Shuumatsu no Izetta – 09
Weird western manga.
Shit hit the fan really quickly.
Resurrection
Plot convenience! Science!
This episode is a surprising one, and perhaps not in a good way. It turns out the mystery witch being kept in Germania’s workshop is a clone of the original White Witch. The show would have us believe that Germanian agents retrieved a sample of her remains after learning the true story behind her legend and uncovering her burial site. Experimental technology is then used to create a clone of the witch’s body from the remains. Of course, the problem of recreating the soul or the consciousness remains. But this is tackled by essentially making the cloned body of the White Witch an empty vessel. And it turns out the blood of a descendant is what’s needed to “awaken” her. Thus, the weird blood sucking kiss thing from last week is explained away.
She’s back and she’s angry.
Now, when all is said and done, I’m just not a huge fan of this development. I can see that by bringing back the White Witch in this manner, the show is trying to avoid contradicting its title, which states that Izetta is the last witch. After all, the legendary witch did in fact die long ago, and has merely been resurrected. But the way in which she has been brought back doesn’t sit right with me. It feels too flimsy and convenient. It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility given Otto’s preexisting obsession with the occult would have made it likely for him to uncover the clues that would lead him to the White Witch’s remains. And I can’t complain about the use of cloning technology to recreate her body from those remains, or the awakening of her soul using the blood of a descendant, since the show has established its setting as an alternate history with fantastic elements woven in. But all of those taken together make the revelation that Germania has the legendary White Witch, Sophie, at its disposal questionable at best.
Magic Stone
Where is the other half?
My gripes with the latest development aside, Sophie’s showdown with and subsequent defeat of Izetta reveals another interesting detail about magic. There was a comment way back in episode two which speculated that the White Witch might have depleted the magical energy available in parts of Eylstadt. We’ve since learned that the geographic concentration of mana is more of a natural phenomenon, but this week’s episode heavily suggests that the stone in Sophie’s staff is actually capable of sucking the mana out of the land and storing it for her use. This is yet another plot convenience, as such a mechanism serves not only to overcome the witches’ geographic limitations, but also to provide superiority over other magic users. Because it seems that the stone completely drains the region of mana, thus rendering other magic users powerless. We have yet to see if the effect is permanent, or if the land will slowly replenish its magical energy over time. But needless to say, the witch who possesses the stone essentially reigns supreme, even over her own kind.
So now we have a resurrected, vengeful witch who is pissed off by her betrayal at the hands of ancient Eylstadt. And she’s working towards a common goal of bringing down present day Eylstadt with the Germanian empire to settle this personal vendetta. But what happens after that? We know Otto’s ambition is basically to conquer the entire world, but will Sophie help him after exacting her revenge upon Eylstadt? Or perhaps, is it already enough for her to defeat Izetta and bring Eylstadt to its knees? It’s entirely possible that their crushing defeat at the hands of Germania is enough to break the spirit of the allies and those who resist the empire. But if you ask me, Sophie could become more of a threat than an ally to Germania, similar to Atlanta’s perspective of Izetta. After all, it’s clear that she’s only working with them for the moment, and is not directly under their control. That is, unless Berkman has cooked up some scheme to guarantee her obedience in the future.
Bad end.
About Sumairii
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
All I can say, is that by leaving Izetta hoisted up like that, she better have her comeuppance next episode.