Summary:

On the Imperial side, a young man named Karl Oswald has recently been assigned to be Selvaria’s aide. At around the same time, Maximilian has to return to the Empire to report what’s been going on to the emperor, and he isn’t taking Selvaria with him. What Karl doesn’t tell anyone is that he’s been assigned under secret orders to keep Selvaria away from Maximilian, and when Selvaria tries to go after Maximilian, Karl convinces her not to. Jaeger has his suspicions about what Karl is doing here, and it all comes to a head after Karl is nearly killed by someone sent from Central to take him out after his job was done. Fortunately, Selvaria saves him, and she and Jaeger don’t blame him, but they do realize that Maximilian might be in trouble.

The three thus head out by car, but by this point, the house that Maximilian is staying at has come under attack by assassins. Karl does everything he can to get them there in time, and with his driving and Selvaria’s ability to break through gates while standing on the hood of a moving car, they finally make it. When the assassins fire on them, Selvaria uses her powers to cut through both bullets and men, and she rushes towards Maximilian’s room. To her surprise though, he’s already personally killed all of the assassins who came directly after him. Selvaria is ready to take responsibility for disobeying his previous order for her to stay put, but Maximilian doesn’t punish her or say anything to her at all before continuing on his way to speak with the Emperor. Karl meanwhile stays on as Selvaria’s aide and gets used to his new life.

Preview

That was a nice change of pace. Not only was there some political intrigue, but this episode also let us see the other side of the conflict and got us better acquainted with Selvaria and company. It’s hard for me to even call them villains now because they really aren’t. Maximilian is just really ambitious, Selvaria is fervently loyal to him, and Jaeger is the same as always (I never considered him a villain in the first place because of his laid back attitude). Karl was a decent character as well, though his relative naiveté makes me wonder if there’s any role for him to play in the series after this. Maybe they’ll use him exclusively to develop Maximilian and Selvaria’s characters from time to time, and he won’t ever show up in battle against Welkin and Squad 7.

The crown prince actually appears to have the potential to be more of a villain than anyone else on this side of the story, and given how Maximilian is the same voice actor as Lelouch, I was half-hoping that the crown prince would be Schneizel and the emperor would be Charles. No such luck however: the crown prince was instead voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru (who did Xingke) and the emperor was Yada Kouji. Speaking of Maximilian, this episode also made me wonder about the difference in his and Selvaria’s ages. I didn’t think it was very big, but in the scene where Selvaria was remembering her past, she looked like she was an eight or nine year old girl, and he (at least I assume that’s him) looked as old as he does now. That in turn makes me wonder how much of her following him is loyalty and how much of it is love from a young age.

In any case, the story returns back to the Gallia side next week, and the preview and next episode title suggest that something will happen the night of a snowstorm.

17 Comments

  1. hmmm, perhaps it’s just me but I don’t remember this from the game. I didn’t finish the game but I was in chapter 14 and don’t remember many of these new characters, twists or story-lines at all.

    N97
  2. The anime has diverged from the game quite a bit. Show Spoiler ▼

    Many of the characters and situations that have been introduced in the last couple of episodes are completely new.

    Probably not a bad thing. The game was great, but the flow of its plot (with 20 or so distinct battles) might not work for an anime series, without getting repetitive. In addition, the game’s plot focusses on a very small circle of characters and keeping to those for 26 episodes probably wouldn’t work.

    On the point about the ages of Maximillian and Selvaria, I can’t remember the details (and can’t be bothered firing up my PS3 to check right now), but I think she’s 21 and he’s in his late 20s.

    Keldorne
  3. Now thats certainly taking the Selvaria Bonus Chapter and…well actually its got nothing to do with it except for the fatc that Selvaria gains a pawn called Karl ( i think it was karl)…

    Other than that this ep got nothing to do with the game. Which is good i guess, at least i won’t hate it for fucking the game up then.

    andreas
  4. a scene of welkin ang selvaria talking, just what i wanted. they remind me of my favorite pair in some series because they have same seiyuus as welkin and selvaria respectively. nice.

    hmm… i wont be seeing alicia in this ep? aww. i kinda miss her…

    Layla-san
  5. This chapter is directly based on Selvaria’s DLC backstroy. Karl’s role is basicly Selvaria’s aid in combat as she don’t carry any ragnaid (medikits). Think like this: Selvaria=Tank, Karl=Engineer. Karl significance in Selvaria’s life is that he’s maybe her only real friend, and one of the few soldiers in the Empire that don’t fear the Azure Witch. The “human side” of the Empire (of sorts)

    SeedStriker
  6. Impressive. A new bit not in the game (although the thing about Maximillian was heavily hinted) and yes, Carl is a character in the DLC but the plot here is completely new!!

    I wonder if this will have a greater impact later on or if it’ll be pretty much forgotten

  7. hmmm if im correct its suppose to be the escape from the forest mission is the next part and the entire war over gallia was in the span of 4 months so winter is technically impossible as IIRC the entire things that happened in the game is early summer to end of summer which also explains a beach episode hey its for fan service sake lol

    Algester
  8. @Algester: Wrong. The whole story takes place over 9 months, not 4, IIRC. Besides, Gallia could have a really strange climate.

    This episode was simply awesome. Selvaria hawtness FTW!

    Looking forward to next episode’s Welkin/Alicia shipping moments!

    Runty
  9. In the main game, and from the Selvaria DLC, Karl eventually Show Spoiler ▼

    Mars

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