[DreamSword]

Episode 13: Distant Memories

ROLLING MY EYES. STILL.

I'm definitely starting to feel the definition of insanity when it comes to these write-ups. I feel like I'm just gonna be repeating the same thing over and over.

This episode deals with Joseph's' backstory, only we kinda never get a proper explanation on what exactly his deal is, nor is it in any way any sort of proper payoff. "Too little too late" is a phrase I'm feeling deja vu over here.

The backstory proper that we're provided is essentially exactly what you'd expect from a show like this. Joseph grew up on orphan who was mistreated by society at large for being a foreigner, and everything good in his life is taken away via that prejudice, including having to take the blame for a crime.

The lead-in is flawed right off the bat though, because Joseph is dumping his life story off on Amanda, and with essentially no provocation to boot. Heck, instead of at all demanding any answers about say, the Amalgams, Wolf, Malek, any of that, Amanda just kinda sits there and listens to him talk about his childhood as if that's what she pursued him for(and it wasn't).

Like, I get that this is done for the sake of the audience and giving them an idea of the type of person Joseph is(he's totally super nice guys you just never noticed!), but in terms of anything in-universe, especially concerning Amanda, he just kinda starts going off for no reason. Like, no joke as soon as Joseph said "And that's how Xargin and I first met" I straight up expected Amanda to ask "...Who?" because her and Xargin have never met.

Maybe if Joseph's' character had any at all proper mystique to him(Heero Yuy he ain't), or if we'd not seen him be a hypocrite multiple times up to now, this episode would have more impact. I will admit though, it was nice to see why he's obsessed with making carvings of the Virgin Mary, atleast. And I guess they felt the need to make his backstory incredibly tragic as a way to justify why he's cold to emotion? Personally I feel like they went way overboard with it, especially given a character I'm pretty numb to.

So yeah, this episode is just more of the show being misery porn. And hey if that's your thing, great. But for me, especially for a show where none of the characters I gave a crap about are left, I just find it trite.