天下制覇

When’d he become a serious boss?

Impressions:

Lots of cuts this week, pretty much all for the best. The biggest change was that they made Dist’s Kaiser blah blah blah not a total joke and brought in Van to nuke the poor thing. They also completely passed over Chesedonia and its vaguely flaming leader, as the assorted Black Wings stuff there. I’m interested in how they handle that next episode, since the preview shows Ion having his close encounter with them as well as the curse seal on Guy, though I guess they could just cast a spell or do it right then too. I don’t even want to know how or why the pope managed to get kidnapped by a bunch of clowns. They also completely removed the Kimlascan government arresting Van for the whole kidnapping thing, only to immediately set him free as a bribe for Luke to make him go to Akzeriuth. Hooray for plot points that get reset after 15 seconds.

Even though there really was a lot of exposition this episode, like I said, there was also a healthy chunk of it removed, so I’m pretty happy with this one. I wish they had concentrated a little bit more on the fight against Dist and a little less on the random Baticul stuff, but I’ll survive. It’s great to see Natalia again too. She’s like an angry, bitchy chicken, and that’s why I love her. Well, that and the fact that archers are completely broken… and I hate using Tear. The important part is how awesome she looks when she’s strutting about and getting up in Guy’s face while he cowers. Throw back those shoulders more, girl. You’ve got him on the run.

Ultra Brief Summary:

Jade reads the fondisc and learns the truth about Luke. Later, he tells the others what was on it, mostly stuff on isofons and fonon frequencies. After some explaination and technobabble for Luke’s sake, it moves on to asking about fomicry, but Jade denies it. Copies would look the same, but have different frequencies. Soldiers interrupt to inform them that somebody is fast approaching. It turns out to be Dist the Rose Reaper Runny, who has a past with Jade. He steals the disc, but Jade’s already memorized everything. He then sics his mecha on them. The party tries to fight it, but can’t do any damage. Jade does figure out that it’s weak against water (no… really), but it takes Van to come in and finish it off.

Later, Luke’s energy starts going out of control again and he blows a hole in the side of the ship. Van appears behind him and calms him down. He then tells Luke about his destiny, Kimlasca wants to use him as a weapon to destroy their enemies, that’s why he’s kept locked up. Van tells Luke to stick with him, and Luke can be a hero.

At Baticul, the party heads right for Luke uncle, the King, who is in a meeting with Mohs. Not caring, Luke barges in and pisses off the Sub-Pope, and probably causes an international incident. He does manage to deliver the treaty from Peony though. They then go to his manor where Luke’s father gives Tear an icy reception and Natalia chews out Guy for not reporting to her first. Everybody else learns that she’s Luke’s fiance. Luke and Tear then visit his mother, who is relieved to see him alive and tells Tear to not fight with Van. Yeah, that’ll hold. At night, Tear meets with Mohs.

The next day, Luke is told that he must go to Akzeriuth as part of the peace treaty to save the city from the miasma. A fonstone is brought out and Tear reads it, saying that Luke will be the one to guide the people to safety. Luke realizes that this is his chance to be a hero, and happily accepts. Later, Van takes Luke aside and tells him the rest of the prophecy concerning Akzeriuth, that this will be the spark that creates war. Instead, they’ll dispel the miasma and Luke will be a hero. After that, they’ll escape to Daath together. Van also confesses that he’s the one that kidnapped Luke those years ago to try to save him from this destiny. Luke, moron that he is, forgives Van and says that they’ll run off together to make a happy love nest. Natalia listens to them from around the corner.

Preview:

Natalia joins the party and Ion is kidnapped by some clowns.