Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 18



I’m sorry for the delay of this entry. I’ve got a bit of a cold at this moment, so I’m not at my fastest.

But what a hell of an episode we had this week! Even though it was just a build-up, it was in no way inferior tot he other Armed Librarian episodes. The way in which this episode built up tension, simply by letting Hamy take a “while” to catch up to Volken was brilliantly done, and in the meantime it revealed an increasingly interesting back-story behind this arc.

This episode subtly gave a whole new dimension to a ton of different backgrounds. First of all, take a look at the OP: you can see the young Vend Ruga right next to young Hamy. Therefore, it’s pretty likely that Hamy’s grudge against Vend is something personal. The thing is, however that Vend Ruga was a True Man: one whose book was very interesting to read, and yet she rebelled against the Church, and therefore also against the Armed Librarians. In a way, that makes her one of the good guys. What complicates matters is that somehow she has split her soul across many different bodies. One of the things that makes Hamy so frustrated is that she keeps killing off these bodies, but can never seem to get all of them.

Now, Olivia Litlet. It is very likely that the ship we see in this episode was the same that Hamy blew up in episode one, only Olivia was lucky enough to leave the ship before it happened. On that ship she was desperately deceiving the owner of the boat, using his meats in order to perform a ritual to get something back. However, remember that she has Vend Ruga living inside of her. How much different were the kind of containers that Hamy killed off in this episode’s flashback to the meats we saw in the first arc (the ones who kept going “Kill Hamyuts Meseta”). In fact, I think that that was the revenge ten years later that the Governor of Paradise was talking about.

It might be that Olivia, when she kept using Yucklyuck in order to bring a “certain person” back, she might have been doing it for Vend Ruga instead, which might relate to her past with Hamy. But on the other hand, if that’s the case then Renas’ statement doesn’t really make sense. Another theory on why Hamy was so hellbent on getting rid of Vend is because she was “trying to destroy the heavens”. Now first of all: what are the “heavens” exactly in this series in which everyone turns into a book at death? How does the Governor of Paradise and the tree fit into this, as they both seem to be allies with Hamy for some reason.

we all know that Hamy doesn’t care about dying, but could it actually be that she doesn’t want heaven to be destroyed, whatever it may be? If that’s true, then it would explain why she’s so extreme in trying to get rid of Vend Ruga: she was a true woman, who could have had the power to destroy this heaven. If we link this further to Hamy death wishes: could it be that Hamy isn’t the key to destroy the world, but rather something really really good will happen if she reaches this “heaven”?
Rating: *** (Awesome)

4 thoughts on “Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 18

  1. The story is too complicated so it makes you confused.
    Vend Ruga isn’t true man. They are mass-produced weapon which have some magical circuits inside them. So they became a golem-like creature.
    The true man is “the violet sinner” who controlled mock men and Vend Ruga to rebel the Church. And she wanted to destroy the “Heaven”.
    Yes, Hamyuts hates her so much. Actually she was the one who was standing beside Hamyuts when she was young in the OP. Sound interesting?

  2. Interesting. One thing is not yet clear though, who’s the real Governor of Paradise? That man who uses the illusion magic or that tree that consumes books?

    Here’s my THEORY so far.

    One might infer that the Armed Librarians were tasked with the responsability of guarding the Library of Bantorra since the beginning of this era and the Church was one of their subordinates or former allies. However, along the way, the Church (or whatever they are) decided to rebel against the Armed Librarians due to their different goals and interpretation regarding how things shoul be runned. Thus, this conflict has been gong on for centuries, however the Armed Librarians don’t have the authority to totally eradicate the Church, since they both know the secret behing ‘Heaven.’ Now here’s the catch. In the last episode of the final arc, that Illusion Man (well, he alters the perception of people, that’s why everyone including the viewers can’t see his face… we are under the influence of his ability – lol) asked a enigmatic question: “How’s Heaven doing?” Could it be that ‘Heaven’ is a person? I believe that this ‘Heaven’ entity might be a VERY powerful person/entity (the tree?) that might bring the destruction of the world if not satisfied or fed by the consumption of UNIQUE books. So,the Armed Librarians have a duty to keep this entity in check, or maybe they serve this entity. The Church has the same goals, bringing special books to ‘Heaven.’ That’s why we see that Illusion Man bringing the book of Ganbanzel (ep. 9) to ‘Heaven’ and Hamy allowed him in the Library. The only difference is that the Church has different methods of satisfying ‘Heaven’ – that’s why they want to overthrow the Armed Librarians. Maybe this ‘Heaven’ is the God of the Present…

    Now the interesting thing is that according to this episode, the ‘Violet Sinner’ had the ability or the means to destroy ‘Heaven’ – so this was worrisome to the Church and to the Armed Librarians, since this could bring chaos to the world, thus Hamy was given the task of killing the Violet Sinner and all the Vend Rugas who carried her will. One of these seemed to pass this will to Olivia Litlet and that’s where we are at the moment.

    SO, THAT’S MY THEORY SO FAR.

    Any other theories?

    One more thing. I’m afraid, terribly afraid that Hamy might kill Volken in the next episode. I HOPE she won’t do this because Volken is one of my favorite characters. But, the way that things look, Volken is ignorant of the fact that the Church and the Acting Director share this formidable secret about the truth of this world, so he was drawn into things and plots that might destroy the world or so, and he doesn’t have any idea of this.

    Anyway, if she kills him,I hope she might have a painful and agonizing death.
    Damn that Mokkania! He had the power to kill Hamy but he decided to commit suicide.

    One final thought — at the end of the OP, there is a woman who glows as the silver moonshine. Dare-wa sono onna??? Maybe she’s this ‘Heaven’ person.

    I’m so confused…………..

  3. Yeah, I was confused on who Vend Ruga was. The lead puppets, or the girl that showed up in one shot in the episode? It’s interesting to see that the highest ranked Librarians and the Church have a somewhat cooperative relationship. Is it their common goal to maintain “Heaven”?

  4. I thought Vend Ruga was the puppet given that Vend Ruga has the title ‘Man of Lead’, which are literally what the puppets are. Though considering the ominous message on the ship it is possible that Vend Ruga refers both to the puppets AND its master (whoever can command it).

    And its not so much that the puppets seem to be containers, given how she killed the first two she met that didn’t speak or click at all other than being an obvious plot of the Church along with the explanation of the Governor, but more like several puppets but with one monolithic thought (thus one could command one from afar and be able to command the rest). Though perhaps… the one capable of commanding Vend Ruga can reside in different containers, in this case Olivia? Though it seems they’re quite strong given that the Church had issues dealing with their ‘Frankenstein’, and to Hamy’s surprise she kept dealing with it meaning she had never succeeded in killing them off as she thought.

    Eitherway next episode will probably clear things out better.

    In any case another interesting point about this episode is the former directors words, that the library has such authority over the Church that it can even replace its head the Governor of Paradise. So this should clarify the eyes of truth guy episode, he seems to be the next candidate but it also points to a future war with the Church given that they plan to retire the current.

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