Episode 307

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Jaze1618 said:
What exactly do you mean here Aaz? Do you have knowledge about episode 308?

Have you read the thread in its entirety? There's a preview of episode 308 in this Young Animal. It shows Guts holding his artificial arm. And it will be the beginning of both a new arc and a new chapter. So I imagine 308 will cut back to Guts. Besides, this episode is a good way to end the chapter of Falconia, being itself called Falconia, and showing us the city while still leaving it very mysterious.

Anyway, it's nice to see Jarif among the onlookers, just confirming he's still there. Same for Daiba. :void:
 

Gobolatula

praise be to grail!
I hate to dwell on the obvious here, but this episode is a true testament to Miura's mastery of architecture and landscape. A lot of great perspective work here. I spent a good deal of time staring at each page, especially the city drawings. As mentioned before, the onlookers' gaspy faces are an appropriate reaction to what's there in front of them. :isidro:
 

Dani

Smile!
I can't believe it's been so long since Griffith made clear his intent, to come so far and finally we can see it all. I can't believe we get the next EPISODE so soon. Miura is the man.

The last page spread really hits home the amazing scale of Falconia.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Thanks guys! I love the panels of apostles and Midlanders walking through the forest of transformed mini-Ganishka's next to the giant tree. The shot of Zodd and Griffith is great, too! Can't wait for a translation!
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Rhombaad said:
The shot of Zodd and Griffith is great, too! Can't wait for a translation!

About what's being said in the episode, there is talk of northern legends as well concerning the tree, and Foss mentions the legendary capital that was buried under Wyndham before changing his mind, saying it couldn't possibly be the work of mortal men. The Pontiff then starts speaking of Falconia.
 

Black_Devil

Punos Rey
Excellent stuff from this episode. Though I'm really iffy on this episode for one reason, that being all the shiningness and sparkles are kind of unsettling considering :femto:'s "prophecy", wonder how long it's gonna last since everyone's marching in there like sheep to the slaughter so to speak.

edit: also a small comment about the statues on the entrance, did they remind anyone else of Roman soldiers? Was a pretty cool touch imo.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Black_Devil said:
...wonder how long it's gonna last since everyone's marching in there like sheep to the slaughter so to speak.
But they're marching into Griffith's protective wings. :griffnotevil:
 

Walter

Administrator
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Black_Devil said:
Excellent stuff from this episode. Though I'm really iffy on this episode for one reason, that being all the shiningness and sparkles are kind of unsettling considering :femto:'s "prophecy", wonder how long it's gonna last since everyone's marching in there like sheep to the slaughter so to speak.
Femto didn't make a prophecy. Or did you mean the prophecy read by Farnese in vol 14 and Schierke in vol 22 regarding the Falcon of Darkness?

Either way, the age of darkness could have something to do with everyone NOT living in Falconia being totally screwed.

edit: also a small comment about the statues on the entrance, did they remind anyone else of Roman soldiers? Was a pretty cool touch imo.
It's been commented on for the past 5 pages actually, particularly the similarity between this architecture/style and that in Gaiseric's time. Where've you been? :azan:
 

Black_Devil

Punos Rey
Walter said:
Femto didn't make a prophecy. Or did you mean the prophecy read by Farnese in vol 14 and Schierke in vol 22 regarding the Falcon of Darkness?

Hahah don't hurt me Walter! Been mia the past few days and just dropped in to see what people were talking about. But yeah I'm referring to the Falcon of Darkness' prophecy, as Falconia's so clean looking and stuff, it suddenly shifting to demons r us would make me shit myself. >.<
 

Grail

Feel the funk blast
Big thanks for the episode, guys! I wonder how Griffith's going to keep that palace filled up... :isidro: Exactly how many rooms does a guy need? Though, it would be interesting to see if its supernatural construction would lead it to become an astral funhouse of sorts. Just a thought. :void:
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
This is like a chain reaction of awesome episodes. Hell it doesn't even feel like it's been that long since Ganishka jumped into the apostle meat ball.
Yeah, in spite of any breaks, it doesn't really feel like it's been what, close to a year? It all ends up blurring together eventually. Time flies when you're getting old! :flora:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Aazealh said:
About what's being said in the episode, there is talk of northern legends as well concerning the tree, and Foss mentions the legendary capital that was buried under Wyndham before changing his mind, saying it couldn't possibly be the work of mortal men. The Pontiff then starts speaking of Falconia.
Whoa, missed this earlier! You and I called it from our earlier discussion :carcus:

Really, I think it's implied that both Foss and the Pontiff are right -- it's Gaiseric's capital with some supernatural renovations, more or less as we expected. But man, to have that confirmed. Fills me with such ... happiness :judo:

:femto: : "Hey, nice capital gramps. I think I'll take it."
:SK: : "!"
 
I think now that griffith has his own kingdom the age of darkness will turn out like this. Griffith will become mad with power and begin to subjugate humans in falconia allowing apostles to act as a secret police and attack them every night. From there on chances are he'll become bored with peaceful life and will hold coliseum tournaments with the winner having the privilege to face griffith in one on one mortal combat for the crown. Guts at hearing the news and always loving a good fight will hurry to falconia after receiving his power-up from the elf king, there he'll fight each one of his generals in the coliseum with zodd being the final one. After killing all of them, him and griffith will finally face each other, and guts will win and become the new king. The god-hand will slip back into the shadows and go back to their scheming ways.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Rrrrrrright, well moving on...

Me and Aaz were talking earlier today about the differences in how the two capitals -- Gaiseric's and Griffith's -- were created. I think there are moral implications behind each capital's story, and it's kind of an offshoot of the dream chaser theme Miura has reiterated throughout the series. Dreams can be achieved, but at what cost? Simply put:

The old emperor built the capital on the backs of the people, but it was real.
The new emperor built the capital with magic, at the expense of the world.

[quote author=Volume 10, Dark Horse translation]Judo: "According to legend, I think [Gaiseric] gathered workers from all over the empire, and forced them through hard labor to build a large capital city. Then the king lived in the utmost extravagance while levying heavier and heavier taxes on the people. The city ended up becoming a melting pot of feasting and pleasure"
[/quote]
It wasn't an easy process for Gaiseric. It was hard labor, and presumably took years, drawing the hatred of his subjects as a result of his monumental creation. According to legend, angels were sent to destroy the capital because of his sins -- possibly beginning the cycle of which we're now seeing the first full revolution of.

1,000 years later, Griffith's capital appears. It resembles the former emperor's city, but has been augmented by supernatural means. It cost nothing to build. Well, nothing except his humanity and the order and sanity of the world. The world had to change in order for the capital to appear, and that shift has placed all of civilization in danger.

But which emperor had the right idea? Either? Food for thought :badbone:
 

Black_Devil

Punos Rey
But you don't think the story as told through Judo had been skewered Walter? With the possibility of the angels being the godhand(though not confirmed), I'm still reluctant to believe things went down as was written. :SK:
 

Walter

Administrator
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Black_Devil said:
But you don't think the story as told through Judo had been skewered Walter? With the possibility of the angels being the godhand(though not confirmed), I'm still reluctant to believe things went down as was written. :SK:
Yeah, thanks for the reminder :carcus: But whether they were God Hand or angel doesn't change Judo's story, or my point, at all. What's in question is Gaiseric's popularity after building the capital. My point is that his extravagant empire came at a price, as did Griffith's, though at a very different price.

There are two accounts of the emperor: Judo/Charlotte's tale and Mozgus', and in both they call him "sinful." Now, that can be interpreted a number of ways. Yes, it could simply be the Holy See's doctrine blasting the former world order with lies. Or ... that could have been a popular stigma circulated after Gaiseric's taxation to build the capital, and also by the have-nots living on the outside of the capital looking in and seeing extravagance (implied in Moz' story).

I concede that details in these legends were likely tainted over time, but I don't think we should outright ignore them because of that. I believe the core of these stories is true: the capital wasn't built on the backs of happy citizens, piling brick after brick in glee. Something triggered its downfall and decimation.

But I'd really rather we didn't get into speculative material, which is why I stuck as close as possible to the facts, as we know them, in my post. The specifics of what happened 1,000 years ago are far too vague to talk at length on. But since you drew it out of me, for the record, yes, I personally believe the angels were the God Hand, or a God Hand member -- hence the brands on the skulls of all the corpses.

I really hope we can steer the conversation in other, more fruitful directions though, because the how of all that is a real dead-end.
 

Black_Devil

Punos Rey
^I see what you mean, and agreed on the how being a dead end, but in that case It's looking more like Gaiseric was probably more on the path of the "right idea" as you mentioned, because it may sound cold, but his actions really only effected the people he forced into labor, Griffith's has literally sacrificed the state of the world to achieve what Gaiseric did, so obviously the price here is much higher, and like you mentioned, Gaiseric's kingdom was real in that it didn't require supernatural elements to be built, so while Falconia is all bright and sparkly, Gaiseric should be praised as he didn't have all the backing Griffith did.

EDIT: I'm hoping that's what you were looking for as far as a change in direction *picks up head and scurries off*
 

Okin

The Ultimate Battle Creature
Walter said:
:femto: : "Hey, nice capital gramps. I think I'll take it."
:SK: : "!"

Wait, so are we considering that this city appeared from the astral where the "idea" of Gaiseric's capital existed?

EDIT: Something worth talking about. Obviously there's faults in building a kingdom from harsh labor, but look at the Egyptians: They managed to convince their pyramid builders into thinking it was their place to work for the pharaoh, and they gave them plenty of reason to do so too. They had good lives overall, and still created some of the greatest structures in history. Here's a good documentary on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJWrlYIf-Bw

The end of this first video and the next is where they explain how it was for the workers outside of the labor hours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEaRJ4w1GKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOjGRTREtnQ
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Black_Devil said:
Griffith's has literally sacrificed the state of the world to achieve what Gaiseric did, so obviously the price here is much higher, and like you mentioned, Gaiseric's kingdom was real in that it didn't require supernatural elements to be built, so while Falconia is all bright and sparkly, Gaiseric should be praised as he didn't have all the backing Griffith did.
Well, yeah I suppose. But Gaiseric didn't built it himself you know :guts: . And there's the other piece of the legend of why his subjects lost faith in him. According to Mozgus and Judo, after the capital was built, he taxed them heavily while living a life of extravagance inside his massive capital. A centralized empire like that probably wouldn't see very many benefits to outlying colonies (can't even really call them countries at this point, since they were all one back then. Which could have led to unrest and disdain.

Personally though, I really can't see SK eating grapes while being fed by 100 virgins. He doesn't seem the type to stomach that kind of extravagance. Which is why I'm disinclined to believe ALL the legends. But, maybe time changed him?

Okin said:
Wait, so are we considering that this city appeared from the astral where the "idea" of Gaiseric's capital existed?
Well, so far we're just talking about the chat between Foss and the Pontiff in this episode. Foss seems to recognize Falconia as the ancient capital, but then says that there are aspects of the city that weren't made by human hands (Im paraphrasing here, pending a full translation).

So yeah, I'd say some aspect of the astral or even ideal worlds played a role here. Or, as I said earlier in the thread, it was the desire of one very influential person.
 
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