天下制覇

 

I prefer onion philosophy personally.

Impressions:

I was very very tired when I started dealing with this last night and nearly fell asleep around the time Priecia got into her second tomato-based argument with Theresa. Then I called it a night and decided to finish it in the morning and found that the last paragraph or so I wrote was total nonsense. So… if anything is especially off, I apologize. It was a very tiring weekend.

As much as I like Theresa/Hell, they made her hostility to the world in general a lot more obvious. They also made the fact that Theresa is Hell painfully obvious as well. Granted, it’s not particularly well hidden in the game either, but at least they make a minor effort. There are only so many short haired blondes running around after all. In the game, Hyaweh is the one that gets all chummy chummy with her on more or less a random visit to her city, and she’s a hell of a lot more receptive and nicer in general to him… although she’s obviously not entirely pleased with Windland so it’s not really out of character for her to claw Priecia to pieces, even if all of it was wrapped up in some godawful and convoluted tomato metaphor.

Blah blah blah, obligatory complaints about pacing. We have 5 episodes left… probably… and we’re still at least two episodes out from episode one… and if they really wanted, they could stretch the stuff that happens after that part for another eight or nine episodes with ease. At the moment though, I haven’t a damn clue where they’re going to end or where they’re even going here with the plot. They still don’t really have a villain that the main characters know about, and they managed to throw in yet another Prism Heart character (or so I’m told) to further engorge the cast list.

Priecia also really needs to get over herself. She was making good strides before, but lately all she does is get pissed off about everything. Asked on a date? Get pissed off. Shot down by your crush? Get pissed off. Phagiel appears and destroys your army? Get pissed off. Told you suck at tomato care? Get pissed off. At least they’re being consistent if nothing else. I probably could have done without the near-rape scene. I think it could have been presented a little better than “Priecia is so depressed over Hyaweh that she’s going to let herself get raped.” Rape is something that really disquiets me in any form though, so it’s probably just a personal reaction.

A woman drops through water. She remembers a boy and surfaces. Behind her, Sister Hell’s clothes are draped on her crosssword.

Bridget narrates the result of the battle of Grenzier fortress in a letter. Karin apologizes to Kisarov for their own lack of preparation and inadaquecy in dealing with the Angel. Kisarov is more interested in Hyaweh and his sword. Outside, Bridget listens in on them.

In the trauma ward, everybody is recovering. Hyaweh is badly injured, but seems to be sleeping normally. Litte and Karin watch over him. Priecia, totally uninjured, walks up to his bed with a bouquet of flowers.

She overhears Karin and Litte talking about his life, and drops her flowers in shock. She runs past Kagura and out into town.

Once there, her eyes are dead and two burly men arrive to pick her up. She doesn’t react at all. Acty, in full pimp mode, sees them drag her into the alleyway. Inside, they start roughing Priecia up a little bit, but Acty commands them to stop from up above. He charges up his “Acty Sword” to attack, them, but collapses the roof on his head.

The men turn back to Priecia, and pull off her top. Priecia reacts to her pocketwatch showing, but still doesn’t fight. Another voice commands them to stop, Theresa. The men turn to her threateningly. She simply tosses a tomato into the air and then when they watch it, kicks them both in the face. She goes to inspect Priecia, and sees the pocketwatch with Windland’s emblem.

Later, Priecia wakes up in a church, completely redressed. She walks out to the garden and thanks Theresa for saving her, but Theresa ignores her. Priecia gets annoyed and storms over, Theresa tells her to stop… she’s disturbing the garden.

Priecia gets pissed again (seems to be the standard state of being for her lately) and ends up falling on her ass while Theresa just keeps going on about the garden.

Priecia’s stomach growls and Theresa offers her a tomato. Priecia has apparently never dealt with one before and needs to be shown how to eat it. Once she tries it, she ravenously devours it.

At school, everybody conscious is looking for Priecia but can’t find her. The fanclub is still hopeful and Kagura thanks them.

In the garden, Priecia is somehow clean now and working. Theresa asks her what she thinks she’s doing. Priecia tells her that she’s repaying her help. She looks at the green tomatos with a smile.

Back in the trauma ward, Fel tries to get out of bed to help find Priecia since she might be needed, but Filia stops her because of her injuries.

Priecia happily heads out to the garden. The tomatos she was working on previously are looking sicker though and she gets angry at them and demands to know why. I don’t think the tomatos are going to respond, babe. Theresa tells her that sometimes there’s nothing you can do. Priecia angrily responds, expecting tomatos to respond to her ‘gentle’ ministrations.

Theresa doesn’t really care. There are so many factors that lead to the life of a tomato that… good god… I can’t finish writing this. Suffice it to say that it’s a rather overblown comparison of tomatos and life.

Priecia doesn’t agree and crushes a tomato in annoyance. Theresa goes on about saving tomatos, continuing the horrible metaphor to painful ends. Her words resonate with Priecia and she remembers Karin saying a similar thing about her jealously wielding her sword for her pride instead of anything else.

Theresa starts to walk away, but Priecia is pissed and nearly in tears. She yells at Theresa to come back and listen to her. Priecia collapses in tears, wondering what she’s been doing with herself all this time.

The searching girls plus Fel can’t find Priecia, even with Kagura’s familiar helping.

Yet more time later, Priecia wakes up outside with a blanket over her. Theresa hands her a towel and walks away. Priecia runs after her, and proceeds to follow her around town and to a church. Recall that Priecia is still in nothing but a dress shirt and no pants. They come to another church where Theresa is glomped by a bunch of kids who are after her tomatos.

One of the kids demands to know who the strange woman is. Priecia angrily answered that she’s Priecia. They want her to play “Knights” with her and insult her in their usual childish ways before dragging her off for some play.

In the evening, Theresa and Priecia say their goodbyes. The kids thank Theresa and the girl holds up a present that she found. It’s a small Prism.

Theresa angrily slaps it away without thinking. The girl is in tears and runs to Priecia. Theresa apologizes, but says that she can’t… and runs away. Priecia comforts the kids.

Back at Theresa’s HQ, she’s lost in thought. She has a quick flashback through an artificial life factory and another group of kids. Priecia interrupts her, demanding to know why she acted that way towards the kids. They didn’t know anything. Priecia holds out the Prism, demanding that Theresa accept it along with their feelings.

 

Ever the hypocrite, Priecia chastises Theresa for her pride preventing Theresa from accepting and understanding the feelings of the kids. Theresa basically just tells Priecia that’s she’s a naive little whelp and walks out.

Back at the school, Kisarov has a midnight visitor. A strange woman that he wasn’t expecting.

In the trauma ward, Hyaweh finally wakes up and mumbles Prieica’s name.