A Record of Grancrest War Ep 15 – Revolution

• Genre : Fantasy, Adventure, action, political
• Studio: A-1 Pictures

I usually skip the OP for this show. I watched it at the beginning but it wasn’t inspiring enough for me to sit through every time. I’m pretty sure it got updated after the mid-season mark. In any case I was hugging the dog when it came on and couldn’t get to the remote (priorities) so I watched it again. It was pretty good. I liked it. That was a pretty long build up for not much payoff. Hopefully the rest of this post will be better. Think of it as an analogy for Grancrest itself.

The opening scenes apparently serve to let us know that Siluca is possible the least convincing interrogator of all time and the not vampire lady is now nuts. Not sure why, maybe the explosion and animation clash last week rattled her brain a bit too much but fret not, after the the OP she’s back to normal and about to be burned at the stake.

I would have preferred guillotine myself but you can’t fault the classics.

As far as I can tell, this was simply an excuse to have the witch curse them with her dying breath all gypsie like and summon a big demon for later(?). Not so long ago I would have assumed this was Grancrest’s usual nonsense that leads nowhere but honestly, since Villar’s last stand, the continuity has dramatically improved. Not sure what the archduke was doing to ruin the narrative flow but  apparently it was all his fault.

There are still some questionable elements but I actually know who everyone is and understand their motivations, as contrived and illogical as they may be. What I don’t understand is why the twins had to change back into their elaborate maid costumes to go watch an execution….

Anywho, after giving yet another court rank to Theo (man, that Theo sure gets around), we head back to Altrik and the main story already in progress. It seems that in the meantime, Milza has been working hard to entrench the Alliance’s foothold in the region. Milza is clearly written to be hated but you got to admit, for all his heartless cruelty, he’s rather effective.

It seems the citizens of Altrik are still fostering a sense of rebellion and the invading Union forces are being attacked left and right. As Theo’s return is heartening the resistance, Milza feels pressured to take drastic action before a full-blown revolution erupts.

Theo and his elite strike force of clergy and cleaning staff are returning to the continent on a completely different boat. I’m assuming this is the boat the Union sent went the brought a contingent to Sistina to deal with the execution but it’s not clear. What is obvious is the tiny corner of CG water we see is still absolutely horrendous. Production team, just stay on land from now on.

As acting king of Altrik, Lassic is there to welcome back Theo and bring him up to date on the latest events and they soon call a meeting with the members of the newly formed treaty to plan their next move. There’s obvious tension in the air, possibly even a hint of revolt, as it seems I’m not the only one who thought that Theo going off to a remote island on a personal errand in the middle of a full-blown war, may not be the best timing.

But, naysayers are quickly silenced as Theo is…well… actually, this is one of my issues with the show as it is now. We are on episode 15, this is quite a ways in, five hours or so, and we’ve yet to properly establish Theo as a character. Yeah battles have gone in his favour and he is often painted as a Big Fat Hero but really why is everyone obsessed with this guy.

Half the members of the treaty have never met him before yet they act as if he’s their savior. I assume it’s on reputation but what is that reputation based on. For most of the series he’s been in the lower ranks. It seems a lot of other lords have had military successes, Milza sure has and yet people don’t seem to know him much at all. The new Rossini guy is now going out of his way for Theo, apparently eager to show him eternal loyalty, even though Theo slaughtered his two brother just a few days ago. And as for Lassic…

So far Theo is a hero because the story has told me he’s a hero but I’ve yet to really see anything in his character to sell me on it. I really have yet to see much in his character at all. He doesn’t seem to have evolved or deepened as the story progresses and makes for a poor leading man in that respect.

But it’s not just people incomprehensible devotion to Theo that’s suspect. Marrine and Milza are getting along swimmingly now. For a second I even thought they made a rather nice couple. When did this mutual understanding and camaraderie form? Probably while Theo was on the island.

In the rundown, we are told 3 times, in 3 separate context by 3 separate people that the slaves in Starck are in revolt. Now, call me ridiculously perceptive, or maybe the Winter Games have honed my senses, but I’m thinking this fact will become plot relevant soon, like next episode!

So here you have it. I don’t know, I do want to know what happens next now that I have a general idea what’s happening at all. I’m still not likely to be recommending this show but hey, maybe it’s gonna be brilliant from here on out. Literally anything is possible with Grancrest.

Ok here’s the pics of other people: