness during his infiltration.

I'm not thrilled with how Morel vs Leol goes down. Leol almost immediately goes with an ability we've never seen before, which doesn't even seem to suit him. It's fun watching Morel get pissed about his friend's ability being stolen, and it's cool that he turns the water into a trap using his lung capacity - but Leol's bluster always had a layer of humility under it, and I never really wanted his arrogant undoing to involve saying the words "Aren't my big waves rad??? You like how easily I can maneuver my board?"

Anyway, this is now twice that Morel has turned the rules of a closed-space encounter against the creator of the closed space. Whoops.

Much more interesting than the good guys' travails is what's happening inside the palace. The greatest empires of overwhelming strength technically caved to outsiders, but only because their strong internal governance crumbled, slowly but surely.

The King finding Komogi to be more than his equal is one of these great moments. He attempts to throw Komogi off by gambling with her - using fear and temptation to tilt her emotionally. Instead, he finds that Komogi already treats every game as if she is wagering her life on it... and that she has no obvious desires he can grant. Stunned, the King laughs and calls off the bet, admitting that it was a cheap trick that failed. "It appears I was the one lacking resolve." AND THEN HE RIPS HIS FUCKING ARM OFF AND IT TAKES TWO OF HIS ROYAL GUARD TO CONVINCE HIM TO LET IT BE REPAIRED, ALL WHILE CONTINUING TO PLAY.

The second of the King's important changes during this sequence comes days later, when Komogi is visibly far past her physical limits. No breaks, he has promised... but without even hearing Komogi complain, he decides to grant her yet another. What' stunning about this one is the lack of drama to it - he just realizes that his previous declaration won't satisfy him, so he backs off of it. In the same scene, he humbly asks her for advice in Gungi. Damn.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness