01.24
I feel like a broken record. Every time I say Aldnoah.Zero has reached a new low, the next episode manages to make that low even lower. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
This episode opens up with a chess game between Inaho and Magbaredge ripped straight out of Terror in Resonance, and Magbaredge uses this to place Inaho into a squadron to attack the Vers Empire in a later assignment. However, the show surprisingly takes time to explain its retcon and make the choice less hazy – Inaho not only survived his near-death experience due to his kiss with Ass-hime (which somehow passed on the Aldnoah gene), but also the princess’s blood splashed onto his face after Saazbaum popped a cap in her ass in episode 13. The show does not make it clear how the blood increased the amount of Aldnoah cells in his body – it appears he didn’t swallow the blood, or have it dribble down his nose. It’s not likely that the blood was absorbed by his skin pores, either. It’s just another weak excuse to back-up a retcon that didn’t need to exist.
In a way, this episode is just too similar to last week’s episode. It follows the same structure of narrative – talky first-half, action-packed second half, revelations galore mixed in-between. In this episode, instead of the baffling kiss between Slaine and Lemrina, we have Saazbaum declaring Slaine his newly adopted son – despite the fact that Slaine shot him five times in the chest and crippled his leg at the conclusion of episode 13, and that Saazbaum was just menacing and completely detrimental to Slaine’s cause. Slaine agrees with his new father’s choice until the United Forces of Earth attack their stronghold, and Inaho and Slaine clash in a battle of Jesus-like wits. I’m pretty sure giant mecha’s can’t activate bullet time to dodge attacks, but it is Aldnoah.Zero, so logic does not apply. Inaho manages to outwit Saazbaum once again with the help of Inko – resident useless character until they are useful for the betterment of the protagonist – but, in a completely surprising and not totally foreseen twist of fate, Slaine lands the final blow via something we can only call ‘magic’, or really stupid coincidence. A trap he laid for Inaho instead caught Saazbaum during his moment of weakness, and in retaliation for his attempted murder of the princess, Slaine allows his not-father to die. Again.
This forced attempt at melodrama and father-son drama comes off as petty and with nothing to back it up. You could just say Slaine was pretending to go along with Saazbaum, but why would Slaine actually mourn the loss of his new-found ‘father’ after killing him, and go on to avenge his memory, even when it was his trap that landed the final blow? This is a baffling direction to go with Slaine’s character. Saazbaum did nothing throughout the run of the 1st season than keep on trying to assassinate Ass-hime, and when Inaho tried to kill Saazbaum in episode 13, what did Slaine do? Save Saazbaum’s life. Saazbaum made his plans perfectly clear to Slaine, and when he actually succeeded in his goal of murdering the Princess (or so we thought at the time), what did Slaine do again? Save his life after shooting him, and align himself with his army for the next nineteen months, even though he could have left him to bleed out for killing the woman he loves. The characters in Aldnoah.Zero, sans Marito, were never 3-dimensional, but they could have made clear and coherent choices. Saazbaum’s death in this episode does nothing to tug heartstrings or invoke an emotional response, it exists merely as a plot point.
This all feels like filler or a catalyst for an more terrible plot to replace the non-plot we have now. Again, you could also say that Slaine was just trying to keep Ass-hime alive by being a count of the Vers Empire, but couldn’t he have done his duty elsewhere? If Inaho didn’t survive the fucking point-blank shot to his head, Slaine could have aligned himself with the United Forces of Earth to keep Asseylum alive. It would be better than causing shitty drama for the sake of plot escalation. What did Saazbaum do for the 3 episodes he was included in? Nothing. He simply exists in memory to give Slaine a motivation that could have be found elsewhere, and through less stupid methods than being adopted by your crush’s attempted murderer. This conflict between Inaho and Slaine ignited since the moronic decision at the end of episode 7 feels so forced, that it’s almost an expectation the two partner up for the greater good at the end.
The plot-line isn’t the only thing wrong with Toll for the Brave. The CG looks like it was ripped out a 3DO game, and looks visibly worse than last week. The music is still too good for this show, and every character looks like they have bed-head. Unsurprisingly, Inaho continues to be mecha-Jesus. God save me, this show literally can’t get any worse, can it?