Summary:

Out in the mountains on a reconnaissance mission with Alicia, Welkin realizes that a snowstorm is coming and finds them shelter in an old cabin nearby. As a storm roars up outside, Welkin starts a fire and gives Alicia the only blanket. He begins sneezing himself though, so Alicia shares it with him. Uneasy with the silence, Alicia tries to get Welkin to talk about himself, and he eventually admits that his interest in nature is due to his father who happened to be an insect collector. Alicia knows that it must have been tough being the son of a famous person, but she still thinks that it would be better than not having a father at all. She reveals that she was an orphan and is envious of those who have memories of family, however Welkin explains that his own family situation was complicated. His father was always troubled and had blamed himself for not being able to protect his mother from dying in the previous war. In order to prevent more people from having to be sad, Welkin wants to end the current war as soon as possible.

Welkin then asks about the red scarf that Alicia wears in her hair, so she takes it off and tells him about how it came from her days working in a bakery. She wears it now because she doesn’t want to forget that before she was a soldier, she was a baker. Welkin admires this, and Alicia ends up getting a bit closer to him. She puts her hand on his, but before anything more can happen, Welkin suggests that they sleep. A few hours later, he wakes Alicia up and alerts her to someone trying to enter the cabin. Both of them have their guns ready when an Imperial soldier bursts into the room, but he stops them from shooting by holding everyone hostage with a grenade that he’s pulled the pin out of. With neither side able to trust the other, a stand-off soon forms even though Welkin tries to reason with the man. Things take a turn for the worse after the guy starts coughing up blood, and Alicia tries to help him. He reacts to her movement by shooting at her, but the shots miss her. Despite this, Alicia doesn’t give in to the pressure and makes it clear that she’s concerned about him as a person, not a soldier.

The Imperial soldier finally lowers his gun and allows her tend to his injuries which turn out to be two bullet wounds in his abdomen. He still has his hand on the grenade though as Alicia bandages him up, and he continues to hold onto it afterward. Welkin realizes that they’re in a bad situation because the grenade would go off if the Imperial loses consciousness, and he attempts to figure out a way to save all of them. In the meantime, Alicia surprises the Imperial by giving him both water and the only blanket, and Welkin tries to get the guy to talk about his wounds. Admitting that he’ll likely die, the Imperial laments having it happen in such a place, and he tells the two of how he’s the uneducated third son of a farmer. He explains that in an Empire controlled by nobles, birthright determines everything, however it is still possible to rise up in the world by joining the military and showing your talents. But then the war started, and they were forced to fight, causing him to question what he was trying to obtain that required people to get killed.

Ultimately, this Imperial had deserted, and his wounds were from being shot at by his former friends. Alicia feels that the war is to blame for all this, and after she says this, the Imperial gets their names. He then produces the pin of his grenade and puts it back in, thus ending the threat. Expressing how glad he is that he was able to talk with them, his final wish is for them to remember that he was alive in this world, and he reveals that his name is Michael Weber. He dies shortly thereafter, and Alicia and Welkin give him a proper burial outside the cabin. The next morning, when Imperial forces arrive, they find the grave and Gallian footprints leading away. Their commander decides not to pursue their enemies though because of what they did, even if it was for a deserter. By this point, Alicia and Welkin are on their way back to where Squad 7 was, but they don’t expect anyone to have waited for them this long. Squad 7, of course, is still there, and everyone is reunited.

Preview

That was a pretty damn good episode, probably one of the better ones of the series so far. For once there was a cold open, but they still went back and showed how things got to that point. I like how they developed Alicia and Welkin’s backgrounds (Alicia being an orphan raised a flag in my head) and relationship, though it was a little odd seeing Alicia make the first move and having Welkin balk. The subsequent standoff scene with the Imperial was appropriately quite tense, and then the latter half of the episode presented a very human face to the war and shows how cruel it can be. Like last week’s episode, they seem to be emphasizing as well that it’s the higher-ups/nobility who are bad, and not necessarily the soldiers who have to fight the war. Maybe the series will end with the nobles no longer controlling the Empire or something. Anyway, I also thought the music choices were quite strong, particularly when Alicia and Welkin were talking and when Alicia examined the Imperial.

Speaking of nobility though, it looks like Alicia and company will get to meet some next week, though I don’t understand how Jaeger and Selvaria can show up at the same place if they’re on the opposing side. I guess they’re the uninvited guests alluded to in the episode title. But hey, who cares; I’m all for more Selvaria screentime. And finally, as a random side note, this episode prompted me to look it up, and apparently you can indeed put a pin back into a grenade after taking it out under certain circumstances.

28 Comments

  1. So long as there’s a dead-man’s switch the grenade can usually be disarmed by putting the pin back, but it really depends on the model of the grenade. It’s quite common among modern grenades for the pin to actually be keeping the dead-man’s switch locked.

    Nanatsuya
  2. So they didn’t use the game plot of Welkin and Alicia getting seperated from an enemy bombing and having them trek through enemy lines in the night with Alicia getting injured, eh? At least they kept the plot of those two finding a cabin

    puyomon
  3. Glad to see I’m not the only one who thought this episode was great for character development. An excellent installment.

    I’m left to wonder, however, how the next episode will work out…

    Runty
  4. “though it was a little odd seeing Alicia make the first move and having Welkin balk.” Alicia is a lot more open with her feelings in the game. She pretty much makes all the moves except for the last one.

    Nellie
  5. I have to get an album with collectible Alicia facial expressions… gotta catch them all 😛 …
    Otherwise seems Alicia X Welkin is moving into place slowly…
    The episode reminds me of Christmas truces of WW1 and 2…

    ewok
  6. “I wonder if we’ll see the Skies of Arcadia cameos of Vyse, Aika and Fina in the anime.”
    Won’t they have to cameo Fina in? The Medic has a couple of important scenes in the game.

    Gah, I can’t wait for the next episode. Jaeger in a suit = amazing! I love Jaeger screen time. <3

    K-chan
  7. omg the subs for episode 9 aren’t still there. damn subber. hurry up! i cant wait for the subbed episode 10. i want to know what welkin and alicia were talking about and they were so sweet. WxA forever!!!!

    oooohhh… episode 11 looks interesting.

    Layla-san
  8. No subs out for this yet, but I find the episode interesting from the way to was reported. I’m always for these little “filler” episodes that are interesting.

    paulrenzo
  9. Just an update on subs. And a disclaimer, I don’t do the subs so, “lazy” might still be a reason for no subs of the recent episodes. Its finals week for many colleges in the states. So, the subbers may be college students, who don’t give a shit right now for your need to understand an anime.

    IDB
  10. ^ The translator quit subbing for VC because he thinks it’s a shitty anime. But they found a replacement so episode 9 should be released this or next week.

    Anyway, I just watched this episode and my god, I practically squealed (I r girl) at the WxA moments. Although I kinda preferred them getting around the woods then finding cabin like in the game. Nonetheless, it was a pretty damn good episode.

    Jinxi
  11. I watched this part of the game on YouTube by mistake I thought it was from Episode 9, but I like how there was more detail and interaction between Welkin and Alicia than in the game.

    Zeke Asch Wilder
  12. @IDB

    I forgot to add that it was Ayako’s translator who quit the fansubbing for this series. And to be honest, I didn’t know there were more than one fansubbing groups for VC…
    My apologies.

    Jinxi

Leave a Reply to Nanatsuya Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *