Episode 356

People were joking about the story suddenly shifting focus before Guts and Casca come together, I can't believe it actually happened :ganishka:
 
Haha, Miura's such a tease. What an episode to choose to switch sides! But then again, what better time to do it than after a huge cliffhanger (classic narrative technique that makes the reader devour the story).

Anyway, great spectacle there, I'll never tire of seeing transformed apostles going toe-to-toe with other mighty foes. Although it feels odd to see Zodd being "just a guy" among the rest of the army. I feel sad for him, though it's the life he's chosen. It's a bit reminiscent of when Guts was fighting as a mercenary.

Moving on, that Falconia's armies would go against astral creatures was expected, but it's interesting that these giants are shown as being the obvious bad guys here. I'm curious to see whether future developments/revelations will cast the situation under a more ambiguous light.
 
Lol :troll:

I dig the giant king there, I just wish we were meeting under different circumstances.
:guts:
 
Well, I was a little disappointed given the shift, but we've been waiting to see the world after Fantasia for about 8 years, so here we are!

Aazealh said:
Moving on, that Falconia's armies would go against astral creatures was expected, but it's interesting that these giants are shown as being the obvious bad guys here. I'm curious to see whether future developments/revelations will cast the situation under a more ambiguous light.
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I'd bet that Miura is showing us the worst of the Fantasia inhabitants now, those who absolutely couldn't co-exist with humanity, as a way to allow Griffith to justify a purge of them all. In a few eps, we could see them wiping out cute lil' guys with the same fervor. :sad:

A pro-humanity / anti-magical creature campaign would be an expansion of the God Hand's domain.

BTW: Any Hardcore History listeners get a "Celtic Holocaust" vibe here?
 
Well.. now we can find out what Griffiths plans are in the new world. Is he going to wipe out these semi intelligent creatures. Or is he going to take it step further in combining the world.
 
The art in this episode is absolutely unreal. It also is a short episode (15 pages), regardless i love this
switch being honest
 
So Griffith's conquest continues. I wonder how much of this is out of necessary precautions and how much of it is simply for show. I imagine it's a bit of both, but mostly the latter. I'm totally digging these giant designs.

Walter said:
I'd bet that Miura is showing us the worst of the Fantasia inhabitants now, those who absolutely couldn't co-exist with humanity, as a way to allow Griffith to justify a purge of them all. In a few eps, we could see them wiping out cute lil' guys with the same fervor.
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A lot of these humans are already predisposed to viewing witchcraft as heretical. With the Pontiff behind him, Griffith is probably only a short step away from lumping even the most pure creatures (such as those on Skellig) into the same bag as the rest.
 
Mangetsu said:
It also is a short episode (15 pages)
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At first I thought you were counting 2-page spreads as a single page, but nope. Wow. Shortest ep ever? Or it's just missing a few pages...
 
IGRGUDT, OMG ARE U WEAR BEAR BUTT INTO BATTLE? THATS SO TACKY

SHUT UP GRODSN UR MAN SKULL BELT DOESNT EVEN SMELL ANYMORE

These guys have been slayin some big ass beasts n norse analogs up north - looks like cannons n ranged weapons are news to them but if King is smart he's not gonna want to get all his guys exploded out of dedication to the old strategy of show up and smash. Even if he does like to throw his bell at his own dogs. The Falconia crew teamed up with the harpies already, if only for a bit - is this a show of force and then a parlay, rather than a 'wipe-em-out'? Plenty of apostles were never above showing up waving corpse bits around on sticks themselves.

First panel:
OWW I STEPPED ON A LEGO
 
Walter said:
At first I thought you were counting 2-page spreads as a single page, but nope. Wow. Shortest ep ever?
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Nope, nope. One thing i wonder about is if that announcment for getting episodes more regulary now is actually happening. Guess we will find out in 2 weeks!
 
Haha, well, dangit! I will count myself among the folks who were REALLY hoping for more Guts and Casca before switching back to Falconia, but if we were gonna go back, this was a really cool scenario for it. It was almost as if Miura was saying, "Sorry everyone, but here are some badass fight scenes to tide you over in the meantime!" :guts: I can't even be disappointed. The giants are all so distinct and interesting-looking, and watching them getting destroyed by apostles is a real treat. We even get some time with Mule, Raban and Sonia! I missed that crew.

Not to get too ahead of myself, but it's looking to me like we'll get another several episodes with Griffith and co, which will lead to a possible short "skip" after the disastrous reunion between Guts and Casca. That leads me to wonder, are the events we're watching take place in this episode concurrent with the events in Elfhelm, or is Miura possibly going to pull a little narrative trick with that? I wonder!
 
Walter said:
I'd bet that Miura is showing us the worst of the Fantasia inhabitants now, those who absolutely couldn't co-exist with humanity, as a way to allow Griffith to justify a purge of them all. In a few eps, we could see them wiping out cute lil' guys with the same fervor. :sad:
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Yeah that's definitely a good possibility. I also wonder if the giants weren't provoked, or aren't embodying a kind of vengeance against mankind for past misdeeds, or a resistance against future ones.
Another possibly, a bit more far-fetched (this is all we've talked about before years ago :void:), but I'm curious to know whether the nature of the Astral Blast (all the evil power Ganishka had amassed in his body) didn't corrupt the "Astral Fauna" in some way, or at least influence the ratio of bellicose creatures versus peaceful ones.

Truder said:
Well.. now we can find out what Griffiths plans are in the new world. Is he going to wipe out these semi intelligent creatures. Or is he going to take it step further in combining the world.
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Looks pretty clearly like the first option right now, and I don't think the second one was really ever on the table? Not sure how that would work.

Lithrael said:
The Falconia crew teamed up with the harpies already, if only for a bit
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I don't think so, no. Aren't you just mistaken with that one lady apostle that's kind of owlish?

Grail said:
Not to get too ahead of myself, but it's looking to me like we'll get another several episodes with Griffith and co, which will lead to a possible short "skip" after the disastrous reunion between Guts and Casca. That leads me to wonder, are the events we're watching take place in this episode concurrent with the events in Elfhelm, or is Miura possibly going to pull a little narrative trick with that? I wonder!
Click to expand...

Yeah, that seems likely. Probably part of the complex narrative plan Miura has set for how to reestablish Guts and Casca's relationship.
 
Grail said:
Not to get too ahead of myself, but it's looking to me like we'll get another several episodes with Griffith and co, which will lead to a possible short "skip" after the disastrous reunion between Guts and Casca. That leads me to wonder, are the events we're watching take place in this episode concurrent with the events in Elfhelm, or is Miura possibly going to pull a little narrative trick with that? I wonder!
Click to expand...

I see it that way: if something is about to happen to Elfhelm in general, Griff episodes will be before Elfhelm, they end with a tease of him (or his minions) coming there, then we go to Elfhelm with Guts and Casca minding their business and then Elfhelm gets attacked or something. It makes sense to me at least but it needs to recall this rule of time flowing differently in this place in a good manner.

But we don't know anything what is about to happen so yeah. It might turn out to be something different entirely.
 
My favorite moment here is the King Giant drinking (looks like a cocktail?) from a bell, the kind you'd see atop a church. Then he tosses it down, squishing a troll. This is my kinda guy! :guts: It's interesting that trolls are scurrying around the feet of the giants. I wonder if they function like parasites, eating the scraps the giants leave in their wake.

Aazealh said:
Yeah that's definitely a good possibility. I also wonder if the giants weren't provoked, or aren't embodying a kind of vengeance against mankind for past misdeeds, or a resistance against future ones.
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Well the flag markings certainly beg the question what kind of civilization they have, apart from their obvious focus on warfare. I wonder if the king will speak before Griffith slices his neck (and what he'd say, other than "DIEEEEE")

Another possibly, a bit more far-fetched (this is all we've talked about before years ago :void:), but I'm curious to know whether the nature of the Astral Blast (all the evil power Ganishka had amassed in his body) didn't corrupt the "Astral Fauna" in some way, or at least influence the ratio of bellicose creatures versus peaceful ones.
Click to expand...

It didn't look like it in ep 306, seemed like an even mix, but could be. I still wonder about the environment, and if/how that changed as a result of the blast as well. The shift is a little frustrating, but we're still slowly getting the answers to things we pondered almost 10 years ago.
 
I was sort of assuming the inhabitants of the previously unseen world would be pretty close to embodiments of the human legends about them - these big nasty things being your archetypal 'behave kid cause there's ravening monsters out there that will get you' beasts. I forget how the relationship has been described in the past - was it more that they already existed and human legends grew based on them, or that human imagination had a role in creating/shaping them? In any case there's enough cruelty in the legends to account for what we've seen, but the notion that Ganishka's wave could have tainted them further is interesting.

One of the things that interests me is what they'd be doing marching way the heck out of their home territory to get in a fight with Falconia. Did they really just eat themselves out of all of Scandanavia-analog already? Or is Falconia Famous Among Monsters?
 
Being honest, i love the timing of the switch for the episode. I had been asking myself anyways when we will be getting a switch to Griffith, due to his soon to be coronation and wedding. This episode is definitely the set up for going towards that direction.

It also makes sense to do that now, rather than spending more time on the island, which would make the timeskip probably too long to have these events in a timeline that make sense. Additionally when we get off the island in the future, we will see the consequences of Griffith having become a king.
 
Lithrael said:
I forget how the relationship has been described in the past - was it more that they already existed and human legends grew based on them, or that human imagination had a role in creating/shaping them?
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I don't believe that humans dreamt up everything in the astral world. For example, things like the Four Kings and elves weren't borne of humans, because they're affiliated with the elements. Though the link between worlds was severed long ago, people's memories of those creatures lived on in stories, legends, in people's imaginations, basically on the fringes of perception (and in dreams). At least, that's my reading of the text in Ep 306.
 
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