Summary:

Lidia’s scouts have been watching Avalon Castle, and they report back to her about Octavia being there. Remembering how Octavia wouldn’t finish her off in their duel a long time ago, Lidia moves out with her forces. Over at Avalon, Arthur and Ogam inform Arawn and Morgan that Octavia was seen with soldiers of the Empire. Morgan refuses to believe that Octavia would betray them, so she goes to find out for herself, and she’s shocked to see that Octavia is indeed meeting with the enemy. When Morgan tries to question her back at the castle, Octavia lies about what she was up to. Conflicted about what to do, Morgan confronts Octavia when Octavia tries to leave Avalon the next day with the children that she’s been teaching. The children convince Morgan to back off because they were just trying to go find some mushrooms, but all this still results in Octavia deciding to turn back and making the children promise not to go outside the castle.

Despite this, the two children go out into the forest, and one of them gets captured by Lidia’s troops. Her men use the other child to go tell Octavia what happened in order to draw her out, and when Octavia hears about it, she remembers how the earlier secret meeting had Lidia’s men demanding that she help them. She thus rushes out, but in her path stands Morgan with bow and arrow drawn. Octavia refuses to say anything to Morgan, even after Morgan tries to get her to understand that they’re friends, and in the end, Morgan decides to trust Octavia after all. Octavia is thus free to go out and face Lidia, and Lidia airs her grievances about how Octavia left her to live in shame by not finishing her off. Octavia disagrees with Lidia, but before she can say anything else, Morgan jumps in and frees the hostage. Morgan is happy to help, and as it turns out, Arthur and the entire Gael army has come out to fight.

As the two armies clash, Lidia prepares to face Octavia one-on-one, but Octavia first clarifies what she meant earlier. She explains that her way of thinking is changing because of the people she’s with, and she has decided to forgive Lidia. This is because back during their last duel, it was actually Lidia who hesitated first. Refusing to believe it, Lidia attacks, and as the two fight each other, they remember how happily they grew up together. In the aftermath of their final charge towards each other, Lidia doesn’t get back up, and with her final breaths, she notes how perfect they were as true swordsmen. Octavia agrees, and after Lidia dies, she holds Lidia’s body and admits that she loved her. She thinks that Lidia loved her too, and she cries about how back then, they both didn’t want the other to die.

Preview

Well that wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped it be based on the preview from last episode. For starters, I thought the Morgan and Octavia confrontation was somewhat overblown because it was based on a stupid misunderstanding. I realize that they’re trying push the whole friends-trust-and-help-each-other angle, but it could have all been avoided if Morgan had just listened in on what was being said during the secret meeting or if Octavia had been a little bit more forthcoming. Things like that are frustrating to watch and tend to annoy me. And I was cursing the stupid little kids too because they got themselves captured after Octavia explicitly told them not to go outside the castle. Conversely, my issue with what happened between Lidia and Octavia was not really with the relationship itself but rather with how it was portrayed. The ending of it felt rushed, especially since they just tacked on that childhood friends montage. I could see that they were trying to go for something tragic and emotional by showing two friends who ended up on opposite sides, but the episode didn’t stir any of those feelings in me.

Since the preview seems to focus on Gaius, Riannon, and the troubadour whose name I don’t remember, I assume that Octavia’s story is done for the most part. I thought she’d become Arawn’s wife or paired off with Arthur or something, but I guess not. At least not yet anyway since the series is not even half over. More importantly, what is Riannon doing under Gaius’ control next episode?

14 Comments

  1. The story is all over the place compared to the old h-game that i’m all confused now…

    Utawarerumono didn’t have this problem…

    i wonder just how different the later versions of the Tears game were…

    Harouki
  2. It seems Gaius asked Riannon to look at the might of the imperial legions and listen to the voice of reason and surrender…
    Whoa @ Lidia X Octavia – whole new level of love-hate relationship 😛

    ewok
  3. Do any of the girls end up with Arthur? It is getting rather tiresome that every girl that shows up becomes Arwan’s wife. If you ask me Riannon should be Arwan’s only wife in the end and Morgan probably get with Arthur since they already are like love and hate husband and wife. Meaning they get along really well but they also fight alot.

    roger
  4. nah arawn hates gang bangs but he eventually cools down on what befalls himself whilst making his “harem” (this has been prooven when limwris and ermin finally gave themselves up of not being taken part of his harem to his “anguish/joy”)
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Algester
  5. Aren’t alot of the girls that became his wives just accidents . What he does normally turns out to be him proposing in their culture. Also I noticed he never actually said they were his wives. If I remeber correctly for Morgan he specifically said she has to remain by his side and can’t betray him any more which she assumed that she is now his wife. Knowing his personality he thinks most of the people (including Riannon and Arthur) are a nusiance and not bothering with clearing stuff up.

    roger
  6. I got a bit hooked on Tears to Tiara on the strength of the ‘Ruprom’ episode, and I’m pretty peeved at how Lidia turned out to be just a minor piece of Octavia’s subplot and intro. Her death was pretty rushed IMO, though I did admit that last scene with Tavia cradling her was touching, although I would have preferred her to just cry quietly at the end instead of screaming a Darth Vader-ish NOOOOO at the end. ^_^ Also, it took just a little pep-talk from Arawn and all the Gaels have ‘leveled up’ to defeat the Ruprom totally? The poor red guards go from being invincible attackers to enemies who get killed off OFFSCREEN in just a couple of episodes… man, what a way to go. Sigh…

    MADman
  7. Octavia was my favorite character from the original games, and I can’t believe that they used her for nothing more than a filler story. They changed the original meeting between Arawn/Octavia and seem to have moved along in the story with no further development between them. This episode seems to have killed any chance of Octavia becoming Arawn’s wife as she was supposed to. It’s nice that she got screen time, but it was in the worst possible way. Personally, I find the series to be a disappointment so far. While production quality is nice, the overall storyboard doesn’t track the games very well. And they’ve simply put too much focus on Arthur. I really would have liked to see much, much more Arawn/harem interactions during first half of the series. Arawn’s wives seem to be introduced only to become background characters the following episode. They could have saved all this Arthur focus for later, since he gets plenty of spotlight in the main plot. There is still a chance to salvage the series, I suppose, but I’m not holding my breath.

    Abel

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