Chaos Dragon: Sekiryuu Senyaku – 05
Herp Derping along in my Magic Steam Car….
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Not at all a bad episode of this show. Well except for Derp Car. Stupid Stupid Derp Car. |
Monster and Motivations
Eiha’s brief story
Well, before our story began in episode one, Eiha was part of an expedition to find out what exactly was happening with Red Dragon. As you can tell, it went greaaaaat! At this point, it’s unclear whether or not the Olgani Volcano is his center of power, or if it is, as the Red Dragon related to his “old friend” Kagraba, the only place he can maintain his sense of reason. But that’s where a lot of stuff went down, and will be going down if the end of this episode is to be trusted, and certain moments from the OP are to be as well.
So after talking about it twice
The long and short we get from the meeting is that Olgari is the next desintation for the quest, and everyone pretty much agrees that Red Dragon is waaaaay OP. What they are all going to do about that….Well, just when the exposition looked like it was going somewhere in that general direction, in busts Gakushou.
I swear, she should have been voiced by Eri Kitamura with that much bravado, but Eriko Matsui does a great job of bringing that swagger to life. I really started to like this character during the goings on this episode; and not just for the fanservice break. I love the attitude, and she seems like the saner type of person to carry Kouran’s ultimate plan.
She looks like she could have eaten Scorpion Boy….
She was a protégé of Evil Ms. Spider Legs, and has inherited the mission to destroy Red Dragon. Yeah, the rumor that Haiga was supporting the rebels was pretty much her excuse to make what was personal sort of “official” when it came to her strained relationship with Kagraba. But I guess the non-aggression pact they have with D’natia still stands until everything goes nuts somewhere near the show’s finale. But not only do we get Kouran’s end, D’natia is still in play…
I was a nice idea for Swallow to keep playing dumb for the moment, and having Ulika confront Gakushou; it gave the character they barely introduced last episode something to do officially, something to do in the bath, and it keeps him at a remove from Kouran’s suspicions. He’s still learning thou, as I’ll cover later on in my Behind the Game Master’s Screen with Bonus Fanservice section.
The sacred keeper of the Black Dragon scale! He has quest giver painted all over him
Of course Lou still has her plans to sacrifice the most worthy and powerful to her demon sword; I wonder if Red Dragon will be as susceptible to it’s spells as humans are? Then we frog hop over to the D’natia’s plan of bending the Red Dragon’s power to their own Black Dragon, which is also much like Kouran’s ultimate plan to eliminate and make their magical might superior. That’s quite a lot to take in, and quite a lot for the character’s to begin to deal with; all of them having both personal and national interests at stake. Ibuki’s need to understand his curse is just the tip of the iceberg. Lot’s of monsters are already in the party it seems….
Legends and Lore
Exposition is just one of the many features of the Derp Mobile!
Ibuki is learning more an more about this curse while traveling with Kagraba. It seems that the only legend the immortal cyborg knows about that has all the marks of Ibuki’s curse is the King of the Dead. He sounds charming at the outset, right? But he has the power to take life and to revive life at a whim. Given that the area around Olgani has become an undead spawn point now, this hunk of eerie connective tissue is well worth exploring.
But then Lou has to leave camp to find out the Kouran armies’ real motivation and plans. Nice that they have their own golden Red Dragon deterrent/plot device. It’s not exactly outside of Lou’s plans, but I guess she has to kill now? And man, I love you and I hardly knew you Gakushou! She has the one fail safe in place versus assassination, but that should really have been shooting Lou’s fine tuckus before she could get her sword out. She has the shot, she should have taken it! But her soldiers have much bigger fish to worry about.
Ugh, undone by script!
The Redeemed Ones, this stories version of zombies are out for an attack and snack. As I said, it looks like it starts at Olgari, and is fanning outward. It caught Gakushou’s Butterfly camp by surprise, and ended up making the general’s bad situation that much worse. Maybe if she had been willing to bargain, compromise, or negotiate with Lou, things might have turned out much more in her favor. Lou is not a slouch when it comes to zombie killing, and range weapons are choice when it comes to dealing with the dancing dead. But then, all that is Game Master fiat.
Lou can clean up mooks, but it looks like the Boss is all Ibuki…wonder what power he’ll use?
Behind the Game Master’s Screen (with Fanservice!)
Lou/Rou used to be a dude…
It’s taken some time, but I feel the show is finally finding it’s feet and moving at a good clip. Even with Kagraba’s Derp Mobile (all the money in the world and he couldn’t build one to transport all of them…that’s a greedy player). They’ve managed to hold off on the Kill a Friend Per Episode point, but it looks like they won’t hold it off next time…I like these plans and interactions, and the show is building up on some of the moments from past, lesser thought of, episodes. I can sense the Game Master’s build up as well, and see how the writing of the show reflects that, not only in character interaction and NPC development, but also in the world. I mean, I would very much put zombie mooks made from previously knows characters around the volcano quest point…cause it’s fun that way! So, I’ll see you….
Next Time
Would? I mean, I really have Game Master’d this before….
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Did they name the Magic Steam Car “Chinpo”? Is it the official car of Setsugen no Ao?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Shimoneta is far to smooth to associate with the Derp Mobile…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
That is no derp car! That is the
penis carPOWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Dude…obvioussssssssss…
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Shirou, take your p0n0s and shove it into Sabet’s v0g0n0! Says Rin.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Fosh is that guy we kinda just smile (more of a grimace actually) and nod at sometimes…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Dude, don’t be a Derp Mobile…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
<3 u gaiz
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
It oddly reminds me of the Batmobile. Less the wings and add a crappy paint job.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…and a Taoist Immortal Steampunk cyborg…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I kind of want to drop this. It’s a hot mess that feels like it’s going to be just all sorts of bad all the way through, but I kind of want to see how much more of a hot mess it can get. All the characters feel really really flat. As a RPG fan I am disappointed with the lack of effort.
Btw, that string on a bound one looks really short. Must be awkward doing day-to-day activities. Almost as awkward as having a non-removable 1-foot cylinder block on your arm.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I don’t think I’ll be dropping this, because, as you say it can get hotter and messier. Since we are inured to that already, might as well have fun with it,right?
As a TRPG fan myself, I don’t really find appointment or disappointment, as it is what it is.
Yeah, I’ve been trying to piece out and do the math for the character’s advantages and disadvantages as per a rules set. I’ve played and studied tons of games, so it’s not like I have nothing to go on. But man, some of the curses they have are so toothless. Eiha is bound by a string, but that doesn’t seem to deter her at all. Swallow breaks everything, but he has a wealthy servant that makes sure he has new stuff, and really only dings him when he deserves it….so, yeah. They don’t really seem to be all that disadvantageous…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Swallow’s curse is the most vague curse ever. What constitutes a tool for the curse? Clothes obviously don’t (nor his toolbelt which dispenses unlimited blade
works), unless Meryl is dressing him and he doesn’t touch anything. And for some reason the black dragon scale does’t count as a tool either, when it clearly is a tool to subvert the island to the black dragon.POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, you’ve run/played games. The GM just forgets sometimes…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Does that happen? I’ve never really played tabletop rpgs. Although I would assume there would be notes if it lasted more than a session (I have no idea how long these last… a couple of hours? Several days?)
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, sometimes the disadvantages can get in the way of the wider story, but the player choose it to get an advantage in game, so you really can’t ignore an inconvenient one player’s and not the others. The real trick is shaping your story around all the players story ideas. In Chaos Dragon it looks like they’ve skipped some tricks…