天下制覇

Aww… just an honorable mention.

Impressions:

As we pass the halfway point here, I’m really starting to get a bit worried about the pacing. Even ignoring next episode’s foreshadowing about Arawn, we’ve still got the big reveal and assorted fallout, Gaius’ siege, that cornball tournament, and then the entire real big bad’s arc to go through, any of which could easily take 4+ episodes. It makes me wonder what’s going to be cut. Please let it be the tournament. Please let it be the tournament. Please let it be the tournament.

For all the chattering this episode, even if it’s new to you, I don’t think too many people will find it that terribly interesting. Gael and Brigantes are both descended from the same source and Brigantes has turned anti-social and smokes behind the school gym during 5th period. Oh, and they don’t have a chief at the moment. Gee, I wonder which sexual predator it’s supposed to be? Actually, that only narrows it down to Arawn or Taliesin, lest we forget that Arawn has his way with every single female, including Ermin… multiple times. The whole Brigantes thing just really isn’t particularly interesting no matter how you slice it. It’s another tribe just like Gael, only needs to be shown Arthur’s burning spirit of stupidity honor before joining the National Merit Society. Woohoo.

There wasn’t any action this episode either aside from Taliesin and Arthur’s short little fight, which was made all the sillier by Arthur dislocating his own shoulder while Taliesin pretended to be injured. It’s kind of amusing that Taliesin suspected nothing until after Arthur was already disarmed. Do people normally roar in pain when he parries their attacks? Still monumentally stupid of Arthur, but that runs in the family. It is pretty sad that even after admitting Arawn’s "would you rather beat an injured opponent or die?" logic was pretty ironclad, he went aside and did his best to get himself killed anyway. Congratulations, Arthur. You almost excused yourself from the gene pool… not that any of these women would ever actually give him a chance to breed anyway. Luckily, the power of friendship Pwyll… or more likely, Taliesin seeing it as a chance to go grope some elves with no reprisal… and a fair bit of pity for the clearly mentally handicapped saved the day.

Go Gael.

Preview:

Let’s go explore some ancient ruins!