Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11431 |
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Is it just me or is Garter a parody on Trump? The dead cat on his head is the least of the resemblance.
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SteelBlaidd
Posts: 25 |
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Cid's off the cuff plan for a hostile takeover of the organization everyone else believes he is already the head of is the epitome of his relational myopia.
He is so invested in the self-conscious creation of his personas as the Eminence in Shadow that he never really listens too the people in his life. He is as aware as we are of the "future knowledge will make you rich" isekai tropes as we are but not that he doesn't have the lobes as a Ferengi would say. His envy is fueled in part by confusing the tribute he is due as the Master of Shadow Garden with handouts from friends who made it big given in pity. |
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Thesarum
Posts: 423 |
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Pretty sure he's going to fail in a way that is hugely beneficial to Mitsugoshi, and earn even more respect/adoration from Shadow Garden. And he'll shrug that failure off and adlib it into being his plan all along. Even if he did succeed in dismantling both retain organisations and building something new, I somehow feel he'd be unable to appreciate it, or regard himself as its head. After all, he can't quite see himself as the head of Shadow Garden either (more accurately, he can't see Shadow Garden as something that is real). His world lacks any sort of permanence, it's a series of unconnected fantasies. He "knows" it's all in his head. It's kinda sad for him really, nothing he does is real, so nothing that is real is something he's done. He's unable to ever achieve anything more than momentary satisfaction, because despite desperately wanting to be someone of significance in the world, he can't process the world as something he is actually part of, and all of his achievements turn to smoke in his mind the moment he looks away. (He does also seem to have genuine memory issues, possibly truck head trauma related) |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4104 |
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The reviewer missed a few key plot points in the ongoing story;
1 Mitsugoshi is accepting all currency from the corporations, counterfeit or otherwise, exchanging it for their own. 2 The corporations, being run by the Cult of Diablos, are doing their own counterfeit scheme, the SAME counterfeit scheme Shadow is doing. 3 Shadow can barely determine which bills are counterfeit by how well the counterfeits are compared to the originals, the cult doesn't have a clue which fakes are the real fakes or their fakes while Shadow Garden is the only one who fully knows which are which.... yet they're the only one who don't care. It's almost like the t-shirt comparison at the start of the arc was a teaser for what's about to happen and how quality and brand confidence will win out. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11851 |
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Truly Gamma's finest hour. And Suzuko Mimori just killed it. Also Alpha's rare comedic side.
This season has definitely been missing Alexia and her dynamic with Cid. These two still have some great chemistry, and Alexia is always a joy to watch. Glad she's adjusting better than her sister. Cid is living it up as John Smith, with his BSing surprisingly working out in his favor...but that's nothing new for him. Poor Rose. She's not gelling with her team, she keeps screwing up on missions, she gets thrown out a moving train by her ex-boyfriend (not that she knows about that) and can't seem to move forward despite everything she's lost and done. |
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beaverusiv
Posts: 13 |
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I loved the scene with Alexia, they definitely do have such good chemistry. I also like that Alexia is still hanging out with Cid even though he rejected her (not taking no for an answer), and how it mirrored a scene in season 1 when they were fake dating (she's trying to relive it?)
I'm enjoying this season, but I still feel like it's all build-up, and have a suspicion the next few eps will carry on in fashion before everything is in place |
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Izanagi009
 Posts: 464 Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
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Okay, Minor thing to point out about Cid's economic plot but it seems rooted in a poor understanding of how currency works. (Note, i only know some of this stuff after looking into monetary theory due to videos on crypto and economics)
Cid's description of gold and paper currency derives it's theory from the old gold standard where bills were backed by the physical value of a good, in this case, Gold. However, pretty all economies these days have abandoned the gold standard during the 1930s and the great depression era and moved toward the fiat currency system which is currency not tied to the value of a physical good but the promise and creditworthiness of the government. This system is paradoxically more stable and trustworthy than the gold standard as not only can you avoid inflation by over printing but it also is not dependent on scarcity which can fluctuate without warning. So what i'm getting here from the plot is that Cid wants to devalue Mitsugoshi's currrency by inflating it and securing Yukime's power by using gold standard but this feels backwards, like a regression toward barter. Also, in theory, at some bloody point, if Mitsugoshi's perceived value goes up, the bills they have could be worth something to a group of people and thus fiat currency oh and also the usual issue of Cid's dissociative psychopathy that feels like narratively it's trying to have it's cake and eat it with him being both punching bag and reverent object. this is probably the bigger issue |
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minamikaze
Posts: 222 |
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The gold standard doesn't apply here - that only applied to national currencies. These are essentially commercial bank notes, which historically, commercial banks used to be able to issue. A commercial bank note's only worth was based on the fact that it was redeemable for actual currency at the bank. It was also not based on the overall value of the issuer like stock is. |
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Thesarum
Posts: 423 |
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Cid has always been a blind dumbass. Distant and alone because he believes without any room for doubt that alone is all he will ever be... but also because it's what he wants to be. He thinks distance and aloofness are cool.
But he's never so directly hurt the girls before. He causes pain and distress on the regular, but for the most part it's neither his aim nor is he really aware. It's primarily done in ignorance. But here he is witness to it, and every action he takes makes it worse. And at some level at least he knows it. He's always been a terrible and fundamentally broken person, but this really is a new low. Alpha and Shadow Garden don't deserve this. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2344 |
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Yeah, it was pretty upsetting to watch. I hope the narrative has the guts to give him some kind of comeuppance -- not necessarily physical, but some kind of psychological kick to help him realize he did actual harm to people he cares about would be nice.
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Covnam
 Posts: 3713 |
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Episode looked great this week, but you can't help but feel bad for Shadow Garden here (more so than usual).
You'd think Cid would be better about lying, but he really can't handle much when he's put on the spot. He could have even just said he sent Delta on a secret mission and left it there and that would have resolved that whole issue with far less blow back. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11851 |
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It's funny how Cid is probably the most straightforward with Delta compared to all the girls in his life, even if it's because she's the most simpleminded. Also the camera sure loves it's Delta angles.
Poor Alpha. Gave her heart away to a guy who just loves playing around with everything. Always got to throw in some surprisingly tragic and poignant backstories in-between all the absurdity. Alexia doing what Iris should've been doing this whole time. What a change between the sisters. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2018 |
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Gold, currency or credit are all ultimately representative units of human labor.
Gold was very stable and still is. It was just inconvenient to carry around. Currency, whether certificates for gold or other metals or goods or credit issued by government are based on trust. BSing your currency leads to mistrust, as does extending credit too far. Eventually reality catches up when things dont add up and people flee using your currency, causing a crash in demand. Therefore poverty for those left holding it via hyperinflation or simply no demand. Either way, currency is either backed up by labor (voluntary or forced) or by the threat of government violence. Cid's vague reassurances that things will work out in the end is what generally happens, hence the ongoing joke. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4388 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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its this arc that is the primary reason why cid needs to have a ken kanaki moment! aka getting his ass handed to him and have his entire memories and personality as minoru completely erased! if this continues, he could end up becoming another lelouch ot worse. light yagami! |
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Thesarum
Posts: 423 |
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Of course, it probably will work out - either by coincidence or design this reality beds to Cid's will. So it'll broadly work out and it's unlikely he'll actually have to face the consequences of his actions. Not that he's capable of doing so. There will be no reckoning. No cost to be paid. The Eminence in Shadow by definition has no weaknesses, and therefore can never be wrong even in retrospect. Cid absolutely cannot be humbled before the girls he can't quite recognise as real people. It's all part of the joke, but it also kinda sucks. Power fantasy (or satire of a power fantasy) or not, characters being immune to consequence, especially for this sort of betrayal, offends a deeply ingrained sense of justice and is therefore unsatisfying. Mind you, I'll be back next episode to laugh at how much of an idiot he is. Anime is over-populated with "dumb-but-lucky" protagonists, and Cid is their king. |
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