I’m not going to lie and say I was all that enamored by this finale. In fact, it was a bit of a chore to get through, ironically as soon as the titular Bahamut showed up. Now, all of a sudden, Charioce is a good guy like everyone else, and all is forgiven, at least until the more immediate threat of Bahamut is dealt with (and, as it happens, all is forgiven even after that).
Favaro is dead, and Bacchus’ wagon has crashed. Nina decides the only way to fight a dragon is with another dragon (hers truly) while the gods and demons get together and form a barrier to minimize damage to the capital—though Bahamut’s random breath blasts still causes plenty of apocalyptic destruction. I just wish it was more interesting a boss.
Dragon-Nina doesn’t go up against Bahamut head-to-head; that would be suicide. Instead, she flies to Dromos and lands (naked) on Charioce’s back, much to his chagrin. But that’s just tough: if he’s going to put his life on the line to destroy Bahamut, she will too. They interface with Dromos together and it takes the form of a dragon covered with magical circuitry.
Nina and Charioce’s dragon shoots a beam; Bahamut shoots a beam; the beams meet, the first beam pushes Bahamut’s back and eventually blasts his head off, and badda-bing-badda-bang, the capital—and the world—is saved.
Just before Bahamut is blasted away, Nina (but not Charioce) finds herself in “the light of Bahamut”, where Amira is still hanging out. She gives Nina a big ol’ hug (both are naked, so Nina’s a bit bashful) and whispers something. When the day returns, the Dromos dragon has turned to stone and Charioce and Nina are passed out on the deck.
Fast-forward to the epilogue: Nina is still in the capital, helping with rebuilding; still living with Bacchus, Rita and Hamsa; Favaro announces he’s leaving again to resume his wandering life; Nina tells him about Amira, and he’s heartened; Rita has apparently resurrected Kaisar as a zombie.
Nina can apparently visit the palace whenever she wants to dance with Charioce, who is blind now but still king. As I said, all the horrible things he did are forgiven now because Bahamut was defeated…only Bahamut isn’t really dead, and he’ll be back, because he’s the name of the franchise.
But…I guess Nina’s willing to let bygones be bygones in terms of the atrocities Charioce committed against demons, gods, and whatever humans opposed him. She’s also lost her voice, apparently the price she had to pay (along with Char’s other eye) to use Dromos.
I do loathe running out of enthusiasm right before the finish line, but Bahamut really undermined much of this season with its inexplicable insistence that the audience go along with the notion that Charioce was a fellow who deserved redemption.
Nina’s love always felt as blind as the king ended up. She gave and gave and never got anything back for her love, except for the occasional decently-animated dance.
This season was at times fun, often gorgeous, occasionally sweet or funny or even moving. But in the end I just wasn’t buying what Virgin Soul was trying so hard to sell, and as a result I doubt I’d have any use for a third round.
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The sad part is that it wouldn’t have been so hard to make Charioce a redeemable character. A bit more compassion, a little self doubt… And boom you could paint him as a well intentioned pragmatist ala Lelouch. Instead we get what we get.
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Always cathartic when a reviewer agrees with you (which is silly, but hey, internet). Because this was really the problem of the show. It’s almost interesting in its failure, because the problem wasn’t one of quality. The characters were good, the animation was good, the action was good, etc, etc, etc.
The problem was, quite simply, the relationship that the show was built on was flawed. The emotion they were basically forcing us to feel was not justified and thereby the whole premise, and therefore season, fell apart completely. The fact that it was well presented was irrelevant because it wasn’t something we wanted presented at all.
And as Kryto said, had Charioce basically not been Charioce, or at least not the Charioce we were given, it could have worked. But he was the Charioce we were given, so it didn’t.
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In your second paragraph you might want to change the first sentence to “Kaisar is dead, and Bacchus’ wagon has crashed.”.
I’m mostly miffed that in the end, El was just a plot device to spur Jeanne (to rally the angels and humans) and Azazel (to rally the demons) to go to war against the king. I had higher hopes based on the build up for his character, wanting to see the full extent of his power and whether or not it would bring ruin or triumph or both.
I’m all for season 3, if the story focuses on Favaro trying to take down Bahamut or at least free Amira from Bahamut and possibly Kaisar regaining his old personality?
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