Forum - View topicEpisode Review: Aldnoah.Zero
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Izanagi009
 Posts: 464 Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
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After watching the last episode, I came to a conclusion I didn't think was possible.
Aldnoah might actually be getting good. The first season and it's issues still weigh against it but the conflict between Slaine's desire for conquest and desire to be with Asseylum is very clear and could lead to dramatic story turns |
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Rogueywon
Posts: 250 |
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Same for me. I was really down on the first few episodes of Season 2. It felt like they'd done what happened with Code Geass Season 2 - pressed the big button marked "plot reset" so they could run the same story and character arcs over again. But things are getting interesting again now. The train might actually return to the rails. It helps that they're doing a good job on Slaine's character. The collaborator/quisling type is a very hard one to do right. For me, the biggest problem with Geass (a show this often puts me in mind of) was the fact that I couldn't see Suzaku as anything other than a despicable traitor. They wanted us to sympathise with him, but I couldn't - I just wanted him dead and it got to the point where that was distracting me from everything else going on in the show. Slaine's different because we're clearly supposed to find him complicated. He has admirable traits - but also some frankly scary ones. It also helps that in both Slaine's case and Inaho's, we don't really get access to their internal monologue, which keeps them both fairly inscrutable. I've seen a couple of shows do that trick recently - it's funny how much we get used to hearing internal monologue for protagonists in anime and how interesting it gets when it's taken away. |
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Sven Viking
Posts: 1038 |
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I agree, though I've seen other people saying the exact opposite. Can't please everyone I guess. |
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TD912
 Posts: 274 |
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I'll have to agree with the previous few comments. While the first season was kinda sloppy with the constant death and revival of characters, and Inaho being the invincible "deus ex machina" solution to everything, this second season is significantly better. I have no idea how Slaine is going to pull off this crazy juggling act between the two princesses and all the knights and all the Earth defense forces including Inaho, but the writing has gotten significantly better over the past few eps.
I'm also wondering what's going to happen with that knight that Inaho released a few eps back... |
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_Cyphon_
 Posts: 996 |
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When Slaine said, "There's no going back", I instantly have a flashback to when Lelouche said that after Euphy went crazy in Code Geass. That's how you know that things are not going to be ending well for poor Slaine.
As for the previous few comments, my opinion to the answer would be a yes and a no. The no inner dialogue thing works well for this season because it's more towards actual war and battle strategies, whereas the first season was more to stop the war. When you have an actual need to keep stuff from your viewers to surprise them with twists, this works, but in first season there really was no reason to keep stuff from the viewers, as nothing too complicated was ever involved. Season 1 was very frustrating because of that, but yes, it does seem that Aldnoah.Zero is growing better with Season 2. |
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Sven Viking
Posts: 1038 |
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It allowed for things like Inaho betraying Slaine to come as a surprise (though obviously not everyone agrees on that being a good thing), as well as Inaho's mastermind powers themselves at the start of the series, some of Slaine's actions etc. Not to you or anyone in particular: Basically I've gone through the series not assuming every presently-unexplained aspect is a plot hole but rather a mystery to be expained later. Gen Urobuchi projects commonly work that way, after all. I've enjoyed it a lot more that way, and only been disappointed occasionally. While there are certainly genuine flaws in the series, and I understand that some of them (like Inaho's unrealistic invincibility up to this point or the writers being mean to Slaine) are dealbreakers for some people, I think a number of the flaws people find could be found in most complex anime if you hated it strongly enough. 
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jree78
Posts: 123 |
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He didn't betray Slaine, Slaine betrayed him Slaine shot first go back and look Slaine turned his wing guns towards Inaho there was a two round burst from the wing guns first than Inaho fired and brought down Slaine it's slaines fault he's in this situation. |
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_Cyphon_
Posts: 996 |
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1. This has already been answered by someone else. 2. Not matter how you see it, Inaho was the one who first provoked him by saying "So what if we are planning to exploit the princess?". Besides, Inaho shot his bullet so fast after Slaine shot his, it clearly meant he had the intention of shooting before Slaine's bullet. Seriously, there was like a 0.4 second delay between the two bullets, that was all. |
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jree78
Posts: 123 |
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1. Yes he was going to use the princess to stop the war kinda obvious are you saying Slaine never wanted to stop the war from the beginning. Slaine saw Inaho and the princess work together on the bridge so she wasn't in chains or a prisoner, she seemed willing to be exploited. 2. Slaine turned his guns toward Inaho while Slaine was flying out to sea of course he would have his gun ready, he still didn't fire first though he was waiting for an answer and why should he trust Slaine at all. Slaine became agitated after he could not answer Inaho's question. 3. Use the stopwatch on the iPhone or any other phone and say "1 one thousand" as fast as you can, I could say it in .30 seconds same thing with pulling as if a trigger it's around .3 seconds so it's not inconceivable that he waited and fired quickly. That's with pushing the button at the same time so assume that I was kind of slow, I'll have to do it more than the 5 or 6 times I did it, maybe 20-30 more times I may get faster at it. |
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_Cyphon_
Posts: 996 |
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@jree78
1. I'm really curious to know what your definition of exploited is, because by the definition of Dictionary.com, exploited means, "to use selfishly for one's own ends". There is a line between "use" and "exploit", mister. Willing to cooperate does not mean willing to be exploited. 2. Inaho's question was rhetorical if I'm not mistaken. Look it up if you don't know what it means. He was not looking to Slaine for answer, it was more of a provocative statement. Though Slaine had shot Inaho's Kataphrakt, we were shown no sign of damage to it, while Inaho crashed Slaine's ship into the sea. It is logical to remain suspicious of enemy vessels helping your own forces, but shooting Slaine's ship down because "he couldn't be trusted" is an illogical explanation. Not only did Slaine save the entire crew from being killed, he helped in taking out the Martian Kataphrakt that was the enemy. Afterward he even showed signs that he was loyal to the princess. Capturing him alive, interrogating him, and have the princess indentify him would have been much more logical either way. 3. I don't know what you're trying to prove here but I'm guessing its that firing 0.4 seconds later is possible when shot first. It is, but only when you're anticipating it. If Inaho had not intentionally wanted to fire, it would have taken him time to adjust. And now I have just wasted the last 15 minutes writing this post. It is pretty clear to me that you support Inaho more than you do Slaine, which is fine, since everyone has different opinions. |
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Rogueywon
Posts: 250 |
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I'm looking at the posts above and thinking "This is why it's great that this show doesn't give us internal monologues". Because you can actually have proper disagreements about characters' motives. And with Inaho and Slaine, this show has given us two of the most inscrutable main characters in recent memory.
There are two shows this season playing "no internal monologues" to great effect; this and Cross Ange. Both of them have protagonists who are genuinely hard to predict and fall outside of the normal "viewer substitute" model that usually goes with action shows. Not to say that internal monologues are bad, per se. Parasyte uses them to good effect, as does Shigatsu. In fact, neither show would work if we didn't have a lot of visibility of major characters' thoughts. But Aldnoah is definitely in the camp of "show don't tell" and that's a big part of why, on balance, I like it. |
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jree78
Posts: 123 |
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I will agree we disagree, arguing this gave me a headache. I will admit i'm biased, Slaine is a great character to make me this incredibly pissed off is impressive. |
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_Cyphon_
Posts: 996 |
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As to Inaho as well. I have not thought this much about a character for quite a while. Things may be looking up for Aldnoah.Zero. |
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Calsolum
 Posts: 898 |
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as im watching slane the phrase "things have come full circle" comes to mind. he's become even more of a 'monster' than Saazbaum ever was or at least from what we've been shown of him. I like than his actions are clearly taking its toll on him and i hope he doesnt break at the 'wrong' time but clearly things will not end favorably for him if not solely because he is Inaho's enemy.
As Asseylum was waking up i just thought the first thing shed say was Inaho and thatd be the start of slanes despair, but im glad i was wrong. if there is anyone thatd die for inaho to show some more emotion i think it be inko. She reminds me of shirley alot and her discovery that Inaho helped that Martian escape is just like spoiler[when shirley discovered that Lelouch was zero. Sadly she discovered something she shouldnt have and things ended badly for her] on a side note i forgot to make this post yesterday and it seems a wall of text appeared 
interesting discussion i could get used to more anime like this that spark a real meaningful discussion between character motives |
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LavenderMintRose
 Posts: 168 |
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But good character writing isn't just about motivations. People aren't machines that just have motivations and then can automatically figure out what to do to move towards their goals. People have conflicting motivations. People have beliefs that hold them back (e.g. believing something is impossible, when it is possible, or vice versa). People have emotional reactions to situations, that make bad ideas look like good ideas. People listen to people they shouldn't listen to, or ignore people they should listen to. People feel afraid, and that influences how they act. People get themselves into fierce cycles of denial, which can make them act in ways that are contrary to what they say they want to do. Sometimes, that can make them look like "despicable traitors," if you're not taking all of that into account, but that's how human beings work.
These characters are very shallow. They've had barely any real development in the series thus far. I don't see any internal conflict (besides the really basic, sloppily thrown in stuff with Rayet). Maybe a little bit with Edelrittuo. And no, finding the willpower to push on down a path, by itself, is not internal conflict. Making an impulsive emotional action is not character development. I dunno, it's sort of sad to see what passes for good writing and good characters. This is the kind of show that can't get by on flimsy characters and, like the reviewer says, it probably won't be remembered as a great series (if it had some painfully obvious symbolism and trippier visuals, maybe, because that passes for quality in anime, but I digress). |
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