天下制覇

Aren’t I clever?

Impressions:

Mostly a pretty fun episode from start to finish, but it did trail off a little bit with the jump into the future for the Ange lead-in towards the end… and the debate was a tad… how shall we say… dense. Battler really should have at least come up with some kind of off the cuff thought instead of immediately crying again. Dude really needs to stop bawling like a baby the moment someone pokes a hole in one of his arguments. Or at least stop and think for a moment instead of falling over. This is about the fourth or fifth time it’s happened. You’re never right, Battler. Get used to it. This wasn’t even red text that’s particularly hard to get around either. Battler’s just a little slow in the head. The daisy-chain of locked doors is far more intriguing as far as this arc goes. 

Anyway, the true point of this arc finally came out. Everything was just an elaborate setup to make Battler empathize with Beatrice and accept her as the only true witch. The twist at the denouemont (good word) could have been stretched out a little bit more since the whole thing from Beatrice’s ‘victory’ over Evatrice to trying to get Battler to sign lasted all of about 30 seconds, but it was certainly a well enough thought out ruse. Deen also did a good job with Ange’s fight. Why they decided to spend time and effort on Ange beating up some goats is a question for another day, but hey… I’m not about to complain. At least we didn’t have to sit through the full version of the Siestas’ Love Love Attack this time.

Brief Summary:

Kannon’s ghost leads Jessica to the room behind Beatrice’s shield, but as soon as Beatrice steps out, she’s shot by the Siestas. They continuously attack her, but she won’t die and then all that’s left is her heart. Evatrice goes to stomp on it and finish her off, but Battler stops her and drags her into the meta world. Evatrice tries to kill him, but Battler’s protected. He starts giving all the reasons that she couldn’t be the real killer and declares checkmate. Evatrice won’t accept that, so Battler pulls out some more proof by way of Kirie’s last message in the form of a seemingly forgotten cigarette. Evatrice is extremely pissed now, and starts spewing out red text after red text cutting the legs out from every single part of Battler’s argument. He’s completely blown away by it, but Beatrice knows that she can still win… even though it’ll ruin her. Battler covers his ears and Beatrice solves the mystery. All the magical beings and world disappear.

In the ‘real’ world, crazy crazy Eva kills Battler.

Battler and Beatrice appear at a party for the true Endless Witch. Battler’s asked to sign a scroll as a witness that Beatrice is indeed her. At the last second, Battler senses something’s wrong, but he’s grabbed by a goat and both Beatrice and Virgilia try to force him to sign it. Ange crashes in through a window and fights her way to Battler’s side, unimpressed with Beatrice’s trickery. Beatrice recognizes who she is by her ring and Ange tells Beatrice to prepare herself.

In the future, Eva’s gone quite insane while Ange’s at her bedside. Ange goes up to the roof and almost kills herself before seeing Bernkastel. Bern offers her the chance to create a miracle and save her family. Ange takes it and leaps off the building.