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「北の大地」 (Kita no daichi)
“The Land to the North”
You know, this episode might have been all over the place, but damn did I like nonetheless. As if proving that speed is actually useful in plot development, Zestiria has abandoned the early season crawl for an all-out sprint to the conclusion of this story. In between the expected armatizations and the big bad boss finally revealing himself this week, the show also showcased its efficiency by featuring orgasmic cooking and development for probably the least used character of the series—hard packing more into 24 minutes if you tried. While Lunarre’s appearance for me was especially out of the blue, at least it was hilarious in a “what the hell am I watching” way, particularly when he pulls a Yamcha by not only accomplishing little, but dying in the ever ubiquitous pose. Well, at least he looks dead.
The armatizations here, however, were probably the most anticipated event (particularly Alisha’s), a developmental piece necessary to even give Sorey a chance against an enemy we have been repeatedly told he stands no chance against. The Lord of Calamity development especially gave me a kick this week just for how it was continually interrupted. Just as we discover the Lord of Calamity lies overtop of the source of world creation and the earthpulse hub, Laliah butts in like a helicopter mom and shuts down debate. As soon as Dezel starts getting answers from Symonne, she trololo teleports off before getting to the good bits. Why is the Lord of Calamity in the north, why does he want the Shepherd with him? Well here’s Symonne going full dragon (never go full dragon) and leaping through half a season’s development in five minutes, that should answer the question. Normally I’d be irritated, but whether because it was all accompanied by action or the imminent nature of next week’s big boss showdown, I thought it was all amusing fun. Plus with Sorey and squires now both one hit purifying dragons like mad, if I were to criticize that much I’d have to dig into everything else as well and that takes time. I never have enough time.
With all the pieces now arranged for Zestiria to wrap this story up in the next two episodes, the only question is how things will end. I think it’s a given there’s some remaining power Sorey and friends must yet acquire to beat the Lord of Calamity considering he cannot be purified, but the option always remains for the power of friendship to carry them through. Given the earlier dragon purifications were accomplished via this, it’s a reasonable idea. Furthermore is the final meshing of Berseria with Zestiria, which I assume will happen given the previous spoilers, and the likelihood of the Lord of Calamity himself finally explaining all before duking it out with the Shepherd. The end might be rushed and a little confusing, but considering the whole Zestiria’s finale should at least be entertaining.
Preview
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helicopter mom….lol
Just look at those eyes slowly boring into your soul, enraged you would even question the sanctity of an early bedtime. Only Laliah’s angelic smile hides the true demon within.
From all I heard I guess this episode is Poetic Justice
In a way it is, definitely makes up for the game’s teasing from what I’ve read 😛
Bad guys at Land of the North and the boss even looks like a lion… Claymore anyone?
Alisha Armatization… That alone would’ve made the game as least twice as popular as it was.
I think I’ll just take a while and worship that picture of our favorite Princess Knight finally getting her due.
This anime adaptation has done more for Alisha and the overall story than the original game did. She looks like a goddess using amartization!.
Enjoying the ride is the correct answer. Always.
This is the best line ever.
Hard doing anything besides enjoying the ride at this point IMO. There’s no denying Zestiria has multiple structural and narrative flaws here, but ufotable for me has a way of patching the worst of it over with nice animation. It’s what made me enjoy God Eater for what it was, even though that adaptation was arguably worse.
Wellsprings are areas where earthpulses flow together and transport energy between them. This place is very likely the same snow mountain as Berseria, Mount Killarus, is one such spot. However, this plan is incredibly impractical and doesn’t make sense as Berseria explains: Mount Killarus Wellspring flows in reverse, so all the malevolence actually goes up and out, not in. You’d have to brute force the malevolence down just to get it to spread.
There’s also the fact that earthpulses collect malevolence, but the only time they release said malevolence and cause problems is during the Advent or as you might recall from Berseria episodes the Red Moon shown. Only then does the malevolence cause a problem.
The lack of Earthpulse knowledge by Edna doesn’t make sense, as the mountain her and her brother were born and lived on is an earthpulse. In fact most Seraphs are born from Earthpulses. The big problem, which the anime has never brought up, is that the deities the Five Lords each reside in Earthpulses as their vessels.
Show Spoiler ▼
Also I love they literally changed nothing about Symonne and yet made her even more pointless. At least the game had shown she’d been using her illusions to mess with the people of Rolance, including making a priest kill four people because it was the God’s will. Of course the story never did point out the Church of Rolance worships Seraphs, specifically the main Fifth Lord.
Lunarre’s stuff was shoehorned in as well. Man they really are botching this adaptaion, especially all the Berseria connections which they are horribly and terribly incorrectly using for really stupid power of friendship purifyingnthat doesnt make sense in either game. Makes me appreciate the games more to be honest.
I’ll alsonlaugh if none of this is explained by the LoC because he not there at the spot where the event that made him the Lord of Calamity happen.
Show Spoiler ▼
So they effectively went to North so that they could avoid talking about Sorey’s past, and anything related to him alone, are they that afraid to have scenes that don’t involve Alisha or Rose? Alisha I stood up for her at the beginning but clearly she’s just a Mary Sue, and one that I feel is unnecessary in general despite the anime being all about her. She has gotten everything she wants with zero effort on her part, and the at the detriment of other characters who had to be brought down for her to be brought up. The whole thing makes me dislike her.
I don’t think Alisha is a Mary Sue, she certainly has walked the easy path plot-wise, but her power is lacking, especially compared to Sorey. Furthermore Alisha shares the spotlight with Rose, and Rose definitely is not lacking compared to the princess. While the characters may be a little too perfect in some regards, I think the balance between them is good enough.
Don’t bother with that. People just love to throw the X character is a Mary Sue when they don’t like them. Alisha and Rose (as you pointed out) have ate up the narrative, but at the end of the day both of their lines of thought are punished as wrong (for different reasons) by the narrative. Even if Alisha’s one lines itself with the “right one” (Sorey’s) a bit more. Now, the show (just as the game) has lots of issues and at this point is better just to enjoy the light-show because that is still really pretty hahaha
I think that she is, a Mary Sue is a heavily idealized character that everyone likes and has virtually no flaws, and that’s exactly what Alisha is. A heavily idealized character that everyone likes and if they don’t then they must somehow be mistaken. It’s not about screen time it’s about how the story treats her. She’s not as strong as Sorey but that doesn’t matter she’s still given preferential treatment over him in the narrative to the point where even Sorey’s introduction was really about her. They added pointless characters to the cast who serve no other purpose than to be Alisha’s lackies (they can’t even see hellions so how can they be of any use at all?), and they’re constantly reminding the view of how great she is, and the plot bends over backwards for her. The main character, Sorey was sidelined to give her more focus.
@Kamui If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck. Only Rose was ever stated to be wronged and punished for it. Alisha was never wrong or punished for anything. To the contrary everything she’s done is always met with a rewards and accolades.
To point out a few, Alisha foolishly run into to stop a battle, and gets stabbed, still stops the battle anyway just like she wanted, meanwhile Sorey has to go back to save her and she also gets to arrest the guy who guy who stabbed her, and gets to see the seraphim that she always adored.
She decides to rush into Ladylake to start a coup, two of her knights get killed (she doesn’t react to), her father dies trying to save her (again she shows that she doesn’t care), Bartlow then graciously reveals his plans before committing suicide, and she gets to help purify a dragon which causes all the people to worship her and see her as their Queen.
The fact that this is all added in with her constantly being praised by everyone around her, to the point where even Lunarre kills himself to be useful for her and you’ve got yourself a textbook Mary Sue.
Why they travel to the North, even the Lion King? (not really intent to make an Claymore joke here..)
It has something to do with Tales Of Berseria’s ending.. and that’s is nearly an Spoiler
Also, i think he collects that many Malovelance to use it like a Key, for something.. And i am overstepping the borderline of Spoilers…
of course this is all my speculation, if i combine it with the Story of Berseria
and.. (i quote my own posting)
Yes, i saw both Squires armatized and i loved it
But, there is still the “thing outside of this world”, called Velvet. How do she play into this end game episodes?
Also, some roles of evil doers changed… Aww men, some change of hearts here in the anime, collides with the picture inside my head from the game, causing confusion…
i envy the Anime only viewers and fans, because i am walking trough a pit of pain and confusion
Tales of Zesteria the X
Preparations to enter the End Boss fight:
1/3 done
also, about the Dragons:
some Dragons Sorey slain, where F Class ones. Perhaps they turn into Dragons because this Girl create an Illusion where the entire world is to blame, so his hate and Anger is “not pure”. But i bet the real Dragons, born from real Hate and Pain, are A Class or above…
I do not think turn some Dragons into Cannon fodder now, was a wise decision to show off Sorey’s powers. This turn more into Bloodborne Boss fights, that you can win with just 1 Hit. Well lets see the other episodes
The Problem with the Squires not capable to control the power…
https://randomc.net/image/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X%20-%2022%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
and
https://randomc.net/image/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X%20-%2022%20-%20Large%2027.jpg
Well, there is a Way… Why not use one of them to balance it out?
https://randomc.net/image/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X%20-%2022%20-%20Large%2001.jpg
in a way they could play some sort of capacitor. control the power of the Seraphin and to reduce it into human controllable power.. Perhaps is their time to shine here in this Anime…
Give them a try
Wtf. Alisha armatization. *_* That didn’t even happen in her DLC lol.
Hmm.. that preview, that title for next week, something tells me Dezel will die.
He probably going to sacrifice himself to save Symonne.
I would laugh hard if he did sacrifice himself for Symonne, that would fit perfectly with the rapid character developments of this episode. Plus it also lets Rose go nuts once again which is never boring.
Never go full retard
Huh… So I just finished watching the episode and… I just don’t really see much of anything to really zero in except that if one were to compare how fast plot progression happens in this episode it was considerably far faster than any of the previous episodes combined… And to be honest, I really don’t know how to evaluate that UNTIL…!
I bring up this one aspect which I found to be very peculiar. To put it simply, I’m just stumped at how they seem to have just shoved in Lunarre within the confines of this episode’s plot. It felt kind of needless and pointless actually. In fact, based off how his character was handled in such a throwaway fashion, I have begun to question what his entire purpose in the story even was to begin with. And now that I’ve pointed that out, I’m starting to question what was the purpose of including Symonne in this adaptation too. It’s as if those 2 characters were just simply kept from the game to not cause any kind of stir lest they cut them out in order to ‘trim the fat’ so to speak…
But yeah, other than that though… I just don’t really have much to say. My earlier sentiments regarding the simplistic direction of the story’s main thematic focus and the simplistic, nearly one-note personas of some of the characters still stands however, and whatever the case maybe, all I can do is just wait for this show to finish up I guess…
Probably the only thing I dread now, is to look back on to my Winter season list and realize how I only managed to truly enjoy just 3 shows out of almost everything else (Gintama excluded as I still haven’t done watching the other 300+ episodes lol).