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Aldnoah Zero Season 2 |OT| Inaho or Out, It's All The Slaine

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Episode 9

Holy shit, that fucking ending.

How are you gonna give me Seylum fan service and her in a cute school uniform and then have the episode end like that.

I guess
jealousy got the best of Rayet
...
 

-Horizon-

Member
Hey, Saazbaum, didn't expect you to pull the
"It was me! Saazbaum!"
Gotta applaud you for that.

And that ending
she can't be dead, Inaho and his OPness won't allow it
 
I actually really liked that about Saazbaum. Didnt pull any shit, just told him straight up. Its nice to see that he also had a decent motivation for doing what he did as well. Makes him a bit more sympathetic.

At least Slaine isnt totally fucked over now. He has a place to stay and eat and is taken care of for the most part.
 

-Horizon-

Member
Yeah, agreed on Saazbaum having a somewhat good motive for doing what he's doing rather than the generic "because I'm evil!".
 
Saazbaum may just yet turn into a decent antagonist.
He's automatically better then the other ones for having any sort of motive/personality beyond "terrans r the suk"

But that ending scene.
Ok. I'm on for this ride. I'm buckling up now.
 

Deadly

Member
2 surprises this episode whoa.... Like where this is going now.

At first I was like wow shower scene without fanservice? Then that happened, damn.
 

phaze

Member
Aldnoah.Zero 09

Well that was supremely dumb.

I don't know why I always have to latch on Kariya type of characters in projects Urobuchi was involved in. -_-

Worst villain back story since Tobi. Though I appreciate him shedding more light on the feudal and Vers aspect of things.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Aldnoah Zero-9
ioWTzTWT5mQCg.jpg
The ending will obviously get the most attention, but the rest of the episode was just as great. So this was a character introspection episode along with some background.

The first thing that gets brought up is Rayet's PTSD. So it seems the big motif of the story is the inability of letting go/being scarred by the past. Rayet is clearly traumatized by her father's death. One thing though that this episode cleared up is that she hates not only Martians but also herself. I thought the shower scene in particular made that point come clear across. She was fueled not only by her hatred but also her jealousy. Sort of interesting that she did what her father failed to do and possibly helped the Vehrs Empire but did it for totally different reasons compared to her dad.

I think this episode was great at contextualizing Marito's PTSD. I think his character is supposed to be a subversion of the older amazing pilot in these shows like Roy Focker in Macross and Amuro/Char in Zeta. He's useless and it makes sense that his PTSD won't have a quick fix. Also looking at what he had to go through, mainly seeing his best friend literally cooked alive, I can also understand why he is so fucked up. Hearing a friend's screams and begging to be killed as they're burned alive, would screw up anybody. I really didn't expect Marito's stuff to be anywhere near as gruesome as that.

Then we have the Count. This is the first time where I feel the story has actually tried to make the Martians interesting. We finally have a good villain on the show. Saazbaum doesn't act hamfisted but is still dramatic at the same time. I thought for sure that Saazbaum would either brainwash Slaine or trick Slaine into working for him. Saazbaum however straight up doesn't give any fucks and tells Slaine why he's doing what he's doing. It's a sort of honesty that is pretty interesting considering how backstabby Saazbaum has been to everyone else. He absolutely despises the system he's working under but is trying to excel under it at the same time, similar to Char now that I think about it. His scene with Slaine at the dinner table was really charismatic in that you can see both his distaste for Terrans but also his hatred for the Feudal system the Assyleum's set up. What's amazing is that despite Slaine holding the knife to his throat, something I'm glad Slaine did, Saazbaum had complete control of the conversation. Oh and that was totally a butterknife. You ain't gonna be cutting shit with that. Finally the show is trying to make these characters a bit more interesting than the one-note Counts that we have gotten in previous episodes.
ibvQmqraPqF0OK.jpg

Why the fuck did the storyboarder/director use this camera angle instead of one on the side and closer to the actual action?
I don't think the animation and direction were as strong as it could have been this episode. There were multiple shots with wasted space and certain scenes like Marino's friend in the oven or Rayet's prison-style strangling where the animation could have been much more gruesome. The second one in particular could have been like the church scene in Fate/Zero but it feels a bit too passive. I would have loved something like the Princess trips and Rayet would have kept choking her. Oh and the lighting still sucks balls.
iJeWHHYXt3C5D.jpg

So much wasted space. Why is the main point of interest in this scene to the right in the frame?
Still this was a really great episode that helped to flesh out Rayet and Saazbaum, both of whom desperately needed the characterization. I very much doubt they'll stick the ending, just because that would be a huge fucking game changer. I hope they do though as that would definitely subvert the whole 'finding prototype mecha/ship that is completely badass' trope while also really changing the potential dynamics for character interactions.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Jarmel, have you seen Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Yea, why?

Edit:If you're referring to the background in the dinner setting being similar to the ending scene in 2001 yea I get that. Problem is still with the camera angle in that it's too far out.

Dude just take the image out. Thats a pretty huge spoiler.

Threads like this one are fair ground for spoilers. Probably shouldn't have done a gif that soon though.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Episode 9

While it'd be an injustice to the plot events taking place to imply the show is "slowing down", I'm glad they've taken a step back from mech battles for a while to give the characters space to develop. They've been teasing a lot of these subplots along, but they needed more substance. There's also a nice theme tying everything in this episode together too, in that it's about how Marito, Rayet, and Saazbaum deal with trauma and loss.

I would agree that there were points where the direction was kind of dead (Inaho's sister holding a simulation computer particularly), but there were a lot of moments I liked. The muzzle flash in Marito's eyes when he pulls the trigger. The cut to Saazbaum cutting into some chicken. The staging of the final scene. I'm too lazy to get into why I feel like those moments worked for me, but they did.

Anyway, it's good to see the show still knows how to shock and surprise. At this point I'm watching it only expecting to be entertained, so I'm glad it's still delivering there.

I thought the Count this episode was Saazbaum, and the blond one was Cruhteo.

Also, his name is Marito.
 

Linkark07

Banned
If the princess actually died, I will give this a 11/10. But, no, most likely she will return somehow.

The most important question is what Slaine gonna do?
 
Episode 09

Great episode all around. Saazbum is set up to actually be an interesting villain, something this series has sorely lacked so far. The truth behind Lt. Marito's PTSD is finally revealed. That kind of psychological trauma would haunt anyone for years. And then that ending...Wow. Please tell me they aren't going to chicken out and
miraculously revive the princess
next week.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Now what would be ballsy is to pull a Psycho-Pass/FZ mix and have the princess still alive.

Only now she's a vegetable due to the oxygen deprivation and serves as the ship's power source.

Oh and another possible conjecture is Slaine comes across crew again and waifu is either dead/vegetable/comatose. Slaine berserks out and swears Earth as his new enemy. Slaine is now rival of Inaho.
 
Wow this show is straight garbage, the writing is stupid as hell regardless of how they play off the final scene the whole sequence was a roller coaster of awful

Then you had the reveal of why teacher has PTSD and why people shun hate him... and it just goes to show nobody who is writing this shit has any idea how to write a good story. Seriously
he shot the guy who was fucking burning to death, how the fuck is anything that happened his fault

And can I say fuck Inaho for getting harem comedy shit, I wanted to freaking DIE when the girl pilot got jealous of the sister implying Inaho likes the princess

And Slaine continues to just get the super short end of the stick, discovering why the bad guy planned the thing just worsened him as a villain. The last thing this series needs is a villain that has some kind of pretend depth to why he's doing the right thing by betraying the princess/royal family to start a war with Earth. This series has proven the writers can't handle anything that complex, they should have stuck with "I'm an evil ass hole who just wants more power and you're not dead because I can use you muwhahahahaha"

Edit:

Now what would be ballsy is to pull a Psycho-Pass/FZ mix and have the princess still alive.

Only now she's a vegetable due to the oxygen deprivation and serves as the ship's power source.

Oh and another possible conjecture is Slaine comes across crew again and waifu is either dead/vegetable/comatose. Slaine berserks out and swears Earth as his new enemy. Slaine is now rival of Inaho.

That's probably what they'll do and it'll be completely stupid
 
Then you had the reveal of why teacher has PTSD and why people shun hate him... and it just goes to show nobody who is writing this shit has any idea how to write a good story. Seriously
he shot the guy who was fucking burning to death, how the fuck is anything that happened his fault

Something like that could probably cause PTSD. However, the scene felt rushed and poorly directed which failed to invoke any emotional response from me.
 
Something like that could probably cause PTSD. However, the scene felt rushed and poorly directed which failed to invoke any emotional response from me.

Oh I agree I could see how that would cause PTSD in the teacher, but the way everyone treats him like a coward and a traitor is laughable. Especially the captain who's that dude's little sister, like seriously what did you expect this guy to do just die with everyone else?
 
Oh I agree I could see how that would cause PTSD in the teacher, but the way everyone treats him like a coward and a traitor is laughable. Especially the captain who's that dude's little sister, like seriously what did you expect this guy to do just die with everyone else?

Ah, I misread. But I agree that their cause to hate him is unjustified and very questionable.
 

Kuro

Member
Anyone else still severely confused how a colony on mars somehow became some weird feudal culture that got little support from Earth all in the course of 30 years? It just doesn't make any sense to me. If we managed to reach Mars through gates we would have had plenty of scientists etc over there. How did all this shit happen in 30 years.

Edit: actually less than 30 years if you think about the little war thing that happened years before.
 

Heysoos

Member
oh boy, next episode is going to be so awesome.
Save her Inaho!



I also like that they talked about Inaho's expressions, or lack thereof. hehe.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Oh I agree I could see how that would cause PTSD in the teacher, but the way everyone treats him like a coward and a traitor is laughable. Especially the captain who's that dude's little sister, like seriously what did you expect this guy to do just die with everyone else?

The whole incident got redacted. I'm guessing pretty much nobody knows what happened and all that came out were probably rumors. It's a case of miscommunication but I'm sure Marito also blames himself for the events and whatnot, survivor's guilt is a bitch.
 
The whole incident got redacted. I'm guessing pretty much nobody knows what happened and all that came out were probably rumors. It's a case of miscommunication but I'm sure Marito also blames himself for the events and whatnot, survivor's guilt is a bitch.

Except the captain herself said she read his actual report (the one that was apparently an accurate recount) and she still blames him for her brother's death and thinks him a coward/traitor.
 

tensuke

Member
Only now she's a vegetable due to the oxygen deprivation and serves as the ship's power source.
Man, that'd be so fucked up. Not sure how they'd go about it though since doesn't she need to consciously give Aldnoah (which is why the ship ran out of power)? Not sure they could even pull that off. It would really carry the "exploitation" thing Inaho and Slaine were talking about though.

Except the captain herself said she read his actual report (the one that was apparently an accurate recount) and she still blames him for her brother's death and thinks him a coward/traitor.

Well sure, I mean Marito survived, so she thinks he could still have saved her brother (albeit with major burns/scarring), and she's probably angry that he chose to kill him instead. Marito's not really at fault given the circumstances, but deep down she probably just feels anger that he didn't do more to try and save him, even if the reality of the situation was that nothing could be done. It makes sense.

We don't know what he put in the report. He might have just said that his friend was trapped and he had to shoot him. She obviously didn't see what the audience saw and considering his mental issues, I'm guessing his report wasn't the most accurate.

This too.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Except the captain herself said she read his actual report (the one that was apparently an accurate recount) and she still blames him for her brother's death and thinks him a coward/traitor.

We don't know what he put in the report. He might have just said that his friend was trapped and he had to shoot him. She obviously didn't see what the audience saw and considering his mental issues, I'm guessing his report wasn't the most accurate.
 

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
Wow this show is straight garbage, the writing is stupid as hell regardless of how they play off the final scene the whole sequence was a roller coaster of awful

Then you had the reveal of why teacher has PTSD and why people shun hate him... and it just goes to show nobody who is writing this shit has any idea how to write a good story. Seriously
he shot the guy who was fucking burning to death, how the fuck is anything that happened his fault

Lets see...
he still ended up killing his best friend, even if his friend asked him to do it, he was the one who pulled the trigger to kill him instead of letting him burn to death and letting the enemy kill him.
Are you saying its illogical for that to scar him for life? Because its not in the slightest. From the perspective of the captain,
he still decided to put a bullet into her brothers skull instead of trying to rescue him all the way to the very end even if it meant his death as well because thats irrelevant to her.

And Slaine continues to just get the super short end of the stick, discovering why the bad guy planned the thing just worsened him as a villain. The last thing this series needs is a villain that has some kind of pretend depth to why he's doing the right thing by betraying the princess/royal family to start a war with Earth. This series has proven the writers can't handle anything that complex, they should have stuck with "I'm an evil ass hole who just wants more power and you're not dead because I can use you muwhahahahaha"

It's fine to not enjoy the story but they spent the entire episode, and really the entire series, going over how
Rylet was one not to be trusted
. Because people do crazy things when subjected to the horrors of war. You had three separate developments going on in this episode that all revolved around this concept.

The fact everyone on the ship failed to realized this - and in this episode it was Inaho's sister that really drove that home - is basically what made the ending so great, people complaining about this basically fall into that same camp.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Man, that'd be so fucked up. Not sure how they'd go about it though since doesn't she need to consciously give Aldnoah (which is why the ship ran out of power)? Not sure they could even pull that off. It would really carry the "exploitation" thing Inaho and Slaine were talking about though.

Well the drive would seemingly go off every time she slept if she needed to be conscious for it to power on.
 
Lets see... Are you saying its illogical for that to scar him for life? Because its not in the slightest. From the perspective of the captain,

It's fine to not enjoy the story but they spent the entire episode, and really the entire series, going over how . Because people do crazy things when subjected to the horrors of war. You had three separate developments going on in this episode that all revolved around this concept.

The fact everyone on the ship failed to realized this - and in this episode it was Inaho's sister that really drove that home - is basically what made the ending so great, people complaining about this basically fall into that same camp.

You probably think SAO is well written too

This show is straight up garbage

And not once did I say the flashback doesn't explain his PTSD, I said the way everyone reacts to him and his story is laughable/stupid, double so now when the same giant fucking mechs are coming down and wrecking just like he said in his report.

And that's a fine concept for an anime, this series just doesn't have the writing to support it though. Rayet attacking the princess had jack shit to do with war and had everything to do with her being straight up crazy, the reveal behind the bad guys true motives are pointless as we've not seen any indication that life on Vers sucks as badly as he explains it nor is he even trustworthy enough that we should buy his story.

This is straight up worse then SAO and Valvrave
 

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
You probably think SAO is well written too

This show is straight up garbage

And not once did I say the flashback doesn't explain his PTSD, I said the way everyone reacts to him and his story is laughable/stupid, double so now when the same giant fucking mechs are coming down and wrecking just like he said in his report.

And that's a fine concept for an anime, this series just doesn't have the writing to support it though. Rayet attacking the princess had jack shit to do with war and had everything to do with her being straight up crazy, the reveal behind the bad guys true motives are pointless as we've not seen any indication that life on Vers sucks as badly as he explains it nor is he even trustworthy enough that we should buy his story.

This is straight up worse then SAO and Valvrave

No I'm not going to defend SAO or Valvrave.

But everything in this show has been logical and the actions of the characters make sense if you follow whats going on. Nothing has been pulled of the ass the way Geass or other shows of that ilk (like SAO or Valvrave) have done it.
 

Jarmel

Banned
You probably think SAO is well written too

This show is straight up garbage

And not once did I say the flashback doesn't explain his PTSD, I said the way everyone reacts to him and his story is laughable/stupid, double so now when the same giant fucking mechs are coming down and wrecking just like he said in his report.

And that's a fine concept for an anime, this series just doesn't have the writing to support it though. Rayet attacking the princess had jack shit to do with war and had everything to do with her being straight up crazy, the reveal behind the bad guys true motives are pointless as we've not seen any indication that life on Vers sucks as badly as he explains it nor is he even trustworthy enough that we should buy his story.

This is straight up worse then SAO and Valvrave

I would advise you to drop the show as everything in this episode was well contextualized and it's really apparent you don't care.

The show made it clear why people treated Marito as a crazy nutjob in the past. Since the invasion, nobody has mentioned he's crazy other than those guys on the initial mech squad who quickly got killed. It's only the Captain who has an issue with Marito and I'm strongly guessing she doesn't have a clear picture.

As for Rayet, the show has spent a shit load of time on her problems, probably too much. The ending of the episode made perfect sense in regards to her past comments and current mental state.
 
You probably think SAO is well written too

This show is straight up garbage

And not once did I say the flashback doesn't explain his PTSD, I said the way everyone reacts to him and his story is laughable/stupid, double so now when the same giant fucking mechs are coming down and wrecking just like he said in his report.

And that's a fine concept for an anime, this series just doesn't have the writing to support it though. Rayet attacking the princess had jack shit to do with war and had everything to do with her being straight up crazy, the reveal behind the bad guys true motives are pointless as we've not seen any indication that life on Vers sucks as badly as he explains it nor is he even trustworthy enough that we should buy his story.

This is straight up worse then SAO and Valvrave

I am not an expert on Japanese culture, but could Marito's treatment by others be more realistic than you think?
 
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