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「⻄施のひそみにならう」 (Seishi no Hisomi ni Narau)
“Aping the Frown of Beauty”
Personally I get a chuckle out of this Genjitsu this week. Not because it was bad in any way mind you (Plenty of evidence existing showing my love of this series warts and all), but rather for how little there is to really talk about. Get past the all the political movement and brides-to-be showing up in the fabric of their wedding dresses and you’re left with, well, another quick week. Just further evidence not every detail is technically detail.
Considering where Amidonia was left off earlier in the season the proclaimed revolt against Julius shouldn’t really shock anyone. Couple absolutist greed with the consequences of war – i.e. reparations – and you’re left with hard times and meagre opportunities, the sort of thing easily breeding unrest and sedition among the working class. Sure, Roroa had a helping hand in pushing the people to actually rise up against her brother, but the truth is it would’ve happened sooner or later. Much like the average Western politician is finding out these days, harm the average person’s ability to make a living and create the next opponent to your reelection campaign.
Such inevitability likewise extends to Roroa’s proposal (don’t be fooled thinking it’s the spokespeople passing along the message) to have Elfrieden directly annex Amidonia. I’m already on record indicating the strong likelihood of this development after all, and while I thought it would come through more democratic means it was in a way guaranteed. Out of simple security Kazuya couldn’t let Amidonia just fall apart on his border, that could invite trouble within Elfrieden itself, whether from refugees or political opportunists both. He may have hesitations – those reparations for example are now expenses to maintain newly acquired land – but they are arguably secondary to the benefits of peacefully annexing the country. The Empire for one cannot complain when it’s Amidonia asking, and there’s a good chunk of resources and manpower coming to offset the maintenance fees.
Might be some troubles with the new neighbours mind you, but given how Kazuya has performed to date I think he won’t see too many troubles on that front. Now dealing with Roroa, there’s where the true test of mettle will lie. Thought putting off Juna was tough? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Sure, it’s not surprising, but it still feels like the past negotiations between Kazuya and Julius kinda went nowhere? That is if you ignored that Elfriede gained the Empire as important allies.
btw. while I like the “realistic” part of the story, the harem mechanisms hurt my enjoyment of the show. We’ve already been shown that we don’t need Kazuya to marry every princess that comes his way to forge alliances.
Poor Carla, having to clean the soaked bedsheets.
Aye, this Marry the Princess is so medieval Time Age
or do they imply more “selling her for create offspring’s”? Please no
Think the point of them was that they weren’t negotiations – they were dictation. Julius could either accept the offer or see even more taken from his kingdom as is the right of any victor. Kazuya’s alliance with the Empire was simply the cherry on top for a discussion with only one conclusion.
Definitely agreed on the harem aspect though, I get a chuckle out of it at times, but it very much seems to be the author’s chosen method for dealing with political problems, giving some measure of personality/wish fulfillment to Kazuya, or both. At some point it’s just going to become ludicrous and with Roroa now entering the fray hard not thinking that point is soon.
At least they’re all cute.
Loved the Cleopatra lampshading. Didnt love the harem tropes. Chuckled at head maid being closet sadist. Cant wait for Roroa to show her reasons for taking this course of action… She is smart girl, so I presume she has better plan than just to get married.
Well this all made sense from a geo-political standpoint. The moment Julius turned to the Empire to reclaim Van, he had basically signed his own death warrant. If he had raised his flag in a different city and tried to rally his nation to retake their capital city, it might not have worked but it would have earned him legitimacy in the eyes of the average Amidonian.
Instead he chose to involve the Empire which was already rightfully peeved that Amidonia had tried to rules lawyer their way around the tenets of the Declaration and now wanted to borrow their prestige in order to make good their war losses? Mobilizing an army of any size is expensive. In this case the Gran Chaos Empire basically had to eat the cost of moving an army group because Gaius could not let go of his raging hate boner for Elfrieden. That punitive terms for the Amidonians would be levied was a foregone conclusion. At the very least it would serve as a warning for the other signatories not to pull stunts like this again. That Julius seemed not to have a stomache for a real fight but instead took the easy route by bowing his head to the Empire probably crucially, and fatally, undermined his credibility with both gentry and peasantry.
The icing of course is that now Amidonia is seeing its meagre finances go towards enriching Elfrieden. All the while suffering from food shortages. That King Souma treated them all with a light hand, it was a classic case of making their own legitimate ruler seem illegitimate in the eyes of the Amidonians. That Souma is not actually part of Elfrieden’s ruling dynasty actually helps here; many Amidonians had an axe to grind with the Elfrieden Royal Family and would have never believed that they would be anything more than slaves if absorbed in Elfrieden. Souma is not actually from Elfrieden and carries no legacy of (supposed) hatred for the Amidonians so they could expect a fair deal out of him.
Roroa’s machinations aside, this was how things were done back in Medieval Times. Not only would marriage to Souma give him legitimacy on the throne of Amidonia but it also assures Amidonians that at least one of the Primary Queens is on their side. While they might not expect any love from Souma’s court, knowing that they have at least one powerful advocate in the person of Roroa must be comforting indeed.
Since I saw mentioned somewhere that Roroa end Kazuya finally made contact, I watched this sole episode after not picking up the second season myself.
But boy, this show hasn’t gotten any better has it.
First I’m faced with an apparent extinction event in this otherworld solely to have some dragonbones that a crazy scientist chick can steal overnight, to put armaments on so that Kazuya can later on use it as weapon (oh right, to examine the joints of course, since no other creature has those).
Then I’m faced with a defeated Julius in Amidonia. Julius seems to have somehow retained an immensely loyal nobility-class in Amidonia who don’t grab this opportunity to depose of him and become king themselves. Amidonia’s citizens somehow don’t blame their neighboring kingdom for decimating their sons and fathers in the war, demanding major reparation payments and leave those in power be (Julius and co.). All because they watched some ‘television’ in the meantime and allowed to paint their houses in a fancy colour. Sounds about right.
Then an enemy general shows up at Kazuya’s court with a gift. A large gift in fact. A gift that isn’t checked for any signs of foul play. Why would you? He said he’s a nice guy with good intentions, so he probably is..
Finally Roroa appears, who in the first season seemed to be capable in giving some counterweight to Kazuya’s schemes. Yet she immediately falls willingly into his expanding harem.
Good grief.
I’m amazed I actually managed to finish the episode.