While Charioce is in Eibos, trying to widen a rift, Jeanne is bringing demon, god, and man together in a grand alliance based upon their mutual hate of the asshole king, and Alessand is now in charge of the Orleans Knights, but a few of his subordinates wonder if they’re on the right side, and when Al tells himself he did nothing wrong, he doesn’t sound very convincing.
Kaisar, hopeless idealist to the end, tries in vain to halt Jeanne’s march by trying to shoulder responsibility for El’s death by giving Al free roam of their hideout. But this simply isn’t about who killed El; it’s about everyone Charioce has killed, hurt, or caused to suffer or despair. Like most things with Jeanne, this has grown into something far bigger than herself and her own desire for revenge…though she does want that revenge.
When Nina and Favaro arrive at Eibos via Bacchus’ wagon, through the obscuring fog they learn what Charioce is up to: awakening Bahamut. Nina rushes into the stronghold and takes down everyone in her path with ease, and even outmaneuvers and overpowers Charioce. But even with his own sword in her hand and the opportunity to cut off his arm and the bracelet attached to it, she can’t close the deal, even when he goads her to “do it”, and backs down. Which…is a bit disappointing.
Instead, Nina and Favaro listen to Charioce’s advisor explain how this day was always coming; when Bahamut had to be dealt with on a permanent basis to prevent him from awakening anew and destroying the world. Charioce was the king that had been groomed to deal with this mission, and it’s one he’s more than willing to sacrifice his life to achieve. The rift opens further, Nina and Favaro escape, and Charioce comes into possession of a fleet of huge, advanced airships.
This is all very cool, it is…but while it’s now been helpfully explained why Charioce did so many terrible things (to acquire the power to destroy Bahamut) it’s still a classic ends-justify-the-means scenario, and just because he’s puting his life on the line doesn’t automatically make him a martyr.
That applies especially if the ends don’t work out; Bahamut is awakened and blows up most of Charioce’s fleet. Was…that supposed to happen? After all this, is Charioce in over his head? Whatever the case, Jeanne is fighting the wrong war; Bahamut has instantly become the Most Important Thing to deal with at the moment. The rebellion will have to wait.
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It also carries the inherent problem of his end not justifying his means in the slightest. He just DECIDED that it has to be this way, then shattered half of existence to back it up. If you don’t buy into his basic logic (that HE needed the power to defeat bahamut now and that on top of that he was the one best suited to do so) then he’s just a crazy person causing widespread pain and suffering out of selfish arrogance.
And, as you mentioned, it only gets worse if he doesn’t succeed on top of everything else. But, it’s like I commented last time, the show has spent too much time on Charioce (for some reason) to just give up and make him an evil psycho. They’re going to try REALLY HARD to give us some level of redemption I’m sure. Which is the real problem at the core of this series.
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The sudden thread of him wanting revenge against Bahamut for killing his mom doesn’t explain why he fought so hard to defeat the gods and subjugate the demons.
If you’re trying to get rid of Bahamut for good, wouldn’t it behoove you to NOT waste your military resources fighting powerful rivals that AREN’T Bahamut, and instead try to form some kind of, oh I don’t know, ALLIANCE, like the one that sent Bahamut into dormancy back in Genesis?
“Bahamut is dormant but he’s not 100% defeated so we have to wake him up and defeat him with this weapon that could destroy the entire world” is an awfully rickety premise. And how, exactly, did the marginalization, brutalization, and enslavement of demons avenge his dead mom?
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Really though. Charioce is a card-carrying villain that the creators have spent the whole series treating as complex and morally grey. But he’s just not, and that’s a shame, because it’s all but ruined this second season for me as the central conflict AND the central romance and emotional through-line of this season have been built on a character whose conception is entirely flawed.
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