Last Exile, ep. 09-16

[oyceter]

Spoilers for all episodes in here!

I would very much like it if all women stopped being interested in Claus! Wargh! The Lavie thing I saw coming from miles and miles away, but I was really hoping that they'd keep the Lavie-Claus relationship platonic. Alas, it does not seem to be the case.

That said, I totally adored the Alis/Tatiana rivalry, particularly when it was time for Tatiana's backstory, and the repetition of the line that everything would be ok, because her best friend Alis would be with her.

Awww!

That said, the Sophia-Claus kiss felt completely gratuitous.

And haha! I called Alex being the wounded guy who gave the news to Claus and company! Ok, it wasn't that hard to call, but still. And I thought Sophie was the navigator, but it was not so. Now I think the navigator is Sophie's sister, which makes things very Esca.

I am very happy that Lavie was the one who made the call to win the race, and I liked that the story gave that moment with Lavie and Claus, in which Lavie says that Claus' sky isn't her sky anymore. It made the previous episode of "women who do not do warfare" much better.

Also, Alvis is scary when activating.

Dio is strangely amusing and not at all like Dilandau, thankfully. He's like a giant kid who has no idea what he's doing.

And Alex is really just too emo for words. His line to Sophie about being a weak woman made me want to slap him, despite knowing his past history.

Was completely gobsmacked by Sophie being a princess, and I hope she gets to wield much political power and do nifty intrigue-y stuff.

But my very favorite part was still the Claus-Lavie backstory, particularly when the two were on their own, learning to fly. So cute!

Politics-wise, I have absolutely no idea what is going on. I finally figured out that Disith was the enemy, but only after they were defeated (or something). And I think Norkia is the city Claus and Lavie grew up in? And Anatoray is the country?

And the Guild is very powerful and controls the weather.

Or something.

Comments

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Last Exile does some gender stuff well (female fighter pilots!) and some stuff not so well. I didn't mind the outbreak of romance quite as much as you did (I found it sort of amusing), but I did feel like it was undercutting the strength of some of the women characters--especially because it was mostly the women pining after men. On the other hand, I think Mullin Shetland's serial crushes were supposed to balance this, but it didn't end up working out that way.

Er, do you want me to explain the political stuff?

My favorite bit in these episodes was probably the big fight between the Sylvana and the Urbanus, because I loved all the tactics and things going BOOM.

[oyceter]

I liked Mullin's serial crushes! But the sheer amount of women pining for men really got to me. Especially the Sophia-Claus thing, which felt completely gratuitous.

Please explain the political stuff! I've gotten a bit more sorted out now that I've watched the next disc, but I'm still totally confused about the Guilt and whatnot.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Okay, the political stuff:

Disith and Anatoray are the two countries at war. Anatoray is the country that most of the characters are from; Claus and Lavie are from the city of Norkia. The Guild is a third power in this world; they are the source of the most advanced technology. For example, they've provided the claudia units (engines) for most of the big ships we see; the exceptions are the Silvana and the Urbanus (I think), which have renegade units. The Guild thus has power over both Disith and Anatoray because they can always take back what they've given. The vanships also don't run on Guild claudia units; that's why they're sort of a symbol of independence.

I read the episode recaps here (http://halo-productions.com/LastExile/episodes.htm) to figure this stuff out; just be careful not to scroll down too far, because there are multiple recaps on a page.

[oyceter]

Oh!! The vanship bit makes so much more sense now, as does the random ships blowing up due to Guild ire.