Valkyria Chronicles - 15 July 13
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Summary:
After what happened in Fouzen, everyone in Squad 7 is feeling down, and given the toll on the other forces of the militia, Varrot decides that they should hold a party. In talking about the situation, Welkin mentions that he’s worried about everyone, and Faldio admits that he has someone to heal his heart in painful times: Alicia. He questions if Welkin is okay with this, causing Welkin to reassert that he and Alicia are just superior officer and subordinate. Welkin then goes to tell Squad 7 about the party and how they need to put on a performance. Everyone thinks Rosie’s singing would be perfect, but she refuses to sing in front of a Darcsen. After Rosie walks off, Alicia wants to give chase, but Welkin decides that he and he alone will go try to change her mind, causing Alicia to think that Welkin is acting strange. Unfortunately, Welkin is unable to convince Rosie and doesn’t want to order her to sing. Isara meanwhile thinks about what Rosie said and decides to confront her about it. She wants Rosie to see her as not a Darcsen but as herself, however Rosie doesn’t want to talk, so Isara accuses her of running away.
This gets Rosie angry, so she tells Isara about her past. Back when she was young, the Empire was hunting Darcsens, and her parents reluctantly gave refuge to a trio of armed Darcsens. When a soldier came to investigate, the Darcsens panicked and slaughtered everyone, and Rosie survived only thanks too her mother. She now admits that she knows that Isara isn’t at fault, but her heart refuses to listen. All of this shocks Isara, and because she wants Rosie to sing for everyone, she offers to not go to the party. When Welkin finds out, he initially refuses to accept Isara’s non-participation, but she convinces him to let her do this. Alicia isn’t happy about it because it’s not like Welkin to give up, and she goes on to question why he doesn’t rely on her in times like these since she’s his aide. Welkin just insists that it’s his decision, causing Alicia to become angry, and she finds and complains to Faldio. After finding Isara by herself and talking to her, Faldio drags her to the party, and Rosie sees the two of them as she’s about to go on stage. Faldio emphasizes that everyone has been ordered to attend, so Rosie raises no objections and proceeds, though she does tell Isara that tonight is special and that she’s singing for everyone.
Afterward, Alicia finds Faldio backstage and thanks him. When she gets up to go though, he stops her and confesses his feelings for her.
Preview
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The Rosie parts of this episode seemed rather trivial to me. I mean, it was nice to finally see her past, and I can understand that she was traumatized and has deep emotional wounds, but it seems wasteful for them to focus an entire episode on her raising such a fuss about something as minor as singing in front of someone like Isara who she should be fine with by now. They could have just inserted Rosie’s past into the Fouzen story and it would have worked out all the same since she still hasn’t gotten over her prejudice by the end of this episode.
Having said all that, Rosie’s story did serve as a decent way to show more of Welkin’s impotency and Faldio’s ability to step up and get things done, and it culminated/cliffhangered nicely with Faldio’s confession to Alicia. I’d love for them to surprise me and have Alicia actually reciprocate Faldio’s feelings (especially since Faldio has been a lot stronger as a male lead than Welkin), but I suspect that she’ll instead delay answering him and ultimately reject him once Welkin finally gets his balls back. This might take a while though as it appears that the director and writers are spreading out the love triangle stuff over all the side-character arcs, with next week being apparently about Largo and Varrot and their history together.
Acerbus at 2:59 am on July 13th, 2009
Young!Varrot+Young!Largo+FINALLY showing what’s his name looks like=win. If they manage to incorporate Varrot’s chapter from the game I will be estastic.
N97 at 3:05 am on July 13th, 2009
@Omni:
well, not wanna disagree with your impression or wanna spoil anything but if they do indeed stay true to the game then it was necessary to show it. just wait for couple of more episodes and you’ll understand what i mean
Shamanchrno at 3:10 am on July 13th, 2009
It was a good episode, but i don’t really like this weak minded welkin
Layla-san at 3:19 am on July 13th, 2009
^ me too. welkin, dont be a dork!! are u just gonna let faldio get the girl you love the most?!
and omg he just confessed. i wonder whats next for welkin. what’s gonna be his reaction?
Kei at 3:32 am on July 13th, 2009
Vc is on the end my watchlist… But im checking every hour for the prin lover blog, can’t wait!
Firseal at 3:33 am on July 13th, 2009
The Rosie set-up isn’t as poorly placed as it looks. On the other hand, saying that is a bit disingenuous, especially if that portion of the plot has been altered. Suffice to say, few of the issues seen in Fouzen are off the table.
winters at 3:45 am on July 13th, 2009
I agree with N97. I am so glad this part came now rather then later. Still I wonder if Faldio is just acting or is he really confessing.
blind_dead_mcjones at 5:13 am on July 13th, 2009
in regards to rosie i have to say her prejudices are protrayed a bit more realistically than in other shows, as prejudice often manifests itself through trivial excuses and generally being petty over minor things, along with lumping people all into one basket based on the past actions of a few
Satoida at 5:32 am on July 13th, 2009
Hehe, after watching this episode, I went through a million ways that Welkin could react to this (haven’t played the game, so I don’t know much).
I agree with blind_dead_mcjones; at least her prejudice wasn’t simply ‘they’re the bad guys in that legend’ at the beginning
Eri at 8:02 am on July 13th, 2009
Hurray for Faldio for finally shaking Welkin up! (Was Welkin really bothered?)
GP at 8:16 am on July 13th, 2009
This is getting stupid, why the hell can’t they just stick to the game? They’ve already changed way too many things. Faldio confessing? Srsly? GTFO. Some writers need to be shot. I can’t for the life of me understand the need to turn Welkin into some indecidive idiot and shoot Faldios part in the story through the roof when in fact he’s such a minor character in the overall game story. It’s reached retarded levels now.
Why must there be this need to have a love triangle in every god damn thing now? In the process making a good story into crap as time goes on. How can the Sega people let this shit happen to their work? But I guess enough money will make you turn a blind eye.
Ayle at 8:54 am on July 13th, 2009
Man. I really don’t understand what happened to Welkin. When my childhood friend started being attracted to a complete jerk in my class when I was in H.S even though I had feelings for her I didn’t like it but I still helped her get with him. When they spent the night together I was pissed off at myself but it didn’t change my behavior because it wasn’t worth it. I hated the guy but she liked him so there wasn’t anything I could do about it so I moved on. If I had slumped because of that my results would have suffered. That’s to say that Welkin is an idiot. In my case I just had to worry about getting accepted in a good university but he has friggin’ lives depending on him! hasn’t he joined the militia to “end the war quickly”, well apparently he forgot about that… He hasn’t talked about nature in a while, yet even his sister doesn’t seem to have noticed that something was wrong it him…
The only way out of this are possibly:
_ Someone dies because of his current state.
_ Alicia has a serious talk with him.
_He gets some sense beaten into him. Preferably by Faldio.
Nellie at 8:57 am on July 13th, 2009
Don’t worry Satoida, this doesn’t happen in the game so you can guess whatever you like.
I can’t remember exactly, but I thought it was implied that the imperial hunters killed her family, not the darcsens. I know it happened during a darcsen hunt and that she blamed the darcsen because if they hadn’t been there then her parents wouldn’t have been killed by the hunters.
IDB at 11:07 am on July 13th, 2009
@ GP
The deviation from the game is getting a bit too anime-cliche for my taste. The Love triangle, totally unnecessary! Especially with Faldio singing Welkin’s praises in the earlier episodes. Yeah yeah, they need filler during the 23 hours of boredom and the 1 hour of terror (military-maxim), but Welkin’s complete obliviousness was perfect! It fits his character way better than some lump of clay.
Fuck this anime, I’ll stick with the book! (But since I love the game so much, I’ll continue my watching)
Panther at 11:34 am on July 13th, 2009
Yeah more Varrot! Needs moar Selvaria love though.
roger at 12:03 pm on July 13th, 2009
I am beginning to think Faldio is just trying to move things up between Welkin and Alicia. No one knows Welkin better than Faldio and I think he is trying to push Welkin into realizing his feelings. He knows that what Welkin says and feels are completely different because he immediately realized the reason for Welkin’s slump in the previous episode. But it also seems he want’s try take Alicia away becase Welkin but her in a dangerous situation. I think Faldio is testing Welkin to know if he doe love Alicia or if he just thinks of her as his subordinate.
roger at 12:04 pm on July 13th, 2009
But I will be pissed if she does accept Faldio’s feelings.
Irie at 12:23 pm on July 13th, 2009
I’ll joint the chorus saying Welkin really seems to have become socially inept. Really, if he doesn’t realize his current indecision is going to get others killed (which I think already happened), he shouldn’t be given a leadership.
As to Faldio, I think we should consider that he may have already backed off in a prior romantic pursuit. Remember the girl that got married but gave Welkin a second chance. I believe it was implied that Faldio also went after her but backed off only to see Welkin piss off the opportunity.
I don’t blame Faldio for his actions. If Alicia doesn’t address the problem, the story is going to become really lame. It will become a tripe romance drama and take away from the actual story. IMHO.
roger at 12:23 pm on July 13th, 2009
oh lol. I get whats going on now. What Faldio’s objective is. Read some of the game’s walkthrough.
Irie at 12:24 pm on July 13th, 2009
Sorry for the typos above. Running around but felt the need to say something about this episode.