No comment
- So I’ve been wondering up until now whether Slaine was supposed to be unambiguously a Bad Guy, and this episode answered that question pretty clearly. But I don’t think outright treating him as the villain of the story has really fixed my main issue with the situation – WHY is he doing what he’s doing?? At this point, we still don’t really know, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because there’s nothing TO know.
- Done well, watching the protagonist (or one of the protagonists) of a story become the villain can absolutely be a good thing. The problem here is that Slaine doesn’t have a very compelling reason to turn to the dark side. It’s not really the result of a coherent and identifiable tragic flaw or anything – it’s like he just finds himself on the wrong side of the war and decides to roll with it. Earlier on in the season, you could say his obsession with Asseylum was what drove him to side with the Martians. But then he killed Saazbaum, inherited his castle and political power and even the princess’s life support tube thing… and instead of using that opportunity to make a difference in a good way, he decided to lead the bad guys to victory, for no apparent reason and while knowing full well that Asseylum could potentially come to hate him for it.
I feel like I’ve seen this exact environment in Mass Effect 2 or something
- And I’m not even saying that’s not what a real person might do. Obviously Slaine does stand to benefit from seizing political power and leading the conquest of a planet in the same way anyone would – but it still doesn’t really fit with his character. The Slaine we were presented with for most of the first season was single-mindedly obsessed with Asseylum and dedicated to ensuring her well-being. That was his sole defining character trait. Any details about his personality since then can be inferred only through his actions – which are exclusively bold and shocking, yet wildly inconsistent with no clear logic behind them. Is Slaine the kind of guy who would seek power just for the sake of being powerful? I still don’t know – his choices say yes, but he still never really acts like that’s what matters to him. At this point I’m honestly finding myself wishing Saazbaum was still alive. Slaine being led by an already evil mentor would have made a lot more sense than Slaine killing said mentor himself and then immediately taking up his cause as if they had never disagreed on it.
- Of course, maybe there are some important details we still don’t know about him. In fact, there definitely is – we still barely know anything about his who his dad was, what Slaine’s relationship with him was like, why they came to Mars, etc. Maybe there’s something in there that would give his actions a bit more context – and I’d be interested to finally learn more about it either way – but we’ve only got 5(?) episodes left now, so we’re really kind of running out of time to fit something like that in.
I originally took note of the time for this one because the subtitles said “Kataphraktoi” but it looks like Crunchyroll changed it since then =(
- I don’t really have much else to say that isn’t about Slaine, I guess. I’m curious to see how the good guys will win against multiple Kataphrakts for the first time (actually I’m not, it’s just going to be fucking Inaho again). I also think it’s pretty ridiculous that the Martians don’t seem to have even tried this before, but whatever.
- We still only briefly saw Mazuurek, and the longer he stays alive, the more I’m inclined to believe he might actually be a more important character in this story than I had expected. We’ve got to be getting close to the story’s CLIMAX ZONE by now, and if Maazurek doesn’t get killed off in like the next episode or so, I can only assume that means he’ll have a part to play in it.