
Either those slaves will spitefully kill you for their treatment, or they will make demands in return. Lena’s pointed chat with her uncle simply exemplifies the issue: San Magnolia relies on veritable slaves for defense, you cannot reasonably ask such men (and women) to protect you out of their own free will in a vacuum. No major shocker here, regardless of Lena’s foresight and planning San Magnolia was wholly unprepared for an attack of this scale, and thanks to San Magnolia’s use and abuse of 86ers, completely unable to both stop and turn back the Legion as Giad was able to do. Speaking of Legion showdowns, as promised Lena is finally back in action, and in the way we all knew was coming. After all, just have to remember how that showdown with Shin’s brother went. The kid walks his own path, and while he may follow in Kiri’s footsteps, there’s nothing which says he’ll choose the same direction at the fork in the road. Grethe for example probably now understands her actual control over Spearhead is at best skin deep when it comes to Legion matters, while Frederica was forced to realize that Shin isn’t one to be kept in a box to assuage her own fears. For the first time in a long time the Reaper was back in his element, and he cared not what others may have thought to such appearances. Shin of course (like Lena) knew this was coming, so it was quite fascinating seeing not only his reaction – probably the first time his duty and abilities have openly gotten to him – but also his response.

Legion finally initiated their long planned offensive, effectively lashing out in all directions in the likely expectation of having at least one of its wings find success. A-1 does get panned at times for some of its work, but episodes like this show just what they’re capable of when given enough money to spread their wings.Īs for the actual events this episode, well, the results speak for themselves.

The battle sequences especially were the star of this show, whether that be the detailed artwork on display or the effort which went into showing how utterly vicious and frightening cluster munitions, artillery fire, and the moments before certain death can be.

Eighty-Six is already known for its beefy animation, but damn was it nice getting nearly a whole episode worth of eye-candy. While there’s plenty this week worthy of at least passing comment, probably the big thing for me over all else were the visuals. At this stage we may have a pretty good idea how things will turn out in the end – but we also don’t know for whom such fortunes await. After all the waiting, after all the hype, the moment where peace and fragile tranquility transitions into open battle and ominous uncertainty is here at last.
