[DreamSword]

Episode 19: Quondam Affections

This episode has two plots. One being far more interesting than the other.

Unfortunately, the more interesting one is the one less focused on, while the boring and trite one take center stage.

In Plot A we have Snow, who just so happens to be an Amalgam that Joseph created years ago. She also just so happens to be in full control of herself. And she just so happens to know how to get Joseph to regain his humanity.

Literally her entire purpose is to get introduced, then play sacrificial lamb so that Joseph regains his mindset by somehow drawing a parallel between her and the Priest who raised him. Meanwhile, there's literally no reason none of this could've been done by Amanda, but I guess the writers felt obligated to kill someone.

In other words, the typical trite storytelling I've come to expect from Blassreiter.

Meanwhile in the far more interesting Plot B, Hermann and Amanda rush off to finish things with Wolf, but little do they know that Wolf now has the corpse of Al fully under his control. In the end though, Al manages to regain his senses and helps to finish Wolf off, then wandering off to die in peace. I'm giving proper credit here, that entire sequence was pretty solidly done.

Though I do wonder how the heck the Japanese on Amanda's' Paladin is what got Al to come to his senses. It's never said that Al is Japanese, nor that he can read it. But screw it, I'll take what I can get at this point. The atmosphere was also handled pretty properly here too, and it was nice to see some actual camaraderie between some of the characters for a change. Just such a shame that this seems to be the part the episode is way less focused on.

It's great how Blassreiter is now so focused on death as drama, that they now literally introduce characters with their sole purpose in life being to get killed off. What a great way to get me to care about the people involved in this plotline. Top notch. A+. Literally no other way this story could've been handled.

Uuugh.