Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「イゼッタ」 (Izetta)
“Izetta”
This was not a bad finale. It certainly does most of the things one would expect a finale to do, especially in terms of spectacle. Shuumatsu no Izetta pulled out all the stops to make witch vs witch fight actually interesting to watch. It didn’t have to be, since it’s really just telekinetics chucking stuff at each other, with the crescendo being two swollen red balls (I’m sorry, I’m sorry). So the key is in what they chuck. Little red pellets? Lame. Tanks, trains, and the Eiffel Tower? That is cool, especially if it upsets the French.
So yeah, the action was great. If we really think about it, this really was just the part of the war game where somebody flips the table over and starts throwing the pieces around, so it’s good that the action is at least worthy of the popcorn. No problems there. The problems that were there, though, were the same kinds of problems that had plagued the entire series. So I guess this is a good time to segue into my final impressions for Shuumatsu no Izetta.
Final Impressions ~ Fatal Flaw
Here’s an example: for the past few episodes now, Finé has been feeling very guilty about… something. She’s been bemoaning how terrible a power magic is, about how wrong she was for unleashing it on the world, and about how she’s responsible for setting things right. Okay, I understand why she’d be doing that. She needs to have an internal conflict, to show an arc of character growth, yada yada. Even if you think she’s being over-dramatic, you’re probably won’t think too much about letting her have her moment. That is, until you remember that the Germanians already had a zombie witch in their basement, were already prepared to mass produce her, and one of the reasons for them invading Elystadt was to further Otto’s witch obsession. I think you’re overstating your own importance in the entire debacle, lady.
Obviously, Shuumatsu no Izetta was trying to make a point about how humans cannot be trusted to not destroy ourselves, about power and responsibility, about how nukes are terrible. Honestly, I don’t mind what point a show tries to make, as long as it’s well thought out. In Shuumatsu no Izetta‘s case, it’s not really. While the physical conflict, the fighting, was generally well done, the moral conflict, the ‘why’ of the fighting, was far less so. It’s not that it didn’t try for one—it tried to juxtapose a lot of its characters, like Otto and Finé, Sophia and Izetta—but it ended up underdeveloped, poorly thought out, or just plain stupid. Here’s another example: Sophia finally reveals her secret secret backstory, about how it was actually the prince who betrayed her, but 1) I can’t believe she’d just take the wife’s word for it 2) we’ve never seen how she used to be in the past, so all we know of Sophia is that she’s powerful and unstable, so maybe the Inquisition actually has a pretty good point in this timeline. This is not even getting into the flaky bits of internal logic in Shuumatsu no Izetta, like how despite the alleged stigma against witchcraft the ‘heroic White Witch’ version of the story still managed to survive as the only popularly known version. It seems that when there’s only a line or two afforded to any given development, holes start to develop everywhere.
The problem is that when the logic and the messaging of a story falls apart, events and character actions start to feel arbitrary. Sure, perhaps events are arbitrary, but unless we’re fully embracing nihilism we usually look for some meaning in our stories. We want things to happen for a reason. Otherwise it feels like things happen based purely on the whims of the writer, and the man behind the curtain is revealed. So, in Shuumatsu no Izetta… why does Sieg have to die? Why does Berkman have to live? I’m sure Shuumatsu no Izetta was trying to make some point about something, but when its central moral conflict has been so weak it’s hard to make out what it’s trying to say. And for that matter, why does Izetta live? Despite the overblown martyr complex, despite all the assurances that getting rid of all the magic in defiance of magical thermodynamics and without blowing up the planet is a feat that will surely kill her, nope, not dead. I usually like happy endings, but I also want those happy endings to be earned, and this one wasn’t. Here, it feels like not even Shuumatsu no Izetta knew what it wanted, and just tossed the positive epilogue in. It feels arbitrary because it is arbitrary; nobody writing this show knows what they want, apparently.
It’s a shame, because there’s many other good things about Shuumatsu no Izetta. The action, again, is mostly done well with some detailed military hardware, despite art and animation failing at times between heavy scenes. The designs were another praiseworthy aspect of the visuals; everyone was dressed in great costumes, some even had multiple, and the uniforms were historical and fitting. And of course, we can’t go without mentioning the soundtrack, which while a bit short really held everything together. Even when choreography wasn’t the best, or when the dialogue was inane, the score could always be counted on to set the mood or elevate a scene. Its excellence is hard to overstate. So, yeah, many good things about Shuumatsu no Izetta, it’s just that the script turned out to be rather weak. And that’s, arguably, the most important part. Can good execution carry a weak script? Arguably, yes, but only to an extent. Shuumatsu no Izetta is by no means a bad show, and fairly entertaining, but never manages to rise much higher than that. Despite its obvious ambition, I fear that it will be remembered as little more than cheap entertainment. You don’t think too hard about it when watching, and when it’s over, you move on.
https://randomc.net/2016/12/18/shuumatsu-no-izetta-12-end/
I’m so glad Berkman is alive!
I don’t agree with your take on Sophia. In my option her backstory was the most solid writing in the show and it worked very well for me. Apart from this your conclusions are on point.
wrong link:
https://randomc.net/image/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2038.jpg
Each to their own, I suppose. I do think, though, that consider Sophia’s disproportionate spite and importance to the narrative, we could have afforded to see more of her story, instead of getting it mostly via hearsay.
I don’t get why he lived. I really don’t. It doesn’t make any sense. The pilot was ready to murder him, and unless Berkman managed to pull a fast one and shoot him first I do not see him coming out of that alive – except the pilot was still alive and kicking by the conclusion of the war, and Berkman is just… missing an eye?
Show Spoiler ▼
Berkman living is quite a travesty I think. Everyone else pretty much got their comeuppance which seems to be why Seig died. So, why does Berkman survive through with just a scar. I’d bet his eye is perfectly fine and he just likes the chuunibyou eye patch.
https://randomc.net/image/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
…
I do hope this Train Waggon is not “That” Train Waggon…
…
You do not know what i mean with “That”? Then you sleep through the entire WW1/WW2 History in your class
Show Spoiler ▼
That’s not even the issue here. The problem is that it makes no sense to give Fine this internal conflict because the choice of whether to use magic was never hers to make in the first place. If Izetta wanted to fight, she would do so even if Fine didn’t approve. In fact, that’s what happened in episode 3. No, it was always like that, even at the end. Fine could worry all she wanted, but the one to take the decision was Izetta. That made Fine’s conflict pointless.
A better writer would have given Izetta this conflict. Or rather, a better writer would have made Izetta into a character who could be conflicted about her choices, instead of a one-dimensional character who never wavers and doesn’t care all that much about the consequences. Izetta was the actual main protagonist, the one who takes the major decisions and resolve the conflicts. Yet, she was the flatter character of the bunch.
All in all, the character work was all over the place in this show.
Regardless, Finé made it her conflict, and made a point of directly ordering Izetta to battle. I’m guessing it makes her a more responsible sort of figure than Otto. I do agree, though, that Izetta could have used a lot more depth in her character.
Fine worried, but from an narrative stand point, it was pointless. Also, she “ordered” Izetta to battle because Izetta asked her to. Once again, the one who made the decision was Izetta.
https://randomc.net/image/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
This would had been Hitler’s wet dream. An V2 Rocket with the first Atomic Bomb.. Well lucky history went an other path. But we should not take this for granted, it is everyday effort for peace
Well, in other words. most in the world expect that their refrigerator are full, but forget about the ones that fills them or create the stuff that are inside
Speculation: What would happen if WW2 Germania would had the Atomic Bomb?
Well, just look back to history and the side effects of the Cold War. Was is not based of the fear of these Atomic Bombs? What would Germania do at this time? Easy, conquer the World with the same thing as in this conference.. “surrender your country to us, or fear the Atomic Bomb”…
You could create an 2nd Zipang (Great Germania) with easiness, if there are of course the fans for it
But these “fantasies” are also a message to us today, we should not let it happen. then this dreams can become nightmares in an instant
we can not close the Pandoras box of atomic, but at last let us take care that these tools do not fall in the wrong hands
Berkmann getting to live follows in steps of real life Von Braun and many more german specialists after the WW2…
I wonder what happened to the german fighter ace, though since he is presumed to be dead fighting to the end, but as with everyone in Izetta dont assume dead until you see the body.
I did not like Izetta surviving even if as a crippled person. Kinda cheapens the whole drama.
Also, nice thing about having a witch as your lover is you can get “warm sphere of lovemaking” TM in any climate 😛
In case Sophie wasn’t as crazy in the past as she was now, then there should have been other ways for Matthias instead of killing her.
Was she even his lover or was it one sided yandere love? The wife didn’t seem that bad if what Sophie told us about her was true.
This in just one of many examples where the one cour format hurt the show. It could have easily been 24 eps instead.
Good, but not great show.
Mh, the finale was nice visually but disappointing storywise. So many things seem strange or illogical, and for a “love conquers all”-Ending there is not enough kissing or words of love/like/don’t hate you for my taste. Heck, they don’t even show their faces after the timeskip. Cheapskates.
The fighting witches looked great but it was kinda pointless? If the plan was to wipe out all magic, even the already crystalized version (how does that even work? xD), why attack Sophie at all? Just stay in one place, absorb all magic and be done with it. Would have avoided Sophies stupid decisions as well. Why does she start collecting magic as well and kills herself with it, if she could just stab/attack Izetta? Is she only allowed to attack when her ball of doom is larger than Izettas?
stay at one point and suck out the Witch Powers?
Well, Sophia is not instantly out of Powers, so she could kill Izetta with her gigantic Knifes. Also Izetta’s true goal was to avoid the V2 staring rocket. But they sacrificed an 2nd clone as power source for the V2. Lucky this “sucking out all Mana” took her chest Batterie out, so V2 tumbled to earth… and “explode?” or did the fail save fuses still locked
So, Izetta has to lure Shopia out of range, because Sophia was the reason that all this Witch power engines where running.. (like the “Atomic reactors” that was the first purpose of Germany scientist.. but released that this could also used for evil)
so in a way, our own “Atomic Bomb” scientists… if they did not have doubts, the world would be today (perhaps) an Atomic fallout landscape
Nope never had anywhere close to enough bombs to do the world. Only had enough to do the urban area’s of the US and Russia and a part of Europe. Fall out is made of heavy particles that fall out of the air fairly quickly for the most part only small amounts go long and basically trace real long. The destroy the world many times over thing was basically a big lie based on formula that assumed everyone lived in one huge paper and wood city and that explosions double in size by multiplying when it takes a exponential amount to double the size. According to my favorite calculator 6 to 12 times depending on the effect you want. But on a simpler basis the cube root roughly 8 times. http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Science/Nuke.html Yep a Star Wars site but only calculator I found. Basic formula http://matheminutes.blogspot.com/2011/11/explosive-proportion.html
Thus in some desperation that hundreds of millions dead was not a good enough reason to stop atomic bombs some came up with the Nuclear Winter theory that assumed that the bombs would cause enough firestorms to put enough soot into the atmosphere to cause 4 years of no crops, they were stretching way too hard in my opinion to come up with everyone is going to die when that was not even needed.
There is a ton on this on the web.
Yes, Sophie is not out of power instantly but how fast does she notice, how fast can she get to Izetta and will she attack? Because at the end of the fight she didn’t. She was afraid of that big ball of magic. Besides, if Sophie goes searching for Izetta to stop the Magic drainage she also won’t be around to start V2.
And the V2 didn’t matter at the end, because it wasn’t only guided by magic, but the explosive was also crystalized magic, that also got absorbed by Izetta. So at the end that V2 rocket was an empty shell. Nothing left inside to explode.
@RedRocket
And the Nuclear Winter proponents kept trying different scenarios till they were finally able to fudge one find one that would create enough particulate matter high enough in the atmosphere to cause it. Carl Sagan, one of the major spokesmen of the group, caused me to lose all respect for him when I realized how bogus their calculations were. The final nail was when he proclaimed that the oil fires in Kuwait during Desert Storm would prove them right (they didn’t). So much for consensus science.
https://randomc.net/image/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
Double Spirit Bomb, witch style.
https://randomc.net/image/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta/Shuumatsu%20no%20Izetta%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2037.jpg
If anyone saw Code Geass, you would understand that it’s possible to make a witch “compact.” So my guess is that Sophie, or what’s left of her, was in that brief case.
So many ships sunk, as some key characters died, yet Hans Obermayer is still alive, so that one ship that has yet to sail. I’d imagine that the guy gets both Fine and Izetta.
While I don’t blame Fine for, at least what she expected to happen, her choice in sacrificing Izetta. Matthias is a different story as he was truly a disappointment. I know he was only fulfilling the role of a “good king who was willing make any sacrifice to ensure his country’s prosperity,” his choice still upsets me, especially as it made Sophie suffer hell on earth both emotionally and physically. In the words of Alexander the Great (Fate/Zero), a king “does not have to sacrifice anything but rather the people and country should sacrifice themselves for the king, absolutely not the other way around.” Alexander would likely evaluate Matthias as a fool, worse than either a tyrant or a mere figurehead, as Matthias made the cold choice to abandon Sophie, after he took advantage of her love for him, for the sake of his own “pretty little ideals.” A Ruler should be greedier than anyone, let out his fury as he freely chooses to protect what he personally wants to protect (such as a love interest), and never be “a slave to the ‘social obligations’ as a Ruler.” Even if his kingdom faced destruction, because of his selfish decision, there should be no regrets. This is where I often find tyrants, like Alexander, to be more favorable rulers; if Sophie fell in love with Alexander or even Gilgamesh then obviously she would have had a different ending to her life. Shirou Emiya is another ideal choice, especially if he is the type that is willing to sacrifice a country or even the entire world just to only protect the people that are important to him. That is often why many anime lovers prefer the “greedy and selfish” type of protagonists, instead of the “saint” type of character; the perfect examples would be Kaneki Ken (Tokyo Ghoul) and Ange (Cross Ange) who were initially the “saint” type but later change into the “greedy and selfish” type.
I do feel sorry for the princess, at the time, that had Sophie killed. So we can tell, based in how most people remember a “jealous princess,” the princess took the blame so that the prince can be remembered as a “good king.”
Notably, It was no shock that the Germania King “took his own life.” Kingly characters, like him, tend to be killed off-screen.
Anyway, all the magic of Only Europe. If there is a sequel, I imagine it would take place in Japan (or a country similar to Japan), specifically Fuyuki City. Regardless, imagine all the problems of the near future, such as pollution and global warming, that could be solved if magic still existed.
you mean, this version of “von Braun” is not an Rocket Scientist, he is the Key factor of Germanias mass Kloning? Interessting, then United States of Atlanta will have many “Stormtroppers”…
but i have a feeling, that this is now manga stuff… If there is a manga
but, seems like they are normal humans. because Earth veins Witch powers are dry..
“Imagine a car. Everything about it is great, except that it has no engine.”
Or imagine a car. Everything about it is great, except that the engine is just psychotically evil for a really flimsy reason and every time you step on the gas it just screams “REVENGE!” over and over.
Seig had to die because he was a good guy working for the “good guys” and he did an awful “ends justifying the means” thing by killing the kid who’d been shot by one of the bad guys. Called this exact death flag back in the comments for that episode. Didn’t expect him to get killed by that kid’s twin but I was still not fully recognizing how damned shallow the storytelling here was gonna be.
Berkman lived because he was a bad guy working for the “bad guys” and he did a good “ends justifying the means” thing by turning traitor on the bad guys and helping the good guys.
See how that works? Traitorous snakes are allowed illogical redemption because of one good action but loyal dogs get shot in an alley for one action of questionable morality.
In any case, glad we can stop pretending the car’s in motion. If anything, the series was very consistently poorly written from start to finish. Was worried it might actually turn thoughtfully logical at some point. Then I’d have to say something nice about it. Glad that didn’t happen!
Love your normal plot point that is true in so many stories. Real life both the loyal and snake get forgiven if they working for the winning side.
Hey story had lots of great WWII hardware and tactics to look at.
Sieg died because he couldn’t forgive himself. The fact Jonas overheard the conversation and learned Izetta’s secret was Sieg’s fault in the first place, and he knew it. He always tried to do what he thought was right, but it was morally too hard for him. On the other hand Bianca is much stronger person. She faced her own challenges and overcame them, and she isn’t constantly drowning herself in guilt. That’s why she lived.
Also, Sieg wasn’t killed by a twin. We only see Jonas’s face from Sieg’s perspective, because he sees Jonas in that young Germanian soldier, who just happened to wear glasses too. When he’s shown after Sieg dies, we can see, he’s nothing alike.
Unlike Sieg Berkman didn’t have any problem with what he was doing, so there really was no reason for him to die, especially given he didn’t involve himself into anything dangerous by the end.
You’re putting more thought into this than the writers did. Everything I’ve said about this show is a negative criticism about how badly and simplistic the storycraft is.
A better written story would have put effort into showing the complexity of why a moral decision usually isn’t the one which gets made because it’s often not the best, most pragmatic, or safest decision. In a better story, such decisions wouldn’t so obviously create death flags. The results of such decisions would have a story impact not limited to “kill this guy off in a way which bluntly reminds the viewer of that bad thing which he did but we never talked about or followed up on until we killed him off”.
But we didn’t get story craft here. This show offered only the basest of emotional yanks. I don’t disagree with your analysis; I disagree with the idea that this show deserved it. You can apply all the assumed but undemonstrated context you want but the show was too superficial to have earned it.
(obviously I didn’t use “twin” in a biological sense; it was a jab at how stupidly obvious that kid had to be a pointer to the first one because karma is how simplistic, emotion-driven shows work as a substitute for logic and craft)
He He absorbed all the magic so the United States of Atlanta would have the only atomic bombs. And the much wiser rulers of Atlanta would have insisted that all countries accept weapon inspectors on threat of atomic attack and thus the United States of Atlanta dominates the world. For those on far left who insist America is imperial power I point out that we could have ruled the world and throwed the chance away. I’m quite sure the British and French or Russians would have took over if they got it first.
A cold war time book I loved was Germany and the US got the bomb both in 45. The book was based in 1960 and Kennedy just became president with a cold war between Germany and the US with the European countries being like eastern Europe under the Soviets. Actually was a mystery where a German police detective started digging up secrets that the government did not want exposed.
I love that the Russians betrayed the Germans and invaded. Maybe not communist, but at least no Stalin who’s paranoid purgers of good officers caused major problems with the German invasion. The Russians did have the best tank in 41 with the t-34 and on the offensive with better officers the mass confusion that was a major cause the early Russians defeats would be avoided. In addition on attack the Russian air force would be properly deployed not caught on the ground stupidly like in the real war, really stupid most of it should have been stationed to far back for a surprise attack to reach them.
I enjoyed it but only because I put on my 12 episode only suspension of disbelief level heavy goggles. With double maybe more episodes they could have kept it one witch countered by the German weapons we saw here, have to fan wank that red stone objects can be toughened to stop the fire as the objects themselves would have failed. Then they could have had more in depth character development and a way better political and military story line.
I assume that the magic will actually recover as it did come from a natural source. But these stupid red stones would never have to exist in a longer story.
I disliked the total diplomatic fear. Even keeping magic the Archduchess could have stated we are a small country there is no way for us to man a world wide occupation. You will have to trust for a short while we will not use that power and I am sure in time you will find counter measures.
It really bugs when they say bomb will destroy the country, no it will destroy the capital because it is small, not much more see my post above. Nuclear weapons are no way as powerful as people think they are. The Sun blows up one trillion megatons roughly a second man at most had very roughly 50,000 megatons at best and way less now. There are a few anti nuclear groups claiming more but if you do any in depth web search you will find this out (were not showing in searches last year must be paying google for higher ranking), in example it would take 6 1 megaton bombs to destroy Chicago.
This story does not deny a yuri romance but it of course a Japanese style romance, does not exist in public, but they get together in private when possible. After all the Archduchess has to marry and produce lots of kids. This not very different that the rules that have applied to royals and nobility for a long time. The rule, marriage for heirs and political linkage, lovers for your love.
Hiroyuki is disappointment incarnate.
The “use up all the magic” seems like a direct theft from Larry Niven’s “The Magic Goes Away”.
Hell, hath no fury like a
womanwitch scorned. Seems like Matthias was just using her as a weapon from the start and lying to her about how he felt (assuming his wife was telling the truth).The zombie clone controlling the rocket made no sense. They made the point that Sophia had to activate and control both the rocket and the bomb. The clone didn’t even seem conscious. Better to have had Sophia launch the rocket and Izetta attempt to soak up all the mana to stop it. I had actually expected the writers to go all “Darth Vader” and have Sophia turn on the Emperor when she realized she was being used again and maybe even take him and Neu Berlin out with the very bomb and rocket she controlled. Having Izetta survive did cheapen the ending too.
The witch vs witch combat was fun. But I really wished that was all they showed this episode. Using the Eiffel tower as a projectile and the turning it into multiple projectiles really topped it off here. I was also glad Izetta still used that anti-material rifle in combat. But then realized: what was the point of shooting those tanks? They’re being used as physical projectiles, it doesn’t matter if they’re functioning or not. Ahh, thought too much!
The part where I really think too much and the characters seem to ignore was the magic absorbing stuff. Sure she can absorb it all and release it to space, but what guaranty is there that the magic won’t replenish and become usable again? Nobody said it’s a non-renewable energy source.
The ending was particularly disappointing in that it was just a simplified version of World War II. Considering how different the world is to ours, you’d expect them to get a wee bit more creative than that. The deaths didn’t give any impact at all too. They all really felt rather pointless.
As for the series, my biggest disappointment was Fine. I guess I expected some version of Relena Darlian, but what I got was just Fine. It doesn’t help when the shows namesake character hardly got any character development. In fact the antagonists are actually slightly interesting, which is a lot more than the protagonists.
Overall, it’s fun when things go bang, but the rest of it really needs more effort.
Yes, one of the main weaknesses of the show was how underdeveloped the protagonists, particularly Fine, were. The first few episodes I thought she is an interesting and genuine charismatic character, but soon I started to hate her.
I like the fact that Izetta is alive. Bring’s possibility for a sequel with Berkman being alive. But what’s the point of only showing parts of her, like the top of her head, when it’s obvious that’s her.
yeah.. but ageing has a greater toll on her then on normal humans?
I get it. That makes sense.
Makes me worried in the sense that he must have use all the research on magic to buy himself safepassage, magic was a natural part of the world but it is possible the Atlatan Federetion could create an articial form of magic, resurrecting the witches.
or Atlanta found an Earth Source Vulcan of this Mana. Like an Geysir. They have the Mana, but no Witch for controlling it, perhaps the “Mass Cloning” Scientist will run the “Manhattan Project” for this purpose, and come with an “artificial” one….They have enough Mass Cloning Puppets. But i bet they will mix up fresh DNA with it, and there you need…. females?
in this World of Anime, the Yellowstone Park is an gigantic Mana Lake under earth, of course.. an Earthquake pushed some “drops” to the surface so they found it out…
But you can exchange “atlanta” with some other country name, just use some natural disasters to “find” the Mana Vein
No matter how much Izetta tries to justify what Mathias I did to Sophie it´s all a big lot of crap, the King might have love her but he used her and threw her away to the most horrible kind of death a person could suffer, betrayal is the ultimate evil and this takes the cake so to a degree Sophie has all the reason to hate Eylsdat. It´s an incredible case of karma, Mathias I betrayed Sophie to safe his country like the coward he was and half a millenium later he came back aand unleashed hell on the kingdom; of course, Eylsdat does not deserve to pay for the sins of that scumbag of a king but there no reasoning with Sophie after what she went through.
HELL YEA I SECOND THAT.
Its the “Kiritsugu”‘s justice all over again. I felt terribly sorry for Sophie and whatever Matthias did to her is so wrong. It was like he never trusted her to begin with.
I think some of you guys are still under the mistaken assumption that somehow Sophie was a victim in all this. In case you missed the big reveal in this episode in that little flashback, let me spell it out and clear up any confusion: It wasn’t so much that Sophie was betrayed but rather she left King Mathias and the leaders of Eylsdat no choice but to turn her in to the fate that awaited her. She was not some benevolent hero like the legend portrayed her but rather just some bat-shit crazy in love girl who fell in love with the King (who already happened to be married btw) and concocted this scheme to make him lover her by stealing a taboo relic of her people and using it to do some heroic battles even though using said taboo relic would SHORTEN HER OWN LIFESPAN!! If that’s not the definition of crazy insane love I dunno what else is. Mathias certainly didn’t just use her and throw her away. On the contrary he tried to save her. He states in life he was able to restrain her (if he was really just exploiting her power then why would he be restraining her?). But now on his deathbed he was no longer capable of doing so and Sophie recklessly charging out to the front battle lines and exposing her identity as a witch protecting the country was making it harder and harder to keep her existence a secret from the Vatican. Mathias was clearly no Megalomaniac like Otto and had no intention of making Eylsdat an enemy of the world, so it was either turn Sophie over to the inquisition or risk having his country razed to the ground and purged from the face of the Earth by every other civilized nation in the world.
If Sophie wanted to avoid the brutal end she came to she should have heeded Mathias’s efforts to restrain her and not keep going and outing her identity as a witch to the whole world. Mathias was not going to be able to protect her from the Vatican. She needed to give up on the delusional idea that she could get him to fall in love with her by doing all those things. Heck she really shouldn’t have stolen that taboo magic stone in the first place but just settle for trying to help the King and his army from the shadows if at all and not exposing herself as a witch. But as Mathias pointed out “her love was too great” (translation: she’s bat-shit crazy for me too much). And as is often the case with such people they stubbornly think they can make someone fall in love with them. Sophie was probably all like “If I just keep going out and using the stone to fight the King’s battles for him he’ll eventually come around and appreciate all the sacrificing of my life force and realize he doesn’t need his knights or his soldiers and that I’m all he needs”. It was a classic case of “notice me sempai”.
Honestly the whole sad affair reminds me just how love can make you do really stupid things sometimes.
Hurray! the pureness of Yuri love wins out
“Sieg have to die? Why does Berkman have to live?”
I guess Berkman’s survival is very realistic. Previous episode we compared that Sieg and Berkman are similar, in terms of strategic minds, yet different in terms of loyalties. Berkman lived because he only cared about himself, and his survival showed the results of his realistic choice. Sieg, on the other hand, was willingly to sacrifice himself for his country, and his death was something that could have happened.