The Holy Grail of Eris

Episode 10

First, an apology – I used the wrong name in my review last week. Everyone who was rightfully confused (or annoyed) that I said “Deborah” was correct; Deborah, as this week proves once again, does not deserve our pity. It was Aisha I meant to include in the list of women destroyed by politics – Aisha, whose mental illness was used against her. No more writing reviews after a long trip for me!

Aisha might not be as immediately sympathetic as Scarlett and Lily, but she is an indication of the callousness of high society. It's a group that murdered a teenager to prevent a war that looks like it's going to happen anyway, and that is primed to throw a second teen girl under the same axe once again. It's the other side who's ready to force Constance's execution, but that's just because they've learned from Duke Castiel's playbook: girls are expendable, and now that Connie has voluntarily lied about her role in Ulysses' kidnapping and landed in jail, they're willing to make her pay the price for revealing their name. Daeg Gallus is ready to prove themselves to be the red sky at dawning that sailors are warned about.

What's more remarkable is how strong Constance has grown. While the anime condenses a lot of the plot (the books are remarkably dense), it's still clear that learning about the mistakes and tragedies of ten years ago has made Connie want to stop the cycle. It's not just about Scarlett anymore: it's about Randolph, whose marriage to Lily Orlamunde made him feel unlovable and lonely. It's about Ulysses, caught up in a plot set in motion before he was born, and that he doesn't understand. It's about Duke Castiel, mourning the daughter he had executed for what turned out to be no reason at all, and Enrique, whose happiness was sacrificed for bad politics. Constance may be just one person, but she's determined to end the tragedies that have been playing out for a decade, and that makes her stronger than anyone who has come before her.

Connie's strength stands out in sharp contrast to the actions of most other people. While I wouldn't blame Randolph for anything that happened (he was just a teenager when it hit the fan ten years ago, after all), his position now makes it striking how affected he was by the whole situation. He clearly doesn't want to end his engagement to Constance when he announces that he will, and his willingness to put himself in danger to make way for her escape isn't just the act of a police officer; it's him doing something for the person he cares about. The shock at realizing that she cares about him, too, is writ large during their romantic scene, because it appears to have genuinely never occurred to him that he was worth loving. His upset at her sacrificing her freedom for his speaks to how much he cares, but also how in awe of her he is – when he says that he'll propose again before she can once she's free, he's voicing his admiration of her determination and power – a power Constance has learned that she must use, since Scarlett's submission to her fate didn't do anything but delay the inevitable, at the cost of her own life.

I'm not casting aspersions on Scarlett or suggesting that she was a passive player in her own death. There probably wasn't much, if anything, that she could do, and laughing in the face of death, going to it metaphorically singing, was the only way she could hold on to her pride and sense of self. It's more that Connie has seen what happens when you just let history take its course – you become an Aisha or a Scarlett or a Lily, or maybe a Pamela, whose efforts to claw her way back up make her at least a bit of a less political parallel to Cecilia. When appearances become everything, you lose what's important, and Constance has ample evidence that that's not worth it.

We're coming close to the end of the story now. Ulysses and maybe Lucia are in the hands of Daeg Gallus, Enrique has been poisoned by Cecilia (something I suspect he knew was coming; he clearly feels the weight of the past), and Constance's life is in danger. The question is how many people have learned that it was never worth a teen girl's life to merely delay an undesirable political situation – and whether or not they can do anything to make sure that history, that greatest of recyclers, doesn't do the same thing again.

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The Holy Grail of Eris is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.