Summary:

Twelve years ago, Prince Rajina was placed in charge of the Girouard Military, but he was promptly killed, much to the delight of Prince Asim. Back in the present, Jin and Gio have to battle several Girouard spacecraft on their way to Mars, and Jin vows to get to Toa no matter what. Garnet wants to send the Agathion force against Gio and Machina, but Asim feels that it isn’t necessary. Back on Earth, Kiril is being grilled about the Ostolm incident and all the problems it caused, and he tries to blame the Girouard military for ignoring their request for help, but the Girouard king himself is present at the meeting. Meanwhile, on Mars, Asim tells Toa about how the ISDA intends to attack Thanatos, and this causes her to panic all over again because she knows that there’s no turning back if that’s done. Toa once again pleads for Asim to let her out because the Earth will be destroyed, but he refuses and notes that the idea of a planet disappearing is intriguing. This causes Toa to wonder why he’s okay with it since the Earth is originally his home, so Asim reveals that he doesn’t think that people dying and the destruction of Earth have anything to do with him.

Asim feels that people only think about themselves, and so they’re nothing more than a bunch of stupid creatures. When Toa points out that Asim is a human too, he differentiates himself by saying that he was chosen to stand on top of mankind. Toa, however, feels that all life is equal and that man thinks about more than just himself because she believes that love exists inside peoples’ hearts. Love for her is wanting to protect someone and being willing to sacrifice yourself for that, and love can create an unimaginably large power. When Asim notes the characteristic of lust, Toa says that she believes it’s all part of humanity. This talk of the power of love makes Asim wonder if Toa is referring to Jin, and he goes on to reveal that Jin’s headed there. Toa is initially in disbelief because she doesn’t think that Jin could know where she is, but a transmission from Garnet to Asim confirms Jin and Gio’s arrival. Recalling what Toa had just said about love creating power, Asim wants to see her prince prove it.

A barrage of missiles meets Gio and Machina after they enter Mars’ atmosphere, however both manage to get through it safely, and they destroy the launch sites. Their next obstacle is a deployment of the Agathions, and although the first two prove to be no problem, a larger group soon ambushes them. Akira tells Jin to leave things out there to her, so he pilots Gio into the dome where the main Girouard building sits. After entering on foot, Jin and Gio are caught in a CSS trap that temporarily takes Gio out, but when the two then get attacked by guards, Gio uses sheer will and physical power to expel the CSS canisters out of him. This gives him back the power to take out the guards, but another wave of them appears, so Gio takes Jin to the next level up and has Jin go on ahead. The path leads Jin to a spiral staircase going up a tower, but along the way, he gets attacked again and is knocked down. Gio ends up having to rescue Jin, and the two blow past another group of guards before reaching the door leading towards the throne room. Before they can open it though, the stairwell crumbles and Jin has to grab Gio to save him.

The two eventually arrive at the throne room, and as Jin runs towards Toa’s holding cell, Garnet attacks. Gio manages to block her sword with his hands, however with Garnet now keeping Gio busy, Asim is free to fire some sort of electrical projectile at a defenseless Jin. This knocks Jin down, but he gets back up, so Asim keeps firing at him and eventually grabs Jin’s leg and pulls him towards the throne. Unable to just stand there not doing anything, Toa’s power starts to flare up, and when she yells for Asim to stop hurting Jin, the glass enclosure around her starts to crack. This distracts Asim long enough for Jin to punch him, and Garnet trying to rush to Asim’s side gives Gio the opening to knock her out too. Jin then approaches Toa, and after the glass between them breaks, he says that he came for her, and she thanks him. Across the room, Asim gets back up and claims to be very interested in the power of love that he’s witnessing, so much so that he starts laughing uncontrollably.

Preview

So what I don’t understand is why Gio didn’t just crash into the throne room or simply stay in Dragon form until they found Toa, thus avoiding all the close combat that left him and Jin vulnerable. Still, it did allow them to show that Jin isn’t as wimpy as before and can even do some of his own fighting (even though Gio technically still saved him more times than the other way around). In the end though, I was just happy to see someone knock that smug look off Asim’s face.

Also, the entire power of love thing seemed rather hokey to me, and I really hope they don’t talk about it anymore. I’m not averse to that being the moral of the story, but openly talking about it just kind of ruins it, especially when we have someone like Asim laughing maniacally about it like we do here. Speaking of which, the beginning of the episode made me wonder about Garnet and how she really feels about him. In other words, does she love Asim like a mother does a son, or does she actually have feelings for him that she hopes he eventually reciprocates? If it’s the latter, doesn’t the fact that she’s known him since he was so young make it weird? The preview has a lot of shots of her fighting Gio, so maybe we’ll find out more about her background next week too.

25 Comments

  1. [quote]
    -I don’t understand why Gio didn’t just crash into the throne room or simply stay in Dragon form until they found Toa, thus avoiding all the close combat that left him and Jin vulnerable.
    [/quote]

    that’s what we call “unnecessary cool effect”

  2. Lol, if he had stayed in dragon form, maybe Gio was worried about squishing people, or (really), it is the Prince’s throne room. I don’t he would want enemy dragons just barging in, so maybe he has that magnetic field thing that doesn’t allow it.

    And hurray for Jin not being totally useless. That, and Hot dragon, human action. Yay!

    Final
  3. That’s just the odd camera angle which makes them look bigger than before, it’s not that they inflated or that they’ve made them bigger etc.

    Anyways, no Jin x Toa kissu! All that and still nothing? When are we going to get the human/dragon hybrid baby making scenes? Well, there are different types of “love” so maybe Jin x Toa won’t get to that level. Still leaves the door open for Akira-chan! The only female with basically no boobs in the show, but she’s the best imo.

    GP
  4. Okey. Judging from the preveiw after watching it, it seems that Garnet’s amazing swordsmanship and other otherworldy abilities will be justified.
    and
    No, Asim didnt use a power on Jin. it was a whip. a Photon whip.(Go play the latest Phantasy Star.(Oh wait. its not out yet outside of japan. my bad.))

    Rauzes
  5. It’s awesome to see Jin finally growing in inner strength and actually taking proper action when needed instead of always being emo like he was last time. Cheered when he socked Asim hard.

    Speaking of which, the beginning of the episode made me wonder about Garnet and how she really feels about him. In other words, does she love Asim like a mother does a son, or does she actually have feelings for him that she hopes he eventually reciprocates? If it’s the latter, doesn’t the fact that she’s known him since he was so young make it weird?

    At the moment, I’m thinking it may be the latter. I could be wrong since I’m only basing this assumption on one of her reactions earlier on when Asim praised Nanami. She seemed annoyed and maybe even jealous that time.

    Btw, major SPOILERS for Shana. Click at your own risk.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Dav
  6. She was reading Faust.. O-O; I wonder why.. 0-0? To those who don’t know what Faust is.. He is a magician and a alchemist in German legend who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for power and knowledge.

    Silver Mine
  7. It seems to me as though Asim is going head to head with Kazuki for the title of ‘most annoying character’ in the show. His voice, his laugh and his smugness is all just a bit too much.
    I was relieved when Jin finally landed that punch on him.

    And I think the Garnet/Asim thing is unrequited love on her part… it doesn’t look like Asim ‘gets’ what love is (it’s probably not his scene).
    Don’t really see what she sees in an effeminate weirdo like him, either.

    hello_ct

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