This week on Schwarzesmarken. The squad is captured, the bad guys have won, our main character is in a emo coma and the little sister character has gone full bitch. So in one fell swoop the Russian faction of the Stasi has wiped out the Berlin faction and taken over East Germany. I was previously under the impression that they planned to use the Schwarzesmarken team as hostages to stop the Berlin faction but it seems that their Russian friends have given them some brand new TSFs which were used to wipe out Axemann. Oh Axemann, you were so confident in this Coup d’etat that you didn’t know that all you were doing was rolling out the red carpet to welcome your enemies. With that the Stasi have practically won; they have the resources to resupply the front lines and control over the government. Other countries have no choice but to work with the Stasi in under to fight the BETA. And if the Stasi happens to enforce a full on totalitarian dictatorship in the process then who has the right to protest?
The real highlight of this episode is Lise; who has dropped the cutesy little sister act and revealed her true colours. Symbolised by the removal of her hair ribbons. Now she’s given the job of torturing her former comrades for information about Katia and damn if she isn’t reveling in it. She looked to show a small bit of reluctance when ordered but she certainly is smug in torturing them. It does look like her feelings for Theodor are real but I would guess that he is the only only she cares about. I peaked a little bit into her history and she’s certainly not had it easy. I won’t elaborate as it may be expanded on in future episodes and frankly I want to not look further into it as there is a chance of the Schwarzesmarken visual novels getting officially translated, as the Muv Luv kickstarter stated they were planning to translate a demo of it. (Just to note. Schwarzesmarken started as a series of seven light novels. AGE later made a visual novel covering up to the large scale attack with the Americans in the anime. Which is about up to volume 3. Another VN is coming out to cover the rest of the story) Regardless of what she went though however it doesn’t excuse her actions now. This change from little sister character to cold blooded betrayer has caused me to like Lise a whole lot more. I previously groaned at her very first appearance as she leapt as her brother with a “Onii-chan!” but she has undoubtedly improved the show as whole. I am hoping with her reveal and Axemann out of the way we can finally see Beatrix jump into the position of main villain and show us what she can do. Of course BETA are the main threat but I put them in the same place I would put the whitewalkers of Game of Thrones. That being a looming threat to raise the stakes but not the focus. Beatrix has been heavily underused for these past 8 episodes and I want her to prove her presence worthwhile in these last episodes.
The last part of the episode focused on Katia convincing the rebellion forces to use her status as the daughter of a hero to rally support to overthrow the Stasi. This finally snaps Theodor out of his emo coma and he remembers his promise from the very start of the series. I must ask Theodor, what were you thinking about while dazed out. It has always being a curiosity of mine as to what goes through a Mecha protagonists head when they crunch up in fetal position and their eyes go dead. Maybe they just think roundabout logic like Shinji Ikari or maybe they enter some dream world where they are a protagonist of a harem or something. (That statement may be dramatic irony considering the beginning of this franchise. Though the internet’s constant debate of what is and isn’t ironic has caused me to not even be sure what it means anymore.) To me this scene represents one of the biggest flaws with this franchise. I mean, I do love Muv Luv but it has its fair share of problems. This problem is; the heavily over dramatic speeches. There are plenty of moments in all the works of characters getting caught up in huge dramatic speeches that go on and on without taking the context of the scene into account. The pragmatic nature of the writing can get overbearing at times. Admittedly the Schwarzesmarken novels were written by Hiroki Uchida whereas the main series was written by Koki Yoshimune so it’s toned down a bit here or simply cut short to fit it in the anime. Still seeing Katia getting into a big speech that manages to stir Theodor out of his stupor was too cheesy for my liking. That said; it worked on the general so I guess we can move on to overthrowing the Stasi. Just how they can manage that will be something to see.
