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「戦まねく玉座」 (Sen Maneku Gyokuza)
“The Throne That Invites War”
That was the least surprising turn of events, followed by the re-birth of the most powerful villain ever. Forget Magic Jesus—this guy is Magic God.
Why Aren’t They Suspicious of Gillette Again?
The rush continues, and small problems keep arising. Case in point: How did Gillette walk up to Tooru in Hartgen and the Black Chaikas’ presence and not get immediately taken out? They saw Vivi and Nikolai haul him off, his continued loyalty should be suspect at least! This is why you don’t put brainwashed minions in a position of trust (or fear). Granted, it didn’t do them a lot of good, since he stood there like a slack-jawed idiot while Gaz was reborn, but it’s these small things that yank me out of the narrative. The rush is real.
The Least Surprising Revelation
Raise your hand if you thought the remains collection would lead to the resurrection Emperor Gaz. Now lower your hand, you look silly. Don’t worry though, because everyone else raised their hand too. Emperor Gaz being resurrected to play final boss is as unsurprising as Guy being a monitoring program modeled after Gaz himself (young Gaz, as it were). That and Hartgen’s overdue demise were all flamingly obvious from halfway through last season. Which isn’t necessarily bad, but I wish the characters hadn’t been so shocked, because c’mon, you had to suspect Gaz was up to something like this. Obtaining immortality and/or figuring out how to resurrect themselves is about action item #4 on the Evil Overlord To-Do List. The only surprising thing was how he was resurrected, which amounted to Black Chaika gobbling him up with her tentacles(?) and giving birth to her “father” while having birth pain-orgasms. That was pretty fuckin’ weird. I had to make sure I was watching the right show.
The Spell Named Chaika
The verdict is in: the Chaikas were all just tools. There was no original Chaika, just a girl who Gaz kept around on a lark, and who donated her memories to the Chaikas. Chaika was just the name of the spell. Their whole existence was basically a combination puppet act and reality show, where the winner gets to be the real Chaika because who’s going to argue with her then? Or something. But you know what’s good? Now our Chaika (and Red Chaika too) can move on with their lives. Now they can be themselves, decide who they want to be, rather than being pushed around by their “father’s” wishes. Provided anybody survives the coming war.
A Magic God
I famously quipped that Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei’s Tatsuya was Magic Mass-Murdering Jesus, but Arthur Gaz is a level above him. (And fortunately he’s the villain, so it sort of works.) He wants to take in everybody’s feelings, make their (violent) dreams come true, and he can pull a flying fortress from space. From muthafukkin’ space, man, space! He’s Magic Yahweh, the Magic God—or perhaps a more grounded Zeus, without all the sibling fucking and golden showers and weird animal transformations. Which were amusingly eccentric in retrospect.
But unlike a certain other magically-fueled near-deity who likes to be called Father, I don’t see how Arthur Gaz goes down to the scrappy group in front of him—and make no mistake, he either loses to them or he wins, because we’ve only got one episode left. He just pulled a satellite the size of a castle down from space, and this is on a world that probably doesn’t even have a word for things in orbit. I’m not seeing what weakness he has other than martial attrition, and any way they beat him now, it will be unfulfilling because he’s been built up as a badass entirely off-stage. Let’s just say that I don’t have a lot of optimism for the final battle, though I would love to be surprised.
Looking Ahead – The Final Battle
Prediction: Team White Chaika, Team Red Chaika, and the Gillette Squad are going to team up to take down Gaz. I don’t know how, but they’re going to do it. Maybe Tooru finally does the damn dragoon contract, which is long overdue. Probably Akari doesn’t get to have Tooru’s love baby. Maybe our Chaika will in a few years. The whole thing will be rushed. I’ll still look back fondly on the series because it still feels like a D&D campaign. Someone at a Japanese publisher will quietly get demoted to janitor for green-lighting a second season as sales remain low. Life will go on.
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – The least surprising revelation ever stems from a weird birth-orgasm tentacle explosion. Also, Gaz is back. Whatisthisidonteven #chaika s2e9
Random thoughts:
- Cat got your—sorry, predictable joke.
- From Villainous Scientist Model #037 to Chaika Derivation #357, the wizard type. I’m not used to my flippant criticism being so close to the actual dialogue used in the show.
- They say it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. Arthur Gaz just ate the journey (while dead) and used it for magic fuel. So I guess they were right?
- Anyone else thing Star Destroyers when it showed all of those orbital fortresses? They’re nowhere near is big, true. I just read a lot of Star Wars books when I was a kid. Which are no longer canon. Fuck me!
Check out my blog about storytelling and the novel I’m writing at stiltsoutloud.com. The last four posts: The brick walls, The allure of magic, Import, don’t recycle, and Impostor syndrome. For book updates, sign up for my mailing list.
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Yeah. I agree with you about nobody being suspicious of Gillete.
I hope someone could brighten me with some ideas about this.
They probably do, and whether they do or not, they probably just don’t care. If Gilette did try anything, I’m sure Shin alone would’ve been enough to easily subdue him if necessary (though whether he would or not now, given his employer is dead, is another question), but with Gaz’s revival…yeah, Gilette wouldn’t be much of a worry.
Low tech communication issues perhaps? The only people who know he’s turned are the guys in the throne room; news probably hasn’t had time to reach the mooks guarding the gates.
The guards letting him past was fine. I even liked how the Gillette Squad exploited that. It’s the Black Chaikas who should have known, so when he was standing right there, I was silently raging. Seemed like an unnecessary risk, even if it didn’t end up amounting to anything.
They probably just didn’t care because it was too late to stop the resurrection anyway at that point. They’re too focused on the big picture.
Someone on a different forum pointed this out, but Gaz’s hair looks quite a bit like Vivi’s, in terms of original color and the loose strand across the face. Is that a redherring, a coincidence, or could there be something to it?
The only thing that crossed my mind watching this was “I’ve seen enough hentai to know where this is going”. That birthing scene was hilarious, especially considering black Chaika appeared to be cleaved in half at the end of it and by the look of the previews still survives intact.
Really disappointed there’s only one episode left as there is quite a bit here which would have been great to see elaborated upon.
It looked more like the birthing attachment separated from her.
@Pancakes:
Note the LNs have more graphic and violent content. Chances are in the LN, Black Chaika’s lower body was completely destroyed giving ‘birth’ to Gaz.
The LNs are more graphical and violent? How so?
This episode was insane.
It looks like the main author took inspiration from Warhammer 40.000 when looking at Gaz. When he was thinking how to write Gaz he read 40k books and said ‘Wow, this Emperor guy is badass and cool. Why don’t I make evil version of him? Yeah, that would work.’ Just like the diea that giving characters Russian car names. 😉
True, Gaz is not near Emps but everything about him scream ‘Emps clone!’ Gigantic intellect – there, caring about society as a whole instead of individuals – there, awesome god-like powers – there, perpetuity ( as in immortality ) – there, knowledge to build/create awesome technology – there, surprise awesome technology – there, ‘just as planned’ plans that involves a lot of calculations but either way succeed in the end – there.
The only thing he is missing is having another divine beings to fight against, actually being a good guy and having a Legions of super-soldiers under his command. And being IN SPACE as well xD
I really feel bad for all Chaika’s being tools to achieve Gaz’s goals – even Black One. I hope that when all is over and Gaz is dead that all of them ( even puppet ones ) will find decent lives for themselves. And I hope that Toru will take the contract next week and end everything without someone important getting killed in the end. Because after seeing how everyone suffered and were played I only want Gaz dead.
And I really hope we will get more time at seeing how everyone turned out in the end, after everything was over. Just don’t let it be some 2 minutes overview. Or at least let OVA’s tell us how everyone is going after the war ended.
In the end as for this:
“Someone at a Japanese publisher will quietly get demoted to janitor for green-lighting a second season as sales remain low. Life will go on.”
Before the first season was given green light it was decided that the second one was to be created, because they already knew how the show will end. So poor sales have nothing to do with this, even 10 episodes as looking at how 1’st one was shot same was expected from the second one. The only question is why they created so much original episodes instead of just following light novels?
Perhaps they wanted anime to be more original than novels? Who knows…
At least manga is following novels to the letter, but until we get to this point it will take several years…
And being IN SPACE as well xD
Well, we actually have this too with the orbital fortresses…
I only want Gaz dead.
As much as anybody, their dogs and their dogs’ cats (<–Frederika?) want him dead (and stay dead for once) too.
Don't worry he'll die in some horrid fashion, the only problem being how lame they'll do it.
The only question is why they created so much original episodes instead of just following light novels?
They needed far more episodes if they wanted to follow the novels faithfully. I guess they had to cut a lot from the novels, and the only way to recover something was to reorganize and make up new episodes that way.
“They needed far more episodes if they wanted to follow the novels faithfully.”
not exactly true, as I explained before they adopted 1 volume per episode and this worked like a charm for 1’st season.
Volume 1 – 1,2
Volume 2 – 3,4
Volume 3 – 5,6
Volume 4 – 7,8
Volume 5 – 9,10
Volume 6 ( volume where Blue Chaika dies ) – 11,12
2’nd season nedded only 10 episode to finish the series faithfully:
Volume 7 – 1,2
Volume 8 – 3,4
Volume 9 – 5,6
Volume 10 – 7,8
Volume 11 ( last volume ) – 9,10
But instead to follow LN the first 3 episodes were anime original ( I don’t know if Claudia or Clay appear at all in LN or are just mentioned ). And only episodes 4-6 were adopted faithfully ( Volume 7, the island arc ). Even the last 4 ones were mix of last 3 volumes as I understood.
Why do that and not follow the original source I have no idea…
I read your very same (and insight) post last time already.
The reason I wrote that is cause, axing through the novel material, anime scriptwriters could well cut out important parts regarding character development, together with I don’t know how much exposition. Maybe there was something they wanted to recover making a shorter anime original arc.
And as a matter of fact, you gave the answer right away, Brother Coa: If Claudia’s arc is actually anime only arc, what’s there so important there to ‘waste’ three full episodes in that? White Chaika’s training. Maybe the same result was made in another longer or roundabout way in the novel, but it was important plot advancement for the final battle between Red and White. But, of course, having not read the novel myself, this is just speculations.
I wonder if Gaz be eligible for some paradox poker.
Well…that escalated quickly…
I really hope they don’t win because of it coming down to something so cliche like Nivi suddenly gaining emotions and/or having flashbacks to her (extremely short) time together with Chaika, leading her to betray Gaz and rejoin Chaika, then unlocking some brand new power that even Gaz, for some reason or another, never foresaw or believed possible, allowing them to blow him and all the devices in space away in a single blast.
This looks lame enough for they to actually pull it off :p
Calling it now, the power of FRIENDSHIP! will save the day.
Emperor Gaz’s justification for dying and resurrecting… wanting to fear death ?
Really ?
He also wanted Falya parts to build a more powerful magic body.
OK, caught up on this show. Perhaps I’m alone on this, but while I could understand why some thought Chaika was reminiscent of a D&D game, it never truly felt that way to me… until now. As if lifted straight from the
pagesDVD of Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn RPG PC game, comes theKangaxx the Lich QuestGaz’s evil resurrection/rebirth plan. For Toru & Co., I can only hope that Gaz doesn’t transform into a demi-lich after you kill him the first time. Otherwise, you’re gonna need a +4 weapon (Improved mace of disruption works great here. +2 but treated as +5 for what it can hit and undead must make a saving throw (at penalty) or be destroyed instantly).Gaming nostalgia aside, I’ll be putting my hand down now, because yes, while hoping it was something more creative, ZERO surprise that Gaz’s plan was to be revived. What was surprising was the method. I figured the body parts would just assemble together on their own when brought together – Bam! Evil Lich (undead mage for non-fantasy RPG folks) restored. Nope. Instead we got some… weird, kind of awkward to watch, tentacle thing (’cause evidently, you can’t have a fantasy anime without tentacles these days *looks at Seikoku no Dragonar*) eating decayed body parts (gross!) followed by literal labor pains, birth, and finally Gaz v2. Yeah, definitely didn’t see that coming.
At any rate, this is exactly why I posted that it was a good idea to find out precisely what Gaz’s evil plan is rather than blindly rushing forward to continue in complete accordance with said evil plan even AFTER you are expressly told more than once that you are nothing more than a tool to further said evil plan.” ‘Tis not a puzzle. As far as I can tell, the reason for doing that was… “because it’s what we’ve been doing.” Oh well. This isn’t Akame ga Kill so I’m sure it will all work out somehow.
@Stilts: “The rush continues, and small problems keep arising.”
Agree – not just Gillette, but like you, I wish the characters hadn’t been so shocked – especially since they were told at least twice that the Chaikas were simply tools for Gaz’s plan. So… why the big shock now? O.o Third time’s the charm I guess, but yeah, doesn’t help in terms of immersing myself in the story. There are a number of questions left (including Vivi’s half-Chaikafication), but with one episode left, including the Final Boss fight, I suspect that the last episode may be the most rushed one of all.
—“Cat got your—sorry, predictable joke.”
*sigh* RIP Fredericka as a character. Well, she was already reduced to nothing but loli-cat-Dominica-dragoon plot device, but still.
—“Prediction: Team White Chaika, Team Red Chaika, and the Gillette Squad are going to team up to take down Gaz. I don’t know how, but they’re going to do it.”
No argument from me on that. Agree.
—“Anyone else thing Star Destroyers when it showed all of those orbital fortresses?
No, but they did remind me a lot of Aldnoah.Zero’s landing castles.
I should probably finish the first season of Aldnoah.Zero. Summer was rough for me man, real rough, lol
@Stilts: While I do think Aldnoah.Zero has some issues story-wise, I also think it was entertaining overall and worth the watch unless you simply don’t like mecha anime at all. With the second season about a month away, probably a good idea to try and finish season one so you can watch season 2 when it airs.
Aye, I plan to. I enjoyed it a lot, but Summer was a busy season for me (what with being out of the country for a month), so a lot of shows got put on the backburner. Hopefully I’ll have some time to catch up here in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully…
Aldnoah.Zero for me was very good. I spent an evening marathoning the first season and i was literally BLOWN AWAY with how it ended. I had to pause and play it back at least three times to fully grasp what happened. Mecha is what i grew up with, Gundam Wing and Endless Waltz will always be my favorite ones, but never have i seen anything like this.
“There are a number of questions left (including Vivi’s half-Chaikafication), but with one episode left, including the Final Boss fight, I suspect that the last episode may be the most rushed one of all.”
eh? We only got 1 episode of this show left?! Crap I hope not I will feel robbed. Surely we getting a full 12 eps
And oh yeah Aldonah Zero is worth a 3 episode trial at least. The story is all over the place and cliched to hell (typical high school student main characters with useless adults, loli’s, and every other genre trapping one can think of). But I did kind of enjoyed it. Although this season has much better offerings. All that being said will watch Aldonah a little when it comes back
Didn’t Black Chaika play Ursula in Disney’s Little Mermaid? If she did she’s lost quite a bit of weight since then. 😛
My problem is how do you defeat the Gaz God? Short of Nivi turning on him and obeying White Chaika I don’t see how the gang can defeat him. One other thing I can think of is Frederica. Cheap trick to have her out of action because of lingering effects of the poison so her action in the story is delayed. Maybe Tooru contracting with her is going to be the magic that will make them powerful enough to defeat Gaz. Having a fatal flaw in his resurrection is the only other thing that I can think of (I’m sure their a trope for that). Maybe the Fayla parts are susceptible to magic or something or he’s missing a body part like his liver that will weaken/kill him. As it is, all he has to do is wave his hand (wand) and turn them all to dust.
https://randomc.net/image/Hitsugi%20no%20Chaika/Hitsugi%20no%20Chaika%20Avenging%20Battle%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
She’s gonna gloat from that position? Really?
https://randomc.net/image/Hitsugi%20no%20Chaika/Hitsugi%20no%20Chaika%20Avenging%20Battle%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
You should look at the BIRTH scene. That was hilarious!
I wonder what Bishounen Gaz and Ikemen Gaz would’ve looked like. He did make a fast transition from Shota Gaz to EarlyFourties Gaz.
Well, I raise my hand too in shame. It was everything so cliché and rushed it was not even funny.
But I guess this is what you get when you try to squeeze so many novel volumes in just two episodes. Congrats producer: After much effort, you finally did ruin the show.
And now? How do you fight last boss with over 9999 level power? Red Chaika is still out, but I don’t think 1000 more Red and White Chaikas with a dozen Gil’s squads and a bunch of Toorus are even going to scratch that thing. Usually when an enemy is so much powerful he’s going to self destruct himself in a lame way, but I guess they won’t go the cliché way, would they? I expect Chuck Norris to show up and beat the baddie. Ho wanna bet? 😛
Oh wow, totally called it nearly a month ago and was pretty much 90% spot on. 😀 (Though I guess I’m probably not the only one to correctly guess Guy = Gaz )
https://randomc.net/2014/11/12/hitsugi-chaika-avenging-battle-06/comment-page-1/#comment-1581790
Though I never expected Black Chaika to eat the body parts (via the tentacles in her attached abdomen) and give birth to the reborn Emperor that way. It’s as if the author is teasing us with all the twisted stuff ever seen in them ero anime. Lol
Second unexpected is apart from owning a loli WMD that blew up a flying castle like it was nothing, we now know he also posesses a space station that probably holds an ion cannon. Holy Mother of Christ, Batman. Gaz is indeed worthy of a badass last boss.
Dem eyebrows https://randomc.net.prx.websiteproxy.co.uk/image/Hitsugi%20no%20Chaika/Hitsugi%20no%20Chaika%20Avenging%20Battle%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
Yeah, Gaz’s resurrection and Hartgen’s subsequent death weren’t exactly a surprise, because that happens in every RPG ever. Still looked pretty cool, and, well, freaky, so it’s fine. Not like I expected some big twist in that regard anyway.
I have to give props to Gaz though, he had a pretty good scheme going. Dying was never even a setback for him, it was all part of the plan all along. He spread out all the pieces he needed beforehand, created a puppet army to further his goals after death and gets reborn even more powerful than before. And now he’s got friggin’ space castles set up to siphon magic from everyone on the planet the moment he or they cause another war, so he’s basically a living god given enough time. This dude knows his stuff.
Which does raise the question of how he’s going to lose. All we’ve got left is our scrappy band of heroes (without Frederika, as per usual) versus a guy who can blow up entire castles by shouting ‘pew pew’. Maybe they can drop his space station on him, that seems fun. I hope it’s not some power of friendship bullshit though. Go out with a satisfying bang, Chaika.
Welp, as I suspected last week Black Chaika was leading Haartgen on, who is now dead via
avada kedavralaser beam. Aside from the surprise tentacle ecchi there wasn’t anything completely surprising about the “Shocking Twists!” the plot has taken, but the quality of the execution was good enough that I’m still greatly entertained. This does feel like the culmination of the entire show so far; White Chaika is finally forced to confront her status as a tool, and the philosophy about war and peace is brought to the forefront with Gaz’s resurrection. Not sure how they’re going to gank the wanker in a single episode though; they really should have cut some corners earlier this season to give themselves one more episode for the finale.@Stilts: I was more reminded of the Star Forge from KOTOR than an ISD, but I’m glad to finally find someone who also obsessively read all the Star Wars novels back in the day and feels my pain that they’re now non-cannon. I now want a Chaika RPG where you can choose your class (Chaika color), assemble a party, and romp around the world collecting parts. It’d be awesome!
Yuuzhan vong who? No more Admiral Thrawn. Mara Jade doesn’t exist anymore. Chewbacca is alive again. Nooooooes! (Okay, I’m actually fine with that last one.)
There was some good stuff in the EU. I hope Disney pilfers it for source material ala The Dark Knight, instead of another farted out, passably entertaining J.J. Abrams lens flare-athon. We can only hope.
Completely agreed, while there was a lot of dreck, there was also a lot of great ideas and characters. The long-term war against the Imperial Remnants, New Jedi Order, Vong invasion, and post-revolutionary political instability were all great concepts (though not always executed well), and the family infighting forty years later was awesome to behold. Really hoping they pull some of the better elements out for the sequels and new EU while avoiding the worst excesses of the old. They really dragged out the original cast too much though, I pretty much stopped reading after it turned into 70 year old Luke vs. Cthulhu; whoever designed Abeloth had definitely watched too much tentacle hentai.
I stopped reading after the Vong (plus, by then I finally realized how most of it wasn’t that good … or well, I realized that early in the Vong saga, but I was in by then, lol). They really did rely on Luke and co too much, though it makes sense since most people were liable to pick up a Star Wars book and go “Who are these jokers? Never mind.”
Still, it was worth it to read things like The Ganner, meet Gilad Pellaeon, and a whole bunch of awesome scenes I don’t want to start listing because I’d be here all night, lol. Good times
As far as my headcanon is concerned, the EU is Zahn and Stackpole. Pure and simple. Nothing, not even Disney, is going to change that.
@Stilts: None shall pass! That was one of my favorites back in the day. I can see why they wanted to keep the original cast in the spotlight, but some of the best received books were about original or side characters. It got kinda ridiculous 40+ years after Endor when Luke &co. were still handling everything while their middle-aged kids got shuffled off to the sidelines (or killed). Still, some good times indeed. I’d give limb or two for an ongoing anime-style adaption of the EU instead of that miserable 3D-claystyle TV series we got (which is still cannon to my ire).
@Passerby: What, no love for Aaron Allston and the Wraiths?! Or the awesomeness of Warlord Zsinj and Lieutenant Kettch?!? 😛
This pretty much sums up the episode for me
magic god? that title is reserved FOR OTHINUS, and only OTHINUS….
You range of emotions as you write down your displeasure and intrigue leave me most invigorated and confused AND laughing. I love you man.
Ahaha, thanks! A range of emotions pretty much sums up my feelings on this show too XD So conflicted…
Didn’t Blue Chaika consume/use some parts as fuel for that other castle? I don’t recall those parts being recovered….
Blue Chaika’s remains were taken by White Chaika after the fight if I remember correctly.
And there’s more:
Show Spoiler ▼
You’re correct. Our Chaika took the remains from Layla’s floating fortress before it sank completely. And it’s not like anything anyone has done has used up the phenomenal amount of magic fuel inside Gaz’s body … not to mention he was apparently adding to it along the way.
From what I remember, White Chaika’s original mission is not over. King Gaz is still due for a funeral, and once everything is settled, she’ll be burying him six miles deep.
Chaika does what Chaika pleases.
When I saw the space fortresses I instantly thought of the Imperial March music. If Gaz starts walking on a red carpet between several dozen rows of troops it’ll be the full deal.
Well… It was a good episode. Though next week will be a such a rush. I was laughing at Shin’s reaction though. His knife was gradually lowering after each scene that snapped back to him. After that he just vanished and Chaika just dropped down to her knees. LOL.
Yooo! this Gaz guy is AWESOME!!!! First a Cannibal x Chibi resurrection! then he drops that science that chaikas were just a fun way to resurrect, then homie whips out a organic Lotus cannon and bodies N!ggas!!! THEN this F^*king dood calls down a freaking ORBITAL MOTHERSHIP!!!!!! ………………………WOW!!!!
…im glad his resurrection was not thwarted…….how yall gonna beat a guy like this???
” He’s Magic Yahweh, the Magic God—or perhaps a more grounded Zeus, without all the sibling fucking and golden showers and weird animal transformations. Which were amusingly eccentric in retrospect.”
Your posts are the best Stilts. =D
Really enjoyed this episode. Was afraid Hartgen would be our villain up til the last 3 eps. Then they would spawn the Emperor. I like it better this way.
Since episode 2-3, we all pretty much knew the Emperor was gonna get rezzed one way or another.
My only problem isn’t with the writing but rather the setup of the magic system. There isnt any predefined limits we really know of beyond everything being fueled by strong emotions embedded within memories
My thoughts, too. If Dragoon Tooru is enough to take down Gaz, though, I’m gonna flip =/ I mean, yeah, Tooru might have pride for being a saboteur, but weren’t saboteurs supposed to use every advantage to make sure their benefactor’s wish comes true? Short of the process requiring some obscure ritual like sacrificing a virgin woman while dancing naked around her dying corpse before proceeding to do unspeakable things to her body, I don’t see why Tooru didn’t want to accept the contract in the first place– especially when the enemies they encountered just kept getting stronger.
I might have missed it, but were Tooru’s reasons for refusing the contract and what the contract entails ever mentioned?
Well, Shin has mentioned before that Tooru wasn’t cut out to be a saboteur, and I doubt it had to do with lack of skill, but rather the fact that it’s plainly obvious by now that Tooru isn’t someone who, despite things he has said, is able to…”kill his heart”, by Naruto terms.
Like, as we’ve seen, Shin has had absolutely no problem nor hesitation in fighting and even trying to kill Tooru and Akari despite their, presumably, pretty close past connection by him having been their mentor (they do call him “Shin-nii” after all, “Big Brother Shin”) simply because they are now enemies because of the job he was hired to do whereas it’s highly unlikely that at least Tooru, if he were put in a similar situation and ended up having to fight and even kill Akari, Chaika, or someone else they befriended in the future as part of a job, he would not be able to do so because of such connections.
That Tooru isn’t cut out to be a saboteur is all the more reason for him to consider being a dragoon knight (or whatever they’re called in the Chaika universe). I wonder if the LN explored Tooru’s outright rejection (as it is portrayed in the anime, though time constraint can be blamed) to the idea of ‘switching jobs’/getting an upgrade.
https://randomc.net/image/Hitsugi%20no%20Chaika/Hitsugi%20no%20Chaika%20Avenging%20Battle%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
no words.
Shocking truth: I was completely unshocked by Emperor’s Return. Though, I am really wondering how exactly the authors want to drag him down, because he emanates power so absolute he doesn’t even register his audience as enemies (save hapless Hartgen who should remember he was the one to kill Gaz last time… so asking for becoming a subordinate might not go well…)
Still, the stage is set for the complete ending, whatever the outcome. It was a fun ride with Chaika(s). Personally, I would love to see Red and White go on with their own lives now their forced duty to Gaz is done.