Everyone faces off against Merkadis now that it has grown in power.

Impressions:

This episode was pretty good. They spent a lot more time dealing with Merkadis in the anime then they did in the game, which I actually rather like. Before, it’s a user controlled fight of course, as it is a game, but it’s nothing this complex. He never even grew to this giant size in the game. I don’t’ really think it hurts the story much and the fight was much more desperate and serious this time around, so I think it was a pretty good one. They handled it well, they seemed to be in a serious situation with Arawn almost getting killed by the electrum, and even added in a bit about Riannon figuring out her power, which wasn’t in the game either. Overall it was pretty good I thought.

I thought the little epilogue they had about Arthur becoming the king and all was pretty good. Although I do miss the joke they had at the end of the game, which they semi showed here. Octavia is telling the little kids how you shouldn’t use a sword against friends…unless they try and draw stupid face paint on you while you’re sleeping so you’ll finally go hunting with them. Then they of course show Morgan with a giant lump on her head.

Final Words:

Overall, this has been an interesting experience for me. The entire time I didn’t really view this as an anime, but was judging it simply on how well it held up to the game. On one hand, that was fun to do. It was fun to compare the two versions, find differences, know what was going to happen even if it was happening in a different way, it was interesting. However on the other hand I realize that I never really gave this anime a chance. It was never going to live up to the game and fell short in that aspect, so it did seem like the anime in general was quite lacking. It’s unavoidable really. However there is a general consensus that the game versions of adapted anime are far better and I have to agree, so if I had to choose between which one to have a more enjoyable experience out of, by seeing or playing it first, I would choose to go with the game. I think you just have to simply keep an open mind about the anime adaption.

Overall it wasn’t horrible. They actually didn’t change a lot of stuff in the anime. Sure there were a couple of things, they really changed up how they dealt with Londinium, the tower at the end was different, and the order in which Taliesin saved them and they defeated Merkadis was all backwards, but the important stuff was still there I think. The plot about how Arawn was an angel who “rebelled” against the others, not because he was evil but because if you looked at it from a different perspective, the other angels were evil. It was interesting seeing this power difference, how someone who seemed evil was good and vice versa. They still had the interesting story about Arthur’s development. How he went from some stupid savage to someone who thought more about the bigger picture and stopped relying on oaths. The key things like that, the plot and important aspect were still there.

The worst thing about this series, especially compared to the game, but actually even without the comparison, was the character development. They spent virtually no time developing some of the side characters. Ermin, Limwris, Llyr, Rathty, even Morgan and Octavia a little bit. There was almost no development there, while in the game they actually focused on these characters a lot. Hell, they never revealed, in the anime, that Rathty is a girl, not a guy. They started calling her a “him “ when they met her, like they were going to later have the event where Arawn all of a sudden realizes she’s not a he, but they never finished with it. Llyr is even worse. They actually have quite a serious story going on with Llyr. She almost tries to commit suicide because she things she’s so useless, then they have this big thing about how she isn’t, a rather enduring story about her trying her hardest, and so on. It’s understandable that they didn’t develop these characters, as they don’t have a lot of time, us it’s still rather sad that they weren’t able to.

Arawn and the others face off against the angel who set everything in motion.

Impressions:

Well, this episode was certainly very different from the game. In the game, the actual final battle wasn’t that impressive. It was good because of the story, I still maintain that that’s the best part of the game, but the actual act of defeating the angel and Merkadis wasn’t to exiting. They simply fought the angel and defeated him, then Merkadis came, they defeated him too. Merkadis didn’t go all super enormous and crazy. Then, they were trapped in the tower, about to be burned to death, and Taliesin comes to save them. The end. Here, obviously the fight with Merkadis is being made out to be much bigger and more dangerous. I’m glad they still brought Taliesin back. Even though it was before the fight, and not after, it was fine. However in the game you got more of a feeling that he saved them. They were all resigned to die in the game, they were trapped, all figured they were going to die, and it was alright with them. They saved the world and were ready to face death and boom, Taliesin bursts in and saves them. Here, they could have easily come up with some other exudes for how they survived; they could have simply slid down the tower or something away from Merkadis. As I said, I’m still glad Taliesin came back, but his rescue was far more important and theatrical in the game.

I did think they did a really good job of handling the personality of the evil angel. In the game, they didn’t do much with him. They got to the room and oh, look some random angel. Let’s fight it, ok, it’s dead. However here they really expanded on the whole idea that the angels were killing things in order to make the world perfect. I thought they got across how kind of crazy the angel was and how arrogant how much he didn’t understand the other way of thinking. Here we got a much better feel for him being a bad guy. In the game, you didn’t so much care that he died. I mean, it was good he died because it simply allowed for things to continue, but he didn’t come across the same way. I got a lot more satisfaction over his defeat in the anime then the game.

Everyone fights though Palladium against their own obstacles.

Impressions:

Disclaimer: I don’t feel like pretending I don’t know what is going to happen, and writing a section without spoilers and then one with them, as I’ve played the game. This post will contain massive spoilers to the whole plot. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t read on. I won’t spoil anything simply for the sake of spoiling it, no needless spoilers, but they will be there. Final warning.

I really did like this episode. In some ways, this was one of my favorite episodes of the series. Not really because of the content, I still think Taliesin learning Arawn’s past and so on was more important. However as I said before, this whole Palladium thing is very different from the game. IN the game everyone stuck together and just fought through generic enemies. There was no getting split up, no dealing with the Cauldron of Resurrection, no Dwrc, nothing. This is by far my favorite thing about the anime that is different from the game. It’s really the only time I felt a change was good. In the game it was quite boring having the end be as lackluster as it was. However here things got pretty exciting and seeing it for the first time was really a lot of fun.

It looks like now; everything will just follow the game again. Everyone has met up and they face off against the angel who is behind all of this. Which isn’t bad. As I’ve pretty much said before, I much prefer it when it follows the game; the last two episodes have been the only exception. I thought the ending to the game was rather good so I don’t really want them to change anything about it. I just hope they don’t screw anything up.

Arawn and the others climb through the giant fortress Palladium.

Impressions:

Disclaimer: I don’t feel like pretending I don’t know what is going to happen, and writing a section without spoilers and then one with them, as I’ve played the game. This post will contain massive spoilers to the whole plot. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t read on. I won’t spoil anything simply for the sake of spoiling it, no needless spoilers, but they will be there. Final warning.

I was very surprised with this episode. I found it to be very good. What surprised me the most is that I really liked the episode, despite it not being in the game at all. In the game there were none of these splitting up and tackling different obstacles, they all just walked together, fought some monsters, and got to the top, it was actually rather anti-climatic, the approach to the final boss. However with this episode I think for the first time they actually added something that is an improvement. I liked the bit with Llyr and Rathty, though I wish they would have spent a bit more time talking about the anguish of the past events and made things more serious, talking about the way things were before, after all, the elves were almost wiped out but they haven’t really talked about it much. I did also like Riannon kind of meeting with Primula, which didn’t really happen that much in the game I don’t recall, though you always knew that was her true name.

While I said that I prefer these events to the ones that occurred in the game, there is one part that I wish they would have kept. For the most part, the changes were simply hat they added content to this area of the story, but not changed things. However, with the Londinium mayor, that is not the case. IN the game, they fight against the Londinium mayor in the arena and everything in Londinium. It’s part of the tournament and they win and Arawn becomes mayor of Londinium, which furthers the story about how they are breaking the empires hold on things. While I’m sure they will still have the mayor turn into a giant monster when he fights Octavia and Morgan, it won’t quite be the same as it was in the game.

Arthur makes a trip to Gorsedd Arawn where Pywl’s sword Dwnwyn is.

Impressions:

Disclaimer: I don’t feel like pretending I don’t know what is going to happen, and writing a section without spoilers and then one with them, as I’ve played the game. This post will contain massive spoilers to the whole plot. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t read on. I won’t spoil anything simply for the sake of spoiling it, no needless spoilers, but they will be there. Final warning.

This episode was alright. I’m glad to see they are continuing showing some of the more important parts of this series, but it’s, as to be expected, nowhere near as good as the game. That’s not to say this episode is bad, in fact it was very good, since it was a rather important event they were showing it was kind of easy for it to be interesting. Still, it seems that more than anything else the game compared to this is just far more emotional. You seem to care about the characters far more and that makes it all the more sad or just plain meaningful when they die or when they are struggling so hard in their fight for a better life. It just comes down to caring about the characters far more in the game.

There are also plenty of things they have left out. At this point, they are pretty much set in what’s to come in the rest of the series. They’ve already begun their trek towards Palladium and so the rest of the episodes will of course be the fight to get to the top and defeat the Angel and Mercidius and so on. However that now effectively confirms the stuff they are going to leave out. The one thing that surprised me the most is that they left out the whole big thing where they reveal that Rathty is actually a girl. They hint at it since they first meet her in the game, but there hasn’t been a lot of hinting in the series. Still, to leave that out completely is quite surprising. There are plenty of other more minor characters that they never delve into. Hell, they’ve hardly given ANY attention to Llyr. I mean, in the game she tries to kill herself once because she thinks she’s so useless and there is this big thing where Arawn makes her realize she isn’t useless and so on. They show how kind she is and how she tries so hard but just isn’t able to make it and they develop her character in a very interesting way, which here they’ve just done absolutely nothing with.

Taliesin finds out the whole truth about what happened to Arawn in the past and tries to use what he learned to help them in their fight.

Impressions:

Disclaimer: I don’t feel like pretending I don’t know what is going to happen, and writing a section without spoilers and then one with them, as I’ve played the game. This post will contain massive spoilers to the whole plot. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t read on. I won’t spoil anything simply for the sake of spoiling it, no needless spoilers, but they will be there. Final warning.

This episode was really good. It concluded what I thought was one of the best parts of the game. Although, as is to be expected, it was nowhere near as emotional or just as good as the game was. I don’t even mean the end, but in the beginning of this episode when they were finishing the story of Arawn as an angel. It just was so much more emotional in the game, you really felt this struggle and plight for Arawn to try and make the world a better place in a less genocide way as the other angles wanted. How much he sacrificed to see nothing change and how he then realized what Mrrydin meant.

The other big thing was of course Taliesin “dying” in this episode. I thought it was done really well, but again I have the game to compare it to and it doesn’t do quite as well, but overall this whole arc about showing the back-story and having Taliesin make this sacrifice was still done very well, better than some other parts of the anime compared to the game.

We see Arawn’s past with Mryddin.

Impressions:

Disclaimer: I don’t feel like pretending I don’t know what is going to happen, and writing a section without spoilers and then one with them, as I’ve played the game. This post will contain massive spoilers to the whole plot. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t read on. I won’t spoil anything simply for the sake of spoiling it, no needless spoilers, but they will be there. Final warning.

Finally! This was the episode I had been waiting for a while now. Although of course the game did a far better job at it, I thought this episode did alright. I have to say that after seeing this event, in the game, I was just shocked beyond belief at how interesting I found it. It just put this extremely interesting spin on thing, turning effectively the christen belief system upside down, calling Lucifer the good guy, while at the same time not being evil or satanic in beliefs. I just found it interesting how they put this spin of things. It was interesting how Arawn was effectively “evil” because he went against the “good” angels (THEY ARE FUCKIGN ANGELS YOU DUMBASS SUBBERS, NOT SPIRITS) even though the angles were doing these horrible things.

Of course, I’m getting ahead of myself a bit. So far they have only shown Mryydin going against the rules and wishes of the other angels, but still, Arawn obviously does as well. I’m curious though when they are going to sow that, as in the game this whole back-story was given out at once, but it seems like they are breaking it up now. I would think they need to show the results of the “Song of Origin” Myrrdin sung before the event that happens in the next episode.

Everyone travels far away in hopes of finding a way to stop the empire’s grand scheme.

Impressions:

Disclaimer: I don’t feel like pretending I don’t know what is going to happen, and writing a section without spoilers and then one with them, as I’ve played the game. This post will contain massive spoilers to the whole plot. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t read on. I won’t spoil anything simply for the sake of spoiling it, no needless spoilers, but they will be there. Final warning.

I thought this episode was awesome. I’ve always said that Taliesin is one of the most important characters in this game/anime. They did a great job of showing that little history he has with Epona, which I was afraid they would leave out of the anime since it was only a small part of the game. They then go on to have him discover the cave, which I’ve been looking forward to for a while. I’m glad they didn’t change much, its important that he is the one who discovers this cave and the history by himself; otherwise his actions later as a result of it wouldn’t be as meaningful.

I do hope that the next episode does a good job of going over that past. It gets kind of confusing and has a rather deep meaning to it, so they can easily screw it up. I still honestly think that it’s the most important part of the story, because it reveals why the world is as it is, Arawn’s back-story, it provides the method of effectively saving the world, and really the best part of this story is the past between Arawn and Myrddin. This is the time where it is all given, and where effectively the motivation for the entire series is given, so I just hope they don’t screw it up.

Arthur stands up against Gaius in the final battle to defend Avalon.

Impressions:

Disclaimer: I don’t feel like pretending I don’t know what is going to happen, and writing a section without spoilers and then one with them, as I’ve played the game. This post will contain massive spoilers to the whole plot. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t read on. I won’t spoil anything simply for the sake of spoiling it, no needless spoilers, but they will be there. Final warning.

I thought this episode was pretty good. Although I do have to say that I didn’t like the way they betrayed Gaius near the end. IN the game you sympathized with him, and felt kind of sorry he died, despite being part of the emptier. You didn’t get the feeling he was this war hungry person who wanted to slaughter everyone. It came across more like he was forced to do this, and that he wanted to overthrow the empire more. Here, it just seemed like he wanted power. They had a little of that in the anime though, he did mention how he wanted Arthur to make the place a more free world but it just seemed I emphasized with Gaius and kind of felt sorry for him more in the game.

I have to say I was VERY pissed off about the ending they showed of the angel in the senate chamber. In the game it was a mystery until the very end that he was responsible for pulling the strings behind the empire. You thought that the emperor was in charge all along until this giant climb and struggle to his throne room where it’s just a skeleton sitting in the chair. There was this mystery and theatrics to it all, but now he just casually mentions the emperor is dead and he was having fun ruling everyone. It took away a huge part of what made the game interesting. That is a pretty damn big change that I didn’t like at all. I mean, it’s not just that someone other then the emperor was in charge, but the fact it was an angel, and the angle that killed Arthur’s father. That was all part of this mystery and such that they all just instantly threw away for nothing.

Everyone at Avalon Castle try to defend against Gaius’ attack while Arthur goes for help.

Impressions:

Disclaimer: I don’t feel like pretending I don’t know what is going to happen, and writing a section without spoilers and then one with them, as I’ve played the game. This post will contain massive spoilers to the whole plot. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then don’t read on. I won’t spoil anything simply for the sake of spoiling it, no needless spoilers, but they will be there. Final warning.

I thought this episode was pretty good. Again it seemed to follow the game pretty well, however of course it’s hard to deviate too much when the story is at the point where everyone is simply just getting their ass kicked in a huge battle. Not much to deviate from. However it’s still pretty good. I thought Arthur’s speech to Taliesin was pretty good. They seemed to make a much bigger deal about it in the game though. It was constantly something they harped upon up until this point; how Arthur was tied to his “Oaths” and him learning that he needs to just do what is right instead was a big deal. They seemed to make less of a deal over that, but then again they didn’t have a lot of time to do something like that either.

I was a bit concerned with some of the brief talk in Arawn’s dream with Primula and Pwyll. Some of it sounded like there might be some pretty big changes from the game, but it was only a little bit. The big part hat reveals Arawn’s past hasn’t come yet, so I’ll wait until then to pass final judgment, it just worried me the way they phrased some things. They better not change it because that is single handedly the best part of the story for the whole game/series. The motivation and ideals Arawn had in his past. If they change that it will really be a shame.