Episode 298

Walter said:
I believe Saiya just meant Ganishka bypassed the normal transportation method with his own, reckless, passing on the left maneuver, and the cops might pull him over.

"Bad boy, bad boys watcha gonna do? Watcha gonna do when they come for you?"

Walter said:
To allow Ganishka to bring this massive swell of evil into the world, as we've been saying in the past 3 episode threads (and in this thread as well). Since Sonia uttered that phrase ("The principles of this world will now end.") in 295, it's been pretty clear this spilling of evil is the beginning of the end for the old world order, which is precisely what Griffith, and by association, the God Hand, have been planning all along.

We just don't know what the specific implications are going to be yet.

I know. I'm just trying to point out that Griffith would not have left Ganishka alive if he wasn't in the palm of his hand.

MaN said:
May be its because Griffith needed a bigger spectacle to show the people "the Falcon of Light" of their dreams. Comparing the two times Griffith and Ganishka met, this certainly is more apocalyptic.

Well their previous encounter would not have been any less spectacular. A small army defeating the Kushan with the entire Holy See Alliance watching. And interestingly enough he could of killed Ganishka then without making his apostles transform.
 

Waterr

Today is a Good Day to die
Wow, a big monster mash! :D Thanks for the episode, felt like a life time for this episode. hahaha I can't wait to see what Griffith has in store for big man :ganishka:
 

SaiyajinNoOuji

I'm still better than you
Walter said:
I believe Saiya just meant Ganishka bypassed the normal transportation method with his own, reckless, passing on the left maneuver, and the cops might pull him over.

Well I suppose... I was just stating that if there was a choice between a full eclipse ceremony happening or something of that nature with the defeat of Ganishka... I think a vortex of souls would be more feasible.

I am pretty sure that this is going exactly how Idea and the God Hand planned. In anycase, it will still be interesting on how this plays out!
 
Ramen4ever said:
Well their previous encounter would not have been any less spectacular. A small army defeating the Kushan with the entire Holy See Alliance watching. And interestingly enough he could of killed Ganishka then without making his apostles transform.

I actually believe that this final encounter is more impressive than the Vritannis one.
One other thing to take in account is that Griffith is seeking for Midland kingdom so it makes more sense to defeat Ganishka in front of Midlanders near Wyndham than to win in a foreign country (even if allied with Midland). It seems safer, even for Griffith, to ensure his royalty in Midland and then "take care" of the other countries.

In all that mess, I wonder how Daiba will finish :daiba:
What will he do after the end of his Master??? I doubt he'll join Griffith...
 
xela26 said:
In all that mess, I wonder how Daiba will finish :daiba:
What will he do after the end of his Master??? I doubt he'll join Griffith...

I wonder if Guts requires another sorceror in his troupe :carcus:

Though, I think it might be likely he join Silat and gang...
 

einherjar

The Glorious Dead
xela26 said:
In all that mess, I wonder how Daiba will finish :daiba:
What will he do after the end of his Master??? I doubt he'll join Griffith...

zrexe said:
I wonder if Guts requires another sorceror in his troupe :carcus:

Though, I think it might be likely he join Silat and gang...

This is probably veering into a discussion for the "Speculation Nation," but even if Daiba joins with Silat, just how long will their group last? Give or take, I think Daiba is on par with Schierke, and Silat is probably an even match for Serpico... They need to find a "Guts" before it's all over for them! :guts:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
einherjar said:
I think Daiba is on par with Schierke

I disagree. While he may have some magical skill, most of what we've seen him use (especially in episode 271) was due to his possession of the kundalini. He appears to have minor control of the air around him when we see him deflecting Ganishka's fog of death in episode 292, but Schierke is Flora's disciple and on an entirely different level. She can summon beings like the Four Elemental Kings, the Lady of the Depths and the Blaze Rod, for example. If it came down to a battle of magic, I think Schierke would trounce him.
 
einherjar said:
They need to find a "Guts" before it's all over for them! :guts:

I'm not too privy on most of the episodes, but doesn't Silat have the Tapasa, warriors who are incredibly powerful? :daiba:

If Daiba doesn't die, I don't see why he couldn't claim Ganishka's empty throne, ruling the Kushan lands. Of course, this is assuming that Ganishka will be killed (HE WONT! :miura:). :ganishka:

Rhombaad said:
I disagree. While he may have some magical skill, most of what we've seen him use (especially in episode 271) was due to his possession of the kundalini. He appears to have minor control of the air around him when we see him deflecting Ganishka's fog of death in episode 292, but Schierke is Flora's disciple and on an entirely different level. She can summon beings like the Four Elemental Kings, the Lady of the Depths and the Blaze Rod, for example. If it came down to a battle of magic, I think Schierke would trounce him.

Using that kind of logic, wouldn't Schierke be more powerful than Ganishka and Flora too then?
 
Rhombaad said:

I apologize. I should've been more specific. The logic behind determining the power of a magic user in your statement appears to be along the lines of: (number of entities summoned) + (number of spells used in the story) = (magical strength of the magic user). In other words, you said Schierke is more powerful than Daiba because she has summoned more entities and used more spells than him. However, she has also done more in the story, at least what we've seen (and more specifically, what I know, lol), than Ganishka and Flora too. She has summoned far more entities and cast more spells than them. Therefore, according to the presented logic, Schierke is more powerful than Flora and Ganishka too.

I guess what I'm trying to say in a roundabout way is that we simply can't say Schierke is more powerful than Daiba because of what we, the readers, have seen. We don't know what he has done, what he will do, and what he's capable of doing.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
SaiyajinNoOuji said:
I think that a vortex of souls would come out... well depending how Ganishka is taken care of. If he is physically brought down and reverts to what ever his true form is, then I can see the Vortex of souls making a come back, which is more plausible since Ganishka went into the other layers with out anyone's permission (:idea:).

Honestly I believe Ganishka is beyond "reverting" here. He's not simply an apostle anymore, I mean just look at him! He's something else. All of what he's taken into himself could go back to the Vortex of Souls after his death, but somehow I have the feeling something else is going to happen that will bring about the sinister forebodings we've been told.

Ramen4ever said:
Somehow I doubt Ganishka actually went against the will of the Idea of Evil. Whats more likely is that he is just a pawn in the grand scheme of things.

Probably yeah.

Ramen4ever said:
And of more interest, why did Griffith push Ganishka to this extreme? He could of killed him effortlessly at their last meeting. The conflict would of HAVE been over instantly, with only clean up remaining in Wyndham. Griffith has repeatedly used the tactic of cutting of the head of an army.

There are several aspects to that question. If we are to believe what Griffith told Ganishka, he literally couldn't cut his head off at that point, because of Ganishka's ability to transform into mist. Now maybe he was lying and maybe he wasn't, in the end it's the same result. There's also the fact that Ganishka's army was still able to fight at that point. We're not talking of a few hundred soldiers here, and the Band of the Falcon would have had trouble handling all of it (the apostles would have made a mess in front of the Vritannis' citizens).

There's also the fact that had Griffith ended the threat right there and then, he'd have encountered more resistance from the nobles of his own countries as well as from the representatives of other nations to recognize him as a leader. They'd have had no more need for an alliance, and no need for his help either. Taking the lead of the allied armies and taking the fight to the kingdom he wishes to rule is to his advantage in many, many ways. I'm pretty sure I commented on this before. Anyway, lastly, his goal as the incarnated member of the God Hand has probably been to push Ganishka to such extremes all along.

MaN said:
May be its because Griffith needed a bigger spectacle to show the people "the Falcon of Light" of their dreams. Comparing the two times Griffith and Ganishka met, this certainly is more apocalyptic.

It's indeed more apocalyptic, in fact, it's more so than anything we've seen in the manga so far. However I don't think it's merely that. Clearly there's more at stake here than just impressing people that he's already gained to his cause.

SaiyajinNoOuji said:
Well I suppose... I was just stating that if there was a choice between a full eclipse ceremony happening or something of that nature with the defeat of Ganishka... I think a vortex of souls would be more feasible.

This talk of another Eclipse is ridiculous anyway...

xela26 said:
One other thing to take in account is that Griffith is seeking for Midland kingdom so it makes more sense to defeat Ganishka in front of Midlanders near Wyndham than to win in a foreign country (even if allied with Midland).

Yes, although it's debatable whether it was really needed or not. He's already got Charlotte and the blessing of the Pontiff among other things.

xela26 said:
In all that mess, I wonder how Daiba will finish :daiba:
What will he do after the end of his Master??? I doubt he'll join Griffith...

Hahaha, that's a good question. The old man's already outlived his usefulness as Ganishka's right hand man for the most part; since his defeat in Vritannis he's been little more than a commentator for us. Maybe he'll find his "second wind" after Ganishka's death, but he seems so dependent on him that I can't really imagine what he'd do.

El Gaucho Rojo said:
I'm not too privy on most of the episodes, but doesn't Silat have the Tapasa, warriors who are incredibly powerful?

He does, and Silat himself is a rather fearsome fighter. Not many people can catch arrows with their hands.

El Gaucho Rojo said:
If Daiba doesn't die, I don't see why he couldn't claim Ganishka's empty throne, ruling the Kushan lands.

Are you serious? Daiba doesn't really have the shoulders to be an emperor. Nor the power to back it up. I expect that after the war, the Kushan empire will split into various factions and clans, things basically returning as they were before an iron rule had united them.

El Gaucho Rojo said:
I guess what I'm trying to say in a roundabout way is that we simply can't say Schierke is more powerful than Daiba because of what we, the readers, have seen. We don't know what he has done, what he will do, and what he's capable of doing.

Schierke is more powerful than Daiba because she has a much better and much deeper understanding of how the world works, and by extension how magic works. She can call on higher astral beings, unlike him. Daiba didn't even understand what Schierke did when she summoned the Blaze Wheel, but she saw through all his tricks, she knew of the Kundalini and its powers, and had no trouble finding even Ganishka's weak point when he appeared.

What has Daiba shown that was magic of his own? Creating a flux of air, levitating and using telepathy. That's the extent of his own power as shown to us so far. His knowledge seems quite limited in spite of his old age, whereas Schierke as a kid has already defeated him in a duel of sorcery (the fire she summoned on the DS dispersed the Kundalini's water) while the environment was to Daiba's advantage. And through all this, Daiba has seemingly been relying on his master's powers (e.g. smoking his fog).

Knowledge and practice make up a large part of a magic user's power, and as Flora's apprentice, Schierke has had a lot of both. Don't forget that Ganishka, as an apostle, is an exceptional case.
 
Aazealh said:
Are you serious? Daiba doesn't really have the shoulders to be an emperor. Nor the power to back it up. I expect that after the war, the Kushan empire will split into various factions and clans, things basically returning as they were before an iron rule had united them.

Schierke is more powerful than Daiba because she has a much better and much deeper understanding of how the world works, and by extension how magic works. She can call on higher astral beings, unlike him. Daiba didn't even understand what Schierke did when she summoned the Blaze Wheel, but she saw through all his tricks, she knew of the Kundalini and its powers, and had no trouble finding even Ganishka's weak point when he appeared.

What has Daiba shown that was magic of his own? Creating a flux of air, levitating and using telepathy. That's the extent of his own power as shown to us so far. His knowledge seems quite limited in spite of his old age, whereas Schierke as a kid has already defeated him in a duel of sorcery (the fire she summoned on the DS dispersed the Kundalini's water) while the environment was to Daiba's advantage. And through all this, Daiba has seemingly been relying on his master's powers (e.g. smoking his fog).

Knowledge and practice make up a large part of a magic user's power, and as Flora's apprentice, Schierke has had a lot of both. Don't forget that Ganishka, as an apostle, is an exceptional case.

Ah, I see. What I know of Daiba is what I've read about him since I haven't actually seen him in action. I apologize for my ignorant assumptions. And thank you for correcting me. :)
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
El Gaucho Rojo said:
Ah, I see. What I know of Daiba is what I've read about him since I haven't actually seen him in action. I apologize for my ignorant assumptions. And thank you for correcting me. :)

No problem man. I'm sure you'll see things more clearly when you actually get to see those parts of the story. :serpico:
 
Aazealh said:
What has Daiba shown that was magic of his own? Creating a flux of air or water. That's the extent of his own power as shown to us so far. His knowledge seems quite limited in spite of his old age ....
And through all this, Daiba has seemingly been relying on his master's powers (e.g. smoking his fog).

And what about the "Reincarnator" ?? Daiba qualified it as the grand work of his life.
I'm not sure, but even if he had less knowledge than Schierke, he was still able to construct this "device"... showing he knows little things about the layers of the world...

To get back to the episode, I wonder how the big Ganishka will react after the destruction of its minions (if he can notice/ feel their presence) :ganishka:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
xela26 said:
And what about the "Reincarnator" ?? Daiba qualified it as the grand work of his life.
I'm not sure, but even if he had less knowledge than Schierke, he was still able to construct this "device"... showing he knows little things about the layers of the world...

Oh indeed, he "built" that thing and it shows that he's well above the average caster that Ganishka employs (those old men in robes). He's Ganishka's right hand man after all. Yet, how much was done through Ganishka's power and knowledge? Somehow I doubt Daiba captured all those apostles by himself. And what is it but a bunch of apostles sewn together? It's an accomplishment in its own right, but it's easy to see that most of his experience and knowledge relates to apostles and the nature of their power. I would like to see how many experiments it took to get to that result though. :void:

Damn, all this talk makes me wish we'd see a flashback of Ganishka's rise to power.

xela26 said:
To get back to the episode, I wonder how the big Ganishka will react after the destruction of its minions (if he can notice/ feel their presence) :ganishka:

I'm not sure he'll notice it at all.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
El Gaucho Rojo said:
I apologize. I should've been more specific. The logic behind determining the power of a magic user in your statement appears to be along the lines of: (number of entities summoned) + (number of spells used in the story) = (magical strength of the magic user).  In other words, you said Schierke is more powerful than Daiba because she has summoned more entities and used more spells than him.  However, she has also done more in the story, at least what we've seen (and more specifically, what I know, lol), than Ganishka and Flora too.  She has summoned far more entities and cast more spells than them.  Therefore, according to the presented logic, Schierke is more powerful than Flora and Ganishka too.

I guess what I'm trying to say in a roundabout way is that we simply can't say Schierke is more powerful than Daiba because of what we, the readers, have seen.  We don't know what he has done, what he will do, and what he's capable of doing.

Okay, now I get what you're saying.  I think you misunderstood me.  I wasn't saying that the number of things Schierke can summon qualifies her as a more powerful magic user, just the fact that she can summon beings like that. Aazealh explained it better anyway, hehe.
 

Jarome

The Destroyer Of Worlds
Walter said:
I believe Saiya just meant Ganishka bypassed the normal transportation method with his own, reckless, passing on the left maneuver, and the cops might pull him over.
To allow Ganishka to bring this massive swell of evil into the world, as we've been saying in the past 3 episode threads (and in this thread as well). Since Sonia uttered that phrase ("The principles of this world will now end.") in 295, it's been pretty clear this spilling of evil is the beginning of the end for the old world order, which is precisely what Griffith, and by association, the God Hand, have been planning all along.

We just don't know what the specific implications are going to be yet.

Yes, this was told in the past episodes but I'm still wondering why Griffith is using Ganishka to bring toward darkness into Midland? I mean he's the God Hand leader, isn't that something he could do by himself? Yes, he needs to point the evil elsewhere and to prove to everyone that he is Midland's savior but still so I'm wondering why he hasn't killed Ganishkan when he had the opportunity.

On another note, as it even been implied how Sonia got her foresight powers? Do y'all believe the IoE could be manipulating her visions as well? I think I must read the episodes that brought Sonia in the story again I guess... :casca:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Jarome said:
Yes, this was told in the past episodes but I'm still wondering why Griffith is using Ganishka to bring toward darkness into Midland? I mean he's the God Hand leader, isn't that something he could do by himself? Yes, he needs to point the evil elsewhere and to prove to everyone that he is Midland's savior but still so I'm wondering why he hasn't killed Ganishkan when he had the opportunity.

I believe Griffith didn't kill Ganishka at Vritannis because he needed him to go through this transformation. Based on what Sonia said, Ganishka's downfall will more than likely bring about a massive change to the world. There's even been speculation that his defeat could result in the actual merging of the layers of the world. We'll just have to wait and see.

As far as Griffith being the leader of the God Hand, I believe they work more as a team rather than having one preside over the five of them. If they did have a leader, I think it would be Void, since he's responsible for the actual branding of the sacrifices and appears to lead the Occultation ceremony where Griffith becomes Femto.
 
^
This entire little discussion seems to be missing the point. Yes Griffith most likely kept Ganishka alive so he could do his transformation. Which would imply that Griffith knows the whole story. And that would mean that no matter what Ganishka does. He's still in the palm of Griffith's hand. So although Ganishka may have done something that would normally be considered as betrayal, it's actually all just part of the plan. .. Were's a Joker smiley when you need one.

As for the discussion about Daiba and Schierke. We don't know the extent of Daiba's abilities. He was able to recognize Guts' armor instantly. He was able to protect himself from Ganishka's acid fog. And also of importance is how quickly he was able to cast some kind of protective barrier. He is old and has far more experience to rely on than Schierke. However I don't think the two can be compared. They use different styles of magic. Imo, they are both strong magic users. But even that's speculation as we haven't seen what the magic users in Elfhelm are capable of.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Jarome said:
Yes, this was told in the past episodes but I'm still wondering why Griffith is using Ganishka to bring toward darkness into Midland? I mean he's the God Hand leader, isn't that something he could do by himself?

He's not the leader of the God Hand. And well, apparently no, it's not something he can do just by himself.

Jarome said:
On another note, as it even been implied how Sonia got her foresight powers? Do y'all believe the IoE could be manipulating her visions as well?

There's no real information about how she got her powers. Now, it might a bit presumptuous to relate them directly to the Idea of Evil. It's possible that she's influenced (probable in fact), but really, we don't know enough about it to be able to tell.

Ramen4ever said:
This entire little discussion seems to be missing the point. Yes Griffith most likely kept Ganishka alive so he could do his transformation. Which would imply that Griffith knows the whole story. And that would mean that no matter what Ganishka does. He's still in the palm of Griffith's hand. So although Ganishka may have done something that would normally be considered as betrayal, it's actually all just part of the plan. .. Were's a Joker smiley when you need one.

Ganishka can be working to the benefit of the God Hand and the Idea of Evil without necessarily being "in the palm of Griffith's hand". He's opposing him at the very least, so even if that's what Griffith wanted all along, he's more to him than just a pawn on a chessboard.

That Griffith dominates him is only the result of him having been the designated winner from the start, but there are higher forces at work here than simply Griffith and Ganishka, do you see what I mean? It would be misrepresenting the situation to say that Griffith is the one that's had everything planned from the beginning when clearly most of the things that led to the current events were set in motion long ago, probably before he was even born. Don't forget that Griffith is playing the role he was assigned just like Ganishka is.

Ramen4ever said:
As for the discussion about Daiba and Schierke. We don't know the extent of Daiba's abilities.

Don't we? What more is there for him to show? He gave all he had in his fight against Guts' group, and he lost. The Kundalini, his main source of power, was killed and he barely escaped with his life. He's done nothing since then.

Ramen4ever said:
He was able to recognize Guts' armor instantly. He was able to protect himself from Ganishka's acid fog. And also of importance is how quickly he was able to cast some kind of protective barrier.

Actually it's the Od coming from it that he recognized, if we want to be exact. And he only deflected the fog using a flux of air to make it spiral around him. Nothing special here. I don't know what protective barrier you're talking about though.

Ramen4ever said:
He is old and has far more experience to rely on than Schierke. However I don't think the two can be compared. They use different styles of magic. Imo, they are both strong magic users.

Really, I can't understand why you guys give him so much credit. He's more like a mad scientist knowing a few tricks than a full fledged magic user to me. So connected to Ganishka that Guts could feel it through the Brand. And I do think we can compare him to Schierke, but not to his advantage.
 
Aazealh said:
Don't we? What more is there for him to show? He gave all he had in his fight against Guts' group, and he lost. The Kundalini, his main source of power, was killed. He's done nothing since then.

I disagree, he was stopped by Ganishka with a shock or two. Do we really know for certain that he's done? That he's got nothing left up his sleeve? Or that he has no magic apart from what the Kundalini had to offer?

Aazealh said:
Actually it's the Od coming from it that he recognized, if we want to be exact. And he only deflected the fog using a flux of air to make it spiral around him. Nothing special here. I don't know what protective barrier you're talking about though.

Doesn't really change the point that he recognized it. As for the barrier.. well if its a flux of air then so be it. The point of that is that he was able to survive (without using methods like the people of Wyndham) while the others died.

Aazealh said:
Really, I can't understand why you guys give him so much credit. He's more like a mad scientist knowing a few tricks than a full fledged magic user.

Would Ganishka really have made him his right hand man if the guy was completely inept with magic? As you said, he recognized the Od coming from the Berserk's armor. He also realized and successfully protected himself from Ganishka's acid fog. And finally, he had (at least a basic) understanding of what Ganishka had done after he came out of the Daka Factory. A simple mad scientist with a few tricks? Daiba has to have at least a basic understanding of magic.

I would prefer to wait and see what Daiba is capable of before we fully dismiss his abilities. And for that we have to see whether or not he will even survive this battle.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Ramen4ever said:
I disagree, he was stopped by Ganishka with a shock or two. Do we really know for certain that he's done? That he's got nothing left up his sleeve? Or that he has no magic apart from what the Kundalini had to offer?

He was talking about gathering the remaining Pishacha when Ganishka zapped him. That was his desperate last resort after he'd lost the best part of his troops. I think he earned the "imbecile" he was called by his master at that time.

Ramen4ever said:
Would Ganishka really have made him his right hand man if the guy was completely inept with magic? As you said, he recognized the Od coming from the Berserk's armor. He also realized and successfully protected himself from Ganishka's acid fog. And finally, he had (at least a basic) understanding of what Ganishka had done after he came out of the Daka Factory. A simple mad scientist with a few tricks? Daiba has to have at least a basic understanding of magic.

He's not completely inept, but he's lacking in many ways in comparison to Schierke. His knowledge of magic is clearly limited at times. I hope you realize that what you cite here is not very impressive compared to other feats we've seen. And he said himself that he has spent all his life creating the Daka factory, which is why I see him more as the experiment-making type than anything else. From what's in the manga it's easy to see that he's specialized in making and handling familiars, and those were created using Ganishka's power. We'll see if his time to shine comes again in the future, but in any case I doubt he'll ever be Schierke's equal. He's crafty, but she's some sort of prodigy when it comes to magic.

That being said, I still like the old man and I wouldn't mind seeing more of him in action (my true wish is to see more creatures like the Kundalini though). :guts:
 
On the "why didn't Griffith kill Ganishka earlier?" subject, i think this transformation is the means of transportation of another layer to the human world.
It was all part of the grand scheme, and obviously taken in account by Griffith. It has been said in previous episodes that there would hell on earth.
I think Aaz has mentioned this before.

Perhaps Griffith has the Messias Complex and really, really wants to save everyone after all hell has broken loose, since he failed his goals while he was still human.. We can even speculate that he'll kill off all the apostles that befriend him (similar to the BoH's sacrifice). :griff:

Would that be coherent? Didn't SK told Guts that time isn't a cycle? (or something like that, i can't really remember).
 
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