Welcome everyone, to another (late) episode of Kaina and the Great Snow Sea! I really need to get my shit under control, these are taking way to long. Let this be a lesson about doing 4 shows in a season, you just get to busy. Speaking of busy, Kaina has a lot going on this week, so lets just jump right into it!
Starting off, lets talk about the war. So far? It’s fine. A pretty standard affair if I’m being honest. The most I can say is that it’s nice Kaina is actually trying to use tactics. Setting up a beach head to prevent ships from landing, cannons to whittle them down from afar, Orinoga planning a surprise attack on their command. I like that it’s all based on imperfect information. Orinoga doesn’t know that Valghia is kind of a tyrannical dictatorship at this point, nor that there really isn’t a command structure. Of course they won’t care if he attacks the capital, there’s nothing of value there. The more people he kills the less mouths there are to feed later. It’s a decent way to add tension to the fight while giving him and Amelothee some one-on-one time while the ships duke it out. Not bad really.
One thing that was bad though, or at least felt wildly out of place to me, was the giant robot. Like… Is it cool? Does it make sense how Valghia has conquered all those nations now? And why the Admiral has gone absolutely bonkers, with this head set? Yeah, it explains a lot. But I don’t think Kaina has… integrated enough technology in its world to really justify this giant robot. The only thing even remotely close to it is Amelothee’s arm, which hasn’t gotten any justification at all really. Had Kaina spent more time on this part of its world, perhaps shown us some broken down machinery in the depths of Atland or perhaps seen during their root walk, hinted at it a bit more, I think it could work. But without that buildup… Well it’s a giant robot vs people with nut cannons.
Speaking of the depths of Atland, let’s talk about the flag! While still odd that it exists at all, I think it worked. It was setup previously in the throne room, when they went on the root walk, and even the upside down letters goes all the way back to episode 1. That’s the exact kind of setup I was talking about with the robot. And because of that, it worked! Kaina not being able to read it, only figuring out that it’s upside down and that the entire flag is itself a map. How it depicts Canopy Trees, a Great Rift, etc etc. In a single swoop Kaina managed to expand the world, and it felt natural. And it even managed to explain why they haven’t found the Great Canopy Tree yet, because it’s across the rift! Good stuff I feel.
That said, the question remains, how are they going to cross this rift? Clearly it’s going to use Valghia and the giant Snow Silk sail they found below. But I don’t really like how convenient that is. I think it would be much cooler if they had to do a root walk again or something. Have Kaina figure out how to get more air berries, make more equipment, and go on a quest with Amelothee and shit. I think they could be really cool! More so then a giant sailing trip on Valghia at least. Still, who knows. Kaina may have a plan here. It has already mentioned this sort of snow serpent of legend, which I expect to be the big roadblock in the movie. Maybe they will end up pretty cool!
So yeah, all in all Kaina was decent this week but I find myself wondering how it’s going to make the landing. With an upcoming movie, and with how this finale is shaking out, I can’t help but feel like it’s… lacking? Like it’s raring up for this big third act, but that third act isn’t going to be coming any time soon. Will I enjoy the movie when it comes out? Yeah, probably. But until it does Kaina is probably going to feel incomplete and unfinished. And that kind of sucks. Hopefully next episode manages to avoid that, give us some kind of meaningful climax! Only time will tell.
